Romans 3:8 ASV

The Pulpit Commentary - Romans 3:8

And not ( i.e. why should we not say), as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, Let us do evil, that good may come? Whose ( i.e. of those who do say so) condemnation is just. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Romans 3:8

And not rather - This is the answer of the apostle. He meets the objection by showing its tendency if carried out, and if it were made a principle of conduct. The meaning is, “If the glory of God is to be promoted by sin, and if a man is not therefore to be condemned, or held guilty for it; if this fact absolves man from crime, “why not carry the doctrine out, and make it a principle of conduct, and do all the evil we can, in order to promote his glory.” This was the fair consequence of the... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Romans 3:7-8

Romans 3:7-8. For Or but (the objector may reply) if the truth of God hath more abounded Has been more abundantly shown; through my lie If my lie, that is, practice contrary to truth, conduces to the glory of God, by making his truth shine with superior advantage; why am I yet judged as a sinner And arraigned for that which is attended with such happy consequences? Can my conduct be said to be sinful at all? Ought I not to do what would otherwise be evil, that so much good may come?... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Romans 3:1-8

Some Jewish objections (3:1-8)Many Jews might argue with Paul by putting to him a fairly obvious question. If what he said was true, why did God choose Israel as his special people (3:1)? Paul replies that God chose them so that through them he could make himself known to the people of the world. The Old Testament Scriptures, for example, were given to the human race by way of the Jews (2). The sad truth is that many of these favoured Jewish people have proved unfaithful to God, but he is still... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Romans 3:8

not . . . come? = (why) not (say), as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say. Let us do, &c. Figure of speech Epitrechon ( App-6 ). slanderously reported . Greek. blasphemeo. Compare Romans 2:24 .Acts 13:45 . affirm . Greek. phemi. Only here in Romans. Occurs fifty-eight times, always "say", except here. evil . Literal. the evil things. Greek. kakos. App-128 . that = in order that. Greek. hina. good . Literally the good things. damnation . Greek. krima.... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Romans 3:7-8

Romans 3:7-8. For if the truth of God, &c.— The particle for joins what follows in this verse, to vengeance, or wrath, in the fifth, and shews it to be a continuation of the objection begun there. But the whole eighth verse is the Apostle's answer, the true sense of which seems to be this: Says the Jew, "If the faithfulness of God in keeping his promise is, through our wickedness, made far more glorious than otherwise it would have been, why should we Jews be blamed and condemned as... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Romans 3:1-8

3. Answers to objections 3:1-8In chapter 2 Paul showed that God’s judgment of all people rests on character rather than ceremony. He put the Jew on the same level as the Gentile regarding their standing before God. Still God Himself made a distinction between Jews and Gentiles. In Romans 3:1-8, Paul dealt with that distinction. He did this so there would be no question in the minds of his Jewish audience that they were guilty before God and needed to trust in Jesus Christ. The passage affirms... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Romans 3:7-8

The fourth question is very similar to the third. Perhaps Paul raised it as a response to his immediately preceding answer (Romans 3:6). It clarifies the folly of the idea expressed in the third question. What an objector might really be saying in question three comes out in question four. If my lying, for example, glorifies God by showing Him to be the only perfectly truthful person, why does God punish me for lying? Paul had been stressing reality and priorities in chapter 2. This objection... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Romans 3:1-31

The New Way of Acceptance with GodIn Romans 1, 2 St. Paul has shown that both Gentile and Jew have sinned wilfully, and are under God’s condemnation. He now digresses to Jewish objections against the gospel, which he had, no doubt, heard urged in synagogues (Romans 3:1-8). Returning to the main subject, he clinches his indictment of the Jew out of the Scriptures, and concludes that all the world is ’under the judgment of God’ (Romans 3:9-20).Having thus shown that man is sinful and lost, he now... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Romans 3:1-8

III.(1-8) Continuing the subject, but with a long digression in Romans 3:3 et seq. The Apostle asks, What is the real value of these apparent advantages? He is about to answer the question fully, as he does later in Romans 9:4-5; but after stating the first point, he goes off upon a difficulty raised by this, and does not return to complete what he had begun. This, again, is characteristic of his ardent and keenly speculative mind. Problems such as those which he discusses evidently have a... read more