Romans 3:9, commentary and pictures

Paul meets the objector's claim that Jews are better than Gentiles with a flat denial, for what was proved before and is proved by what is written next is that both peoples alike are under sin. Neither is better, righteous, or exempt, but with all having sinned and fallen short of God's glory the whole world stands guilty and condemned before God. To be under sin is to be under its dominion, power and bondage, fallen from God's image and glory into wickedness, helplessness and death with no way in self to escape. It is also to be under the law as transgressors, by position sinners subject to its condemnation, penalty of death and judgment. Because all are thus condemned, all equally need God's grace and the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, with redemption and propitiation in His blood for Jew and Gentile without distinction.

Question and Wording

Romans 3:9 belongs to a chain of anticipated questions and answers in which each possible objection is raised in the objector's own terms and then answered to sharpen the argument. The inquiry whether Jews are better is such an objection, the kind a Pharisee would bring against the exposure in chapter 2, and not a perplexity in Paul's own mind, as the parenthetical remark in verse 5 makes plain. The answer allows no superiority and concludes that both Jews and Gentiles have been proved to be all under sin.

That denial is established by what is written immediately afterward, while the closing clause that both had before been proved all under sin functions as a parenthesis distinct from that proof. The weight of testimony holds that the charge had already been proved through the preceding chapters and is then proved from Old Testament Scripture given to Israel, which stops every mouth and leaves the whole world guilty before God. Because sayings drawn from Israel's Scriptures are used to convict Gentiles also, Gentiles must be amenable to and under the jurisdiction of the same law contained in those Scriptures, which thus stands as the universal rule by which all are proved guilty for judgment. Those who take the final clause as a parenthesis hold instead that the Old Testament passages quoted afterward in their own connections speak only of Jews and prove only Jews to be sinners, keeping the verse in harmony with those passages and with verse 19. On either reckoning neither group keeps a favored standing before God, since the one who judges another is himself guilty.

To be under sin is to be under its dominion, power, rulership, subjection and bondage, with evil proceeding from within the heart to defile the man. It means fallen man has transgressed God's holy law and stands condemned without strength and unable to help himself, sold under sin. The glory of God that is lost is His character and goodness and image, and with it are lost the power to understand the things of God, the power to do right, and the dominion given at creation, so that there is none righteous and none that seeks God. All in the natural state therefore lie in wickedness and in a sinful, diseased condition out of harmony with the normal healthful law of human being, which is righteousness, and since life is only in the way of righteousness this condition tends to death. There is no way in man himself to extricate himself from sin and its penalty of death, and restoration requires being recreated by the new birth with desire and power to live God's life and to again occupy the created position. Until deliverance through grace in Christ the law holds such sinners as prisoners under sin, condemned and subject to death, and upon believing they are freed from sin's service to become servants of God.

To be under sin is in this setting also to be under the law, meaning under its condemnation as transgressors who are not in Christ, by position sinners subject to its penalty of death and to God's judgment. By nature all are in that condemned condition because all have sinned, and without Christ every person remains shut up under the law's condemnation until faith comes to rescue him. The phrase under the law does not always denote mere obligation to keep the law; its sense depends on context, and here it denotes standing guilty and condemned before God, with every mouth stopped and the whole world accountable. That condemnation itself proves universal jurisdiction and obligation, for the law could not adjudge all guilty unless all were within its reach, and the law that points out sin and condemns is obligatory upon all, even the Decalogue that says Thou shalt not covet. Forgiveness of past guilt by faith alone through grace and blood for remission of sins past is therefore necessary to remove a burden that would otherwise condemn in the judgment, together with removal of the sinful disposition so as not to become again entangled in sin and condemnation.

