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Hodge2
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 Doctrine
& Remarks
An Outline of
the Theology of Romans
by Charles Hodge (1823-1886)
The following selection was
originally published in The Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans by Charles
Hodge, 1835. After a lengthy section of commenting on the text, Hodge would
generally sum up the section he was dealing with by formulating the doctrinal
content into a brief outline. This document represents these sections throughout
Hodge's commentary (although, it currently only contains the outlines of
chapters 3 & 4; additional chapters are forthcoming). The electronic edition
of this article was scanned and edited by Shane Rosenthal for Reformation Ink.
It is in the public domain and may be freely copied and distributed.
Romans 3:1-8
DOCTRINE
1. The advantages of membership in the
external Church, and of a participation of its ordinances, are very numerous
and great, vs. 1, 2.
2. The great advantage of the Christian over
the heathen world, and of the members of a visible ecclesiastical body over
others not so situated, is the greater amount of divine truth presented to
their understandings and hearts, v. 2.
3. All the writings which the Jews, at the
time of Christ and his apostles, regarded as inspired, are really the word of
God, v. 2.
4. No promise or covenant of God can ever be
rightfully urged in favour of exemption from the punishment of sin, or of
impunity to those who live in it. God is faithful to his promises, but he
never promises to pardon the impenitently guilty, vs. 3, 4.
5. God will make the wrath of men to praise
him. Their unrighteousness will commend his righteousness, without, on that
account, making its condemnation less certain or less severe, vs. 5, 6.
6. Any doctrine inconsistent with the first
principles of morals must be false, no matter how plausible the metaphysical
argument in its favour. And that mode of reasoning is correct, which refutes
such doctrines by showing their inconsistency with moral truth, v. 8.
REMARKS.
1. We should feel the peculiar
responsibilities -which rest upon us as the inhabitants of a Christian
country, as members of the Christian Church, and possessors of the word of
God; as such, we enjoy advantages for which we shall have to render a strict
account, vs. 1, 2.
2. It is a mark of genuine piety, to be
disposed always to justify God, and to condemn ourselves. On the other hand, a
disposition to self-justification and the extenuation of our sins, however
secret, is an indication of the want of a proper sense of our own unworthiness
and of the divine excellence, vs. 4, 5.
3. Beware of any refuge from the fear of
future punishment, founded upon the hope that God will clear the guilty, or
that he will not judge the world and take vengeance for our sins, vs. 6, 7.
4. There is no better evidence against the
truth of any doctrine, than that its tendency is immoral. And there is no
greater proof that a man is wicked, that his condemnation is just, than that
he does evil that good may come. There is commonly, in such cases, not only
the evil of the act committed, but that of hypocrisy and duplicity also, v. 8.
5. Speculative and moral truths, which are
believed on their own evidence as soon as they are presented to the mind,
should be regarded as authoritative, and as fixed points in all reasonings.
When men deny such first principles, or attempt to push beyond them to a
deeper foundation of truth, there is no end to the obscurity, uncertainty, and
absurdity of their speculations. What God forces us, from the very
constitution of our nature, to believe, as, for example, the existence of the
external world, our own personal identity, the difference between good and
evil, etc., it is at once a violation of his will and of the dictates of
reason to deny or to question. Paul assumed, as an ultimate fact, that it is
wrong to do evil that good may come, v. 8.
Romans 3:9-20
DOCTRINE
1. However men may differ among themselves as
to individual character, as to outward circumstances, religious or social,
when they appear at the bar of God, all appear on the same level. All are
sinners, and being sinners, are exposed to condemnation, v. 9.
2. The general declarations of the Scriptures,
descriptive of the character of men before the advent of Christ, are
applicable to men in all ages of the world, because they describe human
nature. They declare what fallen man is. As we recognise the descriptions of
the human heart given by profane writers a thousand years ago, as suited to
its present character, so the inspired description suits us as well as those
for whom it was originally intended, vs. 10-18.
3. Piety and morality cannot be separated. If
men do not understand, if they have no fear of God before their eyes, they
become altogether unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, vs. 10-12.
4. The office of the law is neither to justify
nor to sanctify. It convinces and condemns. All efforts to secure the favour
of God, therefore, by legal obedience must be vain, v. 20.
REMARKS
1. As God regards the moral character in men,
and as we are all sinners, no one has any reason to exalt himself over
another. With our hands upon our mouth, and our mouth in the dust, we must all
appear as guilty before God, v. 9.
2. The Scriptures are the message of God to
all to whom they come. They speak general truths, which are intended to apply
to all to whom they are applicable. What they say of sinners, as such, they
say of all sinners; what they promise to believers, they promise to all
believers. They should, therefore, ever be read with a spirit of
self-application, vs. 10-18.
3. To be prepared for the reception of the
gospel, we must be convinced of sin, humbled under a sense of its turpitude,
silenced under a conviction of its condemning power, and prostrated at the
footstool of mercy, under a feeling that we cannot satisfy the demands of the
law, that if ever saved, it must be by other merit and other power than our
own, v. 20.
