Romans 3 commentary

ROMA S 3 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
I TRODUCTIO
STEDMA
The first twenty verses of Chapter 3 divide into two rather simple parts: The first eight verses are an
imaginary dialogue that the apostle holds with the Jews. The second part, Verses 9-20, are his powerful
description of the condition of mankind before God. The first part, the dialogue with the Jews, grows out of
the close of Romans 2, in which the apostle answers the question that is still being hotly debated in the State
of Israel today: What constitutes a true Jew?
The State of Israel has never been able to settle that question. Is it religion? Is a Jew someone who believes the
Torah, the Law, and the Prophets? Is it someone who is culturally a Jew, who keeps a kosher kitchen and
observes all the dietary restrictions, who lives as a Jew and observes the traditions of Judaism? Many claim
that this is the answer. Others say, " o, you can be an atheist and ignore all the ritual and ceremony of
Judaism, but if you were born of Jewish ancestry you are a Jew." Still others think it is the facial features that
make a Jew -- the hooked nose, brown eyes, olive skin. But there are millions of Jews without these physical
characteristics. So the argument rages.
Paul answers that question in Chapter 2. He says a man is not a Jew who is one outwardly. In God's sight, a
Jew is one who has faith, who has the presence of the Spirit of God in his heart, who inwardly has faith in
Jesus the Messiah. That is what constitutes a Jew and nothing else; all these other distinctions are laid aside.
It is not the knowledge or possession of the Law that makes a man a Jew; it is not the rite of circumcision; it is
not the claim to a special relationship with God. The only thing that makes a man a Jew is faith in the
Messiah.
At this point the vivid imagination of Paul comes into play. He imagines a Jewish objector standing up and
arguing with him at this point. Perhaps this actually happened many times in the course of Paul's travels
throughout the Roman Empire. He had stated these things in many synagogues and surely at one time or
another some knowledgeable Jewish rabbi would stand up and argue with him. That is what he is sharing
with us now. In some ways this is a rather difficult passage
1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what
value is there in circumcision?
BAR ES, “What advantage ... - The design of the first part of this chapter is to answer some
of the objections which might be offered by a Jew to the statements in the last chapter. The first
objection is stated in this verse. A Jew would naturally ask, if the view which the apostle had
given were correct, what special benefit could the Jew derive from his religion? The objection
would arise particularly from the position advanced Rom_2:25-26, that if a pagan should do the
things required by the Law, he would be treated as “if” he had been circumcised. Hence, the
question, “what profit is there of circumcision?”

CLARKE, “Jew. What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of
circumcision? - As if he had said: You lately allowed, (Rom_2:25), that circumcision verily
profited; but if circumcision, or our being in covenant with God, raises us no higher in the
Divine favor than the Gentiles; if the virtuous among them are as acceptable as any of us; nay,
and condemn our nation too, as no longer deserving the Divine regards; pray tell me, wherein
lies the superior honor of the Jew; and what benefit can arise to him from his circumcision, and
being vested in the privileges of God’s peculiar people?
GILL, “What advantage then hath the Jew?.... If he is not properly a Jew, who is born of
Jewish parents, and brought up in the customs, rites, and religion of the Jewish nation, but
anyone of whatsoever nation, that is born again of water, and of the Spirit; where is the superior
excellency of the Jew to the Gentile? A man may as well be born and brought up a Heathen as a
Jew; the one has no more advantages than the other by his birth and education: it may be
rendered, "what hath the Jew more?" or "what has he superfluous" or "abundant?" the phrase
answers to the Hebrew ‫לאדם‬ ‫יתרון‬ ‫מה‬ in Ecc_1:3, which is rendered, "what profit hath a man?" and in
Ecc_6:8, ‫לחכם‬ ‫יותר‬ ‫,מה‬ "what hath a wise man more", &c. and in Rom_3:11, ‫לאדם‬ ‫יתר‬ ‫,מה‬ "what is a man
better?" the first of these passages the Septuagint render by τις περισσεια, "what abundance?" and the
last by τι περισσον, "what more", or "superfluous", or "abundant?" the phrase used by the apostle
here:
or what profit is there of circumcision? since that which is outward in the flesh profits not
unless the law is kept, otherwise circumcision is no circumcision; and if an uncircumcised
Gentile keeps the law, he is a better man than a circumcised Jew; yea, he judges and condemns
him; for the only true circumcision is internal, spiritual, and in the heart. To this the apostle
answers in the Rom_3:2.
JAMISO , “Rom_3:1-8. Jewish objections answered.
What advantage then hath the Jew? — that is, “If the final judgment will turn solely on
the state of the heart, and this may be as good in the Gentile without, as in the Jew within, the
sacred enclosure of God’s covenant, what better are we Jews for all our advantages?”
Answer:
CALVI , “1.Though Paul has clearly proved that bare circumcision brought nothing to the Jews, yet since
he could not deny but that there was some difference between the Gentiles and the Jews, which by that
symbol was sealed to them by the Lord, and since it was inconsistent to make a distinction, of which God
was the author, void and of no moment, it remained for him to remove also this objection. It was indeed
evident, that it was a foolish glorying in which the Jews on this ACCOUNT indulged; yet still a doubt
remained as to the design of circumcision; for the Lord would not have appointed it had not some benefit
been intended. He therefore, by way of an objection, asks, what it was that made the Jew superior to the
Gentile; and he subjoins a reason for this by another question, What is the benefit of circumcision? For this
separated the Jews from the common class of men; it was a partition-wall, as Paul calls ceremonies, which

kept parties asunder.
PULPIT, “What advantage then hath the Jew! or what is the profit of circumcision!
Much ( πολὺ , a neuter adjective, AGREEING with τὸ περισσὸν ) every way (not by all means; the
meaning is that in all respects the POSITION of the Jew is an advantageous one): first (rather
than chiefly, as in the Authorized Version. One point of advantage is specified, which might have been
followed by a secondly and a thirdly, etc. But the writer stops here, the mention of this first being sufficient for
his purpose. Others are enumerated, so as to elucidate the purport of κατὰ πάντα τρύπον ,
inRom_9:4, Rom_9:5) for that they (the Jews) were entrusted with the oracles of God. The
word λόγια (always used in the plural in the New Testament) occurs also in Act_7:38; Heb_5:12;1Pe_4:11.
Of these passages the most apposite is Act_7:38, where the Divine communications to Moses on Mount
Sinai are spoken of as λόγια ζῶντα (cf. Num_24:4, Num_24:16, where Balaam speaks of himself as ἀκούων
λόγια Θεοῦ ). Some (as Meyer), in view of the supposed, reference in the following verse to the Jews
rejection of the gospel, take the word λόγια here to mean especially the revealed promises of the Redeemer.
But neither the word itself nor its use elsewhere suggests any such limited meaning; nor does the context
really require it. It may denote generally the Divine revelations of the Old Testament, which, for the eventual
benefit of mankind, had been entrusted exclusively to the Jews.
PULPIT, “Rom_3:1-8
(2) Certain objections with regard to the Jews suggested and met. In this passage, before proceeding with
his argument, the apostle meets certain objections that might be made to what has been so far said. Some
difficulty in determining his exact meaning arises from the concise and pregnant form in which the objections
are put and answered, and from fresh ones arising out of the answers, which have also to be met. The
objections are from the Jewish standpoint, though not put into the mouth of an objecting Jew, but rather
suggested as likely ones by St. Paul himself. To the original readers of the Epistle, who were familiar with
the tone of Jewish thought, the sequence of the ideas would probably be more obvious than to us.
Reserving special consideration of successive clauses for our exposition of each verse, we may, in the first
place, exhibit thus the GENERAL drift.
Objection 1 (Rom_3:1). If being a Jew, if circumcision itself, gives one no advantage over the Gentile, what
was the use of the old covenant at all? It is thus shown to have been illusory; and God's own truth and
faithfulness are impugned, if he is supposed to have given, as conveying advantages, what really conveyed
none. (This last thought, though not expressed, must be supposed to be implied in the objection, since it is
replied to in the answer.)
Answer (Rom_3:2-4).
(1) It was not illusory; it did convey great advantages in the way of privilege and opportunity; this advantage
first, not to mention other. that "the oracles of God" were entrusted to the Jew. And
(2) if some (more or fewer, it matters not) have failed to realize these advantages, it has been their fault, not
God's. It is man's unfaithfulness, not his, that has been the cause of the failure. Nay, though, ACCORDING
to the hasty saying of the psalmist, all men were false, God's truth remains; nay, further, as is expressed
in another psalm (Psa_51:1-19.), man's very unfaithfulness is found to commend his faithfulness the more,
and redound to his greater glory.
Objection 2 (Rom_3:5). Based on the last assertion. But if man's unfaithfulness has this result, how can
God, consistently with his justice, be wrath with us and punish us for it? Surely the Jew (whose case we are
now considering) may claim exemption from "the wrath" of God spoken of above, his unfaithfulness being
allowed to have served only to establish God's truth and to enhance his glory.

