Shall Our Unrighteousness Commend the Righteousness of God? (Romans 3:3–7)

Rom. 3:3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

Do not regard this unbelief. It does not hinder God’s work, long beforehand ordained. They do not believe: let them be. But God does not regard this unbelief and carries out His work. God promised that a Deliverer would come; He has come, and the gospel about Him is being spread throughout the whole world. That the Old Testament must be permanent is not God’s faith, but the false faith of your leaders. But God’s faith is that the covenant should stand until its time and in its appointed time should cease, giving place to a better covenant. Behold, it has now ceased, according to God’s ordination, and we proclaim this to you. Thus God’s faith enters the work and by this very appearance of itself in deed convicts the falsehood of their faith and deprives of all weight the fact that they do not believe in the New Testament. Their unbelief casts no shadow upon God’s faith. Do not waver in their unbelief and hold firmly in your heart that the Law has ceased and the New Testament has already entered into force.

It must be noted that in the early time of the Gospel’s spread, the unbelief of the Jews, especially the most prominent and learned, naturally disturbed the peace of the believers’ faith, and they, both for themselves and for others, held ready counterarguments to history – that the unbelief of the powerful is not a certain proof of the rightness of their unbelief and, consequently, the wrongness of faith. Remarkable in this respect is the speech of St. Stephen, the first martyr, in the Sanhedrin. Throughout all of history he traces a chain of instances of the stubborn resistance of powerful Jews against God’s purposes and dispositions – what is even recognized as wrong by those hearing him at that very time. Then he concludes: “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51). From this representation it followed directly that there was nothing to fear from the unbelief of the powerful Jews. They had always been such. Their unbelief should not shake our faith and persuade us to reject God’s faith. Such defenses of faith, it must be supposed, often occurred among Christians from the Jews both in conversation with others and in reflections with themselves. The same thing arises in the consciousness of the Jew here by the Apostle. What is it, he says, that some did not believe? Only some did not believe, but some did believe. Those are prominent, wealthy and renowned; but these are obscure and not wealthy. Two sides are before you. As the first have already more than once proved themselves not standing in the truth as opponents of God’s commands, you, by other reasons inclined toward faith or already inclined to it and having accepted it, have nothing to fear on account of their unbelief. For this would presuppose in you such a thought that God may not fulfill His purposes and may revoke His intentions when meeting the unbelief of some. But this would mean that God departed from His word by the force of their unbelief, that their unbelief overcame God’s plans and caused Him to prove unfaithful to His promises. But how can one think this? (Photius in Oecumenius).

Rom. 3:4. Let it not be: but let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written: that You may be justified in Your words and may overcome when You are judged.

“Let it not be” – a form of wish that, however, is decisively affirmative. This must not be. All religious feelings rise up against it and suppress this thought at its very birth. Let no one think this about God and God’s works.

“But let it be”. Let everyone hold and contain in his mind and heart, without permitting any wavering in this, that “God is true” always and in all things – as He promised, so He does; and nothing in the world can prevent Him from fulfilling His purposes. – “And every man is a liar,” – that is, let it be so – let him be thus recognized. “A liar,” ψεύστης, – deceitful. God is always true and never false in His words; but man can be false, is mistaken and persists in his error, deceiving himself and leading others into deception, often with intention. Therefore, if you see falsehood, place it not on God’s side but on man’s. In that which you see accomplished before your very eyes, you are compelled to see the fulfillment of God’s promises. Stand on this side and recognize it as true, inasmuch as you confess as true the God who openly testifies to this truth. And these “some” recognize as liars, perverting God’s truth into a lie. That which they, as you see, are taking for themselves is of no importance. It is only for a time. And here too God will shame them, before He convicts them before all the world in His judgment. God’s truth will triumph: for God is all-conquering. – Ambrosiaster writes: “both positions, that: ‘God is true’ – and that: ‘every man is a liar,’ – are taken from the book of Psalms (Ps. 85:15; 115:2). He calls man a liar inasmuch as he does not believe what God promised; for in denying that God will give what He promised, he lies. Being himself false, he for various reasons represents God as false as well, when he does not believe His promises. The Apostle calls every man who does not believe God’s promises a liar. But this designation is more fitting of the Jews, about whom he here discourses, in that, seeing Christ, they rejected that He is the One whom God promised. For this they are justly recognized as liars. But God is true, for He sent Christ as He promised.”

