Romans 3:21-31
At the opening of his discussion, chap. i. 16, Paul had announced that the gospel is the power, of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, because therein is the righteous7iess of God revealed. He had said that the just shall live by faith, intimating that there is no other way of obtaining life. In proof of this he had declared, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and had shown at large, that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, and that, therefore, by obedience to law no flesh shall be justified. The way was thus prepared for proceeding to speak more particularly of the righteousness of God, to describe the manner in which it is conferred, and the character of those by whom it is received. To this subject, therefore, he here reverts.
V. 21. — But noio the righteousness (f God tvithovt the la%o is manifested, bei?ig witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Now — That is to say, under the. preaching of the Gospel — in the period of the revelation of the Messiah; for it denotes the time present, in opposition to that time when God appeared not to take notice of the state of the Gentile nations, as it is said, Acts, xvii. 30, “The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every where to repent.” And also in opposition to the legal economy respecting the Jews, as again it is said, John, i. 17, “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus CJirist,” This is what the Scriptures call “the fulness of times,” Eph. i. 10; Gal. iv. 4. “The last days,” Isa. ii. 2; Heb. i. 2; Acts, ii. 17- “The acceptable year of the Lord,”’ Isa. lxi. 2. “Now is the accepted time; behold, noio is the day of salvation,” 2 Cor. vi. 2. The day of the Saviour that Abraham saw, John, viii. 56.
The righteousness of God. — This is one of the most important expressions in the Scriptures. It frequently occurs both in the Old Testament and the New; it stands connected with the reasoning of the whole of the first five chapters of this Epistle, and characterises the obedience by which we are saved. Although perfectly clear in itself, its meaning has been involved in much obscurity by the learned labours of some who know not the truth, and by the perversions of others by whom it has been grejitly corrupted. By many it has been misunderstood, and has in general been very slightly noticed by those whose views concerning it are correct and Scriptural. To consider its real signification is the more necessary, as it does not appear always to receive that attention from Christians which its importance demands. When the question is put. Why is the Gospel the power of God unto salvation I how few give that clear and unfaltering answer with the Apostle, Because therein is the righteousness OF GOD revealed. Before proceeding to attend to the true import of this phrase, it is proper to advert to some of the significations that are erroneously attached to it. Of these I shall select only a few examples from many that might be furnished.
Origen understood by this righteousness God’s attribute of justice; while Ohrysostom explained it as Divine clemency.
According to Dr Campbell of Aberdeen, the righteousness of God consists in man’s conformity to the declared will of God. In his note on Matth. vi. 33, he says, ‘The righteousness of ‘God, in our idiom, can mean only the justice ’ or moral rectitude of the Divine nature, which ’ it were absurd in us to seek, it being, as all ‘God’s attributes are, inseparable from his ’ essence. But in the Heb. idiom, that right- ’ eousness, which consists in a conformity to the ’ declared will of God, is called his righteousness.
‘In this way the phrase is used by Paul, Rom. ’ iii. 21, 22; x. 3, where the righteousness of God ’ is opposed by the Apostle to that of the un- ’ converted Jews; and their own righteousness, ‘’ which he tells us they went about to establish, ’ does not appear to signify their personal right- ’ eousness, any more than the righteousness of * God signifies his personal righteousness. The ’ word righteousness, as I conceive, denotes there ’ what we should call a system of morality or ’ righteousness, which he denominates their own, ’ because fabricated by themselves, founded ’ partly on the letter of the law, partly on tra- ’ dition, and consisting mostly in ceremonies ’ and mere externals. This creature of their ’ own imaginations they had cherished, to the ’ neglect of that purer scheme of morality which ’ was truly of God, which they might have ’ learned even formerly from the law and the ’ prophets, properly understood, but now more ’ explicitly from the doctrine of Christ. That ’ the phrase, the righteousness of God, in the ’ sense I have given, was not unknown to the ‘O. T. writers, appears from Micah, vi. What ’ is called, v. 5, the righteousness of the Lord, ’ which God wanted that the people should ’ know, is explained, v. 8, to be lohat the Lord ’ requireth of them, namely, to do justly, to low ’ mercy, and to walk humhly with their God!’
Such is the explanation by this learned critic of that leading phrase, “the righteousness of God,” according to which the reason why the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, is, because therein a pure scheme of morality is remaled. Were this explanation just, so far from being the reason why the Gospel should be the means of salvation to sinners, it would make it the cause of their universal condemnation.
Dr Macknight supposes, that the righteous- 71-ess of God signifies a righteousness belonging to faith itself, and not the righteousness conveyed and received by faith. ‘Righteousness by ‘’ faith Q says, on Rom. i. 17, ‘is called the ’ righteousness of God 1. Because God hath ’ enjoined faith as the righteousness which he will count to sinners, and hath declared that he will ’ accept and reward it as righteousness: 2. Be- ’ cause it stands in opposition to the righteousness ’ of men which consists in a sinless obedience to ’ the law of God.’ Thus, while Dr Macknight differs from Dr Campbell in the meaning of the expression, the righteousness of God he so far coincides with him in his radical error as to suppose that it does not signify the righteousness which Q^opromdes but the righteousness which he requires men to perform. The explanations of both of these writers are destructive of the Scripture doctrine of justification, opposed to the justice of God, subversive of the plan of salvation, and render the whole train of the Apostle’s reasoning that follows, Rom. i, 1 6 to the end of the 5th chapter, inconclusive and self- contradictory.
Archbishop Newcombe, whose translations are so much eulogized by Socinians, together with many who have followed him, translates this phrase. “God’s method o, justification.” What the Apostle has declared in precise terms, is thus converted into a general and indefinite annunciation, pointing to a different sense. In the Socinian version, as might be anticipated, it is also translated, ‘* God’s method q/* justification.’’
Mr Tholuck explains it thus: — “The gospel makes known a way to that perfect fulfilment of the law which is required by God.”
Mr Stuart, in his translation of the epistle, renders this phrase, in Rom. i. 17, and iii. 21, “The justification which is of God;” and in his explanation of it,” the justification which God hestows, or, the justification of which God is the author He observes that this ’ is a ’ phrase among the most important which the ‘New Testament contains, and fundamental in ’ the right interpretation of the epistle before ’ us.’ This is true; and the effect of his misunderstanding the proper signification of the original word in these passages, and rendering it justification instead of righteousness appears most prominently in several of his subsequent interpretations, especially in the beginning of the fourth chapter, as shall be afterwards pointed out, where he entirely misrepresents the doctrine of justification. The translation he has given he endeavours to defend at some length; but none of his allegations support his conclusion. The proper meaning of the original word in chap. i. 17, and iii. 21, which he makes justification, is righteousness; and this meaning will apply in the other passages where it is found. In the New Testament it occurs ninety-two times, and, in the common version, is uniforAily rendered righteousness. It occurs thirty-six times in the Epistle to the Romans, in which Mr Stuart has sixteen times translated it righteousness. But he appears to have been led to adopt the translation he has given in the above verses from the supposed necessity of the case; and truly it was necessary for one like Mr Stuart, who not only denies expressly the imputation of Adam’s sin to his posterity, but also the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers. This should put Christians on their guard respecting a translation founded on the denial that Christ’s righteousness is placed to their account for salvation, which Dr Macknight maintains is not to be found in the Bible.
Mr Stuart observes that there are three expressions, viz. ’ “^iKaicGvvYy, dixatu/xa, and diKaiufftg, ’ all employed occasionally in the very same ’ sense, viz. that of justification, i. e. acquittal, ’ pardon, freeing from condemnation, accepting ’ and treating as righteous.’ There may be situations in which the one might supply the place of the other, but they have a clear characteristic difference. The difference appears to be this, hiKaio<sm% the original word in the verse before us, is not justification; it signifies justice or righteousness in the abstract; that is, the quality of righteousness. It signifies, also complete conformity or obedience to the law; for if there is any breach of the law, there is no righteousness. A/xa/w,aa, as distinguished from this, signifies an act of righteousness, or some righteous deed. It is accordingly used for the ordinances of God, because they are his righteous appointments, and, perhaps, because they typically refer to the true” righteousness of God.“” In a few places it may be an equivalent to d/Tcaioffvvrj. A/xa/wc/g is neither the one nor the other of the above. It is the act of being justified by this righteousness when on trial. Obedience to law is a different thing from being cleared, or acquitted, or justified, when tried by law. A man is justified on the ground of righteousness. There is the same difference between dtKaiosm
VOL. I, 3 and dmaiug/g, that there is in English between righteousness and justification.