Answer (Rom_3:6-8). I have suggested this objection as though the matter could be regarded from a mere
human point of view, as though it were one between man and man; for it is true that a man cannot justly take
vengeance on another who has not really harmed him. But such a view is inapplicable to God in his dealings
with man; it does not touch our doctrine of his righteous wrath against sin as such. I can only meet it with
a µὴ γένοιτο . For
(1) it would preclude God from judging the world at all, as we all believe he will do. Any heathen sinner might
put in the same plea, saying, Why am I too ( κἀγὼ ) judged as a sinner? Nay,
(2) since it involves the principle of sin being evil, not in itself, but only with regard to its consequences, it
would, if carried out, justify the odious view (which we Christians are by some falsely accused of holding)
that we may do evil that good may come.
CHARLES SIMEO , “CHRISTIANS’ ADVANTAGES ABOVE HEATHENS
Rom_3:1-2. What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way.
IT is not easy to form a just estimate of the privileges ATTACHED to the profession of Christianity: we are
ready either, on the one hand, to rate them too high, or, on the other, to undervalue and despise them. The
Jews laid so great a stress on their relation to Abraham, that they could scarcely conceive it possible for
them to perish: they concluded, that because they bore in their flesh the external seal of God’s covenant,
they must of necessity be partakers of its spiritual blessings: and when St. Paul shewed them their error,
they indignantly replied, “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?” Thus
many amongst ourselves are apt to imagine, that their having been admitted by baptism into the Christian
covenant will secure them an admission into heaven: and, when they are warned against this sad delusion,
they are ready to say, that the heathen are in a happier state than they. In opposition to this, we propose to
shew,
I. What advantages we, as Christians, have above the heathen—
The Apostle intimates, that the Jews, merely as Jews, possessed “every way much” advantage above the
heathen: but, instead of descending to particulars, he contents himself with specifying one, which, as it was
the greatest, so in fact it included all the rest, namely, that “to them were committed the Oracles of God.”
What he has stated thus comprehensively, we shall enter into more minutely.
We say then, that as Christians, we have many things to which the heathen are utter stangers: we have,
1. A guide for our faith—
[The oracles which the heathen consulted, were altogether unworthy of CREDIT . Their answers were
purposely given with such ambiguity, that they might appear to correspond with the event, whatever the

event might be [Note: A famous instance of this is mentioned by Herodotus, B. i.—Cyrop æ dia, B. vii.
Cr œ sus, king of Lydia, inquired of his gods, Whether he should make war against Cyrus? The Oracles
answered, That he was then only to think himself in danger, when a mule should reign over the Medes; and
that, on his passing over the river Halys, he should destroy a powerful kingdom. Relying on these answers
as predicting success, he commenced the war, which speedily terminated in the ruin of himself and his
whole kingdom: and when he complained that he had been deceived by the Oracles, he was told, That
Cyrus was that mule (being a Persian by his father’s side, and a Mede by his mother’s); and that the
kingdom which he was to destroy, was his own. See the ACCOUNT given in Prideaux’s Connection of the
Old and New Testament History.]. But our oracles have no such subterfuges: nor can we possibly err in
giving to them the most implicit confidence. They declare to us the nature and perfections of God—the way
which he has appointed for our reconciliation with him—the eternal state of those who shall embrace his
proffered mercy, and of those who shall reject it. Of these things the heathen were wholly ignorant; nor could
their oracles afford them any instruction on which they could rely.
What an amazing advantage then has the meanest Christian above the greatest of the heathen
philosophers! The little volume which he has in his hand, sets before him innumerable truths, which reason
never could explore; it reveals them to him so plainly, that he who runs may read and understand them: and,
instead of deceiving him to his ruin, it will “make him wise unto everlasting salvation.”]
2. A warrant for his hope—
[The oracles which could declare nothing with certainty, could afford to their votaries no solid ground of
hope. But the Christian who believes the oracles of God, has an “anchor for his soul so sure and steadfast,”
that not all the storms or tempests which either men or devils can raise, shall ever drive him from the station
where he is moored. Suppose his discouragements to be as great as the most gloomy imagination can paint
them; he has reasons in plenty to assign for his hope. The sovereignty of God—the sufficiency of Christ—
the freeness and extent of the promises—the immutability of Jehovah, who has CONFIRMED his
promises with an oath—these, and many other things which are revealed in the sacred volume, may enable
the person who relies upon them to go to the very throne of God himself, and to plead for acceptance with
him: and, in proportion as he relies upon them, he has within his own bosom a pledge, that he shall never be
ashamed.
What an advantage is this to the man that is hoping for eternal happiness! Surely “blessed are the eyes
which see the things that we see, and hear the things which we hear.”]
3. A rule for his conduct—
[The wise men of antiquity could not so much as devise what constituted the chief good of man; much less
could they invent rules which should be UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE for the direction of their followers:

and the rules which they did prescribe, were in many respects subversive both of individual and public
happiness. But the oracles of God are proper to direct us in every particular. We may indeed in some more
intricate cases err in the application of them, (else we should be infallible; which is not the lot of man upon
earth;) but in all important points the path we are to follow is made as clear to us as the racer’s course: yea,
the word is not only a general “light to our feet, but a lantern to our steps:” so that what was obscure at a
distance, is discovered to us on our nearer approach, and a direction is given us, “This is the way; walk ye in
it.” The whole circle of moral and religious duty is thus accurately drawn. The poor man who is conversant
with his Bible, needs not to go to the philosopher, and consult with him; nor need he regard the maxims
current in the world. With the Scriptures as his guide, and the Holy Spirit as his instructor, he needs no
casuist, but an upright heart; no director, but a mind bent upon doing the will of God. If he derive assistance
from any, it is from those only who are more fraught with divine knowledge, and whose superior illumination
has qualified them to instruct others. But they are no farther to be regarded, than as they
speak ACCORDING to the written word.
Compare now the illiterate Christian with the most learned pagan, and see how greatly he is benefited in this
respect also by the light of revelation. If indeed he rest in his admission into the Christian covenant, and look
no further than to a mere profession of Christianity, he may easily overrate his privileges: but if he consider
them means to an end, and improve them in that view, he can never be sufficiently thankful, that he was
early received into the bosom of the Church, and initiated by baptism into a profession of Christ’s religion.]
Having stated our advantages, we proceed to notice,
II. The improvement we should make of them—
If the possession of the sacred oracles constitute our chief advantage, doubtless we should,
1. Study them—
[“Search the Scriptures,” says our Lord, “for in them ye think ye have eternal life.” If we neglect the word of
God, we lose the very advantage which God in his mercy has vouchsafed to give us, and reduce ourselves,
as much as lieth in us, to the state of heathens. If then we shudder at the thought of reverting to heathenism,
let us, not on some occasions only, like the heathen, but on all occasions, consult the oracles, whereby we
profess to be directed. “Let our meditation be in them day and night;” and let them be “our delight and our
counsellors [Note: See Deu_6:6-9and Psa_1:2 and Pro_2:1-6.]” — — —]
2. Conform ourselves to them—
[The end of studying the sacred oracles is not to obtain a speculative knowledge, but to have our whole
souls cast, as it were, into the mould which is formed therein. By them we must regulate both our principles

and our practice. We must not presume to dispute against them, because they are not agreeable to our pre-
conceived opinions; we must not complain that this is too humiliating, and that is too strict; but must receive
with submission all which the Scriptures reveal, believing implicitly whatever they declare, and executing
unreservedly whatever they enjoin — — — If we do not thus obey the truth, we shall indeed be in a worse
state than the heathens; our baptism will be no baptism; and the unbaptized pagans, who walk according to
the light they have, will rise up in judgment against us for abusing the privileges which they perhaps would
have improved with joy and gratitude [Note: Rom_2:25-27.].]
3. Promote the knowledge of them in the world—
[If God had imparted to us a secret whereby we could heal all manner of diseases; and our own interest, as
well as that of others, would he greatly promoted by disclosing it to the whole world; should we not gladly
made it known? Shall we then withhold from the Gentile world the advantages we enjoy; more especially
when God has commanded us to communicate as freely as we have received? Should we not contribute, by
pecuniary aid, or by our prayers at least, to send the Gospel to the heathen, that they may be partakers with
us in all the blessings of salvation?
But there are, alas! heathens, baptized heathens, at home also; and to those we should labour to make
known the Gospel of Christ. We should bring them under the sound of the Gospel—we should disperse
among them books suited to their states and capacities—we should provide instruction for the rising
generation—we should especially teach our own children and servants—and labour, “by turning men from
darkness unto light, to turn them also from the power of Satan unto God.”]
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR 1-3, “What advantage then hath the Jew? …chiefly, because
that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Moral advantage
I. There is much advantage to those favoured with clearer light and higher privilege, in every
respect. They have the advantage—
1. Of feeling that God cares for them. The heathen had, some of them, lost the knowledge of
God altogether, and others were only dimly conscious of His goodness.
2. Of a superior temporal condition. They are delivered from the miseries inflicted by cruel
superstitions, are able to cheek the progress of debasing immoralities, and to promote
freedom, comfort, peace, and brotherhood.
3. Of better opportunity of performing what their better position demands. The man who
possessed five talents had the advantage over his fellow. He had a better command of the
market, and could stand a greater shock of adverse circumstances. They would help each
other to grow; for five united are more than five times as strong as one, and more than two-
and-a-half times as strong as two. An Israelite or a Christian may walk uprightly in his
noonday light more easily than a heathen may walk at all in his dim twilight.

4. Of attaining, if faithful, an absolutely higher reward. As two statesmen of equal desert,
and equally in favour, take higher and lower positions on account of their different
capacities, so those who receive equally the King’s commendation, “Well done, good and
faithful servant,” shall yet differ, as one star differeth from another, in glory.
II. The greatest advantage is to have the oracles of God.
1. The knowledge they impart is a blessing. As day is more blessed than night; as freedom for
thought is better than the fetters of ignorance, so the possession of these oracles is
unspeakably better than deprivation of them.
2. It is a blessing to have assured Divine communication. As the spirit of a plebeian is lifted
by a word or a look from his king; as the heart of an absent child is gladdened by the outside
of his father’s letter, so is man blessed by the fact that God has spoken to him.
3. It is an advantage to be thus taken into peculiar covenant relationship to God. Every
precept of these oracles is a condition of some blessedness which God pledges Himself to
bestow; and every promise contains God’s oath of faithfulness to all to whom these oracles
come. It is a high advantage to know that we are God’s and God is ours, as we grasp in faith
and obedience His sacred Word. Over our higher privileges it becomes us to “rejoice with
trembling.” With all thy responsibilities, thy greater required service, and thy heavier doom
if faithless, still “Happy art thou, O Israel,” “satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing
of the Lord.” (W. Griffiths.)
Moral advantage
1. Man has unspeakable advantage in the possession of the oracles of God.
2. May lose it through unbelief.
3. Cannot thereby invalidate God’s faithfulness.
4. Must ultimately confess and justify it. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The surplus of privilege
The following supposed cases may serve to explain the force of the question raised, and replied
to in the text: If the scholarships at Oxford or Cambridge are given away irrespective of the
seminaries from which the candidates come, what relative advantage has a youth educated at
one of our public schools over and above another who is sell-taught, and with few helps? Much
every way; for he has had the best text books, skilled masters, and the like. Or, again, suppose a
philanthropist should undertake the reformation of the waifs and strays of society in his own
neighbourhood, and for this purpose were to select certain youths whom he received into an
institution where they were fed, clothed, and specially trained. Now if, after a while, the person
in question should throw open the doors of this establishment, would not there still be a surplus
of privilege belonging to those whom he had first admitted?—would not the care and instruction
which they had already enjoyed raise them above their fellows, and fit them for being the most
qualified instruments in the carrying out of their benefactors’ liberal-minded and large-hearted
designs? (C. Nell, M. A.)
The advantages of Christians over heathens

