What then? are we better? No, in no wise for we have before charged both Jews and Greeks with being all under sin
Paul has just allowed that the Jew had real advantages — above all, God's own words. Now he asks whether those advantages leave the Jew better off before God, and his answer is a verdict already reached: every kind of person stands in one class, under sin.
The apostle does not deny the Jew's advantages. He separates two things people often confuse: having advantages and being better.
He has established the great truth that God required real moral goodness. Now he looks at the position of the Jews. Could they not claim special favour from God? Was there no advantage in Judaism? There certainly was, above all in this, that they had God's own words… So if the Jew had advantages, was he therefore better? Not at all: all were shut up under sin, whether Jew or Gentile, as God had already declared.
The phrase "we have already charged" points backwards. Paul built the case in the earlier chapters, but he will not rest it on argument alone.
The position is this: though the Jew had certain great advantages over the Gentile, he was no better than the Gentile. The Apostle had proved this before, especially in chapter 2. Both Jew and Gentile are "under sin." But with the Jew he was not going to be content with proving it by reasoning. He goes on to quote the Jew's own Scriptures directly against him.
The verdict did not start with him.
This was not just the conclusion of the apostle's argument. The Scriptures had already spoken in these terms, and the summing up of man's guilt comes in direct quotations from David's Psalms and from Isaiah 59.
"Under sin" is an unusual phrase, and softer wordings were available. One translator explains why he kept it.
The expression "under sin" (Rom. 3:9) is unusual, but we have kept it so as not to weaken the moral force of the term. In the text it points out the sinful condition, as God views it, which presses upon us — a weight, a power, and on every side. The meaning would be lost if we translated it "in sin" or "subjected to sin."
The proof of the charge is not abstract. It shows in what people do with their bodies.
God has not only said that all have sinned. He has said that all are under sin (Rom. 3:9). The proof of this is that both Jew and Gentile serve sin with every part of their bodies. Sin reigns in the body, and every part serves it with all its might.
If no one comes out better, then ranking ourselves against other people proves nothing. Yet it is the test we all reach for.
Measuring ourselves by anyone else is a deadly mistake, and we have all done it. "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector," shows the utter blindness of the religious Pharisee in the parable. It is also the cause that breeds blindness everywhere. Who does not know somebody to compare himself with, coming off better or worse? It is all false ground to take, and the surest way to be deceived by the enemy of God and of our souls.
The argument shuts in both groups from opposite ends, and then asks what God will do.
So the beginning of the argument proved the Gentiles ruined, and the end proves the Jews ruined too. The result is that every mouth is stopped and the whole world stands under judgment to God. What is His sentence? Is there no mercy? There is His righteousness by Christ Jesus, righteousness which justifies the believer.
One ruin shared by all means one remedy offered to all.
The grace of God meets us just as and where we are. It meets everyone alike, whether Jew or Gentile, philosopher or simple… All are alike in the ruin — all are alike the objects of the remedy.
- Advantage. The Jew's privileges were real, above all God's own words. But privilege never changed the condition underneath.
- Verdict. Paul did not invent the charge here. He had proved it already, then pressed it home from the Jew's own Scriptures.
- Bondage. "Under sin" is strong wording on purpose. It means a condition that presses on us as a weight and a power, while every part of the body serves sin.
- Level. No one is an exception. So comparing yourself with someone worse is the surest way to stay blind.
- Remedy. Every mouth stopped is not the last word. All are alike in the ruin, and all alike are offered God's righteousness in Christ Jesus.
according as it is written, There is not a righteous [man], not even one;
Paul is finishing a case. It began with the openly corrupt and ended with the religious and privileged. He closes it not with his own opinion but with a quotation from Scripture. Its first word is the widest in the whole charge: "none." It points at the reader before anyone else.
Paul builds his summary out of texts his opponents themselves honoured.
Paul sums up the whole human race. He reviews first the pagan nations, then the civilized pagan, and last the religious Jew with all his God-given advantages — and with each he is just as sweeping. "None is righteous, no, not one." "No one understands; no one seeks for God." That is how the summing up of Romans 3 runs. It is largely made up of carefully chosen quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures, which the Jewish people received and revered outwardly. Paul testified to nothing new. How could a Jew stand up and deny his own Scriptures?
This is not a charge anyone enjoys hearing.
The first quotation (vv. 10-12) is a passage found twice in the Psalms (Ps. 14 and Ps. 53). The repetition seems to show that its statements are very important and that we must not miss them — though they are the kind of statements we would be very glad to miss if we had our way.
The phrase "no, not one" leaves no room for an exception.
