God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
The verse rejects the claim that God is unfair to punish wrongdoing because human wrongdoing makes His right character stand out more clearly, since if that were true He could not judge the world at all. It affirms as certain that God will judge the world, and that His judgment is right and true and no human sin or unbelief can make Him unjust. That judgment follows a known rule, the law of God given in the Ten Commandments, whose continuing force upholds His authority and right to judge. All the world, Jews and Gentiles alike, stand guilty and condemned as breakers of that same universal law, yet pardon for past wrongs is given freely by grace through faith in Christ's blood apart from works of law. Faith does not do away with the law but establishes it, freeing from its condemnation while writing it in the heart unto a changed and obedient life that goes and sins no more.
Immediate Context and Wording
The verse answers the human objection that God would be unrighteous to visit wrath upon sin if human unrighteousness commends His righteousness, declaring that if that were so He could not judge the world. To deny His justice in punishing sin would make His judgment of the world impossible, for He must judge the world and His judgment is just. If sinning to display His righteousness made sinners immune from judgment, righteous judgment would be undermined, which the gospel maintains rather than sets aside. Sin does not excuse the sinner, and those who use grace to justify doing evil deserve judgment. The denial belongs to the condemnation of Jews who boasted of godliness while dishonoring God by practicing iniquity. Profession of Bible religion is of no avail without actual possession of God's righteousness, though some among the Jews were true to the religion they professed.
The words rendered God forbid mean not by any means, rejecting the idea that evil should be done so that good may come. The fact that grace abounds where sin abounds gives no reason to willfully increase sin, for to do so would be to receive God's grace in vain. The chapter's subject is justification by faith, not an argument that the law is abolished or that Christians should not keep it. The passage does not explain the statement about God judging the world. The verse shows God is not unrighteous when He punishes transgressors, since judgment implies punishment. Yet it does not by itself identify the law by which people will be judged, and the surrounding reference to law cannot establish that the Ten Commandments alone are the future rule of judgment.
God's Righteous Judgment
God will certainly judge the world, and all people whether called Jews or Gentiles, whether so-called heathen or professed Christians, will be judged by the same law and found alike guilty. That judgment is consistent with His righteousness, and to deny that He must judge the world would make Him unjust. Justification by faith for past sins does not remove the certainty of that judgment nor make works part of that justification, and it does not remove the need for obedience in the future life of the justified. When mercy gives way to justice the claims of the moral law that exposes the world's guilt will be upheld, for Christ's atoning death establishes that law rather than abolishing it.
That coming judgment is just, for if God could not judge unrighteousness He could not judge the world. Human sin, failure and unbelief cannot make God unjust or invalidate His right to judge, and because God is true and righteous His judgment is just and His righteousness cannot be abolished. Sin cannot be excused even where it makes God's righteousness more visible, and obedience afterward prevents sin but cannot work out justification for sins already committed, which is received by faith apart from works for remission of past offenses. The judgment of the world is righteous and can be approved as righteous because it follows a known rule of judgment, which is God's law.
Everyone will be judged and rewarded according to works and conduct, for the rule of righteousness must remain in force for justification and condemnation, binding Jews and Gentiles alike. The law proves all people guilty, and their lives will be brought before God in judgment where it will expose the sinful condition of those who remain in transgression. God alone will judge the world, so sinners are never left to punish sin. The work of judgment has been given to His Son, while the Bible expresses the united will of the Father and the Son and interprets the law by which judgment is conducted.
Judgment and condemnation with its execution must be done in righteousness, which sinners cannot do because all sinners are equally worthy of death. It is therefore wholly outside the province of civil authority or any human authority to inflict penalties for transgression of the law of God. Anyone who assumes authority to cast a stone at a sinner thereby claims to be without sin. God judges the world and therefore shows no partiality to any person or nation, for there is no difference between Jew and Greek. The Gospel call is whosoever, open to all alike, so the claim that God favors one nation or people with special blessings that He withholds from others denies the Gospel of the grace of God.
