Chapter 2
The scope of the first two chapters
of this epistle may be gathered from ch. 3:9, "We have before proved both
Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin.’’ This we have proved upon the
Gentiles (ch. 1), now in this chapter he proves it upon the Jews, as appears by
v. 17, "thou art called a Jew.’’ I. He proves in general that Jews and
Gentiles stand upon the same level before the justice of God, to v. 11. II. He
shows more particularly what sins the Jews were guilty of, notwithstanding
their profession and vain pretensions (v. 17 to the end).
Verses 1-16
In the
former chapter the apostle had represented the state of the Gentile world to be
as bad and black as the Jews were ready enough to pronounce it. And now,
designing to show that the state of the Jews was very bad too, and their sin in
many respects more aggravated, to prepare his way he sets himself in this part
of the chapter to show that God would proceed upon equal terms of justice with
Jews and Gentiles; and now with such a partial hand as the Jews were apt to
think he would use in their favour.
I. He
arraigns them for their censoriousness and self-conceit (v. 1): Thou art
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. As he expresses
himself in general terms, the admonition may reach those many masters
(Jam. 3:1), of whatever nation or profession they are, that assume to
themselves a power to censure, control, and condemn others. But he intends
especially the Jews, and to them particularly he applies this general charge
(v. 21), Thou who teachest another teachest thou not thyself? The Jews
were generally a proud sort of people, that looked with a great deal of scorn
and contempt upon the poor Gentiles, as not worthy to be set with the dogs of
their flock; while in the mean time they were themselves as bad and
immoral-though not idolaters, as the Gentiles, yet sacrilegious, v. 22. Therefore
thou art inexcusable. If the Gentiles, who had but the light of nature,
were inexcusable (ch. 1:20), much more the Jews, who had the light of the law,
the revealed will of God, and so had greater helps than the Gentiles.
II. He
asserts the invariable justice of the divine government, v. 2, 3. To drive home
the conviction, he here shows what a righteous God that is with whom we have to
do, and how just in his proceedings. It is usual with the apostle Paul, in his
writings, upon mention of some material point, to make large digressions upon
it; as here concerning the justice of God (v. 2), That the judgment of God
is according to truth,—according to the eternal rules of justice and
equity,—according to the heart, and not according to the outward appearance (1
Sa. 16:7),—according to the works, and not with respect to persons, is a
doctrine which we are all sure of, for he would not be God if he were not just;
but it behoves those especially to consider it who condemn others for those
things which they themselves are guilty of, and so, while they practise sin and
persist in that practice, think to bribe the divine justice by protesting
against sin and exclaiming loudly upon others that are guilty, as if preaching
against sin would atone for the guilt of it. But observe how he puts it to the
sinner’s conscience (v. 3): Thinkest thou this, O man? O man, a rational
creature, a dependent creature, made by God, subject under him, and accountable
to him. The case is so plain that we may venture to appeal to the sinner’s own
thoughts: "Canst thou think that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Can the heart-searching God be imposed upon by formal pretences, the righteous
Judge of all so bribed and put off?’’ The most plausible politic sinners, who
acquit themselves before men with the greatest confidence, cannot escape the
judgment of God, cannot avoid being judged and condemned.
III. He
draws up a charge against them (v. 4, 5) consisting of two branches:—
1.
Slighting the goodness of God (v. 4), the riches of his goodness. This
is especially applicable to the Jews, who had singular tokens of the divine
favour. Means are mercies, and the more light we sin against the more love we
sin against. Low and mean thoughts of the divine goodness are at the bottom of
a great deal of sin. There is in every wilful sin an interpretative contempt of
the goodness of God; it is spurning at his bowels, particularly the goodness of
his patience, his forbearance and long-suffering, taking occasion thence to be
so much the more bold in sin, Eccl. 8:11. Not knowing, that is, not
considering, not knowing practically and with application, that the goodness
of God leadeth thee, the design of it is to lead thee, to repentance.
It is not enough for us to know that God’s goodness leads to repentance, but we
must know that it leads us-thee in particular. See here what method God
takes to bring sinners to repentance. He leads them, not drives them like
beasts, but leads them like rational creatures, allures them (Hos. 2:14); and
it is goodness that leads, bands of love, Hos. 11:4. Compare Jer. 31:3. The
consideration of the goodness of God, his common goodness to all (the goodness
of his providence, of his patience, and of his offers), should be effectual to
bring us all to repentance; and the reason why so many continue in impenitency
is because they do not know and consider this.