The first count is this: none righteous — not even one. That includes us all. The statement is like a net — so wide that it takes everyone in, so sound that not the smallest fish can find a tear to escape through. Not one of us is right in our relationship with God.
The verdict is not that people never behave decently. God measures righteousness by what we owe Him.
First God strips us of our self-righteousness. It is written, "None is righteous, no, not one". It is hard for us to believe that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags, and that there is not one righteous person in God's sight. We might plead that surely there are a few; but God says, "Not one". This does not mean there are no honest people; it means that not one of us has given God His rights. It would only be right for us to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. But no one has done so, and so no one is righteous before God.
Verse 10 gives only the first "none". The next line shuts the escapes that are left.
Man is a completely lost creature, with no point of recovery in himself. In Romans 3:10-11 the denial comes three times over. We all readily agree with the first: "None is righteous." Even so, there is hope for an unrighteous man if only he sees his condition. But then — "no one understands." That being so, the only faint hope left is that a man might somehow be drawn toward God and begin to understand. And once more — "no one seeks for God." Then hope is dead as far as man is concerned!
The timing of this verdict is itself mercy. God gives it now, while something can still be done.
If you apply the law, "None is righteous, no, not one." God does not say this in the day of judgment; He warns us in the day of grace. In mercy He tells us beforehand what His verdict on us is. If He were sitting on the great white throne, could it be any plainer than we get it in Romans 3? Can a man stand up after that and say, I am righteous? Is that the way to meet God? Is He a liar?
The verdict is not the end of the argument. It changes the question.
Now the question becomes one of a completely different righteousness. Man is all wrong; there is no righteousness in him. That has already been proved. So the only righteousness left is God's. The first great truth stated is this: man as a whole, man of every rank and kind, is written off as having no righteousness by God's standard. So it becomes a question of God showing His own righteousness, if He so pleases. This He does, and in a way fully worthy of Himself.
Hearing the verdict changes nothing until you agree with it.
He has pronounced clearly and firmly against the whole world. Dear friends, have you accepted His sentence? That is your only hope.
- Written, not argued. Paul settles the case by quoting Scripture the Jews already honoured. The Psalms say it twice. It is not new teaching.
- Sweeping. "No, not one" is a net with no tear in it; no rank or kind of person slips through.
- Measured by God's rights. The charge is not that people are never honest. It is that no one has loved God with all the heart, so no one stands right before Him.
- Hopeless in man. The three denials shut every door: not righteous, not understanding, not seeking. Man has no move left to make.
- Spoken in the day of grace. God gives the verdict now, before the day of judgment, so that whoever accepts it can receive the only righteousness left — His own.
there is not the [man] that understands, there is not one that seeks after God.
Here Paul quotes Israel's own Scriptures, where God looks down from heaven to see what He will find in people. The search turns up no one — so how does anyone ever come to God?
Paul answers a reader who boasts that the law belongs to him alone.
The law, he says, belongs to you. You boast that it refers to you exclusively. Very well — then hear what it says about the people, about yourselves. It speaks to you, as you admit. There is not one righteous man among you on whom God can look down from heaven... So every mouth is shut, and all the world is guilty before God.
Paul takes the words from a psalm that describes a search, and God is the searcher.
God looked at men in the way Psalm 14 describes, and the sight was pitiful. The psalm reads: "The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God." In view of such sweeping statements, anyone who pleads righteousness with God shows real insensibility to the true state of things. It suits us all better to admit that we are truly guilty, and then throw ourselves entirely on God's unlimited grace.
The two clauses of this verse are a descent, each one worse than the last.
It is bad that no one is righteous (verse 10). It is worse that no one understands, for that means a state not just of ignorance but of insensibility. Worst of all, no one wants to understand or to seek after God — and righteousness and understanding and life are found in Him. To the natural man there is nothing desirable in God. Man is not right; he does not understand that he is not right; he has no desire after God who is right. In one word, he is dead towards God.
The writers quote an older translation. Clause by clause, the failure covers both the mind and the aim of life:
"There is none that understands" — the very intelligence of all is corrupted by sin. "There is none that seeks after God" — not even a right object is before them; there is no concern to know God.
Saying nobody seeks God is not saying nobody seeks anything.
"Oh, well," says the objector, "if man's understanding has gone astray, there are still his instincts and feelings. Those are sound, and if he follows them they will surely lead him to God." But count number three confronts us — there is no one who seeks after God. Then what does man seek? He seeks self-pleasing, self-advancement, self-glory. So he seeks money, pleasure, sin. What he seeks once the power of God has touched his heart is another matter. The point here is what he seeks according to his fallen nature, apart from the grace of God.