In support of his explanation of the phrase “the righteousness of God,” namely, that it is the justification which God bestows, Mr Stuart, in the following observations, shows a wonderful misapprehension of the doctrine of those who oppose the view of it which he adopts. On v. 22, he says, ‘What that difcaiocvvyy hou is, which is ‘X^is vof/^ov, the Apostle next proceeds explicitly ’ to develope. Aixaiocvvri h,.. “‘iricou xfffrov ’ the justification which is of God l)y faith in ‘Jesus Christ. This explanation makes it clear ’ as the noon-day sun, that hiKurnvvri koxj in this ’ connexion, does not mean righteousness, or ’ the love of justice, as an attribute of God. ‘For in what possible sense can it be said, that ‘God’s righteousness or justice (as an essential ’ attribute) is by faith in Christ? Does he pos- ’ sess or exercise this attribute, or reveal it, by * faith in Christ? The answer is so plain, that ’ it cannot be mistaken.’ — P. 1 57. Why does Mr Stuart labour to prove, that the phrase in question cannot here mean the justice of God, or a Divine attribute? Does any man suppose that it has such a sense here? We do not understand it of a Divine attribute; but of conformity to law by a Divine work. This righteousness is God’s righteousness, not because it is an attribute of his nature, but because it is the righteousness that God has provided and effected for his people, through the obedience unto death of his own Son. The word dtKa/o(jvv/i, indeed, always signifies righteousness; but it may mean either a personal attribute, or conformity to law. Does not Mr Stuart himself afterwards explain this phrase in this latter sense? Why then does he take it for granted, that if it does not signify justification, as he makes it here, it must signify a personal attribute of God? In chap. iv. 3, 6, and elsewhere, he admits that the word btxatochvYi cannot signify justification but must be understood as denoting righteousness. ‘• To say,’ he observes, (p. 177), ’ was counted ’ for justification., would make no tolerable sense, But nothing can be more obvious, than that the Apostle is, in the fourth chapter, treating of the same thing of which he is treating in this chapter, from the 21st verse. In all this connexion he is still speaking of this djKaio(svr/j (righteousness) in the same lie. Having here spoken of God s righteousness, he goes on to show, that it was through this very righteousness that Abraham was justified. The justification of Abraham, instead of being an exception to what he had been teaching, as if it had been on the ground of Abraham’s own obedience to law, is appealed to by the Apostle as a proof, as well as an illustration and example, of justification by God’s righteousness received by faith.
It makes nothing in favour of Mr Stuart that there may be instances in which the word diTtaioffvvyj may be interpreted by the word justification, so as to make sense. There is no significg.tion that may not be ascribed to any word upon this principle. A word may make sense in a passage, when it is explained in a meaning directly the opposite of its true meaning. This principle the reader may see fully established in the writings of Mr Carson. Several instances have been alleged from the Septuagint, in which diKaioG-jvyj has the meaning of goodness, &c.; but there is no instance there in which the word may not have its true meaning, and it is only ignorance of the import of the phrase, “righteousness of God,” that has induced writers to give the term a different meaning. For instance, there is nothing that at first sight appears more to countenance the idea that dt-Aurnvvry expresses mercy than Psalm li. 14. How could David speak of righteousness, if God would deliver him from blood-guiltiness! He might well speak of goodness or compassion, but would not righteousness in God prevent him from being acquitted? Not so. The righteousness of God was what David looked to: the same righteousness that is more clearly revealed by Paul in this epistle. And well might David speak of that righteousness, when by it he was cleared from all the guilt of his enormous wickedness.
The word, rendered “righteousness,“” Rom. i. 17, and in the verse before us, signifies both justice and righteousness; that is to say, conformity to the law. But while both of these expressions denote this conformity, there is an essential difference between them. Justice imports conformity to the law in executing its sentence, righteousness conformity in obeying its precepts, and this is the meaning of the word here. If these ideas be interchanged or confounded, as they often are, the whole scope of the Apostle’s reasoning will be misunderstood.
In various parts of Scripture this phrase, “the righteousness of God,” signifies either that holiness and rectitude of character which is the attribute of God, or that distributive justice by which he maintains the authority of his law; but where it refers to man’s salvation, and is not merely a personal attribute of Deity, it signifies, as in the passage before us, the righteousness which, in conformity with his justice, God has appointed and provided for the salvation of sinners. This implies that the infinite justice of his character requires what is provided, and also that it is approved and accepted; for if it be God’s righteousness it must be required, and must be accepted by the justice of God. The righteousness of God, which is received by faith, denotes something that becomes the property of the believer. It cannot then be here the Divine attribute of justice, but the Divine work which God has wrought through his Son. This, therefore, determines the phrase in this plac6, as referring immediately not to the Divine attribute, but to the Divine work. The former never can become ours. This also is decisive against explaining the phrase as signifying a Divine method of justification. The righteousness of God is contrasted with the righteousness of man; and as Israel’s own righteousness, which they went about to establish, was the righteousness of their works, not their method of justification, so God’s righteousness, as opposed to this, Rom. X. 8, must be a righteousness wrought by Jehovah. As in 2 Cor. v. 21, the imputation of sin to Christ is contrasted with our becoming the righteousness of God in him, the latter cannot be a method of justification, but must intimate our becoming perfectly righteous by possessing Christ’s righteousness, which is provided by God for us, and is perfectly commensurate with the Divine justice.
No explanation of the expression, “the righteousness of God,” will at once suit the phrase and the situation in which it is here found, but that which makes it that righteousness or obedience to the law, both in its penalty and requirements, which has been yielded to it by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is indeed the righteousness of God, for it has been provided by God, and from first to last has been effected by his Son Jesus Christ, who is the mighty God and the Father of eternity. Every thing that draws it off from this signification tends to darken the Scriptures, to cloud the apprehension of the truth in the children of God, and to corrupt the simplicity that is in Christ. To that righteousness is the eye of the believer for ever to be directed; on that righteousness must he rest; on that righteousness must he live; on that righteousness must he die; in that righteousness must he appear before the judgment-seat; in that righteousness must he stand for ever in the presence of a righteous God. “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in ray God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.” Isaiah, lxi. 10.
The righteousness of God provided for the salvation of sinners, like that salvation itself, differs essentially from all other righteousness that ever was or can be performed. It differs entirely from the righteousness of men and angels, for it is the righteousness not of creatures but of the Creator. “/ the Lord have created it’’ Isaiah, xlv. 8. It is a Divine and infinitely perfect righteousness, wrought out by Jehovah himself, which in the salvation of man preserves all his attributes inviolate. It is the righteousness of God as of the Godhead, without respect to distinction of personality, and strictly so in that sense in which the world is the work of God. The Father created it through the Son in the same way as by the Son he created the world; and if the Father effected this righteousness because his Son effected it, then his Son* must be one with himself. Peter, in his second epistle, chap. i. 1, according to the literal rendering of the passage, calls this righteousness the righteousness of Jesus Christ.” Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Most of the passages in which the righteousness of God is spoken of, refer to it as the righteousness of the Father, as in 2 Cor. v. 21, where the Father is distinguished from the Son; but in this passage of Peter it is spoken of as the righteousness of the Son, where he is expressly called God. As it would be a palpable contradiction to as.- sert that the work of creation could be executed by any creature, for he that built all things must be God, so the righteousness of God could not be ascribed to Jesus Christ, unless he had been in the beginning “God,” “with God,’’ and “over all God, blessed for ever,”
It was during his incarnation that the Son of God wrought out this righteousness. Before he came into the world he was not a member or subject of the kingdom of heaven, he was its Head. He then acted in the form of God; that is to say, as the Creator and Sovereign of the world, but afterwards in the form of a servant. Before that period he was perfectly holy, but that holiness could not be called obedience. It might rather be said that the law was conformed to him, than that he was conformed to the law. His holiness was exercised in making the law, and by it governing the world. But in his latter condition it was that law by which he himself was governed. His righteousness or obedience, then, was that of infinitely the most glorious person that could be subjected to the law. It was the righteousness of Emmanuel, God with us, — and this obedience of the Son of God in our nature conferred more honour on the law than the obedience of all intelligent creatures. He gave to every commandment of the law, and to every duty it enjoined, more honour than it had received of dishonour from all the transgressions that have been in the world. When others obey the law they derive from that obedience honour to themselves, but on the occasion now referred to, it was the law that was honoured by the obedience of its sovereign. “The Lord,” says the prophet,” is well pleased for his righteousness sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable,’’’ Isaiah, xlii. 21.
The obedience of Jesus Christ magnified the law, because it was rendered by Divine appointment. He was chosen of God and anointed for this end. He was Jehovah, whom Jehovah sent. “Lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah, — and thou shalt know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent me unto thee,” Zech. ii. 10, 11. And when it is considered that the most astonishing work of God which can be conceived, is the incarnation of his Son, and his sojourn in the world, and that these wonders were performed in order to magnify the law, — it necessarily follows, that it is impossible to entertain too exalted an idea of the regard of Jehovah for the character of his holy law. In its author, then, this righteousness is immeasurably distinguished from any other righteousness. And not only does it differ in its author, it differs also in its nature.
in its EXTENT, in its duration, and in its influence, from all other righteousness that ever was or can be performed..,
In its nature, this righteousness is twofold, fulfilling both the precept of the law, and its penalty. This by any creature the most exalted, is absolutely impossible. The fulfilment of the law in its precepts is all that could be required of creatures in their original sinless condition. Such was at the beginning the state of all the angels, and of the first man. But the state of the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, when he came into the world, was essentially different. Christ was made under the law, but it was a broken law, and consequently he was made under its curse. This is not only implied when it is said he was “made of a woman,” who was a transgressor, but it is also expressly asserted that he was “made a curse for us,” Gal. iii. 13. Justice, therefore, required that he should fulfil not only the precept, but also the penalty of the law — all that it threatens, as well as all that it commands.
