Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans John Calvin (continued)
John Calvin
God. I prefer retaining the word law, rather than with Erasmus to render it right or power: for Paul did not without reason allude to the law of God. 238
3. For what was impossible for the law, etc. Now follows the polishing or the adorning of his proof, that the Lord has by his gratuitous mercy justified us in Christ; the very thing which it was impossible for the law to do. But as this is a very remarkable sentence, let us examine every part of it.
That he treats here of free justification or of the pardon by which God reconciles us to himself, we may infer from the last clause, when he adds, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit For if Paul intended to teach us, that we are prepared by the spirit of regeneration to overcome sin, why was this addition made? But it was very proper for him, after having promised gratuitous remission to the faithful, to confine this doctrine to those who join penitence to faith, and turn not the mercy of God so as to promote the licentiousness of the flesh. And then the state of the case must be noticed; for the Apostle teaches us here how the grace of Christ absolves us from guilt.
Now as to the expression, {τὸ} {ἀδύνατον}, the impossibility of the law, it is no doubt to be taken for defect or impotency; as though it had been said, that a remedy had been found by God, by which that which was an impossibility to the law is removed. The particle, {ἐν} {ᾧ}, Erasmus has rendered "ea parte qua — in that part in which;" but as I think it to be causal, I prefer rendering it, "eo quod — because:" and though perhaps such a phrase does not occur among good authors in the Greek language, yet as the Apostles everywhere adopt Hebrew modes of expression, this interpretation ought not to be deemed improper. 239 No doubt intelligent readers will allow, that the cause of defect is what is here expressed, as we shall shortly prove again. Now though Erasmus supplies the principal verb, yet the text seems to me to flow better without it. The copulative {καὶ}, and, has led Erasmus astray, so as to insert the verb prœstitit — hath performed; but I think that it is used for the sake of emphasis;
238Ca1vin has, in his exposition of this verse, followed Chrysostom, and the same view has been taken by Beza, Grotius, Vitringa, Doddridge, Scott, and Chalmers. But Pareus, following Ambrose, has taken another view, which Haldane has strongly advocated, and with considerable power of reasoning, though, as some may perhaps think, unsuccessfully. The exposition is this, — "The law of the spirit of life" is the law of faith, or the gospel, which is the ministration of the Spirit; and "the spirit of life" means either the life-giving spirit, or the spirit which conveys the life which is in Christ Jesus. Then "the law of sin and death" is the moral law, so called because it discloses sin and denounces death. It is said that this view corresponds with the "no condemnation" in the first verse, and with the word "law" in the verse which follows, which is no doubt the moral law, and with the truth which the verse exhibits. It is also added that freedom or deliverance from the law of sin, viewed as the power of sin, is inconsistent with the latter part of the former chapter; and that the law of faith, which through the Spirit conveys life, makes us free from the moral law as the condition of life, is the uniform teaching of Paul. "This freedom," says Pareus, "is ascribed to God, to Christ, and to the Gospel, — to God as the author, Romans 7:25, — to Christ as the mediator, — and to the Gospel as the instrument: and the manner of this deliverance is more clearly explained in the verse which follows."
239Calvin is not singular in this rendering. Pareus and Grotius give "quia vel quandoquidem — because or since;" and the latter says, that {ἐν} {ᾧ} is an Hebraism for {ἐφ} {ᾧ}; see Romans 5:12 Beza refers to Mark 2:19, and Luke 5:34, as instances where it means when or while, and says that it is used in Greek to designate not only a certain time, but also a certain state or condition. Piscator's rendering is "co quod — because." — Ed.
Commentary on Romans except it may be, that some will approve of the conjecture of a Grecian scholiast, who connects the clause thus with the preceding words, "God sent his own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and on account of sin," etc. I have however followed what I have thought to be the real meaning of Paul. I come now to the subject itself. 240
Paul clearly declares that our sins were expiated by the death of Christ, because it was impossible for the law to confer righteousness upon us. It hence follows, that more is required by the law than what we can perform; for if we were capable of fulfilling the law there would have been no need to seek a remedy elsewhere. It is therefore absurd to measure human strength by the precepts of the law; as though God in requiring what is justly due, had regarded what and how much we are able to do.
Because it was weak etc. That no one might think that the law was irreverently charged with weakness, or confine it to ceremonies, Paul has distinctly expressed that this defect was not owing to any fault in the law, but to the corruption of our flesh; for it must be allowed that if any one really satisfies the divine law, he will be deemed just before God. He does not then deny that the law is sufficient to justify us as to doctrine, inasmuch as it contains a perfect rule of righteousness: but as our flesh does not attain that righteousness, the whole power of the law fails and vanishes away. Thus condemned is the error or rather the delirious notion of those who imagine that the power of justifying is only taken away from ceremonies; for Paul, by laying the blame expressly on us, clearly shows that he found no fault with the doctrine of the law.
