Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER THREE (Lesson XXII)

Jewish theologian David Stern says that Jews have substituted service for sacrifice. He writes that Non-Messianic Jews are hard pressed to give an answer to the question: ‘Now that the Temple has been destroyed so that sacrifices can no longer be offered in the manner God requires in the Torah, what is their kapparah¹ for sins? Their customary answer that sacrifices have been replaced by repentance, prayer, and works of charity, finds no basis in the Jewish Bible, even though all three are worthy activities and the first two are surely essential elements of the atonement process. The correct answer to the question is given in this verse: Yeshua is the kapparah for sin.²

Verses 29-30: God is not only the God of the Jews. He is also the God of those who are not Jews. There is only one God. He will make Jews right with Him by their faith, and He will also make non-Jews right with Him through their faith.

Paul made it clear to the Judaizers who came to Galatia that you do not need to faith in the Law of Moses along with faith in the Law of Grace. So here in this letter to the Romans, he felt it necessary to disconnect the idea that salvation offered to the Jews under the Law of Grace was, therefore, superior to the salvation offered to the non-Jews without the Law of Moses. In doing so, he quotes part of the Shema from the Torah: “Hear, Israel! Adonai our God, Adonai is one.”³ Jewish Rabbis tell us that the Shema is an affirmation of Judaism and a declaration of faith in one God. This is why the non-Jews have the same saving God as the Jews.

Paul uses the fact that there is but one God to support his teaching that, therefore, one God offers one plan of salvation. After all, the Psalmist did say: “God, show mercy to us and bless us. Please accept us! Selah Let everyone on earth learn about You. Let every nation see how You save people. May people praise You, God! May all people praise You.”⁴ And Isaiah was given this message to spread among the Israelites: “Your real husband is the one who made you. His name is the LORD All-Powerful.
The Holy One of Israel is your Protector, and He is the God of all the earth!”⁵ And God informed the Prophet Jeremiah that He refused to allow any other god to take His place. So Jeremiah gave the LORD this affirmation: “You are my strength and my protection. You are a safe place to run to in time of trouble. The nations all around the world will acknowledge You.”⁶ And to the prophet Zechariah the LORD said: “At that time people from many nations will come to me. They will become my people, and I will live in your city.”⁷ So it should have been no secret to these Messianic Jews in Rome that God wanted the whole world to worship and serve Him.

Clement, himself an early church convert from paganism, had this to say: “One righteous person is no different from another righteous person, whether Jew or Greek. For God is not only the Lord of the Jews but of all humanity. He is the Father of all who know Him. To live well and according to the law is to live. To live rationally according to reason is to live. Those who lived rightly before the Law were classed under faith and judged to be righteous. Those who were outside the Law, having lived rightly, on hearing the voice of the Lord … may turn and believe with all speed.”⁸

Then in the commentary by Ambrosiaster we read: “Undoubtedly there is only one God for everybody. For even the Jews cannot claim that their God is not the God of the Gentiles as well because they believe that the origin of all people is from the one Adam and that no one who comes willingly to the law may be prevented from accepting it. Some Gentiles actually went with the Israelites into the desert of Egypt, and the Israelites were ordered to accept them as long as they agreed to be circumcised and eat unleavened bread, and [celebrate] the Passover, together with them.⁹ Then again, Cornelius, a Gentile who was not Judaized, received the gift of God, and it is clear from Holy Scripture that he was justified.¹⁰”¹¹

This no doubt inspired Chrysostom to preach: “There is only one God, who is Lord of all, both Jew and Gentile. Even in ancient times, the blessings of Providence were shared by both, although in different ways. The Jews had the written law, and the Gentiles had a natural law, but in this, they lacked nothing, because if they tried hard enough, they could always surpass the Jews in their observance… If there was no difference then, there is much less even now, and this Paul establishes even more firmly by demonstrating that both alike stand in equal need of faith.”¹²

Reformist John Calvin carries on this same theme: “He [Paul] does not then ask simply or expressly, whether God was the Creator of the Gentiles, which was admitted without any dispute; but whether He designed to also manifest Himself as a Savior to them. As He had put all mankind on an equal level, and brought them to the same condition, if there be any difference between them, it is from God, not from themselves, who have all things alike. But if it be true that God designs to make all the nations of the earth partakers of His mercy, then salvation, and righteousness, which is necessary for salvation, must be extended to all.”¹³ This should force us to ask a question today: If God makes no distinction between people as to their eligibility to receive grace before they are saved, should we then make any distinction between them after they are saved?

John Bengel says that Paul is making an inference here: “If justification comes by way of the law, then the Gentiles, who are without the law, cannot be justified; and yet they also rejoice in God, as their justifier.” Bengel points to what Paul said earlier: “Therefore, the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring — not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”¹⁴ By referring to the promise of Abraham, Paul speaks as if he were looking forward out from the Old Testament toward the New. It is to this that the expressions of foreseeing, Galatians 3:8; the promise, Galatians 3:14; and the hope, Romans 5:5 refer. For instance, it was said of John the Baptizer: “This is that Elijah who was to come.”¹⁵ Here we have the discourse of a forerunner. The Jews had been long ago in the faith; the Gentiles had lately obtained faith from them. Also, the word through is used in a number of passages.¹⁶ It is right by all means to compare the difference in the particles used in Romans 2:27; and the difference in the thing signified [i.e., the different footing of the Jew and Gentile] Romans 11:17, etc. He does not say, on account of faith, but through faith.¹⁷

This question is on the mind of Adam Clarke when he asks: “Is not God the Maker, Preserver, and Redeemer, also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles as much as of the Jews. For all have equally sinned and there is no reason if God is disposed to show mercy at all, that He should prefer the one over the other; since they are all equally guilty, sinful, and destitute.” Clarke then goes on the answer: “It is one and the same God who made both Jews and Gentiles, who shall justify – pardon, the circumcised – the believing Jews, by faith; and the uncircumcised – believing Gentiles, by the same faith; as there are but one Savior and one Atonement provided for them all.”¹⁸

Robert Haldane makes this point: “Seeing there 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 the discussion, Paul had shown that by works of the Law no flesh shall be justified, proving it first respecting Gentiles, and afterward respecting Jews. Now he affirms that God’s method of justifying man applies equally to Jews and Gentiles. This confirms his doctrine respecting the ruin 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 establishing the kingdom of Christ in all the earth.¹⁹ 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, — all standing 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.”²⁰

Charles Hodge draws a similar conclusion: “We have here the second result of the gospel method of justification; it presents God as equally the God of the Gentiles and of the Jews. He is such, because ‘it is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.’ He deals with both classes on precisely the same principles; He pursues, with regard to both, the same plan, and offers salvation to both on exactly the same terms. There is, therefore, in this doctrine, the foundation laid for a universal religion, which may be preached to every creature under heaven; which need not, as was the case with the Jewish system, be confined to any one sect or nation. This is the only doctrine which suits the character of God, and His relation to all His intelligent creatures upon earth God is a universal, and not a national God; and this is a method of salvation universally applicable.”²¹

Then Frederic Godet remarks: “To the question: Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Paul could answer with assurance: Yes, of the Gentiles also; for the entire Old Testament had already drawn from Monotheism this glorious inference. The Psalms celebrated Jehovah as the God of all the earth, before whom the nations walk with trembling (Psalms 96-98, 100). Jeremiah called Him King of nations;²² and the Apostle himself demonstrated in Chapter One the existence of a universal divine revelation.”²³

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER THREE (Lesson XXI)

To summarize what Paul has said since verse 19: You cannot work your way into heaven! Remember, there is a gate, and the gate is guarded. God only recognizes one work, one sacrifice, and one offering, and that is the death and resurrection of His Son Christ Jesus. If we are to be justified, it must be through the blood of Jesus. Cain was a prototype of those who attempt to approach God without the shedding of blood. It didn’t work when Cain tried to avoid the expense of losing a lamb, and it surely will not work now. In fact, it cost the sacrifice of the Lamb of God to make it possible.

