Romans 3:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Gentiles of that time, mocking us Christians, said precisely this: let us do evil, that good may come. Therefore the Apostle stated this clearly, saying: “And not as we are slandered, and as some say that we say: Let us do evil, that good may come. Their judgment is righteous.”

But in truth this is not so. The speech of the Gentiles is the speech of those who always speak falsehood. “Their judgment is righteous,” that is, they will be punished justly.

Therefore, by sinning I do not become the cause of God's justification, because I am condemned as a sinner. For if I sinned to the glory of God, I would not be condemned.

He calls down the righteous judgment of God upon those who assert such a thing and attribute such teaching to the Apostle. The accusation against the Apostle could have arisen from a false explanation of his words: “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Rom 5:20).

The Apostle had probably used these words more than once in his oral teaching.

For every sinner, whether Jew or Gentile, would reason thus: “If the faithfulness of God is exalted by my unfaithfulness to the glory of God, why am I still judged as a sinner?” (Rom 3:7).

One might even go further: “And why not do evil that good may come, as some slander us and say that we teach? Their judgment is righteous!” (Rom 3:8-9). The Apostle cries out indignantly against all such reasonings.

The Apostle refutes the absurd thought of the unbelievers by bringing it to its most evident absurdity. “In that case,” he says, “we would have to do evil that good may come. Some think that we teach this, and for such obvious slander they will incur divine punishment.”

This slander was brought against the Apostle. It was also brought against all Christians in general because of their teaching on God's superabounding grace toward sinners.

For this reason the Novatian schismatics later appeared, falsely teaching that those who had betrayed Christ should not be received into the Church at all. Later came the Pelagians and other false teachers.

They understood the participation of faith and grace in justification and salvation in different ways, and came to various wrong conclusions about the whole of life. Some began to attach too much importance to works, namely Catholics, while others almost rejected their value, namely Protestants.

Meanwhile, although the Apostle Paul spoke of the justifying power of faith and grace, and even expressed it thus, “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (5:20), this had to be understood historically.

It means that the greatest grace of God appeared only when human sins had reached the greatest depth and multitude. In that time, or while in that state, men could receive salvation in no other way than through faith by grace.

For no one had so many good works that he could be justified by them before God. Having received justification in Christ, believers must necessarily live in holiness and in a manner pleasing to God.

Otherwise they will lose all the fruits of justification (6:1-3). Only open enemies of Christian preaching and evil slanderers could say that the Christian teaching on justification by grace contains encouragement to evil deeds.

Such slanderers could be unbelieving Hebrews, and also the supposed guardians of the integrity of Greco-Roman pagan life. Having refuted them victoriously, the Apostle shows that it is the unbelievers themselves who remain in evil, beginning with the Hebrews.

It was manifested “in my lie,” that is, in my failure to believe God's promises and in my distortion of their meaning. God clearly foretold that the Deliverer would come, how He would come, and what He would be.

The Jews, especially their ruling elite, distorted all these predictions and thus turned the truth of God into a lie. Despite this, God fulfilled His promise. In the person of Christ the Savior, everything written in the Prophets and Psalms was completed.

The Jewish lie did not darken this truth. On the contrary, it only served to make God, in manifesting His truth, multiply around the person of the Lord Jesus the most striking testimonies that He is truly the promised One.

This took place both in His earthly life and after it, during the preaching of the Gospel concerning Him. This abundance of testimonies to the truth about Christ Jesus manifested, and still manifests, the truth of God in most radiant light.

All who are of the truth receive it. The circle of believers expands, and with it the glory of God increases. All confess this and glorify the all-good God, who saves us through such a triumphant establishment of God's truth on earth.

He does this despite the unbelief of the Jews. All this was then being justified by the very events. God arranged it so, but it gives no justification at all to the unbelief of the Jews.

The glory of God is glorious, but the unbelief of the Jews remains shameful. The reasoning of the Jew is this: since my unbelief drew from God's goodness the most striking testimonies of God's truth, which confirmed it and convinced men of it, the glory of God appeared in most radiant light.

Why then should I be condemned? Rather, I should be rewarded (cf. blessed Theophylact). Such reasoning remains utterly absurd. Therefore the punishment of the Jew for unbelief is most righteous, before the face of that universal conviction alone, that God will judge the world.