2.
Provoking the wrath of God, v. 5. The rise of this provocation is a hard and
impenitent heart; and the ruin of sinners is their walking after such a
heart, being led by it. To sin is to walk in the way of the heart; and when
that is a hard and impenitent heart (contracted hardness by long custom,
besides that which is natural), how desperate must the course needs be! The
provocation is expressed by treasuring up wrath. Those that go on in a
course of sin are treasuring up unto themselves wrath. A treasure denotes
abundance. It is a treasure that will be spending to eternity, and yet never
exhausted; and yet sinners are still adding to it as to a treasure. Every
wilful sin adds to the score, and will inflame the reckoning; it brings a branch
to their wrath, as some read that (Eze. 8:17), they put the branch to
their nose. A treasure denotes secrecy. The treasury or magazine of wrath
is the heart of God himself, in which it lies hid, as treasures in some secret
place sealed up; see Deu. 32:34; Job 14:17. But withal it denotes reservation
to some further occasion; as the treasures of the hail are reserved against the
day of battle and war, Job 38:22, 23. These treasures will be broken open like
the fountains of the great deep, Gen. 7:11. They are treasured up against
the day of wrath, when they will be dispensed by the wholesale, poured out
by full vials. Though the present day be a day of patience and forbearance
towards sinners, yet there is a day of wrath coming-wrath, and nothing but
wrath. Indeed, every day is to sinners a day of wrath, for God is angry with
the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11), but there is the great day of wrath
coming, Rev. 6:17. And that day of wrath will be the day of the revelation
of the righteous judgment of God. The wrath of God is not like our wrath, a
heat and passion; no, fury is not in him (Isa. 27:4): but it is a righteous
judgment, his will to punish sin, because he hates it as contrary to his
nature. This righteous judgment of God is now many times concealed in the
prosperity and success of sinners, but shortly it will be manifested before all
the world, these seeming disorders set to rights, and the heavens shall declare
his righteousness, Ps. 50:6. Therefore judge nothing before the time.
IV. He
describes the measures by which God proceeds in his judgment. Having mentioned
the righteous judgment of God in v. 5, he here illustrates that judgment, and
the righteousness of it, and shows what we may expect from God, and by what
rule he will judge the world. The equity of distributive justice is the
dispensing of frowns and favours with respect to deserts and without respect to
persons: such is the righteous judgment of God.
1. He will
render to every man according to his deeds (v. 6), a truth often
mentioned in scripture, to prove that the Judge of all the earth does right.
(1.) In
dispensing his favours; and this is mentioned twice here, both in v. 7 and v.
10. For he delights to show mercy. Observe,
[1.] The
objects of his favour: Those who by patient continuance, etc. By this we
may try our interest in the divine favour, and may hence be directed what
course to take, that we may obtain it. Those whom the righteous God will reward
are, First, Such as fix to themselves the right end, that seek for
glory, and honour, and immortality; that is, the glory and honour which are
immortal-acceptance with God here and for ever. There is a holy ambition which
is at the bottom of all practical religion. This is seeking the kingdom of God,
looking in our desires and aims as high as heaven, and resolved to take up with
nothing short of it. This seeking implies a loss, sense of that loss, desire to
retrieve it, and pursuits and endeavours consonant to those desires. Secondly,
Such as, having fixed the right end, adhere to the right way: A patient
continuance in well-doing. 1. There must be well-doing, working good, v.
10. It is not enough to know well, and speak well, and profess well, and
promise well, but we must do well: do that which is good, not only for the
matter of it, but for the manner of it. We must do it well. 2. A continuance in
well-doing. Not for a fit and a start, like the morning cloud and the early
dew; but we must endure to the end: it is perseverance that wins the crown. 3.
A patient continuance. This patience respects not only the length of the work,
but the difficulties of it and the oppositions and hardships we may meet with
in it. Those that will do well and continue in it must put on a great deal of
patience.