Each "none" shuts off one more escape.
In Romans 3:10-11 the word "none" is repeated three times. We all easily agree with the first, "There is none righteous." Still, for an unrighteous man there is hope, if only he recognises his condition. But — "There is none that understands." If that is so, the only faint hope is that something draws a man Godward, so that he may begin to understand. But again — "There is none that seeks after God." Then hope is dead, as far as man is concerned.
Man's inability does not cancel his responsibility.
The word of God says plainly, No. "There is none that seeks after God." He came to seek them, thank God, but when He came He was rejected... Notice that Jesus says, "You will not come" (the ESV reads, "you refuse to come to me"). I fully believe they are responsible for it; but where do you find, "You will"? ... God certainly does not stop anyone from coming, but such is the state of man's heart that he will not. This is why the work of God is necessary.
Where the search from earth upward yields nothing, the movement reverses.
If men do not want Him, He wants them! Right after the rebellion in the garden, God called out, "Where are you?" The gospel tells us — blessed thought! — that God is now the Seeker after men. This is the meaning of His beloved Son coming among us. So the New Testament never commands sinners to seek the Lord, though it is still their responsibility to do so. Instead it tells them that God is seeking them. Jesus said, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
And when anyone does come, that coming is itself traced back to God's work:
All are free to come, but left to himself man will not come. There is none that understands, none that seeks after God. So the Lord shows clearly that if men are to be blessed, it can only be by sovereign grace.
- The search — God Himself looked down to find someone who understood and sought Him. This verse reports what He found.
- The descent — not righteous is bad. Not understanding is worse, because it adds insensibility. Not wanting God is worst of all: it means being dead towards Him.
- The redirection — no one seeks nothing. Apart from grace, man seeks self-pleasing, advancement and glory, and looks for them in money, pleasure and sin.
- The dead end — three times "none" closes every road of self-recovery. So blessing can only come by God's own work, and man's refusal stays his own responsibility.
- The reversal — since no one seeks God, God became the Seeker. So stop pleading your own righteousness, and throw yourself on His unlimited grace.
All have gone out of the way, they have together become unprofitable; there is not one that practises goodness, there is not so much as one
Paul is quoting Psalm 14, where God looks down from heaven to see what people are really like. Verse 12 gives three findings: the road men take, the worth they carry, and the good they do.
These words are not a preacher's exaggeration. They report what God saw when He surveyed mankind — and that leaves only one honest response.
It was a pitiful sight that God saw when He surveyed men in the way described in Psalm 14. … In view of such sweeping statements, it shows real insensitivity to the true state of things for anyone to plead righteousness with God. It is more fitting for all of us to admit that we are truly guilty. Then we can throw ourselves without reserve on God's unlimited grace.
The first charge is not the language of an accident. It describes a road chosen on purpose.
Fourth, "All have turned aside." This describes the self-will of the flesh. It deliberately abandons God's way and chooses its own. We have not simply strayed off the road. The natural man turns his back on God on purpose and takes a way of his own choosing. The prodigal son deliberately left his father's house and went his own way.
The middle charge is about usefulness. It comes out at zero in every direction.
The whole passage is a solemn picture of what the human condition really is, as God sees it. There is the absence of all good — the presence of all evil. God declares man completely unprofitable. He is of no profit to the God who made him, for he only lives to dishonour Him. He can profit neither his neighbour nor himself, for all the works of his hands are evil. The purposes of his heart are pure emptiness.
The word "together" is doing work of its own. Men do not fail alone. They pull each other down.
Fifth, "Together they have become worthless." Not only does the flesh choose its own path, but men drag one another down. Men try to forget God in the social circle. The self-will of the prodigal led him to choose his own way and travel to a distant country. Once there, he threw himself into the social round and tried to forget his father among a crowd of wrongdoers.
The last of the three charges is the hardest to believe, since people do kind things every day. The answer lies in the motive.
All are astray. All are unprofitable, even massed together. You can add zeros to zeros in their thousands, and it still adds up to nothing. And man's works are wrong as well as his ways. He may do a thousand things that look very fine on the surface. Yet they are all wrong, because the motive behind them is completely wrong. No work is right except the work that springs from seeking God and His interests.
The charge is precise. Reading more into it than God says makes it easy to dismiss.
God does not say that people who are not born again are never refined, or cultured, or able, or sweet-tempered, or generous, or charitable, or even religious. But He does say that none are righteous, none understand God, and none seek after Him.
