Romans 3:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

First he presents David as the accuser, who describes at length what Isaiah expressed briefly. He places a strong bridle upon them, the Jews, so that they may not escape. He also does this so that every hearer being instructed in the faith, sufficiently convinced by the accusations of the prophets, may not turn aside. The prophet points out three great defects. He says that all without exception did evil, that they mixed no good with evil but gave themselves over to vice alone, and finally, that they did evil with complete persistence.

Destruction and misery are sin, for nothing destroys the soul as much as sin does by its crooked path. Virtue, as our natural good, makes our path even and smooth. But evil, as something contrary to nature and marked by deficiencies and excesses, makes us rush now upward and now downward. Therefore it makes our movement uneven and difficult, not to mention that it prepares punishment for us afterward.

Because they were swift to evil, Paul calls their way destructive and ruinous.

The divine Apostle, as we have already said, intends to prove that the becoming man of our God and Savior Jesus Christ took place by necessity.

For this reason he spoke about those who lived outside the law and those who lived under the law. He showed that the former transgressed the natural law, while the latter transgressed the Mosaic law, and that both deserve the severest punishment.

In this he imitated the best physician, who first lets the sufferers see the gravity of their illness. Only afterward does he offer the healing medicine as help.

So also the Apostle, having exposed the lawlessness of both groups, showed that they are answerable and worthy of punishment. Then at last he offers the medicine of faith and reveals the love for mankind in the divine economy.

“What then? Do we have an advantage?” Do we possess an advantage? The advantage indicated in Rom 3:2 remains a real advantage of the Jews.

It even serves as the foundation for the advantages in which the Jews so greatly boasted, such as circumcision and descent from Abraham.

The Apostle now asks whether this advantage gives the Jews any right to justification before God. He answers: by no means, not at all.

To confirm his words, he cites a whole series of testimonies from the Old Testament. By them he proves that there was not a single man among mankind who could do anything good by his own strength.

At the same time he notes that what is said applies to the Jews themselves, since they are under the law.

Having restored the dignity and meaning of the Jewish advantages as an external gift of God, the Apostle returns again to the Jews themselves. He comes to the following final conclusion.

“What then? Do we, the Jews, have an advantage in the matter of justification? Not at all. For we have already proved that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.”

The words of Scripture on this subject follow (Rom 3:9-18).

As for the law, the most conspicuous advantage of the Jews over the Gentiles, it is precisely this that increases their responsibility and guilt.

For “the law, whatever it says, speaks to those who are under the law,” and by no means to the Gentiles.

Thus every mouth is stopped. There can be no question here of Gentile mouths. And all the world becomes guilty before God.

“For by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before Him, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:19-20).

Looking at the Hebrews not as guardians of God’s promise, but as sinful men, the Apostle finds that in this respect they do not differ from the Gentiles. They are no less sinful than they.

He proves this by many passages of Holy Scripture. These speak of the great sinfulness of mankind and apply equally to Gentiles and Hebrews.

From this it naturally follows that, if all are considered morally and according to works, no one can be found righteous. Those clothed in sinful flesh cannot perfectly perform all the works of the law.

Yet according to the law, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the words of this law, to do them” (Deut 27:26).

The law is the indicator of sins of every kind. Therefore no sinful person can be justified before it in anything.

Compare Isa 59:7. “Destruction,” suntrimma, means crushing. “Misery,” talaiporia, means every kind of misfortune, grievous and painful.

Where a band of evildoers has passed, houses are plundered, ruined, and burned. The inhabitants are beaten, wounded, and scattered. This is destruction and misery.

But there are such persons who, while living among others, inevitably embitter and crush anyone with whom they associate. They do some grievous harm.

Yet it is not always possible to convict them. The one being harmed acts, while they seem to know nothing.

Some, however, become known as such, and popular judgment warns against them: do not get involved with this person, or you will regret it.

“In their ways” means that this follows after them, or that they leave it behind them. Just as fire cannot pass anywhere without burning, so they cannot pass without doing harm.