[2.] The
product of his favour. He will render to such eternal life. Heaven is life,
eternal life, and it is the reward of those that patiently continue in
well-doing; and it is called (v. 10) glory, honour, and peace. Those
that seek for glory and honour (v. 7) shall have them. Those that seek for the
vain glory and honour of this world often miss of them, and are disappointed;
but those that seek for immortal glory and honour shall have them, and not only
glory and honour, but peace. Worldly glory and honour are
commonly attended with trouble; but heavenly glory and honour have peace with
them, undisturbed everlasting peace.
(2.) In
dispensing his frowns (v. 8, 9). Observe, [1.] The objects of his frowns. In
general those that do evil, more particularly described to be such as are
contentious and do not obey the truth. Contentious against God. every
wilful sin is a quarrel with God, it is striving with our Maker (Isa.
45:9), the most desperate contention. The Spirit of God strives with sinners
(Gen. 6:3), and impenitent sinners strive against the Spirit, rebel against the
light (Job 24:13), hold fast deceit, strive to retain that sin which the Spirit
strives to part them from. Contentious, and do not obey the truth. The
truths of religion are not only to be known, but to be obeyed; they are
directing, ruling, commanding; truths relating to practice. Disobedience to the
truth is interpreted a striving against it. But obey unrighteousness—do
what unrighteousness bids them do. Those that refuse to be the servants of
truth will soon be the slaves of unrighteousness. [2.] The products or
instances of these frowns: Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish.
These are the wages of sin. Indignation and wrath the causes—tribulation
and anguish the necessary and unavoidable effects. And this upon the
soul; souls are the vessels of that wrath, the subjects of that tribulation
and anguish. Sin qualifies the soul for this wrath. The soul is that in or of
man which is alone immediately capable of this indignation, and the impressions
or effects of anguish therefrom. Hell is eternal tribulation and anguish, the
product of wrath and indignation. This comes of contending with God, of setting
briers and thorns before a consuming fire, Isa. 27:4. Those that will not bow
to his golden sceptre will certainly be broken by his iron rod. Thus will God
render to every man according to his deeds.
2. There
is no respect of persons with God, v. 11. As to the spiritual state, there
is a respect of persons; but not as to outward relation or condition. Jews and
Gentiles stand upon the same level before God. This was Peter’s remark upon the
first taking down of the partition-wall (Acts 10:34), that God is no respecter
of persons; and it is explained in the next words, that in every nation he
that fears God, and works righteousness, is accepted of him. God does not
save men with respect to their external privileges or their barren knowledge
and profession of the truth, but according as their state and disposition
really are. In dispensing both his frowns and favours it is both to Jew and
Gentile. If to the Jews first, who had greater privileges, and made a
greater profession, yet also to the Gentiles, whose want of such
privileges will neither excuse them from the punishment of their ill-doing nor
bar them out from the reward of their well-doing (see Col. 3:11); for shall not
the Judge of all the earth do right?
V. He
proves the equity of his proceedings with all, when he shall actually come to
Judge them (v. 12–16), upon this principle, that that which is the rule of
man’s obedience is the rule of God’s judgment. Three degrees of light are
revealed to the children of men:—
1. The
light of nature. This the Gentiles have, and by this they shall be judged: As
many as have sinned without law shall perish without law; that is, the
unbelieving Gentiles, who had no other guide but natural conscience, no other
motive but common mercies, and had not the law of Moses nor any supernatural
revelation, shall not be reckoned with for the transgression of the law they
never had, nor come under the aggravation of the Jews’ sin against and judgment
by the written law; but they shall be judged by, as they sin against, the law
of nature, not only as it is in their hearts, corrupted, defaced, and
imprisoned in unrighteousness, but as in the uncorrupt original the Judge keeps
by him. Further to clear this (v. 14, 15), in a parenthesis, he evinces that
the light of nature was to the Gentiles instead of a written law. He had said
(v. 12) they had sinned without law, which looks like a contradiction;
for where there is no law there is no transgression. But, says he, though they
had not the written law (Ps. 147:20), they had that which was equivalent, not
to the ceremonial, but to the moral law. They had the work of the law.
He does not mean that work which the law commands, as if they could produce a
perfect obedience; but that work which the law does. The work of the law is to
direct us what to do, and to examine us what we have done. Now, (1.) They had
that which directed them what to do by the light of nature: by the force and
tendency of their natural notions and dictates they apprehended a clear and
vast difference between good and evil. They did by nature the things
contained in the law. They had a sense of justice and equity, honour and
purity, love and charity; the light of nature taught obedience to parents, pity
to the miserable, conservation of public peace and order, forbade murder,
stealing, lying, perjury, etc. Thus they were a law unto themselves.
(2.) They had that which examined them as to what they had done: Their
conscience also bearing witness. They had that within them which approved
and commended what was well done and which reproached them for what was done
amiss. Conscience is a witness, and first or last will bear witness, though for
a time it may be bribed or brow-beaten. It is instead of a thousand witnesses,
testifying of that which is most secret; and their thoughts accusing or
excusing, passing a judgment upon the testimony of conscience by applying
the law to the fact. Conscience is that candle of the Lord which was not quite
put out, no, not in the Gentile world. The heathen have witnessed to the
comfort of a good conscience.
—Hic murus ahoncus esto,
Nil conscire sib—parBe this thy
brazen bulwark of defence,
Still to preserve thy conscious innocence.—Hos.
and to the terror of a bad one:
—Quos diri consein facti
Mens habet attonitos, et surdo
verbere cuodi—parNo lash is heard, and yet the guilty heart
Is tortur’d with a self-inflicted
smar—uv. Sat. 13.
Their thoughts the meanwhile,
metaxy alleµloµn—among
themselves, or one with another. The same light and law of nature that
witnesses against sin in them, and witnessed against it in others, accused or
excused one another. Vicissim, so some read it, by turns;
according as they observed or broke these natural laws and dictates, their
consciences did either acquit or condemn them. All this did evince that they
had that which was to them instead of a law, which they might have been
governed by, and which will condemn them, because they were not so guided and
governed by it. So that the guilty Gentiles are left without excuse. God is
justified in condemning them. They cannot plead ignorance, and therefore are
likely to perish if they have not something else to plead.
2. The
light of the law. This the Jews had, and by this they shall be judged (v. 12): As
many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. They sinned, not
only having the law, but en nomoµ—in the law, in the midst of so much law, in the face
and light of so pure and clear a law, the directions of which were so very full
and particular, and the sanctions of it so very cogent and enforcing. These
shall be judged by the law; their punishment shall be, as their sin is,
so much the greater for their having the law. The Jew first, v. 9. It
shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon. Thus Moses did accuse them (Jn.
5:45), and they fell under the many stripes of him that knew his master’s will,
and did it not, Lu. 12:47. The Jews prided themselves very much in the law;
but, to confirm what he had said, the apostle shows (v. 13) that their having,
and hearing, and knowing the law, would not justify them, but their doing it.
The Jewish doctors bolstered up their followers with an opinion that all that
were Jews, how bad soever they lived, should have a place in the world to come.
This the apostle here opposes: it was a great privilege that they had the law,
but not a saving privilege, unless they lived up to the law they had, which it
is certain the Jews did not, and therefore they had need of a righteousness
wherein to appear before God. We may apply it to the gospel: it is not hearing,
but doing that will save us, Jn. 13:17; James 1:22.
3. The
light of the gospel: and according to this those that enjoyed the gospel shall
be judge (v. 16): According to my gospel; not meant of any fifth gospel
written by Paul, as some conceit; or of the gospel written by Luke, as
Paul’s amanuensis (Euseb. Hist. lib 3, cap. 8), but the gospel in
general, called Paul’s because he was a preacher of it. As many as are under
that dispensation shall be judged according to that dispensation, Mk. 16:16.
Some refer those words, according to my gospel, to what he says of the
day of judgment: "There will come a day of judgment, according as I have
in my preaching often told you; and that will be the day of the final judgment
both of Jews and Gentiles.’’ It is good for us to get acquainted with what is
revealed concerning that day. (1.) There is a day set for a general judgment.
The day, the great day, his day that is coming, Ps. 37:13. (2.) The judgment of
that day will be put into the hands of Jesus Christ. God shall judge by Jesus
Christ, Acts 17:31. It will be part of the reward of his humiliation. Nothing
speaks more terror to sinners, or more comfort to saints, than this, that
Christ shall be the Judge. (3.) The secrets of men shall then be judged. Secret
services shall be then rewarded, secret sins shall be then punished, hidden
things shall be brought to light. That will be the great discovering day, when
that which is now done in corners shall be proclaimed to all the world.