At the final judgment mercy's offer of pardon has ended and justice vindicates the law. Christ now pleads His blood for guilty people before the mercy seat, but then no one will stand between the guilty and the broken law. One who has openly broken that law cannot then hide behind the apostles, for pardon comes through Christ's blood now while the holy law remains the standard by which sin is exposed and humanity is condemned.
Law as Judgment Standard
The oracles of God committed to the Jews are the law out of which the Jew was instructed and in which he rested, namely the Ten Commandments. They are the same lively or living oracles that Moses and the fathers received in the wilderness to give to all, to be received from the Jews and handed down to others. Kept in harmony with the faith of Jesus, they stand as the commandments of God on which all the faithful stand.
If those oracles were made void, of no effect, or ineffective, God could not judge the world, because men will be judged by the law in the day of judgment. His authority and ability to judge depends on their continuing force and effectiveness, and on His faithfulness and truth remaining sure despite Jewish unbelief. A rule of righteousness must therefore remain in force for judgment, binding Jews and Gentiles alike for justification and condemnation according to conduct. For that reason keeping the commandments of God is required, since every work will be brought into judgment.
The law identifies sin, measures righteousness and holiness, and provides the rule by which people are weighed, found guilty or justified, and condemned. Without it sin could not be counted against anyone and no one could be condemned, so God's judgment rests on a law to which all are accountable and is not unjust. The same just law approves the innocent and condemns the guilty, and it cannot be dismissed as inseparably joined to a curse. Its continuance as the measure of righteousness and holiness and the instrument by which sin is known is what makes judging the world possible.
The law is separate from and superior to circumcision and to all positive institutions. There is righteousness in the law without circumcision, but there is no benefit in circumcision without keeping the law, and sacrifices are not acceptable when the law is rejected.
The law and the gospel are distinct and different, as distinct as the law and the faith of Christ in chapter 3. Judgment is according to the gospel because the resurrection of Christ gives assurance of a future judgment, but all men will then be judged by the law. The law meant is the moral law containing the commandments against stealing, adultery, and idolatry, which condemns sin but never justifies the sinner. The letter to Rome, written to a church made up of both Jews and Gentiles, makes a masterly argument for the lasting continuance and worldwide reach of God's law, its binding claim upon every soul, and the relation of the law to the gospel as the power of God to bring every longing soul into perfect harmony with His government.
Universal Guilt Under Law
The law proves the whole world guilty as sinners under sin, Jews and Gentiles alike, whether called so-called heathen or professed Christians, irrespective of nationality, all standing under the same condemnation as transgressors against the same law. It is universal in jurisdiction and condemns all, so that none can get righteousness by it although it is itself the statement of the righteousness of God. Since righteousness has been promised, it must be received apart from works of law, namely in Christ, in whose blood there is redemption for Jew and Gentile alike, and a man is made a doer of the law by faith alone without deeds of law, which is the mystery of the gospel, Christ in men the hope of glory, God in Christ working His own righteousness. The oracles committed to the Jews are the standard by which all the world stands condemned, the same lively oracles Moses received to give to all, kept in harmony with the faith of Jesus as the commandments of God on which all the faithful stand. Only a universal law can condemn the whole world and leave God just in judging the world as its universal Governor, for the same just law approves the innocent and condemns the guilty because it identifies sin and therefore has authority over those it condemns.
A law can condemn only those subject to it, so those it condemns remain condemned and under obligation to keep it as long as they transgress it, and God judges without regard to national distinctions by the law whose oracles were entrusted to the Jews. If those oracles were made void or of no effect, God could not judge the world, because men will be judged by the law in the day of judgment, and His authority and ability to judge depends on their continuing force. The oracles are the law out of which the Jew was instructed and in which he rested, namely the Ten Commandments, the same lively oracles Moses and the fathers received in the wilderness to give to all. Old Testament quotations could not prove Gentiles to be sinners and liable to condemnation unless they were under its jurisdiction, so the fact that Gentiles are shown by the law to be sinners proves they with the Jews are accountable to it and condemned as its violators. The law is separate from and superior to circumcision and to all positive institutions, for there is righteousness in the law without circumcision but no benefit in circumcision without keeping the law, and sacrifices are not acceptable when the law is rejected.