A mere creature may obey the precept of the law, or suffer the penalty it denounces, but he cannot do both. If he be a transgressor, he may be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord; and God, whose vengeance he is sufiering, being to him an object of unmingled hatred and abhorrence, there can be no place for his repentance, his love, or obedience. But Jesus Christ was capable at the same moment of suffering at the hand of God, and of obeying the precept to love God. This was made manifest during the whole period of his incarnation, as well as by the memorable words which he uttered on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me r We are here taught that the prediction by the Prophet, “Awake, 0 sword, against the man that is my fellow,” was at that moment receiving its accomplishment. The sword of Divine justice, according to the prophetic declarations contained in the 22d Psalm, was then piercing his inmost soul, but still he addressed God as his God. From this it is evident, that while suffering under the full weight of his Father’s wrath against the sin of his people, which he had taken upon him, all the feelings both of love and confidence, also expressed in the same Psalm, were at that moment in full exercise. His righteousness, therefore, or conformity to the law, was at once a conformity in two respects which could not have been exemplified throughout the whole universe but by himself.
By the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the execution of the law was complete; while no punishment which creatures could suffer can be thus designated. The law was fully executed when all the threatenings it contained were carried into effect. Those who are consigned to everlasting punishment will never be able to say, as our blessed Lord said on the cross, “It is finished.” It is he only who could put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. By enduring the threatened punishment he fully satisfied justice. In token of having received a full discharge he came forth from the grave; and when he shall appear the second time, it shall be without sin — the sin which he had taken upon him, and all its effects, being for ever done away.
This fulfilment of the law, in its penalty, by the Son of God, is an end which cannot otherwise than through eternity be attained by the punishment of mere creatures. Sin, as committed against God, is an infinite evil, and requires an infinite punishment which cannot be borne in any limited time by those who are not capable of suffering punishment in an infinite degree. But the sufferings as well as the obedience in time of Him who is infinite, are equivalent to the eternal obedience and sufferings of those who are finite.
The doctrine, that sin is an infinite evil, and requires an infinite punishment, is objected to by the feocinians. They say, that if each sin that we commit merits eternal death — that is, an infinite punishment — and since there are almost an infinite number of sins committed by men, then it must be said, that they merit an almost infinite number of punishments, and, consequently, that they cannot be expiated but by a like number of infinite satisfactions. It is replied, that the infinite value of the death of the Redeemer equals an infinite number of infinite punishments. For such is the nature of infinitude, that it admits of no degrees; it knows nothing of more or less; it cannot be measured; it cannot be augmented; so that ten thousand infinities are still only one infinite. And if Jesus Christ had suffered death as many times as the number of the redeemed, his satisfaction would not have been greater or more complete than by the one death which he suffered.
The death of the Son of God serves to magnify the law, by demonstrating the certainty of that eternal punishment, which, if broken, it denounces as its penalty. There are no limits to eternity; but when the Son of God bore what was equivalent to the eternal punishment of those who had sinned, he furnished a visible demonstration of the eternal punishment of sin.
But if nothing beyond the suffering of the penalty of the law had taken place, men would only have been released from the punishment due to sin. If they were to obtain the reward of obedience, its precept must also be obeyed; and this was accomplished to the utmost by Jesus Christ. Every command it enjoins, every prohibition it contains, were in all respects fully honoured by him. In this manner, and by his sufferings, he fulfilled all righteousness. The righteousness, therefore, of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ is infinitely glorious. It is the righteousness of the lawgiver; and, being in its character twofold, it differs entirely in its NATURE from all other righteousness, and is of an order infinitely higher than ever was or can be exemplified by any or all the orders of intelligent creatures.
This righteousness differs also from all other righteousness in its extent. Every creature is bound for himself to all that obedience to his Creator of which he is capable. He is under the obligation of loving God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, and beyond this he cannot go. It is evident, therefore, that he can have no superabounding righteousness to be placed in the way of merit to the account of another. And, besides this, if he has sinned, he is bound to suffer for himself the toJiole penalty annexed to disobedience, no part of which, consequently, can be borne by him to satisfy for the transgression of others. He is not in possession of a life at his own disposal to lay down for them; and, if he had laid it down, it being in that case forfeited for ever, he could not take it again. But the obedience of Jesus Christ, who is himself infinite, as well as the punishment he suffered, both in themselves of infinite value, are capable of being transferred in their effects without any diminution in their respective values. His life, too, was his own; and, as he suffered voluntarily, his obedience and sufferings, which were infinitely meritorious, might, with the greatest regard to justice, be imputed to as many of those of whose nature he partook, as to the Supreme Ruler shall seem good.
This righteousness likewise differs from all other righteousness in its duration. The righteousness of Adam or of angels could only be available while it continued to be performed. The law was binding on them in every instant of their existence. The moment, therefore, in which they transgressed, the advantages derived from all their previous obedience ceased. But the righteousness of God, brought in by his Son, is an “everlasting righteousness,’’ Dan. ix. 24. It was performed within a limited period of time, but in its effects it can never terminate.” Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever and my righteousness shall not he abolished — my righteousness shall be for emr^ Is. li. 6, 8. “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,” Ps. cxix. 142. “By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,” Heb. x. 14. “By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption,” Heb. ix. 12. In respect to its duration, then, this righteousness reaches back to the period of the fall of man, and forward through the endless ages of eternity.
The paramount influence of this righteousness is also gloriously conspicuous. It is the sole ground of the reconciliation of sinners with Grod, and of their justification before him, and also of intercession with him before the throne.” If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous’’ 1 John, ii. 1. It is the price paid for those new heavens and that new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; for that kingdom prepared for those who are clothed with righteousness — a kingdom commensurate with the dignity of him by whom it was provided. The paradise in which Adam
VOL. I. T was placed at his creation was a paradise on earth. It might be corrupted it might be defiled and it might fade away all of which accordingly took place. But the paradise which, in virtue of the righteousness of God, is provided, and to the hope of which, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, his people are begotten, is an inheritance which is in cor ruptihle and undefiled and t2iifadeth not away reserved in heamn. This righteousness, then, is the ransom by which men are delivered from going down to the pit of everlasting destruction, and the price of heavenly and eternal glory. It is the fine linen, clean and white, in which the bride, the Lamb’s wife, shall be arrayed, for “the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.” Man was made lower than the angels, but this righteousness exalts him above them. The redeemed people of God stand nearest to the throne, while the angels stand *’ round about’’ them. They enter heaven clothed with a righteousness infinitely better than that which angels possess, or in which Adam was created.
The idea which some appear to entertain, that the loss incurred by the fall is only compensated by what is obtained through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, is so far from being just, that the superabounding of the gain is unspeakable and immense. By the disobedience of the first Adam, the righteousness with which he was originally invested was lost for himself and all his posterity, and the sin which he had committed was laid to their charge. By the obedience of the second Adam, not only the guilt of that one offence is removed, but pardon also is procured for all the personal transgressions of the children of God; while the righteousness, infinitely glorious, which he wrought, is placed to their account. By the entrance of sin and death, the inheritance on earth was forfeited. By the bringing in of the everlasting righteousness, their title to eternal glory in heaven is secured. And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation; hut the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one mans offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ, ch. v. 16, 17.
The evidence of the truth of Christianity might be rested on this one point — the righteousness OF God provided for the salvation of sinners. How could such an idea as that of a vicarious everlasting righteousness, to meet all the demands of a broken law, have ever entered into the conception of man or angels? If it could have suggested itself to the highest created intelligence, and had the question been asked of all the host of heaven standing around the throne of Grod “on his right hand and his left,”” Who shall work this righteousness, what answer could have been given? What expedient for accomplishing it could have been proposed by one or all of them together! All must have stood silent before their Maker. If no one in heaven, nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book with the seven seals, neither to look thereon, which was a subject of such bitter lamentation to the beloved disciple; s no one, neither man nor angel, nor all the elect angels together, could have wrought th righteousness necessary for the justification of a sinner. The Lion of the tribe of Judah — the Lamb in the midst of the throne, who alone could open that book and loose the seals thereof, alone could ‘’ bring in everlasting righteousness,” of which it may be truly said, that eye had not seen it, nor ear heard it, neither had it entered into the heart of man, till God revealed it by his Spirit.
