Chapter Three

The advantages of the Jews do not free them from God’s judgment (1–8). The Word of God itself testifies to the fact of universal condemnation for sin, and therefore to the condemnation of the Jews as well (9–20). Only the death of the Lord Jesus Christ frees people from condemnation. Justification is given to people through faith in Christ (21–26). The harmony of this means of justification with the true meaning of the law (27–31).

Romans 3:1. So then, what is the advantage of being a Jew, or what is the benefit of circumcision? From the preceding chapter it had become clear that a sinning Jew is just as subject to the wrath of God as a sinning Gentile. But in that case the question arose about the advantages of the Jewish people — what exactly were they? After all, the Apostle himself in chapter 1 had hinted at the existence of these advantages (Rom 1:16). To this anticipated question the Apostle replies that the Jews had many advantages, and above all they possessed divine revelation. If this possession had not led to the end toward which it should have led — namely, their acceptance of Christ — did this mean that God’s faithfulness to the promises given to the ancestors of the Jews had been annulled? No; one could rather say that through the unbelief of the Jews, God’s faithfulness to those promises had become all the more manifest. But if, in this manner, the sin of human unbelief serves the highest glorification of God, can God be angry with sinners? If one were not to acknowledge God’s right to be angry even with those sinners whose sins serve to glorify His holiness, this would mean denying the possibility of a final judgment over all humanity.

Romans 3:2. Great advantage in every respect, and especially in that they were entrusted with the words of God. Romans 9:4. “Great advantage” — more precisely: much, or many (advantages). The Apostle speaks of these advantages in detail in chapter IX (v. 4 and following). — “The word of God.” Since in verse 3 God’s faithfulness to this word is celebrated — or more precisely, to the divine revelations (τα λόγια του θ.) — it is clear that by the word of God we must understand the divine promises (cf. Romans 9:4 αί εκαγγελίαι), which are found not only in the prophets (cf. Acts 3:24) but also in the Pentateuch. Romans 3:3. For what then? If some were faithless, will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? Romans 3:4. By no means. God is true, and every person a liar, as it is written: You are just in your words and will prevail when you are judged. “For what then?” — that is, how is this to be understood? (The unbelief of the Jews in the promises seemed to annul the significance of those promises entirely.) — “If some were faithless.” The word “some” (τινές) denotes a part of a whole but does not indicate how large that part is. — “Were faithless” — more precisely: did not believe (ηπίστησαν), that is, did not believe in the Messiah who had come, despite having a promise concerning Him. For the Apostle at that time the attitude of the Jewish people toward Christ had already become perfectly clear (cf. chapters 9–11). — “Faithlessness” — more precisely: unbelief (in Christ). — “Will it nullify” — that is, will it lose its force? — “The faithfulness of God” — God’s faithfulness to His promises given once to His people. — “By no means.” “God is true.” Here the Apostle affirms in general God’s faithfulness to His promises, but it is obvious to every reader that this also provides the answer to the question posed in verse 3. Paul wants to say that God will certainly fulfill in the Hebrew people the promises given to that people’s patriarchs, but he states and develops this thought only at the end of chapter 11. — “Every person a liar.” Only a human being, a creature of weak will, is prone to lying — that is, to going back on one’s words and promises. — God is not like that! “You are just...” In Psalm 50, from which these words are an excerpt, David repents before God for having sinned against Him, before His eyes. By this he means to say that he understood well what he was doing — God had explained to him beforehand (in the law) the criminal nature of the deeds David had committed, yet David committed them anyway (cf. Ps 50:8). From this there emerges a resemblance between David and the people of Israel. Israel, the bearer of divine revelations, was thoroughly acquainted with what sin against God is and what consequences it leads to. If now, contrary to these extraordinary admonitions, Israel nevertheless fell into falsehood — rejecting the Messiah — it has no right to accuse God for its own rejection. Before the words “You are just” one should add the conjunction: so that, since the Greek text has the phrase ώπως άν here, omitted in the Russian, and the whole expression is therefore better translated: “so that you may be acknowledged as just (in your judgment over David and Israel).” — “And you will prevail” — and so that you may appear victorious, should you enter into contention (naturally, over the rejection of Israel, which Israel resented). The Apostle quotes this psalm according to the Septuagint text.

