Romans 3
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The following material is adopted from John MacArthur’s commentary on Romans and his Study guide. Additional material taken from sources listed at the end
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— Prayers ( Blue )
— Promises ( Green )
— Warnings ( Red )
— Commands ( Purple )
The Advantage of being Jewish ( 3:1-8 )
— Isreal is a chosen people for God’s own inheritance ( Ps 33:12 )
— But looking at the tragic history of Isreal, there doesn’t seem to be much advantage to being Jewish
— Menial salves in Egypt for 400 years
— A generation died in the wilderness
— Conquered by Greece and the despotic Antiochus Epiphanes who desecrated the temple
— Under Rome 10’s of thousands were crucified
— Herod slaughtered male Jewish babies because of his jealousy of the Christ child
— In A.D. 70 Roman General Titus Vespasian destroyed Jersualem and most of its citizens. According to Josephus over a million Jews were butchered
—Two years earlier Gentiles in Caesarea killed 20,000 Jews and sold many more into slavery
— During that same time the inhabitants of Damascus cut the throats of 10,000 Jews in a single day
— in A.D. 115 Jews rebelled against Rome and Emperor Hadrian killed at least 600,000 Jewish more
— In the year 380 Emperor Theodosius I formulated a legal code that declared Jews to be an inferior race — an idea that permeated most of Europe for over a thousand years and even persists in many parts of the world today
— In 1254 King Louis IX banished all Jews from France
— In 1492, the year that Columbus sailed, Jews were expelled from Spain and four years later from Portugal
— During the Nazi holocaust 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated
Paul makes declares that, although they are God’s specially chosen people, Jews have no guarantee of spiritual security
Q: If being Jewish does not save them and circumcision is no guarantee, then where is the advantage?
The Objection that Paul attacked God’s People ( 3:1-2 )
( Rom 3:1-2 ) “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.”
— Paul’s accusers continually charged him with teaching that God’s calling to Isreal to be His special people was meaningless
— Many Scripture passages would have come to their minds
— Ex 19:16 “So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.”
— Deut 10:14-15 ““Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. “Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.”
— Ps 135:4 “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession.”
— Isa 43:21 ““The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.”
— Because of these ( and many others ), many Jews concluded that being Jewish made them acceptable to God
— Paul argues that being a physical Jew does not made someone a spiritual descendant
— He also says that being Jewish does bring with it many benefits
( 3:1-2 ) “Then what advantage has the Jew? ...they were entrusted with the oracles of God.”
— He gave them the Law
— He promised that the Messiah would come from the Jewish people
— They were blessed, protected and delivered as no other nation on earth
— They were entrusted with the very words (oracles) of God
James Montgomery Boice
— The giving of the law is of immense importance to use,
— It is the only blessing in this long list of Jewish advantages in which Gentiles share (Boice)
— To do justice to Paul’s thinking, we need to look ahead to the list of Jewish advantages appearing not appearing here in chapter 3 but in chapter 9
— The adoption as sons
— The divine glory
— God’s revelation of Himself in glory on Mount Sinai at the time of the giving of the law, in the Most Holy Place of the Jewish temple and in a few other places
— No other people had this privilege
— The covenants
— The Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic covenants
— The temple worship
— The promises
— The patriarchs
— The Human ancestry of Jesus Christ
— And great responsibility because God would punish them as well ( Amos 3:2 )
Jesus and his illustration of Israel's Privilege
— Jesus makes the illustration of a wedding feast in Matt 22:1-9
— Isreal is the first and most privileged guests
— But when the majority rejected Him, God opened the doors to the Gentiles
Q: If Jews are not saved by these things and are therefore perishing in unbelief (since we know that the majority of Jews do not believe in Jesus), isn’t God then proved to be unfaithful to his people — since he made an eternal covenant with them?
The Objection that Paul attacked God’s Promises ( 3:3-4 )
( Rom 3:3-4 ) “What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “That You may be justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.””
— The next objection was that Paul’s teaching abrogated (voided) God’s promises
— The mistake of Paul’s accusers was in believing that God’s unconditional promises to Israel applied to all individual Jews at all times
— God never promised any individual Jew could claim security in God’s promises apart from repentance and personal faith in God, resulting in obedience from the heart
— Isa 55:6-7 “Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
RC Sproul
— If the a majority of those baptized never come to faith, does that mean we should do away with baptism?
— Do we say that since baptism does not guarantee salvation, there is no advantage to it?
— Baptism is simply a promise to all those who believe
— Those who do not believe in no way diminish the value of the promise that God makes to those who do believe
— if people do not believe in the significance of circumcision or in the oracles of God, does not that unbelief destroy the integrity of God?
— Paul says, May it never be!
The Objection that Paul attacked God’s Purity ( 3:5-8 )
( Rom 3:5-8 ) “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just.”
— The first objection was that Paul attacked God’s people
— The second objection was that Paul attacked God’s promises
— Here, Paul makes his third objection, you are perverting God’s holiness
— The argument of his accusers wold have been something like this:
If God is glorified by the sins of Israel, being shown faithful Himself despite the unfaithfulness of His chosen people, then sin glorifies God. In other words, Paul, you are saying that what God strictly forbids actually brings Him glory. You are charging God with using man’s sin to bring glory to Himself, and that is blasphemy. If man’s unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say about God’s judgement? If what you say is true, why does God punish sin?
— And lest his readers misconstrue that these are Paul’s thoughts, he adds that he is speaking in human terms
— In other words, “Don’t think for a minutes that I believe such perverted nonsense!”
— And to drive the point home, he adds, May it never be!