Jews and Gentiles Equal

Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin, with neither group better, righteous, or exempt before God. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, none does good, none understands, none seeks after God, all have strayed and together become unprofitable, the way of peace they have not known, and there is no fear of God before their eyes. What the law says it says to those under it so that every mouth is stopped and the whole world stands guilty and condemned before God in need of salvation. No one can be called a doer of the law and no flesh can be justified by its deeds, for the law exposes sin and leaves Jew and Gentile on the same footing. Those without the law in Scripture still have its work written in their hearts, and all have transgressed it.

Human nature is the same across nationalities, character, and social standing, and the natural nature is evil and shared by all so that people cannot do God's will in themselves. Religious profession, possession of Scripture, outward forms of worship, outward morality, and civilization do not save when people reject their life and power. The carnal nature remains opposed to God and not subject to His law even when circumstances restrain outward sins, so all not renewed by grace through faith need to be justified by faith and made at peace with God through Christ. The morally respectable need redemption as much as the most abandoned, sharing the same guilt, need, and helplessness with no class exempt. Condemning the Jews for rejecting Christ is inconsistent when the condemners themselves fail to follow Christ's teachings, since unregenerate people are alike and neither people can claim moral superiority.

The Jews' chief advantage that God's oracles were committed to them for safekeeping did not make them better, righteous, or exempt. They held the law in trust for a time and handed down its oracles and testimony, yet they broke it and stood as sinners alongside Gentiles with no advantage in nationality and no respect of persons. Hearing the law does not justify, since only doers of the law shall be justified, and they were condemned because they did not keep it while Gentiles are accepted and justified if they keep the righteousness of the law. Their unbelief cannot make God's faithfulness of no effect, for if the oracles were made void God could not judge the world. Possession of the oracles therefore leaves the law vindicated as the rule of right and of judgment by which actions are weighed and by which all the world is convicted as guilty before God.

The same equality reaches so-called heathen and professed Christians, who are judged by the same law and stand alike guilty under sin. Every person shares the same sinful human nature, including the Turk, and modern Christians are no better than others by identity or profession. No identity or professed faith makes anyone better, whether American professors of Christianity or pagan Romans, whose cheering for brutal contests displays the same sinful instincts and savagery of the natural heart. Chinese and Americans differ in how their sinful nature appears, but neither has a natural advantage over the other, and God's grace can regenerate people of either nation. Only Christianity, not civilization, can overcome those instincts, and both Jews and Gentiles share the same Saviour rather than ground for condemning an entire people for individuals' failings. Because the law has universal jurisdiction and condemns all, none can get righteousness by it, although it states God's righteousness which must be received apart from works of the law in Christ with redemption in His blood for Jew and Gentile alike.

The shared guilt under sin concerns common condemnation and not by itself a shared obligation to the whole Mosaic code. In this understanding, Jews are shown guilty by the Mosaic law, while Gentiles are shown guilty by moral principles they can discern and by which they are guided in their civil laws. The Old Testament passages quoted afterward in their connections speak only of Jews, so they prove Jewish sinfulness directly. The final clause that both Jews and Gentiles were before proved all under sin is a parenthesis separate from the proof of the denial that Jews are better, which is proved by what is written next. Taking it as a parenthesis keeps the denial in harmony with the Old Testament and with what is said about every mouth stopped and all the world guilty.

Law Exposes All

Both Jews and Gentiles stand alike under sin and have failed to meet the obligation to obey God's law, with all having sinned and fallen short of His glory, none righteous, none doing good, none understanding or seeking God, all gone out of the way and become unprofitable, ignorant of the way of peace and without the fear of God before their eyes. What the law says it says to those under it so that every mouth is stopped and the whole world becomes guilty and accountable before God and subject to His judgment. To be under the law in this connection is to stand guilty and condemned as transgressors, and the sense of the phrase depends on context and does not always mean mere obligation to keep it. Those without the law in written Scripture still have its work written in their hearts and have transgressed it, so the law convinces all of sin. Quotations from Israel's Scriptures can prove Gentiles guilty only because that same law reaches them, which establishes its universal jurisdiction as the rule by which all the world is proved guilty for judgment and shows Gentiles amenable to it.