Romans 3:5. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust when he inflicts wrath? (I speak from a human perspective.) Romans 3:6. By no means. For otherwise how would God judge the world? If human unrighteousness can serve, so to speak, as a magnificent backdrop for the revelation of Divine Righteousness — for the good stands out and is seen most clearly when set against something bad — then why does God grow angry with the unrighteous, that is, with unbelieving Jews? This, according to the Apostle, is how one could speak only from a purely human perspective: a person left to himself looks at things very superficially and makes perverse judgments about the works of God. Would it not be better — a Jew might have reasoned — would it not be more just on God’s part to forgive us our unbelief in Christ? The Apostle answers this question in the negative. If God had forgiven His people, if He had not counted their terrible sin — unbelief in Christ — against them on the basis of a personal relationship with that people, how could He judge the entire world, all humanity, at the last judgment? No, the righteousness of God demands the punishment of every sin, regardless of its consequences.

Romans 3:7. For if the truth of God has been enhanced through my falsehood to his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? Romans 3:8. And why not do evil so that good may come — as some slanderously charge us with saying? Their condemnation is just. Here the Apostle, for greater persuasiveness against the erroneous opinion mentioned in verse 5, presents his own case. The Jews of course spoke of Paul as a sinner, saying that God would punish him for his apostasy from Judaism, and the Apostle, knowing these attacks upon him, points out their illogicality. Why should God punish him? Suppose he preaches falsehood — but if this falsehood, this false teaching with which he appears everywhere, only gives greater opportunity for the truth of God, or the “true” Jewish faith, to reveal itself, then why do the Jews attack him? Should they not rather praise him for it? Then, pressing his argument still further, the Apostle says that from the Jewish point of view (see verse 5), he and other Christians are therefore doing well when they do evil. In reality, of course, Christians do nothing of the sort, and the slander heaped upon them by the Jews will undoubtedly find its just condemnation at the judgment of God — but in any case, if Christians were doing evil in order to give the righteousness of God greater opportunity to manifest itself, then from the Jewish point of view they would deserve praise, not censure... This is the absurdity to which the opinion expressed in verse 5, as the opinion of the Jews who were Paul’s opponents, leads. In later times people sometimes attempted to justify the greatest crimes in history by the great beneficial consequences those crimes had for humanity. Even Robespierre was elevated to sainthood by some on the basis of such reasoning... The Apostle rejects the applicability of such a principle: in his view, a person is answerable before God for his evil deed whatever good consequences it may have, because, as he says in other places in his letters, it is God Himself who turns the evil deeds of human beings to the benefit of humanity (see Rom 9:17; Gal 3:22).

Romans 3:9. What then? Are we any better off? Not at all. For we have already established that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, Returning to the question about the advantages of the Jewish people raised in verse 1, the Apostle now proves from the Scriptures of the Old Testament that the Jews cannot claim any advantages with respect to the judgment of God, because all of them were sinners. They cannot be saved even by the law given to them by God, which, while not giving people the strength to change their life for the better, only gives the Jews the opportunity to recognize that they remain in sin. “Are we any better off?” The Apostle asks this on behalf of the Jews, among whom he includes himself. — “Not at all” — more precisely in Greek: “not fully, not in every respect” (ού πάντως. If the Apostle had wished to say: not at all, absolutely not! he would have used, as in 1 Cor 16:12, the expression: πάντως ού), that is, the Jews as a chosen people have advantages over the Gentiles (see Rom 9:4-5; cf. Eph 2:11-12), but as individuals they will be judged at the final judgment of God without regard to these national advantages: it will be not the nation but its individual members who are judged. There these advantages will be of no help to them. They had significance for the earthly, historical life of the Jewish people, and happy are those individual members of the Jewish nation who made use of these advantages for their own personal improvement! — “For we have already established.” Unfortunately, the majority of Jews, as the Apostle showed in chapter II (v. 17 and following), did not make use of their special position as the people chosen by God and led lives as sinful as those of the Gentiles.