The last words of the verse aim at the reader who assumes they mean everybody else. Here is how one man lost that assumption.
There was a man named Joe Whitbread, a self-righteous man who boasted in his goodness. He fell ill, and a wise Christian visited him. Telling him he was a sinful man would have been useless; it would only have started an argument. So the visitor took another approach. He turned to Romans 3 and read: none is righteous, no, not one (except Joe Whitbread). No one understands, no one seeks for God (except Joe Whitbread)… That was enough. The word of God pierced his conscience, and he confessed that what was true of everyone was true of him.
God found nothing good in man. In His Son He found the opposite — and here the verse stops being only bad news.
"All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" — that was what God saw when He looked down from heaven. But when God searched Jesus through and through, He found nothing but perfect love and perfect devotedness to God… Suppose it had ended there, with only Christ's own perfection. The whole result would have been to show our sinfulness and ruin more clearly by contrast. But He gave Himself. Peace was always His; it was for us that He "made peace by the blood of His cross."
- Searched. God looked down from heaven and reported what He found. This is not gloom about people. It is a verdict after inspection.
- Turned. "Turned aside" is deliberate. The natural man does not drift off God's road; he chooses another, as the prodigal chose the far country.
- Worthless. Being unprofitable means profiting no one: not God who made him, not his neighbour, not himself. The word "together" adds that people drag each other down.
- Nothing good. Fine-looking deeds still fail the test. No work is right unless it springs from seeking God. Zeros added to zeros stay zero.
- Not one. The verse allows no exception, including you. The search that found nothing in man found perfect devotedness in Christ, who made peace by the blood of His cross.
their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; asps' poison [is] under their lips
Paul has been building his case against Jew and Gentile alike. Now he turns to the Old Testament and lets God describe the human mouth. Why start with the body? Why start with words? And who is on trial?
The verse belongs to a run of quotations that names one body part after another. Writers say the order is deliberate. The charge moves from broad statements to specific ones, and most of the details concern speech.
He may complain that all these six statements are of a general nature... If he speaks like this, verses 13 to 18 confront him at once, giving the particulars. These particulars relate to six members of man's body: his throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet and eyes. It is in the body that man sins, and deeds done in the body are to be judged in the day that is before us all. Notice that of the members mentioned, no fewer than four have to do with what we say. What an awful story it is! And what language!... An "open grave", for instance! Is man's throat like the entrance to a cave filled with dead men's bones and all uncleanness and stench? It is.
The three items are not random. Older translations call the first image "an open sepulchre" — a grave left uncovered. One commentator follows the three as a stream of evil that each part makes worse instead of better.
But something does come out from man's heart. It passes from the throat first, where there is the utter corruption of death — an open grave, revolting to the eyes of the living. Then the tongue, contaminated, becomes the tool of deceit. The lips might have held back both the throat and tongue. Instead they only make the plague of evil worse, adding to it the venomous poison of asps.
Why do poisoned lips follow deceiving tongues? One grows out of the other.
The third quotation is from Psalm 140:3: "The venom of asps is under their lips." The corruption of the flesh leads to lying. And lying leads to the poison of slander, because the flesh that can lie to your face will slander you behind your back.
The verse looks at speech. But what comes out is evidence of what lies inside.
In the main it is true of man that when he speaks he shows what he is. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). So we read, "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness" (Romans 3:13-14). All these things come out of the heart, the seat of life, "and they defile the man" (Matthew 15:18).
A reader might think this describes other people. But Paul quotes Israel's own law, and he presses it on the people who had it.
But, argues the apostle, how is it with you? What does Scripture say about yourselves? What does your own law declare about your ways?... "What the law says, it says to those who are under the law." You cannot throw that solemn sentence of God at the Gentiles. You boast of your law: so be it. But "what the law says, it says to those who are under the law."
Such a description looks like a dead end. Commentators read it as a doorway instead.
A poor end, you may say, to all this long education on God's part — all this painstaking discipline... The truth about man's condition must come out, and he must be made to realise and accept it. Guilty and with his mouth stopped before Him, he will then find what God can be for him in such a desperate situation.
The mouth that condemns a man is the mouth grace puts to new use. The law shuts it. Faith opens it again for something better.
The law speaks of what comes out of the mouth of the sinner who has never been born again. We shudder at its faithful testimony... Now the law speaks to the man under it, in order that his mouth may be stopped. A gateway open for such a flood of wickedness as this had better be shut up for ever. But if faith purifies the heart, and grace is poured into the lips, the outflow will delight the heart of the hearer.
- Particulars — Paul names six body parts in verses 13-18. Four of them have to do with speech, and the charge covers deeds done in the body.
