Глава III

The advantages of the Jews do not exempt them from God's judgment (1–8). The Word of God itself testifies to the fact of universal condemnation for sins, and consequently, to the condemnation of the Jews (9-20). The death of the Lord Jesus Christ alone frees people from condemnation. Justification is given to people by faith in Christ (21–26). The agreement of this method of justification with the true meaning of the law (27–31). Rom.3:1. So, what is the advantage of being a Jew, or what is the benefit of being circumcised? From the previous chapter it became obvious that a sinning Jew is just as subject to the wrath of God as a sinning pagan. But in this case, the question was raised about the advantages of the Jewish people - what were they? After all, the Apostle himself in chapter 1 hinted at the existence of these advantages (Rom. 1:16). To this supposed question the Apostle answers that the Jews had many advantages and, above all, possessed the revelation of God. If this possession did not lead to the goal to which it should have led, that is, to their acceptance of Christ, then was not God’s faithfulness to the promises given to the forefathers of the Jews destroyed through this! No, rather it can be said that through the unbelief of the Jews, God's faithfulness to the said promises became even more visible. But if, therefore, the sin of human unbelief serves for the highest glorification of God, then can God be angry with sinners? If we did not recognize the Lord’s right to be angry with those sinners whose sins serve to glorify His holiness, then this would mean denying the possibility of the final judgment over all humanity. Rom.3:2. A great advantage in all respects, but especially in the fact that they have been entrusted with the word of God. “Great advantage” - more precisely: many or many (advantages). The Apostle speaks in detail about these advantages in Chapter IX. (Art. 4 et seq.). - “The Word of God”. Since verse 3 glorifies God’s faithfulness to this word or, more precisely, to the revelations of God (τα λόγια του θ.), it is clear that by the word B. one must understand the promises of God (cf. Rom. 9:4 αί εκαγγελίαι), which are not only found among the prophets (cf. Acts 3:24), but also in the Pentateuch. Rom.3:3. Because what? even if some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness destroy the faithfulness of God? Rom.3:4. No way. God is faithful, but every man is a liar, as it is written: Thou art righteous in Thy words, and thou shalt prevail in Thy judgment. “For what?” i.e. how to understand this? (the Jews' disbelief in the promises seems to completely destroy the entire meaning of these promises). - “Even if some were unfaithful.” The expression "some" (τινές) means a part of the whole, but does not indicate how large this part is. - “They were unfaithful” - more precisely: they did not believe (ηπίστησαν), that is, they did not believe in the coming Messiah, having a promise about Him. For the Apostle at that time, the attitude of the Jewish people towards Christ was already completely clear (cf. ch. 9-11). – “Infidelity” – more precisely: unbelief (in Christ). - “Will it destroy”, that is, lose power? - “The faithfulness of God,” that is, the faithfulness of God to His promises, which He once gave to His people. - "No way" . "God is faithful". Here the Apostle affirms in general God’s faithfulness to the given promises, but it is clear to everyone that an answer is immediately given to the one posed in Art. 3. question. Paul wants to say that God will certainly fulfill the promises made by the patriarch of this people to the Jewish people, but he expresses and develops this idea only at the end of the 11th chapter. - “Every man is a liar.” Only a person, a creature of weak will, tends to lie, that is, to betray his words and promises. - God is not like that! “You are righteous...” In Ps. 50, from which these words are an excerpt, David repents before God that he has sinned before Him, before His eyes. By this he wants to say that he understood well what he was doing - God had explained to him even earlier (in the law) the criminality of such things as David had committed, but David still committed them (cf. Ps. 50:8). Hence the similarity between David and the people of Israel. Israel, the bearer of divine revelations, was well acquainted with what sin against God was and what consequences it led to. If now, despite these extraordinary admonitions, he nevertheless fell into a lie - he rejected the Messiah, then he should no longer, has no right to blame God for his rejection. Before the words: “You are righteous” you need to add a conjunction: so that, since in Greek. The text here contains the omitted ώπως άν in Russian, and the whole expression is therefore better translated as follows: “so that You may be recognized as righteous (in the judgment of David and Israel).” - “And you will win” - and so that You will appear victorious if You start litigation (of course, regarding the rejection of Israel, to which Israel expressed dissatisfaction). The apostle quotes the words of his ps. according to the text LXX. Rom.3:5. If our untruth reveals the truth of God, then what shall we say? won't God