Jesus Himself made this very clear: “I assure you, anyone who hears what I say and believes in the One who sent me has eternal life. They will not be judged guilty. They have already left death and have entered into life.”¹ And this became the central part of Paul’s preaching: “Brothers, understand what we are telling you. You can have forgiveness of your sins through this Jesus. The Law of Moses could not free you from your sins. But you can be made right with God if you believe in Jesus. So be careful!”² And just as important in identifying the Law of Grace as the only rule by which salvation was given, Paul wanted everyone to know that this was an immutable truth for all mankind.

Early church theologian Origen writes: “It remains for us who are trying to affirm everything the Apostle says, and to do so in the proper order, to inquire [as to] who is justified by faith alone apart from works. If an example is required, I think it must suffice to mention the thief on the cross who asked Christ to save him and was told: ‘Truly, this day you will be with Me in Paradise.’³ A man is justified by faith. The works of the law can make no contribution to this. Where there is no faith which might justify the believer, even if there are works of the law these are not based on the foundation of faith. Even if they are good in themselves, they cannot justify the one who does them, because faith is lacking, and faith is the mark of those justified by God.”⁴

Then Bishop Theodore points out: “Paul did not say ‘we conclude’ because he was himself uncertain. He said it in order to counter those who concluded from this that anyone who wished to, could be justified simply by willing faith. Note carefully, that Paul does not say simply ‘without the law,’ as if we could just perform virtue by wanting to, nor do we do the works of the law by force. We do them because we have been led to do them by Christ.”⁵

Then Pelagius writes: “Some people misinterpret this verse in order to do away with the works of righteousness, saying that faith by itself is enough, even though Paul says elsewhere: ‘If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.’⁶ If this seems to contradict the sense of the other [verses], what works did the Apostle mean when he said that a man is justified by faith, without works? Obviously, these are the works of circumcision, the Sabbath, and so on, and not the works of righteousness about which St. James says: ‘Faith without works is dead.’⁷ [In this verse] Paul is speaking about the man who comes to Christ and is saved when he first believes by faith alone. But by adding the works of the law, Paul is saying that there are also works of grace which believers ought to perform.”⁸ Clearly, Pelagius is not advocating salvation by works or by works and grace. He is merely pointing out that good works play a significant role in how a Christian lives his or her life. But these actions are not intended as a substitute for faith, but a result of faith.

Reformist John Calvin shares how this teaching was viewed by the established church in his day: “Justification by faith is indeed made very clear, while works are expressly excluded. Hence, in nothing do our adversaries labor more in the present day than in attempts to blend faith with the merits of works. They indeed allow that man is justified by faith; but not by faith alone. Yes, they place the effectiveness of justification in love, though in words they ascribe it to faith. But Paul affirms in this passage that justification is so gratuitous [by grace], that he makes it quite evident, that it can by no means be associated with the merit of works.”⁹

John Bengel points out that Paul’s question, “Where is your boasting then?” is unanswerable.¹⁰ The only person who could make such claims is one who can say that they have fully attained the level of living a completely righteous life. This is what the Jews tried to do. (Unfortunately, many who call themselves Christians have tried the same down through the centuries.) Bengel goes on to say that although a person, according to the law, might have supposed they may reap righteousness as a reward, yet they could not boast before God.¹¹ Now, as things are, seeing that there is no righteousness available by the law, there remains much less room for boasting; and boasting is much more excluded by the Law of Faith, than by the Law of Works. An appropriate misuse in the application of the word Law is made by calling justification by faith, a Law. This is allowed inasmuch as it is by Divine appointment, to which submission is due.¹² Thus, the Law of Justification by faith was broken because they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God.¹³

Adam Clarke puts it in terms of the Wesleyan view: “Seeing these things cannot be denied, viz., that all have sinned: that all are guilty, that all are helpless: that none can deliver his own soul, and that God, in His endless mercy, has opened a new and living way to the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus.¹⁴ Therefore, we apostles and Christian teachers conclude – prove by fair, rational consequence – that a man – any man, is justified – has his sins blotted out, and is received into the Divine favor by faith in Christ‘s blood, without the deeds of the law, which never could afford, either to Jew or Gentile, a ground for justification. Because both have sinned against the law which God has given them, and, consequently, forfeited all right and title to the blessings which the obedient might claim.”¹⁵

Robert Haldane gives his commentary on the futility of boasting about one’s self-righteousness: “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 or degree 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 pretenses 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.”¹⁶ In other words, justification to stand before God as innocent cannot be granted by an individual or church. It is by divine appointment through faith.

Haldane also touches on Justification by Faith being called a law. “It is not by works; for if works were admitted, in the smallest degree, to advance or aid man’s justification, he might in that proportion have ground for 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 you believe in Him whom He has sent.’ Here faith is called work, for a similar reason. Faith in the righteousness of Christ is, by the appointment of God, the medium of a sinner’s justification, without any consideration of works. This way of justification clearly shows that a man has no righteousness of his own and that he can obtain nothing by means of conformity to the law, which can have no place since he must admit that he is a transgressor. It impels him to search outside himself, and to lay hold of the righteousness of another, and so leaves no room for 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, furnish no ground 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 glories, let him glory in the Lord.’ ¹⁷No ingenuity can ever make elevation by human merit consistent with the passage before us.”¹⁸

And Spurgeon preached: “The Apostle Paul peremptorily, over and over again, tells us that salvation is not by works; nor does he tell us that it is by works and grace put together. He testifies that the two principles neutralize and cancel each other out and that a man must either be saved wholly as the result of God’s favor or else he must be saved altogether as the result of his own merit, for the two principles cannot in any way be combined.”¹⁹ As we know, man’s way is meant for failure from the start because he cannot keep his own promises. But God’s way guarantees success because God’s promises will never fail.

F. F. Bruce gives an excellent explanation of justification apart from works. He writes: “Paul does not mean that such works need not be performed, but that, even when they are performed tolerably well, one is not thereby justified in God’s sight. He is cutting the ground from under the feet of those who say, ‘I always do the best I can … I try to live a decent life … I pay my lawful dues, and what more can God expect of me?’ When this is grasped, it can be seen that they have no ground for self-congratulation as they contemplate the way of salvation: it is ‘by grace alone, through faith alone; to God alone be the glory.’. Yet, while justification in this sense is received by faith alone, ‘the faith which justifies is not alone;’ it is, as Paul says, ‘faith working through love’²⁰”²¹

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER THREE (Lesson XX)

Charles Ellicott gives us his scholarly summary on man’s desperate need for getting right with God: “God appeared as a twofold character, simultaneously righteous Himself, and producing a state of righteousness in the believer. Under the Old Testament God had been revealed as righteous; but the righteousness of God was not met with any corresponding righteousness on the part of man. Therefore, [God] could only issue condemnation. Under the New Testament the righteousness of God remained the same, but it was met by a corresponding state of righteousness in the believer. However, [it was] not inherent, but superinduced by God Himself through the process of justification by faith. In this way, the great Messianic precondition of righteousness was fulfilled.”¹

F. F. Bruce adds: “In the self-offering of Christ, God’s righteousness is vindicated and the believing sinner justified. For Christ occupies a unique position as God’s representative with man and man’s representative with God. As the representative of man He absorbs the judgment incurred by human sin; as the representative of God He bestows God’s pardoning grace on men and women. The words recall Isaiah’s (‘a righteous God and a Savior’)² and Zechariah’s (‘righteous and delivering’).³”⁴

Verses 27-28: So do we have any reason to boast about ourselves? No reason at all. And why not? Because we are depending on the way of faith, not on what we have done in following the law. What I mean to say is, we are made right with God through faith, not through what we have done to follow the law. This is what we believe.

