Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, (18) And knowest will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; (19) And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, (20) An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. (21) Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? (22) Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? (23) Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? (24) For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. (25) For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. (26) Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? (27) And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? (28) For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: (29) But he a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise not of men, but of God.
next proceeds to charge upon the Jews the total neglect of all the precepts enjoined them. And he doth it in a way of question, which, as it waits not for an answer, (because in fact it needed none, being self-evident, and unanswerable), becomes a more decided method, than so many positive assertions. And the Apostle having fully shewn, that the Jews, while priding themselves upon their laws, were defective in the observance of everyone of them: while pretending to instruct the ignorant, were themselves wholly ignorant, and in the blindness of unregeneracy; while apparently approving the things that were more excellent, were acting in direct contradiction to them; he draws a conclusion, that in an instance so palpable, nothing could be more glaring, than that the stood on the same footing with the and both became alike guilty before God. Yea, closeth this part of his charge with intimating, that from the greater inattention which the observed to the law, as a rule of life, to what the unenlightened in many instances had followed, in the law of nature; the deficiency of the one, was less pardonable than the and the worse effects in the world in consequence took place. God (saith. Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, (18) And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; (19) And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, (20) An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. (21) Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? (22) Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? (23) Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? (24) For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. (25) For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. (26) Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? (27) And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? (28) For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: (29) But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
The Apostle having thus, in a general way, very fully established the main point he had in view, in proving the impossibility of justification before God, either by the law of nature, or by the law given by Moses; now proceeds to make a particular address to the people, he all along had in contemplation, and calls upon the Jew, to form his own judgment. There is a very great beauty, both in the argument itself he makes use of, and in the manner of his using it; which cannot fail, under the Lord, to have a sensible effect on every mind taught of God.
The Apostle first grants everything that could be desired, in respect to the privileges and advantages of the Jews, above all nations of the earth. They had, as Paul elsewhere tells the Church, those great things done for them, which no people under heaven but themselves possessed. To them pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants) and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises: Whose were the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came; who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen, Romans 9:4-5. A nation so distinguished, so marked with divine favors, might well be expected to have been distinguished also in everything which should have marked a corresponding conduct. And ages before Paul, their great law-giver Moses, had both shewn them their advantages, and what should have followed. See Deuteronomy 4:5-9. But their history, furnished a woeful account of the reverse of all right conduct. And, from that period to the days of Paul, nothing, more or less, but daring rebellion, uniformly filled in the pages of their national character. The Apostle briefly takes notice of their advantages as a people; and makes this the foundation of his appeal therefrom. Behold! (saith he), thou art called a Jew, and resteth in the law, and makest thy boast of God. And the Apostle goeth on, to fall in with all of what the children of Abraham, after the flesh, boasted of, in order the more strikingly to prove his grand point, in their self-condemnation.
Paul next proceeds to charge upon the Jews the total neglect of all the precepts enjoined them. And he doth it in a way of question, which, as it waits not for an answer, (because in fact it needed none, being self-evident, and unanswerable), becomes a more decided method, than so many positive assertions. And the Apostle having fully shewn, that the Jews, while priding themselves upon their laws, were defective in the observance of everyone of them: while pretending to instruct the ignorant, were themselves wholly ignorant, and in the blindness of unregeneracy; while apparently approving the things that were more excellent, were acting in direct contradiction to them; he draws a conclusion, that in an instance so palpable, nothing could be more glaring, than that the stood on the same footing with the and both became alike guilty before God. Yea, closeth this part of his charge with intimating, that from the greater inattention which the observed to the law, as a rule of life, to what the unenlightened in many instances had followed, in the law of nature; the deficiency of the one, was less pardonable than the and the worse effects in the world in consequence took place. God (saith).
next proceeds to charge upon the Jews the total neglect of all the precepts enjoined them. And he doth it in a way of question, which, as it waits not for an answer, (because in fact it needed none, being self-evident, and unanswerable), becomes a more decided method, than so many positive assertions. And the Apostle having fully shewn, that the Jews, while priding themselves upon their laws, were defective in the observance of everyone of them: while pretending to instruct the ignorant, were themselves wholly ignorant, and in the blindness of unregeneracy; while apparently approving the things that were more excellent, were acting in direct contradiction to them; he draws a conclusion, that in an instance so palpable, nothing could be more glaring, than that the Jew stood on the same footing with the Gentile, and both became alike guilty before God. Yea, Paul closeth this part of his charge with intimating, that from the greater inattention which the Jew observed to the law, as a rule of life, to what the unenlightened Heathen in many instances had followed, in the law of nature; the deficiency of the one, was less pardonable than the other: and the worse effects in the world in consequence took place. For the name of God (saith Paul) is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, Isaiah 52:5
The third step the Apostle advances in, throws to the ground all that the Jew could lay hold of, in his vain pretensions to the divine favor, in shewing, that the rite of circumcision, in its highest extent, was simply nothing more than an outward sign of an inward effect. It consisted, not in anything carnal, but spiritual. Not in a mere mark in the flesh, but the impression of grace in the heart. In short, it pointed to Christ, being a seal of the covenant, and Christ himself the Covenant! And therefore, nothing could be argued in point of privileges, from circumcision; because in fact those privileges were all in Christ, to whom that rite referred. And consequently, a carnal Jew had not the smallest claim in the privileges of a spiritual Christian. Hence, from this plain and undeniable statement, the Apostle fairly, and fully concludes, that the Jew, no more than the Gentile, could find justification by the deeds of the law, before God. Reader! do not fail to remark, with what unanswerable force of argument the Apostle follows up the great and important doctrine, which he had entered upon, in the preceding Chapter; and to what a sure, however humiliating conclusion, he hath already advanced, when by such a clear train of evidences, the truth is fully seen; that the whole world, both Jew and Gentile, are manifestly proved guilty before God, Romans 3:19.