be unjust when he expresses anger? (I speak from human reasoning). Rom.3:6. No way. For how else can God judge the world? If human untruth can serve, so to speak, as an excellent background for the revelation of Divine Truth - good is best shaded and highlighted if something bad is placed alongside it - then why is God angry with the unrighteous, that is, with the unbelieving Jews? Thus, according to the Apostle, one could speak only from a purely human point of view: a person, left to himself, looks at things very frivolously and judges the affairs of God incorrectly. Wouldn’t it be better—so a Jew might reason—wouldn’t it be fairer for God to forgive us for our unbelief in Christ? The Apostle decides this question negatively. If the Lord had forgiven His people and, based on personal relations with this people, had not charged them with their terrible sin - unbelief in Christ, then how could He judge the whole world, all of humanity at the Last Judgment? No, the truth of God requires the punishment of all sin, regardless of its consequences. Rom.3:7. For, if God’s faithfulness is elevated by my unfaithfulness to the glory of God, why else should I be judged as a sinner? Rom.3:8. And should we not do evil so that good may come out, as some slander us and say that we teach this way? The judgment against such is just. Here the Apostle, for greater conviction of the incorrectness of the opinion mentioned in the 5th article, exposes his own cause. The Jews, of course, said about Paul that he was a sinner, that God would punish him for his apostasy from Judaism, and the Apostle, knowing these attacks on him, points out their illogicality. Why would God punish him? Suppose he preaches a lie, but if this is a lie, this false teaching, with which he speaks everywhere, only makes it even more possible for the truth of God or the “true” Jewish faith to be revealed, then why are the Jews attacking him? Shouldn't they rather praise him for this? Then, further strengthening his proof, the Apostle says that from the point of view of the Jews (see v. 5), he and other Christians therefore do good when they do evil. In fact, of course, Christians do not do this, and the false accusations brought against them by the Jews will undoubtedly find righteous condemnation at the judgment of God - but in any case, if Christians did evil in order to make it possible for God’s righteousness to be revealed more, then, of course, from a Jewish point of view, they would deserve praise and not condemnation... This is how absurd the opinion expressed in the 5th article leads to, as the opinion of the Jews - opponents of Paul. Sometimes in subsequent times they tried to justify the greatest crimes in history by the great good consequences that these crimes had for humanity. Even Robespierre, in the name of such considerations, was promoted by some to saints... The Apostle denies the applicability of such a principle: a person, in his opinion, is responsible before God for his bad deed, no matter what good consequences it may have, because, as he says in other places of his epistles, it is God Himself who turns evil human deeds for the benefit of humanity (see Rom 9:17, 11:25, 31; Gal 3:22). Rom.3:9. So what? do we have an advantage? Not at all. For we have already proved that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, Returning to the question of the advantages of the Jewish people, posed in the 1st article, the Apostle now proves from the Scriptures of the Old Testament that the Jews cannot claim any advantages in relation to the judgment of God, because they were all sinners. They cannot be saved by the law given to them by God, which, without giving people the strength to change their lives for the better, only gives the Jews the opportunity to be convinced that they are in sin. "Do we have an advantage?" The Apostle asks this on behalf of the Jews, to whom he counts himself. – “Not at all” – from Greek. more precisely: “not completely, not in all respects” (ού πάντως. If the apostle wanted to say: not at all, not at all! then he would have used, as in 1 Cor 16:12, the expression: πάντως ού), i.e., the Jews, as the chosen people, have advantages over the pagans (see Rom 9:4-5 cf. Eph 2:11-12), but as individuals they will be judged at the final judgment of God without regard to these national advantages: it will not be the nation that will be judged, but its individual members. The latter will not help them there. They were important for the earthly, historical life of the Jewish people, and good for those individual members of the Jewish nation who took advantage of these advantages for their personal improvement! - “For we have already proven.” Unfortunately, the majority of Jews, as the Apostle showed in Chapter II. (v. 17 et seq.), did not take advantage of their special position as God’s chosen people and led the same sinful life as the pagans. Rom.3:10. as it is written: There is none righteous, not even one; Rom.3:11. there is no one who understands; no one seeks God; Rom.3:12. they have all turned aside from the path, they are worthless to one; there is no one who does good, not even one. Rom.3:13. Their larynx is an open tomb; they deceive with their tongue; the