Romans
A COMMENTARY ON THE
New Testament Epistles
BY
DAVID LIPSCOMB
EDITED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES,
BY
J. W. SHEPHERD
VOLUME I
Second Edition--Revised and Enlarged
Romans
COPYRIGHT BY
GOSPEL ADVOCATE COMPANY
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
1943
ORIGIN OF THE ROMAN CHURCH
Nothing whatever is said in the Scripture concerning the origin of the church at Rome, and we have no means of knowing at what precise time the gospel first gained a footing there. It would seem, however, to have been many years before the date of this Epistle, for Paul writes to the Christians there as if they had been long established in the truth of the gospel, for he says that their “faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:8), and that their “obedience is come abroad unto all men” (Romans 16:19), and he tells them that he had for many years been longing to come unto them (Romans 1:13; Romans 15:23). These things point to a church of no recent origin.
It seems quite probable from the mention of “sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes” (Acts 2:10), being in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, who evidently from their mention here joined with the multitude in the exclamation, “We hear them speaking in our tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11)—that such, being “devout men,” would speak when they returned to Rome of what they had seen and heard; and so a church would be formed there very soon after their return. This conclusion is confirmed by Tacitus in his account of Nero’s persecution of the Christians. He says: “The name was derived from Christ, who in the reign of—Tiberius suffered under Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea. By that event the sect of which he was the founder received a blow which for a time checked the growth of a dangerous superstition; but it revived soon after, and spread with recruited vigor not only in Judea, the soil which gave it birth, but even in the city of Rome, the common sink into which everything infamous and abominable flows like a torrent from all quarters of the world.” (“Annals,” xv. 44).
Rome being the center of the then known world and having intercourse with all Greece and the shores of the Mediterranean, many Greeks and inhabitants of Asia and Syria, who had become obedient to the gospel under the preaching of Paul, or those who had worked with him, seem to have made a concerted movement to go to Rome and preach the gospel to this capital city of the world.
AUTHORSHIP
The title of the Epistle in the oldest manuscripts is simply, “To the Romans,” but the first word in the Epistle itself names Paul as its author. Neither the Judaizing sects of old, who rejected the Pauline Epistles, nor the skeptical critics of modern times have doubted this. From the apostolic age to the present time it has been referred to and quoted by a regular series of authors, and recognized as his genuine production and of divine authority.
The passages in the early writers, in which the Epistle is alluded to or cited, are very numerous, and may be read in Lardner’s “Credibility,” Volume 2, page 3. The internal evidence is no less decisive in its favor. It is evidently the production of a Jew, familiar with the Hebrew text and the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, because the language and style are such as no one, not thus circ*mstanced, could adopt, and because the whole Epistle evinces such an intimate acquaintance with Jewish opinions and prejudices, and Paul certainly possessed this information.
OCCASION OF WRITING.
The immediate occasion is clearly stated by Paul himself. He had heard of the faith of the Roman Christians everywhere spoken of (Romans 1:8), and for many years had felt a longing desire to visit them (Romans 1:11; Romans 15:23); he had definitely proposed to do so (Romans 1:13), and had as often been hindered (Romans 15:22). While at Ephesus, a year before, he had “purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have taken there, I must also see Rome.” (Acts 19:21). He had completed that portion of his journey which brought him nearest to Rome, and was now turning back from Corinth to Jerusalem, bound in spirit, and already foreseeing that danger awaited him there from the unbelieving Jews. (Romans 15:31). He still longs and hopes to see Rome (Romans 1:10), but already he is looking beyond them to Spain. Rome is to be, as he hopes, a resting place on his way to Spain. (Romans 15:24; Romans 15:28).
The cause of this change of his plan is not stated, but it probably was caused from the great conflict of the preceding year against Jews and Judaizing Christians, the records of which are in his Epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians. Hitherto he had preached the gospel everywhere to the Jews first, but their general rejection of it was now an established fact (Romans 9:1-3; Romans 10:3), over which he mourned, but in which he saw an intimation of God’s will that he should now devote himself more extensively to his own sphere of apostolic labor, and go far off unto the Gentiles (Acts 15; Acts 26:17).
His visit to Jerusalem with the offering of the Gentile Christians would consume considerable time, and other obstacles might arise which would further delay his arrival; so he writes this Epistle both to give in writing what he would have announced to them orally and to pave the way for those personal labors he hoped to put forth among them in the future.
PLACE OF COMPOSITION
At the time the Epistle was written Paul was on the eve of journeying to Jerusalem with the offering made by the churches in Macedonia and Achaia for the poor saints. (Romans 15:25-27). His intention was to journey thence by way of Rome to Spain (Romans 15:28; Acts 19:21), which points to his last three months in Achaia (Acts 20:3). His purpose was to cross over directly from Achaia in order to reach Jerusalem, but he was led, owing to Jewish plots, to go through Macedonia. (Acts 20:3). This change in the plan of his journey had not been made when he wrote this Epistle; otherwise he would not have failed to mention it.
Although Luke mentions no particular city as the scene of Paul’s three months’ residence at that time, still it is most likely that he spent the greater part of the time at Corinth; for at Corinth was the principal church of that region, and in his eyes pre-eminently important and precious on account of his earlier labors there. But our attention is also directed to Corinth by what is said in the Corinthian letters (1 Corinthians 16:1-7; 2 Corinthians 9:4; 2 Corinthians 12:20 to 2 Corinthians 13:3), from which it is certain that he had chosen that city as the place of his sojourn when he wished to complete the business of the collection, and from which he would carry it to Jerusalem.
This conclusion is reached from the following facts: (1) The bearer of the letter was Phoebe, an active member of the church at Cenchrea, the seaport town of Corinth (Romans 16:1). (2) At the time of writing, Paul was a guest of Gaius (Romans 16:23), whom he had baptized at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:14). (3) He sends greetings also from “Erastus the treasurer of the city.” (Romans 16:23). The way this is mentioned points to “the city” as of considerable importance. This would point to Corinth, and at Corinth we learn that Erastus was left behind on Paul’s latest journey. (2 Timothy 4:20).
TIME OF COMPOSITION.
From the facts already enumerated it is quite certain that this Epistle was written during the time Paul spent at Corinth while on his third missionary journey, and in order to ascertain the date of writing it is necessary to know the date of that visit. As a starting point, we take AD 52, the date of the decree of Claudius Caesar banishing the Jews from Rome. Aquila and Priscilla had already reached Corinth after that decree, and Paul dwelt with them a year and six months. (Acts 18:11). He could not likely have left there before the spring of 54. Boarding a ship at Cenchrea, he sailed for Syria (Acts 18:18) by way of Ephesus and Caesarea. At Ephesus he made a short stop, and, leaving Aquila and Priscilla there, proceeded thence to Caesarea, and, landing, “he went up and saluted the church, and went down to Antioch,” and “spent some time there” (Acts 18:22-23), before he started on his third tour.
It must have been in the spring of 55 when he started. Passing through Galatia and Phrygia, he came to Ephesus (Acts 18:23; Acts 19:1-4), where he remained “two years,” “three months,” “a while” (Acts 19:8; Acts 19:10; Acts 19:21-22). All these periods seem to be distinct and successive. He could not have left Ephesus earlier than the spring of 57. He spent the following summer in Macedonia and Achaia (Acts 20:1), and came into Greece, where he “spent three months” (Acts 20:2-3). His abode of three months there most likely began about the close of 57, and would consequently end in the early part of 58. When he left Corinth, the winter was past, for he proposed to go by sea (Acts 20:3) ; but the spring could not have been far advanced, for he hoped “to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost” (Acts 20:16). It was, therefore, in the winter or early spring of 58 that the Epistle was written.
AN ESTIMATE OF PAUL’S CHARACTER AND WORK.
The characteristics of Paul were a keen and quick conscientiousness that demanded first of all what is right, then a self-sacrificing devotion to the right that led him to do what he regarded as right, let it cost what it might in labor or suffering. These were his marked qualities before his conversion. They were broadened and strengthened by his faith in Christ until he seems to have been filled with an ambition to suffer like Christ for the salvation of the world. His life was one of labor, self-denial, and suffering. Of his detractors he said: “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches.” (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).
He was not only more abundant in labors and sufferings in traveling and preaching the gospel, but he wrote more of the New Testament than any other writer. Fourteen Epistles— Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews—are attributed to him. The Second Epistle to Timothy was written from Rome during his second imprisonment under a strong feeling that the time for his execution was nigh, and we are not left to conjecture the feelings with which he awaited this consummation, for he expresses them in this sublime strain of triumphant hope: “For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Notwithstanding his life of labor and suffering and his approaching martyrdom, he felt that his life was one of triumphant glory, and that he would be rewarded with a crown of immortality.
[How little did men recognize his greatness! Here is one to whom no single man that has ever lived, before or since, can furnish a perfect parallel. If we look at him only as a writer, how immensely does he surpass, in his most casual Epistles, the greatest authors of all ages! If we look at the Christian world, the very greatest worker in each realm of Christian service does but present an inferior aspect of one phase only of Paul’s many-sided pre-eminence. If we look at him as a moral reformer, we may compare him with the greatest one of them; but in his practical control of even the most thrilling impulses—in making the spirit of the prophet subject to the prophet—how grand an exemplar might he not have furnished to the most impassioned of them! But no other servant of God has ever attained the same heights in so many capacities, or borne in his mortal body such evident brand marks of the Lord. In his lifetime he was not behind the very chiefest of the apostles, and he towers above the very greatest of all the servants of God who have since striven to follow the example of his devotion to his Lord.]
Study #1 by R.C. Bell
Though Romans was written near the close of Paul’s missionary ministry, reasonably, because of its being a fuller and more systematic discussion of the fundamentals of Christianity than the other Epistles of the New Testament, it is placed before them. Paul’s earliest writings, the Thessalonian letters, written some five years before Romans, reasonably, because they feature Christ’s second coming and the end of the age, are placed, save the Pastoral Epistles and Philemon, last of his fourteen Epistles. If Mordecai, with-out explicit evidence, believed it was like God to have Esther on the throne at a most crucial time (Esther 4:14), why should it be "judged incredible" that God had some-thing to do with this arrangement of his Bible?
The theme of the Bible from Eden onward is the redemption of fallen man. Romans begins at man’s end of this long, difficult way up from darkness to light, and portrays him as "having no hope and without God in the world." Ephesians begins at God’s end, and declares that in past eternity before the foundation of the world, God purposed and planned to descend to earth as man that he might re-deem man from ruin. Both of these ends are found in both books, but each book treats one of them with special em-phasis. In both books, God and man starting, so to speak, from their opposite ends meet in Christ, the God-man.
Commendations
Biblical scholars have heaped many tributes on Romans. Martin Luther wrote: "This Epistle is of the New Testament, the purest gospel. The more time one spends on it, the more precious it becomes." Luther’s English contemporary, William Tyndale, ninety per cent of whose translation of the Bible was incorporated nearly a century later into our King James Version, said: "No man verily can read it too much, or study it too well . . . The more it is chewed the pleasanter it is, . . . so great treasure of spiritual things lieth hid therein." Coleridge, poet, philosopher, theologian, regarded it "the profoundest book in existence." Codet called it "The greatest masterpiece ever conceived and realized by the human mind." David Bacon wrote "The faith of Christendom in its best periods has been more indebted to this Epistle than to any other portion of the Living Oracles." F. W. Farrar: "It is unquestionably the clearest and fullest statement of the doctrines of sin and deliverance from it, as held by the greatest of the apostles." These enconiums are cited to show what learned, pious men have thought of Romans, and perchance thereby to whet our appetites for its study. Undoubtedly, the roots of the Protestant Reformation grew up out of the deep, rich soil of Romans and Galatians.
If gifted, godly men over the centuries have found matter and inspiration for deep, prolonged study of Romans, the book must merit, require, and reward such study. It is not a book to be only tasted, or hastily swallowed: it is a book to be "chewed and digested." It cannot be read as mere pastime; it is not designed to be a substitute for a game of canasta, or an after-dinner cigar. Romans is meant for serious, eager, earnest students of the deepest and the high-est things in life--things "that do often lie too deep for tears."
Methods
About fifty-five years ago, I was a member of a small class in the old Nashville Bible School, studying Romans under James A. Harding. As our final examination, we were seated in a row on the stage of the little chapel one night to repeat from memory, each student a verse at a time, round and round the class (In such manner classes recited the multiplication table in those days as some of my readers recall, "If they be willing to testify"), the entire book before a room full of listeners. I memorized the words of Romans in that class, but most of what I know of its teachings has been learned since. At the same time, I had a class, which required no memory work, under David Lips-comb. While in these classes, I thought a combination of the two methods would be an improvement on either method. A little later when I began to teach Bible myself, I used Harding’s way for a few years more than Lipscomb’s. Gradually, however, as my grasp of the principles of the Bible as a whole grew clearer and firmer, I swung toward Lipscomb’s method, and probably went too far before my retirement.
For nearly thirty years, some periods rather intensely, I have been studying Romans that I might teach and prac-tice its great doctrines more effectively. I now have a class studying the book each Sunday morning in the College Church. In this series of essays just beginning in the Firm Foundation, I hope to use what I have gleaned from com-mentaries and all other sources. Since I have class notes, accumulated over the years, some of which do not always adequately indicate quoted material, I shall sometimes be unable to give credit where it is due. I am profoundly grateful for all the helps to which I have had access, how-ever, and when possible and helpful shall be happy to give credit for quotations.
General Survey of Romans
Theme: Christian Philosophy
1. Philosophy of Christian Birth. Romans 1-5. Condemnation and Justification
2. Philosophy of Christian Maturity. Romans 6-8. Sanctification and Glorification
3. Philosophy of Christian History. Romans 9-11. God created Christianity, past, present, and future, according to his sovereign will and grace, for man’s salvation and his own glory.
4. Philosophy of Christian Behavior. Romans 12-16. Relationship of Christians to the church, to the world, to the state, and to fellow Christians.
Although this skeletal outline is very inadequate, it gives an airplane view of the entire book, which will be a good guide in our study, and help keep truth in perspective. God grant that our walk with each other, and with him, through this grand "Cathedral of Christian Truth" may prove to be electrifying and sublimating to us all for time and for eternity.
Questions
1. What is the general theme of the Bible as a whole
2. State the difference in method between Romans and Ephesians of handling this theme.
3. Suggest a reason for placing Romans, in order of arrangement, the first of New Testament Epistles.
4. What does the fact that many a learned and pious man has spent many years eagerly studying Romans imply?
5. What end does a skeletal outline of a book serve a student of the book?
6. What four subjects, according to our outline, does Romans develop?
7. If you had an opportunity to choose between possessing a "good memory" or a cogent reasoning faculty, which would you choose?
Study #2 – R.C. Bell
Paul’s salutation to the church in Rome, one long sentence of seven verses, is his longest and richest salutation. It sweeps a vast horizon and contains much fundamental Christian truth. First, Paul himself is Christ’s love-slave and apostle, "Separated unto the gospel of God," which ful-fills all scriptural Messianic prophecy. Christ’s created human life is of David’s lineage; of his untreated divine life it is witnessed: "In the beginning was the Word . . .and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Some think that "the spirit of holiness" refers to the Holy Spirit, but it seems that Paul is thinking of Christ’s dual nature--his humanity and his deity. Christ is neither Deity diluted to humanity, nor humanity exalted to Deity. His superhuman power over death, particularly his own unique resurrection declares him "to be the Son of God with power."
The salutatory sentence closes with Paul’s usual, "Grace to you and peace from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Grace the root and peace the fruit of Christianity. This is Paul’s salutation in eleven of his epistles. His two letters to Timothy add "mercy" to make the triad, "grace, mercy, peace." Hebrews has no salutation, but it closes with Paul’s uniform, "Grace be with you," an ending only by Paul and John in Revelation. In this earnest, purpose-ful manner, as befits a servant of Christ, Paul addresses the church in imperial Rome.
Personal Matters
(Romans 1:8-16)
As these verses are largely personal, to begin with, Paul fittingly, in the words, "First, I thank my God," shows that God is very individual and personal to him. Every Christian should meaningly say, "My God." As a Roman citizen, Paul knew that the life of the Roman Empire, comparable in area to our United States, was but the pulse beat of its capital city, Rome, "The mistress of the world." After planning for years to see Rome, his plans, even as the plans of other men, so far had gone awry still, he hoped "by the will of God" to visit them. He was too good a general and statesman not to consolidate, by building a strong, Christian citadel in Pagan Rome, what had been captured from "The prince of this world." He was pining to impart "some spiritual gift" to them, and to edify and establish them. In transparent sincerity, and with consummate tact, relative to his visit, he writes: "That I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine." Thus, we see that a gifted, spiritual man, realizing that he owes everything to God’s grace, can be gracious with his brethren. Is it not good that diversities among members of the church are such that no member is either so strong or so weak that he may not both edify and be edified?
Paul felt that since he was born in debt to God (Galatians 1:15), and that since he had been entrusted with the universal gospel, he was debtor to God and to all men no matter what their race, language, mental ability, culture or religion. He knew that humanity was one, and had one corrupt heart, which only the gospel could purify. Judging from what he writes, we wonder if godless pride, the rudi-mentary sin of angels and men, which later grew to such huge proportions in Rome, was not already so working that they felt peeved at his prolonged absence. Were they saying that he was ashamed to come to Rome with the cross, "the emblem of suffering and shame" and weakness? In any event, in harmony with the universality of the gospel, Paul, a Jew, writes in Greek to Romans: "As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel."
Instead of being ashamed of the gospel, Paul "despising shame" as had done his Master, gloried in it. He had seen and felt its power; it could snatch others, as it had snatched him, from eternal night. It was nothing to be ashamed of, or distrusted, anywhere it could do something for Rome which her wealth, culture, and world-wide law and power had not done, and could never do. Paul always lived as he later wrote: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord" (2 Timothy 1:7-8). No. Christians are neither ashamed of, nor a shame to, the gospel. In this manner, Paul por-trays himself to be a thankful, prayerful, purposeful, honor-able (feels his debt), energetic, humble, brave man.
"A Righteousness of God"
Romans is an exposition of, "It (the gospel) is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth . . . For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith." A study of only three key terms is now possible.
First, the gospel salvation is good news from abroad. That is, it is not founded on man’s doing; it is God’s achievement and revelation, not man’s invention and attainment. It is not primarily good advice, of which the world is full; or lessons to be learned from Christ’s life; far more and far deeper than these, it is life through his death. It is certainly not bad news to be feared and spurned, but un-speakably good news that just anybody, even "a nobody," can hear.
Second, righteousness. The Greek word translated "righteousness" may mean either righteousness or justification. The several times the phrase, "Righteousness of God," ap-pears in Romans, the context plainly requires the meaning God’s way of making sinners righteousness-- that is, God’s justifying righteousness, or practical justification. "God’s righteousness," meaning an attribute of God’s personal character, is found twice in Romans 3. The correct interpretation of "A righteousness of God," as found in this verse, is, I think, God’s personal righteousness in action, resulting in the justification of sinners.
Third, believeth. God, who "abideth faithful" (2 Timothy 2:13), provides righteousness and promises to make it over to men on condition, not of law and self-righteousness as they expect, but on the condition of faith. "Righteousness which is of the law" and "Righteousness which is from God by faith" are thrown into sharpest contrast in Philippians 3:9. It must never be forgot, however, that "faith apart from works (of obedience) is dead" (James 2:26), as the phrase "obedience of faith," found twice in Romans makes plain. The expression, "from faith unto faith," a moot Scripture, means, I think, that the faithful God so designed and created the gospel that on the human side, it must be-gin in the principle of self-emptying faith rather than in human wisdom and worth; so made it that it can be re-vealed only "unto faith" that is, only to men who have faith; or only "to every one that believeth." Instead of the Old Testament opposing this, it supports the doctrine is is evident from, "The righteous shall live (be made to live) by faith," not works (Habakkuk 2:4).
Questions
1. According to Romans 1, is the relationship between the Old Testa-ment and the New Testament one of conflict or continuity
2. Comment upon Christ’s dual nature.
3. Why did Paul so much wish to visit Rome?
4. Why was Paul not ashamed of the gospel?
5. Why is Christian salvation such universal good news
6. Comment upon the meaning of the phrase, "A righteousness of God," as it is used in Romans.
7. What is the difference between a righteousness which is of the law and a righteousness which is of faith?
Study #3 – R.C. Bell
Paul’s readiness to go to Rome is in marked contrast with Moses’ unreadiness to go to Egypt. Moses, even after his "heavenly vision" at the bush and other miracles, reluctant to undertake freeing the Hebrews from bondage, multiplied excuses that God became angry with him whereas Paul, "obedient unto the heavenly vision," which he saw near Damascus, asked at once, "What shall I do, Lord?" After Moses had timidly taken up the task, and after his first attempt had but increased the miseries of the slaves, how he complained against God! with his wail "Lord, why hast thou sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath dealt ill with this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all" (Exodus 5:22-23). How does this compare with Paul’s, "I am ready?" or with his, "But thanks be to God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ?" As natural men, both Paul and Moses were very superior. The chief difference between them was in their religion--the difference between the law and the gospel. Paul was "in Christ." Inasmuch as Romans makes much of this difference further on, study of the matter is deferred until later.
"The Wrath of God"
Centuries after God had said he could "by no means clear the guilty (impenitent sinners)" (Exodus 34:7), he re-affirms his unchanging nature in the statement, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18). Ungodliness and un-righteousness are terrible opposites of the two tables of the Decalogue, and of Christ’s double commandment (Love for God and love for man) upon which "The whole law hangeth and the prophets" (Matthew 22:40).
God’s wrath is no mere sentimental passion; it is his eternal, legal, judicial decree against lawlessness. It is as inherent in and as essential to his nature as is love; indeed, love and wrath are the poles of God’s holiness. Of Christ, it is written: "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity" (Hebrews 1:9). God abhors sin worse than a very temperamental musician abhors discord. God’s love does not violate equity; the hand that offers forgiveness must dispense justice as well. "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne" (Psalms 89:14). Without stern aspects, nothing loftier than facile good nature and guilty indifference to sin is possible. In maintaining moral order in the universe, God’s wrath is inevitable and inexorable. God’s wrath is God’s love smitten with a dreadful sorrow--his love in agony. A mother loves a good son in joy; she loves a bad son with a love that hurts. So God. He is the God of both Esau and Jacob. Goethe said that were he God, sin would break his heart.
Should God clear the guilty, would not he himself break the deepest moral law? The divine love and law at the heart of the universe are stern, splendid things--deep and tragic. God is good, but he is not goody-goody. He has irrevocably decreed that "The wages of sin is death," and as long as he reigns wilful sinners must pay and pay both before and after death. Were it otherwise, God would be a God, not to love and trust, but to fear and dread. May it not be said that the wrath of God is his righteousness apart from Christ?
Responsibility of the Heathen
In unfolding the philosophy of Christianity, Paul begins by showing that all men, Gentile and Jew alike, are "by nature, children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3), under condemnation, "fitted unto destruction." This makes sense, for unless men are universally condemned, to provide universal salvation would be as useless as to build a great bridge where there were no river to cross.
Romans 1:18-32 concerns the responsibility, guilt and punishment of heathen Gentiles. Paul argues that visible things in nature since the creation of the world are proof of God’s invisible attributes, "even his everlasting power and divinity." Instead of this Scripture teaching that the divine unity, almighty power, and infinite goodness and faithfulness of the Creator as seen in nature are sufficient and final for all of man’s religious needs, it teaches that man, created in the likeness of God, has lying at a deeper level than his susceptibility to nature, a spiritual nature and conscience, fitted to hear God’s moral voice as is his ear to hear sound, and that, therefore, he should be thank-ful for, but not satisfied with, nature and consequently follow on, .ever seeking more of God’s invisible traits. If men, being what they are and seeing what they see, so constituated and so circ*mstanced, do not glorify and thank God, it is because they "hinder the truth in unrighteous-ness’ and insincerity. Truth that is not lived out honestly in the life cannot continue to live in the mind.
Man’s moral nature is the basis of all religion. His capacity for discerning God, more than any other human gift, distinguishes him from the animals. In fact, this is the only absolutely differentiating faculty, for animals, though they are not qualified for religious experience, do in a measure feel, remember, and think. Without this human endowment, men could never receive either law or gospel from God. But they are born immutably religious. The most benighted peoples of today have a concept of a supreme deity, and of immortality; they have moral standards, which none of them profess to attain. Hence, their altars, priests, and sin offerings. Whether Paul preached to barbarians at Lystra (Acts 14), or to Greek philosophers at Athens (Acts 17), he preached primarily to their con-science, for it is God’s point of personal contact with his human creatures.
Men who refuse to acknowledge their knowledge of God, close the two eyes (worship and praise) for seeing and knowing God better, and turn their back on light to walk in their own shadow are "without excuse" for their ignorance and sin. Of course, inasmuch as fidelity to opportunity is the measure of responsibility, if they had never had any knowledge of God, their status would be different. But, if rejecting even what is revealed of God in creation and conscience does not make men inexcusably guilty, Romans 1 has no meaning. Verily, sin is not a chance, but a choice. Moreover, that God from the very first supplemented this rudimental testimony with personal instruction and communion emphasizes God’s fidelity and man’s infidelity. For one to remember that Lamech, Noah’s father, was born before Adam died makes him won-der if the flood might not have been averted by oral teach-ing and tradition. Nature reasons well in her domain, but in the higher domain of personal, maturing religion, she must be content to be only handmaid.
Questions
1. Account for the fact that Paul was a much more confident, ready man than was Moses.
2. Account for the fact that man is the only animal that has direct, moral responsibility before God.
3. May men without the Bible learn enough about God from nature and their conscience, if they do not glorify and praise him, to condemn them
4. According to Romans 1, sketch the origin and development of idolatry.
5. Explain how God punishes sin with sin.
6. How is it that God’s love and God’s wrath are compatible
7. Are men in heathen lands today lost primarily because they do not know Christ the Savior
Study #4 – R.C. Bell
God’s justifying righteousness is revealed only in the gospel of Christ. But from the creation, his wrath "against all ungodliness and righteousness" has been revealed in various ways. Because they work against the grain of eternal truth and law, sinners always encounter the wrath of God. "Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). When Eve and Adam disobeyed the law of God, they were denied access to the tree of life, and consequently became subject to death. Their posterity became more and more lawless until God in righteous wrath destroyed the world of law breakers in the flood. Only a few centuries after the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah became so lawless that God consumed them with fire. All secular history agrees with Biblical history that lawlessness leads to ruin. In fact, secular history, when we climb high enough to read it correctly, is a continued story of God’s wrath against sin, demonstrated over the earth in disorder, disease, decay, and death. "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). Moreover, man’s conscience tells him that sin deserves punishment. But the climax of the revelation of God’s penal wrath against sin is the cross of Christ.
"They Became Fools"
Through physical nature, human nature, and personal revelation combined, God sufficiently revealed himself to primitive men to test their attitude toward him. The test proved them to be so ungrateful, irreverent, and self-sufficient that they thought they could get along better without him. They did not discard God because of a lack of knowledge, but because their affections did not keep pace with their knowledge. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Nothing can so warp reason, darken the "senseless heart," demoralize the whole man, and defeat known truth as do depraved affections, perverted will, and corrupted life. What men love influences their lives and destinies more than does what they know. Made in the like-ness of God, designed to be dependent on God, and required, "having heard the word, (to) hold it fast . . . in an honest and good heart," man is verily a presumptuous fool to think that apart from. God he can live morally any more than he can physically. When men think that human wisdom is supreme, they have reached the pinnacle of folly.
Satan’s lie to Eve, "Ye shall not surely die," but "Ye shall he as God," by convincing her that the forbidden fruit held the key to some knowledge which God had no right to withhold from her so shattered her confidence in her Maker that she spurned creatural faith, and deified herself. Her disloyalty was the very essence of sin, for "sin is lawlessness;" her relationship to God became ungodly. Men must accept the distance between Creator and creature, or else they die. In both nature and religion, they live by faith, and must allow God to know some "secret things" (Deuteronomy 29:29), which he withholds from them for their good. Since "Now we see in a mirror, darkly," and "know in part," only (1 Corinthians 13:12), we must trust God to be in-fallibly strong, wise, and good. From the creation until today, mankind has been allergic to all such "forbidden fruit."
With Romans 1 declaring that heathen peoples are responsible, reprehensible, and reprobate, who can declare them innocent? Of course, they are not guilty because they do not accept Christ of whom they have never heard, but because they lack moral integrity, and fail to use the knowledge they do have. They are not expected to know the Trinity, but the Godhead. Monotheism was the primeval religion, and got the start of polytheism. The Bible makes no mention of idolatry before the flood. Joshua’s farewell ad-dress to the Hebrews, warning them that their ancestors worshiped idols, is its first mention. Instead of man struggling slowly up out of savagery, he from the beginning struggled against God, and consequently fell into savagery. if man has the principle of organic evolution inherent with him, and if he had evolved much by Paul’s day, why have not heathen people continued to evolve since then? If man has ascended from the beasts, why are heathens today sub-bestial in some respects, especially in their nauseating abuse of sex? "What fools these mortals be" (Shakespeare’s Puck).
"God Gave Them Up"
After men and women gave God up, God in retributive wrath "gave them up . . . that their bodies should be dis-honored among themselves." The moral world is so constituted that renouncing God is self-avenging. By dishonoring God, men dishonor themselves mind and heart (Romans 1:21) and body (Romans 1:24). According to this chapter, God punished idolatry in descending steps, avenging sin with sin. Since men by nature must worship, when they ceased to worship God, they worshipped "an image of corruptible man." Then follow abominable, elaborate systems of worshipping images "of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" (Romans 1:23). The Apollo of Greece, the eagle of Rome, the cow of Egypt, and the serpent of Assyria are all here. The boasted wisdom of the Euphrates and the Nile, and the proud learning of Hellas and Rome are summarily dis-missed with a word--"learned ignorance." In this down-ward plunge, unnatural prostitution became prevalent, all restraint of animal passions being lost, and finally moral distinctions were obliterated and all ethical codes and "natural affections" were violated (Romans 1:28-32).
This snapshot of heathen life shows man helplessly wal-lowing in the filth of the flesh, reconciled to his own sin and encouraging sin in others, although he knows both his sin and his death sentence. Such men are already in the suburbs of hell. When God gives men up, what may they not become! None of the purity and goodness now on earth is due, primarily, to human nature. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6), and Romans 1 shows what the flesh is.
Is it not fair to judge God by what happens to men who respectively obey or disobey him? If his friends are not blessed above his foes, is he not a fake? That Paul’s picture of lust-sick, sin-sunk heathenry is still true, not a color too dark, is granted by all who know heathenry first hand. As he was in Corinth, notorious throughout the Roman Empire for its hideous social vices, when he painted it, he had not far to seek his colors. It faithfully portrays the world Christ came to save. Any religious message that does not begin with man’s ruin and deep, hopeless need is not from God. Of all religions, only Christianity, because it has the specific for sin, does not minimize sin.
Questions
1. What does God’s definition of sin, namely, "Sin is lawlessness," reveal the nature of sin to be?
2. Is it true that human apostasy began in the love of forbidden knowledge and continues in the love of forbidden ignorance (John 3:19)
3. Does what men know, or what they love, more influence their life and destiny?
4. What is the summit of human folly?
5. Why was the Flood in Noah’s generation a moral necessity?
6. Judging by what a religion, or a philosophy, does for men, how does pure Christianity compare with other religions and philosophies?
7. With this divinely painted picture of the fleshly man in Romans 1 before him, can anyone have "confidence in the flesh," and in human righteousness and goodness?
Study #5—R.C. Bell
Atheistic historians know that after nations flourish for a time they decay and die to be supplanted by other nations. Though these historians know that the clock of civilization runs down periodically, they do not know the real cause of its so doing. Superficially and little to the point, they talk about "a natural moral balance" that must be maintained, meaning that, when the immorality and corruption of a race ends in racial extermination, a more wholesome race takes its place to restore, temporarily, "a natural moral balance." Following this cycle, authorities say that a score of civilizations have perished.
Only historians who believe the Bible can know that the appalling pagan morals described in Romans 1 and this flux of civilization are the result of God’s wrath against men who "refuse to have God in their knowledge." To believers, faced with general biblical teaching such as, "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the lowest of men" (Daniel 4:17) and such as, God "made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation" (Acts 17:26); and faced with the particular examples of the Noachic flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and many similar things, the conclusion is inescapable that God deals personally with individuals and with nations, both for blessing and for cursing.
Inasmuch as all nations that dishonor God go the same route, the fate that has always overtaken godless nations must befall modern nations (nay, is already befalling them), for they are drifting away from God and his word. Many of the shocking, abhorrent sins of the flesh, which Paul says are an outpouring of God’s holy wrath upon those who reject him, are not strangers in America today, even in some of her churches and institutions of so-called higher learning. And of course the defaulting nation with the most light is the most culpable.
Humanity on Probation
If Psalms 115:16, "The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah; but the earth hath he given to the children of men," seems to teach that man alone is responsible for earthly history, Psalms 103:19, "Jehovah hath established his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all," expands the former truth into the fuller truth that God from heaven "ruleth in the kingdom of men." Man is God’s responsible, probational steward of earth, and must account for his trust.
Within the framework of God’s will, man has a certain freedom. God will not and Satan cannot invade and violate human freedom in the crucial choice of a man’s entire life, namely, the master whom he will serve. Since man is under compulsion to decide between the mutually exclusive God and Satan, he is not as free as some think. With this choice, his liberty ends, for God controls the issue. That a man after choosing to put his hand into fire can, then, choose to escape injury is no more false than that he after choosing to sow to flesh can, then, choose to escape corruption. "God is not mocked" in either nature or religion. Only when the initial choice can be changed, can the issue be changed. Without man’s consent and cooperation, even God, during the period of probation, will not change the direction of earthly history. Man has been given the initiative of action on earth, and must answer to God for what happens. Man’s fidelity as God’s steward is the very quintessence of an orderly, moral world.
God’s Judgment of His Steward
The proud, sensorious Jews heartily approved the condemnation of the Gentiles recorded in Romans 1, but they did not realize that they themselves also stood condemned. Therefore Paul begins in Romans 2 an argument, which runs through Romans 3:20, to convince them that they are even more guilty than are the despised, abominable Gentiles. To avoid unnecessarily arousing their pride and prejudice, he gradually approaches his frontal attack upon their empty pretentions and bigotry. From this tactical approach (Romans 2:1-16), we get our fullest and profoundest knowledge concerning God’s judgment of Christless men of all time. In it are found the four fixed principles upon which this judgment rests.
The first principle is, God judges "according to truth." To Paul, this principle is self-evident; hence he makes no effort to prove it. God’s estimate of men depends upon their moral fidelity, integrity, and reality, according to enlightenment, not upon their rituals and pretentions. Obviously, Paul has the Jews in mind, and is warning them against storing up wrath for themselves "in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God," by, instead of being led to repentance by God’s goodness, hardening themselves against it.
The second principle is, "God will render to every man according to his works." Another axiomatic truth. On the basis of works, men fall into only two groups, namely, well-doers and evil-doers. The former choose God and receive his reward; the latter reject God and receive his curse. To God human works are either white or black, not differ-ent shades of gray. If Paul seems here to favor salvation by works, wait till you hear his whole argument. But mark well that the judgment unto condemnation of these verses does justly turn on human character.
The third principle is, "There is no respect of persons with God." That is. God’s judgment ignores incidentals of birth, such as race, caste, and culture. This is not so self-evident; therefore Paul lingers for a few verses to argue the point. He shows the Jews that, if they are safe before God merely because they possess his law, the Gentiles are equally safe, because they too by nature possess God’s law. This proves too much for the Jews. Thus, Paul adroitly turns the Jews against themselves, makes them ridiculous, and hopes thereby to get an honest hearing for the re-mainder of his honest argument.
The fourth principle is, "God shall judge the secrets of men." Christ the appointed Judge says: "There is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known" (Luke 12:2). Recall that while Christ lived among men, he often surprised them by revealing their inmost thoughts, for "He himself knew what was in man" (John 2:25). Every hypocrite is to be exposed, every slandered innocent is to be vindicated, and every dark thought is to be dragged out into light. And this is the test each of God’s stewards, ancient and modern, unless he has the Christ as Pleader, must pass with a perfect score to escape condemnation. "Think on these things," my readers.
Questions
1. In what sense is the human race God’s steward?
2. Why does the clock of human civilization periodically run down?
3. Is a man compelled to choose between God and Satan as his master
4. What limitation on a man’s freedom does becoming Satan’s servant impose?
5. Why and how does Paul shift the discussion from Gentiles to Jews at the beginning of Romans 2?
6. State the four universal principles upon which God judges, or tests, men regardless of race, caste, and culture.
7. What chance do Christless men have of passing this test
Study #6—R.C. Bell
According to Paul, the alphabet of all moral and religious truth and life lies within the human soul. How could men without natural "conscience . . . accusing or else excusing them" (Romans 2:15) be responsible, moral beings?
Conscience is one of man’s built-in faculties. It is his innate consciousness that he should be honest with himself. Its office is to see that he does what he thinks he ought to do and refrains from what he thinks he ought not to do. It is the very core of his moral being, and, being infallible and final in its domain, it must be respected. One who is willing to disobey his conscience is willing to be a sinner whom neither law nor gospel can reach. For a man to trifle with his conscience is to sin against his very soul.
It is possible for one through lack of knowledge to do dastardly deeds in good conscience. Paul himself is the classic example of this major tragedy. Despite his persecuting the church before his conversion, he said some twenty years after that event: "I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day" (Acts 23:1). Paul’s con-science worked as well before as after he became a Christian, therefore needed no change at his conversion. How-ever, not being legislative, but regulative of conduct; the conscience can neither make law nor alter truth. Does a child’s conscientiously believing that thirty inches make a yard shorten the yard? Moreover, Paul’s conscience could work only within the framework of what he knew. Doffs the conscience of a savage hurt him because he does not go to church on Sunday? When Paul learned the truth about Christ, his honest conscience made him accept Christ. To be conscientious, as noble and indispensable as it is, is not enough. Energy, piety, zeal, observing ordinances, and good-conscience all combined cannot take the place of knowledge. Though Christ forgave Paul, we gather from Paul’s writings that he could scarcely forgive himself for his ignorant, "conscientious" sin.
Conscience is an exceedingly searching and rigorous test of conduct. Both its restraining and constraining power is great. No greater terrors and tortures than the fires of a guilty conscience are known to men. But "A good con-science is the sweetest meal to which men ever sit down." In common with other delicate and valuable things, con-science is easily abused and damaged. As the compass of a ship may be so deflected by metal on board as to cause the loss of the ship, so the conscience of well-meaning men may be so deflected by tradition, prejudice, indifferent ignorance, or personal preference as to wreck a soul. Here lurks a subtle, powerful, prevalent foe. Conscience cannot be burglarized from without; nor must it be bribed by inclination from within. If conscience, the core of personal-ity, be wrong, what can be right? After searching the Bible and learning truth, "This above all: to thine own self be true."
Jewish Pride Punctured
In the second paragraph of Romans 2, Paul applies the four principles of the first paragraph upon which God judges humanity to the Jews in particular. These principles are the major premise and this second paragraph is the minor premise of the conclusion in the third chapter, namely, that every man, Gentile or Jew, is condemned by law--that is, legal justification -is an illusion.
Paul had been "a Hebrew of Hebrews" himself, and knew all about Jewish arrogance and exclusiveness. He begins by granting the Jews five real advantages (vs. 17, 18),but charges that they have perverted these advantages into racial pride and religious bigotry; and that in spite of their greater light ,as compared to Gentiles, they are guilty of the sins of heathenism. In three short, sharp questions, cracking like a whip, involving the classes of sin among the Gentiles according to chapter 1, namely idolatry, sensuality, and ethical wrongs, he indicts them, though they make high boasts of being "a light to them that are in darkness," of the same three sins, only in reverse order "Dost thou steal?" and "Dost thou commit adultery?" and "Dost thou rob temples?" To praise virtue, but practice vice always leads to the death-cell of hypocrisy. Thus, Paul convicts the Jews of being mountain climbers who cannot climb. "Josephus records much Jewish history that reads like Gentile criminality." The arrowhead of the indictment is that their transgression of the law, after their glorying in its possession so haughtily, doubly dishonors and blasphemes God before the heathen.
The Jews were so smug in their ritual and "form of knowledge and of the truth" (v. 20) that they were impervious to spiritual truth. The fact that it is all but impossible for men who are steeped in self-esteem and clothed in respectability correctly to appraise themselves explains why Paul so roundly and uncompromisingly strips the Jews of their morals and religion, and sets them among the heathen. Having corrected their error that religion is merely intellectual by declaring that it requires ethical expression, he proceeds in the last verses of the chapter to correct their error that religion is merely ritualistic by teaching that it is essentially spiritual. To be told that circumcision was useless unless they kept the law must have amazed the Jews. That circumcision was contingent on anything was a brand-new idea to them. They were dumfounded to hear that a devout Cornelius was more pleasing to God than was the impious Caiaphas; stunned that "neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God" (vs. 28, 29) insulted that circumcision "a seal of righteousness," not to be effected by a rite. The Jews must realize that where ore is mined, or who owns it, is ignored at its assay.
In this manner, Paul drives home to the Jews that they cannot pass the test of God who judges according to reality, without respect to persons, and turns one inside out down to- his deepest secrets. He would have them see that God, since his fenced vineyard has produced no better grapes than the wild land, is removing the fence. But how could mankind have ever been convinced that no choice fruit could be produced by law, had the experiment not been made?
To modernize this doctrine by substituting "baptism" or "Lord’s supper" for "circumcision," surely warns us of the perpetual danger of formality supplanting spirituality, and encourages us to be spiritual in our worship and work.
Questions
1. What is your conscience?
2. Why was Paul’s continuously unchanging "good conscience" from his youth inadequate?
3. Why is trifling with the conscience such a serious matter?
4. Why is legal justification for men impossible?
5. Give the substance of Paul’s indictment of the Jews.
6. What was his grand purpose in thus denouncing them?
7. How may the church today fall into the fatal error that characterized the Judaism of Paul’s day?
Study #7—R.C. Bell
Three questions, which Paul deems of sufficient importance to justify a suspension of his argument on universal condemnation long enough to consider, are found in Romans 3:1-8. These questions grow naturally out of Paul’s wither-ng castigation of the Jews, and should be taken as Jewish protests against his teaching. However, they involve much vital, changeless truth.
First question: If Jews are equally condemned with Gentiles, what is the profit in being a Jew? This question betrays fleshliness, for the one who asks it sees profit only in what contributes to his pride and self-importance. Paul answers that the primary advantage of the Jew is that he is "entrusted with the oracles (utterances) of God." This advantage leads into countless other advantages, several of which he names in Romans 9:4-5.
Second question: Does God’s fidelity depend upon man’s fidelity? The immediate import of this question is: since God is bound by covenant to Abraham and Moses to bless Israel, will he not violate his covenant if he condemns Jews? Therefore, unless God be a covenant-breaker, unfaithful Jews will be blessed because they are of the covenantal people. With this same old sophistry, which John the Baptist and Christ labored to correct, the Jews try to refute the charge that they are condemned. They forget that God promises to curse unfaith just as he promises to bless faith; and that fidelity to his word requires him to fulfill both promises. Paul, jealous of God’s honor, shrinks from the very thought of God’s being unfaithful in the cry, "God forbid," and quotes David to the effect that he confessed himself to be a liar that God’s justice in punishing him might be manifest. Hence, men in justifying, or excusing, their sins dishonor God!
Third question: If sin shows up God’s righteousness, is not God unrighteous in punishing sinners? This question gives Paul a chance to teach some deep moral lessons, which our modern world needs. As he has already shown the Jews that, inasmuch as Gentiles also have law (2:15), their contention that mere possession of law is sufficient proves too much; likewise, again this proves to much it makes the Jews themselves ridiculous, for it blots out all moral distinctions, even unto saving the heathen world. How the haughty Jews would toss their heads and fume under this boomerang! In truth, could this question be answered in the affirmative, not universal condemnation, but universal salvation would follow, for God restrains the sin that does not praise him (Psalms 76:10).
Paul’s unqualified answer to the question is that sin is wholly without merit; that it is evil not only in consequences. but its nature is lawless, and evil; that it remains evil even when God overrules to bring good out of it, as in the case of Joseph and his brothers. That spin commends God’s righteousness is incidental expediency can never justify a thing that is sinful. God does not need sin in operating his universe, and when he weaves it in, he but demonstrates his sovereign righteousness, unity, wisdom, and power. To make a sin a virtue tumbles the moral world upside down into chaos.
As a. triumphant climax, Paul tells the Jews their reasoning is so foolish and morally crooked that they unwittingly vindicate him. That is, if Paul’s false doctrine gives them their occasion (as they say it does) to uphold God’s covenantal truth, Paul is not guilty, for by their reasoning his unrighteousness is commending God’s righteousness. Paul concludes his answer to the quibbles of the Jews by cleverly reminding them that their logic which would justify him if he taught it were all right to "do evil that good may come," is so utterly false and wicked that those who slander him are justly condemned.
Three lofty, abiding truths emerge from these parenthetic verses: first, by giving primacy to "the oracles of God," they help us properly to evaluate and appreciate the word of God; second, by giving permanency to the wholly admirable exhortation, "Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar," they magnify God’s unvarying, eternal truth and trustworthiness; third, by teaching that men who say, "Let us do evil that good may come," deduce an immoral conclusion from false premises, slander godly men, and deserve condemnation, these verses declare the reality and penalty of sin, and the stability and grandeur of the moral order.
Argument for Condemnation Concluded
(Romans 3:9-20)
In Romans 3:1-8, Paul answered the Jews who believed, since they were sons of Abraham, they were not condemned along with all the other nations of men. Now in these verses, he shows them that their own sacred scriptures teach the condemnation of all men, especially of the Jews because they have the advantages of possessing "the oracles of God." His first quotation from David gives God’s ver-dict of universal sin, not on Jews only, but "upon the children of men" (Psalms 14:2-3). God’s appraisal of mankind just preceding the Flood, "The end of all flesh is come be-fore me; for the earth is filled with violence through them," is the same when he speaks much later through David, Isaiah, and Paul, And still "That which is born of the flesh is flesh--the flesh profiteth nothing" (Jesus).
With scriptures from David and Isaiah, Paul makes a mosaic of man with respect to both his nature and his practice. Men are "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3), fallen, decayed, and rotten at the core. As there are no good fallen angels, just so there are no good fallen men. "None is good, save one, even God" (Jesus). "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 18:9). The citadel of human per-sonality is in the hands of the enemy. God cannot use natural men in his spiritual kingdom until they become spiritual men by a spiritual birth. Men need to repent of what they are as well as of what they do (Romans 3:10-12). With respect to practice and conduct, men are in word, corrupt, deceitful, uncharitable, and blasphemous Romans 3:13-14); in deed, murderous, destructive, cruel, and warmongers (Romans 3:15-17).
In Romans 3:19-20, Paul holds his just completed graphic picture of man’s depraved nature working itself out through his bodily members up before the Jews and asks "Do you see what your law does for you?" He tells them what law can, and cannot, do. It reveals wounds for which it has no remedy it smites, but cannot heal. When he tells them law has neither office nor power to justify, he demolishes their last refuge, and hopes to move them to plead guilty and throw themselves upon the clemency of their beneficent Judge.
Questions
1. How does Paul answer the contention of the Jews that they cannot be condemned because they are children of Abraham
2. Wherein does the logic that it would be inconsistent in God to punish men, who give him an occasion to show his righteousness, prove too much?
3. Why cannot Christians ever say, ’Let us do evil, that good may come"?
4. Show that Romans 3:1-8 upholds the nature and the reality of sin, and the stability and grandeur of moral law.
5. According to the Old Testament, what is God’s general appraisal of the human race
6. More specifically, what are men with respect to their nature, their words, and their deeds?
7. What can law do for men? What can it not do for men?
Study #8—R.C. Bell
According to our outline of Romans, condemnation and justification compose the first section of five chapters, namely, "Philosophy of Christian Birth." In this article, we are passing out of condemnation into justification. Paul has established the truth that no man is able to pass God’s test of four points, and is therefore, being condemned, in need of justification. If Christianity is thought of as a great cathedral, condemnation (Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20) is clearing off the building site justification (Romans 3:21-25) is the deep, solid foundation the building requires sanctificaton (chapters 6, 7) is the body of the building; and glorification (chapter is the dome. Condemnation under law is an irrefutable argument for its opposite, justification under grace.
If it has seemed at any time in Paul’s discussion of condemnation that he thinks it possible for any man to escape condemnation, he is thinking of an ideal case that might have been had any man never violated his own sense of right or wrong. The violation of conscience is the crux of responsible sinning. Paul knows that, instead of pretend-ing to be sinless, all men have their altars, priests, sin-offerings, and he can therefore write: "We before laid to the charge of both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin" (Romans 3:9) and again: "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Thus closes Paul’s account of universal human failure. The tale of man under law has been told. Law is a mirror to reveal men’s sins unto them, and to bring out the need of justification, but it cannot forgive sins. As it is impossible to touch stars from the deepest valley or the high-est mountain, likewise the mouths of the worst and the best men are closed in dumb despair before their Judge. With respect to condemnation, men cannot be divided into big and little sinners, for one breach of law condemns.
Paul, at the midst of his condemnation-justification argument, looks both backward and forward. From the ruin of the race under law, the result of God’s wrath against men for flying off the beam which he flashed them, Paul turns with an almost audible sigh of relief in his, "But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested," to a better prospect. The clause just quoted is the beginning of a long sentence comprising six verses, which holds a summary of divine wisdom and goodness "The very marrow of the gospel." The sentence involves problems, which, because they transcend and baffle the cold, metaphysical searchings of our minds, all the better enlist cur heart’s deep, humble trust and warm affections. Let us now try to take the massive, sublime sentence to pieces in order better to appropriate its unspeakably rich treasures.
Note that the righteousness which God gives is, though apart from law, not contrary to law, for it is "Witnessed by the law and prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus unto all them that believe." All the countless Messianic promises, types, and prophecies in the Old Testament underlie this "righteousness of God." There can be nothing unlawful or unjust about it, for ac-cording to the eternal Gardener’s purpose from eternity past, his bud is opening into its flower after its kind.
"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" Romans 3:24). To know the meaning of "justified," used for the first time in Romans, is necessary. It is a legal term which means that God in his sovereign right, not by a process, but by a judicial decree pro-claims that in his reckoning all condemned men are ac-quitted immediately upon the "obedience of faith." Freely. Inasmuch as justification is out of man’s reach except as a gift, God, as a gracious act, gratuitously gives it to penitent sinners. By grace. God justifies, not on the ground of human merit or legal justice, but on the ground of his own personal kindness and pure goodness. Through redemption. Redemption always carries the idea of purchase price, ransom, and restoration. Grace the source, redemption the means, and freely the manner of justification.
After saying that redemption is in Christ, Paul concludes his mighty sentence by telling much more about redemption why(Romans 3:25,...about and Romans 3:26) how. First its the how "Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood." This means that the death of the willing Christ is the sin-offering to God for the condemned-to-death hu-man race. God’s purpose is to propitiate (win good will cooperation) men in order that the proper relationship be-tween him and them may be restored. Only in this way can he satisfy the deep yearning of his heart to redeem mankind. "We have redemption in his blood" (Ephesians 1:7). Redemption is free to men, but not to God or Christ, "Christ gave himself (the absolute ultimate in giving) that he might redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:14). "The dominant color in redemption is blood."
Now, the why: ". . . to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God, . . . that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." Before the cross, God neither punished nor forgave sins fully (Acts 17:30; Hebrews 9:15). Saints of the Old Testament times were all sinners, yet God accepted them. Probably, angels wondered why, for "God spared not angels when they sinned." Satan and his dupes were eager to slander God as a Compromiser, tolerant of sin. God’s holiness and moral integrity were at stake! But the cross clears up all of this. After God goes to the extreme of the cross in his war against sin, can he be tolerant of sin? The cross proves forever that God will not trifle with moral realities. It stands between the two covenants and vindicates God’s character throughout them both. The cross is a demonstration of God’s righteousness, and a propitiatory sacrifice for man’s unrighteousness it satisfies God and expiates man, so they cry in unison: "Thou, O Christ, God-man, art all we need."
It is reported that Socrates said: "The gods may forgive sin, but I do not see how." To his great mind, the majesty of law and the acquittal of law-breakers were ir-reconcilable. This scripture is our fullest treatment of the overwhelming problem. Though we may never know all about it, we do know, by faith, that God is "Just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." This suffices.
Questions
1. Consider Christianity to be a cathedral, and assign each of its four great parts (Condemnation, Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification) to its proper place in the building.
2. Explain the statement that, though Justification is apart from law, it is not contrary to the law of Moses and the prophets.
3. Define Christian Justification.
4. Why may Romans 3:22-26 be called "The very marrow of the gospel"?
5. Comment upon the sentence that, because grace is the source of Justification, blood the means, and free gift the manner of bestowment, all human boasting is eliminated.
6. How were the saints of the Old Testament blessed by Christ’s death?
7. How did the cross of Christ vindicate the justice and moral character of God?
Study #9—R.C. Bell
We now leave the sublime scripture (Romans 3:21-26), which, as a key fits its lock, meets our exceeding need, with profound gratitude that God did not take the easy way out by simply and justly committing all sinners to hell forever. That would have been no problem at all. His highly com-plicated problem was to judge sin in such a way as to cleanse and restore the sinner. As only God could, he solved it by the glory, mystery, and power of the cross. Since justification must be on righteous grounds, Christ had to die to make it right for God to justify sinners. A cheap justification would have been unworthy of God.
An analysis of the rest of the third chapter yields three things.
First: Since condemned sinners receive justification as full, free pardon, they have no ground for boasting. Could a justly condemned convict, whose pardon had been effected by the substitutionary death of an exceptionally good friend, go back to his home town bragging about his par-don? What could so exalt God and humble man as does Christianity? Should a few choice souls climb up to heaven over a ladder of meritorious works, pride in their unique achievement would make them as unfit for heavenly society as were the angels whose pride lost them heaven. Justification is not a work for men to do, but a word about a work, already done by another on the cross, to believe. Men who try to earn heaven do but waste their effort fumbling with the wrong key about the keyhole of a door that is wide open. Only "The way of the cross leads home."
Second: Paul’s argument here, based on the absurdity of having two ways to justify sinners, since it implies two Gods, should have had much weight with the monotheistic Jews. Paul reasons that the one God will no more limit the blessings of Christianity to the Jews than he does the blessings of nature; reasons that it is ridiculous to think that the Maker and Father of all mankind in dispensing Chris-tian benefits will forget the Gentiles, because for adequate reasons of his own, he did not give them a written law.
Third: To the objection that justification "apart from law" annuls the law, Paul replies somewhat brusquely and very firmly, "Nay, we establish the law." Since the law was not given as a means of justification, but for another purpose, its being useless as a means of justification does not even militate against it. How does the gospel establish the law? "Through the law cometh the knowledge of sin" (3:20). Since the chief function of the law is to make men conscious of their sins, work self-condemnation, and send them in despair to Christ for refuge, whenever it does these things, it justifies and establishes itself. Does not God’s law still speak in thunder to sinners? Moreover, Christians in fulfilling the law through love (Romans 13:10) establish the law as being "spiritual" (Romans 7:14) and Christian. The law cannot justify, but justification issues in the fulfillment of the law. Instead of teaching that the gospel means the death of law, Paul teaches that men must die to law as a means of justification before they can be-come Christians (Galatians 2:19). Indeed, Christianity is God’s effectual and final way of moving men to live lawful lives. Furthermore, nothing can give divine sanction to the law and uphold its authority and majesty as the cross does. That Christ had to endure the cross to pay the penalty for man’s breaking the law, certainly establishes the law as being inviolable, "holy, righteous, and good" (Romans 7:12). Does seeding a field cancel an earlier plowing?
The New Testament Witnessed by the Old Testament
We have just considered some general suggestions as to how the gospel establishes the law. We are now ready to see how Paul continues the subject with express documentary evidence from the Old Testament. He illustrates his former statement that Christianity is "witnessed by the law and the prophets" with respective incidents from the lives of Abraham, the father, and David, the greatest king, of the Hebrew people. In effect Paul is saying: "If you Jews would study your Bible more honestly and deeply, you could see the unity and agreement that exists between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
While Abraham was yet childless, God told him that his seed should be as numberless as the stars. "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness" (4:3). That is Abraham’s faith so pleased God that God, as a favor, counted his faith unto him for justification. Paul universalizes that principle by saying: ". . . to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. Even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works" (vs. 5, 6). After repenting of his base crimes, David’s con-science ceased to smite, and he joyously stated this truth negatively: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are for-given, and whose sins are covered (atoned for). Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon (count) sin" (vs. 7, 8). Blessed indeed! What can "the ungodly" un-der law apart from grace ever do with their past?
Jews, thus forced to admit by their own scriptures that Abraham was justified by faith apart from works, would counter: "Yes, but he was circumcised." Paul’s simple, double-pointed answer that Abraham lived centuries before the law was given (Galatians 3:17), and that his circumcision was "a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had" (v. 11) years before he was so circumcised, so cleverly and so completely demolishes the position of the Jews that they become ridiculous; to get their argument, they have to in-vert the plain facts of history.
Paul’s shattering answer shows that Abraham was justified before there were any Jews "That he might be the father (pattern man) of all them that believe," both Jews and Gentiles. The pride of the Jews should be lowered, therefore, and the Gentiles need not despair; either can be justified by faith, but neither without it. Thus the whole Mosaic covenant of works becomes a parenthesis within the Abrahamic covenant of promise which continues in Christ. The reasoning of the Jews is turned upside down, for instead of Gentiles being justified by Jewish law, Jews, if they are to be "Abraham’s seed" and have "The righteousness which is from God by faith in Christ" (Philippians 3:9), must be justified apart from the law of Moses and circumcision as was Abraham. That partisans can be so foolish and dishonest is truly amazing!
Questions
1. Why did Christ have to die in order to make it right for God to justify sinners?
2. Explain how it is that Christianity is so perfectly adapted to humble and reconcile condemned men.
3. State the argument based on "God is one" which Paul makes to vindicate the salvation of the Gentiles.
4. Though law cannot justify, how is it that justification by grace issues in the fulfillment of law
5. How does Paul use the religious history of Abraham to prove that he was justified apart from law and circumcision?
6. Explain the statement that the Mosaic covenant of works was a parenthesis within the Abrahamic covenant of promise, which continues in Christ.
7. What warning should we get today from the partisan Jews with whom Paul had to deal
Study #10—R.C. Bell
After declaring in Romans 3:25 ("The Acropolis of the Christian Faith") that faith is the condition upon which Christ’s atoning blood is appropriated, Paul devotes the next chapter to an exposition of the nature of faith. This fourth chapter nobly proves from the life of Abraham, the grand, fundamental doctrine of the entire Bible, namely, that "the ungodly" are justified "by grace . . . through faith." It tells much about the faith of this remarkable man, who is the prototype of all believers since his day about 2000 B.C. The fact that his religious experience in considerable detail, the first such experience so recorded, is concluded before the middle of Genesis is reached emphasizes the truth that the elements of religion--God’s grace and man’s faith--remain unchanged throughout the Bible. This story in Genesis opens its mouth to proclaim once for all the manner in which a sinner becomes "the friend of God."
The first chapter of Romans deals especially with the Gentiles. Although the truth involved in Romans 2:1 through Romans 4:16 is universal, Paul is trying to show especially the Jews that their Sinatic covenant was a divinely-necessary stage in the development of the older, larger, everlasting covenant of promise made to Abraham; and that their covenant of law, as God marched royally onward through the centuries, burying generation after generation of workmen, in order to fulfill his promise to Abraham, "In thy seed, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16); "Shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:3), served its purpose and contributed its part to God’s ever-unfolding design until, ac-cording to his timetables, Christianity supplanted it. Surely the Jews, who have "in the law (only) the form of knowledge and of the truth," can be shown the folly of sitting longer by their burnt out crater. Paul’s meager success with them, however, warns all men of all races to tread softly and fear lest they too get but a shallow, partial, distorted view of God’s deep, vast, eternal, whole.
"Heir of the World"
In our latest "study" we found that Abraham was pronounced righteous on the ground of faith apart from works and rites (Romans 4:12). Now, we come to another great blessing which he obtained in like manner: "For not through the Jaw was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith" (Romans 4:13). Approximately two thousand years after God made this promise to Abraham, Christ repeated it to his disciples: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."
Paul’s argument for the next few verses consists of several points. Abraham could not inherit the world through law because the law in affording a better "knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20) deepens sin into transgression with its ac-companying wrath and condemnation; hence, inheritance, as well as justification, is out of the reach of law--law does not invest with heirship. Again, if the inheritance be through law, "faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect." What is of desert cannot be of gift. Moreover, the promise is "of faith that it may be according to grace." Faith and grace are counterparts. Finally, the promise is "according to grace; to the end that it may be sure to all the seed," both Jews and Gentiles. "The gifts of God . . . are not repented of."
This reasoning makes it crystal clear for all time that faith and grace are mutually dependent and work together to a common end. Was Naaman’s healing any the less by grace because his faith led him to the Jordan? And the argument is equally clear that faith and grace nullify law and works. Paul’s grand, twofold conclusion thus far in Romans 4, therefore, is that Abraham, the pattern man of faith, was both justified and made heir of the world by faith apart from law.
Note that Paul teaches the heirdom, because it is rooted in God’s promise instead of man’s merit, is sure. If it depended primarily upon man, how insecure it would be! He grows very emphatic about this surety in a parallel scripture: "God, being minded to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, inter-posed with an oath; that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong encouragement to lay hold of the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:17-18).
The God of Resurrection
The rest of Romans 4 continues the exposition of the nature of faith by a further use of Abraham’s history. To Abraham, old and dead in parental faculty, God promised a son by aged Sarah, barren from maidenhood. With second causes against this preposterous promise, Abraham after some misgiving, finally, ceasing to hang in suspense, "waxed strong through faith." Then, years after the promise was made, Isaac, the promised child, was born. Abraham was not a thoughtless man; he weighed all the difficulties, yet believed "giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised he was able also to perform." Here is a simple and sublime description of both faith and omnipotence.
But a harder test was to come. Years later, when it seemed that Isaac might naturally become the blessing to many, this fleshly hope was rudely shattered by God’s requiring him as a burnt-offering. This created greater perplexities than ever. Besides being against every sentiment of a father’s soul, the command made God self-contradictory: were Isaac offered, how could he become the blessing! All faith could do was to obey, "Accounting that God was able to raise up even from the dead" (Hebrews 11:19). By using his experience as a springboard, Abraham was able to see that the God who could give Isaac could per-petuate him, and dared leap by faith the hitherto uncrossed chasm to the Resurrection. Ever living at the growing edge of real, live faith, he ever found God, too, alive and real. Thus, Abraham lived his way progressively into new truth, and went on continuously with God, out and up. Pray what is faith but the mixing in human life of God’s faithfulness and man’s fidelity? When does faith cease to grow and produce fruit?
Abraham’s life is a supreme example of faith as a personal trust in the personal God. Paul wrote this passage "for our sake also" that we might know the simplicity, difficulty, opportunity, and blessedness of faith. To Abraham God was greater than nature. Will not such faith help us in our problems concerning prayer, God’s special providence, and the resurrection? The great truth in all such matters is that a personal God and Father lives, loves and works beyond and above nature, self, and all other second causes. May not our faith in nature and self sometimes be only so much disbelief in God himself?
Questions
1. Has God changed his way, essentially, in justifying men since the days of Abraham
2. Name a great promise, in addition to his justification by faith, which God made to Abraham.
3. Why cannot law invest with heirship
4. Why cannot a blessing be received by both law and gift
5. Name two events connected with Isaac that progressively tested and developed Abraham’s faith in God himself.
6. How was Abraham led to believe that God could even raise the dead, a truth which lies at the very root of Christianity
7. Does a personal God and Father live, love, and work beyond and above nature, men, and all other second causes?
Study #11—R.C. Bell
Inasmuch as Abraham does not appear again in Romans, let us take another look at him to encourage the modeling of our lives after him instead of after Aristotle or Caesar. We are loath to part with an extraordinary man, who, the better he is known, grows in solitary grandeur. When he was about 75 years of age, his faith in God’s call tore him from settled life in Ur of Chaldees to become a stranger and pilgrim in Canaan, where the Hittites called him "a prince of God" (Genesis 23:6). For 100 years he pitched his tent and built his altar in various places, refusing riches from the king of Sodom (Genesis 14:21-24) and even a grave for Sarah from Ephron (Genesis 23:3-16) as gifts lest he dishonor God by distrusting his promise to give him the whole land in his own time and manner. He never be-trayed the sign (circumcision) of his separation unto God, nor ever centered his mind on self in anything, any more than he did in the matter of Isaac’s birth. The fidelity of such men as Melchizedek (Genesis 14), Abraham, and Jethro (Exodus 18), living in the midst of heathenism, teaches us that heathen peoples are not guiltless. They could do better.
The truth that the power which was able to give Isaac an existence was also able to raise "Jesus from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and raised for our justification," closes Romans 4. The death and the resurrection of Jesus are the two hinges upon which the door of --salvation turns: The two prime articles of the gospel man’s sin that slew Jesus and God’s power that raised him, focus in the cross and the empty tomb. Christ pays the full debt at the crucifixion, and God, fully satisfied, receipts in full at the resurrection. The blood removes the penalty of sin, and the resurrection opens up the power of the risen Christ for the enabling of his people. Moreover Christ’s resurrection, since he has "been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep," is the certificate of the resurrection of all who sleep in him.
A paragraph about the way Paul and James use Abraham. As we have seen, Paul uses him to show that "the ungodly are justified, apart from religious works and rites, by faith in the propitiatory blood of Christ." Characteristic of Paul, he digs down to the deepest roots of Christianity to show that it is grounded in Christ, and that meritorious works apart from faith in Christ are dead and powerless to justify sinners. James does not have this matter in mind at all. His chief purpose is to show especially Jewish Christians, who have brought Jewish legalism, ritualism, and traditionalism over into the church, that faith in Christ is dead and powerless to justify Christians unless it is perfected in Christian work. Paul and James are writing about the opposite ends of Christianity, and use the words, "justify" and "faith" and "work" in different senses. In his argument Paul sets Christian faith over against all other faiths and works, whereas James contrasts dead and live Christian faith. Paul teaches that works apart from faith in Christ are dead, and James adds, with Paul’s full approval, that even Christian "faith apart from (Christian) works is dead." James expects Chris-tians who begin in Paul’s faith to continue and finish in his works.
Christian Assurance
The first four chapters of Romans establish the truth that, though all men are hopelessly condemned by law, they may be justified by grace through faith. If some legalist fears that Christianity may not endure and succeed be-cause it asks so little of men themselves, and is too easy to challenge men of mettle, in a passage (Romans 5:1-11) that revolves around peace and hope, Paul drowns all his fears in a veritable flood of joy and assurance. There is scarcely another Scripture so brimful of the infinite resources of Christianity to make men strong, courageous, steadfast, fruitful, joyous, and invulnerable.
This passage pertains to Christians of course, and with respect to time covers past, present, and future. The past (a look backward): Christians are justified. Their ini-tial justification is always past, never to be repeated. It settles the sin and condemnation question forever. Hostilities are over; the peace treaty is signed. Christians do not come into judgment with Christless men (John 5:24), hut answer to God for only their lives and labors (1 Corinthians 3:8; Revelation 22:12). The present (a look around): Chris-tians stand squarely on the ground of grace, reconciled to God, crying "Abba, Father," being indwelt by the Holy Spirit who sheds the love of God abroad in their hearts. The future (a look forward): "We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." This is anticipating the risen, glorified bodies in which we shall enjoy "An inheritance incorrupt-ble, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away . . . ready to be revealed in the last time."
To be taught reliably that peace with God gives both hope of future glory and ability to "Rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh steadfastness; and steadfastness, approvedness and approvedness, hope; and hope putteth not to shame" is solid ground for assurance. Then, when we go into the furnace and come through the fire more steadfast, confident, and hopeful, the experience increases our assurance and courage. To learn experimentally that Christianity is actually so marvelously adapted to our deepest spiritual needs that somehow when the chastening hand of our Father lies heavy upon us we, though bruised and broken, creep, trusting and hoping, a little nearer to his side all the while is the sunlit summit of assurance, approvedness, and hope. Tribulation may be a bitter, but not a barren, tree; it produces; behold its fruit!
As human love at its highest, rarely someone may be ready to die for a strong, good man. In strongest contrast, God commended his love to the world by giving his beloved Son to die for weak men who were all ungodly sinners, and enemies. The love that lays a foundation like that may be trusted to the very end with uttermost assurance. The passage begins and ends with the phrase, "Our Lord Jesus Christ." "For if, while we were enemies, we were recon-ciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, be-ing reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." It is no more true that Christ died to "redeem us from all iniquity" than it is true that in his risen, glorified body, he ever lives to plead for us at heaven’s court. Furthermore, through the Holy Spirit, he at the same time lives "Bound in the bundle of life" with us, the life and light of our lives. "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19).
Questions
1. What light do the lives of such men as Melchizedek, Abraham, and Jethro throw upon heathen life
2. Explain Paul’s statement that Christ "was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification."
3. Show that Paul and James teach the same gospel.
4. Verify the statement that Romans 5:14 revolves around peace and hope, and show the significance of the fact that the passage begins and ends with "Our Lord Jesus Christ."
5. What does this Scripture teach about the love of God and the work of the Holy Spirit?
6. Apply this doctrine of Christian assurance to past, present, and future.
7. What does the statement that "Tribulation may be a bitter, but not a barren, tree" mean?
Study #12—R.C. Bell
The book of Romans is our deepest and fullest exposition of the philosophy (working principles) of Christianity. The first four chapters show man’s need of redemption and give God’s provision for this need--human redemption and divine justification. These chapters leave us looking back-ward to the cross of Christ with humble thanksgiving and praise, and forward to his throne above, where he is our priest, advocate, and very life, with assurance and hope.
Adam
"Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin so that death passed unto all men, for that all sinned" (Romans 5:12). Since this verse states that sin and its offspring, death, entered the human race, without going into detail about how they entered, speculations concerning the how, which add nothing to Paul’s his-tory of religion, have always been rife.
However, taking this categorical statement "that all sinned" in its context, plus relevant Scripture, it seems to me an inescapable conclusion that Adam, as federal head and representative of mankind, which is an organic whole, when he revolted against God’s authority in Eden, passed the deadly virus of sin on to his posterity, and took it down with him in ruin. "All sinned," therefore, representatively in Adam, and along with him lost the source of life. "It is appointed unto men once to die" (Hebrews 9:27); "In Adam all die" (1 Corinthians 15:22). An example of the working of the solidarity of humanity is seen in Levi’s paying- tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham, his great-grandfather, even though Levi "was in the loins of his father" (Hebrews 7:9-10) at the time. Does not David bear witness to this truth when he writes: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalms 51:5)? And Paul when he says that Jews and Gentiles alike "were by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3)? Whatever change Adam’s nature sustained in his fall was transmitted to Seth, whom he "Begat in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:3). Men are shackled with a chain, too strong for them to break in their own strength, reaching back to Adam.
Paul knowing that it is hard for men to accept their state of entailed, racial sin pauses to explain before going on with his main argument. He first explains that the universal cause of the universal death between Adam and Moses, since there was during that time no law that imposed the death penalty, was Adam’s sin. If Adam had never committed another sin after his first transgression, his posterity, on the organic principle that a diseased tree can bear only impaired fruit, would have shared his mortality with its attendant ills and subsequent death. What other solution of the deep, sad problem of suffering child-hood and of imbeciles? What thoughtful, pious man can wish, until men, especially infants, cease dying, to do away with race sin? Its elimination could but make more and greater problems. This entailment applies to Adam’s race with its corrupted nature, not to men’s individual sins. There is no intimation in the Bible that men die a second death, a spiritual death, for Adam’s sin. It is appointed that men die only once for his sin. It is not for Adam’s sin, but for their own personal sins that men are lost eternally in hell. "Every man is the Adam to his own soul." If only Adam’s sin is to be judged, universal, eternal salvation is true.
If we shrink from this doctrine, probably it is because we do not understand the real nature of sin, and its power to pollute. The facts of life proclaim the same solemn, stern truth. I have read of a physician who gave up his Chris-tian profession because he could not see how a just God could allow so much suffering in the world. He went on in his unbelief for a time, but in his practice he came to know so certainly that the iniquities of fathers are visited upon their children that he gave up skepticism. What he had rejected in the Bible pursued him so relentlessly in life that he for the sake of consistency went back to his early faith. What sort of a world would it be without suf-fering any, way? For one thing, it would have no Christ or mothers. Perhaps suffering is not as bad as we may sometimes think. "There is a cross at the heart of the uni-verse." Can we not trust "our Father" beyond our own creatural faculties?
"Jesus Christ Our Lord"
"For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 17). A comparison of Adam, "a figure" of Christ, and of Christ, "the last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45), in their resemblances and disparities, is found in Romans 5:12-21. Both are representative men whose acts--Adam’s disobedience and Christ’s "obedience even unto death"--are imputed, respectively, unto those whom they represent. Adam is a fountain of evil; Christ of good. Sin, condemnation, ruin and death follow in Adam’s train; justification, righteousness, redemption, and life in Christ’s.
Respecting disparity, Christ does not merely take Adam’s defaulted place in order to restore the status quo. As a statue always surpasses its model, five times over the chapter declares that benefits in Christ "much more" than compensate for losses in Adam. The poison of Adam has a "much more" potent antidote in Christ; the stream of grace runs stronger and deeper than the stream of sin. Indeed, the supreme doctrine of the passage is that good in Christ "much more" than counterworks evil in Adam; that God is "much more" ready to impute eternal life in Christ than temporary death in Adam. (The principle of imputation as it applies in both Adam and Christ, however, is repudiated by self-sufficient and impenitent men). Without choice, all men die in Adam; without choice, all men are restored to life at the resurrection. This balances the scales. The "much more," that is, to "Reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" is a matter of free will and personal choice. Do men, even Christian men, appreciate this amazing superabundance of grace that grants them this unutterable favor of choosing this incomparable gift?
Romans 5:12-21 lays bare human history at its root. This sketch of the religious history of the race is the key to some of the mysteries of divine government. Should we not thankfully and faithfully use it lest we fail to know our-selves and consequently miss some of the essential secrets of life? Without this key the next three chapters do not give up their sweetness and strength.
Questions
1. In what state of mind should students of Romans be when they have reached the end of the fourth chapter?
2. In what sense do all men sin in Adam
3. Do secular history and life support the doctrine of hereditary sin?
4. Can you explain why the collision of love and sin results in a cross?
5. What does "Every man is the Adam of his own soul" mean?
6. What does "The poison of Adam has a much more potent antidote in Christ" mean?
7. Why is Romans 5:12-21 of supreme importance to students of history and of religion?
Study #13—R.C. Bell
With the dark, bloody reign of sin through Adam in con-trast with the reign of grace through Christ, Romans 5 closes. "The law came in besides that the trespass might abound" (Romans 5:20). Adam, Moses, and Christ correspond to the three respective stages in man’s religious history. Adam, promise made (Genesis 3:15; Moses, law given; Christ, prom-se realized. Because men between Adam and Moses had no written law by which to judge conduct, they did not know how lawless and immoral they were. The law came in to convince men that, inasmuch as they were unable to live up to its requirements, the utmost possibility under the law was the reign of sin in death until the promised seed of the woman came. This proves that the law of Moses was an essential factor in the development of Christianity.
Justification and Sanctification
With Chapter 6, Romans passes out of justification (a divine work for us), pertaining to becoming a Christian, in-to sanctification (divine work in us), pertaining to living the Christian life. "Justification makes saints, and sanctification makes saints saintly." God first justifies, that is, cancels the guilt and penalty of past sins then, the justified progressively grow in purity and sanctity throughout present life and finally the sanctified mount to glory for future eternity. Justification, sanctification, and glorification are not disconnected states; rather they lie, respectively, one above another, blended into one grand whole. Paul has just laid the deep, solid foundation (justification) of human redemption, and now, for three wonder-ful chapters, he builds thereon the magnificent superstructure (sanctification and glorification).
The doctrine "Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly" (Romans 5:20) may be perverted into let us "continue in sin that grace may abound" (Romans 6:1). But in-stead of grace granting license to sin, it establishes law by providing for its fulfillment. "Grace is opposed to sin and devours it" (Luther). Sin belongs to sinners, not saints. For Christians to treat God worse than they would human friends, by thus distorting the gospel and thereby taking advantage of his goodness; to think so ignorantly and unworthily of him; and to act so utterly contrary to the spirit of grace moves Paul to the resolute outburst "God forbid."
Twofold Identity with Christ
That Christians are dead to sin is Paul’s first reason why it is morally impossible for them to continue to sin.
"We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:2-4). Paul is saying to the Romans in effect: "Our baptism pictorially sets forth the doctrine of the gospel if we are not baptized into Christ’s death, that is count his death to be our death, our baptism is meaningless--a mere mockery. Just as it is physically impossible for a friend who died and was buried years ago still to walk about among us, just so it is morally impossible for our old man who was crucified with Christ to be still alive and dominate our personality as he did before his crucifixion."
A Christian’s death throughout this passage (Romans 6:1-11) is a single past event, for he died representatively with Christ when mankind’s death penalty was executed on him at the cross. God reckoned us all, as we must reckon ourselves, on the cross with his Son. Paul says of himself what every Christian must say: "I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20). After sin had once caused Christ’s death, he was forever beyond its claim, dominion, and doom. Christians are identified with him in death and share his grave with him their death must be as certain and final as was his. They are no more certainly "baptized . . . unto (eis) the remission of sins" than they are "baptized into (eis) his death." The supreme weakness and tragedy of the church has ever been, even until now, the unwillingness of Christians to be identified with their Lord in death. All Christians today, in the Christian sense, died nearly 2000 years ago. When temptation assails us, we should say "No, we cannot hear and feel your appeal and power, for we have been dead ever since we became Christians."
"For the death that he died, he died unto sin once (for all time): but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin (once for all), but alive unto God in Christ Jesus." Christian conversion involves a catastrophic upheaval in a man’s life. "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the (Ad things are passed away; behold, they are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Do not forget what conversion did to Paul! It is such a revolutionary change that Christ describes it as being "born anew." It is similar to rising from the dead "If we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing that our old man was crucified with him." God’s wisdom is seen in the perfect dramatization in baptism of one man’s dying and being buried, and of another man’s being born. Wonderfully, baptism proclaims our twofold identity with Christ.
"Our Old Man"
Who is "Our Old Man?" Romans seems to teach that he is our heritage from Adam--not the guilt, but the consequences of Adam’s sin. Do not the neglected children of drunkard suffering hunger as a consequence of their father’s drinking illustrate in part, at least, this truth?
And may not the children get as another consequence a warped nature that makes them susceptible to intoxicants? It seems to me that the Bible, behavior of small children, and all history teach that children are born with a sin-bent nature, somewhat as a carnivorous animal is carnivorous by nature before it eats flesh. Who but Adam could have remained sinless? It is not a theory, but an indisputable fact, no man has lived a sinless life. Does not this call for fundamental, universal cause?
Romans 6, 7, , 8 are rooted in the last paragraph of Romans 5, where condemnation is traced back to the first Adam, and justification to Christ, the last Adam. As the word "sin" is used several times in these chapters, it cannot refer to deeds of wrongdoing, but must refer, I think, to the sin-biased nature of Adam’s race. "Our old man," linked with Adam, must be crucified together with Christ, that a new man may be "raised together with Christ," in whom mankind gets a new start. This is the pivot upon which man’s redemption turns.
Questions
1. What service does Moses render as a necessary stepping stone from Adam to Christ?
2. How are Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification related to
3. each other religiously?
4. What perversion of Christian doctrine was responsible for Paul’s vehement "God forbid"?
5. In what sense is Christ’s death a Christian’s death?
6. Is an old man’s being dead to youthful follies a good illustration of a Christian’s being dead to sin
7. Explain how baptism proclaims a Christian’s twofold identity with Christ.
8. Who is "our old man"?
Study #14—R.C. Bell
We learn from Romans 3:8 that some distorted Paul’s doctrine of grace into the slander, "Let us do evil, that good may come." Legalists could argue plausibly from the statement, "Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly," the more sin the better, for then God would have more opportunities to exhibit his forgiving grace. Or ask: "Why need Christians work, since sinners can be justified without it?" By such babble, partially converted men, still under Adam’s reign and therefore still trusting human merit instead of divine grace, could twist Paul’s gospel into a deadly perversion. No wonder Paul recoiled in holy horror. To get something for nothing is so con-trary to fleshly economy that to get, according to gospel economy, everything for nothing is just too much and too good for all except the wholly converted. Here is the solid core of gospel repentance, which, at its deepest level, is absolute turning away from defunct Adam to Christ. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Christ).
The imperative transition from ruin in Adam to new life and another chance in Christ is the crux of Christianity. To realize that Romans 6 is an inspired commentary on an intensely personal verse Paul wrote the Galatians helps "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I (Adamic Paul) that lives, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh (mortal frame) I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20). According to this, Paul reckons that his old man in Adam is an executed criminal, and that he is a new creature in Christ, who lives in him to body forth himself to the world--"The old shack under new management." In distilled essence, with even more emotional appeal and Christian motive, Romans 6 is all here. This verse is the key that unlocks Paul’s conception of Christianity, and the secret of his own enigmatic, extraordinary life. A surrendered life gives Christ an outlet for his grace and power.
King and Subject
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body" (Romans 6:12). That this exhortation leans back on the first part of the chapter is shown by the "therefore." The connection is, now, since you reckon yourselves to be identified with Christ in his death and resurrection, make this faith an experimental reality in your lives; that is, reduce your faith to practice. Why this plea to Christians, if they have no choice in the matter?
Though saints by God’s decree are dead to sin, sin itself is not dead. Instead of Paul’s saying that sin is dead he says, "Reckon (believe what God says about it) ye also yourselves to be dead to sin." To make this death to the power, pollution, and practice of sin, which are as real and tenacious as are its guilt and penalty, and actuality, saints must resist, learn by experience, and grow strong. To lift them immediately above the reach of sin would be con-trary to the principles of moral and spiritual growth, and would therefore retard their Christian progress. God gives justification immediately, but he gives sanctification by another method. In men who refuse to leave Adam for Christ, sin reigns in death, as sailors who refuse to leave a doomed ship for a lifeboat drown; but sin in men who desert Adam for Christ is so counterworked and out-lawed that it cannot be king and tyrannize over them. Although the Adamic nature is not extirpated in men so long as they live in mortal bodies derived from Adam and though the flesh and the Spirit, "contrary the one to the other" (Galatians 5:17), both live in a Christian, the flesh need ever reign, nay, can never reign, until his will goes along with the solicitation to evil.
Does not this throw light on 1 John 3:9 : "Whosoever is begotten of God cannot sin?" A Christian is judicially and ideally dead to sin; if he sins it is against his will and endeavor. His heart is too tender toward Christ to hurt and grieve him by ingratitude and disobedience. He cannot callously and habitually sin; sin is a false note in his life and peace. Sin reigns over sinners, but not over Christians. Sin will pursue saints even unto the tomb, but they are always enabled to escape it.
All this underlies Paul’s second reason in Romans 6 why saints cannot sin, namely, "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (v. 14). Justification is a gracious, divinely wrought change in the lives of those who are justified. Since law effects no such change in relationship, cause for the consequent change in life is lacking. Law can make subjects and slaves, but it cannot soften hard hearts, break stubborn wills, and generate gratitude and love, as grace does. That his plea for Christian living may be effective, Paul roots it in divine grace, not in law and "will of the flesh." To lift men out of sin, they must be brought into a realm where grace, not law, is the constitution. Law and fear are not comparable to grace and gratitude in the power to purify.
Master and Slave
When men hear the gospel, they must choose between the two Adams. Paul thanks God that the Romans have made this crucial choice correctly. The language in which he de-scribes this pregnant change, "Obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered," rein-forces the first part of the chapter. Christianity is not a moral code given to be lived up to in order to please God rather, it is built on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ which serve as a pattern for men’s use in fashioning their Christian lives; that is, what Christ experienced bodily, they must experience spiritually. Nor does choosing a new Master exhaust human freedom. That Chris-tians are still free to determine their course is shown by Paul’s exhorting them to present their bodies, not to serve sin which leads to death, but to serve God which leads to eternal life--something no man can earn or give. Though Christians have a new Master to serve in a new kind of slavery, they are "called for freedom" (Galatians 5:13). And, strange paradox, they alone are "free indeed" (John 8:36).
The chapter closes with the third reason why saints can-not sin: sin is too expensive; no man can afford it. Its seed is in it to bring forth fruit after its kind; it is a short circuit that wastes life. Sin is a faithful paymaster, but "nobody can live on the wages it pays." "The wages of sin is death" eternal.
Questions
1. What does gospel repentance involve?
2. Compare the respective methods by which men are justified and by which they are sanctified.
3. Does Christianity propose to extirpate a Christian’s fleshly nature so that there will be no conflict between the flesh and the spirit?
4. Sin is not dead, and never will be in this world; but Christians are dead to sin. What is the difference
5. Why are men under grace expected to resist temptation and sin more successfully than if they were under law
6. Does the expression "the old shack under new management" de-scribe a Christian’s experience and life?
7. Christians must not sin purposely and regularly, and let sin reign over them, for sin belongs to sinners; and the fact that they are under grace is a powerful incentive to sinless living. Now what third reason does Romans 6 give why they cannot afford to sin?
Study #15—R.C. Bell
The discussion of Justification closes with Romans 5, and the discussion of Sanctification follows in the next three chapters. To keep this and the fact that Romans was not divided into chapters until about 1250 A.D. in mind will help in studying these profound exceedingly important chapters.
As we have seen, Romans 6 teaches that sinners upon becoming identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection are justified, and dead to sin. No matter how Christians feel about it, or what their experiences may be, they are to believe and count on these two things unfalteringly. They know by faith that they are justified, that hostilities between them and God have ceased, that the peace treaty has been signed, and that they, reconciled to God, are standing in grace. Therefore, their roots having struck down to living water, their souls, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, are at rest. Any doubt, or un-certainty, about free, full pardon, and death to sin, betrays a defective faith that prevents going on with God in assurance, and at least retards, probably defeats entirely, Christian sanctity, peace, and service. It dishonors God to remember and worry about what he forgets and expects us to forget; moreover; it is foolish, for it means frustration, unfruitfulness, and unhappiness.
Law and Gospel
Paul has made three statements in Romans concerning the relationship that exists between law and grace, which the Jews in their ignorance, pride, and prejudice considered very derogatory to their law. First: "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). The Jews twisted this into meaning that Paul taught the law itself was sinful. Second: "The law came in besides that the trespass might abound" (Romans 5:20). To the Jews, this questioned the priority and moral utility of their law; such they could not tolerate. Third: Christians "Are not under law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). Paul’s enemies slandered him by accusing him of teaching that Christians, because they were not under law, had license to sin. That these are the objections to which Paul replies indicates that the Jews made them.
To orthodox Jews, Paul was a great heretic. Even to many Jews in the church, he was either a heretic, or dangerously near being one. The mere thought of the time when these "false brethren" (Galatians 2:4) who followed Paul over Asia and Europe doing their utmost to pervert his work, and Paul meet for judgment at Christ’s coming is enough to make all Christians exceedingly "slow to speak." Paul earnestly wrote such men: "Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God" (1 Corinthians 4:5). Even, were Paul’s foes honestly mistaken, will they on that great day be like Paul the apostle, or Saul the persecutor?
Paul had not stopped to explain fully these statements, but, now in chapter seven, he is ready to discuss all three. Let no man think that an understanding of the difference between the respective working principle of law and grace is of small importance. Law is man-centered and turns on human wisdom, effort, and merit; grace is God-centered and turns on divine wisdom, love, and activity. Under law, justification depends upon desert; under grace, it is conferred as an undeserved gift. These two kinds of religion (they exhaust the category) are poles apart in power, manner of working, and results. The church had never com-mitted her greatest sin and blunder, nor suffered her greatest failure and defeat had she not faithlessly com-bined the principles of law and grace to concoct a law-gospel, which is neither law nor gospel. Paul’s description of this bogus gospel reads: "Which is not another gospel only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than we preached unto you, let him be anathema" (Galatians 1:7-8). Romans 7 might disclose to Christians today, who little suspect it, that they are afflicted with man-centered law-gospel, which is a deadly foe to sanctification and holiness.
Christians Are Dead To Law
We are beginning a new chapter, but not a new subject. That men in becoming Christians are set free from one master, not to be idle, but to serve a new Master is taught in Romans 6. By changing from slavery to marriage, because it better shows the nature and function of law, Paul teaches the same lesson in Romans 7:1-6. The two metaphors are united in the slave-wife verse six.
With a rhetorical question first, Paul emphasizes the common knowledge "That law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth." Then, further to emphasize the truth that death ends the claims of law, he introduces his figure of marriage. This figure in its application, though a mixed metaphor according to many commentators, makes clear to all commentators, so far as I know, Paul’s point that death dissolves legal obligation. He wants the Jews to see that sin and law are so closely interwoven that they cannot die to sin without at the same time dying to their law also. To the Galatians in plainest language, with-but metaphor, "For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:19-20), Paul writes in this most personal way the same thing. Thus, he unequivocally teaches, once for all, that men cannot be alive to both God and a legal system at the same time.
Paul in Romans uses the simple truth that when a wife is left a widow, though dead as wife, she survives as woman, and is free to marry again to convince the Jews, especially, that in becoming Christians all men must die to law as well as to sin. Inasmuch as wives do not marry law, and instead of law dying, Christians die to law, to make law the first husband seems unwarranted. Although the argument does not require that the first husband be identified, it seems to me that to make him "Our old (natural) man (that) was crucified with him" (Romans 6:6) is consistent with the context and with Christian truth. In both wedlock and Christianity the emancipator that liberates from the law and gives freedom is death. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the (slain) body of Christ that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God" (Romans 7:4).
Questions
1. What causes a Christian who has been baptized into Christ to doubt his justification and death to sin
2. How does a Christian’s lack of assurance about his justification effect his joy and spiritual growth?
3. Are the religion of law and the religion of grace so different that they will not blend into one religion?
4. Name two particulars in which the Jews perverted. Paul’s teaching. Can you account for these errors
5. What truth does Paul illustrate by the use of the figure of marriage?
6. In what literal language does Paul write the same thing to the Galatians?
7. As Paul used the comparison of marriage, who is the first husband?
Study #16—R.C. Bell
To disregard the chapter bar between Romans 6, 7 helps one to appreciate the coherence and fullness of Paul’s argument on Sanctification. For instance, the representation of Christ and saints as King and subjects suggests warfare; as Master and slaves, service; as Husband and wife, fruitfulness.
Nature of Law and of Man
"When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death" (Romans 7:5). This verse, adding to the thought of earlier statements in Romans about the law the expression, "the sinful passions which were through the law," is the basis of the discussion on the nature of law and of man which follows in Romans 7:7-24. From this pas-sage, we may learn what both law and man are. In moral value, it far outweighs all merely human books ever written on law and psychology.
After stoutly denying that his gospel implies that the law itself is sinful, Paul adds: "Howbeit (nevertheless) I had not known sin, except through the law." Paul has been saying "we" in this chapter until now. I think he narrows down to "I" (used about thirty times) for the rest of the chapter, with one exception in verse 14, in order to present in the liveliest way possible an elemental Christian truth, namely, that every man must be translated out of a man-centered kingdom into a God-centered one-- out of Adam into Christ. In this chapter, we have our best opportunity to look down into the deep purposes and workings of law, and into the abysmal deeps, both conscious and subconscious, of our own personalities. Faith-fully, should we study this great Scripture.
Paul says there was a time when he, unconscious of any sin in him, was satisfied with himself. But that when he came to see that the commandment, "Thou shalt not covet," was meant to forbid all self-centered desires (Christ so interpreted Moses), he realized that the very impulse of his nature was unlawful. Sin, the seed of the Serpent (Gen. 3 15), which was lying dormant within, under the quicken-ing touch of law crawled up into consciousness and fatally stung his self-satisfaction. The word "sin" occurs thirteen times in these verses, but the word "sins" is not found. This Scripture digs down deep to the sin-nature which expresses itself in sins. That no flesh is righteous before God becomes evident under law, the infallible detector of man’s inborn evil propensities.
Whence come the proclivities of children to sin? Not from Adam as God made him. We need ever to remember that we are Adam’s descendants after he became unfit to live with God. Children at a very tender age rebel against parental law, and guilefully try to hide their lawlessness. Were they left to themselves, would they ever know what is wrong with them? Apart from law, Paul would never have become conscious of his sin-warped nature. Men can-not get from Adam to Christ without Moses. The better one knows the law, the better he knows how great a sinner he is. Moreover, the essence of sin is rebellion, and prohibitions of law irritate tainted human nature and inflame it unto "all manner of coveting . . . that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful." Law intensifies human lawlessness. After the law had thus revealed Paul unto himself, he lost his good opinion of himself, and became a self-condemned sinner. Certainly, this could not have occurred, however, had he been "totally depraved."
"For sin, finding, occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me." As Satan beguiled Eve (Genesis 3:1-6) through the lie that she could better her condition by eating the forbidden fruit, so he still through the lie that pious men can improve themselves by observing ordinances, and by using the law as an immediate rule of life, beguiles and betrays them. The trick is that men never obey God’s law. Rather than improvement, therefore, all sorts of lawless desires are produced in them. Witness the Pharisees of Christ’s time, including Saul of Tarsus. Thus, the law, by bringing the deep, unknown abscess at the root of human nature out to light, does its designed holy work of preparing honest men, despairing of legal advancement, to accept in genuine repentance the gospel of grace.
Note how Paul vindicates law through all this chapter. Law, which in its deepest and broadest sense represents the mind, will, and character of God, is co-eval with God. With-out disturbing the legal status of Gentiles, God added, for Jews, a national, provisional law to his universal, human law. The annulment of this Jewish law, when it had served its purpose, put Jews back under universal law again: but with the superlative gain of an opportunity to both Gentiles and Jews for justification, sanctification, and glorification in Christ. It is absurd to blame law for re-vealing man to himself in his inherent inadequacy as it is to blame a microscope for revealing germs in drinking water. That sin gets worse when treated with the perfect remedy, law, proves its desperate nature. Should it not crush down man’s pride and self-sufficiency to learn from his friendly, faithful Maker and Redeemer that his state is such by nature that all merely human struggling after reformation only deepens his misery?
Paul’s Three Men
Romans 7 has been called the problem chapter of the book. Expositors vary much about its autobiographic nature, and about whether the speaker is unregenerate or regenerate; some think that he passes from the former to the latter within the chapter. Since the main lesson, namely, that neither Paul nor any other man, whether unregenerate or regenerate, can in his own native strength redeem himself from racial ruin, can be learned without solving these prob-lems, probably they have received more attention than they deserve.
About the same time at which Paul wrote Romans, he gave the Corinthians an exhaustive, threefold analysis of humanity as follows: natural men and spiritual men, with the latter subdividing into carnal and mature Christians (1 Corinthians 2:14-15; 1 Corinthians 3:1). One commentator very plausibly suggests that Romans 7, 8 are built around these three men, and that Paul as representative man describes him-self as successively experiencing all three. According to this, the natural (unregenerate) man appears in Romans 7:7-13 with the change from past to present tense, the carnal Christian (unnecessarily prolonged babyhood in Christ) appears in Romans 7:14-24; and the spiritual Christian in Romans 8:1-17.
Questions
1. What was Paul’s reaction to the thought the law itself is sin
2. Can the word "sin" and the phrase "law of sin" used repeatedly in Romans 7 refer to sinful acts?
3. How did law convince Paul that human nature has "sinful passions" lying dormant within it? Is law to be blamed for revealing the fact that man has an inherent, sin-warped nature
4. Unless man as a child of Adam is alive to sin, why does holy law increase human lawlessness, and work "all manner of coveting" in men?
5. How does law, which is the power of sin (1 Corinthians 15:56), enable sin to beguile and slay men?
6. What attitude does Paul throughout Romans 7 hold toward law, toward sin, and toward man, respectively?
7. Suggest a way in which Paul’s teaching in Romans 7 is probably related to his three men of 1 Corinthians.
Study #17—R.C. Bell
Bear in mind that the subject of Romans 7 is, not Justification, but Sanctification--not how to obtain pardon for past sins, but deliverance from present indwelling sin. "Sin" is not evil deeds, but an evil principle, even "The law of sin which dwelleth in my members"--not primarily what men do, but what they are. It is a power, which impregnably entrenched in human nature, has "reigned in death" since the race, on probation in Adam, was "sold under sin" in Adam’s fall.
Paul’s "I of myself" is the key to his inability to find deliverance from the power and bondage of sin. His disability which causes the stern inner conflict and chaos, with its bewildering meeting of two seas of good and evil impulses and its pathetic "I would" and "I would not," so dramatically depicted, is the lack of power to do what his reason, will, and conscience, all, insist that he should do. "So now it is no more I that do it (what I hate), but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." Surely, if it can be put into human speech, here is a man handicapped with a radical defect in nature, yea, an inherent evil tendency in his flesh that counter-works his earnest spiritual strivings, which he can neither eradicate nor master by himself--the animal runs away with the man. Paul is here laying the foundation for his teaching in the next chapter that, instead of Christians struggling in their unaided natural strength to take sanctification by force, they are to continue to take God’s gifts, in God’s way, as they have already done in the matter of justification. As for Paul himself, the carnal Paul of Romans 7 grew into the spiritual Paul of Romans 8 before he wrote the book of Romans.
Paul’s Religious Evolution
Paul, who enters the Bible as an abettor of Stephen’s martyrdom, is soon the determined, unflinching Jewish per-secutor of the church. On his way to destroy the church in Damascus, he was apprehended by the glorified Christ speaking unto him out of heaven saying: "I have appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee" (Acts 26:16). Christ said of Paul at this time: "He is a chosen vessel unto me" (Acts 9:15), to preach and to learn suffering.
We learn from these two statements by Christ that communication between him and Paul was to be maintained. After Paul’s conversion, Acts reports five more miraculous appearances to him. These appearances, however, thrust no magical spiritual growth upon him his personal character grew, as do the characters of all Christians, according to mental and moral law. Paul’s epistles allude to "visions and revelations of the Lord" as if they were not unusual he describes one revelation in which he was "caught up into Paradise" for a most intimate, personal interview (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). From the biographic and autobiographic matter in Acts and Paul’s letters, respectively, we learn vastly more about him--his views of life, death, the future; his purposes, labors, prayers his fears, joys, tears; his sufferings, tribulations, burdens, and buffeting his body to keep it in subjection than about any other early Christian.
By combining Acts 9 and Galatians 1, we learn that Paul began preaching in Damascus "straightway" after his con-version, and that his ministry there was broken into two periods of time by a visit into Arabia. Why this Arabian Interruption? I think the logic of life and truth makes plausible the inference that, when Paul encountered the inevitable opposition, he, but a babe in Christ honestly mistaken, tried to meet it, as he had always met opposition, in his own superior natural strength ("I of myself"); and that Christ to forestall this wrecking of Christianity and to season Paul for his chosen work, sent him, willing to learn, into Arabia as a fit place to guide him into a better understanding and assimilation of his new religion. "Vis-ions and revelations" in Arabia are not improbable. Like wrestling, striving Jacob of old (Genesis 32:22-32) Paul had to come to an end of himself before he could be "a prince of God."
To convert a learned, proud, respected, self-occupied Pharisee, who had been laboriously "blameless" in all the more than six hundred laws and traditions of his party for some twenty years, into a Christ-occupied man, which meant becoming "the filth of the world," was a catastrophic dissolution and recreation. The evolution of Saul into Paul was a tremendous achievement, utterly beyond all human working, but possible "Through faith in the working of God" (Colossians 2:12). Probably it took the time in Arabia plus a few years of Paul’s relative obscurity as apostle before he began his mission travels, or even longer, to bring him up to the spiritual elevation where he could say: "I have learned . . . the secret both to abound and to be in want . . .I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me." His going up to Paradise occurred during these obscure years.
When the extreme difficulty of any man’s, especially a man of Paul’s natural strength and background, renouncing flesh and legal righteousness; and of realizing that should his striving eventually lift him to the pinnacle of human morality and religion, even there, the wrath of God awaits him--when these things, and the fact that so few Chris-tians ever learn suffering and self-abnegation for Christ’s sake, as Paul did, are taken into consideration, the inference I think, becomes all the more reasonable. Certainly, it is not "contrary to the doctrine" we have learned. As it has benefited me, may it benefit others.
Paul Chosen as Apostle and as Pattern
Paul’s wholly yielding himself up to Christ’s making gave Christ a fit instrument to demonstrate what he can do for in, and through men who do not mar their making by trying, in their own fleshly strength, to help him out. God cannot save men until they cease trying, by law and unaided self-effort, to save themselves. Christ chose Paul Gentile apostle and Christian pattern because he knew what he could make out of capable, willing, suffering, cooperating Paul. This explains, I think, why Luke and Paul himself were moved by God to write down so fully Paul’s case history. "It was not written for his sake alone . . . but for our sakes also." Five times, Paul exhorts his "children" to "imitate" thing no one of the other seven writers of the New Testament does even once. How profoundly interesting and profitable when an earnest, experienced, wise "man of God" unlocks to others, in so far as is possible, the secrets of God’s dealings with him.
Questions
1. Name and define the general subject Paul is discussing in Romans 7:7-25.
2. When Paul says, "I know that . . . in my flesh dwelleth no good thing," what does he mean by his flesh?
1. What is the "sin" which Paul says dwells in him and defeats his good intentions? Is "the law of sin" in his members, warring against the law of God and bringing him into captivity, the same thing?
2. Can the stern moral struggle depicted in this Scripture occur in a man who is not a Christian
1. Why does it ever occur in a Christian’
2. State some of the hurdles which Paul cleared as he grew into a pattern saint.
1. Summarize the view of "Paul’s religious evolution" presented in this "Study" and tell what you think of it.
Study #18—R.C. Bell
Paul’s history of Redemption has reached near the close of Romans 7 the point where Christians who, after having accepted justification as a gift from God, have struggled in their own natural strength to live the Christian life only to know the self-contradictory life described in the chapter, and therefore have been driven to acknowledge they lack power to do what they will to do.
At this crisis in their lives, three courses are open to them. First: unaware of the help at hand, they may, disillusioned and discouraged, give up the unequal, nay the im-possible, struggle and drop back into the world. Second while "first love" oozes away as it oozed away at Ephesus (Revelation 2:4), they may settle placidly to the mechanical routine of church-going with its cold, dead formalities, and to a life of holding to fixed partial truth and party as the best they may expect. Paul would ask them as he asked the Galatians: "Are ye so foolish? having been in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh?" (Romans 3:3). As if to say, it is the height of folly when Christians presume to disregard any part of Christianity as being unnecessary. Third: they, knowing that the God who provides the Blood of Calvary for pardon does not stop there, but goes on to provide also the necessary power of Pentecost to enable them to live sanctified, spiritual lives, may go on and up to climb the heights of Romans 8.
The failure of Christians to understand the design and the inner workings of their religion, thereby causing them to stick between Calvary and Pentecost, futilely trying to stretch the natural up to the supernatural, often prevents their entering upon this third course. It is so much in the blood of natural men to be self-sufficient that it is most difficult even for Christians to realize that sanctification is no more by struggling self-effort than is justification--that both are by faith. Christians who think they can live unselfish lives without continued and continual superhuman aid do not know how deeply sin has wrecked their nature, and therefore are not fully convicted of sin, thoroughly humbled in the flesh, and genuinely "poor in spirit." Could such but take God’s verdict upon "flesh" (Genesis 6:4), throughout the entire Bible, they would see that, instead of suffering from a slight functional disturb-ance, they are mortally stricken with a deep organic disease beyond human treatment. Not until men know how desperately and hopelessly sick they are, can they, in despair, with the faith of a child, yield themselves over wholly and finally to the Great Physician. The heresies that plagued the early church, beginning even in the days of the apostles, pertained largely to the nature of Christ. There was but little trouble over the nature of man until Pelagius in the fifth century, questioning "original sin" and its consequences, taught that men needed no blood atonement, for they were able to work out their salvation by themselves.
Surely, the fact that many Christians only partially learn this essential lesson of Romans 7, and consequently never cease trying to conquer the sin that dwells in their flesh by their own fleshly strength and character accounts for some of the worldliness, discouragement, and lukewarmness in the church. God in wisdom and kindness, eager to help saints of all time learn this self-effacing truth, had Paul, his pattern saint, sprinkle, generously, over his writings the manner of his coming by this hard-learned, cardinal principle of Christianity.
Law Fulfilled in Christ (Romans 8:1-4)
Coming out of Romans 7 into Romans 8 is coming out of storm into calm. "I of myself" has disappeared, and Christ through the Holy Spirit takes his place. The Spirit wholly absent in seven, dominates eight. Now, the ineffectual struggling Christian settles quietly into Christian gears, and works smoothly and efficiently. In this unspeakably important and rich chapter, Christians learn how to keep sin from having dominion over them (Romans 6:14).
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." This conclusion, based on the close of chapter 7, is also cumulative, and really gathers up the doctrine of the entire book thus far. Saints identified with Christ in death and resurrection life, as members of the human body are identified with the head, are no more condemned than Christ is condemned. This verse gives the position of Christians, standing and rejoicing in grace.
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death." In this verse, "law" does not mean a code of precepts, but an operating principle, or force, such as is the law of gravitation. "The law of sin and death" cannot be God’s law, "Which is unto life . . . holy, and righteous, and good." It is "A different law . . . bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:23). It is the inherent evil force that dwells in fallen men to drag them down to death. "The law of the Spirit of life" is the operative force that resides in the gospel. Just as blood is the redemptive price, the life-giving Spirit is the redemptive power.
"For what the law could not do . . . God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." "Law" here is the law of Moses, which ever condemns, never gives life. Paul is careful to say that Christ wag only "in the likeness of sinful flesh." "The first man Adam" was sinless flesh until he disobeyed God. "The last Adam," having never disobeyed his Father, did not lose his sinless flesh. His propitiatory death, "As of a Lamb without blemish and without spot," "condemned sin in the flesh," and paid the penalty for the whole condemned race of men.
"That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Paul expresses the same thought when he says, "Love worketh no evil to his neighbor: love is therefore the fulfillment of the law, something law could not do. Christianity is God’s way to lead men to be lawful like himself. Only Christians can know the flood tide of the conjunction of grateful love and "The power of the Holy Spirit" within to induce and sustain yearnings after holy and legal living.
Questions
1. What point in the history of redemption has been reached at the close of Romans 7?
2. At this crisis in a Christian’s life, state three courses, one of which he must take.
3. At this juncture, what often prevents a Christian’s taking the correct Christian course
4. Are justification and sanctification equally above the reach of purely human working?
6. Account for the new atmosphere encountered in coming out of Romans 7 into Romans 8.
7. Contrast the workings of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ" and "the law of sin and death" in the flesh.
8. Of all the7menwho.have lived, how many of them at any time during their lives have ever possessed sinless flesh
Study #19—R.C. Bell
As a Jew, Paul thought he had to obey law in order to be saved. As a Christian, he learned he had to be saved before he could obey law. That is, he had to become a Christian by a supernatural spiritual birth, and then go on to use the enabling supernatural Christian means in order to live up to the requirements of God’s law; had to die to law as the immediate means, and be alive to the mediate Christian means, ever to attain "The sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord." In order to make this supreme truth of Romans 6-8 clearest and most compelling, Paul tells his own experience by way of example. The tragedy of the church has been (and is) that too many Christians, instead of following Paul’s example, have regarded Christianity largely as another legal system to be fulfilled chief-ly in "the will of the flesh." As a consequence, they have continued to be almost as self-centered and legally minded after as before baptism. Legalism, because it is man centered and presupposes a human power and merit which natural men do not possess, must ever fail.
"The Flesh"
"The flesh," found in the last line of Romans 7, is found twelve times (about the same number as its opposite, "The Spirit,") in Romans 8:1-13;thus the two chapters are bound together. The better we understand this term, the better can we understand, appreciate, and appropriate Christianity.
In his statement to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," Christ sets the flesh and the Spirit over against each other as mutual opposites. He fixes such a gulf be-tween them that the flesh can never evolve into spirit. Ac-cording to this, men are either fleshly or spiritual, never both. Christ repeatedly makes this two-fold classification of men. He parabolically divides soil into productive and nonproductive, nations into sheep and goats, trees into good and corrupt, and ways into broad and narrow. He says to the multitudes, "He that is not with me is against me;" and to sectarian John, "Forbid him not; for he that is not against you is for you" (Luke 9:50). Thus, Christ divides humanity into two broad classes, without the possibility of a third class--the once-born and the twice-born. The disposition either to add a third class or to run these two classes together into one class is unmoral, ungodly, and anti-Christian.
Of course subclasses exist. In the parable of the sower, there are three kinds of productive and three kinds of un-productive soil. The broad road to destruction has a dirty and a clean side, as is illustrated by the two brothers in Christ’s story of the Prodigal. If the elder brother is on a higher rung of the ladder of human responsibility and merit, the trouble about that is the ladder never reaches heaven. Church and world here; heaven and hell after here.
Did God create "the flesh"? No. He created Adam innocent, with sinless nature, or flesh, and Adam by his ungrateful rebellion perverted himself into "sinful flesh." His treachery shifted the moral center from God to man, which upset the delicate unity and balance of his nature and personality. After this treason, he and his posterity, "begat in his own likeness;" constitute "the flesh." The body is "the body of sin" because sinful flesh uses it as its agent.
God prepared a body for Christ (Hebrews 10:5), and he "became flesh and dwelt among us." However, as he never disobeyed God, he was only "in the likeness of sinful flesh." Unlike Adam, he repulsed Satan’s temptations, and there-fore never lost his sinless flesh. Flesh as God made it is "very good." But of all men, only "the first man Adam," for a time, and Christ, "the last Adam," for all time, have possessed such flesh. "The flesh" and equivalent phrases such as "the old man," "the natural man," "I of myself," "sinful flesh," and "this world" denote the God-discarding, Serpent-following, man-centering (remember Eden) part of humanity that never finds deliverance from condemnation in Adam to justification in Christ--Christians and "the rest" of men (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
"The Spirit"
The Holy Spirit enters the Bible in Genesis 1 as the power to perfect creation, and continues throughout the Bible as power. We read that "the Spirit of God" spoke through false men such as Balaam, king Saul and Caiaphas, and worked through judges, kings and prophets. John the Baptist was "filled with the Holy Spirit" from birth. God must have wanted readers of the Bible to get the impression that the Holy Spirit, without the violation of mental or mortal law, has access at will to human minds.
At the baptism of Jesus, the three Persons of the sacred Trinity are distinguished Jesus being baptized, God speaking from heaven, and the Spirit descending and abiding on Jesus. Mark says, "And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness" for Satan’s temptations. The Spirit came and "abode upon him" during his life and work. "God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good" (Acts 10:38). Christ’s whole ministry is a commentary upon this verse. He cast out demons by the Spirit of God.
Throughout the Bible superhuman power is associated with the Spirit, as blood is with Christ. Inasmuch as it would be unlike God to waste power as he marches on to establish his redemptive kingdom, Christ shares the Spirit with his disciples, preparing them for their duties after his death. According to his last speech to the apostles (John 13-17) the Spirit was to abide with them and to be in them to comfort, refresh their memories, guide them into new truth, and convict the world. The idea of the Spirit’s abiding with and being in the whole community of God’s people, as distinguished from the world, for an age, was new. After his resurrection, Christ told his apostles to tarry in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). At his ascension, he said to them: "But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you" (Acts 1:8). The Spirit came in power on Pentecost, "And with great power gave the apostles their witness." Would not the poor, beaten Christian of Roman 7 be profoundly grateful that his religion provided power beyond his own?
Questions
1. What change in Paul’s means for living a lawful life did his be-coming a Christian make?
2. Why must any religion based on law (legalism or legality) fail to produce men who keep law as Christ interprets law
3. Suggest a reason why Paul’s religious case history is given with exceptional fullness in the New Testament.
4. By using equivalent terms show in what sense the Bible uses the phrase, "the flesh." What, then, is "the flesh"? Did God create it
5. How do the happenings at the baptism of Christ show that the Holy Spirit is a distinct Person, just as God and Christ are distinct Persons?
6. Prove by Christ and Paul that "the flesh" and "the Spirit" are mutually antagonistic and exclusive, and that flesh can never be-come spirit.
7. Should a reader of the Bible get the impression that the Holy Spirit, without violating human freedom, may directly influence men’s minds?
Study #20—R.C. Bell
We live in a power-conscious age--mechanically, economically, and politically. A competitive race to make machines of more horsepower, corporations of more economic power, and states of more political power is on among the nations. Power is so highly valued by men that Satan, the wily adversary, can use this craze for counterfeit power as a most deceptive, disastrous tare. True power, however, is the ulti-mate test of religion. The powerless Christian of Romans 7, was not a success. That spiritual power is contingent upon the Christian functioning of the Holy Spirit is taught throughout the New Testament. Christ’s sermon in the Upper Room is the basic teaching on this subject. Next in fullness and importance, probably, is Romans 8. "Anyone who wishes to know the New Testament connotation of Spirit must use his concordance also for the term ’power’ which is its chief content" (James Denney).
"In the Flesh" verses "In the Spirit"
"The mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be: and they that are in the flesh can-not please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:6-9). No passage in the Bible paints the flesh in darker colors than this one does. It makes the mind of the flesh and the mind of the. Spirit utterly exclusive of, and hopelessly antagonistic to, each other; and makes the posses-sion of the Spirit the dividing line between the two ways of life. The natural man not only does not, but cannot please God. He may be rich, cultivated, likable, and pleasing to others, but without the Spirit he is none of Christ’s and therefore cannot please God.
"There is therefore a sin of our nature as well as personal transgression . . . Our nature was corrupted by the fall of Adam before it was transmitted to us; and hence that hereditary imbecility to do good, and that proneness to do evil, so universally apparent in all human beings . . . All inherit a fallen, consequently a sinful nature, though all are not equally depraved" (Alexander Campbell, Christian System, page 30.). Campbell also says: "It is impossible" for "man in his present preternatural state . . . to do anything absolutely pleasing and acceptable to God."
Though God in Christ condemns sin in the flesh, he does not extirpate it abruptly as if by magic. In this world, he proposes to see that Christians "no longer be in bondage to sin," and under the tyranny of the flesh, in which still "dwelleth no good thing." Of course, he does this only with the full consent and faithful cooperation of Christians, who, instead of struggling directly with the flesh, "present" themselves unto God for him to deal with it in his own way. Almighty God, an infinitely wise and gracious Father, knowing that his bruised human children are unable to break the octopus grip of sin in their unaided human power, infallibly gives superhuman Power so as best to pro-mote victory, strength, and spirituality in them. The Chris-tian who tries it finds that it works, for his mind and his will remain his own; and his whole personality grows ever stronger, purer, sweeter, and more trustful until he can say, "We know that to them that love God all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28).
"The Body of This Death"
And if Christ is in you, the body is (still) dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness" (v. 10)--primarily Adam’s sin and Christ’s righteousness. This teaches, I think, that a man’s being a Christian does not prevent his dying. And that when his condemned body goes to the grave, his redeemed spirit, unbodied, goes to "be with Christ" (Philippians 1:23) to wait reunion with the re-deemed body at the resurrection. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (v. 11). These unbodied saints will be with the Lord at his coming, and get their redeemed, glorified bodies, marvelously changed in substance but seemingly not in appearance, back to live in forever (1 Thessalonians 4:12-18).Christ’s ressurrection is the first-fruits of our resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:23),and therefore our risen bodies will be like his risen body (1 John 3:2).According to Thessalonians, the generation of Christians who are living when Christ comes will be de-livered "out of the body of this death" by way of instan-taneous translation (1 Corinthians 15:52), as Enoch was translated (Hebrews 11:5);and "shall together with them (the risen) be caught up . . . to meet the Lord in the air."
"Satan, the deceiver of the whole world" (Revelation 12:9) wrecked triune man--body, soul, and spirit. That God’s redemption of triune man culminates in the resurrection of the body 1 Thessalonians 5:23 teaches: "And the God of peace him-self shall sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And thus either by resurrection or by translation final deliverance of all saints "out of the body of this death" is achieved. Of these two ways for saints, "preserved entire," to enter the "new heaven," Paul, according to 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, certainly preferred translation. But it was not so to be, and Paul has been with Christ, which "is very far better" (Philippians 1:23) than remaining in a dying body, all these centuries "waiting for . . . the redemption of his body" (Romans 8:23).
Who can envision the rapture with which Paul will again live in his redeemed body that in some way inscrutable to men preserves, as new wheat preserves the identity of seed wheat (1 Corinthians 15:35-49), the identity of the body in which he so long ago lived and suffered?" "Our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself" (Philippians 3:20-21). "Where-fore comfort one another with these words."
Questions
1. What connection does James Denney see between the Holy Spirit and power
2. What did Alexander Campbell think about Adam’s tainted nature being passed on to his posterity, and about fallen man’s ability to please God
3. Why is it that "the flesh" never does, and never can, please God
4. What constitutes the dividing line between fleshly men and spiritual men--between the world and the church
5. Name the two distinct ways by which the bodies of Christians will get into heaven at last.
6. Does Christ’s being the first-fruits of our resurrection mean that our risen bodies will be like his recognizable risen body?
7. On what condition is the Holy Spirit to be used in the resurrection of our bodies?
Study #21—R.C. Bell
"So then, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live." These two verses are the conclusion of Paul’s teaching on the two ways of life (Romans 8), dealing with the inveterate conflict between the flesh and the Spirit decreed by God at the beginning of human history when he cursed the serpent, saying: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between her seed and thy seed." Not only Paul and his contemporary brethren, but also all Chris-tians of all time, know by experience this deep, continual warfare between the flesh and the Spirit.
In this conclusion, Paul reminds Christians that since "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God" (v. 7), and can therefore never bring anything but death, they certainly owe it nothing. He also focuses the cardinal Christian truth that the flesh is such a curet, powerful, determined foe that only "By the power of the Holy Spirit" can Christians ever escape defeat and death.
Working of the Holy Spirit
His workings in our behalf, according to Romans 8, are as follows
1. Delivers us from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
2. Indwells us and enables us to make judicial death to sin even more and more a practical reality. This progressive spiritual growth culminates in even spiritual bodies at the Lord’s return. In this manner, the ravages of sin are completely abolished (Romans 8:3-4).
3. Leads us as sons of God (Romans 8:14).
4. Gives us the spirit (not of legality) of adoption as mature sons (Romans 8:15).
5. Witnesses with our spirit concerning our sonship and heirship (Romans 8:16-17).
6. Prays for us with unutterable groanings (Romans 8:26-27).
In the only verse of Romans that mentions the Holy Spirit before this Spirit-filled eighth chapter, if found an-other of his works in and for us, namely: "The love of God bath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us" (Romans 5:5). The context shows that this is the love of God for us. Of innumerable corroborative Scriptures, two must suffice. First, Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians: "That ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith ("According to your faith be it done unto you"). . . Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be the glory." Second, Jews and Gentiles are a temple "builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:21-22).
The fact that these passages teach that God, Christ, and the Spirit all three reside in Christians sheds light on the nature of both God and Christianity. It took "The three-personal God" a long time to build his church. After working some 4000 years as Father, especially, he had things ready to proceed by working as Son, too, and there-fore brought Christ actively into his redemptive scheme with the announcement, "This is my Son, my chosen; hear ye him." Finally, all things were ready for the Father and the Son working together as Spirit to proclaim on Pente-ost, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith." This method is suggestive of the method of the relay footrace.
Ever since Pentecost, the Spirit’s work has been the Trinity focused and at work saving men the Father for us, the Son with us, and the Spirit in us. The Spirit’s saying "come" is the Trinity’s saying "come"; the Spirit’s dwelling in us is the Trinity’s dwelling in us. This mutual inter-dependence and essential oneness of the Trinity (though the three never merge into one Person) is implicit in all the Bible. Especially, is it taught explicitly in Christ’s farewell address to his apostles (John 13-17), and in Paul’s writings. By virtue of God’s drawing nigh to us in his Son and dwelling in us in his Spirit, we may become par-takers of the divine nature, which is the end of the redemptive process for this age. By grace we are related to God in Christ through the Spirit.
Christ Dishonored
To give the Spirit prominence over Christ, as some cults do, is a fatal perversion of the gospel. The verse, "No man speaking in the Holy Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3), shows that one’s attitude toward Christ is the test whether or not he really possesses the Spirit. Just as Jesus declares and glorifies God, so the Spirit declares and glorifies Christ. "He (the Spirit) shall not speak from himself but what thingssoever he shall hear, these shall he speak . . . He shall glorify me . . . All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you" (John 16:13-15). God in the Son, in the Spirit, through the word is the cumulative divine order.
The word as seed is "perfect and entire, lacking in nothing." As in nature, seed, under the genial powers of soil and sun, springs up and grows, man knows not how: "So is the kingdom of God" (Mark 4:26-29). In both the natural realm and the spiritual realm, seed, instead of being an end within itself, is an indispensable means unto harvest. To hostile Jews, Christ said: "Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life and these are they which bear witness of me and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life" (John 5:39-40). Hence, doctrine about Christ does not give life; it takes Christ himself to do that. Of course, without seed it is equally impossible in nature and in religion to reap; nevertheless, the seed is not the harvest. Christians in whom the Lord dwells richly will be "filled with joy and the Holy Spirit" (Acts 13:52).
It is not necessary to explain "the mystery of godliness." Christianity cannot be proved rationally because it meets us above human reason and scientific measurement. If it is anything, it is superhuman and supernatural. If Chris-tians lose the mystic element of their religion, they of necessity become mechanical, and run into a dead end. When men cease to wonder, they cease to worship and pray. Were everything known, where were the occasion or the need of faith? Faith and reward suffer no damage in either nature or religion when truth, though not fully understood, is believed and obeyed. By faith is human reason put to its divinest use.
Questions
1. Why do men owe the flesh nothing’!
2. When and how is man’s rescue from the ravages of sin completed?
3. In what way may the building of the church be compared to a relay race?
4. Enlarge upon the statement that since Pentecost the Spirit’s work has been the Holy Trinity focused and at work saving men.
5. With respect to the relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit, how do some cults dishonor Christ and pervert his gospel
6. Does doctrine about Christ within itself give life?
7. Do Christians necessarily lose anything because they cannot un-derstand everything intellectually?
Study #22—R.C. Bell
The solidarity and the interlocking works of the Holy Trinity throughout the universe (one turning), both physical and spiritual, are cardinal doctrines of the Bible. A good example of such working is Christ’s resurrection being attributed to God (Hebrews 13:20), to Christ himself (John 2:19), and to the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11). Not only does the Spirit reveal and glorify Christ, but. Christ also holds the Spirit in high reverence and honor. Take for instance, his solemn statement: "Every one who shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven." And his, "The Spirit of truth . . . abideth with you, and shall be in you . . . It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you but if I go, I will send him unto you," to show Christ’s reliance upon the Spirit’s supplementary, climactic work.
The Spirit in no sense supplants Christ. His dispensational work is to communicate Christ to us. It is our privilege and responsibility to enter into vital, personal relations with the Spirit, Christ’s personal representative, yielding to his leadership, support, and comfort, both externally and internally for his service on our behalf is not limited to bearing "witness to us" (Hebrews 10:15), fundamentally, but also includes bearing "witness with our spirit that we are children of God." In that measure that these relations are established, we shall be conscious of Christ’s presence, have his mind, be occupied with him, and be conformed to his image--Christ in us through the office of the Spirit by virtue of which we share one life with Christ. The Spirit’s ministry is fulfilled as Christ is made known, believed on, obeyed, worshipped, and appropriated.
However, we may so ignore and depose the Spirit as to strive and live on a merely human level, as does the Chris-tian in Romans 7. A brother wrote years ago: "Today, when we baptize, we might better perform the ordinance in the name of the Father, the Son, and the word." Extreme, no doubt. None the less, we must remember the Spirit’s warning against resisting, grieving, and quenching him and that nothing less than the possession of the Spirit him-self is God’s Christianity.
Mode of the Spirit’s Ministry
"Ye received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." A parallel verse reads: "God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). The fact that the cry is attributed to both the Holy Spirit and the human spirit in these verses throws light on the problem of how the Spirit continues to lead Christians, to bear witness with them, and to pray for them, as Romans 8 says he does, after they, by obeying his writ-ten requirements for becoming Christians, have opened up the way for his entrance and ministry.
Additional light is found in Acts 16:6-10. Paul being forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach in Asia, assayed to go into Bithynia, but being again forbidden by the Spirit, he went to Troas, where in a vision a man of Macedonia invited him over into Europe. Paul, "concluding" ("assuredly gathering" K. J. V.) that God was leading, went to the new continent. This synthetic mosaic divine guidance is most instructive. Even in the days of miracles, the Spirit did not make mere puppets of those whom he led. Later, Paul wrote: "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" (1 Corinthians 14:32). Just as we do today, Paul had to do his own divinely supervised reasoning and "concluding." He could have willfully decided not to go to Macedonia. Incidentally, this blending of the divine and the human, as it is in Christ and in the Bible also, explains why Romans 8 does not always clearly distinguish between the Holy Spirit and human spirits.
It is not true only that "Men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (1 Peter 1:21), but true also that Christians are "Strengthened with power through the Spirit in the inward man" (Ephesians 3:16). That the Spirit’s manner of entering, permeating, impregnating, and identifying himself with human spirits, both to write and to cry "Father," so that the result is the joint-product of the two, is not a logically demonstrable matter, transcends our present comprehension, and is not fully revealed, affords rich, deep soil for simple faith and honest trust. Is it not enough for us to know that the Holy Spirit, without violating human nature, can make our surrendered spirits, to their great enrichment, his organs? Enough to know that he can reproduce his holy life in us so as to make it our very own, free life? Who are we, with all of our consummate ignorance cf the nature and workings of spirits, even of our own spirit, to question revealed Christian truth! Faith has rea-sons of her own, which lie above man’s rationalizing.
The flesh is "a strong man," which Christianity does not propose to eradicate in this world. Rather, the Holy Spirit, "a stronger than he," binds him by so counteracting him that he "shall not have dominion"--the strong meets a stronger. This is the principle that enables motors in an airplane, not to suspend, but to counterwork the law of gravitation. The Christian fights the flesh, not in his sole, natural strength, directly, but fits into this Christian way of reckoning himself to be dead to sin, law, flesh, and self so that the Spirit, unimpeded, may produce his nine-fold cluster of golden fruit in him.
The author of this sublimely spiritual chapter (Romans 8) was himself, as all his writings attest, always keenly conscious of the presence and activity of a divine energy, wisdom, purity, and efficacy within him far beyond and above his superior native endowments. This is what caught him up out of the futile eddies of unaided self-effort into the mighty stream of God’s eternal purpose, dissolved his self-contradictory dualism of Romans 7, prevented his being shattered on law, unified and energized his whole personality, and made him the most vital man in history, save Christ. This is what keyed life up to such peerless heights of power, zest, achievement, and peace. He wrote: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth ’in me" (Galatians 2:20). Just as all Christians must do, Paul on the adventure of holy faith, proved the pudding by eating it. God grant that we too, as he so frequently and fervently prayed and exhorted that we might do, may imitate his faith and life, as he followed in Christ’s steps. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" (Paul).
Questions
1. Does Christ rely upon the supplementary, climactic work of the Spirit?
2. What constitutes the Spirit’s ministry with respect to Christ during the present dispensation?
3. In studying the mode of the indwelling Spirit’s work, what help may be derived from the fact that the Holy Spirit and the Chris-tian’s own spirit conjointly cry, "Abba, Father"?
4. Show that the leading of the Spirit did not make a puppet of Paul.
5. What does the statement, "Faith has reasons of her own which reach above human understanding," mean?
6. Upon what principle does the Holy Spirit counterwork (not eradicate) the flesh in Christians? Cite an analogous principle in nature?
7. Is it possible for a Christian now, doing "despite unto the Spirit of grace," vainly to strive and to live on a merely human level, as does the Christian in Romans 7?
Study #23—R.C. Bell
God the Father imparts his own life to each of his children in a spiritual birth. Then the child has the privilege of growing up in the family of God into a mature son, who, when in sorrow, can always in "The Spirit of adoption" . . .cry, "Abba, Father," as Christ, his Elder Brother, in his deep sorrow, cried, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee remove this cup from me: howbeit not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Mark 14:36). In this beautiful, natural manner of little children and of Jesus, we should be "Waiting for (the full realization of) our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (v. 23), at his coming.
"And if children, then heirs heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, whom God ’appointed heir of all things’ " (Hebrews 1:2). Do we grasp the truly amazing import of these simple words? Angels are promised no such patrimony. Why are we so little excited about our inheritance? Paul knew the need of praying that Christians "May know the hope of his (God’s) calling" (Ephesians 1:18).
God’s Over-all Program
The Maker of man built into both his physical and spiritual constitution the necessity of his dependence upon his Maker. Therefore when Adam revolted against God, the injury to himself and to his progeny was so constitutional, and to God so grievous, that God announced his sublime economy, conceived before the foundation of the world, of his Son’s becoming man in order to woo man back to allegiance so that God and man working together might re-pair the wrongs each had suffered. Accordingly, the eternal Son, as seed of the virgin Mary, became God-man to found and to reign over a mediative redemptive kingdom, within the universal, eternal kingdom of his Father, until the rebellion should be put down. Then Christ, as triumphant Conqueror, shall deliver up his special kingdom to God, the Father. And "That God may be all in all," Christ, though crowned with the glory he had before the world was, shall be in subjection to God, who shall reign, forever over "New heavens and a new earth wherein dwell-eth righteousness." This, I believe, is a spiritual, skeletal outline, historic and prophetic, of the kingdom, or church, of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-28; Revelation 21:1-8; 2 Peter 3:8-13).
To give up this scriptural blending of God and man is to give up Christianity itself. Christ prayed to God for Chris-tians: "That they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us" (John 17:21). John, who heard this prayer, never forgot it, for his writings are saturated with its doctrine. "And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us" (1 John 3:24). "Hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit" (1 John 4:13). These Scriptures and many more such as, "For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11), chord perfectly with Romans 8, and with the symbolism of the Lord’s supper.
"Speak to him, for he hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."
According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit links Christians to Christ, who is both God and man--man as he was made, and is to be again when fully redeemed. As God, he is "The image of the invisible God," "The effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance." Christ said to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." As man, Christ, during his life on earth as a man, was what Adam, had he obeyed God, might have been. And since his resurrection even until now, he is what fallen man is yet to be; for at his coming, in the same body that arose from the tomb, that appeared to friends, and that ascended into heaven (Acts 1:11), "We shall be like him" (1 John 3:2). Bodily resurrection, instead of being something exceptional which lifts Christ to a life, inaccessible to --others, is to be the common experience of all Christians "Christ the first-fruits; then they that are Christ’s at his coming." This truth is what gives such tremendously vital, personal meaning to the fact of Christ’s resurrection.
Life is God’s first and last law. Abnormal, penal death, "the wages of sin," marks the entrance and exit of sin. In the first two chapters of the Bible, sinless, therefore death-less, man appears. The last two chapters, "Though a wide compass be fetched," return to the starting place of sinless, therefore deathless, man. The intervening chapters are dedicated to God’s spiritual way of winning foolish, sinning, suffering, dying man, "spirit and soul and body," back to life. "Why is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead?"
Suffering and Hoping
Romans 8:17-25
The suffering of these verses is not merely the unavoidable kind that sin has brought upon the whole frame of animate and inanimate nature, but also the inevitable kind that being in fellowship with Christ involves--the kind that Paul knew so well by choice. It is especially the non-meritorious suffering that chastens and conditions us to reign with Christ in glory. "If we endure, we shall also reign with him" (2 Timothy 2:12). Unless we are led by the Holy Spirit as was Christ, it is impossible for us to possess his disposition to serve and to suffer; impossible for us to be his brethren and co-heirs, and to be promoted finally to the glory of perfected sonship. Suffering in general is the penalty of both sin and love. As a mother suffers with her suffering child, so God suffers with his suffering earth; as a shepherd and his lost sheep must meet at one place, so Christ and lost men come together in common suffering. May we with Paul look at present trouble through smoked glass, but at coming glory with unclouded eyes.
This pregnant Scripture declares the all pervading unity of the universe, the interdependence of rational and irrational creation, and Christ’s kinship, even unto the dust of his body, with all created earthly things. It represents the whole world as groaning in birth throes, longing and hoping for deliverance from the decay, dissolution, and death that the colossal stupidity of sin has entailed upon it until "The blessed hope and appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:12). Without such teaching, we could but hopelessly and helplessly stand aghast at the world-old waste and misery; with such teaching, we can patiently wait for the had dream to end with the coming of the morning.
Questions
1. How do men enter God’s spiritual family, and come to possess life?
2. What does it mean to be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ?
3. What is the purpose and end of Christ’s redemptive kingdom?
4. Can a Christian who does not believe in the blending of God and man in Christianity be a fully instructed and equipped Christian?
5. What does "Life is God’s first and last law" mean?
6. What does it mean to look at our troubles through smoked glass, but at our coming glory with unclouded eyes?
7. How does this "Study" apply, "We can patiently wait for the bad dream to be over with the coming of the morning"?
Study #24—R.C. Bell
Though being joint-heirs with Christ does not exempt us from the present suffering under which "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together" anymore than Christ was exempted from suffering, the sufferings of time weighed against the glories of eternity are as nothing. More-over, since the Holy Spirit within us bears witness with our spirit that we are sons and heirs of God, we, already enjoying the first-fruits, hopefully wait for our full inheritance.
It should soften our hearts, enlarge our sympathies, and improve our conduct to recall how close even God’s dumb creatures are to his paternal heart. In the beginning animals were not incompatible with sinless human society. God forbade Jews to muzzle the ox that trod out their grain. To hard-hearted Jonah, he gave one reason for not destroying Nineveh the fact that "much cattle" would suffer (Jonah 4:11). Not even one little sparrow "Is forgotten in the sight of God," or "Shall fall on the ground without your Father" (Christ). Does not God expect everything in his Bible to help us to know, love, and trust him? When Christ made common cause with groaning creation, the beasts about his manger-cradle were affected, and since have fared better in Christian than in Christless lands. If a man is a Christian, even his dog finds it out. Any degree of Christ is better for this world than no Christ at all. The by-products of Christianity constitute the blessing of our modern civilization. Alexander Campbell wrote to the effect that those who nibble at Christ become civilized, those who eat lightly of him become moralized, and those who eat fully of him become Christianized.
"We Know Not . . ."
"And in like manner (as he bears witness with us and as hope sustains us) the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought but the Spirit him-self maketh intercession for us with groanings which can-not be uttered; and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."
Who, tending in a ruined, groaning world that "Lieth in the evil one, the old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world," can know how to pray as he ought? Infinitely intricate questions and deep, vast, eternal issues, utterly baffling to the best human brains and strategy, are involved in Christian prayer. At the climax of the world-old conflict between God and Satan for world-dominion, it seems that Christ himself felt the clash of alternatives in his praying. Upon the coming of the Greeks just before his cross, he prayed: "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." A little earlier midst the wailing at the tomb of Lazarus, he groaned, prayed, and wept. It must have been the havoc wrought by Satan among the sons of men from Eden onward that moved him so deeply on this occasion. And in Gethsemane, sore troubled in agony and bloody sweat, he prayed: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me." Had there been no momentary reluctance in him, could we but feel that somewhat of real man were lacking? Surely, these sacred incidents in the life of our blessed Lord stir us to our depths, take us into the heart of Christianity, God’s kingdom for reducing the rebellion of earth, and fill us with holy awe, with a pro-found sense of racial infirmity, and with a spirit of tremulous prayer.
We Christians are so identified with Christ in death and in life (Romans 6) that God’s mind is our mind and his interests are our interests, as "Ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s" (1 Corinthians 3:23) puts it. The principle of Christ’s incarnation is extended to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is thus, so to speak, "found in fashion as a man." He moves within us both to cry "Abba, Father" and to pray "with groanings which cannot be uttered" in such unison with our spirit that we are not conscious of any impulse or impression being independent of our own spirit. This is all according to the will of God, who, searching human hearts and knowing the mind of the Spirit, can interpret the inarticulate divine-human groanings. Cannot a mother project her understanding and feeling into the inarticulate cry of her baby, and know its needs?
These spiritual things make no sense to the natural man, for he "Receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God . . .Things which entered not into the heart of man" (1 Corinthians 2). "The wind bloweth (Spirit breatheth) where it will" (John 3:8). Is it necessary for a small child to understand the discussion of its parents it overhears pertaining to its welfare? Does not Romans 8:26-27 have God, the Holy Spirit, and human spirits in communion without words? Who is so foolish as to say it cannot be? What may not be the potency of prayers wrought by the Spirit and presented by Christ to God! If we are living the unfulfilled lives of Romans 7, Romans 8 tells why. Need it be said again that the word of God is the only seed that produces this unspeakably rich Christian harvest?
"We Know . . ."
(Romans 8:28-30)
"And we know that to them that love God, all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose:" We do not know how to pray as we ought, but we do know that all things work together for good to lovers of God, because they choose to fall in with his purpose, The word, "purpose," is the key to this great Scriptures. To know that the eternal, unchanging Father "because his entire scheme, from beginning to end, for the redemption and glorification of fallen men, by leading them to become "conformed to the image of his Son," is enough for men of faith in God. Gratefully and freely, such men will to accept God’s way. This purpose, yet in process of development, so compactly outlined here, is compatible with God’s character as revealed in nature and in the Bible. It is in-conceivable that he does anything without foresight and his own approval that he has no law and design concern-ing that which he in foreknowledge plans is unthinkable. Therefore, foreordination and the remaining items of Paul’s outline, all essential parts of God’s eternal purpose, follow inevitably and irrevocably. Hence, to question that every-thing works together for good to Christians is to challenge God’s sovereign purpose, word, wisdom, grace and power. Verily, Christianity proposes to manage and to integrate all the circ*mstances and experiences of our checkered lives for our spiritual good. Do we believe it?
Questions
1. What does a glance at God’s attitude toward his dumb creatures do to you?
2. What proof have we that Christianity has "promise of the life which now is" as well as "of that which is to come"?
3. What effect should the vast issues involved in prayer, which gave Christ cause to weep and groan, have upon the spirit and content of our prayers?
4. In what manner is the principle of Christ’s incarnation continued in the Holy Spirit, so that the Spirit, too, is "found in fashion as a man"?
5. Does not Romans 8:26-27 have God, the Holy Sprit, and the spirits of men in communion without the use of words?
6. To question that all things work together for good to men who choose to give themselves to God’s purpose questions what else besides this?
7. Should not a Christian who challenges these "deep things of God" examine himself, whether he is not still too much "the natural man (who) receives not the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14)?
Study #25—R.C. Bell
The background of the Spirit’s helping "our infirmity" (singular) in prayer is "the whole creation" lying in groan-ing misery under the ling misrule of usurping Satan, whose tyranny and power of death have been broken (Hebrews 2:14) so that "the whole realm of nature," in process of being de-livered, may lift up its head in hope. About a matter of such huge dimensions, intricate problems, and prodigious issues, we especially need the aid of the Holy Spirit in prayer. In studying this scripture, it helps to keep in mind its context.
It is most difficult for fallen man, to whom God in the beginning gave dominion over all the earth, "And over every living thing that moveth upon the earth," to realize that, since his treachery and rebellion against God caused the miscarriage and distress of the earth, its restoration turns upon his unconditional surrender and penitent re-turn to God. His constitutional "infirmity" is denying his fall, failure, and bankruptcy, proudly to spurn God’s proffered help. Nevertheless, not until he comes to see the true state of affairs, I think, can he be convicted of sin in the full Christian sense, or repent in the full gospel sense.
We who are baptized into Christ, thus signifying our identification with him in death, life, mind, vocation, and destiny, surely should be groaning in spirit and praying as Christ, though he had no part whatsoever in causing the sorrows of the earth, groaned in spirit and prayed under the crushing weight of the world’s woe at the grave of his friend. Only after we come to this heart-pricked, self-effacing condition can the Spirit of Christ witness with us and pray for us. Unless we have a real sense of our human inability to pray aright about the earth’s deep wound; unless, as we raise our heads above the whelming flood of suffering and realize to what depths we were submerged, we feel a profound gratitude unto God for his deliverance, and, consequently, respond unto him with an unutterable passion of commitment unto him, how can the Holy Spirit in fellowship make "intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered?"
God’s Unshakable Purpose
(Romans 8:29-39)
As if Paul feared the doctrine of Justification apart from law (Romans 3:4) might seem too good to be true and enduring, he immediately adds probably his strongest pas-sage of Christian assurance (Romans 5:1-11), namely, that God’s immutable character of pure, free grace and undying love gives the doctrine an unshakable bedrock foundation. The same thing occurs here again. After using Romans 8:1-28 dilating upon the work of the Spirit in, with, and for saints, ending with the astounding statement that all things work together for their good, he spends the rest of the chapter anchoring the doctrine of Sanctification and Glorification to the same unshakable bedrock of God’s character and fixed purpose.
His argument is that God’s purpose from all eternity past to glorify men who freely choose him in Christ as they once freely rejected him in Adam, is unfolding through the running centuries as he ordained; that no opposition, demonic or/and human, can thwart it; that its success depends upon no contingency; that the purpose has built-in provisions for every need of willing, cooperative men, even their sorrows and disappointments becoming God’s appointment for their good; and that the threefold groaning of earth, under God’s omniscient, gracious ruling and overruling, is but infallibly working out their final glory. Therefore, Paul, unafraid, looks out through all space and time, and issues his three-fold challenge: "Who is against us?" "Who shall lay any-thing to the charge of God’s elect?" "Who shall separate us from the love of God?" It is not a question of human strength, courage, and stability, for all who keep themselves in the love of God (Judges 1:21) live charmed lives, and are swept on to certain joint-victory with Christ?
This truly eloquent, magnificent passage, quivering with ecstatic feeling and music throughout, ends in grand crescendo: "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul hears a harmony in God’s purpose as fulfilled in Christ through the Spirit that silences all earth’s discords. God’s ship may toss in stormy seas, but will not capsize.
"God Is One Jehovah" (Deuteronomy 6:4)
In Luke 17, Christ says that, as the world in the days of Noah was too busy and too merry with fleshly things to think about spiritual things, so shall it be again at his coming. This is the setting of his parable (Luke 18:1-8) of the persecuted widow who cried to her judge until she got redress. Christ’s application is: "And shall not God avenge his elect, that cry to him day and night? . . . I say unto you, that he will avenge them." This parable teaches that despite outward appearances, the overall, long-range divine government of the universe justifies patient, hopeful, Christian prayer. If Christians are mentally perplexed about the injustice, cruelty, and wretchedness of the world, they "Ought always to pray, and not to faint," for the al-mighty, moral-dealing God purposed before he created it to bring it at last to a good end. This world must therefore end right.
Does not the fact that God is one, and that the universe and everything in it, is one orderly, closely knit whole help us to "know that to them that love God all things work together for good?" If the Creator has so ordered his world that everything favors "them that are called according to his purpose," should we not be grateful? God is the hinge upon which history turns. In his last interview with his brothers, Joseph summed up the tragic story of his life "Ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good." He saw at last that the cup of his life, bitterness and all, had been mixed by God’s own hand. To make things work together for good is God’s predestined purpose and prerogative. But alas and alack! how often do Jacob’s false, foolish words to these same men, earlier, "Me ye have bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me," befit our poor, unbelieving hearts?
This blessed doctrine is not addressed, brethren, to our reasoning, but to our believing, faculties. On the great venture of faith and hope, may we try it out to find that it works. We must be afflicted and "suffer many things," but in spite of, nay, because of, this, we shall grow in peaceful trust and "mellow fruitfulness" of life. As an eagle in a storm may be lifted on wings, properly atilt, to calm upper air, so we in the storms of life may be lifted on Chris-tian faith, properly atilt, to the serene heights of the eighth chapter of Romans.
Questions
1. What is the constitutional "infirmity" of Adam’s fallen race?
2. On what condition can the Holy Spirit pray for, and with, us with unutterable groanings about the sorrows of earth?
3. What is the granite bedrock upon which Paul anchors the doctrine of the sanctification and final glorification of the saints?
4. Paul, ready for anything, thankful for everything, and afraid of nothing, issues what absolute, threefold challenge to all opposition?
1. Are you of Paul’s "persuasion"?
2. Do you react to God’s providence as did Jacob, or as did Joseph?
3. What do you, taking Christ’s parable about the heartless judge and the suffering widow in its context, make of the parable
Study #26—R.C. Bell
Our "Studies in Romans" has covered the first eight chapters of Romans, and concludes the strictly doctrinal part of the book. We have found that there are no good fallen men "no not so much as one," "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"--just as there are no good fallen angels; have found that men are as powerless to change their fleshly nature by their own strivings, as an Ethiopian is to "change his skin, or a leopard his spots;" have found that a man-centered system of religion, based on man’s living up to a code of law in his own strength, but reveals the sin in his nature and life, thus increasing his guilt and misery; have found, in short, that sin celebrates its triumph over man when their religion, even though given by God, is a legal covenant.
We have found, furthermore, that to men who see they cannot make themselves good, and are therefore ready to let God make them good in his way, God proposes to give, by means of a spiritual birth, a new, spiritual nature, which will bear fruit after its kind. This requires that men, repenting, admit the justice of their death sentence, grate-fully accept Christ’s execution in lieu of their own, and eagerly appropriate Christ’s risen, glorified life as God’s total answer to their total need; requires that they, in the power that God in Christ, through the Spirit, by the Bible supplies, live their Christian life, which is not merely the old, fleshly, Adamic life lived on a higher level, but which is a new order of life altogether, even eternal life, the very life which God himself lives.
According to the outline of Romans proposed in the beginning of our study these eight chapters pertain to "The Philosophy of Christian Birth and Maturity." We are now ready for the second major division of the book namely, "The Philosophy of Christian History" (Romans 9-11). The subject of these chapters, as given in the outline, is: "God created Christianity, past, present, and future, according to his will and grace for man’s salvation and his own glory."
In the days of Christ, the Jews were subject to Rome, and Palestine was an "occupied" country. But their proud spirit was unbroken, and their fierce patriotism and nationalism burned on. Had not Moses at the birth of their nation said to their fathers: "Thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, and Jehovah hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all people that are upon the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 14:2) and "Thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places" (Deuteronomy 33:29)!
Partly, because Christ would not take sides with them against the Romans, the Jews rejected him. When Paul wrote Romans, about 57 A.D., nearly all the estimated more than 15,000,000 Jews scattered over the Roman world still thought Christ was a blasphemous impostor, who richly deserved the doom he suffered. Several years before he wrote Romans, Paul characterized them: "Who both killed the Lord and the prophets, and drove out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved" (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16).
To Jews, Paul, a Jew himself, who taught that Christ "Abolished in his flesh the enemity (between Jew and Gentile), even the law of commandments contained in ordinances;that he might create in himself of the two one new man, . . . fitly framed together, . . . builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:15-22), was a contemptuous traitor to all the nationalistic promises, hopes, and struggles of his race. That God was of "stones" raising up children unto Abraham was still, as in the days of John, intolerable heresy to the fiery, bigoted Jews.
The important matter of the relationship of the Jews to Christianity is introduced in Romans 2, where Paul tells them that their soulless observance of annulled rites and ceremonies is but sitting by a burnt out crater, only to be dis-missed in the first verses of Romans 3, after slight notice of the involved questions of Jewish advantages and God’s moral integrity. Now, in Romans 9, however, he is ready to face and discuss these questions. This glance at Jewish history, and at the structure of Romans, helps to a better understanding of Paul’s -method and doctrine in the artistic and skillfully executed ninth chapter.
Paul’s Preliminaries
(Romans 9:1-5)
"I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, by kinsmen according to the flesh." How is this great human, God-like cry, "White-hot with love and wild with all regret;" this "wish of passion and power in which Paul’s heart seems to be pumping blood through My pen" to be taken?
In Paul’s preaching, it was always "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16). In fact, considering that, when Paul early in his ministry pleaded even with God that he be allowed to work among the Jews, he was commanded to "Depart: for I will send thee for hence unto the Gentiles" (Acts 22:17-21) and considering how much unavailing (humanly speaking) trouble he would have escaped had he not later returned to Jerusalem against further advice of prophets, too, (Acts 21), one can but wonder if Paul, as many since have been so influenced, did not allow his "kith and kin" to influence him too much. Be that as it may, if Paul is to have an honest study with the Jews, he must first allay their groundless prejudice against him by convincing them that he loves them and has their best interest at heart. Hence, "His intense love for his brethren constrains him to contemplate himself as their victim, if such victim there could be" (Moule). As to whether or not such victim could be, God’s answer to Moses, who proposed that he him-self be blotted out of God’s book instead of the Jews in the matter of the golden calf, is final. The answer: "Whosoever hath sinned against me, will I blot out of my book" (Exodus 32:33). Such shifting of moral responsibility is repugnant to divine sovereignty and moral dealing. It reverses God’s will, robs Christ of a soul, and makes Paul a spiritual suicide. Could Paul really have dreamed of such things? His very words, "I could wish," imply preventing causes.
Paul’s naming over nine great divine favors which distinguish the Jews from all other races further attract and conciliate them. They knew that he himself had once been "of the law found blameless," and had led the Jewish op-position to Christianity. After this masterly preparation, Paul is now ready to reconcile, he hopes to ready readers, the equality of Jew and Gentile in Christ to the promise unto Abraham. Are we not ready, in our next "Study," to hear him too?
Questions
1. What do you learn from Romans 1-8 about human goodness, man’s ability to change his sinful nature, and the fruits of a religious, legal covenant?
2. Since the Christian life is not merely the old, fleshly, Adamic nature lived upon a higher level, what is it
3. Give, according to our skeletal outline of Romans, the general subject of both Romans 1-8 and Romans 9-11.
4. Characterize the Jews of Paul’s day, both politically and religiously.
5. Tell what the Jews thought of Paul, and give their reason for so thinking.
6. State two things that Paul did to conciliate the Jews and to get an honest hearing from them.
7. What was the chief difficulty that Paul had to explain to the Jews in order to convert them to Christ?
Study #27—R.C. Bell
Romans 9 is a grand character piece. Generally speaking, it portrays God as the self-consistent Creator, who, as sole Owner and Manager of his human creature, does his own thinking and planning, makes and executes his own pur-poses and decisions, and assumes full responsibility for all consequences; it portrays man’s proper place to be that of submissive, faithful servant, extremely thankful for the unspeakably great privilege of working under and with such perfect management. Specifically, the chapter shows that the Jews’ being excluded from and the Gentiles’ being included in the church is neither a breach of God’s promise to Abraham, nor a surprise to God, inasmuch as he foretold it in the prophets. The argument, which involves the sovereignty, integrity, and providence of God, goes down to the very roots of all human history, political and religious. In the last of the chapter, the subject, namely, that Jews and Gentiles, alike, are responsible for their respective rejection or acceptance is introduced. This chapter, a masterpiece of art and cardinal truth, requires creaturely and reverent study.
The contention of citizens of the United States today, should they insist that foreigners, as prerequisite to becoming Christians, must become citizens of the United States would be comparable to the arrogant, supernational contention of the Jews in Paul’s day. They ignorantly thought that other nations could share in their covenant only by being absorbed into Israel, and thereby exalt and glorify Israel. As Paul’s teaching that "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, . . . for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28) utterly and forever crushed these carnal hopes, they, with all the well-known strength of nature, tenacity of pur-pose, and intensity of feeling of the Hebrew race, fiercely opposed him. Paul’s statement, written about the time he wrote Romans, "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one" (2 Corinthians 11:24) is grim evidence of their inveterate, brutal hate and malice for him. Contrast with this his love for them!
God’s Sovereignty
The basic mistake of the Jews was their conceit that God was bound beyond recall to give them the blessings of Abra-ham’s covenant, merely because they descended from him. Paul shows this to be a misinterpretation of the covenant Not "Because they are Abraham’s seed are they all children but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called." This covenant left God free to choose between Isaac and Ishmael as progenitor of the promised "Seed, which is Christ . . . And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3). Abrahamic pedigree had its advantages but it did not make "children" unto Abraham.
Furthermore: "Rebecca also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac--for the children not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. Even as it is written Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." In his own, free, unqualified right, God is here electing the branch of Abraham’s offspring in the next generation through which Christ should come. Since Christ could not come through both the sons of either Abraham or Isaac, such temporal election was inevitable. But it has no more to do directly with the eternal election, or non-election, of the souls of men, surely, than does the election that makes one man white and another black; or that makes white men differ basically in bodily, mental, and spiritual qualities. Thus, Paul establishes God’s prerogative of choice.
Moreover, in "hating" (merely disregarding) Esau, God did him no wrong. Honor and favor to Jacob were no dis-honor and disfavor to Esau. God finds fault with no man for being what his choice makes him. In his parable of the laborers, Christ has a deep, timeless word: "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? or is thine eye evil because I am good?" (Matthew 20:15). The envious, self-willed Jews never questioned God’s election when it was for them, against Ishmael and Esau, but stubbornly and defiantly refused it when it went against them. Should not their bondage to tradition, blind prejudice, and glaring in-consistency be a stern warning to religious people of all ages and races?
God’s Righteousness
Thus far, Paul has shown it to be a simple, indisputable, historic fact that God in preparing to send his eternal Son into the world as a man, instead of using the method of human descent or merit in selecting his human ancestors, exercised his own sovereign will to call Isaac and Jacob in preference to Ishmael and Esau. Now, he is to go further and show that God by the same principle of divine right acts in things more strictly in the moral realm.
"Is there unrighteousness with God" (Romans 9:14)? "God forbid, for then how shall God judge the world" (Romans 3:6)? These questions touch moral bottom, absolute. To admit that God does wrong is to obliterate all moral distinctions, and bring in universal moral chaos and night. In the face of this dire extremity, Paul appeals, not to human philosophy, but again to the Bible to establish God’s personal righteousness, and to vindicate his ways to man. In a few verses, he digs down to bedrock of all morality. Apart from God’s own, inviolable character as unshakable foundation, all strivings after a righteous world come to nought.
"For he (God) saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." By referring to Exodus, we learn that God said this to Moses after Moses had read "The book of the covenant" to Israel at the foot of Sinai, and Israel had promised in blood, "All that Jehovah hath spoken will we do and be obedient" (24:7, 8);after they, despite this sacred covenant, had promptly worshipped the Golden Calf, and escaped national destruction at the hand of their outraged God only by the intercession of Moses. As this flagrant breach of the covenant freed God from all covenant obligation, whatever he did for them subsequently must be of pure mercy and compassion. (Exodus 33:19). All this is the premise of Paul’s general conclusion: "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy."
It is taught here, only, that by God’s mercy, not by human works or merit, do men acquire standing before God. Many other scriptures give the conditions upon which God be-stows his mercy. Jews had to fear and love God, and keep his commandments (Deuteronomy 5:10; Psalms 103:13). All know that now God has mercy only on those who come to him through his Son Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:1; 1 Peter 2:10).
Questions
1. What information pertaining to the nature and character of both God and man does Romans 9 give us?
2. What was the basic mistake of the Jews relative to the Abrahamic covenant?
3. How does Paul establish God’s prerogative of choice?
4. Define the ground that the election of God, which Paul is discussing in Romans 9, covers.
5. After proving God’s sovereignty of choice, why and how does Paul establish his righteousness and integrity of personal character?
6. By what reasoning does Paul reach his conclusion, "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy"?
7. Apply Christ’s "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? or is thine eye evil because I am good?" to the matter under consideration in Romans 9.
Study #28—R.C. Bell
For morally insolvent and ruined men to accept God’s mercy at Sinai, or at Calvary, does not exhaust mercy for them, does not repay him, and certainly does not make him their debtor. In profound gratitude for his compassion, they must continue to avail themselves of his unwasting goodness and aid so that they may more and more grow into meek, consecrated, joyous servants, well knowing however that they must ever remain unmeriting, yea, unprofitable, servants.
God’s religion to redeem fallen humanity begins, on the human level, with the universal failure and wreck of humanity. Any religion that does not begin here is not from God, and therefore has no power to save men from either past sins or from present and future sinning. Christianity goes to the seat of human malady, and, according to God’s infinite love, knowledge, wisdom, grace and power is faultlessly adapted to reconcile estranged men to God, and to woo and to persuade them to take his full, super-human treatment for the cleansing, healing, and making them holy (whole) again. Is not a correct diagnosis necessary for the successful treatment of any disease? What other religion ever produced a Paul?
The Hardening of Pharaoh
In Romans 1, it is taught that God progressively gives men up to the hardening effect of sin as they progressively give him up for idolatry, thus punishing sin with more sin. Romans 9:17, "For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, for this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth," focuses this divine method on Pharaoh, whom God made king of Egypt, sustained under the plagues, and abandoned to the hardening effect of his persistent, even with ever increasing, light, willing, rebellious sinning against God. God also dealt, centuries later, with the Jewish nation after this fashion: "They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations: I will also choose their delusions . . .; be-cause when I called, none did answer" (Isaiah 66:3-4). Nor has he changed his method in our Christian age: "They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie . . . who . . . had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).
Because God always has just cause and adequate reason for everything he does, he never arbitrarily hardens any man. But by the ordinary, natural workings of his moral law in men who first harden themselves by defying him, he, somewhat as civil law may further harden criminals, further hardens men who have already committed "a sin unto death," for which prayer avails not (1 John 5:16).
Exodus shows that Pharaoh first questioned God’s authority, and that his heart was "stubborn;" then, the words, "Pharaoh hardened his heart," are used before it is said that "Jehovah hardened his heart." When such men as Pharaoh, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, et al, harden themselves, he, who "overrules men whom he cannot rule," weaves them, contrary to their purposes and consciousness, into his over-all world government, and makes them, so to speak, passively glorify him. For this reason, God calls Nebuchadnezzar his "servant" (Jeremiah 25:9), and Cyrus his "shepherd" (Isaiah 44:28). From such scriptures as 1 Samuel 4:8; 1 Samuel 6:6 (this last verse shows that the Philistines knew that Pharaoh harden-ed his own heart),and 17:46, we learn that God’s name was known in Canaan. And truly his name, where the Bible is known, is "published abroad in all the earth" today. God needed a Pharaoh to demonstrate his own character, and to warn the world of the demoralizing effect of sinning against light; and he knew where to find him. "The Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (Daniel 4:32).
Pharaoh is a divinely forged key with which Paul un-locks God’s character and the secrets of his government of the world; he is an immortal monument to the power and works of God. History is really made over the heads of human history makers--"the supernatural in the natural." Are not Caiaphas, Judas, and Pilate examples of God’s using wicked men, even to give us our Savior? All this, and more, supports Paul’s conclusion: "So then he bath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth."
Human Accountability
Paul has just shown that God neither broke his word to Abraham, nor dealt arbitrarily with Pharaoh. This es-tablishes God’s prerogative of choice and his personal right-eousness. Now he brings up the correlative, inevitable ques-tion of man’s accountability. "Thou wilt say then to me, why loth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will?" Paul, the only apostle academically equipped to discuss this highly abstruse, speculative, impracticable subject, absolutely declines all further discussion and uncompromisingly denounces the attitude of the questioner: "Nay but, 0 man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why didst thou make me thus?"
Considering what Paul has already said in Romans, I think, he is in effect saying: "Remember, man., who you are; you belong to a proscribed race of dead creatures who receive from Adam an infected moral nature that in time (age of accountability) invariably leads to actual, personal sins just as you receive from Adam an infected body that in time invariably leads to death; you are a sinner by both nature and practice, a creature "dead through your trespasses and sins," with no rights whatsoever before God, and should instead of "talking back" to him, be humbly, gratefully receiving any favor his mercy bestows."
Paul has learned the lesson God in kindness tried to teach the race symbolically by the tree of forbidden knowledge in Eden--the ineffable difference between Creator and creature. The lesson is exceedingly hard for both angels and men to learn. Overvaulting, creatural pride cost the former heavenly and the latter earthly paradise. "Secret (unrevealed) things belong to Jehovah" (Deuteronomy 29:29), and men who aspire to pry into them are drawing too nigh unto the burning bush (Exodus 3:5). Without a metaphysical discussion of the relationship between the divine and the human will, the Bible everywhere takes for granted that men, at least before they harden their hearts, are free to accept or reject God’s mercy; and regardless of how they talk, men know they are free to choose. Had theologians never eaten of this forbidden tree, Christendom had been spared a needless, baffling, disastrous controversy.
Questions
1. Why is it imperatively important for men to know that Christianity begins, on the human level, with a morally bankrupt humanity?
2. Show from the Scriptures that it is the fixed policy of God to allow willful, rebellious men, who are determined to have their own way, to harden under the ordinary working of his righteous government.
3. Did this immutable method of divine dealing apply to Pharaoh.?
4. Enlarge upon the statement that Pharaoh is a divinely forged key that unlocks God’s personal character, and his principles of governing his world.
3. Explain: "History is really made over the heads of human history makers."
4. Why cannot God ever arbitrarily and indiscriminately deal with men?
5. Comment upon Paul’s rebuke of men who try to pry further into God’s business than he thinks expedient to reveal.
Study #29—R.C. Bell
Paul bases the teaching in Romans 9 on these truths: (1) God never acts arbitrarily, (3) God never violates man’s will, (3) and what God does is always morally right. He does not feel the need of asking (much less of proving) with Abraham, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Moreover, he has nothing but stern denunciation for those who quarrel with these truths. Instead of attempting to answer all questions and solve all problems pertaining to divine government, he unequivocally warns men, that on the human level, these truths must be the stopping place; because men have not the right or the knowledge or the goodness or the power to dig deeper and to judge God.
To make Paul’s figure of the potter mean that God makes men either good or bad against their will contradicts all that he, or any other inspired man ever wrote on the subject. The point Paul makes is that, as a potter in sovereign, but not capricious, power over clay selects and molds it into pottery which it is best fitted to make, so the sovereign, merciful God for good reasons of his own, inscrutable per-haps to men, selects and uses men, Abraham and Pharaoh for example, where they are best fitted to serve in his complicated, benevolent, over-all government of the world. His discussion does not delve deeper into the profound problem of temptation, sin, and suffering, which in turn involves the mighty mystery of man himself, since man is the only earthly creature that can sin.
When a man says that, if he does not know God’s reasons and understand his ways, he is not responsible, and fatalism follows, Paul brings him up short: "Stop, man, Stop! God is God! Is it necessary that you know? How dare you, a sinful, condemned creature, so irreverently and presumptuously mistrust your maker, and pry into his secrets?" Paul found great satisfaction and hope, no doubt, in leaving all the insoluble mysteries (humanly speaking) to him who made and runs the universe--to him who assumes all the responsibility unto all eternity.
The Hardening of the Jews
Inasmuch as God’s word and mortal nature require that his wrath be revealed against all unrighteousness, unless Pharaoh be punished, his character will be compromised. And certainly Pharaoh cannot complain, if, while his life is running its inevitable course to destruction, God in long-suffering lets him live on and reign, and uses him as an un-conscious instrument to publish his name abroad.
Paul now applies this method of divine government to the Jews, who, as Pharaoh hardened himself, have hardened themselves into "vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction." But immediately he announces the good news that God is delaying their destruction and making "known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, even unto us, whom he called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles." These "vessels of mercy" are the Christians, for they only have answered God’s merci-ful call to come unto him for pardon and reconciliation. God prepared all this before he created the world.
This is the first time in the chapter Paul has mentioned the Gentiles. At the time however, they composed by far the greater part of the church, and the masses of the Jews were its bitter enemies. He quotes from Hosea to show that God foreknew the Gentiles would become his people; and from Isaiah to show that he also foreknew only a "remnant" of the Jews would be paved. Hence, God is not taken by surprise, for things are developing as he foreknew they would develop.
Had the Jews not been blinded by prejudice and arrogance, this use of their prophets would have convinced them they were separating themselves from the covenant of the fathers, as Peter told them they were doing (Acts 3), were resisting the Holy Spirit, as Stephen told them they were doing (Acts 7), and were no longer God’s people. As Jonah, a bigoted Jew, thought God wronged him when he spared heathen Nineveh, so a nation of bigoted Jews, who have overwhelming evidence denied Jonah, think God wrongs them when he saves heathen Rome. They forget it is always the pure mercy and goodness of God that saves any man--that leaves them a "seed," which saves them from the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah. Penitent, pious, holy men never accuse God, but ever themselves, of wrong-doing.
Willing and Running in Vain
Paul has spent Romans 9 establishing God’s sovereign rights and moral integrity. God’s selection or rejection, and corresponding use, of individuals and nations are not even to be questioned, but taken on absolute faith and trust.
Now at the end of the chapter, he begins the delicate task of showing the Jews that they are responsible for their exclusion from the Mosaic covenant. In stubborn self-will they yet refuse to see that covenant as a provisional, carnal covenant designed by God to prepare them for his succeeding, spiritual covenant. They are so enamored of the types, stately ritual, and Jewish advantages of Judaism that they think nothing can be better, and obstinately refuse to go on with God in his invincible progress into universal Christianity. With fanatical zeal they cling to the man-centered first covenant in preference to the God-centered second covenant. Since they refuse to make this shift in center, which is the very essence of the distinction of superiority of Christianity over Judaism, what can God do but brush them aside and select others who will trust and cooperate with him? "Wherefore? because they sought it (righteous-ness) not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling (Christ)." They strangely persist in willing and running in vain, whereas they might, by God’s mercy, will to run successfully on his race track.
As Paul knows only too well how this truth enrages the Jews against him, he, in his burning, Christ-like love for them, is tender and soothing. Roping to prepare them for an honest, healing study of their misdirected zeal, he assures them that the desire of his heart and prayer to God that they may be saved (Romans 10:1). As Christ wept over, prayed for, but preached against the Jews, so Paul weeps over, prays for, but preaches against them. He faithfully and firmly tells them that their zeal in seeking spiritual life by means of law-keeping is an ignorant zeal that may be for God, but is not of God; and that it can do nothing but minister to their fleshly pride. He tells them that Christ is the end of the covenant of law, both temporally and religiously (v. 4), and that only by faith in him can they ever will and run in step with God, and go on with God unto everlasting life.
Questions
1. Why does Paul take the deepest and most vital things in God’s personal character and his government, ultimately, for granted?
2. Show that the true interpretation of the figure of the potter both leaves men free in the crucial human choice, and preserves God’s integrity.
3. What is Paul’s answer to the shallow fatalist?
4. Show that God used the same principles of government in dealing with the Jews that he used in dealing with Pharaoh.
4. For what specific purpose does Paul use Hosea and Isaiah, respectively, in his portrayal of God’s moral character and government?
6. What shift in center, a shift that is the essence of transition from Judaism (or any other religion) to Christianity, did the Jew. refuse to make?
2. Comment upon the blending of faithfulness, tenderness, courage, firmness, and skill in Paul’s reasoning with the recalcitrant Jews.
Study #30—R.C. Bell
Paul’s discussion of divine sovereignty and human accountability in Romans contains no suggestion whatsoever of incompatibility between the doctrines. Neither in Peter’s indictment of the Jews on Pentecost, "Him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay," which focuses the two truths more sharply than Paul’s discussion does, is there so much as a hint of discord between the doctrines.
All questions that may arise from the fact that God’s foreknowing and predestining Christ’s death did not affect the responsibility and accountability of the men who crucified him are "foolish and ignorant questionings," which
Paul told Timothy and Titus to shun and refuse. If Peter and Paul even thought of this matter at all, they stayed not to meddle with it, but leaving it to God whose business it was and who alone was competent to deal with it, they hastened on, humbled and sobered by the dread truths involved, as faithful stewards in tremendous earnestness with their own commissioned business of preaching the universal gospel of reconciliation, hoping to humble the perishing rebels of earth into surrender and repentance to the merciful, sovereign Maker and Owner.
Two Kinds of Righteousness
How is it that such perverted, depraved Gentiles as those described in Romans 1 "attain to righteousness," while Jews, who zealously, laboriously, and sincerely observe religious rites, elaborate rituals, and burdensome traditions, fail to attain it? The Gentiles, who had no self-righteous-ness to hinder them, freely and gladly entered in through the "door of faith" (Acts 13:48; Acts 14:27) into Christ, thrown wide open to them by God’s mercy, as their only hope. Thus they obtained the righteousness, which is the free and gracious gift of God to believers. The reason Israel failed to arrive at this faith-righteousness was that they were seeking a law-righteousness of their own "by works of law" --counterfeit righteousness camouflaged as the righteous-ness from God. Paul gives them full credit for their zeal, but tells them it is "not according to knowledge," and that it is no ground for salvation. This is the key to the whole chapter, the purpose of which is to show the Jews why they are set aside. Paul’s own life is the best commentary on the appalling truth that sincere, zealous men may be lost.
Paul in relating his religious experience contrasts these Iwo kinds of righteousness: "Not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, even the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Philippians 3:9). These two kinds of righteousness cannot coexist, because one must be dead to the former in order to be alive to the latter: "For I . . .died unto the law that I might live unto God" (Galatians 2:19); "For if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily, righteousness would have been of the law" (Galatians 3:21). Law cannot give pardon and life and hope and love and security. Since Pentecost, Jews must be as completely done with Mosaic law, both as a means of obtaining life and as a rule for living life, as if it had never been given or as dead to it as are Gentiles, who have never been under it.
Israel is a tragic example of religious men of legal mind clinging, blindly and doggedly, to traditions and symbols in-stead of growing into the truth and the life symbolized by and embodied in the types and emblems. Nothing more surely than the leaven of legalism paralyzes the finer instincts and most godlike facilities of the soul. Jesus warned his disciples against it (Luke 12:1). Remember, it was Jewish legalists who forced the Pagan Romans contrary to their feelings and will to crucify Jesus. Had Jesus but said, "Woe unto you Romans," instead of: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," what a difference it would have made. Remember, Paul, probably in mental gifts and nobility of soul the greatest of all Jews, was first "A Pharisee . . . as touching the law, found blameless." But he was withal, because of his inhuman, bloody persecution of holy, helpless saints, the chief of sinners. But this was the best the principle of legality could do for him! Need Christians today be told that they may eat the Lord’s Sup-per, and in every way live respectable, nominal Christian lives in this cold, formal, traditional, legalistic, partisan, loveless, flesh-centered, spirit-killing manner?
"All Things Are Now Ready" (Christ)
In Romans 10:5-21, Paul, continuing his contrast of law-righteousness and faith-righteousness, shows that the free and universal nature of Christianity is set forth plainly in the Old Testament. "For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live there-by. But the righteousness which is by faith saith thus, Say not in thy heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down;) or, who shall descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word we preach."
First Paul here makes a free quotation from Moses (Leviticus 18:5) to the effect that the life of men living under law depends on their perfect obedience of law. Second, he in-corporates, with Christian meaning, the strong, lively words of Moses with reference to the law (Deuteronomy 30:11-14) into his exposition of Christianity. What could so well show his skill and power in reasoning with Jews as this personifying the gospel and having it say what Moses said of the law? His purpose is to convince Jews that Christianity is a fulfillment of Moses, and that following Moses through will make Christians of them that instead of doing meritorious deeds they have only to believe in the divinely wrought, past Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus, the benefits of which are as free as the air they breathe, and to realize that with respect to righteousness, the gospel says, not "do," but "done." He is begging them to lay their "deadly doing down," to empty their hands that they may grasp what only empty hands may grasp, and to see that they cannot drag themselves up the lofty peak of righteousness by natural human strength.
Finally, Paul quotes Isaiah and Joel to show that the gospel is, not only free. but also universal--"Whosoever shall call . . ." Then, he quotes Isaiah and David to show that this free, universal gospel has had divine universal proclamation. Thus, Paul vindicates his mission to the Gentiles, the very thing that the Jews say makes him their enemy. Last of all, he has Moses and Isaiah testifying that the acceptance of the Gentiles was made known from of old.
Questions
1. Why do Paul, Peter, and all other Biblical writers ignore the incompatibility that men may find between God’s sovereignty and man’s accountability?
2. Differentiate between "a righteousness . . . which is of the law" and "the righteousness which is from God by faith."
3. Why did Gentiles find faith-righteousness, while the Jews found it not?
4. Account for the fact that Paul before he accepted Christ was, "as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless," and yet he was chief of sinners.
5. Why should Paul’s point that, if they would but follow Moses through, they would become Christians, have appealed to Jews especially
6. Explain the statement that with respect to justification, the gospel says, not "do," but "done."
7. How does Paul vindicate his apostleship to the Gentiles, which is the main offense the Jews have against him?
Study #31—R.C. Bell
"The Spirit of truth," through Paul, weaves into Romans 9-11 about thirty quotations from the Old Testament. Some of these, such as Paul’s applying to the gospel, with fuller, deeper, more spiritual meaning, language that Moses applied to the law, are free, allusive quotations. This manner of quoting throws light upon the Christian use of the Old Testament, and upon the unity, and consistency of the Bible as a whole. This may be called interpreting the Old Testament in the spirit of the New. Such use of the language of others is a common practice of both inspired and uninspired men. For instance, to how many things besides marriage has Christ’s saying about marriage, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder," been applied?
A living, increasing, unifying purpose runs through the Bible--"The word of God is living and active," and "shall not pass away." With the fuller, final revelation of the New Testament on such subjects as God’s kingdom, Christ’s nature and character, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, God’s care for his children, the resurrection, immortality, and eternal life, Job, Psalms, Isaiah, and indeed all the books of the Old Testament mean more to us than they could possibly mean to their first readers. Certainly, God’s personal character, his government, and his word since Revelation was written are changeless, but when a Christian’s knowledge of God and the Bible becomes changeless, his life is impoverished. The reading of Christians may be so fragmentary, disjointed, and textual that they cannot grow in Knowledge as they should. The failure to include in their methods of studying the Bible this general, synthetic method accounts for much of their partial, superficial understand-ing of God’s invincible, overall, eternal purpose.
"With the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Belief of the heart guards against hypocrisy, and confession with the mouth against cowardice. How simple, easy to come by, and efficient Christianity really is. Every seeking sinner finds a seeking Savior coming to meet him; no advantage of fleshly privilege is needed to reach spiritual blessing in Christ; Christians ascend the heights because Christ descended into the depths. Free and Universal! Ask and have--what more could one wish? If the Jews were des-tined by God to eternal damnation, how much short of blasphemy is the language of Isaiah and Paul, "All day long I (God) spread out my hands (beseeching them to be reconciled unto him) unto a disobedient and gainsaying people?" One wonders whether God’s long-continued patience and goodness to "vessels fitted unto destruction," or the Jews’ long-continued hardness, willful ignorance, and complaining, stubborn, rebellious spirit is the greater won-der.
Rejection of Israel Not Total
(Romans 11:1-10)
As God’s forbearance with Pharaoh was finally exhausted, so his longsuffering with the Jews was first running out when Romans was written. About thirteen years later (A. D. 70) God used Rome to destroy Israel in what has been called the most complete military execution of any nation in history.
Although this impending doom, and subsequent eternal woe, as well it may, grieves Paul, himself an Israelite, be-yond words and tears, he is not hopeless as Elijah was when he faithlessly wailed that he, the only faithful man left alive, was being persecuted unto death. Paul knows that as there were seven thousand who did not bow the knee to Baal in Elijah’s day, "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant (including himself) according to the election of grace." Thus, Paul finds comfort and hope in the fact that God is not compelled to cast off all "His people which he foreknew" in a special way.
"But if it is by grace, it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace." Paul nowhere states more incisive-ly and categorically than in this verse the utter incompatibility of grace and works. He knows by both subjective and objective experience the seductive, powerful, and tenacious nature of the faith in human sufficiency and merit. Such faith energized him when he persecuted the church, and it later energized the Jews when they persecuted him as a Christian. Even many Jews who came into the church, not really converted from flesh to spirit, and consequently having little conception of the newness, liberty, and largeness of Christianity, were his aggressive enemies. This crafty, Judaic party in the church (Galatians 2:3-5), by destroying its freedom and universality, perverted and shriveled it (Galatians 1:7) into another Jewish sect. Paul’s knowing how very hard it is for men to believe that works and grace are mutually contradictory and destructive must account for his often repeated, emphatic teaching on the subject in so many of his letters. Anyway, he teaches that men who trust grace are the elect, and that men who trust their own works are the non-elect--that any election must be an "election of grace;" teaches that men are free and may will to have God’s grace to work Christian works in and through them (Ephesians 2:4-10).
This section closes with more quotations from Isaiah and David re-emphasizing the fact that the Jews so hardened themselves against God that God had to harden them, even unto allowing their religion to become a burden and a curse to them. Truly, a most solemn warning to all worshippers of all races!
Rejection of Israel Not Final
(Romans 11:11-32)
The first five verses of this section prepare for the rest of the passage. "I say then, did they stumble that they might fall (beyond recovery)? God forbid: but by their fall (a second Greek word for "fall," meaning "falling aside") salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy . . . For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?"
Paul here declares that the rejection of Christ by the Jews was the occasion of the reception of Christ by the Gentiles--that Jewish unbelief was Gentile opportunity. He rejoices that his success among the Gentiles reacts favor-ably upon some of his beloved kinsmen after the flesh, and moves them become Christians. But Paul, being too familiar wits.., the whole fabric of traditional Hebrew culture with its entrenched, obstinate bigotry to be blindly optimistic, speaks of this saving only "some of them." His two rhetorical questions emphasize the idea that, if Israel’s falling aside works such benefits, Israel’s restoration should mean a mighty spiritual revival.
Questions
5. What does interpreting the Old Testament in the spirit of the New mean?
6. Give the meaning of, "studying the Bible in a general, synthetic way," and tell some of the advantages of so studying it.
7. How does belief in the heart guard against hypocrisy and con-fession with the mouth against cowardice?
4. Why did not Paul become despondent over the condition of Israel, as Elijah centuries before had done?
5. Put into words of your own the meaning of Paul’s, "But if it is by grace, it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace."
6. Why must any election that God ever makes be of grace?
7. Does Paul teach in Romans 11 that Jewish unbelief was Gentile opportunity?
Study #32—R.C. Bell
Romans 9-11 has been called the noblest theological argument ever written. The ninth chapter portrays God as the absolutely independent Ruler of mankind, exercising his sovereign right to use, or set aside, individuals and nations according to their fitness to serve his ends and further his program. God, and only God, is God. Men must know they are creatures, and act as creatures.
The tenth chapter shows that God never abuses his prerogatives, but that he always makes legitimate use of his almighty power and limitless resources; that instead of his dealings with his subjects being arbitrary and corrupt, as the dealings of men lifted up in power almost invariably are, all his decisions and works rest on a foundation of jus-tice, righteousness and loving kindness.
The eleventh chapter witnesses to the utility of the judgments, measures, and methods God uses in presiding over the progress of the Abrahamic covenant. It reveals his con-summate administrative wisdom and skill in adapting means to ends, in balancing one thing against another, and in turning loss into gain, as he irresistibly advances according to schedule in fulfilling his promise to Abraham, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Under his infinitely wise, able, and good management, everything is grist to his mill.
The Abrahamic Covenant As An Olive Tree
The promise of a Savior is co-eval with human sin. This promise makes known that the Savior was to be a human being--the Seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). After many centuries, God chose "Abram the Hebrew" (Genesis 14:13) to he the father of "a great nation" which would produce this Seed of the woman, without a human father. Hence, the Savior was to be not only a man, but a man of the Hebrew race. This divine choice constituted Abraham a man set apart and made holy for this special purpose. "Hebrews,’ "Israelites," and "Jews" are three scriptural names for Abraham’s descendants, or branches. Paul’s statement, "If the root is holy, so also are the branches" means, I think, that Abraham as the "root" and his posterity as the "branches" are the holy, dedicated race for God’s bringing Christ into the world. "Salvation is from the Jews" (Christ--John 4:22).
God added his limited provisional Mosaic covenant of law to his earlier universal, permanent Abrahamic covenant of grace, not however to annul the older covenant, but to let men learn by experience that, inasmuch as they could never earn justification by perfect obedience of law, they must accept it as a free gift of God’s grace. When this temporary, parenthetic covenant of law had served its purpose as a tutor to bring men to Christ, as their only hope of justification, "God took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross" (Galatians 3:15-19; Colossians 2:14).But since the Jews refused to give up their national covenant, and hardened themselves and rebelled against God, as Pharaoh did, they forced God to set them aside, and go with his fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant without them.
This is the gospel Peter preached on Pentecost so effectively that he persuaded a remnant of about 3,000 Jews of the "crooked generation" that crucified Jesus to go on with God in order to escape being left behind. In his next sermon, Peter, after telling the Jews that Moses and all the prophets from Samuel onward had foretold the Christianity he was preaching, continued: "Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant God made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Acts 3:25). As a result of this sermon, the Christian remnant that elected to remain in the Abrahamic covenant of grace increased to "about five thousand."
To Gentile Christians Paul writes: "But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, roast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree; glory not over the branches: but if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee." As Peter was the chosen apostle to persuade Jews not to fall out of God’s advancing program, he was likewise the chosen man to make the first graft (Cornelius--Acts 10) from the Gentile wild olive into the Abrahamic stock, so that all men might be "Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29).
Gentile Pride
Paul to Gentiles again: "Thou wilt say then, branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. Be-hold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." Note that Paul makes human cooperation absolutely indispensable--God’s goodness unmixed with man’s faith and obedience simply will not work in religion (Hebrews 4:2). As unbelief was the cause of Jewish branches being broken off, so must unbelief cause Gentile branches also to be broken off. Furthermore, since Gentiles have much more faith-creating evidence than ancient Jews had, their un-belief is much more blameable. Human reason, pride, and prejudice must bow before faith.
The Holy Spirit knowing the deceitfulness and corruption of the human heart, warns Gentile Christians lest they repeat the fatal pride and presumption of the broken-off Jewish branches. Does not remembering that this warning was sent directly to Rome, the very city in which Gen-tile pride and presumption as they grew into the powerful, arrogant hierarchy of Roman Catholicism was to reign over Christendom many centuries (and the end is not yet) emphasizes its divine foresight and providence, and put Gentile Christians on their guard against an insidious, perpetual, deadly peril until their fullness be come in?
Why should Gentile Christians be high-minded and glory over Jewish Christians? Paul reminds them to be a graft is nothing of which to be proud. Since the whole church springs from a Jewish root, Jewish and Gentile Christians, sharing Christ’s eternal life in common, are organically one. Christ "Abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commands contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross . . . and preached peace to you (Gen-tiles) that were far off, and peace to them (Jews) that were nigh: for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:15-18).
Questions
1. State the gist of each chapter in Romans 9-11.
2. On what basis did God select and dedicate a family for Christ’s human ancestry?
3. How is it that the Mosaic covenant is a parenthesis?
4. What was Peter’s understanding of the relationship between the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant?
5. Show that Paul under the figure of an olive tree corroborates Peter’s view.
6. Against what egregious mistake of the Jews did Paul warn the Gentiles?
7. How does this prophetic warning confirm the inspiration of the Scriptures?
Study #33—R.C. Bell
Over against the warning to Gentiles, "Be not high-minded, but fear" lest you fall also, Paul sets the hope of Jewish restoration fear for Gentiles and hope for Jews. Having already shown that the recovery of Israel is desirable (12-15) and scriptural (16), he now shows that it harmonizes with nature: "And they also, if they continue not in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again . . . into their own olive tree" (23, 24).
In this Scripture, Paul, illustrating by a general use of the principle of grafting, teaches that, since the immutable covenant was made primarily with Israel, it is more natural and reasonable that Israel be restored to it than that pagan Gentiles be brought into it. He is asking why, inasmuch as Gentiles from Cornelius onward have "contrary to nature" been grafted into the Jewish olive tree, should grafting Jews hack into it be thought unnatural and improbable.
Paul As Prophet
After arguing that the restoration of Israel is desirable, scriptural, and natural, Paul is ready to prophesy that God’s keeping his promise to Abraham involves as a coming event the recovery of Israel: "For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion a Deliverer . . . and this is my covenant unto them . . . for the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of" (25-29). Surely, this prophecy means that now, while Israel is broken off, God’s field of operation is in particular with Gentiles until his work among them is done; at which time the generation of Jews then living will be ready to choose the Christ, whom their ancestors crucified, as their Lord and God (cp. Luke 21:24). The adverb "so" compactly con-denses the quotation as the manner of Israel’s restoration. "0 foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken" (Christ).
That the history of Christendom since Paul’s prophecy was made vindicates him as a true prophet of God should lead us to expect the fulfillment of the rest of his prophecy. Time works no change in God. But has Paul’s warning that Gentiles be not conceited and high-minded, but fear, been heeded? How much truer to God in Christ have they been than Jews were true to God in Moses? Do not many think that the present Christian age can never be superseded by a maturer age, much as the Jews refused, despite the utmost efforts of Christ and Paul to convince them of their deadly error, to go on with God into Christianity, because they blindly thought the Mosaic age was God’s best and final economy? As Jews were anciently and still are in their new Palestinian state, may not Gentiles now be "Found even to be fighting against God?" Is not the present Gentile age, as the Jewish age before it ended, to end in partial failure (Luke 17:22-27), but not until Israel is ready by choice to come back into God’s program of mercy?
The Holy Spirit gives in Romans but a very general out-line of God’s manner of working out the Abrahamic covenant. Details found elsewhere in the Bible, of course when we understand them, fit perfectly into this basic outline. In our study of this complicated subject further than an exposition 9f Romans requires, we must remember that, while God never works above or beyond Christ, he may work in and through Christ now and "in the ages to come" (Ephesians 2:7) very much that far transcends our present knowledge and even "All that we ask or think."
Differing views about the future which do not directly effect primary, essential things, such as Christ’s lordship and the worship and work of the church, may not involve matters irreconcilable to Christian doctrine, and hence need not disrupt Christian fellowship. Of course, to mark and turn away from any one who teaches anything "contrary to the doctrine" (Romans 16:17), is a plain duty. But to mismanage differences about secondary, non-essential things in such a loveless, un-Christian manner as to disrupt fellowship is very definitely contrary to the whole doctrine and spirit of Christianity. Let us, brethren, in brotherly kindness, love, unbiased study of God’s work, and friendly exchange of ideas, re-examine our differences about things that are not of vital importance to the life and work of the church. We, then, "Speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15).
Paul’s Worshipful Doxology
(Romans 11:33-36)
From the summit of the lofty range of divine revelation to which he has been climbing in Romans, Paul writes: "For God hath shut up all unto disobedience that he might show mercy unto all" (Romans 11:32). This verse is the conclusion to both Paul’s exposition of the philosophy of Christianity (1-11) and to his setting forth Israel’s place in human his-tory (9-11). This historic division of Romans begins with Paul’s profound sorrow over Israel’s temporarily losing her place in God’s perpetually unfolding plan for the ages and ends with his sublime panegyric upon God who makes possible the hope of her restoration. It seems that men who feel deepest also think highest.
This doxology is both retrospective and prospective. When Paul views the past, he sees Jews and Gentiles alike condemned; when he turns to the future, he sees God’s mercy poured out on both alike. God’s mercy given gratis to men who have no merit in the grand climax of Romans. Upon contemplating God’s unified policy, which admits no piecework, of making the wrath of both Jew and Gentile praise him by having them alternatively aid each other until they come to see that they have only common interests and be-come one in Christ; at last Jews, with zeal according to knowledge, and Gentiles knit together, by faith, forever in the Abrahamic covenant that all the earth may be blessed, Paul’s joy knows no bounds, and this ecstatic laudation of God, whose character is the basis of all profound reverence and devout worship, praising his sole proprietorship, inscrutable wisdom, invisible might and infinite goodness, leaps from his pen.
Can the heart of any man who considers God’s strategy of letting the black plague of sin work its horrors until mankind in desperation comes to him for cure, fail to beat in sympathy with this beatific vision? Surely, Christian men who love both God and men can, with Paul, wonder, worship, work, and wait for God to finish his glorious work of redemption. May I pray you, my dear brethren, to study Romans reverently, take it at face value, and grant others the same Christian freedom.
Questions
1. What is Paul’s fear for the Gentiles, and his hope for the Jews?
2. Does Paul think that the restoration of the Jews to the Abrahamic covenant is desirable, possible, and scriptural?
3. What is the logical import of the adverb "so" in his argument?
4. What similiarity exists between the end of the antediluvian age and the coming end of the present Christian dispensation?
5. Does Paul think it is contrary to, or a fulfillment of, God’s revealed will to believe that a great many of a generation of Jews will yet "be grafted into their own olive tree"?
6. What is the scriptural procedure for brethren in Christ who differ about secondary things, that are not plainly contrary to Christian doctrine?
7. Discuss the prime cause, the comprehensiveness of the subject matter, and the energizing hope of the Doxology with which Paul closes Romans 14.
Study #34—R.C. Bell
The conclusion to the doctrine of Romans 1-5, namely that condemned humanity all men patients in one hospital stricken with the same deadly malady--may be justified, is found in Romans 5:1 : "Being therefore justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The con-clusion to the doctrine of Romans 6-8, namely, that justified reconciled men are enabled to be holy, saintly men, "con-formed to the image" of God’s Son, is found in Romans 8:1 : "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."
Another "therefore," summing up the doctrinal part (1-11) and introducing the hortatory part (12-16) of Romans, is found in Romans 12:1 : "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice . . . to God." Romans crystallizes into these great logical "therefores"--the "therefore" of Justification and of Sanctification and of Consecration.
Romans 12:1-2
That the hortatory part of Romans, pertaining to the various relationships of Christians to church, state, and society in general, is linked to the doctrinal part by "there-fore" proves that practical religion depends upon doctrinal religion--doctrine is the oil in the lamp, exhortation is lighting the wick, and the Christian character is the burning lamp. Doctrine is related to practice, to use another figure, as root to fruit. To think that doctrine within itself is sufficient is as an orchardist who cares for only the roots of his trees. On the other hand to think that the Christian life is possible without Christian doctrine is as foolish as to expect grapes without the vine. God does not ask men to climb the lofty peaks of love and self-renunciation found in Romans 12 and in the Sermon on the Mount until they know the doctrine of his mercies toward them in their desperate need; he knows such living is impossible to fallen men, unaided. Verily, it takes the coalescing of doctrine and practice to make Christianity, which rests solidly upon the goodness of God.
These verses also make it plain that the way Christian doctrine grows into Christian behavior is by making the mind Christian: "And be not fashioned after this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." This begins not by putting a new coat on the old man, but by making a new man, renewed down to the very roots of his nature. Even the necessary old activities he brings over into his new life are new in motive and purpose. A Chris-tian’s being regenerated in mind within makes it, since the body is the agent of the mind, reasonable and spiritual for him, as a flower grows from within to without, to present his body without to God. Because the true test of whether we actually give ourselves to God when we think we do is the use we make of our bodies, Paul beseeches us to present our bodies to God, not our souls. The body is the ultimate in sacrifice. Christ used his body as his bridge across to men, and he uses our bodies now as his bridge across to men.
Man is a being consisting of three essential parts, "spirit and soul and body" (1 Thessalonians 5:23), which, but for sin, would never have been separated. When his redemption from the ruin of sin is complete at his resurrection, he will again be a triune being. The body is so dear to God that he permits the devil to have the body of Moses (Judges 1:9), or of any other servant of his, only temporarily. The gospel is good news for the body as well as for the soul and spirit, both before and after death. Christianity is the only religion that gives the body its proper dignity and honor. "Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? . . . Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which we have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:15-20).
The man who takes up Paul’s challenge to be moved "by the mercies of God, to present" his body, through the means of his regenerated mind, as a living sacrifice to God finds that the plan does what it proposes to do. As he might find, not by human philosophy and logic, but by sowing an unfamiliar seed, that it produces a choice, new flower, so he finds that God’s will to save him by grace through faith, inasmuch as he progressively becomes wiser, better, and happier, with sins of mind and bad habits of body conquered, is not only a "good and acceptable and perfect" way, but that it gets better and more satisfying all the time.
Moreover, a Christian is rewarded by being so trans-formed in nature that he is able to discern God’s plan for his life. As he obeys and prays for guidance, he will in the perplexities of life be guided by means of his regenerated mind around pitfalls into good things. Let him in good faith accept Christ’s invitation, "Come unto me . . . and ye shall find rest," and he will find that in the measure he trusts Christ, he believes God is directing his way through life. Every earnest man owes it to himself to put Christianity to the proof of life that he may find out for himself it is not merely a doctrine to discuss, but a reality to be known only by personal experience. "Prove me . . . saith Jehovah . . . if I will not open you the windows of heaven" (Malachi 3:10).
A final thought on these two verses: after naming "the mercies of God" as the mighty driveshaft upon which Christianity depends for its operating power, they on the human level, give the fundamental principles of Christian consecration. The remainder of Romans is but their prolonged echo.
Romans 12:3-8
"For I say through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly." This warning has reference especially to the miraculous gifts of the day, but it is not limited to them. That Chris-tians should soberly estimate their ability and not attempt things beyond their capacity is still as true as it ever was. In miraculous gifts, I think, God supplemented the gifts he had already given by natural means. He is too wise an economist to discard natural gifts, for they blend with supernatural gifts. Would not God in giving miraculous wisdom select as recipient a man of naturally clear thought? Or in giving supernatural hortatory power a man of naturally warm, fervid feelings? Would he to get a better exhorter in song select a man without ear and voice for music? After men could use the complete Bible, probably miraculous gifts would not improve their teaching, exhorting, and singing.
Questions
1. Comment upon the logical and doctrinal import of the three "therefores" into which Romans crystallizes.
2. What relationship exists between God’s mercies and Christian living?
3. What relationship exists between doctrine, exhortation, and practice?
4. Why does Paul beseech Christians to give, rather than their spirits, their bodies to God?
5. How may Christians learn that God’s will for them is "good and acceptable and perfect"?
6. How may Christians be assured that amid the problems and perplexities of life God is leading and keeping them?
7. Comment upon the blending of miraculous with natural gifts.
Study #35—R.C. Bell
"As we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Chris, and several members one of another" (Romans 12:4-5). The Holy Spirit, because we are all branches of one Vine, Christ, who shares his life with us, thus constituting Christian unity, in these verses stresses our mutual interrelationship and interdependence. To make these spiritual relationships more realistic and practical, Paul repeatedly uses the analogy of the human body (1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4; Colossians 1) with all of its amazing perfection, with-out deficiency or redundancy, of unity in the midst of diversity.
As in the body there are no gift-less, useless members, and as each member has its own particular gift, so is Christ ; as in the functioning of the body as a unit each member does its own work, and supplements all other members, so is the church. Thus Christians are, so to speak, organs of one another. For example, if I cannot lead singing in the assembly, my brother who can is my organ of song, whom I must love and help, not envy and disparage. I have grace, faith, and gift to fill only my own office, and can never --work in the measure of another’s faith, gift, and aptitude each key fits its own lock. Paul teaches in the context of, "But now are there many members, but one body" (1 Corinthians 12:20), that unity in diversity is equally essential in the body and in the church--both are so constituted. Herein lies the possibility of mutual edification, as in music, "Distinct melodies breathed by different voices constitute full harmony." But nothing can be more deadly to divine Christian unity than the substitute, synthetic, uniformity, built upon human authority, written or oral, and social bias and pressure.
Not until we think "soberly" of our talents--neither flaunt nor bury them--and possess the cardinal Christian virtue, humility, can our self-sufficient, egotism ("mistaken non-entity") and envy break down and make possible the presenting of our bodies to God. Only when we do this, how-ever, the ambitions and lusts of the flesh may be superseded by nine-fold fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
Romans 12:9-21
As a spontaneous sketch of the fairest graces of personal behavior toward others, growing out of the master principles of Christian love, this Scripture is unrivaled. It comprises a cluster of some two dozen specific exhortations, running counter to the instincts of human nature, to act in nobly unselfish love "Toward all men, especially toward them that are of the household of the faith." The Greeks wrote of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice, but of nothing similar to the Christian traits of lowliness, tenderness, sympathy, kindness, forgiveness, peaceableness, and general largeness of soul that pervade these verses.
Our difficulty lies not in understanding, but in obeying, the requirements of this passage. A basic mistake, I think, is we expect the flesh by the process of education to evolve into Christianity, whereas Paul says, "They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh" (Galatians 5:24). In writing this compendium of Christian virtues, Paul assumes that his readers "have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3), for he has already taught them: "In my flesh dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not . . . The mind of the flesh is enmity against God . . . they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (7, 8). "Fleshly Christian" is a contradiction of terms. The unwillingness of the flesh to die has ever been the tragedy of the church.
Digging down to the deepest roots of Christianity on the human side, Christ gave Nicodemus to understand that his flesh was so polluted that it would have to be discarded, and a new start, involving such a radical change in him that he called it being "born anew" (John 3), must be made. Paul says the man who has been so born is "a new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17), and that his former life is "but refuse" (Philippians 3:8). If Nicodemus ever was born again, he became one of the "babes in Christ" and possessed for the first time spiritual life which is imparted by God in this spiritual birth. Only then, could he judge the values of life as God judges them, and live a spiritual life. Could he have attained this new order of life by developing his flesh, "Then Christ died for nought" (Galatians 2:21).
Love in Action
The world is built upon a cross. "The love at the heart of the universe is a stern, splendid thing, deep and tragic." Without stern aspects nothing nobler than facile good nature and unrighteous indifference to sin is possible. In both God and man, love embodies wrath--the two constituting holiness. Love may have to be "grievous" in order to yield "peaceable fruit" afterward. Only the love that is strong enough to abhor evil can cleave to the good. Honest love hates the evil even in friends, and loves the good even in enemies--"rejoiceth with the truth." When both truth and peace cannot be kept, let peace go.
Only lowly Christian love is capable of honoring others before self. In times of suffering and trouble, patience with her "perfect work," hope that "putteth not to shame," and love that "never faileth" unite to compound the best soul tonic. "Little minds are too much hurt by little things." An unknown brother’s trouble is a letter of introduction to his brethren. Prayer is such a simple thing that a child can pray, and yet it involves such profundity and mystery that maturest saints thank God for the privilege and boon of prayer without understanding philosophy of prayer. Love enters into the joys and sorrows of others. It is easy to weep with the weeping, but it takes a heavenly spirit and a large, rich nature to rejoice with those in success and happiness. What is more moving than the tears of a strong man? "A good man weeps easily, the better, the easier." One who is not very kind is not very spiritual.
Christians having equal minds toward all, keeping in harmony with one another, affecting not high things but living in sympathy with the lowly (many early Christians were slaves), and practicing scrupulous honesty are the best examples of the fine art of living together, and prove that of all institutions on earth "The church is the noblest school of courtesy." Only the church knows the full meaning of love, fraternity, equality, freedom, and peace. Were Christians only Christian, unloving, over-bearing self-confidence and self-assertion, the thing against which this chap-ter forewarns, could never be among brethren.
Questions
1. Describe Christian interrelationship and interdependence, tell what gives them existence and strength, and by what analogy Paul illustrates them.
2. As applied to Christians at worship or work what does "Every key fits only its own lock" mean
3. Explain what "unity in the midst of diversity" means in the church, and tell its advantages.
4. What is the difference in source between pagan and Christian virtues?
5. What is the basic cause of discord and division among brethren?
6. What does "The church is the noblest school of courtesy" mean?
7. Why is the phrase, "fleshly Christian," a contradiction of terms?
Study #36—R.C. Bell
Romans 12 closes with exhortations concerning the treatment of enemies. When Christians live their religion, neither enmity among themselves nor peace with the world is possible, for "All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12). The world demands conformity: it punishes those who fall below and persecutes those who rise above its standards. The only way for Chris-tians to avoid the enmity of the world, that crucified their Lord and have never repented of the crime, is to become worldly themselves. "If the world hate you, ye know it hated me before it hated you . . . I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:18-19). The world hated Christ because his word and life condemned its evil works (John 3:19-21), and the word and life of his disciples likewise arouse the hatred of the world, for they also must condemn its humanism, sensuality, pride, greed, envy, and lust for power.
"Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense saith the Lord." Peter says that Christ’s own life is an example of this way of living: "Christ suffered also for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps . . . who, when he was reviled, revileth not again . . . but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:21-23). Peter and Paul ex-hort us to follow Christ, who always obeyed God and left his enemies, absolutely, for God to recompense. That evil-doers be recompensed is morally right and necessary, but God does not permit Christians to usurp his prerogative of administering vengeance.
If we try to mete punishment to our enemies, by reason of our sin-warped, passion beclouded thinking, partial knowledge, and incapacity to know hearts, we are unable to do it aright. Probably another reason we are not to avenge ourselves is that the very effort would further de-moralize and harden us. On the human level, evil is not the answer to evil; rather, evil breeds evil. We should be happy to leave it to him who can judge "righteously" for all concerned. The only way to be rid of enemies is to melt their hostility with kindness. The logic of kindness is stronger than the logic of argument, or of force--men cannot be coerced into love. When I retaliate and become the enemy of my enemy, God’s wrath rests upon us both. Instead of being overcome by evil, we must be conquerors, overcoming evil with good this is Christian vengeance and victory.
God’s Two Governments
In Romans 12, Paul exhorts Christians in God’s spiritual kingdom, the church, to overcome evil with good, to do all they do in love, and to let God avenge their wrongs. Continuing the subject of vengeance in Romans 13, he reveals that God ordains civil government, the state, "As an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil." The church and the state are both, therefore, divine institutions, but God uses them in different ways for different ends. The church evangelizes and in grace pardons; the state arrests and in justice punishes. In the church, Christians are active leaders in the state, Christians are but passive subjects.
A thumbing through the Bible shows why these two governments are needed. God originally governed man through immediate, personal, spiritual communion with him. This perfect government soon began to work imperfectly, however, because man’s sin separated him from God. This form of government, nevertheless, continued until God’s holiness could no longer endure man’s unholiness, and he destroyed all men except Noah and his family. God would not permit men to avenge Abel’s murder (Genesis 4:15), and he used no human agency in the Noachian flood.
One change God made in the government of the new world after the Flood was to give men the authority to execute murderers: "Whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (God. 9:6). God was not abdicating to let men take over government, but merely letting them, as his representatives, exercise some author-ity which heretofore he had kept to himself personally. But Nimrod, the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel (Genesis 10:10), and many others broke away from God and established their own kingdoms. The first centralization of power, consolidation of humanity in rebellion to God, and dream of godless world empire was the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). As the race was again descending into the de-pravity that culminated in the Flood, God "Scattered them abroad from thence (Babel) upon the face of the earth," according to his first plan for men (Genesis 1:28-31).
Origin of Civil Government
God called Abraham out of this godless confusion and made him head of a nation in which to establish his government, and to set forth the relationship between the di-vine element and the human element in government. When he settled this nation in Canaan as his peculiar people, he gave it a government without the civil organization of other nations. The authority he delegated to it, including the death penalty, was vested in religious elders and judges.
But the nation rebelled against God’s simple, spiritual sufficient way and said to Samuel, the judge whom God had given them: "Make us a king to judge us like other nations" (1 Samuel 8). When Samuel sought counsel of God, God answered: "Hearken unto . . . the people . . . for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me that I should not be king over them." Consequently, against his primary will, but with his permissive, secondary will, as he suffered divorce among the Jews because of the hard-ness of their heart though from the beginning it had not been so (Matthew 19:8), God modified his government, and made Saul the first king of Israel. Is it not clear that the root of civil government springs out of the soil of disobedience and rebellion to God?
After a checkered history under many kings, mostly de-feat and disaster, as the nation staggered into final Assyrian captivity, God chided: "Where now is thy king? . . . I have given you a king in my anger and have taken him away in my wrath" (Hosea 13:10-11). Thus, the Jews by rejecting God’s first-choice government brought utter ruin upon themselves. Does not their history exemplify the Scripture, "He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul" (Psalms 106:15)? When will men learn that God’s primary spiritual government meets all human needs, and that they do not need a secondary political government?
Questions
1. Is it true that, when Christians live their religion, neither dis-cord among themselves, nor peace with the world, is possible?
2. Suggest some reasons why God does not permit his people to ad-minister righteous vengeance upon their enemies.
3. Is the statement true that the logic of kindness is stronger than the logic of argument and force?
4. What change did God make, after the Flood, in his original government for mankind?
5. Out of what worldly ambition did the Tower of Babel grow?
6. What was God’s reaction to this first consolidation of humanity against him--this first vain dream of a Godless world empire?
7. What was the history and the end of the first Hebrew government with a human king that God, after faithfully warning the Jews of its many exactions, finally suffered the rebel Jews to establish?
8. Why does God need both the church and the state? Contrast the two with respect to their purposes and methods of operating.