The Apostle Paul cannot make it any clearer. The old Jewish way of crediting one’s salvation to all their good works is over. Now one points to the good work of Christ on the cross as the only sacrifice that God the Father will accept. As we know from the Gospels, many Pharisees bragged about all their self-righteous deeds, and then thanked God that they were not one with the lower class.⁵ But they should have paid attention to what God said through the prophet Zephaniah: “I will remove all the bad people from Jerusalem. I will take away all the proud people. There will not be any of them on my holy mountain. I will let only meek and humble people stay in my city, and they will trust the Lord’s name.”⁶

Paul drew on this same thought when he wrote the Corinthians: “God chose what the world thinks is not important — what the world hates and thinks is nothing. He chose these to destroy what the world thinks is important. God did this so that no one can stand before Him and boast about anything. It is God who has made you part of Christ Jesus. And Christ has become for us wisdom from God. He is the reason we are right with God and pure enough to be in His presence.”⁷ Paul did this to counter what the people were thinking. In fact, Paul ask them: “Who do you think you are? Everything you have was given to you. So, if everything you have was given to you, why do you act as if you got everything by your own power?”⁸ And Paul makes a similar point to the Ephesians: “You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.”⁹

So Paul is making the same argument here with the Messianic Jews in Rome that he used with the believers in Galatia: “We know that no one is made right with God by following the law. It is trusting in Jesus Christ that makes a person right with God. So we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, because we wanted to be made right with God. And we are right with Him because we trusted in Christ – not because we followed the law.”¹⁰ What Paul said back then about the role of the Law in salvation is true today when speaking of Church Laws that are not part of Christ’s Laws. Trust in Christ alone is the basis for our faith and belief in salvation. In this teaching Paul says that the Law of Moses had been replaced by the Law of Grace. That’s why he went on to tell the Galatians: “The Scriptures put the whole world in prison under the control of sin, so that the only way for people to get what God promised would be through faith in Jesus Christ. It is given [only] to those who believe in Him.”¹¹

Early church Bishop Theodoret has this to say: “By ‘boasting’ Paul means the proud spirits of the Jews and their excessive arrogance. For they thought they were the only ones who enjoyed God’s providence. But after the divine grace appeared and spread to all nations, the boasting of the Jews ceased… Paul calls faith a law, recalling the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers.¹²”¹³

Reformist John Calvin has this to say: “The Apostle, after having with reasons abundantly strong, cast down men from their confidence in works, now triumphs over their folly: and this exulting conclusion was necessary; for on this subject, to teach us would not have been enough; it was necessary that the Holy Spirit should loudly thunder, in order to lay prostrate our loftiness. But he says that glorying is beyond all doubt excluded, for we cannot adduce anything on our own which is worthy of being approved or commended by God.”¹⁴

John Bengel makes this statement: “Although a man, according to the law, might have [i.e., supposing he might have] righteousness and a reward, yet he could not boast before God.¹⁵ Now as it is, seeing that there is no righteousness to be had by the law, there remains even less room for boasting; and boasting is much more excluded by the law of faith, than by the law of works. This [justification by faith] is also a law, inasmuch as being of Divine appointment, to which subjection [submission] is due, Romans 10:3. [They have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God].”¹⁶ Bengel goes on to say that here we have a dispute involving two elements, Faith and Works. Faith alone results in God’s justification. Works alone inhibits God’s justification. You can’t have both. If you want God’s justification, remove your good works. If you do not want justification, remove your faith. Good works come after faith in the work of Christ. But they are not for justification. Rather, they are the result of justification.

Adam Clarke then adds his understanding: “The law of works grants no pardon, it requires obedience, and threatens the disobedient with death. But all glorying in the expectation of salvation, through your own obedience, is excluded by the law. The doctrine of faith: faith alone, in the mercy of God, through the propitiation made by the blood of Jesus, is that by which you can be justified, pardoned, and received by Divine favor.”¹⁷

Robert Haldane echoes the thoughts of his fellow reform theologians when it comes to boasting about how one’s good works may bring justification: “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 or degree 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 pretenses to allege that human merit has any share in it. This applies to all works, moral as well as ceremonial. If only ceremonial works were meant here, 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 grounds for 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.”¹⁸

And British scholar Charles Hodges offers his insight: “A plan of salvation which strips every man of merit, and places all sinners on the same level before God, of course cuts off all assumption of superiority of one class over another. Paul means to say that the result of the gospel plan of salvation is to prevent all self-commendation, self-satisfaction, and exaltation on the part of the sinner. He is presented as robbed of all merit, and as deserving the displeasure of God. He can attribute, in no degree, his deliverance from this displeasure to himself, and he cannot exalt himself either in the presence of God, or in comparison with his fellow-sinners. As sin is odious in the sight of God, it is essential, in any scheme of mercy, that the sinner should be made to feel this, and that nothing done by or for him should in any measure diminish his sense of personal deserved punishment on account of his transgressions. This result obviously could not follow from any plan of justification that placed the ground of the sinner’s acceptance in himself, or his peculiar advantages by birth or church membership; but it is effectually secured by that plan of justification which not only places the ground of his acceptance entirely outside himself, but which also requires, as the very condition of that acceptance, an act involving a penitent acknowledgment of personal deserved punishment, and exclusive dependence on the merit of another.”¹⁹

Frederic Godet has an interesting point to make here: “That glory which man derives from his self-righteousness, and which the law had already foreclosed, has been finally excluded. And by what means? By a rule of works? Certainly not, for such a means would rather have promoted it, but by that of faith (Rom 3:26.) The Apostle thus reaches the striking result that the rule of works would contradict the law, and that the rule of faith is that which harmonizes with it.”²⁰

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER THREE (Lesson XIX)

Bible scholar F. F. Bruce shares with us his understanding of the doctrine of atonement: “The form hilastērion is related to the verb hilaskomai, which in pagan Greek means ‘placate’ or ‘make gracious’, but in the Septuagint it takes on the meaning of Hebrew kipper (‘make atonement’) and related words, among which is included kappōret (‘mercy-seat’). An exception has been taken to the use of the verb ‘propitiate’ and the noun ‘propitiation,’ to render these words in the older English versions of the New Testament, on the ground that the English terms smack of placating or appeasing. We may compare the avoidance of these terms here in the Revised Standard Version and New English Bible (‘God designed Him to be the means of expiating sin by His sacrificial death, effective through faith’) and the Good News Bible (‘God offered Him, so that by His death He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him’)”

Bruce then says: “But if hilaskomai, hilastērion and their cognates acquired a new meaning from their biblical setting, it might be expected that by means of long usage the English terms ‘propitiate’ and ‘propitiation’ should have acquired a biblical meaning in the same way. In any case, misunderstanding is excluded by Paul’s insistence that it is God, and not the sinner, who has provided this hilastērion. The Old Testament similarly ascribes the initiative in this matter to God’s grace: ‘The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of its life.’¹ It is an Old Testament text like this, moreover, that explains Paul’s use of the expression ‘by his blood’ in the present context and justifies the New English Bible’s interpretation of it as ‘by His sacrificial death.’”²

But the act of sacrifice by itself is not sufficient under the new agreement with God as it was under the old agreement. Having faith in the validity of that sacrifice and the cleansing power of the Lamb of God’s blood must also be exercised by the recipient for the promise of everlasting life to receive God’s stamp of approval. This is clearly expressed by the Apostle John when he wrote: “Yes, God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, o that everyone who believes in Him would not be lost but have eternal life.”³ That gave Paul the courage to write the Colossians: “Through Him, God was happy to reconcile all things to Himself – things on earth and things in heaven. God made peace by using the blood sacrifice of His Son on the cross.”⁴

I’m sure it was with joy that the author of Hebrews described this new way to God when he wrote: “And so, brothers and sisters, we are completely free to enter the Holy of Holies. We can do this without fear because of the blood sacrifice of Jesus. We enter through a new way that Jesus opened for us. It is a living way that leads through the curtain—Christ’s body.”⁵ It is no wonder then that at the end of what is considered a Messianic Psalm the writer was thrilled to say: “Our descendants will serve Him. Those who are not yet born will be told about Him. Each generation will tell their children about the good things the Lord has done.”⁶ So why couldn’t doubting Jews see the truth about Jesus that was made so clear in their own Bible?

