Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
There is one God who is God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and the circumcision are the Jews while the uncircumcision are the Gentiles. He justifies both Jews and Gentiles on the same terms through faith, with no difference and no partiality. The words by faith and through faith name the same means of justification with no difference in method between the groups, while those who held a distinction teach that the verse distinguishes justification by faith for the circumcision and through faith for the uncircumcision. That justification is God's free gift by grace through personal faith in Jesus, His atoning death and His blood, not earned by works of the law, since all have sinned by transgressing the law and righteousness must come from another source wrought out by Christ's perfect obedience. Such faith does not make the law void but establishes it, bringing deliverance from its curse and condemnation and not from the obligation to obey, and it is the one changeless way of salvation in every age by which Old Testament saints from Abel and Abraham onward were saved under grace by living faith in the same Christ.
Terms and Wording
Circumcision denotes the Jews and uncircumcision denotes the Gentiles, and the one God justifies both groups through faith. That justification is the only way fallen humanity can be justified and saved, namely by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, making no difference between Jew and Gentile. All have sinned by breaking the law and have come short of the glory of God, so that by the law all the world is proved guilty before God, and past transgression cannot be undone by merely ceasing to sin now, since no one can do more than his whole duty to fear God and keep His commandments, which is love to God with all the heart and love to neighbor as self as the sum of the law. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and whether Jew or Gentile, whoever comes to God must believe that He is and that He rewards all who diligently seek Him, for neither group is justified by works of the law but righteousness is God's free gift to everyone who believes. Faith has Christ as its object and brings His life into the heart and therefore brings righteousness, laying the foundation for holy obedience and honoring the law rather than rewarding mere acceptance of certain teachings. Salvation is thus open equally to both, and God's people or true Israel are not limited to Jacob's natural descendants but include those whose hearts belong to God, the law having been entrusted to the Jews for a time to keep and pass down without being given to them exclusively.
By faith and through faith name the same means of justification with no difference in method between the groups, and the article in the second phrase points more specifically to that same faith. The saving faith and the plan of salvation come from the same divine Father for believing Jews and believing Gentiles alike. A believing Gentile is counted righteous, while an unbelieving Jew has no advantage over any other unbeliever.
The verse distinguishes justification by faith for the circumcision and through faith for the uncircumcision, within a chapter that establishes the law of God and shows keeping God's commandments to be consistent with Paul's teaching.
One God means He is God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews, over Jews and Gentiles alike. There is no difference between Jew and Greek, because Jews are not better than Gentiles but both are all under sin, with none righteous and none seeking God, and every mouth stopped and all the world guilty before God. By the deeds of the law no flesh is justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, but the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, so that all who have sinned are justified freely by grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood for the remission of past sins, that He might be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. This is the way found to bring sinners who have not kept the law and cannot be justified by works of the law into harmony with the law of God which demands perfect righteousness, so they can be fitted to dwell in His perfectly righteous kingdom. He who is God of the Jews being also God of the Gentiles, the same covenant of the Ten Commandments enjoined upon Israel is enjoined upon Gentile nations and remains perpetually binding on them, and the same law that convicted Paul of sin must convict and convert the Gentiles, for to set it aside for them would be another gospel. He puts both right with Himself in the same way by faith through Christ's once-for-all cross, doing the same work for every person and nothing separate for circumcised people that He does not do for the rest, which proves the promises made to the fathers were for all mankind.
Epistle Setting and Argument
Romans was written by Paul to the church at Rome composed of both Jews and Gentiles. Some members of the Roman church were Jews, and the church also included Gentiles.
The surrounding argument proves that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin, with none righteous and none seeking God, every mouth stopped and all the world guilty before God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God because sin is transgression of the law and all have broken the law, and by the law all the world is proved guilty before God. By the deeds or works of the law no flesh can be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, and there is no righteousness in the law for the transgressor. The law speaks to those under the law so that every mouth is stopped and all the world is brought under the judgment of God, which proves the failure of man's attempt to be saved by keeping the law. Past transgressions cannot be justified by now ceasing to sin, for none can do more than his whole duty to fear God and keep His commandments, which is love to God with all the heart and love to neighbor as self as the sum of the law, so without faith it is impossible to please God, and he that comes to God, whether Jew or Gentile, must believe that He is and that He rewards all who diligently seek Him. Jews and Gentiles are proved sinners by the same Old Testament Scriptures, which proves Gentiles are amenable to the law given to Israel and that all the world is guilty by that law. That office of giving knowledge of sin proves the law is perpetual and is the pre-existing basis without which the gospel remedy of pardon and salvation is a nullity, and the oracles of God entrusted to the Jews were the living oracles to be given to all, for if Jewish unbelief made God's faithfulness of no effect God could not judge the world.