Study #37—R.C. Bell
The preceding "Study" held that the state is an expedient, ordained by God for those who are not in his church. As a student in the Nashville Bible School, I heard David Lipscomb teach this, and in mutual brotherly kindness debated the matter with G. G. Taylor of Louisville, Kentucky. I have since read adverse reviews of Brother Lipscomb’s book on the subject, but my conviction that his position with respect to the origin of civil government is scriptural has never been shaken. Alexander Campbell wrote to the effect that the best government on earth, be it "English or American" said he, had within it the seeds of its own de-struction, for it acknowledged not that God had set Christ upon his throne.
The Twofold Function of the State
Neither the kinds of government, such as monarchy and republic, nor the moral character of individual governments and officers is discussed in Romans 13, but the source and function of the state itself as an institution. While it is true that God ordains civil government as an avenger for wrath to evil doers and true that, should all men become Christians, it would automatically cease to be, it is also true that the state "Is a minister of God to thee (a Christian) for good." Or as Peter puts it, "For praise to them that do well." Why should not rulers feel kindly toward Christians? They are submissive, law-abiding, loyal citizens in everything Caesar has a right to expect (Matthew 22:21), for in God’s over-all government of his universe two sources of ultimate authority with clashing laws is impossible. Do not church and state bear much the same relationship to each other in time that heaven and hell bear to each other in eternity? "God is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4; Galatians 3:20), and has built into his creation the constitutional principle that physical and spiritual forces are so geared together for his long-range purpose that the universe is one orderly, logical, closely related, moral whole, with all things in both nature and religion working together for good to those who love him--both nature and religion are kind to obedient men, but harsh to others. Does not all this bear eloquent witness to "The riches of his grace," and unto "The praise of his glory," wisdom, foresight, power, and goodness?
The Scripture, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee (God): the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain" (Psalms 76:10), throws clear, strong light upon the workings of God’s government of the world. Though the inhuman monster and matricide, Nero, was emperor of Rome when Peter and Paul wrote, they feared no evil, for they knew The watchful eye and the almighty, overruling arm of God would not suffer the "wrath" of Nero to go far enough really to hurt them and the church. Even in the event of their martyrdom, they would depart and be with Christ which was very far better (Philippians 1:23). No matter what happened, Nero would be "A minister of God . . . for good" to them. "I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake for when I am weak, then am I strong" (Paul). "Who is he that will harm you, if ye be zealous of that which is good" (Peter? "When a man’s ways please Jehovah, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Solomon).
The Relationship of Christians to the State
As I understand Christianity, the three rhyming words, "obey," "pay," and "pray" comprehend a Christian’s duties to his state. Romans 13 shows that he must obey all laws and pay all taxes. Prayer is treated in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 : "I exhort . . . prayers . . . be made for all men for kings and all that are in high place; that we may live a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity . . ." This passage considers the whole church as a "holy . . . royal priesthood" praying for the world of lost men (none of whom can pray adequately for themselves), particularly for kings and other rulers, that they may "come to a knowledge of the truth" in Christ. And just as Aaronic priests received a portion of the offerings of men whom they represented before God, so praying Christians are to be blessed with considerate rulers, under whom they may live in peace, as their portion. Such seems to be the import of this great Scripture, which thus furnishes another example of God’s orderly, integrated, supreme rule over the whole earth.
In his monumental history of the Roman Empire, Gibbon, admitting his perplexity as to why Rome persecuted Christians, writes: "Christians yielded the most passive obedience to the laws, though they declined the active cares of war and government. They were a singular people who held an inoffensive mode of faith and worship." This, an unbelieving historian testifies concerning Christianity be-fore it became so worldly and perverted that the nominally Christian emperor, Constantine, who delayed his baptism until on his deathbed in 337 A.D., made political use of it in 325 A.D. to strengthen the Roman Empire. In this manner, the gospel lost its superhuman sanctifying power, and the Medieval Dark Ages came on apace.
Early Christians who "declined the active cares of war and government" were simply following, as Peter exhorted them to do, in the steps of their Master, "Who when he was reviled, reviled not again." Surely, Christ said and did enough in the few hours between his arrest and death to cause their declining active participation in duties of state. When he said to Peter, "Put up the sword into the sheath for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword," did he not "unbelt," as Tertullian says, every soldier who would his disciple be? "What can war but endless war still breed?" (Milton). "A man in armor is his armor’s slave" (Browning). And did not Christ forever repudiate force as an agency to establish or propagate his kingdom when he added: "Or thinkest thou (Peter) that I cannot beseech my Father, and he shall even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?" See the deep, impassable gulf he put between his kingdom and the king-doms of the world when he said to Pilate: "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is not my kingdom from hence."
As Father Abraham "became a sojourner" in Canaan, so Christians, whose "citizenship is in heaven," become "Strangers and pilgrims on the earth . . . for they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." Let poor men, who have no "Spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ," attend to the state. For them, does God ordain it, as the best he can do for them. But for Christians, he or-dains a better way in which to honor him and to help a rebel world.
Questions
1. What precise point pertaining to the state is Paul discussing in Romans 13?
2. State clearly the twofold function of the state.
3. What bearing does the fact that two sources of ultimate authority for governing the world are impossible have on the truth that nothing can harm Christians?
4. What three words exhaust the duties of Christians to the state?
5. What information does Gibbon give about the relations of the early Christians to the state?
6. How should Milton’s question, "What can war but endless war still breed?" impress the statesmen of the world today?
7. What do Christ’s sayings to Peter and to Pilate teach concerning Christians taking up arms?
Study #38—R.C. Bell
The very fact that Christians must be subject to the government under which they live precludes their inaugurating and operating it. Are they not avenging themselves, something God forbids their doing, when they help start or run the state, which God ordained as his "Avenger of wrath"? Furthermore, since "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men" (Daniel 4:17), when his over-all government of the earth calls for a Pharaoh, Nero, or Hitler, if Christians try to prevent or over-throw the rule of such men, they fight against God. In the light of these truths how can Christians do otherwise than as Christ and his disciples did?--just ignore civil government, for the most part at least, as a necessary expedient to punish evil-doers, primarily, but useless as a direct agency for spiritual work.
Christians who think they can raise the standard of public morals and civic righteousness, and meet human need generally, by active participation in affairs of state, should remember that the New Testament never even intimates that such effort will succeed. It is not a question of the attitude of Christians toward human need, and good works for its alleviation, but of the means for doing such work. Christ created his church "For good works . . . that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10); Christians must be "zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). He said that his disciples were "The salt of the earth" and "The light of the world." By their unceasing Christian teaching and living, Christians pour a living, purifying stream into the putrid life of the world, similar to the power of gravitation in the physical world, which is something that all the non-Christian institutions on earth for the betterment of man-kind combined cannot do. Would it not have been presumption had the Jews thought marching around Jericho at God’s command was inadequate, and supplemented the marching with battering-rams? Would God have been obeyed and honored? Would the walls have fallen? Sure-ly, God’s spiritual government is adequate for all earthly human need.
When Christians do not live separated, pilgrim lives, however, but compromise and become worldly, they lose their savor, hide their light, and have no salutary power. They need to remember Lot as well as to "Remember Lot’s wife." When Lot, with nothing in him deep and high enough to trust God, went to make his home in Sodom, he not only lost power to help Sodom, but also barely escaped its destruction himself. We never read, "By faith Lot dwelt in Sodom." But we do read of Abraham’s trusting God to fulfill, in his own time and way, his promise to give him Canaan, firmly refusing all compromising connections with the king of Sodom, even declining the gift of so much as a shoelace (Genesis 14), lest it appear that he, doubting God, took substitute gifts from men: How jealous Abraham was of God’s honor and name! And do not forget that it was Abraham, who lived a sojourner a century in tents, not Lot, who sought convenience in Sodom, that had power with God in prayer on behalf of Sodom in her day of dis-tress (Genesis 18). How much the church of God loses at any time, because Christians give more of themselves to the state than God’s threefold requirement of obedience, payment of taxes, and prayer for rulers, only God can. know. A church may be strong either spiritually or politically, but not strong both spiritually and politically at the same time.
The Fulfillment of Law
(Romans 13:8-10)
By connecting these three verses with Paul’s long discussion of law in Romans and Galatians, the relationship between the law, which was given through Moses and grace, which came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17), becomes plain.
Briefly to summarize: Paul teaches that God embodied his eternal moral law in the special code of Ten Commandments, which he wrote on tables of stone and gave to the Jews to convince them (and through them all other men) that, inasmuch as no man can obey God’s law perfectly, he must look elsewhere for his justification--that is, that legal salvation is impossible. Once convinced of this, ear-nest men in self-despair are ready to look to Another for salvation. In other words, law was given that grace might be sought; then, grace came that law might be fulfilled. When Christ came therefore, the Mosaic code having done its particular work, was, as a system of religion, abolished.
It is at this level that Romans 13:8-10 fits into Christianity. A Christian is a man who has acknowledged the justice of his being sentenced to death as a law-breaker, and has accepted Christ’s gracious death in lieu of his own death so truly that he dies to self in order to become Christ’s grateful, eager slave, not only to love Christ himself, but also to love everybody and everything that Christ loves, for the same reason and in the same way that Christ loves them. This is the love that faileth not. Such total commitment to Christ is the difference between Saul the Pharisee and Paul the chosen apostle and pattern saint.
Caesar can make good laws, but he cannot gender the love in his subjects to heed them--hence the sword. Law, even God’s law, can but give directives to show what should be done, demand of loveless men the impossible conduct of love, and punish disobedience. Law has no help for the victim of lawlessness; it discovers wounds for which it has has no healing. Men cannot climb up to heaven on a ladder of law. The fulfillment of law, which law itself vainly seeks, is found in love, which, as when a tender mother cares for her sick child, turns "hard duty into holy delight." Only when love is absent, is a consciousness of law and duty necessary. A heathen who has never heard of the law of Moses, upon becoming a Christian, should soon have the commandments of Moses written on his heart--an inner decalogue, so to speak--and through love, without a sense of law, be lawful in his human dealings. "He that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law."
Christians do not need to be under law in order to be lawful. In truth, they can never fulfill law until they are de-livered by the power of God from the realm of law and of flesh, and put into the realm of grace and of Spirit. "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). "If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under law" (Galatians 5:18). "They that are in the flesh cannot please god" (Romans 8:8). Christ does not abrogate law. Love does not disregard it, but, on her magical feet, she outruns law, on her leaden feet, and does the good deed before the law arrives.
Questions
1. Can Christians to whom God says "Avenge not yourselves" help create and operate the state that God ordains as his "avenger for wrath"?
2. When conditions are such that God wants such men as Pharaoh (Romans 9:17); Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:17), Nero and Hitler to rule states, can Christians be active participants in their Christ-less brutalities?
3. Do you agree with the statement that the church may be strong either spiritually or politically, but not in both ways at the same time?
4. Can a church convert the world, when it is a part of the world?
5. Interpret the sentence that law was given that grace might be sought; then, grace came that law might be fulfilled.
6. Put into your own words the description of Christians that this "Study" contains.
7. What is the scriptural and efficient way for Christians to do "good works"?
Study #39—R.C. Bell
Romans 13, "The Christian Citizen’s Chapter," teaches three practical lessons, namely: Christians must be loyal to their government (Romans 13:1-7), just in their dealings with men (Romans 13:8-10), and clean in their personal lives (Romans 13:11-14).
Christianity should appeal to men because of its simplicity and certainty. It is built upon the same natural, simple, yet profound, principle that moves a child to love its moth-er. "God is love . . . We love, because he first loved us." Christianity therefore, distills into reciprocative love be-tween God and man. And unless it can fortify man against doubt, dread, and death, it is not adapted to his deepest needs. Sinning, suffering, dying men, the sons of dead fathers, can but wonder whether life means anything or leads anywhere. Their "Reach exceeds their grasp." They feel that they were made for eternity and long for satisfying fulfillment of their nature. Christ’s, "In this world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33), gives certainly and finality. Verily, Christ is the invincible "Cheer-leader" of his people.
Love not only fulfills and takes the place of the countless laws and rules for human behavior, but it also goes on into something codified law does not attempt to do, the vast, liv-ing world of courtesy and good manners. With law obeyed, the debt of duty is paid in full; but love is an eternal debt, forever being paid, but never liquidated. "Owe no man anything, save to love one another." Christianity requires neither economic, academic, and character entrance tests, nor asks its adherents to define love and to explain the philosophy of its subtle workings. It is enough if they feel and exhibit the power and goodness of love.
Yes, Christianity, like all great things, is sublime in its divine simplicity and certainty. And its first human requirement is that the natural man become as simple and honest as a child, acknowledge his complete religious ruin, and be willing to follow God in Christ through the Spirit to the end. Not until he does this can he know the Chris-tian love that, without sense of law, fulfills law plus.
Christ’s Return to Earth
"Already it is time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly, as in the day." As at the beginning of the hortatory section of Romans Paul exhorted Christians not to be conformed to the world by urging them to remember the mercies of God (Romans 12:1-2), so here he continues to exhort them to be unworldly by urging them to be looking always for coming salvation. Thus, he appeals to their memory and to their hope (push and pull), both unsurpassed motives to persuade them to live clean lives.
Christians in Paul’s day were such earnest, honest be-lievers in Christ’s coming back to earth that he knew, when he wrote this, his readers, without his expressly saying he did, would understand that he did have this doctrine in mind. Hence, the "salvation" of the text is the salvation, including the resurrection of the bodies of saints, that Christ is to bring with him when he comes (1 Thessalonians 4:16). As Christ had exhorted that, inasmuch as no one knew the time of his return, all should, lest they be found unready, live in wakeful expectancy of his coming, so is Paul here using the imminency of Christ’s coming back as a motive for clean living. "Everyone that bath this hope set on him (Christ) purifieth himself, even he (Christ) is pure" (1 Jonah 3:3). Even with this hope, there was much impurity in the church during the life of Paul and John. But who can say that, without it, conditions would not have been worse? Does not God in wisdom and kindness leave the date of Christ’s coming unrevealed in order to give every generation of Christians in their grim struggle between flesh and Spirit the advantage of this potent help? Does not our generation need it?
Paul did not know when Christ would come to dispel the long night of sin, which began when Adam turned his back on God and walked away into the darkness of his own shadow mortally wounded, and to usher in the im-measurably longer day of his presence, but he did believe that he would come before another 4,000 years rolled by; furthermore, he knew he might come any hour. And we know that "salvation" is now 1,900 years nearer than when Paul wrote. If any difference therefore, the certainty of the event, linked with the uncertain time element, should be better cause for spiritual living now than it was in the days of Paul and Christ. In our teaching and exhorting, why do we use it so little?
His second coming should be given its scriptural place n Christ’s history. Other cardinal doctrines in his life, such as his pre-existence, incarnation, death, resurrection, and indwelling life through the Spirit, without his climactic return, are but an unfinished story. The New Testament gives much attention to "Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13), the impending act in the ever un-folding drama of redemption, as the means, par excellence, of keeping the church, which is espoused "as a pure virgin to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:2), ready to meet her Bridegroom when he comes.
The loss, practically, of this hope, which came all too soon, may be called "The light that failed in the church." How the loss works is seen vividly in the servant of the parable, who, saying, "My lord tarrieth," began "to eat and drink with the drunken" and "to beat his fellow-servants." Our Lord knew that his people’s ceasing to look for him would result in their sinfully indulging their bod-ily appetites and mistreating their brethren. The Bible closes with Christ’s promise, "Behold, I come quickly," and John’s echo, "Amen: come, Lord Jesus."
Putting on Christ
In Galatians, Paul says that those who had been "Baptized into Christ did put on Christ." That is, having put on Christ’s righteousness in baptism, they were properly dressed to appear before God. Here, "Putting on Christ" has another meaning. Christians live Christ over again by letting him dwell in them and express himself through their personalities. "It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Paul). Both of the meanings may be il-lustrated by children in play who, after putting on the garments of adults, impersonate them. Romans 13:11-14 tells Christians why and when to arise, how to dress, and how to walk and live. What a contrast between Christians who make "No provision . . . to fulfill the lusts" of the flesh and worldlings whose every thought centers on ways to multiply and prolong gratification of the flesh!
Questions
1. State three practical lessons which are found in Romans 13.
2. With what meaning does Paul use the word "salvation" in Romans 13?
3. Show that Christianity meets man’s deepest needs.
4. What is the first requirement that Christanity makes of men
5. Show that Paul appeals to both the memory and the hope of Christians in exhorting them to be unworldly.
6. Show that Christ, Paul and John all use the imminency of Christ’s second coming as an inducement for Christian living.
7. In what two senses does Paul use the phrase, "Putting on Christ"?
Study #40—R.C. Bell
The hortatory section of Romans (12-16) deals with various human relationships. Chapter 12 pertains to love among Christians, and to love as manifested by them to-ward non-Christians. Chapter 13 teaches that the citizenship of Christians is in heaven, whence they expect Christ to come and complete their deliverance "Out of this present evil world" (Galatians 1-4), in which they are but passive, submissive "sojourners and pilgrims." And now chapter 14 shows that the relationship among Christians who differ in spiritual knowledge, maturity, and insight is mutual love and toleration. These chapters require the church to be in submission to the state without, and to exercise reciprocal sympathetic understanding with respect to its differences within. Elemental Christian truth separates the church from the world, and elemental Christian love unites the church.
"Strong" and "Weak" Christians
(Read 1 Corinthians 8-10)
Because of disparity in natural capacity, age, mental development, social and religious background, and other constitutional and circ*mstantial inequalities, differences in any congregation of Christians are inevitable. It is not only impossible to have a congregation without these differences, but it is also undesirable, for therein, "Through that which every joint supplieth," lies the opportunity for mutual edification, and for "Building up of itself in love." The home and the local church taken together constitute God’s training school to educate his children in interrelated forbearance, patience and unselfish love (take and give) all requisite qualities for entrance into the eternal "Sab-bath rest for the people of God." Christians who do not grow in grace and knowledge under the chastening, tempering, mellowing discipline of these two divine institutions miss much that purifies, sweetens, and sublimates life for time and eternity.
Paul devotes chapter 14 and part of 15 to the relation-ship between "strong" and "weak" brethren, and, if we get his timeless lesson, we must needs know the sense in which he uses these terms. "But him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples." This "faith" cannot be the absolute justifying faith in Christ as Savior, for that faith can never be weak. Some Christians in Paul’s day, though accepting Christ as the only Savior, had religious regard for the sabbath, circumcision, and other Mosaic legalism and ritualism. "Some, being used until now to the idol," were morbidly fearful of honoring an idol by unwittingly eating meat that had been sacrificed to it. Yet a graver weakness, indeed the critical weakness involved in the matter, some lacked moral courage and integrity to be true to their conscientious "scruples"--a weakness in obedience to known duty. These weaknesses were not necessarily exclusive of each other.
"We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves . . . For Christ also pleased not himself" (Romans 15:1-3). Paul’s "strong" man knows the difference between primary and secondary things that is, between things eternal, essential, and inflexible about which God speaks precisely and finally, and things that according to their very nature are flexible and adapt-able (like our backbones for instance), and imply human study, experience, and change. He knows that "No idol is anything," that the character of meat is not changed by being offered to an idol, that Christ makes all meats clean, and that Christians dedicate all their days to God. And his knowing that men may differ from him without being inferior to him helps him to be fair and honest with them, and to see things in perspective and in relative importance.
This "strong" man sees that the differences between him and his "weak" brother do not involve the everlastingly fixed, primary things of Christianity, but that, because they are neither right nor wrong within themselves, they lie in the realm of religiously indifferent things, about which brethren may, if they differ aright, safely and profitably differ. He is not "strong" because he has a "superior mind," but because he has the mind of Christ.
Presumptuous Meddling
Such diversity in the church at Rome, Corinth, or else-where, any time, however, may be fertile soil for friction, tension, mutual incrimination, and bitter feelings. The "strong" man may scornfully consider his "weak" brother an ignorant, narrow-minded man who needs a guardian. The "weak" man on the other hand may captiously con-sider his "strong" brother a self-indulgent man, no better than a worldling. Fertile soil indeed for "earthly, sensual, devilish" pride, prejudice, and envy! "Where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed." Chris-tians, mistaking fleshly feelings and interests for spiritual loyalty to truth and principle ("conscience bribed by in-clination"), are easily drawn into mere quibbling. Only at the foot of the cross can such matters be settled.
Romans 14 calls Christians of all time from vain wanderings in the fringes of Christianity to its center by simply reminding them that "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking," that, since "God hath received" them all, despite their diversities, into his own family, they are all sons of God; by simply reminding them that Christ died and arose to demonstrate the truth that he is their sole Owner and Judge, as well after, as before, they die. Does not this throw light upon the meaning of mysterious death and the intriguing intermediate state? In effect he asks: "Do you not see that your judging other Christians is but idle, presumptuous meddling, for to their own Master, only, they stand or fall? How dare you! Who do you think you are anyway?" He concludes his earnest, solemn plea "So then each one shall give account of himself to God." And what is more arresting, sobering, and better cooling for the hot tempers of overwrought men than the realization of their accountability to God for every feeling, word, and deed! Is it amiss to remember that Moses provided no offering for presumptuous sinning?
Possibly Paul gets his cue for this divine counsel to Chris-tians from the unforgettable, post-resurrection manifestation of Christ at Tiberias, in which he "manifested himself" as Lord of the life and the death of his servants (John 21). As Peter on that occasion, after receiving the sketch of his own life-work and death, asked Christ about John only to be admonished, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? follow thou me," so Peter here makes fol-lowing Jesus in supreme loyalty and extreme devotion the fixed pivot round which the life and death of all Christians revolve. No matter what "devices" Satan employs, he must gain no advantage over them at this vital center (2 Corinthians 2:11).
Questions
1. With what matter does Romans 14 deal?
2. What is the difference between primary and secondary things in the church?
3. Why do Christians inevitably and desirably differ about secondary things?
4. What does it mean for a man to bribe his conscience by his inclination?
5. Describe Paul’s "weak" and and his "strong" man.
1. Why do differences about secondary things often cause trouble and division in a congregation?
2. What is Paul’s chief point against brethren judging each other concerning secondary, or discretionary, matters
Study #41—R.C. Bell
Romans 14 falls into two main parts. The first part, consisting of twelve verses, urges that it will help Christians to be mutually sympathetic and tolerant in their un-avoidable inequalities and differences concerning things about which more than one good way of procedure is possible to remember that every one of them renders a strict, individual account to Christ, his real Master in life and in death, before whose judgment he stands or falls.
The rest of the chapter is an especially effective presentation of the place and power of reciprocal sympathy in Christian edification and fruitfulness. Who does not de-sire and need an understanding friend to whom he feels free to go, day or night, with assurance of sympathetic hearing, comfort, and help? In a world full of "the in-visibly wounded," no one is so strong that he does not have weak hours when he needs, and no one is so weak that he cannot be sometimes, such a friend. What an opportunity --"A door opened, which no man can shut!"
The Sovereignty of Conscience
In studying Romans 2, we found that conscience, as is memory, imagination, or reasoning, is a distinct, innate human faculty; that its office is, not to ascertain the truthfulness of things, but to see that its owner is true to him-self and follows his convictions that in violating his con-science, a man so destroys his moral integrity as to make moral, spiritual living impossible; and therefore that the most deadly thing any man can do is to trifle with his conscience, for in so doing he is tampering wth the com-pass of his soul.
Paul has been called the apostle of grace and of faith, and he may with equal propriety be called the apostle of conscience. This is not to intimate that he is a spiritual dictator, who cracks a whip over the conscience of others, but that, in a spirit he caught no doubt from his Lord, he believes magnificently in the unfettered conscience of all believers in Christ. He believes that within the large, flexible domain of discretionary matters, but only in this do-main of course, a Christian is a law unto himself, and should be left to his own sense of right and expediency, for his conscience is king. Although Paul so respects and reveres conscience, he knows quite well that when Christ speaks explicitly, a Christian conscience trusts and obeys implicitly regardless of all cost.
For championing this pre-eminently Christian doctrine of the dignity, honor, sanctity, and freedom of a living soul to learn and to grow, both Christ and Paul lost their lives at the hands of bigoted, dead slaves of tradition and prejudice, who had developed a fatal blind spot in their spiritual vision. Christianity is the only religion that produces true, noble individualism and independent personal-ity, which progressively grows stronger for all, both strong and weak. This growth in character, contrary to man’s thought and expectation comes, not by way of self-assertion and crushing human authority and power, but by way of going outside of self for communion with Christ through the indwelling "Power of the Holy Spirit." No individual is merged with another and lost, but all individuals are cultivated and ripened unto harvest. "0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments."
Paul exhorts the "strong" to receive the "weak" cordially, without prying into his attitude towards discretionary things, trusting the Lord to make him stand and grow, according to his new, spiritual birth and nature. This protects the "weak," who is afflicted with a conscience that does not prevent his doing, under pressure, what he thinks to be wrong, by pleading with the "strong," with whom Paul obviously is in sympathy, not to take advantage of a brother who is suffering from a "weak" conscience, somewhat as an angry man might be shamed out of striking a cripple. On the other hand, of course, the "weak" must be willing to learn and grow. In this manner, would Paul correct the defect of love in the one and the defect of knowledge and conscience in the other.
When a man is converted to Christ and ready to be baptized into him, Christ, because he actually loves him, is ready without arbitrarily deciding his conscientious "scruples" for him to receive him into his church, and give him an honest chance to learn, grow, and reverently work out his own convictions. In the light of this, who has the right to ask him, without the risk of becoming a sectarian, more than concerning his faith in Christ, the one foundation of the one church? But every man who is not crucified to the flesh has within him a potential pope and Pharisee who demands that every other man pronounce "Shibboleth" as he pronounces it (Judges 12:6). The flesh which does not, and cannot, please God (Romans 8:8), is similar to Procrustes, the mythical giant of ancient Attica, who after seizing and tying hapless travelers through his petty state to an iron bed, either stretched them or cut off their feet until they fit the bed.
Paul and Peter
(Galatians 2:11-21)
Momentous matters and perplexing situations may arise in connection with things which within themselves are religiously indifferent. Even Peter became Paul’s "weak" man and precipitated a crisis in the church when he "fearing them that were of the circumcision," ceased to eat with Gentile Christians. It was his Christian liberty to eat or not, as it was Paul’s to circumcise or not, according to which choice would be in the interest of Christianity. When he chose not to eat in circ*mstances that introduced the caste system into the church, thus destroying its universality, Paul had to resist him openly.
This occurrence in Antioch throws light on the difficult problem involved in Romans 14. The apostles did not dif-fer in primary doctrines; Peter only acted as if they did. His cowardly conduct, which belied his doctrine, constituted his "dissimulation," or hypocrisy. Had Peter been a proud, headstrong, self-seeking man, the consequences would have been deadly. But his being honestly converted to Christ, "Crucified . . . unto the world" (Galatians 6:14), and Christian to the core, made it possible to show him the appalling results of his mistake. Who, knowing Peter, can doubt his eager readiness to heal the fresh wound he had ignorantly inflicted upon the body of his Lord? We know he took his correction meekly and continued to honor and love Paul (2 Peter 3:16-17). Surely, God’s purpose in recording this episode was that his church might have an example for all time of how differences over things that are within themselves neither right nor wrong ("Neither, if we eat not, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better" (1 Corinthians 8:8), should be handled.
Questions
1. To what is "A door opened, which no man can shut," applied in this "Study"?
2. What is conscience designed to do, and what is it designed not to do
3. Why is trifling with his conscience so hazardous for a man?
4. How does Paul correct the deficiency of love in the "strong" and the deficiency of knowledge in the "weak"?
5. How admirably is Christianity adapted to develop ever-maturing nobility of personality in every Christian?
1. What does "Every man who is not dead to the flesh has within him a potential Pope and Pharisee," mean?
2. What may be learned about handling such differences as these in Romans 14 from the disagreement between Paul and Peter?
Study #42—R.C. Bell
We can never know the full practical workings nor climb up to the highest fruit of Christianity until we distinguish between its inflexible doctrines and its flexible practices. The error that Paul fought so uncompromisingly in Gala-tians is primary error, for it robs Christianity of its super-human power to deliver men from sin and from sinning. Concerning this fundamental perversion, he could not have written either, "Let each man be fully assured in his own mind," or, "I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself save to him that account-eth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean," as he writes in Romans 14 concerning less vital, secondary errors.
Heavenly Wisdom
The arena wherein practical choices between primary and secondary things are to be made should be entered with "fear and trembling." The woeful mismanagement of things in this realm, which has plagued the church from of old, is still with us. Had matters, such as separating into classes for study, unfulfilled prophecy, and co-operation of congregations that, though they do not necessarily involve doctrines and practices contrary to the doctrine we have learned (are there not Christians on both sides?), disturb the church, had been dealt with in the Christian way, how different things would now be! Wise handling of puzzling situations which often arise in connection with such matters is the severest test of the acumen, wisdom, honesty, love, and all round, spiritual maturity of elders. Compared to the relatively simple duty of condemning moral breaches, prudent management of such complexities, demanding keen discernment, delicate balance, and righteous compromise, needs must be difficult. In this field, even Peter, lacking Paul’s sincerity and spiritual insight, made his tragic mistake.
Nothing but pious study, earnest prayer, straight thinking, deep feeling, patient conference, and above all, brotherly love, will meet the requirements of Romans 14. Neither snubby tolerance nor ruthless intolerance of a "weak" brother’s honest "scruples," but sympathetic tolerance, born of love, that gives him, with the help of his brethren, time to outgrow his deficiencies will do. Tolerance neither leaves a brother alone in his false convictions nor takes them away from him by force. Capacity for this work must be included in the "wisdom," beyond human wisdom, which James says may be had through undoubting prayer. Can a Christian "Overthrow . . . the work of God," "Sin against Christ," and offend "The brother for whom Christ died"? Since Christ was so deadly earnest, must a Chris-tian not be earnest? In this realm, Christians may get their best experiential discipline, ripest, sweetest "fruit of the Spirit," and greatest enrichment of personality and life.
Your conscience is the unchanging innate consciousness that you ought to do what you think is right and refrain from doing what you think is wrong. Both its constraining and restraining powers are great; it is the most searching test of conduct. When a conscientious man’s convictions are wrong, his mind, not his conscience, needs changing. Paul’s becoming a Christian changed his conscience no more than it hanged his memory. Every man must reverently obey his conscience; in violating it, he defiles his most holy place, and commits himself to the vicious principle of self-will and lawlessness--becomes, so to speak, a willing sinner. Neither the "weak" nor the "strong," even for the sake of peace, may force the conscience of the other. Be-fore either can contend that discretionary matters involve his conscience at all, he must make the common error of mistaking his opinion, prejudice, pride, and stubbornness for his conscience.
Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8-10 supplemented by, "A factious man after the first and second admonition refuse; knowing that such a one is perverted, and sinneth, being self-condemned (condemned by his own conduct, not self-con-fessed)" (Titus 3:10-11), give God’s infinitely wise way of keeping his church free from proud, self-seeking, incorrigible men, who must rule or rain. God lets it be known, in this firm and final manner, that he does not intend to give contentious partisans the right to become petty, vexatious, destructive tyrants in his church.
Though we may not know all the reasons why Paul saw into the heart of truth better than Peter did, we do know that men are expected to interpret moral things, and judge their relative values. Said Christ to the Sews: "Ye, hypocrites, ye know how to interpret the face of the earth and the heaven; but how is it that ye know not how to interpret this time? And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right" (Luke 12:56-57)? Had the Jews been as much interested in God’s way as they pretended to be, they would not have been so blind about Christ’s identity.
Even so Christians are now expected to discern the difference between primary and secondary things, and to understand their relative importance. Christ still wants "Full-grown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14), men who can of themselves judge what is right. As parents rejoice to see their children, no longer needing directions about every detail, become able to reach sound moral judgments for themselves, so God rejoices to see his children grow in powers of spiritual interpretation and application of the principles of Christianity to actual life.
Paul Himself Lived
Romans 14
Paul, who at supreme cost heroically stood unflinchingly for all primary gospel truth, but, who in secondary things became all things to all men that he might by all means save some (1 Corinthians 9:22), is the best example of the Chris-tian discrimination between essential truth and discretionary conduct. He gnawed on no bare bones, that he might give himself wholly to big, worthwhile things, including correction of the "weak" who were wrecking the church. He stressed no incidentals, and majored in no minors. And what truer measure of a man than the size of the thing he deems worthy of his best, lifelong endeavor and devotion?
Unbounded zeal in essential things, brotherly liberty in discretionary things, and tender toleration for the "weak" characterized Paul. He was very superior in mind, con-science, and energy, yet withal as sensitive in feeling as a gentle woman. His Christian blend of remarkable inflexibility in things divinely fixed, and his no less remarkable flexibility in secondary things accounts for his enduring, peerless power and influence in the church. Next to Christ himself, Paul is the best example of the strength, tender-ness, adaptability, sanity and balanced wholeness of Christianity. "Brethren, be ye imitators together of me" (Paul).
Questions
1. How important is it to differentiate between the primary error Paul combats in Galatians and the secondary errors he combats in Romans 14?
2. Why are problems involving secondary matters so hard to solve
3. Why are the constraining and the restraining power of conscience such searching tests of conduct?
4. What grave mistake must a man make before he can think that discretionary matters involve his conscience at all
5. Show by the Scriptures that God does not give a contentious man the right to be a vexatious, destructive tyrant in his church.
6. Does Christ’s question, "And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" apply to the realm that Romans 14 covers
7. Show that Paul himself was a superlative example of the gospel he preaches in Romans 14.
8.
Study #43—R.C. Bell
Romans 14 ends with a plea for sincerity, consistency, and moral integrity. "Happy is he that judgeth not him-self in that which he approveth. But he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin." This verse, in its set-ting, means that a man whose conscience prevents his doing what he thinks is wrong is a true, blessed man but that a man whose conscience allows him to do what he thinks is wrong wrongs himself, for this violation of his conscience insulates the one point at the center of his moral being with which God can make spiritual contact.
Who can read this chapter without realizing that Chris-tian doctrines are of unequal value, and that big and little things should never exchange places? Men must not make things which God does not make conditions of salvation tests of Christian fellowship, because in so doing they reject those whom God receives, and make divisions in the church over trifles. To separate believers from unbelievers is right, but to separate believers from other believers is wrong. Blessed is the Christian who keeps Christian things in Christian proportion.
Possibly, Paul’s purpose in writing Romans 14 was to correct an acute condition in Rome, caused by the contention of the "weak" that only their view of eating idolatrous meat could be right, and that therefore the whole church must adopt it. In the very nature of things, men whose meekness does not equal their "weakness" are more likely, than are the "strong," to push their opinions and prejudices to the extremity of overriding the conscience of others, and to form parties in the church. In fact, proud, "weak" brethren may be so unconscious of their "weakness" that when they are told of it, instead of being grieved as Peter was when Paul rebuked him, they are insulted. Romans 14 and 1 John 3:11-12, "This is the message which we heard from the beginning, that we should love one another not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother," make it impossible for any Chris-tian to deny, as Cain did, that he is his "brother’s keeper" (Genesis 4:9).
Twofold Truth and Unity
Christian unity is so closely connected with the subject matter of Romans 14 that understanding it will help to understand and apply the teaching of this chapter. The church is an organism consisting of a solid core of fundamental, common truth surrounded by a wealth of variety and diversity in its members. All Christians must be irrevocably committed to this core of primary truth, but concerning the surrounding secondary truth, they must be adaptable.
The unity therefore of the church does not require the sameness of an ant hill, or the confinement of a prison cell. Differences in ability, personality, and maturity among the members of a congregation should be welcomed as a priceless asset, for they contribute to fulfillment of its worship and work. The existence and fruitfulness of any organism depend upon all its various parts doing their particular work--"Each for all and all for each." "If they (the members of a human body) were all one member, where was the body" (1 Corinthians 12:19)? As God, in making a tree, gave it central unity and the necessary diversity of root, trunk, limb, and leaf, just so in building his church, he gave it central unity and the necessary diversity of its members, who must not be forced into a straight jacket of conventional conformity. Concerning secondary things, externally enforced uniformity breeds stagnation and de-cay; too much freedom (license) breeds disorder and anarchy. Yes, there is a liberty that destroys unity, and there is a unity that destroys liberty. But "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17) and unity. And unity and liberty as they are interrelated in God’s church (or tree) are cohesive and creative. "The Rock (God), his work is perfect" (Deuteronomy 32:4). One of the most bitter, stubborn, and strategic fights of Paul’s life was with the Jews for Christian freedom, spontaneity, and fullness against legal bondage, dead customs, and empty formalities of religion.
Ephesians 4:1-16 sets forth twofold Christian unity. It deals first with the constitutional, absolute "Unity of the Spirit," which comprises seven basic, unifying facts. This unity is the gracious, free gift of God through Christ in the Spirit, whch must be kept "in the bond of peace." Then follows the relative, increasing unity of fellowship, which is progressively acquired through growth and experience. The former is the fruit of God’s personal work, and is obtained from him. It is man’s responsibility, through the "obedience of faith," to work out the latter "Till we all attain (attained, not obtained) unto the unity of the faith . . . unto him, who is the head, even Christ." In the realm of relative unity, no man can contend that "conscientious scruples and loyalty to principle" give him the freedom to destroy the freedom that is in Christ Jesus. Christ’s free-men must be above contentions about secondary things. Knowing that Christian unity is organic unity in diversity, they examine their differences in love, with a sense of only partial knowledge, and learn in such matters to disagree without being disagreeable.
(Romans 15:1-13)
In these verses, Paul gives deep, comprehensive emphasis to the mutual tolerance and tenderness that brethren of unequal spiritual knowledge and understanding should al-ways manifest toward each other. In order to assure a goodly yield of this choice, Christian fruit, he plows up the rich subsoil of the authority, antiquity, and utility of the Jewish Scriptures, and of God’s personal character and methods, as he endlessly works to guide Jews and Gen-tiles unitedly to glorify him.
To serve as both model and motive for Christians, Paul weaves into this great passage part of Psalms 69:9, which states that Christ pleased not himself, but suffered reproaches, means for God, that the will of his Father might be done. It is instructive to note that John 2:17 uses the rest of this verse, "Zeal for thy house shall eat me up," to explain Christ’s challenging Jewish hate by cleansing the temple. This bit of Scripture gives Paul, who, as all holy men are, is ever eager to magnify the sacred writings and their author, the occasion to write: "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus: that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Questions
1. Explain Romans 14:23 in its context.
2. Enlarge upon, "Blessed is the Christian who keeps Christian things in Christian proportion."
3. Why are "weak" men more likely to be domineering than "strong" men are?
4. Why should any congregation of Christians welcome both constitutional and circ*mstantial diversity among tis members?
5. Study the meaning of, "There is a liberty that destroys unity, and there is a unity that destroys liberty."
6. Explain the difference between absolute and relative unity (Ephesians 4). Does understanding this difference support the teaching of Romans 14
3. How does Paul in Romans 15:1-3 close his long, earnest plea for Christian unity in the midst of diversity?
Study #44—R.C. Bell
The old, inbred, mutual intolerance of Jew and Gentile made their becoming "One new man" in Christ, "so making peace," difficult. Jews had been rocking in the cradle of law so long that they could scarcely learn to walk in grace. The Jew-Gentile question, a burning issue that threatened the very life of the early church from Cornelius onward, found a prominent place in the inspired writings of the time. Because the question involved the perpetual, elemental warfare between the flesh and the spirit, divine wisdom preserved these writings for us.
The way Paul brings this question into Romans again is evidence that it had a part in causing the unbrotherly behavior among brethren of different background and spiritual discernment. "For I say that Christ has been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy" (15:8, 9). This means Christ, not only fulfilled the promises God made the Jewish fathers, but also, though no promise was made Gentiles, God had them in mind from the beginning, and purposed out of pure, uncovenanted mercy, in due time, to graft them into the covenantal olive tree, that they too might have hope in Christ. To use another figure, God always intended Gentiles should draw from his public well of salvation, without having to get license from the Jews. Therefore, it being God’s will that both be saved, Jews, praising God especially for his fidelity and Gentiles especially for his mercy, should be knit together in brotherly love, for no matter what they ate, or what days they kept, without "The Spirit of Christ" they were "none of his" (Romans 8:9).
A statement of this conclusion for Jews, particularly, who were the chief offenders in the feud (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16), might run: "Since God included the Gentiles in his original plan, and since Christ now receives them, you should receive them too, without arrogant condescension." As final proof, Paul uses four Jewish Scriptures--the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets all represented, as Christ himself used all three in his post-resurrection instruction (Luke 24:44) --to show that Christ was intended from of old for Gentiles as well as for Jews.
The Holy Spirit, knowing how selfish and loveless brethren would always be with one another about discretionary things, gave through Paul the timeless admonition: "Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves . . . For Christ also pleased not himself." As a big brother in a family feels responsible for his little brother, so a Christian favored in brain, education, and personality should feel toward his brethren who are less favored in these particulars. Rather than flaunting his advantages, let him have them to himself "before God" (Romans 14:22) let him, remembering he is his "brother’s keeper," use his ability and lawful liberty as trusts from God, in the "meekness and gentle-ness of Christ," to build up the whole church in love. If Christ bore all the wickedness his worst enemies could inflict, surely his disciples can forbear the weaknesses of their friends! If eating flesh caused his "brother to stumble," Paul would "Eat no flesh for evermore" (1 Corinthians 8:13).
It is amazing how this simple, spiritual, sufficient divine way oils the machinery of church life, both corporately and individually. Without it, many tangled problems, including those that often arise concerning borderline vocations, entertainment, and amusem*nts, are not soluble. I have read of a big dog, that ordinarily swam the swift river which ran through his master’s estate, going far out of his way to a bridge, when a little dog was to cross with him!
God and His Word
The fact that Paul characterized God as "The God of patience . . . of comfort . . . of hope . . . of peace" (all in Romans 15) points up how fundamental to true religion God’s character is. Inasmuch as worship fashions the character of worshippers after the character of the god they worship, Christians who worship God in spirit and truth will grow in patience, comfort, hope, and peace. Their worship at church, at home, and in secret must be designed and conducted in such a manner as to increase in them the sense of God’s personal presence, reality, and character--upon this depend the depth and genuineness of their religion.
How can Christians afford to forsake their "own assembling together," when Christ, giving them the unspeakably blessed privilege of meeting and getting better acquainted with him, meets with them (Matthew 18:20)? Is not the abstruse spiritual meeting and communion with Christ, and the eating of him in order to live (John 6:57) the real purpose of their assembling? The less the inner, spiritual life and understanding worshippers have, the more ’importance they attach to outer, fleshly things, such as meats, days, forms, and ceremonies. Note that Paul’s characterization of God with its bearing on worshippers sup-ports his plea for the unity and peace of the church pertaining to things of no intrinsic moral value, for it is dif-difficult to live in peace with impatient, peevish, hopeless, fussy people.
Paul finally takes leave of the subject, over which he has lingered from the beginning of chapter 14, with the great benedictory prayer: "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). Be-hold, the largeness and fullness of this short prayer! Does it not put to shame our poor, little praying? God is the God of eternal hope, which his worshippers drink in from him. Joy is energetic, peace is restful, and hope is an unfailing tonic for drooping spirits on dark days. But all depends on "believing," the deep, solid granite ledge upon which the human side of Christianity rests. "All things are possible to him that believeth," but not a single thing of endurance is possible until he believes.
The God of patience and of hope! What, if God should become impatient and lose hope! Has he not always had ample cause (has he any less cause now?) to grow weary of mankind? "It is of Jehovah’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed" (Lamentations 3:22). God is patient, restful, and hopeful because he is eternal. "Through the ages one increasing purpose runs"--"One far-off divine event to which the whole creation moves." God is infallibly working out his glorious destiny for his universe (Colossians 1:18-20). God’s world must at last be right (Luke 18:7-8). Give him time! "Blessed are all they that wait for him" (Isaiah 30:18).
What of God’s word? It is God’s means, says Christ in John 6:44; John 6:55, of drawing men, who hear and learn, to himself. Every line in the Bible from Genesis through Revelation was "written for our learning." But, no matter what other riches we may gather from its sacred pages, we have not "learned" until we come intelligently to God, worship him in spirit and in truth, and become "A habitation of God in the Spirit" through Christ (Ephesians 2:13-22).
Questions
1. Why was the Jew-Gentile question so prominent in the early church?
2. Why should Christian Jews praise God especially for his fidelity, and Christian Gentiles especially for his mercy?
3. Why does Paul use the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets in Romans 15:9-12?
4. Why is the knowledge of God’s character so necessary to his people?
5. Explain how the Lord’s Supper helps Christians to understand and appropriate John 6:50-58.
6. What do you get from Romans 15:13 about the cooperation of God and man in prayer? about the benefits Christians derive by means of prayer?
7. Though preachers have preached, and men have heard the word of God, have men "learned" and come to Christ (John 6:45) unless God’s very life is imparted to them by means of a spiritual birth?
Study #45—R.C. Bell
"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were writ-ten for our learning," and they are "profitable . . . that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work." The tact that these scriptures refer to the Old Testament welds the entire Bible into a perfect compound of God’s complete will for all mankind. Paul’s reminding Timothy that from a babe he had known the Jewish writings which were able to make him "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ" clinches this invaluable truth. Only two of the many ways these writings make us wise unto salvation can now be considered .
First--The most difficult, yet absolutely necessary, thing for men of Adam’s fallen, broken race to learn is that they are so woefully wrecked and shattered that only the God who made them has the wisdom and power to repair, and make them whole again--that only the creator can re-create. Now, God’s history of humanity in the Old Testament is such that readers who are not convinced of the universal corruption and depravity of man’s heart, and of their own imperative, personal need of wisdom and strength beyond their own, are blind. To deepen this conviction if possible, however, many divine estimates of man, such as, "And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5), and "The heart is deceitful above all things, and is exceeding corrupt: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9), are added to the history. In Romans 3, Paul quotes several passages from the Old Testament to prove that "There is none righteous, no, not one . . . for all have sinned." In this manner does God lock every, individual man fast in the death house of sin, to which Christ is the only key.
All secular history, including the state of the world to-day, and conscience echo the truth that something catas-trophic has befallen man. Only the fall of man can ac-count for the moral contradiction within him, as described in Romans 7. Why should Christians be so slow to be-lieve this cardinal Biblical doctrine?
Second--Painting a vivid picture of God as a real, living, active person (The truth at the heart of Christianity) is another way the Old Testament makes us wise unto salvation. For example, the doctrine of prevailing prayer comes more thrillingly alive when we see God, as in the case of King Hezekiah, in his workshop so to speak, actually answering prayer (2 Kings 20:1-11). In this bit of inspired history, after he had, through Isaiah, told the king, who "was sick unto death" that he would die, God, because the king "wept sore" and prayed to live, answered: "I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee . . . And I will add unto thy days fifteen years." And do we not still need to know that God punishes men "That say in their heart, Jehovah will not do good, neither will he do evil" (Zephaniah 1:12) "These things happened un-to them by way of example: and they were written for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:11). As "God is one," even so is his Bible also one.
We must never forget that the Bible as a whole furnishes, in principle, the way "completely unto every good work." The time, money, energy, and influence that Chris-tians spend futilely trying to "save" the world by doing things in ways that God never asked them to use is some-thing to think on. Good things, to be sure--things inevitably by-products of Christianity, would Christians but seek in faith first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, according to the word and example of Christ and of Paul. To discover by experience that our small buckets grow in receiving capacity, and that our short ropes lengthen progressively, as we perpetually draw from the deep, living wells of infinite knowledge and wisdom in the Bible should ever lead us up to its author "beyond the sacred page."
Paul’s Province
(Romans 15:22-28; 2 Corinthians 10:13-18)
From Romans 15:14 to its close, Romans is largely personal Paul and his friends. This does not mean, however, that the ending of the book is weak, or that it does not invite and reward serious study. This record of the fruits of the gospel in the life of Paul (and in the lives of scores of his friends) gives point to his frequent exhortations that Christians imitate him, and also makes an appropriate, practical, powerful close for the mighty doctrinal Treatise.
Apart from what is found in the book of Romans, little can be known about the founding and early history of the church in Rome. Possibly, some "sojourners from Rome" (Acts 2:10) became Christians at Pentecost; and upon returning home, of course took the church with them. In any event, by the time Romans was written some 25 years after Pentecost, a good, strong church, which Paul had in vain longed to visit for many years, existed there. Among the 24 men and women, whom Paul salutes by name in Romans 16 as dear friends known elsewhere, are some of his "kinsmen . . . who are of note among the apostles." Others are saluted as tireless, proficient Chris-tian workers, whom we know from other Scriptures to be just such Christians. We are not surprised, therefore, at Paul’s writing: "And I myself also am persuaded, my brethren, that ye yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another."
Since such commendation might seem to make his writing Rome at all, needless and presumptuous, Paul explains that God chose him as "A minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles" at large, and that he feels obligated to stir up their sincere minds by putting them in remembrance as long as he lives. The Corinthian Letters make it plain that Paul’s envious, malicious foes in Corinth, thinking to get rid of him, tauntingly said that he had no right to be in Corinth at all--that his wide evangelistic travels were too ambitious for a man of his caliber. Seemingly the slander was known at Rome also. 2 Corinthians 10:13-18 and Romans 15:22-28, in which he boldly asserts that the world is his "province," and that he does not "stretch . . . overmuch" his commission and right in the broadest reaches of his labors and successes, is his nobly Christian answer.
"Oh how the angels would rejoice if 10,000 men who preach for established and settled churches would gather up their belongings and go to some place where the gospel is unknown!’ (Reuel Lemmons in the Firm Foundation, July 3, 1956).
Questions
1. Prove by the Scriptures that the Bible as a unit is a perfect compound of God’s complete will for men, and that it was written for our learning.
2. Show that the writings of the Old Testament help prepare men, by teaching them their desperate need of Christ, to accept him as their Savior.
4. What evidence outside the Bible itself supports the cardinal Biblical doctrine that man without divine intervention is hopelessly lost?
5. How does the story of Hezekiah prove a truth that lies at the root of Christianity, namely, that God is a real, living, acting Person?
6. How is it to be accounted for that, though Christians are completely equipped in the church to do every good work, they some-times do their good works in ways not furnished in the church?
7. What are the nature and value of Romans from Romans 15:14 to its close?
7. Why does Paul feel the need to justify his world-wide gospel labors, and his visit to the strong, capable church in Rome?
Study #46—R.C. Bell
In his introduction to Romans (Romans 1:8-15), Paul told the church that he had longed, prayed "unceasingly," and "oftentimes purposed" to visit them that he might have some fruit in them "also, as in the rest of the Gentiles," but that he had been "hindered hitherto." Now, in his program as outlined here in chapter 15, he, keenly conscious that by divine appointment the whole Gentile world is his "province," says that, since his work in East Europe is done, he is ready for a tour of West Europe, which affords an occasion for both the long-anticipated visit and their having fellowship with him when he goes on into Spain.
In his language, "That I should be a minister of Christ unto the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit," Paul paints a faithful, beautiful picture not only of the nature of the Christian ministry in general, but also of the deeply religious nature of his apostleship to the Gentiles in particular. He sees himself as an officiating priest, who by preaching the gospel to the Gentiles leads them to offer themselves up as sacrifices to God, the Holy Spirit being the sanctifying Person. In other words, at his preaching and their believing, the Holy Spirit descends upon them to enable them to become living sacrifices to be consumed for God’s glory upon the altar of love and service.
Inasmuch as Paul’s lifetime work among the Gentiles is at last opening up in the West, why does he take a long, perilous journey to the East? Why does he collect money from Gentile churches for poor saints in Jerusalem? There existed in the church a party of Jewish zealots that was destroying the unity and universality of the church. Hence, "That the truth of the gospel might continue" (Galatians 2:5), Paul hopes by a brotherly exchange of "spiritual" and "carnal" things between Jewish and Gentile Chris-tians to guide them both into realizing that Christ created "In himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross" (Ephesians 2:15-16).
The Power and Mystery of Prayer
From Paul’s writings and the book of Acts, we know that the Jews (even many Christians) were so suspicious of him that he was forced, repeatedly, to defend his apostolic authority. Nothing but utter devotion to Christ and passionate love for his kinsmen after the flesh could have induced him to visit Jerusalem again. That he went "bound in the spirit" with grim forebodings of what might befall him there is revealed in the address to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20), which he made on his way to Jerusalem soon after Romans was written. This is the back-ground of his earnest plea: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that are disobedient in Judea, and that my ministration which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints" (Romans 15:30-31). What could better portray the Jewish bitterness against Paul, and the crucial discord in the church than the fact that Jewish Christians, though in distress, might refuse relief which he brought from Gentile Christians?
Note the earnestness of this prayer. "Strive" implies agonizing wrestling with a strong, determined foe. Just so, prayer to God is prayer against Satan, "the strong man" who must be bound (Christ)--must be strangled, else he "sure will strangle thee." The world is currently concerned about the importance of Air Power in warfare. One may be uncertain about this question, but Paul has no doubt, in the war of the church with "the prince of the powers of the air" (Ephesians 2:2) --"powers" composed of "spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" and "world-rulers of this darkness"--with his "tares" and "wiles," that the "Air Force" of "All prayer and supplication," since it gives effectiveness to the whole Christian armor, is the decisive power in the war. (See Ephesians 6:10-18.)
Prayer, a great, blessed mystery and fact, taps the power of almighty God. There is nothing in radio and television that approaches its space-bridging wonder and usefulness. The wonder and power of prayer, however, in making wishes come true has nothing in common with Aladdin rubbing his magic lamp and ring as in oriental fable, or with overweening occidental Science. Rather, God’s integrating and humanly inscrutable economy of prayer, unspeakably, blesses Christians by having them contribute to the answering of their own prayers, which makes them fellow-workers with God in the destiny of both themselves and of the world.
The Indispensability of Prayer
Some say that the two things for which Paul in such deep-toned earnestness and sincerity asks the co-prayers of the church in Rome are not fit subjects for prayer that such mundane things lie wholly within the realm of human responsibility and activity. But to Paul, what concerns the church concerns Christ, because they are one, even as a man’s head and body are one. He makes no nice distinctions between "sacred" and "secular" things for Christians, but believing and "continuing steadfastly in prayer," he practices as he preaches, "Let your requests be made known to God," as naturally and confidently as a child in need goes to its mother. As Christ, who said, "This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer" (Mark 9:29), and as the earlier apostles, who named prayer betore preaching (Acts 6:4), made prayer indispensable, so does Paul make prayer indispensable.
Probably, Paul could pray a prayer that Fenelon, a French churchman, wrote about 250 years ago better than its author could, or han we can. The prayer reads: "0 Father, give to thy child that which he knows not how to ask. I dare not ask either for crosses or for consolations. Behold, my need which I know not myself. See and do according to thy tender mercies. Smite or heal; depress me or raise me up. I adore thy purposes without knowing them. I am silent; I yield myself to thee; I would have no other desire than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray. Pray thyself in me. (See 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.)
How real, near, and dear God, Christ, and Spirit, whom Paul links together in this prayer, all are to Paul and his brethren! How good and usable to hear him extol the God of "Patience . . . Comfort . . . Hope . . . Peace" as he does in this chapter, which is so full of the frowning situation that confronts him, and of the huge burden that weights him down. Is not he pattern saint as well as chosen apostle?
Questions
1. Explain Paul’s figure of his being a priest, offering up the Gen-tiles as a sacrifice to God.
2. What psychology was involved in moving Paul, when his heart was set on the West, to spend so much time, labor, and travel on Jerusalem in the East?
3. What is the background of the agony of earnestness in prayer which Paul begs his brethren in Rome to share with him
4. How is it that prayer to God is prayer against Satan
5. Is there any analogy between prayer and radio, television, and the Air Power in carnal warfare?
6. Cite a case of Christ’s making prayer indispensable, and a case of his making it the alternative of fainting.
7. What do you think of Fenelon’s prayer?
Study #47—R.C. Bell
In Romans 15, Paul states his lifetime purpose as fol-lows: "Making it my aim so to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another man’s foundation." His journey to Jerusalem, as we have seen, was tributary to this purpose. Christ’s words to Ananias, "He is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name be-fore the Gentiles and kings," kept him loyally waging a broad, uncompromising war against the usurping "God of this world . . . Satan, the deceiver of the whole world," Christ’s inveterate enemy.
Alongside this great, Godlike purpose, Paul, knowing the inadequacy of human power for this superhuman task, names the divine power that came to strengthen him: "Christ wrought through me . . . for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit." This verse with its context ascribes the miracles that attended and confirmed Christianity in its beginning to the power of the "Holy Trinity." All that God and Christ had previously contributed to the making of Christianity united in the Spirit on Pentecost with a burst of power, so that, since then, "The power of the Holy Spirit" is the power of Father, Son, and Spirit. Instead of coming in place of God and Christ, the Spirit brings them to men. This ac-cords with Christ’s instructions to his apostles: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come . . . he shall glorify me . . . All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine therefore said I, he taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you" (John 16:13-15). hi the divine economy, both in nature (Genesis 1:1-3) and in religion, the power of the Godhead comes to a perfected focus in the Holy Spirit.
Inasmuch as Paul has already prayed (v. 13) that "The God of hope" might fill the Christians in Rome with "All joy and peace . . . (and) hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit," the power that sustains, as well as the power that makes, Christians is "The power of the Holy Spirit." The one God, who gives men justification through His Son, dwells in justified men through his re-creating, sanctifying Spirit (v. 16). "For through him (Christ) we both (Jew and Gentile) have our access in one Spirit unto the Father. . . builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:18-22). There is but one line of approach for men to God, always through Christ, the Spirit, and the word--the word for instruction, Christ for justification, and the Spirit for sanctifying power. The Holy Spirit did not exhaust himself in his incidental, inaugural miracles, for he is eternal, unwasting God, Christ, and Spirit integrated, and at work saving the lost, through the instrumentality of the word. God is no more limited to miracles in religion than he is in nature.
The Spirit and the Church
Christ told his disciples that God would "give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him" (Luke 11:13). He also taught "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38). When John wrote his book many years later, he explains "This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believeth on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; be-cause Christ was not glorified." Christ promised the Spirit to every believer.
After his resurrection, a few days before his ascension and glorification, Christ in preparation for the fulfillment of this promise, charged his apostles not to leave Jerusalem until God’s promise, through him that they should be "baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence," thus becoming "clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49), was fulfilled. He concluded the charge: "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you" (Acts 1:4-8).
How "the eternal Spirit," "the Holy Spirit of promise," was "poured forth" by the glorified Christ, and how the apostles "were all filled with the Holy Spirit" and "clothed with power from on high," is recorded in Acts 2. The com-mon idea that the resurrection of Christ supplied the new power found in the apostles and the church after Pentecost does not satisfy readers of the inspired records. Weeks after his resurrection, but days before his glorification, Christ told his waiting, expectant apostles that they could receive the prerequisite, promised power when the Spirit came. It is scriptural to associate enabling power with the Spirit, prevenient grace with God, and vicarious suffering with Christ.
That the church of God and of Christ began as a church with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is no more certain than that, when the church began, the Holy Spirit took up his residence in it, as "the house of God." The two supreme gifts, age-lasting gifts, to the church were forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Peter is soon speaking of "The Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32), as his permanent co-wit-ness.
Since only men "full of the Holy Spirit" could "serve tables," Stephen, "A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit" was chosen for this work (Acts 6:2-5). Barnabas, "A good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith" (Acts 11:24), was soon prominent in the church. Later, Gentile Christians in distant Pisidia were "filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 13:52). Faith, joy, and the Holy Spirit dwelt together in these early Christians. As men believed and obeyed the gospel, joy and the Spirit entered into them, as inevitable workings of the gospel; the gospel was made to work this way. Consequently, to be filled
with the Spirit and to go on their "way rejoicing" were the normal experiences of all Christians. In view of this fact, and the additional fact that Christ promised the Spirit to every believer, why are many Christians today joyless and doubtful of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence? Really, do you know why?
Paul Lived in the Power of the Spirit
Romans 15 is full of the Holy Spirit. Twice, the expression, "In the power of the Holy Spirit," occurs once, the Spirit is named as the Sanctifier of converts, and once, as the Inspirer of love among brethren (Romans 15:30). Paul teaches in this chapter that his rich, dynamic life was lived in the power of the Holy Spirit; that the Spirit permeated and energized him, "spirit and soul and body," for God’s work.
Questions
1. Explain how it is that instead of coming in place of God and Christ, the Holy Spirit brings both God and Christ to men.
2. Study: The one God who gives men justification through his Son, dwells in justified men through his recreating, sanctifying Spirit.
3. Cite a Scripture in which Christ promised the Spirit to every believer, and another in which he told the apostles they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came. When and how were these promises fulfilled?
4. Verify: It is scriptural to associate prevenient grace with God, vicarious suffering with Christ, and enabling power with the Holy Spirit.
5. Consider: There is but one line of approach for men to God, always through Christ, the Spirit, and the word--the word for instruction, Christ for justification, and the Spirit for sanctification.
6. Name two age-lasting gifts which were given to the church on Pentecost.
7. Does Paul teach in Romans 15 that the Holy Spirit is the power that both makes and sustains Christians, and that his own rich, dynamic life was lived "in the power of the Holy Spirit"?
Study #48—R.C. Bell
Christ told Paul at his conversion that he would be "Filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 9:17). After a sketchy record of the first years of Paul’s Christian life, a much fuller record begins when the Holy Spirit starts him on his particular mission to the Gentiles (Acts 13:2). As he began this world-wide work, Paul, "filled with the Holy Spirit," draws, with military brevity and finality, the indelible line of battle between Christ and the usurping Devil for the possession of the world, a line across which no fraternizing of the contending armies can be, in his forthright assault upon Elymas the sorcerer: "0 full of all guile and all vil-lany, thou son of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord" (Acts 13:8-12).
Need readers of Paul be reminded that he himself repeatedly affirms that he lived, labored, suffered, rejoiced, and faced death "In the power of the Holy Spirit?" or that lie repeatedly admonishes his converts: "Be filled with the Spirit," "Quench not the Spirit," "Grieve not the Holy Spirit . . . which dwelleth in us," and reject not God, who giveth the Holy Spirit to us" (1 Thessalonians 4:8). This earnest admonishing shows that Christians have a responsibility in the matter.
Paul’s Repentance
To compare the powerful, hopeful Paul of Romans 15 with the powerless, hopeless Paul, who cried in helpless despair, "Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death" in chapter 7, before he experienced the power of "God in the Spirit" as set forth in chapter 8, throws light on the nature of repentance. The earlier heroic, but overpowered Paul is the natural man at his best before he gets power beyond his own to strengthen him in the fierce, unequal duel with "the flesh." Does not this Paul suggest a great electric locomotive, ready to go, except the power to make it go. No more is power the crux in machinery than is power the crux in Christian men.
Men who have not learned that Adam’s despoiled race has lost both the power to do right and the power to refrain from doing wrong, as Paul learned it, have made poor use of Biblical and secular history, and of their personal experi-ence. Furthermore, men who knew that they have lost this power must also know that it cannot be recovered by human power that it is "Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13).
The central, living power that makes Christianity go is God Himself, who meets the universal, imperative human need of power "With power through his spirit in the inward man" (Ephesians 3:16). Apart from God in Christ, no Justification; apart from God in the Spirit, no "Sanctification, without which no man shall see the Lord." It takes Christianity in totality to re-create fallen man with his dis-organized, fatally twisted personality. The finishing touch of the awful picture that Paul paints of the church in the "grievous times" of the last days is: "Holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof" (2 Timothy 3:1-5). This Scripture is the faithful portrayal of the church, dead because it holds Christian forms, empty of the indwelling power of "God in the Spirit."
Paul’s writings show his profound insight into the spiritual meaning of the Old Testament, which is full of man’s inability to live when he is out of gear with God. Probably he poured over the book of Job with its supreme doctrine that the Creator accepts only men who know their creatural limitation and failure. Job was the best man on earth (Job 1:8), but he was proud of his goodness, and ready in touchy pride, even unto the disparagement of God, to defend his good name before men--in short, he was man-centered, and claimed human merit. "He was righteous in his own eyes . . . and justified himself rather than God" (Job 32:1-3). He had to learn that he was but a creature --even a fallen creature. After God asked him some eighty questions, none of which he could answer, or was expected to answer, though he had been contending "That he would maintain the right of a man with God" (Job 16:21), he contritely confessed: "I have uttered that which I understood not . . . wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6-9).
The Old Testament is brimming with essential religious truth. In the book of Job, a man by faith climbs up to God through inexplicable suffering. In Ecclesiastes, a man by sight tumbles down into unrelieved gloom and emptiness. Neither the best man nor the wisest of men can direct his steps. Job’s sin was spiritual pride and self-righteousness Solomon’s sin was fleshly pride and self-indulgence. Pride! the ruin of angels and men! The drama of Job, perhaps God’s first written message to man, certainly should help Paul and all other men to know their eternal condemnation in Adam, if left to themselves (Romans 5:12-21).
When Job repented, he cried: "I abhor myself." At last, realizing man’s intellectual ignorance and moral corruption before God, Job lost his confidence in man, as man. After his trust in human wisdom and righteousness was punctured, "Jehovah blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning," and restored his possessions twofold. Men’s giving God His rightful place conditions them to receive His "latter-end" blessings. Repentance requires fallen, rejected men to turn, not only from their personal sins, but also from what they are by birth. "That which is born of flesh is flesh . . . Ye must be born anew" (Christ). "Repentance unto salvation" plows much deeper than mere surface reformation.
Paul, repenting as Job repented, abhorred himself. Declaring that he had "no confidence in the flesh," he repudiated all fleshly values, counting them but "refuse" that he "might gain Christ" (Philippians 3:7). Inasmuch as no man can serve two masters, Paul had to die unto self before he could "live unto God." He puts it: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:19-20). This means that Paul had to put his fleshly self out to make room for Christ to come in, take over, and express Himself through Paul’s regenerated personality. Paul learned the secret of how to ask God for the Holy Spirit, whom Christ says God gives to them that ask Him. (Luke 11:13). As water flows naturally and freely into irrigable gardens, so the Holy Spirit flows religiously and freely into penitent, congenial human spirits.
Paul preached "Both to Jews and Gentiles repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Until men cease refusing God His prerogatives and repent toward Him, they cannot believe in His Christ. And they cannot repent toward God until they, with Job and Paul, abhor themselves, and "repent in dust and ashes."
Questions
8. By what power did Paul in Acts 13:8-12 draw the indelible line of battle between God and Satan for the dominion of the world?
9. Does not Paul’s exhorting Christians to "be filled with the Spirit" and to "grieve not the Holy Spirit" that dwelt in them show that a Christian is to blame if he "hath not the Spirit"?
10. Is not the lack of "power through his (God’s) Spirit in the in-ward man" the fatal deficiency of the baffled Christian in Romans 7?
4. Is not man as a child of Adam alive to sin and dead to righteous-ness? What evidence apart from the Bible supports this thesis?
5. Name the living, central Power that makes and keeps Christians.
6. Should not the books of Job and Ecclesiastes have helped Paul to see that gospel repentance requires fallen, reprobate men to turn away from not only their personal sins, but also from what they are by birth?
7. Where is the Scripture that portrays the church, dead because it clings to dead, Christian forms and customs, empty of the in-dwelling Power of "God in the Spirit"?
Study #49—R.C. Bell
Throughout the Bible, "God is one." This eternal One-ness of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit was taught by Christ so plainly and earnestly that the Jews said he blasphemed. God, Christ, and the Spirit interweave their redemptive workings over the centuries until they culminate and focus "In the power of the Holy Spirit" on Pentecost into a working unit--the church.
Workings of the "Trinity" in justifying, sanctifying, and glorifying men are as inseparable as are the working of light, heat, and energy of the sun in making grass. To use a simpler comparison, as the power of steering wheel, transmission gears, and wheels are integrated to run cars, so the power of Father, Son and Spirit is integrated to save sinners. The constituent parts in such cases, not named, are implied. For example, to make Paul’s "Christ in you, the hope of glory," read, "God, Christ, and the Spirit in you, the hope of glory," is but to state Paul’s gospel more fully, not to alter it. "Christ in you" is therefore, also "The Spirit in you." To remember that the expressions, "The Spirit," "The Spirit of God," and "The Spirit of Christ" are all three used in one verse (Romans 8:9) to designate the Holy Spirit is helpful in studying the question of the Spirit.
"The Mysteries of the Kingdom" (Christ)
With Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, "Unto the Father . . . that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith," with his reminder to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you," and with many more Scriptures to the same effect, all Christians surely believe, in some sense at least, that the Holy Spirit dwells in them.
A common reaction to this truth however, is doubt that the Holy Spirit himself actually dwells in us, because we do not see how he can do so. Are not we who "Walk by faith, not by sight" inconsistent in demanding to understand God’s mode of working? In nature, we make no such demand. Does not this reaction take the matter out of the realm of faith? Christianity begins with "Great is the mystery of godliness" and continues with Christians "Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience" (1 Timothy 3:9-16). Christians believe that "God is a Spirit," and that, as he says, "Not by might . . . but by my Spirit" (Zechariah 4:8) his works are performed. They refuse to regard what they do not understand as ultimately inexplicable. They cannot believe that God, were he unable to dwell in them without violating their basic moral nature, would mock them by telling them that he can do so. All this is but simple elementary Christian faith.
All attempts to explain such mysteries as how God’s fore-knowledge leaves man free to choose, or as how spirits can mix and commune with each other without losing their individuality, are inadequate, for none of them probe to the kernel of the matter. Moreover, since the benefits of God in religion depend no more on man’s understanding the process involved than they do in nature, such vain attempts are quite uncalled for. But worse, do they not signify a mistrustful heart? If such mysteries, uninvited and un-welcome, intrude and disturb us, to remember that God re-minded Job, by a long list of questions that he could not answer, of his creatural limitations and pride in order to set him in his place, repenting, should bring us to our knees, repenting and seeking more faith.
Should not baffling animal instinct, astounding workings of our minds, including their complex reflex and deep sub-conscious activities, and the insoluble mystery of the origin and growth of our own spirits so frangibly dwelling in us to be dismissed at last by grisly death against our struggling wills--should not these mysteries, and many, very many, more (the speaking of Balaam’s ass and Saul’s interview with Samuel, brought up from "the gulf of death," to name two) condition us to accept by faith that on Pentecost Christ "poured forth" his Spirit, and has continued to in-fuse his Spirit into the spirits of his own ever since? Does not the spiritual likeness and affinity between God and man, made in God’s image, make this, at least, not impossible and incredible? Christ’s prayer for Christians, "That they all may be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may also be in us . . . I in them, and thou in me, that they may all be perfected into one" (John 17), is not to be explained, thank God, just simply believed and used.
Did not Adam’s companionship with God in Eden, similarly to the instinct of animals possibly, keep him from all sin and error? Is not Christianity God’s way to break man’s rebel spirit and bring him back to the original life-preserving fellowship with himself, again guided and guarded by his wisdom and power? Is an unfinished, pre-Pentecostal Christianity before the Spirit was given equal to the super-human task of re-creating a dead humanity? Would God plan and work from all eternity past to give his Spirit to Christians who would not need him?
The Holy Spirit himself pleads with Christians not to resist, grieve, and do despite unto him. Did not Paul’s honest response to these pleadings, and his unreserved sur-render to Christ account for his, "I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me," and for his superlatively powerful life? Who knows to what depths the Spirit by his writings and prayers in unutterable groanings for us may not yet permeate, impregnate, and vitalize our spirits, if we but present them, all stops open, for his harmonizing, enabling deep workings, "according to the power that worketh in us?" How much of our Laodicean lukewarmness is due to our failure to let God use the power he has provided for our strengthening?
"Through Faith"
In his prayer that the Ephesians might be strengthened through the power of the Spirit in the inward man, and that Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith, Paul reveals the practical "how" of God’s indwelling Christians. It is through and actor ding to their faith. By his question, "Receiveth ye the Spirit by the works of law, or by the hearing of faith," he reminds the Galatians that they got the Spirit by believing the gospel, just as they got the remission of their sins--no miracle, no magic, no burglarizing invasion of their personality. God’s workings are so perfected that his supernatural unites with his natural without a discernible joint. Everything God does for Christians must ever be in conjunction and agreement with his word --never contrary.
Questions
1. Does to make Paul’s "Christ in you, the hope of glory," read, "God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit in you, the hope of glory," alter Christian doctrine
2. Do men need to understand the mode of God’s workings in religion, any more than they do in nature, to receive his benefits?
8. Is it true that Christians refuse to regard what they do not understand as being basically inexplicable
1. May not the mystery of animal instinct, and many more mysteries, throw suggestive, analogous light upon the mystery of God’s Spirit permeating and strengthening man’s spirit
9. Is Christ’s prayer that Christians may all be one, having him in them as God is in him and he in God, to be intellectually understood?
3. Is it reasonable to think that God would plan and work from all eternity past to give his Spirit to Christians who would not need such Power?
4. Think on: No restraint, except what the lack of faith imposes, is to be put upon the word and promise of God through Christ in the Spirit.
Study #50—R.C. Bell
While it is not essential to the working of the "One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all" that men know how he performs his work, it is essential, if they are to reap the fruits of his religious workings, that they know how to cooperate with him, and that they chose to do so. This basic knowledge, which God is kind enough to vouchsafe in his Word, is that, from start to finish, men must humbly trust, wholly obey, and actually depend upon him for wisdom and power--belief, obedience, and dependence are the key words. Only the triune God dwelling in men can heal their inherently dislocated, depraved nature. What relief, gratitude, and hope that fumbling, ineffectual man may resign to him who is willing and able all responsibility for both means and results!
A sufficient answer to unbelievers who say that this robs Christians of incentive, ambition and energy, and makes life colorless and unchallenging--in a word, depersonalizes them--is Paul himself. Within three days at Damascus, Paul passed through a form of death and resurrection which so identified him with Christ that Christ lived in him and express himself through him, thus supplementing Paul’s natural powers. Instead of his natural powers being suppressed, they were, with Paul’s eager cooperation of course, geared into divine power, and strengthened, heightened, and made effective so that Paul was no longer unable to do what he willed and struggled desperately to do (Romans 7:19).
Though Paul did not understand all about how God work-ed in him, he knew that God did, and left the making of his life in God’s hands. Paul, having "no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3), relinquished the antichristian, flesh-ly struggle after sanctification, as he had relinquished such struggling after justification. This alert passivity toward God filled him with both "all the fullness of God." as he prayed the Ephesians might be, and with all activity toward men.
Paul’s own, oft-repeated explanation of his deep, constitutional change was that Christ "In the power of the Holy Spirit" lived in him, and gave him strength beyond his own, according to his need. The Spirit never did anything for, in, or through Paul, however, against his will and effort. We need not fear that God will make us more fruitful socially, or better personally--less worldly, more liberal givers, or more devout worshippers--than we both will and work to be. As electricity flows through a wire into things not insulated, so the Holy Spirit flows through faith into spiritual men, for they are not insulated by the flesh.
This involves the New birth "of water and the Spirit," which Christ in an interview with Nicodemus makes an indispensable condition of entrance into the kingdom of God. Christ explained to Nicodemus, who was puzzled about "how" he could be born again, that, since the "how" of the birth was as independent of direct human power and control as was the "how" of the wind, he must leave it to God (John 3:3-12). The creation of the "new man" (Ephesians 2:15), as was the creation of Adam, is the work of God. Nicodemus’ part was as simple and down to earth, however, as was setting a sail to use the mysterious wind to run his boat.
At the set time for establishing the kingdom, the glorified Christ sent the Spirit to preside over its inauguration. When believers on that occasion (Pentecost) asked for directions, the Spirit replied: "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the re-mission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Beginning then, to all who are "born of water and the Spirit" into his family (kingdom or church), because this is the way to ask him for the
Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), God gives, as a birthright, the indwelling, family Spirit, "Crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6).
Men who received the word of the Spirit on Pentecost were "Born of water and the Spirit." If Nicodemus was among them, he had consented to let God do a work in him (Philippians 2:13), which he could neither do for himself nor understand (not expected to do so) after God did it. Should this unconditional surrender to God seem difficult to men otherwise irrevocably lost? Have men today who have not obeyed the Pentecostal word of the Spirit been born into he kingdom?
Eternal Life
Did not Adam’s creation in God’s likeness include, so long as he was loyal to God, eternal life? In his fall away from God, he lost eternal life, but not eternal existence. Christ said to the Jews: "Work not for the bread that perisheth, but for the bread which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed." Again, "He that believeth hath eternal life" (John 6:27-47). 1 John 5:11-12 adds "The witness is this that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath the life: he that hath not the Son, hath not the life." Mankind is thus divided into two mutually exclusive classes: men --with eternal life, and men with merely eternal existence spiritual men and fleshly men.
In his talk with Nicodemus, Christ recognizes these two classes of men, and calls the process which restores eternal life to eternally existing men of Adam’s fallen posterity, that they may come into the kingdom of God and again possess real life--"The life which is life indeed" (1 Timothy 6:19)--a New Birth. He tells Nicodemus that instead of man’s merely making the application of a moral lesson which he has learned, in this birth God imparts his own, eternal, personal life to men who are dead through trespasses and sins, without God and hope in the world (Ephesians 2:1-12), as in fleshly birth a father imparts his fleshly life. Clearly, each of these births, as does the wind, requires superhuman, "heavenly things."
Eternal, spiritual life for men, both before and after death, is life lived in relation to eternal, spiritual realities, as fleshly life is life in relation to temporal, fleshly shadows. Unregenerated men live dominated by the flesh. When they are regenerated, they begin again to live eternal lives dominated by the Spirit, such as Adam lived before he fell. Eternal life is to be thought of rather as life above death, hence untouched by death, than as life after death. If Adam lost original eternal life through sin, restored eternal life may be lost again through sin.
Our present Christian life is the life of God himself restored to us in Christ. Of course it survives death. In speaking of his own probable death, Paul says that it would be "gain" to him, for, after death, he would enjoy fuller fellowship with Christ than was possible on earth (Philippians 1:21-23). This view of human life as one eternal piece, which the incident of death does not disrupt, gives Christianity an unspeakable worth, power, and appeal above all other religions to a dead, hopeless world. Even the body is discarded but temporarily, for, when the Lord comes, it shall be raised from the tomb a spiritual body.
Questions
1. Though men need not know how God works in them, what knowledge do they need? What are, on a human level, the three key words of Christianity
2. Does not Paul’s own life refute the slander that Christianity cheapens life, even unto depersonalizing Christians?
3. Consider: As electricity flows through a wire into things not insulated, so the Holy Spirit flows through faith into spiritual men because they are not insulated by the flesh.
4. Why was the bewilderment of Nicodemus about the New Birth idle and wholly unnecessary?
5. Study: To all who are "born of water and the Spirit" into his family, God gives, because this is the divinely appointed way to ask for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), the indwelling, abiding family Spirit, "crying, Abba, Father." Differentiate between eternal life and eternal existence.
6. When and how did the race of men lose eternal life? When and how was it restored?
7. What is the unique Christian view of human life--all one eternal piece which death does not disrupt--capable of doing for a dead world?
Study #51—R.C. Bell
"Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome" (Acts 19:21). Here is a glimpse of the lure distant places held for Paul about the time he wrote Romans, some three years before he went to Rome as a prisoner. Though often seemingly dead, yet three living years packed full of unpredictable pivotal, dramatic adventure, "Passing strange . . . by flood and field."
Were Paul’s Prayers Answered?
Paul besought his brethren in Rome to pray with him for two things: that the Jewish saints might accept the Gentile offering, and that he might be delivered from dis-obedient men in Judea (Romans 15:31). His visit to Rome is so linked with these petitions that it is virtually a third petition. Were these petitions granted? The narrative in Acts 21-23 implies that the gift was accepted, and tells the story of Paul’s deliverance from disobedient men and voyage to Rome. Note that the prayer does not contemplate Christian’s exercising their independent wills to shape the future and to direct their own lives, but that all things are referred to the overruling, sovereign "will of God" (James 4:13-15).
After the Jews with murderous intent dragged Paul out of the Temple, the Romans rescued and held him prisoner in Palestine two years. After this delay, Paul despairing of trial there appealed to Caesar, and was taken as a prisoner in chains to Rome, where his imprisonment continued another two years. In his writing during this latter period, Paul interprets these seemingly barren years as follows: "These things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel so that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole Praetorian guard, and to all the rest and that most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear" (Philippians 1:12-14) If God’s intervention, though delaying, probably cancelling, his long-cherished plan of evangelizing the West, and though subjecting him to extreme shame and failure, but increase the harvest of souls, Paul, no matter what happens to him personally, is grateful and cooperative. Would not any other reaction mean that he repudiated the fundamental doctrine of God’s infallible providence, and raise the searching question of the reality of his conversion, loyalty and devotion to God at all?
According to the book of Acts, many things occurred during Paul’s imprisonment in Palestine and voyage to Rome that seemed to blast all hope of his prayers ever being answered, or of his ever seeing Rome. But the disobedient, stubborn Jews have been thwarted, and he is in Rome! As be views it all with Christian insight and hindsight, he sees divine purpose and overruling providence threaded through his many perils, sad delays, bitter disappointments, and crushed hopes. The removal of a single woof would spoil the whole tapestry. In his own perfect, inscrutable way, God has answered his prayers, and given him Caesar’s large bodyguard (some 10,000 men) and household, and "all the rest" as an undreamed of, ideal radiating center from which to sound out the gospel to the whole Roman world--the very method of spreading Christianity which he has preferred and used for many years. Foresight? Though his future is very uncertain, Paul feels no fore-boding anxiety. If his long-delayed trial results in his death, he will go to be with Christ which is indeed "very far better" (Philippians 1:23).
In this manner, he interprets the, humanly speaking, whole tragic story, and, as Joseph said to his brothers, he says to all apparent opposition, "You meant evil against
me; but God meant it for good." Men of God learn to see that the free, eternal, personal God is the prime Cause, central Pivot, and final Arbiter of all history hence second causes do not upset them. They do not fluctuate with the ups and downs of personal or racial life. Paul never writes about doing the best he can "under the circ*mstances," for he is always on top of circ*mstances.
Most probably Paul’s long incarceration ended in his acquittal, and a few more years of freedom. Did he go to Spain? We can never know, at least in this world, but, to his everlasting praise, he started. "Low aim, not failure, is crime." Lack of spiritual vision and Christian purpose in us must grieve God and Christ and the Spirit most deeply. A second arrest and trial ended in Paul’s execution. During an interval between two stages of this trial, apparently, he wrote his "Swan Song:" "I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come . . . At my first defense, no man took my part, but all forsook me. . . But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me; that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be the glory for ever and ever" (2 Timothy 4). With this, compare what Martin Luther wrote shortly be-fore his death: "Aged, worn out, weary, spiritless, and now almost blind in one eye, I long for a little rest and quiet-ness. I am weary of the world and the world is weary of me.
Of all men, surely, Paul best answers Christ’s prayer that his disciples be neither overcome by the world nor taken out of it until their work is done (John 17:15). In Paul, more than in others, do the reality and nearness of the gracious Father, the greatness of life, and the meaning of death stand demonstrated. Whoever got so much out of Christ as did Paul? He took no "trek into the shadows." We can but bless God for moving him to write his Chris-tian autobiography that we and our children may learn to imitate him as he imitated Christ. Christ does not get old and weak, and Christians who live upon him, as they pro-fess to do in the Lord’s Supper, need not. As on each successive floor when one ascends to the top of some lofty building the horizon is wider, the sunlight brighter, and distant objects clearer and nearer, life should be to Chris-tians. To them, life is not a landlocked lake enclosed by a shore line of a few years.
Paul’s prayers were more than answered, because he simply and honestly made his requests to God and left Him really free to make changes which would better enable him to answer according to his own infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. He actually prayed in the name of Christ, for he had no desires and made no prayers that Christ could not countersign. Is it not astounding to see Christians and their families living lives that involve "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life," even as worldlings do, yet saying that they are following God because they have "prayed" for guidance? What does this lack of taking the name of God in vain, and of being blasphemous?
Questions
1. State the two petitions of Paul’s prayer, and observe that Paul leaves the disposition of all things to the sovereign will and providence of God.
2. Relate the facts of Paul’s life as a Roman prisoner, and give his own interpretation of these puzzling years.
3. Had Paul been unhappy about the wreck of his cherished plans, what would it have revealed about his faith in God, and how would it have affected his work to convert others to a Christ who brought to him no peace and happiness
4. Why do not Christians fluctuate with the ups and downs of life and get upset by second causes, even as the rest of men do, but remain hopeful and serene?
5. Apply the saying, "Low aim, not failure, is crime," to Paul, and tell how he compares with other men to whom the saying is applied.
6. In the light of Paul’s life comment upon a Christian’s insight, hindsight, and foresight. Did Paul think that his prayers were answered?
7. What did Paul himself have to do with God’s being able to more than answer his prayers
Study #52—R.C. Bell
In the last chapter of Romans, Paul heartily commends Phoebe, a sister who is going to Rome probably taking this Epistle, and, associating with him eight brethren, sends warm greetings to four groups of saints and twenty-six individuals, whom he has known elsewhere--eighteen men and eight women. He calls the names of thirty-two people, and characterizes many of them by particularizing, incisive phrases, fragrant with memories of closest associations. Should one wonder how Paul with so many heavy responsibilities, labors, and sorrows of his own can see, remember, and graciously wish to tell so many details, the answer is that Christ creates in Christians an unselfish interest in ethers.
These lively, interesting men and women constitute a cross section of the early church over the sprawling Roman Empire. Here is a little world of faith, love, work, suffering, and endurance, significantly coming at the close of the Book as a sample of the harvest from the seed sown in the Epistle. These really converted Christians believe all the doctrine of Romans, commit it to life, and move, both physically and spiritually, over a wide field. Albeit they pass before us in such rapid file, they are a living monument of the abiding truth that the oneness, and consequent lovely, satisfying interrelationships of Christians spring from their common relationship to Christ, who shares his life with them all, and expresses himself through their surrendered personalities.
It should be a source of comfort and strength to some sisters to note that the several whom Paul commends for "much labor" and Phoebe, "A helper of many," are all, except Priscilla whose husband is named with her, women unassociated with men. Possibly by taking advantage of the circ*mstances that they are denied homes of their own, these good women make their espousal to Christ purer and more fruitful (1 Corinthians 7:32-34). If this is the case, do they not far more than compensate for their loss? Under no circ*mstances can Christians lose. It should be helpful to some Christian women of every generation to think on these women, and the evangelist Philip’s "Four virgin daughters, who prophesied" (Acts 21:9)
The Church and Satan
In this chapter, Paul uses the word "church" for the first time in Romans. The very fact that Paul, who is a master of order and government, finds no need for the word in his exhaustive treatment of all fundamental doctrines of Christianity, such as universal human condemnation, Chris-tian justification, sanctification, and glorification, should help us to understand what the church is, and to see that all ecclesiastical hierarchy and institutionalism are contrary to its essential nature. Inasmuch as giving the church of Christ a mechanical, legalized title contradicts both the letter and the spirit of Christianity, when Paul finally gets around to the term "Church of Christ," instead of in-tending to give the church a stereotyped name, he must be thinking of Christ’s right, based upon its nature and stupendous cost to him, to own and use the church.
God imparts his own eternal life by means of spiritual birth to all who heed his call to repudiate and come out of the condemned world--man’s choice and God’s act. Men, thus rescued from eternal death and made partakers of the divine nature, compose Christ’s "Church which is his body . . . the bride, the wife of the Lamb." The church is therefore a divine creation, which shares the life of God, which Christ identified with himself as his body and bride, and which the Holy Spirit makes his residence--a profoundly spiritual relation of men with God, through Christ, in the Spirit, by the instrumentality of the word.
The church is the company of men and women whom God adds together (Acts 2:47, margin), as they are justified by being buried with Christ in baptism, wherein they are also raised with him through faith in the working within them of the same mighty power of God that raised Christ from the dead (Colossians 2:12);adds them together for creative, sanctifying, maturing worship and work. Any other religious company added together by outer, human federation and organization into conformity and union is but Satan’s cheap counterfeit (one of his tares) of the church with its inner, divine, organic unity and uniformity. Because of its divine nature the church is deeply and richly human. As Christ’s physical body while he lived in it was his instrument of contact and service, so his spiritual body in which he now lives is his instrument for bodying himself forth to the world.
By craftily beguiling and corrupting the church (2 Corinthians 11:3), Satan weakens the sole adversary of his unholy ambition for world-dominion. Were the church destroyed, he would be supreme "Prince of this world." Man cannot foresee the end of the cosmic struggle (Colossians 1:20) between God and Satan, who possesses superhuman knowledge, power, skill, and hate--"The deep things of Satan" (Revelation 2:24). But Paul’s, "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet," looking backward to God’s promise in Eden to bruise the Serpents’ head (Genesis 3:15) and forward to its perfect fulfillment in the Serpent’s being "Cast into the lake of fire and brimstone . . . forever" (Revelation 20:10), drives out all doubt about the final outcome and brings in "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding."
Peace and Doxology
The manner in which Paul brings the bruising of Satan into this final admonition for the unity and peace of the church shows, I think, that he is clinching his teaching of the two preceding chapters, namely, that men in the church who cause trouble over secondary things--things about which Christians are as free to react one way as another, about which they must not contend for their own terms of peace--are tools of Satan, acting contrary to Christian doctrine, and are unworthy of fellowship. A church which is too small to allow freedom of conscience and wholesome co-existence of inevitable differences about such things is too small for "A habitation of God it the Spirit." In this connection, Paul teaches, as a precaution against the wiles of Satan, that there is a wisdom which keeps one ignorant of evil that, on the principle that cleanliness best understands filth, one need not know sin by experience to be wise about it.
The Book of Romans appropriately closes with a classic doxology: "Unto him that is able . . . the only wise God" (wisdom to contrive and power to effect the whole of Christianity) Paul ascribes glory forever. What is "The mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal," but is now made known in Paul’s gospel? It is, that apart from the flesh-centered, carnal principle of law, apart from all fleshly distinctions and human merit, God in pure grace freely gives eternal life to all humanity on the principle of the "Obedience of faith."
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."
Questions
1. How do you account for the fact that Paul, active missionary, close student, and great author, had time and disposition for many most intimate friends
2. What may we learn about the source of the many lovely inter-relations of Christians from this roll of Paul and his friends?
3. Should the fact that Paul does not use the word "church" in Romans until he gets to the salutations help us to understand the nature of the church?
4. Does the statement that the church is a profoundly spiritual relation of men with God, through Christ, in the Spirit, by the instrumentality of the word help us to see what the church really is?
5. Why has Satan from the beginning desperately fought (and continues to fight) the church of Christ?
6. Do you think that Romans 16:17 emphasizes the doctrine of Romans 14, namely, that the church of God must be big enough to enfold brethren who differ about discretionary things
7. God has ability and wisdom, according to the Doxology, to accomplish what end? What is the ancient, long-veiled mystery that Paul, especially, has at long last unveiled
8.
More Studies and Comments on Romans
Before beginning the study of the epistle to the Romans, it is thought profitable to study the meaning of salvation and the conditions of salvation. Among those who have studied these subjects, more or less, there are those who have been definitely handicapped in their conclusions by false assumptions. What some of these assumptions are will be mentioned as we proceed. Let us inquire,
What is meant by salvation?
(a) Salvation is the release of the penalty of sin. Whatever may be the penalty resulting from sin, salvation signifies freedom from it. That this is true, and that it will not be questioned, I shall take for granted.
(b) Salvation is freedom from the power of sin in one’s life. This question is given a thorough discussion in chapter seven. It is enough here to remember this significant statement from Paul: "But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members." Certainly this applies to the sinner, whether to anyone else or not. One can easily see, therefore, that a salvation which does not include freedom from "the law of sin," which causes all the difficulty in doing what is right, would leave man crying for deliverance. (Romans 7:24.)
(c) Involved in salvation is the establishment of certain spiritual relationships with God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. God becomes our Father and we become his children. "And I will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters." (2 Corinthians 6:18.) "But ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." (Romans 8:15-16.)
The saved are "in Christ," that is, "in union with Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:17—Goodspeed.) "I am the vine, ye are the branches." "Abide in me, and I in you." (John 15:4-5.) "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation." (2 Corinthians 5:17.)
To the saved God promises the Holy Spirit. "Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38.) "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you." (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16.) Those who possess the Spirit are said to have "the mind of the Spirit," and to be "after the Spirit." (Romans 8:5-6.) It is by the Spirit that one, bears the fruit of love, joy, etc. (Galatians 5:22.)
The qualifications of the Saviour. In order to save sinners and to establish the above named relationships, God uses means which are naturally suited to these ends. Hence it was necessary for the "Word" to be made flesh. (John 1:14.) This Son of God and Son of man is qualified to represent both God and man. He, and he alone, can be mediator between God and man. "There is one God, one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) This arrangement is based on reason. Our Saviour must be divine that he may bear our sins. He must be "man" that he may be our merciful High Priest. (Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 4:14-16.)
Man’s Saviour is (a) the source of life (John 1:4; 1 John 5:11-12), (b) the master of life and death (John 10:18; John 11:25, (c) sinless (Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 7:25), (d) worthy to receive "power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory and blessing" (Revelation 5:12), (e) worshipped by both men and angels (Revelation 5:11; Hebrews 1:6); and finally, (f) our Saviour is at "the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:3.) He is also represented as the "heir of all things," the agent of creation, "the effulgence of his (God’s) glory, and the very image of his substance." and the upholder of all things "by the word of his power." And above all, he "made purification of sins." (Hebrews 1:2-3.)
Now, unless God did many unnecessary things, unless he made a sacrifice too great, no one but the Son of God, the Son of man, could possibly have be-come man’s Saviour.
What did Jesus do to become man’s Saviour?
We might safely and reasonably answer that he did what was necessary. A God of wisdom, justice, and mercy would not require more or less. What constitutes sin is not an arbitrary matter. And that sin deserves punishment is also a reasonable thing. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," and "The wages of sin is death" are verdicts based on the nature of sin and the justice of God.
If man bears the penalty of his own sins, he cannot be saved. Another must, therefore, bear his iniquity. Consequently "Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Jesus gave his life for the life of the sinner. "The Son of man came . . . to give his life a ransom for many." Jesus gave his life for us when he "died for our sins." "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life." (Leviticus 17:11.) Here we see that God proceeded upon the basis of "reason." "By reason of the life" blood is suited to make atonement. And that life should redeem life is also according to both rea-son and justice. That Jesus alone was qualified to give his life for our life has already been seen. Jesus redeemed us, therefore, by his blood. "In whom we have our redemption through his blood." (Ephesians 2:7.) Other passages are too familiar to need quoting here.
The conditions of salvation.
What is meant by the conditions of salvation? The expression does not mean that man can earn or achieve his salvation. He can do neither, with or without a Saviour. If man could do either, he would need no Saviour. Be-cause man must have a Saviour, Jehovah provided one.
It follows, therefore, that, since man can neither earn nor achieve his salvation, the source of his salvation, the ground of his redemption, is not in the conditions of salvation. The power to save is in the blood of Christ, not in conditions on man’s part. For example, we know that faith is a condition of salvation. But man is not saved because of his faith, that is, he is not saved because there is redeeming power in faith.
Since we are saved by Christ, by his death for our sins, faith is required. One is not merely to give credence to the story about the death of Jesus, he is to depend upon Christ crucified for his salvation. There is nothing arbitrary about faith. It is the name of the act of accepting the atonement for sin. Faith is not a mere principle of action that leads one to do the things that save! "Faith in God, in Jesus, and in the Bible will lead one to do with a trusting heart what these require for salvation from past sin of those who believe." Is not faith itself for the remission of sins? Peter so taught: "To him bear all the prophets witness that through his name everyone that believeth on him shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43.) If faith in Christ is not itself for the remission of sin, then justification is not by faith, but by acts of faith! It is a great struggle to rule out the blood of Christ, but some are able to do so!
Repentance is the turning away from sin, and the assumption of the attitude of heart that prepares one for divine mercy. There is nothing arbitrary or meritorious here.
As for baptism, it is the function of this ordinance to express or embody faith and repentance. It is never considered apart from these two conditions. It is, as to significance, faith and penitence. Christ crucified is the consideration of baptism. And any design it may have stems from the fact that it is "in the name of Jesus Christ."
The conditions of salvation are, therefore, means of turning from sin and of accepting the crucified Saviour. They are not a "plan" or "scheme" arbitrarily demanded by one in authority, but the natural responses, as to signification, to the blood of Christ.
One of the most difficult truths for man to accept is that he has a real Saviour. He desires that Jesus tell him what to do to save himself! It is astonishing how many and who they are who have such an idea.
The principles of grace or mercy.
Since man cannot save himself, he must be saved by an-other. Hence he is saved upon the principle of grace. God has mercy upon sinners because of the death of Christ on their behalf. (Of course, Christ crucified must be accepted by sinners.) The cross is the basis of grace. It determines the principle of grace. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood" (Romans 3:24-25.) Note the connection between justification by grace and redemption by the blood of Christ.
The principle of faith or trust.
Grace and faith are correlative terms. What God offers by grace is received by faith. As it relates to Christ as sin-offering, faith is receptive. Hence, "By grace have ye been saved through faith." Man must depend upon that which saves him, or rather upon him who saves him. This dependence is faith. Faith is determined, therefore, by the cross and by the principle of grace.
The relation of the conditions of salvation to Christ crucified.
It is Christ who saves. Hence the conditions of salvation must relate to him. But they must relate to Christ as sin-bearer, not to him as the mere author of the conditions. The conditions of salvation are responses to Jesus as "Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:36.) Christ, not mere duty, is the consideration of the conditions of salvation. This point is of the utmost significance. It must be conceded or the cross is logically nullified.
Christ crucified is the object of saving faith. (John 3:16; Romans 3:25.) Repentance is "in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 2:38.) And baptism is like-wise "in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 2:38.) Every condition relates directly to Christ as sin-offering. The implication follows that all express faith or trust in him. One goes through the conditions to Christ crucified, not through Christ crucified to the conditions. It is meaningless to preach the conditions apart from Christ as sin-offering. One can no more believe or trust apart from one in whom to believe or to trust, than one can eat without food. How often have sinners been invited to "eat" apart from any reference to Christ crucified as the "bread of life."
The conditions of salvation have not been arbitrarily chosen.
If faith is a condition of justifi-cation, there is a reason for faith. And so with other conditions. Some claim that Christ, having been given "all authority," had the right to make anything a condition that pleased him! This is as unreasonable as it is unscriptural. It is the cross, not the authority of Jesus, that determines the conditions of salvation. He would be a foolish physician who would prescribe for a patient on the basis of his diploma, rather than on the ground of his diagnosis. Jesus has "diagnosed" man’s trouble as sin. We are saved from sin by the crucified Saviour. Hence, man’s part in salvation is determined by the cross. The nature of bread deter-mines whether it shall be eaten or drunk. The nature of the ground of salvation determines man’s response.
It would be most difficult to find a more un-philosophical and unscriptural theory than that Christ arbitrarily selected certain things as conditions of salvation. This is a modern discovery! It was begotten by a legalistic conception of Christianity. If Jesus is merely a law-giver, then sinners can afford to forget him, if only they obey the law. It was un-necessary that Israel remember Moses, if they kept the commands given through him. It so happens that the commands given sinners relate most directly to Christ by way of expressing trust in him as Saviour. But Jesus did not bring law, nor did Moses bring grace. (John 1:17.) There is a reason why the conditions of salvation are sometimes preached as a "law" without any reference to the blood of Christ!
Some have the strange notion that the principle of faith excludes all reason. It is said that if one can see a good reason for faith, or repentance, then these are not tests of loyalty to God. So some contend! According to this theory, when one considers the miracles of Jesus, and reasons like Nicodemus: "We know that thou are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him," our faith is vain! Jesus should not have furnished reasonable proof of his Sonship! He should have demanded faith in himself upon a mere command that one believe! Why did Jesus "show him-self after his passion by many proofs"? Why did he not demand that people have faith? Jesus said to Thomas: "Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." After Thomas had believed because of proof, Jesus said to him: "Be-cause thou hast seen me, thou hast believed."
When one knows the meaning of repentance, for example, he knows that there are the very best of reasons to repent. So with faith. Of course, this whole theory was originated in the interest of bap-tism. It is assumed that there is no reason in baptism, and that especially this command should be obeyed because, and only because, Christ commanded it. It is compared to Naaman’s dipping, and Joshua’s marching around Jericho. No connection between the act and the desired end! Such teaching will do more to turn discerning people away from baptism than to cause them to accept it.
Naaman’s dipping made no reference to the work of another in his behalf that would cause the dipping to accomplish a desired result. Baptism is "in the name of Jesus Christ" who came between God and the sinner. It signifies faith in Christ. If the cross means nothing, then the parallel between Naaman’s dipping and one’s baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ" stands! When the cross is left out one reverts to legalism. Some are much more concerned about making a place for baptism than in magnifying the cross. Bad arguments bring bad results. Baptism needs no such defense. (Concerning the theory that the atonement and the conditions of salvation are but arbitrary decrees of God see question No. 6, chapter thirteen.)
The relation of the conditions of salvation to the remission of sins.
Nothing is "for the remission of sins" in the same sense as the blood of Christ. The blood procures salvation, while the conditions appropriate it. Christ achieved redemption and man receives it. Sometimes Matthew 26:28 and Acts 2:38 are paralleled thus: "This is my blood . . . poured out for many unto the remission of sins," and "Repent ye, and be baptized . . . unto the remission of sins." The phrase "unto the remission of sins" is common to both passages. While this phrase shows that repentance and baptism are made conditions of the remission of sins, one is not to think that they stand related to salvation in the same sense as the blood of Christ. If they do relate to remission of sins in the same sense, then one is redeemed as much by repentance and baptism as by the blood of Christ. I am sure no one believes this.
Note these statements from Paul: "Being there-fore justified by faith," and "being now justified by his blood." (Romans 5:1; Romans 5:9.) Is there no room for discrimination here? Are we to rely upon our faith just as we depend upon the blood of Christ? Mere words do not tell the whole story. Jesus never made a more positive statement than "This is my body," referring to the bread of the Lord’s supper. Yet we believe that he meant "This represents my body." In Romans 5:1 Paul evidently meant that one is justified on the principle of faith, because faith, in the sense of trust, is the natural response to the blood of Christ. By "justified by his blood" the apostle meant that the blood is the ground or reason for the mercy of God. In Romans 3:25 Paul joins the blood of Christ and the faith thus: "Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood." Christ is a "propitiation" by means of his blood. The blood of Christ, not man’s faith, is the "propitiation."
Note these translations: "Whom God put for-ward as the means of propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." (Moffatt.) "For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith." (Goodspeed.)
It is contended that so-called "positive" or arbitrary commands test one’s faith in God. Granted, under certain circ*mstances. But do they test one’s faith in God "that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead"? (Romans 4:24.) "We should not trust in our-selves, but in God who raiseth the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:9.) "Who through him (Christ) are believers in God, that raised him (Jesus) from the dead." (1 Peter 1:21.) Simply to believe in God is not enough. Saving faith is faith in God, the Father of Christ, and the resurrecter of Christ from the dead. This involves faith in Christ. Naaman had no such faith in God. His was a purely physical blessing conditioned solely on obedience to a command of God. Our salvation is a spiritual blessing conditioned on faith in God "who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." Naaman seemed not to believe very much in God in any sense. What faith he had was only in the sovereignty of God. Unbelievers in Christ have this faith.
If Christ is merely another law-giver; if Christi-anity is but another legal system; and if the cross means nothing, then the sinner’s baptism is analogous to Naaman’s dipping! And upon the same premises one need not understand why he obeys in any respect! No one ever conceived of baptism as a foolish requirement until recent years. The unbelieving Jews mistakenly pronounced the cross to be foolishness. They simply did not know. For the
same reason baptism is considered a foolish act from man’s viewpoint. It is no more foolish than the Lord’s Supper, for obvious reasons.
But what is the relation of the conditions of salvation to the remission of sins? They have no relation except through the blood of Christ. They would not be conditions, in the first place, if they did not have direct reference to Christ crucified. Justification is "by faith" that means trust in Christ as sin-offering. Faith, then, is said to be for remission of sins: "Every one that believeth on him shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43.) Likewise repentance and baptism are for "the remission of sins" be-cause, and only because, they are "in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 2:38.) Of course, if any condition is considered apart from the cross, if it is made a mere legal enactment, then it has no relation to re-mission of sin. It has, in this case, no relation to the blood of Christ.
There is no inconsistency in any condition and the cross, no incompatibility in any condition and the grace of God, provided it is made a response to the blood of Christ. But when the conditions are made responses to the sovereignty of God or of Christ, and are not related to the cross by way of expressing trust in Christ as sin-offering, or faith in God "who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead," they are but legal enactments and logically nullify the cross and make void the grace of God. The cross does not call for mere obedience, but an obedience that means re-liance upon Christ crucified. The most effective manner of arraying the commands of God against the grace of God, is to preach them apart from a direct reference to the blood of Christ. Conditions are means of appropriating the saving power of the blood. They were never designed as mere acts of obedience to test one’s respect for the authority of God or of Christ.
But the reference to the blood by the conditions of salvation is one that signifies trust or reliance. There is no necessity of inventing an imaginary, figurative, or legal "contact" with the blood. It is faith in the blood, or faith in Christ who shed his blood that is required. Christ as our propitiation is to be received by faith. (John 3:16.) "For so great-ly did God love the world that he gave his only Son, that every one who trusts in him . . . may have eternal life." (Weymouth’s translation.) "For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith." (Romans 3:25 —Goodspeed.)
What is the meaning of the gospel invitation?
When sinners are given the gospel invitation, what precisely is intended by it? Some kind of proposition, so to speak, is made, and sinners are invited to make some kind of response. If the correct preaching has been done, Christ has been preached. Sinners have been told who Christ is, and what he has done for them, and what he proposes to do. Christ is being offered to sinners — Christ, the Son of God, who is man’s sin-offering, and who is, therefore, man’s Saviour. The blood with its cleansing power is offered to man whose soul has been stained by sin. Whether sinners will accept or reject this Saviour is the real issue confronting them. In other words, sinners are being offered mercy; they are being offered the "free gift" of salvation! Will they accept it?
Why was Christ preached by the apostle and others? Why did not the inspired preachers go forth and preach the sinner’s obligation to be honest, moral, benevolent, etc.? Why was not mere obligation preached? Simply because obligation was not the need of sinners. They were already under obligation. But man has sinned. He is lost. He needs a Saviour, a Redeemer! Duty to a lost man is no Saviour.
When Peter on Pentecost cried, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation," he was but exhorting his hearers to accept the Saviour whom he had just preached.. He was not simply trying to induce them to render obedience per se. He was not exhorting sinners merely to repent and be baptized as a test of their submission to Christ as king. But he was asking them to repent and be baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ," thus accepting Jesus as their sin-offering as well as their king.
Note this from the apostle John: "And the wit-ness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life." (1 John 5:11-12.) When one buys an auto-mobile he possesses an automobile. When one is offered Christ (He is not for sale!) and he is accepted, one has Christ, the Son of God. He has life. He has a Saviour, not a mere teacher or ruler.
What should sinners consider has been accomplished by them when they have obeyed the Lord? Can they say "We have now done our part, we have rendered obedience"? It is greatly feared that many do not realize that they now have a Saviour. All their hope, all their rejoicing, should be based on the fact that they now have Christ, the Son of God who is their "righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." Just as one glories in the possession of an automobile, Christians should glory in the possession of Christ. Paul counted everything "loss for Christ." He exchanged law for Christ. He laid claim to him. He believed that he had gained Christ. (Philippians 3:8.)
Christ crucified, Christ man’s sin-bearer, Christ the Saviour — he is the issue of the gospel invitation. Everyone should exchange his own righteousness, his morality, and his despair for Christ, for a Saviour. When one responds to the gospel invitation he is not offering his obedience in exchange for salvation. He is accepting Christ as sin-bearer, Saviour, Redeemer.
A good salesman sells the prospective customer on the automobile, not on the "terms." A poor "sales-man" sells sinners on "terms of pardon," instead of Christ. Inspired "salesmen" sold Christ as Saviour, not the conditions leading to him. They converted sinners to Christ, not to a "law of pardon." A convert should be ready, in turn, to "sell" Christ to sinners.
What is here said must not be interpreted as an effort to minimize the conditions of salvation, but rather an attempt to exalt the Saviour. After all, the conditions of salvation are not saviours. Let us be careful not to place the emphasis on them that be-longs to Christ.
Note the emphasis Christ placed on himself: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one corn-eth unto the Father but by me." (John 14:8.) "I am the bread of life." "He that eateth me, he also shall live because of me." (John 6:35; John 6:57.) "I am the resurrection, and the life." (John 11:25.) Hence, one is not led to Christ, that Christ may in turn lead him to the conditions of salvation. Instead, one through the conditions is led to Christ. He is Saviour.
But it is different under law. Moses led the peo-ple to the Ten Commandments. The Ten Command-ments did not lead the people to Moses. Law brings obligations; grace brings a Saviour. Sinners are in-vited to accept this Saviour. This is the issue of the gospel invitation.
The key to the understanding of salvation.
The key to the understanding of salvation, as well as the key to a proper conception of Romans, is found in Christ. Jesus, not dogma, is the center of the Bible. Some seem to regard a condition of salvation as the center of Christianity! But conditions are significant only because they are responses to Jesus as "Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:36.) One’s conception of justification that is not in harmony with Paul’s discussion of it in the third and fourth chapters of Romans, is bound to be wrong. Certainly a proper understanding of the atonement is essential to a correct exegesis of Romans.
Hence, Jesus, the Son of God and man’s sin-offering, is the key to a proper conception of salvation. Any passage of scripture relating to the justification of sinners that is not interpreted in the light of these two basic truths will be misunderstood. How often Matthew 7:21 and Hebrews 5:9, for examples, are expounded as though the cross did not exist! That the chief characteristic of the new covenant, as distinguished from the old covenant, is a new set of commandments given by another lawgiver, is an error that has scarcely been paralleled.
Salvation is a gift based on the sacrifice of Christ. Conditions of salvation constitute man’s acceptance of this salvation. To represent the conditions of salvation as arbitrary commands, and having no logical relation to Jesus as sin-offering, but given to test the sinner’s willingness to obey God, is a colossal and a tragic error.
Most errors relating to justification are the re-sults of losing sight of the atonement. Hence, "Jesus Christ, and him crucified" is the key to a proper conception of salvation. The chief value of the Roman epistle lies in its explanation of the sacrifice of Jesus.
The Outline of Christianity.
Paul’s outline of Christianity as revealed in Romans is as follows: sin, guilt, condemnation, atonement, grace, faith, justification, sanctification, and glorification. If there is no sin, there is no guilt; if there is no guilt, there is no condemnation; if there is no condemnation, there is no need of atonement; if there is no atonement, there can be no grace; if there is no grace, there is no place for faith in the gospel sense; if there is no faith, there is no justification; if there is no justification, there is no sanctification; if there is no sanctification, there can be no glorification.
Christianity makes sense. It is no arbitrary matter. In Christianity the actual needs of the sinner have been supplied. And they have been provided in a logical way. Sin is real. It naturally results in guilt, and guilt, in condemnation. Condemned sinners can be saved only by an atonement on their behalf. Based on the cross, grace is possible; and grace demands faith. God saves sinners the only way possible.
No one is prepared to teach who is not informed in the above items. Memorizing a few prescriptions does not prepare one to practice medicine. Those who train men to preach are under obligation to instruct them in the outline of religion. One does not know Christ who knows him only as a teacher or lawgiver.
The Gentiles’ Need of a Saviour
Romans 1:1 --Paul: A Jew and a Pharisee. (Acts 22:3; Acts 26:5 :) First a persecutor, then the persecuted and sufferer. (Acts 26:11; 1 Corinthians 4:10-13; 2 Corinthians 4:8-12; 2 Corinthians 6:4-10; 2 Corinthians 11:24-28.) As a Pharisee he was "exceedingly zealous." (Galatians 1:14.) Paul relied upon fleshly relationships, circumcision, and law-righteousness. (Philippians 3:4-6.) Before he knew Christ these things were considered "gain". (Philippians 3:7.) But when he learned of Christ he regarded these "gains" as "loss" and "refuse." He was delighted to exchange law for Christ. (Philippians 3:8-9.) The legalist glories in law, human righteousness, and rituals until he learns of Christ, grace, faith, and the spiritual. Then law becomes "refuse." Being apprehended in the act of persecuting Christ, and yet shown mercy, Paul was deeply impressed with Christ and grace, and never ceased to preach them. (1 Corinthians 2:2; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Ephesians 2:4-7.) He gloried only in the cross. (Galatians 6:14.) He was never ashamed of the gospel. (1:16.) He is its chief defender. (Philippians 1:16.) Practically all of Paul’s writings constitute a defense of the cross. For Paul to live and to preach was Christ. (Philippians 1:21; 1 Corinthians 2:2.) Christ was the source of Paul’s strength. (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:29.) Paul lost himself in Christ. The Lord appeared to Paul; Paul saw; the Lord conquered.
Called to be an apostle. Paul was called and instructed by Christ, not by human instrumentality. (Acts 9:3-6; Galatians 1:11-12.) Ananias was not sent to preach the gospel to Paul, but to map his future work. (Acts 9:12; Acts 9:17-18; Acts 22:10-16.) An apostle is one sent on a mission. Paul’s mission was to preach Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 2:2.)
The gospel of God. Gospel means glad tidings. Here it means glad tidings of salvation by means of the death and resurrection of Christ for our sins. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4.) The word gospel is not a synonym of truth. Neither does it refer to the word of God in general. Much truth is not glad tidings. The gospel concerns God’s Son and what he did for sinners. The good news of salvation is called "the gospel of God," denoting its origin (1:1); "the gospel of Christ," because Christ is its subject (Galatians 1:7) ; "the gospel of salvation," for it is God’s power to save (Ephesians 1:13; Romans 1:16); and "the gospel of peace," because by the gospel God and man are reconciled, and Jews and Gentiles are made one. (Acts 10:36; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14-22.)
Seed of David — Son of God. How this relationship is possible is seen from Matthew 1:21. The incarnation was a necessity, because only by this means could Jesus qualify as man’s mediator. ( 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 2:14-18.) Only the Son of God can be the "Lamb of God." (John 1:29.) Only the Son can bring saving grace (John 1:17), and become man’s saviour. We are made sons of God through God’s Son. (Galatians 3:26.) The Sonship of Jesus is the central truth of Christianity, and those who deny it are called "anti-Christs." (1 John 2:18; 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:2-3.)
The obedience of faith. This phrase states the purpose of Paul’s apostleship. It is, therefore, significant. With Paul faith has Jesus Christ and him crucified as its object, and signifies trust in, or reliance upon Christ for salvation. How, then, is it proper to speak of the "obedience of faith"? To believe in Christ is a command. (Acts 16:31.) The proper response to a command is obedience. Hence when one believes on Christ he is obeying God. In the next place, obedience is both inward and out-ward. Love and forgiveness, for examples, are spiritual and they are commanded. When one loves and forgives he is obeying God. Faith, then, can also be considered obedience.
The expression, "the obedience of faith," can mean, therefore, (a) obedience produced by faith, (b) faith itself as obedience, and (c) acts as the expression or the embodiment of faith. But faith as the response to Christ as sin-offering must signify trust. Faith is a principle of action that leads to obedience, but it is much more. Unless we let it signify trust, faith is no response to the blood of Christ. Weymouth translates "believeth" in John 3:16 "trusts." So do other translators. This point is most important. Merely to recognize Christ as one in authority, and so obey him, is not enough. The obedience rendered must signify trust in, or reliance upon Christ for salvation. On Pentecost Peter represented Jesus as "both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:36.) As Christ, Jesus is our sin-offering. Thus the phrase "in the name of Jesus Christ" signifies trust in Jesus as sin-offering, as certainly as it means sub-mission to Jesus as Lord or king. The cross demands a special response, and that response is trust or reliance.
Such passages as Matthew 7:21 and Hebrews 5:9 must be understood in the light of the cross. Else one can easily revert to legalism. God’s will that must be done in reference to the crucified Son certainly includes faith in the sense of trust. "This is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 3:23.) "The will of the Father" in Matthew 7:21 certainly does not exclude the above passage. Believe the gospel, and obey the gospel, are scriptural expressions; but never do we find the expression believe and obey the gospel. To believe is obedience, and the obedience demanded of sinners signifies faith in Christ.
Romans 1:7 --Called to be Jesus Christ’s. The saved be-long to Christ, for he bought them. (1 Corinthians 6:19; Acts 20:28.) Christians are God’s "own possession." (Titus 2:14.) Hence we should "glorify God in our bodies." (1 Corinthians 6:20.)
Romans 1:7 --Beloved of God. God has special love for his children. (1 John 3:1.) Divine love is the fountain from which flows the "river of life." Christianity has its roots deep in the love of God. Nothing is more important to sinful man.
Romans 1:8 --Your faith is proclaimed. Paul makes much of faith. It is not merely one of the conditions of salvation, but the principle answering to Jesus as sinoffering. Faith in the sense of relying upon the Saviour is something new. "The law is not of faith" because under it there was no sacrifice that could take away sins. There was no sin-offering in which to trust. This was "before faith came." (Galatians 3:23.) Since faith is so fundamental, the apostle spoke of the faith of the Roman Christians as signifying their conversion to Christ. In The Acts the saved are de-nominated "believers" more often, perhaps, than by any other designation. The saved are those who rely upon Christ for salvation, not those who are at-tempting to achieve their own salvation.
Romans 1:11 --I Long to see you. Not for selfish, but for unselfish reason. "That I may impart." Paul was aware of the spiritual needs of the Roman Christians, and he was eager to supply them. He was not desirous of causing divisions among them, entertaining them, or making Paulites by stressing some trivial matter which might mark him as a spiritual hero. Children of God need to be "established." In doing this, Paul and they would mutually comfort each other.
Romans 1:12 --I am debtor. Divine mercy brought Paul, and brings us, under obligation to others. Every unsaved person was Paul’s concern. Paul’s "I am debtor" is followed by "I am ready," a fine combination.
Romans 1:15 --To preach the gospel. This is what Paul was ready to do. This is the way he paid, so to speak, his debt. These four words, to preach the gospel, translate one Greek word. Paul was not sent merely to preach something. "We preach Christ crucified." (1 Corinthians 1:23.) One Greek word names not only Paul’s obligation to preach, but implies the content of his preaching. Paul preached Christ, not merely something that Christ said. Both are necessary. But to fail to preach Christ as God’s Son, the source of life, the master of life and death, the sinoffering upon whom "Jehovah hath laid the iniquity of us all," is to fail. To preach the sinner’s obligation apart from Christ as sinoffering is meaningless. Philip preached Christ from the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah before he expected any response from the eunuch. Apart from Christ crucified one cannot believe. (Romans 10:17.)
THE THEME OF ROMANS
Romans 1:16-17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the just shall live by faith." The doctrinal part of this epistle is but an elaboration of these verses. There is no doubt about what Paul meant by the gospel. "For Christ sent me to preach the gospel." (1 Corinthians 1:17.) "We preach Christ crucified." (1 Corinthians 1:23.) See also 1 Corinthians 2:2; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. What Jesus did to save sinners is the gospel. This must first be preached, or God’s power to save is not preached. Now, to preach something is not merely to refer to it, but to take it for one’s subject and explain it. Unless Christ crucified is preached (See Isaiah 53), there is nothing to which sinners are to respond. Christ as sin-offering, not an arbitrary command, demands the response of faith, repentance, and baptism. The meaning of faith is studied in chapters three and four, and the significance of baptism is considered in chapter six. For a discussion of "a righteousness of God" see under Romans 3:21.
Romans 1:18 --For the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man." Note that sin is negative. It is antagonistic to God. Hence sin is "ungodliness." It is "unrighteousness." Righteousness is positive. It is godliness. "The mind of the flesh is enmity against Gad." Sin is a personal offense against God. Hence his wrath is against sin. The wrath of God is unlike man’s anger or wrath. It is the natural reaction of an absolutely holy God against that which is unlike himself, and which is, therefore, unholy. Sin is missing the mark. This "mark" is, first of all, God himself, and then the will of God. God’s will is the transcript of his character. Hence, Peter wrote, "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:16.) Peter states the obligation, "Ye shall be holy." Then he gives the reason for the obligation, "For I am holy." This agrees with Paul’s statement in Romans 8:7 : "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God." Sin is "enmity against God," be-cause "the law of God" is based upon his character.
God’s will is not arbitrary. God does not step "out of character" in the realm of religion. Nothing makes sin so ugly and so deserving of punishment as the fact that it is "ungodliness."
Modern man tries to believe that sin is unreal. Sin is made nothing more than non-conformance to custom. But this teaching that sin is unreal logic-ally destroys the moral government of God. As certainly as God is, he is a holy God. Since God is holy, he approves only conduct compatible with his character. But, if there is nothing inherently wrong, then the holiness of God is unreal. If divine holiness is unreal, then God possesses no inherently holy character. When God is robbed of his attributes he ceases to be the God of the Bible. If holiness as an attribute of God is unreal, and if sin is unreal, why and how could God ever be pleased or displeased with man? And upon what principle could he exercise government over man? One has every right to suspect the motives and the character of him who denies that sin is real. The teaching is as unphilosophical as it is unscriptural.
Romans 1:19-23. Gentiles were sinners not because they had no knowledge of God. Creation reveals his "ever-lasting power and divinity." But despite any revelation of God which the Gentiles had, they exchanged God for mere images of "corruptible man —birds -- beasts —and creeping things." Read Psalms 8:1; Psalms 19:1-6. Pity the "fool" who says "there is no God." (Psalms 14:1.) Sin perverts the intellect so that man in his wisdom rejects God. (1 Corinthians 1:21.) How generous of some wise men to acknowledge some End of supreme force governing the universe! Note that man fell from monotheism into polytheism. The former is not the result of a religious evolution.
"God gave them up." An alarming thought! Three times Paul wrote these awful words. (Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28.) Where there is no faith in God there is no effective restraining power. Idolatry and sin en-courage each other. When Romans 1:24-32 is considered, one trembles for this age when millions have willfully forgotten God. "They sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."
Now, what did the Gentile world need? How could Gentiles be saved? Did they need the law of Moses? Did they need any legal system? Law simply cannot cope with the problem of sin. Law can neither furnish an atonement for sin nor provide a basis of holiness. Sinners need a Saviour, a sin-offering, a propitiation, and mercy. "Schemes" and "plans" legalistically conceived avail nothing. Sin-ners need Christ.
Obeying the Gospel
Since the gospel is the theme of this epistle, and since the gospel must be obeyed, serious consideration should be given to the matter of obeying the gospel. Both Paul and Peter speak of obeying the gospel. (Romans 10:16 A.V.; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17.) Hence, the gospel can be obeyed. If the gospel cannot be obeyed, Paul and Peter did not know it. Further-more, if the gospel cannot be obeyed, then either it is not the power of God to save, or else obedience to it is not necessary to salvation. The power to save was not transferred from the gospel itself to a mere "form" of it.
The primary idea in obedience is submission. One must submit to Christ as sin-offering to be saved by him. Obedience to Christ as teacher and king is not enough. One must obey, submit, to him as sin-offering, or sacrifice for sins.
But how can one obey the gospel unless in his obedience he is responding to Christ as sin-offering? How can one obey the gospel unless his obedience relates directly to the gospel? Impossible! Why did not Paul and Peter simply demand obedience to Christ as one in authority? Because they knew that Christ saves by means of his death on man’s behalf, not simply by his authority. The authority of Christ can be recognized in obedience with no thought of his death as a propitiation.
When, therefore, are believing in Christ, repenting, and being baptized obedience to the gospel? The gospel is Christ crucified for our sins. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4.) The above conditions, therefore, constitute obedience to the gospel when they are responses to, and express reliance upon Christ crucified. To obey in the above respects simply because one has been commanded to do so, is to ignore the cross and render it void. Faith in Christ, is faith or trust in him as the sacrifice for our sins. Merely to believe in him as God’s Son with no thought of the cross is not enough. See Romans 10:9. Likewise, to repent with no thought of Christ cruci-fied, and to be baptized, except as a response to his death for our sins, are not enough. Luke 24:46-47 and Acts 2:38 definitely relate each to the cross. And Paul in Romans 6:3-4 connects baptism with the death of Jesus. In all of his obedience the sinner should know that he is responding to the blood of Christ, not merely recognizing the right of Christ to demand obedience.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER ONE
1. Discuss the religion of Saul of Tarsus. Philippians 3:4-6.
2. Contrast this with the religion of Paul, the Christian. Philippians 3:7-10.
3. Give three possible meanings of the expression, "the obedience of faith."
4. Which of these meanings is most naturally required by the cross?
5. Discuss Matthew 7:21 and Hebrews 5:9 apart from, and in relation to, Christ as sin-offering. See 1 John 3:23.
6. Note: "To preach the gospel" translates one word in the greed. Paul was not only expected to preach, he was told what to preach. His obligation to preach and the content of his message are both in one word. See also 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 1:23.
7. Study with care the theme of Romans 1:16-17. The "power" of the gospel is contrasted with the weakness of the law. (Romans 8:3.) "Unto salvation" is opposed to condemnation under law. (Romans 3:20.) "To every one" points out the universality of the gospel as opposed to the law for Jews only. "Believeth" is in bold contrast to keeping commandments or works of law. (Romans 10:4-5.) The gospel saves because it reveals "the righteousness of God." "The righteousness of God" is most important.
8. What is sin in relation to God? Romans 1:18. See Romans 8:7.
9. In this chapter Paul convicts the Gentile world of sin. Why?
10. In 1:24-32 we see what happens to man when he forgets God.
The Jews’ Need of Righteousness or Justification
Romans 2:1 --Thou art without excuse. Paul surprised the Jews by charging that they stood in need of justification the same as the Gentiles. "For thou that judgest dost practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God is according to truth." All the external advantages of the Jews brought upon them the greater condemnation, because they did not profit by them. If obedience to God means blessings to the "Jew first," then he was the "first" to come under the condemnation of God because of his sins. Hence, the Jewish sinner under law, which he did not keep, and the Gentile without law, were equally in need of divine mercy. The law was not intended as a mere keepsake, but it demanded obedience.
Romans 2:6-11. Who will render to every man according to his works. "Every man" included the Jew as well as the Gentile. But has Paul reverted to legalism by af-firming that man will be judged by his works? No. He is considering in a practical way the final judg-ment. The sinful and corrupt will be punished while those of opposite character will be blessed. He does not stop here to consider the basis of either holiness or sin. He is removing any hope which the Jew might have that was based upon mere possession of the law apart from obedience which it required. Not the hearer but the doer of the law is blessed. Even uncircumcised Gentiles who kept the moral law were favored above the circumcised Jew who possessed, but did not obey the law. Under either law or grace one’s life will count in the judgment.
Romans 2:17 --Thou bearest the name of a Jew. The apostle names certain grounds of confidence of the Jew to divine approval. He depended more upon a name than reality. It is not enough to be properly designated. One must be what the designation im-plies. To wear even the name of Christ amounts to nothing, unless one is actually a Christian. As we have seen, the Jew gloried in the possession of the law. But the law condemned him because he did not keep it. The Jew also gloried in his superior ad-vantages, and regarded Gentiles as blind, foolish and babes. The Jew knew so much more than the Gen-tile, but he forgot to teach himself! Jesus charged that "They say, and do not." Even circumcision, the chief pride of the Jews, availed nothing, if they kept not the law. And the uncircumcision of the Gentiles was reckoned as circumcision when they kept "the ordinances of the law." Thus the apostle swept from under the Jew the very foundation upon which he relied for divine approval. Jew or Gentile, every sinner needs a Saviour, not merely another law.
Romans 2:28-29. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. The apostle asserts the same thing of circumcision. Here is one of the most significant truths of this epistle. In few words Paul states the vital difference between legal-ism and Christianity, a spiritual religion. The Jew relied upon fleshly relationship and external advantages. He was a son of Abraham; he was a circumcised man; he had the law; and he gloried in the law-righteousness which he imagined he possessed. Yet he sadly neglected the spirit. To a noted Jew Jesus taught that fleshly birth amounts to nothing, and that even he, Nicodemus, needed the birth of the Spirit. (Yet even in this teaching of Jesus many see only what a Jew would have seen, a new legal-ism!)
The religion of Christ is preeminently spiritual. "God is Spirit." (John 4:24.) "True worshippers" worship God, who is Spirit, "in spirit and truth." The kingdom is spiritual: "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17.) En-trance into this spiritual kingdom is by a birth of the Spirit: "Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5.) God’s people constitute a "spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifice." (1 Peter 2:5.) In Christ there is a spiritual "circumcision": "Ye were also circumcised with a circum-cision not made with hands." (Colossians 2:11.) "We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God." (Philippians 3:3.)
It is not here contended that nothing is external under Christ. That which is seen, however, expresses something inward and spiritual. The real "eating" and "drinking" of the Lord’s Supper express the spiritual "communion of the body of Christ," and the "communion of the blood of Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:16. ) Formalism and ritualism have no place in a spiritual religion. Purity of heart and holiness of life are to be sought rather than a scrupulous cleansing of the "outside of the cup." (Matthew 23:25.) Not the mere knowledge of the letter, but serving God in "newness of the spirit," constitutes one a faithful servant of God. (Romans 7:6.) Not mere orthodoxy of dogma, but bearing the fruit of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meek-ness, self-control," is proof of citizenship in a spirit-ual kingdom. (Galatians 5:22-23.)
This spiritual principle holds true in conversion also. A spiritual death to sin, a spiritual resurrection with Christ, and a trust in the blood of Christ, rather than a talismanic performance of certain, "steps," make one a child of God. Even baptism has a spiritual signification, being the embodiment of death to sin, of a resurrection to a new life, and of trust in Christ as sin-offering, rather than an arbitrary command having no logical relation to the end sought!
Nothing so offended the legalistic Jew as the spiritual teaching of Jesus. They were unwilling to exchange fleshly relationships, the circumcision of the flesh, and their legal righteousness for spiritual realities. And from the day of Christ to the present, nothing has so effectively hindered Christianity as the carnal, legalistic conception of religion.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER TWO
1. The Jews were ever ready to condemn the Gentiles. Romans 2:19-20.
2. But the Jews were sinners also. Romans 2:1-6.
3. The principle of divine judgment condemns Jewish as well as Gentile sinners. Romans 2:2-12.
4. Upon what did the Jew rely for divine approval? Romans 2:17-18; Romans 2:25-27.
5. Contrast the "inward" and the "outward" Jew. Romans 2:27-28. This is one of the most important passages in Romans. Relate it to John 3:1-3.
The Advantages of the Jew
Romans 3:1 --What advantage then bath the Jew? Here Paul anticipates a Jewish objection to his charge that Jews as well as Gentiles were sinners and stood in need of a Saviour. They remembered that they had been chosen a "people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth." (Deuteronomy 7:6.) In 9:4, 5 the apostle recites many of the advantages of the Jews: "Who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the services of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh." Now, if in spite of all these advantages the Jew found himself under the same condemnation of the Gentiles, what is the profit of being a Jew?
But Paul is unwilling to admit that Jewish ad-vantages were not real. He insisted that there was profit "much in every way." The Jews were the cus-todians of divine revelation: "First of all —they were entrusted with the oracles of God." They had been schooled for centuries for the coming of the Messiah. Note also the advantages above cited.
Romans 3:5 --Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? If Israel’s unfaithfulness did not hinder, but rather furnished an occasion for the display of divine mercy, is not God unrighteous, if his wrath is upon the Jews? Paul answers by showing the inconsistency of the Jews who freely admitted that God does have the right to judge. But his judgment is according to truth and not based on superficial distinctions, such as race and fleshly circumcision. Some even slandered the apostles by charging him with the teaching, "Let us do evil, that good may come."
Romans 3:9 --What then? Are we better than they? This is a delicate point. If the Jew thought that he was certain of anything, it was that he was much superior to Gentiles. The charge that he was no better than they was intolerable in his sight. The legalist re-fuses to come to grips with the reality and the enorm-ity of sin. He does not understand why carnal ordi-nances "cannot as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect." (Hebrews 9:9-10.) He sees no difficulty in saving sinners by arbitrary means. He thinks God could have saved the world by animal blood, at least "by some other sacrifice than Christ." He reasons that God has the right to save by various means, if he should see fit, forgetting that God is a God of wisdom and logical order. "God is not a God of confusion."
The phrase, "all are under sin" is most significant. In chapter seven the apostle deals with the "law of sin which is in my members," and which dominates the lives of the unregenerate. A law religion cannot deal effectively with this "law of sin." This is proved by the fact that the Jews who were under the law were still under sin. The connection of law and the judgment of God is briefly shown in verses 19 and 20. The result of the application of law to the sinner is "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God." Law can convict man of sin, but it can neither overcome the power of sin in the soul nor furnish a sacrifice that can take away sin. And if grace is but another name for a legal religion, then man is still under condemnation. The surest way to nullify grace is to make it law. "But if it is by grace, it is no more works: otherwise grace is no more grace. (Romans 11:6.) "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law." (Galatians 3:13.) It was as necessary that man be freed from a law religion as it was that he have a Saviour. "Ye were also made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God." (Romans 7:4.)
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
Romans 3:21 --A righteousness of God bath been manifested. Paul has now come to the main part of his argument against the legalist. One is reminded of Romans 1:17. "For therein (in the gospel) is revealed a righteousness of God." What is meant by the "righteousness of God," and what are its characteristics?
Considered negatively, the apostle is not referr-ing to an attribute of God. That God is holy is not a peculiar revelation of the gospel. The law reveals this truth. Under Romans 4:3 "righteousness" is shown to be the equivalent of justification. Hence, "the right-eousness of God" is the justification of God. Now note some of the characteristics of this righteousness or justification.
It is not a law-righteousness. It is realized "apart from the law." The apostle had just said, "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight." (Romans 3:20.) Law can justify only the innocent. But "all have sinned." Hence, righteousness or justification cannot come by law. God was not experimenting with law. It was given as a temporary measure until Christ should come. (Galatians 3:19.) Law can furnish no sacrifice that can become the ground of mercy. Mercy annuls the operation of law, just as law makes void mercy. The two principles of law and grace cannot exist together. Law demands that the guilty be punished; grace offers mercy. The law was "nailed to the cross" where the ground of mercy is found. Law ended at the cross and by the cross. (Colossians 2:14.) Salvation is not offered upon arbitrary conditions. Christ died for sinners and placed them under an administration of grace because there is no other means of salvation.
The righteousness of God is a grace-righteousness. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:24.) Note what has just been said above.
The righteousness of God is a faith-righteousness. This is in contrast to the law-righteousness which is a works-righteousness. "For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteous-ness which is of the law shall live thereby." (Romans 10:4-5.) Then in the next verse the apostle sets forth the "righteousness which is of faith." Elsewhere Paul speaks of this righteousness of God: "That I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." (Philippians 3:8-9.) To receive justification or righteous-ness "by faith" is to receive it in reliance upon Christ as sin-offering. Christ achieves and man receives justification. If man is justified upon the principle of works, that is, on the basis of his personal holiness, he is not justified by faith. "The law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them." (Galatians 3:12.) Grace and faith are correlative terms. Hence, "For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace." (Romans 4:16.) "Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt." (Romans 4:4.) Faith is not merely one of the conditions of salvation, but the principle answering to the principle of grace. It is the natural response to Christ as sin-offering. Faith as a principle is seen in all the conditions of salvation.
The righteousness of God is in contrast to the righteousness of man. "Not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteous-ness which is from God by faith." (Philippians 3:9.) "For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject them-selves to the righteousness of God." (Romans 10:3.) It is true that God gave the law, but it was man who had to keep it. Hence, the resultant righteousness was man’s own.
From all that has been learned, we see that Paul was advocating a new kind of righteousness or justification. He was not contending for a new source of the same kind of righteousness as that of the law. If righteousness under Christ is based upon the principle of works, that is, upon the basis of man’s character, it is of the same kind as that of the law. The issue of this epistle goes much deeper than finding a new source for the same kind of righteous-ness that resulted from keeping the law. Law-righteousness is for the righteous person, but the righteousness of God is for the "ungodly" who accepts Christ. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness." (Romans 4:5.) This is the same as affirming that salvation is for the lost. Christ came to save sinners, not the righteous person. He calls "not the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Paul’s great doctrine of "the righteousness of God," which he teaches as a revelation of the gospel, is sometimes explained after this fashion: "What is the ’righteousness of God’? David tells us that ’All thy commandments are righteousness.’ (Psalms 119:172.) Hence, the commandments of God are the `righteousness of God.’ " This is a strange example of exegesis. In the first place, Paul and David did not use the word ’righteousness’ in the same sense. Paul uses the word in the sense of justification. (See under Romans 4:3.) David uses ’righteousness’ as an attribute of the commands of God. In the next place, this interpretation makes Paul contradict himself. He distinctly states that ’righteousness’ did not come by the law: "I do not make void the grace of God: for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nought." (Galatians 2:21.) "For if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law." (Galatians 3:21.) But the commands of the law were the commands of God. Hence, according to the above interpretation of Paul’s teaching concerning the "righteousness of God," "righteousness" did come by the law! Further-more, since Paul uses the word "righteousness" in the sense of justification, Paul is arrayed against Paul again, because the apostle denies that justifi-cation came by the law. (Romans 3:20.)
The habit of looking to some other writer to explain Paul’s explanation is a strange procedure. It invariably results in a misrepresentation. Other writers may confirm Paul’s teaching, and they may even throw some light on Paul’s teaching, but there is no better explanation of justification than Paul gives in the book of Romans. Paul was a specialist in this line, and Romans was his greatest effort to set forth the great doctrine of justification by grace through faith in a crucified Saviour. Paul’s use of David is quite different from much we hear today. "Even David also pronounceth blessings upon the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." (Romans 4:6.) Note the words, "apart from works." They remind one of Paul’s words at the very introduction to the discussion on the "righteousness of God." Paul affirms, "apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested." Yet the commandments of the law were the commandments of God. If "righteousness" is the commandments of God, as some say, then Paul contradicts himself, and makes David guilty of the same offense.
Romans 3:24 --Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Justified, that is, pronounced righteous, forgiven. The justification of one who is a sinner cannot be upon the ground of merit. It is of grace. Hence, sinners are justified "freely." But the principle of grace must rest upon the "redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Redemption is based, not upon the mere authority of Jesus, but upon him as a sin-offering. Hence, Paul adds:
Romans 3:25 --Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood. Jesus as a "propitiation," that is, a satisfactory sin-offering, is the ground of mercy. But Jesus is the "propitiation for our sins." (1 John 2:2.) Hence salvation is a "free gift" (Romans 6:23.) It is not something achieved by man, but something bought by Christ. The purchase price is the blood of the Lamb of God. (1 Peter 1:18-19; Acts 20:28.) Salvation is, therefore, not given on the bases of works or merit, but "through faith" in Christ as sin-offering.
Sin offends God, and is deserving of punishment. God is just and cannot ignore sin. Someone, there-fore, must answer to him for sin. If man suffers the consequence of sin, he cannot be saved. Christ takes the sinner’s place and dies in his stead. This death of Christ satisfies the demands of divine justice. Hence, Christ is a "propitiation."
The results of this "propitiation" simply cannot be received upon the principle that gives the credit for his salvation to man. And the Saviour of sinners does infinitely more than "devise some plan by which man can save himself!" Christ died, not to devise plans, but to pay the consequences of man’s sins. His death is a "propitiation," not the basis of plans and schemes. Christ crucified as a "propitiation for our sins" is God’s plan of salvation.
Romans 3:26 --That he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." God must not surrender the attribute of justice, even in the salvation of sinners. Christ’s death as the ground of the sinner’s justification vindicates God’s justice in saving him who deserves to be punished. If the state justifies or acquits a criminal, the basic principles of law are violated. Yet God pronounces not guilty the person who is guilty. That is, God, on the ground of Christ as a "propitiation" "justifieth the ungodly." He saves the "lost." He forgives the sinner. In all this work of grace God is within the bounds of justice, because he himself set forth his Son as a "propitiation for our sins." No, justification is not based on fiction. Nor, which would be as bad, is justification grounded on the achievement of man. It is not, therefore, by law through works, but "by grace through faith" in Christ as sin-offering. The conditions of salvation, signifying trust in Christ crucified for salvation, do not constitute an effort to achieve salvation. They are an expression of man’s inability to save himself, and the embodiment of his reliance upon Christ as a "propitiation" for his sins. But to bring them down to the level of legal enactments given by a new law-giver, and assign to them no logical reference to the blood of Christ, is scarcely without parallel in all the misconception of justification. This not only annuls the grace of God and the cross of Christ, but manifests an inexcusable lack of intellectual and spiritual discrimination.
Romans 3:27 --Where then is the glorying? That is, where is the glorying on the sinner’s part? What sense of triumph for the cause of salvation through Christ must the apostle have felt when he asked this heart-searching question? This query was directed to those who contended for justification by law through works. Paul gloried only in the cross. "But far be it for me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14.) The Jew gloried in his flesh-ly relationships, his fleshly circumcision, and his law-righteousness. (Philippians 3:4-6.) These things were "refuse" to Paul who had learned Christ. Nothing so quickly or certainly destroys the basis of legalistic glorying as a correct knowledge of Christ as man’s sin-offering. And when the real meaning of the cross dawns upon one, he has no further interest in legal observances as the ground of salvation. But the principle or "law" by which one seeks justification determines whether glorying is ruled out or not. Hence, Paul inquires,
Romans 3:28 --By what manner of law? There are only two "laws" by which man can seek salvation, the "law of works," and the "law of faith." The Jew held to the former. He was shut up to this method of attempted justification, because of the very nature of law that demands perfect obedience. And had he succeeded in achieving salvation by law through works, he would have had ample ground for his glorying.
The word "law" is used, not in the sense of a code, but in the sense of principle. It is so translated by Goodspeed and others: "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is shut out. On what principle? What a man does? No, but whether a man has faith." (Goodspeed.)
The principle of trusting in, or relying upon, the work of another as the ground of salvation is here called the "law of faith," or the "principle of faith." To make the word "law," surrounded as it is by all of Paul’s teaching concerning redemption through the blood of Christ, merely another legal system, is one of those examples of perversion caused by an erroneous conception of the cross. It is to be identified with the perverted gospel of Galatians 1:7. Justification through the blood of Christ cannot be en-joyed upon the basis of human excellence, but upon the "law" or "principle" of trusting in the blood of Christ.
Romans 3:31 --Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? That is, does the introduction of a principle foreign to law make the law useless? Paul answers in the negative. The law was not given as a means of salvation. It was a temporary measure given to prepare those under it for the coming of Christ. When the principle of faith under Christ supplanted that of works under law, faith did not make the law of none effect. The law was not against "the promises of God" based on faith in Christ. Justification could not come by law. (Galatians 3:21.) "The law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Law prepares for grace, and works show the necessity of faith. Hence, grace and faith "establish the law." They are the ends toward which the law was given.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER THREE
1. Why does Paul stress the advantages of the Jew over the Gentile?
2. Consider carefully the significance of Romans 3:9.
3. Note the two expressions, "under sin," and "have sinned." Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23.
4. This chapter is the heart of Romans. No one can understand salvation through Christ sufficiently to teach it who does not understand Paul’s teaching in this chapter. Be sure you understand "the righteousness of God."
5. Relate the principle of grace to the sacrifice of Christ. Romans 3:24.
6. Define the word "propitiation." What constituted Christ our propitiation?
7. Connect "through faith" with Christ as a "propitiation."
8. Does the word "propitiation" suggest the principle of faith, trust in the crucified Saviour, or the principle of works, the attempt to achieve salvation?
9. Do you trust in the blood of Christ for salvation? Or do you trust in your own holiness and service?
10. How can God be just, if he justifies him who deserves to be punished? Romans 3:26.
11. When you contemplate your salvation, do you give credit to yourself or to your Saviour? In eternity will the redeemed magnify the mercy of God, or will they celebrate their own achievement? Are you afraid to magnify the mercy of God?
12. Discuss the meaning of "law" in Romans 3:27.
The Justification of Abraham
Romans 4:1 --What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, bath found according to the flesh? The apostle turns to Abraham’s justification to verify his conclusions that justification is enjoyed, not on the principle of works, but on that of faith. Abraham was the "forefather" of the Jews. Hence, his justification should be accepted by the Jews as standard.
Let us note first what it is that Paul is not at-tempting to prove by the case of Abraham. He is not trying to prove to the Jews that Abraham was not justified by the law of Moses. They knew that this patriarch lived more than four hundred years prior to the law. (Galatians 3:17.) He is not trying to prove that Abraham was justified on the principle of works. This the apostle categorically denies. Moreover, the Jews would have been sympathetic to such a purpose because they were thus attempting to be justified under the law. The writer of Romans is not proving that Abraham was justified by law and works, or by some new law, or new set of commands. The issue goes much deeper than any of these things. In other words, the issue is not one of different dispensations. Had this been the case the apostle could have settled the question by a simple statement of fact.
What is the real problem in the fourth chapter? Paul is dealing with principles. He had just stated that glorying is excluded by the principle of faith, that is, trusting in Christ as sin-offering or propitiation. Paul finds in Abraham an example of this principle. Abraham is not merely an example of the principle of faith, but his justification is set forth as a type of the justification enjoyed under Christ. That anyone should doubt this, is incredible. "Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was reckoned unto him; but our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." (Romans 4:24.)
Paul is here defending the cross. Justification by law and works would nullify the cross. "I do not make void the grace of God: for if righteousness (justification) is through the law, then Christ died for nought." (Galatians 3:21.) Law and works are correlative terms just as are grace and faith. (See 3:20, etc.) Paul is here contending for the principles of grace and faith, because these principles are compatible with the cross. Back of grace and faith stands the cross. The cross determines the principle of grace, and grace calls for faith. When the "grace of God" is made "void" "Christ died for nought." It is clear that Paul is interested, first of all, in the cross. He is not interested in a mere condition of salvation that happens to suit him. The cross was not made for conditions, but conditions for the cross. No condition of justification can be understood apart from its relation to Christ crucified. To be concerned primarily in some condition, instead of the cross, is to "put the cart before the horse." Any attempt to ex-pound Romans in the interest of any condition, except for the reason that this condition is the natural response to the cross, is doomed to failure.
That the writer of Romans is dealing with principles is seen when we note that he takes as an example of his principle, one who never lived under the law, and applies it to those who were, or who had been, under the law. It is significant that no Jew seems to have objected to this procedure. The Jews were evidently logical enough to see the point. It does seem that we should be as wise as they. Now let us note what Paul taught concerning Abraham’s justification.
Romans 4:2 --For if Abraham was justified by works, he bath whereof to glory. But glorying has been ruled out. Hence Abraham was not justified by the principle of works. This is settled once for all, if Paul can be relied upon as teacher.
Romans 4:2 --Abraham believed God. Believing God is opposed to the principle of works. This truth is fundamental. And Paul has never taught anything more clearly. He has used his greatest intellectual powers to prove this proposition. For a detailed study of Abraham’s faith see Romans 4:17-21.
Romans 4:3 --It was reckoned unto him for righteousness. That is, Abraham’s faith was reckoned for righteous-ness. We have just seen what is signified by faith. There are two other important words in this verse, righteousness and reckoned.
Righteousness. Students of this epistle generally recognize a peculiar use of this word righteousness, especially in chapters three and four. Paul uses it in the sense of justification. In this verse faith "reckoned for righteousness" is equivalent to "justified by faith" in verse 2. In verse 5 righteousness is the result of believing in God "that justifieth the un-godly." Then in verse 6 that man unto whom God "reckoneth righteousness" is the man "whose iniqui-ties are forgiven and whose sins are covered." And the man reckoned righteous is in verse 8 the man to whom "the Lord will not reckon sin." It is dear, therefore, that Paul uses the word righteousness in this context in the sense of justification.
Thayer says of the Greek word dikaiosune translated righteousness, that it has "a peculiar meaning, opposed to the Jews" who sought justification upon the ground of works or obedience to the law of Moses. Thayer further says that righteousness is "the state acceptable to God which becomes the sinner’s possession through that faith by which he embraces the grace of God offered him in the expiatory death of Jesus Christ."
Reckoned. Thayer defines logidzomai translated reckon as follows: "To reckon, count," etc. Metaphorically Thayer says the word means "to pass to one’s account, to impute." Hence Abraham’s faith was reckoned or counted to him for righteousness or justification. In other words, Abraham was justified on the ground of his faith. His complete reliance upon the power of God to revive his and Sarah’s bodies so they could have a son was the condition of his being pronounced acceptable to God. His faith brought him into right standing with God. What-ever this acceptable state meant to Abraham, Paul teaches that it is a type of the justification of the sinner. Sinners are brought into right standing with God through their faith in Christ as sin-offering.
Let it be noted that by "reckoned for righteousness" Paul does not mean that God merely recognizes the justification of one already justified. "It is God that justifieth" and it is God who reckons faith for righteousness. The words of The Expositor’s Greek Testament are appropriate here: "It is sometimes argued (on the ground that all God’s actions must be ’ethical’) that God can only pronounce just, or treat as just, those who are actually just; but if this were so, what gospel would there be for sinful men? This ’ethical’ gospel is identical with Phariseeism in which Paul lived before he knew what Christ and faith were, and it led him to despair. It leads all men either to despair, or to a temper which is that of the Pharisee rather than the publican of Luke 18. What it can never beget is the tem-per of the gospel." How true! God must refuse to reckon to the sinner what is actually his, namely, his transgressions. Paul affirmed of sinners that God is "not reckoning unto them their trespasses." Some seem afraid of what God does for sinners. Christianity is not legalism, and salvation is not achieved by man!
As we have seen under Romans 3:21 "righteousness" in this context is used in the sense of justification. It does not refer, therefore, to the personal righteous-ness of God or of Christ. The personal righteousness of God or of Christ is not transferred to the believer so that he is made subjectively righteous, and, hence, acceptable to God. The ungodly who believes on Christ as sin-offering is justified. He is without guilt. And in the sense of being in a justified state he is "righteous." "Newness of life" or subjective holiness follows justification. But holiness is not the cause of justification.
Romans 4:4 --Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. Paul here appeals to a universal principle. It is true in all dispensations. It is true in temporal affairs. A agrees to pay B ten dollars for a day’s work. B does the work and receives his pay, not as of grace, but as of debt. This is true regardless of who does the work or who does the paying. The fact that the reward was given because, and only because, of the work performed is the determining factor. In the story to which Paul refers (Genesis 15:6.), it was not a list of things done by Abraham, but his faith in God that brought his justification. Any one can read the story and verify this statement. Paul always goes to the same story when he is discussing Abraham’s justification. The time of Abraham’s justification is most significant, as we shall see.
Let it be said in advance of any discussion of the conditions of salvation under Christ, that justification is not bestowed because of, and only because of, obedience rendered. The obedience rendered by the sinner is of value, not merely because one has sub-mitted to the authority of a King, but because his obedience relates directly to the crucified Saviour by way of expressing trust in the power of the blood to save.
Romans 4:5 --But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. The sinner who does not attempt to achieve salvation by means of his good life (Where is the sinner’s good life?) , but relies up-on Christ as his sin-offering, his faith is reckoned for justification. That is, he is justified on the condition of his faith. Note that it is the "ungodly" who believes and who receives justification. It is the sinner who is saved.
Note David’s testimony. According to him, God reckons righteousness "apart from works." That is, apart from any effort to earn justification. Justification or having "righteousness" reckoned to one is equivalent to forgiveness of sins. (Romans 4:7-8.)
Romans 4:9 --Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? That is, was Abraham’s circumcision a condition of his justification? Was Abraham justified as a circumcised man or as an uncircumcised man? This apparently unimportant point is most significant. Paul answers his own question. Abraham’s faith was not reckoned to him after, but before, his circumcision. "Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision." Then the apostle explains that Abraham’s circumcision served as "a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision."
Abraham’s justification as an uncircumcised man was for the purpose "that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them." That is, that he might be the "father" of the uncircumcised Gentiles as well as the circumcised Jews.
This is a good place to say that the justification mentioned by James (ch. 2) refers to a much later date than the time of Paul’s reference. Abraham was a circumcised man when he offered Isaac on the altar; and Paul makes it an important point that Abraham was justified before his circumcision, as we have just seen. Note these dates: "And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin." (Genesis 17:24.) "Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him." (Genesis 21:5.) But Abraham was approximately one hundred and twenty years old when he offered Isaac on the altar. In other words, his offering of Isaac followed by twenty years or more his circumcision. But his justification preceded his circumcision, according to Paul and the Genesis record. Hence, his justification preceded his offering of Isaac by twenty years or more. Hence to attempt to explain Paul’s explanation by James is a great and significant error. It is a plain contradic-tion of Paul to say that Abraham was not justified until he offered Isaac. Abraham was "justified," that is, he was brought into right standing with God in some sense, when he offered Isaac. But the time of Paul’s and James’ reference is twenty years apart.
Romans 4:13 --For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. This truth is fundamental. Note that law is opposed to the "righteousness of faith." So it is again in verse 14. In Galatians 3:12 Paul writes: "For the law is not of faith." He goes on to say that law demands doing, not faith. "He that doeth them shall live in them."
But what is the significance of verse 13? In the first place, since the promise to Abraham was not to be realized through law, the promise was not restricted to the Jewish nation. The Jews were twice wrong. They considered themselves alone the heirs of the Abrahamic blessings, and they expected these blessings through law. But the promise to Abraham involved the abrogation of the law-principle and the works-principle, and the introduction of grace and faith. Hence "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17.) "Ye are not under law, but under grace." (Romans 6:14). Law and grace mutually nullify each other. "For if they that are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect." (v. 14.) Law administers justice while grace offers mercy. Since Christ came to bestow mercy, law leaves no room for him. But the Saviour was promised to Abraham. Hence, the promise could not come through law. Circumcision is also ruled out.
What a lesson this should be for those who regard Christianity as another legal religion, and who have much to say about a "new law" taking the place of the "old law."
Romans 4:16 --For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace; to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. This is the apostle’s conclusion, and it is the essence of the doctrinal part of this epistle. Grace and faith are inseparable. So are law and works. But the promise to Abraham is tied to Christ, grace and faith. There is nothing arbitrary about this arrangement. The very nature of law and works rules out the Saviour, while the nature of grace and faith is compatible with the Redeemer. No legal system can serve the cause of man’s redemption. Grace and faith by nature suggest universality. There is nothing sectarian about them. They cannot be monopolized by any one nation. The cross is the basis of grace, and grace calls for faith. This is the reason the writer is so much concerned about them. He was defending the cross. (Philippians 1:16.)
Romans 4:16 --The faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Imagine the writer saying, "The circumcision of Abraham, who is the father of us all!" Com-mon sense plus some spiritual discernment is required to deal with the problem of salvation, and the book of Romans. The apostle proceeds to describe the faith of Abraham which constituted him the father of us all.
Abraham believed in God "who giveth life to the dead." We too must believe in God "that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." (Romans 4:24.) This makes Abraham’s faith a typical one. Such a faith is mentioned in other places. See 2 Corinthians 1:9; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 1:21; Hebrews 13:20. A volume could not add to the importance of this truth.
Abraham believed in God "who calleth the things that are not as though they were." (Romans 4:17.) This is the God of creation, and the God who foresaw the great natural and spiritual posterity of this patriarch. He spoke of each as though they existed at the time of the promise.
Abraham "in hope believed against hope." Nature denied, but God promised Abraham a son. Note that the promise of a son was tied to the promise that Abraham should be "the father of many nations." It is also joined to what Paul calls "the righteousness of faith." All this, of course, involved Abraham’s special seed "which is Christ." (Galatians 3:16.)
God’s promise of a son to Abraham was believed while Sarah was still barren and while Abraham’s body "was as good as dead." This should make one stand in awe of this patriarch’s faith. Faith, confidence and reliance upon God, could be no stronger or sublime.
It is easy to miss the chief points in Abraham’s faith. His faith was the result of two factors, name-ly, Abraham’s deep awareness of his and Sarah’s physical impotence, and the power of God to fulfill his promise to give them a son under such peculiar circ*mstances. If they had been blessed with normal bodies, having a son would have required neither a divine intervention, nor such faith as Abraham had. Millions of children are born apart from a special intervention of God, or special faith in the power of God.
It was not by accident that God made Abraham a promise of a son under the peculiar circ*mstances which have been noticed. Abraham well understood that the matter of having a son was entirely in the hands of God. God must revive their bodies. And Abraham believed that God would do this. So strong was his trust in the power and the faithfulness of God that his faith never wavered. He "waxed strong through faith" in the face of the most outwardly discouraging circ*mstances.
God did not present himself to Abraham as his Sovereign who had the right to give commands, but as the Almighty who had power to "give life to the dead." And upon the basis of this power he made his promise.
Now, what was God seeking from Abraham un-der these peculiar circ*mstances? Was he looking for holiness? Was he determining whether Abraham would perform a list of good works? What did the circ*mstances require? Here are bodies as good as dead. And here is the promise of a son. God was seeking exactly what Abraham gave — faith, trust, reliance. Promises require faith. Nothing more honors the infinite God than faith or trust on the part of finite man. The physical impotence of Abraham and Sarah contributed to Abraham’s strong faith.
No better description of faith has ever been given than that found in Romans 4:16-21 : "For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace; to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, A father of many nations have I made thee) before him whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform." Notwithstanding the handicaps of nature, Abraham had complete confidence in God who promised him a son. This is faith. It is faith that is the appropriate response of an impotent man to the infinite power of God. Nothing pleases God more than such faith.
Now, note the case of the sinner. He too is "dead." But in sin. He is as helpless and hopeless as Abraham was. Such a condition is conducive to trust in the power and the mercy of God. In spite of his guilt God promises him salvation through Christ. Faith in a Saviour means one hundred per cent renunciation of self-reliance. Anyone who understands something of the enormity of sin knows that salvation is possible only through the mercy and the power of God. One must, therefore, depend solely upon the sacrifice of Christ on his behalf. He dare not plead his own righteousness. This would insult God, nullify the cross, and be offensive to good sense.
Being deeply convicted of his sin and guilt, the sinner is ashamed to look up to God, but smites his breast and cries, "Be thou merciful to me a sinner." He relies on Christ as sin-offering. Faith is the cry of the convicted soul unto God for mercy through Christ. Yes, the convicted sinner instinctively cries for mercy, not a set of commands by which he might earn his salvation.
The mere knowledge of what the conditions of salvation are, is not enough. It is not the knowledge that one must repent that really matters. It is being so deeply convicted of sin that one repents "in the name of (in reliance upon) Jesus Christ." (Acts 2:38.) It is not the knowledge that faith is for the remission of sins (Acts 10:43) that brings salvation, but being so aware of one’s guilt and condemnation that one trusts in the blood of Christ for justification. (John 3:16; Romans 3:25.) Likewise, merely to be able to quote Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38 does not qualify one for baptism, but being baptized "in the name of (in reliance upon) Jesus Christ" meets the Lord’s demand concerning this ordinance. To "ask," "seek," and "knock" through the crucified Saviour brings salvation. Every condition must signify dependence upon the blood of Christ. The order is, conviction, and the appeal for mercy through Christ.
Romans 4:22 --Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. This is Paul’s conclusion, not man’s. He made it freely, and triumphantly. He did not feel that man’s part in the matter of salvation was being discredited. Only a legalist is afraid to magnify the power and the mercy of God toward sinners. For the meaning of the phrase "reckoned unto him for righteousness," see verse 3.
Romans 4:23-24. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. This both happened and was written "for our sake." This shows that Abraham was a type in regard to his faith. The conditions of his faith and of his justification are identical in principle to those of the sinner who believes on Christ. In Abraham’s case, fleshly bodies were dead and in need of being revived. In the sinner’s case, he is "dead" through "trespasses and sins." God promised Abraham a son against all indications of nature. God promised justification to the guilty. Abraham responded naturally and rightly — he believed God! Sinners must respond to God’s promise of life through the death of his Son by faith — absolute dependence upon Christ and the power of God.
That justification or "righteousness" was reckoned to Abraham on the condition of his faith is difficult for some to understand in the light of the scriptures that demand repentance and baptism on the part of the sinner under Christ. This difficulty arises from a failure to discern principles. Abraham’s response by faith fully answered the demands in his case. Had God required him to perform some act by way of expressing his faith, he would not have refused. But this hypothetical act would have changed the principle of relying upon God not a whit. While in Abraham’s case moral issues were not directly involved, we know that he was far from possessing an impenitent spirit. In other words, he was humble and penitent. Such a faith as his would rule out impenitence. Consequently, if this attribute of penitence had been emphasized, the principle of his being blessed upon the condition of his faith would not have been altered.
And so it is with the sinner. The power to save is in the blood of Christ. The principle by which the benefits of the blood are to be enjoyed is that of trust, or reliance. Paul based his whole argument in the Roman letter on this truth. In 3:25 Christ as our propitiation is to be received "through faith." In chapter four this principle of faith is seen in the case of Abraham. And Paul writes that this was written "for our sake also" unto whom righteousness will be reckoned when we respond to God with a faith like Abraham’s. Then in chapter five we read, "Being therefore justified by faith."
This faith must not be restricted to signify a principle of action only. While the faith of Abraham would no more falter at the command of God than it did at the promise of God, it was the element of trust that made it the acceptable form of response. It is as much the function of faith to receive, to rely, as it is to lead to action. Even in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews where so many acts are attributed to faith we read, "By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive." It was a divine promise to which Abraham responded. His response of absolute reliance upon the power of God to revive their "dead" bodies is what the apostle calls faith. Faith in this epistle, as well as the epistle to the Galatians, is tied to the promise of God. "For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise." (Galatians 3:18.) "But the scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." (Galatians 3:22.) "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise." (Galatians 4:28.) The word promise here involves a divine interposition on behalf of man. God intervened in giving Abraham a son. Christ "interposed his precious blood" in our case. But promise calls for faith in the sense of trust or reliance.
Now, faith in the sense of trust in, or reliance upon God is impossible apart from penitence. This is true not simply because repentance is specifically required, but because of the very nature of things. Just as love cannot exist where there is hate, trust in Christ for salvation cannot exist in the impenitent heart. Hence, where faith is made the condition of receiving the grace of God, one knows that repentance is present.
Just so "baptism in the name of Jesus Christ" may accompany trust in the blood of Christ. It is made an exponent of faith and repentance. It is related to faith, not as something different to faith, but as the expression or the embodiment of faith. Hence, as to signification it is faith. This is why only a believer can be baptized. God did not prohibit, by special legislation, baptism of the unbeliever. The unbeliever cannot be baptized. Baptism pictures one’s faith in Christ as sin-offering. It would, to an believer, be meaningless and a pretense.
The New Testament furnishes many examples of acts as the embodiment of faith. After the woman with "an issue of blood —came in the crowd —and touched his garment" (Mark 5:25-34), Jesus said to her, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." All she did was the expression of her faith. When the man "sick of the palsy" was brought, with much difficulty to Jesus, it is said, "And Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy, Son —thy sins are for-given." (Matthew 9:2.) Jesus observed their acts and called them faith. Again, "Crispus — believed in the Lord —, and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized." (Acts 18:8.) Did Crispus do less than other Corinthians? Only his faith is mentioned, but of others it is recorded that they "believed and were baptized." It can as well be said of those who believed and were baptized, that they "believed in the Lord," as it was of Crispus. In writing to the Corinthians, Paul states that he baptized Crispus. (1 Corinthians 1:14.) The significance of all that Crispus and the other Corinthians did was faith in the Lord. After the jailor had been baptized Luke wrote that he had "believed in God." (Acts 16:34.) To be baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38), is to be baptized in reliance upon Jesus Christ. Peter said Jesus had been made "both Lord and Christ." The official title Christ or Messiah involves his sacrificial death. The result of Paul’s work in Iconium is stated thus: "A great multitude both of Jews and Greeks believed." (Acts 14:1-2.) These are contrasted with those "that were disobedient." When Paul returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch to confirm the disciples, he "commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed." Their faith comprehended all that they did. Paul had "preached the gospel" to them and "had made many disciples."
According to the Great Commission, baptism was included. Still, they had only "believed in the Lord." After the death of Ananias and his wife, Luke writes, "And believers were the more added to the Lord." (Acts 5:14.) The saved were designated "believers" repeatedly in The Acts. Christians are those who have trusted in the crucified Lord. They are trusters, reliers, that is, "believers."
But let it be distinctly noted that, though faith comprehends certain acts of obedience, it is not be-cause it is a principle of action that leads one to obey, but because those acts so comprehended signify trust in Christ crucified. Faith is still the significant principle that gives obedience its peculiar characteristic of faith or trust when it relates to Christ as sin-offering. Man does not believe merely in order to obey, but he obeys as an embodiment of his faith.
In order properly to understand and to evaluate baptism it is necessary to note that it is an exponent of faith that means trust in the blood of Christ for salvation. Baptism is not something added to a faith that signifies mere belief of facts. We know that even devils had this faith. Many impenitent persons have it. One must believe the fact of the death of Christ for sinners, but he must do much more than to give credence to the story of the gospels. The cross by its very signification demands faith in the sense of trust in the blood of Christ. Baptism that accompanies faith that is no more than a principle of action misses the divine purpose of this meaningful ordinance. Someone has said that faith saves "because it leads one to be baptized into Christ." Much has escaped the attention of this person. Faith does not exist only to induce action. It is the natural response to Christ crucified. For example love for Christ induces obedience; but love is of value for other reasons. God desires that we love him for love’s sake. Love of parents induces obedience on the part of children. But parents know that a loveless obedience is far from what they desire. They value the love as well as the obedience of their children. The wife’s love for her husband makes her a faithful helper, but no husband desires that his wife love him in order to secure her services. There is entirely too much response out of mere sense of obligation on the part of both sinner and Christian. Thus some church members attempt to worship God when they really prefer to do other things.
Properly to evaluate baptism one must consider it in connection with deep penitence and strong faith. Merely to emphasize that those who refuse baptism are rejecting the "counsel of God against themselves," can easily lead to the wrong conception of it. If one with such a spirit and such a faith were to accept baptism, God’s will would not be done. The difference between one who refuses baptism, and one who in penitence and faith is baptized, lies not in the mere fact that one has not been baptized while the other has obeyed the Lord in this respect. The real difference in such persons is in their faith. One can easily believe all the facts of the gospel and still refuse baptism. But one whose faith means trust in Christ will never refuse it.
James has been misunderstood in what he said about faith and works. (Ch. 2.) James is not trying to add works to a dead faith in order to revive it. He speaks of those who had either refused to obey, or who had opportunity to obey, but neglected to do so. He is not contemplating the faith of one with every intention of obeying, and preparing to do so. For example, James is not finding fault with the faith of Abraham immediately before God commanded him to offer Isaac. God found him with strong faith, not with a weak or rebellious faith. Abraham’s faith was not revived by the command to offer Isaac. But having a strong faith, he obeyed when the command was given.
Baptism is not commanded of one whose faith is weak or rebellious. No impenitent person is required to be baptized. If he should be outwardly immersed, it would be only a pretense and worthless. Let us look back at the faith and baptism of one who has become a Christian. When this person’s faith had a real existence, it was not without love and penitence. Genuine faith is never associated with rebel-lion. It is vain to talk about real faith in Christ as Saviour apart from penitence. Immediately before his baptism this person whom we are considering had a strong faith. He was penitent. His every intention was to proceed at once to be baptized. He loved the Lord. Now, is this the faith that James is consider-ing in chapter two? Was this person’s faith "dead" when he walked down into the water just a few seconds prior to his baptism? Is baptism possessed of magic power that brings to life a dead faith?
There is a great difference between faith immediately before it obeys and faith that refuses to obey. After all, Abraham did not take the life of his son. The act of sacrificing Isaac was never completed. Yet God knew that Abraham’s faith was living and strong. Abraham did not know that God would stay his hand. He had every intention of taking the life of Isaac. His faith would have been no different had God not stayed his hand, and Abraham had stained the crude altar with the life blood of his son. But how different it would have been had Abraham stayed his own hand and refused to offer Isaac! Had this happened the fundamental failure would not have consisted in the mere fact that an act had not been added to such a faith, but that Abraham’s faith failed because of its weakness.
The faith of devils would not become the faith of saints by the addition of some act of obedience. The devils simply believed a fact, "God is one." There was no love associated with their faith. Neither was there penitence. Their faith left them rebellious devils. James never dreamed of comparing the faith of devils to the faith of a "penitent believer."
Those "brethren" to whom James wrote, let it be repeated, had either refused to obey, or to perform good deeds when opportunity presented itself. They were not postponing action, as though they lacked opportunity. They had no intention of performing good works. Their faith was permanently "apart from works." A tree is not "barren" or "dead" simply because it has no fruit on its branches in mid-winter. Even a blooming tree is still without fruit, but it has no semblance of being either "barren" or "dead." A tree is "barren" when it is permanently without fruit. It is "dead" when there is permanently no sign of life.
It is possible for one, under certain circ*mstances, to be more or less permanently "without works" and still possess strong faith. A sick child of God may be physically incapacitated for months, and even years. He may be unable even to feed himself. He may be in an iron lung. Yet his faith may shame some of us who are well. He may find great comfort in his reliance upon God and Christ. Will God reject his faith simply because there are no overt acts of obedience? And is not faith performing a most essential and acceptable function when it rests on the promises of God? What becomes of the theory that faith without acts is "nothing"? "But the principle without the acts is nothing; and it is only by the acts which it induces to perform that it becomes the instrument of any blessing to man." This teaching concerning faith rules out one of the most important functions of faith. Confidence in the promises of God is just as important as the performance of acts.
Let no one think that I am saying that faith is of any account if it refuses to act when God gives a command, or that faith will bring a blessing when it neglects to act in the presence of inviting oppor-tunities. But that faith is always nothing but a prin-ciple of action, and that it is always to be considered "dead" until an act is performed that will give it life, I do deny. Every Christian knows that faith in the promises of God brings comfort in times of trouble. And to bring consolation is as much a function of faith as to lead to action.
It is easy to miss the meaning of James when he writes: "By works was faith made perfect." This was said concerning the faith of Abraham when he offered Isaac. Does James mean that Abraham’s faith was "dead" and "barren" up to the time that Isaac was offered? Can one imagine a "dead" faith leading one to prepare an altar on which a son is to be offered? Is it not more reasonable to believe that Abraham’s faith was living and strong before he received the command to offer his son? How then, was his faith "made perfect" by the offering of Isaac?
Note these translations: "Faith was completed by deeds." (Moffatt.) "Faith found its highest expression in good deeds." (Goodspeed.) Other translations are to the same effect. The word "perfect" means completed. It does not suggest that a faulty faith was corrected by deeds. Faith is "perfected" or "completed" by deeds in the same sense that a mother’s sacrifice for her child "perfects" or "completes" her love. In her sacrifice for the child her love "finds its highest expression." A rose bud is "perfected" or "completed" in the bloom. An act "perfects" or "completes" the will: "But now complete the doing also; that as there was the readiness to will, so there may be the completion also out of your ability." (2 Corinthians 8:11.) "Complete" and "completion" are forms of the same Greek word used by James when he asserts that works perfect faith. If the Corinthians had not "completed" their will to give by the act of giving, the trouble would have been in their faith. Note the question of James: "Can that faith save him?" James advocated a different faith, not merely the addition of works to a dead faith?
The principle of works is so important in this epistle, and so difficult for many to understand, that a further study seems justifiable. For example, note this statement: "If all works are eliminated, faith itself is eliminated, for faith is a work." Then the words of Jesus in John 6:29 are offered as proof. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he bath sent."
Now, does Jesus really teach that faith is a work? If so, then salvation by works is a clearly taught doctrine, and one is faced with the hopeless task of harmonizing Jesus and Paul. If Paul teaches anything in this epistle, he teaches salvation by faith as opposed to salvation by works.
It is unfair to take a passage of scripture out of its setting and attempt an explanation. Why did Jesus say, "This is the work of God, that ye believe"? The whole story is found in John six. Jesus had just fed the multitudes, and he charged that they were following him to be fed again. Then he warned: "Work not for the food that perisheth, but for the food that abideth unto eternal life." He here speaks of spiritual blessings as "food." And because "food" is obtained by means of "work," Jesus represents spiritual "food" as the reward of working. And since faith is the fundamental principle by which spiritual blessings are enjoyed, he speaks of faith as work. But in so doing, he still has in mind the figure of working for food. That is, if spiritual blessings are represented as "food," then faith in himself would correspond to work, the means by which food is obtained. There is the same reason to call spiritual blessings food as there is to call faith work.
The above is no isolated case of this principle. In John, chapter four, we find Jesus at Jacob’s well. A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said, "Give me to drink." Later in the conversation Jesus replied: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that said to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Because literal water was under consideration, Jesus represented spiritual blessings as "water," just as later in this gospel he speaks of the same blessings as "bread."
Now, had the Samaritan woman inquired, "What must I do, that I may drink the drink of God?", Jesus could have replied: "This is the drink of God, that ye believe on me." The Jews asked Jesus, "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered, "This is the work of God, that ye believe."
In John, chapter six, Jesus and the Jews were speaking of the "bread" with which God fed the Israelites. As was the custom of Jesus, he again uses something physical to represent something spiritual. And since "bread" was the subject, he speaks of spiritual blessings as "bread." And since he is the source of spiritual blessings, he said, "I am the bread of life." Now, bread is to be appropriated by eating. Hence Jesus speaks of "eating" him. "He that eateth me." (v. 57.) "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood." But in verse 35 he identifies the eating and drinking as believing on him.
Now, had the Jews asked, "What must we do that we may eat the bread of God, and drink the drink of God?", Jesus could have replied: "This is the eating of God, that ye believe on me," and "This is the drinking of God, that ye believe on me." He did say when the subject was working for food, "This is the work of God, that ye believe." But Jesus repre-sented faith as work for the same reason that he rep-resented it as eating and drinking in John six.
To be consistent, those who contend that Jesus taught that faith is a work, should also teach that Jesus is food. That for which the Jews were to "work" was Jesus, "the bread of life."
Upon the same principle, Jesus represented him-self as the "way" or road. (John 14:6.) He spoke to the disciples of going away to some "place." Thomas insisted that he did not know the way. Jesus replied, "I am the way." Why did he thus represent himself as the "way"? For the same reason that he represented himself on another occasion as "bread." Had Jesus continued the figure with Thomas, he could have appropriately represented walking the "way" or road, as believing on him. One in that day responded to a road by walking in it. One responds to Jesus by believing on him. (John 3:16.)
Why are some teachers so eager to prove salvation by works? One must believe to be saved, regard-less of how faith may be regarded. Are not the obligations of faith just as binding as the obligations of works? It is erroneously supposed that unless salvation is by works, some important condition will be ruled out. This is not true. But it is true that the principle of works is inconsistent with the principles of grace and faith. (Romans 4:16; Romans 11:6.) This is the significance of this matter.
The reward that follows the principle of works, is an earned reward, and is not of grace. Once more: "Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt." There is no exception to this rule. When one has become a child of God upon the principle of faith in Christ as sin-offering, he continues to obey, not to become a child, but to fulfill the obligations of sonship. Sometimes we obey "as children." (1 Peter 1:14.)
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER FOUR
1. Why is the justification of Abraham important to us?
2. Was Paul proving that Abraham was not justified by the works of the law of Moses? Did Paul teach that Abraham was or was not justified by works?
3. Was it works which Abraham actually performed by which he was not justified? "If Abraham was justified on the score of what he did." (Moffatt.)
4. Why was Paul concerned about the principle upon which Abraham was justified?
5. Does the wrong principle of justification make grace void? Romans 11:6.
6. Paul goes to Genesis 15, never to Genesis 22 in discussing Abraham’s justification. Romans 4 and Galatians 3. Is anything not actually done by one ever "imputed" to him? Leviticus 7:18; Leviticus 17:4.
7. Are the actual sins of one always "imputed" to him? 2 Corinthians 5:19.Note the dates in Abraham’s life and re-late them to his justification. Genesis 17:24; Genesis 21:5.
8. Consult various translations on "walk in the steps" in Romans 4:12.
9. What does v. 16 imply about grace and faith?
10. Study carefully the description of Abraham’s faith, noting particularly the condition of his and Sarah’s bodies when he believed God. Romans 4:17-21.
11. Did Paul commend Abraham for obeying a list of commands, or for his faith?
12. Was Abraham’s faith a type of the faith that justifies today? Romans 4:24.
13. In what respects is the faith of sinners similar to the faith of Abraham? Romans 4:24.
14. Is this statement right or wrong? Now to him that worketh, the reward is reckoned as of grace, not as of debt. See Romans 4:4 and Romans 11:6.
15. Discuss this statement: "No amount of works that a person may do will make his forgiveness any less a matter of grace."
The Blessedness of the Justified
Romans 5:1 --Being therefore justified by faith. Paul here assumes that the doctrine of justification by faith in the crucified Christ has been proved. His logical mind was at rest. But some persons in this day raise these questions: "What does the apostle mean by `justified by faith’ "? "Does he mean that faith is the condition of justification, or that it is merely the cause of certain acts by which one is justified?" These are most important questions. An eminent author writes as follows:
"No relation in which we stand to the material world — no political relation, or relation to society can be changed by believing, apart from the acts to which that belief induces us. Faith never made an American citizen, though it may have been the cause of many thousands migrating to this continent and ultimately becoming citizens of these United States. Faith never made a man a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a master, a servant, though it may have been essentially necessary to all those relations, as a cause or principle preparatory or tending thereto. Thus, when in scripture men are said to be justified by faith, or to receive any blessing through faith, it is because faith is the principle of action, and, as such, the cause of those acts by which such blessings are enjoyed. But the principle without the acts is nothing; and it is only by the acts which it induces to per-form that it becomes the instrument of any blessing to man."
There is nothing ambiguous about the above teaching. Faith in itself is "nothing!" Its value in every instance, in both the spiritual and material realm, depends entirely on acts it induces one to per-form! Hence trust in the blood of Christ, reliance upon him who "bare our sins in his body on the tree," is of worth because, and only because, it leads the sinner to perform some act or acts which become the ground of justification! This teaching has the right to go down in history as the most effective way of nullifying the grace of God and destroying the power of the blood of Christ to save sinners. The author quoted makes this a universal rule. Dispensations have nothing to do with it. It is as true under Christ as it was under Moses. In fact, the cross itself has no power over this rule. After all, the ultimate aim of God, and of his Son bearing our sins on the cross, is the obedience of man! Christ was lifted up, not as the sin-offering upon whom the guilty soul could rest, but to induce obedience to certain acts that bring justification! Those precious acts must be given the credit for man’s redemption. Had it been the author’s intention to make void the cross, he could not have done better. The good sense of unbiased students of the word of God will delight in refusing and refuting this theory. One could not understandingly love the Christ who redeemed him with his "precious blood" and do otherwise. The author quoted above is not being charged with the consequences of his own teaching. I am dealing with the logical results of his teaching, not with the personal feeling of one toward the crucified Saviour.
Now, if the author is correct in affirming that faith is of value only because of the acts it induces one to perform, it was so in the case of Abraham. Is it possible for any discerning reader to study Paul’s discussion of Abraham’s justification in Romans the fourth chapter, and Galatians the third chapter, and reach such a conclusion? What were those acts which his faith induced him to perform "that became the instrument of any blessing" to him? The above author does not fail to mention "the act" (singular) which the faith of the sinner induces him to perform that becomes the "instrument of blessing." Paul declares that "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness." Why did he not say, "Abraham believed God, and this faith induced him to perform certain acts which became the instrument of the blessing of justification."? This is exactly what the above author teaches with all his energy. God is responsible for what Paul wrote concerning Abraham. But he wrote nothing like the above.
Where is the relation in the peculiar circ*mstances surrounding Abraham’s faith and the acts which he is supposed to have performed? It was not necessary for him to believe in "God who raiseth the dead" in order to the performance of certain acts that bring the blessing of justification. Nor is it essential that sinners believe in God "who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead" in order that they might be induced to obey God. Where is the logical relation of a sin-offering to the faith whose sole purpose is the inducement to obedience? Must not the sinner respond to the blood of Christ, or to Christ crucified, as well as to commands? Was obedience the end of the cross? Or did Christ die to redeem sinners?
A proper understanding of the cross is the best safeguard against all forms of error connected with justification. Faith as the condition of justification (Romans 5:1), is not an arbitrary one. Since the power to save is in the blood of Christ, or in Christ who shed his blood, then faith, in the sense of trust, is naturally required. Faith as a principle of action only, is not required by the cross. And the purpose of faith that means trust in Christ as sin-offering is not to induce obedience. It is man’s answer to Christ as sin-offering and Saviour. This is merely a matter of seeing the natural relation of things. If faith is for the purpose, not of accepting the sacrifice of Christ, but of inducing obedience, then one has the logical right to place his trust in obedience.
There is good reason to believe that thousands are confiding in their obedience rather than in the blood of Christ! There is little wonder that they do! The special point in Paul’s reference to Abraham was to show that he had faith in the power of God to ful-fill his promise of a son, rather than to prove that the patriarch had enough faith to obey God. Of this truth there is no reasonable doubt. See the fourth chapter.
A fundamental error of the writer under consideration is the assumption that relationships of "the material world" are established in exactly the same manner, as to principle, as spiritual relationships. He seems to have missed the point in 2:28, 29. Spiritual relationships are established by spiritual means, and justification is preeminently a spiritual relationship. This is the error which Paul is fighting in this epistle. The Jews were children of Abraham by fleshly birth, but they must become sons of God, or spiritual children of Abraham by means of a spiritual birth. This is the lesson that Jesus taught Nicodemus. This noted Pharisee was relying upon his fleshly birth, his flesh-ly circumcision, and his law-righteousness. So did Paul at one time. (Philippians 3:4-6.) Nicodemus had faith in God, and such a faith too that led to obedience. But he did not believe in God "that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." The purpose of the Pharisee’s faith was to prompt obedience to law. One element in Abrahamic faith is reliance upon the power of God. Hence the sinner is required to have faith in God who had power to bring Christ from the dead, as we learn elsewhere in these studies. There is no relevancy in faith as merely a principle of action and Christ as a sin-offering. Weymouth translates John 3:16 thus: "For so greatly did God love the world that he gave his only Son, that every one who trusts in him" etc.
But the author in the quotation above teaches that faith is "nothing" unless it is a principle of action. Faith exists solely for action! But faith also has the function of responding to the cross; and this response is trust, not mere obedience to commands. The obedience required of the sinner is a special obedience that signifies trust in Christ crucified. It is all "in the name of Jesus Christ," that is, in reliance upon Christ.
In order to have baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ" as an accompaniment of faith, it is not necessary to surrender Christ as sin-offering, or to reduce faith to nothing more than a principle that leads to obedience.
Carefully note this from our famous author: "The apostle Peter, when first publishing the gospel to the Jews, taught them that they were not forgiven their sins by faith; but by an act of faith, by a believing immersion into the Lord Jesus." If this is true, then Peter taught something different to Gen-tiles. To Cornelius Peter said that "every one that believeth on him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43.) Paul also wrote that one is "justified by faith." (Romans 5:1.) What is the significance of a "believing immersion," if it is not faith? And if an act "of faith" is designed to embody faith, as baptism is, why does it not signify faith? Peter not only mentioned baptism in preaching to the Jews on Pentecost, he told them to repent also. Why did not our author see repentance? If it had been his intention to teach justification by baptism alone, he could not have done better!
How is it possible logically to separate faith and. "an act of faith" as to their design? If sins are for-given "by an act of faith," and "not by faith," then salvation is not by faith! If salvation is not by faith, then it is not by grace. "For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace." (Romans 4:16.) Baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ" signifies trust in Christ. Justification is by faith, not because it induces the performance of certain acts, but because it means trust in, or reliance upon, Christ as sin-offering. Faith in the sense of trust is as logically the response to the blood of Christ as eating is the logical response to food. There would be less confusion about faith, if it were understood that the conditions of salvation were not arbitrarily chosen. The cross naturally demands faith or trust.
"Faith never made an American citizen." Becoming a citizen of the United States is not analogous to becoming a citizen of a spiritual kingdom. A sacrificial offering is not necessary in becoming an American citizen. No mediator is required. But a sin-offering is required in order to become a citizen of the Kingdom of God. And the faith that is the response to a sin-offering is wholly unlike the faith of one concerning the political benefits of citizenship in the United States. Becoming a citizen of this country is purely a legal procedure. Such is not the case in becoming a citizen of a spiritual kingdom.
If one should object that I am missing the author’s point, that it is not faith alone that accomplishes things, and thus brings a blessing, I reply that the author gives all the credit to "acts" as distinguished from the faith that induces them. He makes faith no more than a means to an end, and that end the inducement of certain acts!
"Faith never made a man a father." Here the writer overlooks the work of a mediator again. Faith that justifies is trust in the work of a mediator, reliance upon a sin-offering. No such arrangement is possible in becoming a father.
"Faith never made a man a son." Neither does "an act of faith" make one a son! Becoming a son after the flesh is wholly unconditional. He is entirely unconscious of the whole process! Is the writer teaching unconditional salvation? Compare these two statements: "Faith never made a man a son." "For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:27.) This faith may be embodied by some act, but it is still true that we are sons by faith in Christ.
Romans 5:1 --Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle refuses to permit his readers to forget Christ. "Christ is our peace." Peace is here considered the result of justification. The principles of grace and faith can bring peace, while those of law and works brought unrest. (Romans 8:15-16.)
Romans 5:2 --Access by faith into this grace. The state of grace is entered by the principle of faith. "By grace through faith" is the divine formula.
Wherein we stand. Those justified by faith stand in the realm of grace. God’s mercy through Christ is not confined to sinners.
We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. What a triplet: hope, rejoicing, glory! The ground of hope is Christ. (1 Timothy 1:1.) The result of hope is rejoicing. (Romans 12:12.) The end of hope is the "glory of God." Contrast this blessed state with the condition of one under a law-religion. (Romans 7:24.)
Romans 5:4 --We also rejoice in our tribulation. Note this also: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward."
Romans 5:5 --The love of God bath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. By means of the indwelling Spirit we both possess and experience a fuller appreciation of divine love. Even a partial in-sight into the love of God is most sublime. God’s love is no mere love. It is infinite like himself.
Romans 5:5 --While we were yet weak — Christ died for the ungodly. Note the words weak and ungodly. The reason for God’s love of man is in God, not in man. Christ loved, and died for the ungodly; and God justi-fies the "ungodly" on the condition of his faith in Christ crucified. (Romans 4:5.) Law cannot successfully deal with the problem of sinners. Only grace can save the weak and the ungodly. Does the fact that Jesus died for sinners make a difference in the manner of justi-fying them? Law tried works and failed.
Romans 5:9 --Much more. Four times in this chapter are these words found. (Romans 5:9-10; Romans 5:15; Romans 5:17.) If God loved sinners, and if Christ’s death is the ground of their justification, "much more," now that enemies are reconciled, shall they be ultimately saved by his life. The "Living One" is able to save to the "uttermost," completely. (Hebrews 7:25.)
Romans 5:11 --We rejoice in God. All the glory belongs to God. Boasting is ruled out on the principles of grace and faith. Christ stands between the sinner and God’s wrath. These sentiments prove as much as Paul’s most profound arguments that justification is "by grace — through faith." No legalist ever felt, rejoiced, and wrote like Paul. (Contrast 1 Corinthians 15:10 and Luke 18:11-12.) No legalist can properly interpret Paul.
Romans 5:12 --Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin. Here is the story of sin and death! One man, Adam, committed one sin, and all die. All die because of their physical relation to Adam. Note that it was the sin of Adam, and not the sin of Eve, that brought death into the world. This is true, though Eve sinned first, because Adam is the head of the race. Eve came from Adam. Note carefully that men die, not because of their individual sin, but because of Adam’s sin.
Romans 5:18 --Through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. Here is the story of righteousness and life. "One man, Jesus Christ," through "one act of righteousness" brings life to all who are related to him spiritually. Note that it was the righteousness of Christ, and not man’s own righteousness, that brings life. What a contrast with Adam and his sin!
Though briefly stated, we have given the gist of this confessedly difficult passage. Sometimes it is not the scripture, but man’s theories concerning the scripture, that is difficult. How all sinned in Adam need not be fully understood in order to learn the chief lesson of this section. That it was Adam’s sin, and not ours that brings death, is not difficult to receive by faith. That it is Christ’s righteousness, and not ours that brings life, is easy to receive by faith. If man lives by his own good works, then he dies be-cause of his own sin. Death by Adam’s sin and life by Christ’s righteousness stand or fall together. This seems to be the reason for the introduction of Adam’s sin. Paul has not left his main theme of justification through Christ.
Note that it was not the violation of Moses’ law that brought sin into the world. Sin and death pre-ceeded the law. "Death reigned from Adam until Moses."
Note also that, if by the sin of Adam death came, "much more" can we expect life to come through Christ. ( Romans 5:17. )
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER FIVE
1. Name two functions of faith. Does the cross affect the meaning of faith?
2. Is naturalization analogous to justification? Give reasons for your answer.
3. Does the fact that in justification there is a mediator, and in naturalization there is no mediator, make any difference in the principle by which each is realized.
4. Is the ground of God’s love for sinners in them or in God? Romans 5:8.
5. What is the significance of the "much more" in Romans 5:9?
6. Does one die because of his own sins?
7. Is one justified because of his holiness?
8. Note: One man, one sin, and the death of all. One man, one act of righteousness, and life for all who are spiritually related to him.
9. What bearing does Romans 5:12-21 have up-on the subject of justification?
10. Relate salvation by grace, and righteousness. See question No. 7 for chapter six below.
The Christian’s Relation to Sin
Romans 6:1 --Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? In Romans 5:20 the writer has just said, "Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly." If God bestows grace in proportion to sin, is the child of God justified in persisting in sin? The answer is most definite: "God forbid." Let it not be. Note that the question does not concern justification, but sanctification. When or how justification is bestowed is not under consideration.
This question was certainly asked by one who knew that he was not under law, but under grace. He also understood the difference between the opera-tion of law, and the operation of grace. Under law the more one sins the greater the punishment. By indirect means such as this one can learn the differ-ence between law and grace as certainly as he can by direct statement, such as, "Ye are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)
Let it also be noted that the possibility of sinning is assumed. It was living in sin that is under study.
Romans 6:2 --We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? The question of verse one is not answered by a direct statement prohibiting sin, but by a reference to a fundamental spiritual relationship to sin and to Christ. The essence of Paul’s teaching is this: The Roman Christians were so related to Christ in his death and resurrection, that they died to sin. Being dead to sin, they could not live in it. They had become so "united with him in the likeness of his death —and of his resurrection" that their continuance in a life of sin would be most inconsistent, a reflection upon Christ with whom they were united, and finally, an impossibility while they remained so united to Christ.
The tense of the verb "died" denotes a completed act in the past. Reference is made to the time of conversion. Justification prepares for sanctification. Those who had been saved by grace had been "created in Christ Jesus for good works." (Ephesians 2:10.) "Put on the new self which has been created in likeness to God." (Ephesians 4:24—Goodspeed.) Conversion not only obligates one to live righteously, but it prepares one to do so. Law could only obligate one to live righteously. Here is another fundamental difference between grace and a law-religion. One studies this epistle to little profit, if he restricts the weaknesses of a law-religion to the law of Moses. Any legal system would be as weak as the law of Moses. Christianity reduced to a legal system would be no exception.
What is it to die to sin? To die to law is to be freed from the dominion of law. Jewish Christians had been made "dead to the law." Consequently they had been "discharged from the law, having died to that wherein they were held." But they not only "died to that wherein they were held," they had been "joined to another" that they "might bring forth fruit unto God." (Romans 7:4-6.) Hence to die to sin is to be "discharged" from the dominion of sin. This power of sin over the unconverted man is discussed in Romans 7:14-24. But Paul does not contemplate a death to sin only. Those who died to sin are "alive unto God." Hence Paul’s reply, "How shall we any longer live therein?"
Note that it is "we" who die to sin, not God. God justifies, but man dies to sin. Death to sin is, therefore, that subjective spiritual change that causes man to turn from a life of sin to a life of righteousness.
It is important that we observe that this death to sin takes place in faith and repentance. Repentance is the determination executed to turn from sin. "We die to sin when we believe in Christ and repent of our sins." (J. W. Shepherd.) "To die to sin is to turn from sin to the service of God." (David Lipscomb.) Thus Lard, Johnson, McGarvey-Pendleton, etc.
What is the relation of baptism to this death to sin? There is no magic in baptism. It is not its design to supplant faith or repentance. But it can and does picture or embody them. Hence the death to sin that takes place in faith and repentance is power-fully declared in baptism. This is no contradiction of Paul who wrote: "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death." (Romans 6:4.) The apostle speaks as though death to sin takes place in, and is caused by baptism. Someone may say, "This is exactly what Paul said." Granted. But what did he mean? Jesus said, "This is my body" and "This is my blood," referring to the elements of the Supper. Jesus did not say, "This (bread) represents my body." But those not Catholics believe that Jesus means "This (bread) represents my body." Paul also declares "The rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:4.) Scripture abounds in this figure of speech. "The apostle, in asserting that baptism is a death to sin, does not speak literally, but uses a bold and appropriate figure, suggested by the inherent symbolism of the ordinance." (McGarvey - Pendelton.)
Baptism is a most impressive figure of a death and a resurrection. The immersion pictures a death and a burial; and the emersion, a resurrection and life to righteousness. "Only the dead are buried. — Only the resurrected rise from the grave. Therefore, one who has not fully resolved to live as having died unto sin has no right to be lifted from the waters of baptism. If he is still dead in trespasses and sins, he should remain buried." (McGarvey - Pendleton on Romans 6:4) Or better still, he should never have been buried!
The apostle teaches that there is finality to the sinner’s death to sin. Just as Christ, "being raised from the dead dieth no more;" and just as "death no more hath dominion over him," so the Christian should consider himself "dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus." When Christ died, "He died unto sin once;" and when he was raised, "He liveth unto God." And this life unto God is forever.
Before leaving this section, let it be emphasized again that Paul here speaks of the Christian’s relation to sin and to Christ, not of when and how the sinner was justified, or pardoned. "Our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bond-age to sin." "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof: neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves un-to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Romans 6:14 is significant: "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace." When we come to chapter seven we shall see the effect of law in its relation to sin.
Romans 6:15 presents the question concerning the relation of the Christian to sin in a different form: "Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace?" This question not only assumes that Christians are not under law, but under grace, it im-plies also that a fundamental difference exists be-tween law and grace. Law is not another name for grace. Law is an administration of justice, dispensing blessings and curses on the ground of man’s desert, or lack of desert, respectively. Grace is an administration of mercy, bestowing blessings on the ground of the work of Christ on the sinner’s behalf.
Another important point needs emphasis: Paul implies in his question of Romans 6:15, that one under grace is still under obligation to God. The idea that grace does not, like law, discourage sin is wholly without foundation. Never was the obligation under law to refrain from sin any greater than the same obligation under Christ. If there is any difference in one’s obligation to be dead to sin, the obligation has a greater emphasis under Christ. Law placed man under obligation to refrain from sin, while grace recognizes the same obligation and, in addition, crucifies "the old man" and prepares one for a life of righteousness. One need not fear the consequences of grace. Paul gave the credit to grace for whatever he was, and he is a rather good example of what grace can do!
Romans 6:16 --His servants ye are whom ye obey. Here the apostle states an obviously universal truth. Regardless of the master or the servant, this is true. If a child of God serves Satan, he becomes a servant of Satan, and he ceases to be God’s servant. The grace of God does not enable one to live in sin with impunity. Christ saves one from sinning, or he does not save. An ungodly child of God is a misnomer. And this rule works two ways: "His servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness."
Romans 6:17 --Ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching. Their obedience was not a mere external form, but an inward and spiritual submission to God. Ritualism cannot affect life. For "form (pattern-margin) of teaching" Goodspeed has "stand and of teaching," and Moffatt, "rule of faith." When one dies to sin and is made alive both transactions are in relation to the death of Christ to put away sin, and his resurrection to a permanent life unto God. Hence a vital spiritual union with Christ in his death and resurrection frees one from the "bondage of sin" as the slave is freed from a tyrannical master. The freedom contemplated in verses seventeen and eighteen is freedom from the service of sin. Paul is still dis-cussing sanctification, not justification.
Romans 6:23 --For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The sinner can earn death, but he cannot earn life. Life is a gift. It was purchased by Christ, but it is bestowed as a gift. This is the only way sinners can be saved. Life as a gift honors God and his Son. So do grace and faith.
OBSERVATION ON BAPTISM
Though the argument of this chapter does not require a full discussion of baptism, some additional observations might be helpful. I know of nothing on which more prejudice and less spiritual discernment has been displayed. To keep in mind the following obvious truths concerning baptism would help immeasurably:
1. No condition, including baptism, has been arbitrarily chosen.
2. Baptism has no meaning apart from faith and repentance which it embodies.
3. Baptism, therefore, must not be assigned a design separate from these.
4. Baptism must be given a meaning consistent with the principle of grace.
5. Baptism must be given a meaning consistent with faith.
6. Baptism must relate to Christ as sinoffering. Let us now study briefly these points in order.
No condition, including baptism, has been arbitrarily chosen. "On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached faith, repentance, and baptism to the inquiring multitude. Why God placed these commands as steps into his kingdom, instead of some other commands, we do not know, but we will accept the will of God." I give this quotation to show that many regard all conditions of salvation as arbitrary enactments. I have never read anything from a recognized "teacher of Israel," so to speak, that is more unphilosophical. Such a statement from such a person is bound to do much harm.
If conditions have been arbitrarily chosen, then repentance has been so chosen. But repentance is the change of mind to forsake sin, and the forsaking it. Now Christ proposes to save man from sin. Yet the author quoted above does not know why repentance is a condition of salvation! Does he think God would pardon the impenitent? Is there no proper subjective preparation for salvation? Has God ever pardoned the impenitent? Can he contemplate an impenitent child of God? But our author has spoken and his word will continue to do harm for years to come!
Faith, in the sense of trust, has been shown to be the natural response to Christ as sin-offering. Can one imagine the blood of Christ having redemptive power, and trust or reliance not following as night follows day? Can it be possible that any condition, or all conditions of salvation, can disregard the cross? If one can understand why food must be eaten, and not merely looked at; or why water must be drunk and not only seen, he should understand why faith or trust is demanded by the cross. The serious part of this theory is that multitudes "render obedience" with little or no thought of Christ as sin-offering. This is a tragedy.
If conditions have been arbitrarily chosen, then their designs have likewise been so chosen. Then repentance, for example, was not chosen as a condition because of anything it might accomplish. Nor was faith, or baptism! When the writer of Hebrews wrote: "Without faith it is impossible to please God," he assumed that the reason for the necessity of faith was self-evident. If it is absolutely necessary to have faith in order to please God, then faith was not arbitrarily required.
The manner in which faith comes shows conclusively that it is a natural response, and is not, therefore, an arbitrary requirement. "Faith comes by hearing." It does not come as the result of a direct command. No evidence, no faith. And where evidence is produced faith is the natural result. If there is no reason for faith, then there is no reason to preach Christ or God! If there is no reason for repentance, there is no reason to convict men of sin!
A most fundamental reason for certain conditions of salvation was overlooked by the brother whose teaching is under study, namely, that certain conditions nullify grace and, therefore, the cross, while other conditions are consistent with both grace and the cross. "Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace." Again, "If it (justification) is by grace, it is no more of works." And again, why does Paul always associate grace and faith, law and works, if there is no natural affinity between grace and faith, law and works? And why does he contrast grace and works, law and faith, if there is not a natural inconsistency between them? "The law is not of faith."
Now, in determining whether baptism has been arbitrarily selected for any reason, let no one do the unreasonable thing of separating baptism from faith and repentance as their embodiment. Baptism per se has no meaning, no design, and hence is never con-templated in the Scriptures. But baptism as the ex-ponent of both faith and repentance, does have meaning, and therefore, design. And since its design is based on its relation to faith and repentance, baptism has not been arbitrarily demanded. Baptism is a burial and a resurrection. Hence it pictures faith in a buried and risen Saviour.
Baptism has no meaning and no design apart from faith and repentance which it embodies. This point has already received notice above. A close study of the conversion in The Acts shows that bap-tism was administered as a consequence of faith. "When they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized." (Acts 8:12.) They were baptized when they believed! Why were they not baptized before faith? "The Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized." (Acts 18:8.) The Corinthians believed in consequence of hearing, and were baptized in consequence of believing. This is significant. In Colossians 2:12 Paul affirms that one is buried and raised with Christ "through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." This is definite proof that Paul regarded baptism as having the meaning of faith.
Baptism derives its design from its relation to faith and repentance. Hence it should not be assigned a design distinct from them. In Acts 2:38 "remission of sin" is represented as the end of both repentance and baptism. In Mark 16:16 "shall be saved" follows both faith and baptism. If baptism is "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (Matthew 28:19), so is repentance "in his (Christ’s) name." (Luke 24:47.) If we read that one is "baptized eis Christ" (Galatians 3:27), so we read that one "believeth eis him" (John 3:16.) The embodiment of faith should not be expected to sustain a relation to Christ different from faith. It is enough that the embodiment be as that which it embodies. The habit of naming faith, repentance, and baptism together, and associating "remission of sins" with the last named condition, leads to a misunderstanding. It is implied that in some special way baptism is for "remission of sins." Whatever be the design of baptism, its end is not guaranteed by anything the administrator might believe or say about it in administering baptism.
Baptism must be given a meaning consistent with the principles of grace. We have already pointed out that the principle of "works" is inconsistent with grace. See Romans 4:4 and Romans 11:6. If baptism be considered a "work" in a legal sense, it is inconsistent with grace. Paul denies that baptism has this signification. (Titus 3:5.)
Baptism must be given a meaning consistent with faith. Grace and faith are correlative terms. "By grace through faith" is the divine order. Baptism as the embodiment of faith is consistent with the faith principle. But if baptism is separated from faith, and denied the meaning of faith, it is inconsistent with faith.
Baptism must relate to Christ as sin-offering. Paul knew no Christ, but the crucified Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:2.) And we read from Paul the expression, "baptized into Christ." Hence baptism is related to Christ as sinoffering. This relation gives it the meaning of faith. When baptism is based solely upon the authority of Jesus, it is made a response to Jesus as Lord, but not to him as Christ. "God hath made him both Lord and Christ." Peter commanded baptism in the name of "Jesus Christ." (Acts 2:36; Acts 2:38.) To consider bap-tism a mere test of one’s willingness to obey God is a failure to relate it to Christ as sinoffering.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER SIX
1. What is the subject of this chapter? Romans 6:1; Romans 6:15.
2. Can the power of sin be overcome by prohibitions only? Then can law free one from the bond-age of sin?
3. Note that Paul makes our spiritual relation-ship to Christ the basis of holiness.
4. Does the fact of forgiveness overcome the power of sin and prepare one for holiness?
5. Paul does not consider baptism a meaning-less act designed merely as a test of one’s willingness to obey God.
6. Baptism apart from its relation to faith and repentance has no signification, and hence no design.
7. If the justification of sinners is an arbitrary matter, how can justification become the natural basis of Christian morality? One dies to sin in his con-version, and this death to sin is the reason the child of God cannot live in sin. Justification is as reasonable as sanctification.
8. Repentance and baptism are to be performed "in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 2:38.) Study the phrase "in the name of" or "in my name." See Matthew 24:5; Matthew 10:41-42; Acts 3:6; Acts 3:12; Acts 4:7; etc. Illustration: (A true story) . A son attending a certain college died. The grief-stricken father, wishing to honor his son, (rather than merely to endow a school) gave the college a considerable sum of money "in the name of" his son. That is, the son was the consideration of the gift. God saves us because of the Crucified Son. Accordingly, the conditions of salvation are "in the name of Jesus Christ." Hence Christ Crucified, not our holiness, or good works, saves us. See John 14:21-22; John 16:27. God loves and saves us because we love his Crucified Son.
9. Is there justification, logical or scriptural, for the administrator of baptism adding, "for the remission of sin" to the baptismal formula as recorded in Matthew 28:19?
Examples of the Greek preposition eis.
Separated unto eis) the gospel. Romans 1:1.
Gospel unto (eis) salvation. Romans 1:16.
Unto eis) uncleanness. Romans 1:24.
For (eis) righteousness. Romans 4:22.
Into (eis) this grace. Romans 5:2.
Toward (eis) us. Romans 5:8.
Unto (eis) condemnation. Romans 5:16.
Unto (eis) justification. Romans 5:16; Romans 5:18.
Baptized into (eis) Christ. Romans 6:3.
Baptized into (eis) death. Romans 6:4.
Believeth unto (eis) righteousness. Romans 10:10.
Confession unto (eis) salvation. Romans 10:10.
Unto (eis) remission of sins. Acts 2:38.
Believeth on (eis) him. Acts 10:43; John 3:16; John 3:18.
Baptized unto (eis) Moses. 1 Corinthians 10:2.
The Inability of Law to Overcome Sin
Romans 7:1 --Law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth. Here is an obvious truth which the apostle will need in his discussion of law. This principle is illustrated by the husband and wife. The wife is bound by law respecting her husband so long as he lives. But when the husband dies she is free from the law that binds her to him. The apostle is not discussing the marriage relation except in this one aspect.