Verses 17-29
In the
latter part of the chapter the apostle directs his discourse more closely to
the Jews, and shows what sins they were guilty of, notwithstanding their
profession and vain pretensions. He had said (v. 13) that not the hearers but
the doers of the law are justified; and he here applies that great truth to the
Jews. Observe,
I. He allows
their profession (v. 17–20) and specifies their particular pretensions and
privileges in which they prided themselves, that they might see he did not
condemn them out of ignorance of what they had to say for themselves; no, he
knew the best of their cause.
1. They
were a peculiar people, separated and distinguished from all others by their
having the written law and the special presence of God among them. (1.) Thou
art called a Jew; not so much in parentage as profession. It was a very
honourable title. Salvation was of the Jews; and this they were very proud of,
to be a people by themselves; and yet many that were so called were the vilest
of men. It is no new thing for the worst practices to be shrouded under the
best names, for many of the synagogue of Satan to say they are Jews (Rev. 2:9),
for a generation of vipers to boast they have Abraham to their father,
Mt. 3:7-9. (2.) And restest in the law; that is, they took a pride in
this, that they had the law among them, had it in their books, read it in their
synagogues. They were mightily puffed up with this privilege, and thought this
enough to bring them to heaven, though they did not live, up to the law. To
rest in the law, with a rest of complacency and acquiescence, is good; but to
rest in it with a rest of pride, and slothfulness, and carnal security, is the
ruin of souls. The temple of the Lord, Jer. 7:4. Bethel their
confidence, Jer. 48:13. Haughty because of the holy mountain, Zep.
3:11. It is a dangerous thing to rest in external privileges, and not to
improve them. (3.) And makest thy boast of God. See how the best things
may be perverted and abused. A believing, humble, thankful glorying in God, is
the root and summary of all religion, Ps. 34:2; Isa. 45:15; 1 Co. 1:31. But a
proud vainglorious boasting in God, and in the outward profession of his name,
is the root and summary of all hypocrisy. Spiritual pride is of all kinds of
pride the most dangerous.
2. They
were a knowing people (v. 18): and knowest his will, to
theleµma—the will. God’s will is the
will, the sovereign, absolute, irresistible will. The world will then, and not
till then, be set to rights, when God’s will is the only will, and all other
wills are melted into it. They did not only know the truth of God, but the will
of God, that which he would have them to do. It is possible for a hypocrite to
have a great deal of knowledge in the will of God.—And approvest the things
that are more excellent—dokimazeis ta diapheronta. Paul prays for it for his friends as a very great
attainment, Phil. 1:10. Eis to dokimazein hymas ta
diapheronta. Understand it, (1.) Of a good
apprehension in the things of God, reading it thus, Thou discernest
things that differ, knowest how to distinguish between good and evil, to
separate between the precious and the vile (Jer. 15:19), to make a difference
between the unclean and the clean, Lev. 11:47. Good and bad lie sometimes so
near together that it is not easy to distinguish them; but the Jews, having the
touchstone of the law ready at hand, were, or at least thought they were, able
to distinguish, to cleave the hair in doubtful cases. A man may be a good
casuist and yet a bad Christian-accurate in the notion, but loose and careless
in the application. Or, we may, with De Dieu, understand controversies
by the ta diapheronta.
A man may be well skilled in the controversies of religion, and yet a stranger
to the power of godliness. (2.) Of a warm affection to the things of God, as we
read it, Approvest the things that are excellent. There are excellences
in religion which a hypocrite may approve of: there may be a consent of the
practical judgment to the law, that it is good, and yet that consent
overpowerd by the lusts of the flesh, and of the mind:—
—Video meliora proboque
Deteriora sequor.
I see the better, but pursue the
worse.