poison of asps is on their lips. Rom.3:14. Their lips are full of slander and bitterness. Rom.3:15. Their feet are quick to shed blood; Rom.3:16. destruction and destruction are in their ways; Rom.3:17. they do not know the way of the world. Rom.3:18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. The denunciations expressed against the Jews by the Apostle agree with those reviews that were previously made about the Jews by their own prophets. First, the Apostle cites denunciations from the psalms (Ps. 13:1–3, 5:10, 139:3, 9:28), then from the book. Proverbs and Isaiah (Proverbs 1:16; Isaiah 59:7, 8) and then again from the psalms (Ps 36:2). It is noticeable that he first draws human corruption in the most general terms (vv. 10-12), and then mentions two special manifestations of this corruption - in the area of ​​words (13-14) and in the area of ​​deeds (15-17). He concludes the entire image with an indication of the source of corruption - the lack of fear of God in people (18). Rom.3:19. But we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth is stopped, and the whole world becomes guilty before God, Rom.3:20. because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The Jews could object to the passages of Scripture cited by the Apostle that some of these passages refer not to them, but to the pagans (for example, Ps. 13). The apostle points out against this argument that these reproofs are still found in the law or in the books of the Old Testament, which were written for the Jews, and not for the pagans. What follows from this? It is clear that the writers of these books wanted to warn the Jews, their fellow tribesmen, who were also threatened with God's judgment for the sins with which they were like the pagans. And in the Jews, thus, the law saw, perhaps only in the beginning, those sins that existed among the pagans. – “The whole world” – all of humanity, both pagans and Jews. – “Guilty before God,” that is, subject to God’s judgment (υπόδικος τ θ). - “Deeds of the Law.” By this term the Apostle undoubtedly means not only the acts of the ritual law (execution of decrees on purifications, etc.), but also internal, mental acts that were performed by a person through the efforts of his will. The Jew himself wanted, through his own spiritual work, to fulfill all the varied commandments of God that constitute the content of the Law of Moses. He himself thought to justify himself, through his personal efforts, through the effort of self-activity... The Apostle looks at this desire as something unrealizable - “no flesh” - that is, not a single person, as a weak, infirm being (due to the heredity of sin), can fulfill the law in its entirety (will not be justified before God). If the law gives the Jews anything, it is the awareness of the sad fact of its sinfulness and the complete impossibility of getting out of the abyss of sin on its own (“by the law is the knowledge of sin”). The Apostle reveals this in more detail in Chapter VII. (vv. 7–11). Rom.3:21. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has appeared, to which the law and the prophets testify, Beginning with the most important - positive - part of his message, the Apostle in brief and clear words indicates that the justification that could not be obtained through the fulfillment of the law is given by God Himself, God gives it to all who believe in Jesus Christ, in the redemption perfected by Him. At the same time, the Apostle explains that in the death of Christ, which Christ accepted for the sins of all mankind, God revealed Himself, on the one hand, as a strict judge of human sins, on the other, as one who has mercy and saves people. "But now". Until now, before Christ, all humanity was in a state of sin and alienation from God, but now, with the founding of the Christian Church, it has the opportunity to receive justification and salvation. - “Regardless of the law.” Jewish Christians generally could not renounce their attachment to the Law of Moses, break their connection with the magnificent church worship and stop making sacrifices. “You see, brother,” they told Pavel Ap. James and the elders of Jerusalem - how many thousands of Jews believed, and all of them are zealots of the law! (Acts 21:20). Jewish Christians living far from Jerusalem (in Greece, Rome) also had sympathy for the law, believing that it helps a person in the matter of justification, keeping him from sins (Rom. 6:15 et seq.). The Apostle, in view of such an error, which his readers, pagan Christians, might have been carried away by, forcefully denies any need for the law for justification, which is now granted to people in Christ Jesus. - “Appeared,” that is, became obvious. Previously, the truth of God, according to the Apostle (Col. 3:3 et seq.), was something hidden, but now it has become accessible to observation, as a known historical fact, as a living reality 15. "God's Truth". – See Rom.1:17. And here, too, this expression means the righteousness of God, assimilated by man through faith in Christ, due to which man becomes a new creation, purified and justified. - “Which is testified to.” Although keeping the law is superfluous for people justified in Christ, it does not follow from this that the new method of justification is in conflict with the revelation of the Old Testament. And “the law and the prophets,” that is, the entire Old Testament (see Matt. 5:17), foreshadowed this justification by faith, which is now given to all humanity (cf. Rom. 1:17 - the prophecy of Habakkuk and Rom. 4 - the example of Abraham). Rom.3:22. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ in all and on all who believe, for there is no difference, If, therefore, justification is given without the works of the law, then in what way is it obtained by people? "Through faith in Jesus Christ". Actually, it is not faith itself (for an explanation of this term, see Rom. 1:17) that has such a meaning, but the object of this faith – Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, faith was also required of a Jew, but that faith had meaning in itself, as a certain mood of confidence that a person received from the consciousness that he himself fulfilled the conditions of union with God required on his part - namely, deeds, the law. The man believed, that is, he was confident that the truth or justice of God would reward him with what he deserved. “The object of faith is already obscured here; in the foreground here comes the subject with his moral strength” (Myshtsyn. The Teaching of St. Apostle Paul on the Law of Works and the Law of Faith, p. 18). Even for the Messiah the Jews, contemporaries of St. Paul, were looked upon not as a Savior from sin, curse and death, but only as a messenger of God who should crown only their own deeds. “Pharisees said that the people of Israel and all its members are sufficiently propitiatory for themselves” (Glubokovsky N.N. The Good News of St. Apostle Paul, book 1, p. 297). But Ap. Paul, recognizing man as powerless to achieve justification on his own, recognizing the power of sin, on the one hand, and the necessity of God’s grace, on the other, directs man’s thoughts and feelings to Christ, Who alone can help him in his hopeless situation. Faith in Christ, therefore, presupposes, on the one hand, a person’s self-denial, the consciousness of his own powerlessness in achieving salvation, and on the other, devotion to Christ, the desire to unite with Him and assimilate His truth. This faith, it should be noted, is in its essence akin to love: this can also be proven by the fact that Ap. In his epistles, Paul nowhere speaks of love for God and Christ, that is, he does not use these expressions (in Romans 5:5, 8:39; 2 Cor. 13:13; 2 Sol 3:5, however, the expression αγάπη θ is found, but this expression means: the love of God, like the expression αγάπη I. Chr. in Romans 8:35; 2 Cor 5:14 should be understood in the sense of: the love of Christ). But at the same time, Ap. Paul very clearly expresses the idea of ​​the need for love for God and Christ and the insignificance of faith without love (1 Cor 16:22; Rom 8:28). It is clear that Ap. Paul's love is included in the concept of justifying faith, as its necessary moment (Myshtsyn, p. 168). "In all and upon all who believe". These words refer to the expression: the truth of B. The expression: “in all” (έις πάντας) indicates that the truth of B. is assigned to all people, without exception, is offered to everyone, and the expression: “for all” (επί πάντας) gives the idea that the truth of B. is assimilated personally by each person who believes in Christ 16. The Apostle seems to say this: “the truth of B. is sent to you so that you believe in it, and it will remain on you, it will become yours, as soon as you believe.” The word "believers" refers to both expressions. - Because there is no difference. The Apostle says this, referring to his fellow tribesmen, who did not want to forget about their privileged position as the chosen people. Rom.3:23. because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, "Because all have sinned." The Apostle does not say when they sinned, but only asserts that the fact of the Fall is undeniable. The Apostle speaks more about this in Romans 5:12 et seq. "And fall short of the glory of God." As can be seen from the first words of v. 24, this glory of God does not represent anything different from the justification given by God, which people do not have (υοτερούνται - present time). This is the same as the honor that God recognizes for a moral person (John 12:43). Rom.3:24. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, "Receiving justification for nothing". These words explain or more precisely define the position of all people, indicated in the words: “and deprived of the glory of God.” Yes, people really do not have glory or justification from God, and because of this, God already gives them this justification for free. “Receiving justification” - in Greek. δικαιούμενοι. This word comes from verbs. δικαιούν, which means in classical Greek and in the LXX translation: a) to do what is just, to restore what is right and b) to discover or recognize the already existing, regardless of the act of δίκαιοΰν, justice. The first meaning indicates that a famous person is made righteous and (δίκαιος), and the second means that he is recognized and declared righteous. And at Ap. For Paul, this verb means: a) to make righteous - precisely