Romans 3:10. as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; Romans 3:11. there is no one who understands; no one seeks God; Romans 3:12. all have turned away; all alike have become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Romans 3:13. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they practice deceit; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Romans 3:14. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Romans 3:15. Their feet are swift to shed blood; Romans 3:16. ruin and misery mark their paths; Romans 3:17. and they do not know the way of peace. Romans 3:18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. The condemnations that the Apostle levels against the Jews are consistent with the judgments that their own prophets had already made about the Jews. First the Apostle cites condemnations from the psalms (Ps 13:1-3), then from the book of Proverbs and Isaiah (Prov 1:16; Isa 59:7), and then again from the psalms (Ps 35:2). It is notable that he first depicts human depravity in the most general terms (vv. 10–12), then mentions two particular manifestations of this depravity — in the realm of speech (13–14) and in the realm of action (15–17). He concludes the whole picture by pointing to the source of depravity: the absence of the fear of God in human beings (18).

Romans 3:19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God, Romans 3:20. because no flesh will be justified before him by works of the law; for through the law comes knowledge of sin. The Jews could have objected, regarding the scriptural passages cited by the Apostle, that some of these passages refer not to them but to the Gentiles (for example, Ps 13). Against this argument the Apostle points out that these condemnations are nonetheless contained in the law, or the books of the Old Testament, which were written for the Jews and not for the Gentiles. What follows from this? Clearly, the authors of these books intended to warn the Jews, their fellow countrymen, who were likewise threatened with the judgment of God for sins by which they resembled the Gentiles. And in the Jews as well, the law thus discerned — perhaps only in embryonic form — those same sins that existed among the Gentiles. — “The whole world” — all humanity, both Gentiles and Jews. — “Accountable to God” — subject to the judgment of God (υπόδικος τ θ). — “Works of the law.” By this term the Apostle undoubtedly means not merely the deeds of the ceremonial law (performance of the regulations concerning purifications and so on), but also the internal, psychological acts performed by a person through the efforts of his will. The Jew wished by himself, through his own spiritual labor, to fulfill all the manifold commandments of God that constitute the content of the Mosaic law. He thought he could justify himself by his own personal efforts, by the exertion of his own activity... The Apostle views this aspiration as something unachievable — “no flesh,” that is, no human being as a weak, infirm creature (by virtue of the inheritance of sin) can fulfill the law in its entirety (will not be justified before God). If the law gives the Jews anything, it is the awareness of the sad fact of their sinfulness and the complete impossibility of climbing out of the abyss of sin by their own strength alone (“through the law comes knowledge of sin”). The Apostle develops this more fully in chapter VII (vv. 7–11).

Romans 3:21. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, to which the law and the prophets bear witness, Beginning the most important — positive — part of his letter, the Apostle in brief and clear words points out that the justification which could not be obtained through the fulfillment of the law is given by God Himself, who gives it to all who believe in Jesus Christ and in the redemption He accomplished. In doing so the Apostle explains that in the death of Christ, which Christ accepted for the sins of all humanity, God revealed Himself as on the one hand a strict judge of human sins, and on the other as one who shows mercy and saves people.