I. What they are.
1. A guide for faith.
2. A warrant for hope.
3. A rule for conduct.
II. The improvement we should make of them.
1. Study.
2. Obey.
3. Diffuse. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The advantage of possessing the Holy Scriptures
I. The appellation here given to the Holy Scriptures—the oracles of God.
1. There seems to be an allusion to the heathen oracles. These were, indeed, merely
pretended communications from gods that had no existence; or, perhaps, in some instances
real communications from demons, and the answers which were given were generally
expressed in such unintelligible, or equivocal phrases as might easily be wrested to prove the
truth of the oracles whatever the truth might be (Act_16:16).
2. But the apostles, when they term the Scriptures “oracles” (Act_7:38; Heb_5:12;
1Pe_4:11), signify that they are real revelations from the true God. These were
communicated—viva voce, as when God spake to Moses face to face—in visions, as when a
prophet in an ecstacy had supernatural revelations (Gen_15:1; Gen 46:2; Eze_11:24;
Dan_8:2)—in dreams, as those of Jacob (Gen_28:12) and Joseph (Gen_37:5-6)—by Urim
and Thummim, which was a way of knowing the will of God by the ephod or breastplate of
the high priest. After the building of the temple, God’s will was generally made known by
prophets Divinely inspired, and who were made acquainted with it in different ways
(1Ch_9:20-21).
3. The apostles, giving the Scriptures this appellation, show that they considered them as
containing God’s mind and will (2Ti_3:16; 1Pe_1:10-13; 1Pe 1:23; 1Pe 1:25; 2Pe_1:19-21).
And these apostles, being themselves inspired (Joh_14:17; Joh_14:26; Joh_15:26;
Joh_16:13) could not be mistaken. Christ Himself has borne a clear testimony to the truth
and importance of the Scriptures of the Old Testament (Joh_5:39; Joh 10:35; Luk_16:29;
Luk 16:31).
4. Other proofs of their inspiration are—the majesty of their style; the evident truth and
authority of their doctrines; the harmony of all their parts; their power on the minds of
myriads; the accomplishment of their prophecies; the miracles performed by their authors.
If these things can be affirmed of the writing of the Old Testament, how much more of the
New, which consist of the discourses of God’s Incarnate Truth (Heb_1:1), and of His Divinely
commissioned servants (Eph_4:7-13).
II. The advantages those have above others, who are favoured with them.
1. There are many truths of vast importance which may be known from God’s works
(Rom_1:19-20); nevertheless, matter of fact has proved that even as to the most obvious and
primary truths, all flesh have corrupted their way. If the existence of a Deity has been
generally acknowledged, yet His unity and spirituality has not, but the most civilised nations
have multiplied their gods without end (Rom_1:21-24; hence Isa_40:19-20; Isa_41:6-7;

Isa_44:12-20). As to the accountableness of man, fatalism on the one hand, and self-
sufficiency on the other, prevailed even among the Greeks and Romans; as to the distinction
between vice and virtue, we refer to the apostle (Rom_1:26-32). And as to a future state of
happiness or misery, they were in general “without hope.”
2. But if these and such like truths could have been discovered by the light of nature, they
are taught in Scripture much more clearly and fully; with more authority and certainty; and
in a way more adapted to the condition of mankind, who in general have neither capacity nor
time for deep and difficult research. Many other truths of equal importance, which are not
known at all by the light of nature, are clearly revealed in the Scriptures.
3. The oracles of God may well be called by St. Stephen “lively.” God’s word is a “hammer
and fire,” “quick and powerful” (Heb_4:12), “spirit and life” (Joh_6:63). They partake of the
spiritual, living, and powerful nature of Him, from whom they proceed. The God who gave
them is still at hand to give the right understanding and feeling of them (Luk_24:45;
2Pe_1:20), and still works by and with them. Hence men, from age to age, have been
“pricked,” “cut to the heart” (Act_2:37; Act 5:33), “begotten” (Jas_1:18), “born again”
(1Pe_1:23), “set free” (Joh_8:32), “made clean” (Joh_15:3), “sanctified” (Joh_17:17;
Eph_5:26), built up and made perfect by them (Eph_4:12; 2Ti_3:15).
4. But here arises a grand objection; the Jews, though favoured with the oracles of God, were
as wicked as the Gentiles (chap. 2); professing Christians are as wicked as the heathen. This
is by no means the case. A very favourable change in the manners of men in general has been
wrought where the Scriptures have been received; and myriads, both Jews and Christians,
have thereby been made truly pious persons in all ages; and with respect to the rest, “if some
did not believe, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” (verse 3).
III. Our obligation to improve this advantage for ourselves and to communicate it to others.
1. The oracles of God can only profit those who believe them (Heb_3:11; Heb 4:2). They
must also be considered and laid to heart, otherwise they cannot profit an intelligent and
free being, for they do not work upon our minds mechanically. We must bring to their
consideration a teachable and serious mind; must receive them with reverence, gratitude,
and affection; practise the religion they describe; and, in order to all this, pray to Him that
gave them, that He may impart to us the Spirit by whose influences alone we can either
understand or comply with them.
2. With respect to others—the oracles of God are equally necessary and designed for all men
(Psa_22:27; Isa_2:2; Mic_4:1; Isa_11:9; Isa 60:8; Isa 06:9; Luk_24:47; Mar_16:15;
Rom_1:5; Rev_14:6-7). All professing Christians are under an obligation to aid their
circulation, that their endeavours may be consistent with their prayers, for they pray that His
“kingdom may come.” (Joseph Benson.)
The advantages and disadvantages of having the Divine oracles compared: a plea
for missions
I. To whom much is given much will be required; the question, then, is whether it is better, that
it shall be given or withheld.
1. The Jew, who sinned against the light of his revelation, will have a severer retribution
than the Gentile who only sinned against the light of his own conscience; and the nations of
Christendom who have rejected the gospel will incur a darker doom than the native of China,
whose remoteness, while it shelters him from the light of the New Testament in this world,
shelters him from the pain of its fulfilled denunciations in another. And with these

considerations a shade of uncertainty appears to pass over the question—whether the
Christianisation of a people ought at all to be meddled with.
2. But without an authoritative solution of this question from God, we are really not in
circumstances to determine it. We have not all the materials of the question before us. We
know not how to state what the addition is which knowledge confers upon the sufferings of
disobedience; or how far an accepted gospel exalts the condition of him who was before a
stranger to it. It is all a matter of revelation on which side the difference lies; and he who is
satisfied to be wise up to that which is written will quietly repose upon the deliverance of
Scripture on this subject. “Go and preach the gospel to every creature under heaven,” and
“go unto all the world, and teach all nations.” These parting words of our Saviour may not be
enough to quell the anxieties of the speculative Christian, but they are quite enough to
decide the conduct of the practical Christian.
3. But the verses before us advance one step farther, and enter on the question of profit and
loss attendant on the possession of the oracles of God; and to decide, on the part of the
former, that the advantage was much every way. And it is not for those individuals alone
who reaped the benefit that the apostle makes the calculation. He makes an abatement for
the unbelief of all the others; and, balancing the difference, he lands us in a computation of
clear gain to the whole people. And it bears importantly on this question; for surely we may
well venture to circulate these oracles when told of the most stiff-necked and rebellious
people on earth, that, with all their abuse of them, they conferred a positive advantage on
their nation. And yet what a fearful deduction from this advantage must have been made by
their wickedness. It were hard to tell the amount of aggravation upon all their sin, in that it
was sin against the light of the oracles of God; but the apostle tells us that, let the amount be
what it may, it was more than countervailed by the positive good done through these oracles.
II. A few remarks both on the speculative and on the practical part of this question.
1. The Bible, when brought into a new country, may be instrumental in saving those who
submit to its doctrine; and, in so doing, it saves them from an absolute condition of misery
in which they were previously involved. If along with this advantage to those who receive it,
it aggravates the condition of those who reject it, it does not change into wretchedness that
which before was enjoyment; and the whole amount of the evil that has been rendered is
only to be computed by the difference in degree between the suffering that is laid upon sin
with, and sin without the knowledge of the Saviour. We do not know how great the
difference is, but we gather that it was better for the Jews, in spite of all the deeper
responsibility and guilt which their possession of the Old Testament laid upon the
disobedient, yet that a net accession of gain was thus rendered to the whole—then may we
infer that any enterprise by which the Bible is more extensively circulated, or taught, is of
positive benefit to every neighbourhood.
2. Though in Jewish history they were the few to whom the oracles of God were a blessing,
and the many to whom they were an additional condemnation—yet, on the whole, the good
so predominated over the evil, that it on the whole was for the better and not for the worse
that they possessed these oracles. But the argument gathers in strength as we look onward to
futurity, as we dwell upon the fact of the universal prevalence of the gospel of Christ. Even in
this day of small things, the direct blessing which follows in the train of a circulated Bible
and a proclaimed gospel overbalances the incidental evil; and when we think of the latter-
day glory which it ushers in, who should shrink from the work of hastening it forward,
because of a spectre conjured up from the abyss of human ignorance? Even did the evil now
predominate over the good, still is a missionary enterprise like a magnanimous daring for a
great moral and spiritual achievement, which will at length reward the perseverance of its
devoted labourers. There are collateral evils attendant on the progress of Christianity. At one