The law that proves all guilty is God's moral law, the Ten Commandments given to Israel, including the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath kept by the Jews, the Decalogue that says Thou shalt not covet, the law in the ark defining love to God and neighbor. It binds all people and not Jews alone or any other particular class, so the Sabbath was made for the race and not for Jews only. It is distinct from the ceremonial typical system, the Levitical priesthood, and the handwriting of carnal ordinances nailed to the cross. Its authority cannot be set aside without removing the ground on which God can judge the world, and the Jews' possession of God's oracles for safekeeping did not exempt them. That law is perpetual in obligation, still the rule of right action even though man cannot be justified by it.

Its work is to give the knowledge of sin, to make transgression manifest, and to act as a mirror declaring every person sinful, unclean, and short of God's glory. By its testimony no flesh can be justified by its deeds, and present or future obedience cannot remove past transgression, so law cannot make just those whom it condemns. Its exposure of guilt does not make it void or faulty but shows it holy, just, good and spiritual, with the failure lying in fallen humanity and the weakness of the flesh, not in the law, which would justify its doers if there were any. By showing sinners their need of a Saviour it leads them to seek deliverance from sin and its curse. The law that points out sin and condemns is therefore obligatory upon all, for otherwise it could not condemn all as sinners and adjudge them guilty.

Deliverance from the law's curse or condemnation through Christ's blood and through faith does not remove the obligation to obey God's law, for faith does not make the law void but establishes it. Gentiles like Jews are answerable to God's law and subject to its curse when they transgress it, and that curse stands between transgressors and the blessing of Abraham, which is the blessing of the gospel. Christ's death magnifies and upholds that moral law, and He laid down His life for guilty humanity because its transgression required atonement and pardon through His blood. The commandments were not imposed with the old covenant's terms of earning life by doing nor as part of the Levitical priesthood, but remain established as the law of Christ by Christ and the apostles.

The moral law was not given to the Jews alone nor created at Sinai. They held it in trust for a time as keepers, entrusted with its safekeeping as a rule of moral conduct for all people, and through them its law, oracles and testimony were handed down to others. Its principles applied to the whole human family before being thus transmitted, while Israel's temporary custodianship is distinct from its continuing reach.

Justification by Faith

Because all stand alike guilty under sin, all equally need God's grace and the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, with redemption and propitiation in His blood offered to Jew and Gentile without distinction. Jews have no spiritual superiority over Gentiles, and neither so-called heathen nor professed Christians are different from the other in need of cleansing and justification, for God makes no distinction but knows the heart rather than judging by outward appearance. The law has universal jurisdiction and condemns all, so none can get righteousness by it although it is the statement of the righteousness of God, and because God has promised righteousness it must be received apart from works of the law, namely in Christ. Jewish circumcision and ancestry do not make a person righteous, and the oracles committed to the Jews were not made of no effect, for without them God could not judge the world and they remained twenty-seven years after Christ's death the only rule of righteousness known. Jews and Gentiles alike are justified and condemned according to conduct by the same law, and the one condition of salvation offered to either, repentance and faith, both recognize the law, which is why the apostles preached repentance after the resurrection.

Justification in Romans 3 is for the remission of past offenses, received by faith without works, since no one can work out a justification for a sin already committed even by ceasing afterward or promising future obedience. Works do not procure forgiveness for past sins, and justification and remission come through Christ's blood, received by faith or grace, not through moral duty or obedience to the law, while the law serves as the rule of right action giving the knowledge of sin but unable to justify a sinner. This does not teach that obedience and works are unnecessary in forming a godly character, nor that faith saves without works, for the gospel remedies past sin while obedience prevents sin. Paul and James therefore agree, for the obedience that follows is the obedience of faith working by love and producing obedience, and forgiveness of past sins is not enough if the sinful disposition remains. Christ also removes the carnal mind and makes the justified person subject to God's law, so justification establishes the law rather than making it void.