Romans 7:4 --Ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ. Two points are significant: Chris-tians are dead to the law, and they are so because of Christ crucified. In Colossians 2:14 the apostle declares that the law was "contrary to us," and that Christ "blotted out" the law-covenant by "nailing it to the cross." The cross terminates, not only the law of Moses, but the law-principle. Law administers jus-tice, while the cross introduced the principle of mercy. Law and grace mutually annul each other. In other words, if sinners are given justice, they can-not obtain mercy; if they receive mercy, the application of law in their case is impossible —they cannot receive justice. This truth reveals the error of those who regard the new covenant as law. Of course, the apostle was dealing immediately with the law of Moses, but what was true of the Jewish system is true also of any legal system. The weakness of the Jewish law did not lie in the fact that it was given by Moses. All legal systems administer justice, not mercy. Hence Paul wrote, "ye are not under law." This epistle cannot be understood unless the inherent distinction between law and grace is recognized.
Romans 7:4 --That ye should be joined to another. It is strongly implied that one cannot be joined to Christ so long as he is under a legal system. It is a case of the incompatibility of law and grace, works and faith, justice and mercy. (Galatians 5:4.)
It should be carefully noted that whether one is under law or grace is determined by the cross. The cross is death to law. It is death to the principle of works as conditions of justification. The cross as naturally nullifies law as it established grace. Law ended at the cross and by the cross.
The consequence in respect to service is also noted by Paul: "So that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter." This is the difference in the service of a slave and the service of a free man. The law was written on stone, the cove-nant of grace, on the heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3; Hebrews 8:10.)
Romans 7:7 --Is the law sin? Law itself was not sin. But instead of saving man from sin, law reveals the power of sin over man, and occasions sin. The law of Moses antagonized the "law of sin" in man, so that when the law said, "Thou shalt not covet," Paul testifies that sin "finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting." Law arouses sin in man instead of destroying it. Hence Paul found the law to be "unto death." This does not indicate that the law was sin, but that man is exceeding sinful. "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good." But law cannot over-come the power of sin. "But sin, that it may be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;—that through the commandment sin might become (or be shown to be) exceeding sinful." Hence more than a holy commandment is required to rid man of sin. This simply means that no legal system can save sinners. Man must be saved, not only from the guilt of sin, but from the power of sin. The sinner needs more than a new set of rules. He needs the blood of Christ to atone for sin, and divine help to overcome the "law of sin" in himself. And yet some still talk of the "old law" and the "new law." It is exceedingly dangerous to attempt to teach when one has not learned the fundamental difference between law and grace. He will either attempt to mix law and grace, or reduce Christianity to a complete legalism.
Romans 7:14 --I am carnal, sold under sin. Here Paul locates the trouble with all men. Here also is revealed the weakness of law and the need of a Saviour. The result of being carnal is shown in the remaining part of this chapter. The struggle under the power of carnality or sin finally issues in the cry, "Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? Notice Paul asked "Who" not what. Paul exchanged law for Christ, not for another law. He considered all legal "gain" to be loss for "Christ." (Philippians 3:7.)
Paul’s description of the inward conflict between the will to do right and the overcoming power of sin in him is most pathetic. Note that Paul knew what was right, that he desired to do right, and that he tried desperately to do right; but he failed! The sin-ful power in him he calls "the law of sin." The word "law" does not signify a code, but a power that ruled him. This power was a sinful power. And it was this "law of sin" in Paul which the law was helpless to overcome. It is not the function of law to give inward spiritual power or to crucify the "old man." Rather it is the function of law to reveal the obligation of man, and to punish him when he sins.
Romans 7:25 --I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For deliverance, that is. Man’s saviour must be a person, not law. Paul saw in Christ every need of an. And it was for Christ that he gladly surrendered all that he once counted gain under law — fleshly relationship to Abraham, fleshly circumcision, and law-righteousness. (Philippians 3:4-9.) No one who knows Christ desires to be under law. It is strange how multitudes prefer the bondage of law to the freedom of grace. (Galatians 4:21 to Galatians 5:1.)
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER SEVEN
1. Does not Paul’s reference to the operation of laws in Romans 7:1-4 show that the nature of all law, human or divine, is the same?
2. If Christianity is a legal system, would it not be as binding as the law of Moses? Would it not demand perfection just as the law of Moses? Then how could it save when the law of Moses could not?
3. Note the significance of "Ye were made dead to the law through the body of Christ," and "He hath taken it (the law) out of the way nailing it to the cross." Law which administers justice, and grace which administers mercy are mutually exclusive. Law religion ended at and by the cross.
4. Note that it is as necessary to be delivered from the law-principle as it is to be put under grace.
5. The mixture of law and grace is spiritual adultery. One "joined" or "married" to Christ proves unfaithful, if he goes back under the law-principle. This was the error of the Galatians (Galatians 1:6 to Galatians 5:12.)
6. Study carefully the power of the "law of sin" and the inability of law to overcome it. Man needs more than prohibitions to overcome sin.
7. Is carnality absolutely destroyed in the Christian? (See 1 Corinthians 3:1-4.)
8. Law leads to grace by convicting man of sin and revealing the power of sin.
The Rule and Help of the Holy Spirit
Romans 8:1 --There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation such as the writer described in chapter seven. Man under law presents a dark picture. Those "in Christ" present a glorious picture. What makes the difference? "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death." First, what is the "law of sin and of death" from which the Christian is free? Evidently it is the "law of sin" of Romans 7:23. This "law" was not a code, but sin considered as the ruling power in the sinner’s life. It is true that under law, the law of Moses, sin exercised dominion over man. See chapter seven. The apostle implied as much in 6:14: "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace." If "the law of sin and of death" refers to the law of Moses, it is not implied that the law was itself sin, or that it was the real cause of sin. "Is the law sin? God forbid." (Romans 7:7.) But it was sin in Paul that took occasion of the law to work "all manner of coveting. (Romans 7:8.) In other words, the "law of sin" (Romans 7:23) operated under the law of Moses to intensify coveting. Only in the sense that the law was used by sin as an instrument to enslave Paul would it be possible to refer to it as "the law of sin and of death." "For sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me." Then Paul adds: "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid." Then he explains: "But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good."
It is certain that "the law of sin," and not the law of Moses, was the source of sin. It was this "law of sin" that made the apostle cry "Wretched man that I am," and desire a deliverer. But since the apostle was considering this "law of sin" in relation to the law of Moses, it is possible that he had both "laws" in mind when he wrote, "the law of sin and of death." But I am inclined to think that the apostle had more in mind "the law of sin" than the law of Moses. The fact is, Christ frees from both "the law of sin" and the law of Moses.
Now, what is "the law of the Spirit of life."? This "law of the Spirit" is the antithesis of the "law of sin" of Romans 7:23. This much seems certain. If the law of Moses forms part of the antithesis, it is on the ground that we have just explained. Whatever Paul had in mind by the "law of the Spirit," the indwell-ing Spirit as the source of the new life in Christ is certainly involved. For the difference, as we shall see, between the one described in chapter seven and the one described in chapter eight, is the indwelling Spirit by which "the deeds of the body" are "put to death."
Romans 8:3 --For what the law could not do. Obviously Paul here refers to the law of Moses. This law could not do what was necessary in order to free man from both the guilt and the bondage of sin. But wherein the law failed, God succeeded by sending his Son to be an offering for sin. And under Christ, the Holy Spirit is given as the ruling force in the life of the Christian, so that "the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Romans 8:6 --The mind of the flesh —the mind of the Spirit. Sinners are described as "they that are after the flesh," and the saved as "they that are after the Spirit." "The mind of the flesh," Paul asserts, "is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace." "The mind of the flesh" is death because it is "enmity against God;" and, since the law of God is the transcript of his character, this "mind of the flesh" is "not subject to the law of God."
Romans 8:9 --But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." There are two results, one negative and the other positive, of the indwelling Spirit. Negatively, "Ye are not in the flesh." Positively, "Ye are in the Spirit." This indwelling Guest is, in this context. called the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. He is also significantly spoken of as "the Spirit of him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." Hence the Spirit that dwells in the Christian definitely plays a part in the redemption of man along with God and Christ.
Romans 8:12 --We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. The apostle has not forgotten the question of Romans 6:1. The entire arrangement on the sinner’s behalf now found under Christ forbids a life of sin. Everything contributes to a life of holiness. Paul is fond of contrasts: "For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
Romans 8:14 --For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Here is practical proof of son-ship. One is led either by the flesh or by the Spirit. Sonship of God or of Satan is thereby manifest. The Spirit of God may lead in two ways. He may lead us through the word of God, or he may lead us in the sense of inciting us to a holy life. The contexts argues for the latter leading. Paul speaks of being "after the flesh" and "after the Spirit." We read also of living after the flesh. But he says that one is not "after the flesh," if the Spirit of God "dwelleth in you." So what is in verse 14 asserted of the Spirit is affirmed of the "Spirit of God that dwelleth in you." The Spirit guides the Christian just as "the law of sin" dominated the sinner.
Paul elsewhere (Galatians 5:16) speaks of walking after the Spirit. "Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." One either "walks by the Spirit" or fulfills "the lust of the flesh." Then the apostle elaborates: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit (lusteth) against the flesh." "The cravings of the Spirit are against the physical." (Goodspeed.) "The passions of the Spirit (are) against the flesh." (Moffatt.) "If ye are led by the Spirit" is translated by Moffatt, "If you are under the sway of the Spirit." When one commits the sins mentioned in Galatians 5:19-21 he is fulfilling the lust of the flesh. When the Christian practices the virtues mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23, he is bringing forth the "fruit of the Spirit." He is being led by the Spirit. "The passions of the flesh" are within the heart of man, as are the "passions of the Spirit." Hence the leading of the Spirit contemplated in our text (Romans 8:14) is the incitement to righteousness of the in-dwelling Spirit. It is man who produces the "fruit of the Spirit." But it is the man who is ruled by the Spirit "that dwelleth in you," just as the man who is dominated by the "law of sin" fulfills the lust of the flesh. Is it incredible that God should give his chil-dren the Holy Spirit with whom they are to cooperate in living a life of holiness, if the sinner is unwillingly, in some cases, dominated by the "law of sin"? Let us not be afraid that we shall be robbed of the glory of overcoming the devil! It does not belong to us.
Romans 8:16 --The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. Note that the Spirit’s witness is not here concerned with our being children of God. It witnesses that we are children. Being led by the Spirit is another proof that we are children of God (Romans 8:14). Children of God are not plagued by a slavish spirit, "the spirit of bondage" that leads to fear: but they are blessed with the "spirit of adoption" which incites them to recognize God as Father. Since the filial spirit in God’s children ran be attributed to the indwelling Spirit. they can be assured that when they cry. "Abba. Father." "It is this Spirit testifying along wish our own spirit that we are children of God." (Moffatt.)
That the Holy Spirit dwells in God’s children is definitely stated: "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you." (Romans 8:9.) "Ye are a temple of God. and — the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." (1 Corinthians 3:16.) "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you." (1 Corinthians 6:19.) "Because ye are sons. God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abbe, Father." (Galatians 4:6.) "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins: and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38.) "And we are witnesses of these things: and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him." (Acts 5:32.)
What are the functions of the indwelling’ Holy Spirit? (1) "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." (Romans 8:16.) (2) "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity." (Romans 8:26.) (3) "The Spirit himself maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8:26.) (4) "For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye nut to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Romans 8:13.) (5) "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." (Romans 8:14.) (6) "In whom ye also having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, — in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." (Ephesians 1:17.) (7) The Spirit "is an earnest of our inheritance." (Ephesians 1:13-14.) (8) "Hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he give us." (1 John 3:24.) (9) "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace" etc. (Galatians 5:22.) All the above functions are asserted of the "Spirit that dwelleth in you." Note the contexts.
If anyone thinks the apostle meant no more by the above scriptures than that the word of God dwells in us, note two examples that prove otherwise: "In whom ye also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, — in whom, having also believed. ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." (Ephesians 1:13.) Note that the sealing of the Spirit came after the Ephesians heard "the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation." On Pentecost Peter first preached the word, and then promised "the gift of the Holy Spirit" to those who repented and were baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ." A little more faith in the Scriptures would remove all the apparent difficulties that stand in the way of any who have not believed in the indwelling Spirit.
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. How little we can know of the significance of being "heirs of God!" To him belongs everything. The inheritance will be a gift consistent with the infinite Father who reserves the best for his children redeemed by his Son. "Joint-heirs" with Christ. Christ and Christians are inseparable. We are "sons of God" because of our incorporation into God’s Son. But we share his sufferings before we share his glory. Here are some of the things upon which we should set our mind.
Romans 8:18 --The glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. "The sufferings of this present time" seem to be prophetic of future glory. Even creation is figura-tively represented as sharing in our sufferings and waiting hopefully "for the revealing of the sons of God." But especially we "who have the first-fruits of the Spirit" are patiently waiting for "the redemp-tion of our body." Hope characterizes God’s children. "In hope were we saved." Hope, that is, desire and expectation can be reasonably enjoyed only under grace, not under law.
Romans 8:26 --The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity. God delights in providing for the infirmity of his children. We are not orphans. We are not left to our weak-nesses. One way the Spirit "helpeth our infirmity" is in prayer. So often "we know not how to pray as we ought." Somehow —he knows — "he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." God hears him who intercedes in our behalf.
Romans 8:27 --All things work together for good. "God works with those who love him—to bring about what is good." (Goodspeed.) God who can see the end from the beginning assures us that the above state-ment is true. He can see the whole salvation of man from his fore-knowledge through foreordination, calling, justification, and glorification. These things were not given for our speculation, but for our edification.
Romans 8:31 --If God is for us, who is against us? Paul answers in substance, "Nothing, or no one." The fact that God "spared not his own Son" is proof that he will "with him freely give us all things." If any man lays any charge against us, "It is God that justifieth." Christ died for us; he was raised for us; and he "maketh intercession for us." Hence the apostles triumphantly challenges every conceivable opposition to "separate us from the love of Christ." He doses with the assurance that in everything "we are more than conquerers through him that loved us." It is characteristic of Paul to claim nothing for himself, but to give all the glory to his Saviour.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER EIGHT
1. This chapter shows how deliverance from the "law of sin" is overcome.
2. Contrast "law of sin" and "law of the Spirit." Neither is a code.
3. Chapter seven reveals the "mind of the flesh" while this chapter reveals the "mind of the Spirit."
4. Note this declaration: "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you." Is there any reason to deny it?
5. Note the functions of the indwelling Spirit. Romans 8:11; Romans 8:13; Romans 8:16; Romans 8:26-27.
6. Jesus overcame Satan not merely by quoting scripture, but "in the power of the Spirit." (Luke 4:14.) How do we resist the flesh? Romans 8:13.
7. Note that Paul founds the security of the Christian, not merely upon his own faithfulness, but upon the basis of what God has done, and is doing, for him. Romans 8:31-39.
The Problem of the Jews: Israel’s Rejection
Romans 9:1 --I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. Paul is preparing for a delicate and difficult task, the explanation of Israel’s rejection. He wishes to assure Israel of his sincere love. His expression of interest in his Jewish brethren is most difficult to understand. It is certainly the language of great passion. "I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake." Moses had a similar feeling for the Jews in his time. (Exodus 32:32.) Israel’s rejection seemed more tragic in view of their unusual advantages.
Romans 9:4 --Who are Israelites. Elaborating on this the apostle added: "Whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the services of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen." Paul’s own heart must have swelled with pride at the enumeration of these things that mean so much to the Jews. But he saved the best until the last, "of whom is Christ."
Romans 9:6 --For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. Here Paul speaks of both Israel after the flesh and spiritual Israel. Else he contradicts himself. He explains that mere children of Abraham does not make them the Israel contemplated in some of God’s promises. "In Isaac shall thy seed by called." With this last statement the apostle introduces a divine principle of choice which is difficult for man to under-stand. The apostle does not attempt a full explanation. He gives Jacob and Esau as examples of divine choice with which all the Jews should have been familiar.
But it is not the mere fact of divine choice be-tween men that is hard to be understood. It is rather the principle upon which God makes choices that is so puzzling. For example, God made choice between Jacob and Esau before their birth, and of course, before they had done "anything good or bad." This means that it is not character that determines the divine choice. What it is shall be seen later. Of course, in choosing Jacob God had in mind, not simply Jacob, but his descendants. But this makes no difference in the principle by which the choice was made. He still selected Jacob and his descendants upon some other basis than character.
Romans 9:14 --Is there unrighteousness with God? Paul well understood the difficulties involved in such a selection from a human standpoint. Man chooses on the ground of individual excellence. And since God makes his choice on some other ground, man is ready to charge him with unrighteousness.
Romans 9:15 --I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. This is no explanation, but rather a statement that God proceeds upon the basis of his sovereignty. God’s purpose in his dealings with Pharaoh was to "show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth." Again God was manifesting his sovereignty.
Romans 9:16 --Who withstandeth his will? The Jews seemed to think that God was a hard master. "Why doth he still find fault?" Again Paul does not vindicate God except on the ground of his right over man. He then cites the potter’s right over the clay to make the type of vessel he desires. But the vessels God chooses are "vessels of mercy." That is, God chooses on the principle of mercy. Hence no one is mistreated. The principle of mercy does not demand that everyone be treated exactly alike in all respects. Saul of Tarsus was permitted to see and hear the Lord after his ascension to God. While he was not saved merely because he saw and heard the Lord, he believed in him as a consequence, which he probably never would have done otherwise.
Romans 9:25 --I will call that my people, which was not my people. The calling of the Gentiles was upon the principle of mercy, not upon the principle of their desert. To the Jew it seemed incredible that God should call the Gentiles his people.
Romans 9:27 --It is the remnant that shall be saved. Why a mere "remnant" of the Jews would be saved is explained in three places, 9:31, 32; 10:3; 11:20.
Romans 9:30 --What shall we say then? First about the Gentiles: "That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness." Paul does not mean to say that the Gentiles did not desire justification, or that their justification was unconditional. The justification which they obtained was "the righteousness which is of faith." "Followed — after" is here opposed to "faith." That is, the Gentiles did not seek to attain justification upon the same principle by which the Jews sought to attain it. Of the Jews the apostle writes: "But Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law." That is, they did not attain the righteousness which they sought. But why? "Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works." Here Paul contrasts faith and works. These principles are contrasted in chapters three and four. Faith is the natural response to Christ as a sin-offering. (Faith, that is, in the sense of trust.) Works as a principle is the response to the commands of the law. The Jewish law which the apostle had in mind provided no Saviour. It was therefore "not of faith." (Galatians 3:12.) It was not of faith, or trust, because there was no sin-offering which justified their reliance.
To the Jew who sought justification "by works" Jesus as a sin-offering was "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." (See 1 Corinthians 1:23.) The Jew was logical enough to know that the principle of works ruled out a Saviour. And it is significant that advocates of salvation by works today make little or no use of Christ crucified, except as a mere item of doctrine. They do not know why, in the first place, that God offered his Son "instead of some other sacrifice." Then they do not know why faith is a condition of salvation! They could not, therefore, be expected to make much use of the cross. And when faith is related to Christ as sin-offering, to many it is no more than a principle of action. That faith means trust in the blood of Jesus seems to have escaped their attention.
The thoughtful reader will desire to know the relation of this ninth chapter to the theme of the epistle. In stating the subject of this letter (Romans 1:16-17) Paul teaches that Christ crucified is God’s power to save the believer. This is true because in the gospel is revealed "a righteousness of God." In chapter nine Paul shows that this "righteousness" or justification was not meant for the fleshly descendants of Abraham simply because they were thus related to Abraham. "They are not all Israel, that are of Israel but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Those "that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham." (Galatians 3:7.)
In the second place, Paul shows that Israel sought salvation "by works." They sought to achieve justification by their own good conduct. This principle rules out Christ crucified as Saviour. The Jews were not rejected merely because they sought to attain righteousness, or justification; but because they sought it upon the wrong principle, that of works. Works as a principle, let it be repeated, nullifies grace. "But if it is by grace, it is no more of works." (Romans 11:6.) This is a universal truth. Those who regard the conditions of accepting the work of a sin-offering as works, have not seen the distinction Paul makes in faith and works. To limit the principle of works to the law of Moses is to fail to see the underlying principle under discussion. The issue goes deeper than any certain set of commands. It is true that we are not under the law of Moses. But the law failed to save because it was a law requiring works. Any legal system requires works, not faith. If Christianity is a legal system, then it too demands works, and not faith. The principle of works is out of place under Christ because it means effort on man’s part to achieve salvation. Abraham who lived before the law was not justified by works, but by faith. But Abraham is the father, not of the worker who is seeking to earn his salvation, but of the believer. "They that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham." Faith here means more than mere belief of truth, as we have shown elsewhere. It signifies trust in Christ crucified, or reliance upon the blood of Christ. The believer relies upon the blood for his redemption, the worker trusts in his own achievement.
If the apostle appears to teach unconditional salvation in parts of this chapter, it is because he does not consider the principle of faith a matter of "willing" or "running," that is, an effort on man’s part to achieve justification. Faith in Christ as sin-offering is not to be classified with the principle of works, or a "following after a law of righteousness." (Romans 9:11; Romans 9:31.) Hence from the standpoint of legal justification, faith is not to be considered. It is as nothing. And is it not true today that those who consider faith as a principle of action only (See chapter five), look upon faith, trust in the blood of Christ, as "nothing apart from the obedience to which it leads?"
But the apostle does not teach unconditional justification as we see from Romans 9:30-33. Whatever is meant by "election" faith in Christ as Saviour is not ruled out. "The purpose of God according to election," however is "not of works." (Romans 9:11.) This is what the Jews believed, and this is what Paul is denying.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER NINE
1. Note that this chapter was written from the standpoint of the Jews who regarded their fleshly relation to Abraham and the "righteousness of the law" as the ground of their acceptance with God.
2. What does the "purpose of God according to election" exclude? Romans 9:11.
3. What does the "purpose of God according to election" include? Romans 9:30-33.
4. In what sense did the Gentiles not "follow after righteousness."?
5. What is it to seek justification "by works?
6. What is it to seek justification "by faith"?
7. Why is "Christ crucified" a "stumbling-block" to the legalist? (1 Corinthians 1:23.)
Law-Righteousness and Faith-Righteousness
Contrasted
Romans 10:2 --They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. The zeal of those without the knowledge of Christ leads them away from, not to Christ. In another epistle Paul writes: "I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." This knowledge involved the "righteousness" which comes by "faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." (Philippians 3:8-9.) The Jews were ignorant of this divine righteousness, because they were ignorant of Christ. Those who do not understand the sacrificial work of Christ on behalf of sinners cannot understand the righteousness which God bestows. Those who regard Christ as merely another law-giver or teacher are wholly ignorant of the justification Paul is here discussing.
Romans 10:2 --Seeking to establish their own. That is, their own righteousness. What was their "own righteousness."? Paul answers: "Not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law." (Philippians 3:9.) Law - righteousness is human righteousness. Though the law of Moses was given by Jehovah, it was man who had to keep it. The resultant "righteousness" was therefore man’s righteousness. Paul made reference to himself under law, even while the law was in force. The idea that man’s righteousness (Philippians 3:9 : Romans 10:3) consisted in keeping the law after its abrogation by the cross, or in keeping human tradition is wholly gratuitious. There is nothing in the context to warrant it. Those who rely on human righteousness cannot rely upon Christ as Saviour. Hence the Jews "did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." Legalism is the rejection of Christ as Saviour.
Romans 10; Romans 4 --Christ is the end of the law unto righteous-ness to everyone that believeth. "End" here could signify either termination or purpose, or both. Law ended at and by the cross. I am inclined to think that Paul meant that Christ is the purpose of the law. "What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come." "The law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Galatians 3:19; Galatians 3:24.) Here is justification or righteousness by faith, a faith in Christ as Son of God, and sin-offering.
Romans 10:4 --For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live there-by. Paul has in mind a significant contrast: "But the righteousness which is of faith" etc. Law-righteousness is based on doing (with no reference to a saviour while the "righteousness of God" is based on faith, trust in Christ crucified. Nothing is more logical than this teaching. Law is the announcement of man’s duty and demands doing, perfect doing. There is nothing arbitrary or illogical about this. But Christ as Saviour or as sin-offering requires faith in the sense of trust. Yes, there are commands relating to Christ crucified, but these are intended to express man’s trust in Christ as sin-offering. The commands of law were not so designed. They were but the effort on man’s part to do his duty, not means of accepting a saviour.
Romans 10:6-7 emphasizes the fact that Christ has already come down from heaven, died on the cross for or sins, and was "raised for our justification." Hence, "the word of faith" which Paul preached was "nigh." Now note the difference in this "word of faith" concerning a Saviour in contrast to the stern demands of the law.
Romans 10:9 --If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Here Paul names two things, faith and confession of faith. Upon these two conditions he promises salvation — "thou shalt be saved." How different is this from the re-sponse required by law! Law says nothing of a saviour. Law demands obedience, not to three or four commands, but to every command. Law makes no requirement of trusting in a sin-offering. "The law is not of faith." Law places man under a curse. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." "For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." (Galatians 3:10.) In contrast to this Paul adds, "But the just shall live by faith." Law places man under a curse, but not because it happens to be the one given by Moses. The law itself was "holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good." Man under law, any legal system, is under a curse because he is obliged, not merely to try, but to keep every command all the time. It does seem that everyone should be able to see the difference in law and grace. Law points the sinner to commands, and to commands only. Grace points the sinner to the Saviour. The commands addressed to the sinner are commands that mean reliance upon the Saviour, not an attempt to earn God’s approval simply because of obedience. Obedience to the gospel is obedience that means trust in the blood of Christ. "Christ re-deemed us from the curse of the law" by dying for us and by placing us under an administration of mercy.
Romans 10:10 --With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Righteousness, justification, and salvation are the same. So are faith and the confession of faith the same as to significance. What Paul affirms in verse ten, he states in other words in verse eleven: "Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame." The apostle does not mean that one is saved twice, once by faith, and once by confession of faith. Faith and confession are considered the same thing. So are righteousness and salvation. "For with his heart man believes and is justified, with his mouth he confesses and is saved." (Moffatt.) Paul is not excluding repentance or anything else required of sinners, just as these are not excluded in John 3:16.
Romans 10:13 --Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The emphasis here is upon "whosoever." "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him." To "call upon the name of the Lord" is to make one’s appeal to him for salvation. It signifies reliance. That this reliance may be outwardly expressed does not change the fact that one is still "calling upon the name of the Lord." Confession of inward faith has the same significance as faith. So does baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ" have the same meaning as the faith that it expresses or embodies. But let us be concerned, not alone with the fact that faith does not exclude baptism, but also with the fact that baptism does signify reliance upon the crucified Saviour.
But no one can make his appeal to the Lord for salvation apart from faith in the Lord. He must hear about the Saviour and believe the facts concerning him, namely, that he is Son of God, and that he died for our sins. Having thus believed these truths about Christ he can now trust in him. And this trust is to be seen in everything required of the sinner. In everything he is making his appeal to the Lord for salvation. He is calling upon the name of the Lord.
Romans 10:15 --So belief cometh of hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Here is something fundamental. Faith and hearing are related as cause and effect. The hearing produces faith. This is true in religion and outside religion. One cannot believe in Christ until Christ is preached. And Christ is preached when one preaches his Sonship, and his Messiahship. Note that it is Christ preached that produces the faith that is a condition of salvation. To the Samaritans Philip "pro-- claimed unto them the Christ." (Acts 8:5.) To the eunuch Phillip preached "Jesus." He preached "Jesus" from Isaiah the fifty-third chapter. In this chapter we read not only the passage quoted by Luke in Acts 8:32-33, but this: "He was wounded for our trans-gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chas-tisem*nt of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
Until the sinner hears that Christ is his sin-bearer he has not heard that which produces the faith that saves. In fact one cannot believe in Christ in the sense of v. 17 until he has heard that "Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." "This is the good news of salvation. John 3:16 makes the object of faith the Christ on the cross.
The necessity of preaching Christ as sin-bearer cannot be over-emphasized. The practice of preach-ing the conditions of salvation apart from a clear and full presentation of Jesus Christ and him crucified is without any semblance of justification. It was never done by the apostles and other inspired men. Paul declared, "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2.) Preaching Christ means to preach him as the crucified Saviour. Paul preached "the word of the cross."
The facts that Jesus must be preached as Saviour in order that men can be saved, and that faith comes naturally by hearing about Christ, prove that the conditions have not been arbitrarily chosen, as some imagine. Christ must be preached. When he is preached faith follows naturally. Whether faith is a condition or not, it is present when Christ is preached. But faith that justifies can never exist apart from the preaching of Christ as sinoffering.
To emphasize the fact that it is Christ crucified that must be preached in order to produce the faith that saves, I give other translations of the phrase, "and hearing by the word of Christ." (American Standard Version.) "And that hearing comes through the message about Christ." (Goodspeed.) "And the teaching comes in the Message of Christ." (The Twentieth Century New Testament.)
How can the gospel be obeyed unless the gospel is preached? We usually think of obeying commands. But both Paul and Peter speak of obeying the gospel. (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17.) The commands addressed to sinners relate directly to the gospel which must be preached. They are not merely something required of them to test their willingness to obey. Faith has as its object Christ on the cross. (John 3:16.) Repentance and baptism are both "in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 2:38.) "In the name of Jesus Christ" signifies in reliance upon Jesus Christ. This phrase signifies much more than that repentance and baptism are by the authority of Christ. Peter said that God made Jesus "both Lord and Christ." "Christ is the Greek term and corresponds to the word "Messiah" which is a Hebrew term. (John 1:41.) Christ is an official title and relates to his work as sin-offering. In order for one to be baptized "in the name of Christ" he must have been taught the work of Christ as sacrifice for sin. Baptism apart from its reference to Christ crucified does not meet the demand of Acts 2:38.
Therefore one obeys the gospel only when the conditions of salvation are responses to Christ crucified. This is most important. Everyone who is baptized should have Jesus and him crucified in his mind, not merely the design of baptism. Jesus crucified gives any condition its design, and apart from the cross no condition has any design whatever. When it is remembered that all conditions are responses to Christ as Saviour a better understanding of them will result.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER TEN
1. Paul returns to the subject of "the righteousness of God."
2. Contrast God’s righteousness or justification with that of law.
3. Are the "righteousness which is of the law" and the "righteousness which is of faith" attained upon the same principle? Why?
4. Is law-righteousness to be sought by faith? See Romans 10:5.
5. Is the "righteousness of God" to be sought by works? See Romans 10:4.
6. Does the apostle consider the principles of faith and works identical?
7. Consult the various translations on Romans 10:9-10.
8. Does faith in Christ come apart from hearing about him as sin-offering? Romans 10:17.
9. Why cannot faith come as the result of a direct command to believe?
10. Would one know to believe on Christ when taught about him without being told to believe? Would one know to repent without being commanded to repent? Are the conditions of salvation arbitrary enactments?
11. When Paul saw Christ (Acts 9) did he believe as a consequence of seeing him, or was it necessary for someone to tell him to believe? Who told Paul to repent?
12. If Paul believed and repented naturally as a consequence of the revelation of Jesus, does this indicate that the conditions of salvation are arbitrary commands, or does it prove that they are logical responses to Christ as Saviour.
Israel’s Fall and Final Salvation
Romans 11:1 --Did God cast off his people? It is Paul’s habit to answer possible objections to his teachings. To this question he gives a definite no. The apostle cites himself as proof. "For I am an Israelite." Elijah felt that all but himself had deserted God, but he was wrong. God answered, "I have left for myself seven thousand men."
Romans 11:5 --Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Here are two important statements. First, there is a "remnant" that had not fallen; and second, this "remnant is "according to the election of grace." Christianity began with the Jews. Paul was among this "remnant."
Romans 11:6 --But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. Paul is much concerned with the above principle. Grace and works as principles are mutually exclusive, and Paul could not have been more definite in so stating. "Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt." (Romans 4:4.) To restrict Paul’s reference to the works of the law of Moses, one denies a universal truth, and misses a most important lesson of this epistle. Paul was speaking of Abraham in 4:4, and Abraham lived over four hundred years prior to the law of Moses. This principle applied to Abraham just as it applies to all in the realm of religion and out.
Note these words: "Otherwise grace is no more grace." Goodspeed translates this phrase, "Other-wise, his mercy would not be mercy at all." Moffatt: "Otherwise grace would cease to be grace." The worker does not receive his pay as an expression of mercy. If one so affirms, then language ceases to have any definite meaning. The glory of grace is its distinctiveness. If grace is the reward of work, there is no signification to terms. Why do men refuse to surrender the principle of merit? It is because they do not understand the value of the cross! It is most illogical to affirm salvation by grace, then teach justification by works. Where the principle of works is found, merit is present, regardless of denials. Faith can express itself without "works," that is, the principle of works. There is no room under Christ for the principle that admits boasting. The works of faith in the New Testament are far from the nature of legalistic works. Unless the nature of the principle of works and the nature of the principle of grace are understood, this epistle will never be comprehended. If Smith works for Jones, his reward is not according to mercy. If salvation is based on man’s character, man’s works, then Christ died for nought. Modernists advocate "Salvation by Character." I saw this sign displayed in one of their meetings. They were at least consistent in affirming "Salvation by character" and denying the Sonship and the Messiahship of Jesus.
The fact that every condition is a response to Christ crucified and is performed "in the name of Jesus Christ" proves that these expressions of faith in the Saviour are not works of law or works of merit. As to signification they are faith, trust. Baptism signify-ing trust in the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour is far from a work of law. But if baptism has no signification that relates it to the cross, it is a legal enactment, and, therefore, is inconsistent with the blood of Christ and the principle of grace.
In affirming that salvation is of grace, and "no more of works," the apostle does not teach unconditional salvation. Paul considered grace and faith correlative terms. One implies the other, like the word father implies child. "By grace through faith" is Paul’s formula, so to speak. Grace is the principle by which God offers salvation to the undeserving, and faith is the principle by which grace is accepted.
Romans 11:7 --That which Israel seeketh for he obtained not; but the election obtained it. This statement is explained by Paul’s teaching in Romans 9:30-32 : "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works." Israel sought for salvation, but did not attain it "because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works." "But the election obtained it" because they received salvation as a "free gift", and therefore, according to the principle of grace. There was no arbitrary rejection of Israel, or arbitrary selection of the Jewish "remnant," or of the Gentiles.
Romans 11:8 --God gave them a spirit of stupor. This spirit of stupor was not given to men earnestly and honestly seeking salvation through Christ, but to those who rejected the Messiah in the face of convincing proof of his claims. "Their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed."
Romans 11:11 --Did they stumble that they might fall? They were not caused to stumble in order that they might fall. They fell, but this "fall" was not to be final. The "fall" of the Jews was used as an occasion of a greater effort to convert Gentiles. "By their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles." Unbelieving Jews proved themselves unworthy of eternal life, hence, the apostles turned to the Gentiles. But if God used their "fall" to accomplish a good end, how much more can he use their "fullness" to accomplish good. What he means by their "fullness" may be seen later.
Through a great part of this chapter (Romans 11:12-24)the apostle considers the conversion of the Jews a hypothetical matter. In this section he uses a dozen if’s. That the Jews had rejected their Messiah was a certainty. If God used this "fall" for the good of Gentiles, how much more shall the "receiving of them" be for good. Will it not be "life from the dead?" "If the first fruit is holy," and "If the root is holy," have furnished commentators ground for speculation and for differences of opinion. Whether "first-fruit" refers to the Jewish fathers or to the first Christians which were Jews, the lesson appears about the same. Paul is arguing that the conversion of the Jews is grounded on reason. In fact, the grafting in of "natural branches" is not so difficult a matter as the grafting of the Gentiles "contrary to nature" into a "good olive tree." Paul had already used himself as proof that God had not "cast off his people." Now, if the first Christians were "holy", that is, if they were accepted of God, then the rest of the Jewish nation could also be acceptable.
The apostle might have had in mind the fact that the prophecies of the Messiah were given to the Jews. The promise also of a "new covenant" was given to the "house of Israel and the house of Judah." (Hebrews 8:8.) Paul also represents the Gentiles as once having been "far off" and "strangers and sojourners," and "separate from Christ, alienated from the com-monwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12.) This makes one think of this statement of Paul concerning comparative difficulties surrounding the conversion of Gen-tiles and Jews: "For if thou west cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?"
Romans 11:25 --A hardening in part bath befallen Israel. The apostle now assumes the role of a prophet and predicts that "all Israel shall be saved." The reception of the Jews by God is not only a reasonable thing, but a matter of prophecy: "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: And this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." (See Isaiah 59:20.) The partial hardening of Israel is to continue "until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." That is, be-tween the "fall" of the Jews and their deliverance by the Deliverer something occurs which the apostle calls "the fullness of the Gentiles." This phrase has been variously translated and many theories have been propounded. Whatever the phrase means, God knows, and he will take care of the whole matter. We do know that the Jews have rejected their Messiah. We know that it is a reasonable thing that they should someday accept him whom they crucified. And we know that Paul leaves the impression that someday the Jews will in fact accept the Deliverer that came out of Zion.
Paul’s teaching concerning the future conversion of the Jews is rendered objectional by some who tie this to the theory of the restoration of the Jews to Palestine. It so happens that the apostle says nothing of the restoration of the Jews to Palestine. Wherever the Jews may be, they will have to accept Christ be-fore they are accepted of God. God neither arbitrarily cast them off, nor will he arbitrarily accept them. The gospel is the power of God to save both Jews and Greeks. He has no other saving power. Elsewhere in this epistle the apostle states that "there is no distinction," between Jew and Gentile, that all are under sin, and all stand equally in need of the Saviour. He concludes his argument in one place by a question and a statement of fact: "Or is God the God of the Jews only? is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yea, of the Gentiles also: if so be that God is one, and he shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." (Romans 3:29-30.) It seems that it is difficult to give Jews and Gentiles equal rights before God. Paul had to prove to the Jew that Gentiles had a right to the gospel. Now in the Roman letter he must prove to Gentiles that the Jews have the right to the gospel and will one day accept it.
It seems that the matter of the future con-version of the Jews should be considered abundantly proved. Paul first introduces it as a possibility. Next he refers to the glorious results of such a desirable event. Then he affirms the ability of God "to graft them in again." Finally he asserts their future con-version. These conclusions appear to be unavoidable. Why any person should be slow to accept the obvious teaching of this epistle is strange indeed.
The phrase "all Israel shall be saved" need not be taken to mean that every individual Jew will accept Christ. Much less does it imply that every Jew will be saved regardless of his unbelief in Christ. For a similar use of the word "all" see Matthew 3:5. Nor does the "fullness of the Gentiles" mean that at some time every Gentile will be saved.
It might be profitable to cite a few translations of verse 25 and part of verse 26: "To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in. This done, all Israel will be saved." (Moffatt.) "For to keep you from thinking too well of yourselves, brothers, I do not want you to miss this secret, that only partial insensibility has come upon Israel, to last until all the heathen have come in, and then all Israel will be saved." (Goodspeed.) Others are to the same effect. What happens in the future will be the best and the safest commentary on some of these difficult verses.
It is essential to notice why the Jews as branches were "broken off." "By their unbelief they were broken off." And why were the Gentiles as unnatural branches grafted in? "Thou standest by thy faith." Are the Gentiles unconditionally safe? "But toward thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou shalt be cut off." Once more, Are the Jews finally rejected? "And they also, if they con-tinue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in." This seems to be all that one needs to know about either Jew or Gentile. There is one God, one Saviour, one gospel; all are sinners and in need of mercy through Christ, and either Jew or Gentile will be accepted on the condition of his faith. Either will be rejected unless he accepts Christ.
One other matter needs a brief notice: In the statement, "And so all Israel shall be saved," does the apostle refer to fleshly or spiritual Israel? Paul recognizes both. But to argue that all spiritual Israel will be saved would be a truism. No one denied that. Paul began the discussion with a reference to fleshly Israel. (Verses 1, 2.) In verse 13 the Gentiles are named in contrast to Israel. The contrast which follows (verses 14-24) plainly refers to fleshly Israel. The "Israel" contemplated in verse 25 have hardened hearts. In contrast to this hardened condition it is predicted that they will accept the Deliverer. I know of no reason for thinking that fleshly Israel is not meant.
Romans 11:28 --As touching the gospel they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. God regards those who reject his Son as "enemies." They are under his curse. I do not believe that Paul means that the Jews rejected Christ for the express purpose of having the gospel taken to the Gentiles. Their rejection was the occasion, not the cause, of salvation being offered the Gentiles. They are "beloved" for the sake of the Jewish fathers to whom God made the promises. God regards them favorably, counts them "holy" or acceptable gospel subjects. God does not save any one on the ground of race, but on the ground of the sacrifice of his Son.
Conditions concerning Jews and Gentiles were reversed. Formerly, Gentiles had rejected God, but now are God’s people; and this general acceptance of the Gentiles of Christ was hastened by the unbelief of the Jews, which permitted the evangelists to concentrate their efforts upon the Gentiles. But now the Jews are disobedient; but by the mercy shown to the Gentiles, the Jews also might yet obtain mercy. Note this difference: Jewish disobedience occasioned the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, while it is through the mercy received by the Gentiles that the Jews are to receive mercy. Note too that both Jews and Gentiles are blessed upon the principle of mercy. There are no future spiritual blessings for the Jews on legalistic grounds. Sinners, Jews or Gentiles, must be saved by grace and faith, not by law and works.
Romans 11:32 --For God hash shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. Here is a most important truth. Whether Jew or Gentile, God con-siders everyone a sinner. Sin is a spiritual malady, and, hence, admits of no racial distinctions. If everyone realized the problem of sin, there would be less difficulty in understanding the doctrine of grace taught in this epistle. Christ did not come to give help to angels, but to men. God is not dealing with saints, but with sinners. Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Sinners need, not another law with a new set of rules, but a sin-offering. Those who are already under condemnation cannot be saved upon the principle of works, but must be redeemed by the death of the Son of God. Man’s salvation is not achieved by him, but purchased by the blood of Christ. If man were not a sinner, he would not be guilty; if he were not guilty, he would need no sin-offering; had man not needed a sin-offering, Christ would not have come; and if Christ had not come and died for everyone, Jew or Gentile, mercy could not have been extended. And if mercy is not offered sinners, there is no salvation. Without Christ, man’s best righteousness is as filth in God’s sight. (Isaiah 64:6.)
Mercy, then, is God’s gift to sinful man. The greatest aim of God, the greatest delight of the Father of Christ, the greatest manifestation of his character is to bestow mercy. Law can reveal the "severity" of God and his justice, but it cannot manifest his love and mercy. Nor can man through law be found at his best. Law begets a slavish spirit and leads to fear. Grace begets a filial spirit and makes one cry Abba, Father. Grace begets love, and love makes man most like God. Pity him who knows only a legal religion. Pity him who knows only response to duty. And pity him who cannot endure to hear the grace of God magnified, lest man’s part in salvation be under-emphasized! How strange it will seem to some, if ever by God’s mercy they are saved, to spend an eternity magnifying the mercy of God when they are now afraid of giving it credit for their salvation!
Romans 11:33--36 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
Here rises a glorious song of praise from the mighty soul of the great apostle. His words here are the result of a spiritual discernment that gave Paul a unique understanding and appreciation of God and his wisdom and mercy. Paul evidently was looking back over his epistle. He remembered how he had proved the universality of sin, showing that both Jew and Gentile were under the dominion of sin, and stood in need of a "righteousness" or justification, based not on their own works, but upon faith in Christ as their "propitiation." He recalled that he had shown the Roman Christians that they had been released from a legal system that could not bring salvation to sinners, and that they had been "joined" to the Son of God who redeemed them with his "precious blood." He remembered with delight that he could assure his readers that God had given his children the Holy Spirit to help them in their struggle against sin, and to incite to a life of holiness. He had not forgotten that he went deep into the purposes of God concerning Jews and Gentiles. And he must have felt again a pardonable pride in the Jewish race when he recalled all their past advantages over the Gentiles. But he must have felt also a tinge of shame when he remembered that, in spite of these advantages, his own brethren after the flesh had rejected their Messiah. But it gave him some relief to know that their "fall" was not complete and final, but that a prophecy concerning their acceptance of a great Deliverer would yet be fulfilled.
With all these things evidently in the back of his mind Paul penned the above wonderful words. No legalist could have ever written them. Only one who knew Christ Jesus the Lord as a real Saviour, not as a mere lawgiver, could have written as did Paul. Would that every reader of these lines could stand with Paul and look deep into the wisdom and the mercy of God by which he is redeemed. Such an experience is but a foretaste of "the glory that shall be revealed to usward." May the veil of legalism be removed so that "we all, with unveiled face beholding as a mirror the glory of the Lord, be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER ELEVEN
1. Has God arbitrarily cast off the Jews? Does God save or condemn arbitrarily?
2. Note again "the election of grace”--Romans 11:5.
3. Note also that Paul considers grace and works mutually exclusive. Romans 11:6.
4. Compare Romans 11:7 with Romans 9:11; Romans 9:30-33.
5. Is it incredible that the Jews should one day accept Christ? Romans 11:24.
6. Is Israel’s fall or unbelief final? Romans 11:25-26.
7. Note God’s plan for all nations. Romans 11:32.
8. What occasioned the doxology of Romans 11:33-35?
Exhortations and Practical Duties
Romans 12:1 --I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. Paul did not give orders as one in authority. "Beseech" is a better word than demand with Paul. Elsewhere he wrote: "Now I Paul my-self entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:1.) "Wherefore, though I have all boldness in Christ to enjoin thee that which is be-fitting, yet for love’s sake I rather beseech, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now a prisoner also of Christ Jesus." (Philemon 1:8-9.) A little age and a little persecution go a long way in mellowing the heart of a teacher.
Present your bodies a living sacrifice. In con-trast to the dead sacrifices of the law. See Romans 6:13 on presenting ourselves unto God. The bodies we offer to God must be holy and well-pleasing. We belong to God, having been "bought with a price."
Romans 12:2 --Be not fashioned according to this world. Do not pattern your lives after "this present evil world" (Galatians 1:4), "according to the course of this world." (Ephesians 2:2.) "Do not take this age as your fashion plate." (Robertson.) Imitation of the world in spirit and practice is one of the gravest dangers con-fronting the church.
Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. See the "renewing of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5.) Godliness begins within and works outward. Only a "new creature" can live in "newness of life."
That ye may prove. Not by argument, but by experience. "Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good." "If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." (1 Peter 2:3.) The new birth gives the new man a new mind. The carnal person has no taste for things spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:14-15.)
Romans 12:3 --For I say — to every man — not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. This is said in preparation to giving instruction relative to the different gifts among members of the church. The analogy of the church to the human body is cited to emphasize the various services Christians may render. As "all members have not the same office" so there are many different services the members of the body of Christ may perform. This same lesson is considered more at length in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church. (1 Corinthians 12.) There Paul teaches that each member has its special work given it by nature. The eye is an important member, but it should not overlook the work of other members without which its own function would be more or less nullified. Some can teach; others can exhort; some can rule, etc. But let not the teacher, for example, despise the work of those who minister to the needs of others. It is unwise to suspect the sincerity of those whose gifts differ from our own. The Lord can use us all, and there is work for all. But whatever one is qualified to do, let him do it with diligence.
Romans 12:9 --Let love be without hypocrisy. Beginning with this verse the apostle in laconic fashion urges many exhortations which are easily understood, but sometimes difficult to heed. Among these are those relating to sincerity of love, the abhorrance of evil, adherance to what is good, brotherly love, diligence in business, fervency of spirit, rejoicing grounded on hope, patience in trials, and steadfastness in prayer. These relate in a special way to personal virtues.
Other exhortations concern the Christian’s relation to others, such as, benevolence toward the poor, hospitality, the Christian attitude toward persecutors, or sharing with others their joys and sorrows, unity, humility, the Christian’s response to evil, personal honor, living in peace with all men, and personal vengeance.
It is as necessary to conform to these practical exhortations as it is to be orthodox in doctrine. How many are orthodox in doctrine, yet heretics in the practice of the above virtues!
Romans 12:21 --Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good. Paul had just said, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst give him drink: for in to doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." The only right way to destroy an enemy is to make of him a friend. Good is stronger than evil, if given a chance. One of the great lessons of the Revelation is that righteousness will ultimately triumph over evil. Evil seems now to be more powerful than righteousness. Evil is simply given a better chance than good. But the time will come when "the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father."
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER TWELVE
1. What is the basis of Paul’s appeal? Romans 12:1.
2. The church and the world can never be reconciled. Romans 12:2. Worldliness is probably doing more harm than heresies. Can one be a practical heretic?
3. Should one consider any special talent for service a trust from God? Romans 12:3; Romans 12:6.
4. Note the place for love and hate. (Romans 12:9). Is it enough merely to refrain from evil? Does the church have the proper attitude toward evil?
The Christian’s Relation to Civil
Government: Other exhortations
Romans 13:1 --Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers. The reason assigned for this subjection is that the "powers" are "ordained of God," and that rulers are ministers of God to Christians for good. The rulers contemplated are those who govern by righteous principles. Such rulers praise those who do good, and punish those who do evil.
Romans 13:7 --Render to all their dues. The payment of taxes, proper respect for rulers, and honoring those who are worthy of honor, are specifically enjoined. It should be remembered that Jesus said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s." God has not abdicated his throne in favour of kings. God comes first always. And this fact may result in conflict between the sovereignty of God and the claims upon us of earthly rulers. So far as I can learn, God never declares a moratorium on the "debt" we owe him. To do right requires much courage and more prayer.
Romans 13:10 --Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. Love for God and man is heaven’s cure-all. Jesus taught that love for him guarantees obedience to him. John teaches that love makes us akin to God. Paul here affirms that one will not do harm to his neighbor, if he loves him. Love prevents the sins of adultery, murder, theft, and covetousness, to name those sins mentioned in the context.
Love fulfills the law. Fear will not meet the demands of the law. Until man loves God and respects good government, this world will be cursed with lawlessness. Why Paul appeals to the law, presumably the law of Moses, might be difficult to understand, since he has labored so hard to wean his hearers away from it. But even Jewish Christians still regarded the demands of the law as standard. And the moral requirements of the law were still binding, not as part of the law, but as the natural requirement of moral beings.
Romans 13:11 --Already it is time to awake out of sleep. Spiritual indifference and sluggishness are here condemned. "The night (a symbol of evil) is far spent, and the day (a symbol of righteousness) is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." It would be difficult to make this clearer, and impossible to improve upon its teaching.
Let us walk becomingly. There is a life that be-comes a Christian. There are "things that accompany salvation." Paul mentions a few things which are unbecoming a child of God; revelling, drunkenness, chambering and wantonness (immorality and in-decency -- Goodspeed.) strife and jealously. Yet these things have cursed the church from its beginning!
Romans 13:14 --But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh. Paul has much to say in his writings about the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. The child of God should be clothed with Christ, so to speak, and crucify the flesh. Paul’s own language is a good comment on this verse: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." (Galatians 2:20.)
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER THIRTEEN
1. Doesn’t Romans 13:1-4 teach that good government is of God, and that rulers are servants of God?
2. Is subjection to one’s government enjoined without qualification?
3. Note the fundamental importance of love. Romans 13:9-10.
4. There is a "becoming" or befitting way of life for Christians. Romans 13:13.
5. What is meant by "put ye on the Lord Jesus"? Romans 13:14.
6. If the fundamental doctrines of salvation are arbitrary decrees of God, how is it possible that the Christian life can be consistent with these doctrines? See Philippians 1:27; 2 Corinthians 6:14 to 2 Corinthians 7:1. Justification logically leads to sanctification. Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 6.
Forbearance Toward Scruples
Romans 14:1 --But him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples. In this chapter two per-sons of different convictions about matters of indifference are under consideration. The word "faith" is used in the sense of conviction. Paul is not so much concerned with who is "right" or who is "wrong," but about unity. For an example of what is meant by "right" and "wrong" in this context note verse 2: "One man hath faith to eat all things: but he that is weak eateth herbs." Now the man whose scruples permitted him to eat both meat and vegetables was "right," while the vegetarian was "wrong" in refusing to eat meat. It is not actually a sin to refuse to eat meat, nor has God demanded that one eat both vegetables and meat. But it is "right" to eat both. It is proper.
Paul considers this difference about eating a matter of indifference: "Let not him that eateth set at nought him that eateth not; and let him that eateth not judge him that eateth: for God had received him." But it was not a matter of indifference when they began to display a sectarian spirit and set each other at nought. Judging in the sense of setting others at nought because of a difference of scruples, is not man’s prerogative. "Who art thou that judgeth the servant of another? to his own Lord he standeth or falleth." Many times man sets his brother at nought when God has received him. It is possible to be "wrong" in spirit and "right" in practice. Both of the above brethren were "wrong" when they set each other at nought.
This lesson is badly needed today. How many churches are divided over matters of indifference! Of course, the uninformed person thinks all his scruples are "weighty matters" and that if one differs from him, he is bound to be lost! Some times the person who makes his scruples a test of fellowship is no "babe", but one who has been eating both "herbs" and "meat" for many years. It is most difficult to preach unity in the face of wrangling. It will be a great day for Christianity when Christians grow up. Many "childish things" are consuming the energy and stealing the time of those who are certain that they are "full-grown."
Romans 14:8 --For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. In a sense, one may be his brother’s keeper; but he is not his brother’s owner, or lord. I owe my brother some consideration, but he is not my lord. When one de-cides to disfellowship another, he should be certain that he is right in both spirit and practice. And the right spirit many times will substitute tolerance for excommunication!
The apostle stresses the matter of giving account to God and not to men: "To me every knee shall bow." "So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God." This truth is then followed by "Let us not therefore judge one another any more."
Romans 14:14 --Nothing is unclean of itself. The context must be considered or one will misrepresent Paul. He speaks here of meats. No food — no meat is unclean. The distinctions made under the law are not now binding.
The apostle qualifies the above statement thus: "Save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean." Eating meat is still under consideration. If one considers it wrong to eat meat, he should not eat it. Not that to eat meat is sin, but to violate one’s conscience is sin. One who does what his conscience forbids is dishonest. This is sin. This does not imply that one’s conscience is a safe guide, or that nothing is sin unless one thinks it is. Paul is simply warning us not to be dishonest with ourselves by doing what we consider to be wrong.
Romans 14:15 --For if because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love. This principle is discussed by the apostle in his first Corinthian let-ter. Meat that had been offered to an idol was later sold in the market. Paul said that he could eat this meat because he knew that no idol is anything. But if someone saw Paul eating this meat and he was thereby encouraged to eat in honor of the idol, then Paul said he would cease eating meat. "Howbeit there is not in all men that knowledge; but some, being used until now to the idol, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled." Hence Paul warns: "Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died." No one is unimportant. Christ has invested his blood in every one, great or small, informed or uninformed.
Before leaving this part of the discussion it might be profitable to observe that a thing might be sinful for various reasons. Some things are inherently sinful such as murder or lying. What one thinks about these things changes nothing. Whoever commits murder sins. If God has legislated against something, then to do that which God forbids is sin. Once it was wrong to eat certain meats. But we are no longer under the law that forbade eating of such meats. Hence, it is not now sinful, if one eats meats. What Paul says about eating meat in this chapter applies only to things indifferent, things that are neither commanded nor prohibited.
Romans 14:17 --For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This statement is fundamental. How much difference there is in scruples about food, and "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." To be more concerned with trivial matters, such as what to eat, than spiritual things, manifests an ignorance of the kingdom of God. What one does not know about spiritual things gets him into trouble. It should be the chief aim of all teachers to instruct in matters that are fundamental. When these "weightier matters" are understood, not so many will be concerned about tithing "mint and anise and cummin." Old "babes" cause much trouble.
Romans 14:22 --The faith which thou halt, have thou to thyself before God. Even the strong brother can err, if he insists that the "weak" brother accept his view-point. If one thinks it wrong to eat meat, for example, do not try to force him to adopt your practice of eating meat. He is no worse or better for eating only herbs. Let the child play with his toys!
Romans 14:23 --Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. It would be difficult to find a passage that is more abused. Everyone seems to be able to use it against his neighbor. Some apply this to the worship service, others to methods of doing mission work, etc. The argument runs thus: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin; faith comes by hearing the word of God; hence, anything done in worship or in service to God which is not specifically commanded is sin." But Paul was not speaking of worship specifically. Paul’s rule is universal. There is no limit to "whatsoever." To do anything against one’s conviction is sin anywhere and anytime. The "faith" Paul has under consideration did not come from hearing the word of God. "One man hath faith to eat all things," while the other man’s faith would not let him eat meat. Note Goodspeed’s translation: "The man who has misgivings about eating, and then eats, is thereby condemned, for he is not following his convictions, and anything that does not rest on conviction is wrong." One man’s convictions allowed him to eat meat, while another man’s "faith" or conviction would not let him do so. One man refused to ride in an automobile, be-cause he could not find anything in the Bible about this modern mode of travel! His point was well taken according to the usual interpretation of verse 23. One’s conviction may be wrong, but it is sin to violate it. The sin consists in dishonesty, not merely in doing certain things.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER FOURTEEN
1. Paul is dealing with scruples about things indifferent.
2. Is God particularly interested in one’s diet today?
3. Is God tolerant with man’s unfounded scruples?
4. Note the fundamental statements of Romans 14:7-8. Do we realize that our lives belong to God?
5. Is it necessary to vindicate one’s conduct in the sight of men? Romans 14:10-12.
6. Discuss: "Nothing is unclean of itself." Romans 14:14.
7. When one is about to do another harm he should remember that this person is one for whom Christ died. Romans 14:18.
The Purpose in Preaching to Sinners
Paul’s aim in preaching to sinners was to lead them to rely upon Christ for salvation. It is true that he rebuked the legalistic conception of the Jews, but their conception of religion prevented their acceptance of Christ as Saviour. As long as one relies upon himself he cannot rely upon Christ. Read Philippians 3:3-9.
Truth is more than a protest against error. It has positive value. Errors are corrected only that truth may be accepted. Christ died to save sinners, not merely to prove that sinners cannot be saved by law. It is easier to induce the rejection of what is considered error than it is to convert sinners to Christ as their sin-offering.
A true story: One spent an hour preaching against women teaching the Bible. When he had finished he extended the gospel (?) invitation to those who were "willing to be guided by the Bible." Hence, in the context of this sermon, one who responded to the invitation did so in protest to the heresy of women teachers. He would have had no reason to think of the cross. There is something wrong with the sermon addressed to sinners that does not lead them to Calvary.
Mutual Helpfulness Enjoined:
Personal Matters
Romans 15:1 --We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Paul is still thinking of the brother "weak in faith" of the previous chapter. The weak brother needs support, not criticism. The spirit of helpfulness rather than the spirit of intolerance characterizes those who are really strong. No one was more tolerant than Jesus. He was the world’s greatest burden bearer. He came to serve man, to bear his reproaches, to bear his sins on the cross.
Romans 15:5 --Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus. Christ set an example of patient helpfulness, and God is characterized by patience. It takes infinite patience to deal with the weaknesses of men. The apostle urges unity so that "with one accord" all may "glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Regarding one’s scruples as divine oracles is a grave danger to the unity of churches. Trifles can destroy fundamentals.
Romans 15:8 --For 1 say that Christ hath been made a minister for the truth of God; that he might confirm the promises given unto the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. The connection of these two verses with the previous discussion seems rather obscure. Is it possible that the trouble relative to eating meat and eating herbs was caused by the two elements, Jews and Gentiles, in the church at Rome? At any rate, Jesus recognized both Jews and Gentiles during his personal ministry. His work was principally with the Jews, but he made reference to the Gentiles taking their place among the Jews in the kingdom of God. (Matthew 8:11.) Note that the Gentiles glorified God for his mercy. Any one with a true knowledge of his own unworthiness and a correct conception of the work of Christ as Saviour is deeply impressed with the mercy of God. The quotations from the Old Testament prophets are to the effect that Jews and Gentiles will worship God together, and both recognize Jesus as their hope.
Romans 15:13 --Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul here recognizes God as the source of hope., and believing as the reason for joy and peace. "Believing" with Paul meant trusting in Jesus as sin-offering and Saviour. He could find no more joy and peace in legalism. Nothing is so comforting to sinful man as the realization that he has a Saviour. One’s doctrine is revealed in his prayer for himself and others, as well as in the fact of his hope, joy, and peace. Many more would be "rejoicing in hope" if they knew that they have a real Saviour in Jesus Christ, and not merely another ruler. Christ is our ruler, but he is a ruling Saviour.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is recognized by Paul as dwelling in the child of God, and producing the Christian virtues. (Romans 8:9; Galatians 5:22.)
Romans 15:16 --That I should be a minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. This is a highly figurative passage. Paul is represented figuratively as performing a priestly office. He uses the gospel in preparing the Gentiles as an offering to God. On the offering of the Gentiles "being sanctified by the Holy Spirit" see Acts 10:44.
Paul rejoiced in the work he had accomplished in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles "from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum." It was his "aim so to preach the gospel of Christ, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man’s foundation." The various problems of mission work require the best talents of mature men. Paul was a natural missionary.
Romans 15:25 --I go unto Jerusalem, ministering to the saints. See Acts 19:21; Acts 20:22; Acts 24:17; 1 Corinthians 16:1; 2 Corinthians 8. This contribution not only supplied the temporal need of the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, but it contributed to the fellowship of Jewish and Gentile Christians. "For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to minister unto them in carnal things."
Romans 15:30 --Now I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. Here is a strong appeal for the prayers of the Christians at Rome. Paul made his plea for their prayers on the basis of Christ, and the love of the Spirit. This last phrase is translated by both Good-sped and Moffatt thus: "The love which the Spirit inspires." Note this from Paul in 5:5: "The love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us." In Galatians 5:22 love is named as the "fruit of the Spirit."
That ye strive . . . in your prayers. Here is sincere and earnest prayer. Here is importunate prayer. Paul believed that prayer was effective. He desired their prayers that he might be "delivered from them that are disobedient in Judea, and that my ministration which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints." Paul had not forgotten the hatred of the unbelieving Jew for him, or the suspicion which the Jewish Christians manifested toward him. Paul was one of the most loved and the most hated men of earth. But when we note who it was that loved him and who it was that hated him, we are caused to appreciate him and love him even more. One of the best recommendations one can have is sometimes found in the character of those who hate him.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1. Tolerance toward the untaught, and not adverse criticism, is an indication of spiritual maturity. Romans 15:1.
2. Why does the apostle refer to God as "the God of patience"?
3. Even trifles can reveal one’s loyalty to Christ: "Be of the same mind one with another ac-cording to Christ Jesus." Romans 15:5. Relate this to chapter 14.
4. Paul again defends his ministry to the Gentiles by an appeal to prophecy. Romans 15:8-12.
5. Note the joy that comes from having a Saviour in whom to trust. Romans 15:13.
6. In Romans 15:16 Paul is figuratively represented as priest making an offering of the Gentiles. Was an apostle ever regarded as a priest officially?
7. Should mission work be left to the immature? Romans 15:20-21.
8. Note that Paul expected prayer to make a difference. Romans 15:30-32.
9. God is a "God of peace," not a "God of con-fusion." Romans 15:32. See 1 Corinthians 14:33. Those who cause strife and confusion should seek another "god."
Salutations and Conclusions
Romans 16:1--1 commend unto you Phoebe our sister . . .for she herself also bath been a helper of many, and of mine own self. People can be classified as helpers or hinderers. Even members of churches can be thus classified. We do not know how Phoebe helped Paul and others, but to be thus commended by so great a man is the greatest recommendation. Here is a humble Woman who is termed a "helper" whose name will be honored as long as time shall last. The world could use many more like her.
Romans 16:3 --Salute Prisca and Aquilla my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks. See Acts 18:2; Acts 18:26. How these two Christians had "laid down their necks" for Paul is not known, but for them he is deeply grateful.
Many others are remembered by Paul of whom we know nothing. It is remarkable how many saints at Rome Paul knew by name.
Romans 16:17 --Mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned: and turn away from them. Here are some hinderers in contrast to those who were helpers. Paul had predicted such persons would arise. (Acts 20:29-30.) See also Acts 15. There can be little doubt that these dividers were Judaizing teachers who opposed Paul’s teaching of justification by grace through faith in Christ as sin-offering. Legalists are always ready to mark them that preach justification as did Paul. Of all persons who should be marked as the most natural and effective enemies of the cross, they are those who preach doctrines that logically nullify the grace of God and the cross of Christ. Paul disliked such persons, because they disliked Christ.
Romans 16:19 --Your obedience is come abroad unto all men. At the beginning of this epistle Paul wrote: "Your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world." Their believing on Christ was obedience, and their obedience was faith. Faith does not exist merely to produce obedience. This would be legal-ism. Faith does produce obedience, but it does much more. It is the response of a lost soul to Christ crucified. It signifies dependence upon the blood of Christ. And the obedience that faith in Christ pro-duces in a sinner means reliance upon Christ as sin-offering.
Romans 16:20 --The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. "God is not a God of confusion, but of peace." He is therefore not the God of those who are characterized by the divisive spirit. Churches that are noted for their internal strife and divisions should find them another "god." The "God of peace" is not their God!
Shall bruise Satan under your feet. See Genesis 3:15. Paul expected final victory of right over wrong. He also considered that Satan is the source of all evil. And, of course, Paul believed in a personal devil. He had had too many close encounters with him not to believe that he existed.
Shortly. As God counts time. (2 Peter 3:8.) Or the word may signify "not the nearness of the event, but the celerity or quickness with which it shall be accomplished." (Godet.)
Romans 16:25 --Now unto him that is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Paul was a great believer in the power of God to accomplish his purposes. (Ephesians 3:20, etc.) The source of spiritual strength is Christ. The gospel is not merely a story about Christ, but the story of Christ and him crucified. Paul again implies what it is to preach the gospel. It is the "preaching of Jesus Christ." He calls it "my gospel," because he had been "separated unto the gospel of God." He lived to preach the gospel, to preach "Jesus Christ and him crucified." The gospel is spoken of as the "mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal." This mystery related to the conversion of the Gentiles. (Ephesians 3:3-6.)
Romans 16:26 --Unto obedience of faith. This phrase is best understood in the light of Paul’s discussion of justification through faith in Christ. Faith with Paul, let it be repeated, is more than a principle of action. The gospel does not exist merely to incite general obedience. It induces obedience in the sinner that means faith in Christ as Saviour. The cross demands trust or reliance as naturally as food demands eating. It does not exclude obedience that embodies faith. But such obedience is faith. For a fuller discussion of this phrase see comments on Romans 1:5.
Romans 16:26 --To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen. One can see in this doxology a hint of much that Paul has stressed in this epistle. Having completed the doctrinal part of Romans, the apostle broke forth in a wonderful expression of praise to the wisdom of God. But his wisdom was revealed through Jesus Christ. And to God and Christ belong all the glory. (Romans 3:27.) Paul never so completely revealed himself as when he was giving glory to God through Jesus Christ. If ever there was a product of pure mercy, it was Paul the Christian. Whoever does not feel the urge to give God thanks for his salvation, would do well to com-pare his conception of Christ with that of Paul.
Here closes one of the most profound works in existence. It can be neglected only at the peril of true Christianity. No one should presume to teach sinners who has not spent many hours with Paul in this charter of Christian faith. The book of The Acts can be understood only when Paul’s discussion of justification is understood. One can learn from The Acts what sinners did to be saved, but Luke does not attempt to give the meaning of what they did. Romans is certain death to formalism and legalism. As long as time shall last students of the scriptures will thank God for Paul.
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
ON CHAPTER SIXTEEN
1. Note the number of friends and helpers Paul called by name.
2. It is an honor to have one’s name in the Scriptures, but it is a greater honor to have one’s name in the "book of life." Philippians 4:3; Revelation 21:27.
3. It there any reason to think that Paul referred to Judaizing teachers in Romans 16:17?
4. Belief in the ability of God is fundamental. See Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:20; Romans 4:24; Colossians 2:12.
5. On the phrase, "the obedience of faith" see under Romans 1:5.
6. Is the expression, "churches of Christ" (Romans 16:16) a title? See "church of God." (1 Corinthians 1:2), and "church of the Thessalonians." (1 Thessalonians 1:1.) What of the practice of using the expression "Church of Christ" to the exclusion of "Church of God"?
Concluding Remarks
Though great emphasis has been given the necessity of preaching Christ as sin-offering in former pages, a few concluding remarks are considered in order.
The gospel has not been preached when the cross has been ignored. This is true because to preach the gospel is to preach the cross. "For Christ sent me to preach the gospel: not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made void. For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness." (1 Corinthians 1:17-18.) To preach on the duty of benevolence or of holiness is not to preach the cross or the gospel in the sense of Romans 1:16. Simply because a sermon is the truth on some subject, or because it is learned and eloquent, it must not be considered a substitute for the gospel of Christ. Or again, because a sermon stresses one command, or more than one command, addressed to sinners, it must not be considered a gospel sermon, unless the cross is also preached.
A true story: A man of learning and repute preached an eloquent sermon addressed to sinners. In this sermon Christ as sin-offering was completely ignored. From this sermon no sinner could have learned anything about Christ as Saviour. Had a sinner responded to the invitation at the close of this sermon, he could have had no intention of responding to Christ crucified. He could have done no more than "render humble obedience" to some commands given by Christ. He could have done no more than offer his obedience in exchange for salvation? The truth concerning this sermon is tragic: It was a Christless, crossless, bloodless, graceless sermon! No gospel is just as bad as a perverted gospel.
Let us not have faith in men, but in God. Paul deliberately under-sold himself, "that (as he wrote the Corinthians) your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." When Peter by his actions denied the universality of the gospel Paul wrote: "I resisted him to the face, because he stood condemned." (Galatians 2:11.) Great men can do great harm. The masses are inclined to follow names rather than Scripture.
The words of Emerson are timely here:
"If I know your sect I anticipate your argument. I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word? Do I not know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side, the permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish minister? He is a retained attorney, and these airs of the bench are the emptiest affectation."
Emerson has so well expressed the sentiments of so many!
Another literary genius has well said:
Some ne’er advance a judgment of their own,
But catch the spreading notion of the town;
They reason and conclude by precedent,
And own stale nonsense which they ne’er invent.
Some judge of authors’ names, not works, and then
Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.
--Alexander Pope.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter One
Chapter One
I. APOSTOLIC GREETING—Romans 1:1-7
Verse 1: "Servant"—doulos—slave: name of honor applied to a chief minister of a king. Denotes the high authority of Paul as the chief minister of Christ.
"Apostle"—called (not to be)—but a called apostle. He was an apostle—but more—a called apostle (verbal adjective. )
"Separated"—from all other lines of activity—one thing—the gospel.
"Of God"—origin—Paul was not preaching his own conceptions— the gospel that God revealed to him.
Verse 2: Parenthesis—the scriptures the Jews relied on promised the gospel which he was preaching.
Verses 3-4: "Concerning his Son". The gospel originated with God, but concerned his Son—centered in Christ—who is "Son", "Lord", "Jesus", "Christ"—an array of titled credentials.
"Seed of David"—"made of"—"according to the flesh." Human nature, the son of David—divine nature, the Son of God. Made of the genealogy proof. "Declared"—the resurrection proof.
Verses 5-7: "Grace and apostleship". First, his conversion; then his apostleship. Purpose; "for obedience to the faith"—the gospel—unto which called—through his preaching to all nations—Gentiles—to all, not one, (See Addendum on Verses 1-6, )
"Among whom"—the nations referred to—"ye are also the called"— of Christ, by the obedience refers to how called—of whom called— when called—what calling made them.
"Called saints"—(not to be) kind of saints they were—they were called saints—(verbal adjective). A called apostle, to called saints.
Points out how one becomes a saint—called by the gospel—not merely a claim or designation.
II. INTRODUCTION REFERS TO
PERSONAL FEELINGS-----Romans 1:8-15
Verse 8: "Your faith"—known so far—spoken of—"whole world"— the Roman Empire. "First, thank God"—glad at the start that he is writing to an already good, widely influential church.
Verse 9: "With my spirit"—not referring to his sincerity, but the inner man. "In the gospel"—things received—revealed in gospel—as rule or law of serving God—appointed by.
Verses 10-12: "By will of God"—his own plans subject to God’s will.
"Impart spiritual gift"—not mere benefit of his teaching. His letter could do that—but special, spiritual gifts by impartation, which required his presence. Threefold benefit—"Establish", or confirm; "comforted together, " by "mutual faith. " Threefold effect of spiritual gifts—con-firmation, comfort, fellowship (confidence).
Verses 13-15: "Let hitherto"—refers to plans of his own making— else not defeated. "Fruit among Gentiles"—as children whom he had begotten—1 Corinthians 4:15—"Other Gentiles"—Romans as a nation.
"Debtor"—Paul’s debt—not anything they had done for him to bring him in debt to them. The obligation of apostleship—his call—calling. Being an apostle to the Gentiles, he was bound to preach to all—1 Corinthians 9:16.
"As much as in me is"—not referring to ability—or according to ability—but—"as for my part"—"in accordance with duty"—result of debt of apostleship. His ability was bestowed—inspired—his part—that which was in him as an apostle—was to preach the gospel in Rome.
"Also"—he had preached it to the Athenians—where Virgil sang—where Homer swayed the multitudes in Homeric eloquence; now to the seven hills of the Roman Caesaro.
III. THE FUNDAMENTAL THEME
OF THE EPISTLE-----Romans 1:16-17
Verse 16: "Not ashamed"—of source, of subject, of revelator, of life and goal—"gospel of Christ"—concerning verse three, of Bethlehem birth, Nazareth parentage, Galilean followers, Roman cross—contrast Saul, the Pharisee—Roman—and Paul the apostle of Christ.
"Power of God"—creative power—world, man. Physical power— motion, gravity, magnetism, cohesion, adhesion—laws of nature, powers of God.
Saving power. Connection between thing moved, and power to move it.
"Unto salvation"—gospel is power (of God) to move sinner out of sin into salvation.
Limiting God’s power. Does power through the Word limit God? The direct operation of the Holy Spirit theory limits power of word, therefore limits power of God—i. e. Can God make a gospel powerful enough to save? If no—then, that limits God’s power. If so, then the gospel either is—or else God could but wouldn’t.
"To every one that believeth"—not power to save an unbeliever— power applied to believer—(1) believer (2) power (3) save—(see article in TORCH, Vol. 1, No. 11, Oct. -Nov. 1951, pp. 1-3). Difference in salvation as the end, and the road that leads to it.
"To Jew first, also to the Greek"—why first and also?
Verse 17: "For therein"—states why the gospel is power to save. What it reveals.
"The righteousness of God"—not attribute of God. God is author of righteousness which gospel reveals. The way for sinner to become righteous. How God makes man righteous—revealed in gospel. Right-eousness is justification—only by forgiveness. Gospel reveals how God forgives sinner, hence, how God makes man just, hence, reveals the justification of God.
"From faith to faith"—gospel reveals that righteousness (justifica-tion) is "from faith"—(proceeds from)—not from the law. "To faith"— EIS in order to faith. The gospel preached by Paul revealed to the Jew that righteousness is from faith (not law) hence, to induce faith in the hearer. Thus, "the just by faith"—not by law)—"shall live"—live, saved—life the gospel offers. (See Addendum on Verses 16-17. )
IV. UNIVERSAL NEED OF GOSPEL-
APPLIED TO MORAL CONDITION
OF GENTILE WORLD--Romans 1:18-32
Verse 18: "The wrath of God"—legal wrath. Gospel reveals two things—(1) Righteousness of God (justification), and (2) wrath of God—legal judgment.
"Against all ungodliness"—impiety toward God—all disrespect for God is ungodliness—brings judgment.
"Unrighteousness of men"—all injustice toward men—the under-lying cause.
"Hold the truth in unrighteousness"—Hold—hinder—impious men in unrighteousness hinder the truth.
Verses 19-25: Known of God—manifest in them—shewed unto them.
Manifested in—to them; shown unto, among them. In two ways: creation, and revelation—verse 20—"without excuse". From Noah on— a common ancestry—"knowing God"—verse 21—through Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph (Egypt), Jonah (Nineveh), Daniel (Babylon), Jews— always had source of knowledge—all the Gentile world—(verse 21).
"Glorified not"—turned from God for "vain imaginations"—"hearts darkened"—by blind guesses—vanity of heathen abandonment of true God.
"Professing wise—became fools"—verse 22. Made without a maker! Nothing started us—nothing keeps us going!
"Changed the glory of God"—verse 23—whom they knew—but not kind of God they wanted—changed.
"Into image made like man"—an uncorruptible God—made into image of corruptible man—one man factory—contrast idols—"to birds, four-footed beasts, creeping things"—common images—with glory of God.
"Wherefore God also gave them up"—verse 24—also—they gave God up first.
"To uncleanness, lust, dishonor... bodies... themselves"— when they dishonored God, soon dishonored own bodies—plunged into depth of degrading immorality—no restoration—having rejected God.
"Changed truth of God into lie"—verse 25—exchanged truth about God for system of speculations—pantheism—polytheism—God of heaven, not God they wanted—rejected him from their system of pseudo-knowledge and heathen philosophy.
Verses 26-32: Enumerating social sins.
"Gave them up to vile affections"—verses 26-27: (1) They had already dishonored God. (2) Next, they dishonor their own bodies.
(3) Finally, they dishonor each other. A dark picture which history verifies.
"Did not retain God in knowledge—a reprobate mind—do things not convenient"—things not becoming—universal injustice.
"All unrighteousness"—verse 29—outcropping of evil minds. "Wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness"—baseness toward others
by all.
"Murder"—like gladiators in arena. "Malignity"—malicious taking of human life.
"Haters of God"—verse 30—defy God, then hate God—in their hate of what is good.
"Inventors of evil things"—devising new forms of indulgence— innovations—novelties—in evil practices.
"Disobedient"—severance of ties between parents and children. "Implacable"—irreconcilable to God and right—verse 31.
"Without understanding"—no understanding of true philosophy of life morally. Revelation does not create new faculties—only guides.
"Worthy of death—not only do—but pleasure in them that do"— verse 32. They not only sin, but delight in making it universal practice. Worthy of the state of death—forfeiture of true life—into which fallen—as penalty. (See Addendum on Verses 18-32. )
Note: Refutation of idea that if one is an alien it does not matter what they do!
Question: What about the heathen without the gospel?
Answer: Same as before there was a gospel—and as if there never had been one yet. Drowning man in boat—Means—what if no boat?
LESSON 1
INTRODUCTION
READ Romans 1:1-7
1. Who wrote this epistle? Ans. Romans 1:1.
2. Who was his amanuensis? Ans. Romans 16:22.
3. To whom is the letter addressed?
Ans. Romans 1:7. (Note the letter was not written to Romans only,
but to all Christians in Rome regardless of nationality).
4. When and from where was it written?
Ans. According to the best chronology it was written A. D. 58,
probably from Corinth.
5. Tell of Paul’s ancestry, early life, and religious training.
Ans. Acts 22:3-5; Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:4-6.
6. What was his former name? Ans. Acts 8:1; Acts 9:1.
7. Tell of his conversion. Ans. Acts 9:3-19; Acts 22:6-16.
8. What two languages had he learned to speak? Ans. Acts 21:37-40.
9. How had Paul obtained Roman citizenship, and of what benefit
was it to him? Ans. Acts 22:25-29; Acts 16:35-40.
10. Give three facts which Paul states concerning himself, and explain
the meaning of each. Ans. Romans 1:1.
11. Give five facts which characterized the "gospel of God".
Ans. a. It is God’s gospel. (Romans 1:1).
b. pod formerly promised it. (Romans 1:2).
c. He promised it through his prophets. (Romans 1:2).
d. He promised it in the holy Scriptures. (Romans 1:2).
e. The gospel concerns God’s Sou. (Romans 1:3).
12. Give a prophecy in which the gospel concerning God’s Son was
promised. Ans. Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:18-21.
13. According to the flesh, Jesus was the Seed of whom? Ans. Born. 1: S.
14. According to his pure spirit, whose Son is he? Ans. Romans 1:4.
15. What is declared or determined regarding Jesus "by the resurrection
of the dead"? Ans. Romans 1:4.
16. Name two things that Paul had received through Christ.
Ans. Romans 1:5.
17. When did he receive God’s grace? Ans. 1 Timothy 1:13-16; Acts 22:16.
18. What was the object of his apostolic mission?
Ans. Romans 1:5; Acts 26:16-18.
19. How are men called to Christ? Ans. Romans 1:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
20. Give three facts pertaining to the Christians in Rome.
Ans. a. They were called of Christ. (Romans 1:6).
b. They were beloved of God. (Romans 1:7).
c. They were called to be saints. (Romans 1:7).
21. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this
lesson. Ans. Romans 1:1-7.
TOPICS FOR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT AND CLASS DISCUSSION
1. City Of Rome In Paul’s Day.
2. The Life Of Paul.
a. His ancestry.
b. Religious training.
c. His conversion.
d. Letters and sermons.
LESSON 2
A PRAYER AND A PURPOSE
READ Romans 1:8-17
1. Why did Paul thank God for the Christians in Rome?
Ans. Romans 1:8.
2. Concerning what fact was God his witness? Ans. Romans 1:9.
3. What request did Paul always make in his prayers? Ans. Romans 1:10.
4. ’Why did he long to see the brethren in Rome? Ans. Romans 1:11.
5. Name some spiritual gifts possessed by the early Christians.
Ans. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.
6. How were these miraculous powers of the Spirit given?
Ans. Acts 8:14-19.
7. What was the purpose of spiritual gifts?
Ans. Romans 1:11; Hebrews 2:4; 1 Corinthians 14:22.
8. When did miraculous gifts of the Spirit cease?
Ans. 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.
9. Why do we not need miraculous gifts today?
Ans. John 20:30-31; 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
10. What mutual blessing could be expected by Paul’s visit to Rome?
Ans. Romans 1:12.
11. Why had he not visited them hitherto? Ans. Romans 1:13.
12. Under what circ*mstances did he later go to Rome?
Ans. Acts 25:11-12; Acts 27:1-2; Acts 28:16-30.
13. Paul considered himself under obligation to whom? Ans. Romans 1:14.
14. What if he failed to meet that obligation? Ans. 1 Corinthians 9:16.
15. To what extent was he ready to preach the gospel in Rome?
Ans. Romans 1:15.
16. Why was he not ashamed of. the gospel? Ans. Romans 1:16.
17. To whom is it the power of God unto salvation? Ans. Romans 1:16.
18. What is revealed therein? Ans. Romans 1:17.
19. Name three great facts of the gospel. Ans. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.
20. How did Paul’s attitude toward these facts differ from the attitude
of unbelieving Jews and Gentiles?
Ans. 1 Corinthians 1:23-24; Romans 1:16.
21. Give three fundamental commands of the gospel.
Ans. Acts 16:31; Acts 17:30; Acts 2:38.
22. Name three great promises of the gospel.
Ans. Acts 2:38; Acts 5:32• 2 Corinthians 5:1-3; Romans 6:23.
23. How and when were the Jews on Pentecost saved by the gospel?
Ans. Acts 2:22-41.
24. When and how were the Samaritans saved by the gospel?
Ans. Acts 8:4-6; Acts 8:12-13.
25. What of those who do not obey the gospel?
Ans. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; 1 Peter 4:17.
26. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this
lesson. Ans. Romans 1:8-17.
TOPICS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION OR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1. Miraculous Gifts.
a. How received.
b. Their purpose.
c. Their end.
2. The Gospel.
a. Its facts.
b. Its commands.
c. Its promises.
LESSON 3
THE DEPRAVITY OF GENTILES WHO EXCHANGED
THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR A LIE
READ Romans 1:18-32
1. Against what is the wrath of God revealed from heaven?
Ans. Romans 1:18.
2. Who has shown or manifested this revelation unto them?
Ans. Romans 1:19.
3. Name some invisible traits of God that are perceived through "the
things that are made". Ans. Romans 1:20; Acts 14:17.
4. What do the heavens and the creatures of the earth reveal concerning the attributes of God? Ans. Psalms 19:1; Psalms 50:6; Job 12:7-10.
5. Why were these Gentiles without excuse for their wickedness?
Ans. Romans 1:20.
6. Even though God had made himself known to them, in what two
things had they failed? Ans. Romans 1:21.
7. How were their hearts affected? Ans. Romans 1:21.
8. When men become fools by reasoning God and truth out of their
lives, what do they usually profess themselves to be? Ans. Romans 1:22.
9. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for what?
Ans. Romans 1:23.
10. What is your conclusion regarding an image or "crucifix" as an aid
to worship? Ans. Romans 1:23; Deuteronomy 5:8-10; Psalms 115:4-8; Isaiah
44:9-11; Jeremiah 10:14-15; Acts 17:24-30; 1 John 5:21.
11. What did God do regarding these unrighteous people who exchanged the truth for a lie and worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator? Ans. Romans 1:24-25.
12. Describe the unnatural deterioration of these people whom God
gave up to vile passions. Ans. Romans 1:26-27.
13. Name and discuss the many sins of these people who refused to
have God in their knowledge. Learn the definition of each sin
named. Ans. Romans 1:28-31.
14. How do we know these sins were not committed in ignorance?
Ans. Romans 1:32.
15. What distinction did Jesus make between the sinner who knows
better and the one who does not know? Ans. Luke 12:47-48; Matt.
11:20-24.
16. What means has God chosen for the salvation of both Jew and
Gentile? Ans. Romans 1:16.
17. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 1:18-32.
TOPICS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION OR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1. What We Learn About God From The Natural World.
2. The "Crucifix" And Other Religious Images.
3. Difference Between Sinners Who Know Better And Those Who Do
Not Know.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Two
Chapter Two
I. CONDITION OF THE JEWS—Romans 2:1-11
Verse 1: "Inexcusable, 0 man"—Jewish man.
Judgest... doest same"—pass sentence, as worthy of death— same.
Verse 2: "Judgment according to truth"—proves universal need of saving power 1:16—verse 2:16.
"Commit such"—habit, practice—God’s judgment consistent—theirs inconsistent. Exempt selves.
Verse 3: "Thinkest thou"—because of being a Jew—"escape judg-ment".
Does not mean: if judge another guilty of crime, one becomes guilty, too—Paul charged many crimes against them in chapter one— does he thereby condemn himself?
Means: By doing the same things which they condemned in Gentiles the Jews came under their own sentence—by judging others worthy of death.
Verse 4: "Goodness... forbearance... repentance"—God had been longsuffering to Jews. God intended it as means to induce repentance. But the Jews in their culpable ignorance did not consider this design. "Riches of goodness"—wealth—abundant. "Forbearance"—kind dealing.
Verse 5: "Hardness and impenitent heart"—Holding back disposi-tion—morally insensible. "Treasurest up wrath against day of wrath"—collect—heap. "Revelation of righteous judgment"—display wrath—disclose judgment.
Verse 6: "Render every man according to deeds"—not every deed counted and balanced—but kind of works reveal the sort of man. Words—deed—judge man.
Verse 7: "To them that seek"—God gives eternal life, but gives what we seek. That shows what eternal life is—Matthew 19.
Verses 8-9: "Unto them that do not obey". Eternal life versus interminable existence. Possession of things mentioned.
Verse 10: "To every man that worketh good". God’s side all grace—no pay. Man’s side all obedience—can furnish no grace.
Verse 11: Both salvation and damnation—conditional. (See Adden-dum on Verses 5-10. )
II. NATURAL AND REVEALED LAW—Romans 1:2-16
Verse 12: "Without the law"—the Jew sinned against law—the Gentile sinned against conscience.
Verse 13: "Not hearers but doers". The Jew hearer—professes— pretends—condemned by law—while Gentile doer justified in con-science.
Verse 14: "Do by nature"—no revealed, written law. By nature of existence practice.
Verse 15: "Law written in hearts"—"conscience bearing witness"— "thoughts accuse—excuse. " What one is conscious of. Note two words of Greek and English. Conscience not a guide—not for education. Backs moral judgment. Get correct information, then heed conscience.
Verse 16: "In the day when God shall judge. " Note the parenthesis from verse 13 to 15—connect verse 16 with verse 12. "Shall be judged by the law in the day when God shall judge...according to gospel. "
III. CONDITION OF THE JEWS—Romans 2:17-29
Verse 17: "Thou art called a Jew... rest in law... make thy boast. " Name Jew—ground of safety with God—confidence in law—but their boast a sham—proud, arrogant of Judah—name wearer.
Verse 18: "Know and approve. " Superiority in knowledge. In-structed in right distinctions—distinguishing things legal.
Verses 19-20: "Thou thyself a guide...instructor...teacher...form of knowledge... truth in law"—a teacher who does not teach himself—preach better than practice—taught much—practiced little. Form of knowledge, not real—only shaping—outlining.
Verse 21: "Thou that teachest... preachest. " Reproof by compari-son—rob—despoil. Sacrilege—profaning temple, holy things by tradi-tions,
Verse 24: "Blasphemed"—effect on Gentiles whom they would proselyte.
IV. THE SPIRIT OF CIRCUMCISION—Romans 2:25-29
Verse 25: "Circumcision profits if"—no value to Jew who did not live right.
Verse 26: "If the uncircumcision"—The Gentile accepted without circumcision if he did live right, because circumcision not commanded to Gentile.
Verse 27: "Uncircumcision judge thee. " Jew who did not keep law—condemned by Gentile who by nature fulfills it. Why, then boast of a covenant token, if the covenant is broken.
Verse 28: "Not Jew outwardly... not circumcision in flesh. " Cutting off of stubbornness in heart and sinfulness of the flesh.
Verse 29: "A Jew inwardly... circumcision of heart. " Christian Gentile—God’s Jew—vice-versa.
"Praise not of men, but of God"—an honest Gentile better than a corrupt Jew.
LESSON 4
IMPARTIALITY OF GOD’S JUDGMENT
READ Romans 2:1-16
1. Why are the Jews, as well as Gentiles, without excuse for their sins?
Ans. Romans 2:1.
2. How do sinners condemn themselves in their condemnation of
of others? Ans. Romans 2:1.
3. How does man’s judgment often differ from God’s judgment?
Ans. Romans 2:2; 1 Samuel 16:7; Leviticus 19:15; Isaiah 11:3-4; Jno. 8:15.
4. What warning did Jesus give about judging others? Ans. Matthew 7:1-2.
5. How do we know that the Jews, as well as Gentiles, will be judged
according to the realities of the case and without any personal
consideration? Ans. Romans 2:3; Romans 2:6.
6. What is the purpose of God’s goodness, forbearance and longsuffering? Ans. Romans 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9.
7. What is repentance? Ans. See Matthew 12:41 in the light of Jonah 3:10.
8. What do all impenitent hearts heap unto themselves? Ans. Romans 2:5.
9. How do we know that the judgment of God will be righteous and
impartial? Ans. Romans 2:6.
10. To whom will God render eternal life? Romans 2:7.
11. Who will receive wrath, tribulation and anguish? Ans. Romans 2:8-9.
12. What rewards will be conferred, and on whom, in the day of judgment? Ans. Romans 2:10.
13. How do we know that Jews and Gentiles stand on the same level?
Ans. Romans 2:11; Acts 10:34.
14. What of those who have sinned without the law? Ans. Romans 2:12.
15. What of those who have sinned under the law? Ans. Romans 2:12.
16. What distinction is made between the doers of God’s will and hearers only? Ans. Romans 2:13; Matthew 7:24-27; James 1:22-25.
17. Can you prove that God, in some way, had made his will known
to the Gentiles, even though he had not given them the written law
of Moses? Ans. Romans 2:14-15; Romans 1:19-21; Romans 1:32.
18. What will be brought to light in the day of judgment?
Ans. Romans 2:16; Ecclesiastes 12:14.
19. By whom will God judge the secrets of men?
Ans. Romans 2:16; Acts 17:31.
20. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this
lesson. Ans. Romans 2:1-16.
TOPICS FOR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT AND CLASS DISCUSSION
1. Judging Others.
2. Impartiality Of God.
3. Repentance From Sin.
LESSON 5
VAIN CONCEIT AND INCONSISTENT CONDUCT OF THE JEWS
READ Romans 2:17-29
1. By what name did many of Abraham’s descendants proudly call
themselves? Ans. Romans 2:17.
2. Give two other names by which they were called.
Ans. Romans 11:1; 2 Corinthians 11:22; Philippians 3:5.
3. The name, "Hebrew", was first applied to whom? Ans. Genesis 14:13.
4. Give the origin and meaning of the name, "Israel".
Ans. Genesis 32:24-28; Genesis 35:9-10.
5. The name, "Jew", was first applied to whom?
Ans. 2 Kings 16:6; Esther 2:5.
6. In what name should we glorify God? Ans. 1 Peter 4:16.
7. What name is blasphemed by some? Ans. James 2:7.
8. In what did the Jew rest as a ground of safety, and of whom did he
proudly boast? Ans. Romans 2:17.
9. Name several other things in which the Jew made pretentious claims
of superiority over others. Ans. Romans 2:18-20.
10. How does Paul show that the Jew’s conduct was not consistent with
his teaching? Ans. Romans 2:21-23.
11. What evil effect did these inconsistencies have on the Gentiles?
Ans. Romans 2:24.
12. What did Jesus say of the scribes and Pharisees who did not practice
what they preached? Ans. Matthew 23:1-5.
13. What reason did Peter give for consistent Christian living?
Ans. 1 Peter 2:11-12; 1 Peter 3:1-2.
14. Upon what condition could circumcision be of any benefit to the
Jew? Ans. Romans 2:25.
15. Upon what condition could the uncircumcision receive the benefits
of circumcision? Ans. Romans 2:26.
18. How could the. Gentile who had neither the law nor circumcision
judge or condemn the Jew who had both the letter and circumcision? Ans. Romans 2:27.
17. What is meant by the "outward Jew" and "outward circumcision"?
Ans. Romans 2:28; Ephesians 2:11.
18. Who is a Jew "inwardly", and what is "circumcision of the heart"?
Ans. Romans 2:29; Philippians 3:3.
19. In what sense have all Christians been circumcised? Ans. Colossians 2:11.
20. In what act of obedience did this circumcision of the heart take
place? Ans. Colossians 2:11-12.
21. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this
lesson. Ans. Romans 2:17-29.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1. The Origin And Meaning Of The Names, Hewbrew, Israel, And Jew.
2. Consistent Christian Living.
3. Circumcision Of The Heart.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Three
Chapter Three
I. SUPERIOR PRIVILEGES
OF THE LAW—Romans 3:1-20
Verse 1: "What advantage then hath Jew"—Jews might think Paul meant no advantage in being a Jew—or no advance profit.
Privileges, but not morals—before law—if they lived up to law, all else theirs.
Verse 2: "Much every way—chiefly—oracles" chief benefit in being a Jew—having oracles committed.
Verse 3: "What if some did not believe"—objection: unfaithfulness of Jews, interfere with God’s promise? Would God be false to his promise, because they were unfaithful to him?
Verse 4: "God forbid. . . let God be true". Let God be true no matter what theories man may have—his promises conditional.
"It is written... justified in sayings... overcome when judged."
Truth of God only basis of justifying our words for private judgment.
Verse 5: "Our righteousness commends righteousness of God"— what? Another objection: "I speak as a man"—what man says, not God.
Verse 6: "God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world." Answer to objection of verse five. If God is unrighteous in punishing a thing that displayed his own righteousness—how judge the world.
Verse 7: "If truth of God... abound through lie... why judged sinner. " Jews regarded gospel a lie—hence, Paul’s lie because he preached it. Paul’s gospel—Paul’s lie. Adapting their logic, they should excuse him.
Verse 8: "Do evil... good come"—false charge—"damnation just"—wrong—condemnation just. Doing evil is wrong—regardless of result—condemned justly.
II. EQUAL STANDING OF
JEW AND GENTILE—Romans 3:9-20
Verse 9: "Are we better—all under sin—before proved". Object of all he had said from chapter one was to prove that both Jew and Gentile under condemnation and needed the gospel, God’s power to save them.
Verse 10: "As written"—to establish this, quotes copiously from prophets—"none righteousness, not one"—moral condition of Jews before law, no better.
Verse 11: "None understand... seek" referring to Jews accurate knowledge of kingdom.
Verse 12: "All gone out of way... unprofitable, none doeth good"—all indifferent toward God.
Verse 13: "Throat... tongues... lips... mouth... feet. "
Verse 14: Offensive speech.
Verse 15: Blood thirsty.
Verse 16: Cruel hearted.
Verse 17: Savage—no love for peace.
Verse 18: No fear of God.
Verse 19: "What things law saith...to them under the law." Having quoted the law—(entire Old Testament from verse 10 to verse 18)—he applies it to Jews themselves who were under it—proving by their law that they were under guilt—"every mouth stopped"—"all guilty before God. "
Verse 20: "By deeds of law. . . no flesh justified in his sight. " —No flesh—whether it be Jew or Gentile. In his sight—not man’s line of demarcation. No justification, could not keep it perfectly.
"By law knowledge of sin"—Revealed their guilt, brought sense of guilt to the Jew himself.
Paul thus proved by their own law that Jew was under same condemnation as the Gentile.
III. RIGHTEOUSNESS A PART FROM
LEGAL WORKS—Romans 3:21-31
Verse 21: "Righteousness without lawmanifested." Righteousness— how God makes the sinner just.
Point established: Gentiles had not lived up to natural law, and were therefore condemned, also.
"Witnessed by law and prophets". Both law and prophets bear witness to this plan now brought to light—testified—Romans 1:1; Luke 24:45-48.
Verse 22: "Even the righteousness of God by faith." Back to chapter 1:17—now—present.
Verse 23: "For all have sinned"—same gospel—same righteousness. Verse 24: "Justified by grace through redemption." Read verses 21
and 24 leaving out parenthesis of verses 22 and 23. Grace, favor-bestowed need without pay—forgiveness the need—grace provided for it—"through redemption in Jesus Christ. "
Verse 25: "Whom... propitiation... through faith... to declare righteousness." Appease—satisfaction—declare just—not guilty—either by keeping law perfectly or by forgiveness—which?
Verse 26: "Just...the justifier...them that believe." A just God, the justifier of whom? the believer, not unbeliever: (1) Believe first, (2) afterward, justified.
Verse 27: "Where is boasting? It is excluded." Justification not personal favor to a Jew.
"By what law? Of works?" Must rely on another, not self.
"By the law of faith"—hence, forgiveness is cause for humility.
Verse 28: "Conclude...a man is justified by faith...without deeds of law." The works of the law versus the obedience of faith. But justification is not without law—"the law of faith. "
Verse 29: "The God of Jews only?"—favorable to Jews only? No, also the Gentiles—justification not personal, but legal, in law of faith. No amount of works changes fact of being a sinner; hence, forgiveness necessary—which faith (the gospel), not the law provides.
Verse 30: "Seeing it is one God that shall justify"—one God—one plan—God the judge and the jury—sorry for the sinner, both Jew and Gentile—makes way for both to pass over both natural and revealed laws—to be justified.
"By faith... through faith"—By faith: origin, source, agent—not by circumcision, to Jews. Through faith: gospel sufficient means, without a subsidiary—circumcision—to Gentile.
To Jew circumcision not an issue—he already had it—but circum-cision not the agent of his justification—"by faith"—not by circumcision. But Jews and Gentiles must be circumcised in addition to faith— gospel plus circumcision for Gentiles. Through faith—completion— nothing added—Jew not permitted to make gospel an adjunct of circumcision and law. Through faith without the law—verse 27— finished and complete—without anything added to it.
Background Acts 15—To the Judaizing Christians—not the unbelieving Jew—gospel an adjunct—auxiliary—supplement.
Verse 31: "Void the law... establish law"—Faith does not void law—it is a law. (See Addendum on Verses 27 and 30. )
LESSON 6
OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES DECLARE BOTH
JEW AND GENTILE UNDER SIN
READ Romans 3:1-20
1. State the two questions with which this chapter opens.
Ans. Romans 3 : L
2. What had Paul said which might lead the Jew to the erroneous
conclusion that there was no advantage in being a Jew even under
the law? Ans. Romans 2:25-29.
3. What chief advantage did the Jews have?
Ans. Romans 3:2; Romans 9:3-5; Deuteronomy 4:8; Psalms 147:19.
4. When and where were they entrusted with the "oracles of God"?
Ans. Deuteronomy 5:1-5; Acts 7:38.
5. How did they manifest their unfaithfulness to this trust?
Ans. Acts 7:38-41; 1 Corinthians 10:1-10; Hebrews 3:7-11.
6. What effect does man’s unfaithfulness have on the "faithfulness of
God"? Ans. Romans 3:3-4.
7. Upon what condition is God released from his threats and promises
without affecting his fidelity? Ans. Jeremiah 18:7-10; Ezekiel 18:25-32;
Ezekiel 33:13-20.
8. Why was God’s fidelity not affected by the change in his attitude
toward Eli’s house? Ans. 1 Samuel 2:27-30.
9. Give an instance in which God did not early out a threat against
a people, and tell why he repented of the evil which he said he
would do unto them. Ans. Jonah 3:1-10.
10. Who is true always, in spite of the lies of men? Ans. Romans 3:4.
11. Give Paul’s reference to David’s testimony regarding the righteousness of God’s words and judgment. Ans. Romans 3:4; Psalms 51:4.
12. Is Cod unrighteous in visiting the sinner with wrath? Why?
Ans. Romans 3:5-6.
13. How do we know Paul was using the language of objectors, and
not his own, in his questions regarding the righteousness of God?
Ans. Romans 3:5.
14. What had he been slanderously reported as saying? Ans. Romans 3:7-8.
15. What charge had been laid to both Jew and Gentile?
Ans. Romans 3:9.
16. Having reaffirmed the charge in verse 9 that both Jews and Gentiles
are under sin, Paul presents in verses 10 to 18 a chain of Old Testament
quotations to prove this charge. Show how each of his citations proves
the guilt of the Jews:
a. Give David’s testimony of universal unrighteousness. (Rom.
3:10-12; Psalms 1-3; Psalms 53:1-3).
b. What is said of their throat and tongues and lips? (Romans 3:13;
Psalms 5:9; Psalms 140:3).
c. Their mouth was full of what? (Romans 3:14; Psalms 10:7).
d. What’ had Isiah said about their feet ’and their ways? (Rom.
3:15-17; Isaiah 59:7-8).
e. They had no fear of whom? (Romans 3:18; Psalms 36:1).
17. How do we know that these Old Testament quotations had direct
reference to the guilt of the Jews? Ans. Romans 3:19.
18. By what kind of works shall no one be justified? Ans. Romans 3:20.
19. To what then must all look for salvation?
Ans. Romans 1:16-17; Galatians 2:16-17.
20. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 3:1-20.
TOPICS FOR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT AND DISCUSSION
1. Advantages Of The Jews Under The Law.
2. The Promises And Warnings Of God.
LESSON 7
JUSTIFICATION THROUGH THE GOSPEL, AND NOT BY THE LAW
READ Romans 3:21-31
1. Justification by the law being impossible (Romans 3:20), what has
God manifested, apart from the law? Ans. Romans 3:21.
2. By what had the divine method of justification been witnessed or
foretold? Ans. Romans 3:21; Romans 16:26.
3. What had the prophets said about this new plan of justification?
Ans. Habakkuk 2:4; Acts 10:43; Acts 3:22-24.
4. How do we know that man’s salvation is conditional under this
method of justification? Ans. Romans 3:22; Hebrews 5:8-9.
5. How do we know it is for both Jew and Gentile alike?
Ans. Romans 3:22.
6. Why are all in need of justification? Ans. Romans 3:23.
7. Who paid the price of our redemption? Ans. Romans 3:24.
8. What has been set forth, by the grace of God, to be a propitiation or
atonement for sin?
Ans. Romans 3:25; Leviticus 17:11; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:13-14; I Jno. 1:7.
9. What is the real propitiatory sacrifice for the sins committed before
Christ died on the cross? Ans. Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 10:1-7.
10. What has God shown through the atoning sacrifice of Christ?
Ans. Romans 3:26.
11. All boasting is excluded by what kind of law? Ans. Romans 3:27.
12. In what had the Jews boasted? Ans. Romans 2:23.
13. By what are men justified, and by what are they not justified?
Ans. Romans 3:28.
14. What is your conclusion regarding the "doctrine of justification by
faith only"?
Ans. James 2:24; Galatians 5:6; Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 1:22.
15. When is faith of no profit? Ans. James 2:14-16.
16. What is a "dead" faith? Ans. James 2:17; James 2:26.
17. When is faith barren? Ans. James 2:18-20.
18. How is faith made perfect? Ans. James 2:21-22.
19. When is faith reckoned for righteousness? Ans. James 2:21-25.
20. Name two kinds of believers and give examples of each kind.
Ans. a. Obedient believers. (Acts 6:7; Hebrews 11:7-8).
b. Disobedient believers. (Jno. 8:31, 44; 12:42-43; Acts 26:27;
James 2:19).
21. By what kind of works can no one be justified?
Ans. a. Works of the law of Moses. (Galatians 2:16).
b. Works of the flesh. (Galatians 5:19).
c. Works of darkness. (Ephesians 5:11; Romans 13:12).
d. Evil works. (Colossians 1:21).
e. Dead works. (Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 9:14).
f. Works of the devil. (I Jno. 3:8).
22. By what kind of works is one justified?
Ans. Jno. 9:4; Acts 26:20; Jno. 6:28-29; James 2:24.
23. Why does God receive both Jew and Gentile upon the same terms
of obedient faith? Ans. Romans 3:29-30; Acts 17:26-29.
24. Since justification is through the gospel and not by the law, is the
law useless? Ans. Born. 3:31; 7:12.
25. What did Paul teach regarding the law to establish its usefulness?
Ans. a. That he established it. (Romans 3:31).
b. That it created and revived a consciousness of sin. (Rom.
7:7-13).
c. That it foreshadowed the good things to come by types and
prophecies. (Hebrews 10:1).
d. That it was a school master to bring the Jews to Christ.
(Galatians 3:24).
26. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 3:21-31.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1. Salvation By Faith.
2. Two Kinds Of Believers.
3. Works That Cannot Save.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Four
Chapter Four
I. CONCERNING ABRAHAM—Romans 4:1-8
Verse 1: "What shall we say then"—about Abraham their father in the light of what the Jews wanted to bind.
"That Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found"—He came out of heathenism, with no fleshly connections, and was justified before circumcision.
Verse 2: "If justified by works—whereof to glory but not before God, " Boast in works—no glory before God. Works exclude glorying in God’s sight.
Verse 3: "Believed God... counted for righteousness". Believed God—Genesis 15:6. What—how—"counted"—set down, "For"—EIS— in order to. Abraham not example of alien. He was not an alien.
1. Ur of Chaldees—Genesis 12:1-3—obeyed.
2. Shechem—Genesis 12:6-7—built altars".
3. Bethel—Genesis 12:8—called on name of the Lord.
4. Called priest of God—Genesis 14:18.
5. God, his shield—Genesis 15:1—alien language? (All before circumcision. )
Verse 4: "To him that worketh... reward not of grace, but of debt. " (They would cut Abraham off. ) No sin—no guilt—no grace—one sin—forgiveness—no boast—forgiveness excludes it.
Note: Effort to apply to obedience—baptism—fails. For if works is baptism, or baptism works, then baptism would bring God in debt to the one baptized. Will any Baptist admit it? Does baptism make God owe salvation?
Verse 5: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth... reckoned for righteousness. " Only perfect works, without guilt, could bring salvation as a debt. One whose works are not perfect, but believes on him who justifies. Includes rather than excludes acts of faith—obedience.
Verse 6: "Imputeth righteousness without works"—counted right-eous because he was forgiven.
Verse 7: "Blessed... whose sins forgiven... covered". Refer to Psalms 2—people to whom Christ was heir. David not an alien— servant of Lord.
Verse 8: "Blessed... man... not impute sin"—no longer guilty, because forgiven, therefore, righteous—justified.
II. CONCERNING ABRAHAMIC FAITH—Romans 4:9-12
Verse 9: "Cometh this blessedness upon circumcision only. " Blessed of sins forgiven—Jews only?
"Or, upon circumcision also?"
"Reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. "
Jews’ argument on Gentiles, cuts out Abraham. But if Abraham accepted before circumcision so must Gentiles without it.
Verse 10: "How then reckoned?" The person to whom circumcision not commanded, righteous without it.
Verse 11: "Received the sign (to Abraham)...seal of the righteousness of the faith (in uncircumcision)...yet uncircumcised:
father of all that believe... righteousness imputed to them. " Did not bring Abraham into covenant—a sign of membership—Genesis 17:14. Something done that he might be the father of all—Jew and Gentile— that believe.
Verse 12: "Father of circumcision to them not of circumcision. " Righteousness in uncircumcision to those who "walk in steps of that faith of father Abraham. " Who obey as did Abraham—not alien sense—Christians. All believers. (See Addendum on Verse 12. )
III. CONCERNING ABRAHAMIC PROMISE—Romans 4:13-25
Verse 13: "Promise... heir of world... not through law"—Jews as such, no part in promise. "Not to Abraham—or seed—through law"—not for the perfecting of keeping law.
"But through righteousness of faith"—rather—righteousness—justifi-cation on the ground of faith—gospel.
Verse 14: "If they of law... heirs... faith void. " Because no one kept law perfectly, faith void as a basis of righteousness or justification.
Verse 15: "Because... law worketh wrath... no law... no transgression. " Where no law given—punishment on all who violate— no one transgresses a law not given. Apply to Gentiles and circumcision.
Verse 16: "Of faith... by grace... promise sure to all... not only of law... but of the faith of Abraham... father of all. " If righteousness is of the law, then not sure to any, for none keep it. But of the faith of Abraham, sure to all who accept gospel.
Verse 17: "(As written, I have made thee father of many nations)"— Genesis 17:5. Past tense because refers to Genesis 12:3, not to Genesis 17:2 which was land. This quote—Genesis 17:5—fulfilled in Christ. Covenant distinct from the law—Galatians 3:16-17.
"Before him whom he believed... God... quickeneth dead...calleth things not as though they were. "
Abraham had no son, but promise was as though he did and his faith in God to quicken dead—Sarah’s womb—Abraham’s age. No ground of his own, but proceeded as though progeny already existed.
Verse 18: "Against hope believed in hope... so shall seed be. " Called in Genesis 12 before he was 75; left Haran 75—Genesis 12:4. He was 86 at the birth of Ishmael—100 when Isaac born. This promise made before Ishmael was born.
Verse 19: "Not weak in faith... body now dead... deadness of Sarah’s womb. " Not when Ishmael was born; he was not a miracle son. In spite of Sarah’s barrenness.
Verse 20: "Staggered not"—fully persuaded.
Verse 21: Able to perform. Believed though both were incompetent—when God told him promise was by Sarah—not Hagar.
IV. THE PROMISE CONDITIONAL—Romans 4:22-25
Verse 22: Therefore imputed for (EIS) righteousness". This manifestation of faith in order to righteousness. When Abraham was first justified (made righteous) do not know. At times cited—fifty years between—apart—first to last.
Verse 23: "Not for his sake alone... that it was imputed to him. " Abraham representative—prototype—a guaranty to all who believe—whether Jew or Gentile.
Verse 24: "If we believe on him who raised Jesus. "---Believe on God—who raised Christ. Faith in God joined to the resurrection of Christ—both of which are joined to obedience of faith.
Verse 25: "Delivered for our offences.,. raised for our justification. " For (DIA)—offences; for (EIS) justification—Compare Romans 4 and James 2. Works without faith, void—Paul; faith without works, dead—James (Both based on Abraham. )
LESSON 8
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH APART FROM THE WORKS
OF THE LAW
READ Romans 4:1-12
1. Name an Old Testament character who was justified by faith before
the law of Moses was given. Ans. Romans 4:1-3.
2. In what sense is Abraham the father of all Jews?
Ans. 1 Corinthians 10:18; 2 Corinthians 11:22; John 8:37; Matthew 1:2.
3. Why is he called "the father of them that believe"?
Ans. Romans 4:11-12; Galatians 3:7-8; Galatians 3:16; Galatians 3:27-29.
4. Why could not Abraham glory in his justification?
Ans. Romans 4:2.
5. Why was righteousness reckoned unto Abraham?
Ans. Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6.
6. Unto whom is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt?
Ans. Romans 4:4.
7. Whose faith is reckoned for righteousness? Ans. Romans 4:5.
8. To what kind of works does Paul have reference?
Ans. Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:16.
9. Upon whom did David pronounce blessing? Ans. Romans 4:6.
10. What did David say of those unto whom God imputes righteousness
without works? Ans. Romans 4:7-8; Psalms 32:1-2.
11. Upon what nationalities is this blessing pronounced?
Ans. Romans 4:9.
12. Was this righteousness reckoned to Abraham before or after he was
circumcised? Ans. Romans 4:10; Romans 4:12; Genesis 15:6; Genesis 17:24.
13. His circumcision was a sign or seal of what? Ans. Romans 4:11.
14. Give the origin of the covenant of circumcision. Ans. Genesis 17.
15. After this, who was to be circumcised and at what age?
Ans. Genesis 17:12-14.
16. At what age were Isaac, Jesus and Paul circumcised?
Ans. Genesis 21:4; Luke 2:21; Philippians 3:5.
17. Of what value is circumcision in the gospel dispensation?
Ans. Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15.
18. What of those who receive circumcision now as a religious rite?
Ans. Galatians 5:2-3.
19. Why did some of the Jews in the early church insist on keeping the
law of circumcision? Ans. Galatians 6:12-13; Acts 15:1.
20. Why did Paul have Timothy circumcised, but refused to have Titus
circumcised? Ans. Acts 16:1-3; Galatians 2:3-5.
21. How must one walk in order to be a child of Abraham in a spiritual
sense? Ans. Romans 4:12; John 8:39; Galatians 3:26-29.
22. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 4:1-12.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION OR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1. The Faith Of Abraham.
2. The Law Of Circumcision.
a. Origin.
b. To whom given.
c. Its end.
LESSON 9
GOD’S PROMISE TO ABRAHAM
READ Romans 4:13-25
1. What did God promise to Abraham?
Ans. Romans 4:13; Genesis 17:5-6.
2. Give the circ*mstances under which this promise was made.
Ans. Genesis 17:15-21.
3. What did Sarah think of the promise of a son? Ans. Genesis 18:9-15.
4. This promise was not made through what? Ans. Romans 4:13.
5. Through what was it made? Ans. Romans 4:13.
6. If the heirs had been of the law of Moses, what effect would this
have had on the faith and on the promise? Ans. Romans 4:14.
7. The law works what? Ans. Romans 4:15.
8. Where is there no transgression? Ans. Romans 4:15.
9. How and to whom is the Abrahamic promise made sure?
Ans. Romans 4:16.
10. Abraham is called the father of whom? Ans. Romans 4:16-17.
11. What did Abraham believe in hope against hope? Ans. Romans 4:18.
12. When Abraham considered his old age and the deadness of Sarah’s
womb, what effect did this have on his faith? Ans. Romans 4:19-20.
13. To whom did he give glory? Ans. Romans 4:20.
14. Of what was he fully assured? Ans. Romans 4:21.
15. His great faith was reckoned unto him for what?
Ans. Romans 4:22.
16. When was the Scripture fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness"?
Ans. James 2:21-23.
17. For whose sake was all this written? Ans. Romans 4:23-24.
18. For what was Jesus delivered up and for what was he raised?
Ans. Romans 4:25.
19. How was Abraham’s faith made perfect? Ans. James 2:21-22.
20. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this
lesson. Ans. Romans 4:13-25.
TOPICS FOR ASSIGNMENT OR DISCUSSION
1. The Promise To Abraham.
2. The Seed Of Abraham.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Five
Chapter Five
I. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH—Romans 5:1-5
Verse 1: "Being justified... peace with God. " Having been justified—holds nothing against us.
Therefore—justified—connects with righteousness of preceding chapter; hence, justify and make righteous, same.
Being—having been—illustration: mounting the horse, he rode away. Greek: Having mounted. . . .
Verse 2: "By whom... access... into this grace. " This grace, justification, righteousness. By—into. Use of phrase "by faith". Hebrews 11—by—Noah—Abel—Red sea. Spanned whole channel. Everything done in all references—so—justified by—all that obedience of faith is— or act of faith requires.
"Access"—as keys to house—into. "This grace"—into this justification.
"Wherein stand"—in this favor—His favor. "Rejoice in hope of glory of God"—yet to come.
Verse 3: "Glory in tribulation"—account of exalted state, "patience"—steadfast character.
Verse 4: "Experience"—approvedness. "Hope"—God approves stedfastness which gives ground for hope.
Verse 5: "Hope maketh not ashamed"—not disappointed—not fickle—not feeling of uncertainty—not fear of failure of promise.
"Because... shed... by Holy Spirit... given us. " By revela-tion—by miracles, by spiritual gifts—the source that filled hearts with knowledge of God’s love. (See Addendum on Verses 1, 2, 5. )
I. RECONCILED BY DEATH—Romans 5:6-11
Verse 6: "Yet without strength... Christ died for us". Refers to man’s helplessness without the death of Christ. Because of condemnation with no means of escape.
Verse 7: "Scarcely for righteous... peradventure for a good man... dare to die. " Righteous man—just, strict, neither give nor take. No affection. Good man. More—he is kind—generous, love for—might—unusual.
Verse 8: "God commendeth his love. " In contrast for those yet hating—sinners—without love—while enemies—Christ died for us— commending God’s love.
Verse 9: "Much more... justified by blood... saved from wrath. " Justified by his death—as enemies—saved as friends—from future wrath.
Verse 10: "Reconciled by death... saved by his life. " Verse 10 a restatement of verse 9- Death opened the way—suffering touched hearts, causing us to want to be reconciled. Accomplished that much by death, but much more by his life—living to intercede for our eternal salvation.
Verse 11: "Not only... also joy... now received atonement. " Joy—for what he has done—is doing—and has left for us to avail selves of its benefits.
Comments on reconcile and atonement. Enemies—sinners—ungodly—wrath—offences. All connected with justification—righteousness—by faith—verse one.
III. THE EFFECT OF SIN—Romans 5:12-14
Verse 12: "By one man sin... death. " Effect of what Adam did, and the effect of what Christ did.
"Death passed"—spiritual death—not inherited—passed—(Measles). "For that all sinned"—own sins—exposed—contact—contagion—
not hereditary—dealing with moral condition.
Verse 13: "Until the law sin... but not imputed when no law. " Any law—Adam before—guilty to extent of law one had (see circum-cision argument chapter four. )
Verse 14: "Death reigned... Adam to Moses... not sinned after similitude. " Had not sinned like—not the same sin. Adam’s sin in disobedience to positive law. Others, moral law. Not guilty of Adam’s sin, but death ruled over those guilty of their own.
IV. THE GIFT OF GRACE—Romans 5:15-21
Verse 15: "Not as the offence. . . the free gift. " God’s grace not as Adam’s trespass.
"Through offence of one many be dead"—much more gift of grace abounded unto many.
In addition to result of Adam’s trespass, the many had to overcome effects of their own.
But gift of grace—blessing—is more than the curse. To meet the needs of the sins of all, grace had to be more extensive than the one sin of Adam. Not true if we were guilty of Adam’s sin.
Verse 16: "Not as by one that sinned... so the gift. " Not co-extensive merely.
"Judgment by one to condemnation"—the forbidden fruit—one offence.
"Gift, of many offences, unto just. " Condemnation by one offence. Free gift of grace by many.
Verse 17: "By one man’s... death reigned"—Death began to reign by one.
"Much more... reign in life by Jesus Christ"—Death that reigned through Adam, overcame by righteousness—the justification—which reigns through Christ.
Verse 18: "By offence of one... judgment... by righteousness of one... justification. " Chance—both ways—spiritual—not physical—plan of righteousness—free gift.
If Adam introduced measles, all descendants are born with measles. Means sin infested world. The gift—free to accept or reject.
Verse 19: "For by one man’s disobedience... sinners... by one man’s obedience... righteous. " One man’s disobedience brought
about the conditions—made—age of responsibility. If guilt is imputed so is righteousness. If one is universal, so are both. No such thing as Adam’s personal guilt or Christ’s personal righteousness being given. Spiritual life and death are results. Not saying "how"—either sinner or righteous, but the fact based on conditions. Tom Paine made infidels, but infidelity is not imputed—had to become.
Verse 20: "Law entered. . . sin abounded... grace more"—Sin abounded in triumph over sinner, helpless, no hope of deliverance; hence, grace abounded more—to deliver.
Law entered—disobedience to positive law increases the trespass of Adam. Law prohibits, hence, exhibits. More law—violations increase sin. Abounds—Grace more in overcoming—delivering.
Verse 21: "As sin reigned unto death... so grace reign unto life. " Sin reigned in sphere of spiritual death. Grace—through gospel plan for righteousness—unto life—ultimate result. In spiritual death, sin is the reigning monarch. So might grace reign—Grace produced the plan for righteousness—by Jesus Christ—unto eternal life—the goal of all life.
LESSON 10
FRUITS OF JUSTIFICATION
READ Romans 5:1-21
1. Name two things by which we are justified. Ans. Romans 5:1; Romans 5:9.
2. Are we justified by a living faith or a dead faith?
Ans. James 2:14-26.
3. What is our "access" into the grace of Cod? Ans. Romans 5:2.
4. Name some noble qualities that may be the outgrowth of tribulations. Ans. Romans 5:3-4.
5. What has been "shed abroad" in Christian hearts? Ans. Romans 5:5.
6. For whom did Christ die? Ans. Romans 5:6-8.
7. Through what are we reconciled unto Cod? Ans. Romans 5:10-11.
8. Unto whom was the word of reconciliation committed?
Ans. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19.
9. Where are we reconciled to Cod? Ans. Ephesians 2:16.
10. What is that "one body" in which we are reconciled?
Ans. Ephesians 1:22-23.
11. What was the original cause of death?
Ans. Romans 5:12; Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:17-19.
12. When is sin not imputed? Ans. Romans 5:13.
13. What reigned from Adam until Moses? Ans. Romans 5:14.
14. Through whom do we regain all we lost in Adam? Ans. Romans 5:15.
15. What is the free gift of Christ? Ans. Romans 5:16; Romans 6:23.
16. Who reigns in life through Christ? Ans. Romans 5:17.
17. What came upon all men through Adam’s transgression?
Ans. Romans 5:18.
18. What is regained through the righteousness of Christ?
Ans. Romans 5:18.
19. What is the difference between Adam’s disobedience and Christ’s
obedience? Ans. Romans 5:19.
20. What abounded more than sin? Ans. Romans 5:20.
21. What is the difference between the reign of death and the reign
of grace? Ans. Romans 5:2 L
22. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this
lesson. Ans. Romans 5:1-21.
TOPICS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION AND ASSIGNMENT
1. Reconciliation To Cod.
2. How Death Came Upon The Human Family.
3. Spiritual Life In Christ
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Six
Chapter Six
I. FREEDOM FROM SIN—Romans 6:1-11
Verse 1: "Continue in sin, grace bound"—more the sin, the more grace in pardon—an excuse to sin.
Verse 2: "Dead to sin... live therein"—As if physically buried in death. Person physically dead no longer lives that life. So in that life he no longer lives. Died to sin—one less sinner in the world—just as one less person in physical death.
Verse 3: "Baptized into Christ... into his death"—Baptized into death to sin—separation purpose of Christ’s death—baptized into its benefits—out of death in sin, into death to sin,
Verse 4: "Buried with him by baptism... into death"—into his death to sin—"with him. "
"Like as Christ was raised... newness of life". The likeness of resurrection is the new life—act of baptism, also its spiritual effect and value.
Verse 5: "Planted together in likeness... of his death... of his resurrection"—Christ and subject planted together—death and life—his death, his life—unity with Christ in both.
Verse 6: "Our old man crucified... destroyed. " The old man is the sinner. When a person is baptized the sinner dies. Crucified in baptism.
"Henceforth not serve sin"—slave of sin—freedom—master.
Verse 7: "For he that is dead to sin is freed from sin"—Slave passes from master—no longer dominion—we then no longer bond-servants of sin—freed—released. (See Addendum on Verses 1-7.)
Verse 8: "Dead with Christ... live with him"—"we believe"—a general present truth. Shall—continuous—now, and on—with him as Guide and Pattern, future as well as present marking of the new life.
Verse 9: "Christ raised... dieth no more... death no more dominion over him. " In fear that Christ shall die again, faith would fail to sustain us. Death no more dominion over him, in the grave— physically—and over us spiritually.
Verse 10: "In that he died... unto sin once... in that he liveth.., unto God. " That in which he died—once. That in which he lives—eternal. Threw off that dominion (of that to which he died) in the resurrection.
Verse 11: "Also yourselves dead unto sin... alive unto God. " Count ourselves as both dead and alive. As death in the grave lost its dominion over Christ, so spiritual death lost dominion, or title to us, when we died to sin and arose to righteousness.
II. THE DOMINION OF GRACE—Romans 6:12-18
Verse 12: "Let not sin reign... that ye should obey"—Addresses the part of man that has control of the body. The body is merely the instrument of the inner man. Having died, let not sin re-establish reign.
Verse 13: "Neither your members as instruments ... yourselves alive members as instruments. " The spirit sins through the body, so the spirit cannot remain pure when membe rs sin. Body not responsible, sin comes from the heart. The instrument used cannot be blamed for the crime.
Note: Reverses Baptist theology that only the body of regenerated man sins—the spirit cannot.
Verse 14: "Sin shall not have dominion... not under law but under grace, " Reign of sin broken by the death to it—sins forgiven by grace.
Verse 15: "Sin because not under law.., but under grace...God forbid. " Grace not a license to sin—because—
Verse 16: "To whom yield,.. servants"—the principle of service is involved—whose servant are you? Answers the question.
Verse 17: "Ye were servants of sin... but obeyed... form.., delivered. " Ye were—sinful part of lives past. Form of doctrine-mold of doctrine. Tupos—as metal poured.
Verse 18: "Then free from sin... became servants. " By obedience change masters, but are servants still—freed from sin—yet remain servants.
Change of dominion from law to grace—change of state from death to life—change of masters from sin unto death to obedience unto righteousness.
III. THE FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS—Romans 6:19-23
Verse 19: "After manner of men... infirmity of your flesh. " Slow of comprehension—used common customs to illustrate spiritual relations.
"Yielded members... servants to uncleanness"—degrading im-morality.
"And iniquity unto iniquity"—in lawlessness did not regard law. "Even so now... your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. " As once used in immorality and unrighteousness—now through righteousness to separation from it—all the things included in the category of unrighteousness, iniquity—sin—lawlessness—lusts—use same instruments for the opposites—righteousness—obedience—holi-ness, etc.
Verse 20: "When servants of sin, free from righteousness. " Does not mean no obligation to do right, but free from the practice.
Apply to popular notion that sinner not under moral law. And the saying—Becoming a Christian obligates one to do right.
Verse 21; "What fruit then. . . in things now ashamed... end is death. " Why the question of verse 15 when the fruit is death, and has not advantage.
Verse 22: "Now free from sin... servants of God... fruit unto holiness... end eternal life. " In view of this, would one continue in sin’s pay?
Verse 23: "Wages of sin... gift of God. " So because of sin’s wages, should not sin even if we are not under law, but grace.
LESSON 11
DEAD TO SIN BUT ALIVE UNTO GOD
READ Romans 6:1-23
1. How do we know that the grace of God will not save one who
continues in sin? Ans. Romans 6:1-2; Romans 6:16; Romans 6:23.
2. How do men get into Christ and into his death?
Ans. Romans 6:3; Galatians 3:27.
3. Through what are we buried with Christ? Ans. Romans 6:4.
4. After being raised in baptism, how should we walk? Ans. Romans 6:4.
5. How is baptism a likeness of the death, burial and resurrection of.
Christ? Ans. Romans 6:4;. Colossians 2:12-13.
6. In baptism one becomes united with Christ in the likeness of what?
Ans. Romans 6:5.
7. What is crucified with Christ? Ans. Romans 6:6.
8. What is the "old man"? Ans. Ephesians 4:22; Col. 8, 9.
9. Name two things accomplished by the crucifixion of the "old man".
Ans. Romans 6:6.
10. Who is justified or freed from sin?
Ans. Romans 6:7; Romans 6:17-18; 1 Peter 4:1.
11. Who shall live with Christ? Ans. Romans 6:8.
12. Over whom does death have no more dominion? Ans. Romans 6:9.
13. Christ having died once unto sin now lives unto what?
Ans. Romans 6:10.
14. Christians should reckon themselves dead unto what, and alive unto
what? Ans. Romans 6:11.
15. What should not be permitted to reign in our bodies?
Ans. Romans 8:12.
16. The members of our bodies should not be used as instruments of
what? Ans. Romans 6:13; Romans 6:19.
17. For what should our members be used? Ans. Romans 6:13; Romans 6:19.
18. Why should sin not have dominion over us? Ans. Romans 6:14.
19. Are we privileged to sin with impunity because we are under grace
and not under the law of Moses? Ans. Romans 6:15.
20. How may we determine whose servants we are? Ans. Romans 6:16.
21. When does one become free from sin, and a servant of righteousness? Ans. Romans 6:17-18.
22. The shameful fruits of sin end in what? Ans. Romans 6:21.
23. The fruits of righteousness lead to what? Ans. Romans 6:22.
24. What are the wages of sin, and what is the free gift of God?
Ans. Romans 8:23.
25. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this
lesson. Ans. Romans 6:1-23.
TOPICS FOR ASSIGNMENT AND DISCUSSION
1. Baptism.
2. Living in Newness Of Life.
3. Wages Of Sin.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
I. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF LAW—Romans 7:1-4
Verse 1: "Know ye not... law dominion... over man...long as he liveth. " Speaks to men who know the nature, purpose and limits of law. Parenthesis "(I speak to them that know the law. )" — credits them with knowing that the law has dominion over man so long as he lives—no longer. When a man dies, law governs him no longer. Dead to him, and he to it. Applies to law of Moses.
Verse 2: "Woman... bound by law... if husband dead...loosed. " Not teaching a lesson on marriage—only illustration to show limit of law to govern. Used well-known relation to show that while we are free from dead law we are so closely related to Christ as to obligate to faithfulness.
Woman bound by law—general law. So long as he lives—dead law cannot govern, any more than dead husband.
Verse 3: "If while husband lives... marries... called adulteress... husband dead... free. " Reference to marriage—exception to law not part of illustration, hence not considered.
If husband dead, free from that law—the law that bound her to the husband. If faithful to vows only death can separate.
Released from that law—a dead law—but not free to sin.
Verse 4: "Dead to law by the body of Christ. " Body of Christ-crucified—nailed the law to cross—ended the law—made a dead law— separated us from it thus body of Christ made us dead to it.
"Married to another"—so long as law in force could not be married to Christ. By the body of Christ (on cross) the law abolished—hence, dead to it. Married—joined in legal relation again—to another— again under law, but of another husband. "Even to him... raised from dead"—new husband—new law—fruit unto God—in the new life. (Relation church).
II. THE PENAL EFFECT OF LAW—Romans 7:5-11
Verse 5: "When in the flesh... the motions of sins by the law...did work in members.,. to bring forth fruit unto death. " Flesh does not mean human body for they were still in it. A flesh covenant circumcision. Motions of sin—sinful passions. By the law—violation of law—work in members—through our bodies. Bring forth fruit unto death—passions are not sinful per se. "Worketh" to "bring forth".
Verse 6: "Now delivered from the law... being dead wherein held... serve in newness of spirit... not oldness of letter. " Delivered—discharged from—wherein held—law that held, dead.
Newness of spirit—inner man, spiritual. Oldness of letter—outward legal code.
Verse 7: "The law sin?... known sin... by law. " Because the Jews violated the law and became sinners did not make the law sinful.
"Had not known sin, but by the law"—the law defined sin.
"Had not known lust, except... not covet"—the nature of coveting by law, and knew its nature to be sin. Refer to ten command-ments—decalogue.
Verse 8: "Sin taking occasion by commandment... wrought concupiscence... without law sin dead. "
"Occasion"—opportunity—ground.
"Wrought"—became evil in asserting itself against authority of God.
"Without law sin dead"—not operative. Law did not create evil desire.
Verse 9: "Alive without law once... commandment came...sin revived... and I died. " Alive without the law, when? Before accountable to it. But in accountability to the commandments became conscious of sphere of sin—revived—sprang into life—and brought spiritual death.
"And I died"—spiritually. Speaks of time sin entered his life. Sin, not the law caused his spiritual death.
Verse 10: "The commandment... ordained to life... found unto death. " Obedience to commandment—reward is life. Disobedience— penalty is death.
Verse 11: "Sin... taking occasion by commandment, deceived me... slew me. " Satan took occasion through commandment to lead one to disobey—and die as penalty.
Example: Eve—Satan took occasion through commandment to deceive Eve—and slew her—spiritually.
Note: If total depravity is true, when was Paul alive without law, and when did he die spiritually?
III. THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT OF LAW—Romans 7:12-14
Verse 12: "Law, holy... commandment holy, just good. " Given to promote holiness, and its demands were just.
Verse 13: "Good... made death? Sin, appear... working death... by good... sin by commandments... exceeding sinful. " The law cannot be blamed for its violation by those who by violating it bring punishment upon themselves. By commandment the utter destructiveness of sin shown.
Verse 14: "Know law is spiritual.., I am carnal... sold under sin. " Spiritual because appeals to inner man.
"I am carnal"—not as a Christian, but as a type of man in sin.
"Sold under sin"—sin caused slavery—personified in Paul repre-senting himself as sold to sin as a slave is sold in bondage—a type of all sinners.
III. THE CONFLICT OF LAW—Romans 7:15-25
Verse 15: "Which I do,.. allow not... what I would... do not... what I hate... do. "
"Allow not"—does not account what sinful life accomplishes—does not allow the far-reaching results.
"What I would... that do I not"—the desires and the results differ.
"What I hate... that do I"—what he does brings results he hates.
Verse 16: "If do things would not... consent unto law...good. " "That which I would not"—in more thoughtful moments— sinner in dominion of sin does contrary to what better self agrees is good, hence, consents in thoughts to the principle fact that the law is good.
Verse 17: "No more I that do it... but sin that dwelleth in me. "
"No more I"—sin dwelling in house—rules—orders—not I—but sin that controls—makes distinction between self and sin. Ellipsis.
Verse 18: "In me.., that is, my flesh... dwelleth no good thing... will is present.., how perform, find not. " The flesh without intellect is not morally good or bad.
"Will present"—exists—potential. "How perform"—exercise it. "Find out"—in decision.
Verse 19: "The good I would. . . I do not... the evil I would not... I do. "
"The good that I would, I do not"—under the law without Christ, no ability to throw off sin.
"The evil which I would not, I do. " The accomplishment desired, but the effects are not desired.
Verse 20: "If do that I would not... not I but sin that dwelleth. " As one who dwells in the house rules it, Not speaking of self as a Christian but of one who is under control of sin.
Verse 21: "Then, a law... when I would do good... evil present. "
"When I would do good" in regard to the law.
"Evil is present with me"—Indorsed the law—approved its life, but sin hindered what he knew was right.
Verse 22: "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. " Inner man—seat of mind—approves—-even wishes for the better life. Could a totally depraved man do that?
Verse 23: "Another law. . . in members...warring...against law of mind. " The law of mind—law of God is addressed to the mind—a designation for God’s law—warring, seeking control—in members—body—another law—law of sin—the rule of sin (as in house).
Verse 24: "Wretched man... who shall deliver from body of death. " Represents himself as a sinner—helpless in his desire to free himself from sin—until the way revealed in Christ.
Verse 25: "Thank God... through Jesus Christ, Lord.., so with mind, serve law of God... with flesh, law of sin. "
"Thank God" for deliverance... through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
"With mind serve law of God"—the Christian serves law of God with mind.
"With flesh the law of sin. " The sinner serves law of sin with flesh.
Does not mean the Christian serves God with mind, and sin with flesh. But two kinds of service—contrasted, and two persons compared— Christian and sinner. Two masters—law of mind (God)—law of sin (rule).
In a Christian the mind dominates the flesh. In a sinner the flesh dominates the mind. In either case the mind yields, acts and plans.
This again contrary to total depravity theory, which makes sinner incapable of acting—not subject to the law of God, until regenerated by direct supernatural impact.
LESSON 12
DELIVERANCE FROM BONDAGE THROUGH DEATH
READ Romans 7:1-25
1. The Christians in Rome were not ignorant of what? Ans. Romans 7:1.
2. How long does law have dominion over a man? Ans. Romans 7:1.
3. How long is a woman bound by law to her husband?
Ans. Romans 7:2; 1 Corinthians 7:39.
4. When is she discharged from the law of her husband?
Ans. Romans 7:2-3.
5. Of what sin is she guilty, if she marries another while the husband
lives? Ans. Romans 7:3.
6. Christ has made us dead to what? Ans. Romans 7:4; Ephesians 2:14-16.
7. For what two purposes did Christ make us dead to the law?
Ans. Romans 7:4.
8. The church is married to whom?
Ans. Romans 7:4; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:26-32.
9. What is meant here by the phrase, "in the flesh"?
Ans. Romans 7:5; Romans 8:8-9.
10. What is wrought by the sinful passions of people "in the flesh"?
Ans. Romans 7:5.
11. When were we delivered from that law which held us captive?
Ans. Romans 7:6.
12. What is meant by "newness of the spirit" and "oldness of the letter"?
Ans. Romans 7:6; Romans 6:4; 2 Corinthians 3:6-9.
13. What was made known through the law?
Ans. Romans 7:7; Romans 7:21; Romans 3:20.
14. How was Paul affected by a knowledge of the commandment?
Ans. Romans 7:8-11.
15. What is said of the law and commandment? Ans. Romans 7:12; Romans 7:14.
16. How did sin become exceedingly sinful to Paul? Ans. Romans 7:13.
17. Discuss the struggle between the carnal and spiritual nature under
the law. Ans. Romans 7:15-20.
18. In what did Paul delight? Ans. Romans 7:22.
19. What was fighting against the law of his mind?
Ans. Romans 7:23; 1 Corinthians 9:27.
20. Who will bring deliverance from "the body of this death"?
Ans. Romans 7:24-25.
21. Give a summary of what is taught in this chapter. Ans. Romans 7:1-25.
TOPICS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION AND SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1. Divorce And Remarriage.
2. How Christ Made Us Dead To The Law.
3. Spiritual Warfare.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
I. THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT—Romans 8:1-13
Verse 1: "No condemnation in Christ"—in the gospel dispensation—free from the former condemnation—under the law different—the law could not save—it condemned.
Can become condemned again if "walk after flesh" instead of "walk after spirit. "
Verse 2: "The law of spirit"—is law of life—not condemnation. In Christ, free from "law of sin and death"—spiritual death, not free from physical death. Law of spirit—same as law of mind—addressed to—pertains to the spirit of man.
Verse 3: "For what the law could not do"—the law of Moses could not free from the law of sin and death.
"God sending his Son in likeness of sinful flesh"—became like brethren—Hebrews 2:14. If total depravity true, when Christ became like brethren he became totally depraved.
The law of spirit—the law—and the law of sin and death, Law of Spirit does what law of Moses could not do—hence law of sin and death, not referring to law of Moses. Paul does not say law of Moses cannot make free from law of Moses!
Note:
1. Law of spirit—the gospel.
2. Law of sin—rule—bringing death.
3. The law—law of Moses.
The Spirit frees from rule of sin that which the law could not do—Romans 7:23.
"For sin condemned sin"—Christ in the flesh condemned sin—if flesh is depraved—then Christ in the flesh was depraved. If not, then not like "the brethren"—did not "partake of the same"—Hebrews 2:14.
Verse 4: "The righteousness of the law fulfilled"—the righteous-ness the law demanded—required—sought—but could not attain— accomplished in perfect obedience—is "fulfilled in us"—accomplished by the gospel. What the law could not do is done by the plan of salvation.
"Who walk not after flesh"—shows that Paul does not mean that a Christian cannot also be condemned.
Verse 5: "They after flesh... mind things of flesh"—attention to such things, but "they after spirit, mind things of spirit"—the things that fit the spirit for service to God.
Verse 6: "Carnally minded death... spiritually minded... life. " Carnally minded—devoted to flesh; spiritually minded—to needs of spirit.
Verse 7: "Carnal mind enmity. . . not subject to law of God. " Person living after flesh not subject to (not in subjection) law of God "neither indeed can be"—in that state of living cannot become so— must turn.
Verse 8: "In flesh cannot please God. " To be in flesh is to live according to the flesh, and in so doing cannot please God.
Verse 9: "Not in the flesh. . . but in spirit. " Contrast shows human spirit is meant—mind. (See Addendum on Verse 9. )
"Have not the spirit of Christ.,. none of his. " The disposition, mind, of Christ. In the flesh—a sinner; in the spirit—a Christian. Christian—disposition of Christ.
Verse 10: "Christ in you... body dead. " Not active in sin because of sin body dead to it.
"But Spirit is life ... because of righteousness"—The spirit alive because of forgiveness. If body being dead means doomed because of Adam’s sin, then if Christ did not dwell in us the body could not be doomed, for it says the body is dead if (or because) Christ dwells in us—Christ in us—body dead—doomed (?) Christ not in us—body not dead (doomed?) Theology doesn’t fit Paul’s argument on flesh and spirit.
"If Spirit of Him... raised Jesus... dwell in you...shall quicken mortal bodies by Spirit in you. " Quicken to activity—alive to service.
Quicken mortal bodies—not instruments of sin—but is not inactive because it is quickened—alive to right.
Verse 11 cannot be reference to the resurrection because this quickening is limited to those in whom spirit dwells—the resurrection is not so limited.
Verse 12: "Debtors not to flesh, to live after flesh. " Not obligated to the flesh which leads to death, but obligated to our spirits not to follow the course of death.
Verse 13: "Live after flesh,.. die... through spirit mortify deeds of body,.. live. " Not physical death—not sinner—Die spiritually— through our spirit control body—live. Could not refer to physical death— die physically anyway—not sinner. Already dead spiritually. Hence, brethren (saved) walk after flesh will die—spiritually—apostasy.
II. THE ADOPTION OF SONS—Romans 8:14-17
Verse 14: "As many as led by Spirit of God, they are sons of God. " The man who is following the flesh is not led by spirit.
Verse 15: "For we have not received spirit of bondage... again to fear. " As before conversion—our spirit in bondage—fear of slaves.
"But received Spirit of adoption"—Spirit here is a proper noun— not a proper name—hence not Spirit, but spirit—the spirit of adopted son, not fear of slave in bondage—not slaves to serve in fear, but children who by adoption claim privilege of sons.
"Whereby cry Abba Father. "—not in fear in death—but in hope, as children, cry Father, Father.
Verse 16: "Spirit beareth witness with our spirit. "—conjoint—not spirit to spirit—but unite "with". The spirit of sonship (contrast with spirit of slave) agrees with Spirit’s witness that we are sons. The spirit in which we serve, not in fear—slaves, but in hope as children, unites our spirit in witness with Holy Spirit. (See Addendum on Verses 14-16. )
Verse 17: "If children, the heirs. . . of God... joint heirs with Christ, " Heirship follows sonship both naturally and legally.
"If suffer... glorified together, "—Joint heirs—joint suffering with Christ—Glorified together—suffer together.
III. THE REDEMPTION OF SONS—Romans 8:18-25
Verse 18: "Sufferings... present... not compare to glory to be revealed. " Benefits of resurrection state so much greater. "Revealed in us"—in the resurrection from grave.
Verse 19: "Earnest expectation of creature"—Earth, not mankind. "Waiteth for manifestation of sons"—hence, creature versus sons.
Verse 20: "Creature subject to vanity"—Frailty.
Verse 21: "Creature delivered from bondage of corruption. " Blight of sin—decay—"into glorious liberty of children of God. " Creature versus children—for children not delivered into themselves.
Verse 22: "Whole creation groaneth"—cursed state—"and travaileth in pain"—figuratively.
Verse 23: "Not only... but ourselves also"—hence, creation versus ourselves.
"Waiting for the adoption"—new adoption—a process unknown to Jews.
"The redemption of body"—when sons manifested by resurrection— a new heaven and earth.
Notes on Creation:
(1) Creation does not refer to the children of God because verse 19—the creation waits for them. Also verse 21.
2. Creation does not include Paul, ourselves over against—in contrast verse 23.
(3)Creation does not mean mankind. Paul no part of mankind? Neither sons, verse 18—part of mankind? If creation does not mean all men, why any man?
(4) Creation does not include sinner—verse 21—not delivered from corruption to glory.
(5) Creation—the earth—1. Cursed state 2. Waits groaning—(figura-tive) 3. To be delivered—2 Peter 3:13.
Verse 24: "Saved by hope"—in this hope, deliverance from the grave, glory to follow.
Verse 25: "In patience... wait for it"—willing to wait and suffer for such redemption.
IV. THE INTERCESSION FOR SAINTS—Romans 8:26-27
Verse 26: "Likewise... Spirit also helpeth"—infirmities—weak-nesses—in addition to our hope, Spirit helps—by intercession—"with groanings"-—our groanings—sighs—longings—as a child cannot word yearnings.
Verse 27: "He... searcheth hearts... knoweth mind of spirit"— the disposition of our spirit—"because he maketh intercession"—He— (Holy Spirit)—knows mind of spirit—(ours) because He—(Holy Spirit)— intercedes. (See Addendum on Verses 26-27. )
V. THE PREDESTINATED PLAN—Romans 8:28-34
Verse 28: "All things work together... to them called...according to purpose. " The working of all things of the plan—scheme of redemption. Not all things that happen to anyone.
Verse 29: "Foreknew"—approved—recognized. "Predestinated"—determined. Egnon—fore-approve—what characters. "Firstborn... among"—Isaiah 66:2.
Verse 30: "Called"—obey gospel—"justified"—by forgiveness—"glorified"—by making them heirs—children—2 Corinthians 3:10.
Verse 31: "What say to these"—what conclusions do these things warrant?
"If God for us... who against?" Who can defeat us in the hope of this glorification?
Verse 32: "Spared not own Son"—in contrast distinction to adopted sons.
"Deliver for us all"—all redeemed.
"With him give us all things"—If God spared not his Son to accomplish this—will withhold nothing else. Past gift, guarantee of future.
Verse 33: "Who shall lay charge to God’s elect"—chosen as children—forgiven by the Father—who can deny our privileges?
Verse 34: "God justifieth... who condemns"—God only can justify—God only can condemn. "Christ died.., risen... intercession"—all that to make our hope secure.
VI. THE INSEPARABLE LOVE—Romans 8:35-39
Verse 35: "Who shall separate... from... love of Christ"— his love for us—not ours for him. We can. No outward enemy can
break our connection.
Verse 36: "As it is written... killed... as sheep... slaughter"—so common as though counted—as so many sheep.
Verse 37: "Nay... in all things conquerors"—persecution, death, cannot defeat—shout victory and glory.
Verse 38: "Neither death"—(fear of) "Nor life"—(burdens of)
"Nor angels"—(not even)
"Nor principalities... powers"—(visible or invisible)
"Nor things present... to come"—(no state—no thing—now or later)
"Nor height"—(prosperity) "Nor depth"—(adversity)
"Nor any other creature"—(existing thing) (no being—no power— any created thing in the universe above or below. )
LESSON 13
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
READ Romans 8:1-17
1. To whom is there no condemnation? Ans. Romans 8:1.
2. Where must we walk to be cleansed by the blood of Christ and to
be free from condemnation? Ans. 1 John 1:7; Romans 8:1; Romans 8:4.
3. What law makes us free from the law of sin and death?
Ans. Romans 8:2; Galatians 6:2.
4. Show that the weakness of the law through the flesh necessitated
the coming of Christ and the giving of the law of the Spirit of life.
Ans. Romans 8:3; Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:11-14; Hebrews 7:18-19; Hebrews 8:6-8.
5. In whom is the requirement of the law fulfilled? Ans. Romans 8:4.
6. Describe the two classes mentioned in Romans 8:5-6.
7. Who is not subject to God and cannot please him?
Ans. Romans 8:7-8.
8. Who dwells in those who have spiritual life?
Ans. Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Acts 5:32.
9. What of the man who has not the Spirit of Christ? Ans. Romans 8:9.
10. How are the body and spirit affected by the indwelling of Christ?
Ans. Romans 8:10.
11. If the Spirit dwells in us, what promise do we have regarding our
bodies? Ans. Romans 8:11.
12. We are not debtors to what? Ans. Romans 8:12.
13. Under what conditions are we threatened with death and promised
life? Ans. Romans 8:13.
14. How many are sons of God? Ans. Romans 8:14.
15. Through what does the Spirit lead or guide us?
Ans. John 6:63; John 6:68; Psalms 119:105; Acts 8:30-35; 2 Timothy 3:15-17.
16. What Spirit had the Christians received? Ans. Romans 8:15.
17. How does the Spirit bear witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God?
Ans. Romans 8:16; Hebrews 10:15; 1 John 2:3-5; 1 John 5:13.
18. With whom are the children of God joint-heirs? Ans. Romans 8:17.
19. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this
lesson. Ans. Romans 8:1-17.
TOPICS FOR ASSIGNMENT OR DISCUSSION
1. The Spirit Of Christ.
2. How The Spirit Leads.
3. How The Spirit Bears Witness With Our Spirit.
LESSON 14
HOPE OF COMPLETE REDEMPTION
READ Romans 8:18-39
1. How do present sufferings compare with future rewards?
Ans. Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Matthew 5:11-12.
2. The expectation of all creation is awaiting what?
Ans. Romans 8:19.
3. All creation is represented as sharing in the hope of what?
Ans. Romans 8:20-21.
4. What does the whole creation now do? Ans. Romans 8:22.
5. For what do we also wait? Ans. Romans 8:23.
6. What is the nature and value of hope? Ans. Romans 8:24-25.
7. How does the Spirit help us? Ans. Romans 8:26-27.
8. All things work together for the good of whom? Ans. Romans 8:28.
9. What has God foreordained? Ans. Romans 8:29-30.
10. How does God call us? Ans. 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
11. By what is man justified? Ans. Romans 5:1; James 2:24.
12. What has God done for us and what does he promise to do?
Ans. Romans 8:32.
13. Name two things that no one can do to God’s elect.
Ans. Romans 8:33-34.
14. Who intercedes for us? Ans. Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1.
15. Name several things which cannot separate us from the love of God.
Ans. Romans 8:35-39.
16. What does separate men from God?
Ans. Isaiah 59:1-2; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Ezekiel 18:24; Revelation 3:16.
17. Does God love those who are separated from him? Ans. John 3:10.
18. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 8:18-39.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION OR ASSIGNMENT
L All Things Work Together For Good.
2. Things Which Cannot Separate One From The Love Of God.
3. How Sin Affects One’s Relation To God.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Note: Romans 3:3 connects casting off Jews with faithfulness of promise. Chapter 9 argues that faithfulness is not destroyed, but established because the promise was conditional—Deuteronomy 28.
I. THE FAVORED NATION—Romans 9:1-5
Verse 1: "I say the truth in Christ... my conscience witness in Holy Spirit. " Emphasis on both his sincerity and inspiration.
Verse 2: "Great heaviness and sorrow"—Grief because his nation cast off and abandoned.
Verse 3: "Could wish myself cut off"—not absolutely—if such possible or practicable for means to end—but language of intense feeling—to wish self cut off instead of his brethren—whole nation— hyperbolic loyalty—take their place—in depth of devotion to nation.
Verse 4: "Who are Israelites... adoption.,. glory... cove-nants... law... service... promise. " Enumeration of privileges — honors.
"Israelites"—high title of Jew. "Adoption"—sons of God. "Glory"—the presence of God. "Covenants"—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. "Law"—given by God himself. "Service"—belonging to tabernacle. "Promises"—concerning Christ.
Verse 5: "Whose the fathers. . . of whom Christ"—To have sprung from such forefathers, greatest privilege—by extraction and advantage—a noble, favored nation—last and greatest honor, that Christ should come of their flesh..
II. THE SPIRITUAL SEED—Romans 9:6-13
Verse 6: "Not as promise none effect... not all Israel which are of Israel. "—Though natural seed cast off—still promise not failed—because natural Israel not whole Israel. There is a spiritual Israel to whom the promise belonged—the natural seed does not constitute all that Israel is. "Not all Israel... of Israel"—refers to rejection or acceptance of Christ as basis of who is Israel.
Verse 7: "Neither because seed of Abraham... children... but in Isaac"—Not all his offspring in scope of promise. In Isaac—called. Chosen. The promises do not belong to Abraham’s flesh, but faith— otherwise, Ishmael would not have been excluded from covenant.
Verse 8: "That is, children of flesh are not the children of God... but children of promise... counted for seed. " "Not children of God"—not in sense of salvation, but peculiar nation. "Children of promise.,. seed"—now, those who accept Christ.
Verse 9: "Word of promise at time come... Sarah... son". God’s plan called for Sarah, not Hagar. Isaac the only seed God acknowledged for son and heir.
Verses 10-13: The calling of Isaac in preference to Ishmael was not unjust because the blessings were temporal only in design—no effect on individual character or salvation.
"Rebecca,.. by our father Isaac"—(God’s plan to bless all nations through Abraham’s seed)—verse 10.
"Children not born... neither having done good or evil"—verse 11—(plan was according to God’s own will, someone had to be selected—God chose Abraham)—"purpose of God according to elec-tion, " (One of Abraham’s sons had to be heir—God chose Isaac)—"Not of works but of him that calleth"—not based on actions—deeds-personal character—but plan of God.
"The elder shall serve the younger"—here God chose Jacob—verse 12.
"Jacob I loved... Esau I hated"—verse 13—not spoken before birth of Jacob and Esau, but after. Love and hate based on character— man’s own will determines God’s attitude and and his own salvation.
III. THE DISPLAY OF MERCY—Romans 9:14-18
Verse 14: "What say then... unrighteousness with God?" This election had only to do with nation through whom Christ came— nothing to do with personal election—individual salvation—way open to all—man’s will the deciding factor.
Verse 15: "Saith... mercy on whom mercy... compassion on whom I have compassion. " Refers to God’s attitude toward trans-gressors, in regard to turning from transgression and the terms upon which mercy and compassion extended. If Esau’s character—God would have willed to bless.
Verse 16: "Not of him that wills... nor of him that run-neth... but of God that showeth mercy. "
"Him that wills"—refers to Isaac. "Him that runneth"—to Esau.
"God showeth mercy"—neither affects that truth—God’s mercy conditioned on doing according to plan—will.
Verse 17: "Pharaoh... this purpose raised thee up... show power... declare. " Pharaoh defied God—the demands of God raised (both Hebrew and Greek rendition—stirred, kindled—contest lasted long enough to "declare"—God’s power—name published—the plagues, etc. God’s demands stirred Pharaoh’s attempt to defeat God—raised against God. God did not make Pharaoh wicked—Only used his wickedness to declare—show—his purpose could not be defeated.
Verse 18: "Therefore... mercy on whom" connects with verse 15. Mercy according to their own conduct toward God’s demands.
IV. THE POWER OF THE POTTER
OVER THE CLAY--Romans 9:19-24
Verse 19: "Thou wilt say"—quibblers ask question about God’s methods—"Why yet fault"—on that principle, why yet find fault with Jew.
Verse 20: "O, man... repliest against thing formed... why made thus?"
"O man"—Jewish man.
"Repliest"—not an answer, but a rebuke.
Verse 21: "Potter power over clay... of same lump vessel of honor or dishonor. "—Potter uses power over the character of the clay—the same lump may be molded to honor or dishonor, depending on kind of lump—the character of the person. The man makes his own character, according to his own will or against God’s teaching. God then uses his character as an agent of mercy or to display his wrath; therefore, no complaint against God. The simple truth of verses 20-21 is that man makes his own clay—character—God uses it. So man may of choice be kind of clay molded into honor—or dishonor. No reason to put strained, forced, construction to make verse 21 teach that man has no freedom of will and action—no responsibility—whether man or nation a vessel of honor, dishonor, depends on the man or the nation. (2 Timothy 2:20-21). The passage in Isaiah and Jeremiah proves that God does not make men good or bad by direct operation.
Verse 22: "God willing to show wrath, endured ... longsuffering... the vessels of wrath.,. fitted for destruction. " Reference to manner in which God does it—not the subject. "Show wrath"—against sin—why object?
"Make power known"—he would be indifferent if he did not do so. "Vessels of wrath"—God did not make them so.
"Fitted for destruction"—their own character—God’s power shown in their destruction.
Verse 23: "Riches of his glory"—the blessings of salvation.
"Afore prepared... whom he called... not Jews only, also Gentiles"—verses 23-24. The disposition God makes of both men and nations depends on behaviour.
V. THE NATION FITTED FOR
DESTRUCTION--Romans 9:25-29
Verse 25: "As in Hosea"—such need not surprise the Jews, for their prophet said it would be so—Hosea 1:10—showing Gentiles would be accepted.
Verses 25-26: The Jewish nation long "fitted for destruction"— God endured them until gospel could be preached to Gentiles.
Verse 27: "Isaiah said... remnant"—Remnant of Israel—accepted—flesh brought salvation to none.
Verse 28: "For he will finish the work"—the work of election— "cut it short"—speed fulfillment of prophecy—after longsuffering.
Verse 29: "Except Lord of Sabaoth (hosts) had left a seed"—but for the remnant all would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah—mercy because of the remnant.
VI. THE FAILURE TO ATTAIN
RIGHTEOUSNESS--Romans 9:30-33
Verse 30: "What then... not after righteousness"—Gentiles who did not follow law—did not seek righteousness of law which could be had only by perfect obedience to the law,
"Have attained righteousness"—forgiveness, by obedience to the gospel which Jews sought but failed to attain.
Verse 31: "But Israel which followed after"—sought it, failed to attain—professed adherence, but did not keep—condemned as sinners. (Law versus gospel) Transgressed the law they professed to follow— own law condemned them as transgressors.
Verse 32: "Wherefore"—why this of Israel?
"Sought not by faith... but by works of law"—only hope to attain was faith (gospel)—law could not make righteous—hopeless.
"For they stumbled"—refusing to believe, they fell.
Verse 33: "As written, I lay in Zion a stumblingstone... whoso-ever believes... not ashamed"—Those who rejected fell on the stumblingstone—the rock of offence—sinned by rejection. But those who believed, accepted the stone—"not ashamed"—in any man’s presence—as one deceived by some false leader or teacher of false doctrine.
LESSON 15
THE CHILDREN OF THE ABRAHAMIC PROMISE
READ Romans 9:1-13
1. In whom did Paul say he spoke the truth? Ans. Romans 9:1.
2. What must we put away and what must we speak?
Ans. Ephesians 4:25.
3: What was bearing witness with Paul? Ans. Romans 9:1.
4. What kind of conscience did he always have?
Ans. Acts 24:16; 2 Corinthians 1:12; Hebrews 13:18.
5. What should we always have and hold? Ans. 1 Timothy 1:5; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Timothy 3:9.
6. What were Paul’s emotions as he wrote these lines?
Ans. Romans 9:2.
7. How far was he willing to sacrifice for the salvation of his kinsmen?
Ans. Romans 9:3.
8. What was his prayer and heart’s desire? Ans. Romans 10:1.
9. Why did he become all things to all men? Ans: 1 Corinthians 9:22.
10. Name seven special blessings God had bestowed upon Israel, and
discuss each one of them. Ans. Romans 9:4-5.
11. Why could Paul say the word had not failed, though the Israelites
as a nation had not obeyed it? Ans. Romans 9:6.
12. Who are the true Israel of God?
Ans. Romans 9:8; Romans 2:28-29; Galatians 6:16.
13. What was the "word of promise" to Abraham?
Ans. Romans 9:9; Genesis 18:10; Hebrews 11:11.
14. Who were the sons of Isaac and Rebecca? Ans. Genesis 25:24-26.
15. Which of these was chosen to be the father of God’s nation?
Ans. Romans 9:12-13.
16. Why was this choice made? Ans. Romans 9:11.
17. When did God make this choice? Ans. Romans 9:11-13.
18. When did God say that Esau would serve Jacob? Ans. Genesis 25:23.
19. When did he say, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated"?
Ans. Malachi 1:2-3.
20. Why was Jacob’s name changed to Israel? Ans. Genesis 32:27-28.
21. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 9:1-13.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION OR ASSIGNMENT
1. Conscience.
2. Becoming All Things To All Men.
3. Jacob And Esau.
LESSON 16
SOVEREIGNTY AND MERCY OF GOD
READ Romans 9:14-33
1. In whom is there no injustice? Ans. Romans 9:14.
2. What did God say to Moses? Ans. Romans 9:15; Exodus 33:19.
3. God wills to be merciful to whom?
Ans. Matthew 5:7; Luke 1:50; Isaiah 55:7; Acts 10:35.
4. On whom has he chosen to show no mercy?
Ans. James 2:13; Matthew 18:33-35; Romans 2:8-11; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.
5. Who determines where God will bestow mercy or with-hold it?
Ans. Romans 9:16.
6. For what purpose did God raise up Pharaoh to the throne of Egypt?
Ans. Romans 9:17; Exodus 9:16.
7. Show that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart to God’s demands.
Ans. Exodus 7:13; Exodus 7:22; Exodus 8:15; Exodus 8:32; Exodus 9:7.
8. After Pharaoh at different times had hardened his own heart, what
then did God do? Ans. Exodus 9:12.
9. Even after that, what did Pharaoh do? Ans. Exodus 9:34.
10. Can you prove that God wills to harden those who first persistently
harden themselves? Ans. Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28; 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12.
11. Prove that men themselves are responsible for what they are morally.
Ans. Genesis 4:6-7; James 1:13-15; James 4:7-10; Matthew 13:15.
12. What power and right does the potter have over the clay?
Ans. Romans 9:20-21.
13. Upon what condition does God promise to make a man to be a vessel
unto honor? Ans. Jeremiah 18:6-10; 2 Timothy 2:20-21.
14. How does God show his mercy and longsuffering to both Jew and
Gentile? Ans. Romans 9:22-24; 2 Peter 3:9.
15. What promise did God make to the Gentiles through the prophet
Hosea? Ans. Romans 9:25-26; Hosea 2:23; Hosea 1:10.
16. What did Isaiah prophesy regarding the salvation of Israel?
Ans. Romans 9:27-29.
17. What had the Gentiles attained through faith? Ans. Romans 9:30.
18. Why did the Jews fail to attain this righteousness?
Ans. Romans 9:31-33.
19. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 9:14-33.
TOPICS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION OR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1. The Hardening Of Pharaoh’s Heart.
2. Man’s Responsibility For His Deeds.
3. Both Jew And Gentile Saved Alike.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
I. THE PRAYER FOR ISRAEL—Romans 10:1-3
Verse 1: "Brethren... Israel... saved"—not a hater of his nation as had been charged—prayer that Israel might be saved—for them to accept the way of salvation now opened to all as individuals.
Verse 2: "Zeal... not according to knowledge"—A Jewish zeal’— national zeal—party zeal—zealots of the law—but without the knowledge of their own scriptures and contrary to teaching of their own prophets.
Verse 3: "Ignorant of God’s righteousness... establish their...not submitted to God’s righteousness. " Jews not ignorant that God is righteous—the Being of God—hence, righteousness of God not here attribute of God. Reference to the righteousness they had failed to attain. How God makes man righteousness—the plan for justification. The way to be saved—his prayer for them—something to which they must "submit"—but had not submitted to—revealed in gospel—chapter 1: 17—his debt to Gentiles—prayer for Israel—chapter 1:14.
II. THE END OF THE LAW—Romans 10:4-5
Verse 4: "Christ... end. . . for righteousness"—"End" is here purpose, not termination—Christ accomplished the purpose of the law—"for"—EIS "in order to right. "
The aim of the law—the end the law sought but could not attain— connection with verses 31-32 of the preceding chapter. Not a reference here to abrogation, but an aim reached in Christ. An aim sought one way but gained another—pursued by the Jews, attained by Gentiles. "Every one that believeth"—boast of the Jew, but obtained by Gentile.
Verse 5: "Moses describes righteousness of law... the man which doeth shall live." What Moses "described" was a law demanding perfect obedience—no man ever did—hence, no man ever lived by them—chapter 1:17—"the just by faith shall live"—the end to live—to be righteous—unattainable by those under the law that "described" that purpose.
The law itself described the inability of the man under it to keep it—"not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not. " In ignorance the Jew sought thus to establish his own righteousness — failed—refused to submit to God’s righteousness by rejecting Christ who accomplished the end of their own law.
"The man which doeth them shall live by them"—states that its end was righteousness—and if kept perfectly—the one who did it would live—attain righteousness—no man did—no man righteous under it. Christ accomplished end—that Moses described.
III. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH—Romans 10:6-12
Verse 6: "Speaketh on this wise"—refers to what is said in the law of the righteousness of faith—(Deuteronomy 30:12-14). Quotation: "Say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heaven"—Parenthesis: ("That is, to bring Christ down from above")—Paul’s own words.
Verse 7: Quotation: "Or, who shall descend into the deep." Parenthesis: ("that is to bring Christ up again from dead")—Paul’s own words. In application of the quotation.
Verse 8: "What saith it"—quotation: "Word is nigh... heart...mouth"—Application, "That is, the word of faith... we preach". Nigh—do not have to go to heaven to bring it down—easy access,
not far—not difficult—easy reach of all—it is on earth now—not beyond our reach in heaven.
Verse 9: "Confess with mouth believe in heart raised from dead saved. " Salvation does not require his presence on earth, but requires allegiance to him. Confess... believe. Lip confes-sion worthless without heart allegiance.
Verse 10: "With heart believeth unto righteousness". The way the believer is made righteous—"the heart believeth unto righteousness"— "mouth confession unto salvation. "
Note: Verse 9—confess before believe. Verse 10—Believe before confess.
What kind of confession—the scope of "believeth unto righteousness. "
Verse 11: "Scripture... whosoever believeth... not ashamed." no favoritism in the new plan—all have the same standing.
Verse 12: "No difference... same Lord over all... rich unto all... who call"—Not a Jewish Lord, but universal giver of riches of the gospel—conditioned on "call"—no reference to prayer.
IV. THE GOSPEL MESSAGE—Romans 10:13-18
Verse 13: "Whosoever shall call... saved". "Whosoever"—Jew or Gentile, "Call"—compare Acts 22:16.
Verse 14: "How shall...call...not believed...believed...not heard... preacher." Rhetorical question, has force of answer— cannot call—not believed; cannot believe—not heard. Cannot hear-without preacher.
Verse 15: "How preach except... sent,.. feet"—original proclamation of gospel.—Verses 14-15 do not refer to church sending a preacher, but to original selection of men by Christ to proclaim plan of salvation. They were given the message—sent. We have not been sent with any message—Apostles were—and so precious the message, the feet of the messenger were beautiful.
Verse 16: "Not all obeyed... believed report. " Personal res pon-sibility of the hearer. Individual accountability to the word. "Who hath believed our report?"—The report of the Lord’s specially sent mes-sengers—Original report.
Verse 17: "So then... faith by hearing... hearing by the word of God. " Connects with righteousness by faith—not law—original report of Lord’s messengers—apostles—only source of faith—hence, righteousness.
No apostolic report—no source—no origin—no hearing—hence, no righteouness of faith.
Verse 18: "Have they not heard... report... sound... all earth... words... end of world." Report went to all that they might believe—since it went to the ends of the world—all earth’s peoples—no excuse for a Jew anywhere or Gentile in any land.
V. THE REJECTED OVERTURE—Romans 10:9-21
Verse 19: "Did Israel not know?... Moses saith." Question answered by Moses. If Israel did not know, it was their own fault.
"Provoke to jealousy by no people... and by foolish nation anger you."—Jews regarded Gentiles as no people and foolish nation— provoked and angered that God would deal with Gentiles in this way.
Verse 20: "Isaiah bold...saith...found of them sought not,"— The Gentiles did not seek through the law. Bold prophet who would say one could find God without seeking through the law of Moses. Bold, indeed, the prophet who offered justification to a people whose asking was independent of, and not through, the law of the Jews—the Mosaic system.
Verse 21: "But to Israel he saith"—The bold prophecy said something respecting Israel in addition to that which concerned the Gentiles.
"All day long"—through the old dispensation.
"Stretched hands unto disobedient...gainsaying people." Israel disobedient to prophets and prophecies. Not only disobedient, but "gainsaying"—saying against—not doing—and saying against. Though overtures—Israel refused to see—contrasted with Gentiles who accepted.
LESSON 17
ISRAEL’S ERROR REGARDING RIGHTEOUSNESS
READ Romans 10:1-21
1. For what did Paul pray? Ans. Romans 10:1.
2. What was wrong with Israel’s zeal? Ans. Romans 10:2.
3. Give other examples of evil or misguided zeal.
Ans. Matthew 23:15; Acts 26:11; Philippians 3:6.
4. Why did not the Jews submit to the righteousness of God?
Ans. Romans 10:3.
5. What is God’s righteousness? Ans. Psalms 119:172.
6. Christ is the end of what? Ans. Romans 10:4.
7. What did Moses say of righteousness based on the law?
Ans. Romans 10:5; Leviticus 18:5.
8. Who was able to keep the law perfectly?
Ans. Acts 15:10; Hebrews 4:15.
9. The Jews were forbidden to demand what kind of proof for the divinity of Christ? Ans. Romans 10:6-7.
10. What is the source of our faith? Ans. Romans 10:8; Romans 10:17; John 20:30-31.
11. What must one believe and confess to be saved?
Ans. Romans 10:9-10.
12. What is promised to the believer? Ans. Romans 10:11.
13. How do we know this promise is to obedient believers and not to
disobedient believers? Ans. Galatians 5:8; James 2:14-24.
14. Upon whom does the Lord bestow his riches? Ans. Romans 10:12-13.
15. Beginning with preaching, name the successive steps leading to salvation. Ans. Romans 10:13-15.
16. Show that calling on the Lord requires more than saying "Lord,
Lord". Ans. Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46; Acts 22:16.
17. Why were the Israelites not saved? Ans. Romans 10:16; Romans 10:21.
18. Where had the word of the gospel been preached? Ans. Romans 10:18.
19. What had Moses and Isaiah said regarding the salvation of Gentiles? Ans. Romans 10:19-20; Deuteronomy 32:21; Isaiah 65:1.
20. Give a summary of what is taught in this chapter.
Ans. Romans 10:1-21.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION OR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
1. Zeal Without Knowledge And Knowledge Without Zeal.
2. Man’s Righteousness Vs. God’s Righteousness.
3. Faith: How Obtained and Increased.
4. Calling On The Lord.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
Chapter 11 concludes the difficult case of the Jews.
I. THE REMNANT ACCORDING ELECTION---Romans 11:1-6
Verse 1: "Hath God cast away his people?"—Has God rejected them all? No. As a nation God cast them off. As people—persons—no, for all of them could be saved as many had been and were being saved.
"For I also am an Israelite, etc. " Paul himself an example that God had not cast them off.
Verse 2: "His people which he foreknew"—Foreknew—recognized— approved—Descent from Abraham not the basis of recognition or approval.
"Elias—maketh intercession"—Elijah an example in point.
Verse 3: "Killed prophets, digged altar, left alone... seek my life. " Elijah thought all rejected, but wrong, only a part—
Verse 4: "Jews were making same mistake as Elijah"—not all—only part—Like 7, 000, a remnant.
Verse 5: "According to election of grace. " The part net cast off— remnant—"according"—plan—gospel—chapter 10:16. Remnant, the election—chosen. Grace—Remnant—not nation, were in God’s favor.
"Even so"—like Elijah’s 7, 000.
Verse 6: "By grace... no more works". If works—of perfect obedience. No grace—righteous without grace. If righteous by works, perfect obedience did not need grace—no forgiveness would be necessary.
II. THE CAUSE OF BLINDNESS—Romans 11:7-10
Verse 7: "Israel did not obtain... seeketh remnant... obtained ... rest blinded. " "Israel did not obtain"—righteousness because none kept the law perfectly.
Thus seeking acceptance—failed to obtain.
"Remnant obtained"—because they accepted the gospel—and were forgiven.
"The rest were blinded"—to reject.
Verse 8: "Parenthesis" of verse 8—"The spirit of slumber"—was indifferent—"eyes that they should not see"—was their spiritual imperception. "Ears that they should not hear"—prejudice—Isaiah 29:10; Ezekiel 12:2. Parenthesis closed—then-"unto this day"—result of imperception, indifference, prejudice, now experienced—fulfilled.
Verse 9: "Let table be snare... trap... stumblingblock, recompence." Table of Lord’s enemies—snare and trap—that which could have been to their welfare became a trap instead—no act of God to keep them from seeing—result of their own prejudice.
Verse 10: "Bow down back"—as slaves to their sin.
III. THE BENEFITS OF THE FALL—Romans 11:11-16
Verse 11: "Have they stumbled.., that they should fall..."--- through fall, salvation unto Gentiles.
Stumbled—for purpose of in order to fall. Rather—salvation to Gentiles. God intended the fall only conditionally.
Provoke—to emulation—Having done so he decreed a good result.
Verse 12: "If fall of them... riches of world... how much more their fulness. "
Riches of world—by their dispersion. Riches of Gentiles—by their salvation.
Much more their fulness—facilitated their conversion. If the fall a benefit, their conversion more.
Verse 13: "Speak to Gentiles.....as apostle. " To get them to obey—"magnify office"—by converting as many people as possible.
Verse 14: "Provoke... save some." The more Gentiles he could convert, the more Jews he might save.
Verse 15: "Casting away,., reconciling of world... receiving them... life from dead. " Dispersion consequence of casting away— reconciling world result of the dispersion—effect of conversion—life (figuratively) as life—not national—conversion compared to resurrection from state of separation from God.
Verse 16: "If firstfruit holy.,. lump holy... so the branches. " "Firstfruits"—If first converts among the Jews were saved.
"Lump"—all capable of being saved in the same way. Root—Abraham, the patriarchal root.
Branches—holy (saved) by faith as firstfruits (converts) and lump (all in the same way).
IV. THE TWO OLIVE TREES—Romans 11:17-24
Verse 17: "Branches broken... grafted... partake"—Gentiles should not overlook the fact that the gospel began with the Jews —
Verse 18. Illustration of God’s method of dealing with the Jews.
Verse 19: "Branches broken... that I might be grafted. " Jews that rejected gospel were broken branches, but the root remained in the remnant.
Verse 20: "Because of unbelief broken... stand in faith...fear. " No special favor to either Jew or Gentile—stand or fall alike.
Verse 21: "Spared not natural branches...also spare not thee. " "Natural branches"—a tree’s own branches—contrast with those grafted in.
"Spare not thee"—Did not spare the tree of his own planting.
Verse 22: "Goodness and severity... which fell, severity; thee, goodness, if continue, otherwise, cut off. "
Sum: Accepts or spares only on conditions.
Verse 23: "Grafted in again" on same conditions—"not in unbelief. "
Verse 24: "Cut out of olive tree, wild by nature, grafted into own tree. "
Misapplications:
(1) Olive tree not the church (Abrahamic)—two olive trees. If good tree, true church—would wild tree be a wild church?
(2) If the church, then Jews would be members by nature. All Jew children in it by birth. Then broken off when reach age of unbelief.
(3) If Gentiles grafted by faith, then Gentile babies excluded—so—Jew babies members by natural birth—Gentile babies not members at all.
(4) The good olive tree is God’s favor—Jews were in it—Gentiles grafted into it—Jews grafted again, on same condition as Gentiles—into their own (theirs first).
"God able to graff them in again"—able on same conditions— gospel conditions—to all,
"Out of wild into good"—contrary to nature—the tame into good is nature—Gentiles wild into good—contrary—order reversed—custom— "Natural grafted again"—already accustomed to God’s laws and dealings.
V. THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES—Romans 11:25-32
Verse 25: "Would not ye should be ignorant of this mystery...blindness to Israel in part,.. until fulness of Gentiles."
Mystery—known only by revelation. In part—not complete Until—
(1) Milcah—2 Samuel 6:23 "until day of death. "
(2) Joseph--saying—keepers until now—Genesis 46:34.
(3) Samuel—not see Saul until death—1 Samuel 15:35. Any "after" to these untils—see Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 9:10—carnal ordinances.
Fulness—does not mean full count.
Verse 26: "So all Israel saved. " So, adverb of manner, as the remnant. All, not whole—but of them all as written—Deuteronomy 5:1; 1 Chronicles 11:4; 1 Samuel 28:3. Ungodliness from Jacob—greater part of living. Jews as nation cannot accept—no nation can—a nation must act as an organized body. verses 25-26 means.
Israel (Jews) might continue in hardness to the end so far as Except—there is no Israel now to continue. (See Addendum on Verse 26. )
Verse 27: "This is covenant... take away sins. " (First covenant—fault—second; if third, fault with second. What fault with new covenant?) Pre-millennialists claim this (verse 27) refers to a third covenant.
Verse 28: "Concerning gospel... enemies for your sakes, election, beloved. " Enemies—Jews—for your sakes—benefit. Election, their salvation.
Fathers sake—come according to promise through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
Verse 29: "Gifts and calling not without repentance." God has not regretted the call of—and promises to Abraham.
Verse 30: "Times past...." (ye, Gentiles believed not)—before conversion.
"Now obtained mercy through their (Jews) unbelief. "—occasion of centered on Gentiles.
Verse 31: "Even so these also now have not believed... that through mercy... they also obtain mercy." Jews now as Gentiles were—case reversed.
Obtain mercy—prove a blessing.
Verse 32: "Concluded them all in unbelief... that might have mercy on all." No chance except through grace by gospel—first the Gentile, then the Jew. The original order reversed. Jew once first, now Gentile—by Jews rejection.
VI. THE INSCRUTABLE WAYS OF GOD--Romans 11:33-36
Verse 33: "Depth of riches... wisdom and knowledge of God... How unsearchable... judgments, ways past finding out. "
Depth—resources at command. Judgments—decision, not sentences.
Past finding—cannot trace his paths in advance.
Verse 34: "Who hath known mind of Lord... who his coun-sellor." Can know only as he reveals—standing in awe before him, and his inscrutable wisdom.
Verse 35: "Who hath given to him, and recompensed to him again." God is no man’s debtor—can give to him only what is received from him.
Verse 36: "All things through and to him... glory."—proceed— governed by—honor of—cause—through course, to end.
LESSON 18
A REMNANT OF ISRAEL SAVED
READ Romans 11:1-12
1. How does Paul prove that God has not made the salvation of an
Israelite impossible? Ans. Romans 11:1.
2. Whom did God not cast off? Ans. Romans 11:2.
3. What did Elijah say about the apostasy of Israel?
Ans. Romans 11:2-3; 1 Kings 19:10.
4. In what was Elijah wrong? Ans. Romans 11:34; 1 Kings 19:10; 1 Kings 19:18.
5. Why was Elijah so despondent? Ans. 1 Kings 19:1-4.
6. What truth regarding Israel is illustrated by the seven thousand who
had not bowed to Baal? Ans. Romans 11:4-5.
7. By what are we saved? Ans. Romans 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-9.
8. By what kind of works can no man be saved?
Ans. Romans 11:6; Romans 3:20.
9. Who are God’s elect race now? Ans. 1 Peter 2:9-10.
10. How can we make our calling and election sure?
Ans. 2 Peter 1:5-11.
11. How is salvation attained by man? Ans. Acts 2:40; Philippians 2:12.
12. What had Israel as a nation failed to obtain? Ans. Romans 11:7.
13. Who did obtain it? Ans. Romans 11:7
14. Why do some who have eyes and ears not see and hear?
Ans. Romans 11:8; Isaiah 6:9; Matthew 13:14-15.
15. Name the terrible things that David said would come upon such?
Ans. Romans 11:9-10.
16. What did Jesus say about the anguish and sorrow of the Jews who
rejected him? Ans. Luke 23:28-31.
17. What opportunity came to the Gentiles by the Jews’ rejection and
crucfixion if Christ?
Ans. Romans 11:11-12; John 12:32-33; Ephesians 2:14-16.
18. How did the Jews’ rejection of the gospel accelerate the preaching
among the Gentiles? Ans. Acts 8:3-4; Acts 13:45-47.
19. What could the Jews do which would be of greater benefit to the
world than their fall? Ans. Ron. 11:12,
20. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 11:1-12.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND ASSIGNMENT
1. God’s Elect Race.
2. How To Make One’s Calling And Election Sure.
LESSON 19
THE GOODNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD
READ Romans 11:13-36
1. Whom is the writer addressing in these verses? Ans. Romans 11:13.
2. Paul was an apostle especially to whom?
Ans. Romans 11:13; Acts 9:15; Ephesians 3:8-9; Galatians 2:9.
3. In his work among Gentiles, what did Paul hope to do for the Jews?
Ans. Romans 11:14.
4. If the fall of Israel resulted in the salvation of Gentiles, what would
their conversion be? Ans. Romans 11:15.
5. Upon what conditions could the lump" and "branches" be holy?
Ans. Romans 11:16.
6. What blessings came to wild olive branches or Gentiles, when natural branches or Jews were broken off? Ans. Romans 11:17.
7. Why could not the Gentiles boast in these blessings?
Ans. Romans 11:18.
8. Why were the Jews broken off, and upon what condition could
Gentiles remain in Cod’s favor? Ans. Romans 11:19-21.
9. The severity of God is sent upon whom? Ans. Romans 11:22.
10. His goodness is extended to whom? Ans. Romans 11:22.
11. Why did Paul bring his body into subjection? Ans. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
12. Show that it is possible for a child of God to fall from grace.
Ans. Galatians 5:2-4; 1 Timothy 4:1-2.
13. What will God do for all Jews who abandon their unbelief?
Ans. Romans 11:23-24.
14. Against what does Paul warn the Gentiles? Ans. Romans 11:25.
15. Upon what condition could all Israelites be saved?
Ans. Romans 11:26-27; Acts 2:38-39; Acts 10:34-35; 1 Corinthians 12:13;
Galatians 3:26-29.
16. When Israel once rejected Christ and his gospel, why did God not
make it impossible for them ever to be saved?
Ans. Romans 11:28-29.
17. If God permits Gentiles to become obedient and be saved, what will
he do also for Jews who become obedient?
Ans. Romans 11:30-31.
18. Why do both Jew and Gentile need the mercy of God?
Ans. Romans 11:32.
19. What is God’s power for saving both? Ans. Romans 1:16.
20. Give Paul’s description of the riches, wisdom and knowledge of God
as manifested in this wonderful plan of salvation for all.
Ans. Romans 11:33-35.
21. By whom were all things created and in whom do all things exist?
Ans. Romans 11:36; Cot 1:15-17; Acts 17:24-28.
22. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered in this lesson. Ans. Romans 11:13-36.
TOPICS FOR ASSIGNMENT OR CLASS DISCUSSION
1. How The Fall Of Israel Resulted In Salvation Of Gentiles.
2. Natural Branches And Wild Branches.
3. Possibility Of Apostasy.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
I. THE REASONABLE SERVICE—Romans 12:1-2
Verse 1: "Beseech... therefore... mercies of God ... present bodies... living... holy... acceptable ... reasonable."
"Beseech therefore"—In view of dissolution of law—system of sacrifices—according to exposition chapters 1-11—accept the change from old to new—now under gospel—relation of all (Jew and Gentile the same)—to God and Christ—in a spiritual institution—the services of which now ready in his exposition to set forth in precepts of Christianity applying to them as members of both the church and society, and as subjects of the state.
"Mercies of God"—to whom God had shown mercy in all respects set forth in exposition—not mere reference to mercy—but as it applied particularly to their case.
"Present bodies"—their Jewish system of sacrifices—annulled— removed—dissolved—altars of Judaism replaced by sacrifice of own bodies—in worship to God,
"Living sacrifice"—not by slain animals—but by slaying lusts— putting to death the evils of the flesh—offering the living part of man to God.
"Holy... acceptable"—acceptable in being holy—only holiness is—unholiness never—2 Corinthians 7:1—Body with lusts seat of sin— present, not only living, but holy—an altar word—present—bring to altar—offer.
"Reasonable service"—The system of rational service—reasonable minds as against irrational victim of Jewish sacrifices—the altar of beasts and birds.
Spiritual altar erected instead—Bodies in which sin had ruled (chapter 8) its members—now governed by the inner man (chapter 1:9) in "serving God with the spirit in the gospel. " Reasonable, spiritual, rational, not physical.
Verse 2: "Be not conformed... but transformed... by renew-ing of mind... prove what is that good, perfect will of God. " Release from law and Jewish relations, restriction not reason for conformity to Roman—pagan—world. Removal of Jewish—Mosaic restriction—no warrant for adopting habits patterned of empire of Rome and pagan society around them either in principle or practice,
"Be not conformed"—fashioned, by adopting manner of life. World—the corrupt part of Roman society—by pagan worldliness of character—resembling—becoming like—in habits, in morals, of idolaters.
"Be ye transformed"—changed—across—from what they were as members of pagan world—(chapter 1)—see Ephesians 4:17-19 -
"By renewing of mind"—(reasonable service verse 1)—rational— spiritual—so—renewed minds—enlightened—in correction of perverted minds of pagan—heathen—adherents—idol worshippers—"Renewed in spirit of mind"—Ephesians 4:22-25.
"Prove what is that... will of God." Approve by enlightened understanding—that "perfect" will of God revealed in gospel—made known to both Jew and Gentile—"good" in grace exhibited—"accept-able" on all conditions.
II. THE SPIRITUAL MINISTRATIONS—Romans 12:3-8
Verse 3: "For I say... through grace given... every man... not to think more highly... soberly... according to measure." "For I say"—as inspired apostle. "Grace given me"—apostolic authority—"to every man"—without exception—"not to think highly"—on account of spiritual gift endowments—"soberly"—in the proper exercise of spiri-tual gifts—"according to measure"—the distribution of special gifts— with humility which comes from realizing nature of gifts—purpose of bestowal and source—neither elevated the possessor—nor lowered the non-possessor—in station—An exhortation against irre gularities in exercise of various spiritual gifts—spiritual insight new standard of measurement.
Verse 4: "For many members... one body... not same office. " Joint members in one organized spiritual body, but necessarily variety of gifts make them different in nature of exercise; hence, members not same office (function) in the body.
Verse 5: "So we... many... one body in Christ... everyone members one of another. "Many"—spiritual society. "One body in Christ"—under one government. "Members one of another"—conse-quently depending on each other for various, multiple, distributed benefits of mutual edification, receiving in turn from each other.
Verse 6: "Gifts differing... grace... prophecy... proportion of faith. " Gifts: Always in mind that both natural talents and spiritual gifts are bestowed—and as Paul had the grace of apostleship, theirs also grace of gifts—not for high station, but to be exercised for good of the whole body.
Prophecy: Not prediction, but inspired delivery distinguished from teaching by divine inspiration.
Proportion of faith: The extent of inspiration confined to the gift possessed—"a measure of faith"—possessing it did not warrant their going beyond it—adding to—dealing with matters outside their special endowment as spiritually gifted men.
Verse 7: "Ministry... wait... teaches... on teaching. " Wait on ministering—attend to various demands—diversified service—not discouraged by obstacles—note use of "wait" in other passages.
On teaching—duty of instructing the uninformed—ignorant of essentials. Not mere educational program.
Verse 8: "Exhortation....giveth with simplicity....ruleth with diligence... mercy with cheerfulness. "
Exhortation: A function to encourage the faint and feeble—strength-en the weak—differing from the teacher whose function was instruction in doctrine.
Giveth: Reference to distributor—not a giver—do it without discrimination—simplicity—purity of action—hence, in honesty of impartiality.
Ruleth: Superintendency—oversight—tending—bishop—elder—au-thoritative function. Diligence—no disinterest, but qualified in prudence—judgment— patience.
Mercy: Pertaining to needs of afflicted, sick—poor—needy. Cheerfulness: Perform services with forwardness—not reluctance—
nor gloom—but radiating cheer—helping their state of mind as well as distress of body—supply want in spirit as well as the pecuniary need.
III. THE SOCIAL RELATION—Romans 12:9-16
Verse 9: "Love without dissimulation..Abhor..evil..cleave to good. "
Dissimulation: Love real—constant—consistent—sincere—not fickle.
Abhor: Condemn every evil thing or thought. Cleave good: Continuous virtuous course.
Verse 10: "Kindly affectioned...brotherly love...honor preferring." Kind disposition—attitude of kindred relation—common interest.
Fraternal regard—as brethren—show warmth—welcome—welfare.
In honor preferring—(going before)—leading—"preferring, " (old use like "precede"). Here it means leading one another on in honorable things. Inducing—promoting—exemplifying honor.
Verse 11: "Not slothful in business... fervent in spirit,.. serving. "
Business: The joint business of all Christians—a common interest— each others welfare—not slothful in looking after each others spiritual partnership. Reference to the business of living the Christian’s life— together.
Fervent: In the spirit of fervency—not diffident—all obligations both to Christ and Christians—perform—
Verse 12: "Rejoicing in hope... patient in tribulation... instant in prayer. "
Hope of reward in midst of Roman conditions—eternal life the goal.
Patient in the afflictions present and in reference to gathering clouds of persecution—tribulation. Nero’s persecution impending.
Constant prayer—the only true consolation in trouble.
Verse 13: "Distributing to saints... given to hospitality." Liberality in relieving poverty—necessity—of saints—brethren. Hospitality also to strangers—not brethren—reference possibly to sojourners—driven by adversity from homes—refugees of misfortune— travellers in distress.
Verse 14: "Bless them that persecute... curse not. " Bless by praying for them—as only God can bless men. Invoke God’s blessing—do not call down curses nor epithets of condemnation.
Verse 15: "Rejoice with them that rejoice...weep with them that weep." Rejoice with those in prosperity—grieve with those in adversity—opposite circ*mstances—opposite emotions—cultivate warm mutual interests and sympathies.
Verse 16: "Be of same mind one to another...mind not high... condescend... Be not wise in own conceits. " Same mind— disposition—chapter 15: 5; Philippians 2:3—not set—ambition for high—for position sake. Illusions of grandeur—as well as elusions. Do not leave the road—way—intended to walk or travel—to have company of certain ones.
Condescend—be drawn into sympathy for—with—men not pecuni-ary—minded—not haughty—world-wise.
Conceits: Not despising—refusing instruction in opinions of own wisdom—self-estimation—self-opinionated—self-adulation—self-esteem. A caution against danger of egotism over special endowments.
IV. THE PEACE PRINCIPLES—Romans 12:17-21
Verse 17: "Recompense no man evil...provide...honest...all men." Concerning right of retaliation.....no provocation warrants personal revenge,
Provide: Premeditate—think on proper method before proceeding.
Honest: Means good or favorable; hence, beautiful actions—make actions beautiful—attract all men—including enemies—to right things — reciprocity.
Verse 18: "If possible...peace with all men." If others will allow—consistent with truth—piety. As much as in you is: What is in you—what concerns you—IS—peace with all men—consistently.
Verse 19: "Avenge not.,.give place...vengeance mine...Lord." Law—Deuteronomy 32:35; Deuteronomy 13:9. The penal prerogative legal only—avenge not persecutors—penal prerogative God’s—legally. Rea-sons both social and religious. Avenger follows passion, Becomes accuser, judge and executioner in one person—runs hazard of injuring self and others.
Place to wrath: Does not mean yield to wrath of enemies— wicked—without opposing.
Rather—give place to wrath of God—whose prerogative is venge-ance—punishment—How—chapter 13.
Verse 20: "Enemy... hunger... feed... heap coals of fire on head. "
Reference to persecutors—do not avenge self by letting even perseuctors perish—suffer.
Coals of fire: Good sense—as in 2 Samuel 14:7—reference to melting metals by covering ore with coals—(Opposite view—connects with verse 19—wrath—reference to increasing punishment on enemy. ) Effect on persecutor—make him lay down enmity which he bears.
Verse 21: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Epitome of courage. Do not be overcome, so as to become evil themselves, but overcome evil of disposition of persecutor by doing good to all under all circ*mstances.
LESSON 20
TRANSFORMED FOR SPIRITUAL SERVICE
READ Romans 12:1-8
1. What is God’s will regarding our bodies?
Ans. Romans 12:1; Romans 6:13; Romans 6:16; Romans 6:19.
2. The body is a temple of what? Ans. 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19.
3. Fornication is a sin against what? Ans. 1 Corinthians 6:18.
4. For what purpose should our bodies be used?
Ans. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 6:19.
5. What should not become the standard of a Christian’s conduct?
Ans. Romans 12:2; 1 Peter 1:14.
6. Who is our standard and model? Ans. 1 Peter 1:15-16.
7. What is renewed or changed in this transformation?
Ans. Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23.
8. What does the life of a transformed person prove regarding the will
of God? Ans. Romans 12:2.
9. To what does Paul refer in the expression, "The grace given unto
me"? Ans. Romans 1:5; Romans 15:15-16; Romans 12:3.
10. What should we guard against in forming opinions of ourselves?
Ans. Romans 12:3.
11. How do some deceive themselves? Ans. Galatians 6:3.
12. Discuss the teaching of Jesus on self-exaltation.
Ans. Luke 14:7-11; Luke 18:9-14.
13. What had God "dealt to each man"? Ans. Romans 12:3.
14. What was Timothy told to do to the measure or gift he had received?
Ans. 2 Timothy 1:6.
15. How is the church like the human body? Ans. Romans 12:4-5.
16. How does one become a member of the body or church of Christ?
Ans. 1 Corinthians 12:13.
17. What is not wanted in Christ’s spiritual body?
Ans. 1 Corinthians 12:25.
18. Name the different spiritual gifts some of the early Christians had
received, and tell how each gift was to be used.
Ans. Romans 12:6-8.
19. Show that it is God’s will for every one to do what he has the ability
to do. Ans. 1 Corinthians 12:15-21.
20. Give a summary of what is taught in this lesson.
Ans. Romans 12:1-8.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION OR ASSIGNMENT
1. The Only True Standard Of Conduct.
2. Ways By Which Some Deceive Themselves.
3. How The Church Is Like The Human Body.
LESSON 21
DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS
READ Romans 12:9-21
1. How should we love and honor one another? Ans. Romans 12:9-10.
2. What should we abhor and to what should we cleave?
Ans. Romans 12:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22.
3. Give the meaning of the expressions: "In diligence not slothful", and
"fervent in spirit . Ans. Romans 12:11.
4. In what should we rejoice? Ans. Romans 12:12; Romans 5:2.
5. What is the Christian’s hope? Ans. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14; 1 John 3:1-3.
6. In what should we be patient? Ans. Romans 12:12.
7. Why should we be patient?
Ans. Hebrews 10:32; Hebrews 10:36; James 1:4; James 5:7-11.
8 .In what should we continue steadfastly?
Ans. Romans 12:12; Acts 1:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
9. What is our duty to worthy saints in need?
Ans. Romans 12:13; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; Ephesians 4:28; 1 John 3:17.
10. How should Christians treat those who persecute them?
Ans. Romans 12:14; Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27-28.
11. How should we share in the joys and sorrows of others?
Ans. Romans 12:15; Hebrews 13:3; Job 30:25.
12. How can we be of the same mind?
Ans. Romans 12:16; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Philippians 2:2; Philippians 2:5.
13. On what should we set our minds? Ans. Romans 12:16; Colossians 3:2.
14. In what should we not be wise? Ans. Romans 12:16.
15. What danger faces those who are self-conceited and puffed up?
Ans. 1 Timothy 3:6.
16. What should we not render in return for evil? Ans. Romans 12:17.
17. What should we give in return for evil?
Ans. 1 Peter 3:9; 1 Corinthians 4:12; Luke 6:27-28.
18. In whose sight should we take thought for things honorable?
Ans. Romans 12:17; 2 Corinthians 8:21.
19. With whom should we try to be at peace? Ans. Romans 12:18.
20. What should we pursue and follow after?
Ans. Romans 14:19; 1 Peter 3:-11.
21. To whom does vengeance belong?
Ans. Romans 12:19; Deuteronomy 32:35.
22. How should we treat our enemies? Ans. Romans 12:20.
23. Why should we seek to do them good?
Ans. Romans 12:20; Proverbs 25:21-22,
24. How can evil be overcome? Ans. Romans 12:21.
25. Review what you have learned in this lesson. Ans. Romans 12:9-21.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION OR ASSIGNMENT
1. Patience.
2. The Church’s Obligation To The Poor.
3. How To Conquer Evil.
4. Taking Thought For Things Honorable.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
I. THE CIVIL STATE—Romans 13:1-7
Verse 1: "Every soul subject"—Every man whatever his office in church—Christianity not hostile to civil government. Every soul includes Christians as members of society—part of civil state itself.
"Higher powers"—civil and military. Due to the theocracy of the Old Testament the Jews regarded it wrong to submit to any government other than their own.
"No power but of God"—that is, of government—appointed it. "Powers that be"—that exist as civil government.
"Ordained of God"—both appointed and approved. (Subordinate to his own benevolent government of the world. ) Thus question of civil government elevated to sphere of religion—right attitude becomes a duty.
Verse 2: "Whoso resisteth"—refuses to recognize rightful existence— "resisteth ordinance of God"—in the lawful sphere.
"They that resist... receive damnation"—Receive of the magis-trates—judicial sentence—damnation, condemnation and punishment of the authorities resisted. Aim to correct the Jew sentiment that it was impiety to submit to other government—only to God—Deuteronomy 17:15. But God formed mankind for living in society—government necessary to such an order—for peace and security—Government of God—form of men.
Verse 3: "Rulers not terror"—refers to the character of civil office, not necessarily the official.
"Be afraid of the power"—its true design not fear.
"Do good... praise of same"—mission of government good— against evil—do good—praise from the power respected.
Verse 4: "Minister of God to thee for good." Purpose of government through officials to maintain moral order—in legitimate design.
"To thee"—speaks to Christian as a citizen—not restricted to Christian. Government the minister of God to citizens—includes Christians—not limited to them.
"Beareth not sword in vain." Sword a symbol not only of punish-ment, but capital punishment, for decapitation.
"A minister of God"—authority to execute a criminal with sword has divine sanction, approval.
"Revenger to execute wrath"—through civil officer—wrath executed—according to God’s will—continuation of reference in chapter 12:19; Deuteronomy 32:35; Deuteronomy 13:9 - This is how Paul applies it. God’s way of vengeance—avenging—giving place to wrath— bring it into present age as well as former—God established capital punishment—the Noahic code—authorizes man in all succeeding ages to execute it; hence, "ministers of God"—for "this very thing. "
In Romans 12:19 told that government is to do what Christian cannot. In Romans 13:4 applied to any individual—Christian or not—citizens all.
Verse 5: "Wherefore, needs be subject not only for wrath, but also conscience. "
"Wherefore be subject"—for reason given that government is minister of God—that is why.
"Not only for wrath"—which government executes—-legal wrath— penal wrath—"But also conscience"—conscience toward God—who appointed and approved government—made it his minister in legitimate designs—for executing vengeance on evil doers. Religion is subject to this ordinance of God. Any religion that is incompatible with the rights of members of the same civil society has no civil right to operate, should be suppressed not as a religion, but as civil enemy.
Verse 6: "For this cause... pay tribute also"—in addition to subjection.
"Ministers...this very thing"—the protection of society with the sword.
Verse 7: "Render therefore to all... tribute... custom...fear... honor. "
"Render therefore"—for the things" (verse 5) described civil officers are God’s ministers—performed approved functions.
"Tribute to whom tribute"—on any persons due.
"Custom to whom custom"—on any goods due.
"Fear to whom fear"—regard for him who executes the law— outward respect.
"Honor to whom"—rank or office requires respect for official holding it.
Paying tribute an acknowledgment of having such purpose.
An exposition on the rights and prerogatives of a sovereignty—not non-resistance to tyrant who himself opposes constitutional govern-ment.
Submission based on true mission of government—refers to "conscience sake"—does not extend submission to usurpation, or sinful rebellious things.
II. THE SUPERIOR STATUTE—Romans 13:8-10
Verse 8: "Owe no man... except love... he fulfills law. " Turning from discussion of duties as citizens in civil state now to duties of disciples in the spiritual state. From citizens in general, to Christians in particular. From legal to regal.
"Owe no man"—acquit all debts—based on morality of honesty. "Anything"—not restricted to money—any debt—due obligation. "Except love"—in very nature is mutual—never discharged—con-
tinuous indebtedness,
"One another"—here a band in general society joined by bond of special relation.
"He that loveth another—fulfills"—love the source—all good. The motive inducing performance of all duty—God or man—prevents injustice to man—and disobedience to God—fulfills in principle the law—commanded of God—or right by reason.
Verse 9: "For this... comprehended... love neighbor as self. "
"Love"—comprehends all whatever command there may be—here is the sum—unit in thought and action.
"Neighbor"—word another instead. Indicates relation of friend-ship—not mere acquaintance—the kind of friends Jesus mentioned—his friends—disciples—necessary to well being of both self and other— injury to another—injury to self.
Verse 10: "Worketh no ill... fulfills. "
"No ill"—love restrains the doing of wrong affecting another— leads to good.
"Therefore... fulfills"—renders obedience full—complete—(1) respecting neighbor (2) joined to love for God—binds obedience to law of society in the world and law of God in church; hence, complete.
HI. THE ARMOUR OF LIGHT—Romans 13:11-14
Verse 11: "Knowing the time... awake out of sleep... salvation nearer than when first believed. "
"Knowing the time"—impending destruction of Jewish state—the nation of the preceding chapters to end visibly and politically as it had already perished spiritually.
"High time to awake"—ominous events in making—gathering clouds of persecution—an alert from indifference—"out of sleep"—state of ignorance as to the break of events threatened—developments in the empire, affecting fortunes of the church.
"Salvation nearer"—better known and understood—nigh—connect-ed with deliverance from Roman yoke—persecution—fall of Judaism— salvation of the church through expansion of Christianity—afterward.
Verse 12: "Night far spent...day at hand." Night of heathenism, pagan influences—dominating society—hindering gospel—day of gospel success—threshold of victory over forces of evil—to be accom-plished by courage in conflict—perseverance amid persecution.
"Cast off works of darkness"—all the evils of those in ignorance— no time to be purloining—with heathen works—call to ready selves — prepare for the time that will test the faith and try the souls of all.
"Put on the armour of light"—wear the armour of enlightenment to attack the ignorance of heathenism—let the light of truth penetrate
the darkness of Jewish blindness and Roman idolatry. Perform the deeds of light—as children of light—that will bear to be seen. This the only defensive armour against the hostile forces soon to engage them.
Verse 13: "Walk honestly... as in day. "
Honestly: Becomingly—as properly attired—honest in reference to sincerity—consistency of claims and conduct—habits—do honor to the gospel—in action, discourse and dress.
As in day: Evil things connected with night—decent things bear to be seen—live as those who walk in day, not employing the idolatrous ways of the Gentile world in which they were physically but not spiritually residing.
"Rioting and drunkenness. " The stances of heathen parties—the word revelling in other passages—connected with dancing. Reference to "chambering and wantonness"—words describing lewdness in conduct— lasciviousness—contrasting the nocturnal dress and revelling with the garb and employment of the day.
"Strife and envying"—quarrelling over honor and position, or, envying the prosperity and success of others. Above are three sets of couplets—joining things that go together—word companions in the "works of darkness. "
Verse 14: "Put on the Lord Jesus...no provision for flesh...to fulfill lusts. "
Put on: Clothe with character—piety and purity—charity and chastity—in teaching and temperance—his whole character. Disposition formed within compared to putting on garment without.
Make not provision: Forethought for thing tending to flesh—breed lust—no advance thought for indulgence—for gratification of lusts. Thoughts provide the soil for all fleshly lusts.
LESSON 22
THE CHRISTIAN’S RELATION TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT
READ Romans 13:1-14
1. Every soul must be in subjection to what?
Ans. Romans 13:1; 1 Peter 2:13-14; Titus 3:1.
2. Why should all be obedient to civil authority?
Ans. Romans 13:1; Romans 13:5; 1 Peter 2:15; John 19:11.
3. What of those who resist the authority of civil government?
Ans. Romans 13:2.
4. For what purpose has God ordained civil government?
Ans. Romans 13:4; 1 Peter 2:14; Acts 25:10.
5. When performing their duty, rulers are a terror to whom?
Ans. Romans 13:3-4.
6. Why are the "powers that be" called "ministers of God"?
Ans. Romans 13:4; Romans 13:6; 1 Peter 2:14.
7. What instrument is wielded by the "powers that be" in enforcing
the law? Ans. Romans 13:4.
8. When are the rulers justified in using this instrument?
Ans. Acts 25:11; Luke 23:41.
9. Name some duties and obligations of citizens to their government.
Ans. Romans 13:6-7; 1 Peter 2:17; Matthew 22:17-21.
10. When should Christians disobey civil authority?
Ans. Acts 4:18-19; Acts 5:28-29.
11. Give examples of abuse of authority by rulers, which justified disobedience on the part of their subjects.
Ans. a. Pharaoh, Exodus 1:15-22.
b. Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 3:1-28.
c. King Darius, Daniel 6:4-23.
d. Herod, Matthew 2:7-18.
e. Ahasuerus, Esther 1:9-12.
12. Discuss the command, "Owe no man anything". Ans. Romans 13:8.
13. What do Christians owe to one another? Ans. Romans 13:8.
14. Love for others prevents disobedience to what commandments?
Ans. Romans 13:8-9.