Acts 21:20. “But now.” Until this point, before Christ, all humanity was in a state of sin and estrangement from God; now, with the founding of the Christian Church, it has the possibility of receiving justification and salvation. — “Apart from the law.” Christians from among the Jews were generally unable to detach themselves from their attachment to the Mosaic law, to break their connection with the magnificent temple worship and to stop offering sacrifices. “You see, brother,” the Apostle James and the Jerusalem elders said to Paul, “how many thousands of believing Jews there are, and all of them are zealous for the law!” (Acts 21:20). Christians from among the Jews who lived far from Jerusalem (in Greece, Rome) likewise cherished an attachment to the law, supposing that it helped a person in the work of justification by restraining him from sins (Rom 6:15 and following). The Apostle, in view of this error which his readers — Christians from the Gentiles — could also have fallen into, forcefully denies any need for the law in the justification that is now granted to people in Christ Jesus. — “Has been manifested” — that is, has been made manifest. Previously the righteousness of God, according to the Apostle (Col 3:3 and following), was something hidden; now it has become accessible to observation as a known historical fact, as a living reality. “The righteousness of God.” — See Rom 1:17. Here also this expression denotes the divine righteousness appropriated by a person through faith in Christ, by virtue of which a person becomes a new creation, cleansed and justified. — “To which they bear witness.” Although observance of the law is superfluous for those justified in Christ, it does not follow from this that the new means of justification stands in contradiction to the revelation of the Old Testament. Both “the law and the prophets” — that is, the entire Old Testament (see Matt 5:17) — pointed ahead to this justification by faith, which is now given to all humanity (cf. Rom 1:17 — the prophecy of Habakkuk, and Rom 4 — the example of Abraham). Romans 3:22. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all and on all who believe, for there is no distinction, Romans 1:17. If, then, justification is given apart from works of the law, by what means is it received by people? “Through faith in Jesus Christ.” Properly speaking, it is not faith itself (for an explanation of this term see Romans 1:17) that has such significance, but the object of that faith — Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament faith was also required of the Hebrew, but that faith had significance in itself, as a certain disposition of confidence that a person attained from the awareness that he himself had fulfilled the conditions of the covenant with God required on his part — namely the works of the law. A person believed, that is, was confident, that the righteousness or justice of God would render him what he had earned. “Here the object of faith recedes into the background; the subject comes to the fore with his moral strength” (Myshtsyn, The Teaching of the Holy Apostle Paul on the Law of Works and the Law of Faith, p. 18). Even in the Messiah, the Jews contemporary with the Apostle Paul looked not for a Savior from sin, condemnation, and death, but only for a messenger of God who was to crown their own achievements. “Pharisaism held that the people of Israel and all its members sufficiently atone for themselves” (Glubokovskiy N. N., The Gospel of the Holy Apostle Paul, Book 1, p. 297). But the Apostle Paul, recognizing the human being as incapable of achieving justification on his own, acknowledging the power of sin on the one hand and the necessity of divine grace on the other, directs the mind and heart of the human being toward Christ, who alone can help him in his hopeless situation. Faith in Christ thus presupposes, on the one hand, self-renunciation and an awareness of one’s own powerlessness in the work of attaining salvation, and on the other — devotion to Christ, an aspiration to be united with Him and to appropriate His righteousness. This faith, it must be noted, is in its essence akin to love: this can be demonstrated by the fact that the Apostle Paul nowhere in his letters speaks of love toward God and Christ — that is, he does not use these phrases (in the letter Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 13:13; 2 Thess 3:5 the expression αγάπη θ. does admittedly occur, but this expression means: the love of God; similarly the expression αγάπη I. Хр. in the letters Rom 8:35; 2 Cor 5:14; Eph 3:19 is to be understood in the sense: the love of Christ). Yet at the same time the Apostle Paul expresses very clearly the thought of the necessity of love toward God and Christ and of the worthlessness of faith without love (1 Cor 16:22; Rom 8:28). It is evident that for the Apostle Paul love enters into the concept of justifying faith as its necessary element (Myshtsyn, p. 168). “For all and on all who believe.” These words refer to the phrase: the righteousness of God. The phrase “for all” (είς πάντας) indicates that the righteousness of God is destined for all people without exception and is offered to all, while the phrase “on all” (επί πάντας) conveys the thought that the righteousness of God is personally appropriated by each individual who believes in Christ. The Apostle seems to be saying: “The righteousness of God is sent to you so that you may believe in it, and it will abide on you, becoming yours, as soon as you believe.” The word “who believe” relates to both expressions. — “For there is no distinction.” The Apostle says this with his fellow countrymen in mind, who could never forget their privileged position as the chosen people.

Romans 3:23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, “For all have sinned.” When they sinned — the Apostle does not say, but only affirms that the fact of the fall is beyond doubt. The Apostle speaks of this in greater detail in Rom 5:12 and following. “And fall short of the glory of God.” As can be seen from the opening words of verse 24, this glory of God does not represent something distinct from the justification granted by God, which people do not possess (υοτερούνται — present tense). It is the same as the honor that God acknowledges in the moral person (John 12:43).

