The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 89

(anything) in our ~jfl'MlJ f-whiah he main J?Oint of all the quotation& is thnt mRintBim (though not oonolusively) to be which 18 brought out in tho next vorso, vim. the only proJ)(>r sense of the middle verb--- that they hl\,l roferenoo, not to the Gentile c,r (,,~ in the Authori11ed Version), .Are ,oe world, but to the chosen people themselvos. better \ i.e. in bett.er c&Se) than they f This Vera. 19, 20.-Now we know that what rendering, though it gives ee..oentially the thing■ soever the Law (6 v&µos hero for the 68me sense 8ll if "f'DEXoµw (intransitive) Old Testament generally ae tho embodiment had been mitt.en, is commended by its and exponent of the Law) aaith, it epeaketh 1mitRbleness to the oonrse of argument, and to them that are under the Law (not to tho the middle voice may, perhaps, be account.ed world outside, but to those within its own for as denoting the Jews' supposed claim of sphere): that every mouth (the Jew's aa llUperiority for themselves. Thus the oonnec- well as the Gentile's) may be stopped, and tion of tboug-ht is plain. The conclusion of all the world may beoome guilty before God. eh. ii. had left the Jews on the same footing Because by work& of law (v&p.os here suitably with the Gentiles before God in respect of without the article; see on ob. ii. 13) shall sinfulness. But then objections had been no flesh be justified in his eight: for through raised on the ground of the acknowledged law is knowledge of sin. In this conoluding privileges of the c-hosen people; and such verse the apostle briefly intimates the reason objections has-e been met. The apostle now of law's ineffi.caoy for jnstifioation, antioi- sums up the result: Wbat, then, is the state pating, after a manner usual with him, of the case? Have we any advantage to what is afterwards to be more fully set forth, allege O :So, not at e.ll in the sense intended; ea especiRlly in eh. vii. The reason is thn.t the pres-ions argument stands; and he pro- law in itself only defines sin and makes it ceed,; to confine his position from the testi- sinful, but does not emancipate from it. mons- of -i;he Old Testament itself. , ers. I 0-18.-As it is written, There Vers. 21-31.-(4) The righte011,Bness o/ is none righteous, no, not one: there is God, manifested. in Christ and. apprehended. none that underst&ndeth, there is none that by faith, is the sole remedy, and. availablll seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become for all. The position enunciated in eh. i unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, 18 being now sufficiently established, the no, not one (Ps. xis-. or liii.). Their throat apostle enters here on his me.in argument, is 11D. open aepn.lchre ; with their tongue■ announced. in eh. i 17. they have med deceit (Ps. v. 9); the poison of B1J16 is under their lips (Ps. ex.I. 3) : Ver. 21.-But now (vvvl here may have who&e mouth is full of Clll'lling and bitter- either its temporal sense of at the present n.ea (Ps. L 7) : their feet are swift to shed time, or its logical sense of as things ar6. blDod : destrnat1on and mi.Bery are in their For its use in the latter sense, of. eh. vii, 17; ways : &nd the way of peece have they not l Cor. v. 11; xiii. 13; xv. 20) the righteo111- known (Prov. i. 16 and Isa. liL 7): there ne■1 of God without law (i.e. apart from is no fear of God before their eyes (Ps. law) is (or, has been) manifested, being m..-i. 1). These texts are from various witneBBed by the Law and the prophets, unconnected passages of the Old Testament, On the essential meaning of God's righteou.s- quoted from the LXX., though not all ness (0eoii li1,c,uou6v11), see on oh. i. 17, and accmately. They seem to be pnt together Introduction. This passage, in whioh the from memory by way of showing the general thesis of eh. i. 17 is formally enunciated, scriptural view of h11D18n depravity. It is COI111istent with this meaning ; in con- may be said that they do Dot establish the firmation of which observe vers. 25, 26, apo.,ile's position of all men bein6 guilty; where 1i,,ca.,otr61'1} a.b-roii evidently means for that tl.iey are for the most part rhetorical God's own righteousness, as also e.bovo, ver. r<1ther than dogmatic, that Illlllit of them 5. If this view is correct, there is no need rt:fer only to certain claases of men, and to follow commentators into their discussions that tlHa righteous are spoken of too, nnd of the significe.nce of xwpls v&µou in llllpposed this in the 11equence of even the most sweep- connection with the idea, of man's imputed. ing of them all (that from Ps. xiv. or liii.), righteousness; snob as whether it is meant which do~s. likrally understood, assert to declare justifica,tion through Ohrist to he univtrll!J siufulues~. lUJy such objection without the aid of the Law-" sine legis io th6 cogency of the qnotatioIIII may be adminiculo" (Calvin)-or to exclude all mf<t by regarding them aa adduced, not aa legal wMlcs, done before, or even oftcr rigid proofs, but as only generally con- justification, from any share in tho oJHoe firmatory of th~ apostlt/1 position. ISee, he of justification. Howevertruetheae positions wuuld aay to the Jew, the picture your own may he, whot is said hero seems simply to &:riptw• give Y"u; ol,sern, their continued rnea,n that God's righteousness hns been 1.£:ctimouy to Lumau dt}'ravity : a.nd the manifested in Ohri.Bt in a different wu.y, ou. m. 1-31.] THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS, 83