Romans 3:21-31
DOCTRINE
1. The evangelical doctrine of justification
by faith is the doctrine of the Old, no less than of the New Testament, v. 21.
2. Justification is pronouncing one to be
just, and treating him accordingly, on the ground that the demands of the law
have been satisfied concerning him, vs. 24-26.
3. The ground of justification is not our own
merit, nor faith, nor evangelical obedience; not the work of Christ in us, but
his work for us, i.e., his obedience unto death, v. 25.
4. An act may be perfectly gratuitous as
regards its object, and at the same time proceed on the ground of a complete
satisfaction to the demands of the law. Thus justification is gratuitous, not
because those demands are unsatisfied, but because it is granted to those who
have no personal ground of recommendation, vs. 24, 26.
5. God is the ultimate end of all his own
acts. To declare his glory is the highest and best end which he can propose
for himself or his creatures, v. 25.
6. The atonement does not consist in a display
to others of the divine justice. This is one of its designs and results; but
it is such a display only by being a satisfaction to the justice of God. It is
not a symbol or illustration, but a satisfaction, v. 26.
7. All true doctrine tends to humble men, and
to exalt God; and all true religion is characterized by humility and
reverence, v. 27.
8. God is a universal Father, and all men are
brethren, vs. 29, 30.
9. The law of God is immutable. Its precepts
are always binding, and its penalty must be inflicted either on the sinner or
his substitute. When, however, it is said that the penalty of the law is
inflicted on the Redeemer, as the sinner's substitute, or, in the language of
Scripture, that "he was made a curse for us," it cannot be imagined
that he suffered the same kind of evils (as remorse, &etc.) which the
sinner would have suffered. The law threatens no specific kind of evil as its
penalty. The term death, in Scripture, designates any or all of the evils
inflicted in punishment of sin. And the penalty, or curse of the law, (in the
language of the Bible,) is any evil judicially inflicted in satisfaction of
the demands of justice. To say, therefore, that Christ suffered to satisfy the
law, to declare the righteousness of God, or that he might be just in
justifying him that believes in Jesus, and to say that he bore the penalty of
the law, are equivalent expressions, v. 3 1.
REMARKS
1. As the cardinal doctrine of the Bible is
justification by faith, so the turning point in the soul's history, the saving
act, is the reception of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, v. 25.
2. All modes of preaching must be erroneous,
which do not lead sinners to feel that the great thing to be done, and done
first, is to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and to turn unto God through him.
And all religious experience must be defective, which does not embrace
distinctly a sense of the justice of our condemnation, and a conviction of the
sufficiency of the work of Christ, and an exclusive reliance upon it as such,
v. 25.
3. As God purposes his own glory as the end of
all that he does, so ought we to have that glory as the constant and
commanding object of pursuit, v. 25.
4. The doctrine of atonement produces in us
its proper effect, when it leads us to see and feel that God is just; that he
is infinitely gracious; that we are deprived of all ground of boasting; that
the way of salvation, which is open for us, is open for all men; and that the
motives to all duty, instead of being weakened, are enforced and multiplied,
vs. 25-31.
5. In the gospel all is harmonious: justice
and mercy, as it regards God; freedom from the law, and the strongest
obligation& to obedience, as it regards men, vs. 25, 31.
Romans 4:1-17
DOCTRINE
1. If the greatest and beat men of the old
dispensation had to renounce entirely dependence upon their works, and to
accept of the favour of God as a gratuity, justification by. works must, for
all men, be impossible, vs. 2, 3.
2. No man can glory, that is, complacently
rejoice in his own goodness in the
sight of God. And this every man of an enlightened conscience feels. The
doctrine of justification by works, therefore, is inconsistent with the inward
testimony of conscience, and can never give true. peace of mind, v. 2.
3. The two methods of justification cannot be
united. They are as inconsistent as wages and a free gift. If of works, it is
not of grace; and if of grace, it is not of works, vs. 4, 5.
4. As God justifies the ungodly, it cannot be
on the ground of their own merit, but must be by the imputation of a
righteousness which does not personally belong to them, and which they
received by faith, vs. 5, 6, 11.
5. The blessings of the gospel, and the method
of justification which it proposes, are suited to all men; and are not to be
confined by sectarian limits, or bound down to ceremonial observances, vs.
9-11.
6. The sacraments and ceremonies of the
Church, although in the highest degree useful when viewed in their proper
light, become ruinous when perverted into grounds, of confidence. What answers
well as a sign, is a miserable substitute for the thing signified.
Circumcision will not serve. for righteousness, nor baptism for regeneration,
v. 10.
7. As Abraham is the father of all believers,
all believers are brethren. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free,
among them as Christians, vs. 11, 12.
8. The seed of Abraham, or true believers,
with Jesus Christ their head, are the heirs of the world. To them it will
ultimately belong; even the uttermost parts, of the earth shall be their
possession, v. 13.