15. Our duties to others are summed up in what commandment?
Ans. Romans 13:9.
16. What is this commandment called? Ans. James 2:8.
17. How is love a fulfillment of the law?
Ans. Romans 13:10; Matthew 22:39-40.
18. It is now time for all to do what?
Ans. Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 15:34; Ephesians 5:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:6.
19. What draws nearer as the days go by? Ans. Romans 13:11.
20. What is already "far spent"? Ans. Romans 13:12; 1 John 2:18.
21. What should be cast off? Ans. Romans 13:12; Ephesians 5:11.
22. What should be put on?
Ans. Romans 13:12; Romans 13:14; Ephesians 6:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:8.
23. How should we walk?
Ans. Romans 13:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:12; Ephesians 4 : L
24. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 13:1-14.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND ASSIGNMENT
1. Obedience To Civil Authority.
2. Capital Punishment.
3. Love And Obedience.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
I. CONSIDERATION OF A MINORITY ELEMENT—Romans 14:1-4
Verse 1: "Him that is weak in faith, receive, but not to doubtful disputations. " Shows the Jewish element to be in minority.
"Weak"—not in doctrine, but his faith—weak or strong in convic-tions.
"Receive"—accept not in patronizing, reluctant way.
Verse 2: "One... eat all things... another who is weak...eateth herbs. " Receive each without decision of scruples—concerning opinions—addressed to well instructed Jew Christians as well as Gentiles. Admit those of less understanding to worship and company without contending over a matter pertaining to the person and his own conscience or persuasion.
Verse 3: "Let not him that eateth despise... Let not him that eateth not judge... For God hath received him. "
Despise: Set out—at nought.
Judge: Condemn—sentence—Both act from conscience—both re-ceived church—God accepted the Gentiles as proved by his bestowal of spiritual gifts—Jews formed first church—should not reject each other now.
Verse 4: "Who judgeth another man’s servant... to own master he stands or falls. "
Who judges: Let God do condemning.
Another man’s servant: Each one God’s servant—no man would attempt to pass sentence on servant belonging to another. Apply to human judgment on God’s servants.
Stand or fall: Before—by—own master acquitted or condemned.
Be holden up: In obedience to God—"able to make him stand"—a matter between God and him—no one else. God determines his standing in the church—not subject to exclusion from fellowship on point of his own conscience—involving only himself—own standing before God. The obedient and conscientious servant of God will be acquitted even though he errs on this point touching observance of a relegated custom.
II. WITH RESPECT TO DAYS—Romans 14:5-9
Verse 5: "One man esteemeth one day... another every day alike... every man persuaded in own mind. " Some Jews in the church thought one day holier than another. Example: New moon, Sabbaths. The more enlightened knew these days had been abolished. In matter of holidays—each man directs his conduct according to his own convictions.
Verse 6: "He that regardeth the day... unto the Lord... he that regardeth not the day. . . to the Lord not. " No sanctity attached to one day that does not attach to all. In regard to them, through lack of understanding not all used the same purpose—still in the facts—no obedience or disobedience involved. He that regarded the day—super-fluous—no obedience. He regarded not—not commanded—no disobedi-ence. No point of fellowship—because all were obeying God in things the gospel commands.
"He that eateth... to the Lord... giveth God thanks" for his meat.
"He that eateth not to the Lord... giveth God thanks" for what he does eat, though not meat. Both obey God—one in conscience, being persuaded that meats are not allowed—the other in the knowledge that in the gospel dispensation Christ permits it.
Verse 7: "None liveth to himself. . . no man dieth to himself. "
Verse 8: "Whether live... unto Lord... whether die... unto Lord... whether live or die, the Lord’s. " None liveth to himself because none is his own lord or master—as subjects of Christ does not live by his own will, but Christ’s—he will not be allowed to die unto himself, but unto Christ. Whether we live by the will of Christ or die in keeping it, we are his subjects, and hence, in no religious matter shall be guided by either our own will or the will of others.
Verse 9: "For to this end Christ died... rose... revived...Lord of both dead and living. "
To this end: That we all should obey his will—with design to gain complete title to our service.
Died, rose: By which conquest of both life and death—rules and judges the living and the dead. Complete title to allegiance now his— through resurrection.
Revived: Not raised only, but revived, continues to live in heaven, rightful Lord of living and dead.
III. THE RIGHT TO JUDGE—Romans 14:10-13.
Verse 10: "Why judge thy brother... why set at nought... all shall stand before judgment seat of Christ. "
Why judge: Servant of another.
Set at nought: What right to force conscience—Why judge Jew or Gentile in matter of personal conscience, as both stand as equally before the same master—judgment seat—authority to acquit or condemn both Jew and Gentile alike.
Verses 11-12: "Every knee, bow to me... every tongue confess to God"—"then every one of us shall give account of himself to God".
"Bow to me"—not to man. "Confess to God"—as written—a principle declared to Jews long ago.
"Every one of us"—takes ground away from every man rendering harsh judgments.
"Account of himself to God"—All matters affecting individual alone—God will decide—sole judge.
Verse 13: "Let us not therefore judge" as bigots, over consciences — "But rather no man put stumblingblock... occasion in brother’s way"—pass sentence on self against causing one to sin, be rejected.
IV. THE SANCTITY OF CONSCIENCE —Romans 14:14-23
Verse 14: "I know"—in reason—"by Lord Jesus"—revelation— "nothing unclean of itself"—by nature—"but to him that esteemeth" — thinks it—insincerity to violate conviction—sin by doing what he believes to be wrong.
No kind of food is unclean—"common"—by nature apart from scruples, but violation of scruples is an act against conscience.
Verse 15: "If thy brother be grieved"—repelled by—vexed—"destroy not"—virtue of a brother—"with thy meat"—for sake of that pleasure.
Verse 16: "Let not your good"—advantage—"be evil"—wait for his enlightenment.
Verse 17: "Kingdom notmeat and drink"—notexternal—"but righteousness, peace, "joy"—internal principles—reconciliation—justification—serenity—essence—active principles in life of subjects. Does not consist in abstaining or indulging, but inward principles.
Verse 18: "In these things"—inward principles—"serve Christ...acceptable to God... approved of men"—because of spiritual and moral character.
Verse 19: "Let us therefore follow after things... peace...edify. " Promote concord—build up—"one another" —mutual, not selfish— against individual practice of things not for good of others.
Verse 20: "For meat destroy not work of God. "
Work of God: What God has built in a Christian—character "All things pure"—for mere food—all clean—morally—under gospel.
"Evil... eat in offence"—sinning against conviction. Offence led to sin.
Verse 21: "Good neither to eat, drink, nor anything... brother stumble or offend... or made weak. " Caused to sin—or made weak
in conviction—integrity—actually led into sin—weakened in attachment to gospel—so as to place him in danger of falling away in complete apostasy.
Verse 22: "Hast thou faith"—persuasion, to own self—conduct— not parade it.
"Happy... condemns not self. . . in that alloweth"—subjects self to punishment—by doing wrong in what his own conscience approved.
Verse 23: "He that doubteth... damned. " Condemned by what he does—if not done in sincerity—doubt—without conviction of right. "Whatsoever not of faith"—conviction—"is sin"—because of dishonesty— not the act itself.
One who will do a thing he believes to be wrong—is doing wrong—whether the thing he does is wrong or not. The thing may be right—but if he thinks it wrong and does it—the right thing becomes to him a wrong.
ADDITIONAL NOTATIONS ON CHAPTER 14
Jews in church regarded Gentile members profane because they ate meats without distinction.
Gentiles in the church considered the Jew members bigots in making distinction in meats and observance of days ground to refuse acceptance and admission into their worship and company.
Fourteenth chapter is directed to the correction of these disorders and injustices—wrongs and grievances.
The fourteenth chapter and first of the fifteenth decrees that controversy over matters of personal conscience, not involving others; has no place in present state of church, and rules out lording over another’s conscience—preventing unrighteous impositions—submission to it—usurping the prerogative of judgment—is an evil assertion of divine authority belonging solely to God. Man not delegated (not invested with power) to pass sentences on another’s conscience and conduct—conscience is sacrosanct—precincts cannot be invaded by any aggressor. In this liberty vouchsafed—the charter of liberty—from oppression of religious lords—respect for conscience.
A man’s own judgment and conscience—not the opinions of others—must rule his conduct.
(Apply to conscience definition in chapter 2. )
"Whatsoever not of faith is sin. " Faith here not belief of gospel, but one’s persuasion that what he does is right—or another thing wrong. If one acts without that persuasion—or contrary to it, he acts without any principle of virtue—on his own inclinations—without honesty—sincerity—integrity, and sins in so doing, being done without sense of duty—or against convictions of being right.
If one acts contrary to conscience, he stultifies his own sense of right.
A thing may become bad, not from lawful or unlawful persuasion, but through effect or influence of example bearing or causing another to fall, stumble, offend.
Putting on display superior knowledge of over others whose persuasions are less informed—is both unseasonable and uncharitable, and though the actions are in themselves not unlawful, by the misuse of liberty one becomes self-condemned—a principle apply to conduct in a realm of actions which involve others than himself, bearing on benevolence in attitude and conduct toward those without knowledge.
In a matter which involves only a pleasure or privilege—but not duty or command, or compromise of truth—it is not commendable to exercise liberty to the injury of others.
(1) Causing to offend refers to lack of discrimination, one with knowledge eats meats without any religious signification know "all things are pure"—"nothing unclean". The offence (causing another to do that which is sin) is twofold:
(2) Causing another to act contrary to conscience, thus destroying his virtue and integrity—"damned if he eat"—condemned.
(3) Causing a weaker man to lose distinctions and do the same in worship to an idol; hence, what one does should be in consideration of circ*mstance and persons involved.
LESSON 23
THE WEAK IN FAITH AND CONSCIENCE
READ Romans 14:1-23
1. What should be done for those who are not fully instructed in the
word and are weak in faith?
Ans. Romans 14:1; Romans 15:1; 1 Corinthians 9:22.
2. How is their weakness made manifest? Ans. Romans 14:2.
3. What are both the weak and the strong forbidden to do?
Ans. Romans 14:3-4.
4. What other difference of opinion is cited? Ans. Romans 14:5.
5. What privilege is granted in matters of opinion?
Ans. Romans 14:5-6; 1 Corinthians 8:8.
6. How do we know that the days, months, seasons and years of the
old covenant are not binding on Christians today?
Ans. Colossians 2:14-17; Galatians 4:10-11.
7. What must we constantly have in mind in both life and death?
Ans. Romans 14:7-8.
8. What was the purpose of Christ’s death and resurrection?
Ans. Romans 14:9.
9. Who is our judge? Ans. Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10.
10. Name three things the whole world must do.
Ans. Romans 14:11-12.
11. What should no man put in his brother’s way? Ans. Romans 14:13.
12. What of those who cause others to stumble? Ans. Luke 17:2.
13. Of what was Paul fully persuaded? Ans. Romans 14:14.
14. ’When should stronger brethren limit their liberty in matters of
opinion? Ans. Romans 14:15-16; Romans 14:21; 1 Corinthians 8:13; 1 Corinthians 10:27-32.
15. How could the eating of meat by the strong destroy or endanger the
spiritual life of the weak? Ans. Romans 14:20; Romans 14:23; 1 Corinthians 8:9-13.
16. The kingdom of God consists in what ’three things? Ans. Romans 14:17.
17. What blessings accrue for all who serve Christ in these things?
Ans. Romans 14:18.
18. What should we follow after? Ans. Romans 14:19.
19. How could a man condemn himself in the use of his liberty in matters of opinion? Ans. Romans 14:20; 1 Corinthians 8:11-12.
20. What course must be pursued when in doubt as to whether a thing
is right or wrong? Ans. Romans 14:23.
21. What things are necessary in order for any act to be "of faith"?
Ans. Romans 10:17; Romans 14:23.
22. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 14:1-23.
TOPICS FOR ASSIGNMENT AND CLASS DISCUSSION
1. Faith And Opinion.
2. Obligations Of The Strong To The Weak.
3. Following After Things That Make For Peace.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
I. THE EXTENDED DISCOURSE—Romans 15:1-7
Verse 1: "We then that are strong".
Then: Conclusion from what has been taught.
We that are strong: Who are able by spiritual endowments. Strong in conviction through knowledge.
"Bear infirmities of weak"—as able men supporting the lame in foot travel.
Infirmities: The actions of those based on sincerity but ignorance— the sincere indulgence or abstinence does not involve obedience or disobedience and not to become ground of rejection.
"Not please ourselves"—let the strong yield to the weak, in privileges only—(commands are not privileges)—so as not to hurt one spiritually and destroy his faith generally.
Verse 2: "Let every one please his neighbor... not please self. " Please: Conciliate, not repel.
Neighbor: In the church, fellow member of same neighborhood-brotherhood—spiritual community.
For his good: Promoting his growth.
To edification: Of the whole body—learning to live together as members, building up the body—not selfish interests.
Verse 3: "Christ pleased not Himself." Own pleasures not the object of actions. In Christ an example, as written—(the Psalm prophecy) who subjected himself to others even to bearing reproach and punishment due others, to accomplish the end—salvation of others. An example to all of the vicarious principle involved in the whole system of Christianity.
Verse 4: "Whatsoever things written aforetime... learning..,patience... comfort... hope, " The reason for quotation of the Psalm in verse 3-Aforetime: In the Old Testament,
Learning: Instruction by example. Many example to guide actions bearing on patience under conditions that test faith, affording comfort in the consolation of such company—all of which recorded in the old scriptures to inspire hope within us of attaining in the church all of the things for which Christ suffered, even though way to its realization is beset with many and mutual trials.
Verse 5: "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded. "
Now: Present application in their own state—not theoretical but practical and experimental.
God of patience: The author of all the spiritual attributes—in both causes and effects, means and ends.
And consolation: In place of hope—proceeding from God—flowing to us—through the scriptures—filling us with the hope of salvation, mutually shared—both Jew and Gentile—according to scripture promises repeated.
Grant: Bestow by enabling to possess—a prayer to that end. Likeminded: Not of same opinions, but vicarious disposition—attitude toward One another: exemplified by Christ toward all men.
Verse 6: "With one mind and one mouth glorify God..even the Father. "
One mind: Joining together in worshipping God.
One mouth: Laying aside the disputes for unanimous communion in all essentials of fellowship in worship.
"Glorify God"—the prime object of all worship—glory of God, not glamor of men.
"Even the Father of Lord Jesus Christ."—Employment of all three names, titles, to emphasis that all that Christ is or has done in life, and death in vicarious suffering, and though Lord of all, he is the example
of these admonitory instructions—in following our Exemplar, we glorify, honor, praise his Father, the Author of the salvation which is through the Lord Jesus Christ, his Son—so join together with the Father and the Son—and,
Verse 7: "Receive"—as both accepted, let both receive—each other—regardless of meats—since God has received all—not forcing any to abandon persuasion in matter of customs if obeying God otherwise. Let them be convinced first, but received now.
II. THE JOINT TITLE TO THE PROMISES—Romans 15:8-14
Anticipating and replying to an objection that if Christ had meant for the Gentiles to be included he would have preached to them himself, instead of confining his own ministry to the Jews alone.
Verse 8: "Jesus Christ... minister of the circumcision for the truth of God... to confirm the promises made to the fathers. "
Minister of circumcision: To effectuate the plan—fulfill the promises to Abraham—which came through the Jews—reason for his Jewish birth and ministry.
For the truth of God: Establishing truth the integrity of God in the promises—accomplished by conversion of both Jew and Gentile, but flowed through channel of a nation who had the oracles delivered to them, necessary that gospel be first preached to them, by converting the Jews, reach Gentiles.
Promises made to fathers: The development of the plan of salvation according to promise to Abraham—had to proceed according to the plan originating with Abraham—terminating with Christ— beginning in promise—ending in accomplishment, but proceeding through plan.
Gentile not only the object but recipient of the promise.
"For this cause"—On account of his mercy—which was shown to them through promise—in their conversion to God—that being the mercy.
"I will confess thee among the Gentiles"—Christ confesses by making the Gentiles his disciples, subjects of gospel throughout the world, acknowledging the meaning of the Psalm as referring to Him-self—"Sing unto thy name"—praise, glorify, God in its fulfillment.
Glorify among heathen, by his becoming their Redeemer—sing unto his name—because of their being saved.
"Sing"—Psallo—If the prophecy meant mechanical praise in the Gentile church—no fulfillment—was not so rendered. See Ephesians 5:19 -
Verse 10: "Again...rejoice ye Gentiles with his people."— (Deuteronomy 32:43) Join with Jews—one church—spiritually, one people. Designed to show the union of Jew and Gentile in new covenant—joined together by promises of the Old—coalition in New.
Verse 11: "And again..Praise, all ye Gentiles...laud all ye people."(Psalms 117:1)—Addressed to Gentile nations—making them direct part of the plan along with Jews.
Verse 12: "Again Isaiah...a root of Jesse...reign over Gentiles...in him trust." (Isaiah 11:10). Do Gentiles seek, trust, now, if so reign is now. If no reign now, Gentiles cannot trust now— proves argument for future—wrong.
"In that day...root of Jesse...ensign...to whom Gentiles seek." Day of their salvation—ensign—standard of prince—metonymy for rulers—Christ. To him seek—hope—not only salvation, but govern-ment—protection—seeking a person or promise—is same as hoping in it. Ail foretells and points to uniting Jew and Gentile in one church— quoting their prophecies to convince Jews that they were bound to acknowledge the Gentiles as fellow-heirs of the promises as God had determined from the beginning and which Christ as the minister of the circumcision had accomplished, even for the Gentiles. Objection over-ruled.
Verse 13: "Now God of hope...fill with joy and peace in believing,..abound in hope... through power of Holy Spirit." The title of Gentiles to all privileges and blessings of gospel—established—under the gospel dispensation—prayer for joy and peace in the title to all of its claims—abound in hope—through power—gifts conferred—and disposition of the Holy Spirit imparted.
Hope with joy and peace in believing—this believing of the promises—the source of greatest measure of things mentioned—hence abound—make full—complete as the fulfilled as finished work of Holy Spirit according to plan foretold.
Verse 14: "Myself also persuaded...ye are full of goodness...filled with knowledge... able to admonish one another." Affirming—expressing—a good opinion of them whom he had not seen—no personal acquaintance—an apology for writing with freedom of apostle in reproof (chapters 14-15) as well as instruction—reproof of their disputations—instruction in the doctrine—covering chapters 1-13.
Persuaded: No bad opinion.
Full of goodness: In spite of their disputes over meats—days—etc. full of good disposition.
Filled with knowledge: By what Holy Spirit revealed in the gospel—able to instruct each other—in what he had now taught them along with what already knew.
III. THE GENTILE APOSTLESHIP—Romans 15:15-21
Having disposed of the objection that had intended the inclusion of the Gentiles he would have included them in his personal ministry, now turns to his own Gentile ministry—showing his call to apostleship was a special dispensation to the Gentiles.
Verse 15: "Written more boldly... because of grace given of God."
"More boldly"—than their knowledge required—"in some sort"
parts of his letter—"putting in mind"—applying some things said
to principles they knew by what they had learned from the gospel.
A matter of calling to remembrance—pointing out applications of estab-lished principles.
"Because of grace"—the grace of apostleship to which he was called and qualified.
"Given of God"—to exhort them—the Gentiles—by the authority of an apostle.
Verse 16: "Minister of Christ... to Gentiles... ministering the gospel... Gentiles accepted... sanctified by Holy Spirit. "
His duty to them as a special minister—purpose to bring gospel—promises—to them as such.
Offering up of Gentiles: Their conversion—as the offering from his ministry—approved (acceptable) of God, because in his plan. Sanctified by Holy Spirit: Through his preaching of gospel—Gentiles, set apart—separated—from heathen world in general, and former impurities—practices—"by Holy Spirit"—including all accompanying influences demonstrated in his apostolic ministrations exercise of which confirmed them.
Verse 17: "Therefore... whereof... glory... in things which pertain to God. " Glory because of success, reception of gospel by them—completing his acceptable offering to God.
Things pertaining to God—in preaching to the Gentiles—the things of God—which revealed to them their heathen state—converting them to God—turning them from idolatry to the living God. By all of this his apostolic credentials had been confirmed—a thing to boast.
Verse 18: "Dare speak...things not wrought by me...to make Gentiles obedient...by word and deed."
Not to mention things wrought by disciples—not personally by himself—through others—in whose success "by word and deed" he might claim praise or credit as part
of his ministry—having taught them "in word" and confirmed them in "deeds" or works.
Verse 19: "Through signs... wonders...power of Spirit...from Jerusalem to Illyricum...fully preached gospel of Christ. " Power of Spirit in exercise of spiritual gifts—imparted and communicated to Gentiles.
Wonders: Miracles for
Signs: Confirming both his apostleship and his preaching. Examples such as Elymas—et. al.
"From Jerusalem to Illyricum"—boundaries of a large area—Gentile territory.
"Fully preached the gospel"—not reference to preaching the whole gospel, but getting it fully declared—completing his mission among Gentiles in all parts—reason also to come to Rome—grounds for writing them, etc.
Verse 20: "Not where Christ was preached... lest build on another man’s foundation." As an apostle not a subordinate teacher, his own inspired apostolic groundwork among Gentiles—not as an inferior workman, which would lessen apostolic authority by a secondary position. Less difficult, but not consistent with responsibility and authority of his office.
Verse 21: "As written...to whom not spoken...shall see,..not heard shall understand." In addition the subordination of his office to secondary teaching—fulfillment of prophecies involved in his work among heathen nations who did not know of Messiah.
"Shall see... shall understand". Heathen people who did not have the knowledge of Old Testament scriptures—accept, as an unheard-of thing the original preaching of the apostle with the astonishment that stems from such a glad message.
IV. THE PERSONAL SIDE—Romans 15:22-24
Apparently, the trip to Rome was of his own determination, apart from revealed direction—no history on the journey to Spain, or record of such plans materializing.
Verse 22: "For which cause.,. hindered in coming to you. " By reason of his resolution to preach where Christ was not known—cause of having eliminated Rome from all previous Gentile itinerary.
Verse 23: "No more place in these parts... great desire.,. many years. "
No more place: No further opportunity—having preached so fully—all had heard (Colossians 1:23)—cause removed—time to extend his preaching to other fields.
"Great desire ... many years." Strong desire long nourished so deeply would give priority to the personal visit.
Verse 24: "Journey to Spain...see you...brought thither-ward...first, filled with your company." Clearly states his purpose to see them first—enroute—"thitherward"—(thereward)—escorted by brethren at Rome to Spain—whatever necessary to accomplish the thitherward journey he expressed confidence they would do.
"First, somewhat filled with your company. "—At best the long cherished desire could not be fully satisfied—only "somewhat filled"— in the limited time for such a happy meeting with the anticipated associations.
V. THE BENEVOLENT INTERPOSITION—Romans 15:25-29
All plans suspended until he could complete an important benevo-lent mission—significant in effects bearing on the Jew-Gentile relation involving Jerusalem and Judea.
Verse 25: "Now to Jerusalem to minister to the saints." Carrying the money collected among Gentile brethren for the stricken saints of
Judea.
Verse 26: "Pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make contribution. " Brethren in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia where Paul had established churches—such as Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth—glad to make "certain"—liberal—contributions.
Verses 27: "Pleased verily... debtors they are... Gentiles partakers of their spiritual things... duty to minister carnal things. "
"Pleased verily"—for reciprocal reasons.
"Debtors they are"—all Gentiles owed knowledge of God and faith in Christ to Jews from whom received.
"Partakers of spiritual"—"minister to them carnal things"—calls knowledge of gospel communicated to the Gentiles by the Jews— spiritual things—and the pecuniary contribution being sent to the Jews by the Gentiles—carnal things.
Note: Consider bearing on claim that one church can give money to another church for relief of physical needs, but not for preaching the gospel.
But Paul applies the same spiritual-carnal teaching to his preaching to the Corinthians (spiritual things) and their pecuniary support for him (carnal). Makes financial support of the gospel preacher—parallel with the contributions to other saints in need. Brings the preacher’s support into the area of meeting a physical need in exchange for a spiritual service. Places it in the category of "poor saints" or "helping the needy. "
The preacher having made himself poor—in sense of physically-financially dependent. In same sense of 2 Corinthians 5:21 as it applied to Christ.
Duty to minister: The Gentiles were under great obligation to the Jews—salvation in Christ—to reciprocate in physical relief insignificant in comparison, but laudatory in the recognition of having been recipients of a higher service, and in the spirit of accepting a responsibility therefrom.
Verse 28: "When performed... sealed fruit... will come by. " Performed: Finished by delivering the bounty—money.
Sealed: Secured to Jewish brethren the fraternal affection of the Gentiles—a requited love—by the gift—evidently proportionate to the importance and commensurate with the need.
This fruit: In several senses, fruit of apostolic ministrations, fruit of the love and good will of the Gentiles, fruit of the faith which Gentiles accepted, leading them to good works, fruit of the long endeavor to reconcile the Jew and Gentile believers, and may be considered as all of these things jointly.
Verse 29: "When I come...in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ."
Sure: By apostolic power to know.
Fulness of blessing: To bestow the spiritual gifts mentioned in chapter 1—such as he "longed" to impart—together with all blessings the gospel may bring in life and doctrine.
VI. THE APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION—Romans 15:30-33
In view of the monitory instructions of his epistle, the benediction is adapted to their disputes and dissensions. Justification—Mosaic Law—meats—days—circumcision.
Verse 30: "Beseech...for Lord Jesus Christ’s sake.,.love of Spirit... strive together... prayers for me." Considers their prayer a striving against hostile forces.
For Christ’s sake—in work of redemption. For love of Spirit—in manifold gifts.
For me—in apostolic endeavor.
Verse 31: "Delivered from them who do not believe in Judea." Forebodings of ominous hostility of Jews bent on taking his life—upon his return. Enraged—angered—antagonized by his success—charging he taught Jews among Gentiles.
"And that my service,,. for Jerusalem accepted of saints. " Two-fold anxiety (1) the foreboding of evil forces of unbelievers; ’(2) the solicitude concerning the reaction of the saints to his unsolicited service.
Verse 32: "Come unto you with joy... and be refreshed. "
Joy: In the amicable relations established between Jew and Gentile members—in the composing of differences—a removing of prejudicial barriers, and altogether the reconciliation of alienated parties in the church.
Refreshed: By the salutary effects of such amiable associations.
Verse 33: The pleasant atmosphere of peace and unity as in Psalms 133.
LESSON 24
HELPING OTHERS
READ Romans 15:1-13
1. How can the strong help the weak? Ans. Romans 15:1.
2. How can the spiritually strong help an erring brother?
Ans. Galatians 6:1; James 5:19-20.
3. What should be done for the disorderly, the fainthearted, the weak,
and for all? Ans. 1 Thessalonians 5:14.
4. Why should we try to please others?
Ans. Romans 15:2; 1 Corinthians 10:24; 1 Corinthians 10:33.
5. In what should we seek to abound? Ans. 1 Corinthians 14:12; 1 Corinthians 14:26.
6. Who is our example in helping others?
Ans. Romans 15:3; Matthew 20:28.
7. What has Christ done that we might become rich in his grace?
Ans. 2 Corinthians 8:9.
8. What did David say of him? Ans. Romans 15:3; Psalms 69:9.
9. In what way do the scriptures written aforetime help us?
Ans. Romans 15:4; John 5:39; 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
10. In what frame of mind would God have us be toward one another?
Ans. Romans 15:5; 1 Corinthians 1:10.
11. How should we glorify God? Ans. Romans 15:8.
12. How are we to receive one another? Ans. Romans 15:7.
13. For what purpose was Christ made a minister to the circumcision?
Ans. Romans 15:8.
14. What now is possible for Gentiles to do? Ans. Romans 15:9.
15. Among whom would songs of praise be given to God, according to
the prophets? Ans. Romans 15:9; 2 Samuel 22:50; Psalms 18:49.
16. Who is told to rejoice? Ans. Romans 15:10.
17. Give Isaiah’s prophecy of Christ concerning the Gentiles.
Ans. Romans 15:12; Isaiah 11:10.
18. Who was the first Gentile to become a Christian?
Ans. Acts 10:1; Acts 10:48.
19. With what would God fill all his people? Ans. Romans 15:13.
20. In what should all abound? Ans. Romans 15:13.
21. What is the anchor of our souls? Ans. Hebrews 6:18-19.
22. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 15:1-13.
TOPICS FOR SPECIAL STUDY OR ASSIGNMENT
1. Edifying The Church.
2. The Value Of Old Testament Study.
3. Conversion Of Cornelius, The Gentile.
LESSON 25
PAUL’S HOPE TO VISIT ROME AND SPAIN
READ Romans 15:14-33
1. Of what three things was Paul persuaded regarding the Christians
in Rome? Ans. Romans 15:14.
2. Why was he writing to them? Ans. Romans 15:15.
3. Paul was a minister of what? Ans. Romans 15:16.
4. In whom did he glory? Ans. Romans 15:17; Galatians 6:14.
5. Of what things would he not dare to speak? Ans. Romans 15:18.
6. What power was wrought through him to lead the Gentiles to obedience? Ans. Romans 15:18-19.
7. Where had he preached the. gospel? Ans. Romans 15:19.
’8. It was his aim to preach in what kind of places? Ans. Romans 15 : M.
9. What did Isaiah say about the Gentiles?
Ans. Romans 15:21; Isaiah 52:15.
10. Why had Paul not already been to Rome? Ans. Romans 15:22.
11. Why did he want to go to Rome? Ans. Romans 15:23; Romans 1:11-11
12. What other new field did he hope to visit?
Ans. Romans 15:24; Romans 15:28-29.
13. Why was he going to Jerusalem first? Ans. Romans 15:25.
14. What churches were making contributions for the poor saints in
Jerusalem? Ans. Romans 15:26; 2 Corinthians 8:1; 2 Corinthians 9:2.
15. How was this money raised? Ans. 1 Corinthians 16:1-2.
16. What preparations were made for taking it to Jerusalem?
Ans. 1 Corinthians 16:3-4; 2 Corinthians 8:16-24.
17. Why were the Gentiles debtors to the Jewish brethren in Judea?
Ans. Born. 15:27.
18. What did Paul beseech the brethren to do for him?
Ans. Romans 15:30.
19. Name three things which he wanted their prayers to accomplish for
him. Ans. Romans 15:31-32.
20. Why did he ask the saints in Thessalonica to pray for him?
Ans. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2.
21. Give Paul’s prayer for the brethren in Rome. Ans. Romans 15:33.
22. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered in this lesson. Ans. Romans 15:14-33.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION OR INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
1. Preaching In New Fields.
2. How The Churches Helped The Poor Saints In Judea.
3. Praying For One Another.
Foy E. Wallace Comments on Romans Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
I. RECOMMENDATORY—Romans 16:1-2
Verse 1: "Phebe, sister, servant of the church. "
Phebe: Name—derived from heathen deity—indicates her former state.
Sister: A Christian. The designation "brother"—"sister" based on the relationship to God of children—Matthew 12:50—"My brother, sister"—2 Peter 3:15 "brother Paul. " Note uses of brother—brethren.
Servant: Some cause or occasion generally thought—to go to Rome in performing a service for the church in Cenchrea—"Of the church in Cenchrea"—member—(could be formerly a member) now in Rome— not said she was sent on business for church at Cenchrea—but residing in Rome now—commended by Paul.
Verse 2: Recommendation accompanied with plea on her behalf for their assistance in any way—"in whatosever business" (or matter) — she might need. "Receive her in the Lord"—into their fellowship.
As becometh saints: Behaviour of saints toward each other—whosoever they may be from wheresoever they may come—universal relation.
Succourer: Helper—indicates woman of resources—"of many"— her own ministrations. Had rendered assistance to Paul in some of his apostolic labors where she had formerly resided—"of myself"—supposedly bearer of letter but conjecture.
The use of word servant—or deaconness—not in official sense— simple sense or use—denotes servant—compare use of word angel— Revelation 2:1—not heavenly—nor official as such.
The restraints placed on women prevailed in Asia—Greece even greater than among Jews. Whatever service—limited to those restrictions of their own race—country—coupled with the restrictions of scriptures—some older women fitted by age, knowledge—character— were assigned duties of teaching younger women—Titus 2:3-4— converted to the faith—but no office of deaconness is indicated—1 Timothy 5:9-10—nor ministry of women from church to church now coming into vogue.
Her faithful services to others where she had lived in Cenchrea, were deserving of attention in her own needs from saints in Rome.
II. SALUTATORY—Romans 16:3-16
Verse 3: "Greet Priscilla and Aquila... helpers. " The salutations appear to be of Grecian people whom Paul had known in various places; these having settled in Rome, as in the case of Phoebe. Priscilla and Aquila at Corinth in Acts 18:1-2. Some referred to as kinsman, possible refers to being of same nation rather than blood relation. Converts to Christianity as himself before going to Rome or after or among those Jews banished from Rome under Claudius, converted in the interval, returned to Rome after death of Claudius. See MacKnight note, p. 51.
The omissions as well as the inclusions are significant. Catholics claim Peter was in Rome as head—pope. If so, Paul would have known it—not mentioned—an inexplicable—unwarranted affront. Others inferior mentioned. Those not mentioned, with whom not acquainted could have no personal offence. But Paul knew Peter, and Peter mentioned Paul in 2 Peter 3:15. No explanation for Paul to omit Peter if Peter was in Rome.
Station and position of those saluted indicates success of Paul’s Gentile labors, the weight carried by those of prominence, conversely, a tribute to their own fidelity and character to be commended by Paul— an honor, an encouragement. Salutations are also a lesson in the love and affection between fellow Christians. The salutations are important as witnesses to the authenticity of epistles.
Aquila and Priscilla were from Rome and had helped Paul at Corinth and Ephesus; evidently, after the death of Claudius, they returned home to follow their trade.
Verse 4: "Who... for my life... laid down own necks...unto whom I not only give thanks...but also all churches of the Gentiles."
"For my life.,.laid down necks" is a metaphorical expression— proverbial—connects with Acts 19 --The mob and 1 Corinthians 15:30-32—Aquila and Priscilla either there or elsewhere endangered them-selves in Paul’s defence.
"All churches of Gentiles" shared the thankfulness as Paul’s labors concerned them also, so his defence met with their appreciative response.
Verse 5: "Church in their house" likely refers to their household, being Christians, as the church in Rome too numerous for assembly in the house itself.
Epaenetus was beloved of Paul, not partiality, but tribute to character, praiseworthy. Firstfruits or first convert in province of Achaia.
Verse 6: "Mary... bestowed much labor on us. " Either rendered personal service to Paul in his needs to point of her own fatigue or else assisting him in his work as a helper among women.
Verse 7: "Andronicus... Junia... kinsman...fellow prisoners... note among apostles... in Christ before me. "
These were either blood relation or kinsman in nationality and were converted before Paul. It likely refers to kinsman as in Romans 9:3.
Fellow-prisoners: Not necessarily in same prison, or at same time, but had been imprisoned for the same cause.
Of note among apostles: Either held in esteem among the apostles for the active part in the gospel which caused imprisonment, or, themselves classed as apostles of inferior order, subordinate rank to the twelve, as word "apostle" applied to Barnabas.
In Christ before me: Means simply in the church of Christ before Paul was a member of it.
While some raise a question of whether a man and a woman joined together in reference—work attributed to them would indicate both men.
Verse 8: "Amplias... beloved in Lord, " Loved of Paul because of his loyalty to Christ exemplified in some noteworthy respects.
Verse 9: "Urbanus and Stachys"—Urbane (city—bred) had helped in preaching; Stachys, simply beloved for his worth.
Verse 10: "Apelles... approved in Christ... Aristobulus household. "
Approved refers to trial: proved by fiery trial. Affliction, firm faith—James 1:12—noble in withstanding opposition.
Household or family of Aristobulus. Note the household only here. Aristobulus either not a Christian, absent from Rome, or not living, but his family were in the church—all those included in his household.
Verse 11: "Herodion... kinsman... household of Narcissus,..in the Lord. "
Herodion (Herod) or named for Herod—whoever he was not likely blood kin again, as would be unusual for Paul to have so many relatives in Rome. Narcissus, the famous freed-man, who stood in favor of the Emperor Claudius, though dead, evidently had a namesake in this person, who unlike him was a Christian.
Verse 12: Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa... who labor in the Lord... Persis... labored much. " Tryphena and Tryphosa if not twins, then names suggest sisters who "labored in the Lord" and actively engaged in advancing the church in Rome.
Beloved Persis indicates a lovable person, held so by all who knew her to such degree as noteworthy. "Labored much" or devoted more than usual time and energy to promoting the church.
Verse 13: "Rufus, chosen in Lord. . . his mother and mine. " Chosen: Not in sense of elect here, but a choice Christian, excellent—chief—chosen among others, or preferable in comparison. 1 Timothy 5:21—elect angels—chief angels—opposite inferior. 2 John 1:1—elect lady—excellent. 2 John 1:13—elect sister.
His mother and mine: Natural mother of Rufus; mother to Paul in the kindnesses shown, as a mother to him. Mark 15:21—the Cyrenian—father of Rufus—connects—since Paul had never been in Rome, but knew the mother of Rufus elsewhere as well as to esteem her as a mother to him.
Verse 14: "Hermas" and brethren of the company named. Hermas, one of the early men designated as "church fathers" of the ante -Nicene writers, along with Irenaeus, Clement, Origen, Tertullian. Other persons unknown, but Paul’s personal acquaintance and mention gives them prestige, denotes their worth to the church. Many such not known in reputation are of more worth to church than some who are advertised. Names written in heaven. Publicity not approval in sight of God.
Verse 15: Philologus and Julia.,. Nereus and his sister, and Olympas... and all saints with them. A family of relatives evidently, banded together in the expression "with them".
Verse 16: "Salute... with holy kiss... the churches of Christ salute you. "
Holy kiss: Not commanding a custom, but commanding it to be holy, chaste. Not promiscuous, but expression of friendship and pure affection. Luke 7:45; 1 Peter 5:14—holy to mark its religious character, not romantic, sexual or sensual.
Note on customs, fasting—John’s disciples and Jesus—Old and New, etc. applied to essentials.
"Churches of Christ salute": Written from Corinth, or enroute to Judea. Hence, churches in Corinth, Cenchrea, and province of Achaia sent salutation to church at Rome. Note misapplication of this passage in present-day usage.
III. DOCTRINAL—Romans 16:7-20
Verse 17: "Mark them which cause divisions...” offences contrary to doctrine delivered... avoid.
Mark: Put under observation.
Watch: Surveillance, as subversives are put under observation.
Cause divisions: Separations—schismatic groups, forming parties. Offences: Causing others to fall into error and wrong conduct.
Contrary to doctrine: Enjoining things contrary to the teac hing in this epistle; hence, carries back over all the chapters from one to eleven on law and gospel, Jews and Gentiles, circumcision, faith, justification, inveighs against all Judaizers. Then from chapters twelve to sixteen the duties and relationships which subversives would destroy.
Avoid them: Not marked for disputes and contention, but for avoidance in order to protect the members from infective influence of such divisive agitators—2 Timothy 2:17.
Verse 18: "Serve not Christ, but own belly... good works...fair speeches...deceive."
Belly: Own selfish interests, lusts, ambitions.
Good works: Hypocritical good assurances, offering blessings, promising and pretending. False teacher appears earnest, pretensions deceive, gains affection.
Deceive hearts of simple: The innocent, guileless, not suspicious of wicked purposes, prey of false teacher. Not informed or prudent enough to discern, hence, snared.
Verse 19: "Obedience abroad... glad your behalf... have you wise... good, simple, evil. "
Abroad: Whole Roman Empire—reported—generally—so many had abandoned idolatry.
Glad: Congratulated them.
Wise: Able to discern—having obeyed—know good—discriminate. Simple: Pure, free from error in practice—1 Corinthians 5:8.
Verse 20: "God of peace... bruise Satan shortly... grace with you. Amen. " This refers to cruel acts of Nero, not on divine record. Satan means enemy. All enemies of the church personified in Nero, but including the unbelieving Jews, and collaborators in persecuting, opposing the church, so many of whom in Rome and over the Empire.
God of peace: Author of peace.
Shortly: Speedy destruction of all opposition by bruising the head—Satan—in the acts of his representative the emperor. Curtain falls on acts terminating the experiences.
Grace... Amen: Repeated in verse 24. Signifies his full heart, an overflow of emotion—unrestrained.
IV. POSTSCRIPTIONS—Romans 16:21-24
Verse 21: "Timothy, workfellow... Lucius, Jason and Sosipater... kinsmen. "
Timothy: Appropriately called work-fellow. He was baptized by Paul, taught, trained, charged, and his constant assistant, his protege, and his valet, as well as "son in the gospel" sharing dangers, hardships, travels, and joins in this epistle.
Lucius: Roman for Luke, who was in travelling company along with Timothy.
Jason: Of Acts 17:7, experiences with Paul similar to those of Luke and Timothy.
Sosipater: Of Acts 20:4, with Jason kinsman because Jews, join in greeting.
Verse 22: "Tertius... who wrote this epistle. " Regarded as Silas, nevertheless acted as scribe for Paul.
Verse 23: "Gaius...my host...whole church...Erastus... chamberlain...Quartus.” Gaius, baptized of Paul—1 Corinthians 1:14—man of means. Paul a guest in his home when he wrote this epistle. Likely his party, as Lydia in Acts 16:14-15.
Erastus: Treasurer of city, held position in civil government— convert of note, due to position. Quartus, brother of Erastus, or merely a brother in Christ. Known to those in Rome.
Verse 24: "Grace... with you all. " Repetition of verse 20. Specially applied in verse 20 to need of grace in experiences connected with bruising of Satan. Here, a blessing wished, a prayer of benediction with salutation, as "God bless you. "
V. BENEDICTIVE—Romans 16:25-27
Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
Verse 25: "Power to establish... gospel and preaching...revelation of mystery… secret since world began. "
Establish: In doctrine of epistle, in belief that gospel not law of Moses justifies, and preaching of Christ, as announced in chapter 1:16. Revelation of mystery: The plan of salvation, known only by inspiration, revelation.
Kept secret: Not revealed for publication—Old dispensation, unfolding in promises and prophecies—not made known. Hidden, concealed—Matthew 13:44; Ephesians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Silence... unannounced: Enfolded then, unfolded now.
Verse 26: "Now manifest, by Scriptures of prophets...commandment of everlasting God...all nations...obedience of faith."
Manifest: Published, the Great Commission—Acts 10:35.
According to commandment of Everlasting God: Unchangeable, same God as in Old Testament, in keeping with writings of prophets.
All nations: Jews and Gentiles, as set forth in epistle.
Obedience of faith: The faith of the gospel versus the Mosaic system, refers to the gist of epistle.
Verse 27: "To God only wise, be glory through Christ. " God only wise: No other, the wise God alone. Obedience to him, and glory through Christ, the object of all contents of Romans to Jew and Pagan. To God only wise, not rendered only wise God, implying others not wise, nor only wise, limiting his attributes to wisdom; but to the wise God alone in highest degree is glory ascribed, unto whom obedience is rendered, through Jesus Christ.
So ends the epistle which is the apex of all argument establishing the truth of the gospel of Christ over all the vanishing excellence of Grecian wisdom, and of justification, by faith superseding the works of the Mosaic law, concluding the argument with divers exhortations to spiritual living, climaxing salutations with doxology to God.
THE CHURCH AT ROME
Christianity seen in its representatives at the start—need of study of epistles of apostles and churches of New Testament.
I. Rome.
(1)Secular Rome. Established 750 B. C. Two rival republics, Rome and Carthage. Rome gains ascendancy. Caesars: Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Caligula, Nero.
a. Covering period before and during New Testament age. B. C. 46 to A. D. 70.
b.Afterward in order from Domitian to Diocletian,
(2) Religious Rome. Linked with the Bible in prophecy and history—Daniel 2:31-45.
a. Four world powers leading events.
b. Jerusalem tributary to Nebuchadnezzar—Babylonian period.
c. Return of exiles under Zerrubabel—Persian period.
d. Capture of Jerusalem by Alexander—Grecian period.
e. Subjugation of Jews by Pompei—Roman period.
f. Beginning of Kingdom of Christ—the New Testament period. Marked by historical events. Birth and ministry of Jesus, Crucifixion and Resurrection. Pentecost and Acts of Apostles. Death of Paul and persecution of Christians. Destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of Rome. Development of apostasy and rise of papacy out of the conditions of apostasy. History of Christianity interwoven with Jerusalem but interlocked with Rome.
II. The Church.
(1) The church at Rome versus the Roman church. Contradic-tion of local prefix to universal church.
(2) Prominent, not pre-eminent—Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 12:28. Churches, apostles, plural, so of elders—1 Peter 5:1—bishops local only and plural in number. Rome not first—Jerusalem. Not first established. Gospel not first promulged from it. Church not established there. Why the pre-eminence? Legend of Peter not historical. Paul to Rome, first mentioned apostle to go, of historical record—New Testament and otherwise. If legend true why not mentioned with details of less importance?
III. The Letter
Note at end of chapter of epistle by translators may or may not be true.
(1) Purpose of letter. A Roman church with mixed membership. Jews, proselytes, Gentiles. Abolition of law, gospel to all, justification by faith, a righteousness proceeding from faith, not from the law, reversing the order of the phrase.
(2) Passages. Romans 1:16—not ashamed. Athens—Rome. Homer and Virgil. Nero and Caesars.
Romans 8:3—Law and Christ. Recapitulation of John 3:16.
Romans 12—the Christians’ manual, summary of duties, directions of conduct in society and the church, polemics of Christianity.
Romans 16:17—the ground of fellowship.
Romans 16:19—obedience abroad—chapter 1: 8—faith reported, mutually shared—verse 12.
(3) Personnel—chapter 16—many known to Paul, writes in intimate relation to a church he had never seen, accounts for special desire to go to Rome—Romans 15:32.
Salutations to those members personally known to him, esteemed—
loved—salutations from his companions with him to them—his own postscript and benediction, and the curtain falls, left for others to chronicle, brutal acts of Nero, the burning of Rome and the persecution of her most distinguished subjects—the Roman Christians.
Chapter 12—the Christians’ manual, summary of duties, directions of conduct in society and the church, polemics of Christianity.
Romans 16:17—the ground of fellowship.
Romans 16:19—obedience abroad—Romans 1:8—faith reported, mutually shared—verse 12.
(3) Personnel—chapter 16—many known to Paul, writes in intimate relation to a church he had never seen, accounts for special desire to go to Rome—Romans 15:32.
Salutations to those members personally known to him, esteemed—loved—salutations from his companions with him to them—his own postscript and benediction, and the curtain falls, left for others to chronicle, brutal acts of Nero, the burning of Rome and the persecution of her most distinguished subjects—the Roman Christians.
LESSON 26
SALUTATIONS AND CONCLUDING PRAYER
READ Romans 16:1-27
1. Who was Phoebe? Ans. Romans 16:1.
2. What were the saints in Rome told to do for her?
Ans. Romans 16:2.
3. What do you know about Priscilla and Aquilla?
Ans. Romans 16:3-5; Acts 18:2-3; Acts 18:25-26.
4. Who was the "first fruits of Asia?" Ans. Romans 16:5.
5. Who were the "first fruits of Achaia"? Ans. 1 Corinthians 16:15.
6. What had this Mary done? Ans. Romans 16:6.
7. What is said of Adronicus and Junias? Ans. Romans 16:7.
8. Give the names of others included in these salutations.
Ans. Romans 16:8-15.
9. Discuss the "holy kiss" as a manner of salutation.
Ans. Romans 16:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14.
10. Explain the two phrases, "of the Gentiles" and "of Christ", which
Paul uses to describe the churches. Ans. Romans 16:4; Romans 16:16.
11. Whom should the brethren mark and turn away from?
Ans. Romans 16:17.
12. Whom do factious teachers deceive, and how? Ans. Romans 16:18.
13. How widely known was the obedience of the saints in Rome?
Ans. Romans 1:8; Romans 16:19.
14. In what should all be wise, and in what should all be simple?
Ans. Romans 16:19; 1 Corinthians 14:20.
15. What assurance did they have of final victory? Ans. Romans 16:20.
16. In what sense was Tertius the writer of this letter?
Ans. Romans 16:22.
17. Who were Gaius and Erastus? Ans. Romans 16:23.
18. Into whose keeping does Paul commend the Christians in Rome?
Ans. Romans 16:25; Romans 16:27.
19. For what purpose is the mystery of the gospel made known to all
nations? Ans. Romans 16:27.
20. Through whom should we give glory to the only wise God?
Ans. Romans 16:27.
21. Give a summary of what is taught in the verses covered by this lesson. Ans. Romans 16:1-27.
TOPICS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION
1. Woman’s Work In The Church.
2. Withdrawing Fellowship.
God’s Good News
(Romans 1:1-7)
Brent Kercheville
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)
Paul begins his letter with the lengthiest introduction of all of his letters. Notice that he does not address who the recipients are until verse 7! Clearly Paul has something important that he wants to say and he begins to with it before he gets through all the formalities of a first century letter. Paul begins by calling himself a servant of Jesus Christ. While he is a called apostle by our Lord Jesus, he is first and foremost a servant of the Lord. As an apostle Paul has been entrusted with an awesome responsibility — to summon Gentiles to allegiance to Jesus (Acts 9:15).
“Set apart for the gospel of God.” The gospel of God is the subject of this long introduction. Paul seems to be more than eager to begin to speak about the gospel and the first seventeen verses are about the gospel as the revelation of God’s righteousness. So we will need to do some work and study to understand what Paul means by these terms. In this lesson we will spend our time understanding the gospel of God.
Verse 2 tells us that the gospel of God was promised by God beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. This is an important piece of information. We may not realize that the gospel was promised in the Old Testament. Notice that it is more than just prophecy. It is the promise. Let us turn back to the prophets to see what was promised concerning the gospel.
9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:9-11; ESV)
Isaiah 40 begins the comforting section of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 40:1) after he had told Israel that they were going into Babylonian exile. The gospel was a messenger coming to Jerusalem bring ing the good news of Babylon’s defeat, the end of Israel’s exile, and the return of God to his people and to Zion. Notice this is the good news again in Isaiah.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. 9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. (Isaiah 52:7-10; ESV)
Paul quotes this text in Romans 10:15, so we know we are on the right track concerning the gospel of God. What is the good news? Verse 7 says that God reigns in Zion. Verse 8 says that they will see the return of the Lord to Zion. Verse 9 says that the Lord has comforted his people and has redeemed Jerusalem. Verse 10 says that the Lord has used his powerful arm and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. The good news refers to future glory of Israel in Isaiah 60:6. Similarly, we read about the good news in Isaiah 61:1. This is what the good news meant to the Jewish mind. The restoration of a relationship with God, God dwelling with his people, and the nation restored from exile.
The gospel also has an interesting history in the Gentile mind. This same Greek word was used among the Gentiles to refer to the announcement of the accession or birthday of a ruler or emperor. The gospel was essentially news or celebration concerning Caesar.
Notice how the word is used in connection with Augustus on a calendar inscription from Priene (c. 9 BC; line 40): “but the birthday of the god was for the world the beginning of tidings of joy on account of him.” The birthday of Augustus was considered the beginning of the gospel in the Roman world. Notice how the word was used in connection to Gaius Julius Caesar concerning the day he became a man according to Roman custom: “that on the day when the city received the good news and when the decree was adopted, on that day, too, wreaths (must) be worn and sumptuous sacrifices offered to the gods.” In this context we see the city received the gospel when a decree was given concerning the day Gaius became a man.
Verse 3 tells us that the gospel is about the Son. Jesus is the good news of a king’s accession. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise and thus, the gospel, good news, must be declared. It is the announcement of Jesus as the Messiah and Lord. God has done it! The king has come! N.T. Wright sums this up well, “The natural meaning of the phrase, ‘God’s gospel concerning his Son,’ therefore, is ‘God’s announcement, in fulfillment of prophecy, of the royal enthronement of the Messiah, Israel’s anointed king, the lord of the world.”
It is important that we understand that Son of God is a title for divinity. What is the son of a duck? A duck. “Son of God” is simply a title of divinity. Unfortunately, this title has been misunderstood to mean that Jesus is a lesser God or that this is a generational statement that Jesus was actually born from God.
Verses 3-4 continue to explain the relationship of Jesus as Son with the gospel. Paul points out in verse 3 that the Son was descended from David according to the flesh. This delineates Jesus as Messiah. As a descendant from David, Jesus has the right to lay claim to the Davidic throne as king. Jesus was also declared to be the Son of God in power by his resurrection. The resurrection declares Jesus to not only be Israel’s messiah, but also the Lord of the world. You see how the gospel then fits for the gospel is the declaration of the accession of a king. This is the fulfillment of the prophecies given through the Spirit of holiness. All of these things were done according to God’s revealed plan.
It is important to stop at this moment and soak in what we have learned. We need to note that the gospel is not described by Paul as a system of salvation primarily. That is not in view at this point. When we think of the “gospel” we often default into merely thinking about salvation. But for Paul, the gospel is the announcement about the appointment of Jesus as Israel’s messiah and Lord of the world.
Verse 5 continues the thought. It is through Jesus that the apostles have received the grace of apostleship. Notice carefully the purpose of his apostleship: to call the Gentiles (the nations) into a covenant relationship with the one true God so that the name of Jesus might be glorified throughout the world. The shorthand that Paul uses here for this concept is “the obedience of faith.” The gospel that focuses on the Son was designed to bring all nations and people to the obedience of faith.
Obedience flows from faith. In light of the context addressing the gospel, I believe the point is this: the appropriate response to an imperial summons is obedience. For example, if the president were to summons you to come to the White House, what would be your response? You would go to the White House because of the official and position he hold. Our faith in Jesus as the messiah of Israel, Son of God, and Lord of the world means that we must obey whatever he says. The gospel is the announcement of Jesus as king. Believe it and obey him. Paul is saying that he is announcing the good news of Jesus as Lord to bring people to obedience. To think that Paul is now going to write in this letter that obedience is not part of God’s plan but that all we need to do is believe as a response to the gospel is to fly directly in the face of Paul’s words. Paul says that obedience is the response that should come from our faith in Jesus. That is the whole reason Paul is preaching — to bring obedience of faith so that the name of Jesus will be glorified in the whole world. To twist this letter to say that it does not matter what you do is to twist the clear words of Paul. Obedience and faith go hand and hand and Paul joins these concepts together for a reason. We cannot obey and be without faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Mindless obedience will not work. But faith without obedience will not work either. James taught that faith without works is dead (James 2:17).
So let’s end with the big idea. First, the bad news before we can appreciate the good news. We are lost in our sins. We are dead to God. We have violated his commands. God separated himself from his people because of our sinfulness. We violated the covenant. Reaching back historically, Israel had broken the covenant, severed their relationship with God, and was exiled. Isaiah promised good news to come. The good news was that God would dwell with his people again, the covenant would be restored, and the blessings would return. The good news was specifically about Jesus because he is the one who would make these things happen. Jesus can be king in the kingdom of God because he is a descendant of David. He is the fulfillment of prophecies declaring himself to be the Messiah. Through the resurrection, Jesus was declared to be the Son of God and Lord of the world, ruling over the nations. Jesus is Lord and that is good news because it is through Jesus that we have a relationship with the Father again. It is through Jesus that we have the blessings of God poured out on us. It is through Jesus that we are in a covenant with our Father. It is through Jesus that we are part of the family of God promised to Abraham. It is through Jesus that we have “God with us.” It is through Jesus that we have truly come out of exile, the exile of sin and death, and are given true life, true living…eternal life. In the words of Isaiah, it is through Jesus that, The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. (Isaiah 52:10; ESV). This is the gospel of God. This is the good news found in Jesus.
The Grace of the Gospel
(Romans 1:8-15)
Brent Kercheville
Romans 1:8-15 would be classified as the thanksgiving section of Paul’s letter to the Romans. In the first seven verses of his letter, Paul laid out a general framework of the gospel. What we saw in the last lesson was the gospel was promised through God’s prophets in the holy scriptures. This message concerned the reconciliation of Israel to God, God dwelling with his people, and return from exile. Paul further develops the gospel concept by pointing out that Jesus is the fulfillment of the gospel’s promise. Jesus is Israel’s messiah. Jesus in the way Israel would be reconciled to God. Jesus is the way people are restored to God. But Jesus is not simply Israel’s messiah. The resurrection declared Jesus to be the Son of God in power and is, therefore, Lord of the universe. Paul is preaching this good news to the Gentiles that they also can come into a covenant relationship to God through obedience of faith. Paul continues to discuss the gospel in his thanksgiving about the Christians in Rome.
1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. (ESV)
Faith Is Proclaimed In All The World (Romans 1:8)
Paul begins his thanksgiving by paying a great compliment to the Christians in Rome. Paul thanks God for the faith of these disciples. Their faith has been proclaimed in all the world. This is very similar to the compliment paid to the Christians in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 1:8). One can only imagine the powerful encouragement to hear about the faith of Christians who are living in Rome. This letter is written around 57 AD. The emperor at this time is Nero. To live in Rome in the first century as a Christian would be extremely difficult. Under Emperor Claudius, Jews (and so Christians likely also) were expelled from Rome. Nero took the throne in 54 AD, which would have allowed for Jews and Christians to return and settle in Rome again. So the faith of these Christians who are living in the city of Rome is being heard about in the churches throughout the Roman Empire.
They had a reputation worth having. They had a reputation for faith. Paul reiterates this point at the end of his letter. “For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you…” (Romans 16:19). We should want to be a local church that Paul could say the same thing. We want to be a group of Christians that Paul could thank God for because our faith is being proclaimed in this area and the impact is catching the attention of Christians in other locations.
We also learn our need to be more expressive about our thankfulness for one another. There is nothing wrong with expressing our thanks to each other for their faithfulness and encouragement. There is nothing wrong with thanking God for the faithfulness and encouragement of one another. Paul did such repeatedly and we see such here. Paul thanks God for the resounding faith of the Christians in Rome. We should thank God for each other. We should be more expressive of our thankfulness for each other. I am very thankful to God for this group of Christians in Palm Beach county. The knowledge and faith of this church is very high. I love the zeal for the word of God and the desire to get down to the truth of God’s message even when that truth may be controversial or different than previously learned or taught. I am very thankful for our shepherds. They work hard and are thinking about you. They do a great job making it easier for me to remain devoted to word of God so that we can grow together into maturity as the family of God. There are men and women here who do so much work behind the scenes that I am very grateful for. You know your work and you know your faithfulness to God in your work. Your work is appreciated and observed by many.
Serving In The Gospel (Romans 1:9-13)
Paul continues his letter by noting his desire to go to Rome and visit with these Christians. Paul wants to serve them in the gospel. Paul makes mention of the Christians in Rome in his prayers constantly. Consider that Paul did not personally know these Roman Christians, yet he prays constantly on their behalf. His knowledge of them and their faith are enough to keep them in his prayers.
It seems that Paul has a two fold desire in Rome. First, he wants to come to these Christians and impart to them a spiritual gift to strengthen them (v. 11). There is much discussion about if this spiritual gift is referring to the miraculous spiritual gifts which were received by the laying on of the apostles’ hands or if the spiritual gift is referring to preaching and teaching to the Romans more about the gospel. I believe that this is referring to imparting miraculous spiritual gifts to the Christians in Rome for a couple of reasons. One, Paul is already strengthening the Christians with his letter. It appears that Paul wants to do more than simply teach them more about this gospel, but that he needs to be in their presence to give this spiritual gift. Also, we must consider the very strong likelihood that the church in Rome was not established by any apostles. We read about Peter being in Jerusalem and Antioch, even into Acts 15. Paul indicates that he had not come to Rome yet, as the book of Acts also reveals. Historical evidence suggests that the church in Rome may have been established by the late 30s or early 40s (Schreiner; Baker Exegetical Commentary). Paul’s fervent desire to go to Rome may also be because he wants to impart to the majority of the congregation the spiritual gifts that we read about in 1 Corinthians 12-14. I am not suggesting that no one had any gifts there. Perhaps Christians with gifts like Apollos or Titus or the like were there and had taught them important things concerning the faith. However, no one but an apostle could pass miraculous spiritual gifts to another. The lack of such miraculous spiritual wisdom and knowledge may also explain Paul’s compulsion to write this letter to Christians about the gospel. Perhaps these Christians in Rome know the basics, but they need more knowledge to grow their faith appropriately. In this, mutual encouragement would be the goal. Paul would come to these Christians and they were going to build one another up.
Second, he wants to evangelize in Rome (vs. 13). He also wants to participate in preaching to the Gentiles in Rome this good news announcement about Jesus as the true Lord of heaven and earth. Paul wants to fulfill his apostolic obligation and servant obligation of announcing the good news to the Gentiles in Rome. This is part of Paul’s longing as he wants to “reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.” In Romans 15:22-24 Paul says that he has been hindered from coming to them often. He has longed for many years to come to them. He has completed his work in other regions, so Italy is now the place where Paul wants to spend his time preaching, as well as Spain.
Debtor To The Gospel (Romans 1:14-15)
Paul’s motivation for preaching and teaching is the realization that he is a debtor. We see the great debt that he owes as the motivation for his serving in the gospel. But we need to be careful in understanding this debt. Paul does not sense his obligation as some sort of coercion or duty. Rather his obligation and debt comes from the grace of God. Back in verse 5 Paul pointed out that it is through Jesus Christ our Lord that we have received grace. God’s grace creates the debt. It is important that we try to fully appreciate the grace that has been granted to us through Jesus. I know that getting our arms and minds around the extent of God’s graciousness is quite difficult. But we need to come to an understanding that we are wretched, depraved, and sinful individuals who are deserving of God’s eternal wrath and punishment. Wrath is what we deserve. But, by God’s goodness and graciousness, God has extended deliverance, mercy, and love.
But to whom Paul says that this obligation or debt is toward. While we certainly know that Paul is in debt to the Lord for his graciousness, notice that this is not the only debt. Paul is under obligation to both Greeks and barbarians, both wise and foolish. What is Paul’s obligation toward Greeks, barbarians, wise and foolish? His obligation and debt is to preach this good news. Paul considers himself in debt to the world. God’s grace motivates Paul to preach to every person on the earth, regardless of their status, race, or level of knowledge.
If we always saw ourselves in the light of God’s grace, it would change how we deal with people. Once we accept the truth of grace, we would not be self-righteous, arrogant people. We would realize that we are who we are only by the grace of God. We would recognize that we are nothing and not worthy of boasting. The grace of God should motivate us to humility and gentleness. The grace of God should move us to kind and gracious to others.
Further, the grace of God should compel us to reach lost souls. God has been gracious to you and me. How can we sit silently on the good news? How can we not open our mouths and tell others the good news of the announcement of Jesus, enthroned as king of heaven and earth. Evangelism and teaching flows from a recognition of the grace we have received. It is not profitable to beat each of you over the head about the need to be more evangelistic. This preaching of the good news was not something that Paul needed someone to tell him that he needed to more under his duty as a Christian. Rather, in recognition of God’s grace he felt that obligation to reach more and more people. Paul had to continue to move throughout out the empire and perhaps past its reaches to announce the good news to more people.
This is why we need to be excited about inviting our neighbors to services. Not out of sense of duty and drudgery. Rather, because we see God’s grace. We are partakers in his goodness. When we appreciate his grace and goodness, then we will be naturally motivated to speak the good news to others. Let grace be the motivating tool to prompt us to speak, invite, and teach. Look at what God has done for us. How can we not try to increase in his grace? How can we not try to improve in the gifts he has given us? How can we not try to become teachers, encouragers, hospitable, servers, helpers, and so forth? How can we not grow when we fully see his grace at work in our lives?
The gospel is a message of grace. We do not deserve a relationship with God. We do not deserve for God to dwell with us. Israel did not deserve a new covenant being offered. We do not deserve God’s blessings being poured out on us. Do we see that the message of the gospel is a message of grace? God is doing what he promised, even though we broke our end of the covenant! God is restoring and repair all that we have broken through our sins with the sacrifice and resurrection of his Son, Jesus our Lord.
Paul will say this a little later in this letter:
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)
Let grace, the message of the God’s gospel motivate us to have great faith, to serve in the gospel, and teach the gospel to the lost sheep around us.
The Gospel Reveals the Righteousness of God
Romans 1:16-17
Brent Kercheville
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (ESV)
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. (HCSB)
Thomas Schreiner wrote in Baker Exegetical Commentary, “Virtually all scholars acknowledge that these verses are decisive for the interpretation of Romans” (p. 58). We need to consider the context of Paul’s words, especially since verse 16 begins with the word “for,” which ties it as an explanation of the previous statement. In the previous verses Paul said that he was thankful for the Christians in Rome and noted his desire to visit them. Because Paul is a debtor to all people, wise and foolish, Greeks and barbarians. Paul has been called to preach to the Gentiles. So he is eager to go to Rome and preach the gospel (vs. 15).
Not Ashamed of the Gospel
Paul declares that he is not ashamed of the gospel. But he is not ashamed of the gospel not because he is some ridiculous optimist marching cheerfully into danger. Rather, he is not ashamed because this gospel is God’s power for salvation. This announcement of Jesus as Israel’s messiah, king over all, ruler over land and sea, who raised from the dead (this good news) is God’s power for salvation. This is the way salvation is going to come to the world — through Jesus.
Now it is important to understand what Paul means when he says that he is not ashamed. He is not talking about a personal emotional feeling where he declaring that he is not bashful or timid to talk to people about Jesus. That is not the point. Rather, in the scriptures we see that God’s people feel shame when their enemies are triumphing. Notice a few passages that reveal this.
In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me! (Psalms 71:1-2; ESV)
And my tongue will talk of your righteousness all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt. (Psalms 71:24)
Notice how “the righteousness of God” and “shame” are tied together throughout the psalm. This concept makes much more sense of Paul’s teaching and how “shame” and “God’s power” are tied together. “The gospel, and the power it carries, enables Paul to share the position of the psalmist, celebrating God’s righteousness and so remaining unashamed in the face of enemies and gainsayers” (Wright, p. 424). When God keeps his word and conquers the enemies, then God’s people are not put to shame. God is being faithful to his promises. We will return to this point in verse 17.
Salvation
Salvation is often oversimplified to a discussion about forgiveness of sins. While forgiveness of sins is certainly included in salvation, there is more to salvation than this. Salvation includes the idea of deliverance from enemies, as we have already noted, and includes the restoration promises of all that sin has marred or destroyed. Salvation includes the ideas of justification, reconciliation, sanctification, and redemption.
This salvation is offered to everyone who believes. There is a responsibility on our part to act on the hearing the good news about Jesus. God saves through the gospel and the gospel alone. Salvation only comes through Jesus and it is available to all who believe.
Equality
This gospel which brings salvation has been given to the Jews first, but also to the Gentiles. The Jews received the first opportunity to hear the good news about Jesus and the power of God. It was Jesus’ mission to go to the Jews first, to the lost sheep of Israel. But this message was not exclusive to the Jews. Equality of the gospel to all people is an important theme in Romans.
God’s Righteousness Revealed
God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel. It is important to understand that Paul is talking about God’s righteousness. The NIV makes a terrible translation mistake here. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” (NIV). This is not “a righteousness” nor it is a righteousness that comes from God. Nothing in the context suggests that we are talking about righteousness coming from God. Rather, this is God’s righteousness (HCSB). We will be able to understand this better later, but this must be our view of the text otherwise Romans 3:21-26 and Romans 9-11 will be problematic and not make sense. We will examine those problems when we come to those passages in our study. The point is that the gospel reveals God’s righteousness.
What is meant by the righteousness of God? Righteousness includes the idea of God doing what is right, what is just, what is fair, and what is morally upright. Justice, fairness, and uprightness are built into the idea of righteousness. The gospel shows that God is just, fair, and right. Notice that the Old Testament speaks about God’s righteousness in relation to bringing salvation to his people. Also observe that the author is talking about God’s righteousness, not righteousness that comes from God in these Old Testament quotes.
Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. (Psalms 98:1-2; ESV)
“Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.” (Isaiah 46:12-13; ESV)
Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. (Isaiah 56:1; ESV)
In Isaiah 56 God says that his salvation was coming soon and his deliverance (as synonym for salvation) will be revealed. Notice that Paul is speaking to the fulfillment of these prophetic messages. Paul declares that God’s righteousness has now been revealed through Jesus (the gospel message) which gives salvation to all who believe.
Faith To Faith
Paul continues by teaching that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. What does Paul mean that God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith? Paul uses Habakkuk to prove his point. To understand Paul’s teaching “from faith to faith” we will need to understand the context of Paul’s quotation. We do not have time in this lesson to do a full tour of Habakkuk. If you have been part of the Wednesday class you will have a significant advantage because we have studied Habakkuk in conjunction with Romans. A quick summary will have to suffice. In chapter one of Habakkuk, the prophet begins with a complaint that the nation of Judah is extremely wicked. Justice is not executed but is perverted. Habakkuk wants to know how long this is going to continue. God responds in chapter 1 by declaring that Habakkuk is correct in observing the wickedness of the nation. Therefore God is going to use the Babylonians as an instrument of judgment against the people. Habakkuk responds that this is not fair or just. While the people of Judah are evil, the Babylonians are worse. They worship their idols and do not look to God at all. How can God use the more wicked Babylonians as an instrument of judgment on Judah? The concern goes even deeper because God had made many promises to the nation. God promised to bring the Messiah through them. How is God going to be faithful to his covenant if he brings the Babylonians against Judah and takes them captive? God answers in chapter 2 that the people are wicked, but “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).
What did God just tell Habakkuk? God said that he will be faithful to his word. This is God’s righteousness. God will do what is right, what is just, and what is fair. God is telling Habakkuk to trust (have faith) that God will keep his word. Habakkuk will show his trust in God by remaining faithful to God, acting faithfully. We see this reflect in the rest of the book of Habakkuk. The rest of chapter 2 is God telling about how he is will judge the Babylonians. Chapter 3 is Habakkuk’s prayer of trust, relying upon God to deliver them and how he will be faithful to God.
Take this message and plug it into the message that Paul is teaching in Romans 1:17. God has revealed his righteousness and faithfulness in the gospel because in the gospel people have the salvation and reconciliation that had been promised from the beginning. God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith in that God has been faithful to his word (the first “faith” in the sentence). We are called upon to put our trust (faith) in God by being faithful (the second “faith” in the sentence) to God’s commands. Proof is the statement made in Habakkuk, “The righteous live by faith.” Faith and faithfulness are inseparable. The proclaiming of the gospel is the revealing of God’s righteousness to the world.
Conclusion:
1. The gospel is God’s power. Paul didn’t say that God’s power is IN the gospel. That shifts our minds back to thinking of the gospel as the Bible. But that is not how Paul is using the word. God’s power is Jesus as Messiah and Savior of the world. This news about who Jesus is and what he has done is God’s power for salvation.
2. God’s salvation is available to everyone person who will believe. No one is excluded. There is not a class of individuals who cannot receive salvation. It does not matter what you have done, you can receive salvation. Jesus was not the Savior of the Jews only, but the Savior of the world.
3. Salvation is not simply mental assent or thinking in your heart that there is a God. Paul explains how salvation comes. God has been faithful to his promise to save the world. God has kept his word and will continue to keep his words. But the righteous live by faith. Will we trust God? Will we put all of our faith in him? Will we be faithful to God as he has been faithful to us and his promises?
The Rejection of God
Romans 1:18-23
Brent Kercheville
God is love. God is forgiving. God is kind. God is too good to pronounce eternal judgment on anyone. Or, only the really, really, REALLY bad people will be eternally punished. But not most people. Just the Hitlers and Husseins of the world. This is common thinking in our world today. But Paul has a completely different idea about the character of God. To understand God’s righteousness fully, we need to understand our problem.
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. (HCSB)
In the previous verse Paul told us that God’s righteousness has been revealed through the gospel, the good news of Jesus being ruler over all things. But in revealing that God is faithful to his word to save those who are righteous, there is another side of this coin. If God is faithful to his word, then the message of Habakkuk has another important, strong point. God’s righteousness also condemns the wicked. There is a flip side to God’s words to Habakkuk. The righteous live by faith. The wicked do not. If God is faithful to keep his word and has promised to deliver the righteous, save the righteous, and vindicate the righteous, then by necessity God is faithful to judge all ungodliness and all unrighteousness. The gospel, which reveals Jesus delivering from sins, also reveals Jesus as judge since he is ruler of heaven and earth. In the same message, God’s wrath has also been revealed. Notice that this is a contrast between God’s righteousness and our unrighteousness. God has been faithful, but we have unfaithful. God has kept his word and his covenant, but we have not. God has been just, fair, and right, but we have not.
Suppressing The Truth of God
In their unrighteousness they suppress what is evident and plain about the truth. This mirrors something that Peter taught also. They do not see not because the truth of God has not been revealed. No, they do not see because they do not want to see. They are suppressing the truth about God. They do not want to see that God’s righteousness and his wrath have been revealed. People want to ignore that the wrath of God does exist. People want to ignore that there is a penalty for sins that must be paid. God can be known because God has revealed himself.
I think this is an important point that must be expressed. God has made himself evident. There is no one who can say that they did not know. We often try to come up with exaggerated hypotheticals about some person in the middle of the South Pacific on an island who does not know God. But this is not an issue. God has made himself plain and evident. How?
Since the beginning of creation God’s invisible attributes are clearly seen. I love statements like these. God’s invisible characteristics can be clearly seen by humans. How can we see what is invisible? Just as much as we say that we can see the wind, we can see God’s invisible attributes by their effects. There are two invisible attributes that Paul particularly has in mind: God’s eternal power and his divine nature. God has revealed himself in the creation of the world. People can come to a knowledge of God by seeing these invisible attributes of God. All people have a knowledge of God by observing the created order. Unfortunately, this knowledge about God is suppressed and distorted. Paul is not saying that we can know what to do by looking at the creation. We are not going to learn God’s will or God’s law for us by looking at the created world. But the creation is to cause us to see the invisible God, particularly his attributes, so that we will seek after him.
Thus, the first point that Paul makes is that all people are without excuse. It is not that most people are under the power of sin, but that all people are. No one gets a pass. God has revealed himself in the creation. Just look around and be in awe about how perfectly made everything is. Compare the things humans make to the things God has made. We make things that work and are functional. We make cars and skyscrapers and the like. But look at the beauty of the human body. It is functional, self-regulates, and yet functions beautifully in a way no one has ever made. Consider the healing powers of our body. It is amazing. Nothing that humans make fixes itself. It can tell you that it is broken. But our bodies heal in the most amazing way. We suppress the truth when we choose to think that there is not an Almighty Creator who has formed us, made us, and rules over us. God has made himself plain for he has revealed eternal power and divine nature in the creation. Therefore we have no excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (ESV)
Sin is the rejection of God as God. Sin is the transgressing of God’s law. But such acts are rooted in a rejection of God as God. In looking around and seeing God’s invisible attributes in the creation, people are expected to seek after God. We should be motivated to learn about God, know his will, and worship him. But that is not what happened. Humans have refused to honor God, worship God, or give thanks to God. The appropriate response should have been glorying God, worshiping God, and giving thanks to God.
Instead of being smart, we turn to foolishness. Instead of being smart and trusting in God in all things, we turn to created, physical things. Our thinking and our hearts become warped and damaged because we are not worshiping God as we ought. Of course, people who do such things think they are intelligent and enlightened. One such person whose arrogance pours out is Bill Maher who produced the movie, Religulous, a combining of the word Religion and Ridiculous. He has made himself to be god. He thinks he is absolutely brilliant and those who believe in God are utter fools. This is what happens. We think we are being so smart and yet are acting foolishly and ignorantly. He thinks he is so smart and yet I look at him and see a fool. The book of Ecclesiastes teaches us that life without God is futility. Without God, our outlook on life and our way of thinking is false and darkened, not wise.
Can’t we see the foolishness? We are exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images that resemble humans and animals. How can we possibly think this is a good exchange? We have traded away worship to the Creator of all things for the worship of created things. We worship our jobs rather than God. We worship our families rather than God. We worship our possessions rather than God. We worship our bank accounts rather than God. We worship our bodies and its desires rather than God. We worship ourselves rather than God. How is this a smart exchange? Why are we worshiping ourselves and the things we own? We can’t control anything and the things we are worshiping break and fade.
This is exactly what the nation of Israel had done in the days of Moses. The psalmist tells that story from which Paul quotes:
19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. 20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. (Psalms 106:19-22; ESV)
The prophet Jeremiah declared this foolish exchange that Israel had made:
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. (Jeremiah 2:11; ESV)
Consider this: what we are doing is the same as having an original, priceless masterpiece and exchanging it for a reproduction, a mere copy. You have the real thing and you make a trade for a fake. It is like taking a one hundred dollar bill and exchanging for one hundred dollars in Monopoly money. Who would do such a thing? Yet this is what we do with God, trading him in for some clunker of a false god that we put our hope in. We exchange God for pitiful substitutes.
Conclusion:
1. God’s wrath has been revealed. His wrath is real and stands against our unrighteousness. God’s righteousness demands that God be just and execute justice.
2. Sin is the rejection of God as God.
3. We cannot refuse to honor God or give thanks to God. Worship is the only appropriate response before God.
4. Don’t exchange the glory of the immortal God for false gods.
The Consequences of Rejection
Romans 1:24-32
Brent Kercheville
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:24-25; ESV)
In our last lesson we noticed that we have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of the things in this world. We have exchanged the real God for worshiping ourselves and our desires. Paul is going to finish this chapter by describing the consequences of this exchange.
Notice what God does. “Therefore, God gave them up….” Paul says this three times, first here in verse 24, also in verse 26, and in verse 28. What does Paul mean that God gave us up? To help us understand, we need to notice Psalms 81 where we see the same teaching occur.
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. 13 Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. (Psalms 81:11-14; ESV)
Notice that God gave Israel over to their own wishes so that they could follow their stubborn hearts. He gave them over to follow their own wisdom and own ways. God does not force us to obey him. He will let us go our own way. You can blaze whatever trail you like. You do things, “your way.” God says, “Do what you want! I am not going to stop you!” God will let us experience all that there is in life and the full consequences of our sins. Adding Romans 1:24, God will give you over in the lusts of your heart to impurity. You can plunge yourself in the deepest of sexual sins and God is not going to stop you. You can just dig deeper and deeper into lust, p*rnography, promiscuity, adultery, and hom*osexuality. You don’t want to serve God, God will not keep you with him.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (ESV)
In verses 26-27 we see that Paul is specifically pointing to sexual sins. We plunge ourselves into a debased mind when God is not the center of our lives. These sins are a worship problem and it is important to identify these sins for what they are. Often we try to overcome sins by simple redirection and willpower. Sometimes this works but often times it does not. What we need to pay greater attention to is that the problem is worship. Look at this point again in verse 21, “They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” I think this is important information for our fight against Satan. We can try to fight temptations alone. We can try to “white knuckle” through our sins. But the answer to fighting sin is to worship God. We must stop worshiping our lusts and desires. We need to honor God as God and we need to give thanks to God. Sin, particularly sexual sins as Paul identifies, is the outworking of our rejection of God and our failure to honor him and give thanks to him in our lives. God is good medicine for many of our disorders and addictions. We need to honestly consider if God is no longer center because sinfulness quickly comes when God is not worshiped in our lives.
Another observation needs to be made from this section. I don’t know if there is not a clearer way for God to condemn hom*osexual behavior and activity. Please notice that all hom*osexual activity is condemned, not just certain kinds. Many try to read into this text that this condemnation is only against promiscuous hom*osexual activity. But that is simply not what the text says. The basis of the condemnation should help us see this to be the case. Paul says that all hom*osexual activity is contrary to the created order.
hom*osexual activity is called dishonorable passions. Further, such activity is called “contrary to nature.” hom*osexual activity is the exchanging of what is natural relations to what is not natural. Verse 27 is quite clear. Men gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men left what is natural and ordained by God to follow their own passions. hom*osexual activity is the committing of shameless acts, according to Paul. Therefore, they are deserving of judgment for their error.
We should not assume that all Christians understand that hom*osexual activity of all kinds is squarely condemned by God as following shameless passions, exchanging natural relations for unnatural, and deserving of receiving a penalty for their error. A couple years ago the Episcopalian Church not only accepted as members those who practice hom*osexuality, but have also allowed them to be preachers and leaders in their denomination. Last month another denomination followed suit. The Lutheran Church, more specifically the ELCA, has done the same, not only accepting as members those who practice hom*osexuality, but also allowing them to be preachers and leaders. This is not going to stop here. More and more people who claim to follow Jesus are going to follow suit. We must be warned and understand that hom*osexuality is becoming socially acceptable. We cannot leave the truth of the scriptures to be accepted by society. God says it is wrong and we must help people see that they need to worship God as the center of their lives and not their passions and lusts.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (ESV)
Verse 28 has a word play that is lost in English translation that I will reconstruct here. “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to an unfit mind.” This is the third time that Paul points out that God gives people over to their sinfulness. God will not make you serve him. If you cannot see that it is right and fit to worship God, then you will left in your unrighteous, unfit mind.
Look at the wickedness that mounts when we fail to honor God and give thanks to him! An unfit mind becomes the source of inappropriate deeds. Paul’s view of sin continues to interesting. Paul does not describe sin as the breaking of arbitrary divine rules. Rather, sin is pictured as committing deeds that are unfit for humans to perform. People who are not honoring God are people who will be overflowing with wickedness. There is not a middle ground according to Paul. Either we honor, worship, and thank God or this will be the result far down the road.
Verse 31 is unique because the four sins are an alliteration and rhyme in Greek. The Greek reads, asynetous, asynthetous, astorgous, and aneleemonas (practice speaking these Greek words with Accordance). The HCSB does a good job with the alliteration part: “undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.” The NIV does a good job with the rhyming part: “senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.”
Verse 32 then caps off the problem. People know that these things are wrong. They are fully aware of God’s decree. It is not like we do not know that these things were wrong. No one says that they had no idea murder was wrong. God’s decree is that those who practice such things deserve death. Let there be no mistake — we are out of fellowship with God, separated from God, and deserving the severest judgment for doing these things.
There is one more problem: these people not only practice these things, which is bad enough, but applaud others for doing what they are doing. It is not enough to plunge their own lives into ruin, but they are going to try to get you to participate with them. Why? So that they will feel better about themselves. Sin does not seem so condemning when we can convince others to do the same thing with us. People are going to try to take you down the wrong road. You will find plenty of friends applauding your wicked lifestyle. But just know that God has given you up to your depraved, unfit mind. You are foolish, not wise, in your decision.
Conclusion:
1. God will let you go your own way.
2. God must be the center of our lives.
3. Our vices, disorders, and sinfulness are the result of not honoring or thanking God.
God’s Righteous Judgment
Romans 2:1-16
Brent Kercheville
One of the problems we can easily slip into is a feeling of self-righteousness. We look out at the sinful world and see the grievous sins that are committed and we begin to think of ourselves as better than them. It is not an intentional thought, but just a reality. “We do not sin like those people.” “At least we are trying to serve God.” “But they do not seem to care about God at all.” It is these attitudes that seems to be Paul’s concern as he moves into chapter 2. Paul has condemned all people as being without excuse in chapter 1 for being filled with all manner of unrighteousness and being given over to a debased, unfit mind. Paul directs his attention toward the self-righteous, those who condemn the sinner, and those who think they are living acceptably.
Verses 1-3
1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? (ESV)
Paul begins by saying that we ought to know that by passing judgment on other people, we are passing judgment on ourselves. When we look at the sins on chapter 1 and point the finger to all of those terrible sinners who are violating God’s law, we must see that there are fingers pointing back at us. The reason that the fingers point back at us is because we have done the same things. We know the things listed in Romans 1:28-32 are sinful and we know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die. But we did them anyway. Read the list in Romans 1:28-32 and tell me if you can honestly say that you have never done any of these things that are deserving of death. Slander? Deceit? Strife? Gossip? Envy? Boastful? Greed? Arrogant? What we see is that God’s wrath has been revealed against all unrighteousness and godliness, and that includes us, not just the lost world. God’s wrath is not only against the depraved, debased mind that rejects God. But God’s wrath is also against us. While judging others, we must realize in great humility that we are under the same condemnation. The particular context includes Israel condemning the Gentiles, the Pharisees and scribes condemning Israel, and the moral Gentile philosopher condemning society.
God’s judgment is in accordance with truth. This is the essence of the righteousness of God. God is faithful. God is just. God is right. Thus, verse 2, “We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.” God’s judgment is right. We cannot think that we are in any better position when we practice the very things that we condemn others for practicing. We will not escape the judgment of God when we do what we judge others for doing. God is not going to show favoritism toward us. We cannot think that it is not okay for the world to practice such sins but okay for us because we are “the people of God” or “Christians.” When we talk about the sins of the world, we are quickly on the soapbox, condemning them for their gross violations. However, when we think of ourselves, we do not condemn ourselves, but excuse ourselves thinking that we are “just human.” “We can’t help it.” “I’m only human.” But, this is false thinking. We cannot think that these acts are not okay for the world to practice, but okay for us to practice. We are not in a superior position when it comes to judgment, which is where Paul now goes in verses 4-6.
Verses 4-5
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (ESV)
Look at how God has dealt with the world. God has shown the riches of his kindness, tolerance, restraint, longsuffering, and patience. The wealth of God’s kindness has been with a purpose. God’s kindness is not to be understood as a license to sin. God’s kindness is to be seen as the opportunity to lead us to repentance. The wrath of God has been revealed against all ungodliness. But rather than simply barbecue us for our insolence, God pours out the riches of his kindness. God’s justice should land on us immediately. But God is not only just, but is also kind, tolerant, showing restraint, and patient. This overflow of kindness is supposed to be leading us to repentance. God’s kindness is not a statement that God is not angry. God’s kindness does not suggest that justice will not come. But God is continuing to push back our deserved judgment. God does this to lead us to repentance. God does not want us to perish (2 Peter 3:9).
But rather than repent, we have taken God’s kindness as a license for sin. Our stubborn hearts are storing up wrath for the day of judgment. I think we see that Paul is directing this charge at Israel. Israel is not in superior position when it comes to judgment. Paul spoke the same words about the nation of Israel to the Thessalonians.
14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last! (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16; ESV)
God’s response has been kindness. But the people are storing up wrath for themselves because they are not using God’s kindness to repent, but to practice the very sins that they condemn others of committing. The righteousness of God demands God’s righteous judgment.
Verses 6-11
6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. (ESV)
On that day, God will render to each of us according to our works. First, we must notice that the criteria is the same for both groups. Notice that twice in this section Paul says, “the Jew first and also the Greek.” There is not a different set of measurements for the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews do not have an advantage. Both groups will be judged the same way.
So what is the standard by which every person’s works will be judged? There are two contrasts used to describe the terms of judgment. The first contrast is in verses 7-8. The first criteria concerns what we are seeking. Are we seeking the glory, honor, and immortality that comes from God or are we self-seeking? What is your life pursuit? What are you looking for in life? Are we seeking what is best for us or seeking the things the come from God? The second contrast is seen in verses 7-8 and also verses 9-10. Are we practicing good or practicing evil? What are our lives full of? What is the foundation of your life? What are you seeking?
Seeking is not a passive action. The scriptures are full of admonitions to make every effort, strive, seek, fight the good fight, press on to the goal, work out your salvation, and the like. There are no scriptures telling us to coast to eternal life. There are no passages instructing us to float our way to heaven. There is no floating, coasting, resting, sitting, or relaxing our way to eternal life. Eternal life is given to those who seek.
12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (ESV)
Verses 12-16 explain further what is involved in verses 7-11. God will judge Jews and Gentiles alike justly. Verse 12 sounds fairly complicated, but it really is straightforward. God is impartial. Those that sin, either with the law of Moses or without the law of Moses, will perish. God will not use the Jewish law to condemn Gentile sinners. Gentiles did not have the law of Moses and will not be judged by the law of Moses. Jews did have the law of Moses and will be judged by the law of Moses. It is a logical point that is the foundation for the following point made in verses 13-16.
Hearers of the law are not the ones who are righteous before God. Only the doers of the law are the ones righteous before God (Paul will discuss justification more fully in chapter 3 and we will examine it there). As an aside, this is exactly what James taught in James 2. As much as there is attempted by some to make a conflict between Paul and James, it simply is not there. They are in harmony. Paul has a more specific point toward the nation of Israel in contrast to the Gentiles. The Jews heard the law every Sabbath in the synagogues. But the regular hearing of the law is not enough to be righteous before God. Nor is hearing the law the reason God gave the law of Moses. The law of Moses was not given to simply be heard, but to be done. In the same way, you are not supposed to attend worship services just to hear the word of God proclaimed, but to do what is proclaimed from the word of God. God does not want you to listen, but not do. That is what Israel had done. They heard the law proclaimed every Sabbath, but they did not act upon it. They did not allow their lives to be changed from the reading of the law. Or put another way: possession of the law of Moses is not what counts, but doing the law of Moses. Possession of the law of Moses was not to be a badge of favored status. But that is exactly how the Jews perceived the law. Jewish writings show they thought they would avoid judgment because of the Mosaic covenant and because they possessed the law of Moses. Paul is showing us that having the law is not what makes one righteous. Notice verses 14-16.
Verses 14-16 reveal an example of doers of the law who were not hearers of it. This is the twist that Paul is presenting. The Gentiles were not hearers of the law of Moses. But they are doers of God’s law. The Jews are hearers but are not doers. Let’s break down verse 14 to be more clear.
“Gentiles, who do not have the law by nature…” I am taking the comma away from being between the words “law” and “by” and moving it to after the word “nature.” It is acceptable to do in the Greek and in the English and makes far more sense of this text. Paul cannot be saying that the Gentiles are doing the law by nature. By nature we are children of wrath. By nature we are sinners. Rather, Gentiles were not born with the law of Moses. The law of Moses was not in their environment and not part of their lives. They did not have the law of Moses nor heard the law of Moses. But they are doing the things that God’s law requires. They are doers, but not hearers. Being a hearer does not make one righteous, but being a doer (see verse 13). The Gentiles show that the work of the law was on their hearts. What does that mean? It means they were seeking after God, even though they were not given the law of Moses. They are doing what verses 6-10 demand. They were seeking the glory, honor, and immortality of God (which is what Paul says the Gentiles were supposed to do in Romans 1:18-21). Their seeking of the things of God shows that God’s law was on their hearts. God’s law was their desire.
Now, I don’t want to go too far beyond what Paul wrote. Paul does not specifically explain how the Gentiles had a law and there has been much written about it. I want to make sure we do not miss Paul’s point in all of our curiosity. Paul’s point is that the Gentiles did not have the law of Moses. They were not possessors of the law. But they were doers of the law because they were seeking after God. The Gentiles had law, not the law of Moses, and showed themselves to be doers of that law. The Jews had the law of Moses and heard the law. But they were not doers of the law because they were not seeking after God, but were self-seeking. This is the point.
Allow me a moment of latitude, but this description of the Gentiles seeking after God with their hearts is exactly what Jeremiah prophesied would need to be done to be part of the new covenant.
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34; ESV)
Wasn’t Jeremiah prophesying what Paul said had now occurred. People would not be in a relationship with God be being possessors of the law, but the law would be written in their hearts and they would know the Lord. They would be seeking after God and doing God’s will. The Gentiles are showing themselves doers of the law and the Jews are only showing themselves to be hearers of the law. While we are out of time for this lesson, I think the proof of this point is found in Romans 2:26-29. This is where Paul is leading the point and we will discuss that in the next lesson.
Honoring God
Romans 2:17-29
Brent Kercheville
God will repay us according to our works and God shows no partiality in that repayment. Those who seek the glory and honor of God will receive eternal life. Those who are self-seeking will receive wrath and fury. It does not matter who you are or where you come from, these are the facts. To sum up this point, the apostle Paul taught that those who are doers of the law will be justified, not hearers of the law (2:13). The Gentiles were not hearers of the law of Moses, but they were doers of the laws of God, seeking after God. They have shown that the laws of God are written on their hearts, meaning that they are desiring God, loving God, and are seeking to God’s will. The Gentiles did not have the law of Moses by nature, but they are seeking after God. The Jews did have the law of Moses by nature, but they were not keeping the law and were not zealous for God.
This leads into the main point that Paul wants his audience to see. We need lives that are honoring God. Too often we lead hypocritical lives. This is the charge that Paul is bringing against the nation of Israel in this text. Are our lives honoring God? Or do our actions dishonor God? Let’s look at how presents this problem and gives the solution.
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:17-24; ESV)
Dishonoring God through Hypocrisy (Romans 2:17-24)
Paul begins by describing the special advantages that the Jews through the nation of Israel had from God. This is not a sarcastic statement, but a listing of the advantages Israel possessed. This is a long sentence listing where Israel had advantages, the things that Israel should have been. The people claimed to be Jews, but were they true to it?
Rely on the law and boast in God. Paul is not saying that the people were boasting in their own good works. That is not the idea. The point is that the Jews found security and comfort in possession of the law of Moses. Israel is not boasting in some sort of self-earned salvation, as many have charged. Rather, they boasted in God because the Creator of the world is Israel’s God. They were able to celebrate in God because God had chosen them by giving them the law of Moses and entering into a relationship with them. There is security and comfort in the knowledge that God had selected Israel to be his people.
And know his will and approve what is excellent. This advantage extends into knowing the will of God. They were instructed from the law of Moses so that they could know what was God’s will for them. What a blessing to have the written word from God to refer to, listen to, and know! Israel was able to discern what was right and approve what was good because they had the law as the basis to determine those things.
A guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, and instructor of the foolish…. This is exactly what Israel was to be to the world. Israel was supposed to be a guide to the blind, a light in the world of darkness, and an instructor of the foolish.
“I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. (Isaiah 42:6-7; ESV)
he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6; ESV)
Because Israel had the law of Moses and knew the ways of God, they were supposed to teach the Gentiles. They were to be a guide to those outside of the covenant. But now the apostle Paul puts his finger on the problem: Israel was not these things. Israel was not a light to the nations. Israel was not a guide to the blind. Israel was not the instructor of the foolish that God wanted them to be. The people who were to be the light of the world have become part of the problem. Israel, rather than healing the sick, is now sick. Israel had failed in its mission to bring worldwide honor to God. So what had happened? Look at Romans 2:21-24.
Israel was not keeping the law themselves. As Paul was pointing out earlier in this chapter, Israel had heard the law but was not a doer of the law. Israel needed to teach itself because it was not keeping the ordinances of the law of Moses. The problem was that Israel was hypocritical. Instead of being a guide to the blind, they were blind themselves. Instead of teaching the world, they needed to be taught by God. Israel has failed in what God intended for them to do. Noticing verse 23, Israel was dishonoring God by breaking the law of Moses. Rather than honoring God in their lives and in their teachings, they were dishonoring God. Because they were breaking the law, the name of God was being blasphemed by the Gentiles BECAUSE of the nation of Israel. Israel has been an utter failure. Israel has misused the blessings given to it. Israel has failed in bringing God worldwide honor.
Before we move forward in the text, we need to consider if these statements are true about us. We also have an advantage because we have God’s word in our hands. We know what we are supposed to do to be pleasing to God. We are also to be a light to the world, a guide to the blind, and an instructor of the people. Jesus, in wrapping up the beatitudes in Matthew 5, said, “You are the light of the world.” But are our lives bringing honor to God? Or do our actions dishonor God on a regular basis? What do our lives look like to the world and are we winning people to Jesus because of how we act? Or are we hypocritical failures just like Israel? I think we can agree that Christianity in general has been blasphemed by the world because of foolish, wicked actions by many claiming to be Christians over the past 2000 years. Are our lives honoring God to our neighbors and co-workers? Being a light to the world is not saying you are a Christian and showing up on Sunday morning. People must see your life as a reflection of the light of Jesus. Israel dishonored God to the world through their hypocritical lives. Do God a favor: worship God properly or don’t bother, because this half-hearted service is doing you no good and is dishonoring God to the world.
25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Romans 2:25-29; ESV)
A Matter of the Heart (Romans 2:25-29)
Possession of the law is like circumcision. Both the law and circumcision are elements that made the Jews distinct from the nations. But neither of these aspects that set the Jews apart as being in a special relationship with God are of any value if the law of God is not kept. Possession of the law does not spare one from God’s wrath. Circumcision also does not spare one from God’s wrath.
One becomes like an uncircumcised Gentile in breaking the law of Moses. This means that you are not a member of God’s people and not in a special relationship with God. When the Jews did not obey God’s law, they were no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. In verse 26 Paul points out that the Gentiles are becoming the people of God by keeping God’s law. Though uncircumcised (out of a relationship with God and not God’s people), they are coming into a relationship with God and are part of God’s people by keeping God’s law. Those who do not keep God’s law are excluded.
Further, the Gentiles condemn those who are circumcised. Why? Paul already drew upon that point earlier. The Gentiles condemn those who are Jews because the Jews had the law and were hearers of the law, but did not obey it. The Gentiles did not have the law of Moses but they are obeying God. Thus, the Gentiles are condemning the Jews. The Jews had the advantages but have not done what the Gentiles have done, that is, seek after and obey God.
Verse 28 contains some serious and contemplative words for Israel. You are not a Jew outwardly. Nothing about being the people of God is outward. A person is not a Jew by being circumcised or by being possessors of the law of Moses through being born of Jewish parents. These must have been startling words to the Jews who heard the apostle Paul, a former Pharisee and Jew himself. The name “Jew” and the attribute of circumcision belong to the people whose hearts are cut for God, not whose bodies are cut for God. Those who carry the covenantal marks of circumcision on their hearts are the people of God, not those who carry the covenant marks of circumcision on their body. Ezekiel prophesied that this is what God’s people would look like:
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. (Ezekiel 36:26-27; NLT)
A Jew is someone whose heart is right with God. The outward marks does not put one into a covenant relationship with God. Further, circumcision is the change of heart that is produced, not the cutting of the body. The person with the changed heart is the one who seeks the praise from God, not from people. Paul concludes this chapter with a word play. The name “Jew” comes from the name of the nation, Judah. “Judah” means “praise.” Now see the word play: the Jew receives praise from God, not people.
Conclusion:
1. Be a Jew. Circumcise the heart to be in a relationship with God. The cut, changed heart is the mark of being God’s child.
2. Be a light. Do not dishonor God in your actions. The cut, changed heart will lead to a changed lifestyle that honors and glorifies God. People should see our lives glorifying God and be brought to honor God also.
God Is Faithful To You
Romans 3:1-18
Brent Kercheville
The second chapter of Romans has laid out God’s requirements. Be doers of the law and not hearers only. Just because you have the law of God does not mean that this is enough to be justified. God will justify those who are seeking the glory and honor of God (Romans 2:7), who are practicing God’s law (Romans 2:13), and those who are cut in the heart, whose desire is God (Romans 2:29). Also, Paul has taught that being a physical Jew does not justify. Keeping the law of God is what is important to God. Just because the Jews possessed the law, were children of Abraham, and were circumcised did not mean that they would be pronounced innocent. This is the line of thinking that leads into Paul’s writing in chapter 3.
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. (Romans 3:1-2 ESV)
The question is a natural question. What is the advantage of being Jew? What was the point? If God is impartial and judges justly, then why did God even bother having a special people? Why did God have an Israel? What was the advantage of being a Jew? Have you ever wondered this? Why did God have a nation like Israel to be his special people? Why did God have such a plan? Paul is going to explain why in more detail in chapter 9. But Paul gives one advantage here.
Paul says that the Jews had a tremendous advantage. They were entrusted with the oracles of God. The advantage is that they were given something that the rest of the world did not have: the very words of God. What a blessing! But Paul has already made this point in chapter 2 about the Jews possessing the law of Moses. Paul is speaking about a greater advantage.
To entrust is to assign a person a particular responsibility. The thing that has been given to you isn’t actually for you; it’s for the person to whom you are supposed to deliver it. This is the idea behind what Paul is writing. The advantage is that the Jews were entrusted with God’s messages for the world, not just for themselves. Remember that chapter 2 has condemned them for not being lights in the world and guides to the blind. They were entrusted with the divine message that was to be delivered to the world. One can see why Paul calls God’s messages “the oracles of God.” This is how the pagans worshiped their gods. One went and was entrusted with the oracle from the god and the messenger told the people what the oracle was. The Jews were given the oracles of God which they were to use to teach the world in righteousness. The words of God also taught them about God’s salvation. They had the promises of God that he would save Israel through the Messiah. But rather than teach the world, they kept God’s message to themselves. They did not deliver the message. It is this thinking that leads into verse 3.
But before we can go to verse 3, I would like for us to consider that we have similar advantages from God today. I don’t know that we appreciate the blessing we have of possessing the written word of God. It really is something that we take for granted. We have paperback Bibles, hardcover Bibles, fake leather Bibles, and expensive leather Bibles. You can own a Bible for $1 to $250. We have all sorts of translations to aid understanding. We have literal translations and easy to read translations. We can compare translations in our studies to learn God’s will. We have multiple Bibles, perhaps some we have never opened or hardly use. We have the word of God and we are to be lights in the world. We have the advantage of knowing God’s salvation plan. God has revealed it to us through his word. This is a great advantage and we live in a great time in history to experience this advantage. When we see that these are the very words of God, why would we not want to have all kinds of bibles for various uses, from one that rides around in the car for our appointments, to a reading bible, to a study bible, a bible for work, and a bible for the kids. But are we sitting on God’s message or are we teaching people? It is interesting that we are in a world of personal religion and spirituality. You can believe what you want but you can’t tell others about it. Christians can easily fall into this thinking. But we have been entrusted with God’s message, not to keep for ourselves, but to share with the world. We must fulfill our mission. The mail carrier has an important role in delivering the mail. They cannot keep it for themselves because it was not intended for them. God’s word works the same way.
3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” 5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just. (Romans 3:3-8 ESV)
Romans 3:3-4
Based on Paul’s charges in chapter 2, the next question is about the unfaithfulness of the nation of Israel. Israel was to be a guide to the blind but they were not. Israel was to be the light to the nations but were not. Israel was to be a teacher of righteousness but they needed to be taught themselves. Israel, rather than the mechanism to heal the nations, needs healing. Rather than bringing people to God, Israel has shown themselves to be in need of a physician. Since Israel broke the covenant and was unfaithful, will this nullify God’s faithfulness to the covenant? What will God do now?
This is an important question and would be a natural question. If the covenant has been broken because Israel violated it, then is God going to be faithful to the covenant or not. What would be our expectation of God’s answer to this question? I think the natural answer would be that we broke the covenant, so God does not have to keep his end of the covenant. But that is not the answer. Even though Israel has been unfaithful, God is still faithful. God still keeps his word. God is righteous and God is just. I love Paul’s answer: BY NO MEANS! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Let the world be full of liars but God will remain true and keep his word! Israel’s unfaithfulness does not nullify God’s faithfulness. By the way, verse 3 is another instance where the NIV makes a mistake in its translation. This is not about personal faith, but the nation’s faithfulness to the commission given by God. Though faithless, will God still save Israel? The answer is yes. God keeps his word and he is faithful to his promise.
Before we continue forward I would like for us to allow this concept to sink into our hearts. We are in a covenant with God through Jesus. We are violators of this glorious covenant. As we studied last week, we are faced with the problem of honoring God. We are to be lights to the world, guides to the blind, and teachers to the nations. But our actions do not always honor and glorify God but cause dishonor. We still sin even though we have been brought into a covenant relationship with God. But do our actions cause God to no longer be faithful to the covenant.
We get all of these questions in our heads when we sin concerning God’s faithfulness. Will God still forgive me of my sins even though I have made some terrible mistakes? Yes, God keeps his covenant! Will God still love me even when I make mistakes? Yes, God is faithful. God is always faithful. We have great security in this. It does not matter what everyone else in the world does, God will keep his word. God keeps his promises. What a great God we serve! What a great source of confidence and encouragement we have. God is faithful even though we are unfaithful to the covenant. God’s love never stops! God’s faithfulness never stops! It does not matter what we have done, God will always, always, always take us back. This is the greatness of God’s righteousness. God is not relying on us. God is the one who is faithful and is the one who can save.
Romans 3:4 : To validate this thought, Paul quotes from Psalms 51 which is quite interesting. Psalms 51 is David’s prayer of repentance that was written after committing the sin of adultery. David is saying that there is no doubt about the rightness of God’s verdict. God’s words are always true, even if all human words prove false. It is interesting to see that Paul is referring to a historical instance of grave sin and God’s forgiveness. Further, the psalmist goes on to ask God to create in him a clean heart and a right spirit. David in his sin declares that God is right to judge. God is in the right and we are in the wrong. This quotation from Psalms 51 reminds us of our sinfulness, that God is right to judge us in wrath, but despite our sinfulness remains faithful to the covenant and offers forgiveness.
Romans 3:5-8 : I believe the point is this: just because God uses Israel’s unrighteousness to show his own faithfulness does not mean that they are exempt from judgment. Just because God used the unfaithfulness of Israel to reveal how truly faithful God is, that does not make God unfair or unjust when he still judges the people for their unfaithfulness. To judge the world fairly, God must judge everyone. God cannot only judge the Gentiles. He must also judge the Jews even though their unfaithfulness revealed God’s faithfulness. Further, just because Israel possessed the promises of nation’s deliverance does not exempt it from judgment. God must judge everyone.
This is a great thought against the doctrine of eternal security regardless of one’s actions. Just because we are the people of God who have come to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins does not negate that judgment must come to all people. God is not partial. Everyone must be judged. God cannot only judge the lost. He must also judge his own people. If we are not seeking the Lord and do not have a heart that has been transformed for the Lord, then we will experience God’s wrath.
In Romans 3:7-8 it seems that Paul is addressing another response that would have been raised against Paul. “If Israel’s falsehood means that God’s truthfulness shines out all the more brightly, why should God object?” Why should we be condemned as Gentile sinners, as stated in Romans 2:27? Paul will deal with this statement more fully in chapter 6. Paul just makes the simple remark: the condemnation is deserved upon those who think this way. Some were apparently saying that this message of grace was a message of how sin brought the good and faithfulness of God out. But this is warped, depraved thinking.
The Sinful Condition (Romans 3:9-20)
Paul comes back to the original question. While the Jews did have advantages because they were given the oracles of God, those advantages did not translate into having a superior moral position over Gentiles when it comes to salvation or judgment. Jews and Gentiles are under sin. No one is left out of this problem. More importantly, no one has a superior advantage when it comes to receiving the solution to this problem.
Paul then makes a number of quotations, mostly a string of quotations from the psalms. But this is not just an overly repetitive way to say the same thing. “We get it, Paul, no one is righteous.” There are two important observations to make from these quotations. First, these quotations from Jewish writers (David and Isaiah) about the people living in Israel. These are writings about other Jews. When these words were penned, they were not written about the Gentiles, but about the wickedness within their own nation. The Jews are just as sinful as the Gentiles, even though they possessed the law of Moses. Second, there is a movement in the message. The charges are going astray (Romans 3:12), wicked speech (Romans 3:13-14), and violent behavior (Romans 3:15-17). So Paul is not just saying that “no one is righteous” in a number of different ways. Rather, Paul is giving a comprehensive indictment that the Jews are not any better off than the Gentiles.
Conclusion:
1. There is no one righteous. No one is faithful. No one has kept their end of the covenant. We are all under the power of sin. We need to hear the truth that we are in sin and we are doomed.
2. God has no reason to have to keep his word with us. We have broken the covenant. We are under sin. God has no legal obligation to stay with us.
3. But our unfaithfulness does not nullify the faithfulness of God. God remains faithful! God will keep his word and will keep his covenant faithful toward us. Oh, the riches and grace of God.
God’s Righteousness Through Jesus’ Faithfulness
Romans 3:19-26
Brent Kercheville
In our last lesson we left off with the weight of our own condemnation and unfaithfulness. There is no one who is righteous. All have turned away. But this problem of our unfaithfulness has not given cause to God to be unfaithful toward his covenantal promises. God is going to remain faithful to his word, even if every person were a liar (Romans 3:4). Our sinfulness reveals God’s goodness, loving kindness, and mercy. It does not allow us to sin because God is faithful. Rather, we are to be moved to love God because of his devotion and love toward us. This devotion and faithfulness of God is completely undeserved by us because we have broken God’s covenant. Let’s pick up our study in Romans 3:19.
The Function of the Law of Moses (Romans 3:19-20)
Paul simply points out that the law of Moses did not bring salvation or justification, but a knowledge of sin. The Old Testament speaks and what it shows is that all people are guilty before God. The “stopped mouth” (ESV, NKJV) is a courtroom picture. By placing one’s hand over one’s mouth one was indicating that they had no more to say in one’s own defense. How could the whole world be liable to God’s judgment because of a law given to the Jews? The answer is that if the Jews, who had the privilege of being God’s covenantal and elect people, could not keep the law, then it follows that no one, including the Gentiles, can. No one can present a defense. The mouth of every person is shut when it comes to a defense. Both Jews and Gentiles are guilty.
Romans 3:20 is very important. Appealing to the law of Moses as a defense will not work because the law shows that Israel is guilty. The law shows that all our guilty. The Jews thought that possession of the law of Moses, circumcision, and keeping food laws and sabbaths would legitimize their covenantal status. The Jews appealed to these things to show that, though sinful, they should still be justified by God. Paul’s point is that the keeping of these things does not give the verdict of righteousness. All who attempt to prove their covenantal status by appealing to the possession of the Law would find that the Law itself accuses them of sin. The Law did not show that Jews were different from Gentiles. The Law revealed that the Jews were the same as the Gentiles. These covenantal marks (works of the law) were of no value because the Jews were not doers of the law, just like the rest of the world. I think we are able to grasp this problem. The more we try to keep the law, the more we realize that we are failures at keeping the law. But this was God’s plan. The law of Moses revealed the failings of the people and teaches the concept of sin. Paul gives a more detailed explanation of the purpose of the law of Moses in Galatians 3:19 to Galatians 4:7. The law acted as a babysitter, giving us the elementary regulations, until the fullness of time came (Galatians 3:22-24; Galatians 4:3-4). Paul makes a quicker point in Romans to say that the Law brings the knowledge of sin. The Law does not bring justification, nor was it intended to bring justification.
God’s Righteousness Revealed (Romans 3:21-26)
21 But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed—attested by the Law and the Prophets— 22 that is, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. (Romans 3:21-22 HCSB)
Therefore, it is not through the Law of Moses that God’s righteousness can be revealed. The Law of Moses reveals sin. There must be another way. Paul points out that the other way has been attested by the Law and the Prophets. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is an excellent attestation that God’s righteousness would not come through the covenant made when Israel came out of Egypt. Instead, God said through the prophet Jeremiah that he would make a new covenant with Israel, a covenant where God would forgive their sins. The Law of Moses, the first covenant, could not do this. The writer of Hebrews makes this point clear in Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10. A new covenant was required because the first covenant had a fault (Hebrews 8:7). It was our fault for not keeping it (Hebrews 8:8) and there was no provision for God to be able to forgive sins and remain righteous. This is the problem God has.
We need to carefully examine the answer given in verse 22. There are two ways to translate this passage. Most translations read as the ESV, “…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” Notice that the emphasis in on our faith in Jesus. There is another way to translate this passage, reflected by the KJV and NET.
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (KJV)
…namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction…. (NET)
Notice the difference: Most translations read that it is our faith in Jesus. But another way to understand the verse is that it is speaking about the faithfulness of Jesus. Many of the translations note this possible rendering in the margins. The HCSB marginal note reads, “through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.” The NRSV marginal note reads, “through the faith of Jesus.” The TNIV marginal note reads, “through the faithfulness of.” The point is that the text can be translated either way and understood either way. So which way should we understand the text?
I believe we should go with the second option, that is, that Paul is speaking about the faithfulness of Jesus. I will present to you two main reasons. (1) A theological advantage: In Romans 3:21 Paul is explaining that God’s righteousness has now been revealed. God’s righteousness has been revealed, not through the Law of Moses, but through the faithfulness of Jesus. God’s righteousness is not revealed in our personal faith in Jesus. Rather, God’s righteousness, that is, his faithfulness to the promise to Abraham, is revealed in the perfect life of Jesus. It is in the faithful living of Jesus that God’s righteousness has been unveiled to the world. (2) A grammar advantage: Read verse 22 carefully the way most translations have the verse. “…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe.” Do you notice that this is essentially redundant? “Through faith in Jesus” and “for all who believe” is talking about the same people doing the same thing. Having faith in Jesus is the same as saying, “for all who believe.” But notice that we have a clear picture from Paul if we understand the text the way the KJV, NET, and the margins of most translations read. God’s righteousness is revealed through the faithful living of Jesus and that righteousness of God is available for all who believe. Now we have made sense of this verse. God’s righteousness has been revealed through Jesus’ faithfulness and is available to every person who believes in Jesus. Go back to Romans 1:17 and notice that this fits exactly what we learned in that first chapter.
“For in it [the gospel] God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17; HCSB). There are two faiths that are in this equation. Remember what we learned from the message of Habakkuk: God is faithful, now you must be faithful. Paul simply expands this. God’s righteousness has been revealed through Jesus’ faithfulness and is available to all who have faith. God’s righteousness is available to all who have faith. That is, God’s righteousness is a shorthand for speaking about God’s faithfulness to keep the Abrahamic promises. God shows that he can still keep his promises through Jesus’ faithfulness and we have access to receive the fulfillment of those promises through faith in Jesus. Essentially, verse 26, “so that he would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.” God can do that because of Jesus’ faithfulness. But before we look at verse 26 we need to read the explanation found in Romans 3:23-25.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (HCSB)
There is no distinction. The righteousness of God is for everyone who believes, Jews and Gentiles. In the same way, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, both Jews and Gentiles. Everyone has been condemned. Everyone has the opportunity to be recipients of God’s righteousness. Not only have we sinned, but we have come up far short of God’s expectations of us. We have fallen short of God’s glory. Instead of receiving God’s wrath, those who have faith in Jesus are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What does this mean?
1. When we read “justified,” we need to think of a courtroom where the judge renders the verdict of “not guilty.” God is the judge and he is declaring us righteous. It is an acquittal. God is not saying that we are righteous, for God has declared that there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). We are not morally righteous. Our character has not changed. There is nothing in the text that says that the judge or that Jesus has clothed us with his righteousness. There is nothing here about substitution or that Jesus took our place. It is a simple point. God is passing the sentence of “righteous” even though we are not righteous. God is declaring us acquitted even though we are guilty of the crime.
2. Thus, we are justified freely. Some translations read, “justified as a gift.” The point is that this declaration is not based on what we have done. Our actions should lead to the declaration of unrighteous and guilty. The pronouncement of “righteous” is not based on what we have done.
3. Rather, we are justified by God’s grace. God is being a merciful and gracious judge. It is out of God’s goodness that we are given the status of righteous. As we studied earlier in chapter 3, God is doing this despite our unfaithfulness.
4. We are justified through the redemption in Jesus. Redemption, in its simplest picture, is the idea of buying something back. Redemption is certainly a picture of purchasing a slave out of slavery and into freedom. But the picture ought to go deeper in our minds. Think about what redemption meant to Israel. Redemption is directly tied to Israel’s enslavement to the Egyptians and the Passover. It brings out a picture of deliverance. The blood of Jesus is the price paid to bring about our deliverance. A new exodus has occurred. God has been faithful to his word and is bringing his people out of the slavery to sin. This is redemption.
The question must be: how can God do this? How can God declare us righteous and acquitted even though we know and God knows that we are unrighteous and guilty of sin? How can the righteous judge make such an announcement about those who earlier were standing on trial guilty and without a defense? Verses 25-26 is the explanation of how God can do this.
25 God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 He presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26 HCSB)
This is a difficult verse because “propitiation” is not a word we use too often. Here are a couple other translations to assist our understanding.
…whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. (NRSV)
God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. (NET)
Let’s read the sentence in pieces and I think this will also help us along in our study. Beginning with the last clause in Romans 3:25 (looking at the HCSB), God previously passed over the sins committed in his restraint. God did not strike people down for their sins immediately after they were committed. How could God be merciful to the people who were committing sin after sin? How could God continue to be faithful toward them even though they were violators of the law? A just and righteous God must bring wrath against all ungodliness, as Paul stated in Romans 1:18. So God needed to demonstrate that he was in the right to continue to be merciful (the second clause of Romans 3:25). To show that God was right to do this, God put forward Jesus as a propitiation (a sacrifice of atonement). Jesus is declared to be the reason why God could exercise restraint toward the sins previously commitment. Jesus was going to pay the price to redeem us from our sins. Knowing that Jesus would be the sacrifice for sins allowed God to be merciful and gracious rather than execute wrath upon them in the past. The sacrifice of Jesus validates God’s kindness. So often propitiation is defined as appeasing God’s wrath. But carefully read verse 25 again. God is not having to appease his wrath. Such an idea is not found anywhere in this chapter. Further, I submit to you that God needing to appease his wrath is not found anywhere in all the scriptures. Rather, God is having to justify himself for being merciful. Through the faithfulness of Jesus, God could use Jesus as the way to show that he is right in being merciful. We access that mercy seat, that sacrifice of atonement, or that propitiation, through faith in his blood. This is what verse 26 expands upon.
God demonstrates his own righteousness through the sacrifice of Jesus, not only toward those who have sinned in the past, but also for us “at the present time.” Through the blood of the faithful Jesus God can remain righteous and just (that is, right in not executing wrath immediately but being faithful to the Abrahamic promises) while at the same time declare us righteous. Remember how we entered these verses with an important question: how can God declare us righteous and acquitted when we are unrighteous and guilty? The answer is the sacrifice of Jesus. God can declare us righteous because Jesus paid the price for sins (redemption) that sets us free. The people who are declared righteous through the blood of Jesus are those who have faith in Jesus. In summary, God has shown himself to be right to bear with our sins. Rather than executing wrath, God has been faithful and merciful because Jesus is the payment for our sins. God’s righteousness (the way he fulfilled his promises and keeps his word to deliver his people from sins) is revealed in the faithfulness of Jesus. Everyone who has faith in Jesus will be declared righteous (acquitted) in the law court of God. God can make that judgment of acquittal because of the blood of Jesus. Jesus’ death is the ransom price to free us from the sins we have committed. Jesus is the place where atonement is made.
A Life of Faith
Romans 3:27-31
Brent Kercheville
One of the difficulties with the section of scripture we are studying is that Paul says so little and means so much. We have already seen this in words and phrases like “works of the law,” “redemption,” and “propitiation.” In Romans 3:27-31 we notice that Paul uses short, quick remarks to amplify the conclusions he has drawn in this chapter. Paul has pointed out that the works of the law (possession of the law, circumcision, Sabbath keeping, clean and unclean food, etc) are not the marks that show a person to be in a covenant relationship with God. Rather, the marks of those in a covenant relationship with God are those who have faith in Jesus and live faithfully. God’s righteousness has been revealed in the faithful life of Jesus. Through the faithful life of Jesus, God keeps his promises to Israel and to the world. We access the blessings of a covenant relationship with God through faith/faithfulness in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:27-31 ESV)
We first need to ask, “who is boasting?” It is easy to think that Paul is talking about all people. But to think this is to ignore the context of the chapter. The chapter began asking if there was any advantage to being a Jew. The first twenty verses of chapter 3 reveal that Israel stands side by side with the Gentiles as guilty, being unfaithful to God. The law of Moses is not an advantage to Israel because Moses’ law simply gives us the knowledge of sin (vs. 20). The law of Moses does not justify. The contextual question is this: what becomes the boasting of the Jews (or of Israel)? The Gentiles are not boasting. It is the Jews who are boasting in the works of the law. The Jews believed that possession of the law, circumcision, sabbath keeping, and defilement laws gave them a reason to boast in their relationship with God. The Jews thought these things were marks that revealed they were in a covenant relationship with God and therefore were justified in the sight of God. This boasting is reflecting in their writings which we still have today. Israel had a tradition that said that God offered the Torah (the Law) to all nations, and all, except Israel, refused (see Schreiner; Baker Exegetical Commentary). They were wrong. What becomes of the boasting of the Jews? It is excluded. There is no special status or advantage for physical Israel.
The next question is: By what law are we declared righteous and part of God’s covenant? We are not justified by the works of the law. I think the apostle Paul has been very clear on this up to this point. This has been the key of chapter 3. A person is not justified before God based upon possession of the law of Moses, circumcision, Sabbath keeping, defilement laws, or anything else that distinguished the Jews from the Gentiles. We are not in a covenant relationship with God by the works of the law, or, to draw the parallel that Paul is attempting to draw, the law of works. The works of the law and the law of works are synonymous terms.
Now the answer Paul gives ought to be fascinating in light of how Romans is traditionally interpreted. Paul’s answer is that the kind of law that we shows to be in a covenant relationship with God is not the law of works (works of the law), but the law of faith. This verse should blow a gaping hole into the idea that Paul is teaching that justification comes through no law keeping whatsoever, but just faith only. Paul is not saying that there is no law at all. Paul is simply saying that which shows us to be in a covenant relationship with God is not the law of works but the law of faith. Faith is the thing that sets people apart for God. Faith is the thing that shows us to be in a covenant relationship with God. Faith is the mark of the covenant and shows one to be in God’s family. Faithful living is the extension of faith. One does not have faith without faithful living. The two cannot be separated from one another. There is still law. Paul will give more explanation about this in Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:13. Israel has nothing to boast in because faithfulness is the mark of the covenant. This point reaches back to Romans 2:29, “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.” The point reaches back to Romans 2:13, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” God is looking for faithfulness. This leads us to verse 28 of chapter 3.
Romans 3:28. Notice the first word is “for” in the verse, so Paul is connecting us back to the point of verse 27. This verse is an explanation of what we have just examined. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” This is the point we just made in verse 27 so we know that we have drawn an accurate conclusion because verse 28 fits. People are declared righteous (given the status of “justified”) by faith in Jesus, not by the external Jewish marks (the works of the law). Faith is what marks out God’s covenant people. Faith is the thing that enables all people to stand together on the same, flat ground.
Romans 3:29. Verse 29 reveals that we have come to the appropriate interpretation and that the traditional interpretation completely misses. Notice that Paul says, “Is God the God of the Jews only?” This question shows us we are on the right track. If Paul’s point has been that there is no law, we can’t observe the law, and obedience is completely discarded, then what does this question about God being of the Jews only have to do with anything? It is entirely out of place and does not follow the logical progression of the text. However, our explanation makes perfect sense of the verse and of the point that Paul has been making through chapter 3. If justification (being declared righteous) is only through the works of the law (possessing the law, circumcision, sabbath keeping, defilement laws), then God is only a God for the Jews. That is, only the Jews can be given the status of righteous and be in a covenant relationship with God. If those are the things that makes people “the people of God,” then only Jews can be the people of God because the Gentiles do not possess the law of Moses, practice circumcision, keep the Sabbath, etc.
God is not only a God of the Jews but also of the Gentiles. One simply needs to remember the covenantal promise made to Abraham: “In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” It would not be through Abraham’s seed that Israel would be blessed. The whole world is going to be blessed through this promise. God’s righteousness is not for the Jews only but also the Gentiles. If justification were through “the works of the law,” God would show himself to be a God only of the Jews. Then God would be partial and show favoritism. God can only fulfill his promise to Abraham with the creation of a worldwide, Jew and Gentile, family.
Verse 30. “Since God is one” continues the apostle’s point. It seems to be a reference to the daily prayer of the Jews, which came from Deuteronomy 6:4. Since there is one God, there can only be one family that is the seed of Abraham that receives the blessing of being in a covenant relationship with God. There cannot be many families. God is not a God of the Jews only and there can only be one family. Therefore Jews and Gentiles must have access to this one family. One becomes part of the “one family” through faith. Faith is the mark of the covenant. God will justify the circumcised (Jews) and the uncircumcised (Gentiles) through faith. Both are justified on the same basis.
Lest we become confused and come away with the wrong idea about the first covenant (as many do), faith has always been the basis of justification. Faithfulness has always been the covenant mark.
12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. (Deuteronomy 10:12-16; ESV)
Faith (circumcision of the heart), not physical circumcision, is the decisive mark for entrance into the people of God.
Romans 3:31. So is the law of Moses overthrown? The NASB uses the word “nullify” and that is probably the best rendering to use here. Has the law of Moses been nullified, that is, rendered inoperative? The law of Moses was not worthless. The law of Moses was not a waste of time. The law of Moses was not useless. In Jesus, the law of Moses was been fulfilled. It accomplished its purpose. The law of Moses had a function and we (Jews) uphold and establish that function. The law brought us the knowledge of sin (3:19) and make us ready for the coming of Christ (Galatians 3:24). See how Paul fleshes out this same idea in Galatians:
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:21-29; ESV)
Notice that Paul’s point in Galatians in the same as in Romans. The law of Moses is not contrary to God’s promises at all. The law of Moses does not give life, otherwise we would be justified (declared righteous) by the law of Moses. But the law of Moses puts us imprison because it gives us the knowledge of sin, but offers no way to rectify our sins. The promises of God are not fulfilled in the Law of Moses, but by the faithfulness of Jesus and those who believe are recipients of God’s promises. Before the faithfulness of Jesus, we were imprisoned to sin, as we already mentioned. The law of Moses was a teacher and babysitter until Christ came to get us ready to be able to be justified by faith. Now the faithfulness of Jesus has come and we are no longer under the law of Moses. We are justified by faith, not by the law of Moses, nor by the works of the law (possession of the law, circumcision, Sabbath keeping, defilement laws, etc). Because the faithfulness of Jesus has come, we can be children of God through faith in Jesus marked by a life of faithfulness. That faith is initiated when we are baptized into Christ and are joined with Christ. So there is one family. All distinguishing marks have been removed. There is no Jew or Greek. There is no slave or free. There is no male or female because there is only one family is Jesus. When we are in Jesus, we are the offspring of Abraham, meaning we are the recipients of God’s righteousness promised to Abraham that he would declare people “righteous” or “justified.” Thus, we are heirs according to the promise given to Abraham!
Coming back to Romans 3:31, Paul is saying that we uphold the function of the law of Moses. It served its purpose and was very useful. To say that the law of Moses is useless, pointless, null, or void is impossible. The law served its purpose. However, the faithfulness of Jesus has come and we are declared righteous because he is the propitiation for sins and through faith in him, God grants us that status of righteous.
Applications:
1. Is our life characterized by faith? It is the mark that shows we are in a covenant relationship with God.
2. There are no other badges of membership in the family of God. Not even baptism alone is a badge. One can be baptized and still be out of the family of God because faith/faithfulness is not the component of their lives.
3. Paul is not at all talking about the removal of all moral codes or obedience. We are commanded to be faithful to God.
The Faith of Abraham
Romans 4:1-12
Brent Kercheville
1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (Romans 4:1-8; ESV)
The apostle Paul is going to bring the story of Abraham into the picture. Paul has not left the theme of Romans nor has he gone away from the emphatic points he has made in chapters 2 and 3. Paul wrapped up chapter 3 with some powerful and amazing points concerning justification. In chapter 3 we learned that we cannot be justified (declared not guilty, acquitted, righteous) by the law of Moses. The law of Moses had a purpose, but its purpose was not to justify but to show us sin (Romans 3:20). Paul will explore this point further in chapter 7. Further, the works of the law (possession of the law of Moses, circumcision, Sabbath keeping, defilement laws, all the things that made Israel distinct from the Gentiles) also cannot justified. If the works of the law was the means for justification, then God would be a God of the Jews only (Romans 3:29). But the promise was to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed, not just one nation. So Paul has not overthrown the law, but upheld the law. Rather than think that we are justified by works of the law, Paul teaches that we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24). The faithfulness of Jesus and his life offered as a sacrifice for sins paid the price to redeem us from slavery to sin. Therefore, God can still be righteous and just in showing mercy and grace and declare righteous those who have faith in Jesus. This is where we are as enter the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
I believe the NKJV punctuates verse 1 properly: “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?” Most translations make the statement read that Abraham was the father of the Jewish nation according to the flesh. However, this is a statement of the obvious and is stated unnecessarily. However, the NKJV correctly reveals the road where Paul is going. What did our father Abraham gain according to the flesh? Or what did our father Abraham find according to the flesh? Notice that the phrase “according to the flesh” is to be paralleled with “justified by works” in verse 2. Paul is setting up his next point by using Abraham as a key witness. We know that “according to the flesh” is speaking about the works of the law (and circumcision more exactly) because once Paul deals with the example of Abraham, Paul speaks in great detail about circumcision in verses 9-12. To simplify, Paul is asking if Abraham gained anything or found justification through the flesh.
Romans 4:2 continues that if Abraham had gained something through the flesh, or the works of the law, then he would have had something to boast about, but of course not before God. Bringing Romans 4:2 into the picture, Paul is asking his audience to consider how Abraham found justification. What was the basis upon which Abraham was declared righteous before God? Romans 4:3 contains the quotation to prove his point that Abraham was not declared righteous by the flesh or by the works of the law. Abraham has justified by faith. Turn to Genesis 15:1-6 to read the story about Abraham. God tells Abram (before his name is changed by God to Abraham) that God is his shield and Abram’s reward will be very great. Abram responds that he has no children and one of his servants will be heir of his inheritance if that situation does not change. God tells Abram that he is going to have his very own son. God goes further to tell Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars. The scripture says in Romans 4:6, from where Paul quotes, “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
Consider Romans 4:5. “And to the one who does not work” cannot mean that there is absolutely nothing a person can do for God or toward God. If that is what Paul means, then he contradicts himself in this very verse because he is demanding people to put their faith in God to be justified. Paul is telling them to do something. Paul has previously told us that the heart needs to circumcised (Romans 2:29) and that keeping the precepts of God’s law marks us as God’s people (Romans 2:26). Paul is not giving license to break God’s law or to be disobedient. Such an interpretation is completely outside of the context of Paul’s writing. Paul is answering the natural question: Who is part of God’s family? Who receives the pronouncement of justified? Not the one working, but the one believing. Relying on my works or relying upon the works of the law is not the answer for justification. The one who is believing like Abraham believed is the one who is justified.
I really like Romans 4:5, especially because of the statement about God, “who justifies the ungodly.” We are not righteous. We are ungodly! But God is justifying the ungodly. God can justify the ungodly through the faithful life and sacrifice of Jesus (Romans 3:25). The blood of Jesus does not magically cause us to be morally righteous people. Nor has the righteousness of Jesus transferred to us. We are still ungodly. Paul is telling us that God is crediting it to us as righteousness, that is, declaring us justified/acquitted, through faith in Jesus. We are not righteous, but God is declaring us righteous through the blood of Jesus. This all goes back to God and what he has done for us. It is not us earning our wages. This is God’s gift to us. This is the best present that you can have: rather than being condemned for our sins, as we rightly deserve in our ungodliness, God has declared us righteous, justified, not guilty, and acquitted. We did not deserve that. There is no amount of working that gets us out of our ungodly condition. It is the working of God, as Paul wrote to the Colossians in Colossians 2:12. So there is no boasting. Abraham had nothing to boast about (Romans 4:2) and we have nothing to boast about. The ungodly have been justified! What a gift!
Too often we think that we need to get our lives right first before coming to God. “I can’t come to God because my life is a mess.” This is why you need to come to God! You cannot get your life right without God. We are all ungodly. We are all in sin. We are all deserving of God’s wrath. You can’t fix your life first. You cannot earn your way into God’s favor. Now here is the twist to the story: God is already showing you favor and you don’t even know it! God should be executing wrath upon us for our sins because that is what is just. Rather, God is showing us favor and grace, hoping that we will see his love and come to Jesus. Come to Jesus first and he will change your life. Don’t try to change your life first. That is not going to work and you are not impressing God. God knows you need him. He wants you to recognize you need him and need his sacrifice for sins. Come to Jesus with your sins and he will make you white as snow. You cannot clean yourself up. You need the blood of Jesus to make you clean, set you on the right path, and guide you in the paths of right living.
This is exactly what David speaks about, as we move to verse 6. David speaks about the great blessing of the one that God credits as righteous. Look at the quotation: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. Blessed are those whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one who the Lord does not count sin against. This is what justification looks like: sins are not counted against us. We are acquitted rather than found guilty. We are given the status of righteous, rather than the status of condemned. We are found not guilty on the basis of Jesus’ faithfulness.
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:9-12 ESV)
Who Receives This Blessing?
Paul returns to the implied question answered in verse 5 by explicitly penning the question. “Is this blessing then only for the circumcised?” Notice that “works” continue to refer to doing external things that set Israel apart from the nations. Is the blessing of justification only to those who are circumcised (works of the law) or also to the uncircumcised? Paul now sets us his audience with a great flow of logic.
The scriptures say that faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Was Abraham credited this righteousness based on the works of the law? No. In fact, the promise was given to Abraham before he was circumcised. The promise was given in Genesis 15 but the seal of circumcision was not given until Genesis 17. Circumcision came after Abraham was credited as righteous. Here is the key: Abraham was uncircumcised when he was declared righteous by faith. Abraham was uncircumcised when he received circumcision as the seal of the righteousness. God could have told Abraham to be circumcised first and then give him the promise and then credit him as righteous. But circumcision is not the mechanism for justification. One is not declared righteous through circumcision. This is Paul’s subtle point.
Why didn’t God have Abraham circumcised before declaring him righteous? The reason, given in verse 11, is that Abraham was to be the father of all who believe without being circumcised. This was all part of God’s plan. God had a reason for Genesis 15 to come before Genesis 17. The point was to show that even the uncircumcised could be declared righteous by faith. The point was to show that one did not have to become circumcised to be Abraham’s offspring and recipients of the promise of justification. Circumcision is not what puts one in God’s family or shows one to be in God’s family. Faith and faithfulness show us to be in God’s family. Before we leave verse 11 notice one other point that shows we are on the right track. Paul calls the sign of circumcision “a seal of the righteousness he had by faith.” In Genesis 17:11 God calls circumcision the sign of the covenant. I want us to see that the righteousness that Paul is talking about is the fulfillment of the covenant made to Abraham.
Looking at Romans 4:12, this makes Abraham not only the father of the circumcised, but also the uncircumcised. Notice that Abraham is a father to the circumcised only is they “also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.” Notice the great reversal. Paul is instructing the Jews to become like the Gentiles! Jews had called the Gentiles to become Jews. Now the Jews need to be like Abraham was before he was circumcised. If they believe they can be part of the covenant promises. This is a call to walking in a life of faith.
Lessons:
1. God justifies the ungodly. We are the ungodly but God justifies in spite of our sins.
2. God grants us the status of righteous on the basis of faith in Jesus. Walking in the footsteps of faith is required to receive that acquittal sentence.
3. What a blessing to not have our sins counted against us!
4.
Bold Faith
Romans 4:13-22
Brent Kercheval
The apostle Paul has introduced the example of Abraham in chapter 4 of this letter to the Romans. Abraham and David are used as examples of justification by faith, rather than justification by works of the law. Abraham was justified by faith. Abraham trusted in God and God’s covenant promises and God declared Abraham righteous because of that faith. Similarly, David understood that we do not earn our justification because he said, “Blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin.” Verses 9-12 of Romans 4 drove the point home, noting that Abraham was declared righteous before circumcision, not after. Justification is not through the flesh but through the blood of Jesus, the righteousness of God, and our faith in him.
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. (Romans 4:13-15; ESV)
Verse 13 clarifies for us that the covenant promise given to Abraham in Genesis 15 (quoted by Paul in Romans 4:3) is the promise for the justification of the world. Notice that the promise to Abraham is not to own a little strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The promise is to inherit the world through the Messiah who will establish his kingdom and rule over the earth. The whole world is the “holy land” and all the creation is under the rule of Christ. Paul writes the Corinthians and explains that they are heirs of the world through Jesus because everything is his.
So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you — whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. (1 Corinthians 3:21-23 NLT)
This promise of the justification of the world did not come through the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses came after the promise. Paul expands upon that discussion in Galatians 3:17-18. The promise came first and the law came second. Paul is teaching his audience that based upon when God gave this promise, it ought to be clear that God would not fulfill the promise of justifying all people through the law because the promise was not given through the law. The Law of Moses does not contain this promise of justifying the world. So it cannot be through the Law of Moses that God fulfills the promise. The promise came to Abraham because of faith. Faith and faithfulness were the marks on Abraham’s life that God then declared him righteous. Therefore, God will fulfill his covenant promise of justifying the world to those who walk in the same footsteps of faith as Abraham (Romans 4:12).
There are two reasons why God cannot fulfill his promise of justification to the world through the Law of Moses. First, the Law of Moses brings wrath (Romans 4:15). Paul taught earlier in Romans that the purpose of the Law of Moses was to bring a knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20) not to pronounce people righteous. Paul also taught in a previously written letter (the letter to the Galatians) that the Law of Moses was to act as a guardian to bring us to revealing of Jesus’ faithfulness. The law shows us our sins and reveals that we deserve God’s wrath for our sins. The law does not save. Our failure to keep the stipulations of the law is what prevents those who rely upon the law from obtaining the promise. The law brings wrath because people fail to keep it.
The second reason Paul gives for why God cannot fulfill his promise of justification to the world through the Law of Moses is because doing so would restrict Abraham’s covenant promises to the Jews only. If the Law of Moses is the way people receive justification, then only the Jews receive the fulfillment because the Law of Moses was only given to Israel. Only Israel performed the works of the law (circumcision, Sabbaths, defilement laws) which showed them to be Israel. If that is how God would justify, then only the Jews could be saved. But the promise was that all the nations would be blessed and justification would come to the world.
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:16-17; ESV)
Paul continues to hammer the point about the universal availability of Abraham’s promise. The promise is guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring. But Paul clarifies who are Abraham’s offspring. It is not merely those who are “under the law” (NET) or “of the law” (NASB), that is, the Jews, but to those who share the faith of Abraham. So read the sentence again. The fulfillment of the promise to justify the world depends on faith. This way, it is all about the grace of God and not about us earning or deserving justification. Further, it depends on faith so that all of Abraham’s offspring, Jews and Gentiles, are able to access it by sharing the faith of father Abraham. Paul proves this point by quoting Genesis 17:5 where it says that Abraham is the father of many nations, not just the nation of Israel. Abraham is the father of all.
The rest of Romans 4:17 is an interesting declaration that needs some explanation. I do not believe that Paul is simply describing the power of God in general terms, that God gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist. We need to ask why Paul mentions this power of God at this moment. In verses 18-22 the apostle Paul is going to talk about the miracle birth of Isaac and Abraham’s dead body. I believe this is the first and most immediate picture. Abraham’s body was dead in the sense of being able to produce children. Abraham’s body could not bring life. But God has the power to bring life to the dead (make Abraham’s body able to have children) and call into existence things that do not exist (the miraculous birth of Isaac).
But there is more to the picture because Paul has been talking about how both groups, Jews and Gentiles, are able to be justified by faith. Consider that when Paul says that God brings life to the dead he is referring the Jews. They are dead by the law of Moses because the law of Moses brings wrath. The nation is dead after 586 BC when God leaves the temple and allows Israel to be taken into Babylonian slavery. The nation is dead and it seems that God’s promise to justify are lost. But God gives life to the dead nation. The covenant is restored and the nation is restored by sharing in the faith of Abraham. Paul also says that God calls into existence the things that do not exist. God is bringing into a covenant relationship people who had no covenant membership of any sort: the Gentiles.
Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12-13; ESV)
God has given life to the dead (the Jews) and called into a relationship people who did not formerly have a relationship (the Gentiles). Thus, Abraham is able to be the father of many nations, calling all people to him through faith.
18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:18-22 ESV)
I love the words of Romans 4:18. Abraham trusted in the specific promises of God. These were impossible promises. Abraham believed against all hope. Abraham believed against logic and reason that he would become the father of many nations, though he had no children and was too old to bear a child. Abraham shows us God centered and God honoring faith. Notice the three characteristics of Abraham’s faith.
(1) Abraham did not become weak in faith. Talking about hoping against hope. Abraham hears the words that he will be the father of many nations and through him the justification of the world is going to take place. Abraham considers his own body. He can’t have children. He is about 100 years old. His body cannot physically have children. Not only this, Abraham thought about Sarah. She is also too old to have children. This promise is simply impossible in physical terms. Did these impossibilities weaken Abraham’s faith? NO! Abraham trusted in the words of God.
(2) Abraham did not doubt (or distrust) because of unbelief. Abraham did not give up on these promises as time went forward. A great example of this is when Abraham is told to offer his only son Isaac on the altar. We do not read Abraham questioning God. We do not read about Abraham dragging his feet before obeying. We see a life of faithfulness because he did not doubt that God was going to keep his word. Somehow, some way, God was going to justify the world through him and he would be the father of many nations.
(3) Abraham not only did not exhibit a lack of trust in regards to this promise, but he grew strong in his faith. We see the strength of that faith again in the command to offer Isaac. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Abraham “considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19). Abraham’s faith grew stronger. Abraham moves in his faith from looking at himself and his inability to have children and believing that God would justify the world through his offspring to thinking that he could kill Isaac and God would raise him from the dead. Amazing, deep faith in God. This is the kind of faith that marks those who are in a covenant relationship. After reading these words, now think about Paul’s statement that we are to walk in the footsteps of faith that our father Abraham walked. God is not calling for mere belief. God is not calling for weak, timid faith. God is calling for bold, strong faith. How can we have this kind of faith?
The Secret to Abraham’s Faith
Abraham acknowledged God’s glory (Romans 4:20). We can build this kind of faith by giving glory to God. I know that my faith has grown in this study of Romans when simply contemplating the teachings that God justifies the ungodly and how blessed are those that the Lord does not count their sins. How can we not glory in God knowing what he has done? How can we not be emboldened and empowered to worship and praise God when we hear such good news?
Go back to Romans 1:23-25 and recall that sin is when we are not glorifying or worshiping God. Faith and faithfulness is the life that is glorifying and worshiping God.
Abraham acknowledged that God has the ability to carry out his promises (Romans 4:21). God can do anything. There is nothing impossible with God. There is no task or promise that God cannot or will not carry out. God can save, even me. God has the power to save you, and will save you. This led to Abraham trusting God to fulfill his promise, relying on God’s power. We need to rely on the power of God and not our own power. When we look at our power, then there is not much that we can do. But when we rely on God’s power, the possibilities are endless. Nothing is impossible with God. God can do great things and small things for his people.
“That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.” Abraham had bold faith. Let us have God centered and God honoring faith. Let us grow our faith responding to the great grace that has been shown to us.
In Grace We Stand
Romans 4:23 to Romans 5:5
Brent Kercheville
Paul has been discussing the bold faith of Abraham. Abraham was justified by faith, not through circumcision or other works of the law. Abraham did not weaken in his faith when he was told that he would be the father of many nations. He considered his own body, recognizing it to be as good as dead in terms of bearing a child, and the same was true for Sarah. No distrust caused Abraham to waver in God’s promise. Instead he grew stronger in his faith, as seen in his faith to offer Isaac as God directed. Abraham had this faith because he glorified God and was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. Paul is going to make the promise to Abraham more real to us.
23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:23-25 ESV)
This was not an isolated incident for Abraham alone. Rather, this is a pattern for all people. Yes, Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness. Abraham was declared right and acquitted by his faith in God. Our faith in Jesus will also be counted to us as righteousness. We become the offspring of Abraham and are recipients of God’s promise by having faith in God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. What great hope and consolation! It was counted to him was not for Abraham alone. These things were written for our sake also.
God is able to count us righteous because of Jesus who was delivered for our trespasses and raised for our justification. This is an important statement. Until this point the emphasis has been on the faithful life of Jesus. God’s righteousness has been revealed through the faithful life that Jesus lived so that by having faith in Jesus we can be pronounced righteous. But now Paul brings in two other aspects that we are to consider when thinking about the faithful life of Jesus. First, Jesus was delivered up. This is a vague reference to Jesus’ death, a point more clearly stated in Romans 5:8. Jesus was handed over and delivered up to death for our trespasses. Paul uses the word “trespass” which carries the same force as “sin” but is just a different image. The word “trespass” means “a false step” (NAS Greek). Jesus was delivered to death because of our missteps. Second, Jesus was raised from the dead for our justification. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead plays a vital role in our justification. We need the faithful life of Jesus. But we also need his death to pay the price for our sins. In chapter 6 the apostle Paul will explain more about why the resurrection of Jesus is important. But I want us to see that the faithfulness of Jesus includes his death and resurrection. Further, notice that Paul implies that this was all part of God’s plan and not an accident. Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses, not as an accident. Jesus was raised for our justification, not because Israel ruined God’s intentions.
Jesus our Lord did this for us. The promises made to Abraham have become a reality through Jesus. Justification of the world has been accomplished in the faithful life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The promise that the world would be blessed has been accomplished in Jesus. Now the apostle Paul is going to reveal what else we have in Jesus.
5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5; ESV)
The first thing that we have since we have been justified by faith is peace with God. Do not fail to see that without Jesus we are enemies with God (Romans 5:10). Without Jesus we are not on good terms with God. We are separated from God because of our sins. While Paul has focused on God’s graciousness to overlook our sins and not give us what we deserve, we cannot forget that the wrath of God has been revealed against all ungodliness (Romans 1:18). But when we are justified by faith, we are no longer the focal point of God’s wrath. The Judge is able to acquit us because we have accessed the blood of Jesus. Peace has been forged with God. We are no longer at war with God. We are no longer separated from God. We are no longer enemies with God. We cannot appreciate this justification in Jesus fully when we fail to recognize where we stand before God without Jesus. Now there is no hostility between us and God. We have peace with God through Jesus.
Second, we have obtained access into this grace in which we stand. Not only has God declared us not guilty, but he has drawn us close to himself. We have now entered into a place of undeserved privilege. Now we have a place to stand — in God’s grace. This is a great picture revealed to us by the apostle Paul. We have access into God’s grace where we are able to stand. Previously we could not stand before God because of our sins. This is such a powerful thought: because of Jesus we are able to stand in God’s grace. Paul pictures grace in a similar way that the writer of Hebrews does: like a room that can be entered, where we can confidently stand before God because we have peace with him. We stand in fellowship with God, no longer crippled by sin, but forgiven of sin. I love this picture. Paul does not depict us crawling into this grace. We are standing in the grace of God. Therefore we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We celebrate in the hope we have. Jesus has accomplished what the law could not: provide confidence in being God’s people. We have received the acquittal sentence and therefore we rejoice in the glory of God. We do not rejoice in ourselves because this is not about us. This justification is all about God and the glory he deserves and worship he deserves because he had made it possible through Jesus to stand in this grace. A life of faith of the mark that reveals us to be God’s covenant people.
Not only these great and marvelous things, but there is more that we have that we are to celebrate. Further, we celebrate our sufferings. Doesn’t this one feel odd and out of place? Paul has told us that we have peace with God and we have access to God’s grace in which we stand. Not only this, we rejoice in our sufferings. This is a startling turn! But let’s look at what Paul is trying to show us.
Paul teaches that we rejoice in sufferings because our sufferings produce hope. Jump to the end of verse 4 and the beginning of verse 5 and you will see that this is how the point ends. So how can our sufferings give us hope? Paul uses a chain of reasoning to explain. First, suffering produces endurance. Suffering makes us tough to be able to withstand life’s storms. Suffering helps become stronger to be able to conquer the difficulties of life. Second, Paul says that endurance produces tested character. There is a strength of character that is developed from suffering. When we endure through our sufferings, our character becomes molded and our character is strengthened in a way that was not present before. Testing shows the metal is real and authentic. Testing proves us. Finally, that tested character produces hope. Our transformation is evidence of God changing us through sufferings.
We don’t like it, but suffering changes us the most. My suffering has helped me rely on God and appreciate the peace that I have with God. Peace with God helps us overcome and endure the lack of peace in our lives that comes from difficulties and suffering. Suffering turns us into the people God wants us to be. Suffering produces hope because we know that we are being transformed into the character of people that God demands. In our suffering, our hope will not be let down or disappointed.
Our hope is not abandoned “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” What does this mean? In our next lesson we will talk about what Paul means for God’s love to be poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. But here is just a little taste of the answer to come. We know God’s love because the Holy Spirit has revealed God’s love to us and that knowledge must sink down into our hearts. We need to let the truth of God’s grace sink down into our hearts. Look at what the Holy Spirit has revealed to us! God is justifying the ungodly through Jesus! Because of this, we have peace with God, we have access to grace where we can stand, and we can rejoice in our sufferings. We are able to endure sufferings because we keep our minds on and let our hearts be filled by the knowledge of what Jesus has done for us. We cling to this status of acquitted in the teeth of our suffering.
Applications:
1. God counts us righteous through faith just as he did Abraham.
2. We have peace with God.
3. We have access to stand in God’s grace.
4. We rejoice in our sufferings because it builds proven character pleasing to God.
5. God’s love is what brings us through those times of suffering.
Filled Up On God’s Love
Romans 5:6-11
Brent Kercheville
Are you aware of the love of God? Do you know that God loves you? I am afraid that one of the problems we face is that we sometimes lose our awareness of God’s love for us. We go through difficult times and question where the love of God is. “If God loves me, I want to see it!” “Show it to me!” Paul is working in this section of Romans to help his audience understand the hope and love we have because of what Jesus has done for us. Let’s dive right into the text and see the beautiful message of the good news about what Jesus did.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6 ESV)
So here is what happened. While we were weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. What does Paul mean by saying that we were weak? The NKJV has a very literal rendering, “without strength” and that is the meaning of that Greek word. The apostle Paul is not talking about our physical strength. Rather, we have a moral problem before God. We have a moral weakness. The end of verse 6 tells us that this problem is we are ungodly. Our weakness is that there is nothing we can do to correct that problem. We are ungodly and we cannot change that condition. We are helpless in this condition. We know what that helpless, weak feeling is like. You are going down the road, not paying attention to your speed because you are thinking about other things, and suddenly you passes a police car running radar. You look down and you see that you have broken the speed limit. You may not have intended to, but you did. At that moment you have a feeling of helplessness. Yes, you can slow down now, but it is too late. You can drive the speed limit the rest of the way home, but that does not change the fact that there are blue lights flashing in your rear view mirror. You are helpless. You cannot fix what you have done. You cannot correct your mistake. You have done what you have done and now the consequences are due to you. You have broken the law. Or, in terms of breaking God’s law, you are ungodly. We are unable to save ourselves. We are unable to change our condition. We are helpless as lawbreakers.
But rather than us paying the price for our own mistakes, at the right time Jesus pays the price for our mistakes. At just the right moment, at the perfectly appointed time, Jesus pays the price by dying for us. I would like for you to highlight and observe two descriptions about ourselves in verse 6. We are weak, helpless, and without strength (depending on your translation) and we are the ungodly. We are not good. We are not righteous. We are not deserving. We are not worthy. We are not someone worth dying for in this condition. We are helpless and ungodly. We have been caught redhanded in our mistakes leading to our condemnation. Read verse 7 to amplify this thought further.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— (Romans 5:7 ESV)
The point here is very simple and very clear. People do not die even for worthy people. Paul is not talking about the number of occasions where someone has died for another. Rather, Paul is asking us to think about the difficulty of finding a person to die on behalf of another. Even for people that we know and like, our first inclination is not to die for that person. We may try to save that person from harm, but do not intentionally die to keep another person alive. Even for people that we think are good people, we do not raise our hand and say, “Shoot me, not them.” How many people do this? The point is very few.
But Paul wants us to see that this is not a fair comparison because Jesus did not die for the righteous. Jesus did not die for good people. Go read verse 6 again. Who did Jesus die for? Jesus died for the guilty, the ungodly. This is the point of Romans 5:8.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 ESV)
Jesus died for us (underline this) WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS. Jesus did much more than what most people are willing to do! The comparison is not: we won’t die for the righteous and good, but Jesus did die. That is not it at all! It is not a comparison but a contrast. We won’t die for the good and righteous. Jesus died for the ungodly sinners, not the good and righteous. Consider the following illustration to see this point.
How many people have done prison time on behalf of another person? “Don’t worry, I will go to jail for you, even though I am innocent and you are guilty.” How many people do that? How many people have decided to be executed by the state of Florida for a capital crime on behalf of another person? How many people have you seen get the death sentence have someone run up to that guilty person and say, “Don’t worry, I will be killed for you. Even though I am innocent, I will die on your behalf.” This is the point Paul is making. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN! THIS NEVER HAPPENS! Paul is making an illustration from the lesser to the greater. We would hardly die for a good person. Jesus died for the ungodly, not the good.
Why did this happen? Why did Jesus die for the ungodly sinners that we are? Why did he die for us who are completely guilty? Verse 8 tells us that God is showing, proving, and demonstrating his love for us. If we saw an innocent person take the execution on behalf of a guilty person, what would we think? Perhaps after getting past how crazy such a thought it, we would recognize that this is great love. The one who dies for you must really love you. There is nothing else to think, to feel, or to know. Love is proven. Love is shown. Love is demonstrated. We have seen the highest example of love that can ever be shown. How can a person show another any greater love than dying on your behalf? Saying I love you is not greater. Flowers are not a greater display. Presents do not reveal greater love. Death is the greatest picture of love. While we were sinners, Jesus died for us.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:9 ESV)
Jesus’ death means that we are justified. Justified means that rather than being declared guilty as we ought, we are declared not guilty. We are acquitted. We are set free. Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we do not have to bear the punishment for what we have done.
But Paul is saying more than just a statement of fact about what Jesus did. Notice that there is a point from the lesser to the greater. See the “much more” phrase in the middle of the sentence. Jesus died. Much more then will we be saved from God’s wrath. This is the point: Jesus has already done the unthinkable (dying for the ungodly sinners). Then how much more can we know that God will do the obvious (saved us from God’s wrath)! To say this another way, God has already done the difficult thing (sending Jesus to die for ungodly wretches like us). How much more will God do the easier thing (save us from God’s wrath)? God has already done the most difficult thing in Jesus dying for us. God will certainly do the easier thing for us now. N.T. Wright uses an excellent illustration. If someone has driven to the other end of the country, through rain and snow, to see a friend in need, they are not going to abandon their quest when they arrive at the house, the skies clear, the sun comes out, and all they have to do is walk up the garden path and ring the doorbell. Of course God will finish the work! Verse 10 amplifies this thought further.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10 ESV)
Now, let us remember what we were before God. In Romans 5:6 we were told that we are weak and we are ungodly. In Romans 5:7 we saw that we are not righteous and are not good. In Romans 5:8 we noticed that we are sinners. In verse 10 Paul tells us that we are enemies of God. This is a very strong word and a very big problem that must be solved. We are enemies of God. We are hostile to God, separated from God, violators of God’s will, and breakers of God’s covenant.
But now God has reconciled us! Now we are no longer enemies because of the death of his Son. Now we are not enemies of God. Now we are friends with God. Now each one of us can have a relationship with God. The death of Jesus reconciles us to God. We are no longer separated from God. We no longer must be distant from God. We no longer have God’s wrath focused on us. We have been reconciled through the death of Jesus.
However, this is not even the point that Paul is making. But we needed to see it to appreciate the comparison Paul is making. Notice that we have another “much more” just as we observed in Romans 5:9. This “much more” functions in the same way to give us confidence, hope, and the realization of God’s love. What God did in the past propels us and boosts us toward what will happen in the future. If God will reconcile us to him through the death of Jesus while we were enemies, then how much more will God most certainly save us in his life! Look at what God did while we were enemies! How much more will God do for us now that we are no longer enemies but are friends with God! Now that we are reconciled to God he will certainly save us. No one who has been justified should have any fear of condemnation. No one who has fully given their life to Jesus in faith needs to worry about the wrath of God.
We think, “But what about all of my sins?” We start thinking about the bad things that we have done and all the mistakes we have made. But God knows you made those mistakes. Go back through the text with me again. Jesus died for who? Jesus did not die for the good and righteous. Good thing he didn’t because that is not any of us. We are not good or righteous. Jesus died for the weak, the ungodly, the unrighteous, the sinners, and the enemies of God. What are you doing thinking about your sins? Jesus died for them! And if Jesus will to die for your sins, how much more will he make sure you are saved from the wrath of God! The blood of Jesus covers our mistakes and saves us from what we deserve.
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:11 ESV)
Notice that we have one more “much more” given to us. More than all of this that we have learned so far, we can also rejoice in God because we have this reconciliation. Now we can celebrate what we have. Now we can celebrate the grace in which we stand. What was impossible through the Law of Moses is possible through Jesus. Our boast, our joy, and our rejoicing is in God. We are not celebrating ourselves. We are celebrating God and what he has done through Jesus.
Don’t feel bad but celebrate. In fact, rejoicing is a mark of the Christian life. How can we not praise God when we grasp what God has done for us? We want to worship because God reconciled us when we were enemies! We want to celebrate in God when we see that God acted in our ungodly state. We rejoice in God when we can picture the love God has shown toward us. Since Jesus died for us, he will surely also forgive us. Since Jesus died for us, he will surely also bless us. Since Jesus died for us, he will surely also save us from God’s wrath. Since Jesus died for us, he will surely also have a relationship with us. Since Jesus died for us, he will surely also love us.
Now, go to Romans 5:5 and see Paul’s meaning in this verse. “…and our hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” I pray that God’s love has been poured into your heart today as you hear these words penned by Paul given through the Holy Spirit. These words are to fill us with God’s hope, God’s love, and God’s joy.
Original Sin
Romans 5:12
Brent Kercheville
This section of Romans is perhaps one of the most difficult sections to understand. The number of interpretations are wide and varied. In the process of examining all the difficulties in this section of scripture, it is easy to overlook the main point of Paul. What I thought I would do with this section of scripture is do a lesson concerning the textual difficulties and various interpretations and then do a lesson that simply explains the text, as we have been doing in the Romans series. Let’s begin with an overview of the difficulties.
The Challenge — Death
The first question we need to ask and answer is which death Paul is talking about. When Paul writes about death in this text, is Paul referring to the physical death of humans (death of our bodies) or is Paul referring to spiritual death (separation from God)? The context will have to answer the question for us.
First, notice that Paul has not been discussing physical death so far through this letter. To think that Paul is discussing physical death would require us to believe that Paul has introduced a completely new topic that has not part of his theme or message thus far.
Second, the immediate context has been about reconciliation. Romans 5:10-11 is discussing how we have now received reconciliation. Spiritual death has been what Paul has been talking about. Our reconciliation means that we are no longer separated from God. Spiritual death is separation from God. So leading into Romans 5:12-21 Paul has been talking about reconciliation, which is God’s remedy for our spiritual death.
Third, one of the contrasts in this text is death and life. Adam brought death but Jesus brought life. Does Jesus bring physical life or spiritual life? Jesus does not bring immortality to our physical bodies. The contrast cannot be that Adam causes all people to die physically, but now in Jesus all are alive physically. But the contrast is that Adam causes all people to die spiritually. Now in Jesus all are alive spiritually.
Fourth, to validate more fully the previous point, notice Romans 5:21 and carefully consider the contrast. Sin reigned in death. Grace through righteousness brought eternal life. The contrast here is spiritual death versus eternal life. Physical death and eternal life are not a parallel.
Finally, in Romans 6 the apostle Paul continues to discuss spiritual life. For example, the chapter concludes in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eternal life is again the topic and the natural contrast is that the wages of sin is spiritual death, that is, separation from God.
Now there are a few brethren whom I greatly respect who believe Paul is talking about physical death through Adam. While physical death solves many problems that we encounter in this section of scripture (like how death spread to all people through Adam), ignoring the context and forcing the text to say this is physical death is not fair to the text or the context. We ask others not to insert their theology in the scriptures when studying. We also must do the same and not make the text say something simply because we like the outcome.
Before we leave this topic, it is important to consider the consequences of understanding Paul to speaking about physical death than spiritual death. This is a quotation from John Piper, a noted and respected evangelical pastor:
“Death–both physical and spiritual–is a result of sin (Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23). Thus, death only comes upon those who have sinned. Since infants die, they therefore must be sinners. It could be objected that Christ was sinless, and yet He died. But He willingly gave up His life, and He did it to conquer the curse of death that we were under” (from What Is The Biblical Evidence For Original Sin? website article). To fully answer John Piper’s statements here would require its own lesson. But I want us to see that this logic is correct. If Paul is talking about physical death, then the death of infants is proof that they are sinners. I submit that physical death is not in view at all as Paul writes about the death that has spread to all people.
Original Sin
The other point that we need to make about this text is that this is the place where the doctrine of original sin is proven by most scholars and writers. The doctrine of original sin has some variations. I will quote for you a couple of the reformers who strongly established this doctrine.
“Original sin, therefore, seems to be a hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused into all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God’s wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls “works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19). And that is properly what Paul often calls sin. The works that come forth from it–such as adulteries, fornications, thefts, hatreds, murders, carousings–he accordingly calls “fruits of sin” (Galatians 5:19-21), although they are also commonly called “sins” in Scripture, and even by Paul himself.” (John Calvin)
“Original sin stands not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.” (Martin Luther)
Below is the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1646, a standard theology of most of the denominational world:
CHAPTER 6 – OF THE FALL OF MAN, OF SIN AND OF THE PUNISHMENT THEREOF
6.1 Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.
6.2 By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.
6.3 They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.
6.4 From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.
6.5 This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.
6.6 Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and eternal.
For a more modern perspective, J.I. Packer affirms the teachings of Calvin and Luther. “The assertion of original sin makes the point that we are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners, born with a nature enslaved to sin” (Concise Theology).
Where Did Original Sin Come From In The Scriptures?
We may ask the question, “Where did they come up with this?” This is a doctrine that is built upon a reading of Romans 5:12-21. Notice how often we see a picture of something that looks like original sin in Romans 5:12-21.
“For if many died through one man’s trespass…” (Romans 5:15).
“For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation…” (; Romans 5:16).
“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man…” (Romans 5:17).
“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation of all men” (; Romans 5:18).
“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners…” (Romans 5:19).
Five times the apostle Paul emphatically points out that death and condemnation were the result of Adam’s sin. We cannot ignore these statements. We cannot sweep them under the rug and say that they do not mean what they say. Five statements in five consecutive verses by the apostle Paul. Paul is telling us that something happened to all humanity because Adam sinned.
Why Not Accept Original Sin?
So why not simply accept that we are sinners because Adam sinned? There are a number of reasons to reject the doctrine of original sin.
(1) Romans 5:12 cannot be ignored. Read verse 12 carefully. Why did death spread to all people? Paul tells us because all people sinned. Paul could have easily said that death spread to all people and sin spread to all people because Adam sinned. But Paul gave us a very clear reason why death spread to every person and the answer is because every person sinned. The answer that most of these scholars give in rebuttal to the statement “because all sinned” is to add the two words, “in Adam.” That is to say that death spread to all because all of us sinned in Adam. When Adam sinned it was like we had sinned also. But that is not what Paul says. It is dangerous to add words to the scriptures. Further, Schreiner states, “It is quite improbable on linguistic grounds that ‘all sinned’ means ‘all sinned in Adam.’ … The most natural way to construe all sinned is to see a reference to the personal and individual sin of all people” (Baker Exegetical Commentary, pg. 275). I appreciate his honesty with the text because this is exactly right. We cannot add the words “in Adam” and the most natural meaning is that death spread to every person because every person sins. If that is not what Paul meant, then Paul should not have said it.
What I am calling for at this point is for us to seek the truth and not defend a position. Defenders of the doctrine of original sin all to easily and frequently ignore the plain wording of Romans 5:12 that death spread to all because all sinned so as to maintain this doctrine. On the other hand, we cannot ignore five statements of Paul that declare that something happened to all humanity because of Adam’s sin. We cannot rest of verse 12 and ignore verses 15-19. The truth should have nothing to fear and we cannot maintain a theology that runs counter to the scriptures.
(2) We cannot accept original sin because it causes God to be unjust. If our condemnation is not based upon our own sins but upon Adam’s sin, there is no way to avoid calling God unjust. If a husband commits a crime, his punishment cannot be given to him, and his wife, and his children, and their children’s children, and great grandchildren, and so forth. That is not right, that is not fair, and that is not just. The apostle Paul has spent a significant amount of time in the first three chapters proving that God is righteous. God is always right, God is always fair, God is always just, and God always keeps his word. If I am punished for the sins of another, that is unjust. Further, if I am punished for the sins of another when that person has already been punished for his sin (like Adam has), then God is even more unjust.
(3) If we did nothing to receive the sin of Adam, then the necessary parallel is that we do nothing to receive the grace of Jesus. Notice that this is the parallel in verses 18 and 19. If I am a complete by-standard who did nothing yet still received the sins and the condemnation of Adam, then by parallel, I am a complete by-standard who does nothing yet still receives the righteousness and justification from Jesus. Therefore, all the world is saved regardless of faith. Justification is not by faith, then. Justification is automatically given to the world just as sin and corruption was automatically given to all people because of Adam. We should see that this cannot be true because Paul has argued otherwise. Paul has taught that justification comes by faith. Paul has taught that we need to walk in the footsteps of faith of Abraham. Paul has taught the need to be doers of the law and not just hearers or recipients of the law. If Adam brings universal condemnation, then Jesus brings universal salvation.
But let me give caution to the other side of the coin because the parallel also breaks our typical understanding of Paul. We cannot say that it is because of what we did that we are under sin and death because then the parallel is that it is because of what we did that we are under grace and justification. Paul has been very clear that this is not to be the parallel either. The parallel cannot be that what we did brought death and now what we do brings life. Or, to state this parallel another way, we cannot say that what we did separated us from God and what we do reconciles us to God. Paul has been very clear that the work of God, the righteousness of God through the faithful life of Jesus, brings reconciliation and peace. Therefore, Adam must have done something that affects us so that the parallel can be maintain that Jesus has now done something with affects us greater. So we must be careful with our words as we proceed with our study.
Conclusion:
1. The doctrine of original sin is not scriptural. It violates far too many principles and teachings in Romans.
2. We must reconcile Romans 5:12 with Romans 5:15-19. Verse 12 says that death spread to all because all sinned. Romans 5:15-19 reveals:
“For if many died through one man’s trespass…” (; Romans 5:15).
“For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation…” (Romans 5:16).
“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man…” (; Romans 5:17).
“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation of all men” (Romans 5:18).
“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners…” (; Romans 5:19).
In next week’s lesson I will offer how we can reconcile these teachings. I hope you will spend the next week thinking and studying for an answer.
3. Paul has a balanced parallel that must remain intact. Adam did something that affected all humanity. Christ did something that affected all humanity. That balance is found in verses 18 and 19. Whatever the mechanism was for Adam’s effect on all humanity must be the same mechanism for Christ’s effect on all humanity.
The Gift of Grace—Part One
Romans 5:12-16
Brent Kercheville
In chapter 5 the apostle Paul has taught that the love of God demonstrated in sending Jesus gives us confidence about where we stand before God. (1) Because we are justified we know God has made peace with us through the atoning work of Jesus. (2) Because we are justified we know God has brought us into a place of grace through which we stand. (3) Because we are justified we know we have hope while enduring sufferings in this life. (4) Further, we know God sent Jesus to die for us while we were sinful, ungodly enemies. Therefore, we know that we are saved from God’s wrath. (5) We know that the death of Jesus reconciles us to God, giving us the ability to rejoice and celebrate.
Death Spread To All
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.” (Romans 5:12-13 ESV)
The connection to Romans 5:1-11 seems to be that Paul is explaining why we need reconciliation with God. Notice that Romans 5:11 ended with that thought. We rejoice in God through Jesus because through Jesus we have now received reconciliation. Verse 12 begins with the word, “Therefore.” Paul is connecting back to his previous thought and reconciliation is the most natural connection to his discussion about where we stand before God.
Notice that Romans 5:12 appears to be a broken comparison. Paul starts with “just as” but never gives a “so also” in this verse. The completed comparison is most likely found in Romans 5:18. “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.” I think we can see this would have been the contrast that Paul was beginning to draw in Romans 5:12. Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so also life came into the world through one man. Paul never finishes that statement in verse 12, rather giving an explanation about sin and death from Romans 5:3-15.
With Paul relating the effects of Adam and his sin, it is important for us to know the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The garden is a picture of perfection, a picture of paradise. There is no sin. Everything that God has created has been good. Genesis 3:8 reveals that God was dwelling with Adam and Eve in the garden to some extent that God is considered walking in the garden and Adam and Eve could hide themselves from the presence of God. But with Adam and Eve, sin was introduced into the creation that did not exist before. Since Adam sinned, the immediate consequence of sin is separation from God. Immediately, Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden, picturing a separation from God and his presence. A person cannot be in the presence of God with the problem of sin, so they are expelled from the garden to keep them from the tree of life. One cannot have eternal life and have sin. Sin has the consequence of spiritual death, which is separation from God.
This point is reflected in Romans 5:12. We are all spiritually separated from God because all of us sin. We are under condemnation because of our own personal sins. Each one of us has broken God’s law and for this reason we experience spiritual death. We do not physically die because each one of us sins. We spiritually die (are separated from God) because of our sins. We only can be condemned for our own sins, otherwise God is unjust to charge us with crimes we did not commit. This fits the very words of God to Israel:
“The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness.” (Ezekiel 18:20; NLT) We are going to be rewarded and punished based upon what we do, not what others do. As Paul says, death has spread to all people because all people sinned.
Paul continues in Romans 5:13 by pointing out that sin was in the world before the Law of Moses. It is not possible for Paul to say that sin was in the world before there was any law. Paul taught earlier that where there is not law, there cannot be transgression (Romans 4:15). The context of our study in Romans has been about the Law of Moses and Paul continues speaking about the Law of Moses here. Even before the Law of Moses was given, sin was in the world. The implication is that there were laws given before the Law of Moses because sin is not counted where there is no law.
“Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” (Romans 5:14; ESV)
But spiritual death reigned from Adam to Moses also. Sin was in the world. Therefore there was law, but not the Law of Moses, of course (Romans 4:15). The transgression of Adam was not like the sinning of others. Why? There are two reasons that we can observe that makes the sin of Adam different than the sinning of others. First, the command to Adam was certainly different than the commands given to everyone after Adam. Adam lived in paradise and there was only one command: do not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This law was different than the moral laws that came later. One law is given to Adam. After Adam, there were all sorts of moral laws against immorality and impurity. The reason is that Adam lived in a different world, a point that we will explore later. But notice that Paul does not say that the command was different, even though it was. Paul is working a greater point. The second reason that Adam’s sin is not like the sins of those after Adam is because Adam’s sin affected all humanity. Adam’s sin had a completely different effect on the world than any one else’s sin. It is this second point that Paul is going to speak about particularly and this is how Adam is a type of the one who was to come (speaking about Jesus). What Adam did and what the one to come did (Jesus) affected the whole world. It is in this way that Adam is a type of the one to come (Jesus). The one act of both men affected the whole world. The rest of these verses are going to explain how Adam is a type of Christ.
The Gift of Grace
“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.” (Romans 5:15 ESV)
In our previous lesson we talked about the tension that exists between Romans 5:12 and Romans 5:15-19. Romans 5:12 says that death spread to all because all of us sin. Romans 5:15-19 says that we were made sinners because of Adam’s disobedience. So which is it? Romans 5:14 was a very important verse that must be applied to Romans 5:15-19. Paul said that Adam was a type of the one to come. Both the action of Adam and the action of the one to come (Jesus) affected humanity. The good news is that what Jesus did was not like what Adam. The effect was the same, but the act was not the same. The free gift of Jesus is not like the trespass of Adam.
Adam’s affect on humanity was that many died (spiritual death). But Jesus has done something of greater weight and impact. Jesus’ affect on humanity was grace. Grace has abounded for many. Because of what Adam did, many died. Because of what Jesus did, many have grace abounding. We need to soak up this beautiful thought in for a moment. We sinned, but through Jesus grace is overflowing. In fact, much more grace overflowed! The gift overflowed! Only by the grace of Jesus has our sins been counteracted! Paul has been clear that this is not because of our righteousness or our doing. Paul calls what Jesus did a gift. Further, it is by the grace of Jesus that the gift of grace overflowed to many. Sin and death have overcome us. But grace is overflowing.
As we noted last week, but need to note again, we have to consider the parallel and hold that parallel intact. What Adam did, Jesus did to counteract it. Paul cannot be saying that everyone is lost because of Adam’s sin because the answer would be that everyone is saved because of Jesus’ grace. We know that this does not fit the rest of the scriptures. In the same way, Paul cannot be saying that what we did brought our sin and what we did brought our salvation. This will not work either. In Romans 5:6 Paul taught that Christ died while we were helpless. We could not do anything to bring about our salvation. So what is the parallel? How is Adam a type of Jesus? How did Adam’s one act affect the whole world while at the same time being able to say that death spreads to all people because all people sinned?
Here is what happened: Adam’s transgression introduced sin and death into the world. Until Adam’s disobedience there was no sin and there was not any separation from God. The hope of humanity for a glorious future living with God ruling over creation was dashed. Now everyone who enters the world would be in a world where sin and death rule. When Adam sinned, everything changed. Humanity’s relationship with God changed. The creation changed as it was placed under a curse. The world was not longer perfect. We were no longer perfect. Ruin entered the world. Paradise was lost. We cannot have a relationship with God like Adam did. God seems to have been with Adam in the garden. We do not have that proximity to God like Adam had. We do not live in the same world that Adam lived in. We cannot live in a perfect world. We live in a fallen world, a world full of sin, corruption, and ruin. Paul is going to say this about the creation in Romans 8:21. Further, each of us have perpetuated the problem because all of us have sinned as well.
But Paul is impressing upon us the undeserved nature of Christ’s work. Adam’s transgression introduced sin and death into the world. But Jesus introduced grace into the world. The grace of Jesus reverses the power of sin. God is displaying his glory over judgment and over condemnation. God’s purpose is not to destroy us with his wrath. God’s overwhelming, overflowing purpose is to save us. Sin and death do not triumph or reign over us. Paul will expand on this thought as he continues through chapter 5 and keep teaching about it in chapter 6. One point that we see throughout this section is Paul emphasizing the “one man” against the “many.” Instead of saying, “Adam” or “Jesus” repeatedly, Paul says, “one man.” One man affected many. Notice that it is through one man that grace flows. It is not through two men or many men that one is finding the grace of God. God’s grace flows only through one man, Jesus, and no one else. Grace does not flow through other humans. Grace does not flow through a church. Grace only flows, it overflows, through Jesus.
“And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.” (Romans 5:16 ESV)
Adam’s act of disobedience brought condemnation into the world. Adam introduced sin. Adam introduced death, separation from God. Adam introduced condemnation to the world. In the garden there was no condemnation. Adam and Eve were able to be in the presence of God. Not so now. Adam’s act has brought the crushing weight of sin into the world, and because all sin (Romans 5:12), all of us are under condemnation. But Jesus brought something else into the world that is greater than Adam’s act of disobedience. Jesus’ obedience brought justification into the world. Without Jesus there was no hope for being declared acquitted by God. There was not a shred of hope to avoid God’s wrath. But when Jesus comes in obedience, he introduced justification to the world.
This should change our outlook when we look at Jesus. We often read about Jesus in the gospels, like we are doing in our Luke study, and simply see Jesus as an example for our lives. This is absolutely true: Jesus is the example for the lives of everyone. But there is more! When we read the life of Jesus we need to see him laying the foundation for justification. Jesus is living his life so that we can be pronounced righteous. What Jesus is doing in showing humility, in being peaceable, when enduring persecution, when allowing himself to be spit on, mocked, and crucified is laying the foundation for our justification. Jesus is doing all of this so that we can be declared acquitted by God.
The appropriate response of God to our one trespass is condemnation. God has the right and must execute wrath on us when there is even just one trespass in our lives. But how many of us have only committed one trespass? We have committed many sins. We have made many mistakes. We missed the mark repeatedly. What should God do to us because we have committed many sins when only one sin is worthy of condemnation? Read verse 16 and notice what God did with our many trespasses. God sent the gift of grace to us through Jesus to bring us justification. Our many trespasses has brought justification! Justification is not the appropriate response for our sins. But that is exactly God’s response toward us. Think about the billions and billions of sins that were just committed around the world today that God stands ready to forgive today!
The work of Jesus is shown to be greater than the work of Adam. God is not defeated by our sins. God wants us reconciled to him and he will not be thwarted by sin and death. Even in our many trespasses God brought grace through Jesus.
Applications:
1. We are separated from God because of our own actions, not Adam’s. We can’t blame Adam for our sinful state. We are sinners and we are separated from God because we chose to sin.
2. We can blame Adam for the world we live in. We live in a world of corruption, ruin, and depravity because Adam allowed sin and death to enter the world by his disobedience. But don’t be too hard on Adam because we have already noted that we have sinned too. We are not any better than him. But we do not live in paradise and in presence of God like he did. The world changed when he sinned.
3. But the world changed again with Jesus. Adam introduced sin and death, but Jesus has introduced overflowing grace for our many trespasses. Jesus is greater than any sin we have committed. Justification can be found in Jesus, and in Jesus alone.
The Gift of Grace—Part Two
Romans 5:17-21
Brent Kercheville
In our last lesson we observed the overflowing grace offered to the world. Adam introduced sin and death into the world. But Jesus has introduced grace and justification. In this way Adam is a type of the one to come. Both Adam and Jesus were going to affect humanity by a single act. With Adam, his one act brought sin and death into the world and we are separated from God because we sin as well (Romans 5:12). Now that sin is in the world, and death through sin, we also are dead to God because we sin. Adam’s sin has ruined and corrupted everything. But through the one act of Jesus, grace has been poured out and is overflowing. Our many trespasses has brought about justification in Jesus, rather judgment and condemnation that was deserved to us.
For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17; ESV)
Romans 5:17 presents an amazing contrast that we can easily miss because it is not a logical parallel. Paul begins with a condition. “If death reigned through that one man” is the condition. Because of Adam’s sin, separation from God has ruled. We pointed out last week that before Adam’s sin we read of Adam and Eve in a close relationship with God and God in a closer proximity to humanity than after their sins. Once Adam sins, humanity is forever separated from God. So this condition is true: one man’s trespass (speaking of Adam) led to death ruling over the world.
Now think about what we would expect the contrast to be in Jesus. We would expect Paul to say that death (separation from God) reigned, but now life (eternal life, reconciliation) reigns. But that is not what Paul says. Paul chooses not to contrast death and life. Notice what Paul does say. First, he says, “much more.” This is the fifth time in this chapter that Paul has described Christ doing “much more” (Romans 5:9-11; Romans 5:15; Romans 5:17). Christ is not simply counteracting the sin and death, but is going far beyond it. Since one condition exists because of Adam, now a greater, better condition exists because of Jesus.
So what is the “much more” that we have? Again, Paul does not say that death reigned and now life reigns. Rather, death reigned and now we reign in life. Death reigned. But now we reign.
Again notice that the life Paul speaks about is not physical life. We are not reigning in physical life. We are reigning in spiritual life, that is, eternal life no longer separated from God’s presence. Thus, the death that used to reign in spiritual death. Physical death still does reign because we are all going to die, even if we are Christians or not. But spiritual death, that is, separation from God, no longer reigns for those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. Chapter 6 is going to explain fully how we reign in Christ. So I will leave that explanation for Paul when we come to the study of Romans 6. For now, Paul simply asserts his point that he will prove shortly. Death reigned, but now we reign in life in Jesus. Those who receive the “overflow of grace” (HCSB) are those who now reign in life. I just want to also note that speaking about “receiving the grace of God” is a perfectly scriptural phrase, as Paul describes here in Romans 5:17. This is not passive salvation. We have to receive the overflow of God’s grace to reign in life in Jesus. Again, Paul will better explain how we do this in Romans 6.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19; ESV)
One of the things that is important to notice as we go through Romans 5 and especially Romans 6 is that sin is personified by Paul. Rather than talking about sin as an act, Paul speaks of sin as a power. Sin enters the world and sin is described as reigning, like a king would reign on a throne. We will see this language continue in chapter 6 where Paul will describe the need to be dead to sin and to not let sin have rule over us. Keep this in mind as we move through the final three verses of chapter 5.
The sin of Adam introduced condemnation to all. The righteous act of Jesus introduced justification to all. As we have mentioned before, but need to point out again: if Paul is saying that we are made sinners because of what Adam did, then we are made righteous because of what Jesus did. Neither require any effort on our part. So we formerly were universally lost outside of our own actions, and now we are universally saved outside of our own actions through Jesus. But this idea flies completely against Paul’s teaching in Romans 3-4. The one act of Adam did not make us condemned. Rather the one act of Adam leads to condemnation because sin and death rule. Adam brought sin and death into the world that did not exist before. If the world were still the paradise and perfect that God created, then there would not be sin and death in the world and we would not be separated from God. But Adam’s act brought sin and separation into the world and we are also condemned because all of us sin also. Adam’s sin made it possible for us to sin and die. We participate in Adam’s disobedience.
Jesus’ one act of righteousness did not automatically save the world or automatically make us righteous, but introduced grace and justification to the world. Jesus’ act made it possible for us to be justified. What Paul is beginning to show, and will show more fully in chapter 6, is that when we are linked to Adam by sinning, we stand under judgment. But when we are linked to Jesus by faith, we stand in grace. We are either under the power and reign of sin, or we are under the power and reign of Jesus. We are either in sin or in Jesus.
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21 ESV)
Paul now returns to the nature and impact of the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was part of Paul’s discussion in chapter 4. He brings in some thoughts about the Law of Moses to help us understand what Moses’ law did. To understand verse 20, I believe it will help us significantly to understand how the Jews perceived Moses’ law. The ESV Study Bible points out, “The typical Jewish view in Paul’s day was that God gave the law to counteract the sinful human impulse. In Judaism there was the proverb, ‘The more Torah the more life’ (Mishnah, Aboth 2.7).” Paul has worked out this point previously in the letter to Romans that the Law of Moses did not bring life and did not bring justification. Remember that the Jews were relying on possession of the Law of Moses as their ticket to justification. Recall Paul’s points earlier in this letter:
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20 ESV) In the next verse Paul says that the righteousness of God was revealed apart from the law. In Romans 4:15 Paul reminded his audience that the law brings wrath, not life. So here also in Romans 5:20. The Law of Moses came in, but it did not make things better. In fact, it made things worse. There was no hope built within the Law of Moses. We have noticed this frequently throughout our study of Romans. The Law of Moses showed us and taught us about sin. But it did not offer any lasting remedy. The blood of bulls and goats did not take away sins. The Law of Moses was given to reveal sin, not as a means of justification. But that is what the Jews thought. They thought life was in the Law of Moses, and failed to recognize that death was in the Law and they needed a Savior for their shortcomings. Now, I do not believe Paul is saying that God gave the Law of Moses with the intention that sins would increase. That would violate God’s character to say that it was God’s purpose to have more sins committed. The NRSV carries the idea rightly, “But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied.” Paul is going to explore this point further in chapter 7, but the point is sufficient to understand is this: when there is no law, there is no sin, because sin is transgression of God’s law. Therefore, when law increases, sin increases all the more. The giving of the Law of Moses only increased sin. Law does not bring justification.
But notice the beautiful picture of verse 20. Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more. Using the word “abounded” or “increased” is somewhat insufficient to describe the overflowing of grace. Earlier, Paul said in 5:15 that grace abounded or overflowed for the many. But Paul did not use the same word in 5:15 that he used in 5:20. Paul says that the grace “super-abounded,” “super-increased,” or “super-overflowed.” Perhaps the NEB captures the intent well, “Where sin was thus multiplied, grace immeasurably exceeded it.”
Therefore, grace now reigns. Previously, sin reigned in death. But in Jesus grace reigns. Grace is ruling through God’s covenant faithfulness (righteousness) in the life of Jesus, and the result is eternal life (true life with God). Notice that sin is described again as a power. This will be helpful in chapter 6 especially. The power of sin is overshadowed and broken by the power of grace. Sin reigned by leading people to death (separation from God). Grace reigns by leading people to eternal life (reconciliation to God). To sum up, now we have grace that is greater than all our sins is the great thought. Grace is not withheld because of sin. Grace abounds and overflows because of our sins.
Final Thoughts:
1. We need grace.
2. Grace is overflowing. It does not run out.
3. God has revealed his righteousness. He sent Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins, bringing grace into the world, so that those who receive this abundance of grace will be declared acquitted. We must be in Jesus to receive this grace.
Union With Christ
Romans 6:1-5
Brent Kercheville
Chapter 5 concluded with the beautiful thought that where sin increased, grace super increased all the more. Paul taught that grace is more powerful and greater than all our sin. Adam’s sin changed the world by introducing sin and death (separation from God) into the world. But now Jesus has come and he has also changed the world. Rather than being under the power of sin and death, we can be under the power of grace and receive justification. Now that grace is overflowing, Paul is going to ask us with whom we are in union: Adam and Christ?
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1 ESV)
Understanding Paul’s rhetorical questions is important to properly understanding this section of Romans. The NIV translation seems to miss the picture that the apostle Paul is trying to paint. The NIV reads, What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” But the NIV changes sin from being a noun to a verb. Paul is not saying, “Since we have grace, can we go out and commit many sins?” This is not the question Paul is answering. Look at the question again that Paul poses. “Are we to continue in sin?” Or to state the question another way, “Are we to remain in sin?” The idea behind the phrase is to remain in a place or remain in a status. We noticed in Romans 5 that sin and death are personified and described as a wicked ruling power. Sin is spoken of as coming into the world (Romans 5:12) and as ruling like a king (Romans 5:21). Paul is continuing that usage. Paul is asking if we can remain in the place of sin. Paul is questioning if we should remain under the power and reign of sin. The question has the form of asking something like this: “Should we remain in France and thus act like those who live in that country?” To bring this illustration to Romans 6, Paul is asking if we should continuing living in the country of sin and act like those who live in that country.
This question closely relates to Paul’s teaching in Romans 5. Once Adam sinned, we live in a world full of sin, death, and corruption. But Christ has come bringing super-abounding grace. So we do not have to live in the country of sin. The Christian now lives in the country of grace and justification. Sin reigned in Adam, according to Romans 5. Paul is asking Christians, “Shall we remain under sin’s rule?” “Should we continue living under its power?”
While the NIV translation carries some of the idea, it does miss the mark. Paul is not asking if we should go on sinning because we have the grace of Christ. Rather, since we have the grace of Christ, can we still live under the rule and power of sin? Can we still live in the country of sin and act like the citizens of that ruling power?
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:2 ESV)
The answer: NO WAY! Absolutely not! God’s grace is overflowing and super-abounding through the blood of Jesus. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Notice again that sin is pictured as a place to live. The Christian is not living under sin’s power. Recall what Paul taught us in Romans 5. Sin and death were reigning. But in Romans 5:17 we learn those who receive grace reign in life through Jesus. Sin and death reigned previously, but now grace reigns through righteousness leading to eternal life (Romans 5:21). We are dead to the power of sin. We cannot live in the country of sin when Jesus has broken sin’s power and we are no longer in its grasp. Christians are people whose main characteristic is “dead to sin.” We cannot stay where we are as sinners. Paul told us that we are ungodly, sinful enemies of God. But we cannot stay in that land of sin. We are to be dead to that life and cannot live in that country or under its rule any longer. You have died to sin! You cannot live under its rule! To put this into our illustration that we used in verse 1, you have died to France. Thus you cannot live as a citizen in France. You cannot act like the French because you are dead to France and all of its power and rule. In the same way, Paul is saying that we are dead to the country of sin. Therefore we cannot act like those who live under the power and rule of sin.
KEY: It is important to recognize that Paul is not saying, “I never sin.” The apostle John cleaned that thought up nicely in 1 John 1:10 that if we say we have not sinned, we are liars and God’s word is not in us. Paul is not saying that Christians do not sin. Rather, Paul is saying that we are dead to the power and rule of that world. Sin is not the rule of our lives. We are not citizens of sin. Sin is not what we are living for because we are dead to that life and dead to that rule.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4 ESV)
Paul asks these Christians a very strong question. Don’t you know what baptism means? Don’t you know what baptism symbolizes? Baptism is our statement we are dead to sin. I think the NLT helps reveal the meaning of Paul’s teaching more clearly.
Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? (Romans 6:3 NLT)
Baptism joins us to Christ and places us in the body. When we make the decision to come to Jesus and are baptized, we become joined to Christ. But the point is not simply that we are now joined with Jesus. To be baptized into Christ is to die and rise again with Christ. We are dying to the world of sin, sin’s rule and power, and rising to live a new life as a new person joined to Christ.
There is a symbolism expressed in the act of immersion. Going down into the water signifies our burial. We are putting to death the old person and the old way of living. We are not going to live for sin. We are not going to submit ourselves to sin’s power and rule any longer. In going down into the water we are declaring that we no longer live in the country of sin nor will act like citizens of sin. Our rising out of the water signifies our resurrection to new life. Immersion is signifying the death of our old life in sin and the rising of a new life joined to Jesus that replaces the old life. Our rising up reflects that we are under a new master. We will not serve sin as our master and ruler. Instead, we will serve Jesus as our master and ruler. We will reign in life and not let sin reign over us. Paul will discuss this thought further in the rest of Romans 6.
Now, I would like for us to consider a few things at this point. First, the form of baptism matters. Sprinkling water on a person does not symbolize the death to sin and the raising to a new life. Pouring a pitcher of water over someone does not symbolize being buried with Jesus. The Greek word that is translated “baptized” in verse 3 is baptizo and the word means “to immerse, to submerge.” Baptism is a burial. There is not anything special in the water. There is nothing in the act alone that saves. We can immerse ourselves in water every day if we like by taking a bath. Baptism is not a sacrament. You are not finding the overflowing grace of God by just being nagged by friends or family to finally get into the water. What makes baptism powerful is the symbol that it carries and what you are saying by carrying out this symbol. The act is symbolizing the declaration of the person that they are dying to the rule of sin and death and are rising up to a new life. This immersion in water marks the occasion. This is when the new life begins. There is no such thing as a Christian who has not been baptized. We are not united in Christ when we believed, but when we were baptized, according to Paul. Friends, if you were sprinkled as baptism, you were not buried with Jesus and you have not joined yourself to Jesus. I want each of us to see that this is a very important act because it is the method God has given us to express our faith in him so that he will overflow grace to us. This is how begin our death to sin and reign in life in Jesus.
Second, I want us to also consider that this thought process rules out infant and children baptism. You must know what you are doing. Your parents getting you baptized is not the answer. This illustration was not given to say that we need to throw people in water against their will even if they do not know what they are doing. You must know what you are doing. Look at the words again: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” You need to know what is going on. You are making a powerful statement that you are at this moment are joining yourself to Jesus, becoming dead to sin and alive to Jesus. We are renouncing our citizenship in the country of sin and are now living as citizens of heaven.
Thus, those who are baptized have this status: joined with Christ. You are not baptized into a church. You are not baptized into a denomination. You must be baptized into Jesus and Jesus only. You are no longer joined with Adam, under sin’s reign and power. Now we are joined with Christ and are reigning in life through Jesus (Romans 5:17). Now, through this faithful act, we are those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17). The old life is dead and buried. We leave that life behind in the waters of baptism and rise up from the water to live a new life in God’s grace. We are dead to a self-centered way of life and embrace a new, Christ-centered life, a life that acknowledges Christ as Lord over all.
Now, why did Paul come here? Why is Paul talking about how important it is for us to be in Christ and joined to Christ? Let’s return to Romans 5 and notice how Paul is working this together. While we were weak and helpless in our sin (sin ruling over us), Christ died. He died for us while we were sinners (Romans 5:8), while we were ungodly (Romans 5:6), and while we were enemies (Romans 5:10). Now that we are reconciled, much more will be surely be saved in his life (Romans 5:10). Salvation is in being in Jesus. It is in Jesus that we have reconciliation to God (Romans 5:11). It is in Jesus that grace has abounded (Romans 5:15). In Jesus we find justification (Romans 5:16). In Jesus we reign in life (Romans 5:17). In Jesus there is life and justification for all (Romans 5:18). In Jesus the many are made righteous (Romans 5:19). We must be united to Christ to receive the super-abundance of God’s grace overflowing. Jump ahead to Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We unite ourselves to Jesus when we make the commitment to no longer live with sin as the rule of our lives, but with Jesus as the rule of our lives. This is what is happening at baptism. Again, Paul is not saying that we never sin now. Rather, sin is not in charge. Sin is not the rule of our lives. We have kicked out the rule of sin. We have renounced our citizenship in the country of sin. Now we live in a different kingdom, the kingdom of Christ. Now we follow his rules and submit ourselves to his grace and love. Now we walk in a new way of life (Romans 6:4).
The power of baptism rest completely in the death and resurrection of Christ.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5 ESV)
Now we are given a promise. If we are united with Jesus in his death (that is, dead to the power of sin which is represented by the act of baptism), then we will certainly be united with Jesus in a resurrection like his. Baptism symbolizes this fact. If we unite ourselves with Jesus in his burial, then we must be united with Jesus in his resurrection. In baptism, which symbolizes the life that is dead to sin, we know that we have new life in the present and a resurrected life with God in the end. Sin and death reign in our lives because of our sins. We are sinners. We are ungodly. We are enemies. But Jesus’ grace has overwhelmed our sins so that when we are united to Jesus, we can reign with him in life. In Jesus we have hope and the knowledge that we will not be condemned for our sins. God has covered our sins with the blood of Jesus and now we stand before God with the status of acquitted.
Conclusion:
1. Change your allegiance. Are you living where sin and separation from God is the rule of your life? Are you trapped by the power of sin and feel unable to break the vices that rule over you? It is time to change the ruler of your life. Jesus has come and has brought grace, which gives us the opportunity to no longer be ruled by sin but ruled by grace.
2. Dead to sin. Don’t you know that when you are baptized you are joined to Jesus and can no longer be joined to sin. We cannot live the life we were living before we received God’s grace. We are dead to that life. We are dead to that way of thinking. Baptism symbolizes our death to self-centered living.
3. Alive to God. Baptism also symbolizes our new life of Christ-centered living. We walk in newness of life, not only because we participate in Jesus’ death and burial, but also because they shall participate in his resurrection. Only when we are in Christ will receive grace, justification, and reign in life. We become joined to Christ in baptism.
Saying No To Sin
Romans 6:6-14
Brent Kercheville
At the beginning of Romans 6 Paul has explained that we cannot continue to live in the realm and power of sin because baptism symbolizes our death to the old life and raising up to a new life serving God. The rest of Romans 6 is going to further explain this important point. Paul’s lesson is about saying no to sin. But we should not think of the Christian life as a list of “do not’s.” The sin life is the negative and the new life in Jesus is the positive. We often have an odd way of looking at this world, as if we are really missing out on engaging in the things of this world. Paul is telling us that this is not proper thinking. We were slaves to sin. We were under its power and might. We were under its vices and control. Sin enslaved us. But Jesus is giving us a new life. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 6:6-7.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (Romans 6:6 ESV)
Notice the end result of what God is doing for us. “We would no longer be enslaved to sin.” The rule of sin has been broken! This is exciting, wonderful news. We do not have to be enslaved to sin. There are a lot of slaves in this world. Satan has done an excellent job in enslaving the human race. People are enslaved to sexual immorality, the desires of the flesh controlling their actions. I have tried to help people with this enslavement. We are not able to be very productive because we cannot keep our minds off of sexual things for very long. The person cannot use the computer for good, but also for gratifying the desires of the body. The person cannot look at other people without thinking about lustful thoughts. You are enslaved to sin. People are enslaved to alcohol. People are enslaved to their work, believing that their worth and value comes from who they are in their work. People are enslaved to money. People are enslaved to having new things. People are enslaved to drugs, legal or illegal. There are so many worldly things that we become enslaved to in life. But life does not have to be like this. Our lives do not have to be enslaved.
Do we see what Paul is saying? Paul is not being redundant. There is a progression described in verse 6. We crucify the old self with Jesus. We take on the attack against the old way of living and the sins we committed. We kill that old way of life so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. I think many writers miss the great news Paul is teaching. We can break the body of sin. We can break the power that our sinful bodies have over our lives. If you are enslaved to the desires and the sins of the body, you are not in a hopeless situation. The body of sin can be brought to nothing. We are not hopelessly lost to the power of sin. That is what Paul is telling us in verse 6. Crucify the old self so in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. The body does not have to be controlled by sin.
We must see that this is a positive thing, not a negative. Crucifying the old self is not God being a wet blanket, telling us that we cannot have any fun anymore. God is trying to fix us and heal us. Our body of sin is exerting control over our lives so that we are unable to do the things that know we should do or should not do (Paul is going to explore this in chapter 7). Do we think Tiger Woods woke up one morning and decided to have a number of mistresses? I don’t believe so. I am sure he cares about his family. The problem is that he is enslaved to his lusts. He is enslaved to the power of his body. He is enslaved to sin. The power of the body of sin is strong and it can control and exercise dominion over our thinking. But that does not have to be. God is offering freedom from that enslavement. God is not prevent us from enjoying life. He is trying to restore us and redeem us from our enslavement to sin. Paul teaches us to break this enslavement to sin by crucifying the old self. Paul is going to explain how to crucify the old self later in this text.
For one who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:7 ESV)
Paul is not making a statement of the obvious, that is, that dead people do not sin. Paul is not saying that only when you are dead will you be free from sin’s power. To believe that this is what Paul is saying contradicts all the hope that he has given us in chapter 5 and here in chapter 6. Paul taught that sin does not reign in us any more and that we reign in life. In just the last verse (Romans 6:6) Paul said that we would not longer be enslaved to sin. The NLT renders this idea properly, “For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin” (Romans 6:7; NLT). The death that Paul has been speaking about is dying with Christ. Look back at Romans 6:5 where Paul taught that we must be united with Jesus in a death like his. When we die with Christ we will be set free from the power of sin over us. Paul is offering hope for us. When we died with Christ, we were set free from sin’s power and rule. This is not presented in the negative: “Do not sin.” Rather, see this is a blessing: “You can be set free from sin and no longer be enslaved to it.” Die with Christ and be set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:8-11 ESV)
Verse 8 parallels verse 5. When we crucify the old self, putting an end to the old manner of life, we believe that we will also be made alive with him. Paul has used the figure of baptism to show that we are united with Jesus. What is happening with Jesus is also happening with us. Verse 8 is reminding us of this important connection that we have with Jesus. If we die with him, then we are united to him. If we die with him, we will live with him. Paul is going to explain this thought further.
As we read this, it is important to realize that Paul is making a parallel. It is not an exact parallel, as we will see, but it is a general parallel. Back in verse 4 of this chapter Paul did the same thing. Jesus died, was buried, and then raised from the dead. The parallel is not that we physically die, are physically buried, and are physically resurrected in verse 4. The parallel is that baptism is the parallel. We are joined with Jesus death, burial, and resurrection when we die to sin, are buried in water, and rise from the water to live a new life. Paul makes a similar type parallel here. The first point: Death no longer has dominion over Christ. We know that Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection is the shattering of the power over sin and death. But what Paul means by this is explained in verse 10.
The death that Jesus died he died to sin. Carefully read that point again. Notice that the text does not say that Jesus died for sin. Jesus did die for sin, but that is not Paul’s point here. Rather, the point is that Jesus died to sin. Jesus did not live under the power of sin. Jesus was not enslaved to sin. Jesus did not allow his body to come under sin’s dominion. He crucified himself to sin. The life he lives is for God. God is the rule of his life. Jesus gave his life in submission to God, not to sin. Jesus followed the will of God, not his fleshly desires or his self will. The God’s Word translation probably renders the verse well when it reads:
When he died, he died once and for all to sin’s power. But now he lives, and he lives for God. (Romans 6:10 God’s Word)
Because this is the example of Jesus, we are to do the same. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” As Christians we are to consider ourselves or count ourselves in two ways. There are two ways we are to think about ourselves. We are to think of ourselves as dead to sin. We need to remember that sin is not to be the rule of our lives. Jesus died to the power of sin and we also must die to the power of sin because we have been united with Christ. If we are joined with Christ, and Christ died to sin, so we must also be dead to sin if we are truly joined with him. The first part of crucifying the old self so that the body of sin can be put to death is to think properly. We need to think rightly about sin. We must think of ourselves as dead to sin. We no longer live under sin’s power and no longer live under sin’s rule. We have a new master and no longer give our allegiance to sin. Second, we must think of ourselves as alive to God. We live for God through Jesus who has set us free from sin. The fight begins with our mental disposition. Breaking out of the power of sin begins with the mind that understands that we are not to live for sin, but live for God.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14 ESV)
Don’t let sin be in charge of your life. Don’t let sin run your body. We must fight against sin taking over. Paul is revealing how easy it is for us to become enslaved to sin. Sin will make you obey its passions. We have already noted the many vices and sins that we become enslaved to because we cave into sin. Don’t let sin be in charge. One must deliberately resist these passions. We do not live in the country of sin any longer, but sin still threatens us and tempts us. If we allow sin to reign, then we will return to slavery. Breaking out of that slavery is very difficult, but possible through the power of Jesus. If you give into your desires and passions, you will become a slave to those passions. Do not let sin reign or you will shackle yourself to that which Christ has freed you.
Further, we need to present ourselves to God, not to sin. Notice again that sin is personified, described as a ruling master or king. Do not present yourself to sin. Present yourself to God. We are to be at God’s disposal, not sin’s. Particularly, notice that Paul calls for us to consider all the parts of our body. Every body part is to be instruments for righteousness. Are our tongues an instrument for righteousness or a weapon for unrighteousness? Are our eyes used for purity or impurity? Do we use our ears to listen to filth or clean words and music? Do we use our hands as instruments for holiness or for sin? Do we possess our sexual organs for purity and self-control or for wickedness and impurity? Is our mind used for God’s glory or for selfish thoughts and sexual fantasies? Paul is telling to not let any member of our body be given over to impurity. If we do, we will be slaves to sin. Sin will be our master.
When sin is our master, then we are not joined with Christ because when we joined with Christ we became dead to sin. It is not compatible to say that we are joined with Christ but are still serving sin. These two things do not work together. We must consider ourselves dead to the power of sin. God must rule our lives. Jesus must be our example. The body cannot be in charge.
But praise be to God that grace has come. Before Jesus came, the law showed us sin, made us its slave, and gave us no hope for release. The law showed us that we are miserable sinners deserving of God. Jesus has come and now we are under grace, meaning that we have been set free from the law. Now we can be free from sin’s slavery. Jesus has redeemed us. Jesus gives us hope. Jesus makes it possible for us to leave sin’s power and come under God’s power.
Practical Steps:
1. Identify our personal weakness.
2. Recognize the things that tempt us
3. Stay away from sources of temptation
4. Practice self-control and restraint
5. Consciously invest our time in good habits, service, and praise
6. Rely of God’s strength and grace (pray, get help from your Christian family)
Slaves To Righteousness
Romans 6:15-23
Brent Kercheville
In our last lesson we looked at how we can break free from the power and dominion of sin. Christ has set us free and we cannot allow sin to reign in our bodies. We cannot present the members of our body as instruments for sin. We are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. We examined some practical ways that we can fight against sin in our last lesson. Paul is going to continue this train of thought, breaking free from slavery to sin and becoming slaves to righteousness.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:15 ESV)
I think it is important to ask, “Is Paul repeating the same question here that he asked in Romans 6:1?” While many seem to think so, I believe that Paul is not going over the same point again but advancing his point. Chapter 7 is going to give an illustration what it means to not be bound under the Law of Moses. I think Paul is pressing forward in Romans 6 to discuss the impact of not being under the Law of Moses. Paul seems to be asking about the impact of not being under the Law of Moses but being under grace. Are we in sin if we are not under the Law of Moses? Are we under no law since we are not under the Law of Moses but under grace? I believe this question is paralleled to Paul’s question in Galatians 2:17, “But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!” (ESV). Does coming out from the sphere of the Law of Moses mean that one was joining the sinners? The Law of Moses separated the Jews from the sinful Gentiles. Since we are not under the Law of Moses, does this mean we are not under law at all and are joined to sin and to the sinners? Paul strongly answers, “By no means!”
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18 ESV)
Previously Paul was emphasizing more our status over our behavior. We have been given the status of righteous/justified/acquitted. Therefore we cannot live as if we are under the rule and power of sin. Now Paul is emphasizing more our behavior over our status. “You are slaves of the one you obey.” This is a fairly simple point. You are a slave to whatever you obey. Christians are no longer slaves to sin. Therefore, they must no longer live as slaves to sin. We cannot obey sin. Please notice that there are only two options available. Either we are slaves to sin or we are slaves to God in obedience. The choice is not, “Should I retain my freedom or give it up and submit to God?” We are not free. We are in slavery to sin. The question is, “Should I be a slave to my body and my passions, or should I be a slave to God.” Being under grace clearly means that we are to be slaves to God.
Romans 6:17 makes the point very clear. Paul is not saying that we are not under any laws whatsoever. Paul is not saying that we do not need to obey God’s law. To break free from the slavery of sin means that we are going to be obedient from the heart to God’s teaching. When Paul speaks of obedience, he does not mean that Christians are saved because they keep the rules. Paul is calling for a change of heart that leads to our obedience to his commands. No command is something that is to be followed begrudgingly or spitefully. We are to obey because we love God and understand that the death of Jesus has made it that we can be pronounced justified. We obey because of what God has done for us. We obey because of the blood of Jesus that was given for us. We obey because we do not want to be enslaved to our passions and desires. We want to be free from that prison and live in service to God.