— Obviously, God will not look the other way, encourage or condone sin to bring glory to Himself
A few verses later Paul reiterates the false charge against him
( Rom 3:7 ) if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?
— His critics were making the charge that Paul was teaching antinomianism
— The more wicked a person was the more he/she glorified God
— These were NOT hypothetical accusations as Paul makes clear
( Rom 3:8 ) and why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”?
—For a professed Christian to live in continual, unrepentant sin is a certain mark that he is not saved
— As Jude makes indisputably clear, the person who justifies his sin by presuming on God’s grace is ungodly and denies Christ
— Jude 4 “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
James Montgomery Boice
— Think, for example, how Jesus insisted on a radical change of behavior for all who would follow him
— “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” ( Lk 9:23 )
— He admonished those whose “faith” was only verbal, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug deep deep down and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck the house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the man who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete” ( Luke 6:46-49 )
— Furthermore, He told the Jews of his day, “… unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” ( Matt 5:20 )
The Guilt of all Men ( 3:9-20 )
— Men like to think that we are basically good
— That is why the first element of the gospel is confronting men with their sin
— Until a person is convicted of his sin, the gospel has nothing to offer
RC Sproul
Paul, in order to buttress his claim and defend this grim assessment of our condition, rests not on his own insights or experience but goes back into the pages of the Old Testament. The quotations that follow are not found in one particular place. Paul is giving us an amalgamation of several texts most of which are from the Psalms and some from the prophet Isaiah. Everything that Paul quotes here in verses 10 through 18 are taken from the sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament. Paul sets it before us in a kind of chronological order. The Old Testament references are not just loosely laid together; rather, the second judgment follows from the first, and the third from the second, and so on throughout the indictment
The Arraignment ( 3:9 )
( Rom 3:9 ) “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;”
— Paul answers his own question, not at all, we are all under sin
— We are not better than any other group of people
proaitiaomai (already charged), a legal term to designate a person previously indicted for a given offense
Hupo (under) A Greek term meaning not simply beneath or under but to be totally under the power, authority and control of something or someone
— All of us are completely subservient and in bondage of sin
— The common belief was that you were righteous simply by being Jewish
— Non-Jews were naturally sinful because they were not Jewish
— If a Jew was poverty stricken, handicapped, it was assumed that his or her parents committed a terrible sin that was visited on subsequent generations
— Jesus passed a blind man and his disciples asked “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” ( Jn 9:2 )
— When the blind man’s sight was restored and he appeared before the priests they repeated the same false assumption: “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out.” ( Jn 9:33-34 )
The Indictment ( 3:10-17 )
— Paul presents a 134 point indictment against mankind
— The thirteen charges of the indictment are presented in 3 categories
— The character of the accused ( vv 10-12 )
— Concerning the conversation of the accused ( vv 13-14 )
— The conduct of the accused ( vv 15-17 )
The Character of the accused ( 3:10-12 )
( Rom 3:10-12 ) “as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.””
— Men are universally evil ( 3:10b )
— There is none righteous, not even one
— Spiritually ignorant ( 3:11a)
— There is none who understands
— Rebellious ( 3:11b)
— There is none who seeks for God
— c.f. Jer 29:13, Matt 7:8, 2 Pet 3:9
RC Sproul
No one in his natural condition seeks after God. Seeking after God is the business of the believer. The moment we become a Christian is the moment when our quest for God begins. Prior to our conversion we are fugitives from God; we fled from Him. Churches today structure worship, teaching, and preaching toward the pagan to help him find what he is desperately searching for but just cannot seem to uncover, but it is foolish to structure worship for unbelievers who are seeking after god when the Bible tells us there aren’t any seekers. It manifests failure to understand the things of God. If we understood the things of God, we would know that there is no such things as unconverted seekers
Thomas Aquinas was asked on one occasion why there seem to be non-Christians who are searching for God, when the Bible says no one seeks after God in an unconverted state. Aquinas replied that we see people all around us who are feverishly seeks for purpose in their lives, pursuing happiness, and looking for relief from guilt to silence the pangs of conscience. We see people searching for the things that we know can be found only in Christ, be we make the gratuitous assumption that because they are seeking the benefits of God, they must be seeking God.
Evangelists often say, “If you open up the door, Jesus will come into your life. If you will just seek Him a little bit, you will find Him.” However, those words — “knock, and it will opened to you” ( Luke 11:9); “Seek the Lord while He may be found” ( Isa 55:6 ); “Seek, and you will find” ( Matt 7:7); “Behold I stand at the door and knock” (Rev 3:20 ) — are addressed to the church. Jesus seeks believers, so it is believers who are called to seek the Lord. While we are living in unbelief, we do not seek God. If we do seek God, it is a clear indication that we are already in the kingdom. If we do not seek Him, it is a good indication that we are not in the kingdom. There is none who seeks after God.
