Now the oracles were committed to them, for the purpose of preserving them as long as it
pleased the Lord to continue his glory among them, and then of publishing them during the time
of their stewardship through the whole world: they were first depositories, and secondly dispensers.
But if this benefit was to be so highly esteemed when the Lord favored one nation only with the
revelation of his word, we can never sufficiently reprobate our ingratitude, who receive his word
with so much negligence or with so much carelessness, not to say disdain.
Romans 3:3-4
- Quid enigma si quidem fuerunt increduli?
Num incredulitas eorum fidem Dei faciet irritam? - For what if some did not believe? shall
their unbelief make the faith of God without
effect? - Ne ita sit; quin sit Deus verax, omnis autem
homo mendax; quemadmodum scriptum est, ut - God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every
man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be
justificeris in sermonibus tuis, et vincas quum
judicaris.^90
justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome
when thou art judged.
3.What indeed if some,etc. As before, while regarding the Jews as exulting in the naked sign,
he allowed them no not even a spark of glory; so now, while considering the nature of the sign, he
testifies that its virtue (virtutem, efficacy) is not destroyed, no, not even by their inconstancy. As
then he seemed before to have intimated that whatever grace there might have been in the sign of
circumcision, it had wholly vanished through the ingratitude of the Jews, he now, anticipating an
objection, again asks what opinion was to be formed of it. There is here indeed a sort of reticence,
as he expresses less than what he intended to be understood; for he might have truly said that a
great part of the nation had renounced the covenant of God; but as this would have been very grating
to the ears of the Jews, he mitigated its severity, and mentioned only some.
Shall their unbelief,etc.Καταργεῖν is properly to render void and ineffectual; a meaning most
suitable to this passage. For Paul’s inquiry is not so much whether the unbelief of men neutralizes
the truth of God, so that it should not in itself remain firm and constant, but whether it hinders its
effect and fulfillment as to men. The meaning then is, “Since most of the Jews are covenant-breakers,
is God’s covenant so abrogated by their perfidiousness that it brings forth no fruit among them?
To this he answers, that it cannot be that the truth of God should lose its stability through man’s
wickedness. Though then the greater part had nullified and trodden under foot God’s covenant, it
yet retained its efficacy and manifested its power, not indeed as to all, but with regard to a few of
that nation: and it is then efficacious when the grace or the blessing of the Lord avails to eternal
salvation. But this cannot be, except when the promise is received by faith; for it is in this way that
a mutual covenant is on both sides confirmed. He then means that some ever remained in that
nation, who by continuing to believe in the promise, had not fallen away from the privileges of the
covenant.
(^90) The references in the margin are the following: — Romans 9:6; 2 Timothy 2:13; John 3:33; Psalm 116:11; Psalm 51:4.