where the subject of justification (δικαιοϋσθαι) is still thought of as unrighteous, sinful, and b) to declare righteous - where this righteousness is thought to already exist. Nowhere in the Apostle Paul can one find a single place from which one could draw the conclusion that the Apostle affirmed the possibility of justification, i.e. recognition of a person as righteous when sinfulness has not yet been destroyed in him. The Protestants themselves, who hitherto insisted that this verb in Paul has the meaning only of a purely legal act (to declare innocent, without regard to the actual state of a person), have recently begun to realize the insufficiency of such an understanding. “Paul’s justification does not end with a legal act. Only imputed, i.e., credited righteousness would not satisfy his religious need... Justified is not only a title in Paul’s religion - for in this case, that is, when the title would be attached without a basis, the truth of God would be violated - but a person who has become truly righteous” (Julicher Ad. Der Brief an die Komer S. 240). “Freely,” - that is, justification is given to people as a gift, a gift, without any personal merit (cf. Rom. 5:17). "By His Grace". The word grace (χάρις) means a) the property of an object - its pleasantness, beauty and b) mood - attraction, disposition. At Ap. Paul, this word is mostly used in the second meaning. God gives us His grace, that is, disposition, love, which penetrates our entire being (1 Cor 15:10). The mediator of the outpouring of this grace on people is the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), Who with this grace penetrates into the heart of man (Rom. 8:9). A person who is in communion with the Holy Spirit also participates in grace. “One can even say that grace is the Holy Spirit itself, since He dwells and acts in man” 17 (Myshtsyn p. 156). That is, this expression indicates not only the source of justification - God’s love for sinful humanity suffering under the yoke of sin, but also gives an answer to the question of how justification is accomplished. It is accomplished through the special action of the Holy Spirit, Who, embracing the entire being of man, draws him to Christ and reunites him in Himself with the Lord, and through the Lord with God (1st, p. 159). "By the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". The word redemption (αποχύτρωσις) means: liberation through ransom - liberation from the sin of curse and death. Man, by his natural inclination to sin, cannot free himself from its power; therefore, God provides a means for this liberation, and this means is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So it is in Ev. Matthew says that Christ came to “give his life as a ransom for many” (or, instead of many, Matthew 20:28). The Apostle Peter’s letter says about Christians that they have been redeemed “by the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:18–19). The name of the body of Christ as redemption or ransom is found in Apostle himself. Paul and in other places (1 Tim 2:6; 1 Cor 6:20, 7:23; Gal 3:13). If the Apostle uses just such a term to designate the work done by God for our salvation, then he probably wants to make it clear that the work of our liberation from slavery to sin was done correctly and in a formal, legal sense: quite sufficient compensation was made for the liberated sinners - the law of justice was satisfied 18. Rom.3:25. whom God offered as a propitiation by His blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness in the forgiveness of sins previously committed, "Whom God offered as a propitiation." The word “offered” (προέθετο) obviously represents something corresponding to the following expression: to demonstrate His truth and therefore can be conveyed by the expression: “exposed to all mankind.” – “Sacrifice of propitiation” – ιλαστήριον. This word has different meanings. It is used by classical writers in the sense of “a sacrifice that propitiated one or another God,” while interpreters of Paul’s letters give this term either the meaning of propitiation in general (without the direct meaning of sacrifice), or the meaning of the lid of the ark of the Covenant, on which the high priest sprinkled sacrificial blood on the day of atonement (purification). The fathers and teachers of the church still adhere to the latest interpretation, seeing in Christ a new purification. “The Lord Christ is the true purification, for this ancient one was a prototype of this true one. But the ancient purification was bloodless, as if inanimate, and it received drops of the blood of sacrificial animals, and the Lord Christ was both a bishop and a lamb, and with His own Blood acquired our salvation” (Theodoret). The Russian translation, however, is both more consistent with the classical meaning of the word, and simpler and more understandable in terms of imagery. Christ, indeed, appeared in the eyes of all mankind as a sacrifice that had to be made to atone for the sins of people. However, the word ιλαστήριον contains not so much the thought of propitiating the truth of God as the thought of the purification of man. This word comes from verbs. ιλασκεσθαι. The object of this verb of the Greeks is