Without Iww. — This righteousness is solely on the part of God, and is altogether independent of any obedience of man to the law, more or less. As the righteousness of God is the perfect fulfilment which the law demands, it is evidently impossible that any other righteousness or obedience can be added to it or mixed with it. On the cross, Jesus Christ said, It is finished; that is, it is perfected. To exhibit this perfection, — this fulfilling of the law, — this grand consummation, is the great object of the Apostle, in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter vi. 1. And Christ, it is said, E-om. x. 4, is the end or perfecting of the law, for righteousness to every one that believeth. In each of these passages, the word used for “perfection,’’* or” end,’“* is, in the original, of the same meaning as the word” finished,“” used on the cross. And those persons are described as ignorant of God’s righteousness, who go about to establish their own righteousness, and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. “Without law” then signifies, not without perfect obedience, but without any regard whatever to the obedience of man to the law. The obedience which the believer is enabled to render to the law, has no part in his justification, nor could it justify,
* The import of this wov A perfection (Ileb. vi. 1), which is the leading expression in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the key to the whole of it, Mr Stuart has entirely misunderstood in ‘his commentary on that Epistle, as he has misunderstood the meaning of the phrase, the righteousness of God, the leading expression in this epistle to the Romans. For the signification of the word Perfection, which so often occurs in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and is also misunderstood by the other commentators, I refer to “Evidences,” vol. i. p. 373.
being always imperfect. The Apostle had, in the foregoing verse, affirmed, that by his obedience to the law no man could be justified; he establishes the same truth in the 28th verse of this chapter, and in the 5th verse of the 4th chapter, in a manner so explicit, as to place his meaning beyond all question. In the same sense he declares. Gal. iii. 21, that “if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.’ And again he affirms, Gal. ii. 21,” If righteousness come by the law, then is Christ dead in vain.’’ It is needless here to dispute, as many do, about what law the Apostle alludes to, whether moral or ceremonial. It is to the law of God, whether written or unwritten, whatever is sanctioned by his authority, whether ceremonial or moral, all of which have been fulfilled by the righteousness of God. Matt. iii. 15.
The righteousness of God is now manifested; that is, clearly discovered, or made fully evident. It was darkly revealed in the shadows of the law, and more clearly in the writings of the prophets, but now it is revealed in its accomplishment. It was manifested in the life and death of Jesus Christ, and was, by his resurrection from the dead, openly declared on the part of God. By him, who was God manifest in the flesh, it was wrought out while he was on earth. He fulfilled all righteousness; not one jot of the law, either in its precepts or threatenings, passed from it, but all was accomplished; and of this righteousness the Holy Spirit, when he came, was to convince the world, John, xvi. 8.
I This righteousness is manifested in the doctrine of the Apostles, Besides being introduced so frequently in this epistle to the Romans, it is often referred to and exhibited in the other apostolical epistles. To the Apostles was committed the ministration of the new dispensation, characterised as the “ministration of righteous’ ness”” 2 Cor. iii. 9. By that dispensation, and not by the law, righteousness is come. Gal. ii. 21. In writing to the Philippians, Paul calls it “the righteousness which is of God bi, faith and contrasts it with his own righteousness which is of the law, Phil. iii. 9. Peter addresses his second epistle to those who had obtained precious faith in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Peter, i. 1. In one word, besides expressly naming it in many places under the designation of righteousness, the grand theme of the writings of the Apostles, as well as of their preaching, was the obedience and sufferings even unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, they declared, is “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth;”
while they exposed the error of those who went about to establish their own righteousness, and did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God.
Being witnessed by the law. — In the first part of this verse, “without law,” where the article is wanting, signifies law indefinitely — whatever has been delivered to man by God as his law, and in whatever way; but here, with the article, it refers to the five books of Moses, thus distinguished from the writings of the Prophets, according to the usual division of the Old Testament Scriptures, and adopted by our Lord, Luke, xxiv. 44. This righteousness was obscurely testified in the first promise, respecting the bruising of the serpent’s head. It was expressly named in the declaration of the manner of Abraham’s justification, where it is recorded that he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness., Gen. xv. 6. And also in the covenant which God made with him, of which the sign, that is, circumcision, was a seal or pledge of the righteousness which is by faith; and when it was promised that the blessing of Abraham, which is this righteousness, was to come on all nations. Gen. xii. 3. It was intimated in the writings of Moses, in every declaration of the forgiveness of sin, and every call to repentance. All the declarations of mercy that are to be found in the law of Moses belong to the Grospel. They are all founded on the Messiah and his righteousness, and are made in consequence of God’s purpose to send his Son in the fulness of time into the world, and of the first promise respecting the seed of the woman.
The righteousness of God was witnessed not only in all the declarations of mercy and calls to repentance, but also by the whole economy of the law of which Moses was the Mediator. Abraham was chosen, his posterity collected into a nation, and a country appropriated to them, that from the midst of them, according to his promise, God might raise up a prophet, who, like unto Moses, was to be a lawgiver and mediator, to whom, turning from Moses, they should listen so soon as he appeared, Deut. xyiii. 15, 19. The law of everlasting obligation was given to that nation, and renewed after it had been broken by them, and then solemnly deposited in the ark of the testimony, in token that it should be preserved entire, and in due time fulfilled by him of whom the ark was a type. On that occasion the Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed “the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.” And that this should be done in consistency with the holiness and justice of God, is intimated in the clause subjoined — the sinner shall be forgiven, but sin shall not go unpunished. After the first tables had been broken, it was evident from that transaction, that man, by the keeping of the law, could not be justified. A trial had been made of his obedience to that law which had been uttered by the voice of God and written with his finger, and had failed. But in the renewal of the tables, accompanied with a proclamation of the mercy of God, and their being solemnly deposited in the ark, covered with the mercy-seat, intimation was ffiven of the fulfilment of that law which
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had been hroJcen or, in other words, that a righteousness adequate to all its demands, which could not be yielded by man, should be provided by God. And this solemn transaction, and the purposed fulfilment of its import, was, in the 40th Psalm, prophetically declared of him who was destined to bring in this righteousness, when he himself announces his coming to do his Father s will.” I delight to do thy will,
0 my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.
1 have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid th righteousness within my heart.”*
The sacrifices offered by the Patriarchs, and the whole of the ceremonial law in all its typical ordinances and observances, bear their direct though shadowy testimony, to the righteousness of God, of which Noah was alike a preacher and an heir. 2 Peter, ii. 5. Heb. xi. 7-
The righteousness of God was zcitnessed by the Prophets. Of their testimonies to it the following are a few examples from the Psalms. — “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness’’’’ Psalm li. 14.” My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of thy righteousness., even of thine only. Thy righteousness., also, O God, is very high. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long,’’ Psalm Ixxl. 15, 19, 24. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Righteousness shall go before him, and shall set us in the way of his steps,” Psalm lxxxv. 10, 13. “In thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted,” Psalm lxxxix. 1 6. “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,” Psalm cxixoOO ROMANS, III. 21.
142.” They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness’’ Psalm cxlv. 7-
The righteousness of the Messiah, as connected with salvation is the constant theme of the Prophets, especially of Isaiah. “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable,” Isa. xlii. 21. “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it,” Isa. xlv. 8. The heavens were to drop this righteousness, and the skies were to pour it down, while men’s hearts, barren like the earth without rain, were to be opened to receive it by faith, having no part in doing anything to procure the gift. “Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteous7iess and strength: In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory,” Isa. xlv. 24, 25. “I bring near my righteousness; it shall not’be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory,” Isa. xlvi. 13. “My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth — my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness,’’’ Isa. li. 5, 7. ‘* By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many,“” Isa. liii. 11. “This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord; and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord,” Isa. liv. 17- “Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and mi, righteousness to be revealed,” Isa. lvi. 1. “For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations,” Isa. lxi. 11. “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thi, righteousness, and all kings thy glory,” Isa. lxii. 1, 2.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness,” Jer. xxiii. 5. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring ill everlasting righteousness’’ Daniel, ix. 24.” It is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you,” Hosea, x. 12. To Balaam, who beheld the Saviour at a distance, he appeared as a star; while to Malachi, the last of the prophets, on his nearer approach, he appeared as the JSun. “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings;“” Mai. iv. 2.
F. 82. — Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
This righteousness of God, to which the law and the prophets render their testimony, and which is now manifested in the gospel, whereby man is justified, is not imputed to him on account of any work of his own in obedience to the law, but is received, as the Apostle had already declared, in the 17th verse of chapter first, by faith alone. Faith is no part of that righteousness; but it is through faith that it is received, and becomes available for salvation. Faith is the belief of the Divine testimony concerning that righteousness, and trust in him who is the author of it. Faith perceives and acknowledges the excellency and suitableness of Godls righteousness, and cordially embraces it. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of thing not seen ;*” because, though we do not yet possess what God has promised, and do not
yet see it accomplished in ourselves, we see it accomplished in Jesus Christ, in whom what we hope for really exists. In respect to those promises which are not yet fulfilled, believers are now in the same situation as the fathers were of old respecting the unaccomplished promises in their day. Like them, they see these promises afar off, are persuaded of them, and embrace them. Believers thus flee to Christ and his righteousness, as the refuge set before them in the gospel. By faith they receive him as their surety, and place their trust in him, as representing them on the cross, in his death, and in his resurrection.
Before we can have a right to any thing in Christ, we must be one with him; we must be joined with him as our head, being dead to the law and married to him; and as this union is accomplished only through faith, his righteousness, which we receive, and which becomes ours in this way, is therefore called the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christy Rom. iii. 22; the righteousness of faith Rom. iv. 11, 15; and the righteousness which is through tlw faith of Christy the righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. iii. 9. It is called the righteousness of faith, because faith is the only instrument which God is pleased to make use of in applying his righteousness. It is not called the righteousness of any other grace, but of faith; we never read of the righteousness of repentance, of humility, of meekness, or of charity. These are of great price in the sight of God, but they have no office in justifying a sinner. This belongs solely to faith; for to him that worketh not but believeth, is righteousness imputed; and faith is the gift of God.