Romans gives a clear, logical teaching of justification by faith, which presents the gospel as God's power over sinful people. It is the argument for justification and life through Jesus Christ, presenting the gospel as salvation from wrongdoing and from the consequences of human wrongdoing, with pardon of sin vindicating God's justice and bringing glory to God as well as good to people. Salvation is not a remedy for harm caused by God's law, but people are saved and justified by faith, not by human works. Romans is an argument upon the perpetuity and universality of God's law, its binding obligation upon every soul, and the relationship of the law to the gospel, which is the power of God to bring every longing soul into perfect harmony with God's government.
The passage refers to a real law that people have broken and that made a real atonement necessary, identified as the Ten Commandments, with Christ's death providing the atonement the sanctuary sacrifices foreshadowed but could not accomplish. Its original revelation is found in the Old Testament, not as a new law published in the New Testament, and Christ's death and priestly atonement were made necessary by transgression of that law.
One God, One Way
The one God justifies both Jews and Gentiles on the same terms through faith, with no difference and no partiality between them. Circumcision and uncircumcision are both justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law, because all have sinned and all the world has become guilty before God. The gospel call is to whosoever believes and whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord, unto everlasting life for Jew and Gentile alike in Christ and in His blood. This justification is God's work for all who believe, not a privilege limited to one people, and salvation is open equally to both through faith.
Neither circumcision nor birth gives special standing or a separate claim to justification and blessing, and outward distinctions do not determine who receives grace. Uncircumcision does not exclude the Gentile, and neither group has an ethnic privilege that makes faith unnecessary or replaces it with sight. Both must believe in and receive Christ, for belonging to Abraham's family and receiving justification depend on faith, not literal descent. An unbelieving Jew has no advantage over any other unbeliever, since all have sinned and justification is by faith, which excludes boasting and makes the promise available to all who believe. Abraham's natural descendants, like all other believers, must receive the blessing through faith rather than birth or the law.
The promises made to the fathers were for all mankind, because Christ does the same work for every person through His once-for-all cross and does not do something separate for circumcised people that He does not do for the rest. God's people, or true Israel, are not limited to Jacob's descendants but include those whose hearts belong to God, who are heirs of the promise and obtain it only by faith. The same subject is carried forward in Romans 9-11 concerning who are true Israelites and how alone the promise is obtained.
Access to God is not confined by nation, place, or religious identity, for He is not the God of one nation alone. He cannot rightly be treated as a national or partisan deity who grants one people victory over another, and Christianity is universal, not partisan or national. Saving faith is found not in a particular place such as Palestine, but in Jesus Christ, who is accessible to all people everywhere through the administration of the eternal Spirit. Any idea that God has special blessings for one nation of earth that He has not for others, whether called Jews, Israelites, Anglo-Saxons, Englishmen, or anything else, is a direct denial of the gospel of the grace of God.
There is one changeless way of salvation in every age for Jews and Gentiles alike: justification by faith in Christ. Old Testament saints were never saved because they kept the law and were never justified by works; the individual saint was always saved under grace by living faith through the same Christ, from Abel and Abraham onward. By the works of the law no flesh is justified in His sight, which proves the failure of man's attempt to be saved by keeping the law, while apart from the law a righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe has been manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets. Living faith surrenders the will to God and expresses itself in obedience; obedience does not earn salvation or give life to faith, but follows and sustains its life. The specific requirements that obedience involved varied across different ages, with law first and grace afterward in the Old Testament order and grace first and law afterward in the New, but the way of entering a saved state never changed.
Justification by Faith
Justification is God's free gift by grace through personal faith in Jesus, His atoning death and His blood, not earned by works of the law. Righteousness comes through faith in Christ rather than through deeds of the law, since all have transgressed the law and no one can become righteous by it. It is not a reward for accepting certain teachings, for faith has Christ as its object and brings His life into the heart, and therefore brings righteousness. Past transgressions cannot be justified by now ceasing to sin, for none can do more than whole duty in fearing God and keeping His commandments, which is love to God with all the heart and love to neighbor as self as the sum of the law, so he that comes to God, whether Jew or Gentile, must believe that He is and that He rewards all who diligently seek Him. Human efforts to secure salvation by works leave people in bondage, while without faith it is impossible to please God.
Since all have sinned by transgressing the law and come short of the glory of God, righteousness must come from another source than the law. By the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, and there is no righteousness in the law for the transgressor. That source is Christ Jesus, in whom the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. That righteousness was wrought out by Christ's perfect obedience in keeping His Father's commandments, and all who believe become partakers of it by faith and are made righteous and become children of God. It accords with the law and is the very righteousness of the law itself, although the law is universal in jurisdiction and states the righteousness of God while giving no one righteousness by it.