time it brings a sword instead of peace, and at another it stirs up a variance in families, and
at all times does it deepen the guilt of those who resist the overtures which it makes to them.
But these are only the perils of a voyage that is richly laden with the moral wealth of many
future generations. These are but the hazards of a battle which terminates in the proudest
and most productive of all victories—and, if the liberty of a great empire be an adequate
return for the loss of the lives of its defenders, then is the glorious liberty of the children of
God, which will at length be extended over the face of a still enslaved and alienated world,
more than an adequate return for the spiritual loss that is sustained by those who, instead of
fighting for the cause, have resisted and reviled it.
III. Conclude with a few practical remarks.
1. It is with argument such as this that we would meet the anti-missionary spirit, Not long
ago Christianising enterprise was traduced as a kind of invasion on the safety and innocence
of paganism, and it was affirmed that, though idolatry is blind, yet it were better not to
awaken its worshippers, than to drag them forth by instruction to the hazards and the
exposures of a more fearful responsibility. But why should we be restrained now from the
work by a calculation, which did not restrain the missionaries of two thousand years ago?
2. If man is to be kept in ignorance because every addition of light brings along with it an
addition of responsibility—then ought the species to be arrested at home as well as abroad in
its progress towards a more exalted state of humanity; and such evils as may attend the
transition to moral and religious knowledge, should deter us from every attempt to rescue
our own countrymen from any given amount of darkness by which they may now be
encompassed.
3. However safe it is to commit the oracles of God into the hands of others, yet, considering
ourselves in the light of those to whom these oracles are committed, it is a matter of urgent
concern whether, to us personally, the gain or the loss will predominate. It resolves itself,
with every separate individual, into the question of his secured heaven, or his more
aggravated hell—whether he be of the some who turn the message of God into an instrument
of conversion; or of the many who, by neglect and unconcern, render it the instrument of
their sorer condemnation. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
The oracles of God
I. Their leading characters.
1. Absolute truth and wisdom. The word “oracles” signifies a “Divine speech or answer.”
Words professing to be from God ought to have strong evidence; and how mighty and
commanding is the evidence—attested by miracle, ratified by the fulfilment of prophecy,
continuing when they have for ages reproved the world, giving life and salvation to this hour.
If, then, they are from God, the question of their wisdom and truth is settled. And here is the
advantage of possessing these oracles. There is not a question relating either to duty or
salvation to which there is not here an answer. Are you an inquirer? There is the oracle.
Consult it; for “it shall speak, and shall not lie.”
2. Infinite importance. On those questions which are merely curious the oracle is silent, but
on no subject which it behoves us to know, e.g., the character of God; the laws by which we
are governed; the true state of man; rescue and redemption; the practical application and
attainment of this mercy.
3. Life. Hence they are called “lively” or living oracles, or as our Lord says, “The words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” No other book has this peculiarity. Show

me one which all the wicked fear; which cuts deep into the conscience, and rouses salutary
fears; which comforts and supports; and whilst its blessed truths quiver on the lips of the
dying, disarms death of its sting. Show me a man who, when he discourses, awakens souls
from deadly sleep; who to a trembling spirit says, “Believe, and live,” and he actually believes
and lives; whose counsel effectually guides, quickens, and comforts; and you show me one
who speaks only as the oracles of God. Among all who have been celebrated for oratory, who
ever professed to produce effects like these? Nothing explains this but the life which the
Spirit imparts. With the oracles of God the Author is present. You cannot avoid this power. It
will make the Word either “a savour of life unto life, or a savour of death unto death.”
4. They make all other oracles vocal.
(1) Nature has its solemn voice, but it is not heard where the gospel is not. In
heathendom the very heavens are turned into idols, and God is excluded from the
thoughts of men. But whenever the living oracles come, then every star, and mountain,
and river, proclaims its glorious Maker: “day unto day uttereth speech.”
(2) The general providence of God in the government of nations is intended to display
the wisdom, power, goodness, justice, and truth of God; and terminate in the conversion
of all nations to the faith of Christ. Yet all this is unknown to those who are destitute of
the Divine oracles. To them it appears that one event happens to all. Every occurrence is
either attributed to chance, to blind fate, or to the caprice of deities without Wisdom, and
without mercy. The living oracle gives a voice to all this. Instructed by it we mark the
design of God, “who worketh all in all.” We see all things tending to one end, “the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed; and all flesh shall see it together.”
(3) There is also a particular providence which appoints us our station in life, our
blessings and our sorrows. Many lessons this providence is intended to teach us. “The
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” But till the living oracle speaks, all is
silence; and we derive no lessons of true wisdom from the events of life. When we
acquaint ourselves with God in His Word, then everything ministers to our “instruction
in righteousness.”
5. Variety. Here we have history, proverbs, poetry, examples, doctrine, prophecy, parable,
allegory, and metaphor.
6. Fulness of truth. Great as are the revelations, nothing is exhausted. As in Christ the
fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, to be eternally manifested; so in His Word there is a
fulness of truth. And hence the Bible is always new.
(1) In regard to morals, we have principles, as well as acts, applicable forever.
(2) Who can exhaust the doctrine of Holy Scripture? Doctrines especially relating to
God, and Christ, and the depth of all-redeeming love.
(3) The effects of the whole scheme will be developing forever. In a very important sense
the Bible will be the oracles of God to the Church above.
II. These oracles are “committed” or entrusted To You.
1. To be read and understood, consequently there is great guilt in treating them with
indifference and neglect.
2. To interpret honestly. They are “the oracles of God”; and it is a sin of no ordinary
magnitude to pervert their meaning.
3. To make them known to others. It is a great sin to restrain the Scriptures.
III. Their advantage.

1. Instruction.
2. Direction.
3. Salvation. (Richard Watson.)
The oracles of God
I. The oracles of God.
1. The meaning of the term.
(1) Among heathen the word was first used to denote the answers supposed to be given
by their gods, and was afterwards applied to the shrines where such answers were given.
Whether these answers were forged by the priests, or were the results of diabolical
agency, it is not necessary to inquire. Suffice it that though proverbially obscure, they are
regarded with veneration and confidence. No enterprise of importance was undertaken
without consulting them; splendid embassies, with magnificent presents, were sent from
far distant states, with a view to obtain a propitious answer; and contending nations
often submitted to them the decision of their respective claims. With these facts the
Gentile converts were acquainted; in these opinions they had participated. The word,
therefore, could scarcely fail to excite in them some of the ideas and emotions with which
it had been so long and intimately associated. No title, then, could be better adapted to
inspire them with veneration for the Scriptures.
(2) Nor would it appear less sacred, or important to the Jew, associated as it was with
the Urim and Thummim, and with those responses which Jehovah gave from the inner
sanctuary. In our version this place is frequently styled The Oracle; and the answers
which God there gave to the inquiries of His worshippers were full, explicit, and definite;
forming a perfect contrast to the oracles of paganism. By employing this language, he did
in effect say to the Gentile converts, All that you once supposed the oracles of your
countrymen to be, the Scriptures really are. With at least equal force did his language say
to the Jews, The Scriptures are no less the Word of God than were the answers which He
formerly gave to your fathers from the mercy seat.
2. This title is given to the Scriptures with perfect truth and propriety. They do not, indeed,
resemble in all respects the heathen oracles. They were never designed to gratify a vain
curiosity; much less to subserve the purposes of ambition or avarice, and this is, probably,
one reason why many persons never consult them. But whatever a man’s situation may be,
this oracle, if consulted in the manner in which God has prescribed, will satisfactorily answer
every question which it is proper for him to ask; for it contains all the information which our
Creator sees it best that His human creatures should, at present, possess.
II. Their surpassing value.
1. In possessing the Scriptures we possess every real advantage that would result from the
establishment of an oracle among us; and more. For wherever the oracle might be placed, it
would unavoidably be at a distance from a large proportion of those who wished for its
advice. But in the Scriptures we possess an oracle, which may be brought home to every
family and every individual at all times.
2. But in consequence of having been familiar with them from our childhood, we are far
from being sensible how deeply we are indebted to them. We must place ourselves in the
situation of a serious inquirer after truth, who has pursued his inquiries as far as unassisted
intellect can go; and that he now finds himself bewildered in a maze of conflicting theories

into which the researches of men unenlightened by revelation inevitably plunge them. To
such a man what would the Scripture be worth? He asks, “Who made the universe?” A mild,
but majestic voice replies from the oracle, “In the beginning, God created the heavens, and
the earth.” Startled, the inquirer eagerly exclaims, “Who is God—what is His nature?” “God,”
replies the voice, “is a spirit, wise, almighty, holy, just, merciful and gracious, long suffering,”
etc. The inquirer’s mind labours, faints, while vainly attempting to grasp the Being, now, for
the first time disclosed. But a new and more powerful motive now stimulates his inquiries,
and he asks, “Does any relation subsist between this God and myself?” “He is thy Maker,
Father, Preserver, Sovereign, Judge; in Him thou dost live, and move, and exist; and at
death thy spirit will return to God who gave it.” “How,” resumes the inquirer, “will He then
receive me?” “He will reward thee according to thy works.” “What works?” “Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God, with all thy heart,” etc. “Every transgression of this law is a sin; and the
soul that sinneth shall die.” “Have I sinned?” the inquirer tremblingly asks. “All,” replies the
oracle, “have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” A new sensation of conscious guilt
now oppresses the inquirer, and with increased anxiety he asks, “Is there any way in which
the pardon of sin may be obtained?” “The blood of Jesus Christ,” replies the oracle,
“cleanseth from all sin. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy.” “But to
whom shall I confess them? where find the God whom I have offended?” “He is a God at
hand,” returns the voice; “I, who speak to thee, am He.” “God be merciful to me a sinner,”
exclaims the inquirer, not daring to lift his eyes towards the oracle: “What, Lord, wilt Thou
have me to do?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” answers the voice, “and thou shalt be
saved.” “Lord, who is Jesus Christ? that I may believe on Him? He is My Beloved Son, whom
I have set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood; hear thou Him, for there is
salvation in no other.” Such are, probably, some of the questions which would be asked by
the supposed inquirer; and such are, in substance, the answers which he would receive from
the oracles of God. Who can compute the value of these answers.
III. Their inexhaustibleness. But why should those consult them who are already acquainted
with the answers which they will return?
1. Has the man who asks this drawn from the Scriptures all the information which they
contain? It may reasonably be doubted whether anyone would have discovered that the
declaration of Jehovah, “I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob,” furnishes a
conclusive proof of the after existence of the human soul. And how many times might we
have read the declaration, “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec,” before
we should have suspected that it involves all those important consequences deduced from it
in the Epistle to the Hebrews? And many other passages remain to reward the researches of
future inquirers.
2. Many of the oracles contain an infinity of meaning which no mind can ever exhaust. What
finite mind will fully comprehend all that is contained in the titles given to Jehovah and
Christ, or in the words, “eternity,” “heaven;” “hell”? Now he who most frequently consults
the oracles will penetrate most deeply into their unfathomable abyss of meaning. He may,
indeed, receive the same answers to his inquiries; but these answers will convey to his mind
clearer and more enlarged conceptions of the truths which they reveal. His views will
resemble those of an astronomer, who is, from time to time, furnished with telescopes of
greater power; or what at first seemed only an indistinct shadow, will become a vivid picture,
and the picture will, at length, stand out in bold relief. The lisping child and the astronomer
use the word “sun” to denote the same object. The child, however, means by this word,
nothing more than a round, luminous body, of a few inches in diameter. But it would require
a volume to contain all the conceptions of which this word stands for the sign in the mind of
the astronomer.

