Now we know that whatever the things the law says, it speaks to those under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be under judgment to God.
Paul has just quoted Israel's own Scriptures against Israel. Now he draws the conclusion. Who is the law actually speaking to? And how can a law given to one nation leave the whole world with nothing to say?
The law belonged to Israel, so its verdict fell on Israel first.
But what about you, the apostle argues? What does Scripture say about you? What does your own law say about your ways? God looks down from heaven and says, "None is righteous, no, not one." … You cannot aim that solemn verdict of God at the Gentiles. You boast of your law — very well. But "whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law." … It was the law itself that exposed and announced how great their sin was in God's sight.
The verse does not say the whole world was under the law. Paul had already put the nations outside Israel in a different class. Their guilt was plain.
This does not mean, as it might at first seem, that all the world was under the law. He had stated the opposite. He had described the Gentile outside Israel as "without law" (Rom. 2:12, 14) — a law only "to themselves," which is the opposite of having law given by God. Their sins were open and undeniable. … The Gentile's mouth is already stopped. "You," he says, "you, who are no pagan — you, the people who profess to belong to God — yours is now stopped too: every mouth is stopped, the whole world is guilty."
God tested one nation, and the result settles the case for all.
True, God had given the law to Israel alone. But Israel's failure to meet it proved the condition of the whole world, just as testing a sample proves the condition of the whole batch.
An older margin reads "subject to the judgment of God." The ESV says "held accountable to God." Either way, God has already passed sentence. This is not a probation still running.
God says, all the world is guilty before Him; or, as in the margin, Romans 3:19, "subject to the judgment of God" — and the judgment, or wages of sin, is death. Suppose someone told you that a man was in prison, found guilty, under sentence of death. And suppose you replied, "Oh no, he is only on probation, and if he does his best he will never be executed." Would that not deny the prisoner's true condition?
Everyone stands guilty. So what can the law do for them?
If a shopkeeper has false weights, what can the official standard weights do but condemn him? They would show how far short his weights fell. But they could never call short weights honest. The law did just this: "through the law comes knowledge of sin."
A shut mouth is not the end of the story. It is what makes room for God to speak.
The apostle closes that part of the subject by quoting Scripture, first from the book of Psalms and then from the prophet Isaiah, to show that there is no righteousness in anyone, in heart or in life. The effect of all that is to close men's mouths. As long as a man's mouth is open, he will defend himself. … But when he stands on trial before God's righteousness, and his true character comes out, he has nothing to say. Every mouth is stopped, and all the world is guilty before God. A silent, guilty world — a world that stands convicted of sin, not a word to say — what then? God speaks. He says, I will proclaim My righteousness.
The verdict has to reach you personally. It happens in one place.
My friend, your mouth too must be shut. Before blessing reaches your soul, you must find out that you are a poor, lost sinner, without excuse in God's presence. … Their mouths were stopped when once they got into God's holy presence. Have you ever been there? That is the place where mouths get shut.
- Addressed — The law speaks to the people who hold it. So Israel's own Scriptures convict Israel. Everyone else was guilty beyond dispute.
- Sampled — God tested one nation, and its failure proves the state of all. The law reached few. Its verdict reaches everyone.
- Sentenced — "Guilty" means being subject to God's judgment. The verdict is in. The trial is not still open.
- Silenced — The law measures and exposes, so it can only condemn. Every mouth closes because no one has an answer left.
- Spoken to — Once the world falls silent, God speaks and proclaims His righteousness. The shut mouth is where blessing begins.
Wherefore by works of law no flesh shall be justified before him; for by law [is] knowledge of sin.
Paul has just finished his charge against the whole human race, Jews and Gentiles alike, and verse 20 is the verdict that follows. It raises two questions: why can't a good law make a man right with God, and what is the law for?
Verse 20 draws its "therefore" from verse 19, where every mouth is shut. One writer shows how complete that silence is:
Here the apostle finishes his detailed charge against the whole human race, Gentiles and Jews alike: "so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God." This means no one can say a single word to soften man's universal condition of guilt and ruin. No one can give a fair reason why God should not pass sentence at once. How would a man feel standing before the judge with nothing at all to say in his defence? This is exactly man's position in relation to God. He may not be convinced; he is convicted beyond all argument.
The verse tests the strongest possible case for human merit and rejects it:
If any works could justify anybody, those of God's law must be the surest benefit to the Jew. But the truth is that no human being will be justified in His sight on any such ground. On the contrary, law never produces holiness. It only brings a full knowledge of sin.
The failure is not in the law. It is the law's excellence that makes justification by it impossible:
It makes no allowance for weakness. It knows nothing of sincere but imperfect obedience. If it did, it would not be what it is — "holy and righteous and good." The sinner cannot get life by the law just because the law is what it is. If he could get life by it, either it would not be perfect, or he would not be a sinner. Its absolute perfection makes clear and seals man's absolute ruin and condemnation.
The second half of the verse gives the law's real job. It shows the problem; it cannot fix it:
The law does convict of sin, "since through the law comes knowledge of sin." But it cannot remove the sins, or free us from the power of sin. The law is only a plumb-line to show the crookedness of the wall. Holding a plumb-line against a crooked wall will never straighten it. It is just as foolish to think the law can justify a guilty sinner. So the law convicts us not only of being sinners before God, but of being helpless sinners.
Does the law create the sin it exposes?
He does not say that through the law comes sin, but only "knowledge of sin." Sin was already there, and it only needed law to bring it out in the form of "transgression." It is as if I say to my child, "you must not touch that knife." My prohibition reveals the tendency in his heart to do his own will. It does not create the tendency; it only reveals it.
The wording is precise: the law gives knowledge of sin, in the singular:
Even as to convincing power, he does not say that through the law comes knowledge "of sins." Conscience already told us that. He says knowledge "of sin." "All have sinned" comes at the end of Romans 3.
If the law cannot justify, that was never its purpose:
The law came in — to do what? To make clear what man was. He did not know himself. But it did not put him right… God did not give it with the aim of justifying. He says it in plain words, "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight." So the aim of the law was not to justify. It was to make clear where man was and what he was. Then he could learn his own helpless ruin, and turn to God to learn what He is.
Verse 20 is the last word of the charge, but not the end of the story:
The beginning of the argument proved the Gentiles ruined, and the end proves the Jews ruined. Every mouth is stopped and the whole world is under judgment to God. What is His sentence? Is there no mercy? There is His righteousness by Christ Jesus, righteousness which justifies the believer.
Notice the timing of God's reply:
The verdict shuts every mouth and brings the whole world in guilty before God. As soon as it falls, God opens His mouth to declare His remedy.
- Verdict — Verse 20 is a sentence, not a suggestion. Man has nothing to say in his defence. He is convicted whether or not he is convinced.
- Perfection — The law fails to justify because it is good. A perfect standard can only expose a flawed man.
- Plumb-line — It measures the crooked wall; it never straightens it. It proves us sinners, and then proves us helpless sinners.
- Sin — The law shows more than wrong acts, which conscience already reports. It shows sin itself.
- Silence — The mouth the law stops is the mouth ready to hear the gospel. The moment man's case collapses, God speaks His own righteousness in Christ.