Romans 6:17 also has an interesting nuance to consider before we move forward. Paul is not speaking about the scriptures being given to believers. There are many New Testament scriptures that do say that. But notice that Paul does not say that the standard of teaching was committed to us, but that we were committed to the standard of teaching. We were previously committed to the power of sin. But now we have a new master and have been committed to the power of God. We have been delivered from one master to another. Therefore, looking at verse 18, we have set free from the power of sin and are now slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to holiness and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:19-23)
Paul admits that he is trying to use an illustration to get his point across. I think Paul means that we should not see the Christian life as slavery. It is being set free, as Paul spoke about earlier in this book (Romans 6:7). Paul is using a limited illustration to help us recognize where we stand. What we obey shows us if where we are enslaved. If we obey our passions and desires, we are enslaved to sin. Those who are not enslaved to sin are those who obey Jesus.
Paul continues by telling us that obedience is habitual. Sin is a cruel master that drives us into deeper sins. Lying breeds more lies. Sexual immorality leads to more sexual immorality. Sin has a domino effect. Lawlessness leads to more lawlessness. Sin brings more sin. Satan lies to us, causing us to think that we can sin just once. But sin triggers a chain of wicked events that are very difficult to stop. But the opposite is also true. Presenting ourselves as slaves to righteousness will lead to holy living. When we obey Christ, we are triggering a chain of events that are very difficult to stop. Reading the scriptures regularly in the beginning will be difficult, but will become a habit and will be easier to do each day. Doing good and living right is hard to begin but grows easier with time as it becomes a habit. So we need to live different and not live as we did in the past.
There is no quick fix here. There is no shortcut. This is hard work toward holiness. The easy route is to cave in to the desires of the flesh. The easy path is to succumb to temptations. The easy road is to keep doing what we are doing. The narrow road is the more difficult path. We need to dig in and present the members of our bodies as slaves to righteousness. Start good habits. Break the old habits. Serve God well.
Romans 6:20 ought to be jarring statement to our souls. When we are slaves to sin, we are free in regard to righteousness. We are free from God’s covenant faithfulness when we serve sin. When we let sin be the rule of our lives, we do not have the declaration of justified in the sight of God. We have returned to ungodliness and the wrath of God has been revealed against all ungodliness (1:18). Grace is not overflowing and super-abounding if we make the choice to remain under the rule and power of sin. We must change our allegiance to God and present our bodies in obedience to God.
Paul now asks us to decide if that lifestyle was really worth it. What fruit were you getting from that lifestyle? What lasting benefit do you have for being slaves to sin? I think this is really important for us to consider and answer. At best, we can say nothing. Sin has temporary joy and pleasure, but it does not last, leaving us looking for something else to give us that joy. At worst, being enslaved to sin leads to all sorts of problems. Family relationships are destroyed, marriages are ruined, friendships are lost, health is compromised, emotional scars, imprisonment, and even physical death. Sin can destroy us physically and emotionally. What fruit can be found in that slavery? There is short term joy, but devastating consequences.
But look at the fruit obtained from the godly life. Holiness and eternal life are the end result. Being slaves to sin leaves us with nothing to show for our slavery. But serving God and being set free from sins leads to a new, different life than the world. A life that God wants you to have. Further, eternal life is available. Paul pictures Christians not only having a quality of life now, but the great result of being with God. This is how Paul ends the thought.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 ESV)
Sin, as a ruler, pays out wages to its captives. Wages pictures a repeated payment. We do not receive a wage once for our work. We all get paid weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. This is the idea behind the wages of sin. Sin keeps repeating its payment to us. That payment is death, separation from God. The wages of sin is not physical death, because everyone will die, regardless of whether they are slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. But sin separates us from God. “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14; ESV). Sin is the payment that keeps on paying its horrible consequences to us. We are separated from God and continue to be separated from God.
By contrast, when we are slaves to righteousness our ruler is God. But God does not pay out wages. He gives us gifts. The gift that comes from God is eternal life. Notice that this is a beautiful contrast. Sin repays to us separation from God. God gives the gift of a relationship with him. Real living, true living, and a fulness of life is being given to us.
Life Applications:
1. We have been given over to a new standard of teaching. We cannot follow the rules of the world. We have been committed to a new standard of teaching that we are to obey from the heart. New rules for a new way of life.
2. The life in sin is a fruitless life. What do we have to show for it? The only lasting thing we receive from being slaves to sin are problems. We have nothing tangible from our sins that gives us lasting enjoyment now. But we have a whirlwind of problems from our sins.
3. Life is like a stack of dominoes. When sinning, it is easy to commit more sins. When obeying, it is easy to continue in obedience. The hard part is breaking the chain. Create new good, pure habits. End old wicked habits.
4. Sin is paying us its wage — separation from God. We are not with God when we allow ourselves to remain enslaved to sin. We are free in regards to righteousness (Romans 6:20), no longer justified from our sins when we stay under sin’s power. Either we are slaves to sin or slaves to God.
The Triumph of Grace
Romans 7:1-6
Brent Kercheville
In our last lesson Paul ended with the teaching, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sin pays its wage over and over again to those who are under its power: separation from God. In chapter 7 Paul is continuing to discuss the implications of not being under the Law of Moses. Paul is now going to illustrate their relationship to the Law of Moses. Verse 1 sets forward the key point: one’s relationship to the law is changed when death occurs.
Illustration (Romans 7:2-3)
First, we need to properly understand the illustration before we can apply it to the point Paul is making concerning the Law of Moses. This illustration is not a hypothetical idea. Paul is using a true illustration from God’s marriage law to show how this relates to the Law of Moses. Paul begins that a married woman is bound to the law of her husband as long as he lives. When he dies she is released from that law. Romans 7:2 is a simple idea. You are married to one another as long as each on lives. When one dies, each spouse is no longer bound to each other. They are no longer bound to the law of marriage. Upon death, a person is released from the law. Romans 7:3 continues the illustration. If she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and marrying another man is not adultery. Paul brings adultery into the picture. It is adultery if you live with another person while your spouse is still alive. The implied reason is that they are still bound to each other. That bond of marriage only breaks at death (Jesus would also teach that the bond of marriage is also broken if your spouse cheats on you). I think it is useful to observe that just because she cheated on him does not make them free. According to Jesus, he would have the right to divorce her for infidelity. But she is an adulteress, though she is married to another. When her first husband dies, she is no longer bound to him and that marriage, and, therefore, cannot be called an adulteress any longer. It is a fairly straightforward presentation of God’s universal marriage law.
Now, the important question is: What does this have to do with Paul’s message and the context of Romans? Paul is not breaking into a study of marriage and divorce right here. Further, it is important to consider that Paul is teaching more than the simple point that a person is free from the law at death. That point was made in verse 1. There is no need for this illustration of adultery if all Paul wants to teach is that we are set free from the law at death. Many scholars have a difficult time understanding how this illustration relates to Paul’s audience concerning the Law of Moses. Some have so boldly suggested that this illustration is incoherent. I believe the reason so many have difficulty with this illustration is because they try to understand the law to be all moral law rather than the Law of Moses. This does cause all sorts of problems. But the problems are erased if we understand Paul to be using this figure to illustrate where these Christians stand concerning the Law of Moses.
Here is the meaning of the illustration.
1. Jews (and by extension Jewish Christians) were bound to the Law of Moses = “A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives”
2. But the Jews were found to be adulterous to God = “She will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive”
3. Now free from the Law of Moses because we are not under the Law of Moses but under grace = “But if her husband dies, she is released from the law”
4. Now they are in a new relationship, bound to Christ = “if she marries another”
5. In Christ they are no longer found adulterous to God = “she is not an adulteress”
So the key point is this: freedom from one relationship allows a person to establish a new one. This is the very point that verse 4 is making and why I think the above explanation of the illustration is accurate. “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4 ESV). They have died to the Law of Moses through the body of Christ so that they can belong to Jesus, the law of Christ, so that they can bear fruit for God. Paul is teaching that we are under a new law, a better covenant. The Law of Moses is not the law for that law shows we are enslaved to sin. We are under the covenant of Christ, the new testament, that sets us free from sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Bearing Fruit
God’s purpose for our lives is to bear fruit. God has set us free from sin not to live how we want to live or to plunge ourselves into a life of sin. God does not want to free so that we turn right around and enslave ourselves into sin again. We have been set free. Don’t use your freedom to go back into that which enslaved you. Instead, we are to be fruitful for God. In other words, we must show ourselves to not be under the power of sin or allegiance to sinfulness. Rather, we must show ourselves to be under God’s control, fully serving Jesus.
Living In The Flesh
Paul speaks of “living in the flesh.” This is the first time that we have come across this phrase. We need to understand this phrase because Paul is going to use it a lot in chapters 7-8. The NIV, TNIV, and NLT uses “sinful nature” rather than “flesh.” “Flesh” is the literal translation of the Greek word sarx. Paul, however, is not referring the physical body when he speaks of “living in the flesh” because we have to live in our physical bodies. We have no other choice. However, I am not a fan of using “sinful nature” because it can easily be misconstrued. Paul is not talking about being born in sin, which is what “sinful nature” seems to imply. Rather than spending time speaking about what this is not, let us examine what Paul means when he says, “living in the flesh.” I believe Paul is using “the flesh” as shorthand for all that he has already described in chapter 6. “Flesh” describes being under the rule and power of sin. “The flesh” refers to being slaves to sin, to obeying our passions, and being united in Adam rather than united in Christ. Paul is not talking about our nature, but where we stand and where our allegiance is. Do we belong to the country of sin, subjected to sin’s rule and power or do we belong to Jesus, subjected to Jesus’ rule and power?
I think we can see how this works in Romans 7:5. While we were living in the flesh (that is, while we were dominated by the power of sin and were hostile to God), our sinful passions were at work in the members of our body. Those passions being at work in the members of our body bears fruit. It bears the fruit of death, that is, separation from God.
There are two issues at work here. First, Paul is still answering the question in Romans 6:15, “Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” Paul is still pressing into us that just because we are not under the Law of Moses does not mean that there is no law and does not mean that we can live however we want. Living in the flesh produces the fruit of separation from God. We cannot think that we can remain in the power and grip of sin, living as slaves to sin, and have God’s grace abounding toward us, declaring us justified. We are not free from sin so that we can live for self. Paul points this out in verse 4, “so that you may belong to another.” We are not to sin because we are under grace. We belong to the one who has been raised from the dead. We do not belong to ourselves. When we belong to ourselves, then we are separated from God because our sinful passions are at work in us.
We cannot love the world more than we love him. Imagine telling your spouse that you love something else more than him or her. Yet we often show God that we love the things of this world more than we love God.
The second issue at work is revealed in the subtle phrase, “aroused by the law.” Paul continues to combat the thought that the Law of Moses justified people from their sins. Paul has already told us that the Law of Moses revealed sin (Romans 3:20) and increased sin (Romans 5:20). Rather than justifying people from their sins, the Law of Moses condemns. Sinfulness is aroused by the Law of Moses and proof of this is the history of Israel. Think about the history of Israel from the moment God gives Israel the covenant, the ten commandments. The people are not justified by this law, but are found in to be in deep sin. The people complain in the wilderness. The people refuse to enter the land and conquer Canaan. The people complain again in the wilderness. The people forsake God and are subjected to the surrounding nations during the days of the judges. The rulers of Israel were all sinful. The people were sinful during those days also. When the nation divides, the northern nation never has a good king and kill the prophets of God. The southern nation was not much better so that both were exiled into captivity. Where is the holiness and justification that came once the Law of Moses was given? The Law did not curb sin. The people sinned all the more, which is Paul’s point. Paul is going to speak more about this in verse 9, so we will leave the rest of our discussion of this until that point.
Released From the Law
The first two words are important, powerful, and beautiful. “But now….” I love these conjunctions. But now we are released from the law. The law condemns. The law does not save. But Jesus has released us from the law. But there are requirements on our part. We are not just simply set free. We cannot think that there is nothing demanded of us. We can see this in verse 6, “having died to that which held us captive.” I hope we can see that this has been the point of the sixth chapter. We have died to the former way of living. We have died to the power of sin. We have died to being slaves to sin. Paul has added one more piece to which we are dead. We are dead to the Law of Moses. The law held us captive, condemning us and not justifying us. We have died to that law so that we can serve in the new way of the Spirit and not the old way of the written code.
There is a contrast of covenants being expressed. We do not live in the old way of the written code. Paul previously used “the written code” in Romans 2:27 and he was referring to the Law of Moses. “Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law” (Romans 2:27 ESV). In verse 29 of Romans 2, Paul used the same contrast between the Spirit and the written code (or letter). “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Romans 2:29 ESV). Paul is expressing that the new way of life which is not of the old covenant (the Law of Moses) but is the new covenant, which is what the Holy Spirit prophesied.
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. (Ezekiel 36:26-27 NLT)
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 ESV)
The coming of Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises. God is being faithful to his covenant and to his promises, revealed through the Spirit. We serve from the heart of knowledge that Jesus has died for us, setting us free from sin and the law. We do not live how we want to live, but present our bodies in holiness to God, bearing fruit for him. Paul wrote something similar to the Corinthians also.
Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:5-6; ESV)
Paul is not only contrasting the old law with the new law (the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ, or the Law of the Spirit), but also contrasting the end result. The Law of Moses brought death because the Law of Moses does not justify. It only shows us that we are enslaved to sin. But the new law of Christ brings us life, not condemnation. Christ brought justification. Grace has triumphed over our sins.
Lessons:
1. “You belong to another” (Romans 7:4)
2. “Bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4)
3. “We serve in the new way of the Spirit” (Romans 7:6)
The Inner Turmoil of Sin
Romans 7:7-25
Brent Kercheville
In our last lesson we saw two keys issues that Paul is bringing together: sin and the law. The message of chapter six was that we are to be dead to sin, no longer presenting our bodies as instruments for unrighteousness. We have been set free from slavery to sin. But we were not set free through the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses did not justify and did not save. The history of Israel is proof that the law did not justify. So we must be dead to the law so that we can be joined with Jesus. We belong to another and we must bear fruit for God.
Unfortunately, being set free is not that simple. We do not come to Christ, become set free from sin, and never deal with the problem of sin again. Sin is still at war against us. We are told to resist the devil so that he will flee from us. We are reminded that no temptation has overtaken us that is not common to people and that God provides a way of escape. Further, the apostle Paul told us that we are not merely battling flesh and blood, but we are engaged against all kinds of spiritual powers of darkness. Paul is going to explore our dilemma in Romans 7.
Is The Law Sinful? (Romans 7:7-12)
Before Paul addresses the inner turmoil of sin, Paul is following through a line of thinking that originated in Romans 5. Paul has revealed that the Law of Moses does not save, did not justify, and did not provide the forgiveness of sins. Rather, the law revealed sin. The law condemns us. It shows us that we are sinful and provides no way of escape. The natural question is: is the Law of Moses sinful? Or perhaps to state the question more sharply: is the Law of Moses the cause of sin? Paul’s adamant and common response that we have seen through this letter is, “By no means!” The Law of Moses is not the cause of sin, nor is it sinful. But the law did have a purpose. The Law of Moses exposed sin and defined what sin was. Without the law we would not have a good knowledge of sin. Paul quotes the tenth commandment from the Law of Moses to prove his point. By quoting the tenth commandment we are assured that we are properly interpreting the phrase “the law” as the Law of Moses. Without the law we would not understand the gravity of sin. I don’t think Paul is saying that without the law we would not know what coveting is or what murder is. Rather, we would not understand why sin is such a big deal. Without God’s law revealing to us the nature of sin and its impact in our relationship to God and one another, we would be like what we see in the world today — doing what we want to do. We need to the law to show us God’s character. We need to law to show us that sin is a violation of God’s character and law, causing us to be separated from the holy God.
In Romans 7:8 we notice that sin continues to be personified. Sin used the commands of God to kill us. Sin acted through the commandment. The commandment is not sin in itself. The problem was not the commandments of God. The problem is with us. The problem is not in the good law of God, but in our great sinfulness. The demands of the law were not too great and the standards were not too high. The power of sin in our lives is too great.
Paul continues by pointing out that he was alive when he was apart from the law. But when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. This sentence causes problems for many in the religious world because they believe things that are not taught in the scriptures. They question how Paul could say that he was apart from the Law of Moses. When would Paul ever been apart from the Law of Moses as a Jew? I think the clearest answer is that Paul is revealing that there is a time in our youth that we are not subject to the law. There is a time, a time before an age of being accountable, where we are not dead in sin but are alive. But once we grasp the law, sin comes to life and we die. There is a time in our youth when we do not realize the force of the law’s demands. But once the commandments became applicable to him, sin sprang to life. He understood himself for what he really was — a sinner separated from God.
In all of this, Paul is also speaking about the nature of law in general. There is something about our human nature and a desire to rebel against law. You can be some place where there is a sign that says “do not touch.” What is the first thing we think about? “Why can’t I touch it?” We start trying to figure out if it is okay for us to touch even though the sign says not to. You can be at a national landmark and there is a sign that says, “do not cross.” What is the first thing we do? We try to decide if it is okay to cross the line. You are Yosemite and the sign says not to go past this point. So we look over the edge to see if it is really that dangerous and we try to get closer. Why do we do this? But this is what we do. Law does not curb sin. Consider the days of prohibition in this country. Law does not change people’s hearts. Law does not curb sin. Law simply shows us what are violations. All of this is driving at the point that the Law of Moses does not justify. Further, Paul is illustrating the goodness of God’s law and the wickedness of sin. Law is not the problem. The law to “not touch” is not the problem. It is our rebelliousness what wants to touch it even though the sign says not to. The Law of Moses is not the problem. The law is good. We are the problem because we are sinful.
As verse 10 then continues, it is not the law that was the problem. The law was intended for life and if faithfully kept, the law would bring life. The problem was with us, not with the law. Sin deceives us (vs. 11). Sin makes us think that we can stay with God while doing the things we are doing that are pulling us away from God. Sin just lies to us, making us think that we can seek after wealth and still be with God. Sin makes us think that we can obey our passions and remain with God. Sin deceives in such a way so that we do not see that we are being killed by doing these things. We are separating ourselves from God and we do not even realize it until we have been run over by sin. So the law of Moses and the laws of God are holy, righteous, and good. The problem is that we are not holy, righteous, and good.
Did The Good Law Cause My Death? (Romans 7:13-14)
The Law of Moses was not the cause of our death, that is, our separation from God. Sin produces death. The fact is that sin used the law as the instrument for our death. The Law showed us what sin really is. The law exposes the true character and nature of sin. Sin must be shown to be the ugly thing that it truly is. Law must reveal that evil nature of sin. Sin is not good. Sin is not healthy. Sin is not beneficial. Sin kills. Sin destroys. Sin separates. Sin makes enemies. Sin causes our death. We are of the flesh, sold to the power of sin. The NIV uses the word “unspiritual” which misses the connection made in Romans 7:5.
The Christian Conflict (Romans 7:15-25)
There is much speculation about what Paul is doing in speaking about this internal conflict. Some think that Paul is not talking about himself. Some think this represents Israel under the law. Others think this is talking about Adam in a time before sin. But what Paul is speaking about represents every person who is in Christ. This is a picture of the Christian fight. Paul could not have said of unbelievers that they “delight in the law of God” (Romans 7:22). I believe we ought to take this writing at face value and not as an allegory. Paul is speaking about his own life, but not just as an autobiographical confession. The point is that this is the Christian conflict. Chapter 6 spoke about not presenting the members of our bodies as instruments for unrighteousness but for righteousness. Paul also declared that we must be dead to the power of sin and no longer enslaved to sin’s rule. This section in chapter 7 is about this conflict of breaking free from sin. Paul does not want to leave the impression that we raise up from the waters of baptism dead to sin and that is the end of the story. The story has just begun. Let’s examine how he describes the conflict.
Verse 15 is so true. Why don’t we do what we know we should do? Why don’t we do the things for God that we want to do? The Christian hates sin. So why do we continue to go back into sin? We hate Satan and we hate his deception. But we cave into temptation. Paul continues by saying that it is no longer him that is doing it, but sin that dwells within him. This is another important statement that bears implications for chapter 8. So we need to understand this point.
What does it mean that sin dwells in him? It does not mean that he is not making these choices himself to sin. It is not saying that sin is controlling him so that it is impossible for him to do any good. Sin dwelling in him means that he is living in the flesh. It means that sin is the rule of his life. Sin is the practice of his life when sin dwells in him. Thus, Paul knows what he ought to do. In fact, he wants to do good. The problem is the flesh and being controlled by sin. Paul has introduced this thought a few times thus far. Back in Romans 6:6 Paul talked about crucifying ourselves so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Paul called this being enslaved to sin where sin makes us “obey its passions” (6:12). Paul is showing the power of sin to take us captive. So when we do not do what we know is right and good, we are revealing our enslavement to sin. We are showing that we are living in the flesh and sin is dwelling in us. So what is going on?
I think Romans 7:22-23 clarify exactly what Paul is pointing out. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:22-23 ESV) We are Christians and we want to do what is right. We love God. But our fleshly desires want to submit to another ruler and that ruler is not Jesus, but sin. Our passions and our desires kick in so that we want to obey those desires. Those desires wage a war against our minds. Our minds desire to serve God but our flesh screams to fulfill its desires. In that war, there are times when the flesh wins, making me captive to the law of sin. Paul is not talking about rebellious, high-handed sin. Rather, the unintentional sin is in view. We want to do what is right and we don’t. Paul is not talking about those who do not do what is right and don’t.
So how does all this work? I thought Paul taught us in Romans 6 that we have been set free from sin and that we are no longer enslaved to sin. So what is Paul showing us here? Is this a contradiction because he tells us that we have a sin problem? No. Paul is showing us that there is victory in Christ, but we have a fight on our hands. This is an agonizing battle. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24 ESV) Our fight against sin while being Christians is not unusual or abnormal. You are not alone if you have a problem with sin in your life. Every Christian does. Christians are not people who are immune from temptation and sin. Rather, we are an army of God’s servants who have a daily struggle with sin.
Romans 7:25 tells us that there are two principles at work in our lives. There is the law of God that we want to obey and want to follow. But there is the law of sin that we do not want to obey, but our fleshly desires want to obey. This explains why we are not perfect. But the law of God is not the problem. The problem is these fleshly passions that must be crucified over and over again. That body of sin and death keeps rising up and I have to kill again. When we wake up, we must kill the body of sin. When we go through the day we need continue controlling the flesh and not obeying its desires.
Who can deliver us from this problem? Who can deliver us from this body of death? Praise God because through Jesus victory still exists. Without Christ we are done. We are full of sin and slip back into sin. All of our righteous acts add up to nothing because we are still at war with our flesh and we do not always win the battle. The law cannot save us. But the law has accomplished its purpose: to show us that we are miserable, wretched sinners who need saving. We need Jesus. Only in Jesus can we be delivered. Leading just a little bit into the next lesson, though we have this sin problem because of the flesh, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1). We will explore this thought fully in our next lesson.
A Message of Hope:
1. God’s law is not the problem. We are the problem. God’s laws are holy and good. We are not.
2. God’s law is effective. It shows us that we are sinful and there is nothing we can do through the law to rectify our sinfulness. We need deliverance.
3. In Christ we have a conflict between the law of God and the law of sin. Before coming to Jesus, we just did what we wanted to do and there was no conflict. But in Christ we become aware of the conflict. We want to serve God, but the flesh with its passions, vices, and addictions is strong. We fall into sin even though we do not want to sin.
4. But Jesus is able to save us from this body of sin and death that condemns us so that there is no condemnation when we are united in Christ.
No Condemnation In Christ
Romans 8:1-8
Brent Kercheville
No Condemnation (Romans 8:1)
The first verse of Romans 8 is the declaration of hope and rejoicing that is unfortunately broken by the chapter break. In chapter 7 Paul has described the Christian conflict. We delight in the law of God and desire to serve God. But at the same time the members of our body is waging war with that knowledge. The flesh with its passions and lusts are tempting us to obey it. In chapter 6 we learned that we have been set free from sin’s slavery. But this does not mean that there is not a continuing battle for the Christian. Even when I want to do what is right and do what is right, evil lies close at hand (Romans 7:21). But there is hope for the Christian. Paul says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Even though we must fight against sin and even though we may slip and fall, there is no condemnation.
Who is not condemned? Who are the people who are not condemned even though our flesh serves sin at times? This is important, for Paul says that there is not condemnation “for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Only those who are in Jesus are those who have no condemnation. Paul has instructed earlier about who are the people who “are in Christ.” In Romans 6:3 Paul taught that we are baptized into Christ and that through baptism we are united with Jesus (Romans 6:5). But Paul is certainly not teaching that those who have been dunked in water, no matter what they believe or do, have no condemnation. The baptism is symbolizing our death to sin, that we are not practicing sin and sin is not the ruler over our lives (Romans 6:7; Romans 6:11; Romans 6:13). It is not just that we were baptized. Rather, it is that our baptism had meaning. Baptism was the point when we started living for Jesus and stopped living for sin. Those who are in Christ Jesus are not those who are being ruled by sin and have given their allegiance to sin. Those who are in Christ Jesus are those who are fighting sin and striving to serve Jesus. To those who have their allegiance to Jesus, there is no condemnation. Paul is going to clarify this even further in this chapter, as we will see later in this lesson.
When are we not condemned? Now. Right now we stand before God justified, not condemned. The focus of God’s wrath is not upon us. God as the judge does not condemn us. In Christ, life replaces the condemnation and death that rests upon every person right now. We are sinful and deserve condemnation. We have separated ourselves from God by our sinning. In Christ, life has replaced that condemnation. God has fulfilled his covenant promises, offering life rather than condemnation. How is this possible? How can God do this great act of mercy for us?
New Covenant (Romans 8:2)
In Romans 8:2 Paul gives the first reason why there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul says that there is no condemnation because the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. What is “the law of the Spirit of life?” Paul has taught us this earlier in Romans 7. In Romans 7:6 Paul taught that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. We noted in that lesson that the “written code” or “the letter” is used by Paul as a reference to the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments. The contrast, therefore, is the new covenant. The law of Christ, the new covenant, was promised by the Holy Spirit in which those who are in the covenant will obey God from the heart. God’s people will have the heart of obedience under the new covenant. Paul is revealing that we are set free from the Law of Moses which condemned us to sin because we are now under the new covenant, the Law of Christ.
There is much debate about what “the law of sin and death” is. Chapter 7 taught us that the Law of Moses was holy and good. But sin used the Law of Moses to kill us. Paul merges the problem of sin with the Law of Moses. The Law was not the problem. But we are condemned under the Law because no one has obeyed it completely and perfectly. When Paul writes that he “serves the law of sin” he is not saying that he is condemned that he serves the Law of Moses. Paul is condemned because he did not obey the Law of Moses. The Law condemns us and through the Law we become enslaved to sin. This is why Paul can speak of the Law of Moses as the law of sin and death. The effect of the Law of Moses was the sin and death of every person. The Law of Moses condemned the Jews and shut out the Gentiles. This is why Paul can use the Law of Moses as a universal problem. The Law of Moses condemned every person that was under the Law, that is, Israel. But the Law also excluded the Gentiles from the hope of salvation. Sin and death were not the purposes of the Law, but it was the result of the Law. However, in Christ and through his law of life, we have been set free. The Law of Moses did not offer justification. Christ and his covenant does offer justification.
God Has Acted (Romans 8:3)
Not only this, God has done what the Law of Moses could not do. The Law of Moses was insufficient for righteousness because of our sinfulness. The Law was weakened by our failures and sins. The Law cannot justify sinners. What did God do? God sent Jesus. God sent his own Son to come in the flesh to deal with our sins. Jesus came for sins. Jesus came to deal with the problem of sin (NRSV). The HCSB, NASB, NIV, and TNIV add the word “offering” to sin. Thus, these translations read that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. There are many times in the Old and New Testament where the writer speaks of sin and he is referring to a sin offering. Hebrews 10:8 is one of many instances. In fact, in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) 44 of the 54 occurrences of the phrase “for sin” refers to a sin sacrifice. It seems like that this is also the case here in Romans 8:3. Jesus came with a new law and as a sin sacrifice to set us free. Paul has done a magnificent job showing that all of us have the problem of sin in our lives. Even as followers of Jesus, the problem of sin continues. But there is no condemnation now in Jesus because Jesus has set us free through a new law and has given himself as an offering for sins. I think the NLT translates this passage accurately and clearly:
He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. (Romans 8:3 NLT)
Noticing the end of verse 3, God condemned sin in the body of Jesus, that is, in the sacrifice of Jesus. Please notice that God did not condemn Jesus. The text does not say that the wrathful God was condemning his Son. God condemned or gave judgment against sin by sending his own Son. The payment for sins was made in Jesus. Jesus paid the price for our sins. Jesus’ offering was the redemption price that sets us free from sins. The NIV makes a huge mistake here in its translation, if you are using it. The NIV reads, “And so he condemned sin in sinful man….” Paul is not saying that God sent his Son in a body like ours to condemn sins in us. He did not need to send his own Son to do that. The NIV makes a terrible blunder here and reveals the consequences of being a dynamic translation. Paul is saying that God sent his Son in a body like ours to condemn sins in the body of Jesus by being an offering for sins. Sin was judged through the body of Jesus, not us. What Jesus did in the flesh is what condemned all sin.
The Righteous Requirement of the Law (Romans 8:4)
Verse 4 is somewhat complicated. God sent his Son so that sin could be dealt with in the body of Jesus “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.” The difficulty is that “the righteous requirement of the Law” must refer to something good and positive because it is fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit. I believe Paul is saying that Jesus fulfilled the Law and paid the price for our sins in the offering of his body so that we would do what is right. Jesus did not die so that we would go into sinful living. Jesus died so that we would be justified and thus live for what is right. I believe Paul’s point here in Romans 8:4 is the same as Galatians 5:13-14.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14 ESV)
What is the righteous requirement of the Law of Moses? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. Paul is saying that Jesus offered himself up for our sins so that we would live righteous lives, not sinful lives. Paul is tying back in the message of Romans 6. We cannot sin thinking that in doing so grace is abounding. We cannot sin because we are not under the Law of Moses but under grace. We have been set free to serve God and one another, not to serve sin.
How Are You Walking? (Romans 8:5-8)
Notice that this point is where Paul goes in his letter. He wants us to consider how we are living our lives and who we are serving. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. What does this mean? Paul is speaking about those whose lives are directed by the rule and values of sin. When we put our minds on the things of this world and world of sin, then we are walking according to the flesh. Paul wants to know what our interests are. Paul wants to know what our ambitions are. What are the things that we think about and hold as important in life? What is our mind set on? What are we preoccupied with? What do we value? Jesus spoke of having our minds on the things of the flesh when we have a worldly perspective. When Peter denies that Jesus is going to deny, Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (
Matthew 16:23). Selfish thinking is having our minds set on the things of the flesh. The mind set on the flesh is all about me. Even religious people who seem to be followers of Jesus can have their minds set on the flesh. Seeking after the things of the world rather than the things of God reveals the problem. When we are more concerned about ourselves than the lost, we have minds set on the flesh. When we try to justify our sins rather than being heartbroken and repentant of our sins, we have our minds set on the flesh.
Paul offers a grave warning. To set the mind on the flesh is death (Romans 8:6). When sin controls our lives, we are separated from God. When we are thinking about ourselves and seeking after the things of the world rather than thinking about God and seeking after him, there IS condemnation. We have made ourselves enemies of God (Romans 8:7). Paul drives the point further in verse 8 by telling us that we cannot please God. Why can’t we please God? Go back to verse 7: because we do not submit to God’s law. We are choosing ourselves over God. We cannot please God when we are living with our allegiance to another master. When sin is exercising dominion over our lives, then we will not obey and love God. We may think we can, but we are deceiving ourselves. When the flesh is in charge of our lives, we cannot please God, we are hostile to God, and we are separated from God. This is why this point is so important. Yes, all of us are fighting against sin. But those only those who are fighting by seeking after God before self are those who now have no condemnation. If we are not seeking after God in all we do and making the determination to serve him, then we are living according to the flesh.
It should be pretty obvious what it means to “live according to the Spirit.” There is nothing mystical or supernatural about this act. It is the opposite of living according to the flesh. We place our life focus on God and his commands. God is in charge of our lives. He is the master, not sin and not self. We are following his covenant. We are submitting to God’s law, not perfectly, but submission to God is the rule of our lives. When our allegiance is to Jesus is to receive from God life and peace (Romans 8:6). Living according to the flesh is separation from God. Living according to the Spirit means we are joined to God and we have peace with God. We are reconciled and God’s wrath is not against us. We are able to have a relationship with God because Jesus has brought peace to the relationship. We are in Christ not in Adam, to bring in the thoughts of Romans 5. Paul is teaching that we need to change the way that we think about living and how we think about the world.
Application:
1. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
2. Those in Christ set their minds on the things of God.
3. Those in Christ submit to God’s law.
4. Those who have their minds on the things of the flesh are dead, hostile to god, cannot please God, and are condemned.
The Spirit of Christ Dwells In You
Romans 8:9-11
Brent Kercheville
We are approaching a section of scriptures that have lead to a number of interpretive difficulties. I want to do my best to not only explain the text, but to explain what it means for the Spirit to dwell in us. As we read the scripture I think it will be clear that Paul is assuring those in Christ, not confusing those in Christ. The text must offer assurance, not more questions, if Paul is going to be successful in driving home the point that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
You Are In The Spirit, Not The Flesh (Romans 8:9-11)
In our last lesson we noticed Paul speaking about those who “live according to the flesh” and those who “live according to the Spirit.” Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the flesh. Paul is asking what rules and controls our lives? Who is charge? Is the world leading our lives or is God leading our lives? Where is our allegiance?
Notice that this is Paul’s usage in Romans 8:9.
“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.”
I believe this condition immediately tells us that Paul is not talking about the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Allow me to explain. (1) If the Holy Spirit personally dwells in Christians at the moment they become Christians (Acts 2:38), then Paul cannot question if the Holy Spirit is dwelling in these Christians in Rome. Of course the Holy Spirit is personally dwelling in these Roman readers because they are Christians! (2) If Paul is questioning if these Christians have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, then he is saying that they did have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, but it is possible that the Spirit left some of them. How were these Christians to know if the Spirit was still residing in them? By feelings? By prayer? How should we know if the Holy Spirit is in us? This is the problem with understanding Paul to be talking about the literal and personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In such a case I never have any answers of certainty. The whole thing becomes mystical and ethereal, not concrete. Remember that Paul is assuring the readers, not confusing them. (3) Some may respond with verse 10 that we know the Holy Spirit is personally dwelling in us because we are doing things that are right and are living for Jesus. But this is a circular argument. I know I have the Spirit dwelling in me if I do right? I know I do not have the Spirit dwelling in me when I do wrong? This is to say nothing. If the Holy Spirit is in me, then it is controlling me and directing to me to do right. It cannot be the other way around, that is, when I do what is right, the Holy Spirit lives in me. Then what is the point of having the Holy Spirit living in me?
To take this point one step further, if the Holy Spirit lives in us and directs our lives, then what has Paul been talking about in verses 4-8 of chapter 8? Why is he telling us to walk according to the Spirit and set my mind on the things of the Spirit if I have the Holy Spirit living in me and this is not a problem? Just figure out if the Holy Spirit is in you! Paul is misleading us earlier in this chapter if he is telling us that we need to set our minds on the things of the Spirit, only turn now tell us we are directed by the Holy Spirit.
Further, if the Holy Spirit is living in me, then why do I have the conflict of sin as Paul records in Romans 7? I hope you can see my point. If the Holy Spirit personally lives in us, he cannot be doing nothing in there. He must be directing and controlling our lives, otherwise what is the point? But Paul is not instructing us to rely upon the Spirit to tell us what to do within us. Paul has told us that there is a battle inside of us. That battle is described as the law of my mind against the law of sin in my body, not the person of the Holy Spirit against my body. So let’s back up and look at what Paul is saying in its context and see if we can gain greater command of this text.
First, we need to notice how Paul uses terms about the Spirit interchangeably. In verse 9 Paul says, “if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Paul then calls the Spirit “the Spirit of Christ” in verse 9. But in verse 10 Paul drops the word “Spirit” and says, “But if Christ is in you.” Look at verse 11. Now Paul says that, “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.” Then Paul says, “through his Spirit who dwells in you.” We need to see these as interchangeable terms. To have the Spirit of God dwelling in you is the same as having the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you, which is the same as the Spirit dwelling in you, and this is the same as Christ dwelling in you. What does it mean for these things to dwell in us?
Paul used this same terminology earlier in Romans 7:17 where he said, “So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” What did Paul mean when he said, “sin dwells within me.” Paul uses the same term of sin dwelling in him in Romans 7:20. For sin to dwell in a person means that he is obeying the passions of the flesh. It means that he is setting his mind on the things of the flesh. It means he is living his life following the way of the world, not the rule of God. No one would accept the idea that sin literally was living in Paul. This is a figure of speech to say that his life was joined together with sin, controlled by sin and its passions.
Now, come back to Romans 8:9-11. What does it mean for Christ to live in you (Romans 8:10)? Again, I do not know anyone who says that Jesus Christ literally and personal is living inside of every person who is a Christian. Rather, it means as Paul would write to the Galatians:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 ESV)
What did Paul mean? Paul no longer obeys his desires and passions. Paul has killed his old self and does not listen to it any longer. Now he lives for Jesus. He is united to Christ. This is what it means for Christ to dwell in us. We are under the rule of Christ, not the rule of sin. We are following Jesus, not sin. Our allegiance is to Jesus. Christ does not literally and personally live is us.
Unfortunately, this debate about what it means for the Spirit to live in us has caused us to completely miss the point Paul is trying to make. No one is asking, “Why did Paul describe it like this?” Why speak about Christ living in us? Why say the Spirit lives in us? For Paul to say that Christ LIVES in us or DWELLS in us indicates that this is not an occasional choice. God is the rule, that is, he is living in us. God is not visiting us or vacationing with us. Our lives are controlled by God at all times, not every once in a while. Paul is describing a close relationship with God. Back in chapter 6 Paul told us that we are in Christ when we are baptized. Paul is telling us also that Christ is in us. We know we are not personally and literally dwelling in Christ, but are united with him and in a relationship with him. This is Paul’s picture: We are joined together. Christians are joined to God and God is joined to us. Christians are joined to Christ and Christ is joined to us. The Spirit is joined to us and we are joined to the Spirit.
Douglas Moo hits the point well in his commentary on Romans. “Paul’s language is ‘positional’: he is depicting the believer’s status in Christ, secured for him or her at conversion” (NICNT, 489-490). We have been granted the status of being in Christ. We are not “in sin” but “in the Spirit.” We are in Christ when we follow Christ and his teachings. We are in sin when we follow Satan and our desires. We are in the Spirit when we follow the scriptures revealed by the Spirit. We are in sin when we rejected the commands of the Spirit.
Further, Paul says that we are “in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) and “in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9). This shows that Paul is not talking about us literally living inside Jesus or literally living inside the Holy Spirit. Paul is speaking positionally and relationally. We are joined with Christ. We are joined with the Spirit. We have a relationship with Christ. This is the idea Paul is presenting.
So let’s read Romans 8:9 again and see how much easier Paul’s point becomes. You know you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit since the Spirit of God lives in you. You are in a relationship with God when you live according to the Spirit and set your mind on the things of the Spirit. Notice the rest of verse 9 makes the same point. “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” If you are not ruled by Christ and joined to Christ, then you do not belong to him. You do not have a relationship with Christ if you are not dead to yourself and ruled by the law of Christ. Notice that the word “have” also points to more than just a passing connection. You must have the Spirit of Christ. You must have a continuous connection to Christ. Without this connection, we are not Christians. We do not belong to Christ.
The Spirit of Life (Romans 8:10)
This is a difficult verse that has two different translations. The NASB and NIV read, “The spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Notice the lowercase “s” indicating that this is referring to our personal spirit. However, all the other translations read like the TNIV, “The Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” While the NASB and NIV translations are easier to interpret (that our bodies are dead because of sin but our spirits are alive in Christ), scholars strongly argue that the Greek word zoe never means “alive” but always means “life” (Schreiner, 415). Proof of this is the change made in the revision of the NIV in the TNIV.
Notice the difference:
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10 NIV)
But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10 TNIV)
So we will go with the second reading because that is the appropriate meaning of the Greek word zoe. Notice that this causes the word “spirit” to be capitalized because we cannot say that our own spirits give life. The life must be coming from the Holy Spirit. This is something that Paul has already mentioned in Romans 8:2 where Paul refers to “the law of the Spirit of life.” So what does Paul mean regarding the Spirit giving life? What does this mean?
Spirit of Life and Ezekiel 37
Ezekiel prophesied of a time when the Spirit of the Lord would be placed within the people and they would live. In Ezekiel 37 we are seeing the vision of the valley of dry bones. It is a picture of the nation of Israel (Ezekiel 37:11). The nation is pictured as dead and dry with no hope of life because of their sins (Ezekiel 37:11). They are cut off from God. But God was going to put his Spirit (breath, same Hebrew word ruwach – see Ezekiel 37:14) in them. But God was cause his Spirit to enter the nation and they would live (Ezekiel 37:5-6; Ezekiel 37:14). The Spirit of life was a picture of resurrection. God would raise his nation back to life, though it was dead because of sins.
Go back to Romans 8:10-11 and notice that this is exactly what Paul teaches. The body is dead because of sins, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. We die because of our sins, but we are raised because of God’s righteousness. We are given life through the work of Jesus. Read verse 11 and see that resurrection is the picture. God gave this Spirit of life before and raised Jesus from the dead. When we give ourselves to the Spirit of life (join ourselves to God) then we will also be given life. The point is similar to Romans 6:7-11. Christ died and has been raised from the dead. So when we die to the world and live for God. Paul adds the picture of resurrection and the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 here in Romans 8. We are dead in our sins but God is giving us the Spirit of life because of his own righteousness. Just as Jesus died and raised to life, so we also will be given life. God is restoring his people. That is why there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (8:1). We have been set free from the law of sin and death. We have been set free from our sins. We are given the promise of life, although our bodies are dead because of sin, because of God’s righteousness. This will lead into the next section that we will look at next time. Notice Romans 8:12 as a preview: We are not debtors to the flesh but to the Spirit of God.
Final Thoughts:
1. Paul is not talking about the personal and literal living of the Holy Spirit in our bodies. The thought does not make sense of this text. The view causes confusion, not assurance.
2. We do not belong to Christ if we are not governed by his law and are not submitting to his ways.
3. If we belong to Christ then we have life through the Spirit, even though we are dead in our sins, because of God’s righteousness.
In God’s Family
Romans 8:12-25
Brent Kercheville
In Romans 8:10-11 Paul made it clear that Christ gives life to believers. This is the key thought that has too often been lost in the debate over the role of the Holy Spirit. But Paul was not teaching Holy Spirit theology. Rather, Paul is talking relationally and positionally. Christ must be in us and us in him. For the Spirit to live in us means that this is not an occasional choice. God is the rule and he lives in us. Our status is in Christ and in the Spirit when we set our minds on the things of the Spirit. Those who are in Christ must live as those who are Christ’s. Paul is now going to bring out the implications of Christ giving life.
We Are Debtors (Romans 8:12-13)
We are debtors, but not to the flesh. We cannot live according to the flesh. Obviously we are debt to Christ who died on the cross for us. We are in debt to the Spirit who gives life to us when we were dead in our sins. So we cannot be under obligation to the flesh. We cannot enslave ourselves to the flesh and its desires. We cannot be under the control of the flesh. We are debtors, but not to the flesh. If we live according to the flesh, we will die. When we live in debt to the flesh, we are separated from God. We do not have life in the Spirit, but are dead in our sins. We cannot live with our eyes focused on the physical world. We cannot be focused on the concerns of this life. Our mind is to be set on the Spirit, focused on the things of God. Therefore, we must put to death the deeds of the flesh. That cannot be our life any longer. This summarizes much of what Paul has been teaching in the first half of Romans 8 as well as Romans 6.
Family of God (Romans 8:14-17)
Now Paul continues his message of assurance. Those who are led by the Spirit (a topic he has discussed in Romans 8:5-11) are "sons of God." God called Israel his son and called himself Israel’s father (Exodus 4:22; Jeremiah 3:19; Jeremiah 31:9; Hosea 11:1). The first intended picture is that those who walk according to the Spirit by setting their minds on the Spirit are the people of God, true Israel. This is a point that Paul made earlier in this letter (Romans 2:28-29). Those who seek after God and give their allegiance to God are the sons of God, the true Israel. Not only this, but calling those who are led by the Spirit, "sons of God," shows they are part of God’s family. God is their father and we are his children. This thought drives sharply at what Paul has been discussing in Romans 8:9-11. Being in Christ and Christ being in us means that we are joined together in a close relationship. Being in the Spirit and the Spirit living in us means that God is in charge of our lives. The assurance we have is that we are God’s children. We have been admitted into the family of God. With this declared status of child or son of God, there are privileges that come from that position.
The parallel text is Galatians 4:6-7. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Romans 8:15 becomes fairly clear. You are not slaves to fall back into fear. Paul has talked about the problem of slavery in Romans. Paul has shown that we are slaves to sin (Romans 6:20) and slaves to the Law of Moses (Romans 7:6). We are not enslaved to these things that we should fall back into fear. Remember that we learned that the Law of Moses enslaved people because people did not keep the Law. The Law reveals sin but does not offer justification. People were under the scourge of sin because they did not obey the Law. The Law had no provisions for life so all were enslaved. But that is not the situation any longer. People are no longer enslaved to the Law of Moses. People are no longer slaves of sin. What we have received in Jesus is not the status of slaves. Rather, what we have received in Jesus is the status of sons.
But Paul uses something very picturesque to describe how we are children of God. Paul says he did not receive slavery, but we received adoption. Adoption signifies being granted the full rights and privileges of sonship in a family to which one does not belong by nature (Morris, 315). We have been admitted into the heavenly family, to which we have no rights of our own. Our natural state is slavery because of our own actions. But God has adopted us because of his own righteousness and his own actions.
To show how special this relationship is with God, Paul says, "We cry, ‘Abba! Father!’" What does this mean? Who is the only person to ever call God, "Father?" Who is the only person to say to God, "Abba, Father?" Jesus could say these intimate words depicting a close relationship, "Abba, Father." Jesus said these words in Mark 14:36. We not only have the status as sons, but the heart of sons. We are not slaves. We are sons and we have access to God to cry out to him, "Abba, Father." Paul is not teaching something mystical. He is teaching something relational. To have the status as sons, we have access to the Father so that we can cry out to him.
Paul extends our assurance further that the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. How does the Spirit testify with our spirit? If Paul means that the Holy Spirit makes you feel good about yourself or gives you some sort of feeling to know that we are children, then this is not working very well for me. Is it working very well for you? If you are like me, I often feel pretty lousy about where I stand before God. There are many times when I do not feel like a child of God because of what I have done or how I am living or because of the mistakes I have made. I submit to you that the Spirit does not testify to our spirit through feelings because it is simply too subjective. Let’s find the answer in the context of what Paul has been teaching. When I set my mind on the things of the Spirit and Christ is living in me, then my spirit knows that I am a child of God, even though I do not live perfectly. Even though I come up short and do not feel good about myself because of my sins, I know that I am child of God because I am not enslaved to sin. God is ruling my life and he has provided a way for forgiveness that the Law of Moses could not offer.
Romans 8:17 adds to our assurance. If we are children of God, then we are heirs of God. This is a picture of an inheritance. We will receive the full reality of all that God has promised when Christ returns. We are going to receive the inheritance. Not only this, but we are fellow heirs with Christ. Paul is again revealing that we are joined with Christ. We have been adopted as children, been given the status of justified, and we are in a relationship with God as our father and Christ as our brother. The writer of Hebrews makes a similar point that Paul is making here.
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, (Hebrews 2:9-11 ESV)
What a privilege and what a blessing! But notice the conditional statement, "Provided we suffer with him." This glorification and blessings will only happen if we suffer with him. To share in the glory of Christ means sharing in the sufferings of Christ. To share in the inheritance with Christ means to suffer loss with Christ. The Christian life is not going to be easy when we live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. We suffer in order that we may also share in his glory. It is an interesting statement because Paul is not questioning if we will suffer. The point is that if we are Christians we will suffer. To be dead to sin will bring sacrifices and suffering. To present our members as instruments of righteousness will bring suffering.
Revealing Glory (Romans 8:18-25)
Romans 8:18 contains the good news. The present sufferings are minimal when compared to our future glorification. Actually, that is not what Paul said. Paul said that our suffering is not worthy comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. We like to compare our sufferings. We like to consider who is suffering more. We always have a way to "one-up" the other person. "You think your day was tough, look at my day." "You woke up at 5 AM, but I woke up a 4 AM." We also compare if our sacrifices were worth it. But consider the thought. The suffering at this present time is not even worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed. We really lose sight of this. It is the suffering that causes us to stop serving God and stop worshiping God. But we are not looking at the glory that is to be revealed.
Further, all creation is eagerly anticipating this revealing. We should not be thrown off that the creation is personified. Paul has personified sin for much of Romans. Paul personifies the creation to focus on the eagerness. Paul uses the personification of creation to say even it longs eagerly for this moment of glorification. The creation is longing eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. We should be eagerly anticipating this moment, though we must suffer with him. It does not look like we are "sons of God" as we experience suffering. It does not look like we will be glorified as we suffer with Christ. But the last day will publicly reveal our status.
Why does Paul bring in the creation as eagerly longing for the revealing of our glory? Paul reminds us that the creation was subjected to futility. This points back to Genesis 3 where the creation was cursed because of Adam’s sin. We observed this point back in Romans 5:14. Sin affected everything. Adam’s sin was not like the transgression of those who came after him. Adam’s transgression affected the world and changed the world. Everything is awaiting the glorious revealing. The point of focus is not on the creation, but that everything is longing for the revealing. The creation is used as a parallel to us. The creation is longing to be set free from bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of glory. If creation longs for this, we certainly must eagerly long for and anticipate this. That is how Romans 8:23 brings this back around to us.
We ourselves groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. This is similar to Paul’s words to the Corinthians. "For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling" (2 Corinthians 5:2). Perhaps another way to look at this is the way Paul groaned earlier in Romans, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). In verse 5 Paul went on to say, "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 5:5). In the same way, Paul is saying that we have the firstfruits of the Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 1:22 and Ephesians 1:13-14 we are told by Paul that the Spirit was given as guarantee or a down payment of the inheritance to come. The point is that we have been given a portion now as a down payment for the future glories to come. This includes many things that were given through the Spirit. The miraculous spiritual gifts were one piece of the firstfruits of the Spirit. The blessings of God that we have now in Christ (Ephesians 1) is a portion. The new covenant that we are under is part of the down payment of the Spirit. The kingdom that we are partakers in is another portion that we have now. The restored relationship with the Father through Christ was promised through the Spirit. This restored relationship we enjoy now. These are just a few things given as a down payment to prove the future glorification is to come.
So we groan for adoption. This is interesting because we already studied in Romans 8:15 that we have received adoption now. However Paul says we are waiting for our adoption. What does Paul mean? In one sense we have already received our adoption because we have been brought into God’s family. In another sense, we are still waiting for our adoption because we do not enjoy all the privileges of sonship yet. We eagerly anticipate receiving the full rights as adopted children of God.
This brings us to Romans 8:24. "For in this hope we were saved." We have something to look forward to. We have not been given everything now. Further, we have not seen all that this glorification will be. Hope that is seen is not hope. We are hoping for the things we do not see. This is yet another reason why we need to have our minds on the Spirit and not the flesh. We cannot be focused on worldly things because we will lose our hope in what we cannot see. Present sufferings will take us away from waiting eagerly for the future glorification. Paul tells us in verse 25 that we wait for it in endurance and patience.
Final Thoughts:
1. Debtors, but not the flesh. Put to death the deeds of the body. The flesh cannot be our master.
2. Not slaves, but sons. A close relationship with God is available. We can cry out to God as our dear Father.
3. Not only sons, but heirs of the promise and inheritance. But we will suffer as children of God.
4. The present sufferings cannot compare with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Our suffering for Christ will be worth it.
5. So we groan inwardly as we wait for this glory, our full rights as adopted children.
All Things Work Together For Good
Romans 8:26-30
Brent Kercheville
We now encounter a section of Romans that each verse has been misunderstood and misapplied. As we read this section of scripture we must remind ourselves that Paul is writing to give assurance to these Christians in Rome that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27 ESV)
There are a couple of ways to look at this text, which I would like to share with you. Let us start with the traditional way, that is, that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us. First, much has been made from the statement that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. But, notice that Paul does not say that the Holy Spirit helps us by giving us mental encouragement, telling us what to do, or making us feel better. Paul is saying that though we do not know what to pray and do not know what to verbalize to God in our suffering, the Spirit helps us in our weakness by knowing our spirits. God does not need us to verbalize our needs because God knows our hearts and intercedes for us.
But let us look at the text another way, because the text could also be translated like this:
"In the same way the spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the spirit itself intercedes with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
Capitalization is provided by the translators which may cause us to read something into the text that is not intended. So it is useful to read the text without it. When we take out the capitalization, we may see that Paul is not talking about the Holy Spirit doing a particular work, but simply pointing out that God hears our groaning and intercedes for all the saints, even though we may not be able to verbalize our needs. We do not know what to say in prayer while in our weakness and sufferings. But God searches the heart and knows our groaning. Notice back in Romans 8:23 we are the ones who are groaning inwardly. So there is a strong contextual reason to see passage is talking about our spirit groaning and God hears those sighs and groans when we do not know what to pray for.
In either case, I think we come to the same result. Either Paul is saying God hears our groaning and intercedes for us even though we do not know how to pray. Thus, verse 28 is fitting: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (ESV). God hears our groaning and provides what we need. However, even if one wants to stay with the traditional understanding that the Holy Spirit is interceding, I believe we must interpret the text similarly. Paul, therefore, is saying that we do not know how to pray but the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness by knowing what we need and interceding for the saints. The assurance is that we do not have to speak our needs for God to know what we need and to act.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)
It is important to carefully read what Paul does not say. Paul does not say that all things are good. Paul does not say all things are pleasant. Paul does not say that everything has a reason or a purpose. This is one of the worst false teachings that I have heard. Everything does not have a reason or a purpose. Paul does not even say that God makes all things good. What does Paul mean? What is Paul saying? Before we look at what Paul is teaching, let us look at the other constraints on this verse.
First, Paul is talking about those who love God. Those who are called according to God’s purpose is who Paul is talking about. All things do not work together for good for everyone. This is not a universal promise. This is not a passage of hope to those who are lost. We cannot tell our friends in the world that all things will work together for good in their lives. This promise is not to them. We should know that because the end of those who do not love God is not going to be work and is not going to work out well.
Second, Paul says that we know all things work together for good for those that love God. Paul does not say that we will feel this way. We are often going to feel the exact opposite. We are going to feel like things are being destroyed in our lives as we go through suffering and difficulties. The promise is not that you are going to have feelings of happiness as you endure tribulations. This teaching is something that we will know to comfort us while we feel the weight of suffering.
Third, Paul does not say that God will make each individual event in our lives work out for good. There are going to be many bad things that happen to us in life. There is going to be much suffering. There are going to be hard times. Paul is not saying that this single bad, traumatic event in your life is going to be used for good.
With those out of the way, what did Paul teach? Paul says that, "All things work together for good for those that love God." Paul is picturing all the pieces of our life coming together for good. Not that each individual event will become good. But that all that happens to us, the good things and the bad things, are all pieces in a puzzle that are working together for good. Too often we neglect the two important words, "Work together." Things in our lives are going to work together for good. Perhaps another useful picture is that of the gears of a clock. All the events in life are gears that will eventually come together and work for good.
Finally, we should consider that the good that is coming is not something that we will experience in this physical world. Peter describes what the sufferings of this life are doing to us.
You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to be distressed by various trials so that the genuineness of your faith—more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7 HCSB)
The point is that our faith will result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus when he returns. The point is not that at age 80 I will look back and see that everything has worked out for good. This fits the context of Romans 8 where Paul has been talking about groaning for the glory that is to be revealed in us when he comes (Romans 8:17-25). That is why it is only those who are in Jesus who will have all things work together for good. Those who are in Christ and have been walking according to the Spirit are the ones who have the promise of glory.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30 ESV)
Notice the first word of Romans 8:29 is "for." Paul is continuing his discussion of the assurance we have despite our suffering. These verses are an explanation of how all things work together for good for those that love God. In spite of our suffering, our glorification as sons of God is still going to come. It does not look like we are children of God at many times in our lives because of the difficulties we face. But we can patiently endure because our salvation is in Christ and we are hoping for something greater — the revealing of glory.
Understanding what Paul is saying can be difficult here because there is so much theological baggage attached to these words, like "foreknew" and "predestined." Here are a couple translations that do not use these theological words and may help us have greater clarity to what Paul is teaching.
This is true because he already knew his people and had already appointed them to have the same form as the image of his Son. (Romans 8:29 God’s Word)
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son… (Romans 8:29 NLT)
God knew in advance that he would have a people that were his people, his children. Foreknowledge does not necessitate that he knew who each and every person would be. But in the beginning God knew he would have a people and at that time God appointed that his people would be conformed to the image of his Son. Those who were conformed to the image of his Son would be his people, his children. With these being the conditions, God gave the gospel call. What is the message of the gospel call? The message of the gospel is to be conformed to the image of his Son. Everyone is invited to be God’s people. God established the plan of salvation before the foundations of the world. Be conformed to the image of his Son to be his people. To use the terminology of Romans 8, walk according to the Spirit and set your mind on the Spirit to be God’s children. There is no other call we read about in the scriptures than the gospel call to come to Jesus and be conformed to his likeness. Those who received God’s call were justified by God. God pronounces those people not guilty and acquitted. The wrath that is deserved to us because of our sins has been replaced by grace and mercy through the blood of Jesus. Those who are justified are also glorified. This glorification is an absolute certainty for those who are in Christ.
God’s purposes are unstoppable. God knew in advance that he would have a people for himself, people that would listen to him and obey him. God predetermined who would be part of this family by laying out the conditions — be conformed to the image of his Son. God made the gospel call of salvation. Those who respond are justified and are glorified. Christ is the firstborn of the family as an heir of God. We are joining with him in the family with Christ as our brother when we conform to his image.
Image Bearers of Christ
Are we bearing the image of Christ to the world? Have we answered God’s calling of dying to self and sin and being conformed to the image of his Son? Let me encourage you by bringing what we learned about justification in Romans 5 forward into this text.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11 ESV)
While we were sinners, Christ died so that we can be saved from the wrath of God and so that we can be reconciled to God. We have been justified by the blood of Jesus, no longer under condemnation of sin. Now we have a relationship with God, not as slaves, but as children. As children we can cry out to God in our times of suffering and weakness. We can cry out to God as our dear Father who loves us. As his children we long to be glorified as sons of God when Christ returns. Patiently endure suffering for the cause of Christ knowing we are sons of God and we will be glorified by him at the proper time. All of these promises are firm and steadfast to those who are conforming their lives to the image of the Son. If sin is the rule and practice of our lives, our hope is lost and we will receive the promised wrath of God. When conforming to the image of his Son is the rule and practice of our lives then all of these blessings that Paul has preached from Romans 5 to Romans 8 stand for us in hope.
Think about your work. Are you bearing the image of Christ to the people you work with and communicate with? Think about home. Are you bearing the image of Christ as a father or a mother? Are you bearing the image of Christ as a husband or a wife? Are you bearing the image of Christ as a son or daughter? Are you bearing the image of Christ to your neighbors? Think about this congregation of Christians? Are you bearing the image of Christ to your brethren? Are you showing them that Christ is the number one thing in your life? Are you being transformed by the word of God, changing our hearts to be more fitting for Christ? We must not be stubborn or callous with our hearts so that we do not conform to the image of his Son. If we do not conform to his image, then our baptism and our attendance is for nothing.
Be image bearers of Christ. Be conformed to his image in all we do. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. And those whom he predestined he also called. And those whom he called he also justified. And those whom he justified he also glorified.
Who Will Separate Us From The Love of Christ?
Romans 8:31-39
Brent Kercheville
We come to the magnificent and thunderous crescendo of assurance, hope, and encouragement. Paul has been bringing us along in Christian assurance. Let’s recap Romans 8 before we look at the final verses of this chapter. Paul kicked off this section with the grand thought that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). The reason there is no condemnation now is because God has done what the Law of Moses could not do, that is, justify us (Romans 8:3). God sent his Son to deal with sin so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled. But this hope is for those who live their lives according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4). Those who live according to the Spirit are those who set their minds on spiritual things, not fleshly, worldly things. Another way to say this is that Christ lives in us (Romans 8:10) and the Spirit lives in us (Romans 8:9). If Christ is ruling our lives and we are led by the Spirit by keeping the words he has revealed through his holy scriptures, then though we are dead because of our sins, God will give us life (Romans 8:11). God has called us to be sons of God, not to be enslaved (Romans 8:15). We have been adopted as sons, and we can cry out to God as our close, intimate Father who cares for us, just as Jesus cried out, “Abba, Father.” If we have been adopted as children of God, then we are also heirs of God, prepared to receive the eternal inheritance. But we will suffer for Christ when Christ is living in us and our lives are governed by the will of God. But that suffering is not worth comparing the great glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:17-18). Just as the creation eagerly longs for this glory to be revealed, so we also groan inwardly as we eagerly wait the full benefits of our adoption as children of God (Romans 8:19-25). Even as we suffer and groan, we know that God knows our hearts and is working all things together for good according to God’s purpose (Romans 8:26-28). God will not be swayed from his purpose. God knew in advance that he wanted a people for himself. Before the foundations of the world God chose in advance that to be his people we would have to be conformed to the image of his Son. God has called for people to be like Christ. Those who receive that call are justified and those that are justified are going to be fully glorified (8:29-30). With this hope, let’s look at how the apostle Paul completes this thought.
God Is For Us (Romans 8:31-32)
So what can we say about all that God has done for us? What can we say about the privileged position in which we stand? God is for us. Let those words sink in. God is not against us. God is not our prosecutor, but our vindicator. God is for us. God has shown that he is for us. There may be no better thought than to know that God is for his people. God is for us. God is on our side and God stands behind us. Who can possibly stand against us since God is for us? Paul is not saying that we do not have enemies or opponents. The enemies of the cross are numerous. The opponents that we must combat are many. But these enemies and opponents cannot successfully wage war against us because God is for us. We have enemies, but no enemy can stand against us. There is no foe that can defeat us!
How do we know that God is for us? How can we have this confidence? Look at Romans 8:32 : He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? The proof is that God gave up his Son for us all. This is how we can know that God is for us: God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for all (Jews and Gentiles). There is nothing greater God could have done to prove to us that he is for us. Notice the point that Paul makes about this. God has done the hard part in giving his Son for us all. If God has already done the hard part, he will obviously graciously give us all things! God did not hold back his Son. He will surely not hold back anything else. We know that God will freely give us all things because we see that God gave his only Son. We will be glorified! We will receive the full benefits of our adoption as God’s children! The sacrifice of Jesus is the proof.
No Charge and No Condemnation (Romans 8:33-34)
Who can bring any charge against God’s elect (God’s people)? This is similar to verse 31. Paul is not saying that there are no charges to bring against us. There are millions of charges to make against God’s people. We have not lived perfectly. We have not obeyed God’s laws. We are violators. Turn to Zechariah 3:1-5 to see this thought illustrated in Zechariah’s vision. Notice that Satan is accusing and Joshua, who represents the people of God, is wearing filthy garments. The people are stained with sins. But God gives his pure clothing because God had taken their sins away. This is the picture that Paul is related, and likely indirectly referring to for his readers. Turn back to Romans 8. Who can bring a charge against God’s elect? Satan will sure try, but no charge will stick. Why will no accusation or charge stick? Romans 8:33 gives the answer: It is God who justifies. God is for us and he has declared us acquitted of the charges. Because God did not spare his own Son but gave himself for us, now all the charges against God’s elect have been dropped. We deserve the charges and we deserve the accusations. But God justifies. The charges are dismissed because of the blood of Jesus. God has acquitted us.
Add in Romans 8:4 to this thought. Who is to condemn us? The answer is: NOT GOD! God is not going to condemn us. Can anyone else condemn us? No, no one else can condemn because Jesus died for us. Jesus died and raised from the dead and is interceding on our behalf. Jesus’ death was the condemnation of sin (Romans 8:3) and his resurrection was the announcement that sin had been dealt with fully (Psalms 110:1; Romans 4:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:17). Jesus is now acting as our high priest (Hebrews 7:25), working on our behalf in the very presence of God. When we sin, there is Jesus in the presence of the Father, interceding for us. Jesus has our defense covered for us. There can be no prosecution against the people of God because Jesus died for us and his death functions as our defense.
Who Shall Separate Us From Christ’s Love (Romans 8:35-39)
This brings Paul to the final rhetorical questions. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? We have seen how Paul is working these rhetorical questions. Paul is not saying that there are not things that happen to the people of God that cause us to feel separated from God. We are afflicted with all sorts of issues. This is what verse 35 reveals. We can go through all kinds of afflictions, hardships, and tribulations. But these things do not separate us from the love of Christ. When we go through afflictions we may feel like God has left us and that we are outside of God’s love. But the assurance is that we know this is not true. These things cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Distress and anguish cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Persecution for the cause of Christ does not separate us from the love of Christ. Persecution does not mean that we are doing something wrong or that God has left us. Famine or hunger does not separate us from the love of Christ. Fitting along with this is nakedness. Not having food or not having clothing does not mean that we are separated from the love of Christ. Our lives being put into danger does not mean that we are separated from the love of Christ. Even being put to death (executed) does not mean that we are separated from the love of Christ. Not sickness, not cancer, not diseases, not syndromes can separate us from the love of Christ. These are things that can affect followers of Jesus. But the suffering of the righteous does not mean that we have been separated from God’s love or that God is no longer for us. This is the context of Psalms 44 from which Paul quotes in verse 36. Psalms 44 is the cry of the righteous who suffer as they long for vindication. How fitting that Paul would use the same thought here and apply it to all Christians, including the apostles. We are not any different from the apostles or the people of God in times past. They endured suffering for the cause of Christ. Will death separate us from God’s love?
Paul’s answer is clear in Romans 8:37 : No. No, in all things we are more than conquerers through him who loved us. The one who loves us has given us the overwhelming victory. Paul is emphasizing the total victory that God gives to his people through Christ. It does not matter what happens to us, we still win. There is no condemnation and we are not separated from the love of Christ. Verses 38-39 drive this point even deeper. There is nothing that will be able to separate us from the love of God. Not death or all the mistakes we make in this life is able to separate us from God’s love. No spiritual beings or physical powers can separate us from the love of Christ. Nothing currently happening now or anything that will happen in the future is able to separate us from the love of Christ. There is not one power that can separate us for God has power over all. God’s love is greater than the vastness of the universe. Nothing in the world above or the world below can separate us from God’s love. Nothing else in all the creation can separate us from the love of Christ. Do we feel the force of Paul’s words. NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING can separate us from the love of God.
Conclusion:
One of the powerful themes in Romans 8 is that the blessings that were promised to Israel have been fulfilled in the people of God, the church. Israel was promised the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27) and that promise has been fulfilled in the New Testament people of God. Israel was promised life and resurrection and that life and resurrection has been fulfilled through the believers in Jesus. Israel was God’s son, but now disciples of Jesus are the sons of God and are adopted into the family. The future inheritance was promised to Israel, but now it is pledged to those in Christ. Israel was God’s chosen people but now the church is the one who is foreknown and chosen in advance by God. God promised to never forsake Israel and now this promise is extended to the new covenant people of God. The promises to Israel have been fulfilled in Christ and those who are in Christ are God’s family and God’s covenant people.
Will Have Mercy On Whom I Have Mercy
Romans 9:1-18
Brent Kercheville
Chapters 9-11 return to the theme of defending God’s steadfast faithfulness, described as “the righteousness of God” in the early chapters of Romans. The righteousness of God, that is, God’s covenant faithfulness has been revealed through the faithfulness of Jesus for all who believe (Romans 3:23). Turn back to Romans 3:1-8 and recall that there was a discussion there about God’s faithfulness. The question Paul rhetorically asks is, “What advantage did Israel have?” “What was the point of being a Jew?” “What was the value of circumcision?” Paul gives only one answer in Romans 3. One advantage was that Israel was entrusted with the oracles of God. Israel was given the will and word of God and they were to teach God’s will and word to the world. We mentioned in Romans 3 that Paul stops describing the advantages and purposes of Israel at that point but returns to that thought in Romans 9.
Paul’s Anguish (Romans 9:1-5)
After such a powerful conclusion of Christian hope and assurance in chapter 8, the ninth chapter can easily catch us off guard. Rather than announcing his personal joy because we are children of God awaiting the glory to be revealed in us, Paul shifts to great sorrow and unceasing anguish. Notice the emphasis Paul wants to impart in these words. Three times he says something as a testimony of his feelings. Paul says, “I am speaking the truth in Christ,” “I am not lying,” and “my conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit.” Three times Paul says that he is not lying about the great pain he has when he thinks about his countrymen, the Jews. It is interesting to notice that Paul never states what exactly his great sorrow is over, but it is fairly easy to deduce. Israel’s rejection of Christ greatly pains Paul. Paul would do anything to save his kinsmen. Paul wishes that he could be the one cut off so that his people would not be cut off from these great blessings in Christ. Paul appears to be tormented because so many Jews are not saved.
Application: Do we have this kind of love for lost souls? Do we experience the same anguish when we think about how many people who live in this city are going to eternal punishment? Do we have great sorrow when we think about all the people in this county who are separated from Christ? Even more, are we moved to do something like Paul is moved to do? Are we so moved for the lost in our area that we wish we could be cut off if it would bring about the salvation of thousands or millions? Paul is declaring a powerful love for Israel to be saved. I think it is worth mentioning at this point that if in chapter 11 Paul teaches that every Jew is going to be saved, then why is Paul in so much anguish now for their souls? Clearly we will need to carefully consider how all Israel would be saved and reconcile it to Paul’s unceasing anguish for Israel.
Romans 9:4-5 reveals that Israel had all the advantages and privileges for success. Israel had everything going for them and given to them. They had spectacular privileges and blessings. To Israel belonged adoption, the glory, the covenants, the Law of Moses, the worship and sacrifices, and the promises. They had everything. They had the patriarchs, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and more. Finally, they had the Messiah, the anointed one, who came through their lineage, who is God over all. Israel had it all. Israel had everything promised to them. Blessings and privileges were within their reach. So what happened? This is the question of verse 6. Did the word of God fail? Did God not bless Israel? Did God not fulfill his promises and covenants to Israel?
Not All Who Descended From Israel Are Israel (Romans 9:6-13)
Paul establishes the answer for what happened. It is not that the word of God failed. That is not the answer at God. God has kept his promises. God has kept his covenant. God has offered the blessings and has fulfilled his word. God’s righteousness (his covenant faithfulness) has been revealed. Rather, the answer is that not all who descended from Israel are truly Israel. This must have been shocking words. Put yourselves in the mind of the person who belonged to Israel. They thought they would be justified because they were descendants of Abraham. They had circumcision, Sabbath, separation from the Gentiles, clean and unclean foods, and the like to show that they were the people of God. They are Israel and the blessings and promises were to come to all of them. But Paul tells them to wait just a minute. Not all who are Israelites by blood are the true Israel, the people of God. Paul says that the Jews were in error for thinking that God’s promises applied to the whole of physical Israel. This is not the first time Paul has said something like this. But this is the first time that he has said it quite like this. Notice where Paul already mentioned this truth in passing.
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Romans 2:28-29 ESV)
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:9-12 ESV)
Notice that Paul was saying the same thing earlier in Romans. Not all who are physically circumcised are the people of God, the true Israel. In fact, those who are not circumcised can be recipients of the promises and those who are circumcised can miss out on the promises. The prophets had spoken of a remnant of Israel. It had become obvious that the nation as a whole was not responding to God’s leading. It was a smaller group within the nation of Israel that was really God’s people. Therefore, it was foolish to think that since the whole nation had not entered the blessing that the promise of God had failed. Romans 9:6 is a very important text to understanding the fulfillment of the promises found in the first covenant. Most scholars and churches teach that the promises that we read about in the prophets have not been fulfilled. Therefore, Israel must be a political nation to inherit God’s promises. Paul’s words here defeat such a thought. God’s promises were not to physical Israel, but to true Israel. The rest of Romans 9 is to prove this point to be true.
Proof #1: Abraham’s children. The first proof used by Paul is the children of Abraham. Paul points out that Abraham had other children (like Ishmael and the many children with Keturah), but the promises would only come through Isaac. God’s promises were not to all of Abraham’s children. Being descendants of Abraham does not make them children of promise. I think the NLT does a good job here: This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children (Romans 9:8 NLT). You are not children of promise just because you are descendants of Abraham. Being Jews does not mean you are people of God.
It is useful to observe that the contrast is between being children of promise and children of the flesh. Paul makes the same distinction in Galatians 4 and is worth reading for yourselves to grasp the point Paul is making. Recall that when Paul speaks about something “in the flesh” it has been a reference to the works of the Law (circumcision, Sabbath, defilement laws, clean and unclean foods, etc). I believe the other point Paul is making is that keeping the works of the Law does not make one children of promise. You may be children of the flesh (by blood and by works of the Law), but neither make you the children of promise.
Proof #2: Isaac’s children. Paul goes further to use the example of Isaac’s children, Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau were both children of Isaac, but only one of the two would receive the promises of God. Even within Isaac there is a distinguishing that must occur. Even within Isaac there has been a winnowing process. The point is that this winnowing process has been in effect since the inception of Israel.
So how did God choose between Jacob and Esau? It was not by human works. God did not select Jacob to be the nation through the promise based upon Jacob’s works. Israel did not merit its selection. It was not by works of the Law or by any action that Israel was selected. God elected Israel of his own plans and purposes. This was God’s doing. This was God’s choice, even before the children were born. Humans could not thwart God’s purpose. God would use Jacob (Israel), not Esau, as his nation.
Now here is where some make a big mistake. Some take this passage to mean that God chooses which individuals will be the elect (saved) and which will not be the elect (condemned). This greatly misses the point that Paul is making. It is important to see the context and the text to defeat this false teaching. First, the context has not been about individuals but about the nation of Israel. Go back to Romans 9:6. Not all of Israel are truly Israel. Paul is explaining the destiny of the nation of Israel, not each individual. The context also reveals this as Paul is in great anguish over the nation (Romans 9:2-3), not for each individual. Second, the text also reveals that Paul is talking about the nation, not individuals. Look at the quotation in Romans 9:12, “The older will serve the younger.” However, Esau never served Jacob. Instead, Esau was trying to kill Jacob for most of his life. Esau and Jacob are not being referred to as individuals, but as the nations that came from them. Esau’s descendants were the Edomites and Jacob’s descendants were the Israelites. Edom served Israel. Edom did not have power, but Israel did have power over Edom and the surrounding nations. Therefore the text and the context reveals that Paul is talking about Israel as a nation. When we understand this, then we do see God’s electing purposes. God selected Israel to be the nation before Jacob was born. God chose Israel. We could even use the Calvinistic term, unconditional election. God chose Israel to be his people without any works or acts on Jacob’s part. The choice was made before Jacob was even born. Thus, Romans 9:13 concludes the thought: God chose Israel, but rejected Edom.
Is God Unjust (Romans 9:14-18)
Is there an injustice on God’s part to select one people to be his chosen nation and not another? Is God unfair to elect Jacob to be the one through whom the covenant blessings would come, and not Esau? Notice Paul’s answer to this question. Romans 9:15 quotes Exodus 33:19, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” This does not seem to answer the question, but press the problem deeper. How can God have mercy on whom he desires to have mercy? Isn’t this an injustice on God’s part?
We need to understand the context in which these words were original stated. Exodus 32 is the incident of the golden calf. Moses is angry and breaks the tablets of stone. God is angry that he says he will not go with the people to the promised land because if he did, he would consume them. Moses goes into the tent of meeting and intercedes on behalf of Israel. Moses says that if God does not go, then he will not go either. If God is not going to go, then there is no point for anyone going. At this moment Moses asks the Lord to reveal his glory. The Lord says that no human can see the full face and glory of the Lord and live. However, God says he will make his goodness pass before Moses. Then God says these words, “And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
God, rather than consuming the nation in his anger, would spare the sinful nation. God’s mercy came in spite of our human will and human exertion to rebel against him. The point is that God is free and does not have to show mercy at all! No one deserves mercy. No one works for God’s mercy! Is God unjust? Not at all because everyone deserve God’s wrath. We are crazy to ask for justice from God! We are losing our mind when we want to demand that God is being unjust. God is acting in mercy not to snuff out our lives. In this context of Paul’s point to the Christians in Rome, God is acting in mercy to choose his people (true Israel), not unjust. The stunning thing for Paul was not that God rejected Ishmael or Esau, but that God chose Isaac and Jacob, for they did not deserve to be included in God’s merciful and gracious purposes. Human effort leaves us in condemnation. We cannot clear ourselves of sin. God shows mercy because God chooses to do so, not because of us.
This is the point Paul is making with Pharaoh. Again, just as Jacob and Esau represent their corresponding nations, so Pharaoh represents Egypt. Egypt as a nation deserved judgment and wrath for its oppression and rebellion. But God spared the Pharaoh and the nation up to a particular point in history so that God’s glory could be revealed. God in his mercy spared Egypt to bring about his own purposes. The parallel to Israel is strong. God kept the nation of Israel intact and showed mercy toward it, not because of the human effort or will of the people, but because God chose Israel to be the vehicle to reveal his glory.
The point is powerful. The Jews thought that they were privileged and deserved justification because they were Israel. Is it unjust that not all Israel is the true Israel? Is it unjust that the conditions to belong in the family of God is more than simply the works of the Law or being Jew? Absolutely not. Who can complain at God’s conditions for mercy in who will be his people? No one can question God’s purposes because all of us deserve wrath, not mercy.
Conclusion:
What a merciful God we have who decided in advance that he would have a people who would receive mercy rather than condemnation! The people who are recipients of this mercy are not those who are physical descendants of Abraham. The people who are recipients of this mercy are those who are spiritual descendants of Abraham. Paul has described who are spiritual descendants of Abraham: Circumcised in the heart (Romans 2:28-29), walk in the footsteps of faith of Abraham (Romans 4:12), joined with Christ in baptism (Romans 6:4), dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11), slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18), live according to the Spirit (Romans 8:5), Christ lives in us (Romans 8:10), and conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29).
The Patience of God
Romans 9:19-33
Brent Kercheville
In chapter 9 Paul is proving how not all of physical Israel is the true Israel, the people of God. God’s promises have not failed because it was never God’s intent to see the fulfillment in physical Israel. Rather, there has always been a winnowing process, a remnant of people, who are truly God’s. Paul used the children of Abraham as his first example. Not all of Abraham’s children were recipients of the promise, only Isaac. Further, not all of Isaac’s children were recipients of the promise, only Jacob. The first point of chapter 9 is that not all who can claim to be Abraham’s children are children of promise (recipients of the promise, the people of God). The second point is that God made this election unconditional. That is, Jacob and his descendants were chosen to be the vehicle through whom God’s promises would flow before Jacob was born and without regard if Jacob acted righteously or wickedly. In fact, the people acted unrighteously, but that has not prevented God’s plan. God would show mercy to whom he would decide to show mercy. God decided long ago that he was going to have a people for himself. Even though physical Israel has failed in being the people of God does not mean that God is not going to have a people for himself. This is not unjust on God’s part because (1) this was always the plan that not all Abraham’s children would be children of promise (not all physical Israel is true Israel) and (2) every person is deserving of wrath. If God has conditions of who he people of God are, then we are blessed by God’s mercy that he continues to have a people because none of us deserve that relationship. The condition of being his people is not being physical descendants of Abraham but spiritual descendants of Abraham, those who walk in the footsteps of faith (Romans 4). This is where we left off in our study and now we will continue our study in Romans 9:19.
God’s Sovereign Righteousness (Romans 9:19-21)
Romans 9:19 is quite challenging in understanding where Paul is leading the discussion because he does not seem to answer the rhetorical question in the following verses. This question, “Why does he still find fault?” appears to be quite similar to a previous objection made by physical Israel in Romans 3:5.
But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) (Romans 3:5 ESV)
The rhetorical question of Romans 9:19 seems to be along the same idea. God cannot find fault with us since this has been his purpose. Further, Paul is showing that Israel has resisted and rebelled against God’s plan. I think the NET translation carries the thought well in this verse because it translates the perfect tense of the sentence: “For who has ever resisted his will?” The NKJV also reveals the perfect tense, “For who has resisted his will?” The question is not forward looking, but backward looking. Who has ever and continues to resist God’s will? I don’t think the intended answer of this rhetorical question is “no one.” Rather, the intended answer is “Israel.” Israel has constantly resisted God’s plan and purpose. We will see this point fully revealed in Romans 10:2-3. Israel has resisted God’s purpose. But God’s purposes are not defeated. When we answer Paul’s question, “Who has ever resisted God’s will?” with the answer, “Israel,” then Paul’s response in the following verses becomes clearer.
Paul’s quotation from Isaiah 29:16 proves that Paul is speaking about Israel’s rebellion to God. The declaration, “Why have you made me like this?” is a quotation from Isaiah’s prophecy. In this section of text, the Lord declares that the people draw near with the mouths and honor God with their lips, but their hearts are from God (Isaiah 29:13). Israel was disobedient, hiding from the counsels of Lord, thinking that no one saw their wickedness (Isaiah 29:15).
“Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” (NIV). Who are we to resist God’s plan? Who are we to think that God has it all wrong? Who are we to not like how God is going to save people? Who are we to not like the conditions of his grace? Who are we to think that we can conjure a better way? The TNIV captures the contrast of the frailty of humans arguing and talking back to God. “But who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God?” (TNIV). We are not in our right place or in our right mind as mere humans to question God’s sovereign and saving purposes.
Romans 9:21 is the principle that Paul proved in Romans 9:6-13. God has the right to call Abraham’s seed through Isaac, not Ishmael. God has the right to have the promise come through Jacob, not Esau. God had the right to choose Israel as the nation through whom the blessings would come. God also has the right to declare that people are not saved because they are physical Israel or keep the works of the Law of Moses. God’s people are those who walk in faith, not keep the works of the Law. In keeping with the language of Romans 9:21, God can have vessels of honorable use and vessels of dishonorable use come from the same lump of clay.
God’s Patience (Romans 9:22-29)
Romans 9:22-24 truly reveal the mercy and patience of God. Paul presents a question, but it is the reality of the history of Israel, and not merely a hypothetical. There are many times in Israel’s history that God desired to show his wrath and reveal his power against the nation of Israel. We read of these occasions when the nation leaves Egypt, when they wander in the wilderness, and even when they had judges and kings. They were a sinful, stubborn, and rebellious people. But rather than showing his wrath and revealing his power, God endured with much patience those vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. God continued to deal with physical Israel. Why did God show patience to the nation? Why did God endure with the vessels of wrath? Verse 23 explains that the purpose was to reveal the riches of God’s glory to the vessels of mercy.
The point is similar to the point made about Egypt in Romans 9:17. God raised up Pharaoh and allowed Egypt to rule in its wickedness because God had the purpose of showing his power and having his name proclaimed throughout the earth. In the same way, Israel was spared destruction and God patiently endured with the nation for his own purpose of revealing the riches of glory to those who are his true people. God was going to use the physical nation of Israel to bring about the Messiah who would fulfill God’s promises. Despite Israel’s rejection, God was going to accomplish his plan through this rebellious nation. Let us not forget that this passing of time allows for repentance. Israel was presented with numerous opportunities to turn back to God. The prophets preached the message of God, “Return to me and I will return to you.” That patience for the world has not worn off yet. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 ESV) The wrath of God is coming. Delay must be interpreted as God’s mercy and not that anyone is getting away with their wicked acts.
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:15-16 ESV)
Who are the vessels of mercy? The vessels of wrath are prepared for destruction. But who are the vessels of mercy who are prepared for glory? Paul’s answer is, “Us whom he has called.” Paul is writing to Christians in Rome. Christians are the vessels of mercy. The vessels of mercy are not only those who were Jews who were walking in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham (Romans 4:12; Romans 4:16), but also from the Gentiles those who are conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Notice that those who are merely physical Israel are prepared for destruction. But those who are spiritual Israel, who are circumcised in the heart, are the vessels of mercy prepared for glory.
Paul now validates this point with two quotations from Hosea. The first quotation comes from Hosea 2:23 and the second comes from Hosea 1:10. Hosea was prophesying of a time when Israel would be joined to the Lord in righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness. Israel will be punished for its sins and immoralities, but God in his mercy would call for his people again. Israel was no longer God’s people because of their sins. The Gentiles were never God’s people. Both Jews and Gentiles were not God’s people but now God is calling them to be his people. They were not beloved but God is calling them beloved. They were not his people but now they can be called “sons of the living God.” This description reaffirms the glorious thought that we are not slaves, but sons (Romans 8:12-17). We are not separated from God, but God’s people and in a family relationship with him.
Paul moves to a quotation from Isaiah to further emphasize that from physical Israel who is prepared for destruction God would call out his people. Of the not my people would be a people. Of the not beloved would be his beloved. Isaiah declares that though physical Israel be as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. Romans 9:28 presses home the subtle point of Romans 9:22. Israel is set for destruction. In fact, the whole world is set for destruction because the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness (Romans 1:18). Any saving reveals the mercy of God. The Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. Only a remnant of the nation will be saved, not the whole physical nation of Israel.
Romans 9:29 shows us that for even a remnant to be saved is by the direct hand of God. If it had not been for God’s mercy there would not be a people at all. If God had not intervened there would not have been a nation of Israel at all. So it is ridiculous to declare that God is unjust when he has been acting with mercy toward the nation throughout its history, preserving it for his own glory. The HCSB and NKJV probably reveal Paul’s point more clearly by reading, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed….” These offspring that are spared are children of promise, the sons of the living God. The remnant will be the “seed,” the true children of God promised to Abraham.
To summarize Paul’s overwhelming point: From Abraham to the promises of return from exile, God intended to have a true covenant people which would receive the fulfillment of God’s promises, not all of Abraham’s physical family. All Israel, like all the Gentiles, is guilty of sin. If God simply left Israel to itself not only would it have ceased to exist long ago but the promises made through Abraham to the whole world would never have come to pass (Wright, NIB, 644).
Final Thoughts:
1. Not all who are Christians are the people of God, the children of promise.
2. Praise God for his patience with us when we act like vessels of wrath.
Pursuing God’s Righteousness
Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:4
Brent Kercheville
In our last lesson we noticed the patience of God. Israel has rebelled against God and resisted God’s plan. Rather than immediately bringing their deserved wrath, God endured with much patience these vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to reveal his glory toward those whom God has called. But God’s call has not been to the Jews alone. God’s people, the remnant, did not come exclusively from physical Israel. Jews and Gentiles are afforded the opportunity to be called by God, “My people” and “sons of the living God.” This is only because of God’s mercy. Every person deserves God’s judgment, but God in his mercy has purposed to have a people that are his. This summary prepares us from Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:4.
Recall that Romans 9 has been Paul’s defense of the trustworthiness of God’s word. Paul is now going to investigate the implications of what he just said, that God has elected Gentiles along with a remnant of Israel to salvation.
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. (Romans 9:30-31 ESV)
Paul begins Romans 9:30 with, “What shall we say then?” Paul is going to draw the necessary conclusion from what he just taught in Romans 9:19-29. Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained righteousness and Jews who pursued law to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. What does Paul mean? Let’s begin with the Gentiles in Romans 9:30. The Gentiles have received right standing with God and covenant membership in the family of God by faith, not through the Law of Moses. Gentiles, who were not pursuing a right status with God and were not pursuing covenant membership with God, have been offered this status and the Gentiles have accepted this status by faith. They did not receive this status through the Law of Moses. The Gentiles did not receive this status by keeping the works of the Law (circumcision, Sabbath keeping, keeping clean and unclean ordinances, etc). They received this status of justified and covenant membership in God’s family through faith. This faith is not simply mental assent to God’s promises for Paul has never define faith this way in the letter to the Romans. Faith depicts truly trusting in God and living faithfully to him. We learned this back in Romans 1:17, “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” God has been faithful to his word and his promises. We are called to be faithful to God, trusting him in all things.
The Jews, however, pursued the Law of Moses for righteousness. They pursued the Law of Moses for right standing before God and covenant membership in God’s family. But they did not succeed in fulfilling the Law of Moses. They were unsuccessful in obtaining justification. The Gentiles have received righteousness, but the Jews have not. Why?
Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 9:32-33 ESV)
Paul explains why the Jews have not received right standing and covenant membership in God’s family. The reason is that they did not pursue right standing by faith, but by works. They did not go about receiving this status from God by putting their lives in God’s hands. They did not surrender themselves to God and trust God. They were not faithful to God and did not show faithful living. Remember that this was Paul’s point in Romans 9:19-29. Israel has resisted God’s will and resisted God’s purposes. They did not live faithfully to God. They did not put their trust in God, but resisted God. Instead, the Jews thought they had right standing before God and covenant membership in God’s family by the works of the Law. The Jews thought because they were children of Abraham that they would be justified. They thought that because they were circumcised on the eighth day that they were in God’s family. They thought because they possessed the Law of Moses that they were the people of God. But Paul has shown that no one is justified by the works of the Law (Romans 3:20).
Return to Romans 3:20-24 to see that Paul is bringing his previous point back into his discussion:
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (Romans 3:20-24 ESV)
The Jews thought that they had right standing before God through the works of the Law. Rather, justification is found through faith in Jesus. This leads to Paul’s quotation that he is also thinking about Jesus as the object of our faith and the one whom we are to be faithful. Paul quotes from Isaiah 28:16 and Isaiah 8:14-15. What does Isaiah’s prophecy of stumbling over the stumbling stone have to do with Paul’s point? I think there are a couple of intentions by Paul. First, God always spoke of a remnant. This remnant idea has been the theme of Romans 9. Israel was going to stumble and only a few would be saved. Second, Israel’s lack of faith and faithfulness caused them to not recognize the Messiah when he came. Israel saw their salvation in being Israel, failing to see that they needed a Savior. Jesus is the Savior, but they believed through the works of the Law that they did not need saving.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:1-4 ESV)
Paul returns to his earnest desire for Israel to be saved. We read this passionate plea in Romans 9:1-2. Paul said that he had great sorrow and unceasing anguish for his kinsmen, the nation of Israel. Paul’s great desire and prayer is that they may be saved. Now, I would like to point out something we noted in Romans 9:1-2. If Paul is going to teach that all physical Israel is going to be saved in Romans 11:26, then why is Paul praying that they will be saved and is in anguish that they are not saved? If God has purposed for all Jews to be saved simply because they are Jews, then this plea does not make sense. Further, such a teaching violates everything Paul has been teaching in Romans 9. Not all physical Israel is the true Israel and only a remnant will be saved.
Paul further testifies that the Jews have a zeal for God, but that zeal is not according to knowledge. God did not fail in keeping his word. Israel did not understand how God was keeping his promised covenant. They did not understand God’s plan through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s righteousness was not just for Israel, but was through them. God was not just giving right standing to Israel. Israel was the vehicle through which the Messiah would come so that the whole world could receive right standing before God. The promises were not exclusive to Israel.
Jesus told a parable in Mark 12:1-12 showing how Israel had rejected God’s righteousness and attempted to establish their own righteousness. They would not submit to the way God said right standing and covenant membership in God’s family would come. They tried to take the inheritance for themselves. Israel believed that God’s covenant with Abraham was their exclusive and inalienable possession.
Before we move on to Romans 10:4, there is an important lesson that we learn from what the Jews were doing. We learn that zeal and sincerity are not sufficient to obtain justification. There is a world full of religious people who are zealous for God, but their zeal is not according to knowledge. That is, they have a love for God but they are not doing things God’s way. They are unwilling to submit to the righteousness of God and have established their own righteousness. God has been firm about who his people are and how we receive the status of justified children of God. We cannot change who are the justified or how one is justified. The Jews wanted the status of right standing with God to be based on ethnicity. Today, many churches want the status of right standing with God to be based on belief without obedience. Many churches want the status of right standing with God to be based on external works and not on faith. But Paul has taught that those who are children of God are those who walk in the footsteps of faith of Abraham, who put sin to death by being united to Christ through baptism, conforming themselves to the image of his Son. Zeal alone does not put one in God’s body of saved people.
Christ Is The End
Returning to the text, in Romans 10:4 Paul teaches that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. I think the TNIV renders this verse well. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4 TNIV)
Christ is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses. Christ is the end of the Law. Christ is the goal of the Law. Christ is what the Law was point toward. Christ is the culmination of the Torah so that there can be right standing and covenant membership in God’s family for all who believe. The emphasis of this verse is likely twofold.
First, the Law of Moses was not the ultimate goal. Christ was the ultimate goal. The law itself was not God’s end purpose. Christ was the goal and the completion of the Law of Moses. Righteousness comes through Jesus, not through the Law. Second, right standing before God and covenant membership in God’s family is to everyone who believes. It is not to Jews who believe. Righteousness is to every person who believes.
Final Thoughts:
1. Gentiles (on the whole) have received right standing before God and covenant membership into the family of God, while the Jews (on the whole) have not.
2. Gentiles received this righteousness by faith. The Jews tried to attain righteousness through the works of the Law and not by faith.
3. The Jews did not see that they needed the Christ for righteousness because they thought their righteousness was based on being Israelites.
4. Further, the Jews have a zeal for God, but they did not submit to way God would justify people, failing to grasp that Christ is the culmination and completion of the Law of Moses.
Salvation To The Ends of the Earth
Romans 10:5-21
Brent Kercheville
The last lesson which covered Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:4 acts like a bridge for Paul into a discussion about salvation. Gentiles on the whole have attained right standing and a covenant membership in God’s family by faith, while the Jews on the whole have not received this righteousness. The reason the Jews on the whole have not received right standing and covenant membership into God’s family is because they were seeking to establish their own method of finding justification, rather than submitting to the way God was offering justification. Submitting to God’s righteousness means that all understand that Christ is the fulfillment of the Law for righteousness. Christ is the fulfillment and culmination of God’s promises so that we must belong to Jesus to find right standing before God and have covenant membership in God’s family. Paul continues forward in his writing about justification and salvation.
Righteousness of Law and Righteousness of Faith (Romans 10:5-13)
Moses wrote about the right standing and covenant membership that is based on the Law. How is righteousness based on the Law attained? Paul answers that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. Righteousness can be found in the Law. The problem is that all people have failed in that effort. The attempt to attain righteousness by the Law is futile. We are sinful people who violate God’s law and have not lived up to his standards. We cannot be in God’s family and be pronounced justified by our own obedience to the laws of God. We have failed and continue to fail in obedience.
However, there is a righteousness based on faith. The righteousness based on the Law was a simple statement in Romans 10:5. The righteousness based on faith is explained through Romans 10:13. Paul is quoting from Deuteronomy 30:11-14 in Romans 10:6-8. Along with the quotation you will notice that Paul inserts his own explanation which most translation mark in parenthesis. Paul’s explanation is easily noticed because it is set off with the words, "that is."
First, we need to observe what these words meant when Moses said them before we can see how Christ is the fulfillment. The context of Moses’ statement can be seen in Deuteronomy 30:1-10. Moses is prophesying about what will transpire for Israel in the future. The blessings and the curses were going to come upon them. They will be set into exiles among the nations. But they will return and God will restore their fortunes. Moses tells the people that they are to love the Lord with their heart and obey the voice of the Lord, keeping his commandments and statutes.
Romans 10:11-14 brings us to Moses’ words that Paul quotes. These commandments that God had given the people were not too hard to follow nor were impossible to know as if they were far away. The word of God is near them. It is in their mouth and in their heart and they can do it.
Paul says that this is the righteousness of faith. The point of Moses’ words was to discourage the idea that doing God’s will meant aspiring after something that is too difficult and out of reach. Here is Paul’s point: As God brought his word near to Israel so that they might know and obey him, so God now brings his word near to the Jews and the Gentiles that they might know him through his Son and respond in faith and obedience (NICNT). The word that God has brought near is the message that Paul and the apostles are preaching (Romans 10:8). There is no need to go into heaven to gain spiritual knowledge or acceptance. There is no need to try to accomplish the impossible. Christ has come from heaven to proclaim and affect salvation for the world. The righteousness of faith does not demand the impossible from us. God, through Jesus, has done all that is necessary. We must not falsely assume that the righteousness of faith means that there are no longer the demands of obedience. God is making the demands on his people for obedience and holy living while providing grace for deliverance when we fail. This is the message of the righteousness of faith. God’s commands to love him with our hearts and serve him are still in effect. But through Jesus there is grace when we fail to meet the goals. Therefore, the message of Deuteronomy 30 is appropriate. God has not asked too much of us. God has not asked us to do something that is too difficult or is out of reach because God sent Jesus and there is no excuse for not responding and obeying.
Notice that Paul spends the rest of this section elaborating on the quotation, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart." The word that Paul is talking about is the message the apostles have been proclaiming. What’s the message? "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." This matches the prophecy of Isaiah who declared, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." My plan is to discuss in greater detail Romans 10:9-11 in a couple of lessons on Sunday morning. So I am not going to take the time to go through that material right here but encourage you to look for those lessons next week.
Instead, I want us to observe what Paul is emphasizing in this section. In Romans 10:11 it is everyone, not just Jews. In Romans 10:12 Paul continues the emphasis with, "there is no distinction between Jew and Greek." Further, "the same Lord is Lord of all" and he bestows riches "on all who call on him." Again in Romans 10:13, it is everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The point is not so much the content of the message of salvation, but who is receiving this message of salvation. Everyone can call on the name of the Lord. There is no distinction because God is Lord of all people. Back in Romans 3:22-23 Paul said that there was no distinction between Jews and Gentiles because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Now Paul says there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles in salvation.
Let us not miss the impact of Paul’s teaching and how this connects with the context of chapter 9. Those who call on the name of the Lord are the true Israel. Those who call on the name of the Lord are the ones are receiving God’s promises of right standing before him and covenant membership in God’s family. This point is in Romans 10:12, "Bestowing his riches on all who call on him." Paul is not talking about physical possessions and money. God’s riches are his promises which have been in discussion since the last chapter and have been the theme of the letter. Those who call on the name of the Lord are the people of God, the true Israel, and receive right standing before God and covenant membership in God’s family.
Proclaiming God’s Salvation Message (Romans 10:14-21)
Paul takes a moment to urge the proclaiming of this gospel message. If we take Romans 10:14 in reverse order we can see the logical flow of Paul’s thought process. Without the preaching of the gospel, people will not hear the good news. If they do not hear the good news, how can they believe in him? If they do not believe in him, then they cannot call on him. It is useful to observe that calling on the name of the Lord and believing are not the same action. Notice this is a sequence of events the occur. Teaching leads to hearing which leads to believing which leads to calling on the name of the Lord. We will discuss in more detail what it means to call on the name of the Lord in a future lesson. Verse 15 tacks on one more thought. There will not be the proclamation of the gospel unless people are sent into the world. Isaiah 52:7 is quoted as the feet underscore the sending and going of those proclaiming. This prophecy is now being fulfilled as God’s messengers are sent out and the good news is being preached. The return from the exile has occurred and salvation is available to all.
Romans 10:16 reveals the direction Paul is going. But even though Israel has heard, then have not believed. Paul’s proof is to quote Isaiah 53:1 which is the early part of the suffering servant prophecy. Who has believed the prophet’s message? Not Israel. Isaiah prophesied about the rejection of the salvation message through the suffering servant. This has been Paul’s point in Romans 9, 10. Most Jews have not believed. But the context of Isaiah is also critical because Isaiah teaches that the Gentiles will see and understand.
So shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. (Isaiah 52:15 ESV)
Therefore faith depends upon hearing the gospel message of Christ, understanding it, and accepting it.
In Romans 10:18 Paul seems to answer what the audience is likely questioning. So why didn’t Israel obey? Maybe Israel did not hear the good news since they have not believed. Paul refutes this by stating that Israel has heard. Paul quotes Psalms 19:4 to prove that the revelation of God has gone to the ends of the earth. There is no doubt that Israel has heard the message of Christ. Since the gospel has been proclaimed to the Gentiles, we know that the Jews have certainly heard the gospel also.
Romans 10:19 records Paul’s next question: Did Israel not know? Israel should have known that Gentiles would be included among God’s people and that only a remnant of Israel would be among God’s people. Paul uses a quotation from Moses found in Deuteronomy 32:21. The context is the song of Moses in which he prophesies that Israel will grow fat and comfortable and will forget the God who gave them their beginnings. Because of this, God will hide his face from Israel and will make them jealous with those who are not a people (speaking about the Gentiles). Therefore, Moses said that this was going to happen. The Jews on the whole would reject while the Gentiles on the whole would accept.
Paul quotes Isaiah in verse 20 and Isaiah’s quotation is more blunt. This is what Paul means when he says, "Isaiah says boldly" (HCSB). Isaiah taught even more plainly about Israel’s rejection and the Gentiles’ acceptance. The Isaiah prophecy comes from Isaiah 65:1. God would be found by the Gentiles ("those who did not seek me" and "those who did not ask for me"). The prophecy of Isaiah continues that Israel heard and knew, but refused and resisted God. God has been holding out his hands to bring the Jews into him. But they are a disobedient and contrary people. They are rebellious, obstinate, and defiant. They refused to submit to the righteousness of God.
Applications:
(1) Deeper faith comes through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). For us to have a deeper faith, a strong faith, and a saving faith requires us to be more diligent in listening to the word. We will not have God approved faith by accident. We will not have it simply because we attend worship services. We must consider the position of Israel and apply the lessons to ourselves. Israel had all the advantages. They had the Law. They had a relationship with God. They had seen God’s powerful works and miracles. They knew God’s plan for them. Yet, with all of these blessings and all this knowledge, Israel failed. They did not fail because they did not know. They did not fail because they had not heard. Israel failed because they did not take what they heard and what they knew and transform it into faithful living for God. They did not take what God had revealed and learn from it. Paul is quoting the Old Testament in nearly every sentence he makes, showing them how they missed what God had clearly revealed. We must make sure that we do not fall into the same error. Faith comes through hearing the word of Christ.
(2) How will the world call on the name of the Lord if they do not believe? And how will they believe if they have not heard the gospel message? And how will they hear if we are not proclaiming the message of Christ to them? And will we proclaim the message of Christ to the world if we are not going? Do we have beautiful feet? Are we taking the message of Christ to people? Or have we given up on evangelism? Have we given up because of the rejection or fear of rejection? Have we decided in our hearts that no one wants to hear? We are not charged with decided who wants to hear. We are charged with taking the good news to the world. Are we using our feet to run with the gospel to the world, or are we using our feet to run with the world in sin? Dedicate yourself to have beautiful feet in the eyes of the Lord. Be proclaimers of the good news of God’s love and mercy.
Confessing Jesus
Romans 10:9-10
Brent Kercheville
Romans 10:9-10 is a popular set of verses in the Christian world in teaching people about salvation. What is typically done with this text is to say that all a person needs to do is confess that Jesus is the Lord and believe and that person will be saved. So then the person is directed in some sort of prayer asking to receive Jesus. Is this what Paul meant when he taught the content of the message of salvation in these verses? I believe
Romans 10:9-10 have been oversimplified and taken out of their context so that the meaning has lost its original punch which Paul intended.
Notice in the first place that the verses Romans 10:9-13 are all explanations and are not stand alone statements. Each verse begins with the word “because” or “for.” The NASB and NKJV use the word “that” in verse 9. The HCSB lets us down here by not translating these connecting words. The point is that the verses Romans 10:9-13 are all explanations of what Paul taught in Romans 10:6-8. I will quickly summarize what Paul is doing in quoting Moses in these verses. For a more detailed study of these verses, please listen or read the lesson entitled, “Salvation To The Ends of the Earth (Romans 10:5-21).” In that lesson there is a deeper look at what Paul is doing. In summary, Paul is teaching that the righteousness of faith says that we can know God’s will and God’s will is not too difficult to obey. God’s will can be known because Christ has come down and revealed God’s will to us through his covenant. God’s will is not too difficult to obey because Christ has died and raised from the dead, offering grace and mercy to those who fall short will striving to serve him. The context of Moses’ message that Paul is reaching for in these quotations is that people are to love the Lord with their heart and obey his commands. Moses told Israel that they could do it. Paul is saying that we can do it because Christ has descended and ascended.
The content of God’s will is the very message that the apostles were proclaiming (Romans 10:8). The apostles were teaching not only about who Jesus was and what he did, but also what Jesus expects us to do because of his life, death, and resurrection. We do not have the time to trace through the whole of the New Testament, but much of the writings of Paul, John, and Peter are teaching how we are to live, love, and obey God because of the sacrifice of Jesus. This is the point of the quotation in Romans 10:8. God’s will, word, and commands have been revealed to us (through the apostles). God’s commands have been brought near to you. They are to be in your mouth and in your heart.
This thought parallels what Moses taught Israel regarding what God demands.
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:5-9; ESV)
In giving the instructions for the Passover and feast of unleavened bread, as Israel was about to leave Egypt, God commanded,
And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt. (Exodus 13:9 ESV)
When God instructed the people to have something in their heart and in their mouth, this never meant some sort of vain repetition. This instruction never meant to just say a formula. God does not mean for us to just say, “Jesus is Lord,” and that is the end of the story. If this was all that God was wanting, God is going to get that simple confession from us on the day of judgment. Paul wrote these words later in this very letter:
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” (Romans 14:10-11 ESV)
God is not calling for us to say three words for salvation. Every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord when he comes in glory. So what does it mean for us to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9)?
Confessing Jesus is Lord
The phrase, “Jesus is Lord,” is so short that it is easy for us to pass over it and say it quickly without digging out the full meaning. First, to testify that Jesus is Lord means that we know and accept who Jesus truly is. Jesus is not just an ordinary person. Jesus is not merely a prophet. Jesus is a not a good moral human who had some good teachings. What we are telling others and accepting within our own hearts that the Jesus who lived around 30 AD is God. He is full divinity. Paul would write to the Corinthians, “There is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:6). The apostle John also wrote similar of him, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). When Jesus was born, the angel declared, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
Second, when we acknowledge Jesus is Lord, then we are accepting that he is in charge. Jesus is Lord means that he has rule. He is ruling over all rulers and powers. Jesus is ruling over his people. Jesus is ruling over all people. He is the king and we are the subjects. He is the master and we are the servants. Jesus is Lord is not just something that we say, it is something that we believe. Jesus is in charge. If I believe that Jesus is Lord, then I must find out what he wants me to do because he is over my life also. We have an unusual way of seeing Jesus. We see Jesus as Lord over the world, but somehow that excludes our lives. We think we can say that Jesus is Lord, yet live our lives how we want. This is the problem with what I see going on in the Christian world. People are claiming Jesus is Lord, but no one is changing their lives to reflect that truth. You say, “Jesus is Lord” but it does not look like in the way we live our lives. Remember that the gospel show us that even demons confessed Jesus to be the Holy One of God (Luke 4:34). It is not the mere uttering of words that saves. What Paul means is that if Jesus is Lord, then we will submit to his rule. He will be in charge of our lives, not us. We will act as he wants us to act. We will do what he says. We will yield our will to his will.
We say these things and we hear these things, but I don’t know that it is always sinking in. So I want to press this thought even further.
• If Jesus is Lord, then he is Lord over our minds. We will not think about sinful, impure, and unholy things. Our minds will be put under his rule so that we are thinking on things that are pure, holy, and excellent.
• If Jesus is Lord, then he is Lord over our ethics and values. We will behave as Jesus wants us to behave. We will not moved by what the world thinks is right. We will not be swayed by political correctness. If Jesus is Lord, then our values match his values in what is right and what is wrong.
• If Jesus is Lord, then he is Lord over our careers. We cannot detach what we do to earn a living as if there is some sort of exemption. Jesus is Lord over us all day, every day, not just when we are not working. Jesus must be placed first in everything that we are doing. I cannot do things for work that are contrary to the commands of Jesus. I cannot lie for my job. I cannot swindle for my job. If Jesus is not Lord over our careers, then we are not confessing that Jesus is Lord.
• If Jesus is Lord, then he is Lord over this local church. We cannot what we want to do as a church. We must do as Jesus instructs. We could have a lot of fun having rock bands, festivals, parties, and other forms of entertainment. We could spend the Lord’s money on all sorts of things that we think are fun or good. But if Jesus is Lord, then we do what he says. This is his body, and we must act like it. We must behave like his servants. We must worship him as he has told us. We must use the money as he has instructed.
• If Jesus is Lord, then he is Lord over my relationships. We are going to win souls to Jesus if Jesus is Lord. We are going work to save people’s souls and teach them about the good news of Jesus. I am not going to be friends with people who pull me into sin. I will be friends with people to pull them out of sin and to Jesus. But I cannot let me love for people cause them to pull into sin.
• If Jesus is Lord, then he is Lord over my marriage and family. Husbands will love their wives as Christ loved the church and not be insensitive warlords. Husbands will lead their families in the ways of righteousness, not in paths that will lead their families to hell. Wives will yield to their husbands and will not act like they are the head. Fathers will train their children to love the Lord and show them that the Lord comes first, not school, not sleep, not sports, not anything else. Mothers will nurture their children and care for them, setting an example of godliness.
If Jesus is Lord, then he is Lord over my body. We will not be sleeping around. We will not have sex outside of marriage. We will not live with the opposite gender who is not our spouse. We will not look at p*rnography. We will not use our bodies for self-gratification. We will not commit adultery. If Jesus is Lord, then we will stop engaging in these sinful activities immediately. If Jesus is Lord, then we will control our bodies. We will not engage in sexual activities before marriage and we will keep our sexual activities confined to marriage.
Confessing Jesus is Lord is not just uttering three words. It is confessing that Jesus is number one in everything in my life.
Believing In Our Heart That God Raised Jesus From The Dead
God wants your heart. God wants you to believe with your heart. This is not just a mental assent that Jesus raised from the dead. It is a life changing belief. Jesus raised from the dead. That means Jesus is who he said he was. He is God. He is Lord. He is alive. He is ruling. He is in charge. He will bring judgment on his enemies. We are not serving a dead god. We are serving a risen Savior!
The resurrection means that we can have forgiveness of sins. Jesus has experienced death on our behalf so that God save us from our sins. We deserve the punishment for our sins. Jesus died and raised from the dead. This means we that through Jesus we can be forgiven of our evil and wicked ways. Through Jesus we are able to know God’s word and let it sink into our minds and hearts so that we can be saved.
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:8-10 ESV)
God is not asking you to say the words. God asking you to live it. Live like Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord so that it transforms what you say, how you act, and how you live. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Has God Rejected His People?
Romans 11:1-15
Brent Kercheville
Has God Rejected His People? (Romans 11:1-6)
After proving that the Gentiles are entering into a covenant relationship with God and Israel has not obeyed the gospel because they are a disobedient and contrary people (Romans 10:16; Romans 10:21), Paul begins chapter 11 with a very important question. Has God rejected his people? Paul is not asking if God has rejected the spiritual remnant, the people of God. The answer to that is obvious: of course not. God has purposed to have a people that are his. Rather, Paul is asking if God has rejected his people, the Israelites. Paul’s emphatic answer is, "By no means." This answer can be implied from the previous verse and its quotation from Isaiah 65:2. God has not closed his hands toward Israel. All day long God has held out his hands to disobedient Israel. God has not thrown Israel away. God has not rejected Israel. This is an important answer to keep in mind as we move through the eleventh chapter of Romans.
Paul proves that God has not rejected Israel by recalling his own lineage. Paul is an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, and of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul is from ethnic Israel and his conversion is proof that God has not abandoned Israel. God has certainly not rejected his people because God chose Paul to be part of the people of God, the remnant. Paul is receiving the covenantal blessing and promises given to Abraham.
Paul’s second proof that God has not rejected Israel is from Elijah. To understand Paul’s point, we need to know a little bit about the background of the days of Elijah. In the days when Elijah prophesied the nation of Israel had abandoned the rule of God, asking for a king to rule over them. Ahab and Jezebel were ruling over Israel when Elijah was prophesying. The majority of Israel is apostate and in rebellion to God. This rebellion is so great that Elijah believes he is the last shred of righteousness in the nation. God comes to Elijah and tells him that there is a remnant of people who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even when nearly all of Israel was steeped in idolatry, God had not rejected Israel.
Paul brings this imagery forward as a parallel to Israel in the first century. "So too at the present time there is a remnant…." There was a people who were serving God even when most of Israel was apostate in the days of Elijah. In the same way, there are a people who are serving God even when most rejected Jesus. God’s people are not forsaken and God will fulfill his promises to them. Notice that there is a remnant "chosen by grace." This is a point Paul refuses to leave. The remnant are not chosen by their merits or by their works. That there is a remnant does not suggest that there are some Jews who were successful at keeping the Law. Everyone deserves God’s wrath. It is only by God’s grace and good purpose that he has decided that there will be a people who are his. This point was previously made in Romans 9:29.
Application: We are never alone in our faith in Christ. Sometimes we can feel like we are the only ones left who are trying to serve the Lord. I wonder what number God would give us of the number of people who are serving the Lord today. How many hundreds of thousands or millions of people on the earth who are seek him! God always has a people that are his, no matter dark the days may be morally.
Paul also reminds us about grace. There is a remnant by grace. If there is a remnant on the basis of works, then it cannot be by grace. If the remnant exists by grace, then it cannot be by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. God is not showing grace if we earn our way into being part of the remnant. God is not showing grace if we can merit our place in the remnant. If it were, then it would not be grace. The remnant would be our rightful, deserved place. Instead, it is by grace there exist the remnant, the people of God who are receiving God’s promises and blessings.
Application: We must never forget that we stand where we are by grace. What a gracious God we have that continues to purpose to have a people even though every one is a sinner.
Israel Failed (Romans 11:7-10)
But Israel has failed to obtain their place as the remnant. The elect are part of the remnant, but the rest were hardened. Paul’s point is that there are some of Israel, like himself, who are part of God’s covenant people. But most have hard hearts. The remnant believed, but the rest did not.
This message fits what the prophets taught. The quotation comes to us from Deuteronomy 29:3 and Isaiah 29:10. Those who failed God did not do so because they had been hardened, but they were hardened because they failed God. When God delays the outstanding judgment that is due, those who do not use this time of delay to repent and turn back to God will be hardened. This fits with the analogy Paul used earlier in Romans 9:17-18 when he spoke about the hardening of Pharaoh. Rather than immediate judgment, God allows time to repent. But the more people choose disobedience, the more their hearts are hardened. Since God continues to delay the judgment hoping for people to repent, we can also say that God hardens hearts. God continues to put choices in front of people to turn to God or to reject. The more people reject, the more hard hearted they become. Paul is quoting the scriptures to show that God knew the rest would be hardened. The majority was not going to accept, but reject. They would be spiritually insensitive (spirit of stupor) to the things of God. They are unresponsive to God’s message.
David said the same thing, as quoted from Psalms 69:22-23. The table is a reference to blessings. Therefore, God’s blessings to the people has become their trap. They took God’s blessings for granted, thinking they were receiving these things because they were Israelites. So the people bear the burden of their sins and their rebellion because they took God’s blessings and rebelled, rather than being thankful in worship to God.
Application: How easy it is for us to fall into the same trap! We can take the blessings of God and turn them into a stumbling block. We can do this by taking the grace of God for granted. The grace of forgiveness is treated as common and average in our minds so that we are no longer motivated to serve the Lord with zeal. We lose our humility because we are taking our eyes off of the sacrifice of Jesus, thinking that we are good people who deserve something from God. We lose our dependence on God because we have so many material blessings and possessions that these things distract us from worshiping and serving God as he commands us. We find worship boring, sermons long, Bible classes as unnecessary, and we simply do not care anymore about learning about God and growing deeper in our faith.
Application: Further, the longer we remain in this state, the harder it will be to turn from rejecting Jesus and serving Jesus. God has delayed the judgment that is deserved of every person in the world, hoping that more people will turn to him. But the longer time goes on and the longer we allow ourselves to be cold and callous toward God, the more our eyes will be darkened and the more difficult it will be to come back to God. God is hardening our hearts by not leaving us alone, but putting us in a position to make a decision about God. Every Sunday morning you must make a decision. Every Sunday night you must make a decision. Every Wednesday night you must make a decision. In every temptation you must make a decision. When you are at work you must make a decision. When you are at home you must make a decision. What is the decision? Will you keep ignoring God or will you return to him?
God’s Purpose In Israel’s Stumbling (Romans 11:11-15)
Paul asks a similar question that he asked in the first verse. Has Israel stumbled in order that they might fall? That is, does Israel’s failure mean that their fall is permanent with no hope of recovery? Once again Paul answers, "By no means!" Israel’s stumbling was not to be their permanent exclusion. God used Israel’s failure to bring in the Gentiles and make the Jews jealous for God. Israel’s situation is not hopeless. It is not too late for physical Israel to be in right standing and covenant membership in God’s family. Israel’s failure does not thwart God’s purpose to have a people who are his. Jesus’ parable recorded in Luke 14:17-23 shows that God is determined to have a people for himself. If the Jews reject, the Gentiles would be given the opportunity.
Romans 11:12 is the subject of some debate. If Israel’s sinning meant riches for the world (the inclusion of the Gentiles) and if Israel’s failure meant the riches for the Gentiles (a restatement), then how much more will Israel’s fullness mean? The question of debate is what does "fullness" mean. The ESV and NRSV uses "full inclusion." The HCSB reads, "full number." The NET has, "full restoration." The NASB renders as, "fulfillment." The NKJV and NIV stay with "fullness." Unfortunately, "fullness" has a wide semantic range, causing the number of different translation. In particular, there are two possible definitions for "fullness" in this text. One definition is "full number," which the majority of the translations follow. However, BDAG says that the definition for this verse is "the act of fulfilling specifications." BDAG goes on to say, "their (the people of Israel) fulfilling (the divine demand) opp. (trespass and failure)." The point BDAG makes is "fullness" stands in contrast to "trespass" and "failure" in Romans 11:12. This makes far more sense of the text. Paul is not saying that if Israel’s sins and failure led to riches to the world, then how much more when all of physical Israel is saved. Rather, Paul is saying that if Israel’s sins and failure led to the riches of the world, then how much more when Israel fulfills God’s demands. This understanding makes the parallel natural. Paul is contrasting failure and obedience. If Israel’s disobedience brought riches, think about how much more will occur when they accept and obey.
In Romans 11:13-14 Paul says again that he is an apostle to the Gentiles, hoping to make Israel jealous so as to save some of them. In Romans 11:11 and Romans 11:14 Paul has emphasized making the Jews jealous. Describing this as jealousy means that when the Gentiles come to faith, they are sharing in the blessings God promised to Israel. Otherwise there is no jealousy. The Gentiles are receiving what was promised to Israel. Paul’s prayer is that when Israel sees this, they will be provoke to come to Christ and be saved. To bring in the imagery of Romans 9, the picture looks like this. Just as Pharaoh’s hardening led to Israel’s deliverance, so Israel’s hardening has led to the Gentiles’ deliverance. But, to answer the question asked in Romans 11:11, the Jews are not excluded from entering into covenant membership with God. Paul does not want any of the Gentiles to think that God cannot or will not save any more Jews.
Romans 11:15 continues that thought by restating the point made in Romans 11:12. If Israel’s rejection of Christ means the reconciliation of the world, then what will Israel’s acceptance of Christ mean but life from the dead? Too many make the mistake in reading that Paul is speaking about God’s rejection of Israel and God’s future acceptance of Israel. But we need to go back to Paul’s point in Romans 11:1. God has not rejected Israel. The problem is the Jews have rejected God. When the Jews rejected, Gentiles were offered reconciliation and (for the most part) they accepted. If the Jews will turn and accept Christ, it will mean life from the dead. When Paul has taught about life in Romans, he has not talked about physical resurrection, but spiritual life. This is Paul’s point here also. If the Jews will turn to Christ they also will no longer be separated from God (death), but will receive the blessings and promises of God (life).
Application: God does not permanently reject anyone. We may stumble and fall. Our hearts may become hardened. But there is nothing that can be done that God will exclude us if we turn to him and obey him. God has not rejected his people. We have rejected him. He holds his hands outstretched desiring for people to return to him. Return to the Lord before the day of judgment comes. Return to the Lord before your hearts becomes hardened that you do not want to come back. Return to the Lord today.
All Israel Will Be Saved
Romans 11:16-27
Brent Kercheville
This lesson is a continuation from last week’s lesson which covered Romans 11:1-15. In that lesson we saw Paul answering the question, "Has God rejected his people?" Paul’s answer is that Israel has not been rejected by God. The problem is that Israel has been disobedient and contrary (Romans 10:21). Israel has rejected God. But God has used Israel’s rejection of Jesus as the means to bring the Gentiles into a covenant relationship with God. The Gentiles entering into right standing and receiving the promised blessings will be used by God to make the Jews jealous with the hope to save some of them (Romans 11:14). If the Jews’ rejection of Jesus brought reconciliation to the rest of the world (the Gentiles), then how great will the Jews’ acceptance of Jesus be because it will bring them to eternal life and cause them to no longer be separated from God! (Romans 11:15). Paul continues to explain that God has not rejected Israel and its fall is not permanent.
The Dough and the Root (Romans 11:16)
Paul uses two illustrations in Romans 11:16 to show that holiness is available. The first illustration comes from the offering of the firstfruits. If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole lump must be holy. The second illustration makes the same point. If the branches are holy, then the root of the tree must be holy. From this second illustration Paul is going to launch into a figure about where Jews and Gentiles stand in the tree. Before we look at that figure, we need to grasp what Paul is teaching about holiness. The traditional explanation that I have read in most of my commentaries is that the firstfruits of dough and the root of the tree are referring to the patriarchs of Israel, particularly Abraham. But I have a problem with this understanding. How can Paul say that if Abraham was holy, then the rest of the tree (or lump) is holy? This understanding sounds much more like what the Jews thought, which Paul is combatting in this letter. "We have Abraham as our father," was the Jewish motto. Paul has broken that thought throughout this letter. What makes far more sense to me is that the firstfruits is a reference to Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Corinthians 15:23) and that the root of the olive tree is Christ (Isaiah 53:2). Therefore, those that are connected to Christ, not to Abraham, are holy and are part of the tree.
What Paul is doing is similar to how Jesus spoken of himself. Throughout the Old Testament scriptures, the vine was a reference to Israel. But Jesus declares in John 15 that he is the true vine. To be the people of God, the true, spiritual Israel, one had to be connected as a branch to Christ (see Jesus’ teaching in John 15). Paul told us back in Romans 9:6 that not all who descended from Israel are Israel. The definition of Israel is now taking shape. The olive tree represents Israel and Christ is the root of the tree. Those who are branches in the tree are holy and part of the covenant membership in God’s family. We will see this illustration drawn out more fully in the following verses.
The Olive Tree (Romans 11:17-24)
Remember that Paul told us that he was now talking to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13). We must keep this in mind as we read these pronouns to know who the "you" and the "they" are. Paul points out that some of the branches were broken off. Notice that not all of the branches were broken off. Some of the Jews believed that Jesus is the Son of God and they remained on the olive tree as the remnant. But many did not believe in Jesus and they were broken off. "You" is a reference to the Gentiles. The Gentiles, although they are not natural branches but wild olive shoots, were grafted into the tree among the Jewish Christians. The Jewish Christians and the Gentiles Christians share in the nourishing root (not Abraham, but Christ) of the olive tree. This is a summary of what Paul has been teaching in his letter to the Romans. Jews and Gentiles alike are true Israel. They both are sharing equally in receiving right standing before God and receiving the blessings promised to Abraham as God’s covenant people. But the Gentiles must not be arrogant because they have been grafted on to the tree (Romans 11:18). The Gentiles were not chosen because of who they are either. Do not start acting like the Jews who thought they were something before God. The root (Christ) supports you. God was going to have a people and that is the only reason that God has extended mercy to all people.
In Romans 11:19 Paul wants to make sure that he has firmly squashed any arrogance or pride that Gentile Christians might have. The branches (many of the Jews) were broken off so that Gentiles could be grafted in. But they were not broken off because of who they were. The Gentiles were grafted in by grace. The Jews were broken off because of unbelief. The Jews did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They rejected this message, giving the opportunity for Gentiles to come into Christ and his kingdom.
Do not think that you Gentile Christians cannot be cut off as well. Stand firm through faith and do not become proud. If God did not spare the natural branches (the Jews), then there is no doubt that God will not spare the grafted in wild olive shoots (the Gentiles).
Romans 11:22 brings us to a powerful, thunderous point. "Note the kindness and the severity of God." We cannot focus on one characteristic of God and ignore the other. We must acknowledge the kindness of God. I have loved spending time on the deep words of Paul who so beautifully explained to us God’s graciousness and kindness. But we cannot ignore the severity of God. God cut off the Jews because of their unbelief. When the Jews refused to believe in Jesus, the Jews lost all of the blessings that God had previously given to them. They were no longer in a covenant relationship with God, they were not part of God’s family, and they did not have right standing before God. The Jews were treated like the rest of the nations. Note the severity of God to those who have unbelief. Please notice the warning in Romans 11:22 : God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. Paul’s point is clear: do not ever presume God’s mercy. We must continue in Christ, in full trust and belief in him, or we will no longer be part of the remnant, the true people of God.
Paul takes the picture one step further in Romans 11:23-24. If the Jews do not continue in unbelief, they will be grafted back in. God has the power to place them back in a covenant relationship with him. We should see how this illustration of the olive tree has proven Paul’s answer to the question: Has God rejected Israel? No, Israel has fallen because of unbelief but they can be grafted into the tree if they do not continue in their unbelief. If God can take wild olive shoots (the Gentiles) and put them on the tree, then God can quite easily take the natural branches (the Jews) and put them back on the tree. Therefore, there is no room for arrogance or boasting for the Gentiles. Be grateful to be in Christ and have right standing before God. For Jews, you can also receive the blessings if they will no longer continue in unbelief.
All Israel Will Be Saved (Romans 11:25-27)
This brings us to the next three verses that are very controversial. Let’s take a look and see what Paul is doing. Romans 11:25 continues to admonish the Gentiles to not be arrogant or proud in their position. Paul explains that he wants his readers to understand this mystery. Before we read about this mystery, I want us to stop and look at what Paul was talking about in his other letters when he wrote about the mystery he was revealing. In Ephesians 3:1-5 Paul speaks about how the mystery was made known to him by revelation, about which he is writing to the Ephesians. This mystery was not made known in times past to previous generations. But now the mystery has been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets. Verse 6 tells us what the mystery revealed is.
This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:6 ESV)
The revealed mystery is that Gentiles are fellow heirs with the Jews. Fellow heirs means that they are going to enjoy the same inheritance of eternal life and right standing before God. Jews and Gentiles are members of the same body. There are not two groups of people. God has one people who are his, one true Israel, which both Jews and Gentiles belong as his remnant. Jews and Gentiles are partakers of the promise that was given to Abraham that is fulfilled in Christ to be in a relationship with God through the gospel. Both are covenant members in God’s family.
Now, return to Romans 11:25-27 and notice that this is the mystery Paul is revealing to the Romans as well. "A hardening has come upon part of Israel" (NRSV). Nothing new is stated here. Paul has repeatedly taught in Romans 9-11 that some of Israel is stubborn and hard in heart, unwilling to believe in Jesus as the Christ. This hardening has been the mechanism through which the Gentiles have come into Christ (into the olive tree).
Notice that Paul speaks of the "fullness of the Gentiles." We noted in the last lesson that what the fullness means in Romans 11:12 it must also mean here since it is the same word. But that is not how it is applied. Notice the ESV uses, "full inclusion" in Romans 11:12 but shifts back to "fullness" in Romans 11:25. Paul cannot be saying that all the Jews will come in back in verse 12 and all the Gentiles will come in here in Romans 11:25. Last week we point out the BDAG lexicon defined "fullness" as "fulfilling the divine demands." The meaning is the same here in Romans 11:25. The Jews are hardened until the Gentiles fulfill the divine demands of God. Let’s add Romans 11:26. It is in this way that all Israel will be saved. Paul is showing that God has kept his promise that all Israel will be saved. But not all of physical Israel is true Israel, and it never has been (see Romans 9). Here is the way God would save all of Israel: the Jews received the offer of salvation through Jesus. Some accepted, but most were hardened and rejected the message. They are hardened until all the Gentiles who obey the divine demand come in. As the Gentiles enter, this is God’s plan that the Jews will be jealous and they will not continue in unbelief. All Israel is saved because the Gentiles who respond in faith and the Jews who respond in faith will be saved and have right standing before God. Paul does not say that the rest of Israel will be saved after the Gentiles enter. Rather, Paul is teaching how all Israel will be saved: by the inclusion of both Jews and Gentiles who respond in faith. This is the manner of Israel’s salvation.
The Gentiles have not ousted the Jews. Rather, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Why does Paul say that a hardening has come upon part of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in? Remember in our last lesson what we learned about hardening. The hardening occurs as God continues to be merciful, allowing time for repentance. The more time and more opportunities pass, a person will become more hardened toward God. We used the example of Pharaoh in our last lesson to see this point illustrated. When did Pharaoh’s heart stop being hardened? The answer is not when God directly intervened and forced Pharaoh to let his people go. That is not how the Exodus account is recorded. Pharaoh’s heart stop being hardened when the last plague crushed and destroyed the nation and Pharaoh’s family: the death of the firstborn. God’s judgment is how a hardening ends.
Paul said that the Gentiles’ entrance into Christ would make the Jews jealous and save some. Save the Jews from what? God’s judgment is the answer. Go back to Romans 2:4-6, where Paul is addressing the Jews:
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will render to each one according to his works. (Romans 2:4-6 ESV)
God’s patience and kindness was to bring the Jews to repentance. Instead, it made them more hard hearted toward God. Therefore, they are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. I think first movement of this truth was seen in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem. God’s wrath was poured out against the nation of Israel. The nation was cast off because of their rebellion. What remains is waiting for individual judgment when each one will have rendered to him or her according his works. "Until" does not suggest the rest of the Jews will be saved, but the rest of the Jews will be judged once the Gentiles come to obedience.
Paul taught in Romans 2:29 that one must be a true Jew to receive favor from God. Now Paul, in a spectacular way, has come full circle and defined Israel as Jews and Gentiles who have faith in Jesus and do not continue in unbelief. They have put to death the old self by being united with Christ in baptism (Romans 6:4). They believe in their heart and confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus is the root and we are the branches who find life and joy in Jesus.
Your God Is Too Small
Romans 11:26-36
Brent Kercheville
We have arrived at Paul’s thunderous conclusion to the theological aspects of this letter in showing how Jews and Gentiles are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. The mystery of God has been revealed: not all Israel is the true people of God. Jews and Gentiles are branches in the kingdom of God and Jesus is the root. Gentiles are not excluded and neither are Jews excluded. God has not rejected his people, but continues to open his arms to the world. In this way all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). This salvation is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy when God would remove the sins of the people and is the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy that God would establish a new covenant that offered forgiveness of sins. This quotation, yet one more time, proves Paul’s earlier assertion in Romans 9:6, "It is not as though the word of God has failed." Paul brings his message to its conclusion concerning this theme.
Mercy For All (Romans 11:26-32)
Unfortunately, the Jews are enemies of the gospel. These seem to be consoling words as he writes to Gentile Christians. In regards to the gospel, they are enemies against you. They are persecuting you and causing you grievous problems. But even though they are enemies of the gospel, God still wants them to be saved. God has not closed the door to the Jews outright. They can return and they can be grafted back in. It is interesting to note that the basis of this mercy seems to be on the promises God made to the patriarchs. God promised that their descendants would have the opportunity for God’s blessings if they obeyed. While they are currently enemies of the gospel, God wants all people to receive salvation. God’s promises are irrevocable. God keeps his word and he has kept his word. What God has said still stands.
To help the Gentiles Christians act properly toward the Jews, Paul gives them an important reminder. Don’t forget that at one time you were also disobedient toward God. But now you have received mercy as the door was opened to the Gentiles through Israel’s failure. In the same way, the Jews are now disobedient to God. But just as the Gentiles have received mercy, the Jews can still receive mercy. In fact, Paul states one more time that it is the hope of God that the Gentiles receiving mercy will cause the Jews to seek God’s mercy and become obedient to Jesus.
Romans 11:32 sums it up. All are disobedient. This sentence reminds us of what Paul taught back in chapter 3. There is no one who is righteous and all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. All of us are like Adam. All of us are trapped by our sins. No one is a favorite with God. All are under the condemnation of sin. However, it is God’s purpose to have mercy on all. Notice that it is not God’s purpose to have wrath on all. God has worked history in such a way so that he would have a people who would receive mercy and salvation. It is important to recognize that when Paul says, "all" he is speaking about all groups of people. Paul is not saying that every person is unconditionally saved. Rather, Paul’s thrust has been on "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." That is, all people whether Jew or Gentile, may now receive mercy. No group deserves salvation and God’s saving work is the result of his merciful grace.
Application:
This needs to be in our minds at all times in terms of evangelism. We were disobedient at one time to God, but now have received mercy. We should look at the disobedience of the world as our motivation to bring them to Jesus so they also can receive mercy. Paul always kept this in his heart and considered himself the "chief of sinners." We must never forget the mercy that has been given to us because are disobedient. We are not righteous. God has given us right standing and declared us justified by his grace.
How Great Is God! (Romans 11:33-36)
Paul breaks into praising God for riches of his wisdom and knowledge. Praise God for revealing how God would save the world! What an amazing way that God has worked through history to save people. Think about the complexity of what God has done. God creates humans knowing that they would sin. Rather than sending a sacrifice for their sins immediately, God wants the world to learn the power and gravity of sin. But the world is disobedient. So God chooses to have a people that will be different from the world and through whom would reveal God. He does not choose this people because of who they are, but because God needed a people. So God creates the nation of Israel through Abraham. But this nation, who are to be the representatives of God to the world and a light to the world, ended up acting worse than the nations. Rather than illuminating the nations, Israel is involved in greater iniquities than the nations. God must treat Israel like the rest of the nations, bringing severe judgment. The rest of the world, however, does not have this special relationship that Israel has. At the right time in terms of the iniquity of Israel and the readiness of the world, God sent Jesus to die for the sins of the world. All who believe in Jesus will be forgiven of their sins and be in a relationship with God. This promise was not only to Israel but to the world. As Israel rejected this message of salvation through Jesus, God’s messengers turned to the rest of the world and preached the message of Jesus to them. As the nations accept this good news about Jesus and enter into a relationship with God, it is God’s desire that Israel will return from their hard heartedness and disobedience and accept Jesus as Lord.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33 ESV)
Look at the riches of God! Look at his wisdom! Look at his knowledge! Paul backs this praise with two quotations. The first quotation comes from Isaiah 40:13.
"For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" (Romans 11:34 ESV)
I would like to read the next verse of Isaiah. "Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?" (Isaiah 40:14). God’s wisdom and God’s ways are inaccessible to humans, unless God reveals his wisdom and ways to us. This is why Samuel was trying to get Saul to understand. We cannot presume to know the mind of God. No human being has enough wisdom to understand the mind of God. No human being has the wisdom to advise God on how to run the world. How often we act like we do! Too often we call God into question as if we have any right to question the ways of God because we have greater understanding than him!
The context of Isaiah’s quotation is important and comes into play with Paul’s argument. When Isaiah declared these words, they were words of comfort that God could deliver Israel. Even though deliverance seemed impossible as the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. In the same way God has planned history in such a way that he fulfills the covenantal promises in an unexpected way. Who could have guessed that this was the way that God would bring mercy to the world?
Paul’s second quotation comes from Job 41:11. The context of Job is also useful. One of Job’s major complaints during his suffering was that God was unjust. In Job 38-41 God reveals himself to Job and rebukes Job for questioning him. Job is too limited and too finite to call God’s justice and judgments into question. Again, the context is fitting for Jews or Gentiles to question to way God would save people. God’s plan to save Jews and Gentiles is just and good. God is a debtor to no one’s wisdom, strength, or goodness.
To add another important dynamic of this quotation to Paul’s overall message, God does not owe us anything, especially regarding salvation. No one has ever given anything to God so that God owes any person. God is the giver, not the recipient, of wisdom. God gives all things to us, and does not receive benefits from human hands. God is the source and means by which all things are accomplished. The reason why is stated in Romans 11:36. "For from him and through him and to him are all things."
Applications:
See how great God is!
It should humble us!
It should comfort us!
Recapping Romans 1-11
Chapter 1: Everything points to Christ. The gospel is God’s power to save the Jews and the Gentiles because God’s righteousness has been revealed. God is faithful and God is calling for his people to be faithful.
Chapter 2: Do not presume on the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience. There is equality in judgment, to the Jews and also to the Gentiles. True Jews are circumcised in the heart.
Chapter 3: But Israel’s unfaithfulness has not thwarted God’s plan to have a people. No one can be justified by themselves because both Jews and Gentiles are under sin. No one can be justified by the works of the Law. But God’s way to give the status of justified and covenant membership in God’s family comes through the faithfulness of Jesus to all who believe. These are justified by grace. Through Jesus God is able to be just and the justifier.
Chapter 4: Abraham was declared righteous by faith before the sign of circumcision was given. Therefore salvation is not through the works of the Law. We are declared righteous when we walk in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham.
Chapter 5: Because we are justified we have peace with God. God shows his love for us while we were sinners and enemies of God. What Adam did changed the world. Therefore what Jesus did changed the world. One introduced sin into the world and one introduced grace into the world.
Chapter 6: Just because there is grace, we cannot remain in the dominion of sin.
Chapter 7: Therefore, we have been set free from the Law to live a new way in Christ. But we are still engaged in a daily battle with sin.
Chapter 8: But there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We are called to live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. We are sons of God and not slaves. If we are his children, then we are heirs of the promises of God. Despite our suffering, God searches the heart and knows what we need. Our suffering does not change the fact that we are children of God. God is for us and we know this because he did not spare his own Son.
Chapter 9: God’s word has not failed. Not all Israel is truly Israel. Physical Israel has resisted God’s plan and there is only a remnant. The Gentiles on the whole have attained righteousness while the Jews on the whole have not. They stumbled over Jesus as their Messiah.
Chapter 10: The Jews tried to establish their own righteousness and did not submit to God’s righteousness. Everyone who believes (both Jews and Gentiles) will be saved. But Israel has not obeyed. They have heard and knew. But they are a stubborn and disobedient people.
Chapter 11: But God has not rejected his people. The elect obtained righteousness, but the rest were hardened. God has used this hardening to bring in the Gentiles and make the Jews jealous. Gentiles must not be proud or arrogant because Gentiles are included only by grace. The Jews can be grafted back and the Gentiles can still be cut off. So stand firm in the faith. This is how all Israel will be saved. God has been giving grace to the Jews until the Gentiles have the opportunity to fulfill the divine demands. But then the Jews will receive their just judgment. All of this extols God’s great wisdom and knowledge.
Transform Your Life
Romans 12:1-2
Brent Kercheville
Romans 12 transitions from teaching about what God has done for his people to what God expects from his people. How are the new people of God (the true Israel) supposed to live out their faith in the world? It appears that the first two verses of Romans 12 are the general commands on how to live out our faith in the world. The rest of chapter 12, along with chapters 13-15 are the details as to how to obey the exhortation given in Romans 12:1-2.
Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice — alive, holy, and pleasing to God — which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God — what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2; NET)
A Total Commitment
The first thing Paul is calling for is a total commitment. We are to present our bodies as the sacrifice to God. God is calling for us to give ourselves wholly to God. We are to offer ourselves to God. We are not to offer some of our lives or some of our bodies. We are to commit 100% of our lives and bodies to God. Sacrifice is the ultimate proof of true love. God proved his love for us through the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus told his disciples that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13). We are called to give ourselves completely to God. Paul has already taught this idea earlier in his letter to the Romans.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14 NASB)
Notice how similar the language is regarding presenting our bodies to God. We often just think of the sentence that says to present the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness. God is asking for all of us. We must present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead. We have been brought to life and we are no longer dead in our sins. This is the point that Paul is making in Romans 12.
Paul explains how we are to present our bodies as a sacrifice. There are three descriptions of how to we are sacrifices for God: alive, holy, and pleasing to God. The NET Bible has a little bit more precision when it comes to this verse. Most translations read to present our bodies "as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." But there is no reason to read the text this way, as the NET has the literal order of the words. The reason I think this is important is because the order changes the emphasis about the sacrifice that is being offered to God. When we read the words, "living sacrifice," we naturally contrast this to the dead animal sacrifices that were offered to God under the old covenant. I made this link all the time. But that is not the point of the living, as we can see if we keep the proper word order. Follow the distributive nature of "to God." We present ourselves as sacrifices by being pleasing to God. We give ourselves as sacrifices by being holy to God. We present ourselves as sacrifices by being alive to God.
The point Paul is making is not that we are living physically, in contrast to the animal sacrifices that were dead physically. The contrast is that we are alive spiritual and no longer dead spiritually. We are alive to God. This is the point Paul was making in Romans 6:12-14. We are alive spiritually because of God’s faithfulness to his promise to save the world. We present our bodies as a sacrifice that lives for God. This is a concept that we can easily forget. I must live for God. What can I do in my life today that shows I am presenting myself as a sacrifice that is living for God? The Christian cannot live for self. The Christian is defined by the fact that he or she lives for God. One is not a Christian if he or she is living for self.
Not only must be present ourselves as alive to God, but we must also be holy to God. No one seems to think that holy living is important anymore. Christians think they can look like the world, dress like the world, and act like the world. Holy conduct is demanded of Christians. Holiness is the idea of being separate from the world, living according to the laws of God and not worldliness.
But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:15-16 ESV)
Finally, we present ourselves as sacrifice to God by being pleasing to God. Following this command requires that we have a proper mindset. We must always be asking, "What does God want me to do?" "What does God want from me?" Not only are we asking these questions, but we are digging into God’s word to discover God’s will for us. We will discover God’s will and do the things that are pleasing to God.
A Reasonable Commitment
The second point Paul makes is that God not only wants a total commitment, but that this is a reasonable commitment. There are two different translations that require our consideration before we can examine Paul’s teaching. Some translations have "reasonable service" and some translations have "spiritual worship." The question is over the Greek word logikos, which is rendering "reasonable" or "spiritual." This word does not occur in the LXX and the lexical form of the word only occurs in one other place in the New Testament. In 1 Peter 2 :2 Peter exhorts his readers to "long for the pure logikon (spiritual) milk." However, this word does have a rich background in Greek and Hellenistic Jewish philosophy and religion. They used to it speak of rational worship. I believe this makes the most sense of the text. Paul is calling for Christians to give themselves as sacrifices to God because it is our reasonable act of worship.
It is eminently reasonable and rational for believers to fully dedicate themselves to God. The reason we should offer our lives as complete sacrifices to God is because of God’s mercies. The mercies of God are the basis of Paul’s exhortation. The reason that offering our lives to God is our reasonable act of service and worship is because of the mercies of God. When we grasp all that God has done for us, it is completely logical for us to give ourselves wholly to God. We have been made alive by God, though we were dead in our sins. The rational thing to do is to serve God. The irrational, illogical thing to do is to be atheists, or be unbelievers, or be selfish. It does not make sense to NOT serve God!
Don’t Copy; Be Transformed
When we were children we had a phrase, "Don’t be a copycat!" As kids, we like to mimic other kids. Of course, if you were the kid with originality, you did not like someone copying you. Paul’s instruction in Romans 12:2 amplifies what Paul taught in Romans 12:1. Being a sacrifice for God means that we will not be copycats of this world. The NLT reads, "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world." This is what it looks like to be alive to God, holy to God, and pleasing to God. Do not copy the world’s behavior and customs. Do not do the things they do. Do not think the way the world thinks. If we fit in with the world, then there is a problem. We have been conformed to the world if we fit in.
Instead, Christians are to be transformed. Christians are not to allow the world’s pressures to change them. Rather they are be changed inwardly in the mind. Paul calls this the "renewing of your mind." It is a radical transformation that must take place. It is interesting to observe that the only other time this word translated "transform" is used in the New Testament is in reference to the transfiguration of Jesus. We are not be changed by the world, but radically changed by God by renewing our minds.
The mind is the means by which this transformation takes place. We are to changing our thinking patterns away from worldliness and toward godliness. We must adjust our way of thinking about everything in accordance with the new life we have been given (Romans 7:6; Romans 6:4). Paul warned in Romans 1:28 that the disobedient and worldly have debased and worthless minds. God does not want us to degenerate our minds, but renew our minds in Christ. Paul speaks of this renewal of the mind in another way in 2 Corinthians 3:18.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV)
Paul pictures this to the Corinthians as beholding the glory as the mechanism by which we are being transformed into the same image of glory. Paul, in the first eleven chapters of Romans, has revealed the glory of God and his power to save people through the gospel. Based on the mercies of God we must adjust our way of thinking and renew our minds against worldliness. We must think about being sacrifices that are alive to God, holy to God, and pleasing to God.
Paul concludes this exhortation by pointing out that when we renew our minds, we will be able to test and approve what is the will of God. We will understand and agree with what God wants of us and we will put it into practice. When we are renewing our minds we will discern and know what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. When we have worldly minds we try to bend God’s will and distort his words to fit what we want to do. We no longer are trying to discover God’s will and do it, we are trying to do what we want and we try to make God support our selfish ways. There must be a mind renewal if we are going to be alive to God, holy to God, and pleasing to God. It is adopting this new way of godly thinking that will cause us to test and approve of God’s will. We will seek what God wants and we will do it. We will not seek our answers, but God’s answers. God’s will is good, acceptable, and perfect and the renewed mind will desire to obey that will.
Conclusion:
1. God wants a complete commitment
2. It is a reasonable commitment on the basis of the mercies of God
3. Renew your minds to fight conformity to the world and to seek after God’s perfect will
Renewed Thinking
Romans 12:3-8
Brent Kercheville
We have a saying that when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Paul is in the process of teaching the opposite. When in Rome, do not do what the Romans do. Paul began this section by exhorting the Roman Christians to present their bodies as sacrifices that are alive, holy, and pleasing to God. This happens by transforming the way we think, renewing our minds so that we are not conformed to this world. In the following verses Paul is going to teach us in greater detail how we ought to think.
Proper Thinking About Ourselves (Romans 12:3)
As we begin it is important to notice who Paul is speaking to at this point. In verse 3 he says he is speaking to everyone among them. Paul is not writing only to the Christian leaders. Nor is Paul speaking only to Christians who have miraculous spiritual gifts. Paul is writing to every Roman Christian, whether a Jewish Christian or a Gentile Christian. Paul’s command is to not think more highly than one ought to think. Don’t be proud. Don’t be arrogant. Let’s not remove ourselves from Paul’s context as we look at this command. Recall that chapter 11 warned the Gentile Christians about being arrogant toward the Jewish Christians (Romans 11:18). The Gentile Christians were to watch themselves about having pride, not to falsely think that they were someone important. Just because we are in the kingdom of God does not make room for arrogance against anyone, especially other Christians. Remember that we do not support the root, but the root supports us. We are able to stand because of God’s grace. This is the thought that Paul uses to kick off his exhortation. "By the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think…." We must think properly about ourselves because it is by God’s grace that we are in God’s kingdom receiving God’s blessings.
Why do we think that we are anything before God? How is it possible for Christian preachers, teachers, leaders, servants, and shepherds to ever think that they are someone before God? We are not important in God’s plan! We must think properly of ourselves. We are simply God’s servants. We are simply people who are grateful for all that God has done and we want to return to God a mere fraction of thanks for his goodness and glory. Woe is me to ever think that I am anything before God. I do what I do not because God needs me and not because I can do a good job. I do what I do because the work must be done. I do what I do because God must be glorified. God’s word is that good and it is that powerful that it can overcome my failings, weaknesses, mistakes, and shortcomings. I am thankful to God if I can be a little mud between the bricks of the building of the kingdom of God.
Standard of Faith
Paul continues that we need to think with sober judgment. We must evaluate ourselves properly. I think that this verse has been greatly misunderstood. I believe it has been interpreted in such a way that it brings out the opposite meaning than Paul intended.
There are two ways to understand what Paul is saying and everything hinges on the word that is translated "measure." Nearly every major translation reads like the ESV, "But to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." This reading and the standard interpretation of this verse leads Paul to mean that every person must think of themselves according to the quantity of faith that each believer possesses. The idea is that every Christian has different levels of faith that God has assigned to each person. Therefore, do not think of yourself any higher than that degree of faith that God has given you. Paul then goes on to explain the different measures of faith that God gave to people.
I find it nearly impossible that this is what Paul meant. The reason is it creates the very problem that Paul is condemning: arrogance! If I am to think no more highly of myself based on the measure of faith given to me, I can say that I have much faith. I am preacher, I know the scriptures, I know a little Greek, and so forth. Therefore, I can have a proud attitude because look at the measure God has given me. Now, for you who do not preach, teach, or know the scriptures well, God has not given you much and that is a shame. So you think low of yourself, but I can think high of myself. I hope you are able to see the problem. Paul cannot be saying to keep your pride in line with the measure of faith God gave you. Then Paul would be saying that those with special gifts or abilities have the right to think highly of themselves. The reason this way of understanding the text is popular is because of the Calvinistic belief that God must give you faith. You do not develop faith, but God gives it to you. Therefore, this interpretation fits that theology. But there is another way to understand this text.
The word translated "measure" can also be translated "standard." Paul can just as easily being saying that every person must think about themselves according to the standard of the faith that God has given to everyone. The point is not that God has given to every Christian a different degree of faith but that God has given to every Christian the same standard of faith. Everyone shares the same grace that has been poured out by God. This is fitting with the Romans 11 illustration. We are all on the same tree and all are receiving the same grace, same blessings, and same benefits. There are a couple translations that read this way:
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. (Romans 12:3 TNIV)
Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. (Romans 12:3 NLT)
God has not given a different measure to each Christian, but has given to each Christian the same measure, that is, the faith. Therefore, we need to think of ourselves appropriately and soberly based upon grace and faith that all of us have received in Christ. Every Christian has the faith in common as fellow members in the body of Christ. This is the basis against which each of us is to estimate ourselves. In my opinion this is a much better fit of what Paul is saying in the context and fits better with verses 1-2 and the rest of the discussion.
Proper Thinking About Others (Romans 12:4-8)
Paul extends his reasoning about thinking properly about ourselves in relation to how we think of others. One body has many members and those members do not perform the same function. In the same way, Christians are many but belong to one body in Christ. Paul’s immediate context comes back into play again because Jewish Christians and Gentiles Christians must realize they are united in one body. There are not two bodies. The point is driven home more forcefully with the rest of verse 7. Individually we are members of one another. We are not only members in the body of Christ but we also belong to each other. Knowing the direction Paul is going concerning fellowship in chapter 14 it becomes clear that Paul is laying the foundation about how to think about other Christians. Do not think more highly than you ought. Think appropriately in light of the common faith and grace that we have. Even though we are many, there is only body and we belong to each other.
Paul reminds us that we must have a kingdom vision. We must have a vision of being individuals in the body of Christ. It is easy to be focused upon just the few. But there is only one body and there are many members in that body. We want Christians to be successful all over the earth. Paul is setting up for us that there is diversity within this body.
"Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them." Christians possess different gifts but every gift is the product of God’s grace with all believers have in common. Every Christian possess different gifts. But these gifts must be used rightly. Paul then illustrates how we are to use our gifts rightly with a number of examples. The list of gifts does not appear to be an exhaustive listing. Nor is the list of gifts only miraculous spiritual gifts. As we noted at the beginning of our study, Paul is instructing "everyone among you," not just those who had an apostle lay hands on them. Paul’s first example is in prophecy.
"If prophecy, in proportion to our faith." Once again there are two ways to understand what Paul is saying. Some think Paul is saying that everyone was to use the gift they had in proportion to one’s personal faith. So if you have the gift of prophecy, prophesy in proportion to the amount of faith you have. I find this interpretation nearly impossible, once again. How could Paul be saying that the basis of using a gift is the amount of personal faith one has? What does my personal faith have to do with the proportion of teaching, exhorting, and the like? Why would my personal faith have any relevance this point? I believe the HCSB has the right idea here.
If prophecy, use it according to the standard of faith. (Romans 12:6 HCSB)
The gift each person had was not to be use for personal praise and glorification. Rather, use the gift in accordance with the faith and grace that every Christian has received. Paul is instructing each Christian to use his or her own gift diligently and faithfully to strengthen the body’s unity and to help it flourish. To say verse 6 in another way: All of us have different gifts, but they are to used according to the common grace that we all share in Christ. Exercise your gift according to the standard of the faith that all of us share. Our gifts are not for boasting. We use them because of the grace and the faith given to us.
It is important for us to exercise our gifts. We need to see what are some things we can do. We need people who will serve. Not just people who serve, but people who will serve without concern for lifting our pride and ego. Serve because of the mercies of God according to what God has revealed in the faith. We need people who will teach. Not just people who teach, but people who will teach without concern for lifting our pride and ego. Teach because teaching must be done and because we see the need based on the faith we all share. The gift of teaching refers to passing on the truth of the gospel to others. We need people who will exhort. Not just people who will exhort, but people who will exhort without concern for lifting our pride and ego. The gift of exhortation denotes the activity of urging Christians to live out the truth of the gospel. We can see, therefore, that a preacher of the gospel engages in the gift of teaching and the gift of exhorting. The point is that you do not have only one gift. You have many gifts that you can use in God’s service. We need people who will contribute. We need people who will share their goods and wealth without concern for exalting self and lifting up our ego. We need givers who have generous hearts for the spreading of God’s kingdom. We need people who lead. We need people who will diligently lead, not only as shepherds which we need the young men working toward, but also leading as examples and as workers. As you know at your jobs, the best leaders are not those who are decision makers but are those who lead by example. They do the work and they do the work diligently. We need people who do acts of mercy. The acts of mercy is a reference to those who administer aid to the sick and the suffering. We need people who will show these acts of mercy to the spiritually sick, to the physically sick, and the suffering for the glory of God and not for the glory of self. Do your work with cheerfulness.
Final Thoughts:
1. Think of ourselves properly. We will think properly of ourselves when we always keep in mind the mercies and grace of God.
2. We must work to improve in our gift and do well with the gifts we have. Find what we can do and do it according to the grace God has given us all.
3. Extend ourselves to develop more gifts. We can work to have gifts that currently are not natural to us. I was not a natural teacher. I had enormous stage fright. I hated to speak in front of people. I developed the gift to be used for God. It does not have to be the best. But develop more gifts for God.
4. Use your gift as a small member of the whole body of Christ to expand God’s kingdom.
The Fruit of Love
Romans 12:9-21
Brent Kercheville
In this next section Paul gets very practical in his instructions about the fruit of love. This is a description of what true love looks like. This is love in action. I debated how to approach this text. Should go over each exhortation slowly, being sure to explore every thought in great detail? Should I take the section as a whole, grasping the overall point and not stopping over every detail? I decided to go with the latter for two reasons. First, Paul does not slow down on each point. He gives quick, proverbial-like statements about love in action. Paul does not stop and explore the meaning of each exhortation. Second, the 2008 Haverhill Road Lectureship was a series from Romans 12. This was an excellent series by Dave Schmidt and Andy Cantrell who went into great depth over most of the exhortations found in this section. Therefore, for greater depth I encourage you to go to our website (www.westpalmbeachchurchofchrist.com), click "listen to sermons," choose "lectures," then select the "2008 Lectureship." In our lesson we will go more quickly through these short exhortations.
Let love be genuine. Quite simply, be real. Be authentic. Do not be fake. The Christian life is not pretending to love people when in your heart there is bitterness, strife, hatred, or malice. Jesus’ command to love one another and to love our neighbor was not to be fake. We are to exhibit genuine love. That is, get over what someone did to you and show them love. Don’t be a hypocrite. We have sinned against God, but God still acts in favor of us and works on our behalf. How dare we turn around and have a grudge or a problem with someone after we have seen the love of God poured out.
Hate evil, cling to good. We should have a holy hatred for everything that is evil. We cannot take joy in evil. We must hold on tightly to the things that are good. Paul is calling for a total commitment to what is good and a total rejection to what is evil. I want us to consider something very important. Real love does not love everything. We are commanded to hate evil. For love to be genuine then we must not love everything. We cannot love everything people do. We cannot love the decisions people make.
It is critical that we teach this godly worldview to other people and to our children. There is an evil and there a good. There is right and there is wrong. We do not make what is right and wrong. Good and evil is not subjective to our desires and knowledge. Good and evil exist independent of our labels. Just because we call something good, "evil," or call something evil, "good," does not make it such. There is an objective standard that defines what is evil and what is good. We are to love good and hate evil.
Love with love. Love is not merely a thought or a principle. Love is to be shown to people. Love is not a thought. Love is not a feeling. Love is not an emotion. Love by doing. Show brotherly affection to one another. This is a call for acts of kindness toward others. Do good things for each other. We all too often are consumed with ourselves and thinking about what people are doing for us. Such thinking destroys love and community among God’s people. Worship is typically thought of in this light. People are thinking about what they are going to get out of it. They are not thinking about what we are putting into to it to encourage others and love others. Our gatherings are not solely about what we get out of them, even though we certainly strive to edify. But we need to think about how we can show kindness and love to each other with these opportunities.
There is a picture of family love with this command. I think many do not have a good idea what family love looks like because there are so many families that are broken and dysfunctional. So we have get beyond acting toward each other in Christ like we act toward those in our physical families. There is not competition. There is not hurting others. Family is where we are supposed to be able to let our guard down and relax. We build a trust that you will do good things for each other because that is what family does. Family sacrifices for family and we are in the family of Christ.
Outdo one another in showing honor. I really like this thought because it suggests "one-upping" each other. Don’t seek honor but show honor. Showing honor for others truly requires humility. Without humility we are going to think that we deserve the honor, not another. I have heard of Christians speaking about not wanting to complement or honor the elders or the preacher so that they do not get a "big head." Hopefully, these men are full of humility and this will not be problem. Rather, they need our encouragement and honor because they do work with humility and love. Our focus cannot be on trying to bring another down a notch. We must outdo one another in honor.
Not slothful in zeal, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Be zealous, not lazy with God. Don’t be lazy with what you ought to be doing for the Lord. This is a powerful reminder. Do not slow down in your service to God. Keep boiling with fervor for him. Jesus’ warning to the church at Laodicea was to not be lukewarm. Do not grow weary doing good. Don’t let the flame die down. How easy it is for the zeal that we begin with for the Lord can disintegrate into pew sitting and slothfulness.
Rejoice in hope.We see this point made by James in the first chapter of his letter. Our hope in God and in his promises lifts us out of our present difficult circ*mstances, bringing joy. Paul is not saying that life is easy or that there are not trials. But we have hope in our suffering because of the promises of life and deliverance God has made.
Persevering in tribulation. The ESV reads, "patient in tribulation," but I think this rendering can give the wrong impression. Paul does not mean that we are passively putting up with things. When we hear the word, "patience," we typically think about being passive. Paul is not saying to sit back and take a "chill pill" while going through suffering. Paul is teaching that Christians require an active, steadfast endurance. We are serving God, even in the midst of suffering and tribulation.
Be constant in prayer. Always praying. Is this true of our prayer life? Can we say that we are persistent in prayer? Many of us may need to rededicate ourselves to talking to God constantly.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and show hospitality. We cannot become self-absorbed so that we neglect the needs of other people. We must show our care for people and the best way we show that is with our time and money. If other Christians are in need, we must help. I am glad to see the joyful giving to the Christians who were suffering in Zimbabwe. When we learn of ways to help other Christians, we must do so.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. How difficult it is to speak well of those who do harm to us. To keep our tongues under control and speaking properly. The teaching is easy in theory and so difficult in practice.
Be sympathetic. Perhaps we are seeing a common theme arise at this point. Do not be self-consumed. Do not think about yourself. Rejoice with those who are rejoicing. You may not feel like rejoicing. So what? We need to join in with the joy of others. Weep with those who weep. When others are suffering, we must not parade our joy but join them in their sorrow. We must not be indifferent to the joys and sorrows of others.
Live in harmony with one another. We must do what we can to have good relationship, not relationships that are full of strife and turmoil. The recipe for living in harmony is to think about ourselves properly. Paul instructs us to not be proud. Associate with the lowly. This sentence can be understood in two ways and both ways are probably correct. Lowly can refer to people or refer to things. Associate with those who do not have notoriety or success. We will be with those who are have a low position. Paul can also mean that we are willing to do menial work. We must not think that there are tasks that are beneath us. It carries the same idea that we should not think about ourselves as if there are things that we should not do because we are "somebody." "Never be wise in your own eyes." Do not think of yourself as something. Have Christ-esteem, not self-esteem. Christ is everything.
Don’t repay with evil, but be honorable in the sight of all. Consider how to act honorably instead of retaliating. Think beforehand to give honor, not to do to others what they have done to you.
As it depends on you, live peaceably with all. You won’t be able to be at peace with everyone because we live in a wicked world. But you must do everything on your part to live in harmony and have peaceful relationships. Disharmony and conflict may come, but you must not be the reason.
Do not avenge yourselves; let God take care of it. God will punish. God will bring justice. God gives justice fairly and powerfully. Let the situation to be taken care of by God. Instead of retaliating or avenging ourselves, we need to do good of every kind. Verse 19 is to not take justice into your own hands because God will take care of it. In Romans 12:20, Paul presses the point further. We can do good to our enemies because we know God will bring wrath on the head of our enemies. There are often questions about what "heaping burning coals on his head" means. But this is an image used in the Old Testament that typically signifies God’s judgment (2 Samuel 22:9; 2 Samuel 22:13; Psalms 18:8; Psalms 18:12; Psalms 140:10). Do good because God will punish. Do not retaliate because God will punish.
Romans 12:21 acts as a summary. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Do not let their evil acts cause you to turn to do evil things. You must overcome their evil acts by doing good, righteous acts.
Concluding Thoughts:
1. Have real love for others. Give to other Christians and show them hospitality. Show honor toward others. Don’t be lazy in doing good. Live in harmony with others. Live peaceably with all. Be sympathetic.
2. Be humble. Never be wise in your own eyes.
3. Do good and let God be the judge. Bless and do not curse those who persecute you. Do what is honorable in the sight of all.
The Christian and Government
Romans 13:1-7
Brent Kercheville
Chapter 13 builds an interesting transition to Paul’s instructions. Chapter 12 concluded with Paul instructing Christians to not repay evil with evil. Instead, let God take care of it. God will bring justice and he will repay. Further, we are to do good to our enemies, knowing that God will set everything right on the day of judgment. But after talking about how individuals are not to repay but to leave room for God’s wrath, Paul is going to instruct that the government does execute wrath. Individuals do not repay, but the government does.
Submit To The Government (Romans 13:1-2)
Paul’s command is to "every person." "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." Governing authorities refer to all who exercise legitimate authority. We have talked in many lessons about what it means to submit. I think an appropriate synonym is "yield." We are going to yield to the governing authorities. We yield to law enforcement. We yield to the cities that we live in and the laws they have. I think it is completely ridiculous to have to pay the city of Royal Palm Beach for a sign that allows me to have a garage sale. I thought we lived in the United States of America where my property is my property. But I am to yield to the governing authorities. So when we have had a garage sale, we paid the fee to the city. We must yield to the Palm Beach County authorities. The ordinances and laws that exist in this county must be followed. The traffic lights in this county drive me nuts. Only a handful are on a trip system. Nearly all of them are on timers. There is nothing more thrilling that sitting at a stop light that is cycling through every We must yield to the laws of the state of Florida. All the laws and rules placed on us by the state we are to obey. We must obey our national government with all of its laws. Being subject to the governing authorities should not cause us to think of only yielding to the federal government. We are subject to many governing bodies and legitimate forms of authority.
The reason we are to yield to the governing authorities is because there is no authority apart from God and God has instituted the authorities that exist. The authority that governments exercise are delegated to them by God. This is a point the scriptures have made in a number of places.
When Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about the king’s future humiliation, he said:
The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men. (Daniel 4:17 ESV)
Also, remember the discussion between Jesus and Pilate.
He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin." (John 19:9-11 ESV)
God has given the authority to these ruling and governing bodies. This leads to a natural conclusion in verse 2. Do not resist the governing authorities because God has given the authority. God has delegated authority to these entities. If we resist, then we are resisting what God has established and will incur judgment. I think a necessary conclusion to draw that Paul is stating is that we are not to engage in civil disobedience. We are not to break the laws. We do not have the right to determine if there are laws that we do not like and therefore can break them. We are subject to these ruling authorities and we are to yield to them. We will talk a bit more about this at the end of the lesson, but I think it is very important to notice that there are not exceptions to this command. Paul does not qualify this command at all. We are to be in submission to the governing authorities.
God’s Purpose In Government (Romans 13:3-5)
Paul continues that governments are not exist as a terror to good conduct, but to bad conduct. Governing authorities rule so as to be able to deal with those who engage in bad conduct. Do good and do not resist the governing authorities and you should have nothing to fear. The government operates as God’s servant for your good. Paul teaches us that the government’s role is to protect the innocent and those who have good conduct and execute wrath on the wrongdoers. Verse 4 continues to prove this thought. If you do wrong, be afraid of the governing authorities because these authorities do not bear the sword in vain. God gave power to the governments and these authorities are expected to use that power. It should be fairly clearly to us that "bearing the sword" is a picture of capital punishment. God has given the power of the sword to the governing authorities and God expects them to use that sword to defend those who have good conduct and to "carry out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer." These authorities are to be acting as God’s servants. Please notice that Paul says that the government is "an avenger who carries out God’s wrath." Remember that Paul instructed individuals to not seek vengeance (12:19), but to leave room for the wrath of God. God’s wrath is not only found at the end on the day of judgment, but also through the government who acts as an avenger carrying out God’s wrath.
Therefore, according to verse 5, we subject ourselves to the governing authorities not only to avoid the sword that the government bears but also to be in obedience and subjection to God. We submit to avoid the wrath of the governing authorities and because it is right in the sight of God. I think it is important to observe something here. Paul’s commands are not contingent on living in a democracy or living in a system of capitalism. These are universal rules, given for Christians who live in communist China, who lived in the former Soviet Union, who live in Cuba, who live in Zimbabwe or South Africa, or any other time or place. These laws were in effect and given to Christians who lived under the power of Emperor Nero under the might of the Roman Empire. These laws are not contingent on liking where we live or agree with the policies or spending habits of the government.
I am disturbed by how I see Christians acting based upon the policies and legislation of our governments. There is no doubt that there are going to be things that we do not agree with, things that are matters of opinion and judgment. There is also no doubt that the governments are going to do things that are immoral and sinful. But none of these things changes these commands. At no point are we allowed to stop living and acting like Christians just because we like or do not like what our government does. What if our government ended up where one person was in total control and could wield unchecked power on the masses? What if this figure could be unjust, letting evil go free and killing the innocent on a whim? What if he could raise our taxation to the point that we barely had a few dollars to live on? Do we think we would have the right to rebel? What I have described is the condition of the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries. Paul wrote these words under those difficult times. We must stop thinking that these commands are for us when the government keeps to the Constitution or keeps to what we think it ought to do. Paul commanded submission to the governing authorities, whether we like who is in charge or the policies the government enacts.
Pay Taxes (Romans 13:6-7)
Further, Paul commands very clearly that we must pay taxes to the governing authorities, whether we like or agree with the taxes or not. I am not sure exactly how there have been Christians who thought they did not have to pay taxes because the money was used for wickedness or disagreeable things. As if the taxation of the Roman Empire was used for printing Bibles. It is interesting that Paul had to command this because it appears that even Christians in the first century doubting the morality of paying taxes. But verse 7 is very clear. We are to pay to all the governing authorities what is owed to them. Taxation under the Roman Empire was crushing as the money was used to fund wars and conquests. Do not forget that taxation was crushing under king Solomon in the Old Testament, and even worse under his son, Rehoboam. Paul does not say to pay taxes only when we agree with the amount of taxes or what the taxes are used for. Pay taxes to whom taxes is due. Give revenue to whom revenue is owed. Give respect to whom respect is owed and honor to whom honor is owed.
I have another great concern that Christians do not respect and honor the governing authorities. I have seen horrifying things on Facebook from Christians along these lines. For example, here is one that I saw:
"Dear Lord, this year you took my favorite actor, Patrick Swayzie (sic). You took my favorite actress, Farah (sic) Fawcett. You took my favorite singer, Michael Jackson. I just wanted to let you know, my favorite president is Barack Obama. Amen."
Now I get the humor because of how the logic of the joke works. But we better be extremely careful about desiring for a person to be dead. Paul commanded honor and respect to the governing authorities. Peter commanded it also.
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:17 ESV)
Let me drive the point home further. Would Christians have enjoyed this joke and posted this joke about the previous president? We are not acting like Christians but are tying our citizenship far too deeply to this world and to this country.
Civil Disobedience
Finally, let me return to the thought of civil disobedience before we close. We noted that Paul does not qualify these commands. We are to submit to all the governing authorities because they are given their authority by God. However, there are examples of followers of God disobeying the commands of government. I would be remise to not note those instances. We know that Rahab resisted the commands of the government to turn over the Israelite spies. We know that the Hebrew midwives disobeyed the command of Egypt to take the male child born and throw them into the Nile River. In Acts 5 the Sanhedrin, a governing authority of the nation of Israel, gave this command and the following response by the apostles.
"We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:28-29 ESV)
Therefore, we learn that there is one qualification to Paul’s command to submit to the governing authorities: The law commanded for us to perform directly violates God’s law.
This is an important line. The line is not that what our government is doing breaks God’s law because every government does this. So did the governments in the first century. So did God’s ordained government in the nation of Israel. But disobedience was not legislated. The only time we must not submit is if the government passes a law that compels me to break God’s law. The law to kill the male babies directly violated God’s law to not murder. The law to hand the spies over to the Jericho authorities directly violated God’s command as these men were sent by God and Rahab knew this. The command of the Sanhedrin to no longer speak about Jesus directly violated God’s command to preach the good news of Jesus to the whole world.
Perhaps a modern example would be useful. Spanking is a useful illustration. There are eighteen countries in the world that have made it illegal to spank (including Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Italy, and Norway). France is attempting to pass the same legislation. In Canada a parent can only spank between the ages of 2 and 12. In 2007 California and Massachusetts attempted to pass a law prohibiting parents from spanking. If our state or our country passes such a law, I will break that law and I will teach parents to break that law. At risk to myself, I will do as God commands.
Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. (Proverbs 13:24 ESV)
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. (Proverbs 22:15 ESV)
Do not withhold discipline from children; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. Punish them with the rod and save them from death. (Proverbs 23:13-14 TNIV)
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. (Proverbs 29:15 ESV)
Conclusion:
1. Submit to all governing authorities because God has delegated power to them.
2. Governments have the right for capital punishment to execute wrath on wrongdoers and protect the innocent.
3. Pay taxes; respect and honor these authorities.
Owe No One Anything
Romans 13:8-14
Brent Kercheville
If the first half of chapter 13 of the book of Romans was not controversial enough, the second half of the chapter does not ease the controversy. Not only are Paul’s teachings challenging, but many of the commands have been misunderstood. To remind us of our context, Paul is still teach us how we live as sacrifices to God, alive, holy, and pleasing to him (12:1). This is what the life of a true follower of Jesus looks like.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:8-10 ESV)
This text has been used by some to teach that a Christian cannot have any debt whatsoever. No credit card debt, mortgage debt, or automobile debt. They adamantly teach that Christians cannot owe a person anything. While this principle may sound good in theory, to carry this out in practice is seemingly impossible. This would mean that I could not borrow a dollar from you to buy a co*ke. You could not borrow a spoon of sugar from your neighbor. There would not be any lending to our brothers and sisters in Christ whatsoever. But there are a number of reasons why I believe this is the wrong interpretation of Paul’s teaching.
When we examine the scriptures historically we will notice that God made allowances for lending in the nation of Israel. In Exodus 22:25 and Leviticus 25:37 God commanded the practice of lending, but said to not lend receiving interest. It was okay to lend from one another, but the people of God were not to charge one another interest. So it is important to recognize that lending and borrowing was not condemned, but authorized by God. To press the point further, remember that if a person fell into too much debt, he was allowed to sell himself as a slave to work off the debt. Thus, God established the year of Jubilee when all the debts were forgiven. God does not condemned debt. He authorized debt and legislated how his people were to lend and borrow. Further, Jesus commanded that we lend to people. "Do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you" (Matthew 5:42). If someone needs a hand, we help the person out and lend to them what they need.
We need to also examine the context of what Paul is teaching in chapter 13. In Romans 13:7 Paul taught to pay taxes that are owed. Obviously, Paul cannot be teaching that a Christian should never have debt since he already admitted that Christians will be in debt to the government. Pay what is owed to them the governing authorities. This is what makes the logical connection to Romans 13:8. Pay what you owe to the government. In fact, pay what you owe to everyone. Pay what you owe people. The TNIV captures the idea properly.
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8 TNIV)
Paul’s point is that any debt incurred must be repaid. Pay what you owe. What a terrible thing to borrow from a Christian and not pay it back. What a sinful thing to do! But Paul does not say not to owe a Christian. Paul teaches to owe no one anything. Therefore, when we engage in borrowing, it must be with the full intention of paying it back. Pay what you owe. It does not seem from the scriptures that bankruptcy is sinful, since God had a form of that where a person would be enslaved to work off the debt. Even God understood that things can go wrong. But this should not be used because a person does not want to pay. It should only be used for those who simply cannot pay back what is owed. What is happening today is people are in homes that are not worth what they paid. So they are just walking away from their debt obligations, not because they cannot pay, but because they made a bad investment and do not want to pay. This is wrong. We are to pay our bills and pay back our debts.
Paul says that there is only one thing that we should pay and never be done paying: the debt of love. We can pay our financial debts and be done. But we can never say, "I have done all the loving I need to do." Love is always our debt. Origen said concerning the debt of love, "We must pay it daily and yet always owe it." Loving each other is the fulfilling of the law. Please observe that Paul states three times that love is the fulfilling of the law (13:8,9,10). Three times in these three verses. Jesus taught that the commandments are summed up with laws: love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Paul focuses on the second command because this command covers all of our obligations toward others. Love does not to wrong things to others. Love does not commit adultery because it is sinful against others, violating the marriage covenant. Love does not murder because is not doing to others as you want them to do for you. All the commands that Paul mentions are commands that show a lack of love for the other person. Paul lumps all of these ideas together. Loving means that I will not leave my debts outstanding. You want people to pay you back. We love by paying what is due to others. Love does not do wrong to a Christian, a neighbor, or anyone that we know. It is shocking that people who claim to be Christians can do some much wrong and so much harm to other people, including Christians.
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:11-14 ESV)
Paul continues by saying that it is time to wake from sleep. Sleep is used in the scriptures as a metaphor for a life of moral carelessness and laxity. It is time to be alert because the promise of the consummation of our salvation is closer than when we started. Do not be sleep walkers. Do not go through life in moral apathy and spiritual laziness. You know the time that we live in. We live in the time when the Lord could return at any moment without warning. Time, unfortunately, has become the enemy of Christian fervor. We grow cold and become lazy toward God because so much time has passed by. But salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. Therefore we live as sacrifices that are pleasing to God because we know the time and we are aware of what is coming. Do not be a sleeping Christian. Too many Christians are sleeping, rather than being awake and prepared. Too many Christians are not living their lives as if today is their last day. Too many are not living for Christ to return at this very moment.
Belong to the day, not the night. Do not buy into the foolish things of the world or follow the ways of the world. It is time to wake up and cast off the darkness. Put on the armor of light. Jesus has come and he is our alarm clock. The dawn is breaking and the sun is rising. Paul paints a picture that the time for that sinful life is long past. "The night is far gone." But notice that it is not quite day yet. "The day is at hand." So we are at a moment in history that is in transition. Jesus has come and the darkness is gone. Day is dawning, but it is not day yet. Just as sure as the day will dawn, so also will our salvation come at the arrival of Jesus. Since the day is dawning, we must put off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Paul continues to explain what this looks like. We are to walk properly (Romans 13:13). This is a very broad statement that condemns anything that is not according to the rule of God. Don’t live like the world. There appear to be three pairs that are used to encompass immorality. The first has to do with the sin of drunkenness. The word translated "orgies" by the ESV carries the idea of "letting loose." The word is a picture festivals and parades like Mardi Gras where people are letting loose in debauchery and sexuality. Further, living in the light is not going on drinking bouts. The second pair is dealing with sexual immorality. These words picture letting loose sexually and not keeping our bodies pure for marriage. The third pair deals with strife. Quarreling and jealousy will tear Christians apart. Those who live in darkness are enslaved to drinking, to sex, or to fighting. These are not activities of those who walk properly or who have put on the armor of light.
Instead, we are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul means that we need to wear Jesus like clothing. Jesus is the armor that we wear. According to the apostle Paul, we begin the process of wearing Jesus by being immersed in water. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:27 ESV) But it is also clear that Paul is picturing a complete life change that identifies with the life of Jesus, not simply being immersed in water.
We are to make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. This is another good refrigerator verse. Do not allow for these sinful opportunities. Do not do things that you know will cause you to be in a weakened position. If you cannot control yourself and what you look at on the computer, only get on the computer when people are home and can see what you are doing. Do not go places where you know you will have temptations. Do not watch things that are going to spark your desires to sin. Do not give your desires any room to win the battle. Do not gratify your desires. Give your desires no opportunity to succeed over your mind. The night is gone and the day is at hand. Live knowing that our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
Christian Fellowship
Romans 14:1-12
Brent Kercheville
Romans 14 has been filled with misinterpretation and misapplication. To apply this text properly we must understand the original meaning first. I think many of the difficulties have arisen because we are trying to plug in our disputes and disagreements into this text without first recognizing that these Christians had disputes over. Before we begin, it is important to make some critical observation about this section that will ease our understanding.
Critical Observations
The first important observation to make is that this section of discussion begins at Romans 14:1 and concludes at Romans 15:13. The chapter break is in a very unfortunate position. The first half of chapter 15 continues the discussion contained in Romans 14.
We need to observe the issues of the dispute. Romans 14:2-3 reveals that one issue is over the eating of food. We are given greater clarity about this issue in Romans 14:14-15. We find there that the issue is about eating clean and unclean food. We see this point made again in Romans 14:20 where Paul teaches that all food is clean. This seems to be the greatest problem that Paul is addressing. It is important to know that this is proof for a Jewish background because this language of clean and common foods are never used in Greco-Roman literature. But the language is found commonly in Jewish writings.
Another issue in the dispute is over the observing of days (Romans 14:5-6). Some people were observing all days as the same. Others were observing one day as better than another in honor to the Lord.
Meat sacrificed to idols is never mentioned. We must be careful not to impose a problem into the text that is not addressed. Nowhere in Romans 14 or 15 is meat sacrificed to idols addressed. Therefore, the solutions given are not the same as the Corinthian issue in 1 Corinthians 8-10. The problem is about eating together (Romans 14:2-3), but the problem is not over meat sacrificed to idols.
Necessary Conclusions
These observations cause us to draw some necessary conclusions about the issue at hand. What we are reading about is Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian relations. This ought not be surprising considering that Paul’s letter to the Romans has been very much about Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian relations. Paul has had to teach the Jewish Christians that they are not saved by the works of the Law. Recall that the works of the Law was Sabbath keeping, clean and unclean foods, circumcision, and the other external acts that signified ethnic Israel as separate from the world.
The main issue at hand is the problem of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians eating together. How could Jewish and Gentile Christians enjoy table fellowship together when they differed on which foods were permissible to eat? Eating swine was especially popular in the Greco-Roman world, but extremely offensive to the Jews from the food laws of Moses’ law. When we turn to Galatians 2 we find that this was a chronic problem for local churches. In Galatians 2:12 we find that even Peter stopped eating with Gentile Christians when Jewish Christians came from Jerusalem.
The second reason that Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian relations makes sense is because of the dispute over the keeping of days. It is hard to believe that Paul would be sympathetic to the keeping of pagan days and rituals. It is much more likely the "one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord" refers to Jewish Christians keeping the Sabbath and their feast days commanded under the Law of Moses. Gentile Christians, however, are observing all days alike and abstain from honoring any of these days.
Finally, Romans 15:8 reveals that the problem is Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian relations. Christ became a servant to the circumcised in order to confirm the promises to the patriarchs and for the Gentiles so that they might glorify God for his mercy.
We are right to ask why Paul does not make this distinction clear in this chapter. Why not frame the problem as Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians rather than the "strong" and the "weak" as he does? I believe Paul does not mention Jewish and Gentile Christians in this resolution because doing so would defeat the purpose of the letter. The whole point of Romans is to de-emphasize the distinction between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. They are to be one in Christ. To speak of the problem in Jew/Gentile terms would only emphasize what he has been trying to erase. There is no Jew and there is Gentile. There are only Christians and they are brethren together in Christ. What Paul is doing is giving practical resolution and application to his teaching on the "works of the Law."
Stop Despising and Passing Judgment (Romans 14:1-12)
Paul begins by teaching to welcome and accept one another. Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians were not to remain as two groups. They were to welcome one another as brethren in Christ. In joining together and accepting one another, the purpose was not to set each other straight. They were not now going to quarrel over the works of the Law. The phrase, "weak in faith" is not referring to the person’s conviction. It is fairly clearly that both groups have strong convictions about their belief such that they are quarreling with one another. This is also made clear to us in verse 5 where both are "fully convinced in their own minds." Therefore, "weak in faith" has more to do with not knowing or fully understanding God’s revealed will. The person thinks he knows God’s will, but is missing key points of understanding.
Eating Food
Romans 14:3 reveals the heart of the problem. The one who is eating (most typically Gentile Christians) are despising those who are not eating all foods. They are looking down their noses at them. They are looking down upon them and think their abstinence from foods is contemptible. However, those who do not eat are not innocent. They (most typically the Jewish Christians) are passing judgment on those who are eating all foods. They are condemning their actions. Paul gives a number of reasons why their despising of one another and passing judgment on each other is wrong.
At the end of verse 3 Paul simply states that God has welcomed them both. Paul drives their sinful actions deeper into their hearts by asking who they think they are to pass judgment on each other (Romans 14:4). We stand or fall before our master, not each other. Your judgments of me do not determine the state of my eternal soul. Only God pass such judgments. But Paul already points out in this verse that the one who eats will stand because God is able to make him stand.
Observing Days
In Romans 14:5 Paul addresses the second issue and ties it into the first issue. One person is keeping the days while another does not. Both are honoring the Lord in what they are doing. They are worshiping God and giving thanks to God in the position each holds. One can easily imagine that the Jewish Christians are remember the feasts and remembering the Sabbaths and thanking God for their deliverance and the goodness of God. The Gentile Christians who do not participate in these things are still thanking God to be part of God’s covenant family and the mercy shown to them to be the people of God.
This is an important point because a person is not honoring God and thanking God by committing sin. Romans 14 does not authorize anything in terms of allowing sinful activities.
Allow me to take a moment for a side point while we are here. There are many in the religious world and many Christians who think it is right or wrong to keep various holidays. Some think Christians should not participate in Halloween because of its pagan origins. Some think Christians must not participate in Christmas or decorate with Christmas things. Some say that we should not mark our birthdays as special days. Some think Christians should not keep national holidays like Independence Day on July 4th. This is one issue that Paul has made clear. If people want to abstain from keeping certain holidays, they have every right to do so. On the other hand, if people want to keep various holidays and memorials, they also have the right to observe those days. The key is that whichever we choose, we do so in honor to the Lord. We are not to be honoring paganism. We are to give glory to God and show him thanks. Paul points out that we are to welcome one another even though we may disagree about these practices. The only point I would like to make is the point of consistency. If one avoids a holiday like Halloween because of its pagan background, then one must also avoid Christmas and Easter. If one avoids one national holiday, be consistent and avoid all national holidays. If one avoids a personal memorial like a birthday, then avoid all of them like anniversaries and dates when our loved ones pass away. Be consistent, but know that the apostle Paul says it does not matter.
The Lord Is The Judge
Our service and worship is to the Lord. We live to the Lord and we die to the Lord (Romans 14:7-9). We are accountable to the Lord. This is a point that so many Christians forget that is so important to remember. Your actions are not about making us happy. Coming to services is not about making the shepherds pleased. Nothing that you do is about keeping the church off of your back. What we think about you and the condition of your soul is not relevant. What matters is your condition before the Almighty God. We are simply servants trying to help each one of us see our condition. None of this about pleasing each other and keeping people off our backs. It is all about the fact that we stand before God.
Notice Romans 14:10. All of us will stand before the judgment seat of God. You will not stand before the judgment seat of Brent or the shepherds. It is God that you must be very concerned about. This is a two fold reminder. First, let God do his job as judge. On matters that are opinions or of a questionable nature, it is not for us to judge one another. Clearly we are not talking about sinful activities that are condemned in the scriptures. But there are things that do not put one another into sin that can be of a questionable nature. These are matters that are to be left up to God. Second, we must be very careful when we do choose to judge. We must make sure that they are matters of significant doctrinal import that would put one in a state of sin. Romans 14 demands of us to know and apply the scriptures well so that we know when judgments must be made and when things must be left up to God. Third, our acceptance or rejection of one another does not matter in terms of our standing before God. You might be in right standing with this church but going to hell because of the way you live your life and lack of faith. You might be rejected by this church because of false information and be right with God (like the apostle Paul was in Acts 9). God will determine whether we stand or fall. Just because we are a member of this church does not mean that we should take our salvation lightly.
Conclusion
Paul is working to develop the Christian mind to be more responsive to their Christian brethren.
A Stumbling Block
Romans 14:13-23
Brent Kercheville
In the first twelve verses of chapter 14 Paul has taught Christians in that church to stop passing judgments on each other and despising each other. Jewish Christians were condemning Gentiles Christians about eating unclean foods and not keeping the festivals of Moses. Gentile Christians were despising Jewish Christians for not eating with them, eating all foods, and for keeping the Sabbath and other feasts of Moses. They were to recognize that God had received them both and that God was the judge. Therefore, they were to welcome and accept one another, but not for the purpose of disputing over these things. Paul is going to pursue this thinking further as he directs these Christians concerning how to act over these divisive issues.
Never Put A Stumbling Block In The Way of Another Christian (Romans 14:13)
This is the key thought for this paragraph. Stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, resolve to never put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. The same Greek word is used for what is translated "pass judgment" and "decide" in the ESV in Romans 14:13. Literally, this would read: "Therefore, let us not judge one another any longer, but rather judge to never put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother." In a sense Paul is saying that if you are going to judge, judge to never put a hindrance in your brother’s way. Stop judging one another. Determine to not be a stumbling block or a hindrance.
This is a very important principle that we also must determine to do in our lives. We need to make the Christian decision to never put a stumbling block in the way of our Christian brethren. This is one point that we find in parallel to 1 Corinthians 8-10. At the end of 1 Corinthians 8 Paul teaches that he would never eat meat again to keep his brother or sister from stumbling. In chapter 9 Paul taught that he forfeits his rights for the sake of the gospel. These points are similarly made here in Romans 14. We need to determine that we will choose not to do things when we know that such an activity is going to be a hindrance to other Christians. The question is not simply is this okay for me to do. The question is also is this something that could cause my brother or sister in Christ to engage in sin or be weak in conscience.
Do Not Grieve Your Brother (Romans 14:14-15)
Paul continues in verse 14 about his knowledge in the Lord that there is nothing clean or unclean any longer in Christ. But can you imagine how difficult this knowledge was for those who grew up in Judaism? All their lives they were rightly taught that certain foods defiled and only other foods were clean for eating. For years the conscience had been trained that these foods were unclean. Even Peter did not readily accept this when three times in a vision God said, "Rise, kill and eat." Now these Jews had become Christians. How difficult it was for them to change their eating habits from being Jews to liberated Christians. Paul knows that all foods are clean. However, for those who think the food is unclean, it is unclean. The other parallel to 1 Corinthians 8-10 is found at this point also. What another person believes is just as important as what you believe. If a person sees the food as unclean, they should not engage in eating that food. One can easily imagine the Jewish Christian knowing that the food is okay to eat, but the conscience is so strong that it will not allow that Jewish Christian to eat that meat. Rather than instructing the strong to teach the weak the truth so that they are no longer weak, Paul is calling upon the strong understand where the weak are coming from. The strong need to understand that the conscience is involved. It is not simple for them to change regarding foods.
Romans 14:15 capitalizes on this thought. If your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. You know you have a liberty, but you must have concern for your brother above all else. We must have the determination to not put a stumbling block in the way of any person. If you do not care that you are doing is causing a problem for another Christian, then you have a bigger problem. The bigger problem is that you are not acting with the love that Jesus commands. There may be things that I think we should do in our worship or in our gatherings. But I know that this would cause problems for other members. Should I bully them into going along with me because I have the proper understanding of the scriptures? Absolutely not. I may have beliefs concerning the scriptures that are different than the beliefs of others. Should I push them into seeing things my way? No. We are commanded to work with one another. We are commanded to be understanding about where the other person is coming from. We need to consider that the other person may have serious convictions or a trained conscience that we do not want to violate. We need to recognize that there are occasions when we need to hold back from our freedom for the sake of those whose Christian faith would be irreparably damaged by such behavior. Paul gives us a very important thought that we must continue to keep in mind: "By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died." How can we ruin the faith of another? How could we possibly live with ourselves if we ruin the faith of another? We cannot and must not use our liberties to be a hindrance to another Christian.
Seeking Unity (Romans 14:16-19)
Romans 14:16 lays another principle upon us. "So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil." What we do should not be something that can be criticized as evil. I think that this is spoken in terms of how other Christians perceive what we are doing. While this is a true principle for all people in that we do not want anyone to speak of the things we think as good as evil. Contextually, however, Paul is speaking about Christian relationships. We want to act in such a way so as to not cause Christians to stumble or see our good works as evil. Verse 17 continues the thought. The reason this is particularly important is because the kingdom of God is not about what we eat and drink. Righteousness, peace, and joy are far more important in God’s kingdom. The kingdom of God is not about exercising our liberties. Righteousness has been the central theme of Romans. We are pronounced justified by God through Jesus. This is what the kingdom of God is about. Further, our unity in Christ has been the other important theme in this letter. We are to be seeking peace and joy together, not destroying one another.
Ironically, Romans 14 has been a text used for division and for destroying our brethren. But we do not need to believe the same thing to have unity. I hope that this is a lesson we learn from Romans 14. Some believed in eating anything and some believed in only eating vegetables. Some observed certain days and some did not. However, these Christians can, should, and must remain in fellowship. They were not to separate from one another. They were not to destroy one another. Go back to verse 1 of the chapter. They were to welcome and accept one another in fellowship in the congregation in Rome. Notice the rest of verse 18. If you are serving Christ, then you are accepted by God and approved by men. So we must pursue peace with one another. We must pursue mutual upbuilding. In application, this means that we study the Bible together to learn from one another and come to a common faith. We discuss our differences without fear of being "blown up" or have derogatory remarks made. We need to correct things that are false or error. But we are pursuing mutual upbuilding, not the ruin of one another. We can agree to disagree with the hope of thinking about and studying each other’s position. We can welcome one another even when we do not understand all the scriptures the same.
In Summary (Romans 14:20-23)
In these final verses of this chapter (though Paul is not done with this topic as it continues into chapter 15) Paul summarizes his teachings to the Roman Christians.
1. Don’t destroy the work of God for the sake of food (Romans 14:20). We do not have to wage combat over every issue or every verse. Not everything demands division. Not everything demands that we understand God’s will the same to have fellowship.
2. Everything is clean, but the bigger picture is how we treat our Christian brother and sister (Romans 14:20). Paul is not saying that everything in the world is clean. Adultery is not clean. Murder is not clean. Stealing is not clean. All things are clean in terms of what Paul has been teaching about. All foods are clean. The observance of days is a matter of choice. Not only is it good not to eat or drink in an effort to keep another brother from stumbling, but we do not want to do anything that would cause another to stumble (Romans 14:21). Paul gives the answer that everything is clean, but this is not relevant. What is relevant is the faith and consciences of others.
3. There are things that you can keep and practice to yourself (Romans 14:22). I think the application of Paul’s point to the Romans was that they could eat but they could do so to themselves. They did not have to try to overthrow the faith of others. They could eat in the privacy of their own homes. We can have positions on issues and verses that we can keep to ourselves. There is wisdom in keeping these things to ourselves until we can be sure of our understanding of our position. Maybe we will change our mind. Maybe we are not at a point of understanding to clearly express to others what we believe. I keep many positions to myself as I work on various issues and texts. I do not want to be the cause of another shipwrecking their faith. We have to be careful about what we teach. We have to be careful about the positions we express because we can be misunderstood so as to cause others to stumble. We can keep our positions, opinions, and persuasions to ourselves.
4. Be aware of your conscience (Romans 14:22-23). What we do must come from faith, not from the compulsion of others. We need to know the word of God for ourselves. Know the scriptures and act on what you know. Do not let your faith and conscience become stagnant. Keep training your conscience. Keep teaching yourself. Keep acting on your faith.
5. Do not merely ask, "Is it good for me?" Ask, "Is it good for my brethren?"
The Self-Less Christ
Romans 15:1-13
Brent Kercheville
When talking about the need to think about the convictions and consciences of other Christians before acting, the greatest example of such selfless thinking and action is our Lord Jesus. In this final paragraph on the topic of not passing judgment on one another, Paul is going to use the example of Jesus as the model for how to deal with disputes and divisions and maintain fellowship.
Our Obligation To Others (Romans 15:1-2)
Bear with the failings of the weak. In our day, we speaking of "bearing" as putting up with something. But this is not Paul’s meaning. When we read about bearing something in the scriptures, we need to think of carrying. For example, Christ bore our sins means that he carried our sins, not that he put up with our sins. In the same way, Paul is not saying to put up with the weak, but that the strong are to carry the weak. Christians are to the shoulder the burdens of one another. We are to support and sustain one another, not ruin the faith of one another. This instruction continues to teaching of Romans 14 that we need to be concerned and thoughtful about the consciences of other Christians.
Not to please ourselves. We carry their burdens, but not to please ourselves. This is not a self-seeking pursuit. We do not do things while having no regard for the impact it will have on others. "Consideration for weaker Christians takes precedence over what we ourselves would like to do" (Morris, 497). We must support those who have a different point of view. Don’t go to battle against one another, but support one another. We can do this by showing respect in how we speak. Not only can we respectfully disagree, but we can also realize and openly state that though I do not agree with brother so and so, I respect that he is a student of the scriptures and desires to serve the Lord. A respect for the scriptures is a large piece that helps us maintain fellowship. When we accept that neither person is trying to overthrow the scriptures but is honestly evaluating and studying the scriptures, then we can respectfully disagree and support one another.
Please others and build them up. Paul is not saying that you cannot enjoy life. But we cannot please ourselves to the detriment of the faith of others. We must continually seek to do what is good for others rather than merely seek our own good. This does not mean, however, that the weak control the church. If taken to an extreme, then any person who expresses any kind of complaint or problem would cause the rest of the church to bend to that person’s will. While this sounds reasonable, the problem is that the local church would not grow because the church could never rise above the level of the weakest member in the congregation. The point is that we are to have gentleness and concern for those who are weak. The strong are to respect the weak, remain in fellowship with the weak, and not hurt them. Paul speaks to the manner in which we deal with such disputes and differences. Accept one another and carry the burdens together, being careful how we exercise our liberties and convictions in Christ. Think about what other Christians need and what you can do for their faith.
The Example of Christ (Romans 15:3)
Paul relies upon the example of Jesus in verse 3. Jesus is the supreme example of not pleasing oneself. Jesus suffered for the sake of God’s will. Jesus disregarded himself and did what was God’s will and what was in our best interests. Jesus did what we needed done for us. Paul quotes from Psalms 69:9 to prove his point. It was predicted that the Messiah would accept reproach and insults on our behalf.
What would happen to us if Jesus had pleased himself? Where would we be today if Jesus had put his own interests first? We would be ruined. We would be lost in our sins. We would have no hope. Paul’s point is that we must not be outraged at the idea of building others up and doing what pleases others because that is what Jesus did. He sacrificed for us far more than we ever have to give up for each other. We cannot even begin to compare it! How dare we get so upset about keeping our persuasions to ourselves and practicing some things quietly because we know that such things could cause ruin to another’s faith! Jesus died for you. How about a little sacrifice on your part toward those for whom Jesus died?
The Example of the Scriptures (Romans 15:4)
Before we get to the point that Paul makes, I want to observe one thought first. Paul is instructing Christians to study the Old Testament. Every word in the scriptures has value. We should not think that a study of Isaiah has no value for us. Or even think that a study of Leviticus has no use for us today. How easily we can have a study of the Old Testament and our reaction be to immediately shut off and not care. The Old Testament teaches us about God. The Old Testament teaches us about the success and failures of the people of God. God did not have the Old Testament recorded so that we would have a really big book to carry, but only study from one-third of it. The words of the Old Testament, though written so long ago to a different group of people, have purpose, meaning, and usefulness to us today. The Old Testament has a practical role in the life of the Christian. One of the things I am excited about is that many of you marked down your desire to study through the Old Testament prophets. It is my plan after the completion of Revelation that we will do that on Sunday nights. We will look at the major and the minor prophets and the encouragement and hope that is found in those books.
This is the reason God recorded the scriptures for us, according to Paul. "For whatever was written in former days was written down for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4). We are to find hope to stand firm and hope of encouragement by reading the Old Testament scriptures. Do you need some hope in your life? Have you been bogged down by the difficulties of life? You can find hope in reading the scriptures. Do you have need of endurance? Do you need help remaining steadfast and unwavering in the faith? Reading the scriptures will give you that strength. Reading about the people of the past who remained strong through such difficulties gives us the endurance we need to continue. Reading about God’s grace like we did in Romans gave me great strength to continue pushing forward. The scriptures will also encourage you. I fear that the reason we struggle in our Christian walk is that we are not tapping into God by reading his word. The word can transform where you are in life and lift you up. Too often the word sits on the table or on the shelf unread. Read and soak in the word of God.
Live in Harmony (Romans 15:5-7)
Notice the descriptions Paul gives of God. Our Lord is the God of endurance and encouragement. God will grant you endurance and encouragement through his word. Now live in harmony with one another. Be unified because that is the will of Jesus. The reason is that they need to come together and with one voice glorify God. Stop being fractured. Stop passing judgment and despising one another. Glorify God in one voice. Stop focusing on your disagreements and start focusing on glorifying God together.
Therefore, they need to welcome one another. But not just welcome one another. They are to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us. Christ has welcomed you with all of your problems and mistakes. You are to welcome each other, even if we do not always agree or have the same understandings.
Christ the Servant (Romans 15:8-13)
The second basis of this welcoming and accepting one another is the servanthood of Christ. Christ was a servant to the circumcised to how God’s truthfulness and faithfulness. This verse acts as a hinge. Paul’s point reaches back to show that Jesus became a servant. We are to imitate him and he became a servant. So we need to serve as he served. In fact, Jesus was a servant to the circumcised. Our assessment of the situation appears to come to the forefront again. The Gentile Christians (as the strong) need to serve the Jewish Christians (who are the weak). We carry the weaknesses of our Christian brethren and serve them, just as Jesus did.
Romans 15:8 also acts as a hinge to press forward a truth upon the Jewish Christians. That truth is that God has accepted and welcomed the Gentile Christians. Notice this point in Romans 15:9. Christ became a servant to the circumcised in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. God is being glorified by the inclusion of the Gentiles.
The rest of the paragraph is Paul quoting scripture to show that the inclusion of the Gentiles was predicted by the prophets and was accomplished for the glorification of God. The first quote is in Romans 15:9 which comes from 2 Samuel 22:50. What Christ has done in reconciling both groups into one people of God, the true Israel, leads the world to glorify God. God will be praised among the Gentiles.
The second quotation is in Romans 15:10 which comes from Deuteronomy 32:43. This quotation speaks of the Gentiles rejoicing as they are part of God’s people. The third quotation is from Psalms 117:1. This quote also predicts the Gentiles glorifying God. The final quotation comes from Isaiah 11:10. The root of Jesse will arise and rule the Gentiles and the Gentiles will have hope in him.
The quotations prove that the Gentiles are included with the Jews as one people in Christ. God’s purpose has not been exclusively directed to the nation of Israel. The Gentiles are to be welcomed because the scriptures repeated say to welcome them as God’s people. Therefore, the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians are to rejoice with one another in the plan of God. God always intended to bring the nations of the world into equal fellowship with physical Israel. This was accomplish through the root of Jesse, Jesus. Therefore, be filled with joy and peace and abound in the hope of the scriptures, revealed through the Holy Spirit.
How To Act:
1. Imitate the selfless Christ.
2. Imitate the servant Christ.
3. Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you.
4. Glorify God with one voice as you work for Jesus in harmony.
A Gospel Driven Church
Romans 15:14-33
Brent Kercheville
As Paul wraps up his letter to the Romans, he writes to the church in Rome about his personal travel plans, his expectations of the church in Rome, and the actions of other churches. Rather than simply look at Paul’s agenda, we can look at what Paul writes and learn what a godly, gospel driven church looks like. We are able to get a view of how Paul sees his work and we are able to learn how we must look at our work in God’s kingdom.
The Character of the Church in Rome (Romans 15:14)
We might get the false impression that the Christians in Rome were a complete mess because Paul has spent a significant portion of the letter writing about fellowship and accepting one another. However, Paul writes that he is satisfied with the Christians in Rome. Paul knows of the righteous things that this church is doing. Paul says that the church is full of goodness. Paul commends them for their moral excellence. They are living their lives right before the Lord. Further, they are living their lives based upon a full knowledge of God’s will. They were not ignorant of the scriptures. They wanted to know God’s will and are seeking it so that they can be found pleasing to God. Also, the Christians in Rome have the ability to instruct one another. This reminds me of the criticism given by the writer of Hebrews to his audience how by this time they ought to have been teachers. Paul did not need to utter such words to the Christians at Rome. They are growing and maturing and they are able to instruct one another. They know the scriptures, they know God’s will, and they are able to capably teach each other. These are the initial marks of a godly church: full of moral excellence, knowing God’s word, and teaching one another to deepen and strengthen their faith.
An Evangelistic Church (Romans 15:15-21)
However, Paul has written strongly and boldly on some of these points by way of reminder. All of us need reminders about how to live our lives and about the doctrines of Christ. So also the Christians in Rome are being reminded about the grace of God, justification, and living in harmony. Paul goes on to say that he is proud of the work he is doing for the Lord. Because of God’s grace he is a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel. This is a unique image that Paul uses. None of the other New Testament writers speak of themselves functioning in a priestly service as ministers of the gospel. Paul sees himself working in God’s kingdom as a priest. Paul has an offering that he makes before the Lord. His offering is the Gentiles. It is Paul’s desire that his offering of bringing to the gospel to the Gentiles will be acceptable and made holy by the Holy Spirit. Paul did not see his work as something to be disdained. As an important Jew within the community of Israel, Paul did not see his God given task of taking the gospel to the Gentiles as something to be hated. He was not disappointed in this being his work. He is proud of the work he is doing. He is not proud because of himself. Verse 18 shows that Paul is proud because Christ has accomplished great things through the life of Paul. Winning the Gentiles to Christ is Paul’s priestly function. Paul takes joy as a Jew in being a minister to the Gentiles. Paul has gone to great lengths to reach the Gentiles, even as far away as Illyricum.
Paul saw evangelism as his offering that he could make to God. This was his act of service to the Lord and Paul was thrilled at the opportunity to do this. This is a fantastic attitude that is not unique to Paul. Paul spoke of the Thessalonians who had the same fervor. "For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything" (1 Thessalonians 1:8; ESV). What a great and powerful attitude for a church to have! I believe we should have a similar goal of sounding forth the word of the Lord in Palm Beach county and our faith going forth everywhere.
Unfortunately, we too often have a limited view of evangelism. Too often we think of evangelism as people who go to China or Romania, so we think that evangelism is not for us. This causes us to miss some of the most important evangelism we can do. How can we gain a heart for evangelism that Paul and the church at Thessalonica had?
See evangelism as an offering you can make to God. Earlier in this letter Paul described that we are to become sacrifices to God, alive, holy, and pleasing (Romans 12:1). Evangelism is an offering that we can make. Do not think of evangelism as something that only a few can do. There is work that all of us can do. First, we must think of evangelism as the highest priority. While we have many purposes and functions, the important task we are given is to seek and save the lost to Jesus.
Invite people to services with you. We have done a number of things to make this as easy for you as possible. For the lectures we have postcards that you can hand out our send to your friends and acquaintances. We even have an email that you can send out. This is really easy. Go through your contact list and email and invitation to them. We have invitation cards that are the size of business cards that you can hand out to people. We have the Getting To Know God series of pamphlets that my father and I put together that you can give to people. We have the study booklets from our Bible class that you can give. We have the website you can invite people to read. We have the podcast that you can invite people to listen to sermons. We are going to have the book of Revelation invitations. I am not sure if there are any more tools that we can give you to invite people. Are we inviting? Everyone can do it. No knowledge of the scriptures required. All you are doing is saying, "Come and see." Barna and Outreach do a number of polls of people who do not regularly go to church, asking them why they do not go. Do you know what the usual number reason why they do not go? The reason is because they have not been asked. Further, if asked, the majority of them said they would go. We have such a pessimistic attitude that no one would want to enjoy the same blessings in Christ that we enjoy. However, people are curious and interested, if we will simply invite. With our lectures coming in two weeks, we all have a great opportunity before us to be inviters.