IV. Their vitalising power. It may, perhaps, be objected that, as the Scriptures do not speak in
an audible voice, their answers can never possess that life which attends the responses of a living
oracle, such as was formerly established among the Jews. On the contrary, they are well termed
lively or “living oracles”—“alive and powerful.” “The words,” says Christ, “that I speak unto you,
are spirit, and they are life.” The living God lives in them, and employs their instrumentality in
imparting life. Take away His accompanying influences, and the living oracles become “a dead
letter.” But he who consults them aright does not find them a dead letter; he finds that the
living, life-giving Spirit, by whom they were and are inspired, carries home their words to him
with an energy which no tongue can express.
V. The manner in which they are to be consulted. Thousands, of course, derive no benefit, and
receive no satisfactory answers, for they do not consult them, as an oracle of God ever ought to
be consulted.
1. They do not consult them with becoming reverence. They peruse them with little more
reverence than the works of a human author, as they would consult a dictionary or an
almanac.
2. Nor is sincerity less necessary than reverence—a real desire to know our duty, with a full
determination to believe and obey the answers we shall receive. If we consult the oracles of
God with a view to gratify our sinful inclinations, or to justify our questionable pursuits,
practices, or favourite prejudices, the oracle will be dumb. The same remark is applicable to
everyone who consults the Scriptures, while he neglects known duties, or disobeys known
commands. We may see these remarks exemplified in Saul. He had been guilty of known
disobedience; and therefore, when he inquired of the Lord, the Lord answer him not.
3. There are others whose want of success is owing to their unbelief. As no food can nourish
those who do not partake of it; as no medicines can prove salutary to those who refuse to
make use of them; so no oracles can be serviceable to those by whom they are not believed
with a cordial, practical, operative faith. The Scriptures are able to make us wise unto
salvation only through faith in Christ Jesus.
4. Many persons derive no benefit from the oracles of God, because they attempt to consult
them without prayer. Consulting an oracle is an act which, in its very nature, implies an
acknowledgment of ignorance, and a petition for guidance, for instruction. He, then, who
reads the Scriptures without prayer, does not really consult them. (E. Payson, D. D.)
The oracles of God: accessible to all
A priest observing to William Tyndale, “We are better without God’s laws than the Pope’s,” “I
defy the Pope and all his laws,” he replied; and added, “If God spare my life, ere many years I
will cause the boy which driveth the plough to know more of Scripture than you do.” (Quarterly
Review.)
The oracles of God: accessible to all
A Roman Catholic priest in Ireland recently discovered a peasant reading the Bible, and
reproved him for daring to peruse a book forbidden to the laity. The peasant proceeded to justify
himself by a reference to the contents of the book, and the holy doctrines which it taught. The
priest replied, that the doctrines could only be understood by the learned, and that ignorant men
would wrest them to their own destruction. “But,” said the peasant, “I am authorised, your
reverence, to read the Bible; I have a search warrant.” “What do you mean, sir?” said the priest,

in anger. “Why,” replied the peasant, “Jesus Christ says, ‘Search the Scriptures; for in them ye
think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.’” The argument was
unanswerable.
The oracles of God: how to consult
“How am I to know the Word of God?” By studying it with the help of the Holy Ghost. As an
American bishop said, “Not with the blue light of Presbyterianism, nor the red light of
Methodism, nor the violet light of Episcopacy, but with the clear light of Calvary.” We must
study it on our knees, in a teachable spirit. If we know our Bible Satan will not have much power
over us, and we will have the world under our feet. (D. L. Moody.)
The oracles of God: may be consulted with perfect confidence
If a man in the night, by the light of a lamp, is trying to make out his chart, and there is storm in
the heavens and storm upon the sea, and someone knocks that lamp out of his hand, what is
done? The storm is above and the storm is below, and the chart lies dark, so that he cannot find
it out—that is all. If it were daylight he could see the chart well enough; but there being no light,
and the lamp on which he depended for light being knocked out of his hand, he cannot avail
himself of that which is before him. And the same is true concerning much of the Bible. It is an
interpreter. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And those truths which have their
exposition in the Bible, and which are a revelation of the structure of the world and of the Divine
nature and government, do not depend for their truth upon the Bible itself. They are only
interpreted and made plain by it. (H. W. Beecher.)
The oracles of God: never consulted in vain
How marvellous is the adaptation of Scripture for the race for whom it was revealed! In its pages
every conceivable condition of human experience is reflected as in a mirror. In its words every
struggle of the heart can find appropriate and forceful expression. It is absolutely inexhaustible
in its resources for the conveyance of the deepest feelings of the soul. It puts music into the
speech of the tuneless one, and rounds the periods of the unlettered into an eloquence which no
orator can rival. It has martial odes to brace the warrior’s courage, and gainful proverbs to teach
the merchant wisdom; all mental moods can represent themselves in its amplitude of words. It
can translate the doubt of the perplexed; it can articulate the cry of the contrite; it fills the
tongue of the joyous with carols of thankful gladness; and it gives sorrow words, lest grief, that
does not speak, should whisper to the heart, and bid it break. Happy we, who, in all the varieties
of our religious life, have this copious manual Divinely provided to our hand. (W. M. Punshon.)
The oracles of God: suppose they should be taken away
I thought I was at home, and that, on taking up my Bible one morning, I found, to my surprise,
what seemed to be the old familiar book was a total blank; not a character was inscribed in or
upon it. On going into the street I found everyone complaining in similar perplexity of the same
loss; and before night it became evident that a great and wonderful miracle had been wrought in
the world; the Hand which had written its awful menace on the walls of Belshazzar’s palace had
reversed the miracle, and expunged from our Bibles every syllable they contained—thus
reclaiming the most precious gift Heaven had bestowed and ungrateful man had abused. I was
curious to watch the effects of this calamity on the varied characters of mankind. There was,

however, universally an interest in the Bible, now it was lost, such as had never attached to it
while it was possessed. Some to whom the sacred book had been a blank for twenty years, and
who never would have known of their loss but for the lamentations of their neighbours, were not
the less vehement in their expressions of sorrow. The calamity not only stirred the feelings of
men, but it immediately stimulated their ingenuity to repair their loss. It was very early
suggested that the whole Bible had again and again been quoted piecemeal in one book or
another; that it had impressed its image on human literature, and had been reflected on its
surface as the stars on a stream. But, alas! on inspection it was found that every text, every
phrase which had been quoted, whether in books of theology, poetry, or fiction, had been
remorselessly obliterated. It was with trembling hand that some made the attempt to transcribe
the erased texts from memory. They feared that the writing would surely fade away; but, to their
unspeakable joy, they found the impression durable; and people at length came to the
conclusion that God left them at liberty, if they could, to reconstruct the Bible for themselves,
out of their collective remembrances of its contents. Some obscure individuals who had studied
nothing else but the Bible, but who had well studied that, came to be the objects of reverence
among Christians and booksellers; but he who could fill up a chasm by the restoration of words
which were only partially remembered was regarded as a public benefactor. At length a great
movement was projected amongst the divines of all denominations to collate the results of these
partial recoveries of the sacred text. But here it was curious to see the variety of different
readings of the same passages insisted on by conflicting theologians. No doubt the worthy men
were generally unconscious of the influence of prejudice; yet somehow the memory was seldom
so clear in relation to texts which told against as in relation to those which told for their several
theories. It was curious, too, to see by what odd associations of contrast, or sometimes of
resemblance, obscure texts were recovered. A miser contributed a maxim of prudence which he
recollected principally from having systematically abused. All the ethical maxims were soon
collected; for though, as usual, no one recollected his own peculiar duties or infirmities,
everyone kindly remembered those of his neighbours. As for Solomon’s “times for everything.”
few could recall the whole, but everybody remembered some. Undertakers said there was “a
time to mourn,” and comedians said there was “a time to laugh”; young ladies innumerable
remembered there was “a time to love,” and people of all kinds that there was “a time to hate”;
everybody knew that there was “a time to speak,” but a worthy Quaker added that there was also
“a time to keep silence.” But the most amusing thing of all was to see the variety of speculations
which were entertained concerning the object and design of this strange event. Many gravely
questioned whether it could be right to attempt the reconstruction of a book of which God
Himself had so manifestly deprived the world; and some, who were secretly glad to be relieved
of so troublesome a monitor, were particularly pious on this head, and exclaimed bitterly against
this rash attempt to counteract the decrees of Heaven. Some even maintained that the visitation
was not in judgment but in mercy; that God in compassion, and not in indignation, had taken
away a book which men had regarded with an extravagant admiration and idolatry; and that, if a
rebuke at all was intended, it was a rebuke to a rampant Bibliolatry. This last reason, which
assigned as the cause of God’s resumption of His own gift an extravagant admiration and
reverence of it on the part of mankind—it being so notorious that even the best of those who
professed belief in its Divine origin and authority had so grievously neglected it—struck me as so
ludicrous that I broke into a fit of laughter, which awoke me. The morning sun was streaming in
at the window and shining upon the open Bible which lay on the table; and it was with joy that
my eyes rested upon those words, which I read with grateful tears—“The gifts of God are without
repentance.” (H. Rogers.)
The Bible