This righteousness is unto all. — This means that it is set before all, and published to all. Upon all is connected with the words that follow, viz. them that believe. While it is published to all, it is actually upon believers. It is not put into them, as their sanctification is wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit; but it is placed upon them as a robe: —” He hath covered me with the fobe of righteousness’’ Isa. lxi. 10. It is the white raiment given by Jesus Christ to them who hear his voice, that they may be clothed, and that the shame of their nakedness may not appear, Rev. iii. 18. It is the fine linen clean and white with which the bride, the LamVs wife, is arrayed; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints, Rev. xix. 8. Thus, Jesus Christ is of God made unto his people righteousness, 1 Cor. i. 30.
Righteousness. — “This, doubtless, is meant,” says Archbishop Leighton, in his sermon on 1 Cor. i. SO, ‘• of the righteousness by which we are justified before God; and he is made this to us, applied by faith: His righteousness becomes ours. That exchange made, our sins are laid over upon him, and his obedience put upon us. This, the great glad tidings, that we are made righteous by Christ: It is not a righteousness wrought by us, but given to us, and put upon us. This carnal reason cannot apprehend, and, being proud, therefore rejects and argues against it; and says, how can this thing be? But faith closes with it, and rejoices in it; without either doing or suffering, the sinner is acquitted and justified, and stands as guiltless of breach, yea, as having fulfilled the whole law. And happy they that thus fasten upon this righteousness — they may lift up their faces with gladness and boldness before God: whereas the most industrious self-saving justiciary, though in other men’s eyes and his own possibly for the present, he makes a glistering show, yet, when he shall come to be examined of God, and tried according to the law, he shall be covered with shame, and confounded in his folly and guiltiness. But faith triumphs over selfunworthiness, and sin, and death, and the law; shrouding the soul under the mantle of Jesus Christ; and there it is safe. All accusations fall off, having no where to fasten, unless some blemish could be found in that righteousness in
VOL. I. u which faith hath wrapt itself. This is the very spring of solid peace, and fills the soul with peace and joy. But still men would have something within themselves to make out the matter, as if this robe needed any such piecing, and, not finding what they desire, thence disquiet and unsettlement of mind arises. True it is that faith purifies the heart and works holiness, and all graces flow from it: But in this work of justifying the sinner it is alone, and cannot admit of any mixture.”
V. 23 — (For there is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.)
The Apostle introduces this parenthesis to preclude the supposition that the receiving of the righteousness of God is not indispensably necessary to ever?/ individual of the human race in order to his salvation, and lest it should be imagined that there is any difference in the way in which, or on account of which, it is received. As there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles with respect to their character as sinners, so there is no difference with respect to them as to the receiving of God’s righteousness — no difference either as to sin or salvation — all of them are guilty, and salvation through faith is published to them all. “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.”
E.om. X. 12. Before men receive this righteousness, they are all under the curse of the broken law, and in a state of condemnation. Whatever distinction there may be among them otherwise, whether moral in their conduct, good and useful members of society, discharging respectably and decently the external duties of that situation in which they are placed — or whether they be immoral in their lives, entirely abandoned to every vice, they all stand equally in need of this righteousness — it is equally preached to them all — it is in the same manner bestowed upon all who believe. The reason of this is, that all have sinned — all, without one exception, as had been proved, are “under sin.”
The Apostle adds, as a consequence of this, that they have come short of the glory of God, They have come short, as in running a race, having now lost all strength (Rom. v. 6) and ability in themselves to glorify God, and to attain to the possession and enjoyment of his glory. In the second chapter, the Apostle, in announcing the terms of the law, had declared that the way to obtain eternal life was in seeking for glory by patient continuance in well-doing, and that to those who work good, honour and peace would be awarded. In other words, “if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments;” but he had afterwards proved that in this way it was altogether unattainable, since by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified. In this place he more briefly repeats the same truth, that all men, without exception, being sinners, have come short of this glory, while he is pointing out the way in which, through the atonement of the Saviour, and faith in that atonement, believers may now “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”“* All men, on the ground of their obedience to law, come short of glorifying God, for to glorify God is the whole of the law, — even the second table is to be obeyed to glorify God, who requires it. If they come short of obeying the law, they have, as sinners, come short of that glory, and honour, and immortality, in his presence, which can only be obtained through the” salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.’’ — 2 Tim. ii. 10.
V. 24’. — Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Justified. — Justification stands opposed both to accusation and condemnation. “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth V “Them whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them,” as is well expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, “but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, — not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience, to them as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.’’ Or, according to Dr Owen, on justification,” This imputation is an act of God, ex mera gratia, of his mere love and grace, whereby, on the consideration of the mediation of Christ, he makes an effectual grant and donation of a true, real, perfect righteousness, — even that of Christ himself, unto all that do believe, and accounting it as theirs, on his own gracious act, both absolves them from sin and granteth them right and title unto eternal life.” The Helvetic Confession of Faith, adopted by the church at Geneva, in 1536, and by all the evangelical churches in Switzerland SO years afterwards, explains justification as follows:” The word to justify, signifies, in the writings of the Apostle St Paul, when he speaks of justification, to pardon sins, to absolve from guilt and punishment, to receive into grace, and to declare righteous. The righteousness of Jesus
Christ is imputed to believers. — Our Saviour is then charged with the sins of the world, he has taken them away, he has satisfied Divine justice. It is then only on account of Jesus Christ dead and risen, that God, pacified towards us, does not impute to us our sins, but that he imputes to us the righteousness of his Son, as if it were ours; so that, thenceforward, we are not only cleansed from our sins, but besides, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and by it absolved from the punishment of sins, from death, or from condemnation, accounted righteous, and heirs of eternal life. Thus, to speak properly, it is God only who justifies us, and he justifies us solely for the sake of Jesus Christ, not imputing to us our sins, but imputing to us the righteousness of Christ.”
In the Homily of the Church of England, on “justification,” it is said — “Justification is not the office of man, but of God; for man cannot make himself righteous by his own works, neither in part nor in whole; for that were the greatest arrogancy and presumption of man that antichrist could set up against God, to affirm that a man might by his own works take away and purge his own sins, and so justify himself. But justification is the office of God only, and is not a thing which we render unto him, but which we receive of him; not which we give to him, but which we take of him by his free mercy, and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Saviour, and Justifier, Jesus Christ: So that the true understanding of this doctrine, we be justified freely by faith without works, or that we be justified by Christ only, is not that this our own act to believe in Christ, or this our faith in Christ which is within us doth justify us, and deserve our justification unto us (for that were to count ourselves to be justified by some act or virtue that is within ourselves), but the true understanding and meaning thereof is, that although we hear God’s word, and believe it, although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread, and fear of God within us, do never so many works thereunto; yet we must renounce the merit of all our said virtues, of faith, hope, charity, and all other virtues, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that must be far too weak, and insufficient, and imperfect to deserve remission of our sins and our justification; and therefore we must trust only in God’s mercy, and that sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God, once offered for us on the cross.” Again, “This doctrine all old and ancient authors of Christ’s Church do approve. This doctrine adorneth and setteth forth the glory of Christ, and beateth down the glory of man; this whosoever denieth, is not to he accounted for a Christian man, nor for a setter forth of Christ’s glory, but for an adversary of Christ and his gospel, and for a setter forth of man’s vain glory.*” The above quotations are not given in the way of authority, but as expressing the truth, and evincing the unanimity of believers of different communions on this all-important point.
