Romans 3:15

Their feet are swift to shed blood: THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD (; ) - q.d., 'Those feet which should "run the way of God's commandments" () are employed to conduct men to deeds of darkest crime:'...

9-18 Here again is shown that all mankind are under the guilt of sin, as a burden; and under the government and dominion of sin, as enslaved to it, to work wickedness. This is made plain by several passages of Scripture from the Old Testament, which describe the corrupt and depraved state of all men, till grace restrain or change them. Great as our advantages are, these texts describe multitudes who call themselves Christians. Their principles and conduct prove that there is no fear of God before their eyes. And where no fear of God is, no good is to be looked for....

Verse Romans 3:15. _THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD_] They make use of every means in their power to destroy the reputation and lives of the innocent....

THEIR FEET ... - The quotation in this and the two following verses, is abridged or condensed from Isaiah 59:7. The expressions occur in the midst of a description of the character of the nation in the time of the prophet. The apostle has selected a few expressions out of many, rather making a reference to the entire passage, than a formal quotation. The expression, “their feet are swift,” etc., denotes the eagerness of the nation to commit crime, particularly deeds of injustice and cruelty. They thirsted for the blood of innocence, and hasted to shed it, to gratify their malice, or to satisfy their vengeance....

EXPOSITION ROMANS 3:1 (2) _Certain objections with regard to the Jews suggested and met. _In_ _this passage, before proceeding with his argument, the apostle meets certain objections that might be made to what has been so far said. Some difficulty in determining his exact meaning arises from the concise and pregnant form in which the objections are put and answered, and from fresh ones arising out of the answers, which have also to be met. The objections are from the Jewish standpoint, though not put into the mouth of an objecting Jew, but rather suggested as likely ones by St. Paul himself. To the original readers of the Epistle, who were familiar with the tone of Jewish thought, the sequence of the ideas would probably be more obvious than to us. Reserving special consideration of successive clauses for our exposition of each verse, we may,

THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD. The sins of the heart and mouth are before described, and now the sins of action are taken notice of; for "the feet" are the instruments of motion and action: and when these are said to be "swift to shed blood", it denotes the readiness and eagerness of men, to murder innocent creatures; which shows the dreadful malice and hatred that is in them. The words are cited from Isaiah 59:7, and seem to point at the times of Manasseh, who shed so much innocent blood, as to fill Jerusalem with it from one end to the other....

Romans 3:1. _What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision?_ If, after all, both Jew and Gentiles were under sin, what advantage had the Jew by the covenant under which he lived? Or what was the benefit to him of the circumcision which was his distinctive mark? Romans 3:2. _Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God._ The Jews were God's chronicle-keepers. They had to guard the holy Books, «the oracles of God.» They had also to preserve the knowledge of the truth by those divers rites and ceremonies by which God was pleased to reveal himself of old time. Romans 3:3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbeli

CHAPTER 3:1-20 _ 1. Objections and Their Answers. (Romans 3:1 .)_ 2. The Whole World Under Sin. (Romans 3:9 .) Romans 3:1 A number of objections are next raised and answered. “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?” Such would be the natural question of the Jew after reading the argument that the Jew is on the same level with the Gentile. This objection is stated here for the first time. It is important, for the Jews are God's chosen people and as the Apostle states later, to them belongs “the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God and the promises” ...

sums up THE IMPEACHMENT OF MANKIND. Romans 3:9. Paul has beaten down Jewish counter-pleas; he and his fellow-believers (we) might be supposed to have some apology in reserve: What then? do we make any defence? (_mg_.). Not in the least! for we have already charged Jews and Greeks alike with being all under the power of sin. ROMANS 3:10. The universal accusation is restated by a string of OT sentences (p. 805) gathered, with the exception of Romans 3:15 (Isaiah 59:7 f.), from the Psalter, which poignantly depict the sinfulness of mankind. Two things are conspicuous in this sad catena: the world's unrighteousness is traced t

GOD'S FIDELITY AND MAN'S INFIDELITY (Romans 3:1-8)...