08.03.12. Note A—Page 2

Note B—Page 4 The long-suffering of God—Interpretation of Romans 3:25-26.

In the passage quoted (Romans 3:25-26), we seem to find the dispensation of long-suffering patience, and the dispensation of saving mercy equally ascribed to the interposition of Christ and his finished work. It is intimated that “God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness;” which is explained in the following verse to mean his justice: “That he might be just,” or might be declared, or seen, to be just—that the righteousness of his administration might be vindicated and magnified. Two things are represented as calling for that vindication—two aspects of his providence in dealing with men—which otherwise must appear anomalies and inconsistencies. The first is, his “passing over sins that are past, through forbearance.” (Romans 3:25, marginal reading) The second is, “his justifying him that believeth in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26) His past exercise of forbearance, and his present ministry of justification, are the two acts which might seem to impeach the rectitude of his moral government, and to touch the sanctions of his law, but for his “setting forth” or foreordaining (Romans 3:25, marginal reading) “Christ to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood.” The distinction here made, is, in the first instance, between the general character of God’s treatment of men before Christ came into the world, and the peculiar grace of the gospel dispensation. The former is elsewhere described by this same apostle as a sort of connivance, on the part of God, in comparison with the urgency and universality of his subsequent appeal: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” In these “times past, he suffered all nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts 14:16); whereas now, he would have all men to “turn from lying vanities unto the living God.” (Ibid., Acts 14:15) But it is plain that even thus viewed, the distinction in question turns, not on the dates of these dispensations of forbearance and of justification respectively, nor on the era of transition from a period when the former prevailed to a period characterized by the prominency of the latter, but on their difference from one another in respect of God’s twofold manner of dealing with the children of men,—showing forbearance to all, and justifying them that believe. We are to remember, also, that before Christ’s coming, though the leading feature of God’s providence was his letting men alone, he never left himself without a witness, and he always had a ministry of justification going on; while, since that time, though his appointment is more clear and unequivocal, that an aggressive system is to be plied towards the whole world—whose inhabitants, instead of being let alone, and having their “times of ignorance winked at,” and being “suffered to walk in their own ways,” are all to be pressed to accept of a fuller grace—still, the miracle of mercy is God’s forbearance—the suspension of his judgment—his passing by sins so many and so heinous—sins, too, aggravated by the rejection of the offered Saviour. So that, on the whole, we may understand this passage as discriminating the natures, rather than the dates, of these two dispensations; and connecting both of them equally with the “setting forth of Christ,” as that which justifies God in both of these modes of dealing with men, and without which, he could neither exercise long-suffering, nor impart justification, except by a compromise of his righteousness, and a sacrifice of this essential attribute of his character and administration.

It may be right to add, that while we interpret the phrase, “the righteousness of God,” in these two verses, as meaning the attribute of righteousness in God, as the moral governor, lawgiver, and judge of the universe, chiefly because it is so explained in the following clause—“that he might be just;” we take it, in all other places in this Epistle, to denote the righteousness (not subjective, as regards God, but objective) which he has provided, and of which he has accepted, in the person and work of his own Son—that righteousness which is “unto all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:22); which, as a righteousness by faith, is revealed in order to faith (Romans 1:17); and which is not afar off, but “nigh thee, even in thy month, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved.”