In confirmation of the truth uttered, the Apostle adduces the words of the prophet David from a penitential psalm: “that You may be justified in Your words and may overcome when You judge” (Ps. 50:6). You are always justified, or You are always right in Your words, and remain victorious, “when You judge,” – when You pronounce judgment on someone; that is, when You judge someone, that one himself will confess and acknowledge that You are right. Applying to the flow of the Apostle’s discourse, it will be: the unbelief of the Jews does not refute God’s truthfulness. God is always true in His promises, always fulfills what He has promised. Whoever says otherwise is a liar. This is confirmed by prophetic words, according to which God is always right in His words and proves victorious in judgment. St. Chrysostom says: “if one reasons and compares what God gave to the Jews and how the Jews conducted themselves before God; then the victory is on God’s side, God is right in all things. God did all on His side; but the Jews did not become better because of it.” – Blessed Theodoret adduces the following examples of how God justifies Himself in judgment. “So to Israel He said: ‘My people, what have I done to you? Or in what have I wearied you? Testify against Me.’ (Mic. 6:3); then (to silence them) He goes into detail reminding of His benefactions. So too through Jeremiah He cries out: ‘What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me? that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanities and become vain?’ (Jer. 2:5) – and likewise He appends a recital of His benefactions.” Thus God is always justified in judgment by the abundance of His benefactions – by the fact that He always truly fulfills His promises. “He overcomes,” “when He judges,” “by the fact that He fulfills that which people do not think He will fulfill. For when He is not believed, His word is thought to be false. But He, by fulfilling that which is thought will not be fulfilled, overcomes, showing that He is true, and the one not believing His words is false” (Ambrosiaster).

One can also somewhat extend the limits of this word as follows: let some not have believed; yet God, notwithstanding this, fulfilled His promise – He sent His Son as a Deliverer to the world – and by the fact that many believed, showed that indeed the words entrusted to the Jews contained predictions about Him and all the Old Testament institution served as preparation for receiving Him. The preaching goes forward, the Gospel spreads – and the work enters into the measure of the prediction about Him. But let others remain in unbelief: this is only here. There will come a judgment, and God’s truth will triumph. “They will see the Son of God in the glory which they would not give to Him, and confess that their unbelief toward the promises defeated the truth of the event” (Ambrosiaster).

Thus the Apostle disperses the confusion brought on by the unbelief of “some” and restores conviction in the victoriousness of God’s truth. In the mind is impressed the glorious course of things according to God’s ordination and God is magnified in His glory, while the Jew is seen impoverishing and depriving himself on account of his unbelief. “In speaking of the greatness of the promises in God’s words, the Apostle apparently defends the Jews; but in doing so he sets forth a new accusation, proving that they have not believed the words of God, which served to their honor” (Blessed Theophylact). But by this they have not only not harmed God’s glory, but rather have exalted it all the more.

Such a course of thoughts brought the Apostle to a new objection, which, perhaps, he had also heard in actual discussions with Jews, especially the Corinthians, accustomed, among Greeks, to sophistications.

Rom. 3:5. But if our unrighteousness commends God’s righteousness, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? – I speak according to human reason.

The preceding mention of the unbelief of the Jews chiefly fixes thought upon the unbelief in Christ the Lord, which at that time was an actual and obvious fact. – But the unbelief in Christ the Lord, according to the prophetic promises, should be accompanied by terrible calamities for the unbelievers. Although these calamities had not yet befallen at that time, the Apostle had no doubt that they were about to come, or perhaps he already foresaw their beginning. In adducing the passage from the prophet David: “You overcome when You judge,” – he perhaps alluded to this. But as he had just explained that the unbelief of the Jews manifested God’s truth to God’s glory; then a Jew, schooled in the logic of the Greeks, could entertain such thoughts: if our unrighteousness magnifies God’s righteousness, then why should He inflict wrath upon us? That would be unjust. However absurd such a thought might be, it could diminish the fear of God’s judgment, calm the Jew who had begun to be troubled in his unbelief, and thus block his path to faith. Foreseeing this, the Apostle speaks as it were to the Jew: you do not believe and think that it is nothing. No, terrible divine judgments will fall upon your head. Yes, do not let yourself be deceived by that perversion of falsehood that because your unrighteousness manifests God’s righteousness, God will not bring upon you the deserved punishment for your unbelief. Can one reason in such a way that because our unrighteousness constitutes God’s righteousness, God would be unjust in inflicting wrath and therefore will not inflict it? Do not reason thus. You will not escape God’s punishment, and God, in inflicting wrath upon you, will not prove Himself unjust in the least. Such a thought goes directly to the Apostle’s goal – to shake the self-confidence of the Jew and, by arousing a sense of fear for himself, to dispose him toward repentance and faith.

“I speak according to human reason” – the Apostle added to show that his own tongue would not have turned to say this, nor would such a thought ever come to his mind; but people, as I have heard, sometimes reason this way. In Greek there is such a thought: if our unrighteousness manifests God’s righteousness in glory, will not God be unjust in inflicting wrath? This, he says, I speak according to human reason. “Behold the reverence of the Apostle! Having said: is God ‘unjust in inflicting wrath?’ – he added: ‘I speak according to human reason.’ Thus would speak anyone reasoning according to human understanding” (St. Chrysostom). “Not in my own person, he says, do I utter this, but I relate the reasoning of others” (Blessed Theodoret). Or “I speak according to human reason” – better to connect with the following: “let it not be,” – in the sense that even according to human reasoning, this can in no way be said. God, however, may have such reasons to which we cannot even think. “Thus,” he says, “I reply in defense of God according to human reason, that is, as only a sensible man can reply: for God’s actions have certain inscrutable grounds for us and surpass human reason, and do not need our defense” (Blessed Theophylact). “For the righteous judgment of God exceeds incomparably what is just by our reckoning” (St. Chrysostom).