Paul also wanted to make sure that they understood that no one could have taken Christ’s place. Jesus of Nazareth was the one redeemer God sent for this reason because He alone qualified to do the work that was necessary. This was in Paul’s message he preached in Antioch: “Brothers, understand what we are telling you. You can have forgiveness of your sins through this Jesus. The Law of Moses could not free you from your sins. But you can be made right with God if you believe in Jesus.”⁷ This harmonizes with what the writer of Hebrews also had to say: “So, it is Christ who brings a new agreement from God to His people. He brings this agreement so that those who are chosen by God can have the blessings God promised, blessings that last forever. This can happen only because Christ died to free people from sins committed against the commands of the first agreement.”⁸

But Paul wanted the congregation in Rome to realize that God did not do this just for His pleasure, but for the good of those He created for the purpose of honoring and glorifying Him as their Creator. When Moses got ready to turn everything over to Joshua, and wrote a scroll that contained all his teachings for Joshua to follow, he gathered the people together to teach them a song. And in that song we read the second stanza: “The Lord is The Rock, and His work is perfect! Yes, His way of doing things is always right! God is true and faithful. He is good and honest.”⁹ In other words, no matter what changes were made in the world around them, the one thing their lives depended on was that God would never change. Unfortunately, God could not rely on the same thing from them.

No doubt, it was this failure on their part that disappointed God the most. So Korah’s family composed a song of praise that expressed God’s desire for His children in a beautiful way: “His saving grace is near for those who revere Him, so we can live with honor in our land. That way, grace and truth will have embraced each other; equality and peace will have kissed each other.”¹⁰ That’s why when Israel refused to listen to God’s voice, He sent this message to them through the prophet Isaiah: “My people see what they should do, but they do not obey me. They can hear with their ears, but they refuse to listen to me.”¹¹ So then, Isaiah laments: “The Lord wants them to do what is right. He wants them to honor His wonderful teachings.”¹² Not only was that valid in Isaiah’s day, and Paul’s day, but it is equally valid today. That’s why Paul tells the Roman believers that God worked all this out so that He can justify His decision to make things right with those who repent and confess their faith in Jesus as the one true Messiah and Savior. If the Law of Moses could not save people back then, then the Law of the Church cannot save people today. It is Christ, and Christ alone!

Reformist John Calvin gives a clear example of how God went about demonstrating the justice in His justification. He writes: “This is a definition of that righteousness which Paul has declared was revealed when Christ was given, and which, as he taught us in the first chapter, is disclosed in the Gospel. Paul affirms that it consists of two parts — The first is, that God is just, not simply as one among many, but as [the only one who possesses within Himself all the fullness of righteousness. But the complete and full praise due Him is not given when He alone acquires the reputation and the honor of being just, while the whole human race is condemned for injustice. Then the second part refers to the dispensing of righteousness. God by no means keeps His riches laid up for Himself, but pours them out upon mankind. Thus the righteousness of God shines in us, whenever He justifies us by faith in Christ. It would have been in vain if Christ was given for our righteousness unless there was the realization of who He is by faith. It follows then, that all sinners were unjust and lost until a remedy from heaven was offered to them.”¹³

Wesleyan theologian Adam Clarke offers his explanation: “To manifest now, by the dispensation of the Gospel, His righteousness, His infinite mercy; and to manifest it in such a way, that He might still appear to be the just God, and yet the justifier, the pardoner, of him who believes in Jesus. Here we learn that God designed to give the most evident displays both of His justice and mercy. Of His justice, in requiring a sacrifice, and absolutely refusing to give salvation to a lost world in any other way; and of His mercy, in providing the sacrifice which His justice required. Thus, because Jesus was an atonement, a ransom price, for the sin of the world, therefore God can, consistently with His justice, pardon every soul that believes in Jesus. This is the full discovery of God‘s righteousness, of His wonderful method of magnifying His law and making it honorable; of showing the infinite purity of His justice, and of saving a lost world.”¹⁴ What a wonderful thought: God required a sacrifice that mankind could not offer, so God provided it for us!

Robert Haldane gives a clear rendition of what Paul is driving at here: “God has at this time also set forth His Son as a propitiatory sacrifice, in order to make manifest His righteousness, on account of which now, under the Gospel dispensation, He remits the sins of His people. 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, etc.; but it has here its own proper meaning, which it never deserts. God is just: He acts according to strict justice, as becomes 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.”¹⁵

Says British scholar Charles Hodge: “A judge is unjust when he allows a criminal to be pronounced righteous, and treated accordingly. On the other hand he acts justly when he pronounces the offender guilty, and secures the infliction of the penalty which the law denounces. What the apostle means to say is, that there is no such disregard to the claims of justice in the justification of the sinner who believes in Christ. This is seen and acknowledged, when it is known that he is justified neither on account of his own acts or character, nor by a mere sovereign dispensing [through rites and rituals] to meet the demands of the law, but on the ground of a complete satisfaction rendered by His substitute, i.e. on the ground of the obedience and death of Christ.”¹⁶

But the great expositor Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “Every sinner knows that sin must be punished. He may trifle with that knowledge, but he cannot destroy it; and he never can get any peace of mind, when his conscience is really awakened, till he learns this great truth — God punished Christ instead of you. Christ has so honored the law of God that, without God being unjust, or being thought to be so, He can forgive you.”¹⁷

William Blake, well-known English poet, painter, and visual artistry pioneer, penned this proverb: “Shame is Pride’s cloak.” But in my many years here on earth, I have often found the opposite to be true: “Pride is Shame’s cloak.”¹

How often are people too proud to admit their wrongdoings, misdeeds, falsehoods, pretensions, and hypocrisies? They pass them off as bad luck, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, etc. So they wrap their cloak of pride around their shame. What they don’t realize is that their cloak of pride is transparent. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

TRUE STORY OF DETECTING GOD’S PRESENCE

On a cold March night in Dallas, Texas a doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery. Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon, complications forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver the couple’s new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.

Only 12 inches long and weighing one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words were crushing. “I don’t think she’s going to make it,” he said, as kindly as he could. “There’s only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one.” Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, would never talk, would probably be blind, and would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation.

“No! No!” was all Diana could say as she sobbed. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away. But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Little Dana’s underdeveloped nervous system was essentially ‘raw,’ the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.

All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious baby girl. There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.

At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana finally went home from the hospital, just as her mother had prayed.

Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But there’s more to her incredible story.

One blistering summer afternoon near her home, Dana was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin’s baseball team was practicing. As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, “Do you smell that?” Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.” Dana closed her eyes and again asked, “Do you smell that?” Once again, her mother replied, “Yes, I think we’re about to get wet. It smells like rain.” Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, “No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.”

Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children. Her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had believed all along, at least in their hearts. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for any human to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest, and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

There may have been times in your life when you were beyond the help or consolation of any family member or friend. It was during those dark, lonely times that you felt the invisible arms of God cradling you. And as you think back on it now, you do remember there was a sense of His presence. Maybe it wasn’t a scent like little Dana recalled, but nevertheless, it was just as real. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER THREE (Lesson XVIII)

John Bengel has some enlightening exposition on important words in this verse: “Redemption – from sin and misery. Atonement or propitiation, and redemption result in fundamentally one benefit, namely the restoration of the lost sinner [to God’s favor]. This is the fullest and simplest notion, and it adequately answers to the name, Jesus. Redemption refers to enemies, reconciliation refers to God; here the words propitiation and reconciliation differ. Propitiation takes away the offence against God. Reconciliation may be considered from two points of view; it removes God’s indignation against us, 2 Corinthians 5:19; and our alienation from God, 2 Corinthians 5:20. In Christ Jesus – the name Christ is sometimes put before Jesus for very good reason. In the Old Testament progress is made from the knowledge of Christ to the knowledge of Jesus; in the experience of present faith, from the knowledge of Jesus to the knowledge of Christ.¹”² Bengel’s last point here is that in the OT the Messiah is introduced, and as one goes through prophecies they are led to recognizing Him in Jesus of Nazareth. In the NT one is introduced to Jesus of Nazareth, and as they go through the prophecies, they are led to acknowledging Him as the Messiah.

Adam Clarke put it this way: “So far from being able to attain the glory of God by their obedience [to the Law], they are all guilty. To be saved, they must be freely pardoned by God‘s grace; which is shown to them who believe, through the redemption, the ransom price, which is the sacrifice of Christ Jesus.”³ How clearly Paul shows man’s helplessness in freeing himself from sin’s bondage and how utterly incapable he is in paying the ransom price God requires. That’s why we must see Jesus’ first coming as Messiah on a search and rescue effort. For without it, all mankind would be forever lost.

Charles Hodge adds this: “We do not have the slightest degree of merit to offer [God] as the ground of our acceptance. This is the third characteristic of the method of justification which is by the righteousness of God. Though it is so entirely gratuitous as regards the sinner, yet it is in a way perfectly consistent with the justice of God. It is through ‘the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,’ that is, of which He is the author.”⁴ And Spurgeon exhorts us: “This is a very wonderful verse, every word of it is full of meaning. ‘Justified’— that is, accounted just, made to be righteous in the sight of God. ‘Justified freely’— without any merit or purchase money. ‘Freely by His grace’— not an act of justice, but an act of mercy has made sinners just in the sight of God. ‘Through the redemption’— there is the foundation of it all, we are redeemed by [His] precious blood: ‘Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’”⁵ This is expressed in the lyrics of a song we often hear: “Jesus is the center of it all.”

Charles Ellicott gives us an excellent definition of “Redemption:” He writes: “Literally, ransoming. The notion of ransom contains in itself the triple idea of bondage, deliverance, and payment of a ransom as the means of that deliverance. The bondage is the state of sin and of guilt, with the expectation of punishment. The deliverance is the removal of this state, and the opening out, in its stead, of a prospect of eternal happiness and glory; the ransom paid by Christ is the shedding of His own blood. This last is the pivot upon which the whole idea of redemption turns It is, therefore, clear that the redemption of the sinner is an act wrought objectively, and, in the first instance, independently of any [required] change of condition in him, though such a change is involved in the appropriation of the efficacy of that act upon himself. It cannot be explained as a purely subjective process wrought in the sinner through the influence of Christ’s death. The idea of dying and reviving with Christ, though a distinct aspect of the atonement, cannot be made to cover the whole of it. There is implied, not only a change in the recipient of the atonement but also a change wrought without his co-operation in the relations between God and man. There is, if it may be so said, in the death of Christ something which determines the will of God, as well as something which acts upon the will of man. And the particular influence which is brought to bear upon the counsels of God is represented under the figure of a ransom or payment of an equivalent [in full].”⁶

Theologian F. F. Bruce has quite a bit to say on what Paul writes that makes it impossible to quote in its entirety, but here are some key points: “Paul’s hope, before he became a Christian, was that, by dint of perseverance in observing the law of God, he might at length be pronounced righteous by God when he stood before his judgment-seat. But in this way of righteousness apart from the law, the procedure is reversed: God pronounces believers righteous at the beginning of their course, not at the end of it. If he pronounces them righteous at the beginning of their course, it cannot be on the basis of works which they have not yet done. Such justification is, on the contrary, ‘an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight.’⁷ The redemption or ransom is the buying of a slave out of bondage in order to set him free. Here too God’s merciful dealings with Israel provide an Old Testament background to Paul’s language, whether we think of Israel’s redemption from Egyptian bondage⁸ or of their later deliverance from the Babylonian exile (Isaiah 41:14; 43:1). The grace of God which ‘justifies’ those who believe has been actively manifested in the redemptive work of Christ.”⁹

Bruce reminds us of a quote from one of Christendom’s most famous writers, John Bunyan, who wrote: “As I was walking up and down in the house, as a man in a most woeful state, that word of God took hold of my heart, Ye are ‘justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 3:24). But oh, what a turn it made upon me! Now was I as one awakened out of some troublesome sleep and dream, and listening to this heavenly sentence, I was as if I had heard it thus expounded to me: Sinner, thou thinkest that because of thy sins and infirmities I cannot save thy soul, but behold my Son is by me, and upon him I look, and not on thee, and will deal with thee according as I am pleased with him. At this I was greatly lightened in my mind, and made to understand that God could justify a sinner at any time; it was but ‘his’ looking upon Christ and imputing of his benefits to us, and the work was forthwith done.”¹⁰

Verses 25-26: God displayed Jesus publicly as the required sacrifice so we could have faith in His blood. This was to demonstrate His doing what was right because, by God’s willingness to forgive, He dismissed the sins previously committed. This was to prove, I say, God’s righteous act at the present time so that He would be both just and the justifier of the anyone who has faith in Jesus.

Paul now provides an excellent summary of all he has presented so far to the Messianic Jewish leaders in the congregation in Rome on why the believer’s justification, and admission to the family of God, comes only through faith in Christ, not the law. This did not result from some last minute decision, it was all planned from eternity past. On the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter made this same point: “Jesus was handed over to you, and you killed Him. With the help of evil men, you nailed Him to a cross. But God knew all this would happen. It was His plan—a plan He made long ago.”¹¹ Why was this important? Because many before Jesus had tried to play the role of Messiah, but there were no Scriptures to support their assertions and no miracles to sustain their claims.

That’s why the Apostles immediately offered all the evidence that would be required to prove that this Jesus of Nazareth was the One they had all been waiting for. When Peter went into the Temple area after the Day of Pentecost, he had this message: “God said these things would happen. Through the prophets He said that His Messiah would suffer and die. I have told you how God made this happen.”¹² And when Paul visited Jerusalem, the Apostolic Council brought up Peter’s experience of how this message of salvation was extended to the non-Jews, all because the words of the prophets agreed that it was going to happen. They said: “All this has been known from the beginning of time.¹³”¹⁴

Now Paul goes on to explain that Jesus’ sacrifice was not one of many options, but the only option that would be accepted by God as a reason to forgive sins. Paul uses the Greek word hilastērion that is translated as “propitiation” in the KJV. It is only used twice in the NT: Here, and in Hebrews 9:5, where it is rendered “mercyseat.” The whole purpose for this sacrifice was to satisfy God’s requirements so that the evidence of sins could be expunged from a person’s record, thereby removing any need for punishment. Scholars tell us that this was not done out of obligation, reluctance, or unwillingness, but in a spirit of gratitude for what was accomplished by the One who was sacrificed.

