The apostle now begins to meet the Jews on their own ground. Their prerogative was great, the profit of the circumcision was “much every way,” chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. The apostle truly and rightly believed this. Whether all were personally converted is not the point under consideration; they enjoyed what were nowhere else to be found—the privileges of the people of God—and if they did not believe, their unfaithfulness could not annul the faithfulness of God. (It is the same now with professing Christendom) The promises of God will have their fulfillment for the people of Israel through His faithfulness, although they have lost every right to them. But the apostle does not speak of this until later on. (Chapter 11)
But here someone might say that man’s unbelief brings out all the more strikingly the infallible faithfulness of God. And does not the fact of man’s unbelief, causing the faithfulness of God to stand out in stronger relief, do away with God’s right to judge man? No, in nowise; for according to this principle He could judge no one, because the wickedness of the nations also brings out the more clearly His faithfulness. The Jews are quite as responsible as others for their unbelief, and that these would be judged the Jew did not in any way doubt. Thus in spite of their privileges the Jews have also fallen under the judgment of God. The apostle does not stoop to reply to the wicked insinuation of some— “Let us do evil that good may come”—but merely says, “Their damnation is just.” Christians were indeed accused by the world of speaking so. Grace always gives opportunity for accusation as long as the soul is not convinced of sin; but as soon as the conscience comes to the knowledge of sin grace becomes the occasion of heartfelt gratitude.
Were not the Jews better than the Gentiles since they had such privileges? No, in nowise. The apostle had before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they were all under sin. And now he cites a whole number of passages to prove that the Jews by their own Scriptures were considered as being under the guilt and the power of sin. With regard to the heathen there could be no doubt respecting it; they were afar off from God, sunk in idolatry, adoring false gods, and living in iniquity. But the Jew thought quite otherwise of himself. He had been brought near, and made to participate in all the privileges. The apostle himself had acknowledged it as the greatest privilege of the Jews, that to them were committed the word of God, the oracles of God. But what did these oracles referring to the Jews, and in which they boasted as belonging solely to them, say? They said, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” A whole series of passages quoted by the apostle from the Psalms and Isaiah prove the sinful condition in relation to everything of those of whom he is speaking. And the Jews, according to their universal maxim, cannot but concede that it is they who are spoken of; for “we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.”
Thus every mouth is stopped, and the whole world guilty before God. The nations are wholly without God; but the Jews are condemned by this very word of God in which they boast. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The law that man accepted as the rule of righteousness proved that he was a sinner; it convicted and condemned him, and that expressly in his conscience, producing at the same time the consciousness of sin in him.
After proving in this way that all are under sin, the apostle returns to what he had already laid down in chapter 1:17 as the principle of the gospel; namely, the revelation of the righteousness of God. All that comes between chapters 1:18 and 3:21 forms a parenthesis to show that the righteousness of God is necessary because there is none in man. After this the apostle enters more closely into the subject of the righteousness of God and its application to man. It does not stand in relation to the law, which was only the perfect rule for man. Again, God cannot measure His righteousness by the measure of man’s righteousness, or of his responsibility. It is according to this measure that He judges those who have had the law. His righteousness must be measured by what He is in His nature, and His nature is revealed in His acts. He must glorify Himself; that is to say reveal Himself; for with God to reveal Himself is to glorify Himself. When He judges He judges man according to human responsibility; when He acts it is in accordance with His own nature. The law knows nothing of this nature; it tells us that we ought to love God, but what is He? The law is adapted to man and his responsibility towards God, The righteousness of God stands wholly and entirely outside all question of the law, every description of law, unless indeed the nature of God Himself could be considered as such. He is a law for Himself, perfect in His nature. His righteousness is now demonstrated in what He has done with regard to the Person of Christ, whom He has seated at His right hand in consequence of His finished work. The law and the prophets have borne witness thereof. The righteousness of God Himself has been exercised in accepting and glorifying Christ in virtue of His work, and we share by faith in this acceptance because He has accomplished this work for us. Precisely because it is the righteousness of God founded on the work of Christ, who died for all, it has to do with the whole world and with all men. All who believe on Christ, whether Jews or heathen, have part in it, and in all the privileges which flow from it. Had it been human righteousness it would have had to be according to the law, and then only the Jews could have had part in it, because they alone had the law. But as it is the righteousness of God it is manifested for all, and it is imputed to all those that believe, Thus the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ is manifested for all sinners; it rests on all who believe in Him. “For there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
By nature then all are in the same condition, because all are alike in sin; but precisely in the same way grace is the same for all, because the righteousness of God is the same for all believers, and in consequence of this all believers accepted in this righteousness stand on the same ground before God. God has set forth Jesus Christ as a mercy-seat, through faith in His blood, and has thereby shown His righteousness in regard to the sins of the Old Testament saints, which in His forbearance He had passed over. But now, inasmuch as Christ has died for them, His righteousness in thus passing over is shown. By reason of this expiatory death which He had in view God could pass over those sins. Furthermore His righteousness is also declared at this time. It not only throws light upon the ways of God in the past, but it is also at the present time a manifestation of the ground of the believer’s justification through a perfect work; it is therefore a present thing realized in the justification of all believers according to the righteousness of a righteous God. God is righteous, and justifies in virtue of the work of Christ; yea, He evinces His righteousness in so doing, not as though we deserved it; but God in justifying us recognizes the value of the work of Christ. Thus justification is a manifest known thing, because the work is accomplished.
There is then no room for man to boast, not even for the Jew, in spite of all his privileges. All boasting is excluded. On what principle? By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Man, whoever he may be, occupies the place of a sinner. Grace, and grace only, avails for all in the same way; for the conclusion has been reached, that man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. “Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” Such He must be, and such He was even in the Old Testament; although when all races of mankind were sunk in idolatry He chose out of their midst Israel, in the person of Abraham, to preserve on the earth the knowledge of the one God; but now in grace He has taken His place as God over all men according to the truth of His immutable rights, inasmuch as it is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. The difference between the expressions here made use of by— “faith,” or “on the principle of faith” and through faith —is explained by the fact that the Jews did indeed seek after righteousness, only on a false principle; namely, that of works. They must have righteousness, divine righteousness, it is true, but on another principle— that of faith; and because it depends on the principle of faith, a believing Gentile participates in this divine righteousness through faith, which is produced in him by grace. Does this principle then make void the law? No, in no wise. The authority of the law is fully established and confirmed, but for the condemnation of all those who are under its authority. Nothing could so perfectly establish its authority as the fact that the Lord Himself has taken upon Him the curse of the law.
J. N. D.