Romans 3:24. being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, “Being justified freely.” These words explain or more precisely define the situation of all people described in the words: “and fall short of the glory of God.” Yes, people truly do not possess the glory or justification from God, and for this reason God already grants them this justification as a free gift. “Being justified” — in Greek δικαιούμενοι. This word comes from the verb δικαιούν, which in classical Greek and in the Septuagint translation means: (a) to do what is right, to restore what is just, and (b) to reveal or acknowledge an already existing righteousness, independent of the act of δίκαιοΰν. The first meaning indicates that a certain person is made righteous (δίκαιος), while the second indicates that he is recognized and declared righteous. In Paul too this verb means: (a) to make righteous — specifically where the subject of justification (δικαιοϋσθαι) is conceived as still unrighteous and sinful, and (b) to declare righteous — where this righteousness is already conceived as existing. Nowhere in the Apostle Paul’s writings can one find a single passage from which it could be concluded that the Apostle affirmed the possibility of justification — that is, the recognition of a person as righteous when sinfulness has not yet been eliminated in him. Even the Protestants, who had until recently insisted that this verb in Paul has the meaning only of a purely legal act (to declare innocent, without reference to the actual state of the person), have recently come to recognize the inadequacy of such an understanding. “For Paul, justification does not end with a legal act. A merely imputed, that is, credited, righteousness would not have satisfied his religious need... The justified person is in Paul’s religion not merely a title — for if the title were applied without foundation, God’s truthfulness would be violated — but a person who has genuinely become righteous” (Julicher Ad., Der Brief an die Römer, S. 240). “Freely” — that is, justification is given to people as a gift, as a present, without any personal merit (cf. Rom 5:17). “By his grace.” The word grace (χάρις) means (a) a property of an object — its pleasantness, beauty, and (b) a disposition — inclination, favor. In the Apostle Paul this word is used most often in the second sense. God gives us His grace, that is, His favor and love, which permeates our entire being (1 Cor 15:10). The mediator through which this grace is poured out upon people is the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), who together with this grace penetrates into the heart of the person (Rom 8:9). A person who is in communion with the Holy Spirit is at the same time a partaker of grace. “One can even say that grace is the Holy Spirit Himself, insofar as He dwells and acts in a person” (Myshtsyn, p. 156). That is, this expression points not only to the source of justification — God’s love for sinful humanity suffering under the yoke of sin — but also provides an answer to the question of how justification is accomplished. It is accomplished through the special action of the Holy Spirit, who, encompassing the entire being of the person, draws him toward Christ and in Himself reunites him with the Lord, and through the Lord — with God (1st ed., p. 159). “Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The word redemption (αποχύτρωσις) means: liberation by means of a ransom — liberation from sin, condemnation, and death. A person, by his natural inclination toward sin, cannot free himself from its power; therefore God provides the means for this liberation, and this means is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Thus the Gospel of Matthew states that Christ came to “give his life as a ransom for many” (or: in place of many, Matt 20:28). The Apostle Peter says in his letter of Christians that they were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet 1:18-19). The designation of Christ’s body as a redemption or ransom occurs in the Apostle Paul himself in other places as well (1 Tim 2:6; 1 Cor 6:20; Gal 3:13). If the Apostle uses precisely such a term to denote the work accomplished by God for our salvation, it is probably because he wishes by this to convey that the work of our liberation from slavery to sin was accomplished properly and in a formal, legal respect as well: for the liberated sinners full and sufficient compensation was provided — the law of justice was satisfied.