and it is common for sinners to make
that approbation an excuse which is really a very great aggravation of a sinful
course. They got this acquaintance with, and affection to, that which is good,
but being instructed out of the law, kateµchoumenos—being catechised. The word signifies an early
instruction in childhood. It is a great privilege and advantage to be well
catechised betimes. It was the custom of the Jews to take a great deal of pains
in teaching their children when they were young, and all their lessons were out
of the law; it were well if Christians were but as industrious to teach
their children out of the gospel. Now this is called (v. 20), The
form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law, that is, the show and
appearance of it. Those whose knowledge rests in an empty notion, and does not
make an impression on their hearts, have only the form of it, like a picture
well drawn and in good colours, but which wants life. A form of knowledge
produces but a form of godliness, 2 Tim. 3:5. A form of knowledge may deceive
men, but cannot impose upon the piercing eye of the heart-searching God. A form
may be the vehicle of the power; but he that takes up with that only is like
sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
3. They
were a teaching people, or at least thought themselves so (v. 19, 20): And
art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind. Apply it, (1.) To
the Jews in general. They thought themselves guides to the poor blind Gentiles
that sat in darkness, were very proud of this, that whoever would have the
knowledge of God must be beholden to them for it. All other nations must come
to school to them, to learn what is good, and what the Lord requires; for they
had the lively oracles. (2.) To their rabbis, and doctors, and leading men
among them, who were especially those that judged others, v. 1. These prided
themselves much in the possession they had got of Moses’s chair, and the
deference which the vulgar paid to their dictates; and the apostle expresses
this in several terms, a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in
darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, the better to
set forth their proud conceit of themselves, and contempt of others. This was a
string they loved to be harping upon, heaping up titles of honour upon
themselves. The best work, when it is prided in, is unacceptable to God. It is
good to instruct the foolish, and to teach the babes: but considering our own
ignorance, and folly, and inability to make these teachings successful without
God, there is nothing in it to be proud of.
II. He
aggravates their provocations (v. 21–24) from two things:—
1. That
they sinned against their knowledge and profession, did that themselves which
they taught others to avoid: Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not
thyself? Teaching is a piece of that charity which begins at home, though
it must not end there. It was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees that they did
not do as they taught (Mt. 23:3), but pulled down with their lives what
they built up with their preaching; for who will believe those who do not
believe themselves? Examples will govern more than rules. The greatest
obstructors of the success of the word are those whose bad lives contradict
their good doctrine, who in the pulpit preach so well that it is a pity they
should ever come out, and out of the pulpit live so ill that it is a pity they
should ever come in. He specifies three particular sins that abound among the
Jews:—(1.) Stealing. This is charged upon some that declared God’s statutes
(Ps. 50:16, 18), When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him.
The Pharisees are charged with devouring widows’ houses (Mt. 23:14), and that
is the worst of robberies. (2.) Adultery, v. 22. This is likewise charged upon
that sinner (Ps. 50:18), Thou hast been partaker with adulterers. Many
of the Jewish rabbin are said to have been notorious for this sin. (3.)
Sacrilege-robbing in holy things, which were then by special laws dedicated and
devoted to God; and this is charged upon those that professed to abhor idols.
So the Jews did remarkably, after their captivity in Babylon; that furnace
separated them for ever from the dross of their idolatry, but they dealt very
treacherously in the worship of God. It was in the latter days of the
Old-Testament church that they were charged with robbing God in tithes and
offerings (Mal. 3:8, 9), converting that to their own use, and to the
service of their lusts, which was, in a special manner, set apart for God. And
this is almost equivalent to idolatry, though this sacrilege was cloaked with
the abhorrence of idols. Those will be severely reckoned with another day who,
while they condemn sin in others, do the same, or as bad, or worse, themselves.
2. That
they dishonoured God by their sin, v. 23, 24. While God and his law were an
honour to them, which they boasted of and prided themselves in, they were a
dishonour to God and his law, by giving occasion to those that were without to
reflect upon their religion, as if that did countenance and allow of such
things, which, as it is their sin who draw such inferences (for the faults of
professors are not to be laid upon professions), so it is their sin who give
occasion for those inferences, and will greatly aggravate their miscarriages.
This was the condemnation in David’s case, that he had given great occasion
to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, 2 Sa. 12:14. And the apostle here
refers to the same charge against their forefathers: As it is written,
v. 24. He does not mention the place, because he wrote this to those that were
instructed in the law (in labouring to convince, it is some advantage to deal
with those that have knowledge and are acquainted with the scripture), but he
seems to point at Isa. 52:5; Eze. 36:22, 23; and 2 Sa. 12:14. It is a
lamentation that those who were made to be to God for a name and for a
praise should be to him a shame and dishonour. The great evil of the sins
of professors is the dishonour done to God and religion by their profession. "Blasphemed
through you; that is, you give the occasion for it, it is through your
folly and carelessness. The reproaches you bring upon yourselves reflect upon
your God, and religion is wounded through your sides.’’ A good caution to
professors to walk circumspectly. See 1 Tim. 6:1.