I. Its possession is an immense “advantage” to any people. What distinguishes it from all other
books, and gives it transcendent worth, is that it contains the “oracles of God.”
1. They are infinitely valuable in themselves. They are infallible truth. The “oracles” of the
heathen world were gross deceptions, that of Apollo at Delphi was a notorious imposture.
They give—
(1) A true revelation of God to man.
(2) A true revelation of man to himself. Who can estimate the transcendent worth of
such revelations?
2. They are infinitely valuable in their influence.
(1) Intellectually. They quicken reason and set the wheels of thought ageing.
(2) Socially. They unseal the fountains of social sympathy, and bless the people with
philanthropic societies and institutions.
(3) Politically. They break down tyrannies, promote wholesome laws, and foster fair
dealing, peace, and liberty.
(4) Spiritually. Their great work is to generate, develope, and perfect the highest
spiritual life.
II. There are those who lack true faith in it. “What if some did not believe?” Though the Jews, as
a people, had the “oracles,” there were multitudes amongst them who were destitute of faith.
Their conduct during their pilgrimage, their whole history in Canaan, and the rejection of the
true Messiah, all proved they had little or no faith in the “oracles” they possessed. How few,
today, who possess the Bible have any true faith in the Divine “oracles.” To such the Bible—
1. Is of no real spiritual “advantage.” It can convey no real benefit to the soul, only so far as
its truths are believed and realised. Unless it is believed it has no more power to help the
soul, the man, than the genial sunbeam or the fertilising shower to help the tree that is
rotten at its roots.
2. It ultimately becomes a curse. It heightens responsibility and augments guilt. “If I had not
come and spoken unto them, they had not known sin.”
III. The lack of faith is it neither affects its reality nor lessens its importance (verse 3). Man’s
lack of faith will neither affect nor nullify the faithfulness of God. Facts are independent of
denials or affirmations. What if some say there is no God? Their denial does not destroy the fact,
He still exists. What if some say there is no hell; hell still burns on. Though all Europe denied
that the earth moved, it still pursued its course circling round the sun. But though our states of
mind, whether credulous or incredulous, in no way affect those facts, they vitally affect our own
character and destiny. What if we do not believe? It matters nothing to the universe or to God,
but it matters much, nay everything to us. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The Bible given for guidance
Here is a man going over a mountain. Night falls and he is lost. He sees a light in a cabin
window. He hastens up to it. The mountaineer comes out and says, “I will furnish you with a
lantern.” The man does not say, “I don’t like the handle, and I don’t like the shape of this
lantern; it is octangular; it ought to be round; if you can’t give me a better one, I won’t take any.”
Oh, no. He starts on with it. He wants to get home. That lantern shines on the path all the way
through the mountain. Now, what is the Bible? Have we any right to say we do not like this or
that in it, when God intended it for a lamp for our feet and a lantern for our path to guide us

through our wilderness march, and bring us at last to our Father’s house on high? (T. De Witt
Talmage.)
The use of the Bible
The Rev. E.T. Taylor, commonly known as Father Taylor, addressing a number of sailors, said, “I
say, shipmates, now look me full in the face. What should we say of the man aboard ship who
was always talking about his compass, and never using it? What should you think of the man
who, when the storm is gathering, night at hand, moon and stars shut, on a lee shore, breakers
ahead, then first begins to remember his compass, and says, ‘Oh, what a nice compass I have got
on board,’ if before that time he has never looked at it? Where is it that you keep your compass?
Do you stow it away in the hold? Do you clap it into the forepeak?” By this time Jack’s face, that
unerring index of the soul, showed visibly that the reductio ad absurdum had begun to tell.
Then came, by a natural logic, as correct as that of the school, the improvement. “Now, then,
brethren, listen to me. Believe not what the scoffer and the infidel say. The Bible, the Bible is the
compass of life. Keep it always at hand. Steadily, steadily fix your eye on it. Study your bearing
by it. Make yourself acquainted with all its points. It will serve you in calm and in storm, in the
brightness of noonday, and amid the blackness of night; it will carry you over every sea, in every
clime, and navigate you, at last, into the harbour of eternal rest.”
The Bible a national advantage
Father Hyacinths, an eloquent and fearless priest in Paris, while recently preaching a charity
sermon in Lyons, in behalf of the asylum for the poor, having asked his audience, which was
composed of the principal Roman Catholic families, if they knew why Prussia triumphed on the
field of battle in the war with Austria, said, “It is because the nation is more enlightened, more
religious, and because every Prussian soldier has the Bible in his knapsack. I will add, that what
produces the power and superiority of Protestant peoples is, that they possess and read the Bible
at their own firesides. I have been twice in England, and have learned that the Bible is the
strength of that nation.”
EBC, “JEWISH CLAIMS: NO HOPE IN HUMAN MERIT
As the Apostle dictates, there rises before his mind a figure often seen by his eyes, the Rabbinic
disputant. Keen, subtle, unscrupulous, at once eagerly in earnest yet ready to use any argument
for victory, how often that adversary had crossed his path, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Macedonia,
in Achaia! He is present now to his consciousness, within the quiet house of Gaius; and his
questions come thick and fast, following on this urgent appeal to his, alas! almost impenetrable
conscience.
"What then is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? If some did not
believe, what of that? Will their faithlessness cancel God’s good faith?" "But if our
unrighteousness sets off God’s righteousness, would God be unjust, bringing His wrath to bear?"
We group the questions together thus, to make it the clearer that we do enter here, at this
opening of the third chapter, upon a brief controversial dialogue; perhaps the almost verbatim
record of many a dialogue actually spoken. The Jew, pressed hard with moral proofs of his
responsibility, must often have turned thus upon his pursuer, or rather have tried thus to escape
from him in the subtleties of a false appeal to the faithfulness of God.
And first he meets the Apostle’s stern assertion that circumcision without spiritual reality will
not save. He asks, where then is the advantage of Jewish descent? What is the profit, the good,

of circumcision? It is a mode of reply not unknown in discussions on Christian ordinances;
"What then is the good of belonging to a historic Church at all? What do you give the divine
Sacraments to do?" The Apostle answers his questioner at once; Much, in every way; first,
because they were entrusted with the Oracles of God. "First," as if there were more to say in
detail. Something, at least, of what is here left unsaid is said later, Rom_9:4-5, where he
recounts the long roll of Israel’s spiritual and historical splendours; "the adoption, and the glory,
and the covenants, and the law giving, and the worship, and the promises, and the Fathers, and
the Christ." Was it nothing to be bound up with things like these, in a bond made at once of
blood relationship, holy memories, and magnificent hopes? Was it nothing to be exhorted to
righteousness, fidelity, and love by finding the individual life thus surrounded? But here he
places "first" of even these wonderful treasures this, that Israel was "entrusted with the Oracles
of God," the Utterances of God, His unique Message to man "through His prophets, in the Holy
Scriptures." Yes, here was something which gave to the Jew an "advantage" without which the
others would either have had no existence, or no significance. He was the trustee of Revelation.
In his care was lodged the Book by which man was to live and die; through which he was to
know immeasurably more about God and about himself than he could learn from all other
informants put together. He, his people, his Church, were the "witness and keeper of Holy Writ."
And, therefore, to be born of Israel and ritually entered into the covenant of Israel, was to be
born into the light of revelation, and committed to the care of the witnesses and keepers of the
light.
To insist upon this immense privilege is altogether to St. Paul’s purpose here. For it is a privilege
which evidently carries an awful responsibility with it. What would be the guilt of the soul, and
of the Community, to whom those Oracles were-not given as property, but entrusted-and who
did not do the things they said?
Again the message passes on to the Israel of the Christian Church. "What advantage hath the
Christian? What profit is there of Baptism?" "Much, in every way; first, because to the Church is
entrusted the light of revelation." To be born in it, to be baptised in it, is to be born into the
sunshine of revelation, and laid on the heart and care of the Community which witnesses to the
genuineness of its Oracles and sees to their preservation and their spread. Great is the talent.
Great is the accountability.
But the Rabbinist goes on. For if some did not believe, what of that? Will their faithlessness
cancel God’s good faith? These Oracles of God promise interminable glories to Israel, to Israel as
a community, a body. Shall not that promise hold good for the whole mass, though some (bold
euphemism for the faithless multitudes!) have rejected the Promiser? Will not the unbelieving
Jew, after all, find his way to life eternal for his company’s sake, for his part and lot in the
covenant community? "Will God’s faith," His good faith, His plighted word, be reduced to empty
sounds by the bad Israelite’s sin? Away with the thought, the Apostle answers. Anything is more
possible than that God should lie. Nay, let God prove true, and every man prove liar; as it stands
written, (Psa_51:4) "That Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and mightest overcome when
Thou impleadest." He quotes the Psalmist in that deep utterance of self-accusation, where he
takes part against himself, and finds himself guilty "without one plea," and, in the loyalty of the
regenerate and now awakened soul, is jealous to vindicate the justice of his condemning God.
The whole Scripture contains no more impassioned, yet no more profound and deliberate,
utterance of the eternal truth that God is always in the right or He would be no God at all; that it
is better, and more reasonable, to doubt anything than to doubt His righteousness, whatever
cloud surrounds it, and whatever lightning bursts the cloud.
But again the caviller, intent not on God’s glory, but on his own position, takes up the word. But
if our unrighteousness exhibits, sets off, God’s righteousness, if our sin gives occasion to grace to
abound, if our guilt lets the generosity of God’s Way of Acceptance stand out the more wonderful