- Progression — Throat, tongue, lips: corruption within becomes deceit, and deceit becomes slander's poison. Each stage makes the last one worse.
- Source — Speech is evidence, not the disease. What fills the heart comes out at the mouth.
- Address — Paul aimed these words at the people who had the Scriptures, not at the Gentiles. That is why every mouth ends up stopped.
- Purpose — A stopped mouth is not the end but the opening. A man with nothing left to say discovers what God can be for him, and grace turns that same gateway into a source of good.
whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;
Romans 3:14 sits inside a chain of quotations Paul draws from the Psalms, working down the body part by part. Does this language describe ordinary people, or only the worst of them?
The words are not Paul's own. He takes them from a Psalm, and they arrive at a set point in a chain of sins.
The fourth quotation is from Psalm 10:7: "His mouth is full of cursing." Lying leads to slander, and slander leads to cursing. The slandered man hits back with cursing and bitterness.
The mouth only lets out what is already in the heart. And the people described here are religious ones.
If the heart did not hold these evils, the mouth could never pour them out. Here then we have an insight into the human heart. Note also where this awful quotation appears. It comes in the apostle's description of religious Jews, not in his account of the Gentile nations… So a person can sing the praises of God on Sunday and be guilty of cursing and bitterness towards men on Monday. Oh, the appalling corruption of the human heart! The Saviour had good reason to say: "How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34). Yet it is one of the hardest of all lessons to learn that the heart of every man is incurably wicked.
The verses around this one name six parts of the body. Most of the charge concerns talking.
These particulars relate to six members of man's body: his throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet and eyes. Man sins in the body, and the deeds done in the body will face judgment in the day that lies ahead of us all. Notice that of the members mentioned no fewer than four have to do with what we say. One refers to what we do, and one to what we think; for the eye is the window of the mind.
The natural defence is that this portrait fits criminals, not respectable people. One writer answers with two men raised in opposite worlds.
Some may say, "I am sure I am not as bad as that; my mouth is not full of cursing and bitterness; I have never shed blood." Perhaps not. But you have the same nature as those who do. It is only a question of the difference of the fruit produced on the same tree. Suppose two men. One is brought up among thieves from birth, surrounded by every form of open sin. He flies into a rage with another and commits murder, and he is condemned to death. The other has been raised in the greatest refinement and worldly advantage. Perhaps he would not do the same gross outward acts of sin. But the angry thought that led the one to commit murder might lead the other to do something spiteful. The same evil root is in both men.
Paul is not collecting insults. He is closing a legal case, and the verdict comes a few verses later.
We move on to Romans 3:19. Here the apostle closes his detailed accusation of 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." No one can say a single word to excuse man's universal condition of guilt and ruin. No one can give a fair reason why God should not pass sentence at once.
The letter does not leave the mouth where chapter 3 finds it. By the end of the letter the same mouth is doing something else, and self-improvement cannot explain the change.
That which was full of cursing and bitterness in Romans 3 is full of praise in Romans 15. Outward reformation could not produce so great a transformation. Only the mighty work of the Holy Spirit in the heart can do it. By that work God and Christ become known and valued.
- Sourced — Paul borrows the words from Psalm 10:7. They come after lying and slander in a downward chain.
- Symptom — the mouth is the outlet; what pours out only shows what the heart already held.
- Sweeping — four of the six body parts listed concern speech, and the charge falls on religious people too, not just the openly wicked.
- Silencing — the whole list drives at one verdict: every mouth stopped, with no excuse left to offer.
- Sanctified — reform could never do it, but the Spirit can. The mouth full of cursing in chapter 3 becomes the mouth full of praise in chapter 15.
swift their feet to shed blood;
Paul is building a legal case here. Verse 15 is one line in the charge sheet, and it moves the case from what people say to what they do. The deed named is killing.
One writer pictures an objector saying the charges so far are too general to prove anything.
He may complain that all six statements are general. He may remind us that when lawyers have a weak case, they talk in general terms to avoid coming down to details. If he says this, verses 13 to 18 answer him at once, for they give the details. The details name six parts of man's body: his throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet and eyes. Man sins in the body, and God will judge the deeds done in the body on the day that lies ahead of us all. Notice that four of the parts named have to do with what we say. One refers to what we do, and one to what we think, for the eye is the window of the mind.
The feet come straight after the mouth full of curses. One writer names the source of the line and treats that order as a chain.
The fifth quotation is from Proverbs 1:16: "for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood." From "curses and bitterness" it is only a short step to murder.
