Every mouth stolid.
The charge has been made against Gentiles and Jews; it is now forced home, and especially against the self-excusing Jews, by the unimpeachable verdict of God's own Word. We have here—universal sin and universal guilt.
I. UNIVERSAL SIN. Some of the quotations referred in the first instance more particularly to Gentiles, some to Jews. But the fact that any of them referred to Jews is of itself sufficient for the apostle's purpose, viz. to cut away from under their feet the vain hope which they cherished on account of their privileges. And further, as the apostle urges in Romans 3:19, all the quotations have a very proper bearing on the Jews, inasmuch as the words of the Law are for those who are under the Law, designed to show them their danger even when speaking expressly of the sin of others. There was that in them which might so develop itself, and being so developed, it was under the same condemnation.
1. A state of sin. (Romans 3:10-12; Psalms 14:1-3.)
(a) no discerning of the will of God (Romans 3:11);
(b) no aspiration after God (Romans 3:11);
(c) an utter deviation from the right way—an utter corruption (Romans 3:12). Two positives, these latter, corresponding to the two negatives.
2. A practice of sin. (Romans 3:13-17; Psalms 5:9; Psalms 140:3; Psalms 10:7; Isaiah 59:7, Isaiah 59:8.)
(a) Deceit-words of suave beguilement, but an inward ravening for the prey;
(b) venom—swift, cutting words, shot like the poison of serpents;
(c) wrath—blatant fury and oaths.
(a) Violence and bloodshed are their aim;
(b) desolation and calamity mark their path;
(c) the path of peace they never tread.
3. A source of sin. (Romans 3:18; Psalms 36:1.) The only effectual, permanent safeguard of morality is religion. Are the bonds not being loosened in our day, even by the apostles of ethics themselves?
II. UNIVERSAL GUILT.
1. A fact of history—to every one that has eyes to see. But attested, as above shown, by the verdict of the Law itself.
2. A fact of consciousness—wrought in the individual by the Law. The Law cannot justify; a mirror in which we see ourselves, and in that mirror fallen man sees himself fallen and corrupt. This the intent for which the Law was given, to bring us to self-knowledge, that then we might yearn for God's salvation through Christ. For law and promise are ever intertwined—in Judaism, in Gentilism, in Christianity. The great result then: "every mouth stopped"—conscious guilt; "all the world brought under the judgment of God"—objective, historical guilt. Before God's tribunal, in the heart and in history, man is condemned.
Let us thank God for his severe dealings, for they are in love. As in Tennyson's 'May Queen,' "He taught me all the mercy, for he showed me all the sin." When the throne has become to us palpably the throne of judgment, then, and not till then, it is transformed into the throne of grace.—T.F.L.