God can be just while justifying the believer because Christ took human nature, bore sin's penalty in the sinner's place, and offered His own life as ransom and propitiation for remission of past sins. The cross satisfies the law's claims and demonstrates that God's law is righteous and unchanging, and salvation is not a remedy for harm caused by God's law but salvation from wrongdoing with pardon vindicating God's justice. Having offered the great propitiation through which guilty man may come to God and find pardon for transgression of His holy law, Christ returned to the Father and ministers as great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary before the ark containing His Father's law. Whoever repents of transgression and comes to God through the Advocate finds pardon for all sins, while the law still stands and points to death and condemnation and the mercy-seat above that law with Christ's blood sprinkled upon it avails for pardon, redemption and forgiveness.
The justification spoken of is for past offenses, the remission of sins past through grace by the blood of Christ, with works entirely excluded. No one can work out a justification for an offense already committed, so works do not procure that remission. This forgiveness leaves the justified person just before God and standing free. It is distinct from prevention of future sin and from salvation pursued through patient continuance in well-doing in the justified life that follows, where obedience is the fruit of faith and the means of preventing sin rather than curing past offenses. Faith does not save without works in the sense that obedience belongs to the justified life that follows, yet obedience does not earn forgiveness for past sin.
Faith has Christ as its object and brings His life, mind, and spotless righteousness into the heart to cover sins and create a new creature. This is the mystery of the gospel, Christ in people the hope of glory, God in Christ working His own righteousness. Christ offers to all sinners His own absolute spotless righteousness to cover all sins, His mind to do God's will, and His life with the power of an eternal overcomer. That righteousness is put within and upon all who believe, making them doers of the law, for faith alone makes a person a doer of the law. Redemption, new creation in Christ, and salvation include this justification by faith which is counted for righteousness.
Justification by faith leaves no ground for boasting. The law of faith excludes boasting that one group alone has the gospel and heaping flattering titles and praise on its ministers. Since all have sinned and justification is by faith, Abraham's natural descendants, like all other believers, must receive blessing through faith rather than birth or law, for circumcision does not give a separate claim and uncircumcision does not exclude.
Law Established by Faith
Faith does not make the law void, powerless, unnecessary, or abolished, but establishes it and maintains God's justice, and to preach that faith abolishes the law contradicts the apostle's positive statement. Since all have transgressed the law no one can become righteous by its deeds, and righteousness received through faith in Christ and His blood is in keeping with the law which bears witness to it. This justification by faith does not make God's law powerless or unnecessary because the gospel restores people to lives of obedience, with the law becoming the life and saving power of Christ within the believer. Being justified does not make transgression permissible, for those restored are to obey the law whose violation brings sin and death.
The law thus established is God's moral law summed up in the Ten Commandments, frequently called the law in the New Testament and including the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath kept by the Jews. It is holy, just, good, perpetual, and universal in jurisdiction, binding the whole world and not only one people or class, and therefore applies to both Jews and Gentiles. It is distinct from the handwriting of ordinances that was blotted out and nailed to the cross. People have broken a real law and need a real atonement, and Christ's death provides the atonement the sanctuary sacrifices foreshadowed but could not accomplish. He who is God of the Jews is also God of the Gentiles, so the same covenant of the ten commandments enjoined upon Israel is enjoined upon Gentile nations and remains perpetually binding on them, and to set aside that law for them would be preaching another gospel.
Jews and Gentiles sustain the same relation to that law and are judged by the same law according to conduct, for one law rules the judgment of all. Both are proved sinners and condemned as violators by the same Old Testament Scriptures, which proves Gentiles are amenable to the law given to Israel and that all the world is guilty by that law, so Gentiles are not free from its obligation and all will be judged by it. The law is universal in jurisdiction so no one can get righteousness by it although it states the righteousness of God, and circumcision and uncircumcision are both justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law. Both repentance and faith recognize the law, and every promise of God refers to and hangs upon that law. The failure of Acts 15 to enjoin the Sabbath and other commandments does not release Gentiles from obligation to keep the law.
Being justified does not exempt anyone from the law's claims, for deliverance by faith is deliverance from its curse and condemnation, not from the obligation to obey. Those restored are to leave sin, go and sin no more, and live in obedience, with obedience to the law as well as obedience to faith still required. Justification by faith remits past offenses and works do not procure that remission, yet faith does not save without works since obedience is the fruit of faith. The commandments cannot be kept acceptably except by faith in Christ, and faith is dead unless manifested and made perfect in good works in keeping the commandments, so justification by faith brings the keeping of the law into the life.
Faith cleanses the heart from sin, removes the carnal mind that is enmity against God and not subject to His law, writes the law within, restores love to God, and fulfills the law's righteousness in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. This forgiveness leaves the justified standing free, but it joins cure with prevention, for Christ both freely forgives past sins through His blood with works entirely excluded because no one can work out a justification for a past offense, and also saves from sin and makes the justified at peace with God and subject to His law. True faith brings good works by working through love, and love is the fulfilling of the law, while works without faith are dead works and sin before God.
