Customer Reviews

Epistle to the Romans: The English Text With Introduction, Exposition, and Notes (The New International Commentary on the New Testament)

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Murray's work on Romans may not match the pastoral brilliance of John Stott, or be as up to date in scholarship as Douglas Moo (which replaced this volume in the wonderful NICNT series), but it is a must have. There have been hundreds of commentaries written on Romans over the past few centuries, but Murray's has joined the small cluster at the top of the 'classics' list (with Charles Hodge and Martin Luther, and the less orthodox Barth). All future commentaries will continue to reference Murray, as the standout work of its kind for the mid-20th century.

In addition to its usefulness for preachers and seminary students, it is also a nice window into the kind of teaching that was coming out of Westminster Seminary in a golden period of productivity when that school was THE leading Reformed school of the English speaking world.

John Murray is an important figure in the Presbyterian and Reformed faith in the 20th century. His commentary on Romans is thorough and insightful, building on the heritage which he inherited from the great Reformed thinkers from Luther and Calvin to B. B. Warfield and Geerhardus Vos, the latter under whom he studied at Princeton. Murray shows particular sensitivity to the Old Testament background of Paul's epistle to the Romans and Paul's consciousness of his place in the history of salvation, a history which to Paul culminated in the person and death/resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Dr. Murray's admirable treatment of Paul's doctrine of the Spirit may only be surpassed by his successor at Westminster Theological Seminary, Dr. Richard B. Gaffin (and by his professor at Princeton, Dr. Geerhardus Vos). Murray's work is scholarly but not so that it would be inaccessible to the intermediate student. Murray does interact with his contemporaries; but could have taken it a litter further. The only criticism against Murray's Romans is his treatment of chps. 9-11 where he fails to break out of the dogmatic mould, and thus fails to capture the movement of the epistle from the anteclimax at the end of chp. 8 to the climax at the end of chp. 11. Overall, however, Murray's is a helpful and insightful commentary, a must for students and pastors.

'God's righteousness revealed in the gospel is the provision of His grace to meet the exigency of His wrath. And nothing discloses its glory and efficacy more than this.' p xxiv

No one is more able or probably likely to succeed John Murray in explaining God's own glory as the sole cause of redemption. The cross as symbol of God's power to reconcile fallen man to Him, is misunderstood to be a sign in that for Jews it constitutes an offense, and for Greeks, folly. And yet, given all the hostility that came by the fall, and with the subsequent glorification of man's wisdom and power as supreme, God simply calls. And calls effectively. The covenant of grace was divinely promoted as such revelation moved onto the world scene. It was as such most successful strategically that the apostle should write the Epistle to the believers in Rome - seeking to teach the nature of the grace of God and thereby fulfill his commission as apostle to the gentiles.

'There is no discrimination arising from race or culture and there is no obstacle arising from the degradations of sin. Wherever there is faith, there the omnipotence of God is operative unto salvation. This is a law with no exception.' 1:28

Romans 3:24 is the ground of our confidence: 'Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus'. God settles the relationship issue once and for all through justification and adoption, and in this way He places the new life on a sure foundation. Murray's syntactical construction connected v 24 to 22a: 'a righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unto all who believe', as clauses that are parenthetical in the pericope. He then stated the importance of the doctrine of justification in unequivocal terms: 'It is perhaps not irrelevant to observe that this is the first time in this epistle that Paul uses this verb directly and positively in reference to what is the leading theme of this epistle.' Again in support of free grace, Murray calculated its staggering implication: 'As we have found already, the fact of universal sinfulness bears directly upon the other fact that there is no discrimination among believers - they all are beneficiaries of the righteousness of God.' 1:115 The indiscriminate preaching of the gospel to all, regardless of creed, color or condition, strengthens our need to understand the free offer of grace by, firstly, putting forth the sufficiency of Christ to save us from our sins, and, secondly, by teaching that God is willing to save all those He efficaciously calls.

As Murray explained elsewhere:
'God's call, since it is effectual, carries with it the operative grace whereby the person called is enabled to answer the call and to embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the gospel.' Redemption: Accomplished & Applied p 96

To add weight to his already convincing exegetical argument, Murray honed in on the two catalytic terms Paul used: 'freely' [Gk: dorean] and 'by His grace' [Gk: autos charis]: 'Merit of any kind on the part of man, when brought into relation to justification, contradicts the first article of the Pauline doctrine and therefore his gospel.' The sovereign will of God's good pleasure invites us only to try harder to come to grips with Paul's true meaning: Paul said that it is God's goodness [Gk: chrestotes] that leads us to repentance (2:4). Because we are powerless to effect salvation's actualization in and of ourselves, we have no choice but to accept that God, having promised eternal life, is able to make good on His promise: 'No element in Paul's doctrine of justification is more central than this - God's justifying act is not constrained to any extent or degree by anything that we are or do which could be esteemed as predisposing God to this act.' 1:116

'It is the justification of the ungodly. It is the King clothing beggars.' Stuart Olyott, Romans p 31

I am finding Morris' commentary extremely helpful. He exegetes problematical Greek, which is helpful for an indifferently-able Greek reader. His analysis of Paul's logical arguments and the chapter outlines have made my study and teaching easier. His interpretations are from what I would label an evangelical, rather than fundamentalist point of view, with which I agree.

Murray's commentary on Romans is the best 20th century treatment of the work, easily beating Barth's earlier work. Tying in with his "Redemption Accomplished and Applied", Murray seizes the main theme of Romans, our justification, and carefully exegetes the book with a continual thought to the overall theme

I enjoy this commentary because I can use it to help with block diagramming and for word by word explanations. It is a bit high level but still usable.