The law and Scriptures were entrusted to the Jews in stewardship, not given to them as a people exclusively, for they kept it in trust and through them its teaching was handed down to others. That stewardship does not make the moral law exclusive to them, and the reasoning that God would be unjust if He judged otherwise stands with the reasoning in Romans 2-4 concerning justification. God as Judge of the whole world presupposes that all people are accountable to His law, so the law is not limited to the Jews. His moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments binds everyone and not only a particular people, because its principles apply to the whole human family, and because the fourth commandment is part of that law it applies to all people.
The law so called in the New Testament is frequently the Decalogue, including the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath kept by the Jews, so its testimony shows the Sabbath was made for the whole race and not for Jews only. The law that caused Christ to lay down His life for sinful men remains holy, just, good and binding, so keeping one of its precepts cannot be a matter of indifference and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is not abrogated. The law by which He judges makes the world guilty before God, gives knowledge of sin, and is established rather than abolished through faith. The ten precepts are established as the law of Christ by Christ and His apostles and remain a rule for Gentiles both before and after faith, not binding only on Jews under the old covenant with its obligation to earn life by doing or with its Levitical priesthood. The continuing distinction stands between the moral law and the ceremonial ordinances abolished by Christ, for judgment of the world would be impossible if the moral law had been removed.
Justification by Faith Established
The verse belongs to the teaching that forgiveness for past offenses comes by faith through grace without works, received through the blood of Christ. No one can work out a justification for a past offense, for works cannot procure it for what is already done. Godly living and the forming of moral character do not supply that justification, and works form no part of it. Since God has promised righteousness yet none can obtain it by a law that only states God's righteousness and condemns all, it must be received apart from works of law in Christ, in whose blood is redemption for Jew and Gentile alike, so that a man is made a doer of the law by faith alone without deeds of law, which is the mystery of Christ in men the hope of glory, God in Christ working His own righteousness.
Faith does not make the law void but establishes it. Deliverance is from the law's curse and condemnation, not from obligation to obey it. Christ's atoning death establishes the moral law rather than abolishing it, and pardon through His blood leaves that law in force as the standard by which sin is exposed and the world stands guilty. When mercy's offer of pardon has ended, justice will vindicate the law and uphold its claims.
No one completely obeys the law, and the law cannot make fallen people perfect because of the weakness of the flesh. People cannot by their own power cleanse themselves or do what is righteous. The law of faith excludes boasting, so boasting that one denomination alone has the gospel and flattering its ministers with great titles shows failure to learn that law. Chapters two through four show who are Israelites and who are heirs of God's promise and how only the promise is obtained, the same subject carried out in chapters nine through eleven.
Obedient Life After Forgiveness
Paul's argument on justification by faith concerns remission of past offenses only, and that remission comes by faith and cannot be procured by works, yet faith will not save without works and does not cancel obedience or make the law void but establishes it. Paul on justification by faith and James on obedience of faith do not differ, for obedience to the law does not supersede faith because that obedience is itself through faith, with the blood of Christ as the only refuge opening the way of life.
Forgiveness is joined with a changed life that prevents future sin, for Christ saves from sin and makes the justified person subject to God's law. Works cannot justify a past offense, so justification is received by faith and not earned by works, while obedience prevents sin but cannot work out justification for sins already committed. God's judgment of the world shows God is just and sin cannot be excused, and the continuing validity of the moral law under which Gentiles stood under curse for transgression is not contrary to God's promises, for its condemnation is removed through Christ who redeems those who come to him by faith, and faith does not abolish the law or make Christ a minister of sin.