There is no “condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” The moment a sinner is united to him the sentence of condemnation under which he formerly lay, is taken off, and a sentence of acquittal and perfect righteousness is pronounced by God. Justification, then, is at once complete — in the imputation of a perfect righteousness, the actual pardon of all past sins, the virtual pardon of future sins, and the grant and title to the heavenly inheritance. The believer is found in Christ having the righteousness which is of God, Phil. iii. 9. “Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness,’’’’ Isa. xlv. 24. He is complete in Christ, Col. ii. 10, who, by one offering, hath for ever perfect’ ed him, Heb. x. 14. In him the law has been fulfilled; his sin has been made Christ’s, and the righteousness which God requireth by the law has been made his. “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,’’ 2 Cor. V. 21. On this Chrysostom remarks,” What word, what speech is this? what mind can comprehend or express it! For he saith. He made him who was righteous to be made a sinner, that he might make sinners righteous. Nor yet doth he say so neither, but that which is far more subHme and excellent. For he speaks not of an inclination or affection, but expresseth the quality itself. For he says not, he made him a sinner, but sin, that we might be made not merely righteous, but righteousness — and that the righteousness of God.’’*
After the Lord Jesus Christ condescended to take on him our sins, it would not have been just for him not to account for them; his responsibility for them was then the same as if he had himself sinned. On this proceeded God’s
To explain Christ’s being made sin in this passage with Dr Macknight, Mr Stuart, and others, as signifying his being made a sin-offering, ought to be most strenuously rejected. It takes away the contrast, and obscures one of the strongest expressions of the vicarious nature of Christ’s sufferings that is to be found in the Bible. In the same way, when it is said (Heb. ix. 28), He shall “appear the second time without sin unto salvation,” the true meaning of the passage is lost by changing the phrase, •’ without sin,” as in the common version, to “without a sin-offering,” according to Mr Stuart. When Jesus Christ first appeared, he came covered with the sin which was imputed to him; but when he shall come the second time, not the smallest remainder of it shall be either upon him or his people.
treatment of him in hiding his face from him, while in the act of paying the debt. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; that is, being cursed as the Apostle explains it. As the sins of Israel were all laid on the head of the scape-goat, so “the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.’’” How could he die,” says Charnock, “if he was not a reputed sinner? Had he not first had a relation to our sin, he could not in justice have undergone our punishment. He must, in the order of justice, be supposed a sinner really, or by imputation. Really he was not; by imputation, then, he was.” On the whole, believers are accounted and pronounced righteous by God; and if so accounted by him, it is and must be true in fact, that they are righteous for righteousness is imputed to them; that is, it is placed to their account — made over to them — really theirs — and, therefore, without the smallest deviation from truth or fact — which is impossible in the great Judge — he will, from his throne of judgment in the last day, declare that they are” righteous’’’’ Matt. xxv. 37, and 46.
Freely ly Ms grace. — The expression is redoubled to show that all is of God, and that nothing in this act of justification belongs to, or proceeds from man. It is perfectly gratuitous on the part of God, both as to the mode of its conveyance, and the motive on which it is vouchsafed. Nothing being required of man in order to his justification, in the way of price or satisfaction, and there being no prerequisite or preparatory dispositions to merit it at the hand of Grod, believers are therefore said to be justified by his grace which excludes on their part both price and merit. And lest it should be imagined that grace does not proceed in its operation as well as in the choice of its objects, consistently with its character of sovereign and unmerited goodness, the Apostle adds the word freely; that is, without cause or motive on the part of man. The word here rendered “freely” is the same as that used by our Lord, when he says, they hated me without a cause, John xv. 25. “Freely (gratuitously) ye have received, freely give,” Matt. x. 8; 2 Cor. xi. 7; 2 Thes. iii. 8: ‘’ For nought,” (gratis). Rev. xxi. 6, and xxii. 17; or without price, as Isaiah. Iv. 1. This term “freely,” in the most absolute manner excludes all consideration of any thing in man as the cause or condition in his justification. The means by which it is received is faith; and, in the commencement of the next chapter, faith is placed in opposition to all works whatever, and in verse 16th of that chapter it is said, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” Faith is the constituted medium through which man receives “the gift of righteousness;” because, as Paul there affirms, it interferes not with the gratuitous nature of the gift. It is impossible to express more strongly than in this place, that justification is bestowed without the smallest regard to any thing done by man. There can be no pretence left that it comes in consequence of repentance, or any thing good either existing or foreseen in him. God “justifieth the ungodly’’ Rom. iv. 5. It comes, then, solely by grace — free, unmerited favour. “And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace,” Rom. xi. 6. This is said respecting the election of believers to eternal life, and equally holds, according to the passage before us, in respect to their justification. “How does Paul,” says Luther, in answer to Erasmus, “in one word confound in one mass all the assertors of every specious and of every degree of merit! All are justified freely, and without the works of the law. He who affirms the justification of all men who are justified to be perfectly free and gratuitous, leaves no place for works, merits, or preparations of any kind — no place for works either of condignity or congruity; and thus, at one blow, he demolishes both the Pelagians, with their complete merits, and our Sophists, with their petty performances.”
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. — The great blessing of justification is described above as proceeding from the free grace of God, which is the fountain from whence floweth pardon, righteousness, and salvation, excluding all works, whether before or after faith. Here it is referred to the outward or impulsive cause, or the meritorious price provided by God, and that is the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. For though it comes freely to man, yet it is through the redemption or purchase of the Son of God.
The word redemption signifies, in general, a deliverance effected by a price, and sometimes a deliverance by poiuer. In this last sense it is said, “Now these are thy servants, and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power,’’ Neh. i. 10. The resurrection of the body by an act of Divine power is called a redemption, Rom. viii. 2-3. But, more generally, redemption signifies in Scripture deliverance by />n(?^, as that of slaves, or prisoners, or persons condemned, when they are delivered from slavery, captivity, or death, by means of a ransom. In this last acceptation the word is here used. Man had rebelled against God, and incurred the just condemnation of his law, but God by his free grace, and of infinite compassion, hath substituted his own Son in the place of the guilty, and transferred from them to him the obligation of their punishment. He hath made him to suffer for their sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring them to himself. His own self bare their sins in his own body on the tree, 1 Peter iii. 18; ii. 24. In this manner the Scriptures often represent the death or blood of Jesus Christ as the ransom price. He came to give his life a ransom for many, Matt. xx. 28; 1 Cor. vi. 20.” Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.” 1 Peter, i. 18. ‘* Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,” Rev. v. 9. “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,” Eph. i. 7; Col. i. 14. If, then, we are accounted righteous before God, because redeemed with a price paid by another, we receive what is not in ourselves, or in any measure from ourselves.
The Socinian talks of redemption as an act merely of God’s power, and of Christ as offering his sacrifice by presenting himself in heaven after his death. But this is not redemption. There is not only a price paid, but that price is expressly stated. “In whom we have redemption through his blood His blood, then, is the price by which we have redemption, “even the forgiveness of sins.” Col. i. 14. The same thing that is redemption, is in another point of view forgiveness, yet these two things in human transactions are incompatible. Where there is forgiveness there is no price or redemption; where there is redemption there is no forgiveness. But in the salvation of the Gospel there is both. There is a price, but as God himself has paid the price, it is forgiveness with respect to man as much as if there had been no price. How wonderful is the wisdom of God manifested in the Gospel! Grace and justice, mercy and punishment, are both seen in the utmost harmony.
Many persons judge that the object of the Apostle in this epistle, is merely to establish gratuitous justification, and seem to think that nothing can be essentially wrong in the views of those who speak of gratuitous salvation. Yet this may be most explicitly confessed, and the distinguishing features of the Gospel overlooked or even denied. Arians do not deny a gratuitous salvation. They contend that salvation is gratuitous, and boast that they are the only persons who can consistently hold this doctrine. Calvinists, they say, have not a God of mercy; he gives nothing vathout a price. Their God, they boast, is a God of mercy, for he pardons without any ransom. Now the glory of the Gospel is, that grace reigns through righteousness. Salvation is of grace; but this grace comes to us in a way of righteousness. It is grace to us, but it was brought about in such a way that all our debt was paid. This exhibits God as just as well as merciful. Just in requiring full compensation to justice, and merciful because it was he, and not the sinner who provided the ransom. He who is saved is saved without an injury to justice. Salvation is in one point of view forgiveness, but in another it is redemption
It has been objected that though it is here said that God justifies man freely by his grace, yet, as a price has been paid for it, this takes away from the freeness of the gift. But he who pays the ransom is one and the same, as has just been observed, with him who justifies, so that the freeness of the blessing on the part of
God is not in the smallest degree diminished This proves that the doctrine of a free justification, through an atonement, rests entirely on the doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ; on which also rests the transfer of his righteousness to the guilty; for, as has already been shown, no mere creatui-e can have the least particle of merit to transfer to another. Every creature is bound for himself to the fulfilment of the whole law. After doing all that is possible for him, in the way of obedience, he must confess himself to be an unprofitable servant, Luke xvii. 10.
This redemption is w, or by Christ Jesus. — It is wholly in him and solely accomplished by him. Through the period of his ministry on earth, his disciples who followed him were not aware of the work he was accomplishing. During his agony in the garden they were asleep. When seized by his persecutors to be put to death, they all forsook him and fled. “Behold,’” says he, “the hour Cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.” No one participated or bore any share with him in that great work, which according to his appeal to his Father, on which he founded the petitions he offered for himself and his people, he alone had consummated; “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”
VOL. I. X r. 25 — Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God>
Set forth. — The word means to exhibit to pubHc view — to place before the eyes of men; 1 Pet. i. 20. Propitiation. — Some understand this of a propitiatory, as signifying the mercy-seat, as the same word is translated, Heb. ix. 5 — some as a propitiatory sacrifice, which is to be preferred. But it comes to the same thing, if, according to our translation, it be rendered propitiation, considering the word to be the adjective taken substantively. And this is countenanced by 1 John, ii. 2, though a different word is there used, but of the same derivation. By a propitiation is meant that which appeaseth the wrath of God for sins, and obtains his favour. And this propitiation of Christ was typified, first, in the propitiatory sacrifices whose blood was shed, and by the mercy- seat, which was called the propitiatory, because it covered the ark in which was the law, and on it and before it the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled by the High Priest. Jesus Christ is a propitiation to the sinner, through faith in his blood; that is, when he believes that his death is a sacrifice which atones for sin. To declare his inghteousness., or in order to a manifestation of his righteousness. Righteousness, — Some translate this word faithfulness or “ceracity some goodness some holiness, some pardoning mercy. But ail are wrong. It is righteousness. For the remission. — Rather on account of, with respect to. The death of Jesus Christ for the sins of believers under the old dispensation, manifested God’s righteousness for pardoning or remitting their sins that are past, done before, or formerly committed. Forbearance of God. — It was God’s forbearance that passed by the sins of his people before the death of Christ, till which time his justice had received no satisfaction.
