11 There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.
God looks down from heaven on the children of men, To see if there are any who understood, Who seek after God.
Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, To see if there were any who did understand, Who did seek after God. They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And don't call on Yahweh?
For my people are foolish, they don't know me; they are foolish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear, neither do they understand. In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, And will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, And will in no way perceive:
The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Yet they haven't returned to Yahweh their God, Nor sought him, for all this.
I am inquired of by those who didn't ask; I am found by those who didn't seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was not called by my name.
Seek you Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is near:
When the boughs of it are withered, they shall be broken off; the women shall come, and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Hosts.
"How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, And fools hate knowledge?
The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?' Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
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.