Salvation provides both cure and prevention, because past offenses bring condemnation and future sin is regarded with no more favor than past sin, and judgment condemns unforgiven past sin. Justification by faith is remission of sins past by grace through blood, by faith only with works entirely excluded, because no one can work out a justification for a past offense. Forgiveness alone without removal of the sinful disposition would leave people to become again involved in sin and condemned, and removal of the carnal mind which is enmity against God and not subject to His law would still leave the burden of past sin to condemn in the judgment. Therefore Christ freely forgives past sins so the sinner stands free and justified, and takes away the carnal mind and writes the law in the heart to make at peace with God and subject to His law, so the justified go and sin no more and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit, working out salvation with fear and trembling and not continuing in sin that grace may abound.
If sinning to display God's righteousness or causing truth to abound to His glory made people immune from judgment, God could not justly judge the world, but sin does not excuse the sinner or make God wrong to punish. God's mercy is not permission to continue in transgression or a reason to do evil so that good may come, and those who use grace to justify doing evil deserve judgment. Sin places all people under the law whose just demand is death, and Christ's death meets that demand without abolishing the law, so grace does not permit keeping on sinning and those freed from sin are to obey God and live righteously, with God judging without regard to national distinctions by the law whose oracles were entrusted to the Jews.
Rejecting the gospel does not remove the law's penalty, for judgment is incompatible with the claim that the penalty has been set aside, and the law then takes its course so that sin as transgression of the law brings death. Keeping the commandments of God is required because every work will be brought into judgment, and God's ability to judge the world depends on the faithfulness and truth of the oracles committed to the Jews remaining sure, those living oracles Moses received to give to all people to be received from the Jews, which Jewish unbelief does not make of no effect. The law of God is established, not abolished or made nothing, the same as serving the law of God and keeping the commandments in Romans 7 and the teaching to the Galatians, with Hebrews 8 where the same law once on tables of stone is written in the heart and put into the mind in the new covenant, with Hebrews 10 where only the law of sacrifices and offerings is a shadow of good things to come, and with 1 Corinthians 7 and 2 Corinthians 3 where keeping the commandments of God is something and remains so.
The verse rejects the claim that God is unfair to punish wrongdoing because human wrongdoing makes His right character stand out more clearly, since if that were true He could not judge the world at all. It affirms as certain that God will judge the world, and that His judgment is right and true and no human sin or unbelief can make Him unjust. That judgment follows a known rule, the law of God given in the Ten Commandments, whose continuing force upholds His authority and right to judge. All the world, Jews and Gentiles alike, stand guilty and condemned as breakers of that same universal law, yet pardon for past wrongs is given freely by grace through faith in Christ's blood apart from works of law. Faith does not do away with the law but establishes it, freeing from its condemnation while writing it in the heart unto a changed and obedient life that goes and sins no more.
Immediate Context and Wording
The verse answers the human objection that God would be unrighteous to visit wrath upon sin if human unrighteousness commends His righteousness, declaring that if that were so He could not judge the world. To deny His justice in punishing sin would make His judgment of the world impossible, for He must judge the world and His judgment is just. If sinning to display His righteousness made sinners immune from judgment, righteous judgment would be undermined, which the gospel maintains rather than sets aside. Sin does not excuse the sinner, and those who use grace to justify doing evil deserve judgment. The denial belongs to the condemnation of Jews who boasted of godliness while dishonoring God by practicing iniquity. Profession of Bible religion is of no avail without actual possession of God's righteousness, though some among the Jews were true to the religion they professed.
The words rendered God forbid mean not by any means, rejecting the idea that evil should be done so that good may come. The fact that grace abounds where sin abounds gives no reason to willfully increase sin, for to do so would be to receive God's grace in vain. The chapter's subject is justification by faith, not an argument that the law is abolished or that Christians should not keep it. The passage does not explain the statement about God judging the world. The verse shows God is not unrighteous when He punishes transgressors, since judgment implies punishment. Yet it does not by itself identify the law by which people will be judged, and the surrounding reference to law cannot establish that the Ten Commandments alone are the future rule of judgment.