In the end of the preceding verse, the Apostle had said, that believers are redeemed through Jesus Christ, that it was he who laid down the price of their redemption. This meritorious cause of it he further explains here; God hath in his own time set him forth, brought him forward, and exhibited him to be a propitiatory sacrifice to make satisfaction to his justice. God is thus pacified towards believers in Jesu Christ, and made propitious, the demands of his justice being satisfied, and every obstruction to the exercise of his mercy towards them removed. This propitiation was made by blood, by which is to be understood all the sufierings of Christ, and, above all, his death, by which they were consummated. And this becomes a propitiation to us by faith in his blood — by our resting on it as a sufficient o24 ROMANS, III. 25.
answer to all accusations against us of the law of God, which, in the punishment of death, it demanded for sin, for “without shedding of blood is no remission.”
God hath not only set forth his Son as a propitiatory sacrifice through faith in his blood, but also has done this to declare, or for the manifestation of, his righteousness. No sufficient atonement previous to that event was made for sins. Yet, through the forbearance of God, he did not immediately proceed to punish them, but had respect to the everlasting righteousness to be in the fulness of time brought in by his Son, by which sins were to be expiated. This verse beautifully points out the ground on which Old Testament saints were admitted into heaven before the death of Christ.
The same truth is declared in the Epistle to the Hebrews, ix. 15, where the Apostle refers to the inefficacy of the legal sacrifices to take away sins, and speaks of the blood of Jesus, by which he entered into the holy place, and obtained eternal redemption for his people. “And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament, that, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called (literally, the called, namely, under that dispensation) might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” All the people on whom the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled, were sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, but they among them who were efficaciously called, and offered the sacrifices in faith of the promise of God, received a real remission of their sins. They were, like Noah, heirs of the righteousness which is by faith, and consequently partakers in its benefits. To the same purpose, the Apostle speaks towards the end of that epistle, of ‘• the spirits of just men made perfect,’’^ Heb. xii. 23. They had entered heaven on the pledge of that righteousness which was afterwards to be ‘’ brought in f’ but until ttha took place, their title to heavenly glory had not been completed or perfected.* Hence the declaration at the end of the eleventh chapter of that Epistle, “that they without us should not be made perfect,”’ that is, without the introduction of that righteousness in the days of the gospel, the ministration of which was committed to the Apostles, 2 Cor. iii. 8.
V. 26. — To declare I say at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
For this purpose also God hath set forth his Son as a propitiatory sacrifice at this time, under
Mr Stuart’s explanation is, “exalted to a state of final revrard.” This is not the truth here declared The other commentators equally mistake the meaning, explaining it to signify exalted to a state of holiness and felicity.
the gospel dispensation, in order to make manifest his righteousness. He was always just in forgiving sin, but now the ground on which he forgives it is manifested, which vindicates his justice in doing so. The word here rendered just is variously translated by those who do not understand God’s plan of salvation. Some make it to signify benevolent, kind, merciful, &c.; but it has here its own proper meaning, which it never deserts. Qoi just; he acts according to strict justice, as becometh his character, while he justifies, accounts, and treats as perfectly righteous all who believe in Jesus, who are thus one with him, and consequently have his righteousness imputed to them. In all this we see the accomplishment of that prediction, “Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other, truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven; yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him, and shall set us in the way of his steps,” Psalm, lxxxv. 10.
From the last two verses we learn that in the continuance of the legal dispensation, notwithstanding the sins of men, and also in the preservation of the nations, God had suspended or mitigated the immediate effects of his justice.
For if he had not acted in this manner, he would at once have put an end to that dispensation and to the economy of his providence with respect to the other nations, in destroying both them and the people of Israel. During all that time which preceded the coming of his Son, he appeared to have forgotten the merited punishment of men’s sins, and all the world remained under the shadow of his forbearance. But when Jesus Christ came, God did two things: the first was to continue no longer an economy of patience, or of an apparent forgetfulness of sin, but to bring in everlasting righteousness, by which he bestowed a true justification, which the law, whether written or natural, could not do, as it left men under guilt; but Jesus Christ has brought the true grace of God. The second thing which God has done, is to manifest his avenging justice by the shedding of the blood of his Son upon the cross. And thus he now appears to be just in himself as the real avenger of sins, and nevertheless, at the same time, the justifier of men; granting them a real remission of their sins by the imputation of his righteousness, which answers every demand of law and justice; whereas in the period of the forbearance of God, which continued to the time of Jesus Christ, God neither appeared just nor justifying. He did not appear just, for he suspended the effects of his justice. He did not appear the justifier, for he seemed only to suspend for a time the punishment of sins, and to leave men under the obligation of that punishment. But in the economy of Jesus Christ he manifests himself both as just and as the justifier, for he displays the awful effects of his justice in the person of his Son in the work of propitiation, in the shedding of his blood; and at the same time, he justifies his people, granting to them a true remission of their sins. And when the greatness of him by whom this expiation was made is considered, the glory of the Divine justice, as exhibited in his death, is elevated in the highest possible degree. In the propitiation then of Jesus Christ, the justice of God in the salvation of sinners is made conspicuous. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son in his own person hath revealed him. Jesus Christ was set forth to display every attribute of Godhead. The wisdom and power of God are seen in the constitution of the person of Christ and his work, incomparably more fully than in the creation of the heavens and the earth. Perfect justice, mercy, and love to sinners, are beheld no where else. Here God is revealed as infinite in mercy not so the God of man’s imagination, whose mercy is a mixture of injustice and weak compassion, and extends only to those who are sup-ROMANS, 111. 27. Ii2d
posed to deserve it. But in the incarnate God infinite mercy grasps the chief of sinners. Here is pure mercy without merit on the part of man. And where do we find the perfection of divine justice? Not in the God of man’s imagination, where justice is tempered with mercy, and limited in a thousand ways. Not even in the eternal punishment of the wicked shall we find justice so fully displayed as in the propitiation of Jesus Christ. He gave justice all it could demand, so that it is now shown to have secured the salvation of the redeemed in every age of the world as much as mercy itself. God is shown not only to be merciful to forgive, but he is faithful and just to forgive the sinner his sins. Justice, instead of being reduced to the necessity of taking a part from the bankrupt, has received full payment, and guarantees his deliverance. Even the chief of sinners are shown, in the propitiatory sacrifice of their surety, to be perfectly worthy of Divine love, because they are not only perfectly innocent, but have the righteousness of God. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
V. 27 It here is boasting then? It is excluded. By whai
law? ofioorks? Naif, but by the law of faith.
Where is boasting then f — That is, according to the doctrine which the Apostle, by the Spirit of God, is teaching. There is no ground for it, or for ascribing salvation in any part to the works of men. This shows, that salvation was appointed to come to the redeemed through faith, for the very purpose of excluding all pretences to allege that human merit has any share in it. This applies to all works, moral as well as ceremonial. If ceremonial works only were here meant, as many contend, and if moral works have some influence in procuring salvation, or in justification, then the Apostle could not have asked this question. Boasting would not have been excluded.
Paul had declared the only way in which a man can be “just with God.” He had proved, that it is not by his own righteousness which is of the law, but by that righteousness which is received by faith. This is clear from what had been advanced in the preceding verse, from which this is an inference. If, then — as if he had said — God had purposed that men should have any ground of boasting, he would not have set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, that thereby a way might be opened for justifying sinners, so that his justice might suffer no prejudice. But now he has taken this course; and, therefore, the only way of justification precludes all boasting.
“Paul is not here,” says Calvin,” disputing
merely concerning ceremonies, or any external works, but comprehends all works of every kind and degree. Boasting is excluded without all doubt, since we can produce nothing of our own that merits the approbation or commendation of God. And here he is not speaking of limitation or diminution of merit, since he does not allow the least particle of it. Thus, if boasting of works be removed by faith, so that it takes away from man all praise, while all power and glory are ascribed to God, it follows that no works whatever contribute to the attainment of righteousness.”
By loliat law is boasting excluded? — It is not by that of works; for if works were admitted, in the smallest degree, to advance or aid man’s justification, he might in that proportion have ground of boasting. It is, then, by the law of faith; not by a law requiring faith, or as if the Gospel was a law, a new law, or, as it has been termed, a remedial or mitigated law — but the word law is here used in allusion to the law of works, according to a figure usual in the Scriptures. By the same figure Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he hath sent.” Here faith is called a work, for a similar reason. Faith in the riohteousness of Christ is, by the appointment of God, the medium of a sinners justification, without any consideration of works. This way of justification divests a man of his own righteousness — of obtaining any thing on account of his conformity to the law, the idea of which can have no place, since he must admit that he is a transgressor of the law. It impels him to flee out of himself, and to lay hold of the righteousness of another, and so leaves no place of glorying or boasting in himself, or in his own performances more or less. His justification is solely by faith; and it is clear, that to believe a testimony, and rely on what has been done by another, leaves no place whatever for boasting. “Therefore it is by faith, that it might be by grace.’”* The whole plan of salvation proceeds on this principle, “that no flesh should glory in his presence,” but “that, according as it is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord.” No ingenuity can ever make salvation by human merit consistent with the passage before us.