The Bondage of the Will
James Montgomery Boice
— Unaided by the Holy Spirit we are unable to come to God, choose God, or even believe in Jesus Christ to be saved ( Jn 6:44a, 65; Eph 2:1 )
— This has troubled many and it seems inconsistent with the many free offers of the gospel found in throughout Scripture ( Is 55:1 )
— We might suspect, even if we knew nothing of the past, that these questions were often discussed in church history
Pelagius vs. Saint Augustine
— The first important debate was between Pelagius and St. Augustine toward the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century
— Pelagius argued for free will
— He did not want to deny the universality of sin; he knew that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” ( Rom 3:23a ), and in this he wanted to remain orthodox
— But Pelagius could not see how we can be responsible for something if we do not have free will in that matter
— If there is an obligation to do something, there must be the ability to do it
— Pelagius believed that the will, rather than being bound by sin, is actually neutral — so that at any moment or in any given situation it is free to choose either good or evil
— He held that
— The sin of Adam affected no one but himself
— Those born since Adam have been born into the same condition Adam was in before the fall, that is, into a position of neutrality so far as sin is concerned
— Today human beings are able to live free from sin if they want to
— This is probably the view of most people today, including many Christians
— When the gospel is preached to a fallen sinner (according to this view), what ultimately determines whether he or she will be saved is not the supernatural working of God through the Holy Spirit but rather the person’s will, which either receives or rejects the Savior — and that gives human beings the glory that ought to go to God
— Augustine saw that the Bible speaks of sin as more then individual acts
— It speaks of an inherited depravity and as a result it is simply not possible to not sin
— non posse non peccare (Latin) , not able to not sin. That is, unaided by God, a person is just not able to stop sinning and choose God.
— Augustine said that the will is free of righteousness, but it is enslaved to sin
— It is free to turn from God, but not to come to him ( Eph 2:8-9 )
— In defending his views, Augustine won the day and the church supported him
— But Christianity gradually drifted back in the direction of Pelagianism during the Middle Ages
Martin Luther vs Erasmus of Rotterdam
— Erasmus had been sympathetic to the Reformation in the early stages because he saw that the church badly needed reformation
— Erasmus wrote on the freedom of the will using many of the same reasons that Pelagius had argued, but added that it really didn’t matter either way
— This launched Martin Luther to respond and write his greatest work, The Bondage of the Will
— Luther did not deny that we make choices every day (red socks or white socks), but in the specific area of an individual’s choice of God or failure to choose God, the will is impotent
Jonathan Edward’s contribution to the subject
— Edwards treatise on the subject seemed to be saying the exact opposite of what St. Augustine and Martin Luther had said
—Martin Luther titled his study The Bondage of the Will, in opposition to Erasmus’s Freedom of the Will, whereas Jonathan Edward’s treatise is titled “A Careful and strict Inquiry into the Prevailing Notions of the Freedom of the Will”
— At the end, Edwards came out on the side of Luther and all of the great biblical theologians before him
— But along the way he made a unique contribution to the subject
— The first contribution that Edwards made was to define the will
— Strangely, no one had done this previously
— Everyone had operated on the assumption that we all know what the will is
— We call it that mechanism in us that makes choices
— Edwards saw that this was not accurate and instead defined the will as “that by which the mind chooses anything”
— According to Edwards, what we choose is not determined by the will itself but by the mind, which means that our choices are determined by what we think is the most desirable course of action
— The second contribution that Edwards made was in his treatment of what we call “motives.”
— Edwards said that we choose one thing over another because we chose the “better” things
— Does this mean that the will is bound, then? Quite the contrary. It means that the will is free. It is always free. That is, it is free to choose (and always will choose) that the mind things is best
— Here we get to the heart of the problem. When confronted with God, the mind of the sinner never thinks that the way of God is a good course
— The will is free to choose God; nothing is stopping it
— But the mind does not regard submission to God and serving God as being desirable, therefore, it turns from God even when the gospel is most winsomely presented
— The mind does not consider the righteousness of God to be the way of personal fulfillment or happiness
— The way it chooses is actually the way of alienation and misery, and the end of which is death
— Therefore, unless God changes the way we think — which he does in by the miracle of the new birth — our minds always tell us to turn from God
— The third contribution that Edwards made was concerning responsibility, the matter that troubled Pelagius so profoundly
— Here Edwards wisely distinguished between what he called “natural” inability and what he termed “moral” inability. A simple illustration:
In the natural world there are animals that eat nothing but meat. They are called carnivores from carro, carnis, which means “meat.” There are other animals that eat nothing but grass or plants. They are called herbivores from herba, which means vegetation. Imagine we ave captured a lion, a carnivore, and that we place a bundle of hay or a trough of oats before him. He will not eat the hay or oats. Why not? Is it because he is physically, or naturally, unable to eat them? no. Physically he could munch on the oats and swallow them. But he does not and will not, because it is not in his nature to eat this kind of food. Moreover, if we could ask why he will not eat the herbivore’s meal and the lion could answer, he would say, “I cannot eat this food, because I hate it. I will only eat meat.”
Now think of the verse that says, “Taste and see the LORD is good” ( Ps 34:8a ) or of Jesus saying, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever...” ( John 6:51 ). Why will a sinful man or women not “taste and see that the Lord is good” or feed upon Jesus as “the living bread?” To use the lion’s words, it is because that person “hates” such food. The sinner will not come to Christ — because he does not want to. It is not because he cannot come physically.