God's Righteous Judgment
God will certainly judge the world, and all people whether called Jews or Gentiles, whether so-called heathen or professed Christians, will be judged by the same law and found alike guilty. That judgment is consistent with His righteousness, and to deny that He must judge the world would make Him unjust. Justification by faith for past sins does not remove the certainty of that judgment nor make works part of that justification, and it does not remove the need for obedience in the future life of the justified. When mercy gives way to justice the claims of the moral law that exposes the world's guilt will be upheld, for Christ's atoning death establishes that law rather than abolishing it.
That coming judgment is just, for if God could not judge unrighteousness He could not judge the world. Human sin, failure and unbelief cannot make God unjust or invalidate His right to judge, and because God is true and righteous His judgment is just and His righteousness cannot be abolished. Sin cannot be excused even where it makes God's righteousness more visible, and obedience afterward prevents sin but cannot work out justification for sins already committed, which is received by faith apart from works for remission of past offenses. The judgment of the world is righteous and can be approved as righteous because it follows a known rule of judgment, which is God's law.
Everyone will be judged and rewarded according to works and conduct, for the rule of righteousness must remain in force for justification and condemnation, binding Jews and Gentiles alike. The law proves all people guilty, and their lives will be brought before God in judgment where it will expose the sinful condition of those who remain in transgression. God alone will judge the world, so sinners are never left to punish sin. The work of judgment has been given to His Son, while the Bible expresses the united will of the Father and the Son and interprets the law by which judgment is conducted.
Judgment and condemnation with its execution must be done in righteousness, which sinners cannot do because all sinners are equally worthy of death. It is therefore wholly outside the province of civil authority or any human authority to inflict penalties for transgression of the law of God. Anyone who assumes authority to cast a stone at a sinner thereby claims to be without sin. God judges the world and therefore shows no partiality to any person or nation, for there is no difference between Jew and Greek. The Gospel call is whosoever, open to all alike, so the claim that God favors one nation or people with special blessings that He withholds from others denies the Gospel of the grace of God.
At the final judgment mercy's offer of pardon has ended and justice vindicates the law. Christ now pleads His blood for guilty people before the mercy seat, but then no one will stand between the guilty and the broken law. One who has openly broken that law cannot then hide behind the apostles, for pardon comes through Christ's blood now while the holy law remains the standard by which sin is exposed and humanity is condemned.
Law as Judgment Standard
The oracles of God committed to the Jews are the law out of which the Jew was instructed and in which he rested, namely the Ten Commandments. They are the same lively or living oracles that Moses and the fathers received in the wilderness to give to all, to be received from the Jews and handed down to others. Kept in harmony with the faith of Jesus, they stand as the commandments of God on which all the faithful stand.
If those oracles were made void, of no effect, or ineffective, God could not judge the world, because men will be judged by the law in the day of judgment. His authority and ability to judge depends on their continuing force and effectiveness, and on His faithfulness and truth remaining sure despite Jewish unbelief. A rule of righteousness must therefore remain in force for judgment, binding Jews and Gentiles alike for justification and condemnation according to conduct. For that reason keeping the commandments of God is required, since every work will be brought into judgment.
The law identifies sin, measures righteousness and holiness, and provides the rule by which people are weighed, found guilty or justified, and condemned. Without it sin could not be counted against anyone and no one could be condemned, so God's judgment rests on a law to which all are accountable and is not unjust. The same just law approves the innocent and condemns the guilty, and it cannot be dismissed as inseparably joined to a curse. Its continuance as the measure of righteousness and holiness and the instrument by which sin is known is what makes judging the world possible.
The law is separate from and superior to circumcision and to all positive institutions. There is righteousness in the law without circumcision, but there is no benefit in circumcision without keeping the law, and sacrifices are not acceptable when the law is rejected.
