Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

22. “The righteousness of God through faith of Jesus Christ unto all who believe, for there is no
difference.” In justification, we have faith in Christ; in sanctification, we have the faith of Jesus
Christ, who never had the faith of pardon, as He never had any sins to be pardoned, but He always
had the faith of purity, i.e., such faith in God as all the angels and redeemed spirits in heaven and
earth enjoy, i.e., identical in quality though not in quantity. We find here there is actually no
difference in all the world, the church member and the heathen standing on the same broad plain of
universal condemnation till saved by personal application to Christ. In the preceding exegesis, we
see that he is not a Christian who is one outwardly, neither is baptism that which is outward on the
flesh; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly, and baptism is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not
in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Hence you see plainly the utter insignificance
of all ceremonial professions without the spiritual experience; while the latter is just as valid in the
sight of God without the visible ordinances as with them. The true salvation is a pure spirituality in
toto. Hence there is no difference between the professor and the non-professor, the whole problem
being settled on the question of possession. You can profess much and have nothing. You can have
an uttermost salvation without the attestations of ecclesiastical ceremonies. Paul utterly and eternally
sweeps dead ritualism from the field.
23. “For all sinned and came short of the glory of God.” “All have sinned” (E.V.) is a wrong
translation, involving personality and condemning the infants. The Greek is the imperfect tense, only
implying that all sinned seminally, which is true. There was but one creation, i.e., Adam; Eve being
no exception, but an evolution from Adam’s rib. Hence when Adam sinned, the race sinned, and all
fell together, all being in Adam seminally. Hence all the infants sinned seminally and received a
corrupt nature, though they did not sin personally. Consequently they did not personally fall under
condemnation. All infants are born depraved, i.e., with a sinful nature, though not actual sinners, but
Christians by the redemption of Christ. They should be converted before they forfeit infantile
justification by actual transgression, and then sanctified before they backslide. “Fall short” is in the
present tense, stating a sad, though universally observable fact, resulting from the fall. This “falling
short of the glory of God” appertains to all till this mortal shall put on immortality.
24. “Being freely justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” If the
people could have been saved through legal obedience and good works, the Son of God might have
stayed in heaven, enjoying forever the throne of his glory. Counterfeit religion, girdling the globe
and deluding the people with the vain hallucination that they can be saved by priestly absolutions,
church loyalty and legal obedience, hurls daily into the face of God the most abominable of all
insults by actually treating with contempt the dying love and precious blood of His Son.
25. “Whom God set forth a vicarious atonement through faith in his blood.” We can only be
saved from hell through the substitutionary death of Christ, who paid our penalty, dying a ransom
in our room and stead, thus blockading the mouth of hell with his crucified body in order to keep us
out. This is justification, i.e., negative salvation. It is not only indispensable that we be kept out of
hell, but equally pertinent that we be prepared for heaven. While the negative phase of salvation
through the vicarious atonement keeps us out of hell, it is equally true that the positive phase of
salvation through the precious blood expurging all sin makes us holy and congenializes us to the
heavenly state, thus making us forever like the unfallen angels and qualifying us to enjoy the society
of angels, arch-angels and glorified spirits forever. It is bold and comprehensive, involving full