v.9 The Jews always
thought that they were better than the Gentiles – but Paul had in this chapter and the previous chapter proven
that all are under the grip of sin.
v.10
Quotation from Psalm 14:3
. Every single man is a sinner. The words exclude every single man: none, no, not one!
v.11 Verses
11-14 are a loose quotation taken from Psalm 5:9. No man, without the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, understands spiritual things (1CO 2:11). This is the reason why man-made “gods” are just super-versions of
man or animals.
No man, without the leading of the Holy Spirit, seeks after
God. On the contrary, sinful man naturally “flees” from the all-seeing, all-knowing holy God – as Adam and Eve
did when they sinned against God (GEN 3:8). Sinful man creates “gods” that are similar to themselves – either with limitations (eg. an idol that
cannot see) or with sinful tendencies like himself. They have no difficulty seeking after these “gods.”
v.13,14 A sepulchre is a tomb. An open sepulchre with a decaying
body inside will emit a terribly foul odour. Man’s mouth speaks unbelievably foul things. (Read James 3 for a description
of the awfulness of man’s mouth.)
v.15-17
Man is terribly destructive – wherever there are men, there are quarrels and wars, even today.
v.18
Sinful man is so blind to spiritual things that he can barely sense God’s presence, though deep in his heart he
knows that there is a great Creator God (ROM 1:19-20). Furthermore, he is so drawn away by endless distractions around him that he has no time to reflect
on God. This is the reason why God often allows sickness and unemployment into our lives, so that in our enforced
inactivity, we have time to consider Him and eternity.
v.19 Both God’s
Law or the law written in our consciences convict all men as guilty sinners!
v.20
Therefore, none can claim to be able to live a sinless life and be declared to be just in the sight of the all-seeing God. The word “justified”
is a legal word used by a judge to declare that a person is not guilty.
The law does not help us to live a sinless life but it does help us to realise how often we break the Law. Without
God’s Law, we might be breaking His Law without realising it. For example, without the Law, we would not know that
idolatry is sin. Therefore, by the Law is the knowledge of sin – as rebellion (for all, even without the law, know the pollution
of sin in their life). This is one reason why we must read God’s Word – or we might be sinning against Him without
realising it.
Justification by Faith
v.21 The word
“but” tells us that a different topic is being discussed
from this verse on. Draw a line in your Bible between verses 20 and 21 and write the words “The
Gospel begins here.” Before this, Paul describes man’s attempt to be “justified” by his
own righteousness but from this verse on, Paul describes another righteousness, namely, the
righteousness of God without the law. Note, that this righteousness is of God, not of man.
This righteousness of God has been already mentioned in the Law (ie,
the first five books of the Old Testament) and the Prophets
(ie, the remaining books of the Old Testament).
v.22 This righteousness
of God is obtained by faith in Jesus Christ. It is available to all men who believe, irrespective of whether they are Jews or Gentiles (ie. all non-Jews, which includes the rest of us) because there is no difference between them – they are all hopeless sinners needing salvation.
v.23 Whether
Jews or Gentiles, we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standards of holiness.
v.24 God has
freely offered this righteousness by
His grace (ie, by His undeserved favour to us). It
was earned when Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins
and redeemed us from the penalty of sin. To “redeem” is to buy back that which
was lost. We were lost to sin and hell, but Jesus Christ redeemed us by giving His life as a ransom for us.
v.25
God’s holy anger against our sin demanded that we be punished for our sin. When Jesus Christ took our place at
the Cross, He appeased God’s holy anger (ie, Jesus Christ was our propitiation). To “propitiate” is to appease. We receive Jesus Christ as our propitiation when we believe that He died for our sins
(ie, when we have faith in His blood). “Blood” represents death.
“Sins that are past” refer to the sins of the men who trusted
in God before Christ’s propitiatory death at the Cross (eg. the sins of King David). These men trusted that God
would one day in the future send a Messiah to die for their sins – but they died before Jesus Christ came and died
for their sins. Therefore, when they died their sins had not yet been paid for – yet God did not send them to hell
because God knew that their sins would be paid for by Jesus Christ in the future. In this sense, God was forbearing (ie, patient) and remitted their sins for the time being, until Jesus settled them.
Throughout this “interim” period between the death of these Old Testament saints and Jesus’ death, God’s righteousness was questioned by Satan – “how
come King David was not punished for his sins?” Therefore, when Jesus paid for their
sins at the Cross, God was declared to be righteous and Satan’s accusation
was found to be false.
v.26
The fact that even His own Son, Jesus Christ was punished when He bore our sins, proved that God is a just and holy God.
v.27 If man
is saved by his own righteous works, he will boast. But no one in heaven will boast because we are all saved by faith and not by our works.
v.28 Salvation
is by faith alone – not by faith and works (ie, the deeds of the law). Almost all Christian heresies (grievous errors) are the
result of teaching that some religious works are necessary for salvation. True Christian faith is faith that works, not faith and works. In other words,
we only need faith in Jesus Christ as our Saviour to be saved but after we are saved we are empowered and led by
the Holy Spirit to do good works. Works is a result of
salvation not a condition for salvation.
v.30
Jews and Gentiles are both justified by faith.
v.31 To the
Jew, who deeply reveres the Law as God’s provision for salvation, he would be shocked at Paul’s apparent suggestion
that the Law has no place.Paul’s explanation is that it is God’s way of salvation in Christ,
who said that He came to fulfil the Law (MAT 5:17) and did so in His life and in His death, which has really establish the Law.
Another natural conclusion that follows is: “If we are saved by faith, then we can continue
in sin and break the law!” On the contrary, after a man is saved he is able to establish the Law because the indwelling Holy Spirit will give him the desire
and strength to fulfil the righteous demands of the Law in Christ Jesus.