The law and the gospel are distinct and different, as distinct as the law and the faith of Christ in chapter 3. Judgment is according to the gospel because the resurrection of Christ gives assurance of a future judgment, but all men will then be judged by the law. The law meant is the moral law containing the commandments against stealing, adultery, and idolatry, which condemns sin but never justifies the sinner. The letter to Rome, written to a church made up of both Jews and Gentiles, makes a masterly argument for the lasting continuance and worldwide reach of God's law, its binding claim upon every soul, and the relation of the law to the gospel as the power of God to bring every longing soul into perfect harmony with His government.
Universal Guilt Under Law
The law proves the whole world guilty as sinners under sin, Jews and Gentiles alike, whether called so-called heathen or professed Christians, irrespective of nationality, all standing under the same condemnation as transgressors against the same law. It is universal in jurisdiction and condemns all, so that none can get righteousness by it although it is itself the statement of the righteousness of God. Since righteousness has been promised, it must be received apart from works of law, namely in Christ, in whose blood there is redemption for Jew and Gentile alike, and a man is made a doer of the law by faith alone without deeds of law, which is the mystery of the gospel, Christ in men the hope of glory, God in Christ working His own righteousness. The oracles committed to the Jews are the standard by which all the world stands condemned, the same lively oracles Moses received to give to all, kept in harmony with the faith of Jesus as the commandments of God on which all the faithful stand. Only a universal law can condemn the whole world and leave God just in judging the world as its universal Governor, for the same just law approves the innocent and condemns the guilty because it identifies sin and therefore has authority over those it condemns.
A law can condemn only those subject to it, so those it condemns remain condemned and under obligation to keep it as long as they transgress it, and God judges without regard to national distinctions by the law whose oracles were entrusted to the Jews. If those oracles were made void or of no effect, God could not judge the world, because men will be judged by the law in the day of judgment, and His authority and ability to judge depends on their continuing force. The oracles are the law out of which the Jew was instructed and in which he rested, namely the Ten Commandments, the same lively oracles Moses and the fathers received in the wilderness to give to all. Old Testament quotations could not prove Gentiles to be sinners and liable to condemnation unless they were under its jurisdiction, so the fact that Gentiles are shown by the law to be sinners proves they with the Jews are accountable to it and condemned as its violators. The law is separate from and superior to circumcision and to all positive institutions, for there is righteousness in the law without circumcision but no benefit in circumcision without keeping the law, and sacrifices are not acceptable when the law is rejected.
The law and Scriptures were entrusted to the Jews in stewardship, not given to them as a people exclusively, for they kept it in trust and through them its teaching was handed down to others. That stewardship does not make the moral law exclusive to them, and the reasoning that God would be unjust if He judged otherwise stands with the reasoning in Romans 2-4 concerning justification. God as Judge of the whole world presupposes that all people are accountable to His law, so the law is not limited to the Jews. His moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments binds everyone and not only a particular people, because its principles apply to the whole human family, and because the fourth commandment is part of that law it applies to all people.
The law so called in the New Testament is frequently the Decalogue, including the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath kept by the Jews, so its testimony shows the Sabbath was made for the whole race and not for Jews only. The law that caused Christ to lay down His life for sinful men remains holy, just, good and binding, so keeping one of its precepts cannot be a matter of indifference and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is not abrogated. The law by which He judges makes the world guilty before God, gives knowledge of sin, and is established rather than abolished through faith. The ten precepts are established as the law of Christ by Christ and His apostles and remain a rule for Gentiles both before and after faith, not binding only on Jews under the old covenant with its obligation to earn life by doing or with its Levitical priesthood. The continuing distinction stands between the moral law and the ceremonial ordinances abolished by Christ, for judgment of the world would be impossible if the moral law had been removed.
Justification by Faith Established
The verse belongs to the teaching that forgiveness for past offenses comes by faith through grace without works, received through the blood of Christ. No one can work out a justification for a past offense, for works cannot procure it for what is already done. Godly living and the forming of moral character do not supply that justification, and works form no part of it. Since God has promised righteousness yet none can obtain it by a law that only states God's righteousness and condemns all, it must be received apart from works of law in Christ, in whose blood is redemption for Jew and Gentile alike, so that a man is made a doer of the law by faith alone without deeds of law, which is the mystery of Christ in men the hope of glory, God in Christ working His own righteousness.
Faith does not make the law void but establishes it. Deliverance is from the law's curse and condemnation, not from obligation to obey it. Christ's atoning death establishes the moral law rather than abolishing it, and pardon through His blood leaves that law in force as the standard by which sin is exposed and the world stands guilty. When mercy's offer of pardon has ended, justice will vindicate the law and uphold its claims.
No one completely obeys the law, and the law cannot make fallen people perfect because of the weakness of the flesh. People cannot by their own power cleanse themselves or do what is righteous. The law of faith excludes boasting, so boasting that one denomination alone has the gospel and flattering its ministers with great titles shows failure to learn that law. Chapters two through four show who are Israelites and who are heirs of God's promise and how only the promise is obtained, the same subject carried out in chapters nine through eleven.
Obedient Life After Forgiveness
Paul's argument on justification by faith concerns remission of past offenses only, and that remission comes by faith and cannot be procured by works, yet faith will not save without works and does not cancel obedience or make the law void but establishes it. Paul on justification by faith and James on obedience of faith do not differ, for obedience to the law does not supersede faith because that obedience is itself through faith, with the blood of Christ as the only refuge opening the way of life.
Forgiveness is joined with a changed life that prevents future sin, for Christ saves from sin and makes the justified person subject to God's law. Works cannot justify a past offense, so justification is received by faith and not earned by works, while obedience prevents sin but cannot work out justification for sins already committed. God's judgment of the world shows God is just and sin cannot be excused, and the continuing validity of the moral law under which Gentiles stood under curse for transgression is not contrary to God's promises, for its condemnation is removed through Christ who redeems those who come to him by faith, and faith does not abolish the law or make Christ a minister of sin.
Salvation provides both cure and prevention, because past offenses bring condemnation and future sin is regarded with no more favor than past sin, and judgment condemns unforgiven past sin. Justification by faith is remission of sins past by grace through blood, by faith only with works entirely excluded, because no one can work out a justification for a past offense. Forgiveness alone without removal of the sinful disposition would leave people to become again involved in sin and condemned, and removal of the carnal mind which is enmity against God and not subject to His law would still leave the burden of past sin to condemn in the judgment. Therefore Christ freely forgives past sins so the sinner stands free and justified, and takes away the carnal mind and writes the law in the heart to make at peace with God and subject to His law, so the justified go and sin no more and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit, working out salvation with fear and trembling and not continuing in sin that grace may abound.
If sinning to display God's righteousness or causing truth to abound to His glory made people immune from judgment, God could not justly judge the world, but sin does not excuse the sinner or make God wrong to punish. God's mercy is not permission to continue in transgression or a reason to do evil so that good may come, and those who use grace to justify doing evil deserve judgment. Sin places all people under the law whose just demand is death, and Christ's death meets that demand without abolishing the law, so grace does not permit keeping on sinning and those freed from sin are to obey God and live righteously, with God judging without regard to national distinctions by the law whose oracles were entrusted to the Jews.
Rejecting the gospel does not remove the law's penalty, for judgment is incompatible with the claim that the penalty has been set aside, and the law then takes its course so that sin as transgression of the law brings death. Keeping the commandments of God is required because every work will be brought into judgment, and God's ability to judge the world depends on the faithfulness and truth of the oracles committed to the Jews remaining sure, those living oracles Moses received to give to all people to be received from the Jews, which Jewish unbelief does not make of no effect. The law of God is established, not abolished or made nothing, the same as serving the law of God and keeping the commandments in Romans 7 and the teaching to the Galatians, with Hebrews 8 where the same law once on tables of stone is written in the heart and put into the mind in the new covenant, with Hebrews 10 where only the law of sacrifices and offerings is a shadow of good things to come, and with 1 Corinthians 7 and 2 Corinthians 3 where keeping the commandments of God is something and remains so.