V. 28. — Therefore we conclude y that a man is justified by failh without the deeds of the law-In the 20th verse the Apostle had arrived at the conclusion, from all he had said before, that by works of law no man shall be justified in the sight of God. He had next pointed out the way of justification by faith in the atonement; and here he comes to his second and grand conclusion, as the sum of all he had taught in the preceding part of the Epistle. Justified by Faith. — Faith does not justify as an act of righteousness, but as the instrument by which we receive Christ and his righteousness. Believers are said to be justified 5y faith and of faith and through faith; but never on account of faith. The declaration of James, that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only, is not in any respect opposed to the affirmation in the passage before us. The question with him is not how men may obtain righteousness for themselves in the presence of God, but how they are proved to be righteous, for he is refuting those who make a vain boast of having faith, when they have only what he calls a dead faith; that is, faith only in profession, which he illustrates by a man’s having the appearance of compassion without the reality, and by referring to the body without the spirit or breath.*
Without the deeds of the law. — This does not signify, as Dr Macknight understands it, that” perfect obedience’’ to law is not necessary; but that no degree of obedience to law is necessary. Good works are necessary for the believer, and are the things which accompany salvation,
* See Evidences, vol. ii. p. 355.
but they are not in any respect necessary to justification. They have nothing to do with it. This passage asserts not merely that men are justified by faith without perfect obedience to any law, but without any obedience of their own. It may likewise be remarked, that believers will not be acquitted at the last day on account of their works, but will be judged according to their works. But God does not justify any in this life according to their works, but freely by his grace; and not by works, or according to the works of righteousness which they have done, Titus, iii. 5.
V. 29. — Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.
Rather, Is he the God of Jews only? Is he not also of Gentiles? The article before Jews and Gentiles, which is not in the original, makes the assertion respect Jews and Gentiles in general. In the sense of the passage, God is not the God either of the Jews or of the Gentiles in general; but he is the God of Jews and Gentiles indifferently, when they believe in his Son.
V. 30 — Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Seeing it is one God. — This assigns the reason why God must be the God of Gentiles as well as of Jews. If he justifies both in the same way, he must be equally the God of both. In the previous part of his discussion, Paul had shown that by works of law no flesh shall be justified, proving it first respecting Gentiles, and afterwards respecting Jews. Now he afiirms that God’’s method of justifying man applies equally to Jews and Gentiles. This confirms his doctrine respecting the ruined condition of all men by sin, and of there being only one way of recovery by the righteousness of God received through faith. To urge this was likewise of great importance, with a view to establish the kingdom of Christ in all the earth, Rom. x. 11, 13. Having thus reduced the whole human race to the same level, it follows that all distinction among them must be from God, and not from themselves, who all stand on the same footing with respect to their works. There is but one God, and so but one way of becoming his people, which is by faith.
B^ faith, and through faith. — It is not easy to see why the prepo&itions here are varied. Similar variations, however, occur in other places, where there appears to be no difference of meaning, as in Gal. ii. 16, where justification, as applied to the same persons, is spoken of in the same sense,” Knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but through the faith of Jesus Christ, oo6 ROMANS, III. 31.
even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.”
V. 31 — Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
From the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which the Apostle had been declaring, it might be supposed that the law of God was made void. This consequence might be drawn from the conclusion, that a man is justified by faith without any respect to his obedience to law. This the Apostle denies, and on the contrary asserts, that by his doctrine the law is established. Made void the law. — “Bring it to nought,” as the same word in the original is rendered, ] Cor. i. 28; or “destroy,” 1 Cor. vi. 13, and xv. 26; “done away,’’ 2 Cor. iii. 7-14; “abolished,” Eph. ii. 15; 2 Tim. i. 10. Professors Tholuck and Stuart being unable to perceive how the doctrine of the Apostle establishes the authority of the law, understand law in this place as signifying the Old Testament. This entirely destroys the meaning and use of the passage. That the Old Testament teaches the same way of justification as that taught by the Apostles, is indeed a truth, an important truth, but not the truth here asserted. Mr Stuart says, “How gratuitous justification can be said to confirm or establish the moral law (as this text has been often explained), it seems difficult to make out.” But it is quite obvious in what way gratuitous justification by Christ establishes the law. Can there be any greater respect shown to the law, than that when God determines to save men from its curse, he makes his own Son sustain its curse? But here, as well as in so many other parts of his exposition of this epistle, we discover the unhappy effect of this commentator’s misunderstanding the meaning of the expression at its commencement, the righteousness of God. That he should here feel the difficulty he states above, is not surprising, for according to the view he gives of justification, the law of God is completely made void.
Dr Macknight explains establishing the law, to be making it “necessary in many respects.” ‘The gospel,’ he says, in his view and illustration of ch. i. p. 138, ‘teaches that because all ’ have sinned, and are incapable of perfect obe- ’ dience, God hath appointed, for their salvation, ’ a righteousness loithoutlaw; that is, a righteous- ’ ness which does not consist in perfect obedience ’ to any law whatever, even the righteousness of ’ faith that being the only righteousness attain- ’ able by sinners; and at the same time declares, ’ that God will accept and reward that kind of ’ righteousness through Christ, as if it were a * perfect righteousness.’ Accordingly, in his
VOL. I. Y interpretation of the 2Jst verse of chapter iii., he says: ‘But now under the gospel, a righteous” ’ ness appointed by God, as the means of the jus- ’ tification of sinners, without perfect obedience * to law of any kind, is made knoivn.’’ In this manner, mistaking, like Professors Tholuck and Stuart, although in a different way, the import of the expression, “the righteousness of God,” he misunderstands the whole train of the ApostWs reasoning from the seventeenth verse of the first chapter to the end of the fifth chapter, as well as its object, in this discussion on justification, and by his explanation maJces void the law altogether. Instead of making it “necessary in many respects,“” Dr Macknight, as well as Mr Stuart, by representing it as satisfied with an imperfect obedience, which does not meet the demands of any law, either human or divine, that ever was promulgated, makes it void in every respect. Such is the entire consistency among themselves of the doctrines of Scripture, that whenever any one of them is misunderstood, it invariably leads to the misunderstanding of the rest.
Many commentators, with more or less clearness, refer to the doctrine of sanctification, either in whole or in part, the Apostle”’s denial that he makes void the law. According to them, it is not made void for this reason, because it convinces men of sin, and does not release from personal obedience to its precepts. That the doctrine of justification, by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, does not release believers from obedience to the law, is a most important truth, which Paul fully establishes in the sixth chapter of this epistle. On the contrary, it lays them under additional obligations to obey it, by furnishing additional motives to the love of God. But since their sanctification is always in this life imperfect, were there nothing else to meet the demands of the law, it would be made void — it would remain unfulfilled, both in its precept and penalty. In addition to this, the whole of the previous discussion regards the doctrine of justification, while not a word is said respecting sanctification. And it is evident that this verse is introduced to obviate an objection which might naturally present itself, namely, if man’s obedience, in order to his justification, be set aside, the law, which requires obedience, is made void. But Paul appeals to his doctrine, and according to his usual manner, strongly rejects such an inference. In the preceding verses, from the 20th, he had been announcing that the righteousness of God, which is the complete fulfilment of the law, is placed to the account of him who believes for his justification, by which God, in thus justifying the sinner solely on the ground of a perfect obedience, shows himself to be just. Do we then he says, make void the law? Our doctrine not only maintains its authority, but also exhibits the fulfilment of all its demands. The connecting particle shows that he rests his proof on what had gone before, to which he appeals, and not on the ground of sanctification, to which he had been making no reference, and to which, if he had referred, it would not have borne out his assertion.
“Think not,’’ said our blessed Lord, “that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” It is to this fulfilment — to the righteousness of God, which in the context the Apostle had been illustrating, and which Jesus Christ brought in — that he here appeals. Do we make the law void when we conclude that a man is justified by faith without doing the works of the law, since we show that his faith receives a perfect righteousness, by which, in all its demands and all its sanction, it is fulfilled f No; it is in this very way we establish it. In this glorious establishment of the law, Paul, in another place, exults, when he counts all things but loss for the excellency of Christ, and desires to be found in him, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. While he thus tramples on his own righteousness, by which the law never could be established, he confidently appeals to the righteousness of God, now made his by faith, which is precisely in accordance with his conclusion in the 28th verse, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And afterwards, at the termination of his mortal career, in the immediate prospect of death, he triumphs in the consideration that there is laid up for him a crown of righteousness — a crown, the reward of that perfect obedience by which the law is magmfied and made honourahle.