Romans 3:25. Whom God put forward as a propitiatory sacrifice by his blood through faith, to show his righteousness through the forgiveness of sins previously committed, “Whom God put forward as a propitiation.” The word “put forward” (προέθετο) evidently represents something corresponding to the following phrase: “to show his righteousness,” and may therefore be rendered as “displayed before all humanity.” — “Propitiation” — ιλαστήριον. This word has various meanings. It is used by classical authors in the sense of “a sacrifice propitiating some god,” while commentators on Paul’s letters assign to this term sometimes the meaning of propitiation in general (without the direct sense of sacrifice), and sometimes the meaning of the lid of the Ark of the Covenant upon which the high priest sprinkled sacrificial blood on the Day of Atonement (the mercy seat). The Fathers and teachers of the Church all hold to the latter interpretation, seeing in Christ the new mercy seat. “The Lord Christ is the true mercy seat, for the ancient one was the prefiguration of this true one. But the ancient mercy seat was bloodless, being inanimate; it received upon itself the drops of blood of sacrificial animals, whereas the Lord Christ is both high priest and lamb, and by his own Blood he secured our salvation” (Theodoret). The Russian translation is, however, more consistent with the classical meaning of the word and is simpler and clearer as an image. Christ indeed appeared in the eyes of all humanity as the sacrifice that needed to be offered for the propitiation of humanity’s sins. However, in the word ιλαστήριον the thought of propitiation of divine righteousness is contained less than the thought of the cleansing of the human being. This word comes from the verb ιλασκεσθαι. The object of this verb in Greek is almost always the deity, while in Holy Scripture it never is (with the exception of Zech 7:2). This verb in the sacred writers means not to propitiate but to cleanse; its action extends not to God but to the human being. It would therefore be more accurate to translate the expression ιλαστήριον here as “a sacrifice of purification.” “By his blood.” This addition indicates that the sacrifice appointed by God for the redemption of humanity was the highest of sacrifices — a blood sacrifice. It was necessary that the most pure blood of the Savior be shed. Why? Blood is the symbol of life; the soul of a person is in the blood (Lev 17:11). If a person sinned against God and thereby brought upon himself the death foretold to him by God, then he should have died (Gen 2:17) — died a violent death or returned to God the gift he had abused — his soul, his life. But he did not do this — sin darkened his conscience. Now in his place, in place of all sinful humanity, Christ Himself does this. He offers His life or blood to Divine Justice, and this blood — as was already prefigured by the Old Testament purifications through the blood of sacrifices — becomes for all humanity the means of purification as the blood of the new and greatest sacrifice. “Through faith.” If the shedding of Christ’s blood took place outside of us, we each personally appropriate the result of this action through faith. Faith thus serves as the subjective condition of our justification, just as the death or blood of Christ represents the objective condition. — “To show his righteousness.” Here the righteousness of God, in accordance with the context, undoubtedly means the highest Divine Justice, which was manifested with power in the death of the Son of God. The Lord God willed to reveal Himself as the righteous Judge over sinful humanity — and to this end He consigned to a violent death the representative of humanity — the sinless God-man, whose death, as that of a sinless one, served as a fully sufficient ransom for the sins of all humanity (cf. 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13). — “Through the forgiveness of sins previously committed.” The word “through” is more correctly rendered as: “through, or as a consequence of, the fact that (sins) were being forgiven” (διά τ. πάρεσιν). Here is stated the reason why God decided to manifest His Justice. Humanity had been living in sins for nearly four thousand years (since the time of the flood), and yet the Justice of God had rarely punished wrongdoers. People could have come to the firm conviction that they would receive no punishment for their sins at all!

Romans 3:26. during the time of God’s forbearance, to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. “During the time of God’s forbearance.” The Apostle means to say by this that God was giving people time to come to their senses and to acknowledge their sins. The entire pre-Christian era can be called an “era of forbearance,” which the Most High and Most Holy God showed toward the insignificant and sinful human being. It might seem that here the Apostle contradicts what he said in chapter 1 about the wrath of God hanging over the pagan world. But in reality there is no contradiction here. The Apostle evidently spoke in chapter 1 about the judgment of God upon individual persons among the Gentiles, while here he has in mind entire pagan nations, which in reality had by no means all experienced the wrath of God upon themselves. Dozens of ancient nations continued to exist, having long since darkened their lives with every kind of sin, and God endured their existence all the while... “To show his righteousness at the present time.” Although a different preposition stands here in the Greek text than in the phrase of verse 25 (πρός, whereas there it was είς), it is nevertheless obvious that the Apostle is simply repeating the sentence of verse 25 (perhaps he takes a different preposition because what follows begins again with the preposition είς). The addition “at the present time” particularly emphasizes the special importance of the period of time the readers were living through. Let them pay particular attention to what has just taken place! This and things like it had never happened before and would never happen again... “So that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The Lord manifested His Righteousness or Justice precisely in the death of Christ so that everyone might know, everyone might see, that the Lord is not only just and punishes sins (the first — δίκαιον), but at the same time also justifies and makes righteous sinful people as soon as they believe in Jesus (δικαιούντα). The Apostle thus concludes the central part of his letter (verses 21–26) with mention of the fact that the justification of the sinful person is accomplished only through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the wholly new and extraordinary means that God offers to humanity, which has found itself in a hopeless situation. Salvation has been accomplished — let people hasten toward it! “The cross of Christ with his blood is seen as erected in the midst, and with its purifying power overshadowing all former sinners and all present ones” (Bishop Theophanes). But what is faith in Jesus — this second, subjective condition of justification? Why does the Apostle here take only the name given to our Savior by virtue of His human descent? One might suppose that the Apostle did this in order to indicate the necessity for each one who desires to receive justification before God to live through in his soul what our Savior, as the God-man, lived through during His sufferings. At the name Jesus there immediately arises in our mind the image of the crucified, suffering God-man, and our heart contracts with grief. We recognize, we feel with all our heart, our guilt — on account of which the innocent God-man Jesus had to suffer and die. We acknowledge ourselves as criminals and are prepared to endure those very sufferings that the righteous judgment of God had appointed for us but which our Advocate took upon Himself. A person, so to speak, now crucifies himself before the eyes of God and in this way appropriates to himself both the suffering of the Savior and the redemption He accomplished. This is what true, saving faith in Jesus is! Here the sinner mystically acknowledges his guilt, and by this opens access in his soul to the redeeming and life-giving grace. The work of Christ becomes his possession, so that he can say of himself: “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:19).