Someone who does not hold to this teaching (there are many today) might say, “But surely the Bibles says that anyone who will come to Christ may come to him. Didn’t Jesus invite us to come? Didn’t he say, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away ( John 6:37b )? The answer is yes, that is exactly what Jesus said. But is is beside the point. Certainly anyone who wants to come to Christ may come to him. That is why Jonathan Edwards insisted that the will is not bound. The fact that we may come is what makes our refusal to seek God so unreasonable and increases our guilt. But who is it who will to come? The answer is: No one, except those in whom the Holy Spirit has already performed the entirely irresistible work of the new birth so that, as a result of this miracle, the spiritually blind eyes of the natural man are opened to see God’s truth, and the totally depraved mind of the sinner, which in itself has no spiritual understanding, is renewed to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
— Wayward ( 3:12a)
— All have turned aside
ekklino, leaning in the wrong direction
— In a military context, deserting in the midst of the battle
— Spiritually useless ( 3:12b)
— They have become useless
— The Greek word for useless was often used to describe milk that had turned sour and rancid
— Unfit to drink or to be used to make butter or cheese
— Morally corrupt ( 3:12c)
— There is none who does good, there is not even one
James Montgomery Boice quoting Roger R Nicole, The Doctrines of Grace in Jesus’ Teaching
Our Lord Jesus Christ, with all the concern, compassion and love which he showed all mankind, made some very vivid portrayals of man’s condition. He did not mince words about the gravity of Human sin. He talked about of man as salt that has lost its savor ( Matt 5:13 ). He talked of man as a corrupt tree which is bound to produce corrupt fruit ( Matt 7:7 ). He talked of man as being evil: “You being evil, know how to give good things to your children” ( Luke 11:13 ). One one occasion he lifted up his eyes toward heaven and talked about an “evil and adulterous generation” ( Matt 12:39 ), or again, “this wicked generation” (v. 45). In a great passage dealing with what constitutes true impurity and true purity he made the startling statement that out of the heart proceed murders, adulteries, evil thoughts, and the things of that kind ( Mark 7:21-23 ). He spoke about Moses having to give special permissive commandments to men because of the hardness of their hearts ( Matt 19:8 ). When the rich young ruler approached him saying, “Good Master,” Jesus said, “There is none good but God” ( Mark 10:18) ...
Jesus compared men, even the leaders of his country, to wicked servants in a vineyard ( Matt 21:33-41 ). He exploded in condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees, who were considered to be among the best men, men who were in the upper ranges of virtue and in the upper classes of society ( Matt 23:2-39 ).
The Lord made a fundamental statement about man’s depravity in John 3:6: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” He saw in man an unwillingness to respond to grace — “You will not come to God” ( John 5:40 ), “You have not the love of God” (v. 42), “You receive me not” (v. 43), “You believe not” (v. 47). Such sayings occur repeatedly in the gospel of John. “The world’s works are evil” ( John 7:7 ); “None of you keeps the law” (v. 19 ). “You shall die in your sins,” he says ( John 8:21 ). “You are from beneath” ( v. 23 ); “Your father is the devil, who is a murderer and a liar” (vv. 38, 44); “You are not of God” ( v. 47); “You are not my sheep” ( John 10:26 ); “He that hates me hates the Father” ( John 15:23-25 ). This is the way in which our Lord spoke to the leaders of the Jews. He brought to the fore their utter inability to please God.
The Conversation of the accused ( 3:13-14 )
( Rom 3:13-14 ) ““Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;”
— A person’s character will inevitably manifest itself in his conversation
— Jesus said Matt 12:34-35 (c.f. Prov 15:2, 28 )
“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
“The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
— Spiritually dead ( 3:13 )
— Their throat is an open grave
— Fallen man is deceitful ( 3:13 )
— With their tongues they keep deceiving
Dolioo, luring and was used of baiting a hook
— The imperfect Green tense indicates continual, repetitive deceit
— For the natural man, lying and other forms of deceit are habitual and normal part of his life
—The poison of asps is under their lips
— The adder, or asp, is one of the deadliest reptiles in the world
— Not only is its bite fatal, as was the case with Cleopatra, but it is exceedingly painful
— Fallen men’s speech betrays their true selves ( 3:14 )
— Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness
— Cursing carries the idea of wanting the worse for a person and making it public through open criticism and defamation
The Conduct of the accused ( 3:15-17 )
( Rom 3:15-17 ) ““Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known.””
— The ungodly are murderous ( 3:15 )
— Their feet are swift to shed blood
— Men are destructive (3:16)
— Destruction and misery are in their paths
— Without Peace ( 3:17 )
— And the path of peace have they not known
The Motive ( 3:18 )
( Rom 3:18 ) ““There is no fear of God before their eyes.””
— The motive for man’s sinfulness is his built-in godlessness
— Because men’s ears are attuned to the lies of sin, they have an inadequate concern about and no fear of God
Q: Say that you found yourself in heaven standing before God this very day, and He asked “What right do you have to come into my heaven?” What would you say? ( Rom 3:19-20 )
The Verdict ( 3:19-20 )
( Rom 3:19-20 ) “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
— Here Paul declares God’s verdict on fallen, unrepentant man
— Unredeemed Mankind has no defense whatever and is guilty of all charges
— We will have nothing to say
James Montgomery Boice
— Job is an example
— Job wanted answers to an important question: Why do the righteous suffer?
— His friends had no satisfactory answers, although Job discussed the options with them at length
— But when at last God spoke, revealing himself to Job and asking a series of probing questions that to go on and on in the book that bears Job’s name ( chapters 38-41 ), Job was overcome with confusion and answered
Job 40:4-5 ““Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth. “Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; Even twice, and I will add nothing more.””
— Job was silenced
— Isaiah had a similar experience and said, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty ( Isaiah 6:5 )
— Habakkuk had a similar experience and his lips trembled but no sound came out ( Habakkuk 3:16 )
— Even John, the beloved disciple of the Lord, when he saw the risen Christ in the first chapter of Revelation, had no words and fell at His feet “as though dead” ( Rev 1:17 )
— Paul anticipates the “but..but” response some over zealous people might add
—By the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight
Q: How can an unjust person ever hope to stand before the just judgment of God?
How to be right with God ( 3:21-25a )
( Rom 3:21-25 ) “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;”
— Throughout history men have asked the same question as did Job and others
— Job 25:4 ““How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman?”