Be a welcoming greeter. Meet the people who come through our doors. Too many sit in one section of the church and do not get up to meet the other people. We talk to the same people and we isolate ourselves. Get up and talk to our guests who have come to worship. Most try to leave very quickly. You must lovingly tackle them. Get to know them. Strike up a conversation about where they are from and what they do for a living. We cannot let visitors and repeated guests get to the back door as fast as they do.
Get here early. You need to be here and be here early. You need to figure out how to get here. You need to be here with your kids early so they can greet other kids. If we have a family come in and your late, they do not see what we are church to stick around for. You evangelize by being here early, showing the lost you want to be here and you care to be here. It can be done. We had three little kids, trying to get them out the door. We know how hard it is. You will just have to get up ten minutes earlier if you will have the heart for evangelism.
Send cards and letters. Send our guests cards thanking them for coming. This is so important so that we show them that we do care about them. Even though the conversations were short, there is a great impression made when we show that we care about them and want them to come back.
See these things as your offering to God in trying to save the lost. It makes a powerful impact on those who are willing to reach out and offer the gospel.
We know that Paul was unique as an apostle who traveled as far as he could to teach the gospel. Paul declares that it is his ambition to preach the gospel where others had not preached thus far. Paul called it "building on someone else’s foundation." Paul is not saying that there is something wrong with building on the foundation of another. But Paul really saw himself as a missionary, going to areas where the good news had not reached. We have to be so thankful for the men and women who have that kind of courage and drive to do the same. People like brother Payne who went Romania with the gospel and brother Kingery who in the face of great danger went with the gospel to China. Paul quotes from the suffering servant text, Isaiah 52:15, and sees himself as an extension of the work of the Messiah, taking the good news where it had not been proclaimed.
A Financially Giving Church (Romans 15:22-29)
It is this preaching of the gospel in areas where the gospel had not been preached that has kept Paul from making it to Rome. But now there is no more room for work in these regions for Paul. The gospel has been spread and he does not want to go where the gospel already is. Paul is not saying that all the churches are mature or that there were no more souls to save. Paul sees himself as needing to go where the gospel is not. Both are needed. We need teachers to go where the gospel is not and we need teachers to teach the rest of the lost in areas where the gospel has already had an impact and a church exists.
Therefore, Paul plans to go to Spain because the gospel has not gone there yet. Paul tells the Romans that he intends to go to Rome and make that the place from where he will launch off to Spain. Further, he is asking for the Romans to be ready to assist him financially for this work. Before he can fulfill these plans Paul must first go to Jerusalem with the money collected from the Christians in Macedonia and Achaia to help the poor saints.
Do we think of giving to needy Christians the way these Christians in Macedonia and Achaia did? In verse 26 Paul says they were "pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem." In verse 27 Paul again says that they were pleased to do it. This is something that they wanted to do. When we read the second letter to the Corinthians Paul declares that those Christians gave beyond what they were able to give because they zealously desired to help. Paul also describes this as the sharing of material blessings. Since we all share together in the spiritual blessings of Christ, how can we not share in the material blessings as well? It is a blessing to give and to share with our fellow Christians. We should want to share the blessings that we have. One of the things we need to do more sharing is in our homes. It does not matter if you have a small apartment or live in a shed. It does not matter if you have no furniture and would have to sit on the floor. We need to have people over to our homes. It is shameful that our Christian family can be held in isolation from one another and never spend that kind of time together. To not have one another over in small groups, in Bible studies, or potlucks is tragic. Share in your blessings that you have.
Other important lesson here is that though we are separated by distance, we are connected to Christians we have never met. The Christians in Macedonia and Achaia did not know the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Paul did not personally know the Christians in Rome. However, we are bound together as family in Christ and are to share with those who are Christians in this country and around the world. Let us be pleased to do share our blessings with all the saints in any place.
A Praying Church (Romans 15:30-33)
Paul also calls for the church to be praying for him. Paul knows what lies ahead of him as he travels to Jerusalem with the contributions of the saints for the needy Christians in Jerusalem. Prophets had foretold that Paul would be bound if he went to Jerusalem (Acts 21:11). Paul asks for prayers concerning what was coming. In reading the rest of the book of Acts we know that Paul was arrested and imprisoned and sent to Rome for trial. He did not go to Rome as planned. However, we know that Paul was released from prison. The scriptures do not tell us if Paul did make it to Spain once released from Rome. Clement, who wrote around 90-100 AD says that Paul did go to Spain.
In either case, Paul calls upon the Roman Christians to be a praying church. Pray for Paul. Pray for his work. Pray for his deliverance. Pray and pray even more. We do not need this to know the myriad of commands that tells us to pray as individuals and to come together and pray as a church. Pray for the work. Pray for our efforts. Pray for the good news to spread. Pray for our growth. Pray for the word to sink into the hearts of people. Pray for our shepherds and their leading and decisions. Pray, pray, pray, and pray.
A Refreshing and Joyful Church (Romans 15:32)
Finally, Paul is looking forward to being with the Christians in Rome. He expects to enjoy his time with them and he will be refreshed by coming to them. This is what every group of Christians ought to be. When we get together, it should be refreshing to do so. There should be joy. When we gather on Sundays and Wednesday, it should be refreshing to our souls and our faith to be together. What a horrible thing it would be if coming together was something we did not look forward to or did not enjoy. I know I come up short, but I try to make every lesson have something to build you up and give you a reason to come. We try hard to make our worship joyful and refreshing to your soul. Let us all work together to be the gospel driven church that Paul describes.
Final Warning
Romans 16:1-27
Brent Kercheville
How would you say your goodbyes? It is not something that we like to think about. Paul comes to the end of his letter and his saying hello to many in the church at Rome.
Phoebe and Greeting the Church at Rome (Romans 16:1-16)
There are a couple of places that we will spend the majority of our time in our study of Romans 16. The first two verses is one of those places. This one sentence concerning Phoebe has led to much discussion and debate about who she was and the role that she had. The difference in thought can be seen in a comparison of the translations.
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae… (Romans 16:1 ESV; cf. HCSB, NASB, NKJV, NET, NIV)
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae… (Romans 16:1 NRSV; cf. NLT, TNIV)
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae… (Romans 16:1 RSV)
So we need to discuss what she was and what she was not. I am very critical of these translations that render that Phoebe was a deacon of the church. I understand that the Greek word is diakonos and one could argue that these three translations are really transliterations. However, the problem is such a rendering creates a meaning that Phoebe held a position in the office of deacon at the church in Cenchreae. The first obstacle to such a view is 1 Timothy 3:12, "Let deacons be the husband of one wife." A woman cannot be the husband of one wife. The second obstacle is of a similar nature and is found in Acts 6:3. "Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty." If there was any good time for women to be deacons, Acts 6 would be the occasion because the Greek Christian widows are being neglected in the distribution of food. The apostles command for men to be selected to the task. These two passages rule out the idea that women hold an official position in the local church.
Unfortunately, too often that is all that is said on the matter. But doing so is quite unfair and also to fail in studying the text. Phoebe is an important person. We cannot simply discard her because we can show that she did not hold an official position in a local church. Phoebe is called a servant of the church. Women can and must serve in the local church. They are not to be silent bystanders in the work of the church. We must stop thinking that women cannot help and cannot work in the local church. Phoebe is a servant worker in the church in Cenchreae. Paul apparently sends her to Corinth.
Paul instructs the Christians in Rome to welcome her. The church was to welcome her into the fellowship, of course. But welcoming her would also include providing lodging, food, and other necessities for her while she is in Rome. Not only was the church to welcome her, but they were to help her in whatever she would need from them. We do not know what this matter is, but we would be hard pressed to think that Paul is instructing the church to help her in something that was not of a spiritual nature. I have a very difficult time thinking that Phoebe was going to do something in the secular world (start a business, work a job, or something of the like) and Paul would tell a church to help her in that effort. A spiritual work makes far more sense as to why Paul would instruct the church in Rome to help her in whatever she needs. We just do not know what she exactly was doing. But this detail really does not matter. Whatever it is she was going to do, Paul instructs the church to help her do it because she has been so useful to so many Christians, including Paul himself.
The point is that women have important work and functioning in the local church. Though they are limited from usurping authority from a man (1 Timothy 2:12), we cannot go to the other extreme and teach that women be quiet nobodies in the Lord’s body. While women cannot be shepherds, deacons, or formal preachers, women can and must perform acts of righteousness. Outside of those leadership roles, women can and must participate in all the other works of the church. We must stop focusing so much on what cannot be done and teach women to see all that can and must be done. From hospitality to teaching, from caring for the sick to reaching the lost, you also can work. Stand in the back and be a greeter of our guests. Teach the lost. Do the work.
We see this truth based on the commending of other women in Romans 16. Not only is Phoebe a servant of the church and a worker, look at the next name. Prisca, who Luke calls Priscilla, is next on the list. Aquila was not the worker and Priscilla was just a tag along. Paul says that they were both fellow workers in Christ Jesus. Read the book of Acts and you will read about their influential impact in the kingdom of God and they travelled and taught the lost. They were so valuable that Paul took both of them with him when he left Corinth. Paul points out in verse 4 that they both risked their lives for Paul. In fact, all of the Gentiles churches give that for Priscilla and Aquila. Look at verse 6 and read of Mary "who has worked hard for you." Friends, I don’t believe Paul would have said that she worked hard for the church in Rome because she made the communion. She must be a spiritual worker for them commending to make any sense. Nine of the twenty-six names in this listing are women. It quickly becomes evident that men were not the only ones who were doing the work of the Lord in Rome. God commands all of us, men and women, to teach, serve, and work in the kingdom!
Before we move on, we need spiritual power couples like Priscilla and Aquila. We need couples together working in the Lord. Not just men who have women who quietly support him. This is good and right. But we need couples who both serve, work, and teach. We need Christian couples to make a decision to be spiritual helpers and powerhouses in God’s kingdom. It does not matter if you have children or not. You can use your children to help serve and teach as it provides unique opportunities to reach the world. If you do not have children, you are able to do more acts of service because you are not tied to the responsibilities of parenthood. Let us join them. Be like Priscilla and Aquila.
Final Warnings (Romans 16:17-27)
Paul cannot leave this letter with only greetings to his fellow Christians. One can feel as he goes through these names for whom he has genuine affection that he feels compelled to offer one final warning for their own good and their own protection.
Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles. We are called upon be alert for those who would cause trouble. We cannot accept people into our fellowship simply because they claim to be Christians. We must watch out for people who will use the name Christian as an opportunity to bring divisions and create stumbling blocks for others. These are people who are overtly living in rebellion to the doctrine that has been taught, but still claim to be Christians. Paul says that they are false in their claims. They do not serve Jesus, but serve their own appetites. They are not interested in living their lives for Jesus. They are selfish and only want their appetites to be fulfilled. Furthermore, they use flattery and are smooth with their words to deceive people’s hearts. They will say all the right things in an effort to try to get into the Christian group and make havoc. They will say everything they think they need to say to deceive you and go forward with their own self-centered efforts. Paul is clear as to what must be done with such people. Avoid them (vs. 17). Do not let these people into the fellowship of the local church. Do not spend time together individually either. Avoid them completely because their pursuit is not Jesus. They are lying about their claim as a follower of Jesus. They cause divisions and cause problems and their lives are contrary to the doctrine of Christ. Please feel the sharpness of Paul’s words and the seriousness of Paul’s words. People who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the scriptures are to be watch for and avoided.
The shepherds of a church have a very serious responsibility. All of us need to be on guard. All of us must watch and avoid such people. Understanding the function of the shepherds to protect the flock, this charge is very serious to watch and avoid those who fit this description.
Paul goes further in verse 19 that they need to be wise to what is good and innocent to what is evil. Do not let such people come in so that we are not pulled into their evil. Stay away so that we are not pulled into their sin and influenced by their evil.
Romans 16:20 has a reference to the promise in Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15 ESV) The promise not only includes the Messiah crushing the head of Satan. Notice that Satan has "offspring." There are going to be evil ones, but those who are of the Messiah will be victorious. To look at it another way, God made a promise about the offspring of Abraham. Isaac was immediately in view, but the Messiah was the full intention of the prophecy. However, Paul has pointed out that we are also the offspring of Abraham when we submit to Christ. I hope we can see that this is how Paul is working the picture here in Romans 16:20. Since you are the offspring of Christ, you know the promise is given to you that you will have victory over Satan’s offspring. The God of peace will crush them under your feet as the gospel continues to spread.
The rest of the letter ends with greetings from Paul’s companions and a doxology, praising God for the gospel and the preaching of Jesus. May we stand firm in the faith, serving the Lord (both men and women) and watching out for those who falsely claim to be followers of Jesus.
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Introduction
AUTHOR: PAUL, the apostle (Romans 1:1)
PLACE OF WRITING: CORINTH; as evident from the greetings of Gaius, who lived at Corinth (Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14), and of Erastus, who had settled down there (Romans 16:23; 2 Timothy 4:20). Also, Phoebe, who apparently accompanied the epistle (Romans 16:1-2), was from the church at Cenchrea, a "suburb" of Corinth.
TIME OF WRITING: 57-58 A.D.; while on his third journey (Acts 20:1-3), just prior to his arrival to Jerusalem with the collection for the needy saints (Romans 15:25-26; Acts 20:16; Acts 24:17).
BACKGROUND OF THE CHURCH AT ROME: Nothing is revealed in the New Testament as to the start of the church in Rome. It is possible that visitors to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost following the Lord’s ascension were among the 3000 saved and later took the gospel with them back home (Acts 2:10). Or it could be that among those dispersed following Stephen’s death were some that went to Rome and preached the gospel there (Acts 8:1-4).
The first we read of Christians from Rome is possibly that of Aquila and Priscilla, who along with all Jews were expelled from Rome by Claudius and were found by Paul at Corinth during his second journey (Acts 18:1-2). After travelling with Paul to Ephesus and working with the church there (Acts 18:18-19; Acts 18:24-26; 1 Corinthians 16:19), we find them back at Rome and hosting a church in their house (Romans 16:3-5).
From the greetings given by Paul in chapter sixteen, it appears that there were several churches in Rome meeting in various homes (Romans 16:5; Romans 16:14-15). The names of individuals would suggest that the Christians were primarily Gentiles, with a smaller number of Jews.
The reputation of the Christians in Rome was widespread; both their faith (Romans 1:8) and obedience (Romans 16:19) were well known. For this reason Paul had long wanted to see them (Romans 15:23), with the goal of sharing in their mutual edification (Romans 1:11-12) and to be assisted on his way to Spain (Romans 15:22-24).
PURPOSE OF WRITING: Paul expresses in this epistle that he had for some time planned to preach the gospel at Rome (Romans 1:13-15) and from there go on to Spain (Romans 15:22-24). Though he still had these intentions (Romans 15:28-29), the spreading cancer of the "Judaizing teachers" which had disrupted churches in Antioch, Corinth and Galatia was likely to make its way to Rome. To prevent this, and to assure that his visit to Rome would be a pleasant one (Romans 15:30-33), Paul writes:
TO SET STRAIGHT THE DESIGN AND NATURE OF THE GOSPEL
In doing so, he demonstrates how the gospel of Christ fulfills what is lacking in both heathenism and Judaism, thereby effectively replacing them as religious systems. Such an epistle would arm the church at Rome against those who would pervert the gospel or suggest that it was inadequate by itself.
THEME: Romans 1:16-17
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ’The just shall live by faith.’"
In these two verses Paul states his confidence in the gospel and the reasons for it. The bulk of his epistle is devoted to explaining why and how the gospel of Christ is God’s power to save those who believe.
BRIEF OUTLINE (adapted from Dextor Sammons)
INTRODUCTION (Romans 1:1-17)
I. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH (Romans 1:18 to Romans 11:36)
A. SIN - THE "NEED" FOR SALVATION
1. The Need Of The Gentiles (Romans 1:18 to Romans 2:16)
2. The Need Of The Jews (Romans 2:17 to Romans 3:8)
3. The Universal Need For Salvation (Romans 3:9-20)
B. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH - THE "PROVISION" MADE FOR SALVATION
1. God’s Righteousness Through Faith (Romans 3:21-31)
2. Abraham As An Example (Romans 4:1-25)
C. FREEDOM - THE "RESULT" OF SALVATION
1. Freedom From Wrath (Romans 5:1-21)
2. Freedom From Sin (Romans 6:1-23)
3. Freedom From The Law (Romans 7:1-25)
4. Freedom From Death (Romans 8:1-39)
D. JEW AND GENTILE - THE "SCOPE" OF SALVATION
1. God Chooses To Save Believers (Romans 9:1-33)
2. Israel Chose To Trust In Their Own Righteousness (Romans 10:1-21)
3. Both Jew And Gentile Can Have Salvation Through Faith (Romans 11:1-36)
II. THE TRANSFORMED LIFE (Romans 12:1 to Romans 15:13)
A. IN RELATION TO OVERALL CONDUCT (Romans 12:1-21)
B. IN RELATION TO CIVIL AUTHORITY (Romans 13:1-7)
C. IN RELATION TO FELLOW MAN (Romans 13:8-14)
D. IN RELATION TO WEAK BRETHREN (Romans 14:1 to Romans 15:13)
CONCLUDING REMARKS, INSTRUCTIONS, AND BENEDICTION (Romans 15:14 to Romans 16:27)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR INTRODUCTION
1) Who wrote the epistle to the Romans?- The apostle Paul (Romans 1:1)
2) From where was it written?- Corinth
3) What is the approximate date of writing?- 57 or 58 A.D.
4) What is the purpose of this epistle?- To set straight the design and nature of the gospel
5) Where is the theme of this epistle stated?- Romans 1:16-17
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS" Chapter One
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To be impressed with the all-sufficiency of the gospel
2) To see how God’s wrath may be directed toward our society today
SUMMARY
As is the custom in most of his epistles, Paul begins by extending greetings and offering thanks. Identifying himself as a bond-servant of Christ, he mentions his apostleship and its mission in the gospel of God concerning His Son: to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles (Romans 1:1-6). Addressing the recipients of his epistle as "all who are beloved in Rome, called as saints," he extends to them the popular two-fold greeting of that day: "grace" and "peace" (Romans 1:7). He is thankful for their well-known faith and reveals his desire to visit Rome and to proclaim the gospel there (Romans 1:8-13). The motivation behind that desire is his sense of obligation and bold conviction that the gospel is God’s power to save (Romans 1:14-17).
The mention of "salvation" naturally leads to the need for all men to be saved. Paul begins to demonstrate this need on the part of the Gentiles. He explains that because of the Gentiles’ failure to acknowledge the eternal power and divine nature of God as revealed in the world around them, and for their subsequent pride and idolatry, they were therefore exposed to God’s wrath from heaven (Romans 1:18-23). This wrath manifested itself in God simply letting them reap the fruits of their vanity. By giving them over "to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts," "to vile passions," and "to a debased mind," the result was such corruption that even those who knew better were caught in its clutches (Romans 1:24-32).
OUTLINE (adapted from Jim McGuiggan)
I. INTRODUCTION & THEME (Romans 1:1-17)
A. CONCERNING PAUL (Romans 1:1-5)
1. His place in life: servant & apostle (Romans 1:1)
2. His story in life: the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:2-4)
3. His purpose in life: to produce obedience based on faith (Romans 1:5)
B. CONCERNING THE ROMANS (Romans 1:6-15)
1. Paul’s description of them (Romans 1:6-7)
2. Paul’s report of them (Romans 1:8)
3. Paul’s deep desire to visit them (Romans 1:9-10)
4. Paul’s reason and eagerness to visit them (Romans 1:11-15)
C. CONCERNING THE GOSPEL (Romans 1:16-17)
1. Its respectability: nothing to be ashamed of (Romans 1:16 a)
2. Its nature: the power of God (Romans 1:16 b)
3. Its aim: salvation (Romans 1:16 c)
4. Its scope: for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16 d)
5. Its content: the revelation of God’s righteousness through faith (Romans 1:17)
II. THE GENTILES’ NEED OF SALVATION (Romans 1:18-32)
A. WICKED MAN DISHONORING GOD (Romans 1:18-23)
1. Wicked man stifling God’s revealed truth (Romans 1:18-19)
2. Wicked man despising the testimony of nature (Romans 1:20)
3. Wicked man ungrateful and foolish (Romans 1:21-22)
4. Wicked man given to idolatry (Romans 1:23)
B. HOLY GOD "GIVING UP" ON WICKED MAN (Romans 1:24-32)
1. Giving them up to disgusting uncleanness (Romans 1:24-25)
2. Giving them up to lesbianism and hom*osexuality (Romans 1:26-27)
3. Giving them up to debased minds and all unrighteousness (Romans 1:28-32)
WORDS TO PONDER
gospel - literally, "good news;" in the NT it denotes the good tidings of the kingdom of God and of salvation through Christ (VINE)
grace - "favor, goodwill, lovingkindness;" as used in reference to God’s favor toward man, it’s freeness is stressed; i.e., unmerited favor
faith - "trust, conviction;" produced by God’s Word (Romans 10:17), it expresses itself through obedience and love (Romans 1:5; Galatians 5:6)
power - from the Greek word dunamis (from which derives "dynamite"); "strength, ability"
righteousness of God - 1) God doing that which is right (cf. Romans 3:25-26); or 2) God’s way of making one right with Him (related to the concept of "justification,"
declaring one to be "not guilty;" cf. Romans 4:6-8)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the two main points of this chapter - Introduction (Romans 1:1-17)- The Gentiles’ Need Of Salvation (Romans 1:18-32)
2) How was Jesus declared to be the Son of God? (Romans 1:4)- With power, through His resurrection from the dead
3) What was the objective of Paul’s apostleship? (Romans 1:5)- To bring about the obedience of faith among all nations
4) Why did Paul want to go to Rome? (Romans 1:11-12) - To see them and share in their faith together
5) To whom was Paul obligated? (Romans 1:14)- Both to Greeks and barbarians, both to wise and unwise
6) What is God’s power to save? (Romans 1:16)- The gospel of Christ
7) Why is it God’s power to save? (Romans 1:17)- In it the righteousness of God is revealed
8) What two invisible attributes of God are revealed in nature? (Romans 1:20)- His eternal power and Godhead (divine nature)
9) How does God express His wrath? (Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28)
10) What one sin in particular is an indication that God’s wrath toward man is in full force? (Romans 1:26-27) - hom*osexuality
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Two
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To see how people without a direct revelation of God’s Will can still be lost
2) To see how people who may have a written Law from God are also in need of salvation
SUMMARY
Having vividly depicted the condition of the Gentile world in chapter one, Paul now addresses his comments to those who pass judgment on others when they themselves are guilty of the same things (Romans 2:1). He points out that they are in danger of God’s righteous judgment, who "will render to each one according to his deeds" (Romans 2:2-6). This judgment will offer either eternal life or wrath and indignation, given without partiality, and the decision is based on whether one does good or evil (Romans 2:7-11).
To justify the condemnation of Gentiles who did not have a written Law (like the Jews), Paul affirms that the Gentiles could "by nature do the things contained in the law" and that their own consciences will bear witness of their guilt on the day of judgment. In this way Paul demonstrated the Gentiles’ need of salvation (Romans 2:12-16).
Lest the Jews think their having the Law frees them from condemnation, Paul proceeds to demonstrate that they too are in need of salvation. Though they have the Law, their failure to keep it perfectly caused them to dishonor God and blaspheme His Name (Romans 2:17-24). Introducing a thought he will expand upon later in the epistle, he points out that a true Jew is one who is circumcised in his heart, and not just in the flesh (Romans 2:25-29).
OUTLINE (adapted from Jim McGuiggan)
I. THE GENTILES’ NEED OF SALVATION (Romans 2:1-16)
A. EVEN THE "JUDGES" WILL BE JUDGED (Romans 2:1-11)
1. The inconsistent judge judges himself (Romans 2:1)
2. The hypocritical judge is judged by truth (Romans 2:2)
3. The foolish judge reasons poorly (Romans 2:3)
4. The presumptuous judge treasures up wrath (Romans 2:4-11)
B. NOT HAVING A "WRITTEN" LAW DOES NOT EXEMPT FROM JUDGMENT (Romans 2:12-16)
1. Those who sin will still perish (Romans 2:12)
2. The Gentiles DO have a law (Romans 2:13-15)
3. Jesus Christ will judge accordingly (Romans 2:16)
II. THE JEWS’ NEED OF SALVATION (Romans 2:17-29)
A. THE JEWS CONDEMNED BY THEIR OWN LAW (Romans 2:17-24)
1. The Jewish self-portrait (Romans 2:17-20)
2. The Jewish inconsistency and dishonor of God (Romans 2:21-24)
B. THE LIMITATION OF CIRCUMCISION (Romans 2:25-29)
1. Voided by transgressing the Law (Romans 2:25-27)
2. The true Jew is one circumcised in the heart, in the Spirit(Romans 2:28-29)
WORDS TO PONDER
judgment - in some places, the idea is "discernment;" in other places "condemnation" is the idea - the context must determine
wrath - anger (in God’s case, a just displeasure in response to sin)
law - when preceded by the definite article "the" (in the Greek) it usually refers to the Law of Moses, otherwise it may refer to the principle of law in general; there are exceptions, and the context must determine
by nature - "a mode of feeling and acting which by long habit has become nature" (THAYER)
conscience - that faculty of thought which makes moral judgments (either excusing or condemning our actions); developed through training
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - The Gentiles’ Need Of Salvation (Romans 2:1-16)- The Jews’ Need Of Salvation (Romans 2:17-29)
2) Why is one who passes judgment without excuse? (Romans 2:1)- They are guilty of the same thing and so condemn themselves
3) How does God try to lead one to repentance? (Romans 2:4) - Through kindness, forbearance, and longsuffering
4) What is the reward given to those who do good? To those who do evil? (Romans 2:9-10) - Eternal life to those who do good; wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish to those who do evil
5) How will God judge those who do not have a "written" law? (Romans 2:14-16)- The law of their conscience will condemn them when God judges the secrets of their hearts by Jesus Christ
6) Without a "written" Law, how did the Gentiles know the difference between right and wrong? (Romans 2:14-15) - "by nature" (note the definition above); they are able to do the things contained in the Law, for they have the "work of the Law" written in their hearts
7) Why were the Jews in need of salvation? (Romans 2:21-24) - Through inconsistency and disobedience to the Law, they dishonored God
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Three
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To understand the particulars of God’s righteousness: grace, redemption, propitiation, faith in Jesus, and justification
2) To see the difference between a law of works and the law of faith
SUMMARY
As Paul continues to demonstrate the Jews’ need of salvation, he proceeds to answer questions that he envisions protesting Jews might ask. He explains the advantage of being a Jew, the faithfulness of God in spite of the Jews’ unbelief, and the right of God to condemn the unrighteousness of man even though it magnifies His Own righteousness (Romans 3:1-8). Though the Jews had the advantage of possessing the oracles of God, Paul still concludes that the Jews as well as the Gentiles are in sin and proves his conclusion by listing a series of Old Testament scriptures that speaks to those under the Law (the Jews) as sinners (Romans 3:9-19). His conclusion: a law (like the Law of Moses) could not save, but only reveal the knowledge of sin; a point he will elaborate upon in chapter seven (Romans 3:20).
Paul now carefully begins to explain the "good news" of God’s plan of salvation. Apart from law, yet witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, God’s way of making man right through faith in Jesus Christ is now made clear, and made available to all who believe, whether Jew or Greek, for all have sinned (Romans 3:21-23).
This justification of man is explained in terms of redemption, made possible through the blood of Christ, and offered to those who have faith in Christ. It also demonstrates how God can be both "just" (who takes seriously the sins of mankind) and "a justifier" (who is able to forgive sinners). God is able to do this by offering Christ’s blood as a propitiation to those who have faith (Romans 3:24-26).
This "justification" is a gift of God’s grace to those who have faith, which prevents anyone from boasting as though they through the works of a law deserved it (Romans 3:27-30). This does not void the need for law, but rather meets the requirement of law (Romans 3:31).
OUTLINE (adapted from Jim McGuiggan)
I. THE JEWS’ NEED OF SALVATION (Romans 3:1-20)
A. THE JEWISH ADVANTAGE (Romans 3:1-2)
1. In many respects (Romans 3:1)
2. Especially in having the "Oracles of God" (Romans 3:2)
B. ANSWERS TO POSSIBLE OBJECTIONS (Romans 3:3-8)
1. Unbelieving Jews will not make the faithfulness of God without effect (Romans 3:3-4)
2. God is right to be angry, even if "unrighteousness" demonstrates His Own righteousness (Romans 3:5-6)
3. Though sin might increase God’s truth and give Him glory, people will still be judged for their sins (Romans 3:7-8)
C. THE JEWS INDICTED AS SINNERS BY THEIR OWN SCRIPTURES (Romans 3:9-20)
1. Despite advantages, Jews like Greeks are under sin (Romans 3:9)
2. Biblical proof (Romans 3:10-18)
3. Application and conclusion (Romans 3:19-20)
a. The Law condemns all, especially to whom it was given (Romans 3:19)
b. Law cannot justify, but only reveal the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20)
II. THE PROVISION: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH (Romans 3:21-31)
A. GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS REVEALED (Romans 3:21-23)
1. Apart from law, but witnessed by the Law (Romans 3:21)
2. A righteousness through faith in Jesus (Romans 3:22)
3. For all who believe, for all have sinned (Romans 3:22-23)
B. GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS EXPLAINED (Romans 3:24-26)
1. Justification by grace through redemption in Christ (Romans 3:24)
2. Jesus’ blood offered by God as a propitiation through faith(Romans 3:25 a)
3. This demonstrates God’s righteousness toward the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:25-26)
C. IMPLICATIONS OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 3:27-31)
1. Boasting on man’s part is excluded (Romans 3:27 a)
2. For justification is based on faith, not deeds of law (Romans 3:27-28)
3. God is God of Jews and Gentiles, for He justifies both by faith (Romans 3:29-30)
4. This does not void the need for law, but rather meets the requirements of law (Romans 3:31)
WORDS TO PONDER
redemption - "a releasing, a payment for a ransom; refers to being released from the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ"
justified - "a legal term, indicating a verdict of ’not guilty’; in regards to sin, he who is justified is not held accountable for his sins"
propitiation - "used to refer to an offering designed to appease; God offers the blood of Christ to appease for man’s sins"
sin - "a missing of the mark" (Romans 3:23) -- "a breaking of the law"(1 John 3:4)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - The Jews’ Need Of Salvation (Romans 3:1-20) - The Provision: Justification By Faith (Romans 3:21-31)
2) What advantage was there in being a Jew? (Romans 3:2) - They possessed the revealed oracles of God
3) What comes through law? (Romans 3:20) - The knowledge of sin
4) What came apart from law? (Romans 3:21) - The righteousness of God (God’s way of justifying sinful man)
5) Who has sinned? (Romans 3:23) - All have sinned
6) What is the gift of God’s grace? (Romans 3:24) - Being justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
7) How is God appeased for our sins? (Romans 3:25) - Through the blood of Jesus Christ
8) How does man receive justification from God? (Romans 3:28) - By faith
9) How does "justification by faith" relate to the principle of law? (Romans 3:31) - It does not void the need for law, but rather supports the demand of law
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Four
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To understand how Abraham was justified in God’s sight
2) To see that the "righteousness" God imputes to man is actually justification (i.e., forgiveness)
3) To comprehend the nature of justifying faith by considering the example of Abraham
SUMMARY
Now that he has declared that God’s righteousness is to be found in a system involving justification by faith and not by keeping the works of any law, Paul proceeds to provide evidence by referring to Abraham’s example. In considering the justification of Abraham, Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 where it is stated that Abraham’s faith was accounted to him for righteousness (Romans 4:1-3). Abraham trusted in God, not in his own works, and through such faith experienced the righteousness (forgiveness) expressed by David in Psalms 31:1-2 (Romans 4:4-8).
To demonstrate further that God’s righteousness by faith is offered to both Jew and Gentile, Paul again appeals to the example of Abraham. He reminds them that Abraham’s faith was accounted for righteousness prior
to receiving circumcision, which was in itself a seal of the righteousness of the faith he had while uncircumcised. Thus Abraham serves as a father of all who believe, whether circumcised or not (Romans 4:9-12).
Paul then reminds them that the promise that Abraham was to be "a father of many nations" was given in light of his faith, not through some law, so that the promise might be according to grace and sure to those who have the same kind of faith as Abraham (Romans 4:13-17).
Finally, the nature of Abraham’s obedient faith is illustrated (Romans 4:18-22), with the explanation it was preserved to reassure us that we who have
the same kind faith in God who raised Jesus will find our faith accounted for righteousness in the same way (Romans 4:23-25).
OUTLINE
I. JUSTIFICATION OF ABRAHAM AS AN EXAMPLE (Romans 4:1-8)
A. HOW ABRAHAM WAS JUSTIFIED (Romans 4:1-5)
1. If by works, then he could boast (Romans 4:1-2)
2. The Scriptures reveal it was by his faith in God (3)
a. One who trusts in works, seeks God’s debt, not His grace (Romans 4:4)
b. But when one trusts in God to justify him, such faith is counted for righteousness (Romans 4:5)
B. THE TESTIMONY OF DAVID (Romans 4:6-8)
1. Even David spoke of God imputing righteousness apart from works (Romans 4:6)
2. Blessed are those against whom God does not impute sins (Romans 4:7-8)
II. RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH AVAILABLE TO ALL BELIEVERS (Romans 4:9-25)
A. BECAUSE ABRAHAM WAS JUSTIFIED BEFORE CIRCUMCISION (Romans 4:9-12)
1. His faith was counted for righteousness before he was circumcised (Romans 4:9-10)
2. Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness he had while uncircumcised (Romans 4:11 a)
3. Thus he became the father of all who have the same kind of faith, both circumcised and uncircumcised (Romans 4:11-12)
B. BECAUSE THE PROMISE TO ABRAHAM WAS GRANTED THROUGH FAITH (Romans 4:13-25)
1. The promise to be the heir of the world given in view of his faith (Romans 4:13)
2. It was not given through law (Romans 4:14-15)
3. But in light of faith, according to grace, to assure that all who are of the same faith as Abraham might be heirs of the promise (Romans 4:16-17)
4. The kind of obedient faith illustrated by Abraham (Romans 4:18-22)
5. Abraham’s justification by faith assures that we who believe in Him who raised Jesus from the dead shall find justification (Romans 4:23-25)
WORDS TO PONDER
impute - "to reckon, take into account, or, metaphorically, to put down to a person’s account"
righteousness - as used in this chapter, the idea seems to be akin that of "justification", where one is declared "not guilty" (see Romans 4:5-8)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - Justification Of Abraham As An Example (Romans 4:1-8) - Righteousness By Faith Available To All Believers (Romans 4:9-25)
2) How did Abraham attain righteousness? (Romans 4:3-5) - By believing in God to justify the ungodly (and not in his own works)
3) How does David describe the righteousness which is imputed to man? (Romans 4:6-8)- In the sense that man’s sins are not counted against him
4) How is Abraham the father of the uncircumcised who possess faith? (Romans 4:9-11)- By his being justified by faith prior to his circumcision
5) Based upon what was the promise made to Abraham? (Romans 4:13) - The righteousness of faith
6) How did Abraham demonstrate his faith? (Romans 4:19-21)- By fathering Isaac
7) For whose sake was the example of Abraham’s faith written? (Romans 4:23-24) - Those who believe that God raised Jesus from the dead
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Five
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To appreciate the blessings that accompany justification
2) To comprehend more fully the grace offered through Jesus Christ
SUMMARY
Having substantiated his thesis of "justification by faith" with evidence from the Old Testament, Paul now discusses the blessings of such justification. First, there is peace with God (Romans 5:1). Second, we have access to grace in which we stand (Romans 5:2 a). Third, there is cause for rejoicing in hope, so that we can glory even in tribulations (Romans 5:2-4). Fourth, there is God’s love which He first demonstrated with the gift of His Son (Romans 5:5-8). Finally, there is salvation from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9). All of this is made possible when we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son and should be the basis for endless rejoicing (Romans 5:10-11).
To explain further the way in which salvation is made possible, Paul compares Christ to Adam. Through one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world, and the consequences have led to the death of many. In a similar way, through one man, Christ, many may now become righteous. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, justification is made possible for many (Romans 5:12-19).
Upon comparing Christ with Adam, Paul briefly mentions that with the entering in of law sin abounded. But the increase of sin has been adequately answered by the grace offered in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:20-21).
OUTLINE
I. THE BLESSINGS OF JUSTIFICATION (Romans 5:1-11)
A. PEACE WITH GOD (Romans 5:1)
B. ACCESS TO GRACE IN WHICH WE STAND (Romans 5:2 a)
C. REJOICING IN HOPE, EVEN IN TRIBULATIONS (Romans 5:2-4)
1. Joy in anticipating God’s glory (Romans 5:2 b)
2. Joy in tribulation, knowing even it results in more hope (Romans 5:3-4)
a. For tribulation produces perseverance (Romans 5:3 b)
b. And perseverance develops character (Romans 5:4 a)
c. Such character gives one hope (4b)
D. GOD’S LOVE IN OUR HEARTS (Romans 5:5-8)
1. The assurance our hope will not be disappointed (Romans 5:5 a)
2. Poured out by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5 b)
3. Demonstrated by Christ’s death while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:6-8)
E. SALVATION FROM GOD’S WRATH (Romans 5:9-11)
1. Through Jesus, just as we have been justified by His blood (Romans 5:9)
2. Saved by His life, just as we were reconciled by His death (Romans 5:10)
3. The basis for us to rejoice (Romans 5:11)
II. COMPARING CHRIST WITH ADAM (Romans 5:12-21)
A. ADAM AND THE CONSEQUENCE OF HIS ACTIONS (Romans 5:12-14)
1. Through Adam, sin entered the world, and death as a consequence (Romans 5:12 a)
2. Thus death spread, for all sinned (Romans 5:12 b)
3. From the time of Adam to Moses, death reigned, even over those who had not sinned like Adam did (Romans 5:13-14)
B. ADAM AND CHRIST COMPARED (Romans 5:15-19)
1. Adam’s offense brought many deaths, Christ’s grace abounds even more (Romans 5:15)
2. One offense produced the judgment of condemnation, but many offenses produced the free gift of justification (Romans 5:16)
3. By Adam’s offense death reigns, but those who receive the gift of righteousness will reign in life through Christ (Romans 5:17)
4. Summary (Romans 5:18-19)
a. Through Adam’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation (Romans 5:18 a)
b. Through Christ’s act grace came to all, resulting in justification of life (Romans 5:18 b)
c. By Adam’s disobedience many were made sinners (Romans 5:19 a)
d. By Christ’s obedience many will be made righteous (Romans 5:19 b)
C. THE RELATIONSHIP OF LAW, SIN AND GRACE (Romans 5:20-21)
1. Law entered that sin might abound, but grace abounds much more (Romans 5:20)
2. Just as sin reigned in death, so grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Christ (Romans 5:21)
WORDS TO PONDER
reconciliation - the act of bringing peace between two parties (e.g., between man and God)
transgression - violation of law; sin
death - physically: separation of body and spirit; spiritually: separation between man and God
eternal life - the alternative to spiritual death, a result of justification
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - The Blessings Of Justification (Romans 5:1-11) - Comparing Christ With Adam (Romans 5:12-21)
2) Name some benefits we enjoy as the result of justification (Romans 5:1-2) - Peace with God, access to grace, rejoicing in hope
3) Why can Christians rejoice even in the middle of trials? (Romans 5:3-5) - Knowing trials can produce perseverance, character and hope
4) How did God demonstrate His love for us? (Romans 5:6-8) - By having Christ die for us when we were still sinners
5) What in addition to Jesus’ death is involved in our ultimate salvation? (Romans 5:10) - His present life, which saves us from the wrath to come
6) What was the consequence of Adam’s sin upon all men? (Romans 5:12) - Death (I understand Paul to mean physical death; to see why, I highly recommend Moses Lard’s commentary on this passage. Commentaries by J.W. McGarvey and David Lipscomb take a similar view. For the view that spiritual death is under consideration, see Robert L. Whiteside’s commentary.)
7) What comparison is made between Adam and Christ? (Romans 5:12-19) - Just as Adam through his sin brought physical death to all, so Christ through His obedience will give life to all (through the resurrection - cf. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22) - But Christ does even more; to those who will receive it, he offers "an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness" so they can reign in life through Jesus (cf. Romans 5:17)
8) Which has abounded more: sin, or grace? (Romans 5:20) - Grace
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Six
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To understand what takes place in baptism
2) To appreciate the freedom from sin which we may now enjoy in Christ
SUMMARY
In chapter five, Paul made the statement "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Romans 5:20). Aware that some readers might misconstrue what he said, Paul quickly points out that grace is no excuse to sin since through grace they have died to sin (Romans 6:1-2). To emphasize this, he reminds them of their baptism into Christ, in which they experienced a burial into the death of Christ and rose to walk in newness of life, having died to sin (Romans 6:3-7). Dead to sin, they are now free to live as instruments of righteousness for God (Romans 6:8-14).
Another reason not to continue in sin is explained in terms of servitude. We become slaves to that which we obey, either sin or God (Romans 6:15-16). But Paul is grateful that the Romans had begun to obey God and were free to become His servants (Romans 6:17-18). How important it is that they continue to do so is to be seen in the outcome of serving sin contrasted to serving God. Serving sin earns death, but in serving God one receives the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:19-23)!
OUTLINE
I. WE ARE DEAD TO SIN! (Romans 6:1-14)
A. THROUGH BAPTISM WE DIED TO SIN (Romans 6:1-7)
1. Shall we sin, that grace may abound? No, we died to sin! (Romans 6:1-2)
2. In baptism we were buried into Christ’s death (Romans 6:3-4 a)
3. We should walk in newness of life, having been united together in the likeness of His death, crucified with Him, no longer slaves of sin, but freed from sin (Romans 6:4-7)
B. DEAD TO SIN, ALIVE TO GOD (Romans 6:8-14)
1. Having died with Christ, we may live with Him over Whom death has no dominion (Romans 6:8-10)
2. Alive to God, we should not let sin reign in our bodies (Romans 6:11-12)
3. But rather present our bodies as instruments of righteousness, for we are under grace (Romans 6:13-14)
II. WE SHOULD BE SLAVES TO GOD! (Romans 6:15-23)
A. WE BECOME SLAVES TO WHOM WE OBEY (Romans 6:15-18)
1. Either of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness (Romans 6:15-16)
2. Through obedience to God’s Word, those who were slaves of sin become slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:17-18)
B. THE MOTIVATION FOR SERVING GOD (Romans 6:19-23)
1. Serving righteousness produces holiness (Romans 6:19)
2. Serving sin produces death (Romans 6:20-21)
3. Serving God produces the fruit of holiness, and in the end, eternal life (Romans 6:22)
4. The wages of sin is death, but God gives the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23)
WORDS TO PONDER
baptism - from the Greek word "baptizo" meaning to "immerse", it most commonly in the New Testament refers to the burial in water in the name of Jesus for the remission of our sins
sanctification - the process of "sanctifying" or "setting apart for a devoted purpose"; in the New Testament it begins with baptism and continues on as we grow in Christ
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - We Are Dead To Sin! (Romans 6:1-14) - We Should Be Slaves To God! (Romans 6:15-23)
2) Why are Christians not to continue in sin? (Romans 6:2) - Because we died to sin
3) What happens when one is baptized into Christ? (Romans 6:3-7) - They are baptized into His death, being buried with Him and united with Him in the likeness of His death, where the old man is crucified with Him and the body of sin is done away, making it possible to be freed from sin and to rise to walk in newness of life
4) How should we present the members of our bodies? (Romans 6:13) - As instruments of righteousness to God
5) Why does sin no longer have dominion over the Christian? (Romans 6:14)- Because the Christian is not "under law", but "under grace"
6) What was necessary to become free from sin? (Romans 6:17-18) - To obey the doctrine of God from the heart
7) What is the result of presenting your members as slaves to righteousness? (Romans 6:19) - Holiness, or sanctification
8) What three steps are described that eventually lead to eternal life? (Romans 6:22) - 1) Being set free from sin 2) Becoming slaves to God 3) Bearing the fruit of holiness
9) What is the just payment for sin? But what does God give us in Christ? (Romans 6:23) - Death. Eternal life.
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Seven
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To understand the Jewish Christian’s relationship to the Law of Moses
2) To comprehend the dilemma one faces without Jesus Christ
SUMMARY
Paul has just completed discussing how being baptized into Christ makes us dead to sin and free to present our bodies as instruments of righteousness unto holiness. For the benefit of his Jewish readers (those who know the Law), he now carries the concept of death and freedom one step further: the Jewish believers become dead to the Law that they might be joined to Christ. He illustrates his point by referring to the marital relationship. The result of being freed from the Law is that they might "serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:1-6)
Lest his Jewish readers think he is implying that the Law was sinful, Paul is quick to dispel that notion. The Law, he says, is "holy and just and good." The problem is that the Law only makes known that which is sinful, but sin took opportunity by the commandment to produce evil desire and deceived him, resulting in death (Romans 7:7-12).
To further illustrate his point, Paul pictures himself as man under the Law who finds himself in a terrible dilemma. With his mind he knows that which good and wants to do it. He also knows that which is evil and wants to avoid that. But he finds a "law" (or principle) in his flesh which wins over the desire of the mind (Romans 7:13-23). As a prisoner he cries out for freedom. Is there no hope? Yes! God provides the solution through His Son Jesus Christ, upon which Paul will elaborate in chapter eight (Romans 7:24-25).
OUTLINE
I. JEWISH BELIEVERS AND THE LAW (Romans 7:1-6)
A. A PARALLEL TO BEING RELEASED FROM MARRIAGE (Romans 7:1-3)
1. Law has dominion over those who live under it (Romans 7:1)
2. As illustrated by a woman who is married to a man (Romans 7:2-3)
B. THEY HAVE DIED TO THE LAW (Romans 7:4-6)
1. So they can be married to Christ (Romans 7:4)
2. So they can serve in newness of the Spirit, far superior to serving in the oldness of the letter (Romans 7:5-6)
II. LIMITATIONS OF THE LAW (Romans 7:7-25)
A. THE LAW IS HOLY AND JUST AND GOOD (Romans 7:7-12)
1. The Law is not sin, but rather makes known sin (Romans 7:7)
2. But sin takes occasion by the commandment to lead one to death (Romans 7:8-12)
B. THE LAW CANNOT SAVE ONE FROM SIN (Romans 7:13-25)
1. The problem is not law, but sin (Romans 7:13)
2. The Law is spiritual, but man is carnal and sold under sin (Romans 7:14)
3. Though one may desire good and hate evil, one is still enslaved by sin (Romans 7:15-23)
4. Deliverance comes only from God, through Jesus Christ (Romans 7:24-25)
WORDS TO PONDER
in the flesh - "to be in the flesh is to be under the flesh; and to be under it is to be controlled by its propensities, evil inclinations, and desires" (Moses Lard)
The Law - the Law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments (cf. Romans 7:7)
law of my mind - that inner desire, which in the context of this chapter, is the desire of one to do that which is good and right
law of sin in my members - "The law which I see ’in my members’ is the constant tendency which I notice in them to sin, whenever excited by sinful objects" (Moses Lard)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - Jewish Believers And The Law (Romans 7:1-6) - Limitations Of The Law (Romans 7:7-25)
2) Who is Paul speaking to in this chapter? (Romans 7:1) - Those who know the law (Jewish Christians)
3) What example is given to show their relationship to the Law? (Romans 7:2-3) - How a woman whose husband dies is free to be married to another without being guilty of adultery
4) What is their relationship to the Law when joined to the body of Christ? (Romans 7:4-6) - Dead to the law, delivered from the law
5) How do we know the Law referred to is the Ten Commandments? (Romans 7:7) - To illustrate his point, Paul mentions "You shall not covet", one of the Ten Commandments
6) Was the Law responsible for death? If not, what was? (Romans 7:13) - No! It was "sin" that produced death
7) What dilemma does one face in trying to keep the Law? (Romans 7:15-21) - The DESIRE to do good and avoid evil may be there, but the ABILITY is found lacking
8) What is the end result of this dilemma? (Romans 7:23) - CAPTIVITY to the law (or principle) of sin in one’s members
9) Where can one find freedom from this dilemma? (Romans 7:24-25) - From God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Eight
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To appreciate the place the Holy Spirit has in the lives of Christians
2) To notice the power to overcome sin which is available in Christ
3) To realize the extent of God’s love toward us
SUMMARY
In chapter seven, Paul described the dilemma of a man who becomes a prisoner of the law of sin which is in the members of his body. In the last few verses, Paul made reference to the hope of liberation made possible by God through Jesus Christ. In this chapter, Paul amplifies on the freedom from sin found in Christ.
First, for those in Christ who are walking according to the Spirit, there is no condemnation for sin, for the death of Christ for sin has set us free from the law of sin and death by fulfilling the requirement of the law (Romans 8:1-4). Second, by setting our minds on the things of the Spirit and not the flesh, we are able to enjoy life and peace, pleasing God (Romans 8:5-8). And third, we now enjoy the indwelling of the Spirit of God, by whom we can put to death the deeds of the body and enjoy both present and future blessings as the children of God (Romans 8:9-17).
The blessings of being God’s children are enlarged upon in the rest of the chapter. Our present sufferings mean nothing in view of our ultimate redemption and revealing for which we eagerly and patiently wait (Romans 8:18-25). We have the privilege of the Holy Spirit and Jesus interceding for us when we pray, which assures that all things will work together for good for those called according to God’s purpose (Romans 8:26-30). Finally, as God’s elect we have the assurance that nothing can tear us away from God’s love and that in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:31-39).
OUTLINE
I. IN CHRIST THERE IS FREEDOM FROM SIN (Romans 8:1-17)
A. FREEDOM FROM THE CONDEMNATION OF SIN (Romans 8:1-4)
1. Available to those in Christ, made possible by the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:1-2)
2. An accomplishment not attained by the Law, but by the death of Christ (Romans 8:3-4)
B. FREEDOM FROM THE POWER OF SIN (Romans 8:5-17)
1. To those who set their minds on the things of the Spirit, not the flesh, pleasing God (Romans 8:5-8)
2. To those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-11)
3. To those who by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:12-13)
4. To those thus led, who are the children of God and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17)
II. BLESSINGS OF BEING CHILDREN OF GOD (Romans 8:18-39)
A. THE GLORY TO BE REVEALED IN US (Romans 8:18-25)
1. Present sufferings don’t even compare (Romans 8:18)
2. The whole creation eagerly awaits for the revealing and glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:19-22)
3. We also eagerly wait with perseverance for this hope (Romans 8:23-25)
B. THE HELP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Romans 8:26-27)
1. Helps in our weakness as we pray (Romans 8:26 a)
2. By interceding for us as we pray (Romans 8:26-27)
C. ALL THINGS WORKING TOGETHER FOR GOOD (Romans 8:28-30)
1. For those who love God, called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)
2. For such, whom God foreknew, He will carry out His ultimate purpose (Romans 8:29-30)
D. GOD’S LOVE TOWARD HIS ELECT (Romans 8:31-39)
1. God, who spared not His own Son, is on our side (Romans 8:31-33)
2. Christ, who died for us, now intercedes for us at God’s right hand (Romans 8:34)
3. Through such love we are more than conquerors over all things (Romans 8:35-39)
WORDS TO PONDER
law of the Spirit of life - 1) possibly an expression referring to the Gospel; or, 2) the law (principle) involving the life-giving Spirit who aids those in Christ to become free of the "law of sin and death" in their members (cf. Romans 8:7-23 with Romans 8:11-13)
the Spirit, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Spirit of Him – various references to the Holy Spirit
the creation - various explanations are often given: 1) all of mankind; 2) only the saved; 3) the whole physical creation placed under the curse (Genesis 3:17; Genesis 8:21; Revelation 22:3), using the kind of language found in Psalms 98:7-9; Psalms 148:1-14.
predestined - predetermined; note carefully in Romans 8:29 that it is based upon "foreknowledge" (cf. 1 Peter 1:2), and that which is predetermined is WHAT those in Christ are to become, not WHO are to be in Christ
elect - chosen; according to 1 Peter 1:2, this election is based upon God’s foreknowledge, not some arbitrary choice
intercedes - to make a petition on behalf of another; used of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:26-27 (interceding as a "translator"?), and of Christ in Romans 8:34 (interceding as "defense counsel"?)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - In Christ There Is Freedom From Sin (Romans 8:1-17) - Blessings Of Being Children Of God (Romans 8:18-39)
2) What is the main difference between the "law of Moses" and the "law of the Spirit of life"? (Romans 8:2-4)- The Law of Moses could not set one free from the "law of sin and death"
3) What is the result of setting your mind on the things of the flesh? On the things of the Spirit? (Romans 8:6) - Death; life and peace
4) Do the Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit dwells in the Christian? (Romans 8:9-11) - Yes
5) How can we assure that we will continue to live spiritually? (Romans 8:13) - By putting to death the deeds of the body with the help of the Spirit
6) List briefly the blessings of being the children of God (Romans 8:14-39)- One day we will be glorified together with Christ - We have the help of the Holy Spirit. All things ultimately work for our good - Nothing can separate us from God’s love.
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Nine
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To appreciate why and how God could choose to reject the nation of Israel (except for a remnant) and accept people from among the Gentiles
SUMMARY
With the conclusion of chapter eight Paul has completed his description of how God’s righteousness was manifested in Christ, and the results of such justification. However, some of Paul’s readers may have received the impression that God’s plan of saving man in Christ apart from the Law (Romans 3:21-22) implies that God has rejected His people of Israel and the promises made to them. In chapters nine through eleven, Paul explains that God has not rejected His people.
Paul first expresses his own concern for his fellow Israelites (Romans 9:1-2). If it would do any good, Paul would gladly be condemned in order to save his brethren who had been the recipients of so many blessings (Romans 9:3-5).
But Paul quickly states that God’s promises had not failed. He reminds them that true Israel is not simply the physical descendants of Israel, any more than the promises to Abraham were to be carried out through all of Abraham’s descendants just because they are his physical descendants. Rather, it depends upon what God has chosen according to His Divine purpose. This is illustrated by contrasting what the Scriptures reveal about Isaac and Ishmael, and then about Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:6-13).
That God has made such distinction is illustrated further with the example of Pharaoh, where God chose to show mercy to some while He hardened others [who had already persistently rejected God’s mercy, MAC] (Romans 9:14-18). That God has the right to make such choices is His as the potter over the clay (Romans 9:19-21).
So God chose to endure "vessels of wrath" with much longsuffering, that He might make known His glorious riches to "vessels of mercy" [a point expanded upon further in chapter eleven, MAC] (Romans 9:22-23). And who are these "vessels of mercy"? They consist of Gentiles, and a remnant of Israel, as foretold by Hosea and Isaiah (Romans 9:24-29).
Paul’s conclusion? That God’s words of promise were not just to the fleshly descendants of Abraham (as the Jews would have it), but to the faithful remnant of Israel and to the Gentiles who accepted the righteousness which is by faith. The only reason any of the Israelites were rejected by God was because of their rejection of the Messiah, even as Isaiah foretold (Romans 9:30-33).
OUTLINE
I. PAUL’S CONCERN FOR HIS BRETHREN OF ISRAEL (Romans 9:1-5)
A. HIS GREAT CONCERN (Romans 9:1-3)
1. His conscience and the Holy Spirit bear witness to his great sorrow and grief (Romans 9:1-2)
2. He would even be willing to be cut off from Christ for their sakes (Romans 9:3)
B. FOR ISRAEL, RECIPIENTS OF MANY BLESSINGS (Romans 9:4-5)
1. Including the covenants, the Law, the promises (Romans 9:4)
2. Of whom are the patriarchs, and of course, Christ Himself (Romans 9:5)
II. THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD (Romans 9:6-29)
A. ARE CHILDREN OF PROMISE, NOT CHILDREN OF FLESH (Romans 9:6-13)
1. They are not all Israel who have descended from Israel (Romans 9:6)
2. As illustrated with Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau (Romans 9:7-13)
3. According to God’s purpose, whose choice was not based upon works (Romans 9:11)
B. ARE THE OBJECTS OF GOD’S MERCY (Romans 9:14-23)
1. Possible only through His Mercy (Romans 9:14-16)
2. Just as Pharaoh was the object of His Wrath (Romans 9:17-18)
3. God’s right to choose the objects of His mercy and His wrath (Romans 9:19-23)
C. ARE OF BOTH THE JEWS AND THE GENTILES (Romans 9:24-29)
1. Not of Jews only, as foretold by Hosea (Romans 9:24-26)
2. But only a remnant of Israel, as foretold by Isaiah (Romans 9:27-29)
III. THE BASIS OF GOD’S CHOICE: FAITH vs. NO FAITH (Romans 9:30-33)
A. FOR THE GENTILES (Romans 9:30)
1. Though they had not actively been looking for it (Romans 9:30 a)
2. Yet many have attained righteousness through faith (Romans 9:30 b)
B. FOR ISRAEL (Romans 9:31-33)
1. Though diligent for the Law, did not have the attitude of faith (Romans 9:31-32 a)
2. And therefore stumbled over Christ, as foretold by Isaiah (Romans 9:32-33)
WORDS TO PONDER
harden - to make callous, to make strong; can be accomplished in two ways: 1) INDIRECTLY, by providing occasion to repent or resist (eg: as when judgment is delayed, Romans 2:4-5), and 2) DIRECTLY, by strengthening those who rebel so as to contrast power, mercy, or judgment (for example, a) Pharaoh, to show God’s power, Exodus 9:12-16; b) Israel, to show God’s mercy, Romans 11:7-11; Romans 11:31; c) those who disbelieve, to show God’s judgment, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
remnant - a small portion of the whole; Isaiah foretold only a remnant of Israel would be saved (Romans 9:27-29)
the Stumbling Stone - a reference to Jesus (cf. 1 Peter 2:6-8)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - Paul’s Concern For His Brethren Of Israel (Romans 9:1-5) - The True Children Of God (Romans 9:6-29) - The Basis Of God’s Choice: Faith vs. No Faith (Romans 9:30-33)
2) How much love did Paul have for the nation of Israel? (Romans 9:2-3) - Enough to be lost if it would do any good
3) Who are the true children of God? (Romans 9:8) - Children of promise, not children of flesh
4) What does God have the right to do? (Romans 9:18) - To show mercy on who He wills, and to harden who He wills
5) What O.T. prophet foretold that Gentiles would be a part of the people of God? (Romans 9:25-26) - Hosea
6) What did Isaiah say would happen to the nation of Israel (Romans 9:27) - Only a remnant would be saved
7) Why are Gentiles among the saved? (Romans 9:30) - Because of faith
8) Why are some Israelites going to be lost? (Romans 9:31-33) - They trusted more in the keeping of the Law, and did not believe in Christ
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Ten
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To see the importance of combining zeal with knowledge
2) To understand that Israel had plenty of opportunity to heed the gospel of Christ, but for the most part they had rejected it
SUMMARY
As Paul continues to explain God’s dealings with the nation of Israel, he repeats his expression of love towards them (Romans 10:1). Though as a nation they had plenty of zeal, unfortunately their zeal was not according to knowledge (Romans 10:2). Thus they rejected the righteousness of God while trying to establish their own righteousness through the Law of Moses. But Paul explains that Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and has brought it to an end (Romans 10:3-4).
The righteousness God now offers is based upon faith in Christ, not keeping the Law. It involves not the accomplishment of some great feat (like ascending to heaven or descending to hell), but such things as confessing Jesus as Lord and believing that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:5-10). As foretold by Scripture, it is offered to all, both Jew and Gentile (Romans 10:11-13). And it is offered through the medium of preaching the Word (Romans 10:14-15).
The problem with the nation of Israel, then, is that not all of them received the gospel message, even when they had ample opportunity (Romans 10:16-18). But as Moses predicted, the day would come when God would provoke Israel to jealousy by another people, who Isaiah said did not seek God yet found Him, while Israel was constantly rebelling against Him (Romans 10:19-21).
OUTLINE
I. ISRAEL’S REFUSAL OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 10:1-15)
A. PAUL’S EXPRESSION OF CONCERN FOR ISRAEL (Romans 10:1-4)
1. That Israel be saved, for they have zeal but not knowledge (Romans 10:1-2)
2. Through ignorance, they seek to save themselves by the Law, and do not submit to God’s righteousness in Christ which brings an end to the Law (Romans 10:3-4)
B. RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW vs. RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH IN CHRIST (Romans 10:5-15)
1. Righteousness of the Law as defined by Moses (Romans 10:5)
2. Righteousness by faith as defined by Paul (Romans 10:6-15)
a. Involves the mouth and the heart (Romans 10:6-8)
b. Involves confessing Jesus and believing in His resurrection (Romans 10:9-10)
c. Offered to all who believe and call on Him (Romans 10:11-13)
d. Accomplished through the medium of preaching (Romans 10:14-15)
II. ISRAEL’S NEGLECT OF THE GOSPEL (Romans 10:16-21)
A. NOT ALL OBEYED THE GOSPEL (Romans 10:16-18)
1. As Isaiah predicted (Romans 10:16)
2. Even though they had ample opportunity (Romans 10:17-18)
B. THEIR NEGLECT, AND THE GENTILES RECEPTION, FORESEEN BY SCRIPTURES (Romans 10:19-21)
1. As spoken by Moses (Romans 10:19)
2. As spoken by Isaiah (Romans 10:20-21)
WORDS TO PONDER
confess - lit., to speak the same thing, to assent, accord, agree with; to declare openly by way of speaking out freely, such confession being the effect of deep conviction of facts (Matthew 10:32; Romans 10:9-10) - VINE
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter- Israel’s Refusal Of God’s Righteousness (Romans 10:1-15)- Israel’s Neglect Of The Gospel (Romans 10:16-21)
2) What was Paul’s prayer in behalf of the nation of Israel? (1) - That they may be saved
3) What was good about them? What was wrong with them (2) - They have a zeal for God - But not according to knowledge
4) Why was Israel not submitting to the righteousness of God? (Romans 10:3) - In ignorance they were seeking to establish their own righteousness
5) What should one confess? What should one believe? (Romans 10:9-10) - The Lord Jesus (or, that Jesus is Lord) - That God raised Jesus from the dead
6) For whom is righteousness by faith intended? (Romans 10:11-13) - Whoever believes and calls upon the name of the Lord
7) What begins the process which finally enables one to call upon the Lord? (Romans 10:14-15)- The sending out of preachers
8) How does one come to have faith? (Romans 10:17)- By hearing the word of God
9) Did the Jews have opportunity to call upon the Lord? (Romans 10:18) - Yes, for the gospel had been spread to the ends of the world
10) How did God say He was going to make His people jealous? (Romans 10:19-20) - By making Himself manifest to those who had not been seeking Him (the Gentiles)
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Eleven
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To understand how God has not totally rejected His people of Israel
2) To see the possibility of apostasy for us today
3) To understand Paul’s summary conclusion for this section (Chs. 9-11)
SUMMARY
Paul concluded chapter ten with a quotation from Isaiah describing the nation of Israel as "a disobedient and contrary people." Paul begins chapter eleven by giving several examples to show that despite this rebellion God has not totally rejected His people (Romans 11:1-6).
What God has done, however, is harden the hearts of the rebellious Israelites (Romans 11:7-10). But the outcome of this "hardening" led to salvation coming to the Gentiles, which in turn God was using to provoke Israel to jealousy in an attempt to win them back to Him. This is also why Paul magnified his ministry to the Gentiles, hoping to save some of his countrymen by provoking them to jealousy (Romans 11:11-15).
Paul then directs his attention to the Gentile believers, explaining that their obedience allowed them to be "grafted" into Israel to replace those removed by their own disobedience. This "grafting," however, is permanent only as long as they remain faithful. In addition, if any Israelites repent of their unbelief, they too can be grafted back in (Romans 11:16-24).
As Paul draws to a conclusion, he explains that this is how "all Israel" will be saved. Through a "hardening in part" mercy can now be shown to the Gentiles, and by showing mercy to the Gentiles mercy will be available to disobedient Israel. In this way Paul can say that "God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all", proving that God is no respecter of persons and makes His plan of salvation available to all (Romans 11:25-32). Paul ends this section with a doxology praising the wisdom and knowledge of God (Romans 11:33-36).
OUTLINE
I. GOD HAS NOT TOTALLY REJECTED ISRAEL (Romans 11:1-10)
A. EVIDENCE SUPPORTING THIS (Romans 11:1-6)
1. Paul himself (Romans 11:1)
2. There is a remnant, just as in the days of Elijah (Romans 11:2-5 a)
3. A remnant according to grace, not works (Romans 11:5-6)
B. BUT MANY HAVE BEEN HARDENED (Romans 11:7-10)
1. An "elect" have been saved, the rest were hardened (Romans 11:7)
2. This "hardening" foretold by Scriptures (Romans 11:8-10)
II. HARDENING OF ISRAEL TO BENEFIT ISRAEL (Romans 11:11-32)
A. THE JEWISH STUMBLING AND GENTILE CONNECTION (Romans 11:11-16)
1. Salvation to the Gentiles an incentive for the Jews to repent
(Romans 11:11-12)
2. This is one reason why Paul magnified his ministry to the
Gentiles (Romans 11:13-16)
B. WORDS OF WARNING AGAINST GENTILE CONCEIT (Romans 11:17-24)
1. Gentiles are but "wild branches" grafted in to the root
(Romans 11:17-18)
2. To replace "broken branches", true, but can just as easily be
displaced and replaced (Romans 11:19-24)
C. THE HARDENING AND BLESSING OF ISRAEL (Romans 11:25-32)
1. Hardening is partial, until the fullness of the Gentiles come in (Romans 11:25)
2. In this way all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26-27)
3. They may be enemies of the gospel, but they are beloved by God
(Romans 11:28)
4. And they may obtain mercy just as the Gentiles did (Romans 11:29-32)
III. PAUL’S HYMN OF PRAISE TO GOD (Romans 11:33-36)
WORDS TO PONDER
"so all Israel will be saved" - in this manner will true Israel be saved
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - God Has Not Totally Rejected Israel (Romans 11:1-10) - Hardening Of Israel To Benefit Israel (Romans 11:11-32) - Paul’s Hymn Of Praise To God (Romans 11:33-36)
2) What example does Paul use to show that God has not totally rejected the people of Israel? (Romans 11:1) - Himself
3) Why did God harden the rebellious Jews? (Romans 11:11-12) - So salvation might be presented to the Gentiles
4) Why was salvation allowed to come to the Gentiles? (Romans 11:11-14)- To provoke the rebellious Jews to jealousy that they might repent.
5) What condition is necessary to remain in the "tree of Israel"? (Romans 11:20-23) - Continuing in faith
6) How will "all Israel" be saved? (Romans 11:25-26) - By a partial hardening of Israel, to allow Gentiles to come in and to provoke rebellious Jews to repent.
7) What is Paul’s summary on God’s dealings with Israel? (Romans 11:32) - "God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all"
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Twelve
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To see the difference between conformation and transformation, understanding the process involved in being transformed
2) To appreciate the diversity of service in the Body of Christ
SUMMARY
Having concluded his discourses concerning the gospel (chs. 1-8) and God’s dealings with the nation of Israel (chs. 9-11), Paul now exhorts his readers to full service in the kingdom of God.
He begins with a plea to present their bodies as living sacrifices and to be transformed by the renewing of their minds, so that they can demonstrate in themselves that the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect (Romans 12:1-2). He then encourages them to fulfill their proper place in the Body of Christ with proper humility and zeal (Romans 12:3-8).
Finally, there are a list of commands which are to govern the Christian’s life and attitude towards love, good and evil, brethren in the Lord, service to God, and response to persecution (Romans 12:9-21).
OUTLINE
I. AN APPEAL TO CONSECRATION (Romans 12:1-2)
A. PRESENT YOUR BODIES AS LIVING SACRIFICES (Romans 12:1)
1. In view of the mercies of God (Romans 12:1 a)
2. Which is your reasonable (spiritual, NAS) service (Romans 12:1 b)
B. BE TRANSFORMED, NOT CONFORMED TO THE WORLD (Romans 12:2)
1. By the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2 a)
2. To prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will God (Romans 12:2 b)
II. SERVE GOD AS MEMBERS OF ONE BODY (Romans 12:3-8)
A. WITH HUMILITY (Romans 12:3)
1. In all seriousness (Romans 12:3 a)
2. For what we are comes from God (Romans 12:3 b)
B. WITH APPRECIATION FOR DIVERSITY (Romans 12:4-5)
1. Members do not have the same function (Romans 12:4)
2. But we are one, members of one another (Romans 12:5)
C. WITH ZEAL, NO MATTER WHAT OUR GIFTS (Romans 12:6-8)
III. MISCELLANEOUS EXHORTATIONS (Romans 12:9-21)
A. AS CHRISTIANS (Romans 12:9-16)
1. Concerning love, good and evil (Romans 12:9)
2. Loving and honoring brethren (Romans 12:10)
3. Fervent in our service (Romans 12:11)
4. Rejoicing, patient, prayerful (Romans 12:12)
5. Caring for saints Romans 12 : (13)
6. Blessing our enemies (Romans 12:14)
7. Sharing joys and sorrows (Romans 12:15)
8. Humble in our relations together (Romans 12:16)
B. RESPONDING TO EVIL (Romans 12:17-21)
1. Do not repay with evil, be mindful of what is good (Romans 12:17)
2. If possible, be at peace (Romans 12:18)
3. Give place to the wrath of God (Romans 12:19)
4. Overcome evil by responding with good (Romans 12:20-21)
WORDS TO PONDER
the mercies of God - the many blessings alluded to in the first eleven chapters
a living sacrifice - an offering that is living, not dead
conform - "to fashion or shape one thing like another... this verb has more special reference to that which is transitory, changeable, unstable" (VINE) - this word is different than that found in Romans 8:29
transform - "to change into another form; [as used in Romans 12:2] to undergo a complete change, which under the power of God, will find expression in character and conduct" (VINE)
overcome evil with good - the goal of the Christian’s response to evil
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - An Appeal To Consecration (Romans 12:1-2) - Serve God As Members Of One Body (Romans 12:3-8) - Miscellaneous Exhortations (Romans 12:9-21)
2) Upon what does Paul make his plea? (Romans 12:1) - The mercies of God; their reasonable service
3) How is a Christian to present himself before God? (Romans 12:1) - As a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God
4) How is one transformed? (Romans 12:2) - By the renewing of their minds
5) What is the purpose of such transformation? (Romans 12:2) - To prove (demonstrate) what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God
6) What illustration shows our dependence upon each other in the church? (Romans 12:4-5) - Members of a body
7) How are Christians to respond to evil? (Romans 12:19-21) - In a positive way, with good
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Thirteen
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To understand our relationship to the government
2) To appreciate the importance of love and moral purity
SUMMARY
Continuing to instruct concerning the "transformed life," Paul now discusses the Christian’s responsibilities to governmental authorities. Understanding that all governments are in power due to the providence of God, and that they serve as ministers of God to avenge the evil doer, Christians are admonished to submit to "the powers that be" (Romans 13:1-5). This submission involves payment of taxes and having respect for those in authority (Romans 13:6-7).
Paul’s next exhortation deals with the importance of love and moral purity. Christians are to be indebted to no one, save to love one another. When love is properly demonstrated, even the requirements of the Law are adequately met (Romans 13:8-10). This admonition to love, however, is carefully balanced with the reminder that time is short and it is imperative that Christians maintain moral purity. This is done by Christians putting on the Lord Jesus and not making provision for the fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh (Romans 13:11-14).
OUTLINE
I. RESPONSIBILITIES TO THE GOVERNMENT (Romans 13:1-7)
A. BE IN SUBJECTION (Romans 13:1-5)
1. For governing authorities are appointed by God (Romans 13:1-2)
2. For governing authorities are God’s ministers to avenge evil (Romans 13:3-4)
3. To avoid wrath and maintain good conscience (Romans 13:5)
B. FULFILL WHAT IS DUE (Romans 13:6-7)
1. Taxes, customs (Romans 13:6-7 a)
2. Fear (respect), honor (Romans 13:7 b)
II. EXHORTATION TO LOVE AND MORAL PURITY (Romans 13:8-14)
A. THE VALUE OF LOVE (Romans 13:8-10)
1. Owe no one anything but love (Romans 13:8 a)
2. For love does no harm, and fulfills the Law (Romans 13:8-10)
B. CONCERNING MORAL PURITY (Romans 13:11-14)
1. The time is short, we need to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light (Romans 13:11-12)
2. Walk properly by putting on the Lord Jesus and making no provision to fulfill fleshly lusts (Romans 13:13-14)
WORDS TO PONDER
the governing authorities - the political powers which govern society
he does not bear the sword in vain - an implied reference to the approved use of capital punishment
put on the Lord Jesus Christ - a process begun in baptism (Galatians 3:27), continued as we develop Christ-like qualities (Colossians 3:9-17)
make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts - avoid situations where unlawful fleshly desires might be aroused and acted upon
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - Responsibilities To The Government (Romans 13:1-7) - Exhortations To Love And Moral Purity (Romans 13:8-14)
2) What one word summarizes the Christian’s responsibility to the government? (Romans 13:1) - submit
3) From where do governments get their authority? (Romans 13:1) - God
4) What happens if we resist governing authorities? (Romans 13:2) - We resist God and bring judgment upon ourselves
5) What is a major responsibility of government? (Romans 13:4) - To avenge the evil doer
6) What should serve as motivation for Christians’ submission to the government? (Romans 13:5) - Wrath, and conscience
7) What else is required of Christians in regards to government? (Romans 13:7) - Payment of taxes, and respect for those in authority
8) What one thing should we owe to others? (Romans 13:8) - Love
9) What are we to put on? (Romans 13:12; Romans 13:14) - The "armor of light", the Lord Jesus Christ
10) What are we not to provide opportunities for? (Romans 13:14) - The fulfillment of fleshly lusts
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Fourteen
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To learn how strong and weak brethren should deal with one another
2) To see the importance of being true to our conscience
SUMMARY
In this chapter Paul discusses the relationship strong and weak brethren are to have towards each other. He admonishes the strong to be careful in their dealings with those whose faith and knowledge is weak, and for the weak not to judge those who are doing what God allows (Romans 14:1-4). In such matters, each brother should be true to their conscience and do what they do as service rendered to the Lord (Romans 14:5-9). There is no place for condemning or despising one another in these matters, for Jesus will be the judge (Romans 14:10-12). Of primary concern is not to put stumbling blocks in a brother’s way (Romans 14:13).
The importance of being true to one’s own conscience, and not encouraging the weak brother to violate his own, is the emphasis of the last half of the chapter. Things harmless within themselves can destroy those whose consciences do not permit them, so those who understand the true nature of the kingdom of God will be willing to forego personal liberties to maintain peace and build up their weaker brethren (Romans 14:14-23).
OUTLINE
I. ADMONITIONS TO STRONG AND WEAK BRETHREN (Romans 14:1-13)
A. HOW TO TREAT EACH OTHER (Romans 14:1-4)
1. The strong are to receive and not despise the weak (Romans 14:1-3 a)
2. The weak are not to judge those God approves (Romans 14:3-4)
B. HOW TO BE TRUE TO THE LORD IN THESE MATTERS (Romans 14:5-9)
1. Be fully convinced in your own mind (Romans 14:5)
2. Do what you do as to the Lord (Romans 14:6-9)
C. DO NOT JUDGE ONE ANOTHER (Romans 14:10-13)
1. Christ is to be our judge (Romans 14:10-13 a)
2. Our concern should be not to put stumbling blocks in a brother’s way (Romans 14:13 b)
II. FURTHER ADMONITIONS TO STRONG BRETHREN (Romans 14:14-23)
A. DO NOT DESTROY A BROTHER FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED (Romans 14:14-18)
1. Food is harmless in itself, but we can misuse it to the destruction of those who are weak (Romans 14:14-16)
2. The kingdom of God is more important than food and drink (Romans 14:17-18)
B. PURSUE THINGS WHICH MAKE FOR PEACE (Romans 14:19-23)
1. Build up your brother, don’t destroy him over food (Romans 14:19-20)
2. Be willing to forego your liberties for the sake of your brother (Romans 14:21)
3. Appreciate the importance of a clear conscience in your weak brother (Romans 14:22-23)
WORDS TO PONDER
judge - setting oneself up as accuser, judge, and sentencer; it does not mean we cannot make decisions about the right or wrong of another’s action (cf. Matthew 7:1-6; Matthew 7:15-20; John 7:24; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13)
stumbling block - that which causes another to fall; it does not have to be something wrong within itself
offended - made to stumble; the word does not mean the way we commonly use it today, that is, to have one’s feelings hurt or "offended"
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - Admonitions To Strong And Weak Brethren (Romans 14:1-13) - Further Admonitions To Strong Brethren (Romans 14:14-23)
2) How are strong and weak brethren to treat each other? (Romans 14:3) - The strong are not to despise the weak. - The weak are not to judge the strong.
3) What is important according to verse 5? - "Let each be fully convinced in his own mind"
4) In all matters, whom is it we should try to please? (Romans 14:6-8) - The Lord
5) Who will be the Judge in such matters? (Romans 14:10-12) - The Lord
6) What is important according to verse 13? - Not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way
7) What elements are crucial to the kingdom of God? (Romans 14:17) - Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit
8) How far should one be willing to go to avoid causing a brother to stumble? (Romans 14:21) - As far as giving up personal liberties in Christ
9) If we violate our conscience, what are we guilty of? (Romans 14:23) - Sin
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Fifteen
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To see further the importance of being considerate of weak brethren
2) To be impressed with the example of the churches in Macedonia and Achaia in their liberality toward the church in Jerusalem
SUMMARY
Paul continues his discussion on how those who are strong are to receive and bear with the infirmities of the weak. Encouraging the strong to be concerned with uplifting the weak, he reminds them of Christ and His unselfishness (Romans 15:1-3). Reminding them of the value of the Old Testament Scriptures, he pleads for patience so that with one mind and one mouth they may glorify God (Romans 15:4-6). Finally, he calls for them to receive one another to the glory of God, just as Christ served both Jews and Gentiles in fulfilling the prophets of old (Romans 15:7-12). Paul then offers a prayer that God might fill them with joy and peace in believing, so that they may abound in hope with the help of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).
At this point, Paul begins to draw this epistle to a close by making remarks concerning his apostleship and plans to see them. Recognizing their own abilities in the faith, he still felt it appropriate to write to them as he did (Romans 15:14-16). Speaking of his design not to preach where Christ had already been received (Romans 15:17-21), Paul tells of his plan to come to Rome on his way to Spain (Romans 15:22-24). But first, he is going to the poor saints in Jerusalem with a contribution from the saints in Macedonia and Achaia (Romans 15:25-29). Realizing the danger such a trip entails, he asks to be remembered in their prayers (Romans 15:30-33).
OUTLINE
I. CONCLUDING ADMONITIONS TO STRONG BRETHREN (Romans 15:1-13)
A. BEAR WITH THE SCRUPLES OF THE WEAK (Romans 15:1-6)
1. Try to please your brethren, as Christ did (Romans 15:1-3)
2. With the help of God and Scripture, be patient, so you may with one mind and mouth glorify God (Romans 15:4-6)
B. RECEIVE ONE ANOTHER (Romans 15:7-12)
1. As Christ received us, to the glory of God (Romans 15:7)
2. As Christ served Jews and Gentiles, in fulfillment of prophecy (Romans 15:8-12)
C. PAUL’S PRAYER FOR THEM (Romans 15:13)
1. That God might fill them with all joy and peace in believing (Romans 15:13 a)
2. That they might abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13 b)
II. PAUL’S PLANS TO SEE THEM (Romans 15:14-33)
A. THE REASON FOR WRITING THEM (Romans 15:14-21)
1. He is well aware of their own abilities (Romans 15:14)
2. Simply reminding them, as is appropriate from one who is a "minister to the Gentiles" (Romans 15:15-16)
3. Though he normally aims to preach where Christ has not been named (Romans 15:17-21)
B. HIS TRAVEL PLANS (Romans 15:22-29)
1. To go to Spain via Rome (Romans 15:22-24)
2. But first, to Jerusalem with a contribution from those in Macedonia and Achaia (Romans 15:25-29)
C. REQUEST FOR PRAYER, AND PRAYER FOR THEM (Romans 15:30-33)
1. His request for their prayers for his safe journeys (Romans 15:30-32)
2. His prayer that God be with them (Romans 15:33)
WORDS TO PONDER
edification - to build up; "used only figuratively in the NT..the promotion of spiritual growth" (VINE)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - Concluding Admonitions To Strong Brethren (Romans 15:1-13) - Paul’s Plans To See Them (Romans 15:14-33)
2) Whose example are we to follow in bearing the weakness of others? (Romans 15:1-3) - Christ’s
3) What value is the Old Testament to Christians? (Romans 15:4) - To learn, to find patience and comfort, to increase hope
4) Why is it important that we be of one mind? (Romans 15:5-6) - So we may in unity of mind and mouth glorify God
5) To what degree are we to receive one another? (Romans 15:7) - As Christ received us; to the glory of God
6) In his preaching, what did Paul try to avoid? (Romans 15:20) - Preaching where Christ had already been preached
7) Where did Paul hope to go after passing through Rome? (Romans 15:24) - Spain
8) Where was he headed for at the time he wrote this epistle? Why? (Romans 15:25) - Jerusalem; to minister the contribution from Macedonia and Achaia for the poor saints in Jerusalem
"THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"
Chapter Sixteen
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To be impressed with such Christians as Phoebe, Priscilla, and Aquila
2) To understand the warning against those who cause division
SUMMARY
In this last chapter, Paul closes with miscellaneous instructions, greetings, warnings, and a doxology. Of particular note are his comments concerning Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea (Romans 16:1-2). Also, his greetings to Priscilla and Aquila remind us of how instrumental this couple was in the spread of the gospel (Romans 16:3-5 a). The remaining greetings from Paul remind us that there were many others who contributed to the growth of the church in the first century (Romans 16:5-16).
A final warning is given against those who would cause divisions and occasions of stumbling contrary to what Paul had taught in this epistle (Romans 16:17-18). For above all else, Paul wanted to ensure their continued obedience in the gospel (Romans 16:19-20).
Paul’s companions at Corinth add their greetings (Romans 16:21-24), and Paul closes this wonderful epistle with an expression of praise to God for the revelation of the gospel which was leading to the obedience of faith among all nations (Romans 16:25-27).
OUTLINE
I. CONCLUDING INSTRUCTIONS & FAREWELLS (Romans 16:1-24)
A. COMMENDATION OF PHOEBE (Romans 16:1-2)
1. A servant of the church in Cenchrea (Romans 16:1)
2. To receive her in a worthy manner, helping her along (Romans 16:2)
B. MISCELLANEOUS GREETINGS FROM PAUL (Romans 16:3-16)
1. To Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16:3-5 a)
2. To various others (Romans 16:5-16)
C. A FINAL WARNING (Romans 16:17-20)
1. Against those who selfishly cause divisions and offenses (Romans 16:17-18)
2. To continue in obedience, for God will give them victory (Romans 16:19-20)
D. GREETINGS FROM PAUL’S COMPANIONS (Romans 16:21-24)
1. From Timothy and others (Romans 16:21)
2. From Tertius, Paul’s "amanuensis" [personal scribe] (Romans 16:22)
3. From brethren at Corinth (Romans 16:23-24)
II. PAUL’S DOXOLOGY (Romans 16:25-27)
A. TO HIM WHO IS ABLE TO ESTABLISH YOU (Romans 16:25-26)
1. According to the gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ (Romans 16:25 a)
2. According to the mystery once secret, but now revealed and made known to all nations (Romans 16:25-26)
a. Made known by the prophetic Scriptures (Romans 16:26 a)
b. Made known for obedience to the faith (Romans 16:26 b)
B. TO GOD, ALONE WISE, BE GLORY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST FOREVER! (Romans 16:27)
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THIS CHAPTER
1) List the main points of this chapter - Concluding Instructions And Farewells (Romans 16:1-24) - Paul’s Doxology (Romans 16:25-27)
2) How does Paul describe Phoebe? (Romans 16:1-2) - A servant of the church; a helper of Paul and of many
3) How does Paul describe Priscilla and Aquila? (Romans 16:3-4) - Fellow workers; who risked their necks for Paul’s life
4) How does Paul describe those who cause division and offenses? (Romans 16:18) - They serve not the Lord, but their own belly
5) Is the "mystery" referred to in verse 25 still hidden? (Romans 16:25-26) - No, it has been revealed and made known through preaching and the Scriptures to all nations
6) What is the objective of the gospel according to verse 26? - Obedience to the faith
INTRODUCTION
TO THE BOOK OF ROMANS
Harold and Clayton Winters
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
The prophet Daniel had predicted the rise and fall of four great world empires (Daniel 2:44): the Babylonian, represented by the golden head of the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw, and as a lion with eagle’s wings (Daniel 2:31-32; Daniel 2:37-38; Daniel 7:4); the Medo-Persian, represented by the breast and arms of silver, a bear with three ribs in its mouth, and a ram with two horns (Daniel 2:32; Daniel 2:39; Daniel 7:5; Daniel 8:3-4); the Grecian, depicted by the belly and thighs of brass, a leopard with four wings, and a he-goat (Daniel 2:34; Daniel 2:39; Daniel 7:6; Daniel 8:5); and the Roman, fitly symbol ized by the legs and feet mingled with iron and clay, and as a strong and terrible beast with iron teeth (Daniel 2:32; Daniel 2:40; Daniel 7:7).
By around 200 B.C. history had recorded the rise and fall of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires; and the Grecian kingdom, founded by Alexander the Great, had been divided among his generals, and had fallen into a state of disarray. In this weakened condition the Greek states had become a ready prey for a formidable war machine, rolling speedily out of Rome, and crushing everything in its path. Antiochus the Great marched in desperation against these Roman legions with an immense force, but was quickly defeated and laid under tribute (1 Mace. 8:5-16). The kingdom of iron and clay was becoming a reality, soon to exercise absolute control over 120,000,000 people: half of them slaves, half free. By B.C. 63 the Roman General Pompey had stood on the Mount of Olives, looked down over the city of Jerusalem, and claimed the land of the Bible for his emperor.
But shortly thereafter, the mighty Roman armies would be called upon to confront an entirely different kind of force - a Stone hewn from the mountain side without human intervention; and that in the kind of battle never before witnessed by the human families of the earth: a battle for the souls of men. For while Augustus Ceasar (27 B.C.-14 A.D.) sat in regal splendor as the emperor of the greatest kingdom the earth had ever known, a virgin gave birth to a child in faraway Bethlehem of Judea, and could afford Him nothing better than a manger for His bed (Luke 2:7). Yet, in just over thirty-three years that offspring of David would publish principles of a kingdom not of this world (18:36); die on a cross at the hands of both the Jews and the Romans (Matthew 27:19-38); resurrect despite a sealed and guarded tomb (Matthew 27:62 to Matthew 28:6); and establish a kingdom after His resurrection that would break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms, and would stand forever (Daniel 2:44; Hebrews 12:28). Acting as leaven, it would permeate every aspect of society, even the great Roman Empire, changing the hearts of men with a power hitherto unknown in any empire.
ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH AT ROME
At just what point in time this leaven was inconspiciously placed in the heart of the "eternal city" cannot be definitely known; but we would certainly assign to it a date not far removed from the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ. Proof of this may be gleaned from the following facts: (1) When Paul visited Corinth in the year 58 A.D., the church had already been established (Romans 1:1-7). (2) The church had been established for a time sufficient for their faith and obedience to be widely known (Romans 1:8; Romans 16:19). (3) Paul had often planned to visit the faithful brethren in Rome; but because of other pressing matters, he had not had opportunity to do so (Romans 1:10-13). (4) This desire to visit them had extended over a period of "many years" before 58 A.D. (Romans 15:23). (5) In 52 A.D. Paul came to Corinth and found certain Jews, Aquila and Priscilla, who had been driven from Rome by Claudius Caesar (41-54 A.D.). Since this decree was issued by Claudius due to certain tumults instigated by one named Chrestus (whom many scholars believe to be simply a misspelling of the Greek Christos), it stands as presumptive evidence that a very active and militant church had existed in Rome previous to this date. (6) Among the "Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven," who heard the gospel on Pentecost, were "strangers of Rome. Jews and proselytes" (Acts 2:10). Again the presumption is strong that these, having heard that the Messiah had come, would return to their homes and synagogues with the saving message of the gospel. In this way, and if not, certainly in some similar one, the church of Christ was early implanted in the heart of the Roman Empire.
AUTHOR OF THE ROMAN EPISTLE
About the same time the babe was laid in a manger in Bethlehem, another child was born to unnamed parents in Tarsus. He was named Saul. His parents remain nameless; however, we do know that his father had somehow obtained Roman citizenship, enabling Saul to be free born (Acts 22:28). We further know that by religion he was identified as a Pharisee (Acts 23:6; 2 Timothy 1:3), and that he was of the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5). Of the rest of his family we know only that he had a sister, a nephew, and other kinsmen (Acts 23:15-16; Romans 16:7). On the eighth day from his birth Saul was circumcised, and his early childhood years were spent in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia (Acts 21:39; Acts 22:3). His youthful years were spent at Jerusalem, being educated in the Pharisaic school of Hillel, at the feet of a famous Jewish instructor, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3; Acts 5:34-40). There is little room for doubt that Saul became a member of the prestigious Sanhedrin Court (Acts 26:9-11).
The first revealed instance of his contact with Christianity is at the martyrdom of Stephen; witnesses of this tragic event laid their clothing at his feet as he stood in consent of that cruel act (Acts 7:58; Acts 22:20). Subsequent divine history reveals him as an angry and vicious opponent of Christianity, scourging Christians in synagogues (Acts 26:10-11); shutting them in prison (Acts 26:10; Acts 22:4; Acts 8:3); compelling them to blaspheme (Acts 26:11); persecuting and wasting them (Galatians 1:13); even putting them to death (Acts 22:4; Acts 26:9; Acts 9:1). His havoc against the church carried him even to strange cities with a determination to clear the world of this hated new religion (Acts 26:11).
It was on such a mission that Saul came face-to-face with Jesus on the Damascus road. This confrontation led to his conversion, and to his becoming as devoted in the propagation of the cause of Christ as he had been in its destruction. He became the great Apostle Paul - the hated, the scourged, the persecuted - preaching the faith which he once destroyed (Galatians 1:23).
After his conversion, Paul preached the gospel in the synagogue at Damascus (Acts 9:20). He then spent three years in Arabia, but returned to Damascus to continue spreading the precious message of salvation. But due to opposition, he was forced to escape the city in a basket let down over the city wall (Galatians 1:17; Acts 9:23-25; 2 Corinthians 11:32-33). Leaving there, he came to Jerusalem and spent some time with Peter, James, and Barnabas; but was warned in a vision to get out of Jerusalem (Acts 9:24; Acts 9:30; Galatians 1:17-19; Galatians 1:21). He then returned to spread the word in his native Tarsus (Acts 9:30; Galatians 1:21), and it was here that Barnabas found him and took him to Antioch for a full year (Acts 11:22-26).
In 44 A.D., one of the first sure dates in the life of Paul, he and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem with relief for the needy saints (Acts 11:17-30; Acts 12:25). By 48 A.D. Paul and Barnabas had left a fruitful work at Antioch to begin his ever-expanding mission among the Gentiles (Acts 13:2-3). His face was to become a familiar sight, and his name a household word as he carried the gospel to Cyprus, !conium, Lystra, Derbe, Antioch of Pisidia, Galatia, Ephesus, Troas, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Rome, and perhaps even as far away as Spain.
Paul had two main passions in life: to spread the gospel in virgin territory, and to build and strengthen the churches already planted. In pursuit of this lat ter purpose, many churches were recipients of letters from the dedicated and inspired apostle: Galatia (Galatians 1:1-2); Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1); Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 2 Corinthians 1:1); Rome (Romans 1:1; Romans 1:7). Even while in prison, the word of God was not bound nor his pen stilled, for from these damp dungeons came the epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon.
That Paul was the author of the Roman epistle we have already assumed, because the evidence of his authorship is simply incontestable. It bears his signature: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God .... To all that be in Rome ..." (Romans 1:1; Romans 1:7). It is punctuated with personal references identifying himself as the author (see Romans 1:13; Romans 7:8-25; Romans 11:1-2; Romans 15:26-28). It has numerous references to his friends and associates (see Romans 16, especially vv. 1-4, 11 and 21). In fact, the internal evidence is so strong that few have ever dared question Paul as its author; and certainly none who accept it as an inspired work would even think to do so.
TIME AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION
Paul left Corinth in 54 A.D. (Acts 18:18). He then came to Jerusalem and spent some time (Acts 18:19-23). From there he journeyed through Phrygia and Galatia strengthening the churches (Acts 18:23). He next spent three years in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-41; Acts 20:31); then passing through Macedonia, he came to Corinth for three months (Acts 20:1-3). This would bring us to A.D. 58 as the date for the composition of the Roman epistle.
That this is the time and place of composition is further seen from the following facts: On his third missionary journey Paul had passed through Macedonia on his way to Corinth to collect for the needy saints at Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 9:1-5). But as he was writing the Romans he already had the contribution, and was ready to deliver it to Jerusalem (Romans 15:25-29). Also he mentions the fact that Gais, who was a resident of Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:14) was his host (Romans 16:23). This all combines to leave no room for questioning the date of Romans as 58 A.D., and the place of composition as Corinth.
CONTENT OF THE BOOK OF ROMANS
Paul states very clearly the theme of the book of Romans: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16). This power, so evident in the apostle’s own life, was the hope - the only hope - of the world.
The need of a saving gospel for the whole world was apparent - all stood under the condemnation of sin. The Gentile, while living under a law of con science, had committed the most reprehensible and abominable acts of sin (Romans 2:14; Romans 1:20-32). But the Jew, living under a revealed system of religion, did very little better: "Therefore thou art inexcusable, 0 man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same thing" (Romans 2:1; Romans 2:17-29). Paul’s conclusion, then. is but logical and reasonable: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). So with all under the condemnation of sin, man stood in need of a scheme of redemption more powerful than sin itself. That power was in the gospel.
But with God’s immutable law demanding death for sin (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23), how could God be just and still justify the ungodly? The answer to that, Paul points out, makes the good news of the gospel: Christ died for us. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:24-26). His death became a substitute for mine, and by my imitation of that death (Romans 6:3-4) I became a new creation, freed from the clutches of sin (Romans 6:6-7; Romans 6:17-18). But Paul is careful to point out that while Jesus’ death is substitutionary, it is not unconditional; it compensates for the weaknesses of man, but it does not give license to sin (see Romans 6:1-8; Romans 7).
Having established the sinfulness of all humanity, and a grace that is ex tended equally to all, Paul passes to the place occupied by the nation of Israel in the introduction of the scheme of redemption to the world. To him were com mitted the oracles of God (Romans 3:1-2). To him pertained "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" (Romans 9:4). But this calling was introductory, not redemptive. Once the gospel system was in force, there would be neither Jew nor Gentile (Romans 10:12); both would stand by faith or fall in unbelief (Romans 11:20-23). The gospel was destined to be God’s power unto salvation; Jew and Gentile would be saved by that plan; neither Jew nor Gentile could be saved by any other means (Romans 10:1-5).
Paul concludes the Roman epistle with the Christian’s obligation under the gospel system, whether religious, social, moral, or political. And as one con cludes the epistle, he must stand in awe at this profound exposition of God’s marvelous scheme of redemption.
Romans Chapter One
Harold Winters
Romans 1:1 Paul, Formerly Saul of Tarsus, now Paul the Christian, author of this book. He probably made a greater impact on the world than any man who ever lived, except Christ. Those who wish to know him better should consider his birthplace, citizenship, and training (Acts 21:39; Acts 22:3; Acts 22:28); his introduction to NT readers (Acts 7:58 to Acts 8:3); his persecution of the church (Acts 9:1-2; 1 Timothy 1:13); his conversion (Acts 9, 22, 26); his commission (Acts 22:14-15); his devotion (Philippians 3:3-16); his concern (Romans 9:1-3; Romans 10:1-3); his suffering for Christ (2 Corinthians 11:22-33); his preaching (1 Corinthians 2:1-8; 1 Corinthians 9:16); his writings - 13 or 14 NT books; his hope and reward (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Jeremiah’s search through the streets of Jerusalem to see if a man could be found would have ended with him (Jeremiah 5:1): for here is a man of the rarest kind (Ezekiel 22:30). a servant of Jesus Christ, - A purchased servant or slave. Christ had bought him, and all Christians, with the sacrifice of His own precious blood (Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). He belonged to Christ by choice. called to be - The words "to be" are supplied by the translators. Paul was a called apostle called not by man but by God (Galatians 1:1; Galatians 1:11-12). an apostle, The call set him apart as an apostle; one sent on a special mission by the Lord. separated - Set apart by the call. unto the gospel of God, - To preach the gospel (Acts 22:14-15), especially to the Gentiles (Galatians 1:16; Galatians 2:7).
Romans 1:2 Which he had promised - The gospel, the consummation of God’s promises through the ages (Genesis 3:15; Jeremiah 31:31; Joel 2:28; Isaiah 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10). afore - Beforehand, before it came to pass. by his prophets All inspired men who spoke or wrote the OT (2 Peter 2:19-21). in the holy scriptures, - God’s inspired word. From the time of the fall (Genesis 3), God promised redemption, and that promise is fully realized in the gospel. Hence the gospel is that which God planned and promised throughout the OT. The corning Redeemer is the theme of the OT; the redemption He brought is the theme of the NT.
Romans 1:3 Concerning his Son - The virgin born Son of God (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:21-23), the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14; John 3:16). Jesus Christ - The Savior anointed. our Lord, - Master (Acts 2:36), the owner and ruler of Paul’s life ... and ours (Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46). which was made of the seed of David - Descendant of David (John 7:42) through Mary (Luke 1:27). God had promised David that his seed would reign forever on Israel’s throne (2 Samuel 7:12-29). Christ, reigning over His spiritual kingdom, which is now the kingdom of God, was the consummation of that promise (Matthew 1:1-23; Acts 13:23). Christ now reigns at the right hand of God as the seed of David (Acts 2:25-36), over the new Israel of God, the church (Galatians 6:16). according to the flesh; He had both a divine and a human nature; the divine came from God; the human from Mary, His fleshly mother (Philippians 2:5-11). He was equally God and man - God in the flesh (Matthew 1:23). God was His Father and Mary was His mother (Luke 1:30-35).
Romans 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, - Determined, declared, designated, instated, or proclaimed deity. Not that He had become deity but that His deity was put beyond question. This also displayed His divine power (John 10:17-18). according to the spirit of holiness, May refer either to the dispositional spirit of Christ, which is holy in all respects, or the HS, in which case it means according to the revelation of the Spirit. The former is preferred by many; I prefer the latter. by the resurrection from the dead: His Sonship is proven by the resurrection and His resurrection is proven by many infallible proofs (Acts 1:3), a summary of which are: the empty tomb and missing body (Mark 16:6; Luke 24; Luke 3; Matthew 28:11-15); the change in Christ’s body: before the resurrection (during His lifetime) He was limited, but afterwards He appeared and disappeared seemingly at will (John 20:26); the change in the apostles from a fearful group not willing to stand with Jesus (Matthew 26:56) to powerful confident proclaimers (Acts 2; Acts 4:18-31); eyewitnesses Un. 20:18,25-31; 21:14; 1 Corinthians 15:1-9); the conversion of Paul (Acts 9, 22, 26); the basic structure of the gospel and the faith of the early Christians the resur rection is fundamental to both (1 Corinthians 15:1-4); and the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10); the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2); the resurrection day (Matthew 28:1-4).
Romans 1:5 By whom Christ. we have received grace and apostleship, Both favor and his call were heavenly (Acts 26:19); not from the other apostles, the church, or any man (Galatians 1:10-12). for obedience to the faith - "The obedience which springs from faith." Robertson (WP). Our faith comes from hearing the faith which was once delivered to the saints (10:17; Judges 1:3; John 20:30-31.) Obedience to the faith is therefore obedience to the gospel (Romans 6:16-18). Obedience is an integral part of the gospel (Hebrews 5:8-9), perfects faith (James 2:22), and is necessitated by love (John 14:15; John 14:21; John 14:23-24). Any faith that accepts Christ as Lord is a faith that submits to all His requirements. Paul both begins and ends (Romans 16:26) this book with the obedience of faith, thus using it as paren theses to enclose everything therein. among all nations, - The Gentiles or every creature (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15). For his name: - For his name’s sake (ASV). The name of Christ, by which we are saved (Acts 4:12), which is above all names (Philippians 2:9-11), and in which we do all things (Colossians 3:17), is the motivation for obedience. In obedience to the faith we magnify and glorify His name. Disobedience or a failure to obey will result in the exact opposite.
Romans 1:6 Among whom - The nations. The called remain in the world even though they are not of the world On. 15: 19; 17:14-16), are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: - Called by the gospel (2 Thessalonians 2:14) to the obedience of faith. By virtue of this call, they belonged to Christ.
Romans 1:7 To all that be in Rome, - Christians in the imperial city. beloved of God, called to be saints: - God loves all (Romans 5:8; John 3:16) but He loves His saints in a special way - they are His adopted children (Romans 8:15-17; Galatians 4:4-6). Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. A salutation of grace and peace from both the Father and the Son.
DESIRE TO VISIT ROME.
Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, - He was thankful for the church in Rome, the capital of the empire. And his thanks were expressed in the name of (by His permission, direction, and authority) Christ, as are all acceptable prayers in the Christian age (John 14:13-14; John 15:16; John 16:23-26; Colossians 3:17). that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. - Because of their location their influence was felt and spoken of from one end of the empire to the other. Christians in central locations and in high places can wield tremendous influence for good or evil, depending on their faith, character, and conduct.
Romans 1:9 For God is my witness, - In a form of judicial oath he calls God to witness to the truthfulness of that which he says. He speaks the truth with solemnity. whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, Service was rendered with his whole inner being by standing for, living by, and preaching the gospel. that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; He earnestly desired them to know of his gratitude and prayers for them.
Romans 1:10 Making request, - Praying. If by any means now at length After so long a time. I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. His lifelong ambition as a Christian had been to preach the gospel in Rome. He had often prayed that God would open the door and prosper him to that end. His prayers were eventually answered but not as he had expected. He went as a prisoner ... at the expense of Rome (Acts 26-28).
Romans 1:11 For I long to see you, - The Roman Christians. He gives three reasons for this longing: (1) that he might impart some spiritual gift unto them; (2) that they be comforted together in their mutual faith (Romans 1:12); and (3) that he might get some fruit from among them (Romans 1:13). that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, - Miraculous gift (1 Corinthians 12:6-11), imparted only by the laying on of the hands of the apostles (Acts 8:14-20; Acts 19:6; 2 Timothy 1:6). Although others, by the laying on of apostolic hands, were enabled to work miracles, no one but an apostle could impart the gifts. Had these gifts been given in answer to prayer or by some other means, Paul’s longing to go to Rome for the purpose of imparting them would have been pointless. to the end ye may be established; - The purpose of miracles was to reveal, confirm, and deliver the saving truth of the gospel (Mark 16:17-20; Hebrews 2:1-4), and to establish the primitive church until the whole of revelation was delivered, at which time they were to end (1 Corinthians 13:8-13; Ephesians 4:11-13). Miracles aided in erecting the structure of divine revelation; when the structure was completed (the Scriptures confirmed and the Christian system fully established) they had served their purpose and ceased to be. God now works through His established laws.
Romans 1:12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. - When they were established in the faith, Paul would be comforted in them and they in Paul. There is no greater joy for a Christian than to see other Christians rooted and grounded in faith (Ephesians 4:14-16; 3 John 1:4).
Romans 1:13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, - Uninformed as to his intentions and desires. that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, His failure to go had not been a lack of plans and purposes on his part. (but was Hindered (ASV) or prevented so that his plans had never materialized. that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. - The salvation of souls, the results for which he always labored and suffered.
THEME OF THE GOSPEL:
GOD’S POWER TO SAVE
Harold Winters
Romans 1:14-17
Romans 1:14 I am debtor -Under divine obligation to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16) to the whole world (Mark 16:15), to every nation (Matthew 28:19), and to every responsible individual in every nation, both Jew and Gentile (although the Jews are not mentioned in this verse, his first obligation was to them, v. 16). The Gentiles, however, were Paul’s special mission, and he could not be satisfied or rest until he had paid his debt to them. He, unlike so many of us today. was will ing to pay his debt, that is, he was willing to make whatever sacrifice necessary, to go any distance or to pay any price, so that the gospel might be sounded out to the remotest corners of the world. both to the Greeks, and to the Bar barians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. - That is, to everyone. None were exempted. regardless of their nationality or status in life.
Romans 1:15 So, as much as in me is, - His whole being, heart. mind, body, soul, and spirit. I am ready - Ready to discharge his duty to his debtors. to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. - He was a debtor to the Romans; he was ready to pay his debt to them.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed - To preach the gospel even among those who rule the Roman empire, considered by some to be the wise of the world, many of whom would ridicule the messenger and blaspheme the high and holy name of Christ. of the gospel of Christ: - The good news pertaining to Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection and what He accomplished by them. The sin problem is man’s greatest (and in the final analysis, his only) problem. To be saved from it is man’s greatest blessing ... and his greatest need. The gospel is the glad tidings which announces that Christ, by His death on the cross, has provided the means of salvation. But it is more: it not only proclaims redemption provided, it also reveals how the blood of Christ can be appropriated to the sins of each individual by obedience to the gospel plan (Romans 6:1-4; Romans 6:16-18). The sin debt has been paid. Man can now be set free. for it The gospel. is the power of God unto salvation - The theme of the whole book: the gospel, God’s power to save from sin! God’s power inheres in the system, the system by which God can be just and still justify the sinner (Romans 3:26). Just as God has put His power into a seed to reproduce after its kind (Genesis 1:11-12), He has put His power to save in the gospel (Luke 8:11; 1 Corinthians 4:15; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23). It is God’s power to root out the love of sin, the power of sin, the practice of sin, the guilt of sin, and the penalty of sin. It is not God’s power to save politically, socially, financially, physically, or mentally, even though all of these are strongly influenced by it, but God’s power to save from sin. By obedience to the gospel one dies to sin, is buried with the Lord in baptism, and arises a new creature in Christ (Romans 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Thus before one can be saved by the gospel he must follow its instructions. The gospel has no power to save those who will not accept it and the remedy it offers. The gospel is, therefore, God’s: (1) convincing power (Romans 10:17; John 20:30-31; Acts 18:8); (2) convicting power (Acts 2:37; Hebrews 4:12); (3) converting power (Psalms 19:7; James 5:19-20); (4) enlightening power (Psalms 119:130; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:37-38; 2 Peter 1:5-8); (5) restraining power (Galatians 6:7-8; Revelation 21:8); (6) constraining power (2:4; 2 Corinthians 2:14); (7) cleansing power (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Ephesians 5:26; 1 Peter 1:22); and (8) exalting power (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). to everyone that believeth; - No responsible soul is excluded from God’s plan. All believers may come to Him (Matthew 11:28-30; Revelation 22:17). The gospel has no power to save unbelievers; its power is released only in faith. to the Jew first, The gospel was first preached to the Jews. Christ’s per sonal ministry was to the Jews (Matthew 7:24-29); the limited commission included them only (Matthew 10:5-6); Peter preached to them on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2); and Paul went first to the Jews (Acts 18:5-6). But this priority was in time only. and also to the Greek. - All people other than Jews. Hence God’s salvation was offered to all alike and on precisely the same terms (11:26, see note there). God is no respecter of persons (2:11).
Romans 1:17 For therein In the gospel. is the righteousness of God - The means of right relationship with God. Man had sinned (3:9, 23; 5:12), and the penal ty of sin is death (6:23). Because of sin, man’s right relationship with God was broken (Is. 59:1-2) and he was condemned to eternal death. To restore that broken relationship is righteousness, righteousness as a result of justification (righteousness and justification are from the same root word). It is called the righteousness of God because it is made possible by Him without any help or merit from man. revealed - Manifested or made known (Ephesians 3:1-7). The gospel therefore reveals God’s plan to make man righteous, to restore the sinner back to a proper relationship with God. from faith to faith: - A difficult expression but probably means from the beginning of faith to the end of faith. The gospel meets every need of man from faith’s inception to faith’s fruition. The NIV renders it, "A righteousness which is by faith from first to last." as itis written, - In the Scriptures. This refers to the following quotation, not to what has just been said, as in the ASV, "As it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith." The just shall live by faith. - Quoted from Habakkuk 2:4. Justification (or righteousness, ASV) is not by law but by the system of faith. Every act of the Christian religion must be rendered by faith. Faith is the Christian’s guiding principle from inception to its final reward. To live by faith is to live by the directions given in the gospel. This implies the ability to think (Proverbs 23:7); to reason (Isaiah 1:18; Mark 8:16; Luke 5:21); to understand (Acts 8:30, Colossians 1:9); to believe John 8:24; Hebrews 11:6); and to obey (Romans 6:16-18; Hebrews 5:8-9). Living by faith brings many rewards, such as the remission of sins (Acts 2:38); the gift of the HS (Acts 5:32; Romans 8:9); adoption into the family of God (8:13-17; Galatians 4:4-6); peace of mind (Matthew 5:9; Philippians 4:7); all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3); and in the end, heaven itself (John 14:1-6; Revelation 13:14).
GOD’S WRATH
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God The anger of God. His law has been disrespected and violated, and the very purpose for which He made man has been disregarded. is revealed from heaven In the gospeL God’s wrath did not cause Him to respond in man’s destruction, but in the provision of his salvation, that is, if he would believe and obey His plan to save (Romans 1:16). against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, - The gospel offers salvation to all, but when it is rejected, it also reveals God’s wrath (Romans 11:22; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-9) or the eternal fate of the ungodly and unrighteous (Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:12-15). The gospel is like fire: it can either save or destroy, depending on one’s response. who hold the truth in unrighteousness; - Who hold down, back, or hinder the truth, that is, prevent its aim and spread, by their wrong relationship with God and by the wicked way they live.
GOD MANIFESTED IN NATURE
Romans 1:19 Because that which may be known Is known (ASV), not all that might be known. They knew enough pertaining to God so that their prevention of truth was inexcusable (v. 20). is manifest in them; In their minds, hearts, and/or conscience. for God hath shewed it unto them. In them (ASV). What they knew about God had been made plain to them. This verse does not deal with the manner in which that knowledge had been attained. The existence of a power superior to and transcending the material universe can be arrived at by the mind using its own power of reason and logic (Psalms 19:1-6). Creation is an effect and there must be a cause back ofit adequate to explain it (Acts 17:27-28; Hebrews 3:4; Colossians 1:16-17). But the will of God cannot be known apart from divine revelation (1 Corinthians 2:9-12). So the extent of their knowledge is predicated upon the manner of its manifestation. Was it all by nature or did they have access to some revelation, such as the OT or some prophet similar to Balaam (Numbers 22-24)? I do not know, but it seems to me that Paul implies that they had access to at least some revelation (cf. Romans 1:21-28). But at any rate, whether their knowledge had come by nature or revelation, they had rejected it and the consequences of their rejection of the truth was enough to show any reasonable person that man was not made to sin. It goes contrary to his very nature. Man without God proves conclusively man’s need for God.
Romans 1:20 For Connects the following with the preceding verse. the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, Plainly understood. The invisible things are stated by Paul himself and rendered by the ASV as His everlasting power and divinity. being understood by the things that are made, - The Creator is observable in His work of creation. In fact, there is no logical way the human mind can reason around a Creator: for there can be no creation without a Creator. even his eternal power and Godhead; - This much at least can be known by the observation of creation. so that they are without excuse: - Their rejec tion of the truth was inexcusable. So it is withall unbelievers. One simply can not be intellectually honest with the facts and with the structure of his own mind and reasoning process and reject the necessary implication of creation. Every effect must have an adequate cause; every law must have a lawgiver; life must come from life; everything produces after its kind (Genesis 1). No mind and no process of reason know an exception to these. Creation is therefore the only ex planation of origin. But creation (an undeniable fact to the intellectually honest) necessitates a Creator. Thus to believe in creation is to believe in God, His power and divinity.
KNOWLEDGE REJECTED
Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, - Either as the cause of a vast effect (creation) or by some incomplete form of revelation or both. they glorified him not as God, - They acted contrary to the knowledge they possessed. They thus sinned against knowledge. They knowingly rejected right for wrong. neither were thankful; They were ingrates in that they did not acknowledge God as the giver of all blessings (James 1:17; Luke 17:12-17). And their ingratitude led them to vain imaginations, darkened hearts, deception, and idolatry (vv. 21-23). but became vain in their imaginations, Became vain in their reasonings (ASV); their thinking became futile (NIV). Sound reason led them to a knowledge of the Creator, but they had turned from this knowledge. And in order to do so they had to corrupt their reasoning process - they chose their own vain imaginations instead of sound reason. Such dishonest handling of truth is not limited to the ancient Gentiles. A modern ex ample is that of Charles Darwin. According to Mayo W. Hazeltine, Darwin ex pressed the inward conviction that the universe is not the result of chance. But when his mind so reasoned, he then questioned the validity of the mind’s reasoning power. He said, "But, then, with me the harried doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value, or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust the convictions in a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?" (Beacon Lights of History, Vol. XIV, p. 171). Reason thus led Dar win to creation (and creation inevitably leads to the Creator) but he did not want to believe it; he wanted instead to believe in chance development. He therefore rejected his own process of reasoning as trustworthy. He became vain in his reasoning. and their foolish heart was darkened. - They closed out the light of truth by their foolish reasonings and God gave them the darkness of falsehood a strong delusion (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, Their own vain and foolish reasoning became their standard of wisd·om. They considered themselves supe rior in wisdom because they had rejected the true wisdom of God, the knowl edge of His eternal power and Godhead (Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10). they became fools, - They abandoned sound reason for their own foolish imaginations. What could be more foolish than to deny the trustworthiness of the human mind to correctly reason to a proper conclusion? If the mind’s power to reason cannot be trusted, then how can it be thought trustworthy when it reasons to its own untrustworthiness? How can it be untrustworthy when it reasons back to a Creator but trustworthy when it reasons to deny the power of reason (especially the reason which concludes that God is the Author and Creator of all things).
Romans 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. - They had exchanged the knowledge and glory of God for the foolishness and dishonor of idols made in the likeness of man, birds, beasts, and creeping things. For the folly of idolatry (see Isaiah 41:21-24; Isaiah 44:9-20).
Romans 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness - They had abandoned God and God abandoned them to reap the rewards of their own ruin (Galatians 6:7-8). through the lusts of their own hearts, Through their own corruption. to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: - To bring them to a knowledge of their corrupt state. But how did they dishonor their own bodies between themselves? See vv. 26-27.
Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, - Exchanged the truth of God for a lie (ASV). The reference is to their rejecting the truth and turning to idolatry. God is. This is the most profound truth in the universe. Idols are nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4) and as gods they are a lie (Jeremiah 10:14). To ex change the former for the latter is to reach the depths of folly. This is true any time the divine is exchanged for the human, whether it be in faith, doctrine, or practice. and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, They had transferred the devotion and service which belonged to God alone to the work of His hands. They gave to the creature that which was by right of creation the Creator’s. Or as Lard renders it, "And worshiped and served the creature instead of him that made it." who is blessed for ever.
Who is forever praised (NIV). God is due the praise; His creatures are not (Acts 10:25-26; Acts 14:13-18; Revelation 22:9-10). He is worthy (Revelation 4:11); no created thing is. And this fact will never be changed. His works praise Him. Amen. - A sol emn exclamation in which Paul assents to the eternal praise of God. It means, "So let it be." Amen!
Romans 1:26 For this cause - Because they had exchanged the truth of God for the lie of idolatry. God gave them up - Turned them over to or surrendered them. Shameful lust (NIV) or their passionate desires and false beliefs. When one rejects the love of God, he subjects himself to all kinds of degrading and dishonorable passions, as is illustrated here by the fact that both men and women turn from their natural state to that which is against nature. for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: Turned from the God-ordained relationship between male and female (Genesis 2:21-25; Matthew 19:3-9), within marriage, to lesbianism or female hom*osexuality. Lower than this men and women cannot go. It is the most disgusting sin imaginable. It renounces the whole purpose God had in view when He made them male and female.
Romans 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. - The men, too, abandoned God’s sexual and turned to hom*osexuality, a sin condemned by both God and all right thinking people (Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Timothy 1:10). No stronger words than these have ever been written against any sinful practice, and they say in no uncertain terms that hom*osexuality is against nature against God’s sexual criteria. Because of it, God gave them up to receive the suitable reward·of their despicable lust--the due penalty for their perversion (NIV). Sin has its undesirable rewards (Psalms 91:8; Matthew 6:2; Matthew 6:5; Matthew 6:16; Judges 1:11) and thus carries its own punishment so that those who reject truth for error, purity for lust, receive a just recompence for their evil. My mother used to tell me, when I wanted to do something against her will and to my own hurt, "When you burn a blister, you’ll set on it." The warning was so stem I would usually heed it. But these Gentiles were not wise enough to do so, nor are many today who engage in promiscuous sex, drug abuse, alcohol, etc., defying the consequences. But sin always leaves its ugly scars, and when one sows sin he must reap corruption (Galatians 6:7-8).
SINS OF THE GENTILES
Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; - God gave them over to a depraved mind be cause they had refused to retain the knowledge of God - they rejected the truth and God permitted their minds and hearts to be filled with all kinds of evil. Their depraved minds led them to do many shameful and disgraceful things. The contents or condition of the heart controls the life (Proverbs 23:7; Matthew 12:34; Matthew 15:19). Because they had turned from the knowledge they had of God to their own foolish reasonings, Paul said: (1) God gave them up to uncleanness (Romans 1:24) to dishonor themselves in their own lusts; (2) God gave them up to vile affections (Romans 1:26) to reap the rewards of their unnatural love; and (3) God gave them over to a reprobate mind (Romans 1:28) to do unbecoming things. No darker picture has ever been drawn of sinful man. And no further proof is needed that he stands in need of salvation.
Romans 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, - All kinds of wrong doing (which leads to a wrong relationship with God). The expression is inclusive, comprehending not only all the sins which follow but all committed by account able men. fornication, - Illicit sexual intercourse (usually between the unmarried, though not limited to that). Omitted by ASV and most modern translations. wickedness, - Malicious evil or criminal disposition toward others. covetousness, - Avaricious and unlawful desire. maliciousness; - Deep-seated hatred or ill-will causing the disposition to do harm to its object. full of - Not every individual, but as a whole they had reached the point beyond which they could not go in the following sins. This statement is designed to show how widespread and common evil was among them and their degraded attitude toward it. envy - The feeling of hurt at the excellence or success of another. It is usually caused by another receiving what one desires for himself, such as success, recognition, appreciation, etc. murder, - Taking human life purposefully and with malice aforethought. debate, - Strife (ASV), contentious. deceit, - Deception or practices designed to mislead. malignity; Malevolence, bitterness, or corrupt disposition. whisperers, - Secret innuendoes.
Romans 1:30 Backbiters, - Slanderers (NIV) or revilers - verbally stabbing one in the back behind his back. haters of God, - God haters (NIV). This ex plains why they had rejected the truth of God and turned to their own foolish reasonings (Romans 1:18-28). despiteful,- Insolent (ASV) expressing itself in violence. proud - Haughty (ASV). One who thinks too highly of himself (Romans 12:3) and looks down with contempt upon his inferiors. boasters, - Displaying themselves as more than they are. Vainglorious esteem verbalized. inventors of evil things, - Always searching out new or different ways to practice evil; different ways to gratify the passions of the flesh. disobedient to parents, - The exact opposite of the fifth command (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1-3).
Romans 1:31 Without understanding,-Senseless (NIV). The same word as rendered foolish in Romans 1:21. Hence without sense (or stupid) in moral and spiritual matters. covenant-breakers,-- Faithless (NIV) in keeping contracts, whether with God or man. without natural affection, Without love (starge) of kindred, parents, or children - emotionless toward those bound by nature’s ties. implacable, - Omitted by many MSS and by ASV. An un forgiving or unyielding disposition; too stubborn to accept reconciliation on reasonable grounds. unmerciful: Ruthless (NIV) or pitiless. Having no mercy toward the shortcomings of others.
Romans 1:32 Who Those described in Romans 1:18-31. knowing - Either by nature or limited revelation. It seems to me the latter. If judgment means ordinance (ASV) or His righteous decree (NIV) then it must be by revelation. How could the judgment, ordinance, or decree of God be made known without Him pronouncing it? (Cf. 1 Corinthians 2:1-16.) the judgment of God, - They knew God had condemned the low level of morality to which they had descended (Ephesians 5:3-7; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11). that they which commit such things are worthy of death, Worthy of the penalty of sin that had passed upon them (Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3:1-7; Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23), and the guilt, suffering, sorrow, pain, and anguish it brings. not only do the same, - Practice the disgraceful vices themselves. but have pleasure in them that do them. They find pleasure in and give their approval to the degradation of others. Concluding note to Chapter 1: The last half of this chapter proves conclusively that the Gentiles were great sinners because they had sinned willfully against the light of truth and had turned to their own senseless reasonings they tried to direct their own steps in divine things (d. Jeremiah 10:23). But their foolish imaginations and rejection of the knowledge of God led them to this dark, dreary, gloomy state of vice and corruption. Cut loose from God, their degradation became a bottomless pit in which they were plunging deeper and deeper toward eternal ruin. No one of average intelligence could read this chapter and fail to see Paul’s point, namely, the gospel, God’s power to save, is absolutely indispensable for the salvation of such depraved hearts and lives. The gospel is therefore the only hope for the Gentiles.
GOD’S JUDGMENT UPON THE JEWS
Harold Winters
Romans 2:1 Therefore - (Dio) on this account. It was easy from Paul’s description of the shameful degraded state of the Gentiles to conclude that they were deservedly lost that their sins merited their punishment. thou art inexcusable, - Without excuse (ASV). The depths of Gentile degradation did not make the sins of the Jews less shallow. If anything, theirs may have been worse for two fundamental reason: (1) God had entrusted to them His fuller revelation (Romans 3:1-4); and (2) they could observe the results which followed the Gentiles abandoning the truth of God for falsehood. They thus had less excuse than the pagans. 0 man, whosoever thou art that judgest: - Condemns. They freely and frequently expressed their condemnation, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. They were sinners condemning sinners! But if a sinner condemns sinners (of which he is one) he condemns himself - condemns the very state he is in. Paul’s design in Romans 1, 2, , 3 is to show that the gospel is God’s power to save from sin and that every soul on earth stands in need of that power. He does this by showing that the Gentiles have sinned; he then shows that the Jews are guilty of the same things as the Gentiles; thus, he concludes, that all have sinned - all accountable people (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23). All, therefore, stand in need of the salvation offered in the gospel.
Romans 2:2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. - The truth is, God looks upon all as sinners, both Jew and Gentile. All have violated His divine law (Romans 5:12; 1 John 3:4; Titus 3:3). This means that all were in bondage to sin (John 8:34; 2 Peter 2:19). All stood in need of the Savior.
Romans 2:3 And thinkest thou this, 0 man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? - Do you think you can condemn others for doing precisely what you are doing and still not be called to account by God? One of two things seemed certain of them: (1) they thought they were exempt from God’s judgment (as in this verse), or (2) they had contempt for the goodness of God which should have led them to repentance (as in v. 4).
Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness - God is good (Ezra 3:11; Psalms 135:3; Psalms 145:9); the works of God are good (Genesis 1:31); the word of God is good (Deuteronomy 1:14; Proverbs 30:5-6); and His goodness is seen in what He has done for all of us (Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 3:15; John 3:16; Romans 5:8). But what was the Jews’ response to His goodness? They either thought they were exemptions to God’s judgment (v.3) or else they had contempt for His goodness. Paul proves (in this chapter) that they were not exempted from the penalty of sin. They were thus guilty of despising God’s goodness. and forbearance and longsuffering; - their contempt was due God’s wrath but His goodness was further demonstrated by His delaying punishment (2 Peter 3:9). not knowing not realizing (NIV). that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repen tance? - There are two words in the NT for repentance, metamelomai and metanoeo. The former means to regret, feel remorse, or be sorry for; the latter means such a change of will or purpose as to lead to a change of life and conduct. Judas is an example of the former (Matthew 27:3) and the prodigal son of the latter (Luke 15:12-21). The former is never commanded; the latter is. It is the latter (in its noun form) that is here used. It is not something to be received, to be known, or to be felt, but something to be done a command to be obeyed (Acts 17:30). The goodness of God. when it is contrasted with the corruption and hardness of sin in man, is one of the strongest motivations for repentance. The Jew had before him God’s goodness and he could see the depths of degradation to which sin had led the Gentiles (Romans 1:18-32). He had a choice to make between the two. And so does every other man to whom the gospel is preached.
Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart Instead of permitting the goodness of God and the corruption of sinful man to soften their hearts and thus lead them to repentance, they had remained unchanged by their stiff resistance. treasurest up unto thyself wrath - Storing up wrath against yourself (NIV). That is, they were storing up works of condemnation for which they would have to give an account in that great and dreadful day of reckoning for all men. against the day of wrath - The day of judgment when all men will be rewarded according to their work. whether it be good or bad (Romans 2:6; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:12-13). and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; - The revelation of the rightness of God’s judgment (Genesis 18:25). The judgment will not be according to race, social status, or intellectual achievement, but by the righteous standard of God (Acts 17:30). The standard will be the word of God (Romans 2:12-16; John 12:48).
Romans 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: Reward each according to his work (Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10). Two classes will ap pear in judgment (Matthew 25:31-46): (1) those in right relationship with God who continue in well doing (Romans 2:7), and (2) those who reject the truth and obey unrighteousness (Romans 2:8-9). The former will receive eternal life; the latter tribulation and anguish (Romans 2:7-9).
Romans 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: - The righteous (those whose attitude and actions place them in right relationship with God) will receive eternal life (Matthew 25:34-40; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
Romans 2:8-9 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribula tion and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; The wicked and disobedient, those whose attitude and actions place them in the wrong relationship with God, whether they be Jew or Gentile, shall receive indignation, wrath, tribulation, and anguish. The Jew first because he had the first opportunity (Romans 1:16) and therefore the greater obligation.
Romans 2:10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: This returns to the subject of v. 7 and to the reward of the righteous.
Romans 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God. - God recognizes no class, caste, rank, profession, or occupation in His dealings with man. He does not see men as Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14-16); as rich and poor (James 2:1-4); as bond and free (Galatians 3:28); as learned and unlearned (1 Corinthians 1:19-31). Nor does He see them as black and white, weak and strong, good and bad (except as good may refer to His saints). He sees everyone as a soul in need of salvation, a soul for which Christ died, a soul who stands in need of the gospel message. That He deals with all in identically the same way can be seen from the following facts: all have sinned (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12; Romans 11:32). Christ died for all (Romans 5:6-8; 1 John 2:2). He gave one plan of salvation which must be obeyed by all (Romans 1:16; Romans 11:26 - see notes there; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38-39). All the saved are added to the same church (Acts 2:47; Ephesians 2:13-16). All have the same standard by which to live (ch. 12; John 12:47-50). All worship in precisely the same manner (John 4:23-24; Acts 2:42). And all who obey the gospel will go to the same heaven (John 14:1-6; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:1-5). All this simply means that God does not favor one person over another in His plan to save. All are alike and precious in His sight.
ALL WILL BE JUDGED BY THE LAW UNDER WHICH THEY LIVE
Romans 2:12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; - Whether one sins outside the law of Moses, as did the Gentiles, or under the law, as did the Jews, he is still a condemned sinner. We do not know a great deal about the law under which the Gentiles lived, but we do know that they had sinned (Romans 1:18-32); that sin is a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), and that they were condemned as a result of their sins, but will not be judged by the law of Moses. All will be judged by the law under which they lived and to which they are accountable to God. We should learn from this that those under the OT law will not be judged by the gospel, nor will NT Christians be judged by the law of Moses.
Romans 2:13 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. - This has reference to those who live under the law and are judged by it. A failure to do what the law demands Gust to hear the law) is a violation and all law violators are condemned by the violated law - if for no other sin, then the sin of omission (James 4:17; Galatians 3:10). Only those who keep the law (in contrast to those who only have the law in their possession) are declared righteous by God. The contrast in Romans 2:13-15 is between those who have the law and do not obey it and those who do not have the law and yet keep its moral precepts. To use this passage to prove that Paul is arguing that one might be justified under the law is to miss his point absolutely. No one can be justified by law per se (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16). Once one violates the law, it knows nothing but condemnation (Romans 7:9-25). But we should learn from it, and from many other passages teaching the same principle, whether we are considering the law of Moses or the law of Christ, that one cannot be declared right when he stands in violation of the law. That would be contrary to all laws known to both God and man. The law of Christ, God’s revealed will to man in this age, demands obedience (Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46; Acts 5:32; 1 Peter 1:22), and only those who appropriate His divine scheme of justification through the blood of Christ by means of obedience can be saved (James 1:18-25). To fail to obey the will of Christ is to reject His divine scheme of justification, and without that di vine scheme (the substitutionary death of Christ on our behalf) we would all stand as law violators, and no law violator can be justified without the penalty being paid.
Romans 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, - The con trast here continues to be between the Jews having the law by revelation and the Gentiles not having a written law from God. It is not as to whether they had received or learned precepts indirectly from the law given to the Jews but that God had not entrusted revelation to the Gentiles as He had to the Jews (see Romans 3:1-4). do by nature In contrast with revelation. Some things are naturally right and some are naturally wrong, and it is natural, that is, in keeping with his nature, for man to do right. Morality can be determined always by Scripture, and often by reason and common sense. Take murder for example. All three, Scripture, reason and common sense, teach that it is wrong for one person to maliciously and without just cause take the life of another. Cain killed Abel(Genesis 4:8). He knew that he had done wrong (Genesis 4:9-16). But as far as we know no law had been given at this time prohibiting murder. the things contained in the law, - Things revealed in the written law. these, The Gentiles. having not the law, The written revelation. are a law unto themselves: Their own reason (and perhaps a limited and indirect access to revelation) was their law. Their reason was correct only insofar as it coincided with revelation. Paul’s point here is that they had violated their own sense of right. They were therefore justly condemned as sinners - violators of reason. But the Jews had the advantage of revelation and they had not lived up to that either. The conclusion is inevitable: the Jews are also sinners violators of revelation.
Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, Not the law of the heart, but the law written or imbedded in their hearts, that which they had learned either by reason or by limited indirect revelation. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts (NIV) rather than on tables of stone. This does not refer in any way to some universal in tangible law that is innate to the mind and revealed only by intuition. their conscience also bearing witness, - They knew right, and they knew that the moral precepts of the law were written in their minds and hearts. To this their consciences testified. and their thoughts Reasonings. the mean while - Coinciding with their conscience. accusing or else excusing one another; - Condemning or justifying each other.
Romans 2:16 In that day - The judgment day. when God shall judge the secrets of men Everything will be brought out into the open. Nothing shall be hid (Luke 8:17) from Him (Hebrews 4:13). Every closet will be opened and the hid den skeletons of passion, dishonesty, insincerity, lusts, ill-motives, and character shall be manifest (Matthew 10:26). Judgment will be according to man’s works (2 Corinthians 5:10), but it does not end here. Each shall be judged by every idle word (Matthew 12:36) and by every secret thing (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Each will be judged as he is, not as he pretends to be. by Jesus Christ - All judgment has been committed to Him (John 5:22; Acts 17:31; 2 Timothy 4:1). according to my gospel. - According to the gospel Paul preached, all men will be judged (Romans 14:10) by the law under which they live (v. 12) and only those obedient to the law (under which they live) shall be justified (v. 13). This principle is as true of the law of Christ as it is the law of Moses.
TEACHERS OF THE LAW
Romans 2:17-20 Behold, thou art called a Jew, - Because they were the physical seed of Abraham they laid claim to all the following: and restest in the law, - Relied on the written law entrusted to them by God through Moses. and makest thy boast of God, - Gloried in their relationship with God as keepers of the law. And knowest his will, - As revealed in the law. and approvest the things that are more excellent, - The superior way taught in the law had their endorsem*nt, not only in the good it demanded but also in the debauchery it condemned. being instructed out of the law; The law was their teacher; they had been taught it from childhood (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Deuteronomy 11:18-20). And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, - Not only had they been taught the law, they were teachers of it, living examples to those who foolishly worshiped and served idols. a light of them which are in darkness, - A light to lead the Gentiles out of their darkness of evil. An instructor of the foolish, - Corrector (ASV) of those void of understanding. a teacher of babes, - Teachers of the unlearned. which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. - They were possessors of truth, the embodiment of knowledge (NIV), revealed in the law, but they were content to be preservers rather than practitioners of it. They were Jews and were proud of it; they had the advantage of being entrusted with the law; the law revealed to them a superior way of life; they were therefore teachers and instructors of the more excellent way. This was their claim. And in theory they were absolutely right, but in practice they had totally failed and in their failure they were causing the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of God (Romans 2:24). Paul now leads them to the conclusion that they too are sinners.
Romans 2:21 Thou therefore which teachest another, - Their claims were nothing but empty sounds, and Paul rebukes them for their inconsistency in having the law, knowing that it was a superior system, and claiming to be teachers of it (Romans 2:17-20) but yet living examples of law violators. How could they teach others to live by a law they themselves did not keep? teachest thou not thyself? A teacher should be an example of the message. That is, he himself should learn and practice the lesson before attempting to instruct another in it. One often teaches more by the way he lives and by what he is than by what he says. Every teacher should be acutely aware of this. thou that preachest a man should not steal, - Preaches what the law of God says about stealing (Exodus 20:15). To steal is to take the property of another without his knowledge or consent - to appropriate to oneself that which by right belongs to another and to which one has no right. dost thou steal? - To preach against stealing while committing the very act would be gross hypocrisy. But this is precisely the conclusion to which the writer was leading the Jews. They were law violators trying to teach respect and obedience to the law. We are not exempt from this principle today. How could one teach on the evils of drug abuse and imbibe alcohol? Or against gossip while gossiping? How could an immoral person teach morality? How could a stingy person teach liberal giving? How could a non·Christian teach another to be a Christian? How could an unfaithful Christian teach faithfulness to Christ?
Romans 2:22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, Adultery was prohibited by the seventh commandment (Exodus 20:14) and one could not teach the law without saying, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Adultery is the sex act between a married person and someone (anyone) not his mate. Vine says the Greek word "Denotes one who has unlawful intercourse with the spouse of another." It has always been considered a very grievous sin, in fact, so grievous that it carried the death penalty under the law (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:23-26). It is a sin against God, against God’s design of sexuality, against marriage, against one’s marital mate, and against one’s own body (1 Corinthians 6:18). It destroys the sanctity of the home and thus corrupts the basic unit of society. Married partners belong exclusively to each other (1 Corinthians 7:1-5), so exclusively in fact that one has control over the other’s body (1 Corinthians 7:3-4). They are to fill each other’s needs, and when one turns to another to have these needs filled, either partially or completely, sin is involved and the home is endangered (cf. Matthew 19:3-9). For this reason no married person should ever touch one of the opposite sex when sexual connotations are involved. Here the principle would ex tend to any kind of sexual immorality, whether overtly or in the heart (Matthew 5:28). One simply cannot teach purity while living impure. dost thou commit adultery? - As with the other questions in this section (Romans 2:21-23) this one re quires a positive answer: yes, we do. thou that abhorrest idols, - This horror of idols was embedded in the first two of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:3-5). Idols were nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4); a lie (Jeremiah 10:14); an abomination (Ezra 8:9-10); the work of man’s hand (Isaiah 2:8; Jeremiah 1:16; Jeremiah 10:3-9). dost thou commit sacrilege? Yes. This is to profane the holy or appropriate for selfish use (hence the ASV has rob temples, the thought probably being that they rob God to use for self) that which has been devoted to the service of God (Malachi 1:12-14; Malachi 3:8-9). The Jews were not guilty of overt idolatry (and had not been since their return from captivity), but what profit is there in rejecting an idol if one does not render to God the glory, honor, and service due Him (Matthew 4:10)?
Romans 2:23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, They boasted in the fact that they had the law, loved the law, and were teachers of the law. But Paul shows them that the missing link in their chain was the practice of the law. through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? we do, is the only possible answer. They transgressed the law (stepped outside its bounds) and failed to practice what it had enjoined. In this they dishonored God. And they would readily recognize this as a sin.
Romans 2:24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles -- When the Gentiles saw the inconsistency of the Jews (as shown in Romans 2:21-23) it led them to speak evil of or reproach the holy name of God and despise the law revealed by Him. If such inconsistency was the true product of the law, who would want to honor and serve its Giver? through you, Because of you (ASV). as it is written. - Probably referring either to Isaiah 52:5 or Ezra, or both, though neither passage addresses the subject precisely as Paul does.
THE TRUE JEW
Romans 2:25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: Circumcision was first given to Abraham as a token or a of the covenant established between God and himself (Genesis 17:11-14) and was later made a part of the law of Moses (Exodus 12:48-49; John 7:12) but the token was worthless without the keeping of the covenant. It was therefore not circumcision per se that was valid; it was the keeping of the law. There was nothing in it inherently righteous. Its value was in the fact that God had commanded it. This is a good place to observe that no act standing alone, without the disposition to obey, has merit in God’s sight. That is to say, God knows no sacraments in the sense the term is used by Roman Catholicism. In Catholic theology a sacrament is an act through which grace (the end result for which the act was commanded) is im parted by virtue of the act itself. But Paul here, using the subject of circumcision (which would come as close to a "sacrament" for the Jews as anything in the Bible), shows that the act per se is not righteousness, but obedience to the law which results in the act. but if thou be a breaker of the law, - be a transgressor (ASV). This is more than a single transgression; it is a way of life - living outside the bounds of law. thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. - One could not keep the law without being circumcised, but he could be circumcised without that circumcision signifying covenant relationship, in which case circumcision would be no better than uncircumcision (which was precisely the case with these law breakers).
Romans 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision he counted for circumcision? -- None but Jews had been commanded to be circumcised; none but Jews, then, violated the law or omitted a duty when they were not circumcised. The Jews were circumcised (they could not omit it without breaking the covenant) but did not live by the law; on the other hand Paul supposes a case in which one is not circumcised (one not a Jew) because he has no covenant relationship with God and consequently has no command from God to be circumcised, but yet he the moral precepts of the law. And just as there were no advantages to the Jew who was circumcised but did not keep the law, so there were no disadvantages in uncircumcision for those who did keep it. Now which is better, him who is circumcised without keeping the law or him who keeps the law without being circumcised? It is not as much Paul’s purpose to justify the latter as it is to condemn the former.
Romans 2:27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? Continuing his hypothetical case, Paul concludes that the uncircumcised (Gentiles), who keep the law - live as the law directs and fills the purpose for which it was given condemns the circumcised (Jews), who have both the law and circumcision, but are transgressors of the law. The conduct of the former condemns the latter in the same sense Noah’s faith and obedience condemned the antediluvians (Hebrews 11:7), that is, by showing their con duct inexcusable.
Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; One is not true to God simply because he is the physical seed of Abraham. Not a Jew means not a true - not the Jew God promised to bless, but rather a Jew who had not kept covenant with God. neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: Not the true circumcision, not circumcision as God designed it to be. Circumcision was a token of the covenant (Genesis 17:8-14) or a sign of covenant relationship. When the covenant was broken, circumcision served no purpose. Hence it was no circumcision.
Romans 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; - A true Jew, one who sincerely keeps the covenant with God. and circumcision is that of the heart, - A sign of one’s dedication to the covenant. Circumcision of the heart has reference to the removing of everything from the heart that is contrary to the will of God, to the devoting of it to God, and to the rendering of obedience (to the law) from the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4), In the NT, it refers to the process by which one is cut off from sins (in becoming a Christian) and thereby becomes a new creature in Christ (Colossians 2:11-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17). in the spirit, and not in the letter; - Another way of speaking of a Jew which is one inwardly. It is one who is right in disposition (spirit) as well as his overt practice (letter). Some have the wrong attitude with the right practice; others have the right attitude but the wrong practice; but the only way to please God is to com bine both - the right attitude with the right practice. whose praise is not of men, but of God. A further description of the true Jew. He acts to please God, not man. And because both his disposition and practice are right, God is pleased with him ... and praised by him.
Concluding note to Chapter 2: Here Paul has prove that, while the Jews had the advantage of the law, a superior way of life, and circumcision, the token of their covenant relationship with God, they had not lived up to the revelation they had received. They professed themselves to be teachers, guides, and leaders, but yet they were guilty of the very things the law condemned .. _and the things they condemned in the Gentiles. They had the law and boasted in that fact, but they did not keep it. They therefore stood condemned by the very law which they taught. Thus their circumcision had become useless - it was no longer a sign of their covenant relationship with God because they had broken the covenant. The conclusion is inevitable: the Jews have sinned and stand equally in need with the Gentiles of the gospel of Christ. The Gentiles had sinned against reason (Romans 1:18-32); the Jews had sinned against revelation against the covenant God had made with them. If either is worse, it is the latter.
GOD’S JUDGMENT UPON THE JEWS
Harold Winters
Romans 2:1 Therefore - (Dio) on this account. It was easy from Paul’s description of the shameful degraded state of the Gentiles to conclude that they were deservedly lost that their sins merited their punishment. thou art inexcusable, - Without excuse (ASV). The depths of Gentile degradation did not make the sins of the Jews less shallow. If anything, theirs may have been worse for two fundamental reason: (1) God had entrusted to them His fuller revelation (Romans 3:1-4); and (2) they could observe the results which followed the Gentiles abandoning the truth of God for falsehood. They thus had less excuse than the pagans. 0 man, whosoever thou art that judgest: - Condemns. They freely and frequently expressed their condemnation, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. They were sinners condemning sinners! But if a sinner condemns sinners (of which he is one) he condemns himself - condemns the very state he is in. Paul’s design in Romans 1, 2, , 3 is to show that the gospel is God’s power to save from sin and that every soul on earth stands in need of that power. He does this by showing that the Gentiles have sinned; he then shows that the Jews are guilty of the same things as the Gentiles; thus, he concludes, that all have sinned - all accountable people (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23). All, therefore, stand in need of the salvation offered in the gospel.
Romans 2:2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. - The truth is, God looks upon all as sinners, both Jew and Gentile. All have violated His divine law (Romans 5:12; 1 John 3:4; Titus 3:3). This means that all were in bondage to sin (John 8:34; 2 Peter 2:19). All stood in need of the Savior.
Romans 2:3 And thinkest thou this, 0 man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? - Do you think you can condemn others for doing precisely what you are doing and still not be called to account by God? One of two things seemed certain of them: (1) they thought they were exempt from God’s judgment (as in this verse), or (2) they had contempt for the goodness of God which should have led them to repentance (as in v. 4).
Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness - God is good (Ezra 3:11; Psalms 135:3; Psalms 145:9); the works of God are good (Genesis 1:31); the word of God is good (Deuteronomy 1:14; Proverbs 30:5-6); and His goodness is seen in what He has done for all of us (Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 3:15; John 3:16; Romans 5:8). But what was the Jews’ response to His goodness? They either thought they were exemptions to God’s judgment (v.3) or else they had contempt for His goodness. Paul proves (in this chapter) that they were not exempted from the penalty of sin. They were thus guilty of despising God’s goodness. and forbearance and longsuffering; - their contempt was due God’s wrath but His goodness was further demonstrated by His delaying punishment (2 Peter 3:9). not knowing not realizing (NIV). that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repen tance? - There are two words in the NT for repentance, metamelomai and metanoeo. The former means to regret, feel remorse, or be sorry for; the latter means such a change of will or purpose as to lead to a change of life and conduct. Judas is an example of the former (Matthew 27:3) and the prodigal son of the latter (Luke 15:12-21). The former is never commanded; the latter is. It is the latter (in its noun form) that is here used. It is not something to be received, to be known, or to be felt, but something to be done a command to be obeyed (Acts 17:30). The goodness of God. when it is contrasted with the corruption and hardness of sin in man, is one of the strongest motivations for repentance. The Jew had before him God’s goodness and he could see the depths of degradation to which sin had led the Gentiles (Romans 1:18-32). He had a choice to make between the two. And so does every other man to whom the gospel is preached.
Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart Instead of permitting the goodness of God and the corruption of sinful man to soften their hearts and thus lead them to repentance, they had remained unchanged by their stiff resistance. treasurest up unto thyself wrath - Storing up wrath against yourself (NIV). That is, they were storing up works of condemnation for which they would have to give an account in that great and dreadful day of reckoning for all men. against the day of wrath - The day of judgment when all men will be rewarded according to their work. whether it be good or bad (Romans 2:6; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:12-13). and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; - The revelation of the rightness of God’s judgment (Genesis 18:25). The judgment will not be according to race, social status, or intellectual achievement, but by the righteous standard of God (Acts 17:30). The standard will be the word of God (Romans 2:12-16; John 12:48).
Romans 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: Reward each according to his work (Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10). Two classes will ap pear in judgment (Matthew 25:31-46): (1) those in right relationship with God who continue in well doing (Romans 2:7), and (2) those who reject the truth and obey unrighteousness (Romans 2:8-9). The former will receive eternal life; the latter tribulation and anguish (Romans 2:7-9).
Romans 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: - The righteous (those whose attitude and actions place them in right relationship with God) will receive eternal life (Matthew 25:34-40; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
Romans 2:8-9 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribula tion and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; The wicked and disobedient, those whose attitude and actions place them in the wrong relationship with God, whether they be Jew or Gentile, shall receive indignation, wrath, tribulation, and anguish. The Jew first because he had the first opportunity (Romans 1:16) and therefore the greater obligation.
Romans 2:10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: This returns to the subject of v. 7 and to the reward of the righteous.
Romans 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God. - God recognizes no class, caste, rank, profession, or occupation in His dealings with man. He does not see men as Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14-16); as rich and poor (James 2:1-4); as bond and free (Galatians 3:28); as learned and unlearned (1 Corinthians 1:19-31). Nor does He see them as black and white, weak and strong, good and bad (except as good may refer to His saints). He sees everyone as a soul in need of salvation, a soul for which Christ died, a soul who stands in need of the gospel message. That He deals with all in identically the same way can be seen from the following facts: all have sinned (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12; Romans 11:32). Christ died for all (Romans 5:6-8; 1 John 2:2). He gave one plan of salvation which must be obeyed by all (Romans 1:16; Romans 11:26 - see notes there; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38-39). All the saved are added to the same church (Acts 2:47; Ephesians 2:13-16). All have the same standard by which to live (ch. 12; John 12:47-50). All worship in precisely the same manner (John 4:23-24; Acts 2:42). And all who obey the gospel will go to the same heaven (John 14:1-6; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:1-5). All this simply means that God does not favor one person over another in His plan to save. All are alike and precious in His sight.
ALL WILL BE JUDGED BY THE LAW UNDER WHICH THEY LIVE
Romans 2:12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; - Whether one sins outside the law of Moses, as did the Gentiles, or under the law, as did the Jews, he is still a condemned sinner. We do not know a great deal about the law under which the Gentiles lived, but we do know that they had sinned (Romans 1:18-32); that sin is a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), and that they were condemned as a result of their sins, but will not be judged by the law of Moses. All will be judged by the law under which they lived and to which they are accountable to God. We should learn from this that those under the OT law will not be judged by the gospel, nor will NT Christians be judged by the law of Moses.
Romans 2:13 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. - This has reference to those who live under the law and are judged by it. A failure to do what the law demands Gust to hear the law) is a violation and all law violators are condemned by the violated law - if for no other sin, then the sin of omission (James 4:17; Galatians 3:10). Only those who keep the law (in contrast to those who only have the law in their possession) are declared righteous by God. The contrast in Romans 2:13-15 is between those who have the law and do not obey it and those who do not have the law and yet keep its moral precepts. To use this passage to prove that Paul is arguing that one might be justified under the law is to miss his point absolutely. No one can be justified by law per se (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16). Once one violates the law, it knows nothing but condemnation (Romans 7:9-25). But we should learn from it, and from many other passages teaching the same principle, whether we are considering the law of Moses or the law of Christ, that one cannot be declared right when he stands in violation of the law. That would be contrary to all laws known to both God and man. The law of Christ, God’s revealed will to man in this age, demands obedience (Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46; Acts 5:32; 1 Peter 1:22), and only those who appropriate His divine scheme of justification through the blood of Christ by means of obedience can be saved (James 1:18-25). To fail to obey the will of Christ is to reject His divine scheme of justification, and without that di vine scheme (the substitutionary death of Christ on our behalf) we would all stand as law violators, and no law violator can be justified without the penalty being paid.
Romans 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, - The con trast here continues to be between the Jews having the law by revelation and the Gentiles not having a written law from God. It is not as to whether they had received or learned precepts indirectly from the law given to the Jews but that God had not entrusted revelation to the Gentiles as He had to the Jews (see Romans 3:1-4). do by nature In contrast with revelation. Some things are naturally right and some are naturally wrong, and it is natural, that is, in keeping with his nature, for man to do right. Morality can be determined always by Scripture, and often by reason and common sense. Take murder for example. All three, Scripture, reason and common sense, teach that it is wrong for one person to maliciously and without just cause take the life of another. Cain killed Abel(Genesis 4:8). He knew that he had done wrong (Genesis 4:9-16). But as far as we know no law had been given at this time prohibiting murder. the things contained in the law, - Things revealed in the written law. these, The Gentiles. having not the law, The written revelation. are a law unto themselves: Their own reason (and perhaps a limited and indirect access to revelation) was their law. Their reason was correct only insofar as it coincided with revelation. Paul’s point here is that they had violated their own sense of right. They were therefore justly condemned as sinners - violators of reason. But the Jews had the advantage of revelation and they had not lived up to that either. The conclusion is inevitable: the Jews are also sinners violators of revelation.
Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, Not the law of the heart, but the law written or imbedded in their hearts, that which they had learned either by reason or by limited indirect revelation. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts (NIV) rather than on tables of stone. This does not refer in any way to some universal in tangible law that is innate to the mind and revealed only by intuition. their conscience also bearing witness, - They knew right, and they knew that the moral precepts of the law were written in their minds and hearts. To this their consciences testified. and their thoughts Reasonings. the mean while - Coinciding with their conscience. accusing or else excusing one another; - Condemning or justifying each other.
Romans 2:16 In that day - The judgment day. when God shall judge the secrets of men Everything will be brought out into the open. Nothing shall be hid (Luke 8:17) from Him (Hebrews 4:13). Every closet will be opened and the hid den skeletons of passion, dishonesty, insincerity, lusts, ill-motives, and character shall be manifest (Matthew 10:26). Judgment will be according to man’s works (2 Corinthians 5:10), but it does not end here. Each shall be judged by every idle word (Matthew 12:36) and by every secret thing (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Each will be judged as he is, not as he pretends to be. by Jesus Christ - All judgment has been committed to Him (John 5:22; Acts 17:31; 2 Timothy 4:1). according to my gospel. - According to the gospel Paul preached, all men will be judged (Romans 14:10) by the law under which they live (v. 12) and only those obedient to the law (under which they live) shall be justified (v. 13). This principle is as true of the law of Christ as it is the law of Moses.
TEACHERS OF THE LAW
Romans 2:17-20 Behold, thou art called a Jew, - Because they were the physical seed of Abraham they laid claim to all the following: and restest in the law, - Relied on the written law entrusted to them by God through Moses. and makest thy boast of God, - Gloried in their relationship with God as keepers of the law. And knowest his will, - As revealed in the law. and approvest the things that are more excellent, - The superior way taught in the law had their endorsem*nt, not only in the good it demanded but also in the debauchery it condemned. being instructed out of the law; The law was their teacher; they had been taught it from childhood (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Deuteronomy 11:18-20). And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, - Not only had they been taught the law, they were teachers of it, living examples to those who foolishly worshiped and served idols. a light of them which are in darkness, - A light to lead the Gentiles out of their darkness of evil. An instructor of the foolish, - Corrector (ASV) of those void of understanding. a teacher of babes, - Teachers of the unlearned. which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. - They were possessors of truth, the embodiment of knowledge (NIV), revealed in the law, but they were content to be preservers rather than practitioners of it. They were Jews and were proud of it; they had the advantage of being entrusted with the law; the law revealed to them a superior way of life; they were therefore teachers and instructors of the more excellent way. This was their claim. And in theory they were absolutely right, but in practice they had totally failed and in their failure they were causing the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of God (Romans 2:24). Paul now leads them to the conclusion that they too are sinners.
Romans 2:21 Thou therefore which teachest another, - Their claims were nothing but empty sounds, and Paul rebukes them for their inconsistency in having the law, knowing that it was a superior system, and claiming to be teachers of it (Romans 2:17-20) but yet living examples of law violators. How could they teach others to live by a law they themselves did not keep? teachest thou not thyself? A teacher should be an example of the message. That is, he himself should learn and practice the lesson before attempting to instruct another in it. One often teaches more by the way he lives and by what he is than by what he says. Every teacher should be acutely aware of this. thou that preachest a man should not steal, - Preaches what the law of God says about stealing (Exodus 20:15). To steal is to take the property of another without his knowledge or consent - to appropriate to oneself that which by right belongs to another and to which one has no right. dost thou steal? - To preach against stealing while committing the very act would be gross hypocrisy. But this is precisely the conclusion to which the writer was leading the Jews. They were law violators trying to teach respect and obedience to the law. We are not exempt from this principle today. How could one teach on the evils of drug abuse and imbibe alcohol? Or against gossip while gossiping? How could an immoral person teach morality? How could a stingy person teach liberal giving? How could a non·Christian teach another to be a Christian? How could an unfaithful Christian teach faithfulness to Christ?
Romans 2:22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, Adultery was prohibited by the seventh commandment (Exodus 20:14) and one could not teach the law without saying, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Adultery is the sex act between a married person and someone (anyone) not his mate. Vine says the Greek word "Denotes one who has unlawful intercourse with the spouse of another." It has always been considered a very grievous sin, in fact, so grievous that it carried the death penalty under the law (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:23-26). It is a sin against God, against God’s design of sexuality, against marriage, against one’s marital mate, and against one’s own body (1 Corinthians 6:18). It destroys the sanctity of the home and thus corrupts the basic unit of society. Married partners belong exclusively to each other (1 Corinthians 7:1-5), so exclusively in fact that one has control over the other’s body (1 Corinthians 7:3-4). They are to fill each other’s needs, and when one turns to another to have these needs filled, either partially or completely, sin is involved and the home is endangered (cf. Matthew 19:3-9). For this reason no married person should ever touch one of the opposite sex when sexual connotations are involved. Here the principle would ex tend to any kind of sexual immorality, whether overtly or in the heart (Matthew 5:28). One simply cannot teach purity while living impure. dost thou commit adultery? - As with the other questions in this section (Romans 2:21-23) this one re quires a positive answer: yes, we do. thou that abhorrest idols, - This horror of idols was embedded in the first two of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:3-5). Idols were nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4); a lie (Jeremiah 10:14); an abomination (Ezra 8:9-10); the work of man’s hand (Isaiah 2:8; Jeremiah 1:16; Jeremiah 10:3-9). dost thou commit sacrilege? Yes. This is to profane the holy or appropriate for selfish use (hence the ASV has rob temples, the thought probably being that they rob God to use for self) that which has been devoted to the service of God (Malachi 1:12-14; Malachi 3:8-9). The Jews were not guilty of overt idolatry (and had not been since their return from captivity), but what profit is there in rejecting an idol if one does not render to God the glory, honor, and service due Him (Matthew 4:10)?
Romans 2:23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, They boasted in the fact that they had the law, loved the law, and were teachers of the law. But Paul shows them that the missing link in their chain was the practice of the law. through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? we do, is the only possible answer. They transgressed the law (stepped outside its bounds) and failed to practice what it had enjoined. In this they dishonored God. And they would readily recognize this as a sin.
Romans 2:24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles -- When the Gentiles saw the inconsistency of the Jews (as shown in Romans 2:21-23) it led them to speak evil of or reproach the holy name of God and despise the law revealed by Him. If such inconsistency was the true product of the law, who would want to honor and serve its Giver? through you, Because of you (ASV). as it is written. - Probably referring either to Isaiah 52:5 or Ezra, or both, though neither passage addresses the subject precisely as Paul does.
THE TRUE JEW
Romans 2:25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: Circumcision was first given to Abraham as a token or a of the covenant established between God and himself (Genesis 17:11-14) and was later made a part of the law of Moses (Exodus 12:48-49; John 7:12) but the token was worthless without the keeping of the covenant. It was therefore not circumcision per se that was valid; it was the keeping of the law. There was nothing in it inherently righteous. Its value was in the fact that God had commanded it. This is a good place to observe that no act standing alone, without the disposition to obey, has merit in God’s sight. That is to say, God knows no sacraments in the sense the term is used by Roman Catholicism. In Catholic theology a sacrament is an act through which grace (the end result for which the act was commanded) is im parted by virtue of the act itself. But Paul here, using the subject of circumcision (which would come as close to a "sacrament" for the Jews as anything in the Bible), shows that the act per se is not righteousness, but obedience to the law which results in the act. but if thou be a breaker of the law, - be a transgressor (ASV). This is more than a single transgression; it is a way of life - living outside the bounds of law. thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. - One could not keep the law without being circumcised, but he could be circumcised without that circumcision signifying covenant relationship, in which case circumcision would be no better than uncircumcision (which was precisely the case with these law breakers).
Romans 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision he counted for circumcision? -- None but Jews had been commanded to be circumcised; none but Jews, then, violated the law or omitted a duty when they were not circumcised. The Jews were circumcised (they could not omit it without breaking the covenant) but did not live by the law; on the other hand Paul supposes a case in which one is not circumcised (one not a Jew) because he has no covenant relationship with God and consequently has no command from God to be circumcised, but yet he the moral precepts of the law. And just as there were no advantages to the Jew who was circumcised but did not keep the law, so there were no disadvantages in uncircumcision for those who did keep it. Now which is better, him who is circumcised without keeping the law or him who keeps the law without being circumcised? It is not as much Paul’s purpose to justify the latter as it is to condemn the former.
Romans 2:27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? Continuing his hypothetical case, Paul concludes that the uncircumcised (Gentiles), who keep the law - live as the law directs and fills the purpose for which it was given condemns the circumcised (Jews), who have both the law and circumcision, but are transgressors of the law. The conduct of the former condemns the latter in the same sense Noah’s faith and obedience condemned the antediluvians (Hebrews 11:7), that is, by showing their con duct inexcusable.
Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; One is not true to God simply because he is the physical seed of Abraham. Not a Jew means not a true - not the Jew God promised to bless, but rather a Jew who had not kept covenant with God. neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: Not the true circumcision, not circumcision as God designed it to be. Circumcision was a token of the covenant (Genesis 17:8-14) or a sign of covenant relationship. When the covenant was broken, circumcision served no purpose. Hence it was no circumcision.
Romans 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; - A true Jew, one who sincerely keeps the covenant with God. and circumcision is that of the heart, - A sign of one’s dedication to the covenant. Circumcision of the heart has reference to the removing of everything from the heart that is contrary to the will of God, to the devoting of it to God, and to the rendering of obedience (to the law) from the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4), In the NT, it refers to the process by which one is cut off from sins (in becoming a Christian) and thereby becomes a new creature in Christ (Colossians 2:11-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17). in the spirit, and not in the letter; - Another way of speaking of a Jew which is one inwardly. It is one who is right in disposition (spirit) as well as his overt practice (letter). Some have the wrong attitude with the right practice; others have the right attitude but the wrong practice; but the only way to please God is to com bine both - the right attitude with the right practice. whose praise is not of men, but of God. A further description of the true Jew. He acts to please God, not man. And because both his disposition and practice are right, God is pleased with him ... and praised by him.
Concluding note to Chapter 2: Here Paul has prove that, while the Jews had the advantage of the law, a superior way of life, and circumcision, the token of their covenant relationship with God, they had not lived up to the revelation they had received. They professed themselves to be teachers, guides, and leaders, but yet they were guilty of the very things the law condemned .. _and the things they condemned in the Gentiles. They had the law and boasted in that fact, but they did not keep it. They therefore stood condemned by the very law which they taught. Thus their circumcision had become useless - it was no longer a sign of their covenant relationship with God because they had broken the covenant. The conclusion is inevitable: the Jews have sinned and stand equally in need with the Gentiles of the gospel of Christ. The Gentiles had sinned against reason (Romans 1:18-32); the Jews had sinned against revelation against the covenant God had made with them. If either is worse, it is the latter.
ADVANTAGES OF THE JEWS
Harold Winters
Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Paul now anticipates and answers three objections Romans 3:1; Romans 3:3; Romans 3:5) to his line of reasoning. This is the first of the three. If the Jews were in the same sinful and lost state as the Gentiles, and if they stood in need of the gospel before they could be saved, what had been their advantage, if any, in having the law and in being circumcised? The question is rhetorical and designed to elicit the negative reply, none. But Paul answers it positively (Romans 3:2).
Romans 3:2 Much every way: Rather than answering negatively, the designed reply to the question of v. 1, Paul answers positively. There were many advantages in being a Jew, such as the provisions for a better way of life, freedom from the superstition of idolatry, God’s protective care, etc. chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. - Primarily, and by far the greatest advantage, the Jews had been entrusted with God’s word, the divine revelation. They were the custodians of the law.
Romans 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? - This is the second anticipated objection to his reasoning that the Jews were equally sinful with the Gentiles. All understood that the ways and truth of God do not depend upon the beliefs and actions of men. Truth is truth, and it will remain truth, even though all the world is in unbelief. God’s covenant included promises to the Jewish people, promises that He must keep if He remained true to His word. But if it were true that the Jews were now in the same sinful and lost condition as the Gentiles, would this not mean that their unbelief had frustrated the promises of God? Would this not be saying that their unbelief forced God to be unfaithful (because He would be un able to keep His promises)?
Romans 3:4 God forbid: A strong negative meaning by no means or, according to Vincent (WS), may it not have come to pass. Paul uses it ten times in Rom. (four more in 1 Cor. and Gal.) to express his strongest dissent to concepts contrary to the gospel. It is absolutely impossible that the unbelief of men could prevent God from keeping His promises (some of which Were conditional and others unconditional; God always kept His unconditional promises and the conditional ones were not effective not a promise - until the conditions were met; and since the Jews had broken the covenant, that is they had not met the conditions, they themselves, not God, had nullified the promises). yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; - God will be true to His promises even if everyone else proves false. He does not change His mind (Romans 11:29) and it is impossible for Him to lie (Hebrews 6:18). as it is written, In Psalms 51:4, a part of David’s pitiful cry for mercy when he acknowledged his grievous sin with Bathsheba. He confessed his sin and acknowledged that God was right in condemning it. That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Thou and thy are pro nouns for God. Thus God is here depicted as being judged by men. When the words and actions of God are thus judged, He always stands justified. The Judge of all the earth does right (Genesis 18:25), and to this all who judge Him justly must consent. Barnes says: "The meaning of the expression, in the connection in which Paul uses it, is, that it is to be held as a fixed, unwavering principle, that God is right and true, whatever consequences it may involve, whatever doctrine it may overthrow, or whatever man it may prove to be a liar." So God will keep His promises!
GOD’S FAITHFUL JUDGMENT
Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness The fact that we have broken the covenant and are living in disobedience. commend the righteousness of God, - This is the third anticipated objection to Paul’s reasoning. If our sins magnify the faithfulness of God in keeping His promises. what shall we say?
What should be our conclusion? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? - If God’s faithfulness is displayed by the Jews’ disobedience, thus giving Him the opportunity to reveal His plan to save all through the gospel, would not God be unjust to punish their disobedience, seeing their sin ultimately resulted in great good? (I speak as a man.) - As it appears from a human vantage point.
Romans 3:6 God forbid: See note on Romans 3:4. for then how shall God judge the world? - If God could not condemn the Jews for their disobedience, then how could He judge the world? How could He punish the Gentiles (which the Jews gladly condemned) without also judging the Jews, since both are guilty of the same sins?
Romans 3:7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? In my judgment, Paul here restates the third objection (from Romans 3:5) in his own words and perhaps from his own experience in order to more soundly refute it. According to the Jews, Paul had abandoned the truth, his national religion, for falsehood, but by their own reason (Romans 3:5) they could not condemn him. If through his falsehood God’s fidelity to His promises had abounded to God’s glory, how could Paul be condemned as a sinner? If good came out of his falsehood, and God had been glorified in the good, how could he be condemned for evil? This would have been too much for the Jews: to justify themselves (with their argument) they would at the same time justify Paul.
Romans 3:8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. - If it is the case, as argued in Romans 3:7, why not do more evil so that more good will result? And while some had falsely accused Paul of preaching this, to all right thinking people it reduces the argument to an absurdity. To all such, their condemnation will be rendered in justice.
Romans 3:5-8 Special note: The argument here is difficult and my inadequacy to offer much help is obvious. The clearest treatment of it that I have seen is the paraphrase found in The Living Bible, by Kenneth Taylor. And while I do not recommend it as a whole (it should always be used as paraphrase rather than a translation), I commend its treatment of these verses for your serious consideration. "But," some say, "our breaking faith with God is good, our sins serve a good purpose, for people will notice how good God is when they see how bad we are. Is it fair, then, for Him to punish us when our sins are helping Him? (That is the way some people talk.) God forbid! Then what kind of God would He be, to overlook sin? How could He ever condemn anyone? For He could not judge and condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty brought Him glory by pointing up His honesty in contrast to my lies. If you follow through with that idea, you come to this: the worse we are, the better God likes it! But the damnation of those who say such things is just. Yet some claim that this is what I preach."
ALL HAVE SINNED
Romans 3:9 What then? - What is the conclusion to be reached from this? are we better than they? - Do the advantages of the Jews (vv. 1-2) make them better (less sinful and thus in less need of redemption) than the Gentiles? How could they have received all the blessing of God without becoming better mor ally? No, in no wise: Not at all! (NIV). That the Jews were better is not the conclusion to be reached. Quite to the contrary. for we have before proved -- Laid to the charge (ASV). both Jews and Gentiles, - (Romans 1:18-32 thru Romans 2:1-29). that they are all under sin; - No one is exempted (Romans 5:12; Romans 11:32; Galatians 3:22; 1 Kings 8:46). All are sinners, both Jews and Gentiles. And all are lost because of sin. Thus all stand equally in need of the gospel. Working on the assumption (which was granted by all his readers) that there are only two classes of people, Paul here reaches his conclusion. His argument can be thought of as an ex tended syllogism: the Gentiles have sinned (Romans 1:18-32); the Jews have sinned (Romans 2:1-29); therefore all have sinned (vv. 1-18). Given the truthfulness of the two premises, the conclusion is inevitable.
Romans 3:10-18 Paul has just concluded that all, both Jews and Gentiles, are under the penalty of sin and therefore all stand in need of the salvation offered only in the gospel. Here he turns to the Scriptures and from a miscellaneous selection from Psalms, Isaiah, and Eccl., shows that they teach exactly the same conclusion. All conceded that the Gentiles were under sin. Thus the barbs of this section are directed to the Jews, who would not question the teaching of their sacred writings.
Romans 3:10 As it is written, - In the OT Scriptures. There is none righteous, - Probably from Ecclesiastes 7:20. None (who do not have the blood of Christ to cover their sins) stand in right relationship with God. None could be justified by law; hence there were none righteous. Righteousness as used here is the results of justification. It is thus a right relationship with God - a relationship which none possessed then nor now without the benefits of the death of Christ. no, not one: - Psalms 14:3; Psalms 53:3. Not a single exception to this rule (of course this has in view responsible people; the thrust of the whole argument is that none could be saved by the law; hence the universal need of the gospel, vv. 20-21).
Romans 3:11 There is none that understandeth - Psalms 14:2; Psalms 53:2. In the context of the quotation, the fool denies God. Then God looks among the children of men to see if any understands. He found none, as the statement here con cludes. That is, He found none with a perfect knowledge of His will. there is none that seeketh after God. - Psalms 14:2; Psalms 53:2. None seek after Him to know Him and do His will. They seek the ways and means of evil (Ecclesiastes 7:29), but not God - they want to know God only if He fits into their plans and devises.
Romans 3:12 They have all gone out of the way, - Psalms 14:3; Psalms 53:3. They have turned aside or gone back from the way of righteousness. they are together become unprofitable; - Psalms 14:3; Psalms 53:3. Worthless (NIV). The word in Ps. is filthy (KJV) or corrupt (NIV). It means that they had gone bad. Man was made for a purpose in the plan of God. He is worthwhile only when he fills that purpose. But these were not filling their purpose. Hence they were unprofitable in the service of God. there is none that doeth good, no, not one. - Psalms 14:3; Psalms 53:3. This does not imply that no one ever did any good whatsoever. Rather it states that none does good unmixed with sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Only God is absolutely good (Matthew 19:16-17). Thus no one, no, not one, is free from sin.
Romans 3:13-14 One of the ways all sin is with the tongue (Psalms 39:1; Prv. 10:19; Matthew 5:22; James 3:2-18; 1 Peter 3:10; Revelation 21:8). Their throat is an open sepulchre; - Psalms 5:9. As an open grave waiting to devour its victim. Or as an open tomb emitting its stench. with their tongues they have used deceit; - Psalms 5:9. They have led others astray by deceitful words. the poison of asps is under their lips: - Psalms 140:3. Their words are like poison released through the fangs of a serpent. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: - Psalms 10:7. Their corrupt and profane speech showed the bitterness in their hearts. The mouth was made to praise God (this is the proper function of speech), but they had used it instead to blaspheme His holy name (they had put speech to the wrong use and it thereby became sinful).
Romans 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: - Is. 59:7. Quick to murder, to shed innocent blood (Exodus 20:13; Exodus 1 In. 3:12, 15). It shows a low regard for human life.
Romans 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: - Isaiah 59:7. When a people, any people, lose reverence for human life, there remains nothing for them but destruction and misery. They are treated with the same treatment they give (d. Matthew 7:1-2). Their path is a path of ruin.
Romans 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known: - Isaiah 59:8. They know no peace, neither with themselves, with others, nor with God. Peace is a by-product of doing right. One might know peace to some degree while living in sin, but its highest expression is reserved only for those who love God and do His will (d. Philippians 4:7).
Romans 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. - Psalms 36:1. This is the heart of their problem: they had lost their reverence for God and therefore had no desire to do His will. And when this is the case, there are no restraints to moral corruption. Frank Harris, in his sordid autobiography, called My Life and Love, tells of the day he lost faith in God and the cold feeling that came over him as a result. He said, "I felt as though I had been stripped naked in the cold." What gloom, what despair must cloud the mind that suddenly recognizes that it has been stripped of belief in a Creator! It would be a living mind made by dead matter. But Harris then adds: "Suddenly a joy came to me: if Christianity was all lies and fairy tales like Mohammedanism, then the prohibitions of it were ridiculous and I could kiss and have any girl who would yield to me. At once I was partially reconciled to my spiritual nakedness: there was compensation." If there is no God, then there is no evil; every vile thing is permissible. But a fear of God causes one to depart from and hate evil (Proverbs 16:6; Proverbs 8:13). It is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 15:33). It prolongs life (Proverbs 10:27; Proverbs 14:27); gives confidence (Proverbs 14:26); brings satisfaction (Proverbs 19:23); and produces wealth, honor, and life (Proverbs 22:4).
JUSTIFICATION CANNOT BE BY LAW
Romans 3:19 Now we know - By the things that have been said in Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:18. that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: - Probably the law of Moses is under consideration, but this principle would apply with equal force to any law. All laws are directed only to those who live under them. So was the law of Moses (d. Romans 2:12-16). But all are under a law of some sort. Hence all have sinned, either by commission (1 John 3:4) or by omission (James 4:17). that every mouth may be stopped, Fenced up (Vincent). All are put to silence. None have a defense to offer against the conclusion that all have sinned. and all the world may become guilty before God. Every responsible being, both Jews and Gentiles, have sinned (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23) and is thus liable to God - under the judgment of God (ASV). Paul thus states his conclusion again: all have sinned; all stand in need of salvation; and God’s power to save is the gospel. Thus all, both Jews and Gentiles, must obey the gospel in order to be saved. He now (Romans 3:20 to Romans 11:36) turns his attention to explore the ways and means by which the gospel saves from sin.
Romans 3:20 Therefore - Because (ASV). The ASV is preferable here. Romans 3:20 does not give a conclusion drawn from v. 19, but the reason for all being guilty before God. by the deeds of the law - The works of the law (ASV). Rather by works of law - the article is missing in the original. It would be the law of Moses for the Jews, but some other for the Gentiles. there shall be no flesh justified in his sight: - Under law, any law, without the benefits of the death of Christ to pay the sin debt, lost man is utterly hopeless. There are only two ways by which one can be justified by law: (1) Never violate the law. For responsible persons, this would mean sinless perfection, a thing impossible to attain (Ecclesiastes 7:20). (2) Having violated the law, pay the penalty in full. But the penalty of sin is death, eternal death. No one could pay the penalty and live. Thus the absolute impossibility of justification by law. for by the law is the knowledge of sin. - Through the law we become conscious of sin (NIV). The law reveals sin as sinthat is, sin is brought to light (Romans 7:8-13).
RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH
Romans 3:21 But now - In the gospel, God’s eternal plan to save, - the righteousness of God -God’s plan for making men righteous; the means by which a right relationship with Him is both established and maintained. without the law - By the gospel. The law knows nothing but condemnation for the guilty - it has no provision for pardon. But the gospel offers salvation, not by law keeping per se, but by the substitutionary death of Christ - man’s sin debt is paid by Him. is manifested, - Made known (NIV) or revealed. witnessed by the law and the prophets; God’s plan to save, as is revealed in the gospel, was foreseen, foreshadowed, and foretold by OT promises (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 12:1-3); prophecies (Isaiah 53); and types (Hebrews 9:8-9). The whole scheme was according to the OT Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The OT thus testifies to the Christian system, that it is God’s eternal plan (Ephesians 3:10-11) by which all men can be saved (Is. 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9-12; Luke 24:44). The forthcoming means of salvation is the very heart of the OT. It points forward to the coming Redeemer and the redemption which He would bring (d. Deuteronomy 18:18-19; Isaiah 2:2-4; Isaiah 9:6; Daniel 2:44). The message of the OT: Redemption is coming! The message of the NT: Redemption has come! That redemption is the means by which man is made righteous - the means by which he is brought into right relationship with God. Hence, the OT bears witness to redemption through the gospel, to righteousness without the law.
Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God - The righteousness (which results from justification) provided for by God (in the gospel and made possible by the death of Christ) for all who will accept it upon His terms. which is by faith of Jesus Christ - Through faith in Jesus Christ (ASV). Righteousness (a right relationship with God) is on the basis of faith in Christ as God’s Son and submission to Him as Lord (John 8:24; Acts 2:37-39). unto all and upon all who believe: - Whether Jew or Gentile. The salvation offered through the gospel is conditioned upon faith - the gospel is a system of faith, but not in the sense that belief merits (or earns) salvation. There is no merit or power in faith per se to save. Nor is it in the sense of solely by faith, with no additional conditions. Salvation is predicated on other conditions (e.g., Acts 2:38). But what is true of faith is equally true of them. The gospel reveals God’s plan to save (Romans 1:16-17), but before that plan can be effective it must be appropriated by faith and obedience, man’s response to God’s plan. Salvation is conditional, but the conditions are not meritorious. for there is no difference: - No distinction in Jews and Gentiles or any other class or race. All stand on equal grounds with God. This means that there is no difference in man (Galatians 3:26-28); in sin (1 John 3:4); in the penalty of sin (Ezekiel 18:4-20; Romans 6:23); in the need of salvation (Romans 3:9-18); in the extension of God’s grace (Titus 2:11-12); in the sacrifice for sin (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-19); in the revelation of God’s plan, the gospel (1 Corinthians 2:9-11; Romans 1:16); or in the plan itself (Mark 16:15-16).
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, - No exceptions and no exemptions (see Romans 3:9; Romans 5:12; Romans 11:32). and come short of the glory of God; - Fail to glorify God. Man glorifies God by being what he was made to be; when he fails to be what God made him to be, he dishonors God, his Maker and Sustainer. Hence, when one sins (and the essence of sin is to put to wrong use created things) he falls short of God’s glory, that is, he fails of the purpose for which he was made fails to give God that which is due Him.
Romans 3:24 Being justified Brought into a right relationship with God. Man’s sin had separated him from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). The gaping chasm could not be forged by man on his own. He had no way (under the law) to right his wrong. He therefore stood forever condemned. But God in His infinite love, wisdom, mercy, and grace sent Christ to bridge the gap and by His death make possible reconciliation. When the gap is bridged, the separated reconciled, man can then stand as just (righteous) before God, not on his own merits but by the merits of Christ’s shed blood. freely - God’s free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9) - a gift without merit. by his grace - His unmerited favor. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: - Redemption is in Christ (Ephesians 1:7), made possible by His sacrificial death on the cross. To redeem is to buy back. Vincent (WS) says the word here means "to redeem by paying the price." Hence, the death of Christ pays man’s sin debt and makes possible his justification.
THE JUSTICE OF GOD
Romans 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation - A sacrifice of atonement (NIV) or covering for sins. His blood is the ransom price (Matthew 20:28). through faith in his blood, Blood represents life (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:11) and the blood of Christ (the sacrifice of His life) pays man’s sin debt. His life was given so that we might live. The benefits of His blood is appropriated to our sins through faith. to declare his righteousness He did this to demon strate His justice (NIV). for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; - Because of His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished (NIV) - because of the passing over of sins done aforehand (ASV). This irrefutably shows that without the shedding of Christ’s blood, no one, past, present, or future, could be saved from sin. Those under the OT system offered animal sacrifice, typical of the death of Christ, as a partial or temporary measure until the promised seed should come to make the ultimate sacrifice, which would finally and completely purge from sin. The blood of animals could not take away sins (Hebrews 9:11-22; Hebrews 10:1-4), then, nor, or ever. It only pointed forward to the sacrifice which would be truly efficacious. If sins could have been forgiven without the death of Christ, then Christ died in vain - His death was unnecessary. But the fact is, no sins were finally or absolutely forgiven until Christ died. His blood flowed backward (to all those who had obeyed God’s plan) as well as forward. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can atone for sins, nothing can pay man’s sin debt, but the blood of Christ. Of course those who trusted God and did His will under the OT had the promise of forgiveness - it was in promise rather than in fact. Forgiveness was therefore as sure as God’s promise. This can be illustrated by the following incident: once when I lived in a distant city (about 400 miles away) I paid a visit to my parents. While there, two tires bursted on my car. There was no way to fix them. I would therefore have to purchase two new tires. But I neither had the money with me to do so nor did I have it in the bank back home. I revealed my dilemma to a nearby service station manager. He showed some sympathy with me. I then told him that if he would trust me I would write him a check and the first thing on Monday after I got home I would deposit enough in the bank to cover it. He agreed to this. I got my tires, gave him the check, and went on my way. He held my check until the next Monday, at which time I made the deposit. Now he had a check with no money in the bank to cover it, but he knew that it was just as good as my promise. If I kept my word he would get his money, though he would not actually get it until the specified time. So it was with God and His people in the OT. He promised them that if they would obey His laws, He would eventually provide them the ultimate means of forgiveness. This verse shows that those who believed Him were rewarded with the remission of their sins.
Romans 3:26 To declare, I say. at this time his righteousness: - His justice (NIV). that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. - Here Paul comes face-to-face with the problem in salvation in order to give the divine solution. How can God be just (true to His word) and save the sinner (whom He has said must die as the penalty of sins)? Sometimes it is asked, "How can a loving and good God send a lost sinner to Hebrews 1 l?" From the Biblical perspective, this has the question in reverse. It does not take into consideration the profound problem in sin and its salvation. The question should be, "How can a loving and good God prevent a sinner (who has violated His law and as a result is under the penalty of death) from having to pay the penalty of eternal death for his sin? When God made man He said, in essence, the day you sin is the day you die (Genesis 2:17-18). Therefore the penalty of death passed upon him. But since all have sinned (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12), this is as true of all men as it was of Adam. The penalty of death is therefore passed upon all. This brings the problem into sharp focus: how can God be true to His word (just) or· maintain the honor of His law and release the sinner from the penalty? The solution to this problem is found only in Christ. Christ died for man’s sins (Hebrews 9:26-28; 2 Corinthians 5:21), that is, He died in man’s stead. Thus when the sinner through faith accepts Christ, God accepts the death of Christ as the sinner’s death, and the sinner is freed from the penalty. In this arrangement, death is paid for sin but the sinner does not have to die. God remains just and the sinner is set free. The death of Christ satisfied the demands so that God can be just and still justify the sinner who accepts Christ’s death as a substitute for his own.
BOASTING EXCLUDED
Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. - In the marvelous scheme which God has provided to save man notes on Romans 3:26), is there room for boasting on man’s part? None whatsoever! God, and God alone, is responsible for the scheme of redemption. Man had no part in devising or delivering it and he certainly had nothing to offer in order to merit it. There is therefore no room for boasting. It is excluded because salvation is by God’s grace (on the basis of faith rather than on the basis of law or merit) and not by man’s work, that is, works of law or merit. This has reference to the provision of salvation or the giving of the gospel with its power to save, and not to any conditions which the gospel may contain.
FAITH AND LAW
Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith Man is brought into right relationship with God on the basis of faith rather than on the basis of law. This has no reference to faith as the sole condition of salva tion, as is erroneously concluded by many and supposedly based upon Luther’s addition to the word "only" here in his German translation. Faith and all other acts of obedience are works in some sense (John 6:28-29; James 2:24) but they are not works by which salvation is earned. God alone, without any obligation to man whatsoever, provided the gospel, His plan to save, but the gospel (provided solely by the grace of God) predicates salvation upon certain specified conditions (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 16:22; Romans 6:3-4; Romans 6:16-18). To comply with the conditions is not salvation by works but salvation by faith at work (James 2:17-22). without the deeds of the law. If one is ever justified, he must be justified by means other than law. The law (actually any law standing alone) once violated knows nothing but penalty. It makes no provisions for pardon. Pardon belongs to another realm. It is a remedial act - an act to correct some injustice that has occurred in the process of trying to carry out the law and ad minister the penalty justly. When no injustice has occurred, pardon outrages the law. Thus pardon is an act to rectify an injustice, not an act of mercy. When the law was violated, there was no lawful way to escape the penalty. This is why the death of Christ was a necessity. His death paid the penalty - provided for man what man could not provide for himself. The benefits of His death is applied to sins by means of the gospel the system of faith in contrast to a system of law.
Romans 3:29 Is he the God of the Jews only? - A rhetorical question demand ing a negative reply. God is the God of the whole world, not just a national or tribal God. is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: God is the God of all. All have sinned. All are equal in His sight. And all are offered salvation on precisely the same terms (Acts 2:38-39; Acts 10:47-48). All who obey the gospel are added to the church, the one body of Christ (Acts 2:47; Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 4:4-6).
Romans 3:30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. If salvation had been by the law, then there would have been no hope for the Gentiles because the law had not been given to them. It was a covenant made between God and Israel alone (Deuteronomy 5). But God now justifies all, both the circumcised and the uncircumcised, by the same faith. Paul may have had a distinction in mind, but I am unable to see the difference in by faith and through faith. If there is a difference, it does not effect the one faith by which both are saved.
Romans 3:31 Do we make void the law through faith? - Another rhetorical question demanding a negative reply, which Paul himself supplies. Faith does not nullify the law (or any law - the article is omitted here in the original but the context is discussing the law of Moses and I see no reason to think that the subject matter has changed; rather, if my view of the next expression is correct, then the law of Moses is mandated). God forbid: See note on v. 4. yea, we - We reach the purpose for which the law was given, the very end toward which it pointed. The keeping of the law per se was not the ultimate end it had in view; it was only the means to an end. The end of the law was justification by faith made possible by the death of Christ. The law bore witness to the righteousness which was to come (Romans 3:21). Its design was to bring the Jews to that righteousness - to Christ (Galatians 3:19-27). When Christ came, the law had served its purpose and was therefore fulfilled (Matthew 5:17-18). The righteousness which was made possible by Christ is the end or purpose of the law (Romans 10:4). When one becomes righteous in Christ, by means of the gospel, he does not nullify the law; rather he confirms its purpose he has reached the end to which the law was designed to bring him, namely, the righteousness of God without the law (Romans 3:21). Or to state it differently, righteousness was the end toward which the law pointed. We become righteous in Christ (Romans 3:24). Therefore when we are made righteous in Christ, we have attained the end of the law.
ABRAHAM JUSTIFIED BY FAITH
Harold Winters
Romans 4:1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, God separated Abraham to become the father of the Hebrew nation (Genesis 11:29-31; Genesis 12:1-4; John 8:33) and in a spiritual sense all those even today who are in a right relationship with God (Galatians 3:26-29). He is called the father of the faithful (Romans 4:16). as pertaining to the flesh, - Our father according to the flesh (RSV) - our human ancestor (By). This expression has been subjected to numerous interpretations, but I believe these two versions have caught its real meaning. hath found? What did Abraham, our ancestor, find pertaining to justification? Another rhetorical question. Paul’s point here is to show that Abraham was not justified by works of law or merit (that is, his relationship with God was not on the basis of meritorious works). And if Abraham could not be so justified, it would be presumptious for anyone else to make such a claim.
Romans 4:2 For if Abraham were justified by works, Of course he was not, but if he had been it would have meant that he never sinned. he hath whereof to glory; - He would have something for which to praise himself. Or as the NIV renders it, he had something to boast about. Indeed! but not before God. Not in God’s sight. And since justification must be before God, not man, he was not and could not have been justified by works.
Romans 4:3 For what saith the scripture? - The OT Scriptures. The question is, what does God’s word have to say about Abraham’s justification, as to whether it was by works or by faith? He cites Genesis 15:6 to give the answer. Abraham believed God, He took God at His word. God had promised to make a great nation of his seed (Genesis 12:1-3), but Abraham was now getting old and he was seedless (as far as Sarah was concerned). God told him that "he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels" will produce seed that will be as numberless as the stars of heaven (Genesis 15:1-5). This was seemingly an incredible promise, but Abraham believed it even against the odds - he believed that God was able to keep His word. and it His faith. was counted unto him for righteousness. - His faith was credited to him as righteousness. This concept is often used to show that Abraham was saved by faith alone, but how anyone could study the context of Genesis 12-15 and so conclude is beyond my power to conceive. Abraham had been called from the U r of the Chaldees many years before this incident and he had long been a servant of the true God (see Genesis 12-14). Now God promises him a son through which all His promises will be fulfilled. Although Abraham is old and Sarah is past the age of childbearing, he believes God’s promise. And God counted that belief as righteousness. It should be understood that belief per se is not righteousness. It is righteousness only when and if God counts or reckons it as such. Or as Luther said (according to a note I have made on a card but for which I have given no reference), in his lectures on Romans, "All works have only as much worth as God reckons them to have." And this includes faith as well as other acts of obedience. Thus Abraham’s faith was righteousness only because God so reckoned it. So it is with our faith ... and our obedience. Any attitude or act in service to God is useless unless He counts it as righteousness. In fact, no act or belief is righteousness unless and until it is so counted by God.
FAITH RECKONED FOR
RIGHTEOUSNESS
Romans 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. - If one works out or earns his salvation, by works of merit or by perfectly keeping the law, God would be under obligation to give it unto him it would be the reward of one’s labor, something due him because of his own goodness. But salvation is not on such grounds. It is a gift of God’s grace - unmerited favor. God gave it without any obligations to man whatsoever. Thus it is of grace, not of debt.
Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, - One who does not work expecting salvation as a payment of his labor. This certainly does not mean one who ignores or sets aside God’s will. Abraham worked (James 2:21), but his works were not meritorious. Thus no reference whatsoever is here meant in regards to obedience, which is required by a living active faith (James 2:22). but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, Christ, the Son of God, Savior of the world, and the sacrifice for sins. his faith is counted for righteousness. -- As was Abraham’s (Romans 4:4), faith is credited as righteousness to the believer’s account. Keep in mind that man cannot be righteous by law or works of merit. The only way he can stand in right relationship with God is by having his sins forgiven through the shed blood of Christ. Righteousness is thus not on the basis of meritorious works but on the basis of faith - a faith which takes God at His word and follows His instructions, as did Abraham. If one could earn his salvation by works, he would have no need for the sacrificial death of Christ. This does not mean that we have no obligation in our salvation. The death of Christ substitutes for the sinner’s death only when the sinner accepts Him as Savior and obeys Him as Lord (Romans 6:16-18; Hebrews 5:8-9). While salvation cannot be on the basis of a debt paid for perfect service rendered, this in no way changes the fact that gospel obedience is mandatory in God’s scheme of redemption. Works of obedience are therefore not under consideration here. It is works of merit (or law). Salvation is always viewed as a matter of favor, never as a mat ter of debt.
Romans 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, Abraham’s faith had been counted to him as righteousness, but he had lived before the giving of the law. What about those who lived under the law? Paul now shows that the very same things is true of those described by David who had lived under the law. Thus even those under the law, who were counted righteous, were righteous on some basis other than law keeping. unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, - To impute is to count or credit. God counted them righteous, not on the basis of meritorious works, but because of their faith. By faith, in contrast to works of merit, they were in right relationship with God. There has been a tremendous amount of discussion on imputed righteousness, and many concepts have grown up around it. But every student should have a firm grasp of what Paul had in mind. He is not saying that God imputes actual righteousness to a believer - that is, infuse righteousness into the soul or count the person as doing right when he is not doing right. To do so, God would be forced to ignore man’s free will, the exer cise of which results either in evil or good. Righteousness, in this sense, cannot be forced upon man. The Bible says, "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous" (1 John 3:7). But Paul is saying that by faith in Christ (complete submission to His will) we can reap the benefits of the death of Christ. When we believe in Christ (meeting all the conditions this term involves), the death of Christ is applied to our ac count - that is, His death pays our sin debt. Because of His death we can therefore stand justified (be in right relationship with God). This justification is not by our own righteousness (works), but by the death of Christ. His death counts for our death and we are righteous because of what He did for us and not because of what we have done for ourselves. Weare therefore counted righteous because of His death. This is what I understand by imputed righteousness - the right standing with God which is made possible by the sacrificial death of the Son of God.
Romans 4:7-8 Saying, - The words of David from Psalms 32:1-2. blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, - Forgiveness means that one’s sin debt has been completely cancelled; he has been released from the penalty. and whose sins are covered. - Covered by the blood of Christ, sins for which atonement has been made. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. - They are not imputed or counted because they are forgiven. God counts sin, all sin, as sin. But once sins are covered, forgiven, they are no longer credited to one’s account.
RIGHTEOUSNESS DOES NOT DEPEND ON CIRCUMCISION
Romans 4:9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? This introduces an argument (Romans 4:9-12) designed to show that the blessing of justification (by faith) was not limited to the circumcised (Jews) alone, but extended to the uncircumcised (Gentiles) also. for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. - See note on v. 3.
Romans 4:10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? - In what period of his life was his faith counted to him for righteousness? Was it before or after circumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. - It was before circumcision (Genesis 15:6; Genesis 17:9-14). Thus Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness before circumcision. But if this is true of Abraham, the father of the faithful, by what reason could a Jew conclude that the Gentiles must be circumcised before their faith could be counted to them as righteousness? None whatsoever.
Romans 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, - Circumcision was a sign, a mark, or a token of the covenant (Genesis 17:11). a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: A seal of the faith (which was counted to him for righteousness) which he possessed before he was circumcised. that he might be the father of all them that believe, - The father of all the faithful, whether Jew or Gentile (Galatians 3:26-29). though they be not circumcised; - The Gentile believers. that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: - Just as it had been counted to Abraham in uncircumcision. Abraham’s faith was counted to him for righteousness before he was circumcised. This is Paul’s point here. But this was before the command to circumcise himself, his household, and the strangers in his house was given. Once the command was given, he could not have maintained his state of right relationship with God without circumcision. Thus Paul is not arguing that Abraham was not obliged to obey God in order to be counted righteous; he is simply pointing out to the Judaizers that God counted his faith as righteousness before circumcision was given. If Abraham could be counted righteous without circumcision (before it was commanded), so could the Gentiles (to whom it was never commanded). As a religious rite, under Christ, circumcision has no value or significances (1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15; Colossians 3:11).
Romans 4:12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. - While there is some difficulty in the verse, I think it simply says that Abraham is the spiritual father of all who walk by the faith of Abraham, whether circumcised (Jews) or uncircumcised (Gentiles). Lightfoot says the meaning is, "Though himself belonging to the circumcision, yet his fatherhood extends beyond the circumcision to all who imitate his faith."
THE PROMISE TO ABRAHAM WAS RIGHTEOUSNESS
THROUGH FAITH, INDEPENDENT OF THE LAW
Romans 4:13 The promise - Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 15:8-21; Genesis 17:1-8. The promise to Abraham was twofold, physical and spiritual. The physical promise consisted in Abraham becoming a great nation and that nation being given the land of Ca naan, This was fulfilled in ancient Israel (Joshua 21:43-45; Joshua 23:14). The spiritual promise included all that pertains to the Christian system (Galatians 3:13-16; Galatians 3:26-29). Ultimately this promise was of justification by faith, not by law. that he should be the heir of the world, - This has reference to the spiritual part of the promise. Abraham and his seed became heir of the world through Jesus Christ (Psalms 2:7-8; Hebrews 1:1-4). was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, - No article is before law in the original, which may in dicate that the promise came neither by the law of Moses (which is most cer tainly included) or any other law. but through the righteousness of faith. - The faith which is counted as righteousness. That is, the faith of the Son of God, the faith delivered in the gospel (Judges 1:3).
Romans 4:14 For if they which are of the law - Those who live by the law (NIV). be heirs, - The Jews thought that all the promises and blessings of God would come by the law or that those who kept the law would be the heirs of the promise. But the promise was made before the law was given and pointed to something beyond the law. The law was added because of transgressions until the promised seed should come (Galatians 3:19). The law was not the promise nor was it a part of the fulfillment (Galatians 3:17-18). faith is made void, - Has no value (NIV). and the promise made of none effect: - Worthless (NIV). This is another way of saying that if the blessing of justification comes by law, then faith (which is counted as righteousness) would be both void and worth less. Justification cannot be by law and by faith at one and the same time (see vv.3-4).
Romans 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: The law is a system which condemns a sinner rather than saves him. Once the law is violated, it knows nothing but penalty. Pardon is a remedial act - one designed to correct some injustice that has occurred in the process of trying to administer the penalty justly. Where no injustice has occurred, pardon outrages the law. Paul describes his condition as a sinner under law in Romans 7:9-23 and thereby shows how the law works wrath or brings condemnation. for where no law is, there is no transgression. - One cannot transgress a law before it is given or before it goes into effect. Abraham did not live under the law of Moses. Thus he could not transgress that law and consequently could not be under its wrath. The argument seems to be: where there is no law there is no transgression; where there is no transgression there is no wrath (no condemnation for violating the law). The converse would also be true: where there is law there is transgres sion; and where there is transgression there is wrath or condemnation. All men are now amenable to the law of God as it is revealed in the NT system and one reasons falsely when he ignores this fact and argues as if there were no law. For example, in my debate with Fred Waggoner on the music question, he reasoned: (1) Where there is no law there is no transgression. (2) But there is no law against the use of instrumental music in Christian worship. (3) Therefore, there is no transgression (and thus no sin or wrath) in using instrumental music in Christian worship. This reasoning completely ignores the context. The thought is that Abraham could not be judged for not observing the law of Moses, because that law had not yet been given. I replied to Waggoner by pointing out the fact that his whole argument was fallacious because we do have a law, the NT. But furthermore, the law we do have teaches that anything not in harmony with it is sinful in service to God. Hence, we have a law and that law prohibits all that it does not authorize. And since it does not authorize the use of instrumental music in Christian worship, we violate the law (the NT) by its use. And since we have a law, and since the law is violated by the use of instrumental music in Christian worship, those who use it are under the wrath of the law - that is, they are under its condemnation.
ABRAHAM, AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH
Romans 4:16 Therefore it - The promise, the end of which is justification. is of faith, - The system of faith, not by the system of law. that it might be by grace; - By divine favor rather than by human merit. to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; - To all those who are of the faith of Abraham. not to that only which is of the law, - not only to those who are of the law (NIV). The Jews. The fact is, if the promise (justification) had come by law, no one could have attained it because no one could keep the law perfectly. And once the law was violated, it had no means of bringing one back into right relationship with God. Thus it was impossible for the promise (of justification) to be by law. but to that also which is of faith of Abraham; - but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham (NIV). The faith of Abraham is the faith that is counted to one for righteousness. It is the faith that takes God at His word and follows the instructions given. who is the father of us all, - The father of all whose faith is counted to them for righteousness because he is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7; Galatians 3:26-29) and in whom we have received the blessing of justification (d. 1 Corinthians 6:11), the promise made to Abraham.
Romans 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) - Genesis 17:5. The many nations are the people of all nations who have the faith of Abraham. He is their father because they are in Christ and Christ is the promised seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16). before him whom he believed, even God, - God made the promise and Abraham believed it, even though it seemed incredible (Genesis 15:1-6). who quickeneth the dead, - The dead womb of Sarah. Although Sarah was well past the age of childbearing, and in this sense both she and Abraham were dead - dead to the possibility of a natural birth, God quickened (or made alive) her body so that it conceived and the promised child was born (Genesis 21:1-3). and calleth those things which be not as though they were. - Reference is here made as to the way God spoke of the fulfillment of the promise, which was then yet to be. Before Isaac was born, before a single nation from his seed existed, God said to Abraham, "A father of many nations have I made thee" (Genesis 17:5). The NIV renders this more forcefully, "For I have made you a father of many nations." He thus spoke as if Abraham was already the father of nations. He called things which were not as though they were. He could do so because they were certain to be.
Romans 4:18 Who against hope - Who in hope (ASV), against all hope (NIV). God promised that through Abraham’s seed all nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 15:1-6). But at this time Sarah was both barren and far past the age of childbearing, which removed all natural hope for the fulfillment of the promise. Thus the promise was against all human expectation. believed in hope, - believed against hope (ASV), in hope believed (NIV). He believed God when the promise seemed impossible. He rested his case on God’s promises, believing that God was able to keep His word (vv. 20-21). that he might become the father of many nations, - Through the promised child, Isaac. according to that which was spoken, By God to Abraham (Genesis 15:5). So shall thy seed be. - As numberless as the stars of heaven (Genesis 15:5).
Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, - Strong in faith. His confidence in God’s integrity to keep His promises was stronger than the apparent difficulties which stood in the way. he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, - The fact that he was at this advanced age and that nature was against the promise was not permitted to weaken his faith. His power of reproduction was still active he fathered children many years after this (Genesis 25:1-4), but it was as good as dead as it related to Sarah, who was barren. The promise did not pertain to Abraham’s children by other women; it pertained to Sarah alone. Hence he could rightly consider his body as dead as it related to children by Sarah - that is, the prom ised child. neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: - She was both barren and "past age" (Hebrews 11:11). The point here is that Abraham’s faith was strong enough to overcome the obstacles placed in its path. He believed God, even when the word of God seemed to be against nature, reason, and knowledge. When God spoke, that settled the matter with him. He did not permit the difficulties to weaken his faith. And it was this kind of strong, active faith that was counted to him for righteousness (Romans 4:4; Romans 4:22). So it will be with us.
Romans 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; - He believed God when God’s promise seemed incredible. He thus honored God as one worthy to be be lieved and trusted, even when what He said seemed to go contrary to nature, reason, and knowledge. In short, Abraham believed God rather than his own human judgments and conclusions, and in so doing he glorified God.
Romans 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. He believed God’s promise because he believed in the omnipotent power of God - he believed that God was able!
Romans 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. See note on v. 3. While the promise pertained to Isaac, v. 3 refers to a time before the birth of IshmaeL Now the same thing is said of Abraham’s faith just before the conception of Isaac, approximately 15 years later (Genesis 17:1-2). By no stretch of the imagination therefore can one conclude that Paul meant that the righteousness imputed on account of faith means justification from alien sins that is, he could not have had reference to the new birth, to conversion, to the establishment of covenant relationship, or to the time when God recognizes one as His adopted child. Rather he has reference to how a believer’s service is counted as righteousness his service is counted as righteousness on the basis of his faith. We can now stand in right relationship with God by the death of Christ, not by our own merit (which is called our own righteousness or right doing in Philippians 3:9). Because we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, God has accepted His death as the full atonement for our sins. This makes it possible for us to be justified (made righteous or stand in right relationship with God) by faith. And when a believer follows God’s instructions, his acts or services (done by faith) are credited to him for righteousness (right doing). The word righteousness is used in two senses, meaning right relationship and right doing. Right relationship (Justification) is made possible by the death of Christ; right doing is possible only because of right relationship. There is nothing in baptism, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship, etc., to commend one to God. But because they are done by faith, done because God requires them, they are counted as righteousness.
FAITH IN CHRIST
Romans 4:23-24 Now it was not ’written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him: But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Abraham was used as an example of how righteousness will be counted to the believer in Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead. See notes on Romans 4:3; Romans 4:22.
Romans 4:25 Who was delivered - Delivered over to death (NIV). He died on the cross. for our offences, - Our sins. The death of Christ paid the sin debt in full and thus made it possible for all to be justified counted righteous before God. and was raised again - Raised to life (NIV). Raised from the dead (Matthew 28:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20). for our justification. - To accomplish or complete our justification.
JUSTIFICATION BRINGS
PEACE, HOPE, AND LOVE
Romans 5:1 Therefore Introduces a conclusion drawn from what had previ ously been said, probably from the first four chapters, but especially from Romans 3:20 to Romans 4:25. Paul had shown (1) that the gospel is the power of God to save (Romans 1:16); (2) that all have sinned (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23); (3) that it is impossible to be saved by law
(Romans 3:20); (4) that Abraham was justified by faith (4:3); and (5) that all the Scrip tures say about Abraham was not said for his sake alone but for ours to show us that we too are justified by faith (Romans 4:23-25). being justified - To justify is to set right or to regard as innocent with respect to law - to pronounce one free from the guilt and penalty of violation. by faith, - Justification is by faith in contrast to law_ One should not conclude that this means faith only (apart from any further acts of obedience). Faith covers all that is required in the plan given by the grace of God. For example: by faith Abel offered a sacrifice (Hebrews 11:4). The offering was included in his faith. By faith Noah built an ark (Hebrews 11:7). The labor of many years is included in his faith. By faith the walls of Jericho fell (Hebrews 11:30). The word faith covers marching around the city thirteen times in seven days (Joshua 6). Thus when Paul says we are justified by faith, he includes submission to every command that is obeyed by faith, such as repentance (Acts 17:30); baptism (Acts 2:38); living a faithful Christian life (6:4; Revelation 2:10). Every act of obedience that is rendered by faith is counted as righteousness. Faith is thus put for the whole plan because it is the foundation on which the structure of justification is built (on man’s part). we have peace with God As sinners we were estranged (at enmity), but we are now reconciled (at peace) with God (2 Corinthians 5:19-21). The sin which separated us (Is. 59:1-2) has been forgiven (Ephesians 1:7). We are therefore no longer enemies, but friends - no longer separated but reconciled. Both Robertson (WP) and Vincent (WS), along with an impressive number of translations (based on substantial textual evidence), say this should read, "Let us have peace with God." Without professing to settle the difficulty, I prefer the KJV, ASV, and NIV, which say in essence that because we have been justified all our differences with God have been settled and as a consequence we are now at peace with Him. Peace is the result of justification, not something the justified are urged to appropriate. through our Lord Jesus Christ: - The grounds of our justification. Christ bridged the gap between God and man and made peace possible (Ephesians 2:14-16). His death paid our sin debt, thus making it possible for us to be justified.
Romans 5:2 By whom The Lord Jesus Christ. we have access - Introduction or entrance made possible by Christ. Has reference to what Christ has done for us. He paid our sin debt and thus cleared the way for our entrance (access) into God’s favor. by faith Access is made possible by Christ; faith is man’s part in the entrance into grace. He must believe in Christ, the efficacy of God’s scheme, and that God will save him (keep His word) when he does what is required in the gospel plan. into this grace - God’s favor. wherein we stand, Into which we have already been brought by faith in Christ. and rejoice, Exalt, boast, or glory. in hope of the glory of God. - Rejoice in the hope that our restoration to His favor will bring the glory to God which is due Him. Our fall brought dishonor to Him ... and to us. It prevented us from filling the purpose for which He made us. Now, in Christ, we can fill that purpose. Thus we rejoice in the hope that our redemption not only brings salvation to us but also glory to God.