Romans 3:27. Where then is boasting? It has been excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by a law of faith. The Apostle repeats (cf. v. 20) that he does not acknowledge it as possible for a person to be justified by works (27–28), and further affirms that justification by faith alone is consistent with the monotheism that forms the foundational point of the teaching of the entire Old Testament (29–31).

Romans 3:28. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law. From what has been said about the new means of justification the Apostle draws the following conclusion. “You Jews boasted that you have the law, by fulfilling which you can be justified. Now you can no longer boast of this: the Lord God, by sending His Son to death for the sins of all people — not only Gentiles but Jews as well — clearly showed that the works of the law do not save. People are saved (this word ‘are saved’ must be inserted here for clarity of thought) not by the law of works but by the law of faith” (the Apostle calls faith a law in correspondence with the expression ‘law of works,’ and also, as blessed Theophylact explains, because the name ‘law’ was held in honor among the Jews, or, as the Apostle states in verse 28, apart from works of the law).

Romans 3:29. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, Romans 3:30. since God is one — who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Romans 3:31. Do we then nullify the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. The Apostle had already said earlier that the new means of justification not only does not contradict the Old Testament but was even foreshadowed in the Old Testament. Now he proves this by the following reasoning. The true God cannot be the God of the Jews alone. The Gentiles also are under His authority and care, which is why Jeremiah called God the King of the nations (Jer 10:7), and the psalmists called Him the God of all the earth (Ps 95-97). And this is in fact so, because everyone expected that the One God would justify all — both Jews (the circumcised) and Gentiles (the uncircumcised) — and both groups through their faith (by faith, through faith). But perhaps, by putting forward the new means of justification, the Apostle is thereby nullifying altogether the Mosaic law and the entire Old Testament economy? (v. 31) No, this cannot be thought, and in reality it is not so. On the contrary, the Gospel fulfills the idea deeply embedded in the law and in the Old Testament generally — the idea of the salvation of all humanity. “What was the purpose of the law?” — says John Chrysostom in explanation of verse 31 — “To what did all its workings tend? To this: to make a person righteous. But the law was unable to achieve this, for, as is written, all sinned. When faith came, it succeeded in this. Thus faith restored the intent of the law and brought to fulfillment what the law labored toward.” The Apostle, who preaches the fulfillment of the cherished aspirations of the law, thus appears as its defender, its champion (“we uphold the law”). * * * Notes Zahn posits between αποκαλύπτεται (Rom 1:17) and πεφανέρωται — of the present verse — the distinction that the former denotes the revelation of righteousness to individual hearers of the Gospel, while the latter denotes its revelation to all people. According to Zahn, the phrase “on all” indicates that righteousness descends upon people from heaven. This is why in the Apostle Paul the word grace is never combined with the phrase of the Holy Spirit (subjective genitive) but always either with the phrase: of God (Rom 5:15; 1 Cor 1:4) or of the Lord (Rom 16:20; Gal 6:18). It must be noted that grace also operated in the Old Testament, but there it did not renew the essence of the human being; it only prepared the ground for the operation of New Testament grace. Zahn hardly grounds himself well in seeing in the term redemption simply the designation of liberation from sin, a release to freedom (απολυτρούν — he says — is almost the same as ανολύειν or αψιέναι). Zahn translates: “a means serving for propitiation or purification.”