almost always a deity, but in the Holy Scriptures it is never (excluding Zech. 7:2). This verb is used by the priest. writers does not mean to propitiate, but to purify; its action extends not to God, but to man. Thus, it would be more correct to translate here the expression ιλαστήριον with the words: “as a sacrifice of purification” 19. "In His Blood". This addition indicates that the sacrifice appointed by God for the atonement of people was the highest of the sacrifices - blood. It was necessary that the most pure blood of the Savior be shed. For what? Blood is a symbol of life, in the blood is the soul of man (Lev. 17:11). If a person sinned before God and thereby brought upon himself the death predicted by God, then he should die (Genesis 2:17) - die a violent death or give back to God the gift that he abused - his soul or life. But he did not do this - sin overshadowed his conscience. Now, instead of him, instead of all sinful humanity, Christ Himself does this. He brings His life or blood to the Divine Truth, and this blood, as the Old Testament cleansings with the blood of sacrifices predicted, becomes a cleansing agent for all humanity, like the blood of a new and greatest sacrifice. "Through Faith". If the shedding of the blood of Christ took place outside of us, then we assimilate the result of this action to ourselves, each individually, through faith. Faith, therefore, is a subjective condition of our justification, just as the death or blood of Christ is an objective condition. - “To demonstrate His righteousness.” Here the truth of God, according to the context of the speech, undoubtedly means the highest Divine Justice, which manifested itself with power in the death of the Son of God. The Lord God wanted to reveal Himself as a righteous Judge over sinful humanity - and for this purpose, He condemned to violent death a representative of humanity - the sinless God-man, whose death, as sinless, served as a completely sufficient atonement for the sins of all humanity (cf. 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13). - “In the forgiveness of sins committed before.” The word “in forgiveness” is more correctly rendered as follows: “through or as a result of the fact that (sins) were forgiven” (διά τ . πάρεσιν). Here is the reason why God decided to reveal His Justice. Humanity has been in sin for about four thousand years (since the time of the Flood), and yet God’s Justice rarely punished criminals. People could come to the complete conviction that they would not receive any punishment for their sins! Rom.3:26. during the longsuffering of God, to demonstrate His righteousness at this time, that He may appear righteous and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. "During God's forbearance". The apostle wants to say by this that God gave people time to come to their senses, to acknowledge their sins. The entire pre-Christian era can be called the “era of long-suffering”, which the Highest and Most Holy God showed in relation to insignificant and sinful man. It may seem that here the Apostle contradicts what he said in Chapter 1. about the wrath of God weighing on the pagan world. But in reality there is no contradiction here. The Apostle, obviously, in the 1st chapter spoke about God's judgment over individual pagans, but here he means entire pagan nations, which, in fact, have not yet all experienced the wrath of God. Dozens of ancient nations continued to exist, long ago darkening their lives with all kinds of sins, and God still tolerated their existence... "To demonstrate His righteousness at this time". Although here in the Greek text there is a different preposition than in the expression of the 25th Art. (πρός, and there – είς), nevertheless, it is obvious that the Apostle is simply repeating the phrase of verse 25 (maybe he takes a different preposition due to the fact that what follows is an expression beginning again with the preposition είς). The addition: “at the present time” emphasizes the particularly important meaning of the period of time the readers are experiencing. Let them be especially attentive to what has just happened! This and the like of this have never happened and will never happen... “That He may appear righteous and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.” The Lord revealed His Truth or Justice precisely in the death of Christ so that everyone would know, everyone would see that the Lord is not only just and punishes for sins (let’s cite - δίκαιον), but at the same time justifies and makes sinful people righteous as soon as they believe in Jesus (δικαιούντα). Thus, the Apostle concludes the central part of his letter (verses 21-26) by mentioning that the justification of sinful man is achieved only through faith in Jesus Christ. This is a completely new, extraordinary remedy that God offers to humanity that finds itself in a hopeless situation. Salvation is complete - let people rush to it! “The Cross of Christ with His blood appears to be built in the midst and with His cleansing power overshadowing both all former sinners and all present ones” (Bishop Theophan). But what is faith in Jesus - this second, subjective condition, the condition of justification? Why does the