The oracles of God and the law were committed to the Jews in trust to keep and pass on to others, not because they alone were accountable to it, for they kept it in charge and through them the law and the Scriptures were handed down to others. Without them God could not judge the world, and twenty-seven years after Christ's death they still comprised the only known rule of righteousness. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and that office proves the law is perpetual and is the pre-existing basis without which the gospel remedy of pardon and salvation is a nullity. The change in who bears the promise does not change God's moral law, for Israel had served as its keeper and transmitter and belonging to God is not limited to literal descent, with true Israel including those whose hearts belong to God.
Christ's blood offers pardon to guilty people without dishonoring God or making void His law but magnifies and honors it, and Christ's death for its transgression upholds and vindicates it. His ministration of pleading His blood before the ark of God in the heavenly tabernacle does not blot out the holy law contained in the ark. The law still stands and points the fallen race of Adam to the just sentence of death and condemnation resting upon them, while the mercy-seat above that law with Christ's blood sprinkled upon it takes away sins and avails for pardon, redemption and forgiveness. The law's claims will be vindicated when mercy gives way to justice.
Life Under Justification
The one God who is God of Gentiles as well as Jews justifies both the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith, and this is the way found to bring sinners who have not kept the law and cannot be justified by works of the law into harmony with the law of God which demands perfect righteousness, so they can be fitted to dwell in the perfectly righteous kingdom of God. God applies the same just rule to people of every age, and each person chooses which class to belong to, for faith does not make the law void but establishes it. Those whose hearts and words come into harmony with God are fit for life with Him, while those who refuse are justly held accountable.
Righteousness, justification, being made just or in harmony with God, is given to all who give up sin and believe on Jesus. The peace Christ gives is a condition, not a thing, and does not come by seeking it but by yielding to God and His holy law in Christ Jesus. Christ offers to all sinners His own absolute spotless righteousness to cover all sins, His mind to do God's will, and His life with the power of an eternal overcomer, which kept Him at peace with God. When the heart is yielded to Him, whatever its past condition, there is peace, and if held there by living faith there remains the peace that passes understanding.
There is no middle ground between condemnation and justification, and those who are free from condemnation are those who are justified by faith in Christ, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. People are pardoned through faith and repentance, and grace rescues them from the law's condemnation rather than giving them permission to break God's law. Being under grace and under the new covenant means deliverance from sin's condemnation, not from obedience to God's law and not permission to break it.
By the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, and there is no righteousness in the law for the transgressor because all the world has transgressed the law and become guilty before God. Righteousness must come from another source than the law, and that source is Christ Jesus, in whom the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets. That righteousness was wrought out by Christ's perfect obedience in keeping His Father's commandments, and all who believe become partakers of it by faith of Jesus Christ and are made righteous and become children of God. It accords with the law and is the very righteousness of the law itself, so faith does not make void the law but establishes it. The commandments cannot be kept acceptably except by faith in Christ, and faith is dead unless manifested and made perfect in good works in keeping the commandments, so justification by faith brings the keeping of the law into the life.
Justification by faith concerns remission of past offenses and does not mean that faith saves without works, since genuine faith also works through love and leads to obedience. Obedience does not earn forgiveness for past sin, for Christ renews the heart and supplies the strength to obey, so He receives the glory for that obedience. Justification by faith therefore leaves the law in force as a rule of life and gives no license to sin. The one God justifies people by faith without the deeds of the law, freely by His grace. Faith ends where force begins, so religious institutions cannot be enforced by human law, and the gospel knows no other power than the Holy Spirit. True faith brings good works by working through love, and love is the fulfilling of the law, while works without faith are dead works and sin before God, so justification by faith is not against good works.
Justification comes by faith which is counted for righteousness, giving the righteousness of Christ so a sinner is made just and can be created in Christ Jesus as a new creature, and redemption, new creation in Christ, and salvation include this justification by faith. Therefore the seventh-day Sabbath, blessed and sanctified by Christ at creation and made for man, is the sign forever given by God of justification by faith. Remembering it to keep it holy is the evidence of acceptance of the Lord's perpetual covenant and will be the sign by which God's sealed people are known at the end of probation. No mere formal observance can counterfeit it, because the faith that truly keeps the Sabbath keeps all the commandments.
It is one God who justifies both the circumcision and the uncircumcision by faith and through faith, with no difference between Jew and Greek. God is not partial and does not favor some people more than others, and the gospel call is whosoever believes, whosoever will, and whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved to everlasting life. Any idea that God has special blessings for one nation of earth that He has not for others, whether called Jews, Israelites, Anglo-Saxons, Englishmen, or anything else, is a direct denial of the gospel of the grace of God taught in this verse. The same Savior and moral code apply to both Jews and Gentiles alike through faith, not by separate standards of salvation, and God does not change His requirements from one people or age to another. The law of faith excludes boasting, so boasting that one group alone has the gospel and heaping flattering titles and praise on its ministers breaks the law of faith.
There is one God who is God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and the circumcision are the Jews while the uncircumcision are the Gentiles. He justifies both Jews and Gentiles on the same terms through faith, with no difference and no partiality. The words by faith and through faith name the same means of justification with no difference in method between the groups, while those who held a distinction teach that the verse distinguishes justification by faith for the circumcision and through faith for the uncircumcision. That justification is God's free gift by grace through personal faith in Jesus, His atoning death and His blood, not earned by works of the law, since all have sinned by transgressing the law and righteousness must come from another source wrought out by Christ's perfect obedience. Such faith does not make the law void but establishes it, bringing deliverance from its curse and condemnation and not from the obligation to obey, and it is the one changeless way of salvation in every age by which Old Testament saints from Abel and Abraham onward were saved under grace by living faith in the same Christ.
Terms and Wording
Circumcision denotes the Jews and uncircumcision denotes the Gentiles, and the one God justifies both groups through faith. That justification is the only way fallen humanity can be justified and saved, namely by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, making no difference between Jew and Gentile. All have sinned by breaking the law and have come short of the glory of God, so that by the law all the world is proved guilty before God, and past transgression cannot be undone by merely ceasing to sin now, since no one can do more than his whole duty to fear God and keep His commandments, which is love to God with all the heart and love to neighbor as self as the sum of the law. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and whether Jew or Gentile, whoever comes to God must believe that He is and that He rewards all who diligently seek Him, for neither group is justified by works of the law but righteousness is God's free gift to everyone who believes. Faith has Christ as its object and brings His life into the heart and therefore brings righteousness, laying the foundation for holy obedience and honoring the law rather than rewarding mere acceptance of certain teachings. Salvation is thus open equally to both, and God's people or true Israel are not limited to Jacob's natural descendants but include those whose hearts belong to God, the law having been entrusted to the Jews for a time to keep and pass down without being given to them exclusively.
By faith and through faith name the same means of justification with no difference in method between the groups, and the article in the second phrase points more specifically to that same faith. The saving faith and the plan of salvation come from the same divine Father for believing Jews and believing Gentiles alike. A believing Gentile is counted righteous, while an unbelieving Jew has no advantage over any other unbeliever.
The verse distinguishes justification by faith for the circumcision and through faith for the uncircumcision, within a chapter that establishes the law of God and shows keeping God's commandments to be consistent with Paul's teaching.
One God means He is God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews, over Jews and Gentiles alike. There is no difference between Jew and Greek, because Jews are not better than Gentiles but both are all under sin, with none righteous and none seeking God, and every mouth stopped and all the world guilty before God. By the deeds of the law no flesh is justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, but the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, so that all who have sinned are justified freely by grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood for the remission of past sins, that He might be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. This is the way found to bring sinners who have not kept the law and cannot be justified by works of the law into harmony with the law of God which demands perfect righteousness, so they can be fitted to dwell in His perfectly righteous kingdom. He who is God of the Jews being also God of the Gentiles, the same covenant of the Ten Commandments enjoined upon Israel is enjoined upon Gentile nations and remains perpetually binding on them, and the same law that convicted Paul of sin must convict and convert the Gentiles, for to set it aside for them would be another gospel. He puts both right with Himself in the same way by faith through Christ's once-for-all cross, doing the same work for every person and nothing separate for circumcised people that He does not do for the rest, which proves the promises made to the fathers were for all mankind.
Epistle Setting and Argument
Romans was written by Paul to the church at Rome composed of both Jews and Gentiles. Some members of the Roman church were Jews, and the church also included Gentiles.
The surrounding argument proves that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin, with none righteous and none seeking God, every mouth stopped and all the world guilty before God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God because sin is transgression of the law and all have broken the law, and by the law all the world is proved guilty before God. By the deeds or works of the law no flesh can be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, and there is no righteousness in the law for the transgressor. The law speaks to those under the law so that every mouth is stopped and all the world is brought under the judgment of God, which proves the failure of man's attempt to be saved by keeping the law. Past transgressions cannot be justified by now ceasing to sin, for none can do more than his whole duty to fear God and keep His commandments, which is love to God with all the heart and love to neighbor as self as the sum of the law, so without faith it is impossible to please God, and he that comes to God, whether Jew or Gentile, must believe that He is and that He rewards all who diligently seek Him. Jews and Gentiles are proved sinners by the same Old Testament Scriptures, which proves Gentiles are amenable to the law given to Israel and that all the world is guilty by that law. That office of giving knowledge of sin proves the law is perpetual and is the pre-existing basis without which the gospel remedy of pardon and salvation is a nullity, and the oracles of God entrusted to the Jews were the living oracles to be given to all, for if Jewish unbelief made God's faithfulness of no effect God could not judge the world.
Romans gives a clear, logical teaching of justification by faith, which presents the gospel as God's power over sinful people. It is the argument for justification and life through Jesus Christ, presenting the gospel as salvation from wrongdoing and from the consequences of human wrongdoing, with pardon of sin vindicating God's justice and bringing glory to God as well as good to people. Salvation is not a remedy for harm caused by God's law, but people are saved and justified by faith, not by human works. Romans is an argument upon the perpetuity and universality of God's law, its binding obligation upon every soul, and the relationship of the law to the gospel, which is the power of God to bring every longing soul into perfect harmony with God's government.
The passage refers to a real law that people have broken and that made a real atonement necessary, identified as the Ten Commandments, with Christ's death providing the atonement the sanctuary sacrifices foreshadowed but could not accomplish. Its original revelation is found in the Old Testament, not as a new law published in the New Testament, and Christ's death and priestly atonement were made necessary by transgression of that law.
One God, One Way
The one God justifies both Jews and Gentiles on the same terms through faith, with no difference and no partiality between them. Circumcision and uncircumcision are both justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law, because all have sinned and all the world has become guilty before God. The gospel call is to whosoever believes and whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord, unto everlasting life for Jew and Gentile alike in Christ and in His blood. This justification is God's work for all who believe, not a privilege limited to one people, and salvation is open equally to both through faith.
Neither circumcision nor birth gives special standing or a separate claim to justification and blessing, and outward distinctions do not determine who receives grace. Uncircumcision does not exclude the Gentile, and neither group has an ethnic privilege that makes faith unnecessary or replaces it with sight. Both must believe in and receive Christ, for belonging to Abraham's family and receiving justification depend on faith, not literal descent. An unbelieving Jew has no advantage over any other unbeliever, since all have sinned and justification is by faith, which excludes boasting and makes the promise available to all who believe. Abraham's natural descendants, like all other believers, must receive the blessing through faith rather than birth or the law.
The promises made to the fathers were for all mankind, because Christ does the same work for every person through His once-for-all cross and does not do something separate for circumcised people that He does not do for the rest. God's people, or true Israel, are not limited to Jacob's descendants but include those whose hearts belong to God, who are heirs of the promise and obtain it only by faith. The same subject is carried forward in Romans 9-11 concerning who are true Israelites and how alone the promise is obtained.
Access to God is not confined by nation, place, or religious identity, for He is not the God of one nation alone. He cannot rightly be treated as a national or partisan deity who grants one people victory over another, and Christianity is universal, not partisan or national. Saving faith is found not in a particular place such as Palestine, but in Jesus Christ, who is accessible to all people everywhere through the administration of the eternal Spirit. Any idea that God has special blessings for one nation of earth that He has not for others, whether called Jews, Israelites, Anglo-Saxons, Englishmen, or anything else, is a direct denial of the gospel of the grace of God.
There is one changeless way of salvation in every age for Jews and Gentiles alike: justification by faith in Christ. Old Testament saints were never saved because they kept the law and were never justified by works; the individual saint was always saved under grace by living faith through the same Christ, from Abel and Abraham onward. By the works of the law no flesh is justified in His sight, which proves the failure of man's attempt to be saved by keeping the law, while apart from the law a righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe has been manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets. Living faith surrenders the will to God and expresses itself in obedience; obedience does not earn salvation or give life to faith, but follows and sustains its life. The specific requirements that obedience involved varied across different ages, with law first and grace afterward in the Old Testament order and grace first and law afterward in the New, but the way of entering a saved state never changed.
Justification by Faith
Justification is God's free gift by grace through personal faith in Jesus, His atoning death and His blood, not earned by works of the law. Righteousness comes through faith in Christ rather than through deeds of the law, since all have transgressed the law and no one can become righteous by it. It is not a reward for accepting certain teachings, for faith has Christ as its object and brings His life into the heart, and therefore brings righteousness. Past transgressions cannot be justified by now ceasing to sin, for none can do more than whole duty in fearing God and keeping His commandments, which is love to God with all the heart and love to neighbor as self as the sum of the law, so he that comes to God, whether Jew or Gentile, must believe that He is and that He rewards all who diligently seek Him. Human efforts to secure salvation by works leave people in bondage, while without faith it is impossible to please God.
Since all have sinned by transgressing the law and come short of the glory of God, righteousness must come from another source than the law. By the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, and there is no righteousness in the law for the transgressor. That source is Christ Jesus, in whom the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. That righteousness was wrought out by Christ's perfect obedience in keeping His Father's commandments, and all who believe become partakers of it by faith and are made righteous and become children of God. It accords with the law and is the very righteousness of the law itself, although the law is universal in jurisdiction and states the righteousness of God while giving no one righteousness by it.