— What must I do to be saved? ( Acts 16:30 )
Ancient Greek and Roman poets loved to write overly dramatic tragedies in which the hero or heroine was rescued from impossible situations by the last-minute intervention of a god (the deus ex machina literary device). However, the more reputable among them opted not to bring a god onto the sate unless the problem were one that deserved a god to solve it
The supreme human tragedy is man’s sin, and only the true God can solve it
Objective and Subjective Genitives
James Montgomery Boice
— Some translations translate this text as The Righteousness from God (NIV)
— Others Righteousness of God ( NASB, KJV )
— What is the difference and does it matter?
— In Greek there is the idea of Genitive, which is possessive, and which we have in English
— But there is what grammarians calls the subjective genitive and the objective genitive
— Subjective genitive uses of:
— A none biblical example is the “novels of Charles Dickens” which means that Dickens is the author the novels
— The objective genitive where the word following of is the object:
— The “world of misery”
— This does not mean that misery is the source of the world’s problems but that the world is characterized by misery
— How, then, is the phrase “righteousness of God” to be interpreted?
— In the case of an objective genitive, is a righteousness determined by God’s own nature
— “Christ… has become… our righteousness” ( 1 Cor 1:30 )
— On the other hand, if this is a subjective genitive we should understand Paul to be teaching that God is the source of this righteousness and that it is in Jesus Christ that God makes it available to us
— The translators of the NIV seem to have preferred this idea, for they have written: “But now a righteousness from God…has been made known.”
— Surely, this is a case were we do not have to choose between the two ideas, for both are correct
— Righteousness is to be seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is also his righteousness, rather than our own, that we need
RC Sproul
Why Do Catholics and Protestants understand justification so differently?
We come now to the doctrine of justification by faith alone, a doctrine that has provoked the most serious controversy in the history of the Christian church. The controversy resulted in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, which focused on the material cause of the doctrine of justification. The controversy involved this simple question: how can an unjust person ever hope to stand before the just judgment of God? At stake in the controversy was this doctrine that is central to the New Testament gospel. However, in this day and age there are few professing Christians who can even define the meaning of the term justification.
Luther insisted that justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls, and if the church does not get this right, the church ceases to be an authentic church. If the church denies or obscures the doctrine of justification by faith alone, it is no longer a Christian body. To Luther’s sentiment Calvin added that the doctrine of justification is the hinge by which everything turns. j.I. Packer used another metaphor. He said that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is the Atlas that carries the whole of the Christian faith on its shoulders. If justification by faith alone stumbles, the whole Christian faith comes crashing to the ground.
Let me explain what justification does not mean. When we are justified in the sight of God, it is not an active of divine pardon. In justification, God does not pardon the sinner.
In Justification, God makes a legal declaration, what we call a forensic declaration. Forensics has to do with judicial judgment or declaration. The New Testament shows us that in the act of justification God makes a judicial about a person’s status before He makes His judgment. Again, what happens in justification is not a pardon; it is an act whereby God declares a person to be just.
In the sixteenth century both Roman Catholics and Protestants agreed that, in the final analysis, the act of justification is something God does, and it is a judicial declaration. Both sides, Catholics and Protestant, agreed that justification does not happen until God declares a person righteous. The issue then and now is this: on what grounds does God make that declaration? Why would God look at us, when He sees one who is dead in sin and trespasses, and say, “You are a just person.” when manifestly we are not just people?
That was the debate with Rome. Rome set forth their doctrine — and still does — that God will never declare a person just until that person actually, under divine scrutiny, is found to be just. In the sixth session of the Council of Trent, in the middle of the sixteenth century at the heart of the Counter-Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church defined her doctrine of justification, which it has continued to echo through the centuries, declaring without equivocation that before God will ever declare a person just, righteousness must inhere in that person. In other words, when God looks at us, He will not say that we are just until he sees that we really are just
Rome teaches that we cannot be just without grace, faith and the assistance of Christ. We need the righteousness of Christ poured into our soul, but you must cooperate with that grace to such a degree that we will in fact become righteous. If we die with any impurity in our soul, thereby lacking complete righteousness, we will not go to heaven. If no mortal sin is present in our life, we will go to purgatory, which is the place of purging. It may take three years or three million years, but the object of purgatory is to make us righteous so that we can be admitted into God’s heaven,
Part of the reason for this belief, that justification is rooted in an inherent righteousness in the sinner, comes from something unfortunate in church history. In the early centuries, when the Greek language passed away from the central attention of the church fathers and Latin became the dominant language, many scholars read only the Latin Bible, not the Greek Bible, and they borrowed the Roman or Latin word for justification, justificare, from which we get the English word justification. The Latin verb ficare means “to make” or “to shape” or “to do”. Iustus means “righteousness” or “justice,” so iustificare literally means “to make righteous,” which we believe happens in sanctification, not in justification
The Greek word that we are dealing with here in the Romans text is the word dikaioo, dikaiosune, which does not mean “to make righteous” but rather “declare righteous.” In the Roman Catholic view, God will never pronounce a person just or righteous until, by the help of God’s grace and Christ, that person actually becomes righteous. If God were to judge us tonight, what would He find? Would he find sin in our lives? Could He possibly declare us just if He considers only the righteousness that He finds in us today? Remember what the apostle Paul said: “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (3:20). That is precisely why the ground for our justification cannot be found in us or in any righteousness inherent in our souls. That is why we need so desperately what Luther called an alien righteousness, a righteousness that comes from outside of ourselves. (RC Sproul, Romans, p.79-82)
Righteousness is apart from Legalism ( 3:21a )
( Rom 3:21a )“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested,
— But translates an adversative, indicating a contrast, in this instance a wonderful and marvelous contrast — between man’s total depravity and inability to please God and God’s own provision of a way to Himself
— Paul says that the righteousness that God imparts to believers is apart from the Law
— The Jews’ own scripture did not teach salvation by obedience to God’s law, much less obedience to the many man-made laws and traditions
James Montgomery Boice
— The one thing the law cannot do and was never meant to do was save a person by his or her observance of it
Another way of putting this is to say that when the law was given to Israel on Mount Sinai, the very books that listed these unyielding commandments of the holy God also contained instructions for the sacrifice of the lamb on the Day of Atonement. God gave the commandments, but he also gave the altar and taught the principle of substitution. It is as if he were saying, “These are my commandments; you must keep them or be lost. But I know you cannot keep them. So, rather than trusting in your ability to do what you never will be able to do, I point to my Son, who will die for you. It is on the basis of his future work that I am giving you a righteousness you could never achieve yourselves. Trust him.”
