What Does Romans 3:30 Mean?

(30) **Seeing it is . . .**—With a slight change of reading, *if at least; if, as we are sure is the case.* The argument is strictly logical. If there is to be any distinction between Jew and Gentile, this can only be upon the assumption either that there are more gods than one by whom they will be justified, or that they will be justified by some different law, in some different way. But neither of these is the case. Therefore it follows that there is no distinction. **Shall justify.**—The future signifies, “throughout the Christian dispensation”—wherever the Christian system extends. **By faith.**—*Through faith.* In the one case faith is regarded as the instrument, in the other as the means; but the two expressions come to be almost convertible. In like manner there is no essential difference indicated by the fact that the first noun has not the article, while the second has it. The former is more abstract—the quality of faith in man; the latter more concrete—faith as embodied in the gospel. The two prepositions, “by” and “through,” are in English nearly convertible, or differ from each other no more than “instrument” and “means.”