Romans 3

But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. Wesley: the righteousness of God is the manner of becoming righteous which God hath appointed; without the law means without the previous obedience the law requires. It is manifested in the gospel, and attested by Moses and the Prophets.

Both camps must say this together first: this righteousness is God's, not ours; it stands apart from the works of the law; it is not a novelty against Scripture. Wesleyan Arminians find a gospel righteousness sincerely offered, prepared by God and now made public. "Apart from the law" is not antinomian; it is apart from previous obedience as the way of becoming righteous.

Calvin: this righteousness, which God communicates to man and accepts alone, has been revealed without the law—that is, without the aid of the law, meaning works. He blends not works with the mercy of God; having wholly removed all confidence in works, he sets up mercy alone. The Law and the Prophets bear witness, lest free righteousness seem to militate against the law.

The righteousness manifested is God's, forensic and free. The gospel does not invent it; the Old Testament already testified. Works of every kind, even those the faithful perform, are excluded from the verdict. "But now" is the open manifestation in Christ of what the types and promises already said.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. There is no distinction. Wesley: to all (Jews) and upon all (Gentiles) that believe; no difference as to need or manner of justification. Faith in Jesus is the appointed way; the field is as wide as those who believe.

Wesleyan Arminians hear "to all and on all those who believe" as a sincere universal provision received by living trust. There is no distinction of Jew or Gentile, and no secret fence inside "all." The righteousness is Christ's; believing is the graciously enabled condition, not a work that earns it. Those who perish do not perish because this righteousness was never for them, but because they will not believe.

Calvin: this justification is found in Christ and apprehended by faith. God is the author of the righteousness; it flows from him and is made manifest in Christ. Faith is said to justify because it is the instrument by which we receive Christ. "Unto all and upon all them that believe": faith alone is required; the faithful are not distinguished by external marks; it matters not whether they be Gentiles or Jews.

Reformed interpreters hear "all and on all those who believe" as all kinds who actually believe—Jew and Gentile without restriction of rank or nation—while faith itself is the Spirit-given instrument, not an independent condition that makes the mercy take. There is no distinction in guilt or in the way of justification. The gospel is preached without fencing off peoples; the righteousness is effectual in those who believe.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Wesley: all have sinned in Adam and in their own persons; they have fallen short of the glory of God—his image on earth and the enjoyment of him in heaven. The "for" of v. 22 is proved here: no distinction, because no exception in guilt.

This is the honest level ground. Jew and Gentile, religious and pagan, all need the same righteousness. Falling short is not a small deficit some can make up; it is missing God's glory. The same "all" who have sinned are the "all" to whom the righteousness of v. 22 is sincerely held out.

Calvin: there is no other way of attaining righteousness; all must alike be justified by faith, because all are sinners and have nothing for which they can glory before God. Every sinner, conscious of sin before God's tribunal, is confounded. There is no righteousness but what is perfect and absolute; the figment of partial righteousness cannot stand. The glory of God is the approbation of God; all come short of it.

Universal sin is the reason a single way of justification is required. God finds no one with a righteousness that can stand at his bar. This "all" of guilt does not, on this reading, by itself prove a universal effectual atonement; it proves that no class of human being is justified by works.

And are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Wesley: justified means pardoned and accepted; freely, without any merit of their own; by his grace, not their own righteousness or works; through the redemption, the price Christ has paid. It is not possible to find words that more absolutely exclude all consideration of our own works, or more emphatically ascribe the whole of our justification to free, unmerited goodness.

We are justified by His grace as those who believe. The gift is true and unearned; redemption is the price Christ paid. Grace is the sole meritorious source; believing is the living condition, not a work that earns the verdict. Both camps glory here: mercy, not works. The gift is sincerely given in the gospel; those who receive Christ by faith are the justified.

Calvin: since there remains nothing for men, as to themselves, but to perish under God's just judgment, they are to be justified freely through his mercy. God's mercy is the efficient cause, Christ with his blood the meritorious, faith in the word the instrumental. Justified freely, and further by his grace: the whole is from God, and nothing from us. Through the redemption: Christ by his obedience satisfied the Father's justice and liberated us from the tyranny of death.

"Justified freely by his grace" is God's verdict on those He actually saves. Faith is the instrument He gives; it is not a self-originated condition that makes the mercy take. Redemption is a price that actually frees. The gift language shuts out every half-grace that would leave us a share in the merit.

God set Christ forth as an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood—to show His righteousness, because in forbearance He had passed over former sins. Wesley: a propitiation, to appease an offended God; if God never was offended, Christ died in vain. To declare righteousness is to declare both clemency and the vindictive justice that punishes sin. Remission of past sins: sins antecedent to believing.

Arminians catch a propitiation sincerely intended for all, received by faith. The blood is sufficient and meant for every sinner; those who perish do not perish because the propitiation was never for them, but because they will not receive it by faith. God's righteousness is shown: He does not wink at sin, and He does provide an atonement. God put him forward in public: the blood is offered to be received by faith, and the offer is as wide as the sinners of v. 23.

Calvin: God set forth Christ as a propitiation through faith in his blood. We are not otherwise just than through Christ propitiating the Father for us. God is propitious to us as soon as we have our trust resting on the blood of Christ; by faith we come to the possession of this benefit. Blood names the whole work of expiation. Men are pronounced just by imputation, by the remission of sins, not because they are such in reality. Former sins were passed over in forbearance until the true expiation came.

Reformed readers typically hold a propitiation that actually appeases for those for whom it was offered—the elect from every kindred—while the testimony is received by faith and the gospel is preached without restriction. Calvin still will not shut any rank from the hope of salvation. The offer is wide; the atonement, on this reading, is effectual. God's righteousness is demonstrated, not compromised, in the cross.