9. To speak of justification by obedience to a
law which we have broken, is a solecism. That which condemns cannot justify,
v. 15.
10. Nothing is sure for sinners that is not
gratuitous. A promise suspended on obedience, they could never render sure.
One entirely gratuitous needs only to be accepted to become ours, v. 16.
11. It is the entire freeness of the gospel,
and its requiring faith as the condition of acceptance, which renders it
suited to all ages and nations, v. 16.
12. The proper object of faith is the divine
promise; or God considered as able and determined to accomplish his word, v.
17.
REMARKS
1. The renunciation of a legal self-righteous
spirit is the first requisition of the gospel. This must be done, or the
gospel cannot be accepted. "He who works," i.e. who trusts in his
works, refuses to be saved by grace, vs. 1-5.
2. The more intimately we are acquainted with
our own hearts and with the character of God, the more ready shall we be to
renounce our own righteousness, and to trust in his mercy, vs. 2, 3.
3. Those only are truly happy and secure, who,
under a sense of illdesert and helplessness, cast themselves upon the grace
and promise of God, vs. 7, 8.
4. Nothing is more natural, and nothing has
occurred more extensively in the Christian Church, than the perversion of the
means of grace into grounds of dependence. Thus it was with circumcision, and
thus it is with baptism and the Lord's supper; thus too with prayer, fasting,
&etc. This is the rock on which millions have been shipwrecked, vs. 9-12.
5. There is no hope for those who, forsaking the grace of God, take refuge in
a law which worketh wrath, v. 15.
6. All things are ours if we are Christ's;
heirs of the life that now is and of that which is to come, v. 13.
7. As the God in whom believers trust is be to
whom all things are known, and all things are subject, they should be strong
in faith, giving glory to God, v. 17.
Romans 4:18-25
DOCTRINE
1. Peace with God is the result of that system
of religion which alone, by providing at once for the satisfaction of divine
justice and the sanctification of the human heart, is suited to the character
of God, and the nature of man. All history shows that no system other than the
gospel has ever produced this peace, v. 1.
2. All the peculiar blessings of redemption
are inseparably connected with and grow out of each other. Those who are
justified have peace with God, access to his presence, joy under the most
adverse circumstances, assurance of,, God's love, and certainty of final
salvation; see the whole section, and compare chap. viii. 30.
3. The Holy Ghost has intimate access to the
human soul, controlling its exercises, exciting its emotions, and leading it
into the knowledge of the truth, v. 5.
4. The assurance of hope is founded on the
consciousness of pious affections, and the witness of the Holy Spirit; and is
a grace to which believers may and ought to attain, verses 4, 5.
5. The perseverance of the saints is to be
attributed not to the strength of their love to God, nor to anything else in
themselves, but solely to the free and infinite love of God in Christ Jesus.
The praise is therefore no more due to them, than condemnation to a helpless
infant for its mother's sleepless care. "Can a woman forget her sucking
child," etc., verses 6-10.
6. Redemption is not by truth or moral
influence, but by blood, verses 9, 10.
7. The primary object of the death of Christ
was to render God propitious, to satisfy his justice, and not to influence
human conduct, or display the divine character, for the sake of the moral
effect of that exhibition. Again, its infinitely diversified results, all of
which were designed, some of the most important, no doubt, are the
sanctification of men, the display of the divine perfections, the prevention
of sin, the happiness of the universe, etc. But the object of a sacrifice, as
such, is to propitiate, verses 9, 10
8. All we have or hope for, we owe to Jesus
Christ—peace,
communion with God, joy, hope, eternal life; see the whole section, and the
whole Bible.
REMARKS
1. If we are the genuine children of God, we
have peace of conscience, a sense of God's favour, and freedom of access to
his throne. We endure afflictions with patience. Instead of making, us
distrustful of our heavenly Father, they afford us new proofs of his love, and
strengthen our hope of his mercy. And we shall have, also, more or less of the
assurance of God's love, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, verses 1-5.
2. None of these fruits of reconciliation with
God can be obtained until the spirit of self-righteousness and self-dependence
is removed. They are secured through faith, and by Christ Jesus, and not by
our own works or merit, v. 1, etc.
3. The hope of the hypocrite is like a
spider's web; the hope of the believer is an anchor to his soul, sure and
steadfast, v. 5.
4. Assurance of the love of God never produces self-complacency pride; but
always humility, self-abasement, wonder, gratitude, and praise. The believer
sees that the mysterious fountain of this love is in divine mind; it is not in
himself, who is ungodly and a sinner, vs. 8-10.
5. As the love of God in the gift of his Son,
and the love of Christ dying for us, are the peculiar characteristics of the
gospel, no one. can be a true Christian on whom these truths do not exert a
governing influence verses 9, 10; compare 2 Cor. v. 14.
6. True religion is joyful, verses 2, 11.
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