by contrast-what shall we say? Would God be unjust, bringing His (την) wrath to bear on us,
when our pardon would illustrate His free grace? Would He be unjust? Would He not be unjust?
We struggle, in our paraphrase, to bring out the bearing, as it seems to us, of a passage of almost
equal grammatical difficulty and argumentative subtlety. The Apostle seems to be "in a strait"
between the wish to represent the caviller’s thought, and the dread of one really irreverent word.
He throws the man’s last question into a form which, grammatically, expects a "no" when the
drift of the thought would lead us up to a shocking "yes." And then at once he passes to his
answer. "I speak as man," man-wise; as if this question of balanced rights and wrongs were one
between man and man, not between man and eternal God. Such talk, even for argument’s sake,
is impossible for the regenerate soul except under urgent protest. Away with the thought that He
would not be righteous, in His punishment of any given sin. "Since how shall God judge the
world?" How, on such conditions, shall we repose on the ultimate fact that He is the universal
Judge? If He could not, righteously, punish a deliberate sin because pardon, under certain
conditions, illustrates His glory, then He could not punish any sin at all. But He is the Judge; He
does bring wrath to bear!’
Now he takes up the caviller on his own ground, and goes all lengths upon it, and then flies with
abhorrence from it. For if God’s truth, in the matter of my lie, has abounded, has come more
amply out, to His glory, why am I too called to judgment as a sinner? And why not say, as the
slander against us goes, and as some assert that we do say, "Let us do the ill that the good may
come"? So they assert of us. But their doom is just, -the doom of those who would utter such a
maxim, finding shelter for a lie under the throne of God.
No doubt he speaks from a bitter and frequent experience when he takes this particular case,
and with a solemn irony claims exemption for himself from the liar’s, sentence of death. It is
plain that the charge of untruth was, for some reason or another, often thrown at St. Paul; we
see this in the marked urgency with which, from time to time, he asserts his truthfulness; "The
things which I say, behold, before God I lie not"; (Gal_1:20) "I speak the truth in Christ and lie
not". (Rom_9:1) Perhaps the manifold sympathies of his heart gave innocent occasion
sometimes for the charge. The man who could be "all things to all men," (1Co_9:22) taking with
a genuine insight their point of view, and saying things which showed that he took it, would be
very likely to be set down by narrower minds as untruthful. And the very boldness of his
teaching might give further occasion, equally innocent; as he asserted at different times, with
equal emphasis, opposite sides of truth. But these somewhat subtle excuses for false witness
against this great master of holy sincerity would not be necessary where genuine malice was at
work. No man is so truthful that he cannot be charged with falsehood; and no charge is so likely
to injure even where it only feigns to strike. And of course the mighty paradox of Justification
lent itself easily to the distortions, as well as to the contradictions, of sinners. "Let us do evil that
good may come" no doubt represented the report which prejudice and bigotry would regularly
carry away and spread after every discourse, and every argument, about free Forgiveness. It is so
still: "If this is true, we may live as we like; if this is true, then the worst sinner makes the best
saint." Things like this have been current sayings since Luther, since Whitefield, and till now.
Later in the Epistle we shall see the unwilling evidence which such distortions bear to the nature
of the maligned doctrine; but here the allusion is too passing to bring this out.
"Whose doom is just." What a witness is this to the inalienable truthfulness of the Gospel! This
brief stern utterance absolutely repudiates all apology for means by end; all seeking of even the
good of men by the way of saying the thing that is not. Deep and strong, almost from the first,
has been the temptation to the Christian man to think otherwise, until we find whole systems of
casuistry developed whose aim seems to be to go as near the edge of untruthfulness as possible,
if not beyond it, in religion. But the New Testament sweeps the entire idea of the pious fraud
away, with this short thunder peal, "Their doom is just." It will hear of no unholiness that leaves

out truthfulness; no word, no deed, no habit, that even with the purest purpose belies the God of
reality and veracity.
If we read aright Act_24:20-21, with Act_23:6, we see St. Paul himself once, under urgent
pressure of circumstances, betrayed into an equivocation, and then, publicly and soon,
expressing his regret of conscience. "I am a Pharisee, and a Pharisee’s son; about the hope and
resurrection of the dead I am called in question." True, true in fact, but not the whole truth, not
the unreserved account of his attitude towards the Pharisee. Therefore, a week later, he
confesses, does he not? that in this one thing there was "evil in him, while he stood before the
council." Happy the Christian, happy indeed the Christian public man, immersed in
management and discussion, whose memory is as clear about truth telling, and whose
conscience is as sensitive!
What then? are we superior? Say not so at all. Thus now he proceeds, taking the word finally
from his supposed antagonist. Who are the "we," and with whom are "we" compared? The drift
of the argument admits of two replies to this question. "We" may be "we Jews"; as if Paul placed
himself in instinctive sympathy, by the side of the compatriot whose cavils he has just combated,
and gathered up here into a final assertion all he has said before of the (at least) equal guilt of
the Jew beside the Greek. Or "we" may be "we Christians," taken for the moment as men apart
from Christ; it may be a repudiation of the thought that he has been speaking from a pedestal, or
from a tribunal. As if he said, "Do not think that I, or my friends in Christ, would say to the
world, Jewish or Gentile, that we are holier than you. No; we speak not from the bench, but from
the bar. Apart from Him who is our peace and life, we are ‘in the same condemnation.’ It is
exactly because we are in it that we turn and say to you, ‘Do not ye fear God?"’ On the whole, this
latter reference seems the truer to the thought and spirit of the whole context.
For we have already charged Jews and Greeks, all of them, with being under sin; with being
brought under sin, as the Greek bids us more exactly render, giving us the thought that the race
has fallen from a good estate into an evil; self-involved in an awful super-incumbent ruin. As it
stands written, that there is not even one man righteous; there is not a man who understands,
not a man who seeks his (τᆵν) God. All have left the road; they have turned worthless together.
There is not a man who does what is good, there is not. even so many as one. A grave set open is
their throat, exhaling the stench of polluted words; with their tongues they have deceived; asp’s
venom is under their lips; (men) whose mouth is brimming with curse and bitterness. Swift are
their feet to shed blood; ruin and misery for their victims are in their ways; and the way of peace
they never knew. There is no such thing as fear of God before their eyes.
Here is a tesselation of Old Testament oracles. The fragments, hard and dark, come from divers
quarries; from the Psalms, (Psa_5:9; Psa_10:7; Psa_14:1-3; Psa_36:1; Psa_140:3) from the
Proverbs, (Pro_1:16) from Isaiah. (Isa_59:7) All in the first instance depict and denounce classes
of sins and sinners in Israelite society; and we may wonder at first sight how their evidence
convicts all men everywhere, and in all time, of condemnable and fatal sin. But we need not
only, in submission, own that somehow it must be so, for "it stands written" here; we may see, in
part, now it is so. These special charges against certain sorts of human lives stand in the same
Book which levels the general charge against "the human heart," (Jer_17:9) that it is "deceitful
above all things, hopelessly diseased," and incapable of knowing all its own corruption. The
crudest surface phenomena of sin are thus never isolated from the dire underlying epidemic of
the race of man. The actual evil of men shows the potential evil of man. The tiger strokes of open
wickedness show the tiger nature, which is always present, even when its possessor least
suspects it. Circumstances infinitely vary, and among them those internal circumstances which
we call special tastes and dispositions. But everywhere amidst them all is the human heart, made
upright in its creation, self-wrecked into moral wrongness when it turned itself from God. That
it is turned from Him, not to Him, appears when its direction is tested by the collision between

His claim and its will And in this aversion from the Holy One, who claims the whole heart, there
lies at least the potency of "all unrighteousness."
Long after this, as his glorious rest drew near, St. Paul wrote again of the human heart, to "his
true son" Titus. (Tit_3:3) He reminds him of the wonder of that saving grace which he so fully
unfolds in this Epistle; how, "not according to our works," the "God who loveth man" had saved
Titus, and saved Paul. And what had he saved them from? From a state in which they were
"disobedient, deceived, the slaves of divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,
hateful, hating one another." What, the loyal and laborious Titus, the chaste, the upright, the
unutterably earnest Paul? Is not the picture greatly, lamentably exaggerated, a burst of religious
rhetoric? Adolphe Monod tells us that he once thought it must be so; he felt himself quite unable
to submit to the awful witness. But years moved, and he saw deeper into himself, seeing deeper
into the holiness of God; and the truthfulness of that passage grew upon him. Not that its
difficulties all vanished, but its truthfulness shone out, "and sure I am," he said from his death
bed, "that when this veil of flesh shall fall I shall recognise in that passage the truest portrait ever
painted of my own natural heart."
Robert Browning, in a poem of terrible moral interest and power, confesses that, amidst a
thousand doubts and difficulties, his mind was anchored to faith in Christianity by the fact of its
doctrine of Sin:
"I still, to suppose it true, for my part See reasons and reasons; this, to begin; ‘Tis the faith that
launched point-blank her dart At the head of a lie; taught Original Sin, The Corruption of Man’s
Heart."
Now we know that whatever things the Law says, it speaks them to those in the Law, those
within its range, its dominion; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may. prove
guilty with regard to God. "The Law"; that is to say, here, the Old Testament Revelation. This not
only contains the Mosaic and Prophetic moral code, but has it for one grand pervading object, in
all its parts, to prepare man for Christ by exposing him to himself, in his shame and need. It
shows him in a thousand ways that "he cannot serve the Lord," (Jos_24:19) on purpose that in
that same Lord he may take refuge from both his guilt and his impotency. And this it does for
"those in the Law"; that is to say here, primarily, for the Race, the Church, whom it surrounded
with its light of holy fire, and whom in this passage the Apostle has in his first thoughts. Yet
they, surely, are not alone upon his mind. We have seen already how "the Law" is, after all, only
the more full and direct enunciation of "law"; so that the Gentile as well as the Jew has to do
with the light, and with the responsibility, of a knowledge of the will of God. While the chain of
stern quotations we have just handled lies heaviest on Israel, it yet binds the world. It "shuts
every mouth." It drags man in guilty before God.
"That every mouth may be stopped." Oh, solemn silence, when at last it comes! The harsh or
muffled voices of self-defence, of self-assertion are hushed at length. The man, like one of old,
when he saw his righteous self in the light of God, "lays his hand on his mouth". (Job_11:4) He
leaves speech to God, and learns at last to listen. What shall he hear? An external repudiation?
An objurgation, and then a final and exterminating anathema? No, something far other, and
better, and more wonderful. But there must first be silence on man’s part, if it is to be heard.
"Hear-and your souls shall live."
So the great argument pauses, gathered up into an utterance which at once concentrates what
has gone before, and prepares us for a glorious sequel. Shut thy mouth, O man, and listen now:
Because by means of works of law there shall be justified no flesh in His presence; for by means
of law comes moral knowledge of sin.