There is none righteous and no doer of the law who could be justified by its deeds, for no one has been perfectly obedient or met the law's perfect and far-reaching requirements, including violations in the heart, and its testimony leaves the whole world guilty before God and subject to His judgment. The law exposes sin and its penalty applies to transgression, proving that the justification by works imperatively demanded cannot be supplied by fallen man, as sustained by nine different portions of God's Word declaring there is none that doeth good, no, not one. The law would justify its doers if there were any, for it remains perfect and justifying in its nature as the measure and rule of the righteousness of God. The inability of the law to justify is not the fault of the law but the fault of fallen man, whose nature sin has perverted, with the failure lying in humanity and the weakness of the flesh. Instead of being justified by the law men now stand condemned by it because all have disobeyed and fallen short of the glory of God, dependent on another to raise them up until its righteousness is fulfilled in them.

There are only two classes, the righteous and the wicked, with no class standing between being under the law and being under grace or between condemnation and justification. All who are not justified by faith are under condemnation and need salvation, with no exception for the heathen and no class of people exempt, for every class has transgressed God's law and is accountable to Him. Without Christ every person is a sinner condemned by the law, which brings knowledge of sin to the conscience and thereby condemns the conscience, and because a person by himself cannot obey the law he remains in that sinful, condemned condition. The law holds sinners as prisoners under sin, shut up under its condemnation and subject to its penalty of death until faith comes to rescue them, and when they believe in Christ and accept His deliverance they are freed from sin's service and become servants of God. This applies to all who have not been renewed by grace through faith, whose carnal nature is opposed to God and not subject to His law even when circumstances restrain outward sins, so all need to be justified by faith and made at peace with God through Christ, while sinless angels would be declared just by the law because they have never sinned.

A person is made a doer of the law by faith alone without the deeds of the law. This is the mystery of the Gospel, Christ in people the hope of glory, God in Christ working His own righteousness, and a person becomes moral only through God's work and righteousness through Christ. The law makes sin known and sin brings death, while the gospel reveals the remedy, and those who stop sinning and become servants of righteousness receive eternal life as God's gift through Jesus Christ. The law speaks as a mirror speaks, declaring to every person that he has sinned and is unclean and has come short of God's glory, and that declaration of guilt is given to make him feel his need of cleansing. Jesus Christ is that cleansing who cleanses from all sins, so that after cleansing in Christ the same law that condemned now declares him clean and approved of God with no condemnation, with the law's righteousness fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit.

Promise and True Israel

Jewish birth, circumcision and descent from Abraham give no special standing before God, no righteousness, no title to blessing and no exemption from judgment, for Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin and all guilty and dependent on grace. The committing of the oracles of God to the Jews as their chief advantage was not because they were better than other people and did not make them better than others. Israel having broken the Sinai covenant stood on the same level as other sinful nations, with no claim to inheritance under that covenant on the basis of its own righteousness or obedience. Being Jews after the flesh therefore gives no ground for a return to Palestine merely because they are Jews.

The true Israel are those who believe and embrace God's promises through faith in Jesus Christ, whether they are Jews or Gentiles, for an unbelieving Jew has no more claim to the promises than an unbelieving Gentile. Abraham is father not of Jews alone but also of Gentiles, and the promise to him was made with Gentiles in view as well as Jews. Romans 9-11 do not change the subject opened in Romans 2-4 but carry it out, showing who are heirs of God's promise and how alone it is to be obtained, including the justification Abraham received before circumcision apart from ritualism or mere human organization. Both Jews and Gentiles are shut up together in prison in unbelief so that God might have mercy upon all, with no hope of escape except by Christ the Deliverer out of Zion who proclaims liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, so that all who accept the liberty wherewith Christ makes free become children of the Jerusalem which is above, heirs of the heavenly Canaan and members of the true commonwealth of Israel.

