Matthew Henry Commentary Romans 1

The doctrine about which the apostle Paul wrote presented the fulfillment of the promises made by the prophets. It spoke of the Son of God, namely Jesus the Savior, the promised Messiah, who came from David according to His human nature but was also declared to be the Son of God by the Divine power that raised Him from the dead. The Christian profession does not consist in mere intellectual knowledge or a bare agreement, much less in perverse arguments, but in obedience. And all those, and only those, who are effectually called by Jesus Christ are brought to the obedience of faith. This calling includes:

1. The privilege of Christians: they are beloved by God and are members of that body which is beloved.
2. The duty of Christians: to be holy. For this purpose they are called, called to be saints.

The apostle greeted these believers, wishing them grace to sanctify their souls and peace to comfort their hearts, as flowing from the free mercy of God, the reconciled Father of all believers, and coming to them through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must show love for our friends, not only by praying for them, but by praising God for them.

As in our purposes, so in our desires, we must remember to say, If the Lord will (James 4:15). Our journeys are made prosperous or otherwise, according to the will of God.

We should readily impart to others what God has trusted to us, rejoicing to make others joyful, especially taking pleasure in communing with those who believe the same things with us.

If redeemed by the blood and converted by the grace of the Lord Jesus, we are altogether His. For His sake, we are debtors to all people, to do all the good we can. Such services are our duty.

In these verses, the apostle opens the design of the whole epistle, in which he brings forward a charge of sinfulness against all flesh; declares the only method of deliverance from condemnation, by faith in the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ; and then builds upon it purity of heart, grateful obedience, and earnest desires to improve in all those Christian graces and dispositions, which nothing but a lively faith in Christ can produce. God is a just and holy God, and we are guilty sinners.

It is necessary that we have a righteousness to appear in before him: there is such a righteousness brought in by the Messiah, and made known in the gospel; a gracious method of acceptance, despite the guilt of our sins. It is the righteousness of Christ, who is God, coming from a satisfaction of infinite value. Faith is all in all, both in the beginning and progress of Christian life.

It is not from faith to works, as if faith put us into a justified state, and then works kept us in it; but it is all along from faith to faith; it is faith pressing forward, and gaining the victory over unbelief.

The apostle begins to show that all humankind needs the salvation of the gospel, because no one could obtain the favor of God or escape his wrath by their own works. For no one can plead that they have fulfilled all their obligations to God and to their neighbor; nor can anyone truly say that they have fully acted up to the light given them. The sinfulness of humanity is described as ungodliness against the laws of the first table, and unrighteousness against those of the second.

The cause of that sinfulness is holding the truth in unrighteousness. All, more or less, do what they know to be wrong and omit what they know to be right, so that the plea of ignorance cannot be allowed from anyone. Our Creator's invisible power and Godhead are so clearly shown in the works he has made that even idolaters and wicked Gentiles are left without excuse. They foolishly followed idolatry, and rational creatures exchanged the worship of the glorious Creator for the worship of beasts, reptiles, and senseless images.

They wandered from God until all traces of true religion must have been lost, if the revelation of the gospel had not prevented it. For whatever may be claimed about the sufficiency of human reason to discover Divine truth and moral obligation, or to govern practice correctly, facts cannot be denied. And these plainly show that people have dishonored God by the most absurd idolatries and superstitions, and have degraded themselves by the vilest affections and most abominable deeds.

In the horrid depravity of the Gentile world, the truth of our Lord's words was shown: “Light was come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil; for he that doeth evil hateth the light.” The truth was not to their taste. And we all know how quickly a person will contrive, against the strongest evidence, to reason themselves out of the belief of what they dislike. But a person cannot be brought to greater slavery than to be given up to their own lusts. As the Gentiles did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they committed crimes entirely against reason and their own welfare.

Human nature, whether pagan or Christian, is still the same; and the charges of the apostle apply more or less to the state and character of people at all times, until they are brought to full submission to the faith of Christ, and renewed by Divine power. There has never yet been a person who did not have reason to lament their strong corruptions and their secret dislike of the will of God.

Therefore, this chapter is a call to self-examination, the end of which should be a deep conviction of sin and of the necessity of deliverance from a state of condemnation.