HE RY, “Here the apostle answers several objections, which might be made, to clear his
way. o truth so plain and evident but wicked wits and corrupt carnal hearts will have
something to say against it; but divine truths must be cleared from cavil.
Object. 1. If Jew and Gentile stand so much upon the same level before God, what
advantage then hath the Jew? Hath not God often spoken with a great deal of respect for
the Jews, as a non-such people (Deut. xxxiii. 29), a holy nation, a peculiar treasure, the seed
of Abraham his friend: Did not he institute circumcision as a badge of their church-
membership, and a seal of their covenant-relation to God? ow does not this levelling
doctrine deny them all such prerogatives, and reflect dishonour upon the ordinance of
circumcision, as a fruitless insignificant thing.
Answer. The Jews are, notwithstanding this, a people greatly privileged and honoured,
have great means and helps, though these be not infallibly saving (v. 2): Much every way.
The door is open to the Gentiles as well as the Jews, but the Jews have a fairer way up to
this door, by reason of their church-privileges, which are not to be undervalued, though
many that have them perish eternally for not improving them. He reckons up many of the
Jews' privileges Rom. ix. 4, 5; here he mentions but one (which is indeed instar omnium--
equivalent to all), that unto them were committed the oracles of God, that is, the scriptures
of the Old Testament, especially the law of Moses, which is called the lively oracles (Acts vii.
38), and those types, promises, and prophecies, which relate to Christ and the gospel. The
scriptures are the oracles of God: they are a divine revelation, they come from heaven, are
of infallible truth, and of eternal consequence as oracles. The Septuagint call the Urim and
Thummim the logia--the oracles. The scripture is our breast-plate of judgment. We must
have recourse to the law and to the testimony, as to an oracle. The gospel is called the
oracles of God, Heb. v. 12; 1 Pet. iv. 11. ow these oracles were committed to the Jews; the
Old Testament was written in their language; Moses and the prophets were of their nation,
lived among them, preached and wrote primarily to and for the Jews. They were
committed to them as trustees for succeeding ages and churches. The Old Testament was
deposited in their hands, to be carefully preserved pure and uncorrupt, and so transmitted
down to posterity. The Jews were the Christians' library-keepers, were entrusted with that
sacred treasure for their own use and benefit in the first place, and then for the advantage
of the world; and, in preserving the letter of the scripture, they were very faithful to their
trust, did not lose one iota or tittle, in which we are to acknowledge God's gracious care
and providence. The Jews had the means of salvation, but they had not the monopoly of
salvation. ow this he mentions with a chiefly, proton men gar--this was their prime and
principal privilege. The enjoyment of God's word and ordinances is the chief happiness of a
people, is to be put in the imprimis of their advantages, Deut. iv. 8; xxxiii. 3; Ps. cxlvii. 20.
Object. 2. Against what he had said of the advantages the Jews had in the lively oracles,
some might object the unbelief of many of them. To what purpose were the oracles of God
committed to them, when so many of them, notwithstanding these oracles, continued
strangers to Christ, and enemies to his gospel? Some did not believe, v. 3.
Answer. It is very true that some, nay most of the present Jews, do not believe in Christ;

but shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? The apostle startles at such a
thought: God forbid! The infidelity and obstinacy of the Jews could not invalidate and
overthrow those prophecies of the Messiah which were contained in the oracles committed
to them. Christ will be glorious, though Israel be not gathered, Isa. xlix. 5. God's words
shall be accomplished, his purposes performed, and all his ends answered, though there be
a generation that by their unbelief go about to make God a liar. Let God be true but every
man a liar; let us abide by this principle, that God is true to every word which he has
spoken, and will let none of his oracles fall to the ground, though thereby we give the lie to
man; better question and overthrow the credit of all the men in the world than doubt of the
faithfulness of God. What David said in his haste (Ps. cxvi. 11), that all men are liars, Paul
here asserts deliberately. Lying is a limb of that old man which we every one of us come
into the world clothed with. All men are fickle, and mutable, and given to change, vanity
and a lie (Ps. lxii. 9), altogether vanity, Ps. xxxix. 5. All men are liars, compared with God.
It is very comfortable, when we find every man a liar (no faith in man), that God is faithful.
When they speak vanity every one with his neighbour, it is very comfortable to think that
the words of the Lord are pure words, Ps. xii. 2, 6. For the further proof of this he quotes
Ps. li. 4, That thou mightest be justified, the design of which is to show, 1. That God does
and will preserve his own honour in the world, notwithstanding the sins of men. 2. That it is
our duty, in all our conclusions concerning ourselves and others, to justify God and to
assert and maintain his justice, truth, and goodness, however it goes. David lays a load
upon himself in his confession, that he might justify God, and acquit him from any
injustice. So here, Let the credit or reputation of man shift for itself, the matter is not great
whether it sink or swim; let us hold fast this conclusion, how specious soever the premises
may be to the contrary, that the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
Thus is God justified in his sayings, and cleared when he judges (as it is Ps. li. 4), or when
he is judged, as it is here rendered. When men presume to quarrel with God and his
proceedings, we may be sure the sentence will go on God's side.
SBC, “Preciousness of the Bible.
I. Think of the wonderful providence which has watched over the Bible from the beginning.
There is no miracle comparable to that which has preserved to us the Scriptures amid all the
convulsions of society, after so many centuries of persecution, neglect, superstition, and
ignorance—that we should still possess the writings of Moses in their freshness, what a miracle
of providence is that!
II. The Old Testament presupposes the New. Neither would be intelligible without the other.
And both alike have the same mysterious texture—call it typical, mystical, spiritual, or what you
will—whereby the common events of men’s lives and the ordinary course of human history are
found to be expressive of heavenly truths—to be instinct with divinest teaching woven into the
very midst of the sacred narrative; from the Alpha to the Omega of it are found the mysteries of
redemption, the secret purposes and practices of God. And why is all this but because God
Himself is in it, because His Spirit hath inspired it in every part? The Scripture is the very shrine
of the Eternal—the Holy of Holies, in which the Shekinah of Glory dwelleth, and where God’s
voice is heard speaking to man. It is called the Word of God, less because it is His utterance than
because it is Divine as well as human—shares the nature of Him whose name in heaven is even
now the Word of God. And need I dwell on the grand mystery of all, the awful circumstance that
the gospel not only discourses to us of the Eternal Son come in the flesh, but actually exhibits
Him to us? In what relation, then, to the ancient oracles of God is our Saviour Christ found to
stand as the constant witness to their infallible truth, their paramount value, their Divine origin?

They are for ever on His lips. What wonder if, in reply to the question as to what was the Jews’
advantage, the Apostle answered, "Much every way," chiefly because that unto them were
committed the oracles of God.
J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 3.
MEYER, “ GOD FAITHFUL THOUGH MEN BE FAITHLESS
Rom_3:1-8
The Jewish people had a great treasure entrusted to them for the benefit of the whole world.
This position as stewards for mankind conferred upon them very special privileges, but also
exposed them to searching discipline, if they should prove faithless. Some of these advantages
are enumerated in Rom_9:4-5. But our failures cannot cancel God’s faithfulness to His covenant
promises, 2Ti_2:13. We may always reckon confidently upon His steadfastness to His
engagements, whether to the individual or to the nation. It is wonderful, Rom_3:5, how human
sin has been a foil to God’s glory, eliciting qualities in His love which otherwise had been
unknown; but this cannot excuse our sinfulness.
If this excuse were admitted, God would clearly have been unjust in punishing sin as He has
done; and if that line of argument were maintained, it would be right to do evil, if good were
always the outcome. Such an admission would open the door to all kinds of abomination, and
the mere suggestion of such a conclusion to this argument ought to silence the objector and
cover him with shame.
BARCLAY, “GOD'S FIDELITY A D MA 'S I FIDELITY
Rom. 3:1-8
What, then, is the something plus which belongs to a Jew? Or what special advantage
belongs to those who have been circumcised? Much in every way. In the first place, there is
this advantage--that the Jews have been entrusted with the oracles of God. Yes, you say, but
what if some of them were unfaithful to them? Surely you are not going to argue that their
infidelity invalidates the fidelity of God? God forbid! Let God be shown to be true, though
every man be shown to be a liar, as it stands written: "In order that you may be seen to be
in the right in your arguments, and that you may win your case when you enter into
judgment." But, you say, if our unrighteousness merely provides proof of God's
righteousness, what are we to say? Surely you are not going to try to argue that God is
unrighteous to unleash the Wrath upon you? (I am using human arguments:) God forbid!
For, if that were so, how shall God judge the world? But, you say, if the fact that I am false
merely provides a further opportunity to demonstrate the fact that God is true, to his
greater glory, why should I still be condemned as a sinner? Are you going to argue--just as
some slanderously allege that we suggest--that we should do evil that good may come of it?
Anyone can see that statements like that merit nothing but condemnation.
Here Paul is arguing in the closest and the most difficult way. It will make it easier to
understand if we remember that he is carrying on an argument with an imaginary objector.
The argument stated in full would run something like this.
The objector: The result of all that you have been saying is that there is no difference
between Gentile and Jew and that they are in exactly the same position. Do you really mean

Romans 3 commentary

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