which they have sinned. The word rendered perish^ from its opposi- tion to that used in the latter part of the verse, expresses the idea, ' be- ing condemned, shall be punished.' As many as have sinned in the law. In the law, i. e. subject to the law, as to be in the Jiesh, ch. 7 : 5. 8 ; 8, &c., is to be subject to the flesh; to be in sin is to be under its control; see ch. 3 : 19, " What the law says, it says to those who are under the law," literally, those in the law, as here. The meaning, there- fore, obviously is, « Those who are under a special revelation of the will of God, and have sinned, &c. &c., shall he judged hy the law."* Judged, i. e. condemned, as the word often means, and as the context here re- quires. By the law, i. e. by means of the law, by it as the rule or stand ard ; see the same preposition so used, James 2 : 12. 2 Cor. 8 : 8. Paul no more asserts in this passage that all who have no revelation shall perish, than he does that all who have a revelation shall be condemned. He is not speaking of the actual destiny of either class, but of the rule by which men are to be judged.
(13) For not the hearers of the law are just hefore God, hut the doers of the law shall he justified. The reason is here assigned for the declara- tion contained in the last clause of the preceding verse, « Those who are under the law shall be judged by it, or punished according to it, for it is not the mere possession of the law, but obedience to it, which is of avail before God. The expression hearers of the law is used because readers, before the multiplication of books by the press, were compara- tively few. Hence it was by hearing, rather than by reading, that knowledge was obtained. The phrase to be just hefore God, i. e. in his ^ght or estimation, serves to explain the other equivalent term at the end of the verse, shall he justified. Both are evidently forensic expres- sions, and mean, shall be regarded and treated as just or righteous in the sight of God. The apostle has evident reference to the opinion of the Jews, that being a Jew was enough to secure admission into hea- ven. When Paul says the doers of the law shall be justified, he is of course not to be understood as teaching, contrary to his own repeated declarations and arguments, that men are actually to be justified by obedience to the law. This is the very thing which he is labouring to prove impossible. The context renders his meaning plain. He is speak- ing not of the method of justification available for sinners, but of the principles on which all who are out of Christ are to be judged. They shall be judged impartially, according to their works, and agreeably to their knowledge of duty. On these principles no flesh living can be justified in the sight of God. The only way, as he afterwards teaches, to escape their application, is to confide in Christ, in virtue of whose death God can be just and yet justify the ungodly who believe in him.
Though this verse, with the 14th and 15th, form a parenthesis, as is evident from the 16th, which requires to be immediately connected with the 12th, yet they are intimately related to what immediately precedes. The 13th is the ground of what is asserted in the last clause of the 12th,