Each line in the list measures the man in a different way. The last two turn from what he does to what he lacks.
Verse 14 sums up man's words; verse 15 his walk; and verse 16 his ways. That is the full condemnation of man, put positively. To add force to it, verses 17 and 18 put the case negatively, showing that there is not one redeeming feature in the picture. The way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes. This last point is the centre and spring of all evil. Little as we may understand it, all sin comes from a negative attitude toward God.
Most readers have never shed blood, so verse 15 can look like someone else's charge. One writer answers that the extreme counts sit beside a count no one escapes.
God brings man into court. He is putting forward a series of counts against him, not taken from one psalm or prophet only, but pieces gathered from different parts of the Scriptures, to show the different sides of man. Some of the counts sound as if they were spoken only against notorious sinners (vv. 13-16): "Their throat is an open grave." But some must apply to everyone — verse 17, for instance: "the way of peace they have not known." What man of Adam's race ever knew the way of peace? See how he ends the trial: "every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God."
Commentators differ on the source of the line. This writer traces it to Isaiah, and shows what Paul does with these words next.
When the same apostle was explaining the gospel of God to the believers in Rome, he quotes weighty and withering words from the early verses of this chapter of Isaiah to convict of sin and ruin, and so to prove the desperate need of grace (Rom. 3:15-17, 19-20). But he follows this with God justifying freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a mercy seat through faith in His blood. This is truly good news to the sinner, Jew or Gentile.
Grace does more than pardon the body parts on this list. It gives each of them new work to do.
From that throat, once an open grave, comes the perfume of immortal love. That mouth, once "full of curses and bitterness," is now filled with blessing. That tongue, long used for "deceit," now spreads the word of truth and life. Those lips, which once hid the deadly "venom of asps," are now full of life-giving grace. Those feet, once "swift to shed blood," are now fitted with "the readiness given by the gospel of peace," and run gladly in the pathways of mercy… the members have become instruments of righteousness.
- Feet indicted. Verses 13-18 name six body parts — throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, eyes. Man sins in the body, and God will judge what the body has done.
- Feet hurrying. Verse 15 is the step after verse 14. From curses and bitterness it is a short move to murder, and the feet do not hesitate.
- Feet everyone owns. Some counts look aimed at notorious criminals. But the list ends with charges no descendant of Adam escapes, so every mouth is stopped.
- Feet needing grace. Paul quotes these withering words to prove how desperately we need grace. Then he answers them: God justifies freely through the redemption in Christ Jesus.
- Feet re-shod. The same feet once swift to shed blood now carry the gospel of peace. They run in the pathways of mercy, and the members become instruments of righteousness.
ruin and misery [are] in their ways,
Paul is building a case. From verse 10 he strings together lines from Israel's own Scriptures. This one is a link in that chain. It describes not what men say, but what they leave behind them. Why does God put this on record, and who does it describe?
Paul did not write this line himself. He took it from the prophet Isaiah, and it comes sixth in the row of quotations.
(Verses 16, 17) The sixth quotation is from Isaiah 59:7-8: "Wasting and destruction are in their paths; the way of peace they do not know." Murder leaves ruin and misery behind it.
These charges are ordered, not piled up at random.
Verse 14 sums up man's words; verse 15 his walk; and verse 16 his ways. This is the complete condemnation of man, stated positively. To add force to it, verses 17 and 18 speak from the negative side, showing that there is no redeeming feature in the picture.
A reader might take these words as aimed at criminals only. One commentator agrees that some of the charges read that way. Then he shows where that escape route closes.
Romans 3 is a little more specific. God brings man into court. (Verse 9 and following.) He brings forward a series of counts He has against him... Some of the counts might seem to be spoken only against notorious sinners. (Verses 13-16.) "Their throat is an open grave." But some must apply to everyone — verse 17, for instance: "The way of peace they have not known." What man of Adam's race ever knew the way of peace?
The people most likely to file this description under "other people" are the very ones Paul was addressing.
Now all this was said especially and pointedly to the Jew. Paul reminds them of this in verse 19. They were the people under the law, and the law spoke first of all to them. They might wish to brush it all aside and pretend that it only applied to the Gentile. That could not be allowed. The laws of England address the English; the laws of China the Chinese; the law of Moses the Jew. Their own Scriptures condemn them. Those Scriptures shut their mouths and bring in the sentence against them — Guilty before God.
Older translations read "destruction and misery are in their ways". One writer uses that pairing to answer a question about the word "destruction".