But further, understand the weakness of the law according to the sense in which the Apostle usually takes the word {ασθενεια}, weakness, not only as meaning a small imbecility but impotency; for he means that the law has no power whatever to justify. 241 You then see that we are wholly excluded from the righteousness of works, and must therefore flee to Christ for righteousness,
240The beginning of this verse, though the general import of it is evident, does yet present some difficulties as to its construction. The clause, as given by Calvin, is, "Quod enim impossibile erat legi," — {τὸ} {γὰρ} {ἀδύνατον} {τον} {νόμου} Pareus supposes {δἰα} understood, "For on account of the impotency of the law," etc. Stuart agrees with Erasmus and Luther and supplies the verb "did," or accomplish, — "For what the law could not accomplish,… God… accomplished," etc. But the simpler construction is, "For this," (that is, freedom from the power of sin and death, mentioned in the former verse,) "being impossible for the law," etc. It is instance of the nominative case absolute, which sometimes occurs in Hebrew. The possessive case, as Grotius says, has often the meaning of a dative after adjectives, as "malum hominis" is "malum homini — evil to man." The {τὸ} has sometimes the meaning of {τουτο}; it is separated by {γὰρ} from the adjective. Some say that it is for {ὅτι} {γὰρ}, "Because it was impossible for the law," etc. But changes of this kind are never satisfactory. The rendering of the whole verse may be made thus, — 3. For this being impossible for the law, because it was weak through the flesh, God having sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful a flesh and on account of sin, has condemned sin in the flesh. God sent his Son in that flesh which was polluted by sin, though his Son's flesh, i.e. human nature, was sinless; and he sent him on account of that sin which reigned in human nature or flesh; and for this end — to condemn, i.e., to doom to ruin, to adjudge to destruction, the sin which ruled in the flesh, i.e. in human nature as fallen and corrupted. This seems to be the meaning. Then in the following verse the design of this condemnation of sin is stated — that the righteousness of the law, or what the law requires, might be done by us. Without freedom from the power of sin, no service can be done to God. It is the destruction of the power of sin, and not the removal of guilt, that is contemplated here throughout; the text of the whole passage is walking after the flesh and walking after the Spirit. — Ed.
241The adjective {τὸ} {ἀσθενὲς} is applied to the commandment in Hebrews 7:18. "Impotent, inefficacious," are the terms used by Grotius; "destitute of strength," by Beza; and "weak," by Erasmus — Ed.
John Calvin for in us there can be none, and to know this is especially necessary; for we shall never be clothed with the righteousness of Christ except we first know assuredly that we have no righteousness of our own. The word flesh is to be taken still in the same sense, as meaning ourselves. The corruption then of our nature renders the law of God in this respect useless to us; for while it shows the way of life, it does not bring us back who are running headlong into death.
God having sent his own Son, etc. He now points out the way in which our heavenly Father has restored righteousness to us by his Son, even by condemning sin in the very flesh of Christ; who by cancelling as it were the handwriting, abolished sin, which held us bound before God; for the condemnation of sin made us free and brought us righteousness, for sin being blotted out we are absolved, so that God counts us as just. But he declares first that Christ was sent, in order to remind us that righteousness by no means dwells in us, for it is to be sought from him, and that men in vain confide in their own merits, who become not just but at the pleasure of another, or who borrow righteousness from that expiation which Christ accomplished in his own flesh. But he says, that he came in the likeness of the flesh of sin; for though the flesh of Christ was polluted by no stains, yet it seemed apparently to be sinful, inasmuch as it sustained the punishment due to our sins, and doubtless death exercised all its power over it as though it was subject to itself. And as it behoved our Highpriest to learn by his own experience how to aid the weak, Christ underwent our infirmities, that he might be more inclined to sympathy, and in this respect also there appeared some resemblance of a sinful nature.
Even for sin, etc. I have already said that this is explained by some as the cause or the end for which God sent his own Son, that is, to give satisfaction for sin. Chrysostom and many after him understood it in a still harsher sense, even that sin was condemned for sin, and for this reason, because it assailed Christ unjustly and beyond what was right. I indeed allow that though he was just and innocent, he yet underwent punishment for sinners, and that the price of redemption was thus paid; but I cannot be brought to think that the word sin is put here in any other sense than that of an expiatory sacrifice, which is called {,{אשםashem, in Hebrew, 242 and so the Greeks call a sacrifice to which
242The reference had better been made to {,{חטאתa sin-offering, so called because ,{}חטאsin, was imputed to what was offered, and it was accepted as an atonement. See Leviticus ;1:4 Leviticus ,4:3 ,4 ;15 Leviticus .16:21 See also Exodus .30:10 The Septuagint adopted the same manner, and rendered sin-offering in many instances by }ἁμαρτία}, sin; and Paul has done the same in 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9:28. That "sin" should have two different meanings in the same verse or in the same clause, is what is perfectly consonant to the Apostle's manner of writing; he seems to delight in this kind of contrast in meaning while using the same words, depending on the context as to the explanation. He uses the word hope both in Romans 8:21, and in Romans 4:18, in this way. And this is not peculiar to Paul; it is what we observe in all parts of Scripture, both in the New and in the Old Testament. A striking instance of this, as to the word "life," {ψυχή} is found in Matthew 16:25, 26, in the last verse it is rendered improperly "soul." Fully admitting all this, I still think that "sin" here is to be taken in its common meaning, only personified. Beza connects {περὶ} {ἁμαρτίας} with the preceding clause, "God having sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and that for or on account of sin, (idque pro peccato,)" etc., that is, as he explains, for expiating or taking away sin. "A sin-offering" may indeed be its meaning, for the same expression is often used in this sense in the Septuagint. See Leviticus 5:7, 9, 11; Psalm 40:6 The sense of taking away strength, or depriving of power or authority, or of destroying, or of abolishing, does not belong, says Schleusner, to the verb {κατακρίνειν}, to condemn; he renders it here "punished — punivit," that is, God adjudged to sin the punishment due to it. The meaning is made to be the