Early church writer Origen gives his commentary on this subject: “Although the holy Apostle teaches many wonderful things about our Lord Jesus Christ which are said mysteriously about Him, in this passage he has given special prominence to something which, I think, is not readily found in other parts of Scripture. For having just said that Christ gave Himself as a redemption for the entire human race so that He might ransom those who were held captive by sin … now Paul adds something even more sublime, saying that God put Him forward ‘as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith.’ This means that by the sacrifice of Christ’s body God has made expiation on behalf of men and by this has shown His righteousness, in that He forgave their previous sins, which they had committed in the service of the worst possible tyrants. God endured this and allowed these things to happen.”¹⁵

American theologian R. C. Sproul gives us a clear picture of both expiation and propitiation: “Let’s think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix ex means “out of” or “from,” so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, it has to do with taking away guilt through the payment of a penalty or the offering of an atonement. By contrast, propitiation has to do with the object of such expiation. The prefix pro means “for,” so propitiation brings about a change in God’s attitude, so that He moves from being at enmity with us to being for us. Through the process of propitiation, we are restored into fellowship and favor with Him.”

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER THREE (Lesson XVII)

John Calvin believes that Paul is depending on the fact that everyone who is conscious of their sin, feels confounded and lost by a sense of their own shame when they stand before the throne of God. Calvin says: “There is then, according to what he [Paul] teaches, no righteousness but what is perfect and absolute. Were there indeed such a thing as half-righteousness, it would yet be necessary to deprive the sinner entirely of all glory: and hereby the figment of partial righteousness, as they call it, is sufficiently disproved; for if it were true that we are justified in part by works, and in part by grace, this argument of Paul would be of no force — that all are deprived of the glory of God because they are sinners. It is then certain, there is no righteousness where there is sin until Christ removes the curse.”¹

John Bengel sees the term “have sinned” in the following light: “That is, [they] have contracted the guilt of sin. This refers to both the principal act of sin in Paradise, and to our sinful disposition, as well as to the acts of transgression flowing from it. The past tenses have frequently a rudimentary sense together with an idea of continued action.” Bengel also says that the phrase “come short” is the result of having sinned. He continues: “By this term the whole superiority of the Jews and all boasting of all flesh, are taken away. The former is a past act; the latter is an established course of conduct; each denotes deficiency, so they do not attain the glory of God… They have missed the chief purpose of man.”² That’s why Paul was so excited to tell them the Good News that God sent His Son Jesus to make it possible to overcome these handicaps and be fully and eternally restored to God’s good pleasure.

H. A. Ironside says: “In order to show grace in righteousness to admitted guilty sinners God must have a just and satisfactory basis. Sin cannot be overlooked. It must be atoned for. This has been effectuated ‘through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ Redemption is a buying back. Man’s life is forfeited because of his iniquitous ways. He is sold under judgment. Christ the Holy One-God and Man in one glorious Person upon whom the violated law had no claim – took the guilty rebel’s place, paid the utmost penalty, thus redeeming the believing sinner from the wrath and curse to which he had sold himself.”³

Bible scholar Charles Hodge provides information of the ongoing debate among theologians on what Paul meant by saying all are sinners. Some suggest that it is inherent from Adam. We could say this by way of an illustration. For instance, if your parents were born and raised in a particular culture, then you are by inheritance considered a part of that culture. E.g., my father was born in Germany. Therefore I would by birth also be of German stock. However, my father moved to America where I was born. So by culture, I was born an American. However, that did not remove my heritage as being German. The only way to cancel that would be for me to be born of another woman from a different culture, so as to begin my life over again. This is what Paul was trying to impress on the Roman believers, that simply by the fact that even though they were of Jewish heritage, it would be necessary for them to be born again through Jesus Christ as children of God. There is no other way to get there.

Jewish scholar David Stern sees these same truths wrapped up in these Old Testament scriptures:

“There is no one who does not sin.” (1 Kings 8: 46)

“For there is not a righteous person on the earth, who does good and does not sin.” (Ecclesiastes 7: 20)

“Behold, Adonai’s hand is not shortened, so that it cannot save; nor is his ear heavy, so that it cannot hear. Rather, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you, from hearing.” (Isaiah 59: 1– 2)

“We are all like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64: 5( 6)).

So, says Stern, “The question of why it is true, and how it comes about, that everyone sins — in other words, the question of so-called ‘original sin’ — is discussed. The truth of this verse, which epitomizes the Bad News of 1:18–3:20, is basic to understanding both the inherent problematic condition of all mankind and the Good News that God offers the only solution to the problem through Yeshua the Messiah.”⁴

Verse 24: They are made right with God by His grace. This is a free gift. They are made right with God by being made free from sin through Jesus Christ.

Paul then begins hammering hard on the nail that kept Christ anchored to the cross, and that is the fact that Jesus did not die as the Lamb of God to empower the Law as the source of forgiveness, but that God’s grace would serve as a well of living water. This was how Paul explained it to the Corinthians: “In the past, some of you were like that. But you were washed clean, you were made holy, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”⁵ And in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote: “God did this so that His kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of His grace.”⁶

But it was his letter to Bishop Titus that Paul laid out his justification for our salvation in Christ: “He saved us because of His mercy, not because of any good things we did. He saved us through the washing that made us new people. He saved us by making us new through the Holy Spirit. God poured out to us that Holy Spirit fully through Jesus Christ our Savior. We were made right with God by His grace. God saved us so that we could be His children and look forward to receiving life that never ends.”⁷ That’s why Paul could rejoice with the Ephesians: “This brings praise to God because of His wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely. He gave us that grace in Christ, the one He loves.”⁸

Yes, it was God’s grace, but such grace was not free. Someone had to pay the price for redemption before anyone in bondage could be set free. Paul reveals this in his letter to the Colossians: “God freed us from the power of darkness. And He brought us into the kingdom of His dear Son. The Son paid the price to make us free. In Him, we have forgiveness of our sins.”⁹ Paul repeats this message to his young protégé Timothy: “There is only one God, and there is only one way that people can reach God. That way is through Christ Jesus, who as a man gave Himself to pay for everyone to be free.”¹⁰ So in Paul’s mind, since Christ willingly died for us to free us from evil’s grip and provide His blood for cleansing so we can become pure, this means that those who have been set free now belong to God. And in gratefulness and thankfulness, the old tendency to do bad has been transformed into a new tendency to do only good.¹¹

Two early church scholars have this to say about God’s grace so freely given. Writes Origen: “Redemption is the word used for what is given to enemies in order to ransom captives and restore them to their liberty. Therefore, human beings were held in captivity by their enemies until the coming of the Son of God, who became for us not only the wisdom of God, and righteousness and sanctification, but also redemption. He gave Himself as our redemption, that is, He surrendered Himself to our enemies and poured out His blood on those who were thirsting for it. In this way, redemption was obtained for believers.”¹²

Then in the writings of Ambrosiaster, we read: “They are justified freely because they have not done anything nor given anything in return, but by faith alone, they have been made holy by the gift of God. Paul testifies that the grace of God is in Christ because we have been redeemed by Christ according to the will of God so that once set free we may be justified, as he says to the Galatians: ‘Christ redeemed us by offering Himself for us.’¹³ For He achieved this despite the fierce attacks of the devil, who was outwitted. For the devil received Christ (in Hades) thinking that he could hold Him there, but because he could not withstand His power he lost not only Christ but all those whom he had imprisoned at the same time.”¹⁴

John Calvin has a very enlightening comment on this verse: “The participle [For] is put here for a verb according to the usage of the Greek language. The meaning is, — since there remains nothing for men, as to themselves, but to perish, being smitten by the just judgment of God, they are to be justified freely through His mercy; for Christ comes to the aid of this misery, and communicates Himself to believers, so that they find in Him alone all those things in which they are wanting. There is, perhaps, no passage in the whole Scripture which illustrates in a more striking manner the efficacy of His righteousness; for it shows that God’s mercy is the efficient cause, that Christ with His blood is the meritorious cause, that the formal or the instrumental cause is faith in the word, and that moreover, the final cause is the glory of the divine justice and goodness.”¹⁵

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER THREE (Lesson XVI)

Early church theologian Augustine asks: “Could Paul have promised glory, honor, and peace to the good works of Gentiles apart from the grace of the gospel? No, because there is no acceptance of such persons with God. And because it is not the hearers but the doers of the law who are justified, he argues that all, whether Jew or Gentile, alike shall have salvation in the gospel.”¹ And another early church scholar adds his endorsement to this view: “Paul says ‘for all’ meaning first the Jews, in that it was from among them that salvation first arose, and then the Gentiles, in that from the Jews grace had abounded even to them so that now both share in it together. This grace is not given in general but only to those ‘who believe,’ but it is common to everyone without distinction.”² Paul is hoping that those in Rome who converted from Judaism to Christianity will understand, that God, through Christ, sees all people as equally worthy of His grace.