Romans 5:3 And not only so, - In addition to rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God (v. 2). but we glory - Rejoice (NIV), the same word that is so translated in v. 2. in tribulations also: - Sufferings (NIV). Tribulation usually refers to afflictions imposed from without, either from persons or circ*mstances, often resulting from persecution (Matthew 5:10-12). knowing that tribulation worketh patience; - Affliction or suffering is a great teacher of patience. Or as the NIV says, suffering produces perseverance. Suffering, whether from persecution or any other source, can result in good advantages for the sufferer. God can and does work good from it (Romans 8:28-30), as this and the following vv. show. Paul’s point is that suffering starts a chain reaction that ends with the love of God being poured into our hearts by the HS. Thus in suffering one should look for and rejoice in the ultimate results rather than becoming bogged down in and discouraged by the present discomforts. Paul will later (Romans 8:18-39) give some reasons why one should endure suffering. For further Scriptural teaching on suffering, see 2 Corinthians 1:4-10; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Hebrews 12:5-11; 1 Peter 1:6-8.
Romans 5:4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: - Experience and hope are two more links in the chain between tribulation and the heart filled with the love of God (see v. 3).
Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed: - Does not disappoint us (NIV). The cycle is here completed. He started with the hope of the glory of God (v. 2), turned to show that we should rejoice in tribulations because they work patience or endurance (v. 3), and patience works experience or soundness of character, and experience works hope or expectation (v. 4), and hope makes un shamed because the heart is filled with the love of God - and that love is the motive for the hope of His glory. because the love of God Love toward God, the love which is from God but which is in us. This must be the case because it is the love that is poured out (NIV) into our hearts and is the basis of our hope. It is thus the love that is within the heart - the love that has God as its source and the individual as the lover. is shed abroad Poured out (NIV) or abundantly produced. in our hearts by the Holy Ghost - Not directly or miraculously but indirectly, through the teaching of the HS. In the gospel He reveals a loving God (In. 3:16) and a loving Savior (Romans 4:8) and gives us all possible, reasons to love in return (1 John 4:7-21). The Spirit gives the motivation for the love, but, in the final analysis, love is the action of the individual himself. The HS teaches us to love, and when we follow His instructions, He fills our hearts with love through the gospel of God’s dear Son. which is given unto us. The HS, the giver of love, is Himself a gift (Romans 8:9; Acts 2:38; Acts 5:32).
RECONCILIATION THROUGH CHRIST
Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, - Weak (ASV); powerless (NIV); or hopeless. We were separated from God (Is. 59:1-2); lost, and under the penalty of eternal death (6:23). We had absolutely no power to save ourselves (Ephesians 2:9; Titus 3:5); no merit to commend us to God (Isaiah 64:6); and we could not be saved by law (Romans 3:20). Thus as far as our own strength was concerned, we were utterly hopeless (Ephesians 2:12). This forcefully points up again the fact that we are totally dependent upon God for the means (the scheme or plan) of salvation. Of course sinful man can and must obey the plan when it is given (and it is given in the gospel) but he is totally dependent upon the grace of God to give the plan. in due time - The fulness of time (Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:10; Titus 1:3), according to God’s timetable, and as foretold by the prophets. Christ died - Sacrificed Himself on the cruel cross of Calvary to pay man’s sin debt - He died on behalf of and in man’s stead (Is. 53). Where we were weak and powerless, He supplied our needs. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. for the ungodly. - For sinners (v. 8), which means everyone (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12).
Romans 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. - If Paul had a distinction in mind between a righteous and good person, it lies in the fact that the just person abides strictly by the letter of the law (that is, he is merely righteous) while the good person is both just and kind (involved emotionally), but I am unable to discern that distinction here. To my mind, a good person would be righteous and a righteous person would be good. Very rarely (NIV) one might be found who would sacrifice his life for a just or kind person, but never for an enemy. Yet Paul’s purpose is to sharply contrast what one would rarely do in the case of good men and what Christ has done for us. While we were His enemies, neither righteous nor good, He died in our stead (Romans 5:8).
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, Demonstrated His own love for us (NIV). He did not just love in heart, thought, or word, but in deed. His love, as all love must, showed itself in action John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10; John 14:15; John 14:21; John 14:23-24; 1 John 4:11-12). in that, The manner in which God’s love is demonstrated is hereby introduced. while we were yet sinners, While we were still enemies of God, rebellious against His will, lost in sin, and with absolutely nothing to commend us to Him. Christ died for us. - In our behalf or in our stead. He died for us, not because we merited it, not because we were friends, but because we were sinners, lost, and hopeless because it was an absolute necessity for our salvation (v. 6).
Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Salvation is here seen both as a present reality and as a future hope. Justification by His blood means that we are saved from the penalty of sin; salvation from wrath means that we will not suffer its due punishment, everlasting destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). Since we have now been justified (made to stand in right relationship with God) by the death of Christ, how much more certainly will we escape the wrath to come by remaining in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17; John 15:1-10), where there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). Here the more difficult, salvation from sins, is used to argue for the lesser difficult, salvation eternally. This is further emphasized in v. 10.
Romans 5:10 For if, Introducing a further contrast between what has been done for us (salvation from past sins by the death of Christ) and what is yet to be done (eternal salvation by or through His resurrected life). when we were enemies, We were sinners, rebellious, and had, by sin, removed ourselves from the rule of God (Ephesians 2:12). Rejecting His way for our own, assuming the role of God by trying to rule our own lives apart from and contrary to His will, was tantamount to being the enemies of God. we were reconciled to God Saved or brought back into union and communion with God (2 Corinthians 5:19-21). by the death of his Son, - His death substituted for our death, our sin penalty. It is the means by which reconciliation with God is possible. much more, being reconciled, - As in v. 9 the argument is made from the more difficult truth already proven (that is, the greater, the reconciliation of His enemies by the death of Christ) to prove the less difficult (the lesser, eternal life for the reconciled). we shall be saved by his life. - Through His life (NIV). The death of Christ made possible reconciliation; His resurrection, His new life, gives certain hope that the union will continue throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.
Romans 5:11 And not only so, - Two grand blessings are in the context, that salvation which now is (by the death of Christ) and the salvation which shall be (by the life of Christ), Romans 5:9-10. These words introduce a third. rejoicing in Christ - rejoicing because of what is and in what is yet to be (1 Peter 1:6-8). but we also joy - Rejoice (ASV). The same Greek word as in Romans 5:2-3. in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, - By whose sacrificial death all these blessings are possible, to whom belongs all the honor and glory (1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:17; Revelation 5:13; 1 Timothy 6:15-16). by whom we have now received the atonement. Reconciliation (ASV). The reconciliation is a present reali ty, made possible not by law or merit but by the death of Christ. the only means by which sinful men can be reconciled to God. Our past sins have been forgiven; we stand justified in Christ; and we shall be saved from the wrath to come. There is, therefore, good reason to rejoice.
DEATH CAME BY ADAM,
LIFE BY CHRIST
Romans 5:12-21 This section admittedly offers some difficulties, so much so in fact that some consider it the most difficult section in the whole book of Romans, if indeed not in the entire NT. One thing should be kept in mind: the whole section is a contrast between Adam’s sin and the benefits of Christ’s death. It is therefore imperative that we determine the kind of death (spiritual of physical) Paul had in mind. Although many great, learned, and noble men have concluded that physical death is meant (since all die physically), the context forces me to the conclusion that it is spiritual death (and by spiritual death I mean the penalty of sin or separation from God). Following are some of the internal rea sons which have led me to this conclusion: (1) Death is mentioned as the result of each one’s sin (Romans 5:12), but all die physically, whether they sin or not (e.g., infants, mentally retarded. etc.). (2) That which is produced by sin (death) is opposite that which is given through Christ (Romans 5:15-17). (3) That which was lost by Adam’s sin can be regained in Christ (Romans 5:15-18). (4) The one is condemnation and the other is justification (Romans 5:16; Romans 5:18). (5) Death (which comes by sin) is contrasted with the life given by Christ (Romans 5:17). (6) In one we are made sinners, but in the other we are made righteous (Romans 5:19). (7) Death is contrasted with eternal life (Romans 5:19). (8) The offence (resulting in death) is contrasted with grace (life or salvation) (Romans 5:20). (9) Sin, which reigned unto death, is contrasted with righteousness, which is to eternal life (Romans 5:21). Thus I am forced to the conclusion that death in this section means spiritual death or separation from God, although this does not exclude the possibility (which is undoubtedly a fact) that physical death is a consequence of sin. To further see the force of my conclusion I suggest that you read the whole section substituting "sin’s penalty" for the word "death." Now read it again and substitute "physical death." From this it should clearly be seen that for the passage to mean physical death then physical death must be the penalty of sin. But physical death is not the penalty of sin. The penalty of sin is separation from God or spiritual death. The section cannot, therefore, mean physical death.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, - Because of this (Young’s Literal Translation), connecting Romans 5:6-11 with what follows. as by one man - Adam, the first to sin (Adam and Eve are seen as a unit, hence only Adam is mentioned). sin - The violation of God’s will (1 John 3:4) or the removal of one’s thoughts, actions, and life from under the direction of God. God is man’s rightful ruler. When he is ruled by anything or anyone else, that is sin. entered into the world, - Sin had its origin in Adam as far as man himself and the present order of the world are concerned (it is obvious that the serpent or devil had sinned previous to this, but his rebellion goes back to another order). By his disobedience Adam brought sin into the world and it thereby brought everyone, for all time to come, under its potential. All did not sin in Adam (except in the sense that Adam brought sin into the world), but all did become potential sinners because of him (and all sin in actuality at the time of accountability), and death by sin; - The death which is the penalty of sin (Romans 6:23). Death here means the death which is caused by sin, that is, its penalty, not physical death (all die physically whether they sin or not), although physical death is unquestionably a conse quence. and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Death is coextensive with sin, and sin is universal (among all responsible people). Hence all who sin die (Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:2-3).
Romans 5:13 For until the law - The article is missing in the Greek but this undoubtedly refers to the law of Moses, which was given centuries after Adam had sinned. sin was in the world: - All sinned before the law of Moses was given as well as under the law. We must not be guilty of thinking that the law of Moses was the only law God had before the coming of Christ. God has always had a moral law in force. but sin - The violation of law. is not imputed where there is no law. - Cf. note on Romans 4:15. Since sin is not counted to one where there is no law, and since sin was counted to those who lived from Adam to Moses (because as v. 14 shows, they suffered its penalty), this proves conclusively that there was a law in force then (not the law of Moses and perhaps no other written law, but the moral law, which has always and at all times been in effect for all people the world over). During this period Cain killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4:1-16; 1 John 3:12). He sinned. Thus there was law. The violation of that law was sin. And sin brought death.
Romans 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, The point in this, and in the following vv., seems to be that Adam violated a positive law and that violation produced death. But after Adam, and before the giving of the law, man had violated moral law, and that too resulted in death. Thus the violation of law is sin, whether it be a positive or moral law of God. Sin brings death. Therefore death (spiritual death or separation from God) reigned from Adam to Moses just as it has in all other periods of time. even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, This does not mean that they had not sinned at all; they had, as he had just shown. Their sin differed from Adam’s in that he violated a positive law while they violated moral law. This must be the case because they died as a result of sin and v. 12 shows that death results from sins personally committed. who Adam. is the figure - Type. of him that was to come. - Christ.
Romans 5:15 But not as the offence, -Adam’s sin which resulted in the fall (Genesis 3:1-24). so also the free gift. God’s gracious scheme to redeem. The sin and the gift are contrasted as opposites. Adam brought sin; Christ the free gift. Because of Adam we are born into a world of sin; because of Christ we can escape the sinful world. For if through the offence of one many be dead, - Dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-5). Adam brought sin into the world and its consequences (not its guilt) passed upon all. All became potential sinners. And all responsible people do sin (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23; Galatians 3:22). Thus we do not die (spiritually) because of Adam’s sins but because of our own (Romans 6:23). Sin, and death by sin, entered the world through Adam, but each man is responsible only for his own sins. much more the grace of God, The gift goes far beyond the offence of Adam. It offers a remedy for all sins (Romans 5:20), saving even to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25). and the gift by grace, The scheme of redemption is given by God’s merciful favor (Ephesians 2:8-9). which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. - Redemption is unlimited. Salvation is offered to all upon identical terms (Matthew 11:28-30; Mark 16:15-16; Revelation 22:17). The many who died in Adam can now be made alive in Christ! The two vital words here are offence and gift. The offence carne through Adam; the free gift through Christ. But neither the offence nor the free gift is applied to one apart from his own actions and involvement. One dies (is lost) only when he violates the will of God; he is saved only when he accepts and appropriates (through obedience to the divine will) the free gift. We no more suffer the penalty of Adam’s sin unconditionally than we receive the benefits of the gift unconditionally. Both are predicated upon our volitional response.
Romans 5:16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. The contrast of v. 15 is here continued. It is condemnation (spiritual death or the death penalty) in the one and justification (salvation or the free gift) in the other. The former was brought upon us by Adam; the latter is made possible by the death of Christ.
Romans 5:17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) If we know that by the sin of Adam death reigns over all (because all have sinned, v. 12), how much more certain is it that by the grace of God, His gift that makes right standing with Him possible, life (redemption from death) reigns through Christ.
Romans 5:18 Therefore - Informs us that a conclusion follows - the conclusion drawn from v. 12. as by the offence of one -Adam’s sin. judgment came - Words supplied by the translators. upon all men - All who sin. Paul’s theme is the gospel, God’s power to save sinners. Thus the context of the book is all sinners, not all in the absolute sense. The all men condemned (in Adam) must be coextensive with the all men made righteous (in Christ). If the former meant absolutely all, so would the latter. But the latter is limited to those who comply with the stipulated conditions (Mark 16:16); so with the former all who commit sin. to condemnation; - Spiritual death. Those who make death in this section physical ought to lose a lot of sleep over the contrast here – condemnation and justification, synonyms for death (the penalty of sin) and life (the gift of God) (Romans 6:23). It should be kept in mind that death (that which comes through Adam) is no more unconditional than life (that which comes through Christ). All are potential sinners in Adam just as all are potentially righteous in Christ. Neither are all guilty because of Adam’s sin. One is guilty only of his own sins. While all were made potential sinners in Adam, condemnation comes only by one’s own disobedience. For example, Charles Darwin made evolutionists, but this does not mean that the theory of evolution is an inherited trait. Just so, Adam made sinners, but he made them by introducing sin into the world and not by passing his guilt on to posterity. Thus while it was brought into the world by Adam’s sin, condemnation is the result of each man’s own disobedience. even so by the righteousness of one -The death of Christ. the free gift came Supplied words. upon all men - All who have sinned are offered the free gift. unto justification to life. - Justification from condemnation, life from death, righteousness from disobedience.
Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience - Adam’s violation when he ate of the forbidden tree (Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3:1-23). many The many (ASV). The many who have sinned. The same as the all of Romans 5:18. were made sinners, Potential sinners. See notes on Romans 5:12-18. so by the obedience - The culmination of a life of obedience in His death (Philippians 2:5-11). of one – Jesus Christ (Hebrews 5:8-9). shall many The many (ASV). Potentially, all who have sinned; actually, all who have chosen redemption. be made righteous. Made to stand in right relationship with God. What was lost in Adam’s sin is restored by the obedience (death) of Christ. We were made sinners (potentially) by the former; we are made righteous (potentially) by the latter. Neither is un conditional: we sin (thus die) when we follow in Adam’s transgression; we are made righteous (thus live) when we follow Christ in obedience.
Romans 5:20 Paul here may be anticipating an objection from the Jews, which would reason, "Was not the purpose of the law to do precisely what you have said Christ came to do, namely, to deliver from sin and death?" He responds, "No. Rather than delivering from sin, the law caused it to abound, increase, or multiply." Moreover the law - The article is missing in the Greek, but this undoubtedly has reference to the law of Moses. entered. - Came in alongside the offence (sin) which had existed before the law. that the offence might abound. - Increase (NlV) or multiply. The law revealed the sinfulness of sin (Romans 7:7-11). But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: The two instances of abound here are translated from two different Greek words, the former meaning to fill and the latter to super abound or overflow. Hence grace extends beyond measure, far surpassing sin. Sin abounds but grace reaches beyond its deepest and most depraved limits (Hebrews 7:25). This the law could not do (Romans 8:1-4).
Romans 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin reigns in death (ASV) but grace reigns through righteousness (deliverance from sin) through Christ. The reign of death and eternal life stand here as exact opposite, thus showing that death through this whole section (Romans 5:12-21) means eternal or spiritual death. When Christ saves from sin, death’s reign is banished. This seems so obvious to me that I marvel that nearly all commentators believe Paul meant physical death, with spiritual death, if related at all, only secondarily. The truth, however, is that Paul means spiritual death and if physical death is referred to in any way it is only as a consequence indirectly implied.
Concluding note to Chapter 5: Paul emphasizes four aspects of justification in this chapter. (1) Justification is by faith (Romans 5:1). (2) Justification results in glory to God (Romans 5:2-5). (3) Justification has as its grounds the sacrificial and vicarious death of Christ (Romans 5:6-11). (4) Justification (the blessing which comes by the death of Christ) is deliverance from death - the death that results from sin (Romans 5:12-21). The exciting conclusion: Jesus Christ the Savior is our victory over sin!
Romans Chapter Six
DEAD TO SIN
Harold Winters
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? - What consequences follow the fact that where sin abounds grace abounds more exceedingly? (Romans 5:20). Some might use this to reject Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith (e.g., they might say that without the law there could be no moral restraints); others might gleefully receive it as an excuse to keep on sinning. But neither conclusion follows. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? - This probably an ticipates an argument based upon a misunderstanding of the grace of God by which justification by faith is made possible. They would reason, "If sin causes grace to abound or to reach beyond its farthest limits (Romans 5:20), then we should sin all the more: for the more we sin the more God’s grace is multiplied. Thus the more we sin the greater our blessing."
Romans 6:2 God forbid. - A strong emphatic negative reply. See note on Romans 3:4. There is absolutely no way by which God would encourage sin by blessing the commiting of it. How shall we, that are dead to sin, - Four types of death can be clearly distinguished in the NT. They are: (1) Dead in sin dead to God or separated from Him spiritually (Romans 5:12-21; Ephesians 2:1-4). (2) Dead to sin - alive to God or reconciled to Him by the death of Christ (Romans 6:1-4). (3) Physical death - the separation of the body and spirit (James 2:26). (4) The second death - eternal separation from God (Revelation 20:11-15). live any longer therein? - Just as the Christian was formerly dead in sin, he is now dead to sin. And having died to sin, it is not possible for him to live in it (Galatians 2:20). He is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).
BURIED WITH CHRIST IN BAPTISM
Romans 6:3 Know ye not, Or are ye ignorant (ASV), Surely you know (Moffett). A strong expression showing that it would be absurd if they did not know that they had died to sin when they were baptized into the death of Christ. To be in Christ, to receive the benefits of His death, is to be dead to sin. that so many of us All Christians, including Paul himself. as were baptized - Immersed, for so is the meaning of the Greek word (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12). Men have rejected, distorted, and changed what the Bible says about baptism, but the Scriptures teach that it is a command of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:16; Acts 10:48) in which penitent believers in Christ as God’s Son (Acts 2:38; Acts 16:31; Mark 16:16) are buried with Him (Romans 6:4) in water (Acts 8:35-38) in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20) for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), which puts them into Christ (Galatians 3:27) in whom they arise to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4-5). into Jesus Christ - Into is from the Greek preposition eis, which here shows transition and thus the manner by which union is formed with Christ. The Israelites were baptized into (RSV) Moses (1 Corinthians 10:2), at which time they passed from under the rule of Egypt to the rule of Moses they entered into the sphere of his rule, law, and authority. Just so, when one is baptized into Christ he passes from the world into union with Christ. He becomes an integral part of the body of Christ, the church (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Robertson (WP) lets his theology replace his scholarship here by saying, "The translation ’into’ makes Paul say that the union was brought to pass by baptism [indeed it does! HW], which is not the idea, for Paul was not a sacramentarian." But establishing union with Christ is precisely Paul’s idea, sacramentarian or not. He says the transition out of the world into Christ is made in baptism, and no juggling of words can change his meaning. were baptized into his death? - Into the benefits of His death.
Romans 6:4 Therefore - Conclusion from vv. 1-3: because we were baptized into Christ, thereby receiving the benefits of His death (salvation or the new life), we are dead to sin and those dead to sin cannot continue to live in it (v. 2). we are buried - The only action known to the ancient church, or to the Scrip tures, as baptism, namely, immersion. Nothing else fills the demands. Or as Conybeare and Howson state, "This passage cannot be understood unless it be borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by immersion." Even the venerable John Wesley, in his Notes on the New Testament, candidly admits that this is "Alluding to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion." with him -- With Christ. by baptism - By immersion in water. That the action in bap tism is immersion can be proven by the following lines of argument: (1) The English word is a transliteration of the Greek word baptizo, which in its primary sense never means anything but to dip or immerse. See any standard Greek lexicon. (2) History reveals that the apostolic church (the first century church) practiced immersion exclusively. The practice was not changed on a wide scale basis for hundreds of years after the Bible was written. (3) No one in Bible times ever had water sprinkled or poured upon him and called that action baptism. The action in sprinkle (rantizo). pour (ekcheo), and baptize (baptizo) is absolutely different. In sprinkling the water (not the object) is sprinkled -- scattered in drops. The same is true with pouring the water is poured. But with baptism an object is dipped in the water. The action is so entirely different that there is no way the two former can ever substitute for the latter any more than calling can substitute for mnning. All three words are used in the Septuagent Version in Leviticus 14:15-16. Their proper action is correctly translated by the KJV as pour, sprinkle, and dip. (4) The circ*mstance surrounding the recorded cases of baptism in the Bible demand immersion. There was much water (John 3:23); coming unto the water (Acts 8:36); going down into the water (Acts 8:38); both the one baptizing and the one being baptized down in the water (Acts 8:38); the baptizing taking place while down in the water (Acts 8:38); and a corning up out of the water after the act was performed (Acts 8:39; Matthew 3:16). (5) The Bible plainly calls it a burial (here and Colossians 2:12). (6) All passages alluding to baptism imply immersion an. Romans 3:5; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:25-26; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 10:22). into death: One of two views must be chosen: (1) baptized into one’s own death to sin. Standing alone this seems to be Paul’s thought. (2) The death of Christ, as in v. 3. The context favors this. In v. 3, we are baptized into the death of Christ into the benefits of His death. Here we are baptized into death, from which we arise to walk in a new life (made possible by His death). In Romans 6:5, we are united with Him in the likeness of His death that we may also be united in the likeness of His resurrection (new life). All three seem to be em phasizing union with Christ by the benefits of His death, and that we receive the benefits by being baptized into Him. that like as Christ was raised up from the dead (Romans 1:4) - Christ literally raised from the dead. Our resurrection with Him is spiritual- to a new life. by the glory of the Father, - The power of God (1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 13:4). God is glorified when His will is done. even so we also should walk in newness of life. Not in sin but in that new life which is given to those who die to sin (its love and practice) and are baptized into the benefits of the death of Christ. They have put off the old man of sin and put on the new man of righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:20-24).
RAISED TO A NEW LIFE
Romans 6:5 For - Connects this with vv. 3-4 and shows that it is an extension of the same concept. if we have been planted together United with Him (ASV). in the likeness of his death, - We died to sin by being baptized into His death. Our death was to sin; His death was for sin. This proves beyond any doubt whatsoever that Paul taught that one is united with Christ when he is baptized into Him. we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: - We will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection (NIV). Thus our life is just as certain as our death - if we died to sin then we certainly have life. The union with Christ does not end at being baptized into His death; it con tinues into the new life with Him. But if one is united with Christ in both death and life, how could he continue to sin (the questions of Romans 6:1-2)? Sin brings death (Romans 6:23). But we have died to sin (been separated from the death that sin brings) and are united with Christ in His new life. Thus we cannot continue to sin so that grace may abound.
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, - We know (RSV) because we have exercised our reason (Romans 6:1-5) and thereby arrived at this knowledge (Hebrews 5:12-14). that our old man - The sinner or the life of sin and corruption (Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:8-10). is crucified with him, With Christ (Galatians 2:20). Put to death. The old man dies to or is separated from sin. that the body of sin The same as the old man. might be destroyed, - Put to death in relation to sin. Since the body is dead to sin, it would be impossible to continue in sin without a resurrec tion of the old man. that henceforth - From the time of the old man’s death and his burial with Christ in baptism. we should not serve sin. - Continue to sin or be sin’s servant (vv. 12-16). One must die to sin before he can be bap tized into or receive the benefits of Christ’s death. Thus to be in Christ is to be dead to or separated from sin. And to be dead to sin is to live apart from it (that is, it cannot be one’s way of life). If sin rules the life, one is dead to righteous ness; if he is dead to sin, he is alive to righteousness. But he cannot serve (be alive to) both. He must choose one or the other because our blessed Lord said, "No man can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24). The righteous are dead to sin, but if they should continue to sin they would die to righteousness and this would result in the same lost condition as they were in before redemption.
Romans 6:7 For he that is dead Dead to sin. is freed from sin. - Freed from its penalty, justified, or released from its bondage. Just as a slave was freed from his master at death, we are freed from the slavery of sin when we die to it and are baptized into the death of Christ (which pays our sin penalty). We must die to sin (repent or turn from it). But this alone does not put one into right standing with God. After our death to sin, we must be baptized into the benefits of the death of Christ. We thus die to sin; His death pays our sin debt; we are thereby freed from sin, justified, or made righteous. But no one can be in right relationship with God (be counted righteous) while continuing in sin. Thus the question, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound," is answered with a resounding and absolute negative, leaving no room for doubt or exceptions.
Romans 6:8 Now if we be dead But if we died (ASV). Died to sin or had the old man of sin crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). with Christ, - By being baptized into His death (vv. 3-4). we believe that we shall also live with him: As new men with new lives (Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:5-10). While it is true that Christians have hope of living with Christ eternally, and in a sense that life has already begun (John 17:3; 1 John 1:1-3), this has reference to the new life that is achieved by dying to sin, by being baptized into the benefits of Christ’s death, and by raising to walk in a new relationship with Him - a life of reconciliation with God and free from the power, guilt, and penalty of sin (Romans 6:11-14). The new life is in contrast with being dead in sin.
Romans 6:9 Knowing A fact already established; a common belief from which to reason. that Christ being raised from the dead See notes on 1:4; also 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. dieth no more; He rose never to die again. His death was planned by God for a divine purpose (to free man from the penalty of sin). He is coming again but not to die or make another sin offering (Hebrews 9:28). His dominion over death is our assurance that we shall live with Him, as stated in v. 8. -- death hath no more dominion over him. - Death no longer has mastery over him (NIV). While He was in the flesh, He was, with all human beings, mortal and subject to die, but only by His own consent On. 10:17-18). While He was in the grave, death apparently had dominion (or mastery) over Him. But in His resurrection He broke its power forever - He conquered it and now lives to die no more (Revelation 1:18).
Romans 6:10 For in that he died, - The death He died is in contrast with the life He now lives. he died unto sin -He died to the state or sphere of sin, that is, death put Him beyond sin’s power or reach. Or as Lightfoot, in his notes on Romans, says, "Christ died to a sinful world, died to a life in which He was every moment bearing the consequences of sin." Many commentators feel that this is an atonement passage, setting forth the purpose of His death and mean ing that Christ died for sins. Thus Moffett translates it, "The death he died was for sin, once for all." While this is true and abundantly taught elsewhere, in my judgment it is not Paul’s point here. once: - Once for all (NIV), an act never to be repeated (d. Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 9:28; Hebrews 10:10). This is why death no longer has domin ion over Him (v. 9). but in that he liveth, In that He rose from the dead to die no more. he liveth unto God. To the praise, honor, and glory of God (1:4).
Romans 6:11 Likewise In the same way (NIV) or similarly (BV). reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, Dead to the guilt of sin, its penalty, its power, its sphere, and its relationship. This death is completed when one is baptized into Christ (Romans 6:3-4), where His death makes valid our turning from sin. but alive unto God - Having been buried with Christ in baptism and arose therefrom to walk in a new life (Romans 6:4), we are now alive to God’s will and purpose. Sin should have no more dominion over us (who are dead to it but alive to God) than death has over Christ (Romans 6:9). We must therefore live in such a manner as to reflect the new life which we possess (Colossians 3:1-4; 2 Corinthians 3:18). through Jesus Christ our Lord. - In Christ (ASV) where all spiritual blessings are for those who are saved from their sins (Ephesians 1:3), which salvation is made possible by the death of Christ and is appropriated when we are baptized into Him (Galatians 3:26-27).
Romans 6:12 let not sin therefore reign - Rule as king. in your mortal body, - That which is temporal, earthly, and physical (subject to death and decay) in contrast to that which is eternal, heavenly, and spiritual (not subject to death) (d. 1 Corinthians 15:47-54; 2 Corinthians 4:11; 2 Corinthians 5:4). We are dead to sin and therefore must not permit it to reign as master through the body. that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. - To have you yield to its passions (BV). Let not sin control the body through its evil desires. To obey sin is to be its slave (v. 16). But we are dead to sin. We must not, therefore, submit to its rule in any part of the body.
Romans 6:13 Neither yield - Greek present tense, do not keep on presenting the members of your body to sin as its instruments. ye your members as in struments of unrighteousness unto sin: - Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness (NIV). Sin comes from the heart (Matthew 15:10-20; Mark 7:14-23) but its overt expression must be through the body. But since we are dead to sin, no part of the body should be permitted to be used as the tool of sin. The body is dead to sin and thus sin should have no means of ex pressing itself in any of its parts. but yield - Same word as above but in the aorist tense, which means a once-for-all or a complete yielding. As physical death is final, so should be the act of presenting one’s body to God as an instrument in His service (12:1-3). yourselves unto God, - To obey His will as revealed in the gospel. Or as Jesus put it, seek God and His kingdom first (Matthew 6:33). as those that are alive from the dead, - Those who possess a new life because they are risen with Christ (v. 4). and your members as in struments of righteousness unto God. - As with sin, service to God originates in the heart but is expressed through bodily activity. Those who are alive to God must use their bodies as tools of righteousness rather than in struments of sin. Sin has no place in the system of grace ... nor in the life of a Christian.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: - Sin shall not be your master (NIV). Sin’s dominion, its power to rule over man, is its penalty. But forgiveness remits the penalty and thereby brakes sin’s hold. When one is alive to sin, it rules over him - he is its servant (v. 16); when he dies to sin he removes himself from its dominion and becomes subject to another, Jesus Christ. He is thus freed from sin to be ruled by righteousness. for ye are not under the law, - Law as a system in contrast with grace as a system. This may not be limited to the law of Moses but it would certainly include it. Those under law are under sin’s dominion - that is, they are under its penalty (Romans 7:9-23). but under grace. - Under the system of grace (the gospel) which provides the means of forgiveness (through the death of Christ). Herein lies the vast difference between the law and the gospeL The law (no law per se) pro vides no means of forgiveness. Thus no one can be justified by law (Romans 3:20). But the gospel does provide for forgiveness the means by which one can be saved from sin. We can therefore be saved by grace, which means that we can be saved by the gospel system, the divine scheme of redemption. It would be a grave and fatal error to conclude that to be under grace exempts from obedience to the revealed will of God, the gospel of Christ (Romans 6:16-18). Grace pro vides the divine scheme; the scheme includes obedience (Hebrews 5:8-9; Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46; In. 14:15,23). We are justified by grace without works of law but not without obedience to the gospel of God’s dear Son, the system of grace.
OBEDIENCE
Romans 6:15 What then? What follows then if we are under grace rather than law? shall we sin, Commit occasional acts of sin in contrast with a life of sin as in v. 1. In v. 1 the question is, "Shall we live a life of sin?" Here it is, "Shall we commit single acts of sin?" because we are not under the law, but under grace? - See v. 14 for notes on law and grace. Does being under grace mean there are no rules of life, standards of morality, or restraints on conduct? Sin (a violation of the law, 1 John 3:4), every act of sin, is prohibited under the gospel (the system of grace) as well as under the law (Galatians 5:19-21; 2 Peter 2:20-22; 1 John 2:15-17). Freedom from the law means freedom from sin, its rule or dominion, not freedom to indulge in sin, not freedom from rules, standards, and restraints. God forbid. - A strong negative (see note on 3:4) emphati cally denying that one can commit sin because he is under grace rather than under law. To sin under grace is to turn it into an occasion of lasciviousness (Judges 1:4).
Romans 6:16 Know ye not, See note on v. 3. that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey;
When you submit to being someone’s slaves, and obeying him, you are the slave of the one whom you obey (Goodspeed). One has no choice but to be in bondage. He does have a choice, however, as to whom he serves, whether sin or obedience. The former is a cruel, degradative, destructive taskmaster work ing only ruin, who offers no rewards but death - eternal condemnation (Romans 16:23). The latter is a kind, considerate, elevating, sustaining master who blesses with all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3) in this world and in the world to come eternal life (Matthew 26:46). So choose you this day whom you will serve (Joshua 24:15).
whether of sin unto death, - Whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death (NIV). The inevitable results of presenting oneself to sin is spiritual bond age and that bondage is death or separation from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), both in time and in eternity (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). One cannot commit sin without becoming the servant of sin (John 8:34). This is what it means for sin to have dominion over one (Romans 6:14). or of obedience unto righteousness? or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (NIV). Obedience (doing the will of God as it is revealed in the gospel) brings one into right relationship with God and binds him as a slave to right rather than wrong. Christ rules the life through obedience, making the obedient right because he serves right he is righteous because he does right (1 In. 3:7).
Romans 6:17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, - But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin (ASV). He is not ex pressing gratitude for the fact that they were in sin’s bondage but that, even though this had been their former condition, they had now obeyed the gospel and thereby became servants of righteousness. but ye have obeyed from the beart - In the Christian age all acceptable obedience must come from the heart. It must spring out of the human will as a sincere submission to the will of God. It must therefore be more than overt actions alone. It takes both the right motive (the proper attitude of the heart) and the right act (submission to that which the Lord commands) to constitute obedience. The right act alone is not enough. Neither is the right motive. The right act plus the right motive equals obedience. that form of doctrine which was delivered you. - The form is best understood as a pattern or mold, the means by which one ceases to be the servant of sin and becomes the servant of righteousness. The doctrine is the teaching (ASV) they had received, which had been delivered unto them, the gospel, God’s power to save (Romans 1:16). Paul defined the gospel as the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). It should be obvious that one cannot obey the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as such - that is, he cannot literally die, be literally buried, and then be literally raised from the dead. But he can obey a form or mold of that doctrine. He can die to the love and practice of sin; he can be buried with Christ in baptism; and he can arise from the watery grave to walk in newness of life. And this is precisely what the context shows that Paul had in mind. Or to summarize: the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; the form of that doctrine which we obey is death to sin, burial with Him in baptism, and a resurrection to a new life in Christ. The former is the doctrine or teaching; the latter is the form of the doctrine which we obey.
Romans 6:18 Being then made free from sin, - They were free from sin because they had died to it (vv. 1-2, 11) and that death to sin had occurred when they had obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered unto them. In short, they were free from sin because they had changed masters. ye became the servants of righteousness. - Their submission in obedience had made them righteous that is, God had counted their obedience as righteousness and this brought them into right relationship with Him. Formerly they were in bondage to sin, but now, by their obedience, they are in bondage to righteousness. To be in bondage to righteousness is the true freedom (John 8:36).
FROM SERVANTS OF SIN
TO SERVANTS OF GOD
Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men - Common or familiar terms by which all men communicate, especially in using the known (the servant-master relationship) to express more clearly the unknown (man’s servitude to God). because of the infirmity of your flesh: - The flesh’s natural weakness or limitations. This refers to intellectual, not moral, weaknesses, their slowness to grasp spiritual truths. for as ye have yielded your members Members of the fleshly body but these members are directed by the heart, the real source of disobedience and corruption (Romans 6:17; Matthew 15:17-20). servants to unclean ness To do the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). and to iniquity unto in iquity; greater and greater iniquity (RSV) or in one lawlessness after another (BV). They had been in time past bondservants of uncleanness and lawlessness. even so now - As Christians. yield your members ser vants to righteousness - Submit yourself to the bondage of right doing. unto holiness. - Sanctification (ASV). Purity of life (Hebrews 12:14), the exact opposite of uncleanness and lawlessness.
Romans 6:20 For when ye were the servants of sin, - They were the slaves of sin before they had obeyed from the heart the form of teaching delivered unto them (Romans 6:17). ye were free from righteousness. - Ye were free in regard of righteousness (ASV) , or you were free from the control of righteousness (NIV). They were not in bondage to righteousness while they were sin’s slave. This does not mean that they were not amenable to righteousness or accountable to God for their sinful ways. It obviously teaches, as is taught throughout this chapter, that one cannot serve two masters because he is the slave of the one he serves (Romans 6:16). They had chosen to serve sin. Thus were not in bondage to righteousness. Or as Robertson (WP) notes, "Ye wore no collar of righteousness, but freely did as ye pleased."
Romans 6:21 What fruit - What resulted from the life of sin? had ye then in those things - The sinful deeds which had brought them under sin’s servitude. whereof ye are now ashamed? - They were ashamed of their former conduct and the results which they had attained by it. They could now see the beauty of holiness and the disgracefulness of sin (d. 1 Peter 4:1-5). The results of slavery to sin is of such nature that one should always be ashamed of it; the results of serving obedience is always a source of justifiable pride. the reward of doing and being what we were made to do and be.
Romans 6:22 But now - As Christians. in contrast with the then of v. 21. being made free from sin, - Having died to it (Romans 6:7) and thus no longer in its bond age. and become servants to God, - Through obedience (Romans 6:16-18). They had changed masters. having formerly been slaves of sin. they had been freed from it. and was now in service to righteousness. ye have your fruit - The results of righteous living. unto holiness, - sanctification (ASV). Sanctification is similar in nature to becoming a Christian. There is a definite time when one becomes a child of God (Romans 6:3-4; John 3:5). but as a child one should grow daily in the likeness of his Father (2 Peter 1:3-4). Christian growth is therefore a process. So is sanctification. One is sanctified at the time of his new birth. but the process continues as long as he grows in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18). and the end everlasting life. - Eternal life (ASV). now in promise (1 John 2:25) and in the end a full possession (Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30).
Romans 6:23 For the wages - Provisions paid for a service rendered. of sin is death; - Spiritual or eternal death. the death from which Christ died to redeem. Death is thus the wages paid those who serve sin. but the gift of God - The free gift of God (ASV). The free gift is in contrast with the wages paid. Life is a free gift; death is wages earned. is eternal life - Spiritual life or redemption from death. Life stands in contrast with death. the one meaning salvation and the other condemnation. Eternal life seems to be presented in three dimensions: (1) A new relationship (John 17:3) enjoyed by new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17) who have put off the old man and put on the new (Ephesians 4:21-24). This new relationship is with the Prince of Life (Acts 3:15). (2) A new quality of life (John 6:54; 1 John 5:13). the abundant life (IJohn10:10). which begins at the new birth (John 3:5) and is consummated in the world to come (Mark 10:30). (3) Endless or timeless life - life in eternity (2 Timothy 1:10; Matthew 25:46; John 3:16). through Jesus Christ our Lord. - The provisions for life were made. not by ourselves. as in the case of sin, but by Jesus Christ whose death on the cross paid our sin debt. One cannot earn salvation; it is a free gift, offered to all who have earned the wages of sin.
DEAD TO THE LAW
Harold Winters
Romans 7:1 Know ye not, - Or are ye ignorant (ASV). See note on Romans 6:3. brethren, Those who had died to the law and sin and was thus alive to God; Christians, whether Jew or Gentile. (for I speak to them that know the law,) They were not ignorant of the law of Moses, as revealed in the OT. The principle here stated would be true of any law. how that the law hath dominion - Authority (NIV). over a man as long as he liveth? - The law is bound only on the living. The point here is that they were not under the law because they were dead to it (vv. 4, 6). This is illustrated and stated in Romans 7:2-4.
Romans 7:2-3 These verses are primarily an illustration. Their design is not to teach a lesson on marriage, even though what they say about marriage is certainly true. They illustrate the fact that, being dead to the law or the law being dead to them, their relationship (called marriage) with Christ is legitimate. Because they were dead to the law by the body of Christ they were free to be married to another, that is, establish a new spiritual relationship. An illustration is usually designed to illuminate one point and one point only. To press it beyond that one point is to press it beyond its design and thus to force into it something the writer never intended to teach.
Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an busband For example, by law a married woman (NIV). is bound by the law - The law of marriage, called also the law of her husband later in the verse. Just as the Jews were bound by the law of Moses, a wife is bound to her husband by the law of marriage. The principle would be just as true of a man, especially under the new covenant. This probably has primary reference to the original law of marriage as given in Gen. 2:22·24 and reinstated by Christ in Matthew 19:3-9 rather than the laws pertain ing to marriage given through Moses. to her husband so long as he liveth; - While there were exceptions to this rule under the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) and one exception under the law of Christ (Matthew 19:9), this was understood to be the general rule. And because it was so understood, it illustrates Paul’s point that they were dead to the law and thus had legitimately established a new relationship with Christ. but if the husband be dead, she is loosed - Released from the marriage bond. She thus has no more marital responsibilities to him. She is free to marry another. from the law of her husband. - From the law of marriage (NIV).
Romans 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, If while the marriage vows are still bound. she be married to another man, Any man other than her lawful mate. she shall be called - Divinely called, or so it seems from the use of the world in its other occurrences in the NT (Matthew 2:12; Matthew 2:22; Luke 2:26; Acts 10:22; Acts 11:26; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 11:7; Hebrews 12:25). an adulteress: - One who has committed adultery. One is called a murderer when he murders, a liar when he doesn’t tell the truth, a thief when he steals. So a woman is called an adulteress when she commits adultery. but if her husband be dead, Death dissolves the marital bond. she is free from that law; - The law of marriage. so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. The death of a mate frees one to marry again.
Romans 7:4 Wherefore, So (NIV). He now makes application of the illustration given in vv. 2-3. my brethren, - Christians to whom he was writing, but especially Jewish Christians. ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; - The death of Christ brought the law to an end (Colossians 2:14-17; 2 Corinthians 3:5-18). Christians were not under the law and was therefore not accountable to it (Galatians 5:4). It was replaced by the NT (Hebrews 8:6-13). They were therefore released from all the law’s binding force. Paul does not say that the law was dead, but rather that they were dead to the law. But the end result is the same. that ye should be married to another, That their relationship with Christ should be legitimate. One cannot live under two covenants, testaments, or wills. The new annuls the old. The relationship between Christ and Christians is here viewed as marriage, as was the relation ship between God and Israel (Hosea 1-2). Paul also uses marriage to illustrate the intimate relationship between Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:22-30). even to him who is raised from the dead, - Christ, their Lord and Savior ... and ours. that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Righteousness, the fruit of a Christian (Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Peter 1:5-11).
Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, - When they were under the law and controlled by the flesh. To be in the flesh is to live for fleshly desires and lusts (Galatians 5:16-25). It is opposite to being spiritual. the motions of sins, Sinful passions. which were by the law, Revealed by the law (Romans 7:7-8). did work in our members Sin expresses itself overtly through members of the body. bring forth fruit unto death. - The wages of sin (Romans 6:23) or the opposite of fruit unto God (Romans 7:4).
Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, - Discharged (ASV) or released from its bondage. that being dead wherein we were held; Being now dead to the law (vv. 2-4) to which they (including Paul himself) were formerly bound. that we should serve in newness of spirit, - The new way or system revealed by the Spirit, the gospel way, described at length in chapter 8. and not in the oldness of the letter. - Not by the law (the con dition of a sinner under law is discussed fully in v. 9-25). The newness of the Spirit and the oldness of the letter here mean the gospel (made known by the HS) and the law (given through Moses). Because of this contrast I believe the HS is meant, not human or dispositional spirit as the KJV translators indicate by the lower case.
LAW AND SIN
Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? - What conclusion is to be drawn from what is said in Romans 7:5-6? Is the law sin? - Did the law cause (or create) sin? God forbid. Certainly not! (Goodspeed). A strong negative. The purpose of the law was not to make men sinners. Its purpose was to reveal right and wrong. But when it was violated, sin was the inevitable results (1 John 3:4). Thus sin is not in the law but in the transgressor. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: I would not have known what sin was except through the law (NIV). The law revealed both right and wrong, and by its revelation was the only way man could know either. In short, the law revealed right as right and sin as sin. for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. An example, using the tenth commandment (Exodus 20:17), of how the law revealed sin as sin. The law did not cause lust, but he would not have known that lust was sinful had the law not prohibited it.
Romans 7:8 But sin, - The transgression of God’s law, whether by commission or omission, is here personified. taking occasion by the commandment, The law made an opening or an opportunity for transgression to manifest itself --to show its sinfulness. It is not that the law is sin or that it results in sin (Romans 7:6), but that sin uses the law as an occasion to reveal itself. The law makes known the true nature of sin. wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Covetousness (RSV) or forbidden desires. The law did not cause the perverted desires; nor did it make them sinful; it brought the light of truth upon them and thus revealed them as sin. For without the law --Undoubtedly the law of Moses, but in principle any law. For without law there can be no violation. sin was dead. - Lifeless, powerless, and unable to manifest itself as it was (see note on Romans 4:15).
A SINNER UNDER LAW
Romans 7:9-23 By many, this section is considered most difficult to comprehend. This is true, for the most part, because they try to force the section to say something that is not there, namely, an internal conflict within the mind, heart, and life of a Christian. But Paul is not considering his state of mind as a Chris tian. Rather he is describing his state of mind as a sinner under the law. His description is of a man (himself or any other man who sincerely seeks to serve God under law) living under a law when he knows that he has violated that law. He has sinned and stands condemned by the very law he loves and longs to keep. His sin has produced alienation from the law, the vehicle by which he serves God. To be justified by the law, and thus to be able to enjoy full fellowship with God, he must either pay the penalty (which is death) or be forgiven. But the law, which condemned him as a sinner, provided no means of forgiveness (no means of justification apart from the penalty), except to prom ise that a redeemer was coming. He longs to be just in the sight of the law but there was no way he could be except to pay the penalty in full. This is thus a description of one who lived under the law after he had violated it. He desired to do right but the law, because he had violated it, bound the penalty upon him. On one hand he yearned to serve God by obeying the law, but on the other he was condemned by the very law he yearned to serve. How could one be delivered from such a wretched conflict of mind? He could not under the law (and this is precisely Paul’s point), but he could be (and Paul was) by Christ. When he asked, vv. 24-25, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" he replied, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The conflict here described is the very thing from which Christ delivers. I conclude then that this section in no way describes the internal conflicts of a Christian. It is a description of a sinner under the law.
Romans 7:9 For I This was something that personally happened to Paul. It was he who was alive once and it was he who died. was alive - Not condemned by the law. This refers to his childhood, before he was accountable to the law; he was then innocent, free from the guilt of sin, and uncondemned as a law violator. without the law once: - Before he was accountable to it. but when the commandment - In context, the tenth (Romans 7:8) but it is used to express in principle the whole law. came, - When he became accountable to it. sin revived, - Sin sprang to life (NIV). That is it woke up or came alive. Sin brought him under the penalty of violated law. and I died. - Died spiritually, as in Romans 5:12 ff. The law condemned him because of sin. The order here is: (1) He was alive (innocent and not under the death penalty); (2) the commandment came (he reached the age when he became accountable to the law); (3) he sinned (violated the law); and (4) he died (the penalty of his violation was spiritual death or condemnation by the law). This verse once and for all refutes the absurd doctrine of total hereditary depravity - the doctrine which says that one is born dead in sin. If Paul was born a sinner, when was he alive without the law?
Romans 7:10 And the commandment, In context the tenth, but it is here used to mean the whole law. which was ordained unto life, - Life (or salvation) was the end the law had in view, which could be reached only in Christ and the gospel (Romans 8:4; Romans 10:4). Thus its primary intention was to reveal the way of life, not to produce condemnation. I found Was found or discovered. to be unto death. - When the law was disobeyed, even though its primary purpose was to reveal the way of life, the result was condemnation. Life or death does not lie within the law itself but with the individual’s response to the law. Whether it proves to be a blessing or a curse depends on one’s obedience or disobedience to it (Deuteronomy 11:26-28). Life came by keeping the law (10:5; Leviticus 18:5), but a violated law knows nothing but condemnation. If one does not see this point, the meaning of this whole section will elude him.
Romans 7:11 For sin, - Transgression personified. taking occasion by the commandment, Seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment (NIV). See note on v. 8. deceived me, - Beguiled me (ASV). Eve is an exam ple of how sin deceives (Genesis 3:1 ff). She was not deceived by the commandment (Romans 7:12), but the devil used the opportunity afforded by the commandment to lead her astray. The very nature of sin is deceptive (Hebrews 3:13). It appears to offer freedom but gives bondage (2 Peter 2:19), happiness but brings misery, etc. and by it The law. slew me. - Brought him under its penalty. He is now a condemned transgressor.
Romans 7:12 Wherefore - The conclusion is now reached -the answer to the question raised in Romans 7:7. The law is not sin! the law is holy, The whole law is holy. and the commandment holy, - Each part of the law is also holy. It is holy because it is given by God and therefore partakes of His divine nature. and just, - Right in its demands. and good. Good for the end to which it was given (Isaiah 55:10-11). The law is holy in its origin and authority, just and right in its requirements, and good in its aims and results, The fault then was not in the law - it is not the cause of sin (Romans 7:13), Sin is the transgression of the law (1 In. 3:4), Sin then is not in the law but in the sinner,
Romans 7:13 Was then that which is good -- The law, made death unto me? - The law was not responsible for him being condemned as a sinner. The law was good (Romans 7:7-12), but he had violated it. Now as a transgressor he stands condemned by it. Sin, not the law, was responsible for his death - separation from his state of innocences (Romans 7:9). God forbid. - A strong negative meaning certainly not (Goodspeed) or by no means (NIV), But sin, - The transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). The sin is in the sinner, not in the law, Let me illustrate: in the county where I live two men were cruelly murdered, They were pushed down an old abandoned mine shaft and, if they were not killed by the fall, left there to die. The guilty party was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison. Is the law against murder responsible for him being in prison? No. The law is good, But he violated the law and he is imprisoned because of that viola tion. It is his crime, not the law, that is responsible. The penalty of the law shows the seriousness of the crime. Thus it is with the law of God. that it might appear sin, -That it might be shown to be sin (ASV). The law re vealed sin as sin. working death in me by that which is good; - The law (that which is good) presented the occasion for sin to work in him and the sin in turn produced death. that sin by the commandment might become ex ceeding sinful. - The law does not cause sin but it does reveal its depths and hatefulness in the eyes of God. Or as Goodspeed translates it, "So that through the command it might appear how immeasurably sinful sin was…"
Romans 7:14 For we know -- A point now accepted by all. that the law is spiritual: The law is good (Romans 7:7-12). It is called spiritual because of its divine nature - because it was revealed by the Spirit. Spirituality (in the law) here is opposite carnality (in man), but I am He uses the present tense because he transposes himself back to the time when he was a sinner under the law. carnal, - His transgression made him a sinner, unspiritual, fleshly, physical. This state is called death in Romans 7:9; Romans 7:13. sold under sin. - Sold as a slave to sin (NIV). His violation of the law brought him under the possession, power, and penalty of sin (Romans 6:16). He was now a slave, in sin’s possession. And herein is the great conflict described in vv. 14-25. He was a slave of sin but he loved the law and desired with his whole being to be its slave (to have a spiritual master rather than a carnal one). But he now (as he had been under the law, not as he was in Christ) had sinned and the law had no provisions by which he could be justified (except to pay the penalty in full or accept Christ, when He came, as a substitute for his penalty). Thus his heart and love was with the law, but his transgression had brought him under the reign of sin. By no stretch of the imagination (except by the imagination of those who have a theory to defend at any cost) could this describe one forgiven of his sins by the blood of Christ, who stands justified by faith, and who has Christ as the constant propitiation for his sins (1 John 2:2; 1 John 2:24-25; Romans 8:1). No faithful Christian can truthfully say that he is sold under sin - that is, that sin is his master. He has been redeemed! He is owned by Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). As N.B. Hardeman was known to say, "That’s not nearly it; that’s it."
Romans 7:15 For that which I do - Work or perform, that is, serve sin. I allow not: - Know not (ASV). His love for the law, and his desire to be its servant, would not permit him to approve his service to sin or to recognize and render joyful service to it as his master. for what I would, - Serve the law. that do In actual practice. He could not be a servant of the law because he was in servitude to sin - sold under sin (Romans 7:14). but what I hate, - The loathsome service of sin. that do I. - Serve sin. He had no choice: for his violation of the law brought him under the condemnation (slavery) of sin. The law he loved and wanted to serve offered no means of justification. And while he hated sin, he was still its slave.
Romans 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, - Serve under sin rather than the law. I consent unto the law that it is good. - His great desire was to serve the law, and that desire proved that he concurred with and acknowledged its goodness. Or as the NEB puts it, "I agree with the law and hold it to be admirable."
Romans 7:17 Now then - This being so (Moffett) the things stated in Romans 7:15-16 and probably contrasting it to the time when it was otherwise (Romans 7:9). it is no more I that do it, - It was not by choice he remained in bondage to sin. His transgression had plunged him into this undesirable state and he had no way to escape it. but sin that dwelleth in me. Sin controlled his life. It was his master because he was condemned by the law and sold to sin as a slave (Romans 7:14). This further proves that Paul is not describing the conflict within a Christian. How could a Christian say that sin dwelled in him (that is, controls his life) when the blood of Christ keeps on cleansing him from sin (1 John 1:7)? Paul is not saying that he is not responsible for his sins, but rather that he is not a slave of sin by choice. His sin had brought him under the death penalty (Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23), but with his whole heart he wished to be free from it and stand again approved by the law as in a former time (Romans 7:9).
Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) - In him as a car nal (v. 14) condemned violator - subject to the flesh rather than the law. He has reference to the part of him that was subject to sin. One must keep in mind that he was alienated from the law, which he loved and wanted to obey, by sin, which had made him subject to the flesh. dwelleth no good thing: - He was sold under sin (Romans 7:14) and there was nothing in the law that could redeem him from the penalty of his transgression. He was therefore forced to submit to the flesh (which was not good) rather than to the law (which was good). for to will is present with me; The good (in the law) was always before him and it was his constant desire to practice it. He longed to be free from sin. Thus his desire was right. He wanted to obey the law in all its parts but he had broken one or more of its commandments (Rom 7:7-9) and therefore stood condemned by the whole law (James 2:10). but how "How" is added by the translators, but omitted by the ASV. The omission is better. It is not how to perform but the performance that is under consideration. to perform that which is good To practice the law in its fullness and without its condemnation. Or to stand justified by the law and let it be his master instead of sin (both sin and the law are personified in this section). I find not. - He had the will to perform, "but," as the NIV puts it, "I cannot carry it out." His status as a sinner prevented him from fulfilling his desire. He could not carry out his will because the law made no provisions for justification except to pay the penalty (Romans 6:23), which he could not do and still live to serve the law.
Romans 7:19 See note on v. 15. For the good that I would I do not: What he wished to do, to obey the law as his master without being condemned by it, to stand justified by the law he had violated, he was unable to do. but the evil which I would not, that I do. - What he wished not to do, serve sin (though he was unwilling to be a sinner he was condemned by and sold under sin, v. 14), he did.
Romans 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, Serve sin. His service to sin was forcedupon Him because he had become a transgressor - transgressor without the gospel or the means of Christ’s blood to take away his sins. it is no more I that do it, Not his will to sin. The contrast is between the part of him who longed to be justified and his state of sin, into which he had fallen, and not as to who was ultimately accountable for his sin. He willed to do right (v. 18) but he was sold under sin (v. 14). He was thus torn between two masters: the law, which he loved and wanted to serve, and sin, which he loathed and hated to serve. The former was his love but the latter was his master. but sin that dwelleth in me. - Sin controlled his life. See note on Romans 7:17.
Romans 7:21 I find then So I find (RSV). Based on what he has said in Romans 7:14-20. a law, - Literally, the law. Law appears here with the article, and in variably, when this is the case, Paul means the law of Moses. But, as unusual as it may be, I do not believe that it can be so understood here. It is a course of life or rule of action that he has learned by experience. That rule or law is ex· pressed in the remainder of the verse and contrasted as "another law" in v. 23 with the law of God of Romans 7:22. that, when I would do good, - Obey the law. evil is present with me. He could never absent himself from the fact that he was a sinner, condemned as a law violator. Regardless of what good he might seek to do, he was still condemned by the law as a transgressor. His guilt was always before him (d. Psalms 51:1-3).
Romans 7:22 For I delight - For I take pleasure in (The Living Oracles). In Romans 7:16 he consents to the law intellectually; here he delights in it emotionally. the law of God - The law of Moses, the law which he knew was good (vv. the law which he had transgressed, and the law by which he stood condemned because of his sin. The law of God is in contrast with "another law" and "the law of sin" of Romans 7:23. after the inward man: - The inter rational moral part of him that loved the law and longed to be in servitude to it. The inward man is not to be confused with the new man (Ephesians 4:21-24; 2 Corinthians 5:17), the Christian. Paul is describing the conflict between what he wanted to be (a servant of God approved by the law) and what he was (a sinner condemned by the law). He could not be what he wanted to be because he was sold under sin (Romans 7:14), a condition that by no means can describe the new man.
Romans 7:23 But I see - He depicts himself as an observer of the conflict that is going on within him. another law - The law or rule of v. 21, that when he would do good, evil was present. Also called the law of sin later in the verse. in my members, - Members of his body through which sin expressed itself. war ring against - Waging war against (NIV). the law of my mind, - The law of God as loved and approved by his mind. His mind consented that the law was good and its precepts right (v. 16) but the law of sin held him as a slave (v. 14, NIV) so that he was helpless. and bringing me into captivity - Making me a prisoner (NIV). to the law of sin - The law which wars against the law of his mind. which is in my members. - The other law of the first part of the v. This simply draws tighter the contrast between what he desired to be and what he was because of sin. A sinner under law (without the benefits of Christ’s death) is utterly hopeless, and this is precisely Paul’s point. He was showing the Jews (or anyone else concerned) their miserable state outside the gospel and how utterly impossible it was to be saved by the law.
DELIVERANCE FROM SIN
Romans 7:24 O wretched man - Distressed, miserable, and hopeless. that I am! - He was dead in sin (Romans 7:9; Ephesians 2:1), sold under sin (Romans 7:14), and held captive by sin (Romans 7:23). He sees his woeful condition (a man condemned by the law for his sin without the benefits of Christ’s blood), agonizes over it, and cries out from the depth of his soul, "What a wretched man I am!" (NIV). It appears to me that one would have to be blinded by the god of this world to think that a Christian, one who believes in the efficacy of the shed blood of Christ to free from all sin, could find himself in such a hopeless state of despair. who shall deliver me - There was and is no deliverance apart from the sacrificial death of Christ. from this body of death? - The penalty of sin.
Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, - Deliverance from the wretched condemned state he saw himself in (Romans 7:9-24) comes through Christ, the Redeemer. What could not be done by the law is now done by Christ (Romans 8:1-4). This is further proof that he was not speaking of himself as a Christian: for the very condition he describes is that from which Christ delivers. See also 8:1, where he brings himself back to the present and says that there is now no condemnation in Christ. There was condemnation under the law but not in Christ. So then - He reverts back to his condition of v. 24, not of deliverance in Christ but of condemnation under the law. with the mind - The reason or intellect, the part of him that loved and approved the law. I myself serve Bondservice or as the NIV renders it, "A slave to God’s law." the law of God; See note on v. 22. but with the flesh the law of sin. - Or, when personified, sin itself. Paul is not speaking of an occasional sin, but a life of sin -- a slave to the law of sin (NIV). Every Christian sins occasionally, but there is no proper way that he can say he is a slave of sin (Romans 6:7; Romans 6:11-14). I thus see no possible way to be honest with Paul’s words and interpret them to mean that a Christian can, at one and the same time, under the Christian system, serve (be a slave of) the law of God with the mind and the law of sin (be a slave of) with the flesh. This would be to make man a servant of two masters, which Jesus said could not be (Matthew 6:24). We must, therefore, conclude that Paul was not describing himself as a Christian, but projecting himself (as the representative of all) back under the law and seeing himself as a sinner, condemned by the law, without Christ or the benefits of His sacrificial death to pay his sin penalty. As a Christian, saved by grace divine, washed in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14), we can joyfully sing, in the words of a familiar old song:
My sin - O the bliss of the glorious tho’!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more:
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, 0 my soul.
ROMANS 8
Harold Winters
Chapter 8: This chapter is an exclamation of deliverance deliverance from the condemnation described in chapter 7. The theme of chapter 7 centered around the condition of a sinner under law; the theme of this chapter is deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. The law was holy. But man was a sinner, condemned by the law. The penalty of sin was death. The law provided no means of justification. Thus the status of a sinner under law (as described in Romans 7:9-25) was condemnation. But one should not despair of hope. Deliverance is possible. Paul, in anguish of soul, cried out, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of death?" He immediately replied, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24-25). The present chapter builds upon that exclamation by revealing the means of deliverance - deliverance from condemnation to justification. "There is therefore now no condemnation ... in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).
THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
Romans 8:1 There is therefore - Introducing the conclusion which follows from the statement of Romans 7:25 that deliverance comes through Christ. now In contrast with the time of 7:9-25 where he had projected himself back under the law. He now returns to his present condition in Christ. Then he was condemned; now he is justified. no condemnation - Freedom from the guilt, penalty, and power of sin imposed by the law. Unlike the law, the gospel, under which he is now living, provides the means of forgiveness (through the shed blood of God’s sinless Son). The sentence of death has been removed; he is no longer condemned (as in Romans 7:9-25); he is now justified; his sins are covered by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14; 1 John 1:7; 1 John 2:12). to them which are in Christ Jesus, - In union with Christ (In. 14:19-20), that is, married to Him (Romans 7:4), or in covenant relationship with Him. They had died to sin (Romans 6:1-8), been buried with Him in baptism (Romans 6:3-4); and arisen to walk with Him in a new life (Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:22-24). They were therefore born again (John 3:5; 1 Peter 1:23) and made new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The contrast here is between justification in Christ (deliverance from sin) and condemnation under the law (being a slave to sin, 7:14). who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Omitted by most translations on textual grounds. It was probably transcribed at an early date from v. 4, where it is unquestionably genuine. See note there.
Romans 8:2 For the law Three laws are distinguished in this and the following verse. Here it means the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21), the gospel, the principle of human redemption. of the Spirit of life - The Holy Spirit, by whom the gospel is inspired. He gives life (the new life) through the gospel, which is here called His law. It is the law of life because it is the principle or rule by which spiritual life is received - the means by which salvation is given. in Christ Jesus - By means of His sacrificial death Christ paid our sin debt. hath made me free - Liberated us from the bondage of sin. from the law of sin -- Sin itself (Romans 7:21; Romans 7:23). and death. The condemnation or penalty of sin. The thrust of this verse is the fact that the gospel delivers from sin (the penalty of which is death). Sin brings death (Romans 7:11) but the Spirit, through the gospel, gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6; Galatians 6:8). John 7:14; John 7:23, Paul depicts himself as in bondage to sin; now (v. 1) he is freed from that bondage. The bondage meant death; liberty means life.
Romans 8:3 For what the law - The law of Moses (and in principle any law). Provide forgiveness or pardon - deliverance from condemnation. in that it was weak - Imperfect (Hebrews 8:6-8) in the sense that it condemned but could not pardon. through the flesh, - Sinful flesh. Sin expresses itself through the flesh (Romans 7:5; Romans 7:18). The law was powerless to deliver one from the penalty of violation. God sending his own Son - Jesus Christ. in the likeness of sinful flesh, - Christ came in the flesh (Matthew 1:23; Philippians 2:5-12) but He did not sin through the flesh (John 8:46; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5), as all other men have done (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12). Because He was innocent, He could give Himself as a sacrifice to pay the penalty of the guilty. and for sin, - As an offering for sin (ASV margin). What the law could not provide, Christ by His death freely gave to man, namely, the means of pardon. condemned sin in the flesh: - Condemned it by providing deliverance or pardon. The aim of this whole verse is to tell us that what the law could not do (deliver from the condemnation described in Romans 7:9-25) God sent His Son to do (Hebrews 10:10-14) ... and He did it (Hebrews 9:26). Christ suffered in the flesh that man might be delivered from sins committed in the flesh.
Romans 8:4 That the righteousness of the law -- The righteousness (justification) which was the aim and end of the law, which would have been had man remained innocent, never having violated its precepts. While righteousness was the aim of the law, it could not be attained by it. But now we are justified in Christ; thus the aim of the law is fulfilled in us. might be fulfilled Reach its purpose, aim, or goal. in us, Christians or those who live under the gospel and are delivered from the law’s condemnation. who walk not after the flesh, - Who live and move not in the ways of the flesh (The Amplifled Bible). Whose life is not governed by fleshly dictates and appetites (Galatians 5:19-21). but after the Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Life is governed by the Spirit through His divine revelation (Galatians 5:22-23), the scheme of redemption as revealed in the gospel. Same as the spiritually minded (v. 6) and led by the Spirit (v. 14). Flesh and Spirit here stand opposite each other as the two directors (or philosophies) of life. We must follow one or the other. Only those whose lives are controlled and regulated by the Spirit, those who have accepted deliverance by obedience to the divine plan and continue to walk as He leads (v. 14), are fulfilling the righteousness of the law. All others (those who walk after the flesh) are still under condemnation.
FLESH AND SPIRIT
Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh - Those who have the flesh as the ruling principle of their life. do mind the things of the flesh; They are controlled by the flesh, having it as their director. but they that are after the Spirit -- Those whose lives are controlled by the direction of the Spirit. the things of the Spirit. Their lives are governed by the teaching of the Spirit. Those after the flesh gratify the flesh that they are worldly minded; those directed by the Spirit do the will of the Spirit - that is, they are spiritually minded. (See v. 6.)
Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded - Fleshly minded - having the mind controlled or ruled by the flesh (vv. 4-5). is death; - The penalty of sin (Romans 6:23) or condemnation. but to be spiritually minded - To walk after the Spirit - having the mind governed by the Spirit (vv. 4-5). is life - The opposite of death. Hence freedom from sin’s penalty. and peace. - The tranquility of heart and mind (as opposed to the turmoil described in Romans 7:9-25) which comes when one knows he is in right relationship with God (Romans 5:1; Philippians 4:7).
Romans 8:7 Because - Points to the reason for that which is stated in v. 6. the carnal minded - The fleshly mind - the mind ruled by the flesh. is enmity against God: - Is hostile to God (NIV). The hostility is caused by its carnality. The fleshly is opposed to the spiritual. for it is not subject Does not obey. to the law of God, - The gospel, that which is delivered by the Spirit. The carnal mind is not obedient to the will of God (Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46) because it is governed by the dictates of the flesh. neither indeed can be. It cannot submit to or obey God’s law and remain carnal. This does not mean that the carnally minded cannot choose to obey God (6:16-18; Hebrews 5:8-9; 1 Peter 1:22) but rather that they have not chosen to do so. When the carnal mind submits to God’s law, it ceases to be fleshly and becomes spiritual. Thus it cannot be subject to God’s will while it is fleshly. One cannot submit to both the flesh and the Spirit at the same time (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13).
Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. They cannot please God because they do not do His will (obey His law). They are controlled by the flesh rather than by the Spirit.
THE INDWELLING SPIRIT
Romans 8:9 But ye - Roman Christians or anyone else who is in Christ. are not in the flesh, Not controlled by the flesh or the carnal mind. but in the Spirit, The HS. This indicates an established relationship - a relationship that is regulated by the Spirit. To be in the Spirit is opposite of being in the flesh. Hence, it means to be controlled by the Spirit - to be subject to the law of God (v. 6). if so be that the Spirit of God - Same as the HS. dwell in you. - Governs your faith and conduct through the gospel, God’s law for all men living today. The way of the flesh and the way of the Spirit stands in contrast here as in vv. 5-8. It leaves no doubt about the fact that the Spirit indwells every Christian. Indwelling is a fact too plainly taught to be denied (v. 15; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Galatians 3:2; Galatians 4:6-7; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 John 4:13). Thus little or no difference exist among professed Christians as to the fact of indwelling. There is, however, a vital and fundamental difference over the method, whether He indwells directly or indirectly. The direct view says that He indwells each Christian personally, separate and apart from and in addition to the word of God or any other means. That is, the Spirit in person takes up His abode in the Christian and dwellsthere immediately naked Spirit in naked spirit. Many passages are quoted to sustain this but in my judgment they are all simply stating the fact, not the method, of indwelling. The method must be learned elsewhere. The second view says that in whatever sense the Spirit dwells in the Christian, He does so through the word of God, the truth. The truth is the mediate or indirect means through which He indwells. No Scripture can be quoted that specifically states this, but I believe that this is precisely what all of them taken together teach. I therefore subscribe to the view that the HS dwells in Christians through, and only through, the truth, the eternal word of God. N ow if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, Same as the Spirit of God. he is none of his. - He is not a Christian. Without the Spirit of Christ one cannot belong to, be a part of, or be in union with Christ (1 Corinthians 12:3). To deny that one has the Spirit dwelling in him is to deny that he is a Christian.
Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, - Indwells you by faith (Ephesians 3:17). Notice how this connects to the last statement in v. 9. To have the Spirit of Christ and to have Christ dwell in one expresses the same concept in two different ways. It should be observed: (1) Christians dwell in God (1 John 3:4; 1 John 4:13) and God dwells in them (1 John 4:12; 1 John 4:16). Christians are in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and Christ is in them (Colossians 1:27). Christians dwell (walk in) in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16) and the Spirit dwells in them (v. 9). All this expresses a relationship or union one with another. the body - The body ruled by flesh. is dead - Not will die but is already dead. because of sin; - The body is the instrument of sin (Romans 7:5; Romans 7:23) and because of sin the body ruled by the flesh had to die when Christ entered into it (through the Spirit) and became its Ruler. This must be the case because Christ dwelling in them resulted in the body being dead because of sin. I know of no sense in which the physical body is doomed to death because Christ indwells it. but the Spirit is life - That is, the HS gives life (through the gospel system) to those indwelt by Christ. I believe the HS is meant here because the contrast between the rule of the flesh and the rule of the Spirit (as in vv. 5-9) is continued. because of righteousness. Because righteousness (or justification) results from the indwelling Christ. The view here advanced is simple and in complete harmony with the context but it is a departure from most commentators. They usually hold that the body means the literal physical body rather than the body ruled by the flesh and that the Spirit is the human spirit rather than the HS. However, I believe I have given the true sense of the passage. The body which is dead is the body ruled by the flesh and the Spirit is the Spirit which gives life - the life which results from justification in Christ. And while it is granted that the wording is somewhat difficult, I think the whole verse is simply saying that if one is in Christ he is dead to sin and alive to God (d. 6:11) - dead to the rule of the flesh and alive to the rule of the Spirit.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, - The Spirit of God (v. 9), the HS. he - God. that raised up Christ from the dead - See 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. shall also quicken - Make alive or activate. The future tense is used, not because it looks forward to the bodily resurrection, but because it is conditional: if the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you shall be quickened. your mortal bodies - Bodies subject to death. Their bodies had died to fleshly rule (v. 10) but God gives them new life by His Spirit who dwells in them. That is, He makes them alive to righteousness (v. 10; Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 4:11). by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. - The Spirit (acting through the truth of the gospel) is the life giving prin ciple by which their bodies would be made alive or activated. As the notes indicate, I do not believe that the resurrection of the body is here contemplated. The whole context (Romans 8:5-17) shows that the meaning is a contrast between being alive to the rule of the Spirit when dead to the rule of the flesh. Bodily resurrection is treated in v. 23.
THE SPIRIT AND SONSHIP
Romans 8:12 Therefore, - So, then (ASV). Introducing an exhortation drawn from what has been said. brethren, - Christians to whom his words are ad dressed. we are debtors, We owe our service to the Spirit, not to the flesh (d. Romans 1:14; Galatians 5:3). We are now obligated to the Spirit because He rules our lives. The Spirit is not specifically mentioned in this sentence but He is clearly implied from both the preceding and the following. not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. The rule of the flesh. Since we are not in the flesh (Romans 1:9), and since we are dead to it (Romans 1:10), we owe absolutely no allegiance to the flesh. We are free from fleshly rule. We are debtors to submit to the Spirit but owe absolutely nothing to the rule of the flesh.
Romans 8:13 For if you live after the flesh, - If you make the flesh your standard of conduct, that is, if sin is the rule of your life. ye shall die: - You must pay the consequence of sin, which is eternal death (Romans 6:23). This is true of anyone, even a child of God, who permits the flesh to control his life (d. Galatians 5:19-21). One must either die to sin, and remain dead to it, or else he himself must pay the penalty, which is death. Christ did not come to save man in his sins, but from them. Christians are not exempted from the penalty (as the false doctrine of eternal security teaches). Thus everyone has a choice. He can live after the flesh and die (eternally) or he can live by the directions of the Spirit and have everlasting life. The choice is his. But it is a choice of such serious nature that his eternal destiny depends upon it. but if you through the Spirit - By the HS (by His work in you through the divine gospel). do mortify - Put to death or destroy. the deeds of the body, - The activities and appetites of the body which have their source in and are controlled by the flesh. ye shall live. -- You shall stand in right relationship with God and as a result receive eternal life.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, - Guided or controlled by the Spirit. To be led by the Spirit is the same as to walk by Him (Galatians 5:18). This states a fact (as with indwelling, see notes on Romans 8:9) but the fact does not necessarily imply the method. Men too often jump to the conclusion that because the fact is stated it means a direct leading - the Spirit directly impressing or nudging the mind. But the method, whether direct or indirect, must be learned elsewhere. How does the Spirit lead? He does so through His divine revelation of truth, the only means by which we can know the will of God (1 Corinthians 1:18 to 1 Corinthians 2:16). When one knows and does the will of God, as it is revealed in the NT, he is being led or ruled by the Spirit. they are the sons of God. The children of God by the new birth (John 3:3-5); by adoption (v. 15; Galatians 4:4-6); by regeneration (Titus 3:5); and, to express it in the theme of this chapter, by deliverance from condemnation by being in Christ (Romans 8:1). God has no greater blessing for His creatures than to bestow upon them sonship (Galatians 3:26-28). God has three kinds of sons: (1) sons by creation - as was Adam (Luke 3:38), so are we; (2) a begotten son, Jesus Christ our blessed Lord (John 3:16); (3) sons by adoption (Romans 8:15-17), His spiritual family (1 Timothy 3:15).
Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;-- The Spirit you have received (v. 9) and by which you are led (v. 14) is not the spirit of bondage - not the spirit which brings you into condemnation. Hence not the spirit (the rule of the flesh) that enslaves to fear. but ye have re ceived the Spirit of adoption, The Spirit who revealed the process of adoption - the means by which you become the sons of God (see note on v. 14) or the Spirit by which you were delivered from condemnation (v. 1). whereby -- Because we have received the Spirit of adoption. we cry, Abba, Father. --We gratefully cry to God as our Father (Matthew 6:9; 2 Corinthians 6:17-18). Abba is the Aramaic word for father, to which is also added the Greek word here and in Mark 14:36 and Galatians 4:6. Why the repetition? There are two answers, either of which provides a sound solution: (1) the Aramaic is added to the Greek to express an affection too deep for words - an affection that is felt because of our deliverance from the bondage of condemnation. (2) The Greek is a translation of the Aramaic, as expressed by The Amplified Bible, Goodspeed, and Williams, "Abba, that is, Father." While a good case can be made for the latter, the former seems more probable to me.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself - The first of two witnesses, whose function it is to make known the revelation of God (In. 14:26; 15:26; 16:13). Without that revelation, made known through chosen men, we could not know the will of God (1 Corinthians 1:18 to 1 Corinthians 2:16). The Spirit’s function is thus to make known God’s plan to save. beareth witness Testifies (through the word of truth). with. -- With, not to, as many are accustomed to believe. Two witnesses are involved, both bearing testimony to the same fact, namely, that we are the children of God. our spirit - The human spirit, the part that reasons, thinks, and arrives at conclusions, the part that receives and obeys the revelation delivered by the Spirit. The human spirit knows what is in man (1 Corinthians 2:11). One thus knows whether he has received and obeyed the revelation of God’s will through the Spirit. that we are the children of God: - One can know that he is a child of God when he has the testimony of both spirits - the HS telling him what he must do to be saved and his spirit telling him that he has done that. When the Spirit reveals the plan (in the gospel) and our spirit obeys the plan delivered, both spirits are testifying that we are God’s children. It is the function of the Spirit to reveal the kind of character that constitutes a child of God and it is the function of our spirit to determine what kind of character we are. When the Spirit testifies to the kind of character that constitutes a child of God and our spirit can reply that we are that kind of character, both are bearing witness to the fact that we are children of God.
Romans 8:17 And if children, - Adopted into His family (v. 15) and proven to be so by the witness of two spirits (v. 16). then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; If children, then the inheritance is ours, all spiritual blessings here (Ephesians 1:3) and indescribable blessings yet to come (1 Peter 1:3-4). if so be that we suffer with him, - Suffer the consequences of living for Him, regardless of what they may be (Revelation 2:10). As long as suffering, pain, sorrow, and difficulties are with Him, they have a purpose: they point to the vic tory which lies ahead. As long as we see a divine purpose in it, no suffering is too hard to endure. that we may be also glorified together. - Glorified with Christ by receiving the eternal inheritance with Him. If we suffer with Him in this life then we shall receive with Him the glories of eternity.
SUFFERING
Romans 8:18 For I reckon - I consider (NIV). A firm conclusion deducted from the facts in the case. that the sufferings - All suffering but especially that brought on by one’s relationship with Christ (Romans 8:17). Suffering may be mental, emotional, or physical. It may be brought on by nature or imposed by self or others. Unbelievers see it as an evil and conclude that if God is good and allpowerful, He would not permit it. But to say that suffering is an evil, in all who suffer and under all circ*mstance, is to view it differently than the Scriptures present it. The Scriptures recognize it as a fact of life to be dealt with (2 Timothy 3:12), but one that can be precious and rewarding (1 Peter 1:6-7). It can be used for a higher purpose (2 Corinthians 4:17), to make one more effective in the Lord’s service (2 Corinthians 12:7-9); to deepen his trust in the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 2:18); to chasten him toward maturity (1 Corinthians 11:32; Hebrews 12:5-11); to establish and strengthen him (1 Peter 5:10); to give him patience (James 5:10); to give him experience so as to enable him to comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:4-6); and to make him worthy of the kingdom (2 Thessalonians 1:4-5). Suffering for the sake of Christ (Matthew 5:10-12) should be thought of as suffering with Him (Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Timothy 2:12; 1 Peter 4:17). Some think that Christians should escape all suffering. But this God has not promised. The difference in the believer and the unbeliever is, not that the believer shall be spared suffering and sorrow, but that God will help him overcome it and use it for good (Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Philippians 3:10; 1 Corinthians 10:13). of this present time - The present age, the time in which we now live, in contrast to that which is yet to come. are not worthy to be com pared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. - Present suffering is as nothing when compared with the rewards awaiting the faithful (Revelation 2:10) when they share with Christ the eternal glory (Romans 8:17). The remainder of this chapter may be viewed as five reasons why Christians should endure suffering: (1) the body will be redeemed (Romans 8:19-23); (2) we are saved by hope (Romans 8:24-25); (3) the Spirit helps our infirmities (Romans 8:26-27); (4) all things are made to work for our good (Romans 8:28-30); (5) God is for us (Romans 8:31-39).
REDEMPTION OF THE BODY
Romans 8:19-23 This section is admittedly difficult. Bible students have differed radically on the meaning of "creature," "the whole creation," and "we ourselves." And where great and good men differ widely it is wise to tread lightly. But I accept the view that "creature" and the "whole creation" refer to humanity and "we ourselves" refers to Christians. More is said on this in the notes. But, however difficult the language may be, and whether our view is the correct one or not, the message is clear and plain. It gives the first of five reasons designed to encourage Christians to endure sufferings and trials (Romans 8:18). Suffering is temporal, but man is eternal. In view of this fact, the sufferer will soon be delivered from his present state to a state of glory. In short, Paul reasons that we should endure suffering because the body, in which suffering is endured, will be redeemed (Romans 8:23). Thus the message is clear and simple (even though the language may be difficult) - the body will be redeemed from the grave, incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:35-54) and free from all pain, sorrow, and trials (Revelation 21:4). The sufferings of the present are as nothing when compared with the joys of the future (Romans 8:18).
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation - Eagerly watching with suspense. of the creature The creation (ASV). Same as the whole creation of Romans 8:22. In my judgment, this has no reference to angels, to the inanimate part of creation, nor to animals or any other lower form of life. It refers to man humanity (Mark 16:15; Colossians 1:23). waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. - The NIV renders it, "Waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed." That is, they wait for the resurrection. Without contextual consideration this could mean that all mankind waited in great expectation for God to reveal His scheme to redeem, by which the means of sonship was made known. But in context it refers to that glory which is yet to be revealed, namely, the resurrection of the body and the eternal rewards of the sons of God (Romans 8:23; 1 John 3:1-2). The emphasis is on all men’s hope of immortality. James MacKnight’s paraphase summarizes this view: "What a blessing a resurrection to immortality is, may be understood by this, That the earnest desire of mankind hath ever been to obtain that glorious endless life in the body, by which the sons of God shall be made known."
Romans 8:20 For the creature - Humankind. was made subject to vanity, Futility (RSV). All the decaying conditions, with its sorrow and frustrations, which came upon man as a result of the fall (Genesis 3). not willingly, - Not of its own will (ASV) but by the sentence of God. but by reason of him - God (though Satan had a part by introducing sin and Adam by commiting it), who did so because of Adam’s sin. who hath subjected the same in hope, Even as God pronounced the curses upon Satan, woman, and the man for their role in the fall, and thus brought tl1em under the rule of futility, He gave man hope by promising him a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15). Man was thus subjected in hope.
Romans 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. - Many translators (including the NIV) and commentators (e.g., MacKnight) connect "in hope" of Romans 8:20 with this verse, giving it the sense of the ASV: "For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered...." From the very first, sinful man was given hope that God would provide deliverance from the bondage of corruption (mortality) to a glorious liberty (immortality). God has kept His promise and the means of deliverance is now available through Christ and His gospel (2 Timothy 1:10) to all who choose to accept it (Romans 2:7).
Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation - All of mankind. groaneth and travaileth in pain - As a woman giving birth to a child. together until now. The whole human family has suffered together the results (sickness, pain, sorrow, death, etc.) of the fall up to this very moment of time.
Romans 8:23 And not only they, - All humankind. but ourselves also, Christians. While they are a part of the whole human family, they are here made a distinct group within it. which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, -- A foretaste of the good things to come. The first fruit was the first of the harvest gathered. It promised more yet to come. So with becoming and being a Christian. We have received the first fruit (or an earnest of both the Spirit and our inheritance, 2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:14), but the grand prize is yet to corne (Philippians 2:14; 2 Timothy 4:6-8). even we ourselves groan within ourselves, Christians suffer along with others as they wait for deliverance from corruption (Romans 8:21). They are not exempt from the groanings and travail in pain that characterize the whole of humanity. They have many advantages, not the least of which is the help of God needed to endure suffering, but they do not escape the consequences resulting from the fall. They suffer, but they suffer in hope ... and that makes all the difference in the world now and in eternity to come. waiting for the adoption, - The change from the mortal to the immortal (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). Adoption here refers to the resurrection, the putting on of immortality, and not sonship as in v. 15. It looks forward to the time when the full harvest will be gathered. to wit, - Namely, placing adoption in opposition to the redemption of the body. the redemption of our body. - The resurrection or the body being brought back from the grave (John 5:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). In view of the resurrection and the full rewards of the sons of God, "The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).
HOPE
Romans 8:24-25 Paul’s second reason why Christians should endure suffering is the hope of immortality. By that hope we can preserve until the mortal puts on the immortal.
Romans 8:24 For we are saved - Kept or preserved by hope. By hope we anticipate the rewards of the future and are thus sustained in our trials. We are saved by hope in the sense that it keeps us from despairing in suffering. Here we must decide whether Paul is looking back to the time of salvation from sins and thus saying that in hope we were saved (as in the ASV) or forward to a future salvation (as in the KJV). I have accepted the KJV as presenting the correct view. To be saved here means to preserve until the time of deliverance from mortality. Hope helps us endure suffering patiently. by hope: Hope is made up of desire, anticipation, and expectation. It is the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:18-19). As Christians we have a better hope (Reb. 7:19); a good hope (2 Thessalonians 2:16); a living hope (1 Peter 1:3); a blessed hope (Titus 2:13); and one that has a purifying effect (1 In. 3:3). Rereit encourages the endudnce of trials until the victory is won. but hope that is seen - Realized or attained its object. is’ not hope: - Does not have the basic components of hope. How could one desire, anticipate, or expect that he has already attained? Realized hope ceases to be hope. for what a man seeth, - Realizes or already possesses. why doeth ye yet hope for? - Who hopes for what he already has (NIV).
Romans 8:25 But if we hope. -- Desire, anticipate, expect. for that we see not, -- For that which is yet to come, immortality (the resurrection of the body), or a new body which will know no suffering (Revelation 21:4). then do we with patience wait for it. We patiently endure whatever hardship that may be imposed upon us until the day of deliverance.
THE SPIRIT’S HELP
Romans 8:26 Likewise In the same way (NIV). Connects vv. 26-27 to vv. 19-25 and compares the help given by the Spirit with that of the resurrection and hope. Thus what follows is the third encouragement to Christians to patiently endure suffering until the crown is won. the Spirit - The HS. This is certain because the work done (making intercession) is a divine work. also helpeth our infirmities: Our weakness and inability, specifically the one which follows. for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: This does not mean that we do not know how to pray for anything (1 Thessalonians 5:17; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; James 1:5; James 5:13-17; Hebrews 4:15-16). But there are longings, gratitudes, and needs of the heart which cannot be spoken. We can only express them with unutterable groanings. The HS takes these groanings and makes intercession to God with them. It is not the function of the Spirit (as many believe) to help us pray that is, give us direct guidance to express the inexpressible. The point here is not that He gives us the words with which to pray but that He takes our inexpressible groanings and uses them to intercede with God on our behalf. but the Spirit itself - Himself (ASV). Indicates a personal involvement; not a task delegated to another. maketh intercession for us - He goes before God and pleads on our behalf. This clearly states the work He does for us (in the presence of God) and not what He does in us (as a result of indwelling, [v. 9]). with groanings - Not the groanings of the Spirit but our own inner needs and longings which we cannot express in words. which cannot be uttered. Which we are unable to verbalize or express. In this verse we see: (1) The fact stated "The Spirit helpeth our infirmities." (2) The weakness revealed - "We know not what we should pray for as we ought." (3) The help given - "The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us." (4) The means used - "Groanings which cannot be uttered."
Romans 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts God knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, - He knows what the Spirit knows - that is, He knows the hearts of men (1 Samuel 16:7). While this may be a difficult expression, its design is to give the reason why the Spirit makes intercession for us, why He appears before God in our behalf. because he maketh intercession - The usual word for intercession (the same as in v. 26 minus huper). It means to go into the presence of another for the purpose of supplication. It expresses a different function than that of a mediator (d. 1 Timothy 2:5). for the saints - All who are sanctified (1 Corinthians 1:2) and adopted into the family of God (Romans 8:14-15). according to the will of God. - According to the plan and purpose of God.
GOD RULES
Romans 8:28 And we know - This is the fourth reason given for enduring suffering, namely, God is in control and will work all things, even suffering and pain, to the good of those who love Him. They could know this by experience and by the whole thrust of Scriptural teaching on the providence of God. that all things - Limited by the context to suffering, sorrow, pain, persecution, tribulations, and trials (v. 18) - whatever cross one must bear in order to follow Christ (d. Matthew 16:24). The principle however is often expanded, and without doing much injustice to the text, to include the concept of God controlling all occurrences in such a way as to finally benefit man in his quest for salvation. work together for good - God directs suffering, sorrow, pain, etc., so as to make it ultimately result in good for the sufferer. How does He do it? That is not our department. Our department is to love Him. When we love Him, then we trust Him to keep His word. It is His department to control events so as to bring the world and man to the consummation of His purpose. to them that love God, - His children (v. 17; Galatians 4:4-6), those who obey His will (John 14:15; John 14:21; John 14:23-24). to them who are the called - Who have been called (NIV). The called and those who love God are the same. They are called by the gospel (2 Thessalonians 2:14) according to His own purpose and grace (2 Timothy 1:9). ac cording to his purpose. - In His design for him, God made man for a purpose. According to Solomon, this purpose can be summed up in the words, "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). The word duty is not in the Hebrew. It was added by the translators to help express the meaning of the verse. But in this case, the added word may do more harm than good. The author’s meaning seems to be fear God and keep His commandment for this is the Whole of man - the whole purpose of his being. To do God’s will then is the purpose for which men exist. The call is the call which brings man into God’s purpose - the call which brings man to fill the purpose for which he was made. God’s purpose here then is His purpose to redeem man through His Son - to save those who do His will. Those who answer God’s call through the gospel become the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:29 For - Greek oti, because, tying vv. 28 and 29 together. Thus the called are thosewhom God foreknew. -- whomhe did foreknow, -- He foreknew those who were the called according to His purpose, not as individuals but as the called. Foreknowledge is a most difficult subject for the human mind to comprehend. It, like eternity, is infinite, and the infinite staggers the finite. I do not believe that the term foreknew can any more mean that God foreknew each individual who would be saved or lost than the term predestinate means that He predestinated each one to be saved or lost. God foreknew the called, and each individual must determine for himself whether he will be a part of the called, the people of God, the foreknown. he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, - God did not predestinate individuals, but the kind of character each individual must possess in order to be saved. He foreknew the called and He predetermined that the called would be conformed to the image of His Son. Scriptural predestination thus consist in the called being conformed to the likeness of Christ. This means that it is the system, the scheme, the plan, that is predetermined, not the individual who may of his own free will choose to either accept or reject the means of salvation (Matthew 11:28-30; Mark 16:15-16; Revelation 22:17). For additional study, see Ephesians 1:4-5; Ephesians 1:12; 1 Peter 1:1-2; 2 Peter 1:10. that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Christ. To be first born is to have the pre-eminence. Christ was pre-eminent in creation (Colossians 1:15), in His resurrection (Colossians 1:18), in authority (Matthew 28:18), in honor (Philippians 1:5-11), etc.
Romans 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: See note on v. 28. and whom he called, them he also justified: - Made right with Him by the death of Christ. There are three ways one might be justified: (1) having never sinned or violated the law; (2) having sinned or violated the law and paying the penalty in full; (3) having sinned or violated the law but having the penal ty paid by another. The third is the means, and the only means, by which one can be justified in the eyes of God. The death of Christ has paid the sin debt of those who are conformed to His image. They are therefore free from sin and as a result stand in a right relationship with God. and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Glorified by Him giving them all the blessing He bestows upon His people, such as the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38); the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32); adoption of sons (Romans 8:15-17); members of His family (1 Timothy 3:15); justified (Romans 5:1); sanctified (1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:26); and filled with the hope that saves (Romans 8:24-25). By God’s scheme of human redemption, man is saved from the shame and disgrace of sin and by this reconciliation man is glorified - his purpose of being has been restored. God is glorified in the process (Romans 5:2) and salvation is a state of glory for man. The present state of glory prepares him for the ultimate glory, which is yet to come.
GOD IS FOR US
Romans 8:31 What shall we say to these things? -- What conclusion should be drawn from the encouragements given to Christians to overcome suffering (vv. 19-30)? This section (Romans 8:31-34) can be viewed as the fifth encouragement to endure suffering patiently. If God be for us, God is for us, glory awaits us, and therefore nothing can successfully work against us, not evern suffering. If He gives us deliverance, who or what can object? If He justifies, who or what can condemn? If He unites us with Himself, who or what can separate? If we conquer in Him, who or what can defeat us? The grand climax is (Romans 8:38-39) that nothing can separate us from the love of God. who can be against us? None or nothing. Who or what would go against the power, the wisdom, the benevolence, the goodness, and the mercy of God? Who would try to defeat His plans and purposes? None. Thus we are safe from the storms and trials of life, not in the sense that we can escape them but that we have the power on our side by which we can overcome. To be against us (since God is with us) would be to be against God (Luke 10:16; Matthew 12:30; Matthew 25:44-45).
Romans 8:32 He - God. that spared not his own Son, Jesus Christ, who left the riches of heaven to ransom the souls of men (2 Corinthians 8:9). God did not withhold Him as the sacrificial offering for sins. As Abraham proposed to do (Genesis 22:1-18) but whose intent was cut short by the voice of an angel, God did. He did not spare Him the humiliation, the suffering, or the death (Philippians 2:5-12; Hebrews 5:8-9). but delivered him up - To die on the cruel cross of Calvary. for us all, - Christ died to pay the sin debt of every man (1 John 2:2). The penalty has thus been paid in full. But all will not be saved because they will not accept by faith Christ as their sin offering and appropriate His shed blood to their sins by obedience to the gospel (Romans 1:16-17; Romans 6:3-4; Romans 6:16-18). The saddest part of being lost is the fact that one is lost for sins for which the penalty is already paid. how shall he not with him - With Christ. also freely give us all things. God gave us the greatest possible gift, His only Son; surely then He will without restraint give us the lesser gift of all things of Romans 8:28.
Romans 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? - Who can impeach or bring charges (as in a court of law) against God’s chosen people so as to condemn them? None, absolutely none! The elect are the people of God, the same as the called in Rom 8:28-30. God always elects for a purpose, never at random or arbitrarily. The reason for His selection or rejection is that some choose to obey His plan to save while others refuse to do so. God thus elects to save those who have elected to become His children by the new birth (John 3:5) or adoption (Romans 8:14-15). It is God that justifieth. That is, God provides the means of justification through the death of His Son (as is set forth in chapters 4 and 5).
Romans 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? - None. When God justifies, no one has the right to condemn. Why? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. - Four things are said about Christ that one should have to remove or deny in order to condemn one God justifies: (1) He died - to pay man’s sin debt (1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Timothy 2:6; Hebrews 1:3; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:2). (2) He rose from the dead - for our justification (Romans 4:25). (3) He is now at the right hand of God - ruling from His throne (Mark 16:19; Hebrews 1:1-4; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28). (4) He makes intercession for us - He pleads our case before the Father (same word as in v. 27).
MORE THAN CONQUERORS
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? - None can lay anything to our charge, none can condemn, and none can separate from the love Christ has for us. And nothing, inc1urling tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, should be permitted to separate us from the love we have for Him. Our love for Him should be intensified in time of trial so that His love for us will not be in vain. We endure sufferings for His sake (Philippians 1:29-30).
Romans 8:36 As it is written, Psalms 44:22, where the writer enumerates the many afflictions of Israel. For thy sake--For God’s sake or cause. The whole chapter seems to be a plea for God’s deliverance because of the things they had suffered for Him. Paul applies it to Christ and uses it as a means to encourage us in the endurance of afflictions. we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. - Additional forms of suffering to those given in v. 35. All this makes the suffering we endure a service for Christ - it is a stewardship. And if it is for Him, something He has committed to our trust, we can endure for the present because of the anticipation of future rewards (v. 18).
Romans 8:37 Nay, - No! We will not be defeated by afflictions. in all these things - Sufferings (Romans 8:28; Romans 8:31-32). we are more than conquerors We overwhelmingly conquer (NASV) or win the victory. through him that loved us. Through Christ or for His sake or cause we can overcome the trials of life with surprising ease. Paul himself is an example of such a victory (2 Corinthians 11:21-30).
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, Totally convinced by both experience (2 Corinthians 11:20-30) and revelation (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) that nothing in heaven or on earth can separate us from divine love. that neither death, nor life, The two fundamental facts of our being. We can serve God in both (Romans 14:7-8; Philippians 1:20); neither should be permitted to separate us from Him. angels, nor principalities, - Spirit beings both good and bad (2 Peter 2:11; Ephesians 6:12). nor powers, - Neither earthly nor infernal. nor things present, nor things to come, - Neither present afflictions (such as mentioned in Romans 8:35-36) nor future forebodings. Nor height, nor depth, Nothing within the dimensions of time and space. May have reference to heaven above and hell beneath. Any other created thing beyond what is here mentioned. shall be able to separate us from the love of God, - Same as the love of Christ in Romans 8:35. which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - To separate us from the love of Christ, in this context, is to separate us from Christ Himself - to break our union with Him. Thus as long as we are in Christ we are secure (John 10:28-29). The design of this passage is to show that no existing power in heaven, on earth, or in the infernal regions can change or modify the love Christ has for us. Our relationship with Him cannot be changed by external forces. Whether we live or die, whether we suffer or not, whether we are weak or strong, etc., does not and cannot change His love. He loves us through it all ... and in that love we can conquer. This does not mean, however, that the union cannot be broken by us (by internal forces). The heart may become corrupt, unbelieving, and tum back to serving the devil (2 Peter 2:20-22; 2 Timothy 4:10; 1 Timothy 1:19). This is a change of masters - not by external forces but by internal departures (Hebrews 10:39; 1 Corinthians 9:27). One can therefore separate himself from Christ or fall from grace (Galatians 5:4). But even worse, one can fall so far away that it is impossible to renew him again to repentance (Hebrews 6:1-6; Hebrews 10:26).
PAUL’S CONCERN FOR ISRAEL
Harold Winters
Romans 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, - I speak the truth in Christ - I am not lying (NIV), A solemn assertion that what he is about to say is the truth. my conscience - Moral consciousness, the inter being, the faculty of the mind which warns when one does that which he has been taught is wrong and approves when he does that which he has been taught is right. When the con· science is trained right, it leads right; when it is trained wrong, it invariably leads wrong. Its function is not to determine what is right and what is wrong (that is done by God and is revealed to us in the Bible) but to help us unerringly to follow that which we have been taught is right. Thus the conscience is designed to help us follow the guide, the word of God. also bearing me witness His conscience had been trained to always tell the truth; hence it was a reliable witness to the truthfulness of what follows. in the Holy Ghost, -- Under the direction, insight, enlightenment, and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But why such a strong statement to confirm the fact that he was telling the truth? Probably he wanted to leave no doubt in the mind of any Jew that he loved his people and nation and to thus prove that when he had before con· cluded that they were equal sinners with the Gentiles (Romans 2:5-24) he had not done so with hate in his heart for them.
Romans 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. - Here he states his burden and concern for the lost state of his people, the Israelites (see v. 3).
Romans 9:3 Just a casual look at the commentaries quickly reveal that this passage is understood in various ways. But regardless of how it is interpreted, one should remember Paul’s purpose for writing it, namely, to prove his deep love and concern for the lost state of his brethren according to the flesh. For I could wish - Not that he actually does so wish but that he could do so if such a wish were permissible. Charles Hodge probably captured the truth here when he said, " ’I could wish it, were it not wrong; or, did it not involve my being un holy as well as miserable, but as such is the case, the desire cannot be enter tained.’ This is the proper force of the imperfect indicative when thus used; it implies the presence of a condition which is known to be impossible." that myself were accursed Cut off without hope. The Greek word from which accursed is translated appears only here and in Acts 13:14; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 14:22; and Galatians 1:8-9. from Christ Separated from Him with all the blessings and consequences. Was Paul willing to be eternally lost if that would save the Jews? Was he willing to give his life (sacrifice himself physically) for them? Or was he willing to renounce Christ, with all the spiritual blessings he had enjoyed in Him (Eph. if that would mean the salvation of the Jews? I think the third is the true one. Paul could have wished himself separated from Christ if that would have meant the salvation of the Jews. But such a separation would not have helped them. Paul’s destruction would have been added to theirs. Christ is Lord! This fact could not be changed by his wish. Paul’s love for Christ was unlimited, but he would have been willing to renounce that love for the Jews, providing it would have made them right. But such a wish could not possibly change their state ... nor the truth. What it does do is show Paul’s profound love for his brethren. And that is its design. for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: - The Jews. Paul had two sets of brethren: brethren in the Lord (10:1-4; Philippians 1:14) and brethren in the flesh (the Jews).
Romans 9:4-5 A nine-point description of the Israelites, Paul’s brethren or kinsmen according to the flesh, is now given. Who are Israelites; - The descendants of Abraham through Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel (Genesis 35:10). to whom pertaineth the adoption, Sonship. God adopted them as His own peculiar people (d. Exodus 4:22; Psalms 89:27; Jeremiah 31:9; Hosea 11:1). and the glory, -- The glory of God’s presence and protection, such as in the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22). God is glorified when man does right does what he was made to do; man’s glory is to do the will of God - to be all that God meant him to be (see note on 1:21). and the covenants, - The covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12); entered into with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 13:14-18; Isaac (Genesis 26:25; Genesis 26:23-25); Jacob (Genesis 35:9-12); and Israel (Exodus 20:18-26). and the giving of the law, - The whole law, beginning with the giving of the ten commandments by the hand of God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20) and extending to the whole OT. and the service of God, -- A divine temple or otherwise, rendered to God. Israel’s worship as the only one revealed by God in the OT. and the promises; - All the promises made to Adam (Genesis 1:15); Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3); Isaac (Genesis 26:5); Jacob (Genesis 35:11-12); David (2 Samuel 7:12-13); etc., which found their fulfillment and consummation in Christ (Galatians 3:16; Galatians 4:4-6). Whose are the fathers, The patriarchs (NIV). They had the distinction of being the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, And from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ (NIV). They had the distinction of not only being the seed of Abraham but also the nation through whom the world’s Savior came. God blessed for ever. - Who is God over all, forever praised (NIV). Jesus Christ is God in the flesh (Matthew 1:23; John 1:1-3; John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-11) who is blessed forever! Amen. - So let it be (see note on 1:25) let Christ be praised as God both now and forever more!
GOD’S RIGHT OF SELECTION
A. PROVEN BY ISAAC
Romans 9:6 Not as though the word of God - The promise of God to Abraham (v. 7). hath taken none effect. Come to nought (ASV), had failed (NIV). The promise was given (Genesis 12:3); the law was added later (Galatians 3:19); the law was abolished or removed by the death of Christ (Ephesians 2:13-17; Colossians 2:13-16); and then the promise was fulfilled in the gospel (Galatians 3:16; Galatians 3:21-29). Thus the promise had not failed; Israel after the flesh had failed the promise. For they are not all Israel As pertaining to the promise. which are of Israel: - After the flesh. To be of Israel according to the promise (after the Pentecost of Acts 2) was to be a Christian, a child of God. But all Israelites were not children according to the promise - they had not accepted Christ as the consummation of the promise. Some had. They were heirs of the promise. Some had not. They remained Israel after the flesh and was therefore lost (Romans 2:28-29 with the notes; Galatians 4:21-31).
Romans 9:7 ~either, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: - Nor is one proven to be an heir of the promise simply because he is the descendant of Abraham. but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called (Genesis 21:12). Here it is vital to keep Paul’s purpose in view, namely, to show that salvation is by the Lord’s choice. He may limit it, or extend it, to anyone He chooses, that is, He and He alone decides the grounds and means of salvation. This principle was illustrated by God’s choice of Isaac. Abraham was the father of several children (Genesis 16:4; Genesis 16:11; Genesis 25:1-2) but the promise was through Isaac alone. The point is, God’s promise has not failed because some of the Jews have been rejected. God has now chosen to save those who obey the gospel (Romans 1:16-17) and He has thereby chosen to reject all those who do not. The gospel system is the fulfillment of the promise and its heirs are the children of the promise. The rejected Jews had rejected the gospel and had thereby rejected the promise.
Romans 9:8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. (Galatians 4:22-31): (1) Children of the flesh – those born to him naturally; (2) children of promise Isaac, who was born by God’s plans, promise, and intervention. The former, while they were the seed of Abraham physically, had nothing to do with the fulfillment of the promise; the latter was Abraham’s link in the seed line to Jesus Christ. Hence, the child of promise the child through which the promise would reach its fulfillment in Christ. Thus to prove that one is the seed of Abraham (physically) proves absolutely nothing concerning salvation. The blessing pertains to those who are his seed according to the promise. This is a death blow to the whole system of premillennialism.
Romans 9:9 For this is the word of promise, - Made to Abraham. At this time -- At the appointed time (NIV) (Genesis 18:10; Genesis 21:1-2). will I come, and Sarah shall have a son (Genesis 18:10-14; Genesis 21:1-3). Isaac, the child of promise, the child through whom the promise would be realized. The point is that God chose to limit His promise to Isaac. Who can object then if God chooses to limit His salvation to those who accept Christ by obeying His will? None, because salvation is by God’s choice. This though is expanded upon in the remainder of the chapter.
B. PROVEN BY JACOB
Romans 9:10 And not only this; - Not only was Isaac alone chosen from Abra ham’s seed, God’s limitations (election) goes even further. but when Rebecca -- Rebecca’s children had one and the same father (NIV). even by our father Isaac;-- Isaac was the promised child, but when he became the father of twins, Jacob and Esau, a choice (as to the seed line, the one through whom the blessing was to come) had to be made between them. The choice had nothing to do with their personal salvation. However, it does illustrate the principle of God’s right to choose or select some and reject others - to choose whom He will save ... and upon what terms.
Romans 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, - Jacob and Esau. God’s choice of Jacob as the seed line, and His rejection of Esau, the firstborn, was made before the birth of the children. neither having done any good or evil, The selection was therefore not made on the basis of their birthright or worth. that the purpose of God according to election might stand, -- the plans God had formulated in His own mind and the end He had in view, namely, the fulfillment of the promise of human redemption (ct. Romans 8:28 and the note there). Jacob was chosen that the election (or selection), God’s predetermination to save the world through the seed of Abraham, might remain totally an act of His choice, rather than on the basis of birthright or merit. not of works, - Neither by the merit of Jacob or the demerits of Esau. Merit was neither the basis nor the cause of God’s choice. but of him that calleth;) The choice was therefore God’s alone. Man had no voice in the matter. So it is now with salvation. The means of salvation (not the salvation or damnation of specific individuals), the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16-17), are determined by God’s choice alone. He sets the bounds and states the conditions. Man had nothing to do with that. But this has reference to providing the plan, and giving the conditions imposed therein, that is, the ones God has chosen to save, not to one’s obedience to the conditions stipulated in the plan. God chose to save some (all if they would meet His conditions); He revealed the plan and conditions by which He would save; He gave in no uncertain terms what each one is required to do in order to be saved (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38); and He saves all those who comply with the conditions of His plan. Hence salvation is by the Lord’s choice because He alone provides the grounds and the conditions.
Romans 9:12 It was said unto her, - Rebecca, when she was pregnant with twins. The elder shall serve the younger (Genesis 25:23). To look for a time when Esau served Jacob personally would be to miss Paul’s point completely. The sons would become the fathers of two nations (Edom and Israel) and God was simply foretelling their place, or lack of it, in His plan to redeem His promise (Genesis 25:23). It is thus their respective positions in the messianic promise with which Paul is concerned. The promise was to be kept through the younger, not the older. (Edom, Esau’s descendants, did serve Israel in the time of David [2 Samuel 8:14]).
Romans 9:13 As it is written, (Malachi 1:2-4). Jacob have I loved, Favored by selecting him as the seed line. but Esau have I hated. - rejected or favored less, as pertaining to the seed line. The words loved and hated are set as op posites, and mean, as Jesus used the expression, to love or favor one more than the other (Luke 14:26-27; Matthew 10:37-38), not to hate as we usually think of the term. It should be remembered that the expression has to do with the selection of Jacob as the seed line and not with God’s love for the children. There are those who try to get individual predestination (something absolutely unknown to Scripture) out of vv. 10-13, but this is to read into the text rather than to draw out of it (eisegesis rather than exegesis). As the context shows (and Paul’s purpose for writing it proves), the promise, not the sons as in dividuals, is under consideration. Since the promise (of the coming seed, Christ) could not be fulfilled in both, a choice had to be made between the two sons. Jacob was chosen; Esau was rejected. Thus the election (selection) concerns itself with the nations that came from the two sons and the part they were to play in the fulfillment of the promises and not with the sons themselves per se. Paul is continuing to demonstrate by the selection of Jacob over Esau the principle by which God has chosen to save. It is not by man’s merit but by God’s gracious choice - He choose to save only those who accept and obey His divine plan as revealed in the gospel (Romans 1:16).
C. PROVEN BY PHARAOH
Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? - Does it follow that God’s selection of Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau is to be objected to on the grounds that it would make God partial? Certainly not. It only establishes the principle of His divine right to choose. Is the~.e unrighteousness with God? - Is God un just (NIV) because He made a selection in order to bring about the consumma tion of His promise? And is there injustice in the fact that His plan includes believing Gentiles and excludes unbelieving Jews? A negative answer is both expected and given. God’s right of selecting to save believers (including Gen tiles) and rejecting unbelievers (including Jews) has been established by Scriptural example (and there are more to follow). God forbid. - A strong negative meaning not at all. Selection does not prove God unjust. Choice is His by divine right, as the Scriptures show. And the Scriptures cannot be broken (John 10:35), that is, the Scriptures cannot be wrong.
Romans 9:15 For he saith to Moses, - God said to Moses (Exodus 33:19). I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. - The two statements are parallel, mercy and compassion meaning the same, or nearly so. Man’s merit or demerit does not control God’s favor. It is an act of His own will. But the question must be raised, upon whom does He now have mercy? Who has he selected to save? God does not just arbitrarily save some and reject others. He has chosen to save those who meet the conditions of His plan and He has chosen to refuse those who do not. The gospel reveals that He has chosen to save one who believes in Christ as His Son (John 3:16; John 8:24; John 7:38; John 20:30-31); turns from his sins (Proverbs 18:13; Isaiah 55:7; Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30); and submits his life to Him in implicit and explicit obedience (Matthew 7:21; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-4; Romans 6:16-18; Hebrews 5:8-9; 1 Peter 1:22). God thus exercises His divine right of selection through the gospel.
Romans 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. - The grounds, means, and conditions of salvation is not by man’s will or effort, but by the grace and mercy of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul thus concludes that the scheme of redemption, with whatever conditions it might include, is wholly the act of God’s choice. He conceived and gave the plan and His plan reveals that He has chosen to save obedient believers and reject the disobedient and unbelieving. God alone had the right to stipulate the conditions and thus determine who would be saved and who would be lost. In short, God chose the plan and the plan requires man to choose his own course. He can choose to accept the gospel (which is given by God’s grace and includes God’s conditions) and be saved or reject it and be refused. God chose to give man this choice.
Romans 9:17 For the scripture saith - What God said, as revealed in the Scriptures (Exodus 9:16). When the Scriptures speak, it is God speaking (d. Hebrews 1:1-4; 2 Peter 1:19-21). They are here and everywhere recognized as the word of God (Matthew 4:4; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Timothy 4:2). unto Pharaoh, - The Pharaoh with whom Moses was dealing when the ten plagues were sent. He was determined not to let Israel go as God had demanded (Exodus 5:1-2). Thus the conflict between God and Pharaoh was set. God said go; Pharaoh said no. As the conflict intensified (at the point of the quotation God had endured him through six plagues and would endure him through four more before cutting him off), rather than the words and acts of God softening Pharaoh’s heart, as it should have done because he could clearly see that the hand of God was with Moses and Israel, it hardened it. Three facts are stated in this case: (1) Pharaoh’s heart was hard ened (Exodus 7:14; Exodus 7:22; Exodus 8:19; Exodus 9:7; Exodus 9:35); (2) God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 7:13; Exodus 9:12; Exodus 10:1; Exodus 10:20; Exodus 10:27; Exodus 11:10; Exodus 14:8); (3) Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:15; Exodus 8:32; Exodus 9:32). One should not conclude then that God directly or immediately hardened Pharaoh’s heart, thus violating his free will, but that he did so through means - means in which Pharaoh himself had a part. The fact and the means should be kept distinct. God sent His word to Pharaoh; Pharaoh rejected that word. God hardened his heart by giving him the truth; Pharaoh hardened his own heart by rejecting the truth. Truth is therefore the method or means by which his heart was hardened. Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, - The cause for which He raised up, appointed, or selected Pharaoh at that time and place. God raised him up not to make him what he was but because of what he was. To make this act (raising up, appointing, or selecting) apply to the personal salvation of Pharaoh or anyone else is to miss Paul’s point absolutely. It relates to the deliverance of Israel and to the keeping of the prom ise, just as did the selection of Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau. that I might shew my power in thee, - That the power of God might be manifest through the refusal of Pharaoh to do His will. Each time Pharaoh refused to let Israel go, the power of God was more clearly demonstrated in another plague, reaching its climax in the death of the first born in every Egyptian home. and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. - That the whole earth might hear of and quake at His mighty power, demonstrated in the deliverance of the Israelites (d. Joshua 2:9-10; Joshua 9:9; Psalms 44:1-3). This verse continues to illustrate the fact that salvation is by the Lord’s choice. The gospel is offered to all. Those who accept it are blessed; those who reject it are hardened. God chooses to save them that believe (Romans 1:16-17); unbelievers are rejected (Romans 9:30-33).
Romans 9:18 Therefore - Paul now reaches his conclusion from what God had said to Pharaoh. hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy. - He shows favor to whom He will, just as He favored Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. and whom he will he hardeneth. - He rejects all to whom He does not show favor, just as He did Ishmael, Esau, and Pharaoh. Two facts are stated here: (1) God shows mercy on whom He wills to show mercy that He offers salvation to anyone He wills to offer it; (2) He hardens whom He wills that is, He excludes anyone He wills. As in Romans 9:17, the facts are stated: how His mercy is extended or the process by which He hardens must be learned elsewhere. The facts and the methods or means must be kept distinct. God now extends His offer of mercy through the gospel. Those who accept the offer and obey its requirements are saved, selected, favored (Titus 2:11-12); those who reject it are lost, hardened, rejected (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). God gives the plan to save to all, but he leaves each man free as to whether he will accept the plan. God wills to have mercy on those who do and He hardens (by means of the rejected gospel) those who do not. God hardens people only after they give Him up only after they reject His offer of salvation (Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28).
Rom 9:18 Therefore - Paul now reaches his conclusion from what God had said to Pharaoh. hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy. -- He shows favor to whom He will, just as He favored Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. and whom he will he hardeneth. - He rejects all to whom He does not show favor, just as He did Ishmael, Esau, and Pharaoh. Two facts are stated here: (1) God shows mercy on whom He wills to show mercy that He offers salvation to anyone He wills to offer it; (2) He hardens whom He wills that is, He excludes anyone He wills. As in v. 17, the facts are stated: how His mercy is extended or the process by which He hardens must be learned elsewhere. The facts and the methods or means must be kept distinct. God now extends His offer of mercy through the gospel. Those who accept the offer and obey its requirements are saved, selected, favored (Tit. 2:11-12); those who reject it are lost, hardened, rejected (2 Thes. 1:7-9). God gives the plan to save to all, but he leaves each man free as to whether he will accept the plan. God wills to have mercy on those who do and He hardens (by means of the rejected gospel) those who do not. God hardens people only after they give Him up only after they reject His offer of salvation (Rom 1:24. 26, 28).
D. PROVEN BY THE POTTER AND THE CLAY
Romans 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, In view of the fact that God has mercy on and hardens whom He wills (v. 18), the question will be raised: Why doth he yet find fault? - Why does God still blame us? (NIV). This is in essence asking, Why does God condemn one for sin if He alone decides who to save and who to reject? For who hath resisted his will? Who can resist His decrees if He saves whom He wills and hardens the rest? Is His will not irresistible? Paul’s reply in v. 20 shows that these questions miss the point (as do all Calvinistic concepts concerning God’s choice). He chooses but He chooses through and by His plan, the gospel. He chooses to save those who obey and He chooses to reject those who do not obey.
Romans 9:20 Nay - On the contrary (Goodspeed). but, 0 man, Any man. who art thou that repliest against God? This is not so much designed to specifically answer the questions of v. 19 as to show that those raising them are engaged in a business in which they have no business, namely, that of passing judgment upon God’s decisions and actions. The NIV renders it, "But who are you, 0 man, to talk back to God." The RSV, "But who are you, a man, to answer back to God?" God’s actions are not subject to man’s questions (Rom 11:33-36). If God chooses to save both Jew and Gentile upon obedience to the gospel (which He does), who has the right to question Him who has the right to say that God cannot set the grounds and the limits of salvation? God makes the choices and we have no alternative but to accept them (if we are to be pleas ing to Him). I studied with a man who had attended services of the church for the first time. I told him, in the course of the study, that he had a choice: he could either submit to and live for Christ and be saved or he could continue in sin and be lost. He replied, "I do not like the choices. It seems to me that for God to so limit us is terribly unfair. In fact, if I must choose one of the two, I really do not have a choice. I reject the choices. But I also reject God’s choice for saying I will be lost for rejecting the choices. What then?" I could but reply: We are the creatures of God. He made us. We are His by right of creation. It is His divine right to establish the limits. It is our obligation to accept them. The choice belongs to God, whether we accept it or not. In accepting or rejecting God’s choice, we decide our own destiny. God’s choice is for us to choose and He chooses to save all those who choose to accept His scheme to redeem. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? - Of course not. This question is based on Is. 29:16 and is answered by an illustration in v. 21.
Romans 9:21 Hath not the potter - In this illustration, the potter represents God. power over the clay, - From Jeremiah 18:1-10. The potter, not the clay, determines the design of his work. So it is with God: He has mercy on and hardens whom He will (v, 18). Salvation, its grounds and means, is by the Lord’s choice and man has no more right to question His acts, purpose, or design than clay has to say to the potter, "Why have you made me thus?" of the same lump - Out of the same mass of material to make one vessel unto honour, - An instrument of beauty and noble purpose. and another unto dishonour? - An instrument of common or ignoble use. Keep in mind that this is an illustration designed to answer the question raised in v. 20. To press it to the point where man’s free will is destroyed is to woefully abuse it. Paul never intended it to be so used. While God makes all men as they are (and men have no right to question the wisdom and justice of God), and while He determines who will be saved and who will be rejected (on the basis of belief or unbelief, Romans 9:30-33), He has chosen to let man determine for himself the kind of vessel he will be - one of honor or one of dishonor. Even the vilest sinner can purge himself (obtain forgiveness by obedience to the gospel [Acts 2:38]) and thereby become a vessel of honor, suitable for the Master’s use (2 Timothy 2:20-21).
Romans 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, - Determined to show His wrath and power in the destruction of the vessels of dishonor. endured with much 10ngsuHering the vessels of wrath - bore with great patience the objects of his wrath (NIV). Pharaoh, because of his hardened condition (see note, v. 17), was an object of God’s wrath and therefore a vessel prepared for destruction. But God was patient with him, sending 10 plagues to persuade him to let Israel go rather than destroying him immediately. God does not abandon men until they abandon Him (Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28). His longsuffering is toward everyone, not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). But, just as with Pharaoh, there comes a time when God will cease to extend His mercy and show His wrath (Romans 11:22). fitted for destruction: Prepared for destruction (NIV). Who prepared them? Just as with Pharaoh, that depends upon what sense one has in mind. In this context, it is clear that Paul meant that they had prepared themselves. Pharaoh by his evil rejection of God’s word was the active agent in the hardening of his heart and thus prepared himself as a vessel of wrath. In the same manner, by accepting and following God’s revealed will, man now prepares himself as a vessel of mercy (Romans 9:23).
Romans 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, As He showed His wrath to Pharaoh (because he resisted His will), He showed the riches of His blessings on Israel (because they obeyed His voice). This principle is just as true under the Christian system. Man’s decisions, his action or reaction to the will of God, is the basis of God’s election (see notes on Romans 8:29-30). In short, God makes known the riches of His glory to those who do His will (Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46). which he had afore prepared unto glory, Whom He prepared in advance for glory (NIV). This has nothing to do with predestination (the kind that makes man something less than a free moral agent). Just as with Pharaoh, God gave them His will and they themselves were the active agents in the preparation (Ephesians 2:10). Fortunately, Paul tells us in the next verse just who they are.
Romans 9:24 Even us, Christians (Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16), the objects of God’s mercy (v. 23), and vessels of honor. whom he hath called, By the gospel (2 Thessalonians 2:14). He calls all (Revelation 22:17), but only those who accept the call by explicit and implicit obedience (Acts 22:16) can know the riches of His glory. not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? - God’s offer of salvation knows no limits the gospel is for all! All now stand in the same relationship to God, that is both Jew and Gentile (Romans 11:32). Those who come to the fount and drink freely are the redeemed. Those who refuse are rejected.
Additional note on Romans 9:6-24 : At first reading, this section may seem difficult, but it will not be to him who does not try to read into it something that is not there - something that Paul never had in mind, namely, that God in His own sovereign will, without anything on man’s part, determined the salvation or damnation of each individual soul and that man’s only role is to acknowledge this predetermination as just and impartial (an absolute contradiction). Such is not Paul’s point at all. He is simply affirming that God has a right to save whom He will - the right to the plan of salvation and stipulate in that plan who will and who will not be saved. God elects (wills or selects) to save those who obey Him (Hebrews 5:8-9). Those who do not obey Him are rejected (Romans 6:16-18; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-9). God makes the choice as to whom He will save, not by the selection or rejection of each individual, but by giving the plan and letting each individual choose for himself as to whether he will accept and follow the plan. Those who accept (obey) the plan of salvation, God chooses to save; those who reject His plan are thereby refused. Salvation is therefore by God’s choice because He gave the plan and the plan reveals who can be saved and who will be lost (Mark 16:15-16).
E. PROVEN BY THE SCRIPTURES
Romans 9:25 As he saith also in Osee, As God said through the prophet Hosea (Hosea 2:23). Paul had used Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Pharaoh, and the potter and the clay as examples of God’s right to select in matters pertaining to salvation. Now he turns to show that the prophets (whom they accepted as the spokesmen of God) foretold precisely the same thing by foreseeing the salvation of the Gentiles. I will call them my people, which were not my people; - The Gentiles. and her beloved, which was not beloved. Hosea’s words were directed toward the 10 tribes of Israel, which had been absorbed into the Gentiles among whom they had been taken captive. Paul’s ap plication shows that their condition was exactly the same as that of the Gentiles and that their salvation would be upon the same principles as theirs. God’s choice would be to call them His beloved because of their faith in Christ; all others would be rejected for a lack of it (Romans 9:30-33).
Romans 9:26 Quoted from Hosea 1:10. See note on Romans 9:25. And it shall come to pass, - It will happen (NIV). Paul applies the whole prophecy to the salvation of the Gentiles. that in the place where it was said unto them, - In the captivity. Hosea thus shows that Israel (the 10 tribes) will never return as a nation, but that the place of their captivity will become the place of their salvation - that is, they would be saved just as the Gentiles among whom they were scat tered. Ye are not my people; - They would not be restored nationally as His people. there - In captivity or in the nations of their dispersion, the place where this was said. shall they be called the children of the living God. -- Called children upon the same grounds and means as the Gentiles (by the gospel), not as a nation but as individuals.
Romans 9:27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: - From Isaiah 10:22-23. Just in case the Jews should conclude from Romans 9:26 that all the scattered Jews would be saved, Paul hastens to quote Isaiah to show that it meant only a remnant or a small part of the physical seed of Abraham through Jacob will be a part of the children of the living God. Thus the principle of selecting and limiting those He saves (that salvation is of the Lord’s choice) was foretold by Isaiah as well as Hosea and all the other prophets. Keep in mind that God has chosen to save all those, both Jews and Gentiles, who accept the promised Redeemer and His system. Thus when God chose to save all those who obey the gospel, He had no choice but to reject those who spumed its divine message.
Romans 9:28 For he will finish the work, - For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth (ASV). The Lord had spoken and it would be done. God’s word always accomplishes, and that with finality, the purpose for which it is sent (Isaiah 55:10-11). and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. - The NIV renders the whole verse: "For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality." Lard translates it: "Now the Lord will execute this saying upon the land, fulfill ing it and ending it quickly." God will execute His work speedily.
Romans 9:29 From Isaiah 1:9. And as Esaias - Isaiah. said before Foretold. Except the Lord of Sabaoth The Lord Almighty (NIV) or the Lord of hosts (Isaiah 1:9). had left us a seed, The remnant, those of Israel He had selected as His children. we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. - Unless the Lord had chosen to save the remnant all Israel would have been lost, as were Sodom and Gomorrha (see Genesis 18:19-20). This shows that all Jews who were or who will be saved are saved, not because they are Israelites, Paul’s kinsmen according to the flesh, but because they have obeyed the gospel. The hope of the Jews is thus not a restoration of national Israel, but the gospel of Christ, God’s grounds, means, and method of selecting the saved.
FAITH, THE BASIS OF SELECTION
Romans 9:30 What shall we say then? - What shall we conclude from all this? Upon what grounds or by what means does God make His selection as to whom He will save or reject? The conclusion is certain; the answer is clear: the princi ple of belief or unbelief. That the Gentiles, - All non-Jews whom God had chosen to save - chosen because they believed (v. 32). which followed not after righteousness, - Did not pursue righteousness (NIV). They had made no effort at righteousness by keeping the law, called the law of righteousness in v. 31. have attained to righteousness, - Have become righteous by obedience to the gospel of Christ (Romans 6:16-18). even the righteousness which is of faith. - For a discussion of the righteousness of faith, see chapters 3 and 4. It is the righteousness of Christ the righteousness that results from the forgiveness of sins. It is that toward which the law pointed (Romans 10:1-4) and in which the law is established (Romans 3:31).
Romans 9:31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. - Israel had pursued righteousness by keeping the law (at least theoretically) but they had not at tained it because, as the RSV renders it, they "did not succeed in fulfilling that law." To be righteous by law means that one must never violate it in any way. This no Jew had ever done. Hence they had not attained the righteousness which they pursued. They had sought righteousness but in the wrong place and upon the wrong grounds. It can be attained only by faith (the gospel system in contrast to a system of law). The conclusion of Romans 9:30-31 is that the Gentiles who did not keep the law had attained justification (they had been chosen by God for salvation) while the Jews who had kept the law had not attained it (they had been rejected). Why was this? The answer is given in v. 32.
Romans 9:32 Wherefore? - Why? (RSV). What reason can there be for the Gentiles, who had not kept the law, being justified while the Jews, who had kept the law, were not - why are the Gentiles selected and the Jews re jected? Because they sought it not by faitb, but as it were by the works of the law. - Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works (NIV). The Jews had sought righteousness, not by faith, the only way it can be attained (chaps. 3 and 4), but by law, by which it is impossible to obtain (ch. 7). This shows that God chose the Gentiles because of their faith; He rejected the Jews for lack of it. God thus chooses to save believers in Christ and no one else. That is His choice. Paul’s conclusion then is that since salvation is the Lord’s choice, and since He has chosen to save only believers -believers whose faith is strong enough to lead them to a total commitment to His Lordship, He is therefore just in selecting the believing Gentiles and rejecting the unbelieving Jews. For they stumbled at the stumblingstone; - At Christ and His system of salvation by faith (1 Corinthians 1:23; Matthew 11:6). By His death Christ removed the law (Matthew 5:17-18; Ephesians 2:13-17; Colossians 2:13-16; 2 Corinthians 3) and became the only grounds of salvation. This the Jews rejected - they stumbled at the stumblingstone.
Romans 9:33 As it is written, From Isaiah 8:14; Isaiah 28:16. Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. - Both passages (from Isaiah) are messianic and point forward to Christ as the stumblingstone for unbelievers and the deliverer for the believers. Consequently the believers have no cause for shame that is, they have no need to fear for their deliverance; they will not be disappointed, and they will have no need to seek justification elsewhere. Christ was placed in Sion for a Savior, but whether He becomes a Savior or a stumblingstone depends on whether one believes in Him or rejects Him (Rom 9:30-32). God has elected to save the believer but the unbeliever stumbles (is rejected). God’s blessings are not predicated upon nationality but upon faith (and a faith that is strong enough to save is a faith that obeys [James 2:14-16]) in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Savior of the world (John 3:16). This is clearly stated by Peter (1 Peter 2:6-8) where he quotes the same verses and makes identically the same application of them. These verses from Peter are the best possible commentary on Paul.
PRAYER FOR ISRAEL
Harold Winters
Romans 10:1 Brethren, - An affectionate expression toward the Christians at Rome, many of whom were Jews. my heart’s desire - The pleasure, intent, and good will of the heart. and prayer - Supplication (ASV). for Israel Them (ASV), is, - By stating the good will of his heart and the fact that he made supplication for them to God, he shows them again his deep love for them, his kinsmen according to the flesh (Romans 9:3). The fact that he preached the gospel, which showed them to be under sin or cut off because of unbelief, did not mean that he was condemning them out of hatred or disrespect. that they might be saved. - Brought to the salvation which is in Christ (2 Timothy 2:10). He had just shown (Romans 9:30-33) that the Gentiles had obtained righteousness through faith and that the Jews had failed to attain it because of unbelief. The inevitable conclusion from this is that the Jews were lost because of their unbelief. But not utterly and hopeless so. There was a lingering hope burning in Paul’s heart that they might still throw off the shackles of unbelief and turn to Christ as Lord and Savior. To this end he offered his fervent prayer.
Romans 10:2 For I bear them record - From his own personal knowledge and experience (Acts 7:58 to Acts 8:3; Acts 9:1-2; Acts 23:1; Galatians 1:14; 1 Timothy 1:2-3). That they have zeal for God, - They had a passion for and a sincere devotion to the will of God as it had been expressed through the law of Moses (Acts 21:20; Acts 22:3) and interpreted by their own traditions (Matthew 15:19). but not according to knowledge. - Not according to the true knowledge as revealed in the. gospel. Like many today, they had a zeal for God’s will as long as it fit their own conception of what it should be, but when God sent His Son and revealed His plan through Him, contrary to what they had expected, they rejected His plan. Their zeal was thus not for the true knowledge of God. The Jews had a zeal without knowledge; many today have a knowledge with zeal. Neither can measure up to the truth. The proper balance is a knowledge with zeal.
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, - God’s law or His plan to make men righteous, the gospel (Romans 1:16-17). and going about to establish their own righteousness, - Righteousness by their own design, by the law, or by human merit (Philippians 3:9). have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. - Have not obeyed from the heart (Romans 6:16-18) the gospel plan, God’s means of making man righteous.
RIGHTEOUSNESS:
THE END OF THE LAW
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law - Christ brought the law to an end when He died on the cross (Ephesians 2:14-16; Colossians 2:14). This was absolutely necessary before a new system could come into effect - two testaments (or wills) cannot be in force at the same time (Hebrews 8:6-13; Hebrews 9:16-17). But here the end of the law means the end toward which the whole Mosaic system pointed, the object toward which it looked, the end it had in view, the purpose for which it was given. The law was given because of transgressions until the seed, God’s plan to make men righteous, came (Galatians 3:19-25). Christ, and the righteousness which is in Him, is the end toward which the law pointed. The end of discipline is obedience. The end of study is learning. The end of the law is Christ. for righteousness The righteousness (the results of justification) which is in Christ. When righteousness is attained, one has reached the end toward which the law was designed to carry him. to everyone that believeth. - Whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, rich or poor, black or white. Salvation is for all. The law had thus served its purpose when one attained the righteousness of God by faith (Galatians 3:21-29). Faith (as opposed to law or works) is now the principle by which men are justified before God.
Romans 10:5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, -- Moses does indeed practice law-righteousness (BY) (Leviticus 18:5). That the man which doeth - Obeys (James 1:22-25). those things - Perfectly keeps all the law prescribes (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10), which is a practical impossibility. shall live by them. - Shall live by that righteousness (NASV). He shall be judged righteous by the law and thus receive all its promised blessings. But since all have sinned or violated the law (Romans 3:9; Romans 3:23) and since the law has no means of pardon for the violator (Romans 7:9-23), it is impossible to be justified (judged righteous) by the law (Romans 3:20). Justification was not the purpose of the law; its design was to bring men to Christ where they could be justified by faith (v. 4).
Romans 10:6-8 These verses are largely quoted from Deuteronomy 30:11-14, where it is the aim of Moses to show that the law is not hard to find, unreasonable to obtain, or impossible to obey. The commandment (in principle the whole law) is not a secret thing (something hidden), not unattainable (something in heaven), nor so distant that it could not be known (something over the sea) but was with them, even in their mouth, that they might do all it required. That is, the law was near them, with them, and they could know and do it. Paul appropriates the words of Moses and puts them into the mouth of personified righteousness. But the righteousness which is of faith - In contrast to law righteousness (v. 5). Righteousness here means the right relationship with God which is made possible by the gospel. speaketh on this wise, - Speaks in behalf of the word of faith. Say not in thine heart, - Do not think or use such reason of the heart. Who shall ascend into heaven? - To find the saving message of truth. (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) - To ascend into heaven now would deny that Christ came from heaven - came in the flesh to make truth known (John 3:13; Philippians 2:6-11; 2 Corinthians 8:9). To ascend to heaven in search for truth would be to deny that it had been once and for all delivered (Judges 1:3). Or, Who shall descend into the deep? - The abyss (ASV). Go into the unseen region of the spirit world searching for the word of faith. (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) - To descend into the deep now in search of truth would be to by-pass and deny the resurrection of Christ. But what saith it? - What does the righteousness of faith say? It has told us what not to say (vv. 6-7); now it tells us what to say. The word - The correct or true word, the saving message of the gospel. is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart - That is, the saving truth is not afar off, in heaven above or in the depths below, but it is as close as the belief of the heart or the word of the mouth (vv. 9-10). the word of faith, which we preach; - The gospel, which is built around the death, burial, and resurrection of the sinless Son of God (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Thus there is no need to ascend into heaven or descend into the deep to learn the truth; all that is required is to hear, believe, and obey the word that is proclaimed by the apostles, namely, that Jesus Christ is the risen Son of God. John Greenleaf Whittier expressed it well:
We search the world for truth; we cull
The good, the pure, the beautiful,
From graven stone and written scroll,
And all old flower-fields of the soul;
And, weary seekers of the best,
We come back laden from the quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read.
Romans 10:9 That - Because (ASV). Proof that the word of faith is near. if thou shalt confess with thy mouth To confess is to acknowledge openly or express agreement with that which is mentioned. One might believe something without an acknowledgement of it - that is, he might be a secret believer (John 12:45). But to be saved, one must acknowledge his faith in or his agreement with the fact that Jesus is Lord, that He is the Son of the living God (John 6:66-69; Matthew 16:16; Matthew 10:32-33; Philippians 2:6-11). the Lord Jesus, - Jesus as Lord (ASV). This is a confession that every tongue will make, either in time or in eternity (Philippians 2:11). To confess Christ is to acknowledge Him as God’s Son, the Savior of sinners, and the Lord of life (Acts 2:36; John 6:68). and shalt believe in thine heart - To believe with the heart is to believe with the whole being, to sincerely make faith the foundation of life. The heart is the seat of the per sonality, from which all acceptable services to God must come (Romans 6:16-18; Acts 8:21-23). Here it is that by which one is brought into right relationship with God (Romans 10:10). The gospel is preached, the evidences (testimony) is believed, the mouth confesses that faith, and the results (when all other conditions are met) is salvation. that God raised him from the dead, - The resurrection of Christ is fundamental to the Christian system (Romans 1:4; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:1-20). It is at the heart of that which we must believe. If Christ raised from the dead, He is, beyond the possibility of a doubt, the Son of God; if He is not risen, then our faith is vain. A dead Christ (and He is dead if He did not break the bars of death and come out of the grave as the Bible teaches) could not be the Lord of the liv ing. thou shalt be saved. - Justified or placed in right standing with God. The death of Christ would be credited to their account as payment for their sin debt. Consequently their sins would be remitted (Acts 2:38).
Romans 10:10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; - For in their hearts people exercise the faith that leads to right standing (Williams). This is the righteousness which is of faith (Romans 10:6). There are many things one might believe or disbelieve which would have no bearing on his salvation, but to be saved, one must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 8:24). and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. - The mouth confesses what the heart believes and that leads to salvation of past sins and a new life in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Timothy 6:12). MacKnight brings out the force of this passage in his paraphase: "For with the heart we believe, so as to attain righteousness, and with the mouth we confess our belief in Christ, so as to have in ourselves a strong assurance of salvation." Two requirements, belief and confession, are here given for salvation. Each (by a figure of speech called synecdoche) is made to stand for the whole - a part of God’s plan to save stands for the whole plan. To know all that an alien sinner must do to be saved one must find all the NT has to say on the subject. Following are the conditions (not works of merit but the conditions stipulated by the Lord upon which He predicated His offer of salvation) that each must comply with in order to have his sins remitted: (1) Hear the word of truth (Romans 10:14-17; John 17:20); (2) Believe in Jesus as God’s Son (John 8:24; John 20:30-31; Hebrews 11:6); (3) Repent of all sins (Luke 13:3; Acts 17:30; 2 Corinthians 7:10); (4) Confess faith in Christ (Romans 10:9; Matthew 10:32-33; Matthew 16:16); and (5) be buried with Christ in baptism (Romans 6:3-4; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21) and (6) Remain faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10). Those who promise salvation before and without any of these are promising more than the Lord promised. They are engaged in dangerous business. It is safe to say and do only that which the Lord said to say and do (2 Timothy 4:2; Mark 16:16).
RIGHTEOUSNESS IS AVAILABLE TO ALL WHO BELIEVE
Romans 10:11 For the scripture saith, - Isaiah 28; Isaiah 16, quoted also in Romans 9:33. Whosoever Anyone, whether Jew or Greek. believeth on him - On Jesus Christ as Son, Savior, and Lord. shall not be ashamed. - Shall not be put to shame (ASV). He will have no cause to be ashamed of the word of faith which he has believed and confessed. Christ will never forsake us, never disappoint us, never fail us, and never embarrass us by proving untrustworthy. Hence one who believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth Jesus as Lord will never have to retreat in shame.
Romans 10:12For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: - In His dealing with man, God recognizes no national or racial distinction. This was not the case under the law. The Jews were then His chosen people His nation. But all such distinctions were obliterated at the cross (Ephesians 2:13-17), and He now sees everyone, not as a Jew or Gentile, not as rich or poor, not as black or white, but as a soul that needs salvation (see note on Romans 2:11). for the same Lord over all Christ, the one Lord (Acts 2:36; Ephesians 4:4-6). Some think this has reference to God the Father. But the context favors Christ. He is the one we believe in and confess (Romans 10:9-11). Hence He is the Lord over all. But in the final analysis it makes little or no difference because what is said here is true of both. is rich unto all that call upon him. And bestows his riches upon all who call upon him (RSV). His unsearchable riches (Ephesians 3:8) are given to all who call upon Him as Lord (Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46). He abounds in compassion, mercy, and forgiveness for those who do His will. He knows only two classes of people: those who are saved (whom He has saved with His own precious blood) and those who are unsaved (those He will save if they will accept and apply His plan).
Romans 10:13 For whosoever - Everyone, both Jews and Gentiles. This makes the offer of salvation universal (Mark 16:15; Acts 10:34-35). shall call - This means more than merely to call Him Lord (Matthew 7:21) or pray to Him for salvation (Proverbs 28:9; In. 9:31; 1 Peter 3:12). It means to in yoke Him as Lord - to make Him Lord by submitting to His will (Acts 22:16), or to call upon Him in His own appointed way. For example, Jesus said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). Here the Lord prom ises to save the baptized believer. How then are we to call on Him for that salvation? By believing and being baptized. There is no other way. upon the name of the Lord - Christ, the highest name in the universe (Philippians 2:9-11), the one in which we are to do all things, including work, worship, and service (Colossians 3:17), and the one by which we are saved (Acts 4:12). shall be saved. - Shall be forgiven of all sins and thus placed in right standing with God.
Romans 10:14-15 The question of calling upon the name of the Lord (v. 13) brought up the following rhetorical questions. How then shall they call on him Invoke Him as Lord by submitting to Him in humble obedience (see note on Romans 10:13). in whom they have not believed? - The answer is implied in the question: they cannot. Just as calling comes before salvation, faith comes before calling. and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? - They cannot. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17; John 17:8; John 17:20; John 20:30-31). and how shall they hear without a preacher? - Again, they cannot. The will of God must be communicated to man before it can be heard, believed, and obeyed. The function of the HS in the Christian system is to reveal the truth (John 16:13-15), confirm it by miracles (Mark 16:17-20; Hebrews 2:1-4), and deliver it (through the apostles) by divine inspiration (Judges 1:3; 1 Corinthians 14:37; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 2:21). The message was first preached orally by chosen men; later it was written down in the NT for all ages to come. Thus the message is now in the Book. And before one can hear, believe, and obey, it is imperative that the message be brought to him. The preaching here is primarily the original revelation and proclamation by chosen and Spirit guided men. Thus the word has been preached, and when applied to us, the question is, How shall they hear without the preached word (the word revealed, confirmed, and delivered by the HS through the apostles) being communicated to them? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? - How shall they preach without a commission? They cannot. Just as preaching primarily means the original preaching of the word, the sending here has reference to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-49). The apostles were sent to deliver the gospel. The messages were delivered to us in the written word. We now have it and we have a charge to preach it (2 Timothy 4:2). In this sense every Christian is sent to preach - that is, he is commissioned to preach the word. Paul here forges an unbreakable chain in God’s plan to save, each link depending upon the previous one, but he does so in reverse order: salvation, calling, believing, hearing, preaching, sending. Restoring the natural order, the links are sending, preaching, hearing, believing, calling, and salvation. as it is written, - Is. 52:7. How beautiful - How timely, welcome, or appropriate. are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, - How eagerly one should receive the messenger who brings the gospel, the means by which peace is made with God. Primarily this means the original heralds of truth, but in principle it applies to all preachers and preaching of the gospel. Preaching is the grandest, highest, noblest, holiest, most needed, and most vital work known to this old sinful world (1 Corinthians 1:21; 1 Corinthians 9:16). This is true, not because of some exalted status of the preacher, but because of the nature of the message he brings, the good news of salvation through Christ. His message (when it is the true gospel) has power to shape the course of the world. I have known many delightful things, but the greatest joy of my life has been to be a minister of the word, a proc1aimer of the ancient gospel, God’s power to save (Romans 1:16). and bring glad tidings of good things! - The tidings of God’s love, the vicarious death of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, an abundant life, and the hope of heaven.
Romans 10:16 But they - The Jews nationally as distinguished from the Gentiles. Of course everyone would understand that not all Jews had rejected the gospel and not all Gentiles had accepted it. The principle stated here would apply to anyone who hears but does not obey the gospel as delivered by the apostles (d. 1 Thessalonians 2:13). have not all obeyed the gospel. - They had not all heeded it in the sense of submitting to its requirements. To receive the rewards promised by the gospel (including the remission of sins) one must obey its commands (Romans 6:16-18; Hebrews 5:8-9; Acts 2:38). For Esaias - Isaiah. saith - Is. 53:1. Lord, who hath believed our report? - Lord, who has put faith in what we told? (Williams). That is, who believed the glad tidings of the gospel when it was proclaimed?
Romans 10:17 So then - Consequently (NIV). A failure to believe that which was reported (Romans 10:16) resulted in the lack of faith. Some did believe, some did not, but without the hearing of the message there could have been no faith. Hence, faith comes by hearing. faith - Belief of that which was reported or preached. Faith is not something mysteriously given by a direct act of God. It is the firm convictions of the truthfulness of that which was preached by the apostles - a belief of their testimony. cometh by hearing, - Faith is the results of that which is heard. Hearing is the cause; faith is the effect (Romans 10:14; John 17:20; John 20:30-31). God speaks. We hear His word proclaimed. We believe that word. The result is faith. and hearing by the word of God. - And hearing by the word of Christ (ASV). The word preached to us about Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2), His plan to save, the word of truth is the only source for our faith in and knowledge of God, Christ, the church, the Christian life, heaven, or any other means by which we worship or serve God. It is impossible for the mind to believe in that of which it has never heard. But God has revealed His will to us in the gospel proclaimed by the apostles. When we believe and obey that message, we are walking by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 11:6).
ALL DO NOT BELIEVE
Romans 10:18But I say, - But I ask (NIV). Have they not heard? Yes verily, - Since faith comes by hearing, and since Israel is still in unbelief, does this mean that the message has not been preached to the Jews? Indeed not. They have heard, but hearing, they did not heed (v. 16). their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. - Quoted from Psalms 19:4, where it has reference to the heavens (sun, moon, and stars) proclaim ing the glory of God. Paul does not quote this to prove that they had heard by nature, but rather to show that as nature proclaimed the glory of God to the end of the earth, the gospel had been preached to all the inhabitants of Israel (as well as to the Gentiles). Keep in mind that he is viewing Israel nationally as unbelievers (even though a few did believe) and the question pertains to whether the Jews’ unbelief resulted from a failure to have the gospel preached to them or to their rejection of it when it was proclaimed. It was the latter, not the former. The apostles had faithfully delivered the revelation to them, but they had rejected it. Thus their unbelief does not disprove the fact that faith comes by hearing the gospel (Romans 10:17).
Romans 10:19 But I say, - Again I ask (NIV). did not Israel know? Did Israel not know? (ASY) or did Israel fail to know? (Robertson, WP). Had Israel failed to know that God’s plan was to include believers from all nations? Had they not been told of a new law or covenant (Jeremiah 31:31 ff) and that this new covenant would embrace both Jew and Gentiles? They had not failed to know. Or to put it positively, they did know. Or at least they could have known. If they were ignorant, it was their own fault. First To begin with (BV) or first in order. Moses saith, - Deuteronomy 32:21. I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. That is, He would provoke them to jealousy and anger by inviting the Gentiles to share equally with them in the blessings of the gospel.
Romans 10:20 But Esaias - Isaiah. is very bold, - Openly, plainly, or boldly expressed the same concept as Moses (v. 19). and saith, - Isaiah 65:1. I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. - The people or nation of v. 19. It is not that they had not asked or sought after Him in any sense, but that God took the initiative in making His will known to them. They had not come seeking God; God had gone seeking them. They could not have found Him if He had not chosen to reveal His will to them (through the preaching of the gospel). The thought here is that God had chosen to save the Gentiles (and as chapter nine shows, such a choice is His prerogative) before and without their seeking to be saved. Rather than them trying to seek God (and thereby exclude the Jews from His favor), God Himself had sent His messengers to them saying, "Behold me, behold me" (Is. 65:1, ASV). It was thus God’s choice to bring the nations into His new covenant.
Romans 10:21 But to Israel - The Jews, His chosen people under the OT system. he saith, - Is. 65:2. All day long I have stretched forth my hands - Held out His hands in a loving jesture pleading for them to come to Him. He had pleaded with them until He had become exasperated. He then turned to the Gentiles so as to stir their jealousy. As Jesus had wept over Jerusalem, inviting it to come to Him (Matthew 23:37-39), God had pleaded with Israel. But there came a time when Jesus said, "Your house is left unto you desolate" (Matthew 23:38). So it had been with unbelieving Israel. God had turned to the Gentiles. Israel ceased to be His special nation. Thus with the call of the Gentiles to salvation, national Israel is no longer considered the chosen people of God. unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. - A people who had refused to submit to God’s offer of salvation (through the gospel) and had even contradicted God and argued against Him (cf. Matthew 7:21-23).
A REMNANT REMAINS
Harold Winters
Romans 11:1 I say then, - I ask then (NIV). In view of what was said in Romans 10:18-21 : Hath God cast away his people? - He had pleaded with them but they had remained disobedient and gainsaying. He had then extended His offer of salva tion to the Gentiles in order to provoke them to jealousy and anger (Romans 10:20-21). But the acceptance of the Gentiles does not mean that Israel has been rejected beyond the possibility of salvation. God had rejected Israel as a nation because of their unbelief, but this does not mean that individual Israelites could not believe and obey the gospel and thus be saved. National Israel was rejected (Romans 11:32) so that all, including both Jew and Gentile, could be invited to Christ upon the same terms. God forbid. - A strong negative, meaning it cannot be. (See note on Romans 3:4.) God had not rejected His ancient people finally and absolutely. He had rejected them as a nation but now invites each individual to choose for himself the way of salvation. For I also am an Israelite, - A descendant of Abraham through Jacob. If God had rejected all His people then Paul himself would have been lost. He thus uses himself as an example to show that God has not cast away His people beyond the possibility of return. There is still a remnant (Romans 10:5) of the seed of Abraham, - To whom the promise was originally made (Genesis 12:13). The promise was twofold: (1) the national promise. The seed of Abraham was to become a great nation and that nation was to have a homeland of its own. This aspect of the promise was fulfilled in the conquest of Canaan under Joshua (Joshua 21:43-45; Joshua 24:14). (2) The spiritual promise: through Abraham’s seed all nations would be blessed. This was fulfilled in Christ (Galatians 3:16; Galatians 3:26-29). of the tribe of Benjamin. One of the 12 sons of Jacob.
Romans 11:2-3 God hath not cast away his people - That is, He has not finally, and with no hope of recovery, cast them off. As in former days, there was a remnant, of which Paul was one (v. 1). National Israel had been rejected but each individual Israelite is now invited to be a part of spiritual Israel, on his own faith and by his own choice (Romans 11:32; Galatians 6:16). A few had accepted, but the vast majority had refused God’s offer. which he foreknew. - The people whom He had formerly recognized and accepted as His own. (See note on Romans 8:29.) The remainder of this verse and on through v. 5 shows that even then all were not faithful. God had a remnant then and (Paul’s point here) He has a remnant now. He rejected the unfaithful then and He rejects the unbelieving now. Wot ye not - Or know ye not (ASV). what the scripture saith about Elias? - Elijah (ASV). how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, - At a time when he was discouraged and in despair because he had been forced to flee for his life. He was alone in the wilderness and he supposed that all Israel had abandoned God for idols. He thus appealed to God against Israel: Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. - He was convinced that he was the only faithful Israelite left, and if Ahab and Jezebel had their way, he too would be killed. As he conceived it, if this happened, God would have no chosen people left. But Elijah’s vision was too limited: God had seven thousand reserved unto Himself (Romans 11:4) of which Elijah did not know. Verse 3 is quoted from 1 Kings 19:10; 1 Kings 19:14. For the whole story read 1 Kings 18, 19.
Romans 11:4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? - What was God’s response to Elijah’s charge against Israel (vv. 2-3)? What did God communicate to him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 1 Kings 19:18. Elijah was mistaken. All Israel had not turned to the worship of idols. There was a faithful remnant of seven thousand unknown to him. This is to illustrate Paul’s point here: God has not utterly and hopelessly cast away His people now just because a large majority of them are unbelieving and lost. As Romans 11:5 shows, some (including Paul himself, Romans 11:1) have chosen the salvation offered to all by the grace of God. They are the election according to grace (Romans 11:5).
Romans 11:5 Even so then at this present time - At the time Paul wrote that is, in the Christian age, after the law had been fulfilled (Matthew 5:17-18; Galatians 3:19-25; 2 Corinthians 3:6-18). God, because of their rejection of Christ, no longer recognized national Israel as His chosen people, but individual believers from all nations. also there is a remnant - A small minority who have believed and obeyed the gospel and who are thus faithful to God, just as were the seven thousand in Elijah’s time (v. 4). The remnant is positive proof that God has not totally cast off His ancient people without hope. They can be saved, but only if they come to Christ (Romans 11:26 and the note there). according to the election of grace. - The election (or salvation) which proceeds out of grace - that is, the election made possible by grace. God’s means of salvation is provided by His grace. In His plan (the gospel) God has chosen (elected) to save all those who obey Him, who conform to the image of His Son (Romans 6:16-18; Romans 8:29; Acts 10:34-35; James 1:21-25; 1 Peter 1:22). God elected to make salvation possible through the death of His Son; man must now elect to appropriate the means if he expects to be saved. To give the plan was God’s choice; to obey the plan is man’s choice (2 Peter 1:5-11). When man chooses to obey God’s plan (and his obedience must be by faith), his election (salvation) is of grace (see notes on Romans 8:29-30). Only by grace, as Romans 11:6 shows, can one be saved (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Romans 11:6 And if by grace, - The election (v. 5) or salvation is by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). See notes on Romans 4:4-5. It is never offered to man on the grounds of his own merit, but always by the unmerited favor of God. then is it no more of works: - Not by works of merit (Titus 3:5) or not on the grounds of works but on the grounds of favor. Salvation cannot be on the basis of both grace and works at the same time. It must be by one or the other. otherwise - If it were on the grounds of work rather than by grace. grace is no more grace. That is, grace would not mean grace. The fundamental nature of grace is unmerited favor. Thus works of merit (as the basis of salvation) makes unmerited favor meaningless - favor would not be favor at all. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. Omitted by most critical texts. But whether a part of Paul’s words or not, it presents the truth just stated in opposite terms: if salvation is by works it can not be by grace. If so, then work would lose its fundamental meaning - that is, work would no longer be the basis of reward. Just as salvation by works makes grace meaningless, salvation by grace makes work (work of merit) meaningless. It should be remembered, however, that unmerited favor does not exclude, but rather includes, the conditions by which the favor is bestowed. The gift of God’s grace is conditioned upon man willingly accepting (by faith and obedience) the gift. Unmerited favor provided the plan; man himself must make the choice as to whether he will do what the plan requires in order for him to receive the blessings it promises. To follow (obey) God’s plan is not a work of merit. It is simply accepting (upon God’s terms) that which is offered by grace.
NATIONAL ISRAEL REJECTED
Romans 11:7 What then? Israel- National Israel. The hardened in contrast with the chosen. hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; - Justification or right standing before God. That is, Israel was not now the chosen people of God, not the election according to grace, v. 5. This is the status it loved and sought; this is the status it lost in rejecting Christ. And because of this, Israel nationally is the rejected rather than the chosen. but the election - The elect (NIV), the chosen (see note on v. 5) or remnant. The individual Israelites who had believed in Christ and obeyed His gospel. hath obtained it, and took their stance with God, righteousness, or justification. Where national Israel had failed because of unbelief, some individual Israelites had succeeded through faith. National Israel was rejected but some individuals were chosen (that is, they had believed and obeyed the gospel and had thereby become the elect). The chosen (those who believe from all nations) are now the nation of God (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9). and the rest were blinded - Hardened (ASV) or rejected. God offered salvation to all, both Jew and Gentile, upon the same terms (Romans 1:16). Those who accept are called the elect; those who reject the offer are said to be hardened. As in the case of Pharaoh (see note on Romans 9:17), they had hardened their own hearts by rejecting the truth (Matthew 13:14-15) and God had hardened them by presenting them the truth. As the election was the result of some individuals accepting the offer of salvation, the hardening for the many (the nation) was the effects resulting from their rejecting God’s scheme to redeem by the blood of Christ. God did not (He never has, does not now, and never will) directly harden them against their will. He hardened them through the means of truth He gave the revelation and they rejected it (2 Corinthians 3:14; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).
Romans 11:8 (According as it is written, - That is, the hardening of v. 7 is in keeping with that which is written in the Scriptures (Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:10). God hath given them the spirit of slumber, The spirit of a deep sleep (Isaiah 29:10) or a stupor. Their dullness of preception resulted from their rejection of Christ and His gospel - eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) The stupor was so dense that even though they had eyes and ears, they could not or would not see and hear. They could see and hear but because of their mental dullness they did not what they saw and heard (Isaiah 6:9-10; Matthew 13:14-15). unto this day. - Originally unto the day Moses wrote (Deuteronomy 29:4), but in Paul’s application right up to his time. The translators have constructed this so that these words connect to Romans 11:7, which makes it read, "The rest were blinded unto this day." This makes perfectly good sense and is the point Paul is making. But since it is a part of the quotation I think it should be inside the parentheses with the remainder of the quote. Or better still, omit the parentheses altogether.
Romans 11:9-10 And David saith, - Psalms 69:22-23. Let their table – Their spiritual food or the law. be a snare, and a trap, They had thus been snared or trapped by the very thing (the law) which was designed to lead them to Christ (Galatians 3:19-29). and a stumbling-block, That over which one stumbles or falls. While the law was designed to bring them to Christ, when they chose it over Him it became the cause of their fall and a recompence unto them: - A retribution to them (NASV). Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, - Blinded or made insensible to sight (truth). and bow down their back alway. - Under a heavy burden. This is further proof (in addition to that given in v. 8) from the OT that God never planned to make the law or the Jewish nation the basis of His new covenant (Jeremiah 31:3 lff; Hebrews 8:6-13). This necessitated the casting off of national Israel, the curse pronounced upon it by David in this quotation. National Israel had rejected Christ and was now lost (Romans 9:1-3; Romans 10:1-4). But all is not hopeless: each individual is invited to accept Him and be saved.
SALVATION OFFERED TO ISRAEL INDIVIDUALLY
Romans 11:11 I say then, - Basically the same question as in v. 1. Have they stumbled that they should fall? - Was it God’s purpose (or will) for them to stumble so as to fall? Was it God’s way of rejecting them, causing them to be lost? That is, did God change the covenant so that their fall would be necessary, complete, and irretrievable? (See note on v. 1.) God forbid: A strong negative as in v. 1. In God’s design, salvation was offered to the Gentiles by the gospel and without the law (3:21-22). This became the stumbling-stone for the Jews. They rejected Christ in order to retain the law and their national status. But when they rejected Christ, God rejected them. but rather through their fall - Through the thing that caused their fall (the scheme of redemption). Under the OT a Gentile could not be in covenant relationship with God without becoming a proselyted Jew; under the NT Jews (nor Gentiles either for that matter) cannot be in covenant relationship without being a Christian. salvation is come unto the Gentiles, Through the thing that caused their transgression. Salvation was offered to all through the gospel (Romans 1:16) rather than by the law (Romans 3:21-22). This caused the Jews to stumble but it made salvation possible for the Gentiles (and to all Jews who would accept it individually). for to provoke them to jealousy. - See note on Romans 10:19. This shows that the thing that caused them to stumble, as stated earlier in the v., was not designed for their ultimate destruction, but rather for the salvation of all who would believe (Romans 11:12). The change of systems was necessary before the Gentiles could be brought to salvation. But it was this very change that provoked the Jews and caused them to stumble. Rather than turning them to Christ (as it should have done), it made them more zealous for the law. They stumbled and fell over the very thing that was designed for their salvation (Romans 9:32).
Romans 11:12 Now if the fall of them - National Israel. Their fall resulted from that over which they stumbled (the scheme of redemption). This has reference to their national status as God’s peculiar people. Salvation was offered to them first (1:16), but when they rejected it, Paul turned to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). be the riches of the world, - The means by which all could be saved. and the diminishing of them - Their loss (ASV), fall, or rejection nationally. the riches of the Gentiles; Redemption or salvation, as in v. 11. The fall and loss of the Jews (the removal of their national status and the abrogation of the law), that is, the thing which caused their fall and loss, did bring riches to the whole world it made possible salvation to all who fear God and work righteousness (Acts 10:34-35). how much more their fullness? - How much greater the blessing would be by their (individual) conversion to Christ. Their diminishing (loss) was caused by their rejecting the gospel plan of salvation; their fullness will thus result from accepting that which they rejected. While this is generally considered a difficult v., most concede that its primary thrust is that if the loss of the Jews had brought such a great blessing to the world, what might be expected from their salvation (Romans 11:15). As the notes indicate, I accept this as its true meaning.
Romans 11:13-14 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, - His special mission was to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Acts 13:46-48; Galatians 1:15-16; Galatians 2:7-9). This does not mean that he did not preach to the Jews. He did. In fact, he practiced preaching to them first when there was a choice (1:16; Acts 13:46). But his special or peculiar mission was to the Gen tiles. I magnify mine office: He glorified the ministry. He did so, not by honoring himself (Ephesians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 15:9), but by glorifying Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2) and the apostolic ministry. He gave himself wholly to it, made it the purpose of his life, never turned aside to other matters, and finished his course with joy (Acts 20:24; 2 Timothy 4:6-8). What a difference it would make to the world if all Christians would glorify their ministry as Paul did his (d. Acts 20:20-26). If by any means I may provoke to emulation - Provoke to jealousy (ASV) or arouse them to action (the same as Romans 10:19 and v. 11). His hope was that by his faithfulness to his mission he would be able to provoke the Jews to investigate the claims of the gospel and ultimately to obey it. them which are my flesh, The Jews, his kinsmen according to the flesh (Romans 9:3). and might save some - That by provocation to jealousy he might be an instrument to lead them to salvation (1 Timothy 4:16), not nationally but individually. The salvation of lost souls was the burning desire of his life, especially his brethren in the flesh (Romans 9:3).
Romans 11:15 For if the casting away of them The cause of their rejection nationally, that is, the giving of the gospeL be the reconciling of the world, - It is not that the world is saved because the Jews are lost, but the cause over which the Jews fell, namely, the means by which all are saved, or the means by which sinful men are brought back into covenant relationship with God (2 Corinthians 5:19-21). Thus Paul has in mind the thing which led to their rejection rather than the rejection per se. what shall the receiving of them be,The bringing of the Jews back into God’s favor by their acceptance of Christ and His plan to save. but life from the dead? - Salvation from the penalty of death. The conversion of any sinner is life from death (Ephesians 2:1; James 5:20). It is no dif ferent with Jews. But this was hard for them to accept.
Romans 11:16 For if the first-fruit - The first-fruit harvested. It was to be offered to God before the rest could be consumed (Exodus 23:19; Leviticus 23:9-14). Here it has reference to the first portion taken from the dough made from the first-fruit. be holy, - Devoted to God. the lump is also holy: - The remainder is devoted to man (Numbers 15:18-21). If the first was holy to God, then the remainder was holy to man - that is, if the first was devoted to God then the remainder was devoted to the people. In this sense both the first-fruit and the mass that remained was holy. and if the root be holy, so are the branches. - The metaphor is changed but the same principle is illustrated, namely, that if the first-fruits from the Jews (the first converts to Christianity) were acceptable, so would be the whole nation. This is simply another way of saying that all Jews who are saved must be saved in exactly the same way as were the first converts, that is by obedience to the gospel of Christ. God has no other plan to save, either Jew or Gentile. All who are saved must be saved by the gospel, not by the law or by a restoration of national Israel.
SALVATION IS BY INGRAFTING
Romans 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, - Paul continues his figure of speech from v.16. The discarded branches are the Jews who could have been accepted as were the first converts to Christianity (e.g., Acts 2) had they believed the gospel and followed its contents. But they rejected God’s offer of salvation and were therefore broken off or rejected. and thou, - Be lieving Gentiles. being a wild olive tree, - Not of Israel - not of the lump or the branches of v. 16. wert graffed in among them, - Grafted in with those who had accepted the gospeL Hence the Gentiles were grafted, along with the Jewish converts, into God’s covenant people as a shoot from one tree into the stock of another. and with them - The believing Jews. partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; - Partake with them of the rich root of the olive tree (NASV). All the new branches, made up of believing Jews and Gentiles, are now holy - that is, they are partakers together of the fatness of the root, the blessing of the gospel. We need not quibble over the root and the tree or the fact that it was contrary to common practice to graft the wild into the cultivated. The normal order is the other way around. This Paul knew (v. 24). When rightly understood, this unusual procedure adds force to the illustration. That which the Jews could not accept (the coming in of the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews), that which was unnatural to their mind, was the very thing God had done. For the natural branches (the Jews) to remain branches they would have to apply the scheme of redemption to themselves (be grafted in) as well as to the Gentiles. Only then would all, both the wild and the natural branches, become partakers of the root. This is simply to say that both would have to be saved in precisely the same way. This is an illustration, and the point illustrated is clear, namely, the rejection of the unbelieving Jews. The illustration should not be pressed beyond that point.
Romans 11:18 Boast not against the branches. Glory not over the branches (ASV). This obviously has reference to the unbelieving Jews those cut off because of unbelief. The believing branches (the Gentiles) were not to gloat over the loss of the Jews. It was by God’s grace and mercy that they were branches, and not because they were of greater worth than the lost Jews. Boasting over one’s gain of salvation, or over another’s lost condition, has no place in the Christian system. But if thou boast, Gloriest (ASV) or permit yourselves to feel superior, then consider: thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. - The root was the source of the blessings it supplied the branches and not the other way around. This leaves absolutely no room for boasting among the branches (Romans 3:27; Romans 4:16). Covenant relationship was not by their merit, but by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Romans 11:19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. One of the ways the Gentiles might boast (see v. 18) or show contempt for the casting off of Israel. But this would miss the point: Gentiles were not accepted because of their personal worth or the Jews rejected for lack of it. Nor was it for the Gentiles per se that the Jews were rejected. It was because Israel had rejected the new system (the gospel) that made salvation possible to all. They were cut off because of their unbelief (v. 20) and not arbitrarily for the purpose of being replaced by the Gentiles. The rejecting of the Jews was only incidental to the bringing in of the Gentiles. They would have been accepted under the new system even if all Israel had remained true to God as did the first-fruit (v. 16).
Romans 11:20 Well; Granted (NIV) or admitting the fact (Vincent, WS). It was true that the cultivated branches (Jews) had been broken off that the wild ones (Gentiles) could be grafted in, but not in the sense that the Gentiles were arbitrarily chosen and the Jews rejected (see notes on vv. 11-12, 19). The system had been changed (from law to gospel), making possible salvation to both Jew and Gentile. But the Jews, all except the small remnant (v. 5), had rejected the new system - that is, they had rejected the very thing that made salvation possible. And it is in this sense that Paul here grants the truthful of the state ment. because of unbelief - Because they had not believed in Jesus as the Messiah or accepted His plan to save. they were broken off, - Rejected. and thou standest by faith. The Gentiles were brought in because they believed and not because they were Gentiles or were more worthy than the Jews. be not highminded, This high and noble privilege had been granted to them by God’s grace upon the basis of faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). They thus had no reason to be arrogant, proud, or boastful (v. 18). but fear: - Stay on guard against unbelief. That is, be afraid that you too might be broken off as were the Jews because of a failure to remain in God’s goodness (Romans 11:21-22). The fear here is the type that would motivate them to be faithful to God’s plan.
Romans 11:21 For if God spared not the natural branches, The original branches (the Jews) which were natural to the root (v. 17). take heed Words supplied by the translators. lest he also spare not thee. He will not spare you either (NIV). That is, if the natural branches were broken off because of unbelief, the wild one which had been grafted in should be all the more cautious to continue in God’s goodness lest they too be cut off (v. 22). There is no place for an unfaithful or fruitless branch in the true vine Un. 15:1-10). This offers positive proof (or else the warning is totally meaningless) that a Christian can so sin as to be cut off from Christ and therefore be in the same lost state as the unbelieving Israelites.
Romans 11:22 Behold therefore - In view of what has been said (v. 21), consider both sides of God - both His goodness and His severity as revealed in accept ing the Gentiles and rejecting the Jews. the goodness kindness (NIV); love, grace (favor), mercy, compassion, and concern. This was shown to the Gentiles by God’s plan to bring them into covenant relationship with Him. God’s goodness is seen in His many acts in making provision for man’s salvation. From the very moment of the fall (Genesis 3) God began preparing for man’s redemption from sin. He chose the nation of Israel, the seed of Abraham through Isaac, through which to send His Son into the world (Galatians 3:16; Galatians 4:4-6). When Christ came, He lived a perfect life and died a sacrificial death in order to make salvation possible (Rom 5:8-9). After His resurrection, which proved His Son ship beyond question (1:4), He gave the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16), in which He offered salvation to all who would accept Him as Savior and obey Him as Lord (Acts 2:36-38). His goodness is therefore shown to all who follow Him in complete submission to His will (Matthew 7:21). and severity - The word from which severity comes appears only here in the NT. It means to cut off. Just as goodness refers, in this context, to the salvation of the Gentiles, severity refers to the cutting off of the Jews. They had rejected God’s terms of pardon and were therefore cut off. But the principle of severity is true for all of us today. When one turns his back on the gospel, when he re jects God’s offer of salvation, when he tramples underfoot the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:26-29), when he refuses to acknowledge the goodness of God, the sacrifice of Christ, the revelation of the Spirit through the divine word (Matthew 12:31-32; John 16:13), and the pleading of the bride (Revelation 22:17), the church (7:4), there is no alternative but for him to suffer the eternal consequences of his rejection. He who shows no mercy shall be rejected without mercy. There is a point beyond which the rejected mercy of God does not extend. And when one passes that point, he is lost without hope. on them which fell, - The unbelieving Jews, the branches that had been cut off. severity; - They were cut off. but toward thee, - The believing Gentiles who had been grafted in. goodness, - Kindness, favor, mercy. if thou continue in his goodness: - Continue in the favor they had been granted. otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. - Their remaining in favor is conditional- that is, providing they continue in His kindness or do what was necessary to remain in His favor (Colossians 1:23). In the absence of this condition, they too would be cut off (see notes on v. 21).
Romans 11:23 And they also.. - The Israelites who had been broken off because of unbelief. if they abide not still in unbelief, - If they do not cling to their unbelief (Goodspeed). That is, if they give up their unbelief and become believers. shall be grafted in: Shall be restored to covenant relationship, not as a nation but as Christian individuals. Their unbelief was the thing that stood between them and God. Although they had been rejected, they were not excluded merely because they were Jews, but because they were not believers. But now all, both Jews and Gentiles, are standing in the same relationship to God (v. 32); they are all invited to covenant relationship on identically the same terms (v. 24). Continuing the figure of speech, God now saves all by the process of ingrafting. for God is able to graft them in again. God has the power and the might to bring the Jews (the natural branches) back in just as He has the power to bring the Gentiles (the wild branches) in. Both are now saved by the same power and plan (Romans 1:16). The cause of the Israelites lost condition was not in God, but in them, in their own unbelief.
Romans 11:24 For if thou - Gentiles. wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: - See notes on v. 17. how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? - If God saved the believing Gentiles, how much easier and naturally would He save the
believing Jews (graft them into their native who had been His chosen people since the call of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3).
Special note on Rom 15-24: Paul’s illustration in this passage is often stretched all out of shape in an effort to make it teach something at which it does not even hint. It is interpreted somewhat as follows: The natural branches were cut off from the tree and the wild ones were grafted in. This means that the OT church and the NT church is the same - the new is just an extension of the old. Consequently, since the old had infant membership, the new must have them also. To get this interpretation, one must see the cultivated olive tree as the church and the natural branches its original members. But this totally and absolutely misses Paul’s point. He is not discussing Old and New Testament institutions. He is discussing covenant relationship under the old and new covenants. Thus the olive tree represents covenant relationship with God, as my notes indicate throughout the passage. Covenant relationship with the Jews was broken off (that is, a new covenant was established [Jeremiah 31:31 ff; Hebrews 8:6-13; which left the Jews outside) so that God could invite both Jews and Gentiles to establish covenant relationship with Him on the same terms (under the new covenant). This is seen in vv. 15, 32. This is simply to say that God cut everyone off from covenant relationship (the Gentiles were not then in covenant relationship with Him) so that He might invite all into a new covenant relationship with Him on identically the same basis. To call the olive tree the church is to utterly distort Paul’s figure of speech. It is covenant relationship.
SALVATION OFFERED TO ALL UPON THE SAME TERMS
Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, - This seems to be addressed to all the Christians who made up the Roman church, both Jew and Gentile, but it would apply especially to the Gentiles. that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, - To be uninformed of this mystery (NASV). A mystery, in the NT sense, is an event or truth hidden or not yet known. But when the event or truth is revealed, it is no longer a mystery; it is a revelation. And when revealed, there is no reason to be uninformed or misinformed on it (Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 3:4). lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; -Wise in your own estimation (NASV) or in your own wisdom (see vv. 18-20). He wanted them to know the mystery, but only by revelation. that blindness - That a hardening (ASV). in part - Not universal. Only a part were blinded. There was a remnant who believed (v. 5). is happened to Israel, - See vv. 7-10. until - Up to the time of. The hardening in part of Israel will continue through the whole time of the Gentiles, that is, some of Israel will be hardened until the end of the Christian system, the second coming of Christ, and the end of the world. the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. - Probably the same period Jesus called the time of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24). At any rate, here it has reference to the time when the Gentiles are being grafted into the olive tree; hence, the Christian age. When the whole context is considered, this becomes obvious. The old Jewish system had to be removed before the Gentiles could come in. When God replaced the old with the new, this put the Jews in the same state with the Gentiles all were in unbelief (v. 32). The Jews were cut off because of their unbelief. Now to be saved they would have to change from the belief of the old system to that of the new. That is to say, both Jew and Gentile would have to believe in Christ. This change of systems made salvation possible for the Gentiles. The hardening of Israel resulted from the change in the system. When the Gentiles came in (received the blessing of salvation or the fullness) the Jews were not totally cut off without hope - they were cut off nationally but all were invited as individuals to restore covenant relationship with God. Thus their salvation was made to depend upon the same conditions as that of the Gentiles. The blindness of Israel and the fullness of the Gentiles have resulted from the establishment of the Christian system. The fullness of the Gentiles, as is pointed out in v. 26, does not mean that the Jews must be lost. They can be saved in the same manner as the Gentiles. All who are saved must be saved by God’s one plan. This is the emphasis of the whole chapter.
Romans 11:26-27 And so - So is an adverb of manner and translates a Greek word which means in this way. It does not mean "and so then" as the premillennialists would like for it to read but in this manner or in this way. All Jews will be saved in the same way as the Gentiles. all Israel The seed of Abraham through Jacob. The context will not permit this to be understood as spiritual Israel. shall be saved: - That is, all Israelites who are saved will be saved in precisely the same manner as the Gentiles (by being grafted into covenant relationship, v. 23). Paul has just shown how Israel had been cut off because of unbelief. The Gentiles had been grafted in through faith. The thing that must be believed, namely, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, had caused the Jews to stumble. But this very faith was necessary in order to obtain salvation. This is simply affirming that Israel must be saved in exactly the same way as the Gen tiles, that is, by believing in Christ as the Son of God, Israel’s prophetic Messiah. God had but one plan to save, and so (by that one plan) all Israel (as well as everyone else) shall be saved. This verse is concerned with the manner of salvation, not the fact of it. as it is written: Summarized from Isaiah 59:20-21. There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of OT expectation, the Redeemer of Israel. This has reference to the first coming of Christ, not His second coming. and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: - That is, He will provide the means (the scheme of redemption) by which ungodliness can be banished from Israel. The means (the gospel) was provided, but the Jews rejected it. God kept His end of the bargain but the Jews turned away from Him. For this is my covenant unto them, - Referring to the promise made to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) but restated in different words by the prophets. The promise was twofold. The first part was fulfilled in physical Israel; the second part in spiritual Israel (see notes on v. 1). Since the promise here has to do with the forgiveness of sins, it refers to the second part. when I shall take away their sins. - This statement, probably based on Isaiah 27:9, means that God would make provisions by which sins could be forgiven (Ephesians 1:7; Acts 2:38). The promise here is not something that is yet to be fulfilled, but something that was fulfilled when God offered forgiveness to all through the gospel. The salvation of Israel is predicated on two things: (1) they shall be turned from ungodliness; (2) their sins shall be forgiven. No one can be saved apart from godliness and forgiveness. But both are offered through and only through the gospel (Romans 1:16-17). Thus Paul’s point is that Israel’s salvation depends upon God’s provisions for godliness and forgiveness, the same provisions which are also made for the salvation of the Gentiles.
Romans 11:28 As concerning the gospel, - From the standpoint of the gospel (NASV). The gospel system, God’s plan to save. they are enemies - The Jews were enemies, from the standpoint of the gospel, because they had rejected the scheme of redemption as it was revealed in the gospel. for your sakes: - For the advantage of the Gentiles. The gospel had made salvation possible for them, but because the Jews rejected it, they were enemies -lost! They did not even consider Paul fit to live when he preached the gospel to them (Acts 22:17-22). but as touching the election, From the standpoint of God’s choice (NASV). The salvation which made Abraham and his seed the chosen people of God under the OT. they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. - They are beloved for the sake of their forefathers (RSV). They had not been cast off because God had ceased to love them but because they had rejected His offer of salvation through the gospel. They were enemies (as far as covenant relationship was concerned) but they were still loved for the sake of their fathers and the covenant God had made with them.
Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God Primarily this refers to the selection of Abraham and his seed as His chosen people (v. 28). But in principle it is true of anything God purposes, promises, or does. Unlike man, God never changes His mind about what He gives - He never takes back a gift nor reneges on a promise. are without repentance. - He does not regret an ac tion or change His mind about His gifts and His callings are irrevocable. He has not, and He cannot, change His mind about His choice of the seed of Abraham as His peculiar people under the OT. This, however, should not be interpreted to mean that God’s choice of national Israel was eternal that is, that the Jews would always be His chosen people regardless of what they did - for two reasons: (1) God’s gifts and calling were conditioned upon their continued obedience to His will (Exodus 19:5; Exodus 24:7; Leviticus 26:3-13; Deuteronomy 27). When they rejected Christ, they repudiated God’s gifts and calling. They thus removed themselves from the blessings. God had not changed; they had. (2) The covenant with them (a necessary part of their gifts and calling) made provision for a change of covenants (Deuteronomy 18:18-19; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:6-13). Hence for them to accept the change that was necessary for the salvation of the whole world was a part of the agreement. When they refused to accept this change, they violated the con ditions and God, who loved them still and could not regret His selection of them, had no choice but to reject them. They could still be saved, could still receive the blessings God promised, if they would accept Christ and the Chris tian system, His scheme to redeem. It is God’s will that all be saved (2 Peter 3:9), and this includes the Jews, but it is not His purpose, promise, or plan to save anyone apart from Christ.
Romans 11:30-31 For as ye-- Gentiles. in times past Before the coming of Christ and the Christian system. have not believed God, - Disobedient to God (NIV). yet have now - By means of the gospel obtained mercy through their unbelief: - Received mercy as a result of their disobedience (NIV). The Gentiles, though disobedient in former times (Romans 1:18-32), had received mercy (salvation) as a result of the change of systems (from the old to the new) - that is, the thing which resulted in the unbelief of the Jews was the means by which the Gentiles were saved. Even so have these - The unbelieving Jews. also now not believed, - Have now become disobedient (NIV). that through your mercy - Through the same source of mercy shown to you. they also may obtain mercy. As a result of God’s mercy to you (NIV). That is, the same source of mercy (the gospel) which provided salvation to the Gentiles can now result in the salvation of the Jews also. The same mercy, by means of the same system, now provides salvation to both on the same grounds. As v. 32 points out, all, both Jew and Gentile, were brought into the same relationship with God by the giving of the gospel (both were placed in a lost state) so that God might invite all to Him on the same terms.
Romans 11:32 For God hath concluded - For God has consigned (RSV) or shut them up together (ct. Galatians 3:22). them all- The Jews primarily but the same is true of the Gentiles also, since they were already in the state to which the Jews are now reduced. in unbelief, Unto disobedience (ASV). The Gentiles were already in unbelief and disobedience (1:18-32) - they had no written law from God, were not in covenant relationship with Him, and were thus lost and without hope (Ephesians 2:12). The Jews, under the OT system, believed in God and at least pretended to keep the law (2:17-20). This would seem to give them an advantage over the Gentiles, now that a new system has been given. But not so. In order to bring all into equal relations with Him, God sent His Son into the world (John 3:16), made of woman (Galatians 4:4-5), in the fashion of a man (Philippians 2:6-8), and required all to believe on Him as His Son On. 8:24). This divine act, the incarnation of God into flesh, shut the whole world up together in an equal status before God. One man could believe as easily as the next the Gentile as easily as the Jew and vice versa. No one had an advantage over another. All had the same evidence (1:4), the same invitation (Acts 2:39), and the same plan (1:16; Acts 2:38), Thus God shut all up (or out) in unbelief. He did this by giving a whole new system which excluded all so that all could be invited on equal terms. This the Jews rejected and in doing so refused God’s offer of redemp tion. Their refusal only added to this disobedience. that he might have That He might offer salvation to all on precisely the same grounds - belief in Jesus Christ as His Son and our Savior. The picture here is that of a prison. God shut all up in prison (sin), both Jew and Gentile, that He might invite them all to freedom (by the gospel). All are equally bound; all are offered salvation; and all who are saved must be saved on identically the same terms.
RICHES OF GOD’S WISDOM
AND KNOWLEDGE
Romans 11:33 0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowl edge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! - These beautiful and sublime exclamations refer to the profound riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge in providing the plan of salva tion a plan which shut all up together in unbelief (v. 32) that He could invite all to come to Him upon the same terms - namely, by the blood of His crucified Seon. His judgments (decisions or proceedings) and ways (paths or His manner of going) are beyond the unaided mind of men to trace out (Isaiah 55:8-9). We can know His will, plan, and purpose only as He has revealed them to us in His divine word (Isaiah 64:4; 2 Corinthians 2:9-10), With John Newton we too can exclaim:
Amazing grace!
How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
Paul confirms his profound and sublime exclamations in Rom 11:34-36.
Romans 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? - No one. And no one can know the contents of His mind except as He reveals it (1 Corinthians 2:1-13), by His Spirit On. 16:13), through His word (2 Peter 1:21). or who hath been his counsellor? - Again the answer is no one. He consulted with no one in forming His decisions about the scheme of redemption. He had no teacher. He took no one into His confidence. He had no advisors. No one instructed Him (1 Corinthians 2:16).
Romans 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? - Quoted in essence from Job 41:11. No one has given to God (in making provision for salvation); consequently God is under no obligations to repay anyone. He is not obligated to the Jews any more than to the Gentiles. His offer of salvation is free and unfettered by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). All the gifts of God to men are of favor, not of debt. And since everything man has is a gift from God (1 Corinthians 4:7), what could man give to God?
Romans 11:36 For of him, - God is the source (Genesis 1:1; Revelation 4:11) - all things come from Him. He is indebted to no one for His plan and work. and through him, - By His power all things are preserved (Hebrews 1:1-4) all things are sustained by Him. and to him, - He is the ultimate goal toward which all things move (1 Corinthians 15:24-28) all things are going to Him. are all things: - The means and method of His plan to save. God is literally the source of all things, that is, all things were made by Him, the power behind all things, and the goal of all things, but in this context the reference is to redemption (the gospel plan of salvation). He is the source of, the power behind, and the goal of the gospel message. to whom be glory for ever. - Since all things are of God, to Him belongs the glory, the honor, the praise, and the power forever, worlds without end. Amen. - May it be so. Amen! For almost identical statements see 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6. Consider also similar statements about Christ (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 2:10).
ROMANS 12
Harold Winters
Romans 12:12-16 It is obvious that a change of subject matter occurs here. The remainder of the book offers practical exhortations for those who have been saved from sin by obedience to the gospel. The theme of the book is stated in Romans 1:16 - the gospel, God’s power to save. Chapters 1:18-3:19 show that the gospel is the power to save from sin (and since all have sinned, all, both Jew and Gentile, stand in need of the gospel). Chapters 3:20-11:36 explores how the gospel saves from sin - how God provided a substitute death (the death of Christ) to pay man’s sin debt. Chapters 12-16 deal with the practical results of salvation from sin - how those saved by the gospel should continue to live. Chapter 12 gives the Christian’s ethical responsibility; chapter 13, the Chris tian’s civil responsibility; chapter 14, the Christian’s attitude toward things in different; and chapters 15 and 16 give some final exhortation, consolations, salutations, and commendations. Thus the first 11 chapters deal with God’s scheme to redeem and the last five with the practical results of redemption.
TRANSFORMED LIVES
Romans 12:1 I beseech you - I urge you (NIV). Not a command (which he could have given) but a tender appeal. therefore, Recalling his whole argument of chapters 1-11. brethren, - All the Christians at Rome. by the mercies of God, The tender compassions which have been shown to us by God in giving His scheme of redemption [ef. Philippians 2:1; Colossians 3:12]. that ye present Offer as a sacrifice. As Robertson (WP) observes. "Used of presenting the child Jesus in the Temple [Luke 2:22], of the Christian presenting himself [Romans 6:13], of God presenting the saved [Ephesians 5:27], of Christ presenting the church [Colossians 1:28]." your bodies - The whole being. In rendering service to God, one cannot make a dichotomy between the body, soul, and spirit -the whole must act as a unit (1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 6:20). a living sacrifice, - Under the OT the sacrifice had to be slain - the blood shed (Leviticus 4:4; Leviticus 5:7-8). We are required to give our bodies as a living sacrifice. This means a full self-surrender to God (Matthew 16:24; Galatians 2:20). holy, Set apart to God’s service; consecrated; without blemish or defect; hence, with the characteristics of godliness. Nothing less than this should be offered to God (1 Peter 1:15-16). acceptable unto God, - Well-pleasing to God (Williams). All acceptable service (sacrifice, devotion, worship) must be by divine appointment, authorized by God in His revealed will (1 Thessalonians 5:22; Ephesians 5:10). It is a strange quirk of the sensual mind to think that it can obey God (do His will and thus be acceptable to Him) by doing things He has not commanded (Deut. ’29:29). God has prescribed His will in His word.
Do that, from a holy heart, and it will be an acceptable or well-pleasing service to him. which is your reasonable service. - Devotion that is rational, intelligent, volitional, or as the ASV margin says, "belonging to the reason." It is a service (devotion or worship) authorized by God and determined and executed by the reason of man. The ASV renders it "spiritual service" and the BV "your worship with understanding." The word rendered reasonable appears only here and in one other place in the NT (1 Peter 2:2), where it is translated "of the word" in the KJV but "pure spiritual" by Williams and others. The only pure, rational, or spiritual service that can be rendered to God is that which is authorized in His word. Anything not authorized is a stench in His nostrils a rejected sacrifice (Genesis 4:5; Hebrews 11:4). Service to God is more than external pomp or entertainment; it is a rational devotion of the mind or heart (Romans 6:17-18) expressed in divinely appointed acts.
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed - And be not fashioned (ASV). That do not copy. pattern after, or shape your lives and habits after the world (1 Peter 1:14-15) or the society in which you live. The fashion of our lives is to be deter mined by Christ the Lord, through His divinely revealed will, and not after the age culture in which we live. to this world: - The evils of the world (1 John 2:15-17), such as drinking, dancing, filthy speech, immodest attire, lustful books and music, or any questionable or unchristian practice (Galatians 5:19-21). but be ye transformed - Be changed into another form by putting off the old man of sin and putting on the new man of righteousness (Ephesians 4:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:17). This word is rendered transfigured in Matthew 17:2 and changed in 2 Corinthians 3:18. by the renewing of your mind, By a changed attitude and understanding. As one thinks, so is he (Proverbs 23:7). The mind which dwells on worldly things will produce conformity to the world. The mind which thinks right (Philippians 2:5) will lead to a transformed life. that ye may prove That you may test and approve, as one would test metal for strength and purity. The will of God is revealed in the gospel (Romans 1:17). The renewed mind, when it ascertains that will, sees that it contains the riches, the wisdom, and the knowledge of God (Romans 11:33). Rather than rejecting it, as would the mind which has the disposition to conform to the world, it approves and accepts it. what is that good, The will of God is good, absolutely good, because it is of God - it contains God’s plan to save. and acceptable, The will of God, when tested, proves accept able to man (and well-pleasing to God). and perfect, - It is pure (Proverbs 30; Proverbs 5), contains no error (Psalms 19:7; Psalms 119; Psalms 140), is complete (2 Timothy 3:14-17), and is final (Gal. 1;6-8; Judges 1:3). will of God. - That which God desires to be done.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, He says so by the authority of his apostleship (Galatians 2:7-9; 2 Corinthians 5:19-20), into which the favor of God had placed him (1 Timothy 1:12-14; 1 Corinthians 15:10). to every man that is among you, - To every one of you (NIV). not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; - Not be conceited or have an exaggerated opinion of his value in relation to others. Christians are to be humble (Luke 14:11; James 4:10; Ephesians 4:1-2; Philippians 2:5-11), the opposite of conceit. It is a very easy matter for most of us to think too highly of ourselves (and too lowly of others) that is, we become too sold on our own importance. But when we do we distort our sense of value and that distorted sense of value leads to some very serious consequences, such as improper attitudes, social snobbery, racial prejudice, or religious bigotry. but to think soberly, - Soundly or sensible. according as God hath dealt to every man - No man made himself or gave to himself what he has. Each is a responsible creature of God (Genesis 2:15-16; Ecclesiastes 12:13) and each stands as God made him (1 Corinthians 4:7). There is therefore no reason for a man boasting of what he is, nor is there any excuse for him thinking that God made him better than others. What is true of one man is true of all men - all are made a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:7), God loves all (5:8-9; John 3:16), Jesus died for all (Hebrews 9:12; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 2 Corinthians 1 In. 2;2), and all are invited to Him on the same terms (Matthew 11:28-30), to be His children (Galatians 3:26-29), brethren in Christ, and heirs of heaven (Romans 8:14-17). the measure of faith. Faith by which to measure what he is and what he is not; faith to judge what one should be. This statement is an exegetical perplexity, susceptible to at least three different understandings. Faith may be either subjective, objective, or miraculous. If subjective (or saving) faith is meant, then it is the belief of testimony the faith which comes by hearing the word of God (10:17). This kind of faith - is an act of one’s own heart. So it is highly unlikely that this is meant here because it is said to be dealt (given) to every man by God. If Paul has in mind objective faith, then it means the faith, that which has been once and for all delivered (Judges 1:3), that is, the system of faith or the gospel. If miraculous faith is meant, then it is an immediate gift of God. If miraculous here, it probably stands for any or all supernatural gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). But since it is said to be dealt to every man (and certainly not all Roman Christians possessed miraculous gifts), this seems equally as unlikely as the first alter native, even though miraculous gifts are discussed in vv. 6·8. While there is a good deal of difficulty (e.g., the miraculous gifts of vv. 6-8) with objective faith, it seems to me that the verse’s internal contents forces us to the conclusion that that is what Paul had in mind - the faith which is the basis of saving faith and the standard of truth and right which God has given to every man.
MEMBERS OF ONE BODY
Romans 12:4-5 For as we have many members in one body, The human body is one, even though it is made up of many different members. and all members have not the same office: - Each organ of the body has its own function within the body, the eye to see, the ear to hear, the tongue to speak, etc. (1 Corinthians 12:14-26). So we, - Christians, both Jew and Gentile. being many, - Who are many (ASV). The vast multitude of Christians scattered throughout the world. are one body - The church (1 Corinthians 10:17; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 4:4; Colossians 1:18). The body, the church, is composed of its members. There could be no body (church) without the members and there can be no functioning members outside the body. in Christ, - All Christians are in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:7), in whom they receive and enjoy all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3), and to be in Christ is to be a member of His body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). and everyone - Individually (NASV). members one of another. - Each member belongs to all the others (NIV). All members of the body together make up a single unit, thus making them all interdependent, each serving the other. Just as the body cannot function aparUrom its members, no member works apart from the body. Christians are thus to mutually serve each other in the church of Christ.
DIFFERENT GIFTS
Romans 12:6-8 This section lists a number of various gifts or functions that are exercised within the framework of the one body (vv. 4-5). The problem here is to ascertain whether they are intended to illustrate natural functions of all the members or supernatural gifts supplied to certain chosen ones. It is certain that prophecy is supernatural (it is used in no other way in the Scriptures) but it is equally as certain that giving and showing mercy are natural (it is hard to conceive of a miraculous gift of giving or compassion), but the remainder of the list could fall into either category, depending on the manner by which it was received and the context in which it appears. Since the Roman church did not have all the miraculous gifts it needed (Romans 1:11), the likelihood is that this list was intended by Paul to represent both classes. If this is the case (and I see no other reasonable way to approach it), then prophecy represents the miraculous gifts (which were given to the early church until the full revelation was received [1 Corinthians 13:8-13; Ephesians 4:11-14] and the remainder the natural gifts or abilities possessed by members of the body. This then is an illustration of how the body, being one but with many members, functions. Each member serves the pur pose for which he was placed in the body - that is, each one uses what God has given to him, whether it be natural or supernatural.
Romans 12:6 Having then gifts - Both natural and miraculous. The miraculous ended when the revelation was completed (1 Corinthians 13:8-12; Ephesians 4:11-14). Only the natural remains in the body now. differing according to the grace that is given to us, - All gifts are by the favor of God and not by man’s own power or doings. We did not make ourselves and therefore did not determine our gifts. whether prophecy, - The gift of inspired utterance (NEB). Prophecy was a supernatural gift given directly by God or through the laying on of the hands of the apostles (1 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Corinthians 14:1; Acts 8:15-19; 2 Timothy 1:6). In the Scriptures a prophet is always one who speaks for another (d. Exodus 7:1-2) the true prophet speaks for God (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). As Hendriksen observes, " ... the message of the true prophet was the product not of his own intuition or even of his own study and research but of special revelation. The prophet received his message directly from the Holy Spirit.... " It was not the function of the prophet to teach that which had already been revealed, but to speak directly from God. Of course he might serve as a teacher as well as a prophet but the two functions were different. The function of a prophet is to deliver God’s message; the function of a teacher is to impart to another the message which has already been delivered. Foretelling future events is only incidental to prophecy. Only God knows the future and when one foretells the future, as the prophets did, he must be speaking for God. But it is the speaking for God that ;dakes him a prophet and not the foretelling of future events. let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; - Let him speak for God according to the revelation given to him - that is, let him prophesy as God has given him the gift (metaphorically faith is put for the gift). As with the other gifts, the pro portion of faith gives the manner in which the gift of prophecy is to be exer cised. One ministers by ministering, teaches by teaching, etc. Just so, one prophesies according to the proportion of faith (gift)! As in v. 3, it is difficult to determine whether faith is subjective, objective, or miraculous. Here, as the note indicates, I believe it is miraculous.
Romans 12:7 Or ministry, - The rendering of any practical or active service, whether ministering the word (Acts 6:1-4; 2 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:11) or serving the needs of humanity (Luke 10:40). let us wait on our ministering: The words "let us wait" and "our" are supplied. Omitting them, the KJV reads, "Or ministry ... on ... ministering." The thrust seems to be that one is to minister according to his gift the ability God has given unto him (1 Peter 4:11). That is, let him fulfill his ministry by ministering. or he that teacheth, Teaching is the impartation of knowledge. on teaching; - If he has knowl edge (derived from his own study in contrast with the prophet, v. 6, who re ceived his by revelation) and is able to impart it (pass it from his own mind to that of another), let him do so. Let him teach by teaching. Ministering and teaching are vital functions of the body, the church (Romans 12:4-5).
Romans 12:8 Or he that exhorteth, To exhort is to entreat, admonish, or make an appeal to. Teaching is directed to the intellect, to impart knowledge; exhortation is directed to the heart or will, to solicit response. on exhortation: - That is, let him admonish or solicit according to his talent or ability. he that giveth, - Shares with or contributes to the needs of others or to the cause of Christ (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8:12-14). But before a person can give, God must first give to him (d. Ecclesiastes 5:19; Ecclesiastes 6:2). This could be one reason why it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). let him do it - Supplied words. with simplicity; With liberality (ASV), generously (NIV), or with singleness of aim and purpose and with a cheerful disposition (d. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7). he that ruleth, - Leads, probably referring to the work of elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7; 1 Timothy 5:17; 1 Peter 4:1-3). with diligence; That is, let him exercise his leader ship earnestly lead by leading. he that sheweth mercy, Shows sincere and concerned sympathy in times of death, disappointment, or misfortune. with cheerfulness. With an eager disposition. Let him show compassion by his eagerness to help (d. Proverbs 17:22).
ATTITUDES AND OBLIGATIONS
Romans 12:9 Let love - Pure love - good will, affection, and deep concern for the welfare of all Men (Matthew 5:44; Matthew 22:35-40). be without dissimulation. Without hypocrisy (ASV). Or stated positively, "Love in all sincerity" (NEB); "Let love be genuine" (RSV); or "Love must be sincere" (NIV). Not love in pretense (1 John 3:18) or a faked love. Abhor - Intense hate, loathing, or view ing with horror. If more Christians had this sentiment towards sin, fewer would become entrapped by it (Psalms 119:104). that which is evil; - Everything that is wrong. Evil is the opposite of good and right. To love righteousness is to hate evil (d. Hebrews 1:9; Amos 5:14-15), to stand for right is to oppose wrong. cleave - To be joined to (Young) as by gluing. The same word is used in Matthew 19:5 (where a man is to cleave to his wife) and in Luke 10:11 (where the dust cleaved on the disciples). The thought is to stick to as adhesive or hold fast (1 Thessalonians 5:22). to that which is good. - Right (and right can be proved by the word of God, Romans 12:2).
Romans 12:10Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; - There is a sense in which Christians are to love everyone (Matthew 5:44; Matthew 22:39), but there is a special, deeper, natural bond, tenderly affectionate, existing be tween brethren, members of the body of Christ (Romans 12:4-5; Galatians 6:10). BY renders this, "Joined together in a brotherhood of mutual love." Perhaps we could para phrase the thought, "Love one another with brotherly love" (Hebrews 13:1). in honour preferring one another; - Lead the way in honoring others - that is, be a leader in bringing honor to brethren, putting their honor ahead of your own. Affection, love, and honor is the birthright of every Christian from every other Christian (John 13:35). What a difference it would make in the church and to the world if all recognized and practiced this.
Romans 12:11 Not slothful - Not shrinking from or flagging for lack of interest (Matthew 25:26, where it is used of a servant who made no effort to increase his master’s talents). in business; - The same word as is translated diligence in v. 8. Hence, be not lacking in diligence, that is, do not have a flagging zeal for God and His work. fervent in spirit; - Fervency of mind or the interbeing the opposite of slothful in business. This is the human spirit, not the HS as many suppose. serving the Lord; - The business in which we are to be engaged. Thus whatever the Lord requires, we are to do it with diligence, zest, and enthusiasm (Ecclesiastes 9:10). The thrust of the v. is to instruct us to be diligent and enthusiastic in doing God’s will. The NEB renders it, "With unflagging energy, in ardour of spirit, serve the Lord."
Romans 12:12 Rejoicing in hope; - Cheerful in the anticipation and expectation of redemption of the body from the grave and the glories to follow. Hope is the ground of joy because it is a sustaining factor in Christian living (Hebrews 6:11), anchoring the soul (Hebrews 6:19), making afflictions meaningful and more easily borne (Romans 8:24-25), and looks beyond the present to an inheritance incorruptible (1 Peter 1:3-4). This blessed hope belongs to none but the children of God (Ephesians 2:12). patient in tribulation; - Forbearing in times of persecution, sorrow, suffering, or pain. Hope helps one endure all the afflictions of life (James 1:2-3). continuing instant in prayer; Continuing steadfast in prayer (ASY). This means perseverance (or persistence) in prayer (Luke 11:5-8; Luke 18:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). This v. gives three more characteristics of a Christian, namely, cheerfulness, forbearance, and perseverance cheerfulness in hope, forbearance in tribulation, and perseverance in prayer.
Romans 12:13 Distributing --Communicate, contribute, or share.to the necessity of saints; -Supply from your storehouse of goods (whether wealth or service) that which will fill the needs of others, especially needy saints (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 9:6-7; 2 Corinthians 9:13; Galatians 6:10). God does not forget such gifts (Hebrews 6:10). given to hospitality. - Hospitality literally means the love of strangers. Thus to receive or entertain travelers as guests and provide for them food, a place to sleep, and protection (Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9). Here the thought is to pursue or actively seek opportunities to practice hospitality. It is a Christian duty (1 Timothy 5:10), a qualification of elders (1 Timothy 3:6), and a basis of judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). This is almost a lost art in the modern world: We entertain friends in our homes infrequently, but strangers never. But God has been gracious to give us beautiful commodious homes, and we ought to use them in His service. But instead of doing so, we often make them havens of selfishness.
Romans 12:14 Bless - To speak or wish well of; thus to invoke a blessing upon. them which persecute you: - The righteous can expect to be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). The persecutors are those who do harm, whether physically, men tally, emotionally, or spiritually - they pursue the righteous for the purpose of doing them evil. This is reminiscent of the Lord’s words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 5:43-44). bless, and curse not. To curse is the opposite of blessing, hence to wish evil of, to imprecate, or to invoke God to send misfortune or destruction. But rather than wish misfortune on others, even their enemies, Christians are to wish all well or return good for evil (v. 21). The evil attitude and actions of others are not to be the controlling factor in their attitude and actions. They follow Christ and leave others for God to judge (v. 19).
Romans 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, - Enter into the joy of those who have a cause to rejoice. We are not to envy them, in their good fortune, but to rejoice in their rejoicing (1 Corinthians 12:26). and weep with them that weep. Grieve with those who have cause to mourn mourn because of their mourning. Our hearts are not to rejoice over the misfortunes of others, but to be touched with their grief. We are to sympathize with them that is, we are to feel with them their pain, sadness, or discomfort.
Romans 12:16 This verse in all four of its statements, is concerned with right attitude of mind or proper thinking. Be of the same mind one toward another. Harmonize with others in your thinking (BV). This probably connects with v. 15 and thus gives the manner by which we are to rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep, namely, by being of one mind, sentiment, disposition, or attitude. Mind not high things, - Do not aspire to eminence (BV) or be ambitious to attain places of honor and power, or as the ASV renders it, "Set not your mind on high things." but condescend to men of low estate. The original for condescend does not mean what we usually mean by this word (that would imply that the condescender was superior to the ones to whom he condescended, a totally false concept among Christians), but, as the margin of the ASV reveals, to "be carried along with." It is translated carried away with in Galatians 2:13 and led away with in 2 Peter 3:17. Hence it means to be conducted or carried along with the lowly, to be humble, to have the attitude of and be able to adjust to humble people. Be not wise in your own conceits. - Do not be wise before yourself or in your own opinion. Do not be self conceited - that is, do not be deceived about your own wisdom.
Romans 12:17 Recompense - Render, give back, or repay. to no man evil for evil. Do not practice vindictiveness or retaliation against those who do you wrong. Such was the practice under the law (Exodus 21:22-25; Leviticus 24:19-20; Deuteronomy 19:19-21), but Jesus reversed it (Matthew 5:38-42) by giving His rule of good for evil (Matthew 5:44; 1 Thessalonians 5:15). Vengeance belongs only to God (v. 19). Provide things honest - Take thought for things honorable (ASV). That use forethought to determine noble conduct or fix beforehand the principles by which you are to live. in the sight of all men. - This is not to say that we are to do only that which all men consider right. Their concept of right or honorable is not the standard by which actions are to be measured. We are to do the noble thing (as determined from the revealed will of God) before and to all men. While all will not agree on what is right, all will approve doing right. Thus when a Christian does right, neither he nor the church will suffer reproach from those around him. He is to do good in such an honorable way and with such forethought that no one can rightly speak evil of his good (Romans 14:16).
Romans 12:18 If it be possible,It is possible on our part (Romans 14:17; Matthew 5:9; James 3:17) because we follow things that make for peace (Romans 14:19), but others may not allow it. Peace is not a one-way tract (Luke 12:51-53) and some men will not live in peace themselves nor will they permit others to live in peace with them. Paul’s own life is an example of this (Acts 14:19; Acts 17:5-14). as much as lieth in you, As far as it depends on you (NIV). live peaceably with all men. - Be at peace with all men (ASV). If one is at peace with God (Romans 5:1; Philippians 4:7), by having obeyed the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15), and by continuing to follow the Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6; Acts 3:15; Acts 5:31), he is likely to be able to live peacefully with all men (that is, all who will allow him to be at peace with them).
Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, The tenderly loved in the Lord. avenge not yourselves, - To avenge is to afflict punishment on an offender. But to repay the wrong that has been done one is not the personal right of a Christian. He is to suffer the wrong (1 Corinthians 6:7) and leave vengeance in the hands of an all wise God. In this, as well as in all things, Jesus is our example (1 Peter 2:21-23). The instructions here are similar to that given in vv. 14, 17, and 21. but rather give place unto wrath: This does not mean not to resist evil (as in Matthew 5:39) but rather as the RSV renders it, "leave it to the wrath of God." Here wrath means divine wrath, as the remainder of the verse shows. Thus we are to give way (step aside so as not to presume the divine prerogative) so that God can exercise His wrath. for it is written, - Deuteronomy 32:35. Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. God has reserved to Himself the right to avenge wrongs against His people and we should gladly leave to Him what belongs to Him. When a Christian avenges himself, he presumes to act for God. He thus oversteps his bounds, gives place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27), and shows a lack of faith and trust in God to do what He has promised to do.
Romans 12:20 Therefore Since vengeance is not yours to give. if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: - Not only are you to refrain from taking vengeance (v. 19) but you are also to take positive actions in the constructive welfare of your enemy. If the one who has wronged you be hungry or thirsty, supply his needs. Or to put it negatively, do not try to avenge him by withholding from him the necessities of life. Food and water here represent any need he might have (Matthew 5:44). for in so doing - In sup plying his needs one must have a benevolent (not a malevolent) spirit toward his enemy; his motivation must be the expression of kindness, not for the purpose of heaping coals of fire on his head (which would be getting vengeance indirectly). That is, he is to return good for evil (d. 1 Peter 2:15). thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. - You shall bring down upon him the greater judgment of God. The vast majority of commentators see this as bringing shame on the enemy, thus melting his heart by the contrast of good against his evil, and bringing him around to repentance and friendship. While there is merit in this view, the context is the vengeance of God and I see no adequate reason for departing from that. However, it is not necessary to refer it to the final day of judgment. God has many ways by which to avenge evil, such as its own shameful rewards (see note on Romans 1:27; Galatians 6:7-8), a violated conscience (John 8:9; Titus 1:15), and by means of civil authorities, which are discussed in chapter 13. The verse is quoted from Proverbs 21:22, where the closing statement, not repeated by Paul, reads, "And the Lord shall reward thee." Thus the Lord will reward you for your goodness and take the necessary vengeance on your enemy. As Christians we must always do right, not permitting the actions of others to determine our own actions. We are to be concerned with the welfare of all people (that is the real meaning of love), and if there is vengeance to be taken, we are to leave that in the hands of God. This is the principle by which we are to live the principle basic to following Christ (1 Peter 2:21-24). By doing good for evil we are doing our part, doing what God wills for us to do, and trusting Him to do what He has promised to do, namely, to repay. Thus this v. simply teaches that we are to do right, everywhere, to everyone, all the time and leave judgment (avenging the wicked) in the hands of God.
Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, - Do not let evil so overpower you that you will permit yourself to return evil for evil. One cannot overcome evil by doing evil. but overcome evil with good. - As is illustrated in v. 20.
CIVIL AUTHORITIES
Harold Winters
Romans 13:1 Let every soul - Every human being, that is, every accountable person. be subject - Be obedient to (Titus 3:1). We must obey the authorities because their power is derived from God. And since God has commanded us to obey them, we obey God by obeying them. unto the higher powers. The authorities or those who rule in civil affairs. As the context of Romans 13:1-7 shows, this means civil authorities - the government, local, state, and national, under which one lives (1 Peter 2:13-14). For there is no power - No authority (RSV). but of God: - No authority except that which is delegated, given, ordained, or established by God. the powers that be - The governments that exist. are ordained of God. Have been established (NIV) or instituted by God (RSV). That is, they exist by God’s permission, Civil government is therefore by the appointment of God. He did not, however, ordain the particular form it may take, His appointment was that civil states be established for the purpose of maintaining order - for the protection of good and the punishment of evil (Romans 13:3-4; 1 Peter 1:14-15; 1 Timothy 2:2), It is left to man to choose whatever form (republican, monarchical, democratic, or oligarical) may best serve the divine purpose at a given time and under the circ*mstances. The fact or principle of civil government is of God; the form or method of executing it is of man. But not all authorities (and perhaps none in every instance) serve the purpose for which they were ordained. The Christian may therefore find himself being commanded by the ruling officials to do that which is contrary to the will of God, In such cases, he must resist the human and obey the divine (Acts 5:29). A government is to be obeyed only when it does right - only when it serves its God given function. When it tries to force its citizens to do wrong, or when it permits and encourages that which is evil and destructive to the good, it has transgressed its divine right. A government has a right to demand that its citizens do right and, when this is the case, the Christian is under obligation to obey. Whatever the government has a right to do, the Christian has the right (and often the obligation) to do for his government No government, however, has the right to do wrong nor to command a Christian to obey its dictates in doing wrong; and no Christian has the right to do wrong by official commission. In short, the government is designed by God to encourage and protect good and to punish evil. When it abuses right or encourages wrong, it ceases to fill the function for which it was appointed. I therefore conclude that whatever is right for the government to do is right for a Christian to do for his government. It is always right for a Christian to do right, but it is never right for him to do wrong. The same is true of governments.
Romans 13:2 Whosoever - Broad enough to cover everyone, even Christians. therefore Introduces the consequence of the facts stated in v. 1. resisteth the power, Refuse to obey it, rebel against it, or set himself in opposition to it. It is assumed that the rulers here are acting within their proper sphere. No one is commanded to obey a charge, from any source, to do wrong. This, therefore, must not be interpreted to mean that all revolutions are wrong. If so, it would be all but impossible to form new governments and the vast majority of those now existing would be illegitimate. When a government becomes corrupt and oppressive; when it fails to serve the divine purpose for which it was ap pointed; when it favors the evil over the good; when it crushes and defeats the will and welfare of the people; when it sacrifices its citizens for a theory; when its burdens outweigh its benefits, when its policy is to torture and imprison the innocent; when its official stance is toward wickedness and destruction; when it is hell-bent against Scripture, reason, and common sense; when it is more concerned with its own preservation than with the good of the people, surely it would be wrong not to replace it with a form that would serve the divine pur pose. resisteth the ordinance of God: Resist what God has appointed (RSV). That is, he sets himself against that which is divinely instituted. and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. - Judgment (ASV). Those who resist orderly authority will be judged by the authority they resist the resister will be resisted by the resisted. But the authority resisted is both that of God and the civil state. This means that the resister will be judged by both God and the government.
Romans 13:3 For rulers - The officials in power - same as authorities in Romans 13:1-2. are not a terror to good works, - For rulers hold no terror for those who do right (NIV). Their appointment is for the purpose of praising, promoting, and protecting right by preventing, suppressing, and punishing wrong. This is a general rule, but one that is always true when a government is filling its divine function. But there are exceptions to the rule. As men often depart from God’s purpose for them, so do governments, some even to the point of terrorizing and persecuting the righteous. And when this is the case, such states may justly be called to account by their citizens. If they are beyond reform, then it is surely legitimate to replace them with forms more in keeping with the real purpose of civil states. but to the evil. - That is, rulers should be a terror to lawbreakers. There can be no government without laws; there can be no law without penalty; and there can be no terror of law without the enforcement of the penalty. Thus it is the duty of governments to bring criminals to trial swiftly and punish them justly. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? - If, then, you want to live in freedom from fear of the rulers. do that which is good, - That which is lawful and right. and thou shalt have praise of the same: - The government, if it is functioning properly, will approve, com mend, protect, and encourage you in doing right. This is simply to say that if you obey the civil laws you have nothing to fear from the rulers - you can live in peace (1 Timothy 2:2), but if you violate them you will be called to account.
Romans 13:4 For he is the minister of God - The servant of God to carry out His appointments. Keep in mind that God designed that government to serve two primary purposes: (1) to protect and encourage good; (2) to restrain and punish wickedness. God authorized men to form governments for these two purposes. But when He authorized the civil state, He thereby authorized all that was necessary to carry out its function. Thus the means necessary to the function of government is authorized by God and that which has the authority of God behind it is right, even though it may involve that which would be wrong for the individual, saint or sinner, acting on his own, to enforce. Individuals act ing as an agent of the government (and the government can act only through agents) may rightly perform acts which would be wrong for them to perform acting on their own. This distinction must be kept in mind if one is to under stand and appreciate the Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount or the Christian’s obligation to the civil state. The action, however, must be a legitimate function of the government. No one, man or government, is authorized by God to do wrong. to thee for good. - To do you good (NIV). This shows that governments were designed to serve the people - serve those who do right (see note on v. 3). But if thou do that which is evil, Be a wrong doer or a law violator. be afraid; Stand in fear: for it is the divine function of government to punish the wicked. for he beareth not the sword in vain: - It is God’s minister to bear the sword - and it is not borne just for pomp or show. The sword is the symbol of its power to inflict punishment - to enforce its laws by a police department, by a court system (which includes the right of both corporeal and capital punishment), and by a national armed force (which includes the right to go to war when it must do so to serve its purpose). for he - The ruler, civil state, or government. is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath - An agent of wrath to bring punishment (NIV). That is, the government is God’s institution to avenge the wicked in this world. This God commissioned it to do and what God has commissioned for it to do cannot be wrong for it to do. That is to say it is not wrong for the government to inflict just punishment on evil doers. It is, in fact, what God has ordered. And what God has ordered cannot be wrong to do. But some say that it is right (even a command) for the government to practice capital punishment, but that it would be wrong for a Christian, acting as an agent of the state, to help carry out the execution. In this they are in grave error. They confuse what is illegitimate for one (saint or sinner) to do on his own with that which it is perfectly legitimate for the government to do. Anyone can do right; no one, man or government, can do wrong with God’s approval. Capital punishment (along with all that goes with it, including the right of civil states to protect themselves in time of war) is either right or wrong. If it is wrong, then it is a sin for anyone to carry out the law in this matter; if it is right, then no one can do wrong in doing right. If it is right for the government (or one acting for the government), how can it be wrong for a Christian when he is duly acting as a servant of the state? To my mind, it borders on the ridiculous to say that such an act is right for a sinner, but wrong for a Christian. If it is right, how can a Christian be wrong in doing right? If it is wrong, how can the government (or anyone acting for the govern ment) be right in doing wrong? upon him that doeth evil. - The wicked, the lawless, the rebellious. The government has an obligation to enforce its laws, which are designed to protect the innocent. To fail to inflict just punishment upon the wicked would be to fail in the very purpose for which God appointed it.
THE WAR QUESTION
A young Christian who was serving in the armed forces of our country laid before me this question: "Can a Christian fight for his country?" This is a complex subject because war is so cruel, so destructive, and so inhumane - so seemingly contrary to everything Christianity stands for. Yet there must be an answer, and I believe that the answer must depend on whether it is right for one’s country to be in war or not. If his country is doing right in fighting then certainly a Christian can do right. But if his country has no right to fight, no right to protect her citizens, then it seems obvious to me that a Christian cannot fight. A Christian can always do right but it is never right for him to do wrong. A war is either wrong for everyone or else it is wrong for no one. It cannot be right for the government and wrong for the Christian; nor can it be wrong for the Christian and right for the government. It is either right or wrong ... for everybody. Thus back of the war question are some other vital questions:
First, does a country (or government) have a divine right to exist? Certainly so (13:1-7). Paul made this crystal clear when he wrote, "Let ever soul be subject unto the higher power. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God" (Romans 13:1; see also 1 Peter 2:13-14).
Second, does a government have a right to maintain its existence - that is, does it have a right to make and enforce laws? The very fact that a government has a divine right to exist necessarily implies that it has the right to maintain its existence; otherwise absolute chaos would rule in the kingdoms of men. No one would be safe from power hungry, blood thirsty, ambitious, self-serving men who would become dictators at any price. There is no logical escape from the conclusion that a government does have the right to maintain its existence.
Third, does a government have the right to use force (such as a police department, armed forces, capital punishment, etc.) to maintain its existence or in carrying out its purpose? If not, then it does not have the right to maintain its existence. There are times when a nation has absolutely no recourse but force to protect itself and its citizens, and then protection demands force. Thus if it has the right to maintain its existence, it also has the right to use force. If it has a divine right to use force, then going to war is not wrong per se. But if it is not wrong to go to war (when war is the only recourse the government has to maintain itself and protect its citizens), how could it be wrong for a Christian to participate in that which is not wrong within itself? As I see it, the only possible way it could be wrong for a Christian to participate in his country’s defense is that under the circ*mstance it would be wrong for the country to defend itself. If a country has no right to defend itself, then its defense is wrong; if it has a right to defend itself, then its defense is right. Thus it is wrong for a Christian to participate in war only when it is wrong for his country to be in war.
Fourth, and going a step further, does a government have a divine obligation to maintain itself and thus to protect its citizens? Indeed it does. That is its fundamental purpose for being. This Paul clearly established in Romans 13:3-4. Upon the principle set forth in these verses one is forced to the conclusion that the government has a divine obligation to protect its people to protect the right and punish the wrong, even if that protection means war. What else could the expression "for he beareth not the sword in vain" mean? But how could it be wrong for a Christian to do for the government what it is not wrong for the government to do - actually what the government has a divine obligation to do? For a government to fail to protect its good citizens from evil, even the evils of war, would be to fail in the very purpose for which God ordained it.
Fifth, and perhaps the most serious of all, do Christians have the divine right to resist or refuse to participate in the government when the government is serving as a minister of God by doing what He obligated it to do? While the answer is a very sensitive one, and must always depend upon whether the government is acting properly, I do not believe the Christian has the right to refuse to serve the government when it is doing right. Turn the question around: do Christians have the right to refuse to serve their government when it is doing what God has divinely commissioned it to do?
Sixth, and this is the heart of the whole matter, do Christians have a right to do right? Or is it wrong for them to do what it would be right for sinners to do (in acting as an agent of the government)? My judgment is that Christians always have a right to do right; they never have a right to do wrong.
Thus it seems obvious to me that if a government has a right or an obligation to go to war, then it is right for a Christian to fight for his country - it is right for him to do right. On the other hand, if the government has no right to go to war, then a Christian has no right to participate. And if the government has no right to go to war, then the Christian must oppose its total participation in it (he must oppose all sin). He cannot just oppose Christians going: he must oppose everyone going. Going to war for one’s country is either right or wrong. It is not right for some and wrong for others. What is right is not wrong for Christians and what is wrong is not right for anyone. I conclude therefore that when a country goes to war it is either right for all its citizens to participate or else it is wrong for all. If it is right, Christians have no right to refuse; if it is wrong, no one has a right to fight.
Romans 13:5 Wherefore - A conclusion from what is said in vv. 3-4. ye must needs - It is necessary (NIV). be subject - Be in support of and in obedience to civil authorities. Two reasons are to show the necessity of obedience: not only for wrath, - Not merely to avoid punishment, which the government divinely afflicts on lawbreakers. but also for conscience sake. - In addition to escaping punishment, it is the right thing to do - right because God has commanded it. To fail to obey properly constituted authority violates both the law and the conscience.
Romans 13:6 For this cause - The necessity to obey the government for both wrath and conscience sake (Romans 13:5). pay ye tribute also: - You pay taxes to escape wrath and to keep a good conscience it is the right thing to do and you will be punished if you do not. The government must be supported in order to render the service God appointed for it. Hence, the authority for Christians paying tax. for they are God’s ministers, Ministers of God’s service (ASV). Here ministers are from a different Greek word than in v. 4, probably because a public servant is meant. Vincent (WS) brings out the emphasis by observing, "The word here brings out more fully the fact that the ruler, like the priest, discharges a divinely ordained service." attending continually upon this very thing. - That is, rulers, or those in authority, spend their full time in public service, attending to the duties of government.
Romans 13:7 Render therefore to all their dues: The principle here stated would apply to everyone, God, man, or government, to which one is indebted, whether praise, service, or money, but it is probably limited here by the context to civil rulers (Matthew 22:21). tribute to whom tribute is due; - Personal and property tax (Matthew 17:24-27; Matthew 22:17-22; Luke 2:1-5). custom to whom custom; Import and export tax. fear to whom fear; This may mean to be afraid of the consequence of disobedience (v. 4), but more probably a reverential fear or respect (e.g., Ecclesiastes 12:13; Acts 10:34-35), that is, a respectful fear because of their position in a God-appointed institution. honour to whom honour. Praise and commendation. A government is praiseworthy when it is filling its divine function of protecting the good and punishing the evil - that is, it is worthy of the full support of every citizen.
LOVE FULFILLS THE LAW
Romans 13:8 Owe no man any thing, Let no debt go unpaid. This may look back to v. 7 and the thought be to pay all you owe whether it be tribute, custom, fear, or honor, but I think the principle is broader here than there. This is obviously not a prohibition of a credit system (Matthew 5:42; Luke 6:35), but rather an admonition to be honest in the payment of all debts due. I was reared in a poverty-stricken family in the mountains of East Tennessee. I distinctly remember when I was a teenager my older brother came home driving a fine looking used car (I thought it was one of the finest looking machines 1 had ever seen). I knew he had no money with which to purchase anything, much less a car. So 1 asked him, "How much do you owe on it?" He replied, "Not a penny!" My next inquiry was, "Where did you get the money?" "I borrowed it," he said. "And 1 don’t owe a penny until the first of next month." He was right. He owed for the car, but not a penny was due on it until the first of the next month, at which time his first payment was due. But when it was due, he was obligated to pay or else he would be in violation of this divine injunction. In the final analysis, this is not a prohibition against making obligations; it is an injunction to meet them. but to love one another: - Love is a debt we owe everyone (Mat. 7:44; Matthew 22:37-40; James 2:8; 1 Corinthians 13), one that can never be paid in full. We must continue to love as long as we live. for he that loveth another - The ASV says, "He that loveth his neighbor" (d. Luke 10:25-37), but this might put a limit on the obligation in the minds of some. The NIV renders it, "For he who loves his fellow man." hath fulfilled the law. He has reached an end for which the law was given. When one perpetually pays his debt of love, he will do to and for others what the law prescribes. This is illustrated in v. 9.
Romans 13:9 For this, The commandments (RSV) are summed up in this one thing, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Thou shalt not commit adultery, The seventh command (Exodus 20:14). It is the violation of marital purity. Thou shalt not kill, The sixth command (Exodus 20:13). This is murder, the taking of human life with malice aforethought. Thou shalt not steal, - The eighth commandment (Exodus 20:15). The unlawfully taking of that which belongs to another. Thou shalt not bear false witness, - the ninth command (Exodus 20:16), but omitted in ASV and most critics on textual grounds. It means to testify falsely. In principle, it prohibits all lying. Thou shalt not covet; The tenth command (Exodus 20:17). An illegitimate desire for that which belongs to another. and if there be any other commandment, - Any other law pertaining to man’s relationship with his neighbor that is not named here specifically. it is briefly comprehended - Summed up (NIV). in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. - Quoted from Leviticus 19:18. The law, while it has other functions, is designed to regulate the relation ship between man and man - to protect all from harm as well as preventing all from doing wrong. When one loves his neighbor he will not sin against him by violating his marriage, by destroying his life, by taking his property, by misrepresenting him falsely, or by desiring his property or possessions. In this sense love fulfills the law (Romans 13:10; Matthew 22:37-40). Love establishes the very kind of relationship the law demands. It motivates one to practice the golden rule (Matthew 7:12).
Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: - Love is here personified. This means that the person who loves another (his neighbor) will not only not do him harm (sin against him by adultery, murder, theft, false witness, or desiring his possessions) but will rather work for his good. Thus love works for the benefit of one’s neighbor just as does the law when it is obeyed. (For some great passages on love, see 1 Corinthians 13; 1 John 4:7-21; John 13:34. The good Samaritan is an example of love in action, Luke 10:25-37.) therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. - Love brings the law (pertaining to man’s relationship with man) to full fruition. See note on Romans 13:8.
PUT ON CHRIST
Romans 13:11 And that, Besides this (RSV) or this in addition to loving your neighbor (Romans 13:10). knowing the time, - Being aware of the critical nature of the season in which they lived. What critical aspect of the time Paul had in mind is not revealed and it would be useless to speculate. It could not, however, be the second coming of Christ because of that time no one knew (Matthew 24:36; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). In one sense or another everyone lives in critical times. Thus the admonition here can apply with equal force to all, regardless of when or where they live. that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: The day had dawned when they had become Christians; the time for sleep was over. The hour had approached for them to arouse from their slumber (their indifference, inactivity, insensitivity. and unconcern) and prepare themselves and others for eternity (Amos 4:5; Matthew 25:13). This made it mandatory for them to act in more than an ordinary way (Ephesians 5:14; Matthew 25:1-13). for now is our salvation - The final or eternal salvation. They had been saved from their past sins when they obeyed the gospel (Romans 6:3-4; Romans 6:16-18) but they were living in hope of eternal life in the world to come (1 John 2:25; Mark 10:30). Each day brought them nearer to their ultimate goal. And this was true regardless of whether it was death or the second coming of Christ which brought them to this final consummation. nearer than when we believed. - Closer to that eternal home than when they first entered Christ (Galatians 3:26-27), became new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:22-24), and started the Christian journey. This is simply to say that they were nearer heaven now than they were then.
Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, The night is nearly over (Goodspeed). The time of slumber (v. 11) is past. Night is used here in the sense of the works of darkness. This is simply to say that the time of living in sin is over (1 Peter 4:1-5). the day is at hand: - Diy is contrasted with night. Hence it means that the full light of the gospel is dawning and the time has come to put on the armor of light - that is, the time to live in harmony with the gospel or to live as God designed man to live. let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, The works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). and let us put on the armour of light. - The Christian armor (Ephesians 6:10-17) or the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Peter 1:5-11). The contrast here is between a life of wickedness and the life of righteousness as revealed in the gospel (1:17), not between the present state of a Christian on earth and his future state in heaven. Thus, contrary to most interpreters, this is not a passage teaching the soon coming of Jesus. Paul did not teach that; in fact, he taught the exact opposite (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4). Those who see a difficulty in the sense I have given the passage may ask, "How could Paul urge Christians to put off the works of sin and put on the armor of righteousness when they should have already done this in becoming Christians?" While it may not explain it to everyone’s satisfaction, this is not an unusual way for Paul to urge Christians to leave the old way of life and live the new. For example, he urged the putting off of the old man and the putting on the new (Ephesians 4:21-24). Yet as Christians they were already new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Corinthians were told to come out from among the worldly things and be separated (1 Corinthians 6:17-18); yet they were already saints (1 Corinthians 1:1) or separated ones. In Romans 13:14 he tells them to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, but they had already done this in baptism (Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27).
Romans 13:13 This verse contrast two ways of life - the honorable or becoming and the shameful. The former is commended and the latter prohibited. (1) The honorable: Let us walk honestly, - Let us walk becomingly (ASV). The conduct of every Christian should be that which would bring honor to Christ and respect to His gospel and people. as in the day; - As in the light of day, doing everything honorably and openly. Shameful deeds are done under cover - they are the works of darkness (v. 12); honorable deeds are done openly they are the deeds of light. (2) The shameful, which consist of three pairs, the first two (four words) are plural, the last one (two words) are singular: not in rioting Not in revelling (ASV). Carousing, merrymaking, orgies, or drinking parties (Galatians 5:21; 1 Peter 4:3). and drunkenness, - Drinking (BV). Being intoxicated by strong drink. There is no drunkenness without drinking and there can be no drinking (of beverage alcohol) without drunkenness to one degree or another. Drunkenness is one of the most shameful evils to invade any society - an individual evil, a social evil, and a national evil. All Christians must throw all their influence against it, whether in word, act, or ballot (d. Genesis 9:20-25; Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 23:29-32; Isaiah 28:7-8; Galatians 3:21). not in chambering - Illicit sexual activity (drawing its name from the place where such lewd sins are committed). and wantonness - Lasciviousness or unbridled lust; sexual debauchery. not in strife - Contention or quarrelings (e.g., 1 Corinthians 1:11; 1 Corinthians 3:3; Galatians 3:20; d. James 3:16). and envying. - Zeal degenerated into jealousy; selfish hostility. The two words in each of the three pairs go together in prac tice: rioting (revellings) is tied to drunkenness; chambering (illicit sexual activity) goes hand-in-hand with wantonness (lust or licentiousness), and strife (contention) is a product of envying (jealousy).
Romans 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus, - Put on the characteristics which belong to Christ and follow Him in every attitude and conduct (Philippians 2:5; 1 Peter 2:21; see note on Romans 13:12). Christ fills man’s every need (Colossians 2:9-15). And - Give no forethought to gratifying the flesh. You are dead to it (Romans 6:1-13). the flesh - Carnal or sinful desires. to fulfil the lusts thereof. - To gratify the sins of the flesh (1 John 2:15-17). The thought here is that when one becomes a Christian he should learn no retreat, make no plans to return to sin, burn the bridges between him and the world, and break all ties with the past. In short, no provisions should be made for turning back (Matthew 16:24-26; Luke 9:62). That which is behind is to be forgotten and the prize toward which one is pressing is to be all absorbing (Philippians 3:13-14). Unlike the Israelites, who turned back in heart and mind, because they longed for the onions and garlic of Egypt (Numbers 11:3-6; Acts 7:38-39), a true Christian must move onward and upward, never backward to the world.
ROMANS 14
Harold Winters
Chapter 14: This chapter deals with things indifferent - things neither right nor wrong within themselves. For example, it is neither right nor wrong to eat meat or to refrain from eating it. This is a matter of individual choice and one can go to heaven either way. While this is true of indifferent things, the principle must not be applied to things right or wrong or to a situation where an indifferent thing might become wrong. This chapter has been used to try to justify everything from sprinkling for baptism to drinking alcoholic beverages to instrumental music in Christian worship. But such misses Paul’s point ab solutely. He is discussing indifferent things, things neither right nor wrong in the situation. But there is another side to this coin: some things are indifferent in one situation and wrong in another (e.g., the eating of meat in this chapter and the washing of hands, pots, and pans in Matthew 15:1-9). An indifferent thing can therefore become wrong when it is taken out of its place and put into another category. It is not wrong to eat meat, but when one eats meat in honor of idols (not an indifferent situation) the eating of it becomes wrong (1 Corinthians 8:10-13). Alcohol may be an indifferent thing in some situations, but its use as a medicine is right (1 Timothy 5:23) and its use for the purpose of intoxication is wrong (Proverbs 20:1). Instrumental music is an indifferent matter, but its use is right when used for entertainment and wrong when used in Christian worship (in which every act must be authorized by God) because it violates certain Scriptural principles, one of which is that a thing must be proven (Scriptural) before practiced (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Some things are therefore indifferent in one category and a violation of Scriptural principles (sinful) in another. This chapter deals only with things indifferent in situations in which they are indifferent.
THE WEAK IN FAITH
Harold Winters
Romans 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith - He is weak because his opinions of former laws and habits have bound his faith in Christ as Savior and the gospel as God’s power to save to the extent that he cannot practice the liberties ermitted by the faith. His opinions are bound on his conscience as a matter of faith, and they are so strong that he cannot or will not accept the freedom pro vided for in the gospel. Or else he is not mature enough in the faith to distinguish between that which is essential (fundamental) and that which is in different (Hebrews 5:12-14). receive ye, - Accept him as a brother, one bought with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19), into your fellowship. but not to doubtful disputations. - But not for disputes over opinion (RSV). Or as Vincent (WS) says, "Not for the purpose of passing judgment upon his scruples." Or not just to argue with him over his opinion. It is not wrong to have an opinion (that does not conflict with the plain teaching of the Scriptures), but it is wrong to force opinions on others as terms of fellowship, to force others to change their opinion against their conviction before fellowship can be extended, and to be bound by opinion over and above the word of God. Thus no one has the right to judge another over opinions pertaining to indifferent matters.
MEATS AND SPECIAL DAYS
Romans 14:2-3 For one believeth The strong. He is strong because he is not so bound by his opinions that he cannot enjoy the freedom allowed by the gospel. He believes and practices NT teaching on the cleanness of all meats (Romans 14:14; 1 Timothy 4:1-5) without compunction of conscience. that he may eat all things: All meats. He has no scruples about eating that which was forbid den by the law but approved by the gospel. He knows that it is not that which goes into one but rather that which comes from the heart which defiles him (Matthew 15:16-20). another, who is weak, - See note on v. 1. eateth herbs. Vegetables only. His opinion binds him to abstain from things forbidden by the law. Hence he deprives himself of gospel liberties. Let not him that eateth - The strong in faith. despise - Set at naught (ASV) or look down upon with contempt and condemnation. him that eateth not; - The eating of meat, however desirable to the meat eater, is not essential to salvation. and let not him which eateth not - The weak, who is restrained from eating by his scruples. judge - Condemn. him that eateth: - Abstention from meat is not necessary for one to be a Christian or go to heaven. This simply says that neither the eater nor the non-eater is to bind his opinion on the other. for God hath received him. - God has accepted the eater and granted unto him this freedom. Whom God approves, no one has the right to disapprove. On the other hand, the strong must be careful not to cause the weak to stumble by the exer cise of his freedom (1 Corinthians 8:9).
Romans 14:4 Who art thou that judgest That is, how dare you to presume the right to condemn him whom God approves. another man’s servant? The servant of another. This is directed to the weak who might judge (condemn) the strong who had been received by God. Just as it was not the business of one household servant to judge another’s household servant, it is not the business of the weak to condemn the strong in the performance of indifferent matters. to his own master he standeth - Is received or approved. or falleth. - Is rejected or condemned. The only judge of a household servant is his own master; the only judge of a Christian is Christ. One may stand or fall, but it will be by the judgment of Christ and not by the judgment of others. In the case of the strong here, Christ had received them (v. 3). It was therefore out of place for the weak to reject or condemn them. Yea, he shall be holden up: He shall be made to stand (ASV). for God is able - Mighty, and thus has the power. to make him stand. Stand accepted and in full fellowship with God. The weak should therefore receive the strong in full confidence and fellowship. Keep in mind that the strong are the ones who understand that they are no longer bound by the law in things pertaining to meat and special days (Romans 14:5-6) they practice all the gospel allows (1 Corinthians 2:14). The weak, on the other hand, are those who either do not have a full gospel knowledge or else their faith is too weak to permit them to practice things formerly prohibited and to leave off practices formerly bound - they had scruples about gospel liberties in indifferent matters.
Romans 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: - He considers some days or seasons as holy or sacred, such as the sabbath or other days set apart by the law. It is permissible for him to use that time in service to God. The perspective is different here than in Galatians 4:10-11. Here the special day is observed as a matter of opinion; there it is made a matter of faith a matter of law to be bound upon all. another esteemeth every day alike. - He con siders all time the same - every day is devoted to the glory of God (cf. Colossians 2:16-17). Matters of faith and matters of indifference should never be confused. What God has commanded is a matter of faith it must be done without addition, subtraction, or change (Galatians 1:6-9; Revelation 22:18-19). Matters of indifference are things permissible either way. Neither the doing nor the failure to do makes any difference in one’s relationship with God. Thus this verse has no reference whatsoever to the Lord’s day worship. While it should not be considered as a holy day, as was the OT sabbath, it was appointed by God (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2). It is therefore not optional. To disregard it would be to disregard, not an indifferent matter, but an appointment of God. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. - Be fully convinced about observing or not observing special days. One must conduct himself in keeping with his opinion that is, he must believe that what he is doing or not doing is permissible.
Romans 14:6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. Both the regarder and the non-regarder of days and the eater and non-eater of meat are persuaded (v. 5) that what they are doing is by permission of the Lord and the conduct of both is designed to glorify God and honor His cause. (The clause "and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it" is omitted by the ASV and others on substantial textual grounds.) Neither is practicing his opinion selfishly; both are honestly trying to serve and honor God. While one or the other is mistaken in his opinion (in this case, it is the weak because the gospel approves the eating of meat, 1 Timothy 4:1-5), both are doing that which, in the final analysis, is indifferent, that which is permitted either way, and neither is led into sin or disobedience to God by his actions. Rather both have as their motive to honor God in both purpose and practice. And both give thanks to God (that is, both recognize God as the giver of all things, James 1:17), one as the giver of his vegetables and the other as the giver of his meat. We can learn from this that one may not always be right in his opinion about in different matters, but he can always be honest and sincere in his desire to please God in all things (cf. Colossians 3:17).
ALL ARE THE LORD’S
Romans 14:7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. - No one of us, neither strong nor weak, lives or dies to serve self alone; rather he lives or dies in service to the Lord (v. 8). Each one belongs to the Lord and whatever he does, whether to live or to die, should be done to honor Him (2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Christians have no purpose in life or death but to please God. It is not the aim of this v. to teach man’s social responsibility. Of course we must all live in the world (and especially in the church) together and the action of each one should be designed to benefit all, the strong the weak and the weak the strong. But here the thought is that we do not live to do our own will but the will of Him who is the giver of all things (Philippians 1:21). Both life and death are to be to the glory of God.
Romans 14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. Both the strong and the weak are the Lord’s. And whatever they do in life or in death is done to His honor. See note on v. 7.
Romans 14:9 For to this end - The purpose in view, namely, that He might be Lord of both the living and the dead be Lord in all circ*mstances (vv. 7-8). All, whether living or dead, are in His hands. And since God is the God of the living, not God of the dead (Matthew 22:29-33), this means that the dead are living unto God. We can therefore trust our dead into His care and keeping and when our time comes to die, we can with great confidence surrender our spirit unto Him. Christ both died, and rose, and revived, - He died on the cross, arose from the dead, and is now living at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19; Acts 7:56; Hebrews 1; Hebrews 3). The ASV gives the shorter reading, "Christ died and lives again," which is better attested textually. The natural order for us to think of is that He lived and died, but that is not the point here. He died as a sacrifice for sins and then rose to live again - He first died and then came His resurrection. that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. That He might rule supreme in both life and death. His Lordship is over all (Acts 2:36), both the dead and the living. For this reason He is due all the honor that accrues to Him from both death and life.
CHRIST JUDGES ALL
Romans 14:10 But why dost thou - The weak (Romans 14:1) who would tend to condemn the strong for practicing his liberty in eating meat and refraining from keeping special days. judge thy brother? If Christ is Lord of all (Romans 14:9), and if one does not judge another’s servant (Romans 14:4), why then do you condemn your brother in Christ (over indifferent things)? or why dost thou - The strong who would have a tendency to despise the weak for his scruples and lack of maturity. set at nought thy brother? - Why do you look down upon him as someone less than a brother? God received (or accepted) him (Romans 14:2). So should you. for we shall all- Both weak and strong. stand before the judgment seat of Christ. - Of God (ASV). All will be judged by Christ, their divine Master in that great and final day (John 5:22; Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Corinthians 5:10). For one to judge (condemn) his brother in indifferent matters is to reject the judgment of Christ and exercise himself the prerogative which belongs only to Him.
Romans 14:11 For it is written, - (Isaiah 49:18; Isaiah 45:23). As I live, saith the Lord, - As surely as I live, says the Lord (NIV). Thus as certain as God is alive: every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. - Everyone will acknowledge His majesty by confessing Him as Lord (Matthew 10:32-33; Matthew 16:16; John 6:68-69), either now (Romans 10:9-10) or at the judgment (cf. Philippians 2:5-11).
Romans 14:12 So then everyone of us shall give account of himself to God. - In the judgment, each one will account for his own practices, not for another’s. That is, the strong will not have to account for the weak nor will the weak have to account for the strong.
Romans 14:13Let us - The weak. not therefore judge one another any more: Leave all judgment to Christ (Romans 14:10-12) by ceasing to pass judgment on those who practice gospel Hberties (in matters indifferent). but judge this rather, but let us rather decide this (BV). Let the strong make this judgment or decision: that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. - The strong are not to parade their freedoms before the weak in such a way as to cause them to sin, either by abandoning the faith or by violating their conscience. If the practice of liberties causes someone to stumble or fall (sin), then, since they are not essential matters, it is better not to practice them at all (1 Corinthians 8:9-13). It would be better to surrender one’s liberties than to cause a soul to sin and thus put his salvation in jeopardy. Here the old slogan, used widely in the early days of the Restoration Movement, can be brought into full play: in matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion (indifference), freedom; in all things, love.
INDIFFERENT THINGS ARE NOT UNCLEAN
Romans 14:14 I know, - Not by intuition, experience, or a logical process, but by faith - a faith which had come from the teachings of Christ. His knowledge was therefore as certain as his faith. and am persuaded - He could have had this conviction by three sources: (1) The teaching of Christ (Matthew 15:10-20; Mark 7:14-23); (2) Peter had been shown it by a miracle (Acts 10:9-16); and (3) the law, which contained the restrictions, had been abolished (Matthew 5:17-18; Ephesians 2:13-16; Colossians 2:14-16). by the Lord Jesus, - In the Lord Jesus (ASV), that is, in relationship with Him. that there is nothing - In context, no meat; hence there is no food that is unclean in and of itself (1 Timothy 4:4; cf., Titus 1:5). unclean of itself: - Unclean per se (Acts 10:9-16; Acts 11:4-10). He thus shows that the laws pertaining to clean and unclean animals (Leviticus 10:10; Leviticus 11:47) were no longer in effect. While the context here is limited to the eating of meat, there is a broader sense in which all things are pure, namely, when used for the purpose for which God made them (or in keeping with His legislation for them). Nothing is impure when it is properly used - that is, used for its divine pur pose. but he that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, - He regards it as being impure, something that cannot be used to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31). To him it is unclean. - Not unclean per se but unclean in the eyes of him who so regards it. If he eats, he violates his conscience, does that which he believes is wrong, and thus condemns himself (1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 1 Corinthians 10:25-33). We should all be open to learn truth and be willing to practice right but no one should be induced to do what he believes is wrong. One may be in error, but to be true to himself and to God, he must practice what he believes is right.
Romans 14:15 But - For (ASV). if thy brother The weak in faith (v. 1). be he is injured by your eating because he sees you doing that which he thinks is wrong. now walkest thou not charitably. Your behavior is not regulated by love. Destroy not him with thy meat, Do not, by the practice of your freedom, bring such a grief to him as to cause a destruction of brotherly relations - do not so injure his conscience as to force him into a breach of fellowship. This would cause him to sin and ultimately be lost. It would also be a sin against him. And to so sin against a weak brother is to sin against Christ (1 Corinthians 8:12; Matthew 25:41-45). The fellowship of a brother is worth far more than a stomach full of meat (1 Corinthians 8:13). for whom Christ died. - Christ died to save him. Would you then nullify the death of Christ and destroy a brother over non-essential matters?
ALL SHOULD SEEK PEACE
Romans 14:16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of: - The strong are not to practice liberties in such a way or under such circ*mstances as to cause the weak (or anyone else for that matter) to conclude that they are indulging in sinful practices. In this case (the eating of meat) the action is not wrong (in fact, Paul here calls it good), but if others believe it to be wrong then they could speak of it as an evil. It would thus destroy the influence of the strong and be an occasion of reproach and blasphemy both to them and to the cause of truth (1 Corinthians 8:13).
Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God The reign or rule of God in their lives through the gospel. The kingdom and church are synonymous (not synonymous words but synonymous in the sense of both words applying to the same institution, Matthew 16:18-19). All Christians are citizens of the kingdom, members of the church, and are thus under the rule of God. is not meat and drink; Food is not the essence of the kingdom. Rather it is spiritual in nature (In. 18:36). What one eats or does not eat, except in circ*mstances where the eating is wrong (e.g., 1 Corinthians 10:28), does not effect his stand with or his relationship to God (1 Corinthians 8:8). Whether one eats or not is an indifferent matter. But not so with righteousness, peace, and joy. but righteousness, - Righteousness is primarily justification or right standing with God, but here the practical side is meant, namely, doing right, especially to the weak brother (Titus 2:11-12; 1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:7), or discharging all duties toward one’s fellowman. One should do right to others because he is right with God. and peace, - Peacefulness. Not subjective peace as in Philippians 4:7, but the end of strife among brethren; the strong and the weak living together in harmony. and joy - The delightful fruit of doing right and living in peace (1 Peter 1:8). in the Holy Ghost. - Produced by the HS through the gospel. The function of the Spirit is to reveal the truth (John 16:13), confirm the truth revealed (Hebrews 2:1-4), and deliver (to the world in written form) the truth confirmed. When the truth is known, believed, and obeyed the results are righteousness, peace, and joy.
Romans 14:18 For he that in these things serveth Christ - For he that herein serveth Christ (ASV), that is, in righteousness, peace, and joy (v. 17). is acceptable to God- Is pleasing to God (NIV) whether he eats meat or refrains from it. and approved of men. - Respected among all men who ap prove right attitudes and conduct. While this may be limited by context to all men in the church, is there anyone in the whole wicked world who would not approve of righteousness (justice), peace (peacefulness), and joy?
Romans 14:19Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Because in righteousness, peace, and joy they were accepted by God and approved by men (v. 18), they are now to pursue two other goals: (1) the things which make for peace. They were thus to avoid strife (which results from doubtful disputation over indifferent things) and do things which lead to peace and harmony (Ephesians 4:3). (2) The things which would edify one another. To edify is to build up or im prove, morally or spiritually (Romans 15:2; 1 Corinthians 10:23; 1 Corinthians 14:26; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; 2 Corinthians 12:19). They were to be constructive, not destructive, in their attitudes and practices and thus work toward mutual upbuilding. By following these two divine principles they would be focusing on the vital nature of the kingdom (righteousness, peace, and joy, Romans 14:17) rather than on non-essential, unimportant, and indifferent matters.
Romans 14:20 For meat - For your right to eat meat. destroy not - A different word than in v. 15. Here it means "loosen down" or overthrow. Hence, do not, for the sake of meat, tear down, the opposite of edify (Romans 14:19). the work of God. - That which God has built up. Ultimately the salvation provided by God, purchased by Christ, revealed by the HS in the Bible, and received in obedience to the gospel. All things indeed are pure; All food is morally clean. See Romans 14:14 with the note. but it is evil for the man who eateth with offence. Evil to the strong when he eats it in a way to cause the weak to stumble or fall (Romans 14:13). But it is also evil to the weak when he eats in violation of his conscience. Thus an indifferent matter, a thing neither right nor wrong in and of itself, ceases to so be when expressed in practice. There are indifferent things but there are no indifferent acts. The eating of meat per se is neither right nor wrong (1 Corinthians 8:8), but the person who eats it must be doing one or the other when he eats it. It is right if he eats it with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:1-5) and if it does not present a stumbling-block to a weak brother (Romans 13), but it is wrong if by eating it he causes a weak brother to fall or if idols are recognized or worshipped in the process (1 Corinthians 10:27-28). Thus the act is right if one has the right to eat it (under the circ*mstances) and it is wrong if he does not have the right to eat it (because of the situation). While the eating itself may be indifferent, one is either doing right or wrong when he eats. Every act is therefore right or wrong as far as the individual doing it is concerned. It is right if one has ’the right to do it at that time and in that situation or it is wrong if he has no right to do it. I conclude then that there are indifferent things but there are no indifferent acts.
Romans 14:21 It is good - The right thing to do under the circ*mstance. neither to eat flesh, Meat. One has a divine right to eat meat (1 Timothy 4:1-5) except when it is eaten as a sacrifice to idols (1 Corinthians 10:28), violates conscience, or causes offence to a weak brother (Romans 14:20). Under any of these conditions the practice of an indifferent thing becomes wrong. That when an indifferent thing is used illegitimately (as in eating meat in honor of idols) it ceases to be in different and becomes sinful. Just because a thing is indifferent Per se does not mean that the doing of it is indifferent. As is pointed out under Romans 14:20, every act is either right or wrong. Under all circ*mstances when one eats meat, he either has a right to do so or else he has no right to do so. Every act is therefore either right or wrong. nor to drink wine, - Wine in the Bible may be anything from the juice in the grape (unfermented) to intoxicating (fermented) drink (Judges 9:13; Isaiah 16:10; Isaiah 65:8; Numbers 18:12; Jer. 10; Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 21:17; Proverbs 23:29-32; Isaiah 28:7). The word itself does not tell us whether it is fermented or unfermented. This must be determined, if determined at all, by the context. Here it could mean either one or both because there is a proper as well as an improper use of both. The unfermented juice of the grape is properly used for food and improperly used when drunk to gluttony; fermented wine is properly used for medical purposes (1 Timothy 5:23; Luke 10:30-37); its improper use is for in toxication (Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 23:29-32). Thus wine in any form may be properly or improperly used. But just as it is with the eating of meat, Paul approves its legitimate, not its illegitimate use. What he is saying here is that if there is danger that the proper use of wine should lead a weak brother to its improper use, then it would be good (right) not to use the unfermented juice for food, lest it cause the weak to become a glutton, or to use the fermented for medicine, lest it cause someone to drink for the purpose of intoxication. Paul is discussing matters of indifference, but the use of alcoholic beverages (especially the modern distilled kind) for the purpose of intoxication is not now, never has been, and never will be a matter of indifference. It is sinful (Romans 13:12-13; Galatians 5:19-21). While wine itself is neither good nor evil, when one drinks it, the act must of necessity become either right or wrong: right if properly used (for food or medicine), wrong if improperly used (for the purpose of intoxication). With wine, as well as with everything else, there are no indifferent acts. Paul’s concern here is that one will not so use his liberty to properly use a thing that it will cause a brother to use it improperly. Thus if there is a danger that the right use of wine (no one has a right to use it otherwise), that is, Biblical wine, not modern distilled beverages, will lead someone to its wrong use (gluttony or in toxication) the Christian should surrender his liberty and abstain. This is the ex tent of Paul’s teaching. To use this passage to justify drinking in moderation (social drinking) is to totally misuse it and woefully abuse it. The sober old book of God has never approved the use of wine for drunkenness ... to any degree. nor any thing - Anything in the same category as meat and drink. Anything indifferent that ceases to be indifferent under the circ*mstance. whereby thy brother stumbleth, - Caused to falL or is offended, - Caused to sin. or is made weak. - Caused to disregard his faith or act contrary to conscience. The last two expressions are omitted by the ASV because of considerable tex tual doubt. I have given the probable sense for those who wish to retain them as a part of the text.
ALL THINGS MUST BE DONE IN FAITH
Romans 14:22 Hast thou faith? Not saving faith, the faith that comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17), but whatever one believes about the matter of eating or not eating meat (Romans 14:2). have it to thyself before God. Let it be a matter between you and God not between you and your brother - not something that leads the weak to condemn the strong for eating or the strong to look down upon the weak for not eating. No one should try to force his opinion upon another. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. - Blessed is the man who does not sin or bring condemnation upon himself by doing what he believes he has the right to do. There are several ways this might be done: (1) By insisting on his right to practice all the liberties the Lord allows, even when his practices lead a weak brother to sin. This is wrong and he thus condemns himself by a practice he allows a practice which is right under the proper circ*mstances. (2) By resenting the fact that he allows the weak to restrain his freedom. The resentment may be so strong that it will condemn him. (3) By practicing his liberties when he knows it will give offence to the weak. He causes his brother to sin and thereby con demns himself in what he allows. On the other hand, the weak need not condemn himself for allowing the strong the liberty to eat. A man is blessed indeed if he does not bring condemnation upon himself (or others) in the things he allows.
Romans 14:23 And he that doubteth - One who does not believe in the correct ness of his conduct. is damned - Is condemned (ASV). if he eat, This is addressed to the weak. If he tries to follow the strong by allowing himself to eat contrary to his convictions, he condemns himself. He eats when he believes it is wrong to eat - he allows himseslf to do that which he condemns. because he eateth not of faith: - He eats contrary to his belief. His belief (opinion) may be wrong (and in this case it is), and the eating per se will not effect his standing with God, but he violates his own sense of right and wrong and thus places himself in the opposite state of the happy man in Romans 14:22. for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. - Every act that does not spring from faith is sin (By). In context, faith is one’s convictions or persuasion on the eating of meat (or the doing of any other indifferent matter). If one eats contrary to what he believes, he sins - he violates his own conscience and thereby condemns himself as a sinner (1 John 3:20). No one is ever justified in doing what he believes is wrong. To live in peace with God and himself, one must always do what he believes is right and lawfuL To be perfectly frank, we have often used this verse erroneously to show that unauthorized things, such as sprinkling for baptism and instrumental music in Christian worship, are sinful because they are not of faith - not taught in the word of God. Our arguments are sound, if based upon the right Scriptures, but this v. does not prove them. Faith here is used in the sense of belief in or the acceptance of indifferent matters and is based upon one’s own reason rather than upon the word of God (Romans 10:17). If God’s word either taught or prohibited the matters, they could not be indifferent. Indifferent things are things which make no difference as far as the word of God is concerned. Anything that violates the word of God (and sprinkling for baptism and instrumental music in Christian worship do) cannot be an indifferent thing. Paul is simply saying that if you do not believe an indifferent thing is right, and you still do it, contrary to your own persuasion, you sin.
THE STRONG IN FAITH
Harold Winters
Romans 15:1 We then - Connects what follows to chapter 14_ that are strong Those who can without scruples enjoy the liberties provided for in the gospel. Their faith is strong enough to permit them to currently eat things which were formerly prohibited by the law(cf- Romans 14:1). ought Imposes a moral obligation. to bear the infirmities of the weak, To bear the failings of the weak (RSV). The infirmities are the baseless and unnecessary (hence failings) scruples of the weak. To bear these infirmities seems to mean more than to merely bear with or to tolerate. It probably means to help in the sense of shouldering the burden along with them_ The BV renders, ’To put on ourselves the weakness of those who lack strength." We should thus use our strength to help the weak bear (overcome) their weakness (ct. Galatians 6:2). and not to please ourselves. Not to live for the purpose of pleasing self alone; not to eat, or to drink, or to disregard special days without respect for what it might do to the weak brother’s conscience (Romans 15:2). This is not to please others in the sense of winning their partisan loyalty, as did Absolom (2 Samuel 15:2-7), but in the sense of Paul, who became all things to all men that he might win some (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
Romans 15:2 Let everyone of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. - Please the weak (Romans 15:1) to make him strong, to build up his faith, and to benefit him spiritually (1 Corinthians 10:33).
Romans 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself; - He did not come to live for His own pleasure or to die for Himself alone; He lived and died for the benefit of all mankind (Matthew 20:28). And since Christ is our example in all things (1 Peter 2:21-25), this should settle the matter as to whom we should live to please (Romans 15:2; Philippians 2:4-11). but, as it is written, Psalms 69:9. The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. - The abuses of those who abused you fell on me (BV). Paul puts this quotation into the mouth of Christ and the abuses which he bore are those heaped upon God. How was it then that Jesus pleased not Himself? By bearing the reproaches (the insults, calumnies, etc.) that sinful man brought against the God of heaven. The redemptive sacrifice of Christ (His living and dying for the benefit of man by bearing in His own body the reproaches against God) to show us how to live, not for ourselves, but for the benefit of our weak brothers.
THINGS WRITTEN BEFORE
Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things - For everything (NIV). He had just cited Psalms 69:9 as an example. And what was true of it was true of all Scripture. were written aforetime were written for our learning, - For our instructions (2 Timothy 3:14-17). Everything in the OT is there, not just for the people who lived under it, but to teach us about God and how He deals with man - how He blesses those who obey Him and pours out His wrath on those who do not. The OT Scriptures teach us by example, principle, promise, prophecy. type, etc. (ct. 1 Corinthians 10:6; 1 Corinthians 10:11). that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures - So that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures (NIV). The patience and comfort is derived from the teaching of the Scriptures. Everything in the Scriptures is designed to keep our aspirations aflame (Romans 5:4-5; Romans 8:24-25). If one’s spirit begins to flag, if his faith begins to waver, if his heart feels faint in the battle for truth and right, if his hope dims, the Scriptures have the solution. They are more than just a theory to be believed; they are God’s instructions for proper or practical living. This is true of every Scripture inspired of God.
GLORIFY GOD TOGETHER
Romans 15:5 Now the God of patience and consolation - The God of heaven, who Himself is full of patience and consolation, gives both to us through the gospel. grant you to be likeminded one toward another Grant you to be of the same mind one with another (ASV); give you a spirit of unity (NIV), harmony (RSV), or the same disposition as you live and work together. according to Christ Jesus: In conformity to the will of Christ (Philippians 2:2-5). In short, may God, the great giver of patience and consolation, grant to you to be of one mind as you follow Christ.
Romans 15:6 That ye may with one mind - With one accord. and one mouth - With one voice. That you, both strong and weak, be perfectly united in your praise and honor of God. glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. - Both the inward feeling and the outward expression are to be unanimous in praising God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (d. Ephesians 1:17), by whom we are redeemed and have the hope of eternal glory. God thus prohibits division over indifferent matters.
Romans 15:7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. John 14:1, the exhortation is for the strong to accept the weak, but here the weak and the strong (Romans 15:8-12, shows that they are respectively Jews and Gentiles) are to mutually accept one another (with all their strength and weaknesses) as brothers, children of God (Galatians 3:26-27), members of the same body (1 Corinthians 12:13), heirs of heaven (Romans 8:17), just as Christ had accepted both of them, with all their strength and weaknesses, to God’s glory. We should keep in mind that we are all weak when we consider our ab solute inability to offer anything of merit toward our redemption. It is therefore ill-advised for weak ones such as we all are to reject a brother because of his weaknesses. Thus just as Christ accepted us to the praise of God, we ought to accept one another also to His praise and honor. No higher incentive could be given for saints to be of one accord (Romans 15:6).
Romans 15:8 Now I say - This is what I mean. that Jesus Christ was a minister - That Christ hath been made a minister (ASV). of the circumcision - Christ is our example (1 Peter 2:21) and He became a servant to the circumcised (Jews, or the weak) during His public ministry (Galatians 4:4-6). That is, He came to them by (or to confirm) God’s promises (made in the OT) that they and the Gentiles might receive the full fruition of the promises made to the forefathers. But the Jews had rejected Him outright as their Lord and Savior (e.g., Deuteronomy 18:18-19; In. 1:11-12) because the promise was to the whole world, not to Jews only. Thus Christ came to them but they rejected him. You should follow Christ, not His rejecters. for the truth of God, For the sake of the truth spoken afore by God, or as Goodspeed has it, "To show God’s truthfulness in carrying out the promises made to the forefathers." to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: - The basic promise, the one upon which all the others hinge, was that all nations would be blessed through Him. This promise was first made to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 22:18), renewed to Isaac (Genesis 26:4), and then to Jacob (Genesis 28:14). Christ came to establish this promise and thus to confirm the truthfulness of God in making it.
Romans 15:9-12 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; This further explains why Christ came as a minister to the seed of Abraham (v. 8). The salvation of the Gentiles was an integral part of the promises made to the fathers and fulfilled in Christ (Galatians 3:16). as it is written, In the OT Scriptures. To prevent the Jews from rejecting his conclusion, Paul now quotes from the OT (which the Jews believed intensely) to prove that it was God’s plan all along to make the Gentiles equal heirs with the Jews. For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. – From 2 Samuel 22:50; Psalms 18:49. The writer spoke in the first person but he stood for all the Jews: they would confess and sing among the Gentiles. And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. - From Deuteronomy 32:43. And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. From Psalms 117:1. The Gentiles are to rejoice and praise the Lord along with the Jews. And again, Esaias - Isaiah (ASV). saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. - From Isaiah 11:10. The root of Jesus (Christ) will rule over the Gentiles who trust in Him as well as over the Jews. All these quotations (interestingly enough taken from every part of the OT, the law, the prophets, and the Psalms), have one end in view, namely, to show that God had promised and planned all along for the Gentiles to be heirs of salvation alongside of and upon equal terms with the Jews. Since God had promised and planned it, and since Christ had come to confirm it, and since the Scriptures teach it, who can deny it? It should be utterly unthinkable then for the Jews to reject the Gentiles or for the Gentiles to look down upon the Jews over indifferent matters. They should receive each other into union, fellowship, and brotherhood, regardless of the attitude toward non-essential things. This is something Christians need to learn in every generation. If God promises it (anything), if Christ confirms it, and if the Scriptures teach it, no one has the right to reject it ... or him who believes and practices it. There must now be no distinction between Jew and Gentile. They are both united in one body (Ephesians 2:15-16) to the glory of God. We must therefore accept one another, oddities and all.
Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope - God (who is called the God of patience and consolation in Romans 15:5 and the God of peace in Romans 15:33) is the author, source, or fountain of all true hope - the hope of the Gentiles as well as the Jews (Romans 15:12; Romans 8:24-25; Ephesians 2:12; Hebrews 6:19). fill - Fill to overflow or to complete satisfaction. you with all joy and peace in believing, - Joy (1 Peter 1:8) and peace (Philippians 4:7) are among the fruits of faith (Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Peter 1:5-11), produced by the strong and weak living together in harmony. that ye may abound in hope, - So that you may enjoy overflowing hope (By). through the power of the Holy Ghost. - By means of the HS working through the gospel (Ephesians 1:13-14).
MISSION TO THE GENTILES
Romans 15:14 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, - He himself, in brotherly love, was convinced: that ye also are full of goodness, - Rich in goodness, wholesomeness, and kindness. He was convinced that they possessed the right disposition toward others. This commendation comes after he had instructed them to receive others, regardless of their opinion on indifferent matters (Romans 14:1 to Romans 15:13), Their differences did not keep them from being basically good. filled with all knowledge, Not intended to be taken literally as all knowledge (no man has ever possessed that), but all knowledge necessary to their faith and practice. They had added an ample sup ple of knowledge (2 Peter 1:5-7). able also to admonish one another. - Well qualified to instruct one another (Goodspeed). They had matured to the point where they were able to teach one another on essential things as well as to put one another in mind of the proper actions pertaining to indifferent matters. Unlike the Hebrews (Hebrews 5:12-14), they had grown in the faith and could therefore mutually admonish one another.
Romans 15:15-16 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you - I have written to you quite boldly (NIV). Because of their goodness, his concern for them, and his position as an apostle ("the grace that was given to me of God") he, though he did not know them personally, had written to them very boldly on some sensitive matters. in some sort, - In some measure (ASV), on some points (NIV), or perhaps better, in some places. Vincent (WS) thinks he refers to such passages as 6:12,19; 8:9; 11:17; 14:3-4, 10, 13, 15,20, etc. as putting you in mind, By way of reminder (RSV). That is, he was calling it to their memory. They already possessed the knowledge (v. 14) but needed to have it called to their mind. because of the grace that is given to me of God, That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, Although a stranger to them personally, he had written the more boldly unto them because God’s grace had called him into the apostleship of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1; Romans 12:3; Romans 1 Cor. 3:10; ministering the gospel of God, Preaching the gospel to the Gentiles (Romans 1:16; Acts 13:46-49). that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, - So that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God (NIV). That is, by his preaching the Gentiles were converted, and by their con version they became an acceptable offering to God. He thus saw his apostolic function as a sacred duty (ministering in the fashion of a priest) which resulted in the Gentiles being offered as an acceptable sacrifice (Isaiah 66:20). Being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. The Gentiles were an acceptable offering because they had been sanctified (saved or made holy) by the HS working through the truth Paul had preached to them (John 17:17; Hebrews 10:29; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 5:26).
Romans 15:17 I have therefore Connects this verse to Romans 15:15-16. whereof I may glory - He was able (had abundant reason) to boast because by God’s grace he had been made an apostle to the Gentiles, and because of his apostleship (the function of which was preaching) the Gentiles had been, through their conversion, made an acceptable offering to God (Romans 15:15-16). through Jesus Christ The cause of boasting was not in himself Romans 15:18-19), nor in the law or Judaism, but in Christ (Philippians 3:3). in those things which pertain to God. - The things which he had done (as an apostle) to the glory, honor, and praise of God.
Romans 15:18 For I wiIl not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, He was bold to put them in mind of the fact that God’s grace, through His apostolic function, had made it possible for him to present the Gentiles as an acceptable offering (Romans 15:15-16), but now he says he will not venture to speak of the labors of others (perhaps the vast number of disciples which he had made) or the doing of a single thing that Christ had not done through him personally. Thus, as in Romans 15:17, he would boast only in what Christ had worked through him. to make the Gentiles obe dient, To bring the Gentiles to the obedience of the faith (Romans 1:5; Romans 16:26). by word and deed, - The word preached by him (Galatians 1:6-11) and the signs by which it was confirmed (Romans 15:19).
Romans 15:19 Through mighty signs and wonders, The miracles by which the word of God was confirmed (Mark 16:17-20; Hebrews 2:1-4). by the power of the Spirit of God; - The miracles were worked, the word confirmed, by or through the power of the Spirit. The Spirit thus bore witness to the gospel Paul preached. The miracles worked proved that it was of God, not of man. so that from Jerusalem, - The starting point or the place from which the gospel was to spread (Isaiah 2:2-4; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:1-47). and round about The regions around Jerusalem or perhaps the regions from Jerusalem to Illyricum. (For the extent of Paul’s travels, see Acts 13-28.) unto Illyricum, A province northwest of Macedonia. There is no record of Paul having gone there to preach, but a look at a map showing his first and second missionary journeys will indicate the possibility. He was in Macedonia and Illyricum borders on it, and he may have gone there in the journey mentioned in Acts 20:1-3. If he had not actually gone into the country he at least had reached its borders. However, the expression from Jerusalem to Illyricum is designed to emphasize the wide area covered by his preaching tours.
Romans 15:20 Yea,And so because of what was said in Romans 15:19. so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named,- Not where Christ was already named (ASV). It was his aim and ambition (the thing he most desired) to preach in places where the gospel had not before been preached, to lay the foundation himself, or in his own words, to plant and let others water (1 Corinthians 3:6). He had covered the regions from Jerusalem to Illyricum (Romans 15:19). Now he was ready to go to Rome and Spain (Romans 15:23-24), regions beyond the outer limits to which he had gone before. This does not mean that he never preached to established churches or that he neglected to edify them through his writing. Rather his main thrust was to preach in barren regions and establish congregations where none had existed before. Thus for the most part his work consisted in planting churches; he left the watering to other hands. While there is a divine place for watering, Paul was a planter, an indispensable function in carrying out the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16). When there are no planters, there soon comes the time when there will be no need for further watering. Planters are the vanguard of the church. Without them, the growth of the church will stop dead in its tracts. Thus if the church is to survive, if it is to carry out its mission in the world, someone must be pioneers in spreading the gospel. There is no substitute for this. But in the church today we are training men to water, not to plant. When student preachers graduate, whether from college or a school of preaching, the first thing they do is to start a search for an established congregation, paying an adequate salary and all the fringe benefits, where they can settle down in relative ease in a program of work already underway. Rare indeed is the preacher who looks at a map of the world and decides to go where the gospel of Christ has not been preached before. Perhaps we need to change our emphasis and urge more to return to the attitude of Paul, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation: - Lest he should build upon the groundwork laid by another (2 Corinthians 10:13-16).
Romans 15:21 But as it is written, - Isaiah 52:15. To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand. This messianic prophecy reveals the reason for his desire to preach where Christ had not been named (Romans 15:20), namely, so that the Gentiles, who had not previously been addressed, could hear and understand the truth of the gospel. Here again Paul sustains his practice by the Scriptures.
READY TO GO TO ROME
Romans 15:22 For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. The fact that his preaching had been so extensive (from Jerusalem to Illyricum), so demanding, so time consuming, he had not yet been able to go to Rome. But the tide had now turned. He had discharged his duty to these parts and was consequently ready to go to Rome, stopping there on his way to Spain (Romans 15:23-24).
Romans 15:23-24 But now having no more place in these parts, - No fur ther opportunities to preach where Christ had not been named (Romans 15:20) in the regions of Jerusalem to lllyricum. and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; - He had had a deep longing for many years to come to Rome (Romans 1:8-13). Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, He had plans to go westward to Spain, the western limits of the Roman empire. Whether Paul ever carried out his plans or not is uncertain. The book of Acts ends with him as a prisoner in Rome. However, tradition has it that he was released from prison, preached in Spain and other places, arrested again, and taken to Rome, where he was executed. I will come to you: The evidence indicates that these words have been added to the text to complete the broken sentence. The ASV puts the remainder of the v. in parenthesis. for I trust to see you in my journey, - He planned to pass through Rome, and spend some time there, on his way to Spain. and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, - Although he longed to go to Rome, it was not his primary goal. His wish was to make it a base for further missionary operations. He thus expected them to assist or escort him (by commendation, information, guides, supplies, and money) on his journey to Spain. if first I be somewhat filled with your company. Before he went on to Spain he wanted to enjoy for ~ while the richness of their fellowship.
BUT FIRST HE MUST GO TO JERUSALEM
Romans 15:25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. Before he started his journey to Spain, he had one more mission to perform: he was going to Jerusalem to deliver a contribution from the Christians of Macedonia and Achaia (Romans 15:26; Acts 19:21). He had been urging this contribution on the Gentiles for a considerable time (1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8-9). Now that it had been collected, he was going to be on his way to Jerusalem to deliver it. As is known from Acts, he took the collection (Acts 24:17) but while he was at Jerusalem he was arrested and was never free again as far as the inspired record goes.
Romans 15:26 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia - For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia (ASV). The Gentile Christians were delighted to be able to share benevolently with the poor saints among the Jews at Jerusalem. to make a certain contribution - To make some contribution (ASV). It was the joy of the Gentile Christians to have fellowship (for so the word for contribution here is often translated) with the Jewish Christians in their poverty. for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. - Jewish Christians who were in need, probably because of persecution against their faith.
Romans 15:27 It has pleased them verily; - It gave the Gentiles great pleasure to make this contribution to the poor saints at Jerusalem. and their debtors they are. - The Gentiles were debtors to the Jews for their part in the development and proclamation of the gospel of Christ. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, - Partakers of the blessings promised through Abraham and his seed the blessings of the gospel. their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. Since the Jews had shared with the Gentiles the blessings of the gospel, it was only natural that the Gentiles owed it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings (the things which belong to the fleshly life). This would balance out their obligation one to the other (2 Corinthians 8:12-14).
Romans 15:28 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain. - His plan was to accomplish this mission by delivering the contribution to Jerusalem and then be on his way to Spain, with a stopover in Rome.
Romans 15:29 And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. - He knew that his coming to Rome would be in the fullness (a full measure) of the blessing of Christ. He had nothing to offer them but Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2) and the blessings which obedience to the gospel would impart. As Luke informs us (Acts 27, 28), Paul went to Rome, not as he had planned, but rather as a prisoner. However the fact that he was in chains did not prevent him from preaching the gospel (Acts 28:30-31). His mission was accomplished, even though differently than he had expected.
Romans 15:30 Now I beseech you, brethren, -But I plead with you, brothers (BV). for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, By our Lord Jesus Christ (ASV). By all that Christ is, by all that He means to you and this world, and by His cause which I am coming to promote. and for the love of the Spirit, And by the love of the Spirit (ASV). The love shed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit (Romans 5:5). that ye strive together with me That you exert all your strength with me so our prayers will prevail. Williams translates it, "To wrestle with me in prayer." in your prayers to God for me; - He was confident that through their intense and united effort, God would grant their request (Matthew 18:19).
Romans 15:31-32 Paul here asked the Roman Christians to make four requests for him in their earnest prayers (Romans 15:30): (1) That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; That he might not fall into the hands of the unbelieving or disobedient Jews. They hated him, and would seek to destroy him, for many reasons, perhaps the three most powerful being: first, he had been converted to Christianity while in a high station in the Jews’ religion (Acts 9) and had thus been teaching that their beloved law was not the means by which righteousness was either attained or maintained (3:21). Second, he had been successful in converting many of his own countrymen to the Christian faith (e.g., Acts 16:12-15). Third, he had gone to the Gentiles and preached to them that they were equally acceptable with the Jews upon their obedience to the gospel (9 and 11). This and much more made him in the eyes of the unbelieving Jews a man unfit to live. (2) and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints; - That the collection taken from Gentile Christians in Macedonia and Achaia (Romans 15:25-26) might be received by the Jewish saints and thereby serve the purpose of reducing prejudice between them. The contribution was the extending of the right hand of fellowship by the Gentiles; the accepting of the gift would be the reception of that hand by the Jews. (3) That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, - That he would have a safe and joyful trip to them. (4) and may with you be refreshed. - And together with you find rest (ASV). That he might find relief with them (ct. Matthew 11:28) upon his arrival.
Romans 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all. - The God who gives peace through His Son, Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:16). Paul thus closes his request for prayer with a prayer for them. Amen. - May it be so. This was not in tended, as some believe, to end the epistle, but rather to emphasize his petition that the God of peace be with them.
PHEBE RECOMMENDED
Harold Winters
Romans 16:1-2 I commend unto you Phebe our sister, - Although mentioned only here in the NT, she immediately gains our respect and admiration. Paul commends her as a sister (a Christian), a servant of the church, and as a helper of many (himself included). She is thought to be the one who carried this epistle to Rome. which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: One who was in service of the church. Many see Phebe as a deaconess (a technical use of the word or an officer in the church) because the word is translated elsewhere as deacon (e.g., 1 Timothy 3:8; Philippians 1:1). But this is highly unlikely for the following reasons: (1) the NT nowhere (unless it is here) mentions an office or function of a deaconess. (2) The word itself means to minister or serve. It describes one who serves, such as the work of Christ (Romans 15:8), the work of ministers (1 Corinthians 3:5), or the minister himself (Colossians 1:23). (3) Deacons in the early church did not hold an office in the strict sense of the term. They were simply appointed servants of the church to render a special service or to be on call at all times to serve the church when needs arose (cf. 1 Timothy 3:8 ff). (4) Anyone who is sent by the church, or is entrusted with an assignment of the church is its servant. Thus in my judgment Phebe was not an "official" deaconess but one who served the church in whatever capacity she was most fitted for (and that seems to have been, at least in part, helping others or hospitality). She was therefore a servant of the church in the same sense that every active faithful Christian should be. That ye receive her in the Lord, Receive her as a child of God, which she has proven herself to be. as becometh saints, - Extend to her the worthy welcome which should characterize Christians, or as the NIV has it, "In a way worthy of saints." and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: Help her in any matter wherein she needs help. They were to thus serve (assist) her as she had served (assisted) others. for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also. - She had been a benefactor to (ministered to or helped) many, including Paul.
GREET ONE ANOTHER
Romans 16:3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: - A Christian couple from Rome (Acts 18:2) who became fast friends, staunch supporters, and beloved helpers of Paul. On Paul’s first visit to Corinth they were all drawn together because they were of the same trade, tentmakers (Acts 18:1-3). After a year and a half (or more) in Corinth Paul sailed to Ephesus with them, where he left them while he went on to Jerusalem (Acts 18:18-19). While at Ephesus they were able to teach Apollos the way of the Lord more perfectly (Acts 18:24-28). They continued as companions of Paul for the remainder of his life (1 Corinthians 16:19; 2 Timothy 4:19). Business had probably taken them back to Rome at this time.
Romans 16:4 Who have for my life laid down their own necks: - Who risked their necks to save my life (BV). Just when this was done, or the occasion that threatened Paul’s life and caused them to risk their own lives for his, we are not informed. It may have been during the uproar recorded in Acts 19:23-41 or the severe difficulties (if different from the uproar) mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10. unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. - Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them (NIV).
Romans 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. The church which met in their house. The early Christians had no church buildings and so they met anywhere they could: in homes, halls, or caves. There were probably many such small groups meeting over the city of Rome (Romans 16:14-15), as there were elsewhere (1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2; and probably Acts 12:12). Salute - Or greet. The same word is used throughout this chapter. my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. - While nothing more is known of Epaenetus, the two things that are here recorded are quite revealing: he had endeared himself to Paul, and he was among the first (if not the very first) converts in Achaia (1 Corinthians 16:15). However, textually Achaia is on a very shaky foundation. The true reading is probably that found in the ASV and most modern translations, namely, Asia.
Romans 16:6 Greet Mary, Nothing more is known of her, but the name is very common in the NT (e.g., Matthew 1:16; Matthew 27:61; Luke 8:2; Luke 10:42; Acts 12:12). There is some question as to whether the name indicates a Jewish or Roman Christian, but probably the former. who bestowed much labour on us. Who bestowed much labor on you (ASV). Whether she had laboured for Paul, or labored with him on their behalf, or whether she had labored for the church in Rome I cannot certainly ascertain, but more likely the latter. At any rate, her faithful work had earned her special recognition.
Romans 16:7 Salute Andronicus and Junia. my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. While nothing else is known of Andronicus and Junia (Junias), four revealing statements are made about them: (1) They were Paul’s kinsmen (countrymen); (2) They were (or had been) in prison with him; (3) They were of note among the apostles (that is, they had distinguished themselves in the eyes of the apostles); and (4) They had obeyed the gospel before Paul. Three statements in the verse are susceptible of different meanings: Should Junia be translated feminine (as in the KJV) or masculine (as in the ASV)? The weight of the evidence is in favor of the ASV. Were they Paul’s relatives or his fellow countrymen? In Romans 9:3 he speaks of his kinsmen according to the flesh (the Jews). It seems to me that this is the most likely meaning here, especially since several others are mentioned (Romans 16:11; Romans 16:21) and since Acts does not indicate that any of his relatives had obeyed the gospel before him. Were they outstanding as apostles or were they well known and highly respected by the apostles. While the former would not be out of harmony with the use of the word in the NT - the twelve and Paul were apostles of Christ and others were apostles or messengers of the church (Hebrews 3:1; Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14; Philippians 2:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:6; 2 Corinthians 8:23). The latter is, in my judgment, the true sense.
Romans 16:8 Greet Amplias - Ampliatus (ASV). This was a common name among slaves in Rome. It may indicate that Ampliatus was a famous slave (or former slave) or that his work was such as to deeply impress slaves. my be loved in the Lord. - What association Paul may have had with him is unknown, but he had come to love him very much. They were, obviously, the best of friends because of their relationship with Christ (d. Jonathan and David, 1 Samuel 20, especially 1 Samuel 20:41-42).
Romans 16:9 Salute Urbane, - Salute Urbanus (ASV). our helper in Christ, - "Our" helper may be in contrast to "my" helpers in the case of Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16:3). If so, this could indicate that he was at one time an assistant of Paul’s but was then in Rome assisting the church there. But more probably, it means that he is in Rome serving in the same cause as Paul. and Stachys my beloved. Another affectionate friend who was close to Paul’s heart.
Romans 16:10 Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Nothing more is known of this approved Christian. But this tells us that he was true, faithful, and dependable. This indicates that he had come through some very trying circ*mstances but his faith had not wavered (2 Timothy 2:15). Salute them which are of Aristobulus’ household. - Was Aristobulus not a Christian? Was he dead? Was he absent from home? We do not know. But those of his household (which may refer to his family or his slaves or both) had distinguished themselves as Christians.
Romans 16:11 Salute Herodion my kinsman. Remember me to my fellow countryman, Herodion (Goodspeed). See Romans 16:7. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord. - Narcissus and part of his household were obviously not believers, but there were some of his house (see note on v. 10) who were worthy Christians. To them Paul asked that his high regards be conveyed.
Romans 16:12Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord. - Tryphena and Tryphosa were probably sisters (maybe twin sisters). Their names (meaning dainty or luxurious) may imply that they were wealthy or had the potential to live in ease. But if so, this did not prevent them from laboring in the cause of Christ. Persis, another Christian lady, was the beloved of the whole Roman church (loved by more than just Paul alone contrast with Romans 16:8) because of the grand scale upon which she had worked in the past. Tryphena and Tryphosa were still laboring; Persise had labored. This may indicate that she had become disabled or grown old and feeble. At any rate, whether one is laboring or has labored, his labors in Christ are not to be forgotten.
Romans 16:13 Salute Rufus - Could this have been the son of Simon the Cyrenian who was forced to bear the cross of Christ? (Mark 15:21). Possibly, but there is no way of knowing for certain. chosen in the Lord, - Not in the sense that all believers are chosen (Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 17:14) but as an eminent, excellent, or choice Christian. and his mother - His literal mother (and the wife of Simon the Cyrenian if Rufus was his son). and mine. - Not literally but in the sense that she had served as a mother to him some time in his ministry. Just when is not known.
Romans 16:14-15 Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them. Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them. Two separate groups (probably two families), each of which was likely the family where the church met, but no special merit or description is ascribed to any of them.
Romans 16:16 Salute one another They were to salute one another; the churches of Christ saluted them. with an holy kiss. - See also 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26. For nearly all the oriental people at that time, and even today, the kiss was the customary form of greeting. Thus Paul’s design was not to reveal, command, or bind the custom but to regulate the manner of its practice. It was to be, not just a kiss, but a holy kiss. In the Scriptures we can see the following types of kisses: (1) the idolatrous kiss (Hosea 13:2); (2) the deceitful kiss (Proverbs 27:6); (3) the betrayal kiss (Luke 22:48; Matthew 26:48; Mark 14:44); (4) the passionate kiss (Song of Solomon 1:2); (5) the penitent kiss (Luke 7:45); (6) the parental kiss (Luke 15:20); (7) the sorrowful kiss (Acts 20:37); (8) the affectionate kiss (1 Peter 5:14). The first three of these could be called unholy kisses; the fourth could be either holy or unholy (depending on whether it is within marriage or not); the last four are holy. Greetings among Christians ought to be of the latter, not the former, sort. That is, a salutation should be an act of love unfeigned. This principle is as true now as it was then. That is to say that all greetings should be pure and holy, whether expressed by kiss, curtsy, or hand shake. The churches of Christ salute you. - The churches which are in Christ or which belong to Him. Paul probably had in mind the congregations of God’s people scattered over Macedonia and Achaia (he wrote from Corinth). At any rate they were the individual congregations (of Christ’s church) which were sending greetings to the brethren in Rome through Paul. They were called churches of Christ because they were local congregations (not denominations such were unknown in NT times) of the church Christ promised to build (Matthew 16:18); and one which He purchased with His own precious blood (Acts 20:28); to which He adds all the saved (Acts 2:47); the one of which He is the Savior (Ephesians 5:23-25); the one He rules over as head and directs through His word (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18); and the one for which He is coming again (Ephesians 5:26-27). Had the will and word of Christ been followed, no other church would have ever been known to His people.
DIVISION AND OFFENCES
Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, - A fraternal appeal designed to call attention to the seriousness of the matter here introduced, namely, false teachers and how to deal with them. mark them - Keep an eye on them (BV) or "keep on the lookout" for them (Williams). This is not to mark in the sense of brand but to take note of in order to avoid. In Philippians 3:17, it is to mark with a view to follow as an example. In one case one is to take note of to avoid; in the other to follow. While Paul does not use the term, in vv. 1-16 he has been urg ing them to take note of many brethren and give them greetings. But all are not worthy of the Christian salutation. There were those who did not teach the truth. Rather than to be greeted (with approval and fellowship), they were to be watched and avoided because their purpose was to divide and plunder, not to build up through selfless service. which cause divisions - Dissentions, disharmony, and factions within the church, a thing that is contrary to the teaching of Christ and would result in the loss of effectiveness in the proclamation of the gospel. unity is always and everywhere commanded (e.g., John 17:20-21; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:1-6); division is always condemned (1 Corinthians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 3:3; 1 Corinthians 11:18); James 3:16). and offences Obstacles or occasions to stumble. contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; - That is, the division and occasions of stumbling were contrary to the teaching of Christ, which was delivered to them in the gospel, the good news of redemption. Such divisions and offences are still contrary to the gospel. The religious world, divided and splintered over matters not revealed in the divine message, needs to learn this today, even more than the Christians in ancient Rome. The only remedy for division is for all to follow that, and only that, which we have learned from the apostle (2 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:11), that which is revealed in the gospel (Romans 1:16-17). and avoid them. - Turn away from or refuse to follow (Matthew 15:14). That is, have no fellowship with them in their false and destructive teaching (2 John 1:9-11; Galatians 1:6-9).
Romans 16:18 For they that are such The imposters who cause division and offences contrary to the teaching of the gospel (Romans 16:17). serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ is not their master - they do not obey Him. In the final analysis one must either serve Christ or self. He cannot serve both (Matthew 6:24). Since they do not serve Christ, the conclusion is obvious: but their own belly; They are self-servers, slaves to their own appetite and interest. and by fair and flattery words (RSV). They deceive with smooth words and flattery speech. deceive the hearts of the simple. They beguile the innocent and unsuspecting, those not on their guard against the alleged sincerity and deceptive speech of false teachers.
Romans 16:19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. - The report of your obedience to Christ has reached everyone (BV). What was said about the false teachers serving their own appetite (Romans 16:17-18) does not apply to them. They had been true to their calling and their good reputation was known abroad. I am glad therefore on your behalf: - The fact that their faith and obedience were spoken of throughout the whole empire (Romans 1:8), that they were letting their lights shine, as a city set on a hill which could not be hid (Matthew 5:14-16), was the cause of great rejoicing in Paul. but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, - Wise enough to know and be able to follow the truth, that which is right. This may contain a hint that they were not completely wise in the good nor totally free from the bad. One mark of a mature Christian is to be able to discern between good and evil (Hebrews 5:12-14). Another is to be able to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). He wanted to be sure that this is what they would do. and simple concerning evil. - Pure, innocent, or harmless in things pertaining to wrong. That is, he did not want them stained by or involved with evil.
Romans 16:20 And the God of peace - See note on Romans 15:33. If they would be wise to the good and innocent concerning evil (Romans 16:19) the God who gives peace would be with them. He is not the God of division (1 Corinthians 14:33), as the practice of the false teachers might imply (Romans 16:16-19), but of peace and harmony. shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Satan, your archenemy, will soon be crushed (Genesis 3:15) and tehe victory will be yours. Satan and the works of evil were doomed; victory in their battle for truth and right was certain. In the crushing of Satan, Paul probably has no particular historical event in mind, but simply the defeat of wickedness by their faithful living. Satan was crushed at the crucifixion of Christ; he was crushed at the resurrection; he is being crushed by the preaching of the gospel; every time a Christian overcomes a temptation or escapes a snare of the devil. Satan is crushed under his feet; the final crushing will take place when Christ comes again. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. - An earnest wish for the favor of Christ to continue with them. Amen. - Omitted by the ASV and others on textual grounds.
GREETINGS FROM THOSE WITH PAUL
Romans 16:21-23 As he brings the epistle to a close, some of Paul’s friends and co workers join him in sending greetings to the Christians at Rome. Timotheus my workfellow, - Timothy was perhaps Paul’s longest, closest, and most trusted co-worker (Philippians 2:19-20). Paul calls him his own son in the faith (1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:18). He was most likely converted by Paul on his first missionary journey as he passed through Derbe and Lystra (Acts 14:20-21). At any rate he had been a Christian long enough to prove himself by the time of the second journey (Acts 16:1). Their friendship continued to the very end (2 Timothy 4). and Lucius, - May have been the prophet or teacher by that name mentioned in Acts 13:1. and Jason, - A Jason of Thessalonica is mentioned in Acts 17:5-9. He could be the same as this one, but there is no way to know for certain. and Sosipater, - Thought by some to be the Sopater of Berea mentioned in Acts 20:4, but I know no reason to think so. my kinsmen, salute you. His countrymen (Romans 16:7). I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you Paul’s amanuensis (or secretary) joins in to send his personal greetings. in the Lord. Those who are in proper relationship with the Lord and consequently in fellowship with all His saints (1 John 1:6-7). Gaius mine host, - Probably the Gaius of 1 Corinthians 1:14, whom Paul had personally baptized at Corinth. He could have served Paul hospitably in a number of ways, but since Priscilla and Aquila were in Rome at this time (Romans 16:3-4), Paul likely made his home with Gaius. and of the whole church, His home was always open to the believers. saluteth you. Erastus, the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, - There is an Erastus mentioned in Acts 19:22 and another in 2 Timothy 4:20, but neither (if they are different men) is likely to be the same as this one. The ASV translates his function as "the treasurer of the city." and Quartus a brother. Nothing more is known of him but he was a brother to all those who were in the Lord.
Romans 16:24The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Omitted by the ASV and others because it is not found in the best manuscripts. It seems likely that some scribe may have repeated it from Romans 16:20.
CONCLUSION
Romans 16:25-27 As a fitting conclusion to this profound epistle, these verses contain a doxology of deep feeling and of beauty unsurpassed.
Romans 16:25-26Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, Unto God the eternal Father who is powerful enough to establish and keep those committed to Him as taught by the gospel which Paul preached. and the preaching of Jesus Christ, - The preaching concern ing Jesus Christ, the gospel, the proclamation about Him, His birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and His promise to come again, along with His plan to save, which He sent His apostles into all the world to announce. ac cording to the revelation of the mystery, - The divine disclosure of the gospel, probably referring especially to that aspect of it that made salvation possible for the Gentiles. The gospel which Paul preached was the revelation of the mystery (Ephesians 3:1-7), a revelation made to all men through the gospel. which was kept secret - Held in silence or kept unrevealed. It was a mystery (something unknown) until it was revealed by the preaching of the gospel (1 Corinthians 2:9-14). since the world began, During all the long ages past or time reaching back to eternity. But now is made manifest, now revealed in the gospel. and by the scriptures of the prophets, - The prophetic writings (NIV). After God’s plan was fully revealed in the gospel, it was obvious that it had been foretold by the prophets in the Scriptures. according to the commandment of the everlasting God, - The revelation of the mystery was proclaimed by the commandment of God (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:44-49). made known to all nations That is, the gospel was to be preached to all nations by the commandment of God, to both Jews and Gentiles. for the obedience of faith: - So that all who believed could obey from the heart and thus be saved (Romans 1:5; Romans 6:16-18).
Romans 16:27 To God only wise, - To the only wise God (1 Timothy 1:17; Judges 1:25). To the God whose wisdom provided the scheme of redemption (Romans 11:33-36), the marvel and wonder of ages and all beings, both in time and in eternity. be glory - Honor and praise. through Jesus Christ for ever. Through Him who made it possible for man to glorify God in the forgiveness of his sins, Jesus Christ the Savior. Amen. - So may it be, now and forever!
Introduction To Romans
J.W. McGarvey
Paul had long wished to visit Rome, and to preach the gospel at this center and seat of earthly power and government. He wished to so dispose the church at Rome towards himself and his work that he might use it, in part at least, as a base for his operations in the regions of the far West (chap. Romans 15:24). But he had not been able as yet to visit Rome (chap. Romans 1:10-13); so, during his three months’ stay in Corinth (Acts 20:3), when he was gathering the offering for Judæa (chap. Romans 15:25-26), apparently finding that Phoebe, a member of the near-by church at Cenchræa, the port of Corinth, was about to depart for Rome (Romans 16:1-2), he determined to improve the occasion by writing this Epistle, which would accomplish many of the purposes of a visit. The Epistle would forearm the disciples against the slanderous misrepresentations of his enemies, and would prepare them to be improved and benefited by his visit, for he still planned to visit them after going to Jerusalem (Acts 1:21
While, therefore, this Epistle discusses the same general theme handled in the Epistle to the Galatians, it is didactic and not polemic in its style. Though Paul would not have written to strangers in the same tone that he employed in addressing his own erring, backsliding converts, yet he would certainly have employed a far different style than that which characterizes this Epistle, had Judaizers corrupted the church at Rome as they did those churches in Galatia and Corinth. The purpose of the Epistle, aside from that of preparing the church for his visit, is easily discovered. The Judaizing tendencies which had recently appeared in Corinth and Galatia were sure eventually to appear in other churches, perhaps ultimately in all, and the attitude assumed by a church already so influential and destined to increase in power was sure to carry great weight in deciding the controversy. Therefore, to set the church of Rome right as to the design and nature of the gospel was a work of supreme importance, and the great letter from the great apostle to the great church on the question of the hour would be read with interest and profit by the entire brotherhood. The purpose of the letter is to set forth, as Baur rightly expresses it, "both the relation of Judaism and heathenism to each other, and the relation of both to Christianity;" primarily, for the instruction of the Christians in Rome, and, secondarily, for the benefit of all the churches by the establishment of peace between their Jewish and Gentile elements, and, ultimately, for the enlightening of the kingdom of God in all ages. Paul’s Jewish enemies had, as we have seen, already been busy in slandering and misrepresenting him even in churches which he had founded. They made the apostle feel the limitation of travel, and, no doubt, caused him to desire that he might multiply himself, so as to be in many places at once. Within a few days after this Epistle was written Paul began that journey wherein it was testified to him in every city he passed through that bonds and imprisonment awaited him in Jerusalem; so it is highly probable that he already had a prophetic premonition of his coming temporary inability to visit the churches and correct, by his presence, as at Corinth, the falsehood circulated in his absence. Therefore, to establish the churches in the truth, and to preserve his own salutary influence over them, how needful it was that he have an Epistle to speak for him in those coming days of confinement, and that his friends have in their possession his true preaching, that they might have "wherewith to answer them" who misrepresented him and his teaching. And of all Epistles, which could better serve his purpose than one addressed to the Romans, who were at the center of all earthly influences?
That the Epistle is authentic is conceded even by Baur. It was quoted by Clement of Rome before the end of the first century; and in the second century by Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr and Irenæus; and the Muratorian Fragment, A. D. 170, places it in the catalogue of Paul’s Epistles. Its genuineness, too, is practically universally conceded, save that the Tubingen critics, with their usual zeal and eagerness to cast doubt upon any portion of the Scripture, have questioned the last two chapters, or rejected them. The reasons for doing this are not weighty. The chapters are called in question, not because they are omitted from any manuscripts now known, but from certain that are mentioned by the Fathers. But those who tell us of these mutilated copies (Tertullian, and especially Origen) also inform us that that arch-heretic, Marcion, was the offender who thus abbreviated them, and that he did so for the reason that he found in them passages which he wished to suppress because they conflicted with his own erroneous teaching. Surely the knife of Marcion should cast no more doubt over the Epistle of Paul than that of Jehoiakim did over the writings of Jeremiah. As a simple analysis of the book, we submit the following:
PART I. DOCTRINAL. The universal need of righteousness satisfied by the gospel, as is shown by the manifold results emanating from gospel righteousness and justification (Romans 1:1 to Romans 8:39). Subdivision A. Introductory. Salutation and personal explanation (Romans 1:1-15). Righteousness by the gospel (Romans 1:16-17). Subdivision B. Universal need of righteousness. Need of righteousness by the Gentiles (Romans 1:18-32). Need of righteousness by the Jews (Romans 2:1-29). Jewish privilege does not diminish guilt, and the Scriptures include both Jew and Gentile alike under sin (Romans 3:1-20). Subdivision C. Universal need of righteousness satisfied by the gospel proclamation of righteousness by faith. Neither Jew nor Greek can obtain righteousness otherwise than by the gospel (Romans 3:21-31). The gospel method of justification, exemplified in the cases of Abraham, and David, must be applied both to the legal and spiritual seed of Abraham (Romans 4:1-25). Subdivision D. Results of Christ’s life discussed, and shown to be capable of as limitless universality as the results of Adam’s life. Results of the justification wrought by Christ, viz.: peace, hope, love and reconciliation (Romans 5:1-11). Adam, the trespasser unto death, contrasted with Christ, the righteous unto life (Romans 5:12-21). Subdivision E. Sanctification of the believer required, and obtained in change of relationship by the gospel. Justification is brought about by such a relation to Christ as creates an obligation to be dead to sin and alive to righteousness, as is symbolically shown by baptism (Romans 6:1-14). Justification results in a change from service of law and sin, with death as a reward, to the service of grace and righteousness, with life as a reward (Romans 6:15-22). Change of relationship from law to Christ illustrated (Romans 7:1-6). The sense of bondage which comes through the relationship of the law prepares the soul to seek deliverance through relationship to Christ (Romans 7:7-25). The new relationship to Christ changes the mind from carnal to spiritual, so that we escape condemnation and obtain life (Romans 8:1-11). The new relationship to Christ results in adoption, the spirit of adoption, and that heirship for the revelation of which creation groans (Romans 8:12-25). The new relationship results in the aid of the Spirit, and the blissful assurance of salvation, because it is divinely decreed (Romans 8:26-39).
PART II. EXPLANATORY. The doctrine of righteousness by faith reconciled to (1) the promises made to Israel; (2) the election of that people, and (3) the faithfulness of God (Romans 9:1 to Romans 11:36). Mourning for Israel (Romans 9:1-15). The rejection of Israel not inconsistent with God’s promise, which has been kept to those to whom it was given (Romans 9:6-13). The rejection of Israel not inconsistent with the justice of God (Romans 9:14-18). God’s absolute power asserted, his justice and mercy vindicated, and his course in rejecting the Jews not inconsistent with prophecy (Romans 9:19-29). Gentiles following the law of faith contrasted with Jews following the law of works (Romans 9:30-33). Jews responsible for their rejection, since they had an equal chance with the Gentiles of being accepted (Romans 10:1-13). Righteousness comes by faith, and faith comes by that hearing as to which Jews and Gentiles had equal opportunity (Romans 10:14-21). The casting-off of Israel not so complete as supposed, a remnant being saved by faith (Romans 11:1-10). Salutary results of the temporary fall and future rise of Israel. Gentiles warned not to glory over Israel (Romans 11:11-24). Jews and Gentiles having each passed through a like season of disobedience, a like mercy shall be shown to each (Romans 11:25-32). Ascriptions of praise to God for his ways and judgment (Romans 11:3-36).
PART III. HORTATORY. Various duties enjoined, and mutual toleration enforced (Romans 12:1 to Romans 14:23). Self-dedication besought, and self-conceit discouraged (Romans 12:1-8). A galaxy of virtues (Romans 12:21). Concerning governments, love and approaching salvation (Romans 13:1-14). Forbearance towards scruples, refraining from judging, sacrifice for others (Romans 14:1-23).
PART IV, SUPPLEMENTARY. Concluding exhortations and salutations (Romans 15:1 to Romans 16:27). Exhortations to mutual helpfulness. The Gentiles to glorify God (Romans 15:1-13). The apostle’s ministry and plans. Request for prayers (Romans 15:14-33). Commendation of Phoebe. Salutations. Warnings against dissension and apostasy. Benediction (Romans 16:1-25).
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
I. Salutation and Personal Explanations
Romans 1:1-15
1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 which he promised afore through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord 5 through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake; 6 among whom are ye also, called to be Jesus Christ’s: 7 to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. [The apostle opens his Epistle with one of his characteristic sentences: long and intricate, yet wonderful in its condensation and comprehensive-ness; his style of expression being, as Tholuck says, "most aptly compared to a throng of waves, where, in ever loftier swell, one billow presses close upon the other." The opening here may be compared with that at Galatians 1:1-5. Taken without its qualifying clauses, the sentence runs thus: "Paul to all that are at Rome: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (Comp. Acts 23:26.) This sentence the apostle enlarges by three series of statements which lead up to each other, and the items of which also introduce each other, thus forming a closely connected chain of thought. First, by statements about himself, which assert that he, Paul, is an apostle, separated from worldly occupations, and sent out to preach the gospel (Galatians 1:15; Acts 9:15; Acts 22:14-15); second, by statements about the gospel, viz.: that it had its source of origin in God, that it was no innovation, being promised long beforehand through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures (comp. Acts 26:22; see Micah 4:2; Isaiah 40:9; Isaiah 52:7; Nahum 1:15); that it concerned God’s Son; third, by statements about God’s Son, viz.: that according to the flesh (i. e., as to his human or fleshly nature) he was born (in the weakness of a child), and thus came into being as a descendant of David (which was required by prophecy—Psalms 89:36; Psalms 132:11-12; Jeremiah 23:5); that according to the spirit of purity or holiness (i. e., as to his spiritual or divine nature, which, though a Sonship, was birthless, and hence did not come into being, but existed from the beginning) he was pointed out, declared or demonstrated to be the Son of God with power; which power manifested itself by triumphing over death in his resurrection (Psalms 7:2; Psalms 16:10. Comp. 2 Timothy 2:8; Acts 13:23; Acts 13:30); and that the Son of God is Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus Paul’s thought completes its circle, and comes back again to himself and his apostleship, and introduces the second series of statements, which are about himself and his apostleship in this gospel of the Son of God: First, that through this Jesus Christ our Lord he had received grace (i. e., forgiveness, reconciliation, salvation, and all the other blessings which the gospel bestows), and the apostleship of which he has spoken; and that the aim of that apostleship, or the purpose for which he was sent, is (1) to produce among all nations, i. e., the Gentiles, that obedience to the will of God which results from faith, or belief, in Jesus Christ, and (2) to glorify or exalt the name of Jesus Christ by promoting this obedience, etc. (Acts 9:15); (the majesty, dignity and authority of the apostleship are emphasized by the Lordship of him who gave it, by the worldwide scope of it and the glorious purpose of it); second, that his apostleship embraced those to whom he wrote, since they were also Gentiles, who had been called into this faith which made them Christ’s. And here the second series leads to the third, and Paul now addresses the Roman Christians, to whom he writes, and states that they are: (1) the object of God’s love, and (2) called to that obedience of faith which separates from sin and makes holy. Thus, step by step, Paul explains as to what gospel he is an apostle, as to whom his gospel relates, from whom he received his apostleship, for what purpose he had received it, what right it gave him to indite this letter, and to whom the letter was addressed. So much for the paragraph as a whole. Looking over its items, we may remark that: the term "servant" employed by Paul applied to all Christians generally (1 Corinthians 7:22; Ephesians 6:6); but the apostles loved to appropriate it, as expressing their entire devotion to Christ and his people, and lack of all official pride (James 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1; Judges 1:1; Revelation 1:1). The phrase "spirit of holiness" is equivalent to Holy Spirit. It serves to show that Jesus had the same divine nature as the Holy Spirit, yet does not confuse the two personalities, so as to lose our Lord’s identity. The resurrection of our Lord differed from all other resurrections in several important respects, each of which aided to reveal his divinity: (1) The prophets announced it beforehand (Psalms 16:10-11). (2) He himself announced it beforehand (Matthew 16:21). (3) The power which raised him was not external to him, but within him (John 2:19; John 10:17-18). (4) It was a representative and all-inclusive resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:22). (5) It was not a temporary restoration, like the cases of Lazarus and others who returned once more to the grave, but an eternal triumph over death (6: 9; Revelation 1:18). (6) It was the firstfruits of a like immortality for all those who, being part of the mystical body of Christ, shall be raised with him at the last day (1 Corinthians 15:23-26). Lard, in his comments on this paragraph, calls attention to the fact that faith and belief are absolutely synonymous, for the two words in our English Bible are represented by one single substantive in the Greek text, viz.: pistis, which is derived from the verb pisteuoo, which is uniformly translated "believe." An endless amount of theological discussion and mystical preaching would have been avoided if our translators had not given us two words where one would have sufficed. Having in his opening address shown that he had an official right to write to the church at Rome, the apostle next reveals to them that he has an additional right to do so because of his interest in them and affection for them, which is manifested by his thanksgivings, prayers, etc.]
8 First [i. e., before I proceed to other matters, I wish you to know that], I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. [Through the mediation of Christ (comp. Hebrews 13:15; 2 Peter 2:5; Colossians 3:17; Ephesians 5:20) Paul offers thanks on account of the Christians at Rome, because their faith had so openly and notoriously changed their lives from sin to righteousness that, wherever the apostle went, he found the churches in the whole Roman world, which then embraced western Asia, northern Africa and almost the whole of Europe, took notice of it. The apostle realized the incalculable good which would result from the proper enthronement of Christ in so important a center as Rome, and in view of its future effects on the world, its present influence over the church, its tendency to lighten and facilitate his own labors, and many like blessings and benefits, Paul thanks God that his enthronement had taken place in the loyal heart of those whom he addresses. He refers to the knowledge of believers, for the church was comparatively unknown to unbelievers, even in the city itself—Acts 28:22.]
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers 10 making request, if by any means now at length I may be prospered by the will of God to come unto you. [Since he could call no other witness as to the substance or contents of his secret prayers, he reverently appeals to God to verify his words, that he had continually remembered the Romans in his petitions, and had requested that, having been so long denied it, the privilege of visiting the church at Rome might now. at last be granted to him. Paul’s appeals to God to verify his words are quite common (2 Corinthians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 11:31; Galatians 1:20, etc.). He describes God as one whom he serves not only outwardly but inwardly, publishing the gospel of his Son with hearty zeal, devotion and joy. He had traveled widely and constantly; his failure, therefore, to visit Rome might look like indifference, and his impending departure from Corinth, not toward Rome, which was now comparatively near, but in the opposite direction, might suggest that he was ashamed to appear or preach in the imperial city. The apostle replies to all this by simply stating, and asking God to verify the statement, that God had not yet prospered him in his plans or efforts to go to Rome.]
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12 that is, that I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. [Paul here sets forth the reason why he so earnestly desired to visit the church at Rome; it was because he wished to enjoy the blessedness both of giving and receiving. Spiritual gifts are those wrought by the Holy Spirit, and of these Paul had two kinds to bestow: 1, extraordinary or miraculous, and 2, ordinary, or those pertaining to the Christian graces. No doubt he had the bestowal of both of these gifts in mind, for no apostle had yet visited the church to bestow the former, and, from the list of gifts recorded at 12:6-8, it appears that that of prophecy was the only miraculous one they possessed; and the context, especially verse 12, indicates that the latter, or ordinary gifts, were also in his thoughts. Because their faiths were essentially the same, Paul here acknowledges the ability of all disciples, even the humblest, to comfort, i. e., to encourage and help him by a strengthening of his faith; because their steadfastness would react on him. Gifts, whether of a miraculous nature, or merely graces, tended to establish or strengthen the church.]
13 And I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you (and was hindered hitherto), that I might have some fruit in you also, even as in the rest of the Gentiles. [He had desired to visit Rome that he might glorify Christ by making many converts in Rome (John 15:8; John 15:16), just as he had in other Gentile cities. "That," says Meyer, "by which Paul had been hitherto hindered, may be seen at 15:22; consequently it was neither the devil (1 Thessalonians 2:18), nor the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6). Grotius aptly observes: "The great needs of the localities in which Christ was unknown constrained him." But the word at 15:22, and also at 1 Thessalonians 2:18, is egkoptoo, and the word here, and at Acts 16:6, is kooluoo, which, primarily, means to forbid, and implies the exercise of a superior will. The whole context here indicates that the divine will restrained Paul from going to Rome, and this in no way conflicts with the statement that the needs of the mission fields hindered him. God’s will forbade, and the needs co-operated to restrain; just as in the instance in Acts, the Holy Spirit forbade to go any way save toward Europe, and the visionary cry from Europe drew onward. Two causes may conspire to produce one effect. Paul’s entire will was subject to the will of Christ. As a free man he formed his plans and purposes, but he always altered them to suit the divine pleasure.
14 I am debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians [foreigners, those who did not speak the Greek language], both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome. [Paul’s knowledge of the good news, and his apostleship as to it, laid upon him the sacred obligation to tell it to all who had not heard it (1 Corinthians 9:16-19). His commission as apostle to the Gentiles sent him to both Greeks and Barbarians, the two classes into which the Gentiles were divided; and left him no right to discriminate between the cultured and the ignorant. Moved by a desire to pay this debt, he was ready, so far as the direction of his affairs lay in his own power of choice, to preach to the Romans, who held no mean place among the Gentiles.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. Righteousness by the Gospel
Romans 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written [Habakkuk 2:4], But the righteous shall live by faith. [This paragraph has been rightly called the "Theme" of the Epistle, for all from 1:19 to 11:36 is but an expansion of this section. Since, therefore, its meaning determines the gist of the entire Epistle, it is not to be wondered at that commentators and theologians have made it a royal battleground. Limitations of space forbid us to even give an outline of these controversies. We content ourselves with the following paraphrase, which, we think, makes plain the apostle’s meaning: I am ready to preach in your imperial city, for even there, where things of such magnitude transpire that all things else seem small by comparison, I should not be ashamed of the gospel. Among the Greeks, who prided themselves on their wisdom, my gospel was demonstrated to be the superior wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Corinthians 2:7); and so I would come among you Romans, who compare all things with your imperial power, and I would show that I had no reason to be ashamed, for I would declare or publish unto you that gospel which is the power of God in the all-important and incomparable work of saving men, all of whom are lost in sin, and any of whom can be saved when he believes this gospel, whether he be one of God’s chosen people, who have the first right to hear it, or a Gentile. It is God’s power unto salvation, for it brings sinful men a righteousness which emanates from God, and which he freely gives to believers, so that they are accounted righteous, and this righteousness, from first to last, is altogether bestowed upon faith, so that whatever righteousness a man has comes by faith, just as it was predicted in the Old Testament, for God there says: The man who is declared righteous lives by faith; i. e., if his righteousness redeems him from sin and death and so entitles him to live, it does so because it is a righteousness obtained by faith.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
I. Need of Righteousness by the Gentiles
Romans 1:18-32
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness ["For" is intended to introduce a direct proof as to the statement in verse 17, thus: The righteousness of God of which the apostle has been speaking is revealed to a man by his faith; i. e., it is seen only by the believing, for all that others see revealed towards man’s unrighteousness is wrath. In other words, only Gods gospel reveals this righteousness, and it is addressed to and received by faith. God’s other revelations seen in nature reveal no pardoning, justifying grace; but show, in the visitations of terrible judgments, retributions, punitive corrections, deaths, etc., that God pours out the fruits of his displeasure on the wickedness of men, whether it be sin against himself (ungodliness), or sin against the laws and precepts which he has given (unrighteousness), either sin being a stifling of the truth which they knew about God, by willful indulgences in unrighteousness. The apostle is here speaking of the Gentiles; he discusses the case of the Jews separately later on. The precepts, truth, etc., to which he refers are, therefore, not those found in the Old Testament Scriptures, which were known to the Jews; but those which were traditionally handed down by and among the heathen from the patriarchal days. "All the light," as Poole says, "which was left in man since the fall"]; 19 because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse [and God reveals his wrath against them, because that which is known of God, i. e., the general truths as to his nature and attributes, is manifested unto them; for God himself so manifested it, causing his invisible attributes, even his power, divinity, etc., to be constantly and clearly revealed in the providential working of nature from the hour of creation’s beginning, until now, that they may be without excuse for sin, and so justly punishable]: 21 because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. [And they were without excuse, for when they knew God they did not worship him according to the knowledge which they had, nor did they praise him for his benefits; but they erred in their mind, thus making their whole inner man senseless and dark, not having the light of truth with which they started. The phrase, "vain in their reasonings," means that their corrupt lives corrupted their minds, for, as Tholuck observes, "religious and moral error is always the consequence of religious and moral perversity;" As Calvin expresses it: "They quickly choked by their own depravity the seed of right knowledge before it grew to ripeness. "]
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. [Vaunting their wisdom, these wicked ones made fools of themselves, so that they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man, or even images of baser things, as birds, beasts and reptiles. The audacity of the attempt to reason God out of existence has invariably turned the brain of man (Psalms 53:1), and the excess of self-conceit and vanity developed by such an undertaking has uniformly resulted in pitiable folly. In the case of the ancients it led to idolatry. Reiche contended that idolatry preceded monotheism, and that the better was developed out of the worse; but history sustains Paul in presenting idolatry as a decline from a purer form of worship. "For," says Meyer, "heathenism is not the primeval religion, from which man might gradually have risen to the true knowledge of the wisdom of God, but is, on the contrary, the result of a falling away from the known original revelation of the true God in his works." Paul does not say that they exchanged the "form" of God for that of an idol, for God is sensuously perceived as glory, or shekinah, rather than as form. Hence, Moses asked to see, not the form, but the glory of God (Exodus 33:18-22). The Greeks and Romans preferred the human form as the model for their idols, but the. Egyptians chose the baser, doubtless because, having been longer engaged in the practice of idolatry, their system was more fully developed in degradation. The ibis, the bull, the serpent and the crocodile of the Egyptians give us the complements of Paul’s catalogue. Schaff sees in the phrase "likeness of an image" a double meaning, and interprets it thus: "The expression refers both to the grosser and the more refined forms of idolatry; common people saw in the idols the gods themselves; the cultivated heathen regarded them as symbolical representations. "]
24 Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves: 25 for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. [Wherefore, finding them living in lust, God ceased to restrain or protect them from evil (Genesis 6:3), and abandoned them to the uncleanness toward which their lust incited them, that they might dishonor their bodies among themselves to the limit of their lustfulness, as a punishment for dishonoring and abandoning him. He did this because they had exchanged the truth of God (which from the start they had hindered in unrighteousness, vs. 18), i. e., the truth respecting God and his law and worship, for the sham of idolatry and the false worship pertaining thereto, and because they had given to the creature that inward reverence and outward service which was due to the Creator, thus preferring the creature to the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." ’Blessed’ is not the word signifying happy, rendered blessed in Matthew 5:3-11; 1 Timothy 1:11; 1 Timothy 6:15; but the word signifying praised, adored, extolled; i. e., worthy to be praised, etc. In the New Testament this word is applied to none but to God only; though the cognate verb is used to express the good wishes and hearty prayers of one creature for another, as well as praise to God—comp. Hebrews 11:20-21; James 3:9"—Plumer.]
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due. [In this horrible picture Paul shows in what way they dishonored themselves among themselves. The sin of sodomy was common among idolaters. The apostle tells us that this depth of depravity was a just punishment for their departure from God Petronius, Suetonius, Martial, Seneca, Virgil, Juvenal, Lucian and other classic writers verify the statements of Paul. Some of their testimonies will be found in Macknight, Stuart and other larger commentaries.]
28 And even as they refused [did not deem it worthy of their mind] to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind [i. e., minds rejected in turn by God as unworthy], to do those things which are not fitting [indecent, immoral]; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness [inordinate desire to accumulate property regardless of the rights of others: a sin which is not condemned by the laws of any country on the globe, and which is the source of universal unrest in all nations], maliciousness [a readiness to commit crime without provocation, a chronic state of ill will and misanthropy]; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers [talebearers, those who slander covertly, chiefly by insinuation—Proverbs 16:28], 30 backbiters [outspoken slanderers], hateful to God [many contend that this should read "haters of God," since Paul is enumerating the vices of men, and not God’s attitude toward them. Others, following the reading in the text, see in these words what Meyer calls "a resting-point in the disgraceful catalogue"—a place where Paul pauses to reveal God’s moral indignation toward the crimes particularized. But Alford takes the words in a colloquial sense as describing the political informers of that period. "If," says he, "any crime was known more than another, as ’hated by the God,’ it was that of informers, abandoned persons who circumvented and ruined others by a system of malignant espionage and false information," though he does not confine the term wholly to that class], insolent, haughty, boastful [these three words describe the various phases of self-exultation, which, a sin in all ages, was at that time indulged in to the extent of blasphemy, for Cicero, Juvenal and Horace all claim that virtue is from man himself, and not from God], inventors of evil things [inventors of new methods of evading laws, schemers who discover new ways by which to unjustly accumulate property, discoverers of new forms of sensuous, lustful gratification, etc.], disobedient to parents,
31 without understanding [those who have so long seared their consciences as to be unable to determine between right and wrong even in plain cases. The loss of moral understanding is very apparent among habitual liars, whose minds have become so accustomed to falsehood that they are no longer able to discern the truth so as to accurately state it], covenant-breakers [those who fail to keep their promises and agreements], without natural affection [those having an abnormal lack of love towards parents, children, kindred, etc.], unmerciful: 32 who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practise such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practise them. [All were not guilty of all these sins, but each was guilty of some of them. Though many of these evils still exist in Christian lands, they do so in spite of Christianity; but then they existed because of idolatry. Lard observes that the Gentiles, starting with the knowledge of God, descended to the foolishness of idolatry. At this point God abandoned them, and they then began their second descent, and continued till they reached the very base and bottom of moral degradation, as indicated in the details given above. The Gentiles had traditions and laws, founded on original revelations, declaring these things sinful; and, though they knew that death resulted from sin, yet they not only defied God and persisted in their sins, but even failed to condemn them in others; yea, they encouraged each other to commit them. Such, then, was the helpless, hopeless state of the Gentiles. When they were justly condemned to death for unrighteousness, God revealed in his gospel a righteousness unto life that they might be saved.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. Need of Righteousness by the Jews
Romans 2:1-29
1 Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost practise the same thing. [The apostle, it will be remembered, is proving the universal insufficiency of human righteousness, that he may show the universal need of a revealed righteousness. Having made good; his case against one part of the human race—the Gentiles, he now proceeds to a like proof against the other part—the Jews. He does not name them as Jews at the start, for this would put them on the defensive, and made his task harder. He speaks to them first as individuals, without any reference to race, for the Jew idolized his race, and would readily admit a defect in himself which he would have denied in his race. But Paul, by thus convicting each of sin in his own conscience, makes them all unwittingly concede sin in all, even though Jews. It was the well-known characteristic of the Jews to indulge in pharisaical judgment and condemnation of others (Matthew 7:1; Luke 18:14), especially the Gentiles (Acts 11:3; Galatians 2:15). The apostle knew, therefore, that his Jewish readers would be listening with gloating elation to this his castigation of the Gentiles, and so, even in this their moment of supreme self-complacency, he turns his lash upon them, boldly accusing them of having committed some of the things which they condemned, and, hence, of being in the same general state of unrighteousness, though, perhaps, on a somewhat less degraded plane. To condemn another for his sin is to admit that the sin in question leads to and justifies condemnation as to all who commit it, even including self. The thought of this verse is, as indicated by its opening "Wherefore," closely connected with the preceding chapter, and seems to form a climax, thus: The simple sinner is bad, the encourager of sin in others is worse, but the one who condemns sins in others, yet commits them himself, is absolutely defenseless and without excuse. Whitby has collected from Josephus the passages which show that Paul’s arraignment of the Jews is amply justifiable.]
2 And we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that practise such things. 3 And reckonest thou this, O man, who judgest them that practise such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? [The argument may be paraphrased thus: Yielding to the force of argument, that like sin deserves like condemnation, even you, though most unwillingly, condemn yourself. How much more freely, therefore, will God condemn you (1 John 3:20. And we know that you can not escape, for the judgment of God is according to truth; i. e., without error or partiality against the doers of evil. And do you vainly imagine, O man, that when thine own moral sense is so outraged at evil that thou must needs condemn others for doing it, that thou, though doing the same evil thyself, shalt escape the judgment of God through any partiality on his part? Self-love, self-pity, self-justification, and kindred feeling, have, in all ages, caused men to err in applying the warnings of God to themselves. Among the Jews this error took the form of a doctrine. Finding themselves especially favored and privileged as children of Abraham, they expected to be judged upon different principles from those of truth, which would govern the judgment and condemnation of the rest of mankind. This false trust is briefly announced and rebuked by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:7-9), and afterwards more clearly and fully defined in the Talmud in such expressions as these: "Every one circumcised has part in the kingdom to come." "All Israelites will have part in the world to come." "Abraham sits beside the gates of hell, and does not permit any wicked Israelite to go down to hell." The same error exists today in a modified form. Many expect to be saved because they are the children of wealth, culture, refinement; because they belong to a civilized people; because their parents are godly; or even, in some cases, because they belong to a certain lodge, or order.] 4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5 but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 who will render to every man according to his works [The apostle here touches upon a second error which is still common among men. It is, as Cook says, that "vague and undefined hope of impunity which they do not acknowledge even to themselves." God’s present economy, which sends rain upon the just and the unjust, and which postpones the day of punishment to allow opportunity for repentance, leads untold numbers to the false conclusion that God is slack as to his judgment, and that he will ever be so. They mistake for indifference or weakness that longsuffering grace of his which exercises patience, hoping that he may thereby lead men to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Those who, by hardness of heart, steel themselves against repentance, thereby accumulate punishments which will be inflicted upon them in the day when God reveals that righteous judgment which has been so long withheld or suspended, for God is righteous, and he will render to every man in that day according to his works, after the following described manner]: 7 to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life: 8 but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation [to those who, by steadfastly leading a life of work (which, as Olshausen observes, no man can do, according to Paul, save by faith in Christ), seek for glory (and the future state is one of unparalleled grandeur—John 17:24; Revelation 21:24), honor (and the future state is an honor; bestowed, though unmerited, as a reward—Matthew 25:23; Matthew 25:40) and incorruption (which is also a prime distinction between the future and the present life—1 Corinthians 15:42), eternal life shall be given. But God’s wrath and indignation shall be poured upon those who serve party and not God (and the Jews were continually doing this—Matthew 23:15; Galatians 6:12-13), and obey not the truth (John 8:31-32), but obey unrighteousness], 9 tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; 10 but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: 11 for there is no respect of persons with God. [Paul here reiterates the two phases of God’s judgment which he has just described. He does this to emphasize their universality—that they are upon every man, regardless of race. The punishment shall come upon Jew and Gentile alike; but the Jew, because of preeminence in privilege, shall have preeminence in suffering (Luke 12:47-48). The blessings also shall be received alike, but here also the Jew, having improved his privileges, and having more pounds to start with. (Luke 19:16-19), shall have preeminence in reward in as far as he has attained preeminence in life; for there is no unfair partiality or unjust favoritism with God. The man born in a Christian home stands today in the category then occupied by the Jew. He will be given greater reward or greater punishment according to his use or abuse of privilege.]
12 For as many as have sinned without the law [Gentiles] shall also perish without the law [i. e., without being judged by the expressed terms of the law]: and as many as have sinned under the law [the Jews] shall be judged by the law [i. e., his conduct shall be weighed by the terms of it, and his punishment shall be according to its directions. Thus the Gentiles, having the lesser light of nature, and the Jews, having the greater light of revelation, were alike sinners. By his altars, sacrifices, etc., the Gentile showed that nature’s law smote his conscience as truly as the clear, expressed letter of the Mosaic precept condemned the Jew. Thus both Jew and Gentile were condemned to perish; i. e., to receive the opposite of salvation, as outlined in verse 7]; 13 for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified [Of course, the Jew had a great advantage over the Gentile in that he possessed the law—Paul himself concedes this (3:1, 2); but this mere possession of the law, and this privilege of hearing and knowing the will of God, by no means justified the sinner. Jews and Gentiles alike had to seek justification through perfect obedience to their respective laws, and no one of either class had ever been able to render such obedience. The Jew had the advantage of the Gentile in that he had a clear knowledge of the Lord’s will, and a fair warning of the dire consequences of disobedience. The Gentile, however, had advantages which offset those of the Jews, thus making the judgments of God wholly impartial. If the law which directed him was less clear, it was also less onerous. In a parenthesis the apostle now sets forth the nature of the law under which the Gentiles lived; he evidently does this that he may meet a supposed Jewish objection, as though some one said, "Since what you say applies to those who have a divine law given to them, it can not apply to the Gentiles, since they possess no law at all." It is to this anticipated objection that Paul replies];
14 (for when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; 15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them) [The meaning here may be quickly grasped in the following paraphrase: Jews and Gentiles are alike sinners, yet each had a chance to attain legal justification; the former by keeping an outwardly revealed law, the latter by obeying an inwardly revealed one. Now, the Gentiles have such a law, as appears from their general moral conduct; for when those who do not have the law of Moses, do, by their own inward, natural promptings, the things prescribed by the law of Moses, they are a law unto themselves, having in themselves the threefold workings of law, in that the guidance of their heart predisposes them to know the right, the testimony of their conscience bears witness with their heart that the right is preferable, and lastly, after the deed is done, their thoughts or inward reasonings accuse or excuse them according as their act has been wrong or right. These well-known psychological phenomena, observable among the Gentiles, are proof conclusive that they are not without law, with its power and privilege of justification. Therefore, all are not sinners because there is respect of persons with God, for all have the possibility of attaining justification]; 16 in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ. [This verse relates to the thought interrupted by the parenthesis; i. e., the thought of verse 13. Not hearers, but doers, shall be justified in the judgment-day, that clay when God shall judge the secrets of men’s lives and judge them, as my gospel further reveals, through Jesus Christ as Judge. The Jewish Scriptures revealed a judgment-day, and the thought was not unfamiliar to the Gentiles; but it remained for Paul’s gospel to reveal the new truth that Jesus was to be the Judge. Paul started with the thought that, in judging another, a sinner condemned himself (v. 1:3). Having discussed that thought and shown that it is applicable to the Jew, because God’s judgments rest on moral and not on national or ceremonial ground, the apostle here resumes it once more, in connection with verse 13, that he may show that if the law of Moses did not shield from condemnation, neither would circumcision.]
17 But if thou bearest the name of a Jew, and restest upon the law, and gloriest in God, 18 and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19. and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having in the law the form of knowledge of the truth; 21 thou therefore that teacheth another, teachest thou not thyself? [But if doers, and not hearers, are not justified, why do you put your confidence in mere hearing, and such things as are analogous to it? Since only the doers of the law are justified, why do you vainly trust that you will be acceptable because you bear the proud name of Jew (Galatians 2:15; Philippians 3:5; Revelation 2:9), rather than the humble one of Gentile? Why do you rest confidently merely because you possess a better law than the Gentiles, because you glory in the worship of the true God (Deuteronomy 4:7), and in knowing his will (Psalms 147:19-20), and in being instructed so as to approve the more excellent things of the Jewish religion above the debauchery of idolatry? Of what avail are these things when God demands doing and not mere knowing? And of what profit is it to you if the law does give you such a correct knowledge of the truth that you are to the Gentiles, yea, even to their chief philosophers, as a guide to the blind, a light to the benighted, a wise man among fools, a skilled teacher among children? Of what avail or profit is it all if, with all this ability, you teach only others and fail to teach yourself? The apostle next shows, in detail, how truly the Jew had failed to profit by his knowledge, so as to become a doer of the law.] thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 22 thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that ab- horrest idols, dost thou rob temples? 23 thou who gloriest in the law, through thy transgression of the law dishonorest thou God? [These questions bring out the flagrant inconsistencies between Jewish preaching and practice. Teaching others not to steal, the Jew, though probably not often guilty of technical theft, was continually practically guilty of it in his business dealings, wherein, by the use of false weights, extortion, cheating, etc., he gathered money for which he had returned no just equivalent. Unchastity was also a besetting sin of the Jews, showing itself in the corrupt practice of permitting divorces without reasonable or righteous cause (Matthew 19:8-9). Some of the most celebrated Rabbis are, in the Talmud, charged with adultery. Paul’s accusation, that the Jews robbed temples, has been a puzzle to many. This robbing of the temple, according to the context of his argument, must have been a species of idolatry, for he is charging the Jews with doing the very things which they condemned. They condemned stealing, and stole; they denounced adultery, and committed it; they abhorred idols, yet robbed the temples of them that they might worship them. Such is the clear meaning, according to the context. But we have no evidence that the Jews of Paul’s day did such a thing. The charge is doubtless historic. The Jewish history, in which they gloried, showed that the fathers, in whom they had taken so much pride, had done this thing over and over again, and the same spirit was in their children, though more covertly concealed (comp. Matthew 23:29-32). The last question sums up the Jewish misconduct: glorying in the law, as is shown in verses 17-20, they yet dishonored the God of the law by transgressing it, as is shown in this paragraph.]
24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, even as it is written. (Isaiah 52:5; Ezekiel 36:20-23.) By their conduct the Jews had fulfilled the words of Isaiah and the meaning of Ezekiel. The Gentiles, judging by the principle that a god may be known by his worshipers, had, by reason of the Jews, judged Jehovah to be of such a character that their judgment became a blasphemy. (See also Ezekiel 16:51-59.) Thus Paul took from the Jew a confidence of divine favor, which he had because he possessed the law. But the law was not the sole confidence of the Jew, for he had circumcision also, and he regarded this rite as a seal or conclusive evidence that he belonged to the people of God, being thereby separated by an infinite distance from all other people. He looked with scorn and contempt on the uncircumcised, even using the term as an odious epithet (Genesis 34:14; Exodus 12:48; 1 Samuel 17:26; 2 Samuel 1:20; Isaiah 52:1; Ezekiel 28:10.) The apostle, therefore, turns his fire so as to dislodge the Jew from this deceptive stronghold. He drives him from his hope and trust in circumcision.] 25 For circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the law: but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. 26 If therefore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? [In verse 25 the apostle takes up the case of the Jew; in verse 26 that of the Gentile. By circumcision the former entered into a covenant with God, and part of the terms of his covenant was an agreement to obey the law. Thus the law was superior to circumcision, so much so that it, as it were, disfranchised or expatriated an Israelite for disobedience, despite his circumcision. On the contrary, if an uncircumcised Gentile obeyed the law, then the law naturalized and received him into the spiritual theocracy, notwithstanding his lack of circumcision. The verses are not an argument, but a plain statement of the great truth that circumcision, though beneficial to the law-abiding, has no power to withstand the law when condemning the lawless. In short, the Jew and Gentile stood on equal footing, for, though the Jew had a better covenant (circumcision) and a better law, yet neither attained to salvation, for neither kept the law.] 27 and shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who with the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law? [The Gentile, remaining as he was by nature, uncircumcised, if he fulfilled the law, shall, in his turn, judge the Jew, who was so ready to judge him (v. 1), who, with a written law and circumcision, was yet a transgressor. The judging referred to is probably the indirect judging of comparison. On the day of judgment, the Gentile, with his poor advantages, will condemn, by his superior conduct, the lawlessness of the Jew. Comp. Matthew 11:21-22; Luke 11:31-32.]
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. [He is not a Jew in God’s sight (though he is, of course, such in the sight of the world) who is simply one without; i. e., by being properly born of Jewish parents, nor is that a circumcision in God’s sight (though it is in the sight of the world) which is merely fleshly. But he is the real, divinely accepted Jew who is one within; i. e., who has in him the spirit of Abraham and the fathers in whom God delighted (John 1:47). His life may be hid from men, so that they may see nothing in him to praise, but it is praiseworthy in the sight of God, and circumcision is not that outward compliance with the letter of the law—literal circumcision—but that inward spiritual compliance with the true meaning of circumcision, the cutting off of all things that are impure and unholy, and that make the heart unworthy of an acceptance into the household of God.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
III. Jewish Privilege Does Not
Diminish Guilt, and the Scriptures
Include Both Jew and Gentile Alike Under Sin
Romans 3:1-20
1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? [Paul’s argument was well calculated to astonish the Jews. If some notable Christian should argue conclusively that the Christian and the infidel stood on an equal footing before God, his argument would not be more startling to the church than was that of Paul to the Jews of his day. They naturally asked the two questions found in this first verse, so Paul places the questions before his readers that he may answer them.] 2 Much every way: first of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. [To the circumcised Jew God had given the Scriptures. The law, the Psalms, the prophets were his, with all the revelations and promises therein contained. They revealed man’s origin, his fall and his promised redemption; they also described the Redeemer who should come, and prepared men to receive him and to believe him. How unspeakable the advantage of the Jew in possessing such a record. But the Jew had not improved this advantage, and so we may regard him as asking the apostle this further question, "But, after all, the greatest part of us have not believed on this Jesus, and so what advantage were our oracles to us in reality?" The apostle now answers this objection.] 3 For what if some were without faith? shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God? 4 God forbid: yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written [Psalms 51:4], That thou mightest be justified in thy words, And mightest prevail when thou comest into judgment. [True, the Jew, by unbelief, had failed to improve his advantage in possessing the Scriptures; but that did not alter the fact that he had had the advantage. He had failed, but God had not failed. Had the unbelief of the Jew caused God to break his promises, then indeed might the advantage of the Jew have been questioned, for in that case it would have proven a vanishing quantity. But, on the contrary, God had kept faith, and so the advantage, though unimproved, had been an abiding quantity. And this accords with the holiness and sinlessness of God. He is ever blameless, and because he is so, he must ever be assumed to be so, even though such an assumption should involve the presumption that all men are false and untrue, as, indeed, they are in comparison with him: for David testified to the incomparable righteousness of God, that it was a righteousness which acquitted God of all unfaithfulness to his words, and which causes him to prevail whenever men call him to account or pass judgment upon him.]
5 But if our unrighteousness commendeth the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? (I speak after the manner of men.) [I am not expressing my own views, but those of the man who objects to the truth I am presenting.] 6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 7 But if the truth of God through my lie abounded unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8 and why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose condemnation is just. [But some of you Jews, objecting to my argument, will say, "According to your statements, the unbelief and disobedience of us Jews, with reference to God’s Scripture, drew out, displayed and magnified the faithfulness and goodness of God in fulfilling his Scripture. Therefore, since our unbelief, etc., added to the glory of God by commending his righteousness, is not God unjust to punish us for that unbelief, etc., since it works such praiseworthy results?" My answer is, God forbid that sin should become righteousness, for if sin ceases to be sinful, how shall God judge the world, since then there shall be no sin to be condemned or punished? You see, then, the absurdity of your question, since it is a practical denial of the divinely established fact that there is to be a day of judgment. Sin, though it may, by its contrast, display the righteousness of God, is nevertheless utterly without merit. As an illustration, my case is analogous to yours. You arraign me before the bar of Jewish opinion, even as you yourselves are arraigned before the bar of God; yet you would not permit me to use before you the very same argument which you are seeking to use before God. You Jews regard me as a sinner, and charge me with being untrue to the Jewish religion, and with being a false representative of it, in that I declare it to be fulfilled in the gospel. Now, my lie (as you consider it), in this respect, redounds to the glory of God by being a contrast to his truthfulness. But would von Jews acquit me of the sin of heresy if I should make use of this your argument? And, again, if your reasoning is correct, why should I not, as certain, meaning to slander me, report that I do, and affirm that I say, Let us do evil that good may come? But those who avow such principles are justly condemned. Thus Paul showed that, in condemning him (though falsely), they condemn the very argument which they were seeking to affirm in verses.]
9 What then? are we [Jews] better than they? [The Gentiles.] No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin [Having met the effort of the Jew to make an exception in his case, as set forth in verse 5, the apostle now reaffirms his original charge of universal unrighteousness, in which both Jews and Greeks were involved. This charge he further proves by an elaborate chain of quotations, taken from the Old Testament, and chiefly from the Psalms]; 10 as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God; 12 They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one [Psalms 14:1-3; Psalms 53:1-3]: 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues they have used deceit [Psalms 5:9]: The poison of asps is under their lips [140:3]: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness [Psalms 10:7]: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace have they not known [Isaiah 59:7-8]: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. [Psalms 36:1. The above quotations are placed in logical order. "The arrangement is such," says Meyer, "that testimony is adduced: first, for the state of sin generally (vs. 10-12); second, the practice of sin in word (vs. 13, 14) and deed (vs. 13-17); and third, the sinful source of the whole—v. 18. "]
19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law [i. e., to the Jews]; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God: 20 because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin. [Having, by his quotations from the Old Testament, shown that the Jew was sinful, the apostle sets forth the result of this sin. Does the law provide any remedy? Is the Jew right in hoping that it shall afford him immunity from his guilt? These questions have been for some time before the apostle, and they now come up for final answer. We, says he, universally accept the truth that when the law speaks, it speaks to those who are under it. If, therefore, it has no voice save condemnation—and it has no other—and if that voice is addressed particularly to the Jew—and it is—his state is no better than that of the Gentile; he is condemned; and the law thus speaks for this very purpose of silencing the vain, unwarranted confidence of the Jew, that he may see himself in the same condition as the Gentile, and brought, with the rest of the world, under the condemnation of God; and there can be no legal escape from this condemnation, because, by the works of the law, it is impossible for humanity, in its frailty, to justify itself in God’s sight—nay, the law works a directly contrary result, for through it comes the knowledge and sense of sin, and not the sense of pardon or justification.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
The Universal Need of Righteousness Satisfied by
the Gospel Proclamation of Righteousness by Faith.
Romans 3:21 to Romans 4:25
I. Neither Jew Nor Greek Can Obtain
Righteousness Otherwise than by the Gospel
Romans 3:21-31
21 But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets [Having shut up all under condemnation for sin under the law with its works, Paul turns now to point all to freedom and justification under the gospel with its grace. This section of the Epistle is, therefore, as Bengel observes, "the opening of a brighter scene." There was no justification under the Mosaic dispensation, says the apostle; but now, under the dispensation of Christ (Romans 3:26; Romans 16:26), a righteousness apart from or independent of the law, having God as its author, and proceeding from God, and long hid in the councils of God, has been at last manifested (Romans 16:25-26; 1 Timothy 3:16). Having thus distinctly announced this new justification, Paul proceeds to give details, the first of which is a statement that it did not come unannounced or unheralded, for in their types, promises and prophecies (Genesis 15:6; Habakkuk 2:4) both the law and the prophets foretold that this righteousness would be revealed]; 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; 24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [The apostle adds four additional details, viz.: 1. This justification is conditional, being obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. 2. It is bestowed upon Jew and Gentile without distinction, for both classes, having failed to attain that perfection of righteousness and character which is the glory of God, are equally condemned without it. 3. It is a free gift, bestowed by God’s grace or favor. 4. It was obtained as a redemption by the giving of Jesus Christ as a ransom (1 Corinthians 6:20). The last detail is further elaborated in what follows]: 25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; 26 for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. [God set forth (or exhibited in his blood on the cross) Jesus Christ to be a propitiatory sacrifice (i. e., a sacrifice which would justify God in pardoning sinners) for the benefit of those who, through faith in him, would present him to God as such. And God thus set him forth as a bloody sacrifice, that he might in him, show his righteousness (i. e., his retributive justice, his hatred of sin, and firmness in punishing it), for this retributive justice of God had for a long time been obscured by his conduct towards sinners, for he had passed over, or left only partially punished, the sins done aforetime (i. e., all sins committed before Christ’s death), for he had neither fully forgiven nor fully punished them, but had passed them over, reserving the full punishment of them to inflict it upon Jesus when suffering upon the cross (Isaiah 53:4-6); that full forgiveness also might flow from the cross (John 1:29; 1 John 1:7; Revelation 1:5; Revelation 7:14), God forbearing to punish man because he anticipated this method of pardoning him. Thus God explained, or made clear, his former conduct, by setting forth, in these days, his crucified Son as a propitiatory sacrifice, that he might show himself, not just in condemning, but just and yet the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. Thus Paul makes it apparent that the sacrifices of the Old Testament were types, and because of them God showed forbearance, looking forward to Christ, the real propitiatory sacrifice, in whose sufferings on the cross God punished sin, that he might show mercy and grant pardon to the sinner. The propitiatory sacrifice of Christ could only take place with his free and full consent, for it would have else been unjust to punish one being for the sin of another.]
27 Where then is the glorying? [Romans 2:17; Romans 2:23.] It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay: but by a law of faith. [In all that portion of this Epistle embraced between Romans 2:17 to Romans 3:20, Paul has been demolishing the boastful spirit of the Jew. As he ends his successful argument, he pauses now to ask, triumphantly, What is left of this boasting? If a man is saved not as a righteous person, but as a pardoned criminal, where is there room for boastfulness? There is none at all; it is excluded. But by what law or principle is it excluded? by that of works? No; for such a law tends to foster it; but by the law or principle of faith. The law of works, which says, "Do this if thou wouldst live," tended to develop a spirit of self-righteousness; but the law of faith, which says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved," silences all boasting.] 28 We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also: 30 if so be that God is one, and he shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. [Therefore, as the conclusion of the whole argument, we reckon that every man, be he Jew or Gentile, is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. If only those who kept the law of Moses could be justified, then only could Jews be justified, for they alone possessed this law, and it is addressed only to them. But this state of affairs would belie the character of God. Does he not create, feed and govern the Gentiles? and is he not then the God of the Gentiles? Or are there two Gods: one for the Jew and one for the Gentile? The question is absurd; there is but one God, and he is God both of the Jews and Gentiles, and as each race is alike wholly dependent upon him, he must deal impartially by each; and this he does, for he saves both Jew and Gentile in the same manner; i. e., by faith. It may be well to note, in this connection, that Luther added the word "alone" to this verse, thus: "We reckon, therefore, that a man is justified by faith alone." In combating the error of Rome (that men are justified by works), Luther fell into another error, for repentance is as much a means of justification as faith, and there is no merit in either of them. The meritorious cause of our justification is the atoning blood of Christ, and by faith, repentance, baptism, etc., we appropriate the blood of Christ. These acts, on our part, do not make us worthy of justification, but they are the conditions fixed by Christ, on compliance with which he invests us with the benefits of his blood; i. e., justifies us.] 31 Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law. [Does the conclusion, proved by my argument, make the law of none effect? God forbid: on the contrary, it establishes the law by clearing it of misunderstanding. It was given to show that no man could attain salvation by self-righteousness, and we establish it by showing that it accomplished the end for which it was framed. We have shown that it was of no service to justify men; but of great service to convict them of sin, and thus lead them to Christ for justification.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. The Gospel Method of Justification, Exemplified in the
Cases of Abraham and David, Must Be Applied
Both to the Literal and Spiritual Seed of Abraham
Romans 4:1-25
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, hath found according to the flesh? [The word "found" means "obtained" (Hebrews 9:12) or "got" (Luke 9:12). Knowing that the Jew would resist and controvert his conclusion that the Jew would have to be justified by faith, just as the Gentile, Paul further confirms his conclusion by a test case. For the test he selects Abraham, the father of the race, and the earthly head of the theocracy. No more fitting individual could be chosen, for the nation had never claimed that it had risen higher than its head; therefore, whatever could be proved as to Abraham must be conceded to be true as to all. What, says Paul, in the light of our proposition, shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, hath obtained, by his fleshly nature, apart from the grace of God; i. e., as a doer of the law (Galatians 3:2-3)? Surely, he obtained nothing whatever in this manner.] 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not toward God. 3 For what saith the scripture? [Genesis 15:6] And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for right- eousness. [Now, of course, Abraham was some way justified. If he was justified by works, as you Jews suppose, he has ground for glorying toward God, for he can claim his justification from God as a debt due to him; but we hear of no such glorying toward God, and hence he was not justified by works. On the contrary, we hear that he was justified by faith, for the Scripture says that he believed God and his belief was counted unto him for righteousness.] 4 Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. [Let us illustrate our point by the case of a workman. If the workman does all he agreed to do, then his reward or hire is due him, not as a matter of grace or favor, but as a just debt. But if, on the contrary, the workman does not fulfill his agreement at all, but merely believes the promise of his employer that he shall nevertheless be paid, then the hire is not hire at all; it is a mere gift of grace and favor, and not a debt. Now, this latter is the position occupied by Abraham, and by every one that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, for their faith is reckoned unto them for the works of the law—those works of righteousness which they promised to do, but never performed. The sentence is very elliptical, the apostle mingling the illustration with its application, in the on-rushing of his thought.]
6 Even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, 7 saying [Psalms 32:1-2], Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin. [The quotation from David does not show a positive imputation of righteousness, but a negative one—a refusal to reckon the unrighteous. "It is implied," says Alford, "by Paul, that the remission of sin is equivalent to the imputation of righteousness, that there is no negative state of innocence, none intermediate between acceptance for righteousness and rejection for sin." This accords with the entire trend of Scripture, which recognizes but two great classes: those who shall stand upon the right, and those who shall pass to the left in the judgment. Paul has now concluded his first point in the test case of Abraham—he has shown that he was justified by faith, and that such a justification was recognized by David, and pronounced blessed. He now takes up the second point, and shows that if Abraham was not justified by the doing of the law, neither was he by the rite of circumcision. In this part of the argument it should be borne in mind that God declared Abraham justified by faith at least thirteen years before Abraham submitted to the rite of circumcision. Moreover, he unites Abraham with all the uncircumcised, and tries the case of all in Abraham.] 9 Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say, To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness. 10 How then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision [Do the words of David apply only to the Jews, the circumcised, or do they likewise apply also to the Gentiles, the uncircumcised? Surely they apply to the uncircumcised, for they describe the blessing which Abraham enjoyed before his circumcision. Of what use, then, was circumcision, and why did Abraham receive it?]: 11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them; 12 and the father of. circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision. [Now, circumcision was not given to Abraham to justify him, but as a seal, or token, that he had obtained righteousness by faith. Moreover, it was given to him that he might become the father of all believing Gentiles, God having agreed to make him the head or spiritual father of all those saved by Christ on condition of his being circumcised, and Abraham having been circumcised in order to obtain this exalted honor, and thirdly, that he might be the spiritual father of those who are not only circumcised like him, but walk in the steps of that faith of his of which circumcision was the seal. Thus circumcision was the seal that God had made Abraham the father of all who believe in God, and are justified by their belief, whether they belong to the Jews, who, in the earlier ages, had the better opportunity to believe, or to the Gentiles, who had that better opportunity in these latter ages.]
13 For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. [In this third division of his argument Paul shows that Abraham did not obtain the promise of heirship for himself and his seed through the agency of the law, but by reason of the righteousness reckoned to him because of his faith. Many promises were given to Abraham (Genesis 12:7; Genesis 13:14-15; Genesis 15:13; Genesis 17:8; Genesis 22:17), and Paul sums them all up in the phrase, "that he should be heir of the world." This phrase has been variously explained, but it obviously means that Abraham should inherit the world as his spiritual children, and that his children should inherit it also as their spiritual family or household. The heirship of Abraham in no way conflicts with that of Christ or God. Comp. 8:17.] 14 For if they that are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect: 15 for the law worketh wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression. [Abraham had, by reason of his human nature, to be justified by his faith. If justification had to be earned, and men had to seek it by the works of the law, then faith—all the things which we hope for and believe in—would be made void.] 16 For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace; to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17 (as it is written [Genesis 17:5], A father of many nations have I made thee) before him whom ye believed, even
God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. 18 Who in hope believe against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. [Now, since a righteousness of law is unattainable by men, the inheritance was bestowed because of a righteousness of faith, that it might be a free gift, and that all the promises concerning it might be sure, to the entire household. Not only to that division of Abraham’s spiritual children who are under the law (believing Jews), but also to that part who are only his children by reason of a like faith with him (believing Gentiles), for Abraham is the father of all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles; as it is written, "A father of many nations have I made thee." And Abraham was such a spiritual father in the estimate of God, who, in his omnipotence and omniscience, gives life to the dead (and, from a child-bearing standpoint, Abraham and Sarah were as good as dead), and speaks of unborn and as yet non-existent children as though they already had being. And God spoke thus to the man who, when nature withheld all reason to hope, still hoped for the purpose of obtaining from God the fulfillment of the promise that he should be the father of many nations, according to God’s gracious assurance, when he bade Abraham look upon the stars, and said, "So shall thy seed be." The word "made," in verse 17, means to constitute or appoint. "This word," says Shedd, "denotes that the paternity spoken of was the result of a special arrangement or economy. It would not be used to denote the merely physical connection between father and son." Such a word is to be expected, for the promise was that Abraham was to be a spiritual, not a fleshly, father of many nations. Again, it is fittingly said that Abraham was such in God’s sight, for it was God, and not man, who thus anticipated the future. Though Abraham and Sarah were long past the age of child-bearing, and though it was to be many centuries before Abraham would have spiritual children, begotten of the gospel among the Gentiles, yet God spoke of him as the father of many nations; fore-knowing his own power and foreseeing his own workings, God meant both to make him a father in the near future, and to give him a spiritual seed among the Gentiles in the remote future.]
19 And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 20 yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. [This paragraph explains the clause in verse 18, which sets forth how Abraham "in hope believed against hope." God promised Abraham a son, and though nature told him that it was now impossible for him to have a son, by reason of his own age, and the age of his wife, yet Abraham believed that (the promise of) God was more potent than (the laws of) nature, and in this belief he waxed strong, and glorified God above nature, being fully assured that God was able to perform all that he promised.] 22 Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. [Abraham, like all others, could not honor God by rendering perfect obedience to his will, but he could honor him by being fully persuaded that he would keep his word, though to do so might seemingly involve an impossibility. It was this act of honoring God by belief which was reckoned unto Abraham for righteousness. Faith still thus honors God when it trusts that God can love a sinner and save him notwithstanding his lost condition. "The sinner," says Hodge, "honors God, in trusting his grace, as much as Abraham did in trusting his power. "] 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; 24 but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. [Now, Moses, when he recorded the fact that Abraham was accounted righteous for his faith, did not do so for the sole purpose of giving Abraham the honor due him, but he also recorded the fact for our sakes also, unto whom a like righteousness shall be reckoned because we believe on God the Father that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, even Jesus who was delivered up to die for our sins, and raised from the dead for our justification. This paragraph shows that our belief is very similar to that of Abraham. If Abraham believed that God could accomplish seemingly impossible things concerning his son Isaac, so we likewise believe that God accomplished, and will accomplish seemingly impossible things through Jesus, who, according to the flesh, was also a son of Abraham. In both cases it is no mere abstract belief in God, but a concrete belief as to certain facts accomplished and to be accomplished by God. In verse 25 Paul presents the twofold nature of Christ’s propitiatory work, for he was both sacrifice and priest. He offered himself and was delivered up as a sacrifice for our sins, and he was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven that he might, as High Priest, present his blood before the face of God in a heavenly sanctuary for our justification, thus completing his high-priestly duties or offices—Hebrews 9:11-28.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
Subdivision D.
Results of Christ’s Life Discussed, and Shown to be
Capable of as Limitless Universality as the Results of Adam’s Life.
Romans 5:1-21
I. Results of the Justification Wrought by Christ,
Viz.: Peace, Hope, Love and Reconciliation
1 Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; 2 through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. [Having fully established justification by faith as a fact beyond all controversy, the apostle now proceeds to display its fruits and benefits. Therefore, says he, being justified or accounted righteous because of our faith, we have, through the merits of Jesus Christ, obtained peace with God; that is to say, we have the friendship of God, and our disquieted conscience has grown tranquil in the assurance that God no longer regards us as enemies, to be subdued, or criminals, to be punished. And, through the merits of Christ, we have also entered, by faith, into this gracious state of covenant relationship, favor, fellowship and communion with God which is now accorded us, and by which we are now strengthened and established, and we have hope of that infinitely greater fellowship and communion which we shall enjoy when we stand at last in the revealed glory of God—John 17:24; Revelation 21:11; Revelation 22:4-5.] 3 And not only so, but we also rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness; 4 and stedfastness, approvedness; and approvedness, hope: 5 and hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us. [But the joy of the believer is not confined to this expectation of future good; he rejoices also in present evils, even in tribulation, because tribulation develops in him those elements of character which make him useful here, and prepare him for heaven hereafter; for tribulation teaches him that patience or steadfastness which endures without flinching, and this steadfastness wakens in him a sense of divine approval, and the thought that God approves adds to his hope that he shall obtain the blessings of the future world, and this hope is not so fickle as to disappoint or mock him, but gives him triumphant certainty, because the love which God has towards him fills his heart, being inwardly manifested to him by the Holy Spirit, who is given to all believers—at the time of their regeneration.]
6 For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: for peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life; 11 and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. [We have here the external evidences or manifestations of that love of God which, shed abroad in the heart of the Christian, forms the basis of his hope. Before we were strengthened and established by covenant, justification, or any of the blessings of a state of grace (verse 2), yea, even while we were in that helpless weakness of sin which so incapacitated us as to render us incapable of goodness, Christ, at the time appointed by the Father as best for all (at the time when the disease of sin raging in the human race had reached its climax), died for our benefit, though we were then reckoned among the unknown and the ungodly. And how apparent was the love of this action on his part, for though men are reluctant and unwilling enough to die for a righteous, i. e., a just or upright, man, and might, perhaps, be persuaded to die for a good, i. e., a loving and a benevolent, man, yet God commends to us the love he bears towards us, in that we see that he gave Christ to die for us while we were not good, no, not even upright, but while we were sinners. And no wonder that such a love becomes to us a source of hope, for, viewing the situation as to our previous and present states, if he did this for us while in a sinful or unjustified state, much more will he now save us from wrath and deserved punishment, since we are now in a justified state, being cleansed of all our sins by the blood of Jesus. And viewing the situation as to Jesus, and his past and present power, if, by dying, he exercised such a power over our lives that he reconciled us to God, much more, being made amenable to his power by being thus reconciled, shall he be able, by the greater power of his life (for the living Christ is more powerful than a dead one), to keep us in the way of life, and ultimately save us. Thus we see that peace, and a covenant state, and joy triumphing over tribulations, and hope founded on the love of God, are all fruits of justification; but the apostle, in verse 11, adds one more: Not only, says he, do all these fruits result, but there is yet another, viz.: we rejoice in God. We no longer rejoice in rites, ceremonies, ancestries, or legal righteousness, or any such thing; on the contrary, we rejoice in God, approaching him through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom God has also approached us, for through him we have now received this reconciliation which causes us to rejoice in God. In verse 6, instead of saying that Christ died for us, the apostle uses the abstract term "the ungodly." Had he used the pronoun "us," it might have confused the mind of his readers, for they might have applied it to themselves as Christians, "us" indicating the unity of church fellowship. But the term "ungodly" admits of no misconstruction; it describes the scattered, the unknown, the lost.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. Adam, the Trespasser Unto Death, Contrasted
With Christ, the Righteous Unto Life
Romans 5:12-21
12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sin:—13 for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come. [The comparison opened in verse 12 is carried through various contrasts and correlations until it closes, as modified by the intervening verses, in verse 18. Adding to verse 12 the modifications which appear in verse 18, and skipping the intervening correlations, that we may get the connection, and have the central thought clearly before us, we would paraphrase thus: Now, since Christ is the source of justification and all its benefits, we submit to you a comparison between him and Adam, who is the source of condemnation and all its hardships, thus: As through the act of the one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and as through this one sin death also entered, so that for this one sin the sentence of death passed upon us all, even so through the one act of the one, Christ (viz.: his suffering on the cross), the free gift of being accounted righteous came unto all men to justify them (i. e., to release them from the sentence of death which came upon them by Adam’s sin), that they might live. Such is the central thought of the remainder of this chapter. But we have anticipated the full comparison, and the reader must bear in mind, in the perusal of what follows, that Paul is working it out, and does not complete it until verse 18. With verse 13 Paul enters on a proof that all sinned in Adam, and incurred the death penalty by reason of his sin as their federal head, and not by reason of their own individual sins. To understand his argument, we must remember that God gave a law of life and death to Adam, and then refrained from giving any law like it until the days of Moses. The law of Moses was also one of life and death. It provided that those who kept it should live, and that those who failed to keep it should die. But as none kept it, it became a general law, involving all under it in the condemnation of death. It is clear, therefore, that Adam died for his own sin, and equally clear that those who lived under the Mosaic law might have died for their own sin as well as for Adam’s sin. But for whose sin did those die who lived in the twenty-five centuries between Adam and Moses? Clearly they died for the sin committed by Adam, their head. Keeping these things before us, we follow Paul’s reasoning thus: It is clear that men die because they sinned in Adam, their federal head, and not because they committed sin in their individual capacity; for though it is true that the people living in the world from the days of Adam until the giving of the law committed sin, yet where there is no law condemning to death (and there was none such in those days) sin is not imputed so as to incur the sentence of death. Therefore, in this absence of law, the people of that day would have lived in spite of their own individual sins; nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not broken any law having a death penalty attached to it, as did Adam, who, in his representative capacity as head of the race, was a figure or a type of the coming Christ, who was also to be manifested as a representative head of the race. It may be noted here that some, by reason of their gross wickedness, may have been specially punished by death, as, for instance, those who were obliterated by the deluge, or those who were burned in the flames of Sodom, etc., and also it may be observed that murderers should suffer death for their sin (Genesis 9:6). But there was no general law involving all in the death penalty, and such special instances in no way weakened Paul’s argument, for these, indeed, died by special dispensation of providence, on account of their peculiar wickedness; but they would have died just the same, under the decree passed upon Adam, if they had never been guilty of this peculiar wickedness, just as all others died who were not thus guilty. In other words, individual guilt did not bring the death sentence, for it already rested on all; it only brought a sudden, summary and peculiar mode of death upon these particular sinners, so as to stamp them as abnormally wicked] 15 But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. [Thus far Paul has told us that Adam is the source of sin, condemnation and death, and that he is a type of Christ. In this fifteenth verse he qualifies the relation of type and antitype by a statement that their resemblance does not hold good in all respects, for the sin of Adam is not like the free gift of Christ when he offered himself upon the cross. Not only do these two acts differ in their very essence, one being the perfection of self-indulgence, with power to kill, and the other the perfection of self-sacrifice, with power to make alive; but, as might be expected, there is a worldwide difference, both as to the results, and as to the range or scope, and the certainty of the results. With these thoughts Paul now concerns himself.] For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many. [If Adam’s one act of sin brought death upon the race, so that all men die because of his act, much more did the goodness or favor of God and the gift of life by the goodness or favor of one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many. We are here informed that the result of the sacrificial act of Christ fully reversed and nullified the effects of the act of Adam, and that it did even much more. The effect, in other words, had in all points as wide a range, and in some points a much wider range, than that of Adam’s act. Without explaining how it is as wide-reaching as Adam’s act, the apostle presses on to tell in what respects the act of Christ is wider. But, to avoid misunderstanding, we should pause to see how Christ’s act equaled and nullified Adam’s act. Adam, as progenitorial head of the race (1 Timothy 2:13; 1 Corinthians 11:8), involved, by his sin, all the race in natural death—death without any hope of a resurrection, much less of immortality. Christ, as creative head of the race, by his righteousness redeemed all from this natural death by accomplishing for all the resurrection of the dead. So far, the act of Christ merely cancels the act of Adam. If the act of Christ had had no wider effectiveness than this, it would have been insufficient for man’s needs. It would doubtless have sufficed for infants, and others whom immaturity and mental incapacity rendered incapable of individual sin, but it. would have fallen short of the needs of those who, in addition to their sin in Adam, had other sins of their own for which to answer. The hope of the world lies, therefore, in the "much more" which Paul states. Again, we should notice that if we had only Adam’s sin to answer for, then the teaching of this passage would establish the doctrine of universal salvation, for Christ’s act completely counteracted Adam’s act. But there are other sins beside that first one committed by Adam, and other punishments beside natural death. It is in its dealings with those that the range of Christ’s act exceeds that of Adam, and it is here also that salvation becomes limited. The resurrection (which nullifies the effect of Adam’s act), though a form of justification, precedes the hour of judgment, and hence can not be final justification, for the latter is the product of the judgment. Moreover, the resurrection which Christ effects, as federal creative head of the race, does not depend upon faith; for all, the believing and the unbelieving, the just and the unjust, have part in it. But the justification which comes after that resurrection depends upon other relations and provisions. In administering this final justification, Christ stands as the federal regenerative head (the headship which peculiarly pertains to the church, and not to the race—Ephesians 1:22-23), and bestows it upon that part of the race which has been regenerated by faith. This headship, therefore, is conditional, and the salvation which depends upon it is not universal, but conditioned on faith. To illustrate by a figure, there are two doors which we must pass in order to inherit eternal life. The first is natural death. This door was closed for all by Adam, and opened for all by Christ. The second is the judgment. This door was closed for all having capacity to sin by their own individual sins, and opened by Christ for those who shall be justified through belief in him. Therefore, in teaching that Christ leads all through the first door, Paul has not taught universal salvation, for true, complete salvation lies beyond the second door. Justification from the sin of Adam is one thing, and final justification from our own sins is quite another.] 16 And not as through one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment came of one unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification. [The apostle here makes mention of the main particular, wherein the effect of Christ’s act has a wider range than the effect of Adam’s act. It may be well to observe, at this point, that wherever the act of Christ is simply equal in range to that of Adam, the effect is unconditional; but wherever the range exceeds that of Adam, then it becomes conditional upon faith, and is only enjoyed by believers. Paul does not here pause to bring out this important detail, but it is abundantly set forth by him elsewhere, and by other New Testament writers, so that it is, of course, implied here. Moreover, says he, the sentence of condemnation which came through the one person, Adam, though it comprehended the whole human family, is not as wide-reaching as the free gift, or justification, which came through Christ, for the judgment came because of one sin; but the free gift of justification came as to many trespasses to pardon them. In other words, the bestowal of justification exceeded in quantity the bestowal of condemnation; for one condemnation was given for one sin, but the justification was bestowed many times because of many sins. If Christ’s one act of sacrifice had simply counteracted the effects of the one sin of Adam, then there would have been equality; but it did much more, for it also effected the justification of the countless trespasses of believers who obtained pardon by reason of it. How great is the efficacy of our Lord’s sacrificial act! If one single sin brought death upon the entire human family, how unspeakably awful is its power! Who can measure the destructive force and the eternal energy of a single sin? Who then can estimate the justifying power of the sacrifice of Christ, since it nullifies, for believers, the accumulative power of the incalculable numbers of sins committed by innumerable sinners, in all the untold moments of human lives, each sin of which carries a destructive force which no lapse of ages can exhaust? No wonder, then, that we are told that there is no "other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved." We should note also that Paul does not here say that the sacrifice of Christ justifies all mankind from their many trespasses. This would be Universalism. He merely contrasts the power of one sin with that greater power which nullifies the effect of many sins, and thus shows that the range of Christ’s act exceeded that of Adam. To counteract Adam’s one sin in a million of his descendants, is a narrower work than to counteract the more than a million sins committed by any mature sinner, much less the unthinkable number committed by millions of sinners.] 17 For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. [The apostle now undertakes to show wherein the results of Christ’s act are more certain than those of Adam’s act. By the use of "receive," which is active, and not passive, Paul makes it plain that the results of Christ’s act, of which he now speaks, are conditioned upon an acceptance of the act on the part of mankind. For if, says he, by the trespass of one man, death reigned upon all, through the sin of one, much more surely (because of the nature of God the Father, and the august personality of his Son) shall they that accept and receive to themselves the abundance of grace offered through Christ, and the abundance of the gift of righteousness (or justification), reign in that ineffable future of life through one, even through Jesus Christ. The Son of God is a greater personage than Adam, and the positive power of his righteousness is greater than the negative power of Adam’s sin; therefore, if Adam’s act has insured, and still insures, the reign of death in the world, much more does Christ’s act insure the reign of life in the future world. The word "abundance," found in this verse, is very significant. All shall have the ordinary grace and righteousness in Christ which result in the resurrection—gracious result, which equals and nullifies the ungracious workings of the sin of Adam; but only those who "receive" it by faith shall have that surplus or "abundance" of the act of Christ which exceeds the act of Adam, and results in a reign of life, not a mere resurrection.] 18 So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. [So then, says the apostle, in conclusion, if one act of sin brought sentence of condemnation unto death upon all, because all were in sinful Adam as their forefather, thus sharing his act; so also one act of righteousness (the sacrifice of the cross) brought unto all justification (or release from Adam’s sentence of condemnation) unto life. Adam’s sin brought natural death upon the whole human family, but nothing more. The punishment which we incur through Adam terminates at death. If men are punished after death, it is not because of Adam’s, but because of their own, individual sins.] 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous. [Verse 18 has spoken of the effects; viz.: condemnation and justification. This verse proves that these effects must come, for it sets forth the causes, sin and righteousness, which produce them, and shows where and how these causes came to exist, thus showing that Adam and Christ resemble each other in that one is the fountain of evil and the other the fountain of good; for, as the disobedience of one caused many (all) to be constituted sinners who had personally committed no sin, so the obedience of the other (Philippians 2:8) caused the many (all) to be constituted righteous as to Adam’s sin (i. e., sufficiently to be resurrected). It is evident that only in verses 16 and 17 does Paul suggest any of those larger results wherein the act of Christ exceeded those of the acts of Adam. It may seem strange to some that, having thus introduced the larger things of Christ, Paul should, in verses 18 and 19, return to those things wherein the acts of each were equal. But this is to be expected, for Paul is describing the resemblance of the two; and, of course, where one exceeds the other, the resemblance ceases. It is natural, therefore, that Paul should briefly dismiss these enlargements or "abundances" of Christ which exceed similarity, and return to that precise point, the unity of the many in the one, which constitutes between the two federal heads the relation of type and antitype. It was Paul’s design to establish this oneness, "in order that," as Chrysostom observes, "when the Jew says to you, ’How by the well-doing of one, Christ, was the world saved?’ you may be able to say to him, ’How by the disobedience of one, Adam, was the world condemned?’ "] 20 And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly: 21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. [All this reasoning almost wholly ignores the Mosaic law.: where then did it come in? and how did it affect the situation? Thus: the law came in, in addition to sin and death, for the purpose of increasing sin, and also that sense of guilt which could not be very poignantly felt while men were dying on account of a prenatal sin committed by Adam. But when the law had thus made men conscious of the abundant and universal prevalence of sin, then the grace of God made itself even more abundant in longsuffering, in patience, in forbearance, etc., and especially in preparing the gospel; that as sin had reigned, and produced death, even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through the ministry and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
Subdivision E.
Sanctification of the Believer Required and
Obtained in Change of Relationship by the Gospel.
Romans 6:1 to Romans 8:30
I. Justification is Brought About by Such a Relation to Christ
as Creates an Obligation to be Dead to Sin and Alive
to Righteousness, as is Symbolically Shown by Baptism
Romans 6:1-14
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? [Macknight says, truly, that the thought of this and the next chapter reverts to Romans 3:31, and is intended to refute the thought of that verse, as reintroduced by Romans 5:20-21; viz.: that justification by faith renders the law useless, and encourages sin, that grace may abound. Paul refutes these thoughts, and asserts the contrary principle, that justification by faith establishes the law. What, says he, shall be inferred from what we have taught? It is true that God’s favor abounds in proportion to sin, so as to always exceed it; but are the friends of Christ therefore justified in thinking they can live sinfully (Galatians 5:13)? or are the Lord’s enemies justified in asserting that we teach that men should do evil that good may come (3:9)? or that we teach that Christians should continue to commit sin, as they did before their conversion, in order that they may increase the grace by increasing the sin (5:20)? Not at all. Our gospel destroys sin: can it, therefore, give encouragement and vigor to it? We who, by baptism, have put away sin, so that we died to it, can we, nevertheless, accomplish the impossible by still living in it? The apostle, in asserting that baptism is a death to sin, does not speak literally, but uses a bold and appropriate figure, suggested by the inherent symbolism of the ordinance. Baptism is the consummation of repentance; and were repentance perfect, the immersion would result in such an abhorrence of sin, such a complete cessation of it, and such a love of righteousness as would bring about an actual death toward, or abolition of, sin, and the Lord designed and desires such a full transformation; but truth compels us to acknowledge that repentance, like all other human operations, is imperfect, and, therefore, in baptism we only die to sin in so far that righteousness becomes the rule of life, and sin the painful, mortifying, humiliating, heart-breaking exception.]
3 Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. [The apostle’s argument rests on the nature of Christ’s death, etc. Jesus died to take away our sins, to bear them for us, and rid us of them (John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24); but in order that he may do this for us, so that we may partake of the benefits of his death, it is necessary that he be our representative; i. e., that we be in him, and in him at the very time when he thus gave himself unto death, so that his death becomes, representatively, our death. To aid us in conceiving the accomplishment of this unity with him in the act of death, the ordinance of baptism was instituted, so that, by it, we are not only baptized into him, but also into his death. One purpose, therefore, of baptism is to so unite us with him that, in him, we may die to sin and a life in a sinful kingdom of darkness, and rise to live again in righteousness in a sinless kingdom of light (7:4; 8:13; Galatians 2:19-20; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 6:14; Colossians 2:11-20). Such being the nature of the ordinance, it precludes the idea that a baptized person could continue to commit sin. You must therefore recognize, says the apostle, that in baptism you died with Christ unto sin, or are ye so ignorant of the meaning of that ordinance that you do not understand that it symbolizes your death to sin and your resurrection to righteousness? If you are thus ignorant, then know that all we who were immersed into Christ were immersed into his death. We were buried with him, through immersion, into death as to our sin: that like as Christ was raised from the dead, because the glory of the just and holy Father required it, so we also might walk or act in a new manner of life; i. e., a sinless life. Thus baptism, which is a burial and resurrection performed in water, attests, in the strongest manner, the Christian’s obligation to be sinless. Only the dead are buried. Brief as is the momentary burial of the immersed, it is, nevertheless, a seal of their death to sin, and hence of their cleansing from it (Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16). Only the resurrected rise from the grave. Therefore, one who has not fully resolved to live as having died unto sin has no right to be lifted from the waters of baptism. If he is still dead in trespasses and sin, he should remain buried.]
5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection [The apostle here meets the cavil of some objector who supposes that we might die to sin in baptism, and still be under no obligation to refrain from it after baptism. The answer is, that we can not be united to Christ in one part of the ordinance (the burial, or immersion), and severed from him in the other part (the resurrection, or emersion). If, says he, we have become united with Christ in that part of the ordinance wherein he died to destroy the power of sin, it is morally certain that we shall continue to be united with him in that other part, wherein he rose to lead a new life—a life no longer confined to earth and its sinful environment, but one far removed from the realm of wickedness in the courts of the Father. If, therefore, we died with him to sin, we must also rise with him to lead a new life in the (to us) new kingdom of God, which looks forward to the enjoyment of those very changes wrought in Christ by his ascension. Neither in dying nor living do we accomplish the actual in the ordinance. We are not actually united with Christ in death, but in an ordinance which resembles it. We do not actually die as to sin, as did Christ; but we do profess a likeness to his death. We do not rise, as did he, to a glorified life, but we strive to maintain a similitude, or likeness, to it. When at last, in a real death and resurrection, Christ actually unites us with himself, we shall indeed be dead to sin, and alive to righteousness; for there is no sin among the immortals, and there shall be no lack of perfection in those who have been changed into Christ’s image];
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; 7 for he that hath died is justified from sin. 8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; 9 knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him. 10 For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. [At this point the apostle passes over from the symbolic union which is effected on our part by baptism, to the actual union effected on Christ’s part by his real assumption of our humanity through his incarnation. Though, in baptism, we only symbolically died, yet we may be sure that the symbolism has actual truth and verity back of it, for we know that our sinful human nature, which we sought to bury in baptism, did really, actually, die in the person of Christ crucified, that the sin might be purged, and that it, being a slave to sin, might obtain actual, unqualified liberty; for who so dies pays the penalty of sin, and (if he can live again) obtains his freedom. But if we thus actually die in Christ, we believe that we shall also actually live with him (not a merely symbolically glorified life, such as this present, but an actually glorified existence in the future), for we were actually united with him in his passion, and we know that he rose triumphant from the grave, to die no more; and so, we being in him, did likewise, and the act was final (as to us), for Christ died to sin once (and we also in him), but the life that he liveth he liveth no longer in mortal flesh on earth among men, but he liveth it in the presence of and unto God (and we also in him). Since we know, therefore, that these grand verities underlie the symbolic profession which we make in baptism, we must exalt the actual above the symbolic, and indeed look upon ourselves as dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and not as mere dreamers following an idle, visionary symbol.]
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof: 13 neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace. [Thus the apostle vindicates his teaching, and shows that it does not justify any indulgence in sin. The Christian is to live realizing that in the person of Christ he has already actually passed from death unto life, and that therefore it is incumbent upon him to lead, as far as his strength permits, a life of heavenly perfection. He is to remember that however hard his conflict with sin may be, yet sin is not to lord it over him in the end, so as to procure his final condemnation, for he is under a system of grace which shall procure his pardon in the hour of judgment, and not under a system of law which would, in that hour, most certainly condemn him.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. Justification Results in a Change From Service of
Law and Sin, with Death as a Reward, to the Service
of Grace and Righteousness, With Life as a Reward
Romans 6:15-22
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. [In the last section Paul showed that sin was not justified, even though it causes God’s goodness to abound. In this section he shows that freedom from the law does not justify freedom in sinning. As usual, he presents the proposition, denies its validity, and expands his denial in what follows.] 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? ["I take it for granted that ye know and believe" (Stuart) the principles, that no man can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), and that no matter what profession he makes to the contrary, a man is truly the servant of that master to whom he habitually and continually yields a slavish obedience (John 8:34). These things which are true in the ordinary walks of life are equally true in spiritual matters, whether this obedience be rendered unto sin, which compensates with the wages of eternal death, or whether it be rendered unto God, so as to be rewarded with righteousness or justification (which is a prerequisite to eternal life). Thus it appears that, while we are not under law, we are under God; and hence under obligation to foster and preserve our relation to him as his servants, a relationship which is not lost by a single act of weakness, but which is lost if we continue in sin. "The apostle," says Scott, "demanded whether it might not be proved what master anyone served by observing the constant tenor of any one’s conduct. A person may do an occasional service for any one to whom he is not servant; but no doubt he is the servant of that man to whom he habitually yields and addicts himself, and in whose work he spends his time, and strength, and skill, and abilities, day after day, and year after year. "]
17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; 18 and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. [But thanks be to God that these principles are not mere matters of speculation with you, but have been tested and applied by you in your actual experience, for whereas ye were once the slaves of sin, ye, of your own free will and heart’s choice, changed your masters, and became, by your obedience to it, the servants or slaves of the principles set down in the Christian or gospel form of teaching whereunto (as is the custom when slaves are sold) ye were delivered for service. Now, I use this illustration of the transfer of slaves, which is taken from daily, secular affairs, not because it is a perfect and adequate representation of your change of relationship in passing from the world unto Christ, but because your fleshly nature clouds your understanding of spiritual ideas, and you therefore comprehend them better if clothed in an earthly or parabolic dress, even if the figure or illustration is defective. Christ is far from being a tyrannical master, and certainly cherishes no such feelings towards you as those which a slave-owner holds towards his slaves; yet the figure nevertheless aids you to comprehend the point which I am now discussing, for you can readily see that, as under the old slavery, you presented your members as servants to impurity and to lawlessness for the purpose of being lawless, so, under the new service, it behooves you to now present your members as servants to righteousness for the purpose of becoming sanctified or holy.]
20 For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. [Whole-hearted service to God is now no more than you, by your past conduct, recognized as reasonable. For when ye were servants of sin ye made no effort whatever to serve righteousness, or to have two masters. If ye rendered no double-minded, divided service to sin in the days of your unregeneracy, surely you ought now to render a whole-souled, single-minded service to righteousness in these your regenerate days.] 21 What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [If consistency demands that you serve God with your whole heart, so profit and advantage also urges you so to do; for what profit had you when you served sin? In this present you were reaping, in that service, the things at which you may now well blush with shame, since they were preparing you to reap in the future death as a final harvest. But now having been made free from the slavery of sin, and having become a servant of God, your present reward is the blessedness and joy of a clean life, and your future reward is life eternal. And this is obvious, for, following my figure of slaves, masters and wages to the end, the wages which men earn and receive from your former master, sin, is death; but the wages which you can not earn, or deserve, but which God freely gives you for serving him, is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
III. Change of Relationship
From Law to Christ Illustrated
Romans 7:1-6
[In Romans 6:14 Paul laid down the principle that sin does not have dominion over Christians, because they are not under law, but under grace. The section which we have just closed discusses the first clause of this proposition under the figure of slavery, and shows that sin does not have dominion over us, for we have changed masters. This section discusses the second half of the proposition under the figure of marriage, and shows that we are not under the law, but under grace, for in Christ we have died as to our former husband (law), and been married to our new husband (grace).] 1 Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? 2 For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. [If, on the one hand, ye are, as I have shown, emancipated from the horrible tyranny of sin, that ye may serve righteousness, so, on the other hand, are ye likewise emancipated from the more sane and orderly, but still rigorous, dominion of law, whether given by Moses or otherwise, that ye may live under the mild and gentle sway of grace. And would any of you deny this latter proposition? Surely, in order to do so, you must be very crude in knowledge; but I can not think you are so crude, for I am writing to those who know something about law, and hence must at least know this elementary principle, that law rules the living, and not the dead. The apostle might have cited many cases where this principle is applied: for instance, no public duties, taxes, etc., are required of the dead; they are never indicted for their crimes, etc.; but he chooses one illustration which peculiarly fits his argument, for it throws light on this question of dominion, viz.: the release from the law of marriage which is accorded to both the parties to a matrimonial contract, when death releases one of them. In this connection, and before we enter upon Paul’s argument, we should notice the principle to which he appeals, in order that we may not be confused by his application of it. It is the party who dies that is primarily released or freed from the law, and hence left free to contract a second marriage. The party who survives is, of course, likewise freed; but the freedom of the survivor is secondary, and derived from the freedom of the deceased, which has been attained by death. If the living only were free, and the deceased were bound by the marriage contract, the apostle would have nothing on which to base an illustration or found an argument.]
3 So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man. [If such freedom is accorded to the survivor, an equal liberty must be accorded to the deceased. But this liberty can not be enjoyed by him unless, by some means, he be raised from the dead.] 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. [While the marriage lasts the husband (law) has headship and control over the. wife (mankind). But death breaks the marriage bond, so that both parties are thereby at once released and made free to marry again. But the Christian occupies the position of the deceased party. He was united to Christ, being in the humanity of Christ; and being thus in Christ, he was, as it were, married to the law, for Christ was born even under law in its strict Mosaic form (Luke 2:21-27; Galatians 4:4); and lived subject to that law (Matthew 5:17-18); and died to the law in the death of the cross (Colossians 2:14). Now we, being united to Christ, in all this, are, in him as our representative, also dead to the law (6:6; Galatians 2:19), that we might, as one freed by death from marriage to the law (Ezekiel 16:8-38; Jeremiah 2:2; Jeremiah 3:14), be at liberty to contract the second marriage with and to the risen Christ, that in this marriage it might be our privilege and obligation not to obey the law, but to bring forth fruit unto God. The Christian, enjoying a resurrection in Christ, derives untold benefit from a well-recognized legal principle. Ordinarily the liberty from law enjoyed by the dead is of no practical value to them; but the Christian rising, in Christ his representative, from the dead, is free from law and espoused to Christ.]
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. [These verses set forth the change in state and habit which results from our change of husbands, or the different fruitage of our lives, as suggested in verse 4. As Christians, a different fruitage is expected from that which our lives bore under the law; for before we became Christians, when we were governed by our fleshly nature, the sinful passions—passions which prompted us to gratify them, and which led us to sin if we did gratify them, and which we discovered to be sinful by means of the light of the law—lusted and worked in our bodily members to bring forth the fruit of death: but now we are released from the dominion of our husband (the law), having severed the tie that bound us to him by dying in. the person of Christ, our representative, so that now we serve God with our new, regenerated spirit (an inward power), and not in the old-fashioned manner, which was by obedience to a written precept (an external power).]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
IV. The Sense of Bondage Which Comes Through
the Relationship of the Law Prepares the Soul to
Seek Deliverance Through Relationship to Christ
Romans 7:7-25
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said [Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21], Thou shalt not covet: 8 but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for apart from law sin is dead. [Those following the apostle through the last section would be apt to have confused views concerning the law, which would lead them to ask, "If it is such a blessed thing to be free from the law, is not the law evil? If God took as much pains to emancipate us from the law as he did to free us from sin, are not the law and sin equally evil, and practically synonymous, so that we can truly say, The law is sin?" Not at all, is the prompt denial of the apostle; but there is an apparent ground for such a question, for the law is an occasion of sin, for sin is not sin where it is not known to be sin, and in the law lies that revelation or knowledge of sin which makes it sinful, so that I had not experienced the sense of sin except through the law. For example, I would not have known that inordinate desire for the property of others was a sin called coveting if the law had not defined it, and made it a desire after the forbidden, and hence a sinful desire, by saying, Thou shalt not covet. But when the law thus spake, then sin, finding in the utterance of the law an opportunity or occasion to assert itself, stirred me up to desire all those things which were forbidden by the law, and filled me with the sense of my sinfulness by reason of the revelation of the law; for without this revelation the sense of sin would have been dead in me. Without the law sin was not roused to life and consciousness.] 9 And I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; 10 and the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death: 11 for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me. 12 So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. [In the days of his youth (and perhaps also even in his young manhood—Philippians 3:6), Paul had that free, untroubled conscience which is enjoyed by the innocent, and felt that he lived, and was entitled to live, before God; but later, as to its fullest extent he grasped the meaning of the law, he found how vain was his confidence; and that he was really a condemned man in the sight of God, having no true life in him (6:21-23), being dead in trespasses and sin. Thus the law which was ordained to give life, and had the promise of life attached to it (10:5; Leviticus 18:5), he found, to his amazed surprise, to be to him, because of his sinfulness, only a means of death: for sin, finding in the law a golden opportunity to accomplish his ruin, deceived him into breaking the law, and, by thus drawing down upon him the curse of the violated law, slew him. It has been observed that sin, as here personified, occupies the place filled by Satan in literal life (Genesis 3:14; 2 Corinthians 11:3). Again we should note how Satan, operating on the sinful nature of Paul, beguiled and deceived him into supposing that he could obtain righteousness and life by keeping the Mosaic law (Philippians 3:4-7), and also into thinking that in persecuting Christians he was doing God service (Acts 26:9), while in reality he was making himself the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). So, clearing the law of this doubt which his own argument had raised, the apostle declares in conclusion that it is worthy of all the unquestioned respect and confidence which it had so long enjoyed as a holy, righteous and good institution of God.]
13 Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;—that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful. [Paul assumes an objection suggested by the word "good," as though some one said, "Good? do you mean to call that good which works death in you?" and Paul replies, Did this good law really work death in me? Not at all; sin (and not law) worked death in me. And God ordained it thus to expose sin by letting it show itself as something so detestable that it could turn even so good a thing as the law to so evil a purpose as to make it an instrument of death; that is to say, the commandment was not given to injure me, but that through it sin might show itself to be exceeding sinful. God, the righteous, causes evil to work for good (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:20); but sin, the sinful, causes the good to result in evil.] 14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do. 16 But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. [But the law can not be sin, for it is spiritual; i. e., it is of divine origin, contains divine principles, and is addressed to the divine in man; and if man were as he should be, there would be no fault found with the law. But, alas! we are not as we should be. The law indeed is spiritual, but I (speaking for myself, and also as fairly representative of all other Christians) am not wholly spiritual, but carnal, and sold unto sin; i. e., I dwell in a fleshly body, but have all the weaknesses, passions and frailties that flesh is heir to, and am, consequently, so much the servant of sin that I am as one sold into permanent slavery unto it; so that as long as I am in the flesh I have no hope to be wholly free from it. So much is this the case—so much am I a slave to powers that control me—that I act as one distracted, not fully knowing nor being conscious of the thing that I do; for my actions and practise are not according to my own wishes, which follow the law; but, on the contrary, I do those things which I hate, and which are contrary to the law; my spiritual nature wishing to obey the spiritual law, but not being able, because blended with my flesh and weakened by it. But if I do the things contrary to the law, at the same time wishing to do as the law directs, I agree with the law that it is right, endorsing it by my wish, though failing to honor it in my conduct. My own consciousness, therefore, belies the accusation that the law is sin.] 17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. [From what I have said it is apparent that it is not my spiritual or better self, uninfluenced by the flesh, which does the evil; but it is sin which dwells in my flesh that does it. If I were left to my spiritual self, uninfluenced by the flesh, I would do as the law requires; but sin excites and moves my fleshly nature, and thus prompts me to break the law. The apostle is not arguing for the purpose of showing that he is not responsible for his own conduct; the establishment of such a fact would have no bearing whatever on the question in hand. He is arguing that the law is good, and he seeks to prove this by showing that his better, regenerated, spiritual nature loves it, and strives to fulfill it, and never in any way rebels against it; and that any seeming rebellion found in him is due to his fleshly, sinful nature—that part of himself which he himself repudiates as vile and unworthy, and which he would fain disown.]
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. 19 For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practise. [I am not surprised that part of me rebels against God’s law, for I know that in the fleshly part of my nature dwells no good thing. Sin dominates my flesh, so that none of the tendencies which come from that part of me incite to righteousness, and the contrast between the spiritual and fleshly parts of me makes me painfully conscious of this fact; for on the spiritual side my power to wish, and to will to do right, is uncurbed and unlimited, but when I come to use the fleshly part to execute my will, here I encounter trouble, and feel my limitation; for I find myself hindered by the flesh, and unable, because of it, to perform the right which I have willed and wished. Yea, it is not in willing, but in this matter of performance, that I fail to keep the law; for though I wish to do good I can not compass it, and though I do not wish to do evil my fleshly nature constrains me to it even against my wish.] 20 But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. 211 find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. [So then, I say again that I, in my own conscience, endorse the goodness of the law, for my spiritual nature wishes to perform its dictates, and only fails to do so because overborne by my fleshly nature, which sin has such power to influence. I find it then to be the rule of life, regulating my conduct, that though I always want to do good, evil is ever present with me, because I am in the flesh, which is never without evil influences. The presence of the flesh is the presence of evil, and since I can not rid myself of the one, neither can I of the other.]
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. [And such a state of conflict is unavoidable; for, in my spiritual and intellectual nature, I not only approve, but actually delight in, the law of God, so that I eagerly and heartily wish to perform its requirements, that I may be righteous; but when it comes to performance, I find a law within my flesh operating its members, antagonistic to that law of God which my intellect approves, and warring against it, and sometimes overcoming my allegiance to it, and bringing me into captivity to the sinful law which influences my flesh.] 24 Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. [Wretched or toil-worn man that I am, living in a state of perpetual warfare, now struggling to maintain my freedom under God’s law, and anon led captive in spite of myself, and brought under the hard service of sin; who shall deliver me from this scene of warfare, from this fleshly, sinful nature which is condemning me to eternal death? Through Jesus Christ our Lord I render thanksgiving unto God my Deliverer. So then, in conclusion, with my mind or higher faculties I serve always the revealed will of God, and when, occasionally, I serve the law of sin, I do so, not with my mind, but because of the influences of my fleshly nature. The whole passage shows the helplessness of man under any form of law. Law does not change his nature, and hence law can not save him from himself. But God, in his dispensation of grace, provides for the change of man’s nature, so that the sinful in him shall be eliminated, and his spiritual, regenerate nature shall be left free to serve God in righteousness.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
V. The New Relationship to Christ Changes the
Mind from Carnal to Spiritual, to That We
Escape Condemnation and Obtain Life
Romans 8:1-11
[This chapter describes, as Meyer says, "the happy condition of a man in Christ," and is, as Tholuck observes, "the climax of this Epistle. "] 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. [From all that I have written, it is a just conclusion that, under Christ, we are so fully justified from sin that those who are in him shall stand uncondemned at the last judgment, since there is now no ground for their condemnation. For the gospel, or law, given by the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of life, has made me free from law (whether given by Moses or otherwise) which produces sin and death. Laws which can not be obeyed result in sin, and sin ends in death.] 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [For what the law could not possibly do (viz.: condemn sin in the flesh, so as to destroy it and free us from it), because the flesh through which it operated was too weak, God, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, did; that is to say, he condemned sin in the flesh, that justification from the law might be accomplished in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Though the law was designed to condemn and banish sin, and was in itself a perfect means of deliverance from sin and death to those who kept it, it was really, because of the sinful weakness of the human race, to which it was given, no means of deliverance at all, but a source of complete and perfect condemnation. Hence, some other deliverance became necessary. God provided this other means of salvation by sending his Son to die for man, and man’s sin. That he might do this, God sent his Son to become a fleshly human being, to be incarnate in the same kind of flesh as that belonging to the rest of sinful mankind, thus fully sharing their nature. He sent him in this manner for the purpose of dying, to remove all the sin of the flesh he bore thus representatively, no matter by whom committed. Jesus, by his sinless life, lived in the flesh, as the Son of man, resisted, conquered, condemned, sentenced, and destroyed the power of sin in the flesh. Thus God sent his Son as a conqueror of sin, and as an offering for sin, that the ordinance of the law, which we fail to fulfill, might, by him who bore our flesh, and was our federal head and representative, be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the outward, fleshly nature, which lusts to do wrong, but after the inward, spiritual nature, which desires to do right.]
5 For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. [For they that live carnal lives indulge the lustful, evil desires of the flesh; but they that live after the Spirit set their minds on those heavenly things of the present and future which are revealed: to man by the Spirit. Those who daily strive to lead the latter life may hopefully look to God to forgive their shortcoming and temporary failure.] 6 For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace [Those who give themselves up to carnality, so that their minds take that general view of the affairs of life, shall reap death; but those who cultivate the thoughts and ideals of the Spirit, so that His mind governs the view of life, shall find great peace in their present lives, and hereafter life everlasting]: 7 because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be: 8 and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. [That the fleshly mind leads to death is obvious, for the mind of the flesh is opposed to the God of life, since it is not only not subject to him, but can not become subject to him: so they that cherish it can not please him. The mind of man must be changed from carnal to spiritual, and he must cease to serve the flesh before he can serve God. But ye Roman Christians are not carnally, but spiritually minded, if indeed ye are truly regenerate, so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. If ye have not the Holy Spirit who proceeds from Christ, ye are not regenerate, ye are not his. And though Christ dwells in you (representatively by means of his Spirit), your body is doomed to natural death (and hence is to be accounted as already dead) because of (Adam’s) sin; yet your spirit lives because it is justified and accounted righteous (by reason of Christ).]
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. [Moreover, if the Spirit of the Father (i. e., the Holy Spirit) who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also make alive your mortal bodies through his Holy Spirit that dwelleth in you; i. e., if God employs the same agency, we may expect the same results, and hence we may look for him to raise us from the dead by the indwelling Holy Spirit, just as he raised Christ from the dead by that same indwelling Spirit.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
VI. The New Relationship to Christ Results in
Adoption, the Spirit of Adoption, and That
Heirship for Which Creation Groans
Romans 8:12-25
12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:13 for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. [So then, brethren, because of the relation which we sustain to Christ, and because of the opposite effects of living fleshly and spiritual lives, we, though free from the law, are under no obligation to be lawless, and to live after the flesh: for if ye so live ye must pay the penalty of such a course by dying; but if, by the exercise of your will, and the aid of the Holy Spirit, ye put an end to the sinful practices of your fleshly nature, ye shall live. The testimony of Christian experience is that the aid of the Holy Spirit, though real and effectual, is not so obtrusive as to enable the one aided to take sensible notice of it. To all appearance and sensation the victory over flesh is entirely the Christian’s own, and he recognizes the aid of the Spirit, not because his burdens are sensibly lightened, but because of the fact that in his efforts to do right he now succeeds where lately he failed. The success, moreover, though habitual, is not invariable, for invariable victory over temptation breeds self-consciousness and self-righteousness, and other sins perhaps more dangerous than the ordinary lusts of the flesh.] 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. [To mortify the flesh is to be led of the Spirit, and to be led of the Spirit is to be a son of God; for, though all in the church claim this sonship, the claim is only demonstrated to be genuine in the case of those who are led of the Spirit. The Spirit leads both externally and internally. Externally, the Spirit supplies the gospel truth as set forth in the New Testament, and the rules and precepts therein found are for the instruction and guidance of God’s children. Internally, the Spirit aids by ministering strength and comfort to the disciple in his effort to conform to the revealed truth and will of God.] 15 For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. [That ye are the sons of God is apparent, as I say, because of the Spirit which leads and animates you, and which changes your own spirit. For, in your unsaved, unregenerate state you had a spirit of bondage, leading you to fear God, and his wrath; but when ye were baptized, and became regenerate, ye received a different spirit; viz.: the spirit of adoption or sonship, which dispels fear, and causes you, with confident gladness, to approach and address God as your Abba (which is, being interpreted, Father).]
16 The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God:17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. [In interpreting this passage we should remember that Paul is speaking to those already converted. Hence, in these and in the preceding verses, he is not telling them how to become children of God, but how to continue such. Now, it is true that the Spirit lays down the terms by which we may become Christians, and if we obey these terms, then both the Holy Spirit and our own spirits testify that we are sons of God. But since Paul is not addressing converts, such an interpretation would be wide of his thought, which is this: If the Holy Spirit indeed leads us in a conflict with sin and a steady effort towards righteousness, and if we submit to be thus led, then the Holy Spirit unites with our spirit to testify that we are God’s children. The testimony is, of course, self-directed; i. e., the testimony is for the purpose of assuring and confirming our own faith. If we are led, we know it, and so our own spirit testifies to us. If we are led in the godly, spiritual path, it can be none other than the Holy Spirit who leads; and so, in the very act of leading, the Spirit testifies to us. And, lastly, if we are led, and if we follow, this union of our spirit and God’s Spirit in joint action proves us children of God; for our co-operation with God in this paternal government of his shows us accepted of him as his children. But we can not be children in this one respect of government without being children also in the other respect of heirship. We are, therefore, God’s heirs, joint-heirs with his only begotten Son, provided that we are truly led of the Spirit as he was, which we may readily test, for the Spirit led him through suffering to glory, and should lead us by the same pathway, if we are to enjoy somewhat of the same glory.] 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. [Though the life in the spirit may involve us in sufferings, yet we are encouraged to bear them; for the sufferings are merely for the present time, and are insignificant when compared with the glory toward which they lead, which shall be revealed in us, and upon us, at the time of our resurrection. And this glory must indeed be as large as we imagine, for even creation itself waits in eager expectancy for this coming day, when the redeemed in Christ shall be revealed and manifested before all to be indeed the children of God. There is much argument as to what Paul means by "creation." From the context, we take it that he means the earth and all the life upon it except humanity.]
20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. [And creation thus waits; for at and by reason of the fall of man, it became subject to frailty; i. e., it also fell from its original design and purpose, and became abortive, diminutive, imperfect and subject to premature decay. And this it did not do of its own accord, but because the will of God ordered that it should be thus altered (Genesis 3:17-18); not leaving it, however, without hope that it also should so far share in the redemption of the sons of God as not only to be delivered from the bondage of being corruptible, to which God subjected it, but also to be transferred to the liberty which results from or accompanies the revelation or glorification of the sons of God. And this hopeful waiting is evident, for we Christians know that God designs to make all things new (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1; Revelation 21:5), and also that the whole creation so shares man’s deterioration and degradation that with him it groans, and has, as it were, the pains of childbirth, even to this hour. The figure of childbirth is appropriate, since nature wishes to reproduce herself in a new, fresh and better form, corresponding to that which she had before the fall of man.]
23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. [And not only do we recognize this vast, unuttered longing of nature, but we find similar groanings even within ourselves, though occupying a much more privileged and advantageous position than nature, having, in the firstfruits of the Spirit, an earnest or inspiring foretaste of the good things to come, and yet, despite our advantage, so exceedingly desirable is the glory yet to be revealed, that even we ourselves groan within ourselves because of those parts wherein we are nearest akin to the material creation, waiting for the time to come when we shall be openly revealed as the adopted children of God, by those changes which culminate in that transformation brought about by the resurrection—when our mortal, corruptible, weak, dishonored, natural body shall be transfigured into the immortal, incorruptible, powerful, glorified, spiritual body, thus accomplishing the redemption of the body.] 24 For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? 25 But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. [We groan, I say, waiting for this future blessing. For when we were converted and saved from the world, we were not so saved that all salvation includes was bestowed upon us; but we were saved unto a salvation which even yet exists largely in hope. If it were otherwise, we would now see the things which we still hope for. But when hope is attained it ceases to be hope, for hope applies only to the unattained, not to the attained. But if our full salvation is not yet seen or attained, then should we patiently wait for its attainment, which will be accomplished when we are at last revealed as God’s children.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
VII. The New Relationship Results in the Aid
of the Spirit, and in Blissful Assurance of
Salvation, Because it is Divinely Decreed
Romans 8:26-39
26 And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered [And not only are we encouraged by the sympathetic groaning of creation, and our well-grounded hopes to wait patiently for deliverance and glorification, but we are also in like manner aided in doing so by the ministration of the Holy Spirit, who helps us in our weakness, especially in obtaining the strength, patience, etc., necessary to enable us to endure faithfully until the hour of our deliverance arrives. And we require such help, for, left to ourselves, we would fail to ask for these things which we need, and would spend our time and strength asking for those things which we do not need; for we are not wise enough to pray for the things which, considering our real, present weakness, we ought to pray for. But the Spirit knows these needful things, and he affords a remedy for our weakness by himself interceding for us, not praying independently, or apart from us, but moving and exalting us in our prayer, and stirring within us sighings, longings, aspirations and soulful yearnings for those things which are our real needs, but which are so poorly understood by us that we can not adequately express them in words]; 27 and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. [Though we, in our ignorance, do not know how to express these inward groanings, or yearnings, and though the Holy Spirit, in his operations within us, can not so lead or train us as to make us able to give them articulate utterance, yet God, who searcheth the heart, or that inner man where the Spirit dwells, knows what it is that the Spirit has in mind; i. e., what the Spirit is prompting us to desire, because the Spirit pleads for the saints according to the will of God, asking those things which accord with the plans, purposes and desires of God. "In short," says Beet, "our own yearnings, resulting as they do from the presence of the Spirit, are themselves a pledge of their own realization." The remainder of the chapter gives the third ground of encouragement, which is briefly this: the Christian has nothing to fear (outside of himself), for nothing can defeat the plan or purpose which God cherishes toward him, and nothing can separate him from the love of God.]
28 And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose. [In addition to the encouragements already mentioned, there is this: We know (partly by experience, but primarily by revelation) that all these present ills, hardships, adversities, afflictions, etc., are so overruled of God as to be made to combine to produce the permanent and eternal advantage and welfare of those who love God, even, I say, to those who love God, or who may otherwise be described as those that are called according to his purpose. "All things" evidently refers to all that class of events which threaten to result in evil. The phrase evidently is not to be pressed, for it can hardly include sin or any other thing which injures the soul. The apostle himself, in verses 35-39, fully describes what he means by "all things." "The love of believers for God," says Lange, "is not the ground of their confidence, but the sign and security that they were first loved of God." The gospel reveals God’s purpose to redeem, justify and glorify those who believe in Jesus. Those who accept this gospel through belief in Jesus are truly called of God according to the purpose for which he extended the call. Paul does not regard unbelievers as thus called, as the context shows, for the other descriptive clause which he here applies to the "called" (viz.: "those who love God") would not be applicable to unbelievers. Therefore the two clauses taken together show that Paul is simply speaking of Christians, or those who have heard the gospel, and have accepted it, and have been saved by it. All such know assuredly that God will direct the events of life so that they shall result in good to those called according to his purpose; for his purpose is of such import, such magnitude, such eternal fixedness and perennial vitality, etc., as to be a guarantee that God will permit no temporal accidentals to thwart it.]
29 For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the: image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: 30 and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. [The keyword which opens the hidden meaning of these two verses is the word purpose, found in verse 28. Before man was created God foresaw his fall, and designed the gospel for his redemption; this fact is well attested by Scripture (16:25, 26; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Ephesians 1:8; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:25-26). In those times eternal, man, the gospel, justification, etc., existed only in the purpose of God; and it is of these times and conditions that the apostle speaks, showing how God foreknew that a certain class yet to be born would accept of a salvation yet to be provided through the terms of a gospel yet to be made actual. As to this class he foreordained, or fore-decreed, that they should, after the resurrection, bear the image or likeness of his Son, that the Son might have the preeminence of being the firstborn (from the dead) among many brethren. And this class, whom in his purpose he thus foreordained, them likewise in his purpose he also called justified and glorified by successive steps, not actually, but in his purpose. Thus the apostle is speaking not of actual decrees, calls, justifications, etc., on the part of God, but of such as existing only in divine contemplation and purpose. So, also, he is not speaking of actual, called, etc., persons, but imaginary, ideal persons, who existed as yet only as a class in the councils of purposes of the Almighty; and Paul’s design is not to show the foreordination of any individuals, but to substantiate the assurance of verse 28, by emphasizing the far-reaching purposes of God, which will not suffer afflictions, hardships, or any of the trivialities of time, to frustrate him in working out his eternal plans. That he is not speaking of actualities is shown by the last term in his sequence, viz.: "glorified." Since the apostle is speaking of what transpired in the councils of the" Almighty prior to the creation of man, he properly uses the past tense: "glorified;" but if he were speaking of actuality, he would be compelled to use the future tense, to accord with conditions as stated in verse 18, where he clearly recognizes the glorification of man as a future event for which he waits. Thus it is apparent that the foreordination set forth in these two verses is purely hypothetical.]
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? [What conclusion, then, are we warranted in drawing from this definite and eternal purpose of God? If he be thus for us, are we not right in saying that all things shall work together for our good, for what is there that can work otherwise in successful opposition to God?] 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? [This verse is an answer, and more than an answer, to the question just asked. In it the negative and positive sides of God’s actions are suggested, but not fully developed. The full thought may be thus expressed: To bring for his redeemed good out of all things may entail many sacrifices on the part of God—sacrifices which he might well regret to make on account of love for the thing sacrificed, and others which he might well withhold for lack of love towards the parties for whom the sacrifice is made. But what God has already done in accomplishing his eternal purpose is a guarantee that he will continue to do whatever more may be required. If he spared not his own Son, he will not halt at making any other sacrifice; neither value nor preciousness can cause him to withhold what we need. Again, our unworthiness and insignificance form no obstacle to the outpouring of his most marvelous gifts; for if God delivered up his own Son for us (while we were yet sinners), will he not now even more willingly and freely, to the gift of his Son, add all other gifts which lead to or consummate our glorification? In short, nothing but our own act of apostasy can cause us to fail of our inheritance.]
33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; 34 who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. ["But, Paul," says some doubting heart, "surely there are ten thousand things which will come to light to do us harm in the all-revealing hour of the judgment. It can not be that all these things shall then work us good." The apostle replies that these things will, at that time, certainly work us no evil, for in that august hour when all of all nations shall be called to give account before the throne of Christ the Judge, who is it that shall lay any charge against those whom the Father has chosen because of their faith in Christ and obedience to him? How could any one presume to attempt any such thing? or what difference would it make if he did attempt it? for it is the Father himself who speaks to the contrary, declaring that the sins of those who believe on Jesus are forgiven, and that they are justified in Jesus. Thus Christians shall be safe during the hearing; but when the hearing is closed, and the fate of each rests in the hands of the Judge, then shall they be equally safe as to the final sentence. Who shall condemn them? There is but one who has the power to do this, and that one is the Judge; and the Judge is none other than Christ Jesus, who died to expiate our sins, lest they should condemn us; who was raised for our justification; who was enthroned at the right hand of God to rule for our sakes, and to judge us; and who even now pleads as our intercessor against our condemnation. Surely the past and present attitudes of Christ towards us guarantee his future conduct, and confirm us in the confidence that he, the unchangeable, will acquit us in that hour, and save us from the condemnation against which he has made such ample preparation and provision. So far as the Father is concerned, the cause of man is settled and sealed, for he has committed judgment to the Son. Whatever contingency there is, lies, therefore, in the bosom of the Son. He has made the sacrifice, and accomplished the work necessary to acquit man at the judgment; but as his decree and sentence are not yet spoken, it is, of course, contingent. Will he change his mind, and condemn man? The apostle answers this question by asking another.]
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [The thought of verse 28, which has not been out of the apostle’s mind since he introduced it, here comes once more squarely to the front. Shall any of the hardships of our present life so work evil as to cause Christ to change his present feeling toward us, or his future purpose to justify us? Can we who know his love ask such a question? Can anything in the whole catalogue of hardships work such results? Though in our day the sufferings may vary somewhat from the items given by the apostle, yet they raise the same doubts—produce in us the same effects. It is natural to man to look upon the sufferings of the Christian life as a contradiction to the scheme of grace. According to our earthly conceptions, a journey which is to end in glorification. should continually rise toward it, so that pleasures, joys, honors, etc., should increase daily. When, instead of such a program, we meet with tribulation, anguish, nakedness, etc., it looks to us as if God were leading us the wrong way—the way that would end in degradation and death, rather than glorification and life. The answer to such thoughts is found in this argument of the apostle. God makes any road lead to good and glorification, and especially those roads which seem to run in the opposite direction; so that we may regard those things which appear to argue his hatred and neglect as, on the contrary, the strongest evidences of his love and care. And this, adds the apostle, is no new truth, for it has been the experience of God’s people in the past, as the Scripture testifies.]
36 Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. [Psalms 44:22. This Psalm is supposed to have been written during the Babylonish captivity, and that it is a correct description of the state of the Jew in that day, we may readily conceive from details given in Daniel and Esther. But the Psalm was also prophetic. As the Jew suffered because of the peculiar religion which God had bestowed upon him, so also did the Christian; and in both cases the enemies of the revealed religions looked upon the worshipers as people who were to be killed as a matter of course, without compunction or pity, just as sheep are slain for sacrifice or for the market.] 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. [But though we be in tribulation, and be slain like sheep, yet in all these things we not only gain the conquest, so that we survive them, but we come out more than victors, for we are crowned over them with immortality and eternal life. But this victory is achieved not of ourselves, but because of the love of Christ, who, by his death, won for us these better things. The phrase "more than conquerors" is a single word in the Greek, and means, literally, "over-conquerors." Some see in this a peculiar kind of victory. "This is a new order of victory," says Chrysostom, "to conquer by means of our adversaries." "The adversaries," says Chillingsworth, "are not only overcome and disarmed, but they are. brought over to our faction; they war on our side." If such a meaning may be properly put upon this word, then the idea here is beautifully harmonious and consonant with the thought expressed in verse 28, which shows that God indeed causes things which seem to be inimical to serve our interests and further our blessedness.]
38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. [From the various grounds of assurance which he has enumerated in this chapter, Paul gives it as his own personal, final conviction that (apart from the disciple’s own will) nothing can separate him from God’s love as displayed in the gift of Christ to die for man’s redemption, and to reign for man’s glorification. To illustrate the wide range of possible antagonism which may arise to oppose man’s glorification, he submits a wonderful list of things having such inherent vastness and grandeur that they can not be defined without diminution and loss. If we should attempt to explain him, we would say that neither terrestrial existence, with its phases of life and death; nor celestial existence, reaching from angels to unknown altitudes of rulership; nor time, present or future; nor any other imaginable power; nor space, heavenward or hellward; nor any other form of creation, visible or invisible, known or unknown, can effect a separation between God and those objects of his love whom he has redeemed in Christ. As to the whole passage, the words of Erasmus are a characteristic comment. "Cicero," says he, "never said anything more eloquent." It is far more easy for us all to grasp the rhetorical and superficial beauty of this marvelous passage, which soars to the extreme altitude of divine inspiration, than to appreciate, even in the slightest or most remote degree, the excellencies of the sublime and eternal verities which it seeks to bring home to our consciences. The love of God is so little comprehended by our sinful and finite natures, that expositions of it are to us as descriptions of color are to the blind, or as explanations of melody and harmony are to the deaf. We, as they, admire the verbiage and the skill of him who has dazed our understanding, and are hardly conscious how far we fall short of truly following the conceptions which the writer sought to convey to our spirits.]
Part Second
Explanatory: The Doctrine of Righteousness by Faith Reconciled as to
(1) The Promises Made to Israel; (2) The Election and Covenants of That People;
(3) The Scriptures; (4) The Faithfulness of God.
Romans 9:1 to Romans 11:36
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
I. Since His Doctrine Results in the Condemnation
of Israel, Paul Shows That This Result is Contrary
to His Personal Bias, or Wish
Romans 9:1-5
[In Part I. of his Epistle (chaps. 1-8) Paul presented the great doctrine that righteousness and salvation are obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. But the unbelief of the Jews excluded them generally from this salvation, yet "salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22). The doctrine, and the situation engendered by it, raised before the minds of Paul’s readers several great questions, such as these: How could Scripture, which promised blessings to the Jews, be fulfilled in a gospel which gave blessings to Gentiles to the exclusion of Jews? The covenants to Abraham guaranteed blessings to his seed, how, then, could the gospel be the fulfillment of these covenants when it brought blessing and salvation to the Gentiles, and rejection and damnation to the Jews, the seed of Abraham? It is for the purpose of answering these and kindred questions which naturally arose out of the doctrine of the first part of his work, that this second part was written. As these questions arose out of the history of Israel, Paul naturally reviews that history, so Tholuck calls this second part of his work "a historical corollary." The apostle’s effort is to show that the gospel of Christ, while it conflicts with the false doctrinal deductions which the Jews drew from their history, agrees perfectly with all correct deductions from that history.] I say the truth in Christ [This is not an oath. Some modern, and most of the earlier, commentators suppose it is; but they forget that Deuteronomy 6:13 is repealed at Matthew 5:33-37. If it were an oath, we would, in the absence of any verb of swearing, have the Greek preposition pros("by") with the genitive, but instead we have en("in") with the dative. His asseveration is, however, as solemn and binding as an oath, and is designed to give vehement emphasis to his words—comp. 2 Corinthians 2:17 : as though he said, "I speak the truth, for Christ is true, and I am a member in Christ, and he himself, therefore, speaks through me—comp. Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21], I lie not [Such a coupling of the positive and negative for purposes of emphasis is common to Scripture. See Deuteronomy 33:6; Isaiah 38:1; John 1:20], my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit [my conscience, though enlightened, guided and made more than naturally sensitive and accurate by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, still testifies that in this I am wholly and unequivocally truthful],
2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. [Paul, in the depth of his passion, does not deliberately state the cause of his grief, but leaves it to be implied. His grief was that the gospel had resulted in the rejection of his own people, the Jews. He had closed the first part of his Epistle in a triumphant outburst of praise at the glorious salvation wrought by the gospel of belief in Christ, but ere praise has died on his lips, this minor wail of anguish opens the second part of his Epistle because Israel does not participate in this glad salvation. "The grief for his nation and people," says Poole, "he expresseth, 1. By the greatness of it; it was such as a woman hath in travail; so the word imports. 2. By the continuance of it; it was continual, or without intermission. 3. By the seat of it; it was in his heart, and not outward in his face." And why does Paul asseverate so strongly that he feels such grief? 1. Because only himself and God (and God had to do with him through Christ and the Holy Spirit) knew the hidden secrets of his bosom. 2. Because without some such asseveration the Jews would hardly believe him in this respect. Even Christian Jews looked upon his racial loyalty with suspicion (Acts 21:20-21); what wonder, then, if unbelieving Jews regarded him as the most virulent enemy of their race (Acts 28:17-19), and believed him capable of corrupting any Scripture to their injury, of inventing any doctrine to their prejudice, of perverting any truth into a lie to work them harm? (See 2 Corinthians 6:8; 2 Corinthians 1:17; 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 4:1-2; 2 Corinthians 7:2, etc.) In their estimation Paul was easily capable of giving birth to this doctrine of salvation by faith for no other end than the joy of pronouncing their damnation for their unbelief. Yea, they could readily believe, that his joy expressed at. Romans 8:31-39 was more due to the fact that Israel was shut out from salvation, than that there was salvation. To thoroughly appreciate the full bitterness of the Jewish mistrust and hatred toward Paul we must remember the constancy with which for years they persecuted him, and that very soon after the writing of this Epistle they occasioned his long imprisonment in Rome, and relentlessly persisted in their accusations against, him till they became the immediate cause of his martyrdom. Therefore, in expressing his sorrow over the rejection of Israel, Paul pledges his truthfulness in Christ for whom he had suffered the loss of all things, and in the Holy Spirit who was wont to strike down all lying Ananiases (Acts 5:3-5), for it was necessary, before another word be said, that every Jew should know that Paul’s doctrine was not his own, that it did not arise in his mind because of any spleen, malice, hostility, illwill, or even mild distaste for the Jewish people. On the contrary, his personal bias was against the doctrine which he taught; and none knew this so well as the Christ with whom the doctrine arose, and the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul to teach it.]
3 For I could wish [Literally, "I was wishing." Some therefore regard Paul as referring to his attitude to Christ while he was persecuting the church in the days before his conversion. But Paul is asserting his present love toward Israel, and his past conduct proved nothing whatever as to it. The tense here is the imperfect indicative, and is correctly translated "I could wish," for it indicates arrested, incomplete action, a something never finished; and it therefore often stands for the conjunctive. This potential or conditional force of the imperfect is, as Alford remarks, "no new discovery, but common enough in every schoolboy’s reading." Paul means to say that he never actually formed this wish, but could conceive of himself as going to the length of forming it, if admissible—if it were merely a question of love toward his countrymen, and no obstacle intervened] that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake [The root idea of anathema is anything cut or torn off, anything separated or shut up. In the Old Testament the inanimate thing devoted or anathematized was stored up, while the