Makest thy boast ... - To boast in the Law implied their conviction of its excellence and obligation, as a man does not boast of what he esteems to be of no value.

Dishonourest thou God - By boasting of the Law, they proclaimed their conviction that it was from God. By breaking it, they denied it. And as actions are a true test of man's real opinions, their breaking the Law did it more dishonor than their boasting of it did it honor. This is always the case. It matters little what a man's speculative opinions may be; his practice may do far more to disgrace religion than his profession does to honor it. It is the life and conduct, and not merely the profession of the lips, that does real honor to the true religion. Alas, with what pertinency and force may this question be put to many who call themselves Christians!

Thou that makest thy boast of the law,.... Of their having it, which other nations had not; of their knowledge of it, which many of their own people were without, or had but a small share of; and of their keeping of it even to perfection:

through breaking of the law dishonourest thou God? sin sometimes is expressed by a word which signifies a "fall"; sometimes by another, which signifies missing of the mark, or straying from it; sometimes by another, which signifies a "contrariety to the law" of God; and here, by one which signifies a "passing over it", and the bounds which it has set, as the rule of man's obedience; and hereby God, the lawgiver, is dishonoured: for as God is glorified by good works, when rightly performed, he is dishonoured by evil ones; for his authority, as a lawgiver, is trampled upon and despised. Now persons guilty of such iniquities as here mentioned, could not be justified before God, or accepted by him on account of any works of righteousness done by them.

Transgression (παραβάσεως)

Trench remarks upon "the mournfully numerous group of words" which express the different aspects of sin. It is ἁμαρτια the missing of a mark; παράβασις the overpassing of a line; παρακοή the disobedience to a voice; παράπτωμα a falling when one should have stood; ἀγνόημα ignorance of what one should know; ἥττημα a diminishing of what should be rendered in full measure; ἀνομία or παρανομία non-observance of law; πλημμέλεια discord.

The primary sense of the preposition παρά is beside or by, with reference to a line or extended surface. Hence it indicates that which is not on its true line but beside it, either in the way of falling short or of going beyond. Thus, in the sense of going beyond, Romans 12:3, to think more highly than he ought (παρ' ὃ δεῖ), where the sense of beyond is fixed by ὑπερφρονεῖν to think beyond or over." So Luke 13:2. In the sense of falling short, Thucydides, 3, 49: "Mitylene came near such peril" (παρὰ τοσοῦτο κινδύνου), as if parallel to the danger but not touching it. Hence παραβάσις differs from the Homeric ὑπερβασία transgression, in that the latter carries only the idea of going beyond or over. A mark or line as a standard is thus implied. Transgression implies something to transgress. With the law came in the possibility off transgressing the law. "Where there is no law there is no transgression" (Romans 4:15). Hence Adam's sin is called a transgression (Romans 5:14), because it was the violation of a definite command. Paul habitually uses the word and its kindred παραβάτης transgressor, of the transgression of a commandment distinctly given (Galatians 3:19; 1 Timothy 2:14, Romans 2:25, Romans 2:27). Hence it is peculiarly appropriate here of one who boasts in the law. It thus differs from ἁμαρτία sin (see on sins, Matthew 1:21), in that one may sin without being under express law. See Romans 5. Sin (ἁμαρτία) was in the world until the law; i.e. during the period prior to the law. Death reigned from Adam to Moses over those who had not sinned (ἁμαρτήσαντας) after the similitude of Adam's transgression (παραβάσεως). The sin is implicit, the transgression explicit.

Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?

2:23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law. The first part of this verse is a summary of the claims of the Jews as given in Ro 2:17-20.

Through breaking the law dishonourest God? The last part is a decisive answer, in an interrogative form, of the four reproachful questions just asked (Ro 2:21,22). Through the whole passage privilege and practice are contrasted.

Margin breaking the law

Sin. See Scofield Note: "Rom 3:23".

2:17-24 The apostle directs his discourse to the Jews, and shows of what sins they were guilty, notwithstanding their profession and vain pretensions. A believing, humble, thankful glorying in God, is the root and sum of all religion. But proud, vain-glorious boasting in God, and in the outward profession of his name, is the root and sum of all hypocrisy. Spiritual pride is the most dangerous of all kinds of pride. A great evil of the sins professors is, the dishonour done to God and religion, by their not living according to their profession. Many despise their more ignorant neighbours who rest in a dead form of godliness; yet themselves trust in a form of knowledge, equally void of life and power, while some glory in the gospel, whose unholy lives dishonour God, and cause his name to be blasphemed.