It was to show His righteousness at this present time, that he might himself be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. Wesley: a demonstration of justice and mercy; just—showing his justice on his own Son; and yet the merciful justifier of every one that believeth in Jesus. The cross lets God be both; neither attribute is sacrificed.

Arminian interpreters hear "him who has faith in Jesus" as every person who actually believes. God is just in punishing sin in His Son; He is the justifier of all who trust that Son. Faith remains the living condition, enabled by grace, resistible still. The present time is the open gospel day in which this just mercy is sincerely held out.

Calvin: nothing is more difficult than to persuade man to disclaim all things as his own and ascribe them all to God. God is just—He alone obtains the name of being just, while the whole human race is condemned for injustice—and He communicates righteousness; He does not keep His riches laid up in Himself. The righteousness of God shines in us whenever He justifies us by faith in Christ; in vain were Christ given for righteousness unless there was the fruition of Him by faith.

God is just and the justifier of him who has faith—those He actually justifies, the elect who believe. Faith is the fruition He gives, the instrument by which Christ's righteousness is received, not an independent condition that makes God able to justify. The present time is the open demonstration of what was shadowed before.

Wesley: the law of faith is that divine constitution which makes faith, not works, the condition of acceptance. All apply as guilty, helpless sinners to free mercy in Christ. Boasting cannot survive that constitution.

Both camps shut the mouth here. Faith as condition is not a new boast; Wesley will say in v. 28 that faith is not counted as a work. The helpless come with nothing in their hands. A law of works would leave room to glory in what we did; the law of faith leaves room only to receive.

Calvin: glorying is excluded; we cannot adduce anything of our own worthy of being approved by God. Merit of congruity or of condignity is annihilated; Paul leaves not a particle behind. Faith cannot be truly preached without wholly depriving man of all praise by ascribing all to God's mercy. Faith receives all from God and brings nothing except an humble confession of want.

The law of faith is not a milder ladder. It is the rule that leaves to works, whatever they may be, no righteousness. Boasting dies because the whole gift is from mercy. The Spirit thunders here; teaching alone would not have laid our loftiness prostrate.

For we maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Wesley: a man is justified by faith—and even by this, not as it is a work, but as it receives Christ. Faith is essentially different from all our works. Both camps must say this together: apart from the works of the law; no blending of merit with the verdict.

We are justified by faith as those who believe. Faith is the living condition that receives Christ, not a meritorious work and not a dead opinion. Regeneration enables; the faith can still be resisted. "Apart from the works" is not apart from believing; it is apart from anything we could plead as wage.

Calvin: justification by faith is made very clear while works are expressly excluded. Paul affirms that justification is so gratuitous that it can by no means be associated with the merit of works. The works of the law are not ceremonies only, nor outward deeds without the Spirit; they include all meritorious works. James is another question: how a living faith is proved, not how men attain righteousness before God.

Justified by faith apart from the works means faith alone as God's instrument, itself a gift in the chain of mercy. Faith does not cooperate as a work; it receives. The elect are justified this way; a justification that could be mixed with our merit is not the justification Paul holds.

Is God the God of Jews only? He is the God of Gentiles also. Wesley: God of Gentiles also; one God shows mercy to both by the very same means. The question is not whether He created the nations, but whether He is their Savior in the same righteousness of faith.

If the propitiation is sincerely for all, God is truly God to the Gentile as to the Jew. No second door, and no locked door. The wideness of "Gentiles also" matches a gospel that actually means the nations.

Calvin: this righteousness belongs no more to the Jews than to the Gentiles; a free passage must be made for the kingdom of Christ through the whole world. The question is whether God designed to manifest himself as a Savior also to the Gentiles. All mankind having been put on a level, if God designs to make the nations partakers of his mercy, salvation and righteousness must be extended to all—that is, to the nations, not to one people only.

God of Gentiles also is the missionary hinge. No rank or nation is fenced off. "All" here is kinds of people, Jew and Gentile. The gospel is preached without restriction; God actually saves His elect from both.

Since God is one—He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Wesley: one God shows mercy to both by the very same means. Circumcision is not a second righteousness; uncircumcision is not a second gospel. The same faith receives the same Christ.

There is one God and one way of justifying. The slight change of preposition (by / through) does not split the mercy. Both camps rest here against any ethnic or ritual extra. Those who believe, Jew or Gentile, are the justified.

Calvin: since men become partakers of this grace by faith only, and since faith in all is the same, it is absurd to distinguish Jew from Gentile in justification. The variation of language (by faith / through faith) touches the folly of those who imagined a difference where there was none. One God justifies both.

One God justifies by one instrument. The elect from circumcision and from uncircumcision are justified the same way. Faith is not a Jewish privilege or a Gentile improvisation; it is the one means by which God actually justifies.

Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No means: we uphold the law. Wesley: we establish the law in its authority, its purity, and its end—pointing out Christ the end of it, and showing how it may be fulfilled in its purity. Faith is not antinomian; it puts the law in its right place.

The law still names sin, still displays God's holiness, still drives the guilty to Christ, and still teaches the justified how to walk. Upholding it is not returning to works as the way of justification. Those who have believed are to fulfill it in love, not to use faith as a license.

Calvin: the flesh suspects that faith is adverse to the law, especially those who seek through the law only the righteousness of works. Paul defends the whole law. The moral law is confirmed through faith in Christ: it leads man to Christ by showing his iniquity; in Christ is found the perfect righteousness of the law, ours by imputation, and then sanctification by which the heart is prepared to keep the law. Ceremonies attain what is when their end is regarded in Christ.

We uphold the law by not asking it to justify, and by receiving in Christ both its fulfilled righteousness and its renewed demand. Faith does not empty the commandments; it establishes them on the only ground where they are not a curse.