The equality of Jews and Gentiles under sin, with neither better than the other, corrects the false division that treats the Jewish age as a system of salvation by works and the Christian era as a different plan of salvation by faith, for both peoples need the same salvation of God. There is no difference between Jew and Greek in need of cleansing and justification, because all have sinned. God makes no distinction between them, for He knows the heart rather than judging by outward appearance and is not partial to favor one people more than others. The gospel call is whosoever, with the same grace and salvation open to every nation and no special blessings reserved for one nation, whether called Jews, Israelites, Anglo-Saxons, Englishmen or anything else, so that claiming exclusive blessings for one nation denies the gospel of the grace of God.

Breaking God's commandments makes a Jew a Gentile in guilt, for Jews and Gentiles alike are under sin and equal in God's sight with neither better than the other. The Jews were condemned and rejected because they did not keep the law, since they are not justified by hearing the law but only doers of the law shall be justified, while Gentiles are accepted and justified if they keep the righteousness of the law. Because the law holds both groups accountable and convicts all the world as guilty before God, both need Christ to save them from sin and neither group is exempt from obedience to God's commandments.

Repentance and Humility

All alike stand under sin, Jew and Gentile with no group morally better or exempt from guilt before God, and the law that exposes this leaves the whole world accountable, which is why repentance is directed toward God. Since sin is transgression of a law that binds everyone, no one can sin without being under that law, and because only sinners can repent, universal sinfulness means all are commanded to repent and all can repent. Conviction of sin is therefore the first part of repentance, with the law making wrong manifest as holy and just and good rather than faulty, so that sinners discover their own sinfulness and are led to prepare to stand accepted in judgment. The Jewish advantage of receiving and keeping the oracles in trust did not exempt from this need, for universal preaching of repentance shows all must repent.

No people can claim moral superiority over another, for the same sinful condition and helplessness belong to all regardless of character or social standing, and the morally respectable need redemption as much as the most abandoned. To condemn an entire people for the failings of individuals is therefore inconsistent, especially since the natural heart is selfish and judges another's selfishness more harshly than its own, while those who judge and condemn others are themselves guilty of what they condemn and judgment belongs to God alone. God makes no distinction but knows the heart rather than outward appearance, having no favorites and granting no indulgences, so Christian profession gives no special protection from consequences and sinners professing Christianity are no better than unbelievers committing the same sin. Boasting is excluded by the law of faith, so boasting that one group alone has the gospel shows the lesson unlearned, and condemning Jews for rejecting Christ while failing to follow Christ's teachings stands self-condemned, since religious forms, possession of the law, and blessings of Scripture do not save when their life and power are rejected.

The heathen are not excepted from condemnation nor better off without the gospel, for every class has transgressed and all not justified by faith remain under condemnation needing salvation. No standing makes knowledge of Christ unnecessary, and the pagan world needs the gospel offer of life. Their state is dark and blighting, abominable wickedness prevailing to an awful extent to be pitied, with even the best lacking genuine virtue through failure to love God above all, their blindness coming from wicked refusal to retain God in knowledge so that ignorance of right is less than hatred of right.

Modern believers are no better than ancient Israel or than others in power, for all share the same nature whether Turk, Chinese, American, professed Christian or pagan Roman. As Israel doubted after deliverance, those now delivered and covered for past sins show the same unbelief when discouraged in new trials, and with greater knowledge and responsibility may be worse. Identity or professed faith confers no natural advantage, though outward appearance differs, and cheering brutal contests as well as savagery alike display the same instincts of the natural heart which Christianity alone, not civilization, can overcome, while grace can regenerate of either nation. Preaching this universal guilt aims at every sinner without passing any by, even in the finest pews, its simple truth fitting poor old men and hopeful youth alike to produce tears of repentance that put hell farther off and heaven nearer, consoling weary bleeding hearts with invitation to Christ and not to creed. The question whether any are better also denies that anyone is better than Christ or Paul in enduring crucifixion with Christ, for as Christ endured and Paul was crucified with Him, believers must likewise accept that death to sin as the price of life.