The reasoning that God would be unjust if He punished those whose unrighteousness manifests His righteousness does not constitute truth, but is cunning evasiveness of a crafty mind (like a lawyer’s). Unrighteousness here means the same as unbelief above. The Jews did not believe, even though they had been guided to faith throughout all their history, therefore they are wrong. But God, notwithstanding this, fulfilled His promise: the Lord came and wrought the salvation of all. This justified the truth of the promises and manifested in powerful light the boundless goodness of God – what the words mean: “constitutes God’s righteousness. – Constitutes” – from the Greek: presents, manifests, – causes it to be that over our unrighteousness God’s righteousness shines brightly; but in shining over it, it does not combine with it, does not become one with it. The Apostle here sets forth precisely this non-combination, and to God’s righteousness he gives what is its own, and to our unrighteousness – what is its own. Does our unrighteousness manifest God’s righteousness by its nature or by our intention? No, our unrighteousness is essentially unrighteousness; and in giving ourselves to unrighteousness, we never thought that through this God’s righteousness would be manifested, and it would be strange if we did think so; we only followed our own reasoning and did our own will. If now over such an action of ours God’s righteousness has shone forth, then this latter in no way can be related to the former as a fruit, and, consequently, it cannot confer upon it a right to reward or at least conceal it from righteous wrath and punishment. God in His boundless wisdom and goodness acts so that our unrighteousness manifests His righteousness. To Him be the glory; to us be wrath. For this in no way transforms our unrighteousness into righteousness.

Rom. 3:6. Let it not be: for how then shall God judge the world?

It is to the common belief in the boundless righteousness of God that the Apostle appeals in refuting that sophistry. How can one see any unrighteousness in Him, when all confess Him as Judge of the whole universe? This belief is inseparable from the sense of God’s righteousness and conviction in His justice; therefore the one powerfully dispels every shadow cast by sophistry upon God’s righteousness. If God is confessed as Judge of the universe, then He is boundlessly righteous. If He is righteous, then one cannot see any unrighteousness in the fact that He has assigned you punishment for your unbelief and will bring it upon you soon.

In the words: “how then shall He judge?” – one can also see such a thought: otherwise there would be no need for judgment. Whether God punishes us here or does not punish us, the one and the other manifests His glory: if He punishes, this manifests His righteousness; if He does not punish, this manifests His longsuffering. In the first case justice is satisfied, therefore there is no need for judgment; in the second case God’s glory is shown forth, therefore there is nothing to accuse, consequently, nothing to judge. – If such reasoning is valid, then how do we believe that God is going to judge the world? And conversely, if this belief is so universal and so deeply rooted in our minds and hearts that we cannot reject it or permit thoughts contrary to it; then we must recognize that reasoning as false and reject it (Ambrosiaster).

Rom. 3:7. For if the truth of God abounds in my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

The Apostle repeats the preceding false reasoning more clearly and fully. This question must be placed in connection with the preceding: how is God to judge the world if such reasoning is just—that since God’s truth abundantly manifested itself in my lie to the glory of God, I should not be condemned as a sinner? The Apostle places himself in the position of an unbelieving Jew and expounds from his own voice his cunning reasoning. If “God’s truth,” God’s truthfulness—that what proceeds from God’s lips is always the most perfect truth—if this inseparable property of the divine nature “abounded”—manifested itself abundantly: “in my lie,”—in that I did not believe God’s promises and distorted their meaning. God clearly foretold that the Saviour would come, and how He would come, and what He would be. The Jews, especially their ruling authorities, distorted all these prophecies and thus turned God’s truth into a lie. Nevertheless, God fulfilled His promise: in the Person of Christ the Saviour, all that was written “in the prophets and psalms” was perfected. The Jewish lie did not obscure this truth; on the contrary, it served only so that God, to display His truth, multiplied around the Person of our Lord Jesus the most remarkable testimonies that He is truly the promised One—and this both in His earthly life and after it during the preaching of the Gospel about Him. This abundance of testimonies to the truth about Christ Jesus displayed and displays God’s truth in the most brilliant light, and all who are of the truth receive it. The circle of believers expands, and with it the glory of God multiplies. All confess this and glorify the all-good God, who saves us through such a solemn establishment of God’s truth on earth, despite the unbelief of the Jews. All this was justified at that time by the very events themselves.

Thus God has arranged it; but this gives no justification to the unbelief of the Jews. God’s glory is glorious, while the unbelief of the Jews remains inglorious. The Jew’s reasoning: since my unbelief drew from God’s goodness the most striking testimonies of God’s truth, which through its confirmation and conviction displayed God’s glory in the most brilliant light; why should I be condemned?—rather, I should be rewarded (as the blessed Theophylact notes)—such reasoning remains utterly absurd, and consequently, the punishment of the Jew for unbelief is entirely just, in the face of that single universal conviction that God is to judge the world.