<p>3:5&nbsp;<i>But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God</i>- see on Rom. 3:4 &ldquo;And overcome...&rdquo;. God commends His love to us in that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us, the just for unjust (Rom. 5:8). Thus on all sides we have God&rsquo;s saving love commended to us- by our own unrighteousness on the one hand, and by God&rsquo;s self-commendation of His desire to save us through giving His Son to die for us, taking the initiative whilst we were as yet unborn and still from His perspective &ldquo;sinners&rdquo;. The Greek for &ldquo;commend&rdquo; means literally to place beside, e.g. Lk. 9:32 &ldquo;the men that&nbsp;<i>stood with&nbsp;</i>him&rdquo;. God and man come to stand together in that court room. Our unrighteousness and His righteousness stand together. The accused God comes to stand together with the accusers our doubts, sinful man; and then the roles change, God becomes the accuser and we become the accused, and He through His love comes to again stand with us, having condemned and yet then justified us. Truly, even under inspiration, Paul is lost for words: &ldquo;What shall we say?&rdquo;.&nbsp;</p><p>David recognized that God works through our sinfulness- he is effectively saying in Ps. 51:4: 'I sinned so that You might be justified...'. These words are quoted in Rom. 3:4,5 in the context of Paul's exultation that &quot;&nbsp;<i>our</i>&nbsp;unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God&quot; - in just the same way as David's did Because God displays His righteousness every time He justifies a repentant sinner, He is in a sense making Himself yet more righteous. We must see things from God's perspective, from the standpoint of giving glory to God's righteous attributes. If we do this, then we can see through the ugliness of sin, and come to terms with our transgressions the more effectively. And Paul quotes David's sin with Bathsheba as our supreme example in this. We along with all the righteous ought to &ldquo;shout for joy&rdquo; that David really was forgiven (Ps. 32:11)- for there is such hope for us now. David is our example. And yet the intensity of David&rsquo;s repentance must be ours. He hung his head as one in whose mouth there were no more arguments, hoping only in the Lord&rsquo;s grace (Ps. 38:14 RVmg.). Notice too how Ps. 51:1 &ldquo;Have mercy on me, O God&hellip;&rdquo; is quoted by the publican in Lk. 18:13. He felt that David&rsquo;s prayer and situation was to be his. And he is held up as the example for each of us.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>What shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visits with anger? (I speak after the manner of men)</i><i>-</i> &ldquo;Visits with anger&rdquo; is another legal term, &lsquo;to judicially afflict&rsquo;. God would not be and is not wrong to press the case against our sin to its final term- vengeance, wrath, as will be seen at the final judgment. Would He be wrong to do this to us? Of course not.&nbsp;</p>