But destruction is not annihilation. "Destruction AND misery are in their ways" (Rom. 3:16) could not be translated, "annihilation and misery are in their ways." You could have misery before annihilation—but it would be impossible after. To feel misery along with destruction proves an existence still able to feel it. So destruction cannot mean annihilation. How careful the wording of Scripture is!
The charge is not the destination. Paul makes it so that he can answer it, and the answer comes at once.
When the same apostle was opening up the gospel of God to the believers in Rome, he quotes weighty and withering words from the early verses of our chapter. He uses them to convict of sin and ruin, and so to prove the desperate need of grace (Rom. 3:15-17, 19-20). But he follows this up with God justifying freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God set forth as a mercy seat through faith in His blood. This is good news indeed to the sinner, Jew or Gentile.
- Chain — this line is the sixth quotation in the row, and it comes after cursing and bloodshed: "Murder leaves ruin and misery behind it."
- Ways — words (v.14), then walk (v.15), then ways (v.16). Verses 17-18 seal the condemnation: nothing good is left.
- Court — God brings man into court and reads out the counts. Paul aimed them first at the people who had the law. Some look aimed at notorious sinners, but no one of Adam's race has ever known the way of peace.
- Ruin — "destruction" here is not annihilation. Misery felt along with it proves an existence that can still feel.
- Grace — Paul quotes these withering words to prove the desperate need of grace. Then he turns at once to God justifying freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
and way of peace they have not known
Paul is closing a chain of quotations from Israel's own Scriptures. Charge after charge is piled on the whole human race. This line names something never found, and it forces one question: is anyone exempt?
The words are not new with Paul. He reaches back to a prophet who described the same people in the same terms. The line before this one names ruin and misery, and it leads straight into this one.
The sixth quotation is from Isaiah 59:7-8: "Wasting and destruction are in their paths; the way of peace they know not." Murder leaves in its wake ruin and misery.
Paul had a reason for reaching back to this passage. Look at where his argument goes next.
When the same apostle was opening up the gospel of God to the believers in Rome, he quotes heavy, crushing words from the early verses of our chapter. He does it to convict of sin and ruin, and so to prove how desperately grace is needed (Rom. 3:15-17, 19-20). But he follows this up with God justifying by His grace, as a free gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Some of the earlier charges sound like they belong to hardened criminals. A respectable reader can shrug those off. This one gives no room to do that.
Romans 3 is a little more specific. Man is brought into court. Here God brings forward a list of charges He has against him. They are not taken from one psalm or one prophet only. They are pieces collected from different parts of the Scriptures, so as to show the different sides of man. Some of the charges sound as if they are spoken only against notorious sinners: "Their throat is an open grave." But some must apply to everyone. Take verse 17 — "The way of peace they have not known." What man of Adam's race ever knew the way of peace? See how Paul closes the trial: "every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God."
The list moves from what comes out of the mouth, to the walk, to the ways. The last two verses switch method. They name what is missing.
Verse 14 sums up man's words; verse 15 his walk; and verse 16 his ways. That is the full condemnation of man, stated positively. To add force to it, verses 17 and 18 speak from the negative side. They show that there is no redeeming feature in the picture at all. They have not known the way of peace: there is no fear of God before their eyes. This last point is, after all, the centre and spring of all evil.
"Have not known" means more than missing information. Man cannot work his way back to what he lost.
It is a sad yet true reflection that not only has man lost the enjoyment of peace, but he is quite incapable of regaining it. In Romans 3 Paul gives us, by the Holy Spirit, a striking summary of what man does and where he falls short. He ends it by saying, "and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." How clearly today shows the truth of these words! Men away from God, looking for the way of peace, and all their efforts proving useless.
Peace was not kept back from the world. It came in a Person, and the world turned Him away.
But men rejected the Prince of peace. His mission was peace, but men's refusal of Him has made peace impossible, and they have to suffer the sword instead. When the Lord Jesus thought of the consequences to men, He wept, saying: "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." And so it has become true of men everywhere: "the way of peace have they not known."
The verse describes what every believer once was. The gospel announces that this has changed, and not by anything we did.
Once we had nothing to do with peace, for "the way of peace they have not known." That was no surprise while we were in unbelief, for "there is no peace, says my God, for the wicked." But God has sent the word "preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all)." And Christ "came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near." So now, even at a time like this, when everything is confusion, uncertainty and unrest, we know we have a right to it. Why? "For He made peace through the blood of His cross."
The verses just before speak of feet swift to shed blood. Those same feet now get something new to wear.
Before the Gospel reached us, as sinners of the Gentiles, we were without God, and "the way of peace" we did not know. But now the gospel has given our feet shoes. Not only shoes of privilege for the house of God, like the shoes given to the returned prodigal son, but shoes of peace for the fight.
