Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Three
“EVERY MOUTH STOPPED”
Scripture Reading: verses 19-22
NOW WE KNOW THAT WHAT THINGS SOEVER THE LAW SAITH, IT SAITH TO THEM WHO ARE UNDER THE LAW: THAT EYERY MOUTH MAY BE STOPPED, AND ALL THE WORLD MAY BECOME GUILTY BEFORE GOD. THEREFORE BY THE DEEDS OF THE LAW THERE SHALL NO FLESH BE JUSTIFIED IN HIS SIGHT: FOR BY THE LAW IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN..
There the prosecution rests, and in the next verse the same man, Paul, becomes the lawyer for the defense, as he continues:
BUT NOW THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD WITHOUT THE LAW IS MANIFESTED . . . THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD WHICH IS BY FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST UNTO ALL AND UPON ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE: FOR THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.
Traveling through these verses it is advisable to keep in mind the dramatic spectacle of the courtroom. It provides interest to the true significance of what is before us. Paul, the most brilliant legal mind of all the great intellectuals that pass across the pages of the New Testament, is now handling the case for the prosecution. We have noticed how he arraigned the criminal, analyzing his every impulse so that in words reminiscent of Job it can be said, “from the crown of his bead to the soul of his foot, he is covered with wounds and bruises and putrifying sores.” The great lawyer, Paul, is also the great surgeon who, in unprofessional language, gives us a thorough diagnosis of this corrupt organism we call “man.”
Having then disclosed the nauseating truth concerning the nature of unregenerate man, his evil impulses and deeds, he again characteristically goes back to the Jew, who was glorying in the fact that he was under the law, as if that in itself gave him added merit before the court of Divine justice. Thus, in a last salutary stroke of legal genius, inspired of course by God’s Holy Spirit, Paul brings in the final charge – the testimony of a broken law. In other words, man may defend himself regarding the impulses of his nature, and he might accuse the prosecution lawyer of being too ruthless regarding his charges against the criminal, who may with pride still point to his religious background. How similar all this is to an ordinary court trial today. After the prosecution lawyer has set forth the evident motives for the crime, he must then combat evidence concerning the meritorious upbringing that will surely be introduced; the religious background; the family tree; and other incidental advantages of the criminal. A wise lawyer for the prosecution will forestall any such defense by bringing in those advantages, showing that instead of mitigating the offense, these aggravate it. The truth is, if the criminal has the advantage of religious background, good upbringing or cultural heritage, then he should have known better than to have committed the crime.
That is exactly the truth set forth in these verses in Romans 3. Paul, the brilliant legal mind, is forestalling any such defense on the part of the criminal. As the verse says, he is “shutting his mouth,”1 that is, he is staying any excuses. How does he do that? He brings in the law of Moses. It is the final master stroke that shall condemn the criminal. He says:
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Together with the Gentile, before the bar of judgment, the Jew might presume to point out some particular cultural advantage. After all, he is the inheritor of the promises of God; the oracles of God are in his possession; and the rest of the world will perhaps have received much blessing through the Jew. However, by this defense his case falls to the ground and he is doubly guilty. Here is the serious charge: having the law of Moses for the guidance of his own feet he has not walked in God’s way, and, therefore, is worthy of greater condemnation. Thus, every mouth is stopped and the whole world is brought in guilty before God. If, with all the advantages God could place at man’s disposal by way of guidance in the handwriting of His finger on the tables of stone, man has disobeyed God and gone his own way, then all mankind is condemned. God chose a people – the line of flesh from Abraham's seed. He separated them from all the other nations of the earth, delivered them out of the hand of their cruel taskmasters, allowed them to pass dry-shod across the Red Sea, and took care of them meticulously for forty years in the wilderness. During that time their garments waxed not old, nor did their shoes wear out. They enjoyed manna that fell from heaven and water that gushed forth from the flinty rock, bespeaking God's care for them in every respect. Night and morning they saw the sacrifice offered up to Jehovah, reminding them of their acceptance in His presence through the death of another. They had the priestly service to handle their spiritual problems. They listened day after day to the sound of the silver trumpets reminding them they were God's redeemed people. They heard the reading of the Law day by day. Yet here is the verdict. With all these excellent advantages of loving-kindness, mercy, truth, guidance, and care, their hearts were unresponsive – as far as their outward walk was concerned they were unworthy to pass over Jordan into the Promised Land. If man fails with all those spiritual advantages laid at his feet by God Himself, how much more is he a sinner when left to his own devices. Thus the Jew with the Law, and the Gentile without the Law, are brought in guilty before God, their mouths stopped. So, in verse 20, Paul says: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Here God is, as it were, the architect. He looks on man as a builder looks on a wall that has been erected. He suspends his plumb line beside the wall to determine if it is straight and true, but finds crookedness in the wall. So God has taken the plumb line of the strict requirement of the Law of Moses, and as each of us stand alongside that Law, we are revealed as sinners, for “by the law is the knowledge of sin” – “by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in God's sight.” This is not because the Law is imperfect, but because we are.
Footnote:
1 Paul was determined to convict the total race of Adam, and the devastating charges he had just sustained against Israel have the collateral effect of condemning the Gentiles as well, for they were admittedly worse than the Jews. Paul’s mention of “the law” in this verse is significant, in that it reveals an inspired definition of what is meant by “the law.” It means not merely the Torah, or Pentateuch, but the entire Old Testament, as Paul here quoted from the prophets and from the Psalms, referring to all of his quotations as being from “the law.” In his book, A New Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Saints at Rome, p. 74, R. L. Whiteside summarized the teaching of this verse thus: “The Jew readily granted that the Gentile was under the judgment of God, and now Paul proves from the Jewish scriptures that the Jew likewise was under the judgment of God.”
