Romans 3

Faith glories in the cross of Christ (Galatians 6:14). To consider Christ as he is crowned with all manner of excellencies, does rather stir up admiration and wonder; but Christ looked upon as bleeding and dying is the proper object of our faith: therefore it is called faith in…

Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace. Quest. 21. What is Justification?

And thus Christ has taken away from believers the curse of the law, by being made a curse for them. But though the moral law is thus far abolished, yet it remains as a perpetual rule to believers: though the moral law be not their Savior, yet it is their guide: though it be not…

Election is free (Ephesians 1:4): He has chosen us in him, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], according to the good pleasure of his will. Justification is free (Romans 3:24): Being justified freely by his grace. Say not then, I am unworthy, for mercy is free.

The more peaceable the more like God. It is a bad sign God is not their Father: 1. Who are fierce and cruel, as if with Romulus they had sucked the milk of a wolf (Romans 3:17). The way of peace have they not known, they sport in mischief; these are they who are of a persecuting…

They raised a slander of Paul, that he should preach men might do evil that good might come of it. We are slanderously reported, and some affirm that we say, Let us do evil that good may come (Romans 3:8). Eminency is commonly blasted by slander.

Answ. Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance to life, with the diligent use of all the outward means, whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption. I begin with the first, faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:25): Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith i…

Election is free (Ephesians 1:4): He has chosen us in him [illegible], according to the good pleasure of his will. Justification is free (Romans 3:24): Being justified freely by his grace. Salvation is free (Titus 3:5): According to his mercy he saved us.

O let us labor for faith: Christ is a propitiation or atonement, to take away sin, but how? Through faith in his blood (Romans 3:25). 6. Means, Pray much for pardon (Hosea 14:2): Take away all iniquity.

(Psalm 51:5) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Romans 3:23) For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 8:7) The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

But when God comes to judge men, he finds none of this perfection in their righteousness, but manifold defects, and therefore, for, or upon the account of these he cannot justify them, he cannot in truth declare that he has found the man righteous, that he has seen no iniquity i…

Q. Who among men are tainted with sinne? A. All that are mere men, none excepted (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23 and 5:12). Q. How many sorts of sinne are there?

Q. Did the Lord work the deliverance of man, because man did importunately seek and sue to him for the same? A. Man did not seek and sue to God at all, but fled from him (Genesis 3:8; Romans 3:11). And if he had sought to God for help, God was not bound to afford it; and how muc…

What is the cause of our justification? The impulsive cause that moves God to justify a sinner is nothing else but his free grace (Romans 3:24; Titus 3:7). What is that for which God does justify?

Q. How else may the justice of the Lord in his decrees appear? A. Because whatever be the Lord's decree, there is no man actually condemned till he be first defiled with sin (Romans 3:9, 19; 2:6, 9; Genesis 4:7). Q. Whether is the decree of God certain and immutable, or such as…

If still he pursues you and his wrath lies heavy on you, ask him what he aims at. Is it to have the victory and to overcome when he judges — as Romans 3:4 says, which David also knew when he humbled himself (Psalm 51:4)? Freely tell him that you are willing to give it to him, to…

Which we willingly grant; that they who receive Christ, their faith becomes active through him to believe in his name, that so they might receive him, and his righteousness. We are justified by faith (Romans 3:28). When we are said to be justified by faith; it is by the righteou…

That when God justifies us (that is, when he first declares, and pronounces us to be righteous) he does declare his own righteousness, that he might be just, as Paul speaks (Romans 3:26), and the justifier of him, which believes on Jesus. And it is the speech of David, that when…

This is the flowering, or the effect and fruit of joy; a readiness to, and the way whereby we do express it. One great design of the Gospel is to exclude all boasting, all glorying in any thing of self in religion (Romans 3:27). It is by the Gospel and the law of faith therein t…

For if a Law be disanulled or abrogated, it is totally dissolved as to its obligatory power. And our Apostle removes the suspicion of any such thing from the doctrine of the Gospel (Romans 3:31): Do we then make void the Law through Faith? God forbid: yea we establish the Law. A…

This was done by Christ alone, who was therefore the [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] of this covenant, and all the grace of it. See (2 Corinthians 5:19, 20; Galatians 3:13, 14; Romans 3:25). 2. No restipulation of obedience to God could be made by man, that might be a ground of ente…

And those who like not God's Covenant on those terms, as none do by nature, will eternally fall short of the grace of it. Hereby all glorying, and all boasting in ourselves is excluded, which was that which God aimed at in the contrivance and establishment of this Covenant (Roma…

Now, at this time, which is the season that God has appointed for the introduction of the New Covenant and Ministry. To the same purpose the Apostle expresses himself, treating of the same subject (Romans 3:26), to declare [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], at this instant season, now…

For it is by blood, and no otherwise, that Atonement is made (Leviticus 17:11). Therefore he is set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood (Romans 3:24, 25). That the Lord Jesus Christ did give himself a ransom for sin; that he did it in the shedding of his blood…

And we are taught, that The one sacrifice of Christ with what ensued thereon, was the only means to render effectual all the counsels of God, concerning the redemption and salvation of the Church (Ephesians 1:3, 4, 5, 6, 7; Romans 3:24, 25, 26). Of these heavenly things, it is s…

But this Cipporeth is rendered by our Apostle [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩] a propitiatory, a mercy-seat; as it is also by the LXX sometimes, and sometimes by [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩] an imposed covering. But whereas in allusion hereunto, the Lord Christ is said to be [⟨in non-Lati…

