Romans 3:15 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Their feet are swift to shed blood’ (Proverbs 1:16; Isaiah 59:7). There are terrible wars in the Middle East, in Ukraine, and in several other places. Some of them in due course will be over, but it won't be the end. They will only move somewhere else, and fresh trouble will break out. Somewhere the world is constantly, at least at any one time, in a state of hatred and bloodshed and war. How can we live in this country with the long peace we have had, imagining that this is going to go on? Everybody should be anxious. War clouds are everywhere. It's the human condition; it's just what Scripture teaches. The words of Christ, ‘Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars … but the end is not yet.’ They will continue right to the end. It's our fallen state. We like peace, but we can't keep the peace. Wars just take fire so quickly. Look at the cause of World War I. The blue touch paper was a single assassination, almost botched, but it happened. And that was the most terrible war. In this country a vast percentage of the women were lifelong spinsters because World War I had taken away so many of the men. There wasn't a town city in the country where there were not widows. One assassination was the touch paper. The foolishness of human beings and the sinfulness and the inherent hostility! Why does this Scripture name the feet and not the hands that do so much evil? Because the feet seek out new opportunities to sin, and show that man is not content to remain where he is, but positively seeks out bloodshed. King Saul pursues David, and Saul of Tarsus seeks extraordinary means to destroy Christians.We have had peace in this country for a while. What secures peace? The fact that we have got to the stage in the West, in our history, where it is too costly to have war. Everyone can hit back and give as good as they get. So only because it would hurt us desperately to go to war, do we settle for peace, and there is this uncanny, unreal, fragile peace, simply because war is now so costly. But the human race is a war-faring race. Anyone who got in our way, anyone who insulted us, anybody who hurt us: if we could, we would punish them. In other parts of the world there is still war and treachery and trouble, indicating that the human race is still the same. It is not that we have become peaceful. It is that war is too hurtful and too costly if it is going to come back to us.‘Destruction and misery are in their ways’ (Isaiah 59:7). If it isn't in wars, it is destructive behaviour within human society. Look at the divorce rate; look at the hatred; look at the fights; look at the antagonism in every street. What misery people bring upon themselves and each other. What do they care about the trail of misery that lies in their wake? They are ready to insulate themselves against all concern about that.‘And the way of peace have they not known’ (Isaiah 59:8). Instead of loving peace, the unbeliever loves strife so often. Any peace that we do see in this world is only out of self-interest. It is not because there is love and harmony and real co-operation. What a terrible race is the human race! ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’, says the Lord Jesus, but that characteristic is only truly found among his disciples, among those who are born again. Without conversion, our natural tendency to take revenge comes to the surface. Pride and readiness to take offence mean that it is rare that one person overlooks wrongs done by another. Even when they do, the wrong done to them is stored in the memory bank. Often revenge is disproportionate, and it harms so many others who were not directly involved. But that consideration does little to restrain men. In order to pursue peace, people have to be convinced that the wrong done by others cannot really harm them. They must believe that ultimately they suffer no real loss. They must believe that vengeance belongs to God. But who can say that, apart from the Christian? He alone believes that God makes all things work together for his good, and looks forward to a ‘new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness’ (2 Peter 3:13). It is because the believer has experienced the forgiveness of God for his vast debt to God, that he is able to pardon the relatively small wrongs done to himself.Surely, in this expression the apostle is also speaking about the way of reconciliation with Almighty God, finding the Lord, finding forgiveness of sin. Only this peace is able to motivate a man or woman to seek peace with their neighbour. Only the one who has come to Christ for salvation can even believe that peace is possible.