Romans 2:13

for not the hearers A parenthesis is usually begun here, and continued to the close of Romans 2:15. We prefer to dispense with it, for reasons to be given there. The present verse is naturally connected with the close of Romans 2:12. "The hearersof the law:" as we too speak of "hearersof the Gospel," even now when readingis so vastly prevalent.

before God See last note Romans 2:11. The Gr. is the same here.

the doers of the law shall be justified See Galatians 3:12. For the express citation cp. Leviticus 18:5: "Ye shall keep my statutes … which if a man do, he shall live in them; I am the Lord." How deep the tendency of the Jew was to build safety upon privilege and knowledge, appears from Matthew 3:9; John 7:49. See on Romans 2:3, and Appendix A.

shall be justified The future tense, perhaps, refers to Leviticus 18:5 just quoted; "shall live." Supposing the law kept, this stands in God's word as the promised result.

The meaning of the verb "to justify" will be fully illustrated as we proceed. Here it is enough to remark that it signifies not amendment, but acquittal;or, rather, a judicial declaration of righteousness. See for an excellent illustration from the O. T., Deuteronomy 25:1. (The LXX. there employ the same Gr. word as St Paul's here). The present verse does not, of course, assert (what would be so clearly contradicted by e.g. Romans 3:20) that the law ever is, or can be, so kept as to justify the keeper. It merely states the conditions of legal justification, whether fulfilled in fact or not.