25 Whom God has put forward as the sign of his mercy, through faith, by his blood, to make clear his righteousness when, in his pity, God let the sins of earlier times go without punishment;
And this is love, not that we had love for God, but that he had love for us, and sent his Son to be an offering for our sins.
He is the offering for our sins; and not for ours only, but for all the world.
Then let him put to death the goat of the sin-offering for the people, and take its blood inside the veil and do with it as he did with the blood of the ox, shaking drops of it on and before the cover of the ark.
And all who are on the earth will give him worship, everyone whose name has not been from the first in the book of life of the Lamb who was put to death.
And you are to make a cover of the best gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And at the two ends of the cover you are to make two winged ones of hammered gold, One at one end and one at the other; the winged ones are to be part of the cover. And their wings are to be outstretched over the cover, and the winged ones are to be opposite one another, facing the cover. And put the cover over the ark, and in the ark the record which I will give you. And there, between the two winged ones on the cover of the ark, I will come to you, face to face, and make clear to you all the orders I have to give you for the children of Israel.
And over it were the winged ones of glory with their wings covering the mercy-seat; about which it is not possible now to say anything in detail.
How much more will the blood of Christ, who, being without sin, made an offering of himself to God through the Holy Spirit, make your hearts clean from dead works to be servants of the living God? And for this cause it is through him that a new agreement has come into being, so that after the errors under the first agreement had been taken away by his death, the word of God might have effect for those who were marked out for an eternal heritage. Because where there is a testament, there has to be the death of the man who made it. For a testament has effect after death; for what power has it while the man who made it is living? So that even the first agreement was not made without blood. For when Moses had given all the rules of the law to the people, he took the blood of goats and young oxen, with water and red wool and hyssop, and put it on the book itself and on all the people, Saying, This blood is the sign of the agreement which God has made with you. And the blood was put on the Tent and all the holy vessels in the same way. And by the law almost all things are made clean with blood, and without blood there is no forgiveness.
And he did not have to make an offering of himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the holy place every year with blood which is not his; For then he would have undergone a number of deaths from the time of the making of the world: but now he has come to us at the end of the old order, to put away sin by the offering of himself.
So then, my brothers, being able to go into the holy place without fear, because of the blood of Jesus, By the new and living way which he made open for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
By faith Noah, being moved by the fear of God, made ready an ark for the salvation of his family, because God had given him news of things which were not seen at the time; and through it the world was judged by him, and he got for his heritage the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith Abraham made an offering of Isaac, when he was tested: and he with whom the agreement had been made gave up as an offering the only son of his body,
And not one of these got the good things of the agreement, though they all had a good record through faith, Because God had kept some better thing for us, so that it was not possible for them to become complete without us.
Being conscious that you have been made free from that foolish way of life which was your heritage from your fathers, not through a payment of things like silver or gold which come to destruction, But through holy blood, like that of a clean and unmarked lamb, even the blood of Christ: Who was marked out by God before the making of the world, but was caused to be seen in these last times for you,
If we say that we have no sin, we make him false and his word is not in us.
And their voices are sounding in a new song, saying, It is right for you to take the book and to make it open: for you were put to death and have made an offering to God of your blood for men of every tribe, and language, and people, and nation,
Through him uniting all things with himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, uniting all things which are on earth or in heaven. And you, who in the past were cut off and at war with God in your minds through evil works, he has now made one In the body of his flesh through death, so that you might be holy and without sin and free from all evil before him: If you keep yourselves safely based in the faith, not moved from the hope of the good news which came to you, and which was given to every living being under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
Your righteousness is an unchanging righteousness, and your law is certain.
Truly I say to you, He who has faith in me has eternal life.
Then Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, If you do not take the flesh of the Son of man for food, and if you do not take his blood for drink, you have no life in you. He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink has eternal life: and I will take him up from the dead at the last day. My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink is in me and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I have life because of the Father, even so he who takes me for his food will have life because of me. This is the bread which has come down from heaven. It is not like the food which your fathers had: they took of the manna, and are dead; but he who takes this bread for food will have life for ever.
But the things which God had made clear before, by the mouth of all the prophets, that the Christ would have to undergo, he has put into effect in this way.
To do that which had been fixed before by your hand and your purpose.
Or is it nothing to you that God had pity on you, waiting and putting up with you for so long, not seeing that in his pity God's desire is to give you a change of heart?
For all have done wrong and are far from the glory of God; And they may have righteousness put to their credit, freely, by his grace, through the salvation which is in Christ Jesus:
What, then, may we say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has got? For if Abraham got righteousness by works, he has reason for pride; but not before God. But what does it say in the holy Writings? And Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness. Now, the reward is credited to him who does works, not as of grace but as a debt. But to him who without working has faith in him who gives righteousness to the evil-doer, his faith is put to his account as righteousness. As David says that there is a blessing on the man to whose account God puts righteousness without works, saying, Happy are those who have forgiveness for their wrongdoing, and whose sins are covered. Happy is the man against whom no sin is recorded by the Lord.
For which reason, because we have righteousness through faith, let us be at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
And not only so, but we have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are now at peace with God.
Your righteousness has not been folded away in my heart; I have made clear your true word and your salvation; I have not kept secret your mercy or your faith from the great meeting.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 3
Commentary on Romans 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
The apostle, in this chapter, carries on his discourse concerning justification. He had already proved the guilt both of Gentiles and Jews. Now in this chapter,
The many digressions in his writings render his discourse sometimes a little difficult, but his scope is evident.
Rom 3:1-18
Rom 3:19-31
From all this Paul infers that it is in vain to look for justification by the works of the law, and that it is to be had only by faith, which is the point he has been all along proving, from ch. 1:17, and which he lays down (v. 28) as the summary of his discourse, with a quod erat demonstrandu-hich was to be demonstrated. We conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law; not by the deeds of the first law of pure innocence, which left no room for repentance, nor the deeds of the law of nature, how highly soever improved, nor the deeds of the ceremonial law (the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin), nor the deeds of the moral law, which are certainly included, for he speaks of that law by which is the knowledge of sin and those works which might be matter of boasting. Man, in his depraved state, under the power of such corruption, could never, by any works of his own, gain acceptance with God; but it must be resolved purely into the free grace of God, given through Jesus Christ to all true believers that receive it as a free gift. If we had never sinned, our obedience to the law would have been our righteousness: "Do this, and live.' But having sinned, and being corrupted, nothing that we can do will atone for our former guilt. It was by their obedience to the moral law that the Pharisees looked for justification, Lu. 18:11. Now there are two things from which the apostle here argues: the guiltiness of man, to prove that we cannot be justified by the works of the law, and the glory of God, to prove that we must be justified by faith.