John Calvin Commentary Romans 3:6

"God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?" — Romans 3:6 (ASV)

By no means, etc. In checking this blasphemy, he does not give a direct reply to the objection but begins by expressing his abhorrence of it, lest the Christian religion should even appear to include such great absurdities. And this is more weighty than if he adopted a simple denial, for he implies that this impious expression deserved to be regarded with horror and not to be heard. He then adds what may be called an indirect refutation, for he does not distinctly refute the false accusation but gives only this reply—that the objection was absurd. Moreover, he takes an argument from an office that belongs to God, by which he proves it to be impossible—God shall judge the world; he cannot then be unjust.

This argument is not derived, so to speak, from the mere power of God, but from his exercised power, which shines forth in the whole arrangement and order of his works; as if he said— “It is God’s work to judge the world, that is, to rectify it by his own righteousness, and to reduce to the best order whatever there is in it out of order: he cannot then determine anything unjustly.” And he seems to allude to a passage recorded by Moses in Genesis 18:25, where it is said that when Abraham prayed God not to deliver Sodom completely to destruction, he spoke to this effect—

“It is not fitting that you who are to judge the earth should destroy the just with the ungodly: for this is not your work, nor can it be done by you.”

A similar declaration is found in Job 34:17—

“Should he who hates judgment exercise power?”

For though unjust judges are found among men, yet this happens because they usurp authority contrary to law and right, or because they are thoughtlessly raised to that eminence, or because they degenerate from themselves. But there is nothing of this kind with regard to God. Since, then, he is by nature judge, it must be that he is just, for he cannot deny himself.

Paul then proves from what is impossible that God is absurdly accused of unrighteousness, for to him uniquely and naturally belongs the work of justly governing the world. And though what Paul teaches extends to the constant government of God, yet I concede that it has a special reference to the last judgment, for then only a real restoration of just order will take place.

But if you wish for a direct refutation by which such profane ideas may be countered, take this and say: “That it is not through unrighteousness in itself that God’s righteousness becomes more illustrious, but that our wickedness is so surpassed by God’s goodness, that it is turned to serve an end different from that to which it tends.”