- Source — Paul takes the line from Isaiah 59:7-8. Ruin and misery fill a man's paths, and the way of peace is never found.
- Reach — A charge like an open grave for a throat lets a decent person feel excused. This one leaves no escape. No child of Adam ever knew the way of peace.
- Depth — Verses 17 and 18 state the case from the negative side. No redeeming feature is left, and the missing fear of God is the spring of all the rest.
- Cause — Peace was not simply unavailable. It came in the Prince of peace, and man's refusal of Him left the sword instead.
- Remedy — What we once had nothing to do with is now preached to us. He made peace through the blood of His cross, and those same feet now wear the shoes of the gospel of peace.
there is no fear of God before their eyes.
Paul ends his chain of quotations not with another crime but with something missing — and he places it in the eyes. Why does the list stop there? And what is gone when a person has no fear of God?
The charges in verses 13–18 move through the human body part by part, and the arrangement is deliberate. One writer notes that the shift from general statements to bodily particulars answers anyone who complains the indictment is too vague:
The objector who says this is faced at once with verses 13 to 18, which give the particulars. These particulars relate to six parts of man's body: his throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet and eyes. Man sins in the body, and the deeds done in the body will be judged on the day that lies ahead of us all. Notice that no fewer than four of the parts named have to do with what we say. One refers to what we do, and one to what we think; for the eye is the window of the mind.
Others count the ways as a member of the list too, making the picture complete:
By every avenue by which what is in man could come out — the throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth, the feet, the ways, the eyes — in awful sevenfold completeness nothing but sin is expressed.
"Fear" in the Bible covers a wide range of feelings, so the phrase needs unpacking. One writer defines it by its two effects — on the thoughts and on the behaviour:
When Scripture states of Gentiles and Jews alike that "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:18) it means that God has no place in their thoughts, and that they let His commandments put no restraint on the way they live. This is a terrible state, especially when we remember that God created man for Himself, to walk with Him and to do His will.
The word here is not the usual word for fear, and the difference matters:
Scripture often speaks of the fear of God, and the word it usually uses carries the force of reverence. Here, though, it uses a less common word, meaning dread. Sinful men everywhere have no proper reverence for God, though they may secretly dread Him. But the man before us here has no dread of God... This is more and more true of people today. They have such large ideas of themselves and of their own powers that thoughts of God put no fear on their spirits — if they believe He exists at all. They feel they can ignore Him without risk.
The line comes last, and writers read it as the source of everything above it:
The root of sin lies very deep indeed. It is nothing less than the will of man. So there is a great defect in any judgment about sin that is only moral. Thus the apostle closes his detailed account of ungodly living with this sweeping principle: "There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:18).
One writer follows this root into our own day:
As the fear of God leaves the heart of man, his own self-will grows, and that produces endless folly. Today man's knowledge and cleverness have risen to heights no one dreamed of a century ago. His destructive folly threatens to sink to depths just as undreamed of. Psalm 36:1, quoted in Romans 3:18, exposes the root of it all.
Read plainly, the passage seems to describe criminals, not neighbours. One writer answers that directly:
Not every one of these traits will show in each person, because many things hold the flesh back from its full evil. In ordinary life, education, civilization and the outward forms of religion all keep the flesh from showing its full wickedness. But when the circumstances suit it, the flesh will break through every restraint and show itself in all its ugliness.
One writer applies the verse to the corrupt priests of Israel:
They did not know the Lord; "There [was] no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:18). Without this fear, there is no hatred of evil. Is it any surprise that they showed the most shocking corruption?
The indictment closes a case, and it closes it against everyone:
This is the law's testimony about those who are under it, "so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God." Men like to draw fine distinctions between one sinner and another in their own favour. Before God every one of those distinctions disappears.
- Eyes — The list runs through throat, tongue, lips, mouth and feet, and ends at the eyes. Four charges concern speech, one conduct, one thought — for the eye is the window of the mind.
- Root — The line comes last, but it is not one more sin. It is the source of all the rest. Where God is not feared, self-will takes over, and that will is the root of sin.
- Dread — The word here is not the usual one for reverence but for dread. People today have such large ideas of themselves that God, if He exists at all, puts no fear on them.
- Restraint — Take away this fear and there is no hatred of evil. Education, civilization and outward religion still hold sin back. They hold it only until circumstances let it break through.
- Verdict — The purpose of the whole catalogue is to stop every mouth. Comparisons between one sinner and another collapse. The whole world is held accountable to God.
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.