— Nevertheless, members of the Jewish majority placed their trust in those man-made regulations
Righteousness is built on revelation ( 3:21b )
( Rom 3:21b )“being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,”
— The Jews had great reverence for their Scriptures, but most of them failed to realized that, although divinely revealed, those Scriptures had no power to save
— The Law and the Prophets did not show men how to achieve their own righteousness but pointed to the coming Messiah
— Jesus said John 5:39 ““You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;”
Righteousness is acquired by Faith ( 3:22a )
( Rom 3:22a ) “even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ ”
— Just to make sure no one misses the point, Paul makes it clear that he is talking about the absolute perfect righteousness of God
— This righteousness is only acquired by faith in Jesus Christ
— But not a superficial faith as Jesus said, John 8:31 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;”
— James said continual disobedience is evidence of false faith, James 2:17 “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”
RC Sproul
— The Roman Catholic Church defines faith as important and indeed essential to justification
— Faith is the foundation for justification, but the instrumental cause of justification, according to Rome, is sacrament of baptism.
— The Reformers said that the instrumental cause is faith by which we are linked to Christ and receive His righteousness
Note: to understand “cause” we need to go back to a time before Jesus to the philosopher Aristotle who spoke of a sculptor who used his tools as the instrumental cause to create a work of art
It is vitally important for us to understand what Faith is — why we call people to faith and why the New Testament calls us to faith. Faith means we place our trust in Christ and His righteousness. We do not trust our own righteousness because we do not have any. When we trust Christ’s righteousness on our behalf, then God transfers legally His righteousness to us. A double transfer in involved in salvation. Christ dies for our salvation, but He also lives for our salvation
Righteousness is Provided for all ( 3:22b-23 )
( Rom 3:22-23 ) “ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
— There is no distinction among those who are saved, because there is no distinction among those who are lost
— for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Righteousness is given freely through Grace ( 3:24a )
( Rom 3:24a ) “being justified as a gift by His grace ”
Dikkaioo, justified
— Means to declare the rightness of something or someone, not symbolically or potentially but actually
— To be justified does not mean “to be just as if one had never sinned”
— God is not playing theological games, pretending that a saved person was never sinful
When a sinner believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is declared to be righteous, because he now possesses God’s own righteousness as a gift of His grace. God does not consider a believer to be righteous; He makes him righteous
Righteousness is accomplished by Redemption ( 3:24b )
( Rom 3:24b ) “through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”
James Montgomery Boice
— Three Greek words, plus two important Hebrew words carry the idea of redemption
— The first word is agorazō
— It comes from the noun used to describe an open marketplace where all sorts of things were bought and sold — wine, grain and oil, pottery, silver, horses and slaves
— The verb agorazō was based on the noun agora, meant to buy something in a marketplace
— The second Greek word for redemption is closely related an is exaagorazō
— It means to buy out of the marketplace with the idea that the object or person would never return there again
— According to the Bible we are slaves to sin and by ourselves we cannot escape from slavery
— But Peter writes, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” ( 1 Pe 1:18-19 )
— Here is the idea that Christ’s death was the payment for our redemption
— The third Greek word is actually a group of words based on yō
— Yō meant to loosen like taking off a belt or armor
— In time a second word developed which was lytroō which meant to set free
— But unlike yō , this word always involved a redemption price
— From these last two words the proper Greek term for redemption came about: lytrōsis (and the cognate word apolutrosis )
As important as studying the Greek words, the richest words for redemption are found in the OT
— First kōpher means “a ransom price” but it is richer than the Greek idea, because it refers to the redemption of a person who, apart from redemption, would die
— Suppose an ox killed someone
— The owner of the ox would pay a fine
— But suppose the ox was known to be dangerous and the owner could have prevented it, in which case the owner would forfeit his life
— The OT provided a way by which, if the owner could come to an agreement with the relatives of the dead, he could pay a ransom price instead of losing his life
— This was the kōpher
— Not only did Christ free us from the power of sin, but from death
— The final word for redemption is the OT verb ga’al and the noun go’el which means kinsman redeemer
It was a principle of Jewish law that property should remain within the family as long as possible. Therefore, if a Jewish person lost his or her share of the land through debt or by some other means, a solemn obligation evolved on a near relative (if there was one) to buy the property back again. This person, because of close relationship to the one who lost the property, was a “kinsman,” and if willing and able to purchase the property and restore it to the family, he became a “kinsman-redeemer.” In some cases, where there was no male heir to inherit the property, the duty of the kinsman-redeemer extended to marrying the widow in order to raise up heirs.