Apostle here take only the name given to our Savior according to His human origin? One might think that the Apostle did this for the purpose of pointing out the need for everyone who wants to be justified before God to experience in his soul what our Savior experienced as the God-man during His suffering. At the name Jesus, our mind immediately imagines the Crucified, suffering God-Man, and our heart is compressed with sorrow. We recognize and feel with all our hearts our guilt, because of which the innocent God-man Jesus had to suffer and die. We recognize ourselves as criminals and are ready to endure the same suffering that the righteous judgment of God assigned to us, but which our Intercessor took upon Himself. Man, so to speak, now crucifies himself in the eyes of God and thus assimilates to himself both the suffering of the Savior and the redemption He accomplished. This is real, saving faith in Jesus! Here the sinner mysteriously recognizes his guilt, and this opens access to his soul to redeeming and reviving grace. The cause of Christ becomes his property, so that he can say about himself: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:19, 20). Rom.3:27. Where is something to boast about? destroyed. What law? the law of affairs? No, but by the law of faith. The Apostle repeats (cf. v. 20) that he does not recognize it as possible for a person to be justified by works (27-28), and further asserts that justification by faith is the only one in accordance with monotheism, which constitutes the main point of doctrine of the entire Old Testament (29-31). Rom.3:28. For we acknowledge that a person is justified by faith, apart from the works of the law. From what has been said about the new method of justification, the Apostle draws the following conclusion. “You Jews boasted that you had a law by which you could be justified. Now you can no longer boast about this: the Lord God, having sent His Son to die for the sins of all people, not only pagans, but also Jews, clearly showed that the works of the law do not save. People are saved (this word saved must be inserted here for clarity of thought) not by the law of works, but by the law of faith” (The Apostle calls faith the law in accordance with the expression: the law of works and because, as Blessed Theophylact puts it, the name “law” was in honor among the Jews or, as the Apostle expresses it in article 28, regardless of the works of the law). Rom.3:29. Is God really the God of the Jews only, and not of the pagans? Of course, pagans too, Rom.3:30. for there is one God, who will justify the circumcision through faith and the uncircumcision through faith. Rom.3:31. So, do we abolish the law by faith? No way; but we affirm the law. The Apostle had already said earlier that the new method of justification not only does not contradict the Old Testament, but is even predetermined in the Old Testament. Now he proves it with this consideration. The true God cannot be the God of the Jews only. And the pagans are under His authority and care, which is why Jeremiah called God the King of the nations (Jer. 10:7), and the psalmists called God the God of the whole earth (Ps. 95-97). And this is so in fact, because everyone expected that the One God would justify all both Jews (circumcised) and Gentiles (uncircumcised) - both, thanks to their faith (by faith, through faith). But perhaps, by introducing a new means of justification, the Apostle thereby completely destroys the law of Moses and the entire Old Testament economy? (v. 31) No, this cannot be thought, and in fact it does not exist. On the contrary, the Gospel fulfills an idea deeply embedded in the law and in general in the Old Testament - the idea of ​​​​the salvation of all mankind. “What was the purpose of the law? - says in explanation of Art. 31. John Chrysostom. – What was the point of all his actions? To make a person righteous. The law could not achieve this, for, as it is said, everyone has sinned. When faith appeared, it succeeded. So faith restored the desire of the law and brought to pass what he labored for.” The apostle, who preaches about this fulfillment of the cherished desires of the law, is thus its defender, its supporter (“we establish the law”). Tsang believes that the difference between αποκαλύπτεται (Rom. 1:17) and πεφανέρωται - this verse is that the first means the revelation of the truth for individual hearers of the Gospel, and the second for all people. According to Tsang, the expression “on all” indicates that righteousness comes down to people from heaven. Therefore, Ap. Paul's words of grace are never associated with the expression of the Holy Spirit (birth, subject), but always with either the expression: God (Rom. 5:15; 1 Cor. 1:4) or the Lord. (Rom 16:20, 24; Gal 6:18). It should be noted that grace also acted in the Old Testament, but there it did not renew the essence of man, but only prepared the ground for the action of New Testament grace. Tsang hardly fundamentally sees in the term atonement simply the meaning of liberation from sin, release to freedom (απολυτρούν - he says - almost the same as ανολύειν or αψιέναι). Tsang translates: “a means of propitiation or purification.” You might be interested in: