Romans 3:22

{8} Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of {s} Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (8) The matter, as it were, of this righteousness is Christ Jesus apprehended by faith, and for the sake of righteousness Christ is offered to all people, as without him all people are shut out from the kingdom of God. (s) Which we give to Jesus Christ, or which rests upon him.

He mentions the righteousness of God again, that he may further explain it, by the means or instrument by which it is received, viz. faith; see Romans 4:11,12 9:30 Philippians 3:9 ; where there are several expressions to the same purpose, that this righteousness is without the law indeed, but it is by the hand of that faith by which we believe in Jesus, called therefore here, the faith of Jesus Christ. Unto all and upon all them that believe; whether they be Jews or Gentiles, if they believe, excluding the self-justiciaries amongst the one, and the philosophers amongst the other. For there is no difference; they are not justified two several ways: see Romans 3:9 .

(22) A further definition of the nature of the righteousness so given to the Christian by God; it is a righteousness that has its root in faith, and is coextensive with faith, being present in every believer. By faith of Jesus Christ—i.e., by faith which has Christ for its object, “faith in Christ.” “Faith” in St. Paul’s writings implies an intense attachment and devotion. It has an intellectual basis, necessarily involving a belief in the existence, and in certain attributes, of the Person for whom it is entertained; but it is moral in its operation, a recasting of the whole emotional nature in accordance with this belief, together with a consequent change in character and practice. (See Excursus B: On the Meaning of the word Faith.) And upon all.—These words are wanting in the best MSS., and should be omitted. For there is no difference.—The righteousness that God gives is given to all that believe, without any distinction of Jew or Gentile; for all equally need it, and it is free equally to all.

Romans 3:22 . δικαιοσύνη δὲ θεοῦ . The δὲ is explicative: “a righteousness of God (see on chap. Romans 1:17 ) [ Romans 3:21 ], and that a righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ”. In the Epistle to the Hebrews Jesus Christ is undoubtedly set forth as a pattern of faith: ἀφορῶντες εἰς τὸν τῆς πίστεως ἀρχηγὸν καὶ τελειωτὴν Ἰησοῦν , Hebrews 12:2 . Cf. Hebrews 2:13 ; but such a thought is irrelevant here. It is the constant teaching of Paul that we are justified (not by sharing Jesus’ faith in God, as some interpreters would take it here, but) by believing in that manifestation and offer of God’s righteousness which are made in the propitiatory death of Jesus. εἰς πάντας καὶ ἐπὶ πάντας : the last three words are omitted by and most edd. If genuine, they add no new idea to εἰς πάντας ; see Winer, p. 521. For διαστολή , cf. Romans 10:12 . The righteousness of God comes to all on the terms of faith, for all alike need it, and can receive it only so.

Romans WORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE REDEMPTION NO DIFFERENCERomans 3:22 . The things in which all men are alike are far more important than those in which they differ. The diversities are superficial, the identities are deep as life. Physical processes and wants are the same for everybody. All men, be they kings or beggars, civilised or savage, rich or poor, wise or foolish, cultured or illiterate, breathe the same breath, hunger and thirst, eat and drink, sleep, are smitten by the same diseases, and die at last the same death. We have all of us one human heart. Tears and grief, gladness and smiles, move us all. Hope, fear, love, play the same music upon all heart-strings. The same great law of duty over-arches every man, and the same heaven of God bends above him. Religion has to do with the deep-seated identities and not with the superficial differences. And though there have been many aristocratic religions in the world, it is the great glory of Christianity that it goes straight to the central similarities, and brushes aside, as of altogether secondary importance, all the subordinate diversities, grappling with the great facts which are common to humanity, and with the large hopes which all may inherit.

Paul here, in his grand way, triumphs and rises above all these small differences between man and man, more pure or less pure, Jew or Gentile, wise or foolish, and avers that, in regard of the deepest and most important things, ‘there is no difference,’ and so his Gospel is a Gospel for the world, because it deals with all men on the same level. Now I wish to work out this great glory and characteristic of the Gospel system in a few remarks, and to point out to you the more important of these things in which all men, be they what or who they may, stand in one category and have identical experiences and interests. I. First, there is no difference in the fact of sin. Now let us understand that the Gospel does not assert that there is no difference in the degrees of sin. Christianity does not teach, howsoever some of its apostles may seem to have taught, or unconsciously lent themselves to representations which imply the view that there was no difference between a man who ‘did by nature the things contained in the law,’ as Paul says, and the man who set himself to violate law. There is no such monstrous teaching in the New Testament as that all blacks are the same shade, all sin of the same gravity, no such teaching as that a man that tries according to his light to do what is right stands on exactly the same level as the man who flouts all such obligations, and has driven the chariots of his lusts and passions through every law that may stand in his way.