A kinsman-redeemer had to fulfill three qualifications:
1. He had to be a close relative (a stranger would not do)
2. He had to be willing to take on this responsibility (no body could be compelled to do this work), and
3. He had to be able to pay the ransom price
Q: What does propitiation mean?
Righteousness was paid by atoning sacrifice ( 3:25a )
( Rom 3:25a ) “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.”
Hilasterion, propitiation
— Carries the idea of appeasement, or satisfaction
— in the NT it always refers to the work of God
— The only satisfaction that could be acceptable to God and that could reconcile Him to man had to be made by God
— For that reason, God in human flesh, Jesus Christ” gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” ( 1 Tim 2:6 )
— That sacrifice was not made in the dark or even in the hidden and holy recesses of the sacred Temple, but openly on the hill of Calvary for all the world to see, God displayed [it] publicly
RC Sproul
A storm of controversy arose when the Revised Standard Version appeared in English. The words expiation and propitiation were removed from the English the English text based on the reasoning that people in this day and age do not use words like that, and if people are going to understand the New Testament such strange terms must be eliminated. We must never get rid of the words propitiation and expiation. Those are two of the most glorious words that we find anywhere in the New Testament
Propitiation means to satisfy the demands of justice. In biblical terms it means to satisfy the demands of God’s wrath.
Expiation has to do directly with us. The prefix ex- means “away from” or “out of.” One of the benefits of justification is the remission of sin, our sin being removed from us. ( cf. Ps 103:12 )
In the work of Christ, there is propitiation and expiation. The sanctuary at St. Andrew’s is in the form of a cross, a cruciform. The center beam of the cross, the vertical beam, comes down the middle, and the side bars are the various transepts. I told my congregation that every time they come into church on Sunday morning and walk down the aisle, the vertical bar, they should think of the vertical dimension of their justification, which is the propitiation, the satisfaction, that Christ accomplished for them before the Father. The horizontal bar of the cross represents their expiation, whereby Christ not only satisfied the justice of the Father but also removed their sins from them. We must never lose these words, propitiation and expiation. (RC Sproul, Romans, p84-85)
James Montgomery Boice
Then, too, there are our “theological” objections. Propitiation (as commonly defined) presupposes the wrath of God — a wrath that needs to be appeased or turned aside. But right here many modern thinkers stop, regarding wrath as highly inappropriate for Christianity. Such persons might say, “We can understand how the idea of propitiation might be appropriate in an ancient, pagan society, where God was not known and was thought to be vacillating, capricious, and often angry. But certainly this is not the God of Christianity. According to the Christian revelation, God is not angry. He is loving. he does not need to be appeased by us. All we need to do is recognize that he loves us and receive his forgiveness.”
One theologian states sharply: “[Those who hold to] the ‘fire and brimstone’ school of theology, who revel in ideas such as that Christ was made a sacrifice to appease an angry God, or that the cross was a legal transaction in which an innocent victim was made to pay the penalty for the crimes of others, a propitiation of a stern God, find no support in Paul. These notions came into Christian theology by way of the legalistic minds of the medieval churchmen; they are not biblical Christianity” [William Neil, Apostle Extraordinary]
How extraordinary!
RC Sproul
How Christ died for God ( 3:25b-31 )
The theme of the book of Romans, and the heart of the gospel message, is the doctrine of justification by faith alone in response to God’s grace. It is a doctrine that has been lost and found again and again throughout the history of the church. It has suffered from understatement, from overstatement, and, perhaps most often, simply from neglect. It was the central message of the early church and the central message of the Protestant Reformation, under the godly leadership of men such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. It is still today the central message of every church that is faithful to God’s Word. Only when the church understand and proclaims justification by faith can it truly present the gospel of Jesus Christ
One of the most significant passages that teaches that truth is the present text (Rom 3:35b-31). At first reading the passage seems terribly intricate, complicated, and baffling. But its basic truth is simple, while also being the most profound truth in all of Scripture: Justification for sinful mankind was made possible by God’s grace through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross, and it is appropriated by men when they place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior
The Cross reveals God’s righteousness ( 3:25b-26 )
( Rom 3:25b-26 ) “This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
— Habakkuk could not understand why the Lord would allow His own people to suffer while pagan nations prospered
— Hab 1:13 “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?”