God can be just while justifying the believer because Christ took human nature, bore sin's penalty in the sinner's place, and offered His own life as ransom and propitiation for remission of past sins. The cross satisfies the law's claims and demonstrates that God's law is righteous and unchanging, and salvation is not a remedy for harm caused by God's law but salvation from wrongdoing with pardon vindicating God's justice. Having offered the great propitiation through which guilty man may come to God and find pardon for transgression of His holy law, Christ returned to the Father and ministers as great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary before the ark containing His Father's law. Whoever repents of transgression and comes to God through the Advocate finds pardon for all sins, while the law still stands and points to death and condemnation and the mercy-seat above that law with Christ's blood sprinkled upon it avails for pardon, redemption and forgiveness.
The justification spoken of is for past offenses, the remission of sins past through grace by the blood of Christ, with works entirely excluded. No one can work out a justification for an offense already committed, so works do not procure that remission. This forgiveness leaves the justified person just before God and standing free. It is distinct from prevention of future sin and from salvation pursued through patient continuance in well-doing in the justified life that follows, where obedience is the fruit of faith and the means of preventing sin rather than curing past offenses. Faith does not save without works in the sense that obedience belongs to the justified life that follows, yet obedience does not earn forgiveness for past sin.
Faith has Christ as its object and brings His life, mind, and spotless righteousness into the heart to cover sins and create a new creature. This is the mystery of the gospel, Christ in people the hope of glory, God in Christ working His own righteousness. Christ offers to all sinners His own absolute spotless righteousness to cover all sins, His mind to do God's will, and His life with the power of an eternal overcomer. That righteousness is put within and upon all who believe, making them doers of the law, for faith alone makes a person a doer of the law. Redemption, new creation in Christ, and salvation include this justification by faith which is counted for righteousness.
Justification by faith leaves no ground for boasting. The law of faith excludes boasting that one group alone has the gospel and heaping flattering titles and praise on its ministers. Since all have sinned and justification is by faith, Abraham's natural descendants, like all other believers, must receive blessing through faith rather than birth or law, for circumcision does not give a separate claim and uncircumcision does not exclude.
Law Established by Faith
Faith does not make the law void, powerless, unnecessary, or abolished, but establishes it and maintains God's justice, and to preach that faith abolishes the law contradicts the apostle's positive statement. Since all have transgressed the law no one can become righteous by its deeds, and righteousness received through faith in Christ and His blood is in keeping with the law which bears witness to it. This justification by faith does not make God's law powerless or unnecessary because the gospel restores people to lives of obedience, with the law becoming the life and saving power of Christ within the believer. Being justified does not make transgression permissible, for those restored are to obey the law whose violation brings sin and death.
The law thus established is God's moral law summed up in the Ten Commandments, frequently called the law in the New Testament and including the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath kept by the Jews. It is holy, just, good, perpetual, and universal in jurisdiction, binding the whole world and not only one people or class, and therefore applies to both Jews and Gentiles. It is distinct from the handwriting of ordinances that was blotted out and nailed to the cross. People have broken a real law and need a real atonement, and Christ's death provides the atonement the sanctuary sacrifices foreshadowed but could not accomplish. He who is God of the Jews is also God of the Gentiles, so the same covenant of the ten commandments enjoined upon Israel is enjoined upon Gentile nations and remains perpetually binding on them, and to set aside that law for them would be preaching another gospel.
Jews and Gentiles sustain the same relation to that law and are judged by the same law according to conduct, for one law rules the judgment of all. Both are proved sinners and condemned as violators by the same Old Testament Scriptures, which proves Gentiles are amenable to the law given to Israel and that all the world is guilty by that law, so Gentiles are not free from its obligation and all will be judged by it. The law is universal in jurisdiction so no one can get righteousness by it although it states the righteousness of God, and circumcision and uncircumcision are both justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law. Both repentance and faith recognize the law, and every promise of God refers to and hangs upon that law. The failure of Acts 15 to enjoin the Sabbath and other commandments does not release Gentiles from obligation to keep the law.
Being justified does not exempt anyone from the law's claims, for deliverance by faith is deliverance from its curse and condemnation, not from the obligation to obey. Those restored are to leave sin, go and sin no more, and live in obedience, with obedience to the law as well as obedience to faith still required. Justification by faith remits past offenses and works do not procure that remission, yet faith does not save without works since obedience is the fruit of faith. The commandments cannot be kept acceptably except by faith in Christ, and faith is dead unless manifested and made perfect in good works in keeping the commandments, so justification by faith brings the keeping of the law into the life.
Faith cleanses the heart from sin, removes the carnal mind that is enmity against God and not subject to His law, writes the law within, restores love to God, and fulfills the law's righteousness in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. This forgiveness leaves the justified standing free, but it joins cure with prevention, for Christ both freely forgives past sins through His blood with works entirely excluded because no one can work out a justification for a past offense, and also saves from sin and makes the justified at peace with God and subject to His law. True faith brings good works by working through love, and love is the fulfilling of the law, while works without faith are dead works and sin before God.