Reformist John Calvin gives us his exposition on this subject: “When therefore we discuss this subject [righteousness], we ought to proceed in this way: First, the question respecting our justification is to be referred, not to a decision of men, but to a decision of God, before whom nothing is counted as righteousness but perfect and absolute obedience to the law. This appears clear from its promises and threatenings: if no one is found who has attained to such a perfect measure of holiness, it follows that all are in themselves destitute of righteousness. Secondly, it is necessary that Christ should come to our aid; who, being alone upright, can render us just by transferring to us His own righteousness. You now see how the righteousness of faith is the righteousness of Christ. When, therefore, we are justified, the efficient cause is the mercy of God, the worthiness of Christ, the instrument is the Word in connection with faith. Hence faith is said to justify because it is the instrument by which we receive Christ, in whom righteousness is conveyed to us.”³

Adam Clarke sees righteousness as such: “That method of saving sinners which is not of works, but by faith in Christ Jesus; and it is not limited to any particular people, as the law and its privileges were, but is to all mankind in its intention and offer, and becomes effectual to them that believe; for God has now made no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. So the Jews might ask why did God then call Abraham and give the Law to Moses instead of simply making it available to all mankind? The answer can be found in the fact Abraham was not Jewish, and Moses was raised as a Hebrew in Egypt, and that they and their descendants were chosen to carry the message of salvation until the day when it would be made available to all who believe. God said this very clearly to Abraham: ‘Every nation on the earth will be blessed through your descendants. I will do this because you obeyed me.’⁴”⁵

H. A. Ironside also makes this point: “The Righteousness of God is a term of wide importance. Here it means a righteousness of God’s providing a perfect standing for guilty men for which God makes Himself responsible. If men are saved at all it must be in righteousness. But of this, man is utterly lacking. Therefore, God must find a way whereby every claim of His righteous throne shall be met, and yet guilty sinners shall be justified from all wrongdoings. His very nature demands that this must not be at the expense of righteousness but in full accordance with it.”⁶ Ironside believes that this has been part of God’s plan from the beginning, as witnessed and testified to by the Law and the Prophets.

As such, the same aspect of obedience would be required of all the who were blessed to hear the good news of salvation. Charles Hodge points out: “With justification by works being impossible, God has revealed another, already taught indeed, both in the law and prophets, a method which is not legal, i.e. not on the condition of obedience to the law, but on the condition of faith, which is applicable to all men, and perfectly gratuitous.”⁷ So the Law will be involved, except, the law given through Moses will be exchanged for the grace given through Christ. What an improvement! Complete obedience to the Law was impossible, but it is possible through Christ because He was perfect in His obedience.

And pulpit orator Charles Spurgeon says: “There is no righteousness by works on the face of the earth. The law itself describes men as being sinful from their throat to their feet. Almost every member of the body is mentioned and described as being disgusting with sin. We cannot become righteous by the law. Paul says that there is no one who has ever obtained righteousness in that way. We, on the contrary, have so sinned that we never can become righteous through the Law; but there is a new way of righteousness, the way of the righteousness of God; and God’s righteousness is much better than the best human righteousness can ever be conceived to be. There is a righteousness which comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ, not by doing, but by believing, a righteousness which is freely bestowed upon all them that believe.”⁸ Then Frederic Godet makes the point: To pronounce someone righteous, God does not ask anymore: Have you kept the law? Rather: Do you believe in My Son?⁹

And Bible scholar Ellicott explains: “By faith of Jesus Christ—i.e., by faith which has Christ for its object, ‘faith in Christ.’ ‘Faith’ in St. Paul’s writings implies an intense attachment and devotion. It has an intellectual basis, necessarily involving a belief in the existence, and in certain attributes, of the Person for whom it is entertained; but it is moral in its operation, a recasting of the whole emotional nature in accordance with this belief, together with a consequent change in character and practice.”¹⁰

Verse 23: For all have missed the mark and fallen short of God’s expectations.

Paul now uses another anchor to secure his teaching that all mankind is saved on an equal bases whether or not they came to the knowledge of the truth about Christ through the Law or outside the Law. And that is: They are all sinking in the same quagmire of sin from which they cannot free themselves even with the help of the Law. This was determined long before Paul said it. Solomon was aware of man’s lost condition back in his day. He writes: “For there isn’t a righteous person on earth who [only] does good and never sins.”¹¹ And for the Messianic Jews, Paul puts this in perspective when writing to the Galatians: “The Scriptures put everything in prison under the control of sin, so that the only way for people to get what God promised would be through faith in Jesus the Messiah.”¹² Paul was not the only one who held this position, so did the Apostle John.¹³

In Paul’s mind, he was convinced that God did not create humans to sin but to serve as a model of His genius and generosity. However, the original two humans failed to accomplish this because of the deceit of Satan. So in order to make that point, Paul uses a Greek word “hamartanō” for sin. This word means: “to be no part of; to miss the mark; to err, be mistaken.” In his first letter to the Thessalonians Paul says this: “Live your life for God, who called you into His Kingdom for His glory.”¹⁴ Then in his second letter, Paul states: “God chose you by using the Good News that we told you. You were chosen so that you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”¹⁵

The Apostle Peter was of the same mind when he wrote: “You should be happy that you are sharing in Christ’s sufferings. You will be happy and full of joy when Christ shows His glory.”¹⁶ Peter then goes on to make the same point Paul did: “Yes, you will suffer for a short time. But after that, God will make everything right. He will make you strong. He will support you and keep you from falling. He is the God who gives all grace. He chose you to share in His glory in Christ. That glory will continue forever.”¹⁷

Most of the early church scholars see the need for everyone to understand the implications of what Paul is saying here. Says Irenaeus: “For as these men [of old] did not impute to us Gentiles our transgressions, which we committed before Christ was manifested among us, so also it is not right that we should lay blame upon those who sinned before Christ’s coming. For ‘all men come short of the glory of God,’ and are not justified of themselves, but by the advent of the Lord, they who earnestly direct their eyes towards His light…We ought not to be puffed up or harsh with those of ancient times, but ought ourselves to fear, lest perchance, after we have come to the knowledge of Christ we seek no further forgiveness of sins. If later we do things displeasing to God, we are shut out of His kingdom.”¹⁸

Another scholar writes: “Paul shows that nature has failed the Gentiles and that both nature and the Law have failed the Jews, before going on to mention the grace of the gospel and saying: ‘What do we have by grace which is special and superior? Faith, made effective by the righteousness of Christ.’ … Paul does not say that all have broken the law but that all have sinned in a general sense. Now the one who is lacking something tries to make up his deficiency. The Jews had the Law, but they were lacking the fullness of grace.”¹⁹

Then early church preacher Chrysostom says: “There is no difference at all between the Greek, the Scythian, the Thracian or even the Jew, for all are in the same plight.… Even if you have not done the same sins as others, you have still been deprived of God’s glory just as they have been, because you are among those who have offended.… However, Paul was saying this not to cast them into despair but rather to show the love of the Lord toward man, as he goes on to say [in the following verses].”²⁰ To this Pelagius adds: “All sinners need the glory of God because they do not have their own.”²¹

