Albert Barnes Commentary Romans 3:4

"God forbid: yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy words, And mightest prevail when thou comest into judgment." — Romans 3:4 (ASV)

God forbid. In Greek, this means, “Let not this be.” The sense is, Let not this by any means be supposed. This is the apostle's answer, showing that no such consequence followed from his doctrines. He argues that if any such consequence were to follow, the doctrine should be immediately abandoned, and that every man, no matter who, should rather be considered false than God.

The veracity of God was a great first principle, which was to be upheld, whatever the consequence might be. This implies that the apostle believed that the fidelity of God could be maintained in strict consistency with the fact that any number of the Jews might be found to be unfaithful and be cast off.

The apostle has not entered into an explanation of this, or shown how it could be, but it is not difficult to understand how it was. The promise made to Abraham and the fathers was not unconditional and absolute, stipulating that all the Jews should be saved. It was implied that they were to be obedient; and that if they were not, they would be cast off (Genesis 18:19).

Though the apostle has not stated it here, he has nevertheless considered it at length in another part of this epistle. He showed that it was not only consistent with the original promise that a part of the Jews should be found unfaithful and be cast off, but that it had actually occurred according to the prophets (Romans 10:16–21; Romans 11:1).

Thus, the fidelity of God was preserved, while at the same time it was a matter of fact that no small part of the nation was rejected and lost.

Let God be true. Let God be considered true and faithful, whatever consequence may follow. This was a first principle, and should be now, that God should be believed to be a God of truth, whatever consequence it might involve.

How happy would it be if all people would regard this as a fixed principle—a matter not to be questioned in their hearts or debated—that God is true to His word! How much doubt and anxiety it would save professing Christians, and how much error it would save among sinners! Amid all the agitations of the world—all conflicts, debates, and trials—it would be a fixed position where every person might find rest, and which would do more than all other things to calm the tempests and smooth the agitated waves of human life.

But every man a liar; meaning, though every person and every other opinion should be found to be false. Of course, this included the apostle and his reasoning, and the expression is one of those that show his magnanimity and greatness of soul. It implies that every opinion which he and all others held—every doctrine that had been defended—should be immediately abandoned if it implied that God was false.

It was to be assumed as a first principle in all religion and all reasoning that if a doctrine implied that God was not faithful, it was, of course, a false doctrine. This showed his firm conviction that the doctrine he advanced was strictly in accordance with the veracity of the Divine promise.

What a noble principle this is! How strikingly it illustrates the humility of true piety, and the confidence that true piety places in God above all the deductions of human reason! And if all people were willing to sacrifice their opinions when they appeared to impinge on the veracity of God, if they recoiled with instinctive shuddering at the very supposition of such a lack of fidelity in him, how soon it would end the boastings of error, the pride of philosophy, and lofty dictation in religion! No one with this feeling could be a Universalist for a moment, and no one could be an infidel.

As it is written (Psalms 51:4). To confirm the sentiment he had just advanced, and to show that it accorded with the spirit of religion as expressed in the Jewish writings, the apostle appeals to the language of David, uttered in a state of deep penitence for past transgressions.

Of all quotations ever made, this is one of the most beautiful and most fitting. David was overwhelmed with grief; he saw his crime to be awful; he feared the displeasure of God and trembled before him. Yet he held it as a fixed, indisputable principle, that GOD WAS RIGHT.

This he never once thought of calling into question. He had sinned against God, against God only; and he did not once think of questioning the fact that God was altogether just in reproving him for his sin and in pronouncing against him the sentence of condemnation.

That you might be justified. This means that you might be regarded as just or right, or that it may appear that God is not unjust. This does not mean that David had sinned against God for the purpose of justifying him, but that he now clearly saw that his sin had been so directly against him, and so aggravated, that God was right in his sentence of condemnation.

In your sayings. This means in what you have spoken; that is, in your sentence of condemnation, in your words concerning this offense. It may help us to understand this to remember that the psalm was written immediately after Nathan, at God's command, had gone to reprove David for his crime (see the title of the psalm). God, by the mouth of Nathan, had expressly condemned David for his crime. David doubtless refers to this expression of condemnation with the phrase "in your sayings" (see 2 Samuel 12:7–13).

And might overcome. In the Hebrew, this is “might be pure,” or might be considered pure, or just. The word that the Septuagint and the apostle have used, “might overcome,” is sometimes used with reference to litigations or trials in a court of justice.

He who was accused and acquitted, or who was adjudged to be innocent, might be said to overcome, or to gain the cause. The expression is used this way here. As if there were a trial between David and God, God would overcome; that is, God would be considered pure and righteous in his sentence condemning David's crime.

When you are judged. The Hebrew is, when you judge; that is, in your judgment pronounced on this crime. The Greek may also be in the middle voice as well as the passive, and may therefore correspond precisely in meaning with the Hebrew. The Arabic also renders it this way. The Syriac renders it, “when they (that is, men) shall judge you.”

The meaning, as expressed by David, is that God is to be considered right and just in condemning people for their sins, and that a true penitent—that is, a person placed in the best circumstances to form a proper estimate of God—will see this, even though it should condemn himself.

The meaning of the expression in the connection in which Paul uses it is that it is to be held as a fixed, unwavering principle that God is right and true, whatever consequences it may involve, whatever doctrine it may overthrow, or whatever person it may prove to be a liar.