The oracles of God and the law were committed to the Jews in trust to keep and pass on to others, not because they alone were accountable to it, for they kept it in charge and through them the law and the Scriptures were handed down to others. Without them God could not judge the world, and twenty-seven years after Christ's death they still comprised the only known rule of righteousness. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and that office proves the law is perpetual and is the pre-existing basis without which the gospel remedy of pardon and salvation is a nullity. The change in who bears the promise does not change God's moral law, for Israel had served as its keeper and transmitter and belonging to God is not limited to literal descent, with true Israel including those whose hearts belong to God.
Christ's blood offers pardon to guilty people without dishonoring God or making void His law but magnifies and honors it, and Christ's death for its transgression upholds and vindicates it. His ministration of pleading His blood before the ark of God in the heavenly tabernacle does not blot out the holy law contained in the ark. The law still stands and points the fallen race of Adam to the just sentence of death and condemnation resting upon them, while the mercy-seat above that law with Christ's blood sprinkled upon it takes away sins and avails for pardon, redemption and forgiveness. The law's claims will be vindicated when mercy gives way to justice.
Life Under Justification
The one God who is God of Gentiles as well as Jews justifies both the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith, and this is the way found to bring sinners who have not kept the law and cannot be justified by works of the law into harmony with the law of God which demands perfect righteousness, so they can be fitted to dwell in the perfectly righteous kingdom of God. God applies the same just rule to people of every age, and each person chooses which class to belong to, for faith does not make the law void but establishes it. Those whose hearts and words come into harmony with God are fit for life with Him, while those who refuse are justly held accountable.
Righteousness, justification, being made just or in harmony with God, is given to all who give up sin and believe on Jesus. The peace Christ gives is a condition, not a thing, and does not come by seeking it but by yielding to God and His holy law in Christ Jesus. Christ offers to all sinners His own absolute spotless righteousness to cover all sins, His mind to do God's will, and His life with the power of an eternal overcomer, which kept Him at peace with God. When the heart is yielded to Him, whatever its past condition, there is peace, and if held there by living faith there remains the peace that passes understanding.
There is no middle ground between condemnation and justification, and those who are free from condemnation are those who are justified by faith in Christ, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. People are pardoned through faith and repentance, and grace rescues them from the law's condemnation rather than giving them permission to break God's law. Being under grace and under the new covenant means deliverance from sin's condemnation, not from obedience to God's law and not permission to break it.
By the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, and there is no righteousness in the law for the transgressor because all the world has transgressed the law and become guilty before God. Righteousness must come from another source than the law, and that source is Christ Jesus, in whom the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets. That righteousness was wrought out by Christ's perfect obedience in keeping His Father's commandments, and all who believe become partakers of it by faith of Jesus Christ and are made righteous and become children of God. It accords with the law and is the very righteousness of the law itself, so faith does not make void the law but establishes it. The commandments cannot be kept acceptably except by faith in Christ, and faith is dead unless manifested and made perfect in good works in keeping the commandments, so justification by faith brings the keeping of the law into the life.
Justification by faith concerns remission of past offenses and does not mean that faith saves without works, since genuine faith also works through love and leads to obedience. Obedience does not earn forgiveness for past sin, for Christ renews the heart and supplies the strength to obey, so He receives the glory for that obedience. Justification by faith therefore leaves the law in force as a rule of life and gives no license to sin. The one God justifies people by faith without the deeds of the law, freely by His grace. Faith ends where force begins, so religious institutions cannot be enforced by human law, and the gospel knows no other power than the Holy Spirit. True faith brings good works by working through love, and love is the fulfilling of the law, while works without faith are dead works and sin before God, so justification by faith is not against good works.
Justification comes by faith which is counted for righteousness, giving the righteousness of Christ so a sinner is made just and can be created in Christ Jesus as a new creature, and redemption, new creation in Christ, and salvation include this justification by faith. Therefore the seventh-day Sabbath, blessed and sanctified by Christ at creation and made for man, is the sign forever given by God of justification by faith. Remembering it to keep it holy is the evidence of acceptance of the Lord's perpetual covenant and will be the sign by which God's sealed people are known at the end of probation. No mere formal observance can counterfeit it, because the faith that truly keeps the Sabbath keeps all the commandments.
It is one God who justifies both the circumcision and the uncircumcision by faith and through faith, with no difference between Jew and Greek. God is not partial and does not favor some people more than others, and the gospel call is whosoever believes, whosoever will, and whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved to everlasting life. Any idea that God has special blessings for one nation of earth that He has not for others, whether called Jews, Israelites, Anglo-Saxons, Englishmen, or anything else, is a direct denial of the gospel of the grace of God taught in this verse. The same Savior and moral code apply to both Jews and Gentiles alike through faith, not by separate standards of salvation, and God does not change His requirements from one people or age to another. The law of faith excludes boasting, so boasting that one group alone has the gospel and heaping flattering titles and praise on its ministers breaks the law of faith.