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert R. Seyda

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

CHAPTER THREE (Lesson XV)

Early church preacher Chrysostom gives us his thoughts on God’s righteousness: “Paul does not say that the righteousness of God has been ‘given’ but that it has been ‘manifested,’ thus destroying the assertion that it is something new. For what is manifested is old but previously concealed. He reinforces this point by going on to mention that the Law and the Prophets had foretold it.”¹ And Augustine writes: “The righteousness of God is not that by which God is righteous but that with which He clothes man when He justifies the ungodly. To this the Law and the Prophets bear witness.… The righteousness of God is not manifested outside the law, since in that case it could not have been witnessed to by the law. [However], it is a righteousness of God apart from the law because God confers it on the believer through the Spirit of grace without the help of the law.”²

John Calvin discusses this prospect of how righteousness is attested to by its own testimony. He writes: “If then the law affords its testimony to righteousness by grace, it is evident that the law was not given for this reason: to teach men how to obtain righteousness by good works. There are some who pervert the idea, some who twist it to make it read that way. And further, if you desire proof of this truth, examine the chief things taught by Moses, and you will find that man, being cast from the kingdom of God, had no other restoration from the beginning than that contained in the evangelical promises through the blessed seed, by whom, as it had been foretold the serpent’s head was to be bruised, and through whom a blessing to the nations had been promised: you will find in the commandments a demonstration of your iniquity, and from the sacrifices and offerings you may learn that satisfaction and cleansing are to be obtained in Christ alone.”³

Adam Clarke adds this: “But now the righteousness of God – God‘s method of saving sinners is now shown, by the Gospel, to be through His mercy alone, by Christ Jesus; without the law – without any right or claim which might result from obedience to the law; and is evidently that which was intended by God from the beginning; for it is witnessed to by the law and the prophets – the rites and ceremonies of the one, and the preachings and predictions of the others, all bearing testimony to the great design of God, and to the absolute necessity there was for the sacrifice and salvation which God has provided.”⁴

H. A. Ironside says: “It is with a sense of the greatest relief that we turn from the sad story of man’s sin and shame to contemplate the wondrous grace of God as told out in the gospel, the divine remedy for the ruin that came in by the fall. And this presentation of the good news is in two parts: it presents the gospel first as having to do with the question of our sins: and then when that is settled, as having to do with our sin; the sin-principle, sin in the flesh, the carnal mind which dominates the unsaved, unregenerate man. It marks a decided change of subject. Now that man has been fully exposed, God will be revealed. Now upon the proven unrighteousness of all mankind, ‘the righteousness of God is manifested.’ Of old He had declared, ‘I will bring near My righteousness.’ This is in no sense a wrought-out, legal righteousness, such as man was unable to produce for God. It is a righteousness ‘without the law,’ that is, altogether apart from any principle of human obedience to a divinely-ordained code of morals. It is a righteousness of God for unrighteous men, and is in no wise dependent upon human merit or attainment.”⁵

And Spurgeon preached this: “The death of Christ gloriously set forth divine justice, because it taught manifestly this truth, that sin can never go without punishment. It is a law of God’s moral universe that sin must be punished. He has made that as necessary as the law of gravity. Christ, therefore, must Himself give a satisfaction for sin, that this rule may be declared, and written upon the forefront of the skies— God will not pardon sin by overlooking it; there must be redemption before there can be remission.”⁶

And Frederic Godet has an interesting comment here: “The law by unveiling sin opens up the void in the heart, which is filled with the righteousness of faith; prophecy completes the work of preparation by promising this righteousness. Thus there is no objection to be drawn from the old revelation against the new. As the new fulfills the old, the latter confirms the former.”⁷

And Charles Elliott gives his insight: “Such was the condition of the world up to the coming of Christ. But now, in contrast with the previous state of things, a new system has appeared upon the scene. In this system law is entirely put on one side, though the system itself was anticipated in and is attested by those very writings in which the Law was embodied. Law is now superseded, the great end of the Law, the introduction of righteousness, being accomplished in another way, viz., through faith in Christ, by which a state of righteousness is super induced upon all believers.”⁸

Jewish theologian David Stern shares this: “Throughout the Tanakh [Bible] God’s holiness and moral integrity are proclaimed, as also is the truth that human beings cannot attain God’s standard of righteousness by working for it. As Isaiah 64:5(6) puts it, ‘All our righteousness,’ those we achieve by mere human effort without genuine reliance on and trust in God, ‘are as filthy rags.’ Moreover, not only do the Scriptures attest to God’s way of making people righteous, but non-Messianic Judaism is aware of it too. The eleventh-century Midrash [commentary] on Psalm 44:1 says, ‘When the children of Israel went out from Egypt, they could not offer any works of their hands whereby they might be redeemed. And so, it was not because of the works of their fathers, nor was it because of their own works, that the sea was divided before them; rather, it was only so that God might make a name for Himself in the world’.”⁹ Stern goes on to say, that like Paul the Rabbis have recognized human inability to meet God’s standard for righteousness, even with the guidance of the good Torah [Law] that God gave.

Verse 22: God makes people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. He does this for all who believe in Christ. Everyone is the same.

Remember, Paul is not offering options here or pointing out alternate ways to get right with God. It is either God’s way or no way. Paul made this clear to the Philippians: “It was because of Him that I gave up everything and regard it all as trash, in order to gain the Messiah and be found in union with Him, not having any righteousness of my own based on legalism, but having that righteousness which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness, the righteousness from God based on trust.”¹⁰ Paul then goes on to say so eloquently: “Yes, I gave it all up in order to know Him, that is, the power that raised Him from death. I want to share in His sufferings and be like Him even in His death so that somehow I myself will one day be raised from death.”¹¹ Were every believer today make this same commitment it would once more turn the world upside down for God’s glory.

But what made Paul so happy is that this trust, faith, and promise is the same to everyone who believes. If it could happen to Abraham before the law, then certainly it can happen to those who’ve come to Him after the law. Here’s how Isaiah expressed it: “The Lord makes me very happy. I am completely happy with my God. He dressed me in the clothes of salvation. He put the victory coat on me. I look like a man dressed for his wedding, like a bride covered with jewels.”¹² And what made Isaiah feel this way? He tells us that it came when he realized this: “The Spirit of the Lord God is on me. The Lord has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor and to comfort those who are sad. He sent me to tell the captives and prisoners that they have been set free.”¹³ As we know, this is the same promise Christ claimed for Himself, and then passed it on to His disciples.

The thing that excited Paul was that this blessing was not meant only for the Jews. He told the believers in Galatia: “The Scriptures say the same thing about Abraham. ‘Abraham believed God, and because of this faith he was accepted as one who is right with God.’ So you should know that the true children of Abraham are those who have faith. The Scriptures told what would happen in the future. These writings said that God would make the non-Jewish people right through their faith. God told this Good News to Abraham before it happened. God said to Abraham, ‘I will use you to bless all the people on earth.’ Abraham believed this, and because he believed, he was blessed. All people who believe are blessed the same as Abraham was.”¹⁴

The Messianic Jewish leaders in Rome needed to hear this. They were still contending that Jews had front row seats in the Kingdom of God. This was in Paul’s report to the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem: “God knows everyone, even their thoughts, and He accepted these non-Jewish people. He showed this to us by giving them the Holy Spirit the same as He did to us. To God, those people are not different from us. When they believed, God made their hearts pure.”¹⁵ That’s why Paul could write to the believers throughout Galatia and tell them: “You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Now, in Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or free, male or female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus.”¹⁶ And to the Colossians Paul wrote: “In this new life it doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, circumcised or not. It doesn’t matter if you speak a different language or even if you are uncivilized. It doesn’t matter if you are a slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and He is in all of you.”¹⁷