III. He
asserts the utter insufficiency of their profession to clear them from the
guilt of these provocations (v. 25–20): Circumcision verily profiteth, if
thou keep the law; that is, obedient Jews shall not lose the reward of
their obedience, but will gain this by their being Jews, that they have a
clearer rule of obedience than the Gentiles have. God did not give the law nor
appoint circumcision in vain. This must be referred to the state of the Jews before
the ceremonial polity was abolished, otherwise circumcision to one that
professed faith in Christ was forbidden, Gal. 5:1. But he is here speaking to
the Jews, whose Judaism would benefit them, if they would but live up to the
rules and laws of it; but if not "thy circumcision is made
uncircumcision; that is, thy profession will do thee no good; thou wilt be
no more justified than the uncircumcised Gentiles, but more condemned for
sinning against greater light.’’ The uncircumcised are in scripture branded as unclean
(Isa. 52:1), as out of the covenant, (Eph. 2:11, 12) and wicked Jews
will be dealt with as such. See Jer. 9:25, 26. Further to illustrate this,
1. He
shows that the uncircumcised Gentiles, if they live up to the light they have,
stand upon the same level with the Jews; if they keep the righteousness of
the law (v. 26), fulfil the law (v. 27); that is, by submitting
sincerely to the conduct of natural light, perform the matter of the law. Some
understand it as putting the case of a perfect obedience to the law: "If
the Gentiles could perfectly keep the law, they would be justified by it as
well as the Jews.’’ But it seems rather to be meant of such an obedience as
some of the Gentiles did attain to. The case of Cornelius will clear it. Though
he was a Gentile, and uncircumcised, yet, being a devout man, and one that
feared God with all his house (Acts 10:2), he was accepted, v. 4.
Doubtless, there were many such instances: and they were the uncircumcision,
that kept the righteousness of the law; and of such he says, (1.) That they
were accepted with God, as if they had been circumcised. Their
uncircumcision was counted for circumcision. Circumcision was indeed to
the Jews a commanded duty, but it was not to all the world a necessary
condition of justification and salvation. (2.) That their obedience was a great
aggravation of the disobedience of the Jews, who had the letter of the law, v.
27. Judge thee, that is, help to add to thy condemnation, who by the
letter and circumcision dost transgress. Observe, To carnal professors the
law is but the letter; they read it as a bare writing, but are not ruled by it
as a law. They did transgress, not only notwithstanding the letter and
circumcision, but by it, that is, they thereby hardened themselves in sin.
External privileges, if they do not do us good, do us hurt. The obedience of
those that enjoy less means, and make a less profession, will help to condemn
those that enjoy greater means, and make a greater profession, but do not live
up to it.
2. He describes
the true circumcision, v. 28, 29. (1.) It is not that which is outward in
the flesh and in the letter. This is not to drive us off from the
observance of external institutions (they are good in their place), but from
trusting to them and resting in them as sufficient to bring us to heaven,
taking up with a name to live, without being alive indeed. He is not a Jew,
that is, shall not be accepted of God as the seed of believing Abraham, nor
owned as having answered the intention of the law. To be Abraham’s children is
to do the works of Abraham, Jn. 8:39, 40. (2.) It is that which is inward,
of the heart, and in the spirit. It is the heart that God looks at, the
circumcising of the heart that renders us acceptable to him. See Deu. 30:6.
This is the circumcision that is not made with hands, Col. 2:11, 12. Casting
away the body of sin. So it is in the spirit, in our spirit as the subject,
and wrought by God’s Spirit as the author of it. (3.) The praise thereof,
though it be not of men, who judge according to outward appearance, yet
it is of God, that is, God himself will own and accept and crown this
sincerity; for he seeth not as man seeth. Fair pretences and a plausible
profession may deceive men: but God cannot be so deceived; he sees through
shows to realities. This is alike true of Christianity. He is not a Christian
that is one outwardly, nor is that baptism which is outward in the flesh; but
he is a Christian that is one inwardly, and baptism is that of the heart, in
the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God.
Excerpt from:
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible
Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714)
Rick Meyers.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible. e-Sword ®: www.e-sword.net