And there is, as was said, an emphasis in the expression, not without blood, to manifest how impossible it was that there should be an entrance into the gracious presence of God, without the blood of the sacrifice of Christ. The only propitiation of sins is made by the blood of…

It is granted that the actual communication of this effect of the death of Christ to our souls is wrought according to the method which God in his sovereign wisdom and pleasure has designed. And herein (1) the Lord Christ by his blood made actual and absolute Atonement for the s…

1. He undertook as the Surety of the Covenant to answer for all the sins of those who are to be, and are made partakers of the benefits of it. That is, to undergo the punishment due to their sins; to make atonement for them, by offering himself a propitiatory sacrifice for their…

That the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin, was utterly impossible, as our Apostle declares. It must be the blood of the Son of God (Romans 3:24, 25; Acts 20:28). And herein were glorified both the love and grace of God, in that he spared not his only Son, but gave h…

And the body is said to be washed from them, (1.) Because they are outward, in opposition to those that are only inherent in the mind. (2.) Because the body is the instrument of the perpetration of them; hence are they called deeds of the body; the members of the body; our earth…

The word of God, that is, the word of the Gospel as preached, is that which they thus tasted of. But it may be said, that they enjoyed the word of God in their state of Judaism; they did so, as to the written word; for to them were committed the oracles of God (Romans 3:2). But…

(2) God will do so to evince the righteousness of his judgements, both in the hearts and consciences of them who shall be finally destroyed, whose end is to be burned; as also of all others who shall wisely consider of his ways. God endures all things from the world that he may…

James 2:20. But will you know, O Vain Man, that Faith without Works is Dead? The Apostle Paul had abundantly taught (as appears in divers of his Epistles) that man is justified by faith alone, without works: See (Romans 3:28) Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by fai…

Our own doing of good works, is not now, the condition of our entering into life. But still, the Covenant of Grace does not release us, from all obligation, to do those good works, which once were the terms of our entering into life; the language of it is that in (Romans 3:31).…

But surely we may well distinguish, especially between the memberly Relation and those special superadded Qualifications, and between what belongs to persons in the one respect and in the other. For some Priviledges in the Church belong to persons by virtue of their memberly Rel…

(Romans 12:19) he reads, Non vosmetipsos vindicantes, not avenging your selves: where the vulgar Latin has corruptly, Non vosmetipsos defendentes, not defending your selves. (Romans 3:4) where the Rhemists translate according to the Latin, God is true: he shows that in the Greek…

Sin is anything whatever is against the will and word of God: as Saint John says, Sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). And this definition Paul confirms when he says, that by the law comes the knowledge of sin, and, where no law is there is no transgression: and, si…

So that you see all have their distinct work; the inchoation is from the Father, the dispensation by the Son, and the consummation by the Spirit: from the Father, in the Son, and through the Spirit; there is God's choice, Christ's purchase, and the Spirit's application: all are…

Basil on humility: Let man acknowledge himself to lack true justice, and that he is justified only by faith in Christ. Origen on Romans 3: We think that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law: and he says that justification by faith alone suffices, so as a man…

Nothing is more natural than a spirit of revenge, as we see in little children, which discovers that the children of men bring murderous natures into the World with them. Hence the Apostle declaring what men by nature are, says, that their feet are swift to shed blood (Romans 3:…

Answ. If this saying be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary, it will be found to be more pleasing than solid, more plausible than weighty. For the rule is clear, we must not do evil, that good may come thereof (Romans 3:8), but it is an evil thing, and a sin to preach in a…

To those that were the people of God, though the Word concerns all men, yet it is written to the Church in a more especial manner. As you find in the Revelations all the Epistles were written to the Churches, and indeed all the Word of God is in a more peculiar manner written to…

An imperfect knowledge of a most absolute and perfect law profits not a whit with respect to its end. But the apostle shows at length that the law itself is unequal to this task — namely, that anyone should please God — in Romans 3 and 4. 3. Also, "without faith it is impossible…

The greatest privilege of the Jews was once that they were entrusted with the oracles 364 ON THE ORIGIN OF HEBREW POINTING. [Book 5.] — of God, as the apostle relates in (Romans 3:2). But they had long since fallen away from this; for the word has no longer been committed in any…

For those whom God wills efficaciously and graciously to bring to the saving knowledge of Christ, the case is different. For first, through His Spirit working powerfully in their hearts, He causes them to acknowledge and confess the sentence of the law pronounced against them to…

From hence cometh it, that we fear not in greatest dangers (2 Kings 6:16; Psalm 3:7; Psalm 27:3); that in the time of affliction, we are patient (Proverbs 20:22; Hebrews 10:33); without all murmuring to hold our peace (Psalm 39:10); receiving them as from a father (Job 1:21; Psa…

1. That the Father should be satisfied, that he that was wronged should have his honor restored, that the threatening given out in his law should light and take effect; that the soul that sins, should in his own, or in the surety's person, die; and that a suitable recompense sho…

And in this respect it is said (Genesis 6:8) that all the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart in man are only evil continually; and (Ephesians 2:1) they are said to be dead in sin, not only in respect of their being subject to God's curse, but in respect of their natural d…

So, having shown how it comes to pass that Christ suffered and suffered so much, and was brought so low under suffering; and having told that he was engaged to pay the Elect's debt, and that the Father had laid their iniquities on him; lest any might think that the Father would…