— Anticipating such questions, the Holy Spirit led Paul to declare that, through the cross, God no only allowed but planned before the foundation of the world what would be the most unjust act that men could commit — the putting to death of His own sinless Son
— Through that incomparable sacrifice, God provided punishment for sin sufficient to forgive and blot out every sin that would ever be committed by fallen mankind
— His forbearance is not a sign of injustice but of His patient and loving grace ( 2 Pet 3:9 )
Paresis, passed over
— This does not carry the idea of remission, as the KJV renders it, but refers to passing by or overlooking
— In the context of God’s forbearance, the meaning is therefore that of a temporary passing over sin and withholding judgment on it for a certain period of time
— When Adam and Eve sinned, God could have destroyed them immediately but he passed over the sin of mankind ( c.f. Ps 78:38-39; Acts 17:30-31 )
The Cross exalts God’s Grace ( 3:27-28 )
( Rom 3:27-28 ) “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”
— Because the power of salvation is only in the cross men have no excuse to boast
— Do we boast in our works? No, but by the law of faith
— Not even Abraham, the father of God’s chosen people, were justified by works ( Rom 4:2 )
Seven things that neither prove nor disprove true faith
Visible Morality
When a certain young man came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” Jesus told him to keep the commandments and then proceeded to list some of the major ones. When the man responded, “All these things I have kept,” Jesus did not challenge his sincerity. According to outward appearance and his own human perception of obedience, the man probably was speaking the truth. But when Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor and then “come, follow Me,” the man “went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property” ( Matt 19:16-22). By his refusal to obey Christ, the man demonstrated that his outward obedience to the law was not done out of love for God or for the purpose of His glory but was done out of self-love and for the purpose of his own self-interest. When commanded to give all of his possessions as well as himself to Christ, he refused. And by that refusal, even his seemingly good works were exposed as spiritually worthless works, because they were done out of selfish motivation
Intellectual Knowledge of God’s truth
— Like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day, many scholars have devoted their lives to careful study of the Scriptures
— But because they did not believe or obey those truths, they became a judgment against them (c.f. Rom 2:17, 23-24; Ezek 36:20-23 )
Religious involvement
— The ten virgins in Jesus’ parable had the same outward dress and carried the same kind of lamps
— But five of them had no oil in their lamps, and because they lacked the oil of saving faith, they were disqualified from meeting the bridegroom, who represented Christ ( Matt 25:1-13 )
Active Ministry
— Outwardly, Judas was as active as the other disciples
— But many who say to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven ( Matt 7:21-23 )
Conviction of Sin
— Mental hospitals are full of people who are burdened by the knowledge of their sinfulness but it did not drive them to Christ
— Others have achieved by willpower to no longer engage in a particular sin but that only makes them more susceptible to other sin, especially pride
— They are like the man who managed to rid himself of an evil spirit but after a while the spirit returned with seven more spirits more wicked then the first ( Matt 12:43-45)
— Self reformation drives a person further from God’s grace and therefore further from salvation
Assurance of Salvation
— Many people believe that they are saved
— Scripture is full of warnings to unsaved people who think that they are saved ( Matt 7:21-23; James 1:22 )
Experience of a pass “decision” for Christ
— If no evidence of godly living results from that event, it is no proof of salvation
Nine reliable proofs that you are saved
Love for God
— The unsaved person cannot love God ( Rom 8:7 )
— A true child of God, despite how often we fail, will have a life characterized by delight in God and His Word ( Ps 1:2; 42:1-2; 73:25 )
Repentance from Sin and the hatred of it
— This always accompanies true contrition
— Confession and forsaking sin are linked ( Prov 28:13 )
— The person who loves God will have a built-in hatred of sin
— You cannot love both sin and God ( Matt 6:24 )
Genuine Humility
— A person cannot be saved if he exalts and trusts in himself
— Salvation begins by confessing one’s poverty of spirit and the willingness to deny self and take up the cross of Christ ( Matt 5:3; Matt 16:24 )
Devotion to God’s Glory
— Closely related to love of God and repentance of sin
— We should be able to say with Paul:
Phil 1:20 “according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”
Prayer
— The heart of the genuine Christian cannot help by call out to God
— God’s spirit within us should generate that yearning ( Gal 4:6 )
Jonathan Edwards
Hypocrites [are] deficient in the duty of prayer (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol 2, pp. 71-77 )
Selfless Love
— Not only for God but also for other people, especially fellow Christians
— The person who does not care for the welfare of true believers is himself not a true believer, but still abides in spiritual death ( 1 John 2:9-10; 3:14 ; 4:7-8 )
Separation from the World
— We are called to be in the world but not of it ( John 17:15-18 )
— Who is the one that overcomes the world — but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God ( 1 John 5:4-5 )
Spiritual Growth
— This is the central truth of the parable of the soils ( Matt 13:3-23; Mark 4:26-28 )
— Like the farmer and his crops, the believer does not understand how he grows spiritually, but he knows that because he has spiritual life within him he will grow ( Eph 4:13; Phil 1:6 )
The ninth and final mark of saving faith, is Obedient Living
1 John 2:4-5 “The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:”
— Although no one is saved by his good works, those who are truly saved will produce good works ( Eph 2:10 )
The Cross reveals God’s universality ( 3:29-30 )
( Rom 3:29-30 ) “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.”
— Paul established that the Jews had God’s law
— The Gentiles had the law written on their hearts and consciences ( 2:11-15 )
— Paul makes his argument irrefutable: The God who will justify the circumcised that is, Jews, by faith and the uncircumcised, that is, Gentiles, through faith is one
— Just as there is only one God, there is only one way to salvation — faith in Jesus Christ ( 1 Tim 2:3-6 )
The Cross confirms God’s Law ( 3:31 )
( Rom 3:31 ) “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”
— Some may say if I am saved by faith than the Law is now and has always been useless!
— Again, Paul refutes that argument and says, May it never be!
— The cross did not nullify the Law but established it
— The Law was given to show men the perfect standards of God’s righteousness and to show men that it is impossible for men to meet those standards in our own power
— The Law has become a tutor to lead us to Christ that we may be justified by faith ( Gal 3:24 )
— The cross establishes the Law by providing believers the potential for fulfilling it ( Rom 8:3-4 )
Additional Resources
MacArthur, Romans. Romans 1-8. Moody Press, 1987.
MacArthur, Romans. Romans 9-16. Moody Press, 1991.
William Hendriksen. Exposition of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995.
Edwards, Jonathan. Hypocrites deficient in the duty of prayer. Sermons VII-VIII. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol 2, Bath England: Banner of Truth Trust. 1997.
Boice, James Montgomery. Romans. Vol 1 Justification by Faith, Romans 1-4. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991
Sproul, R.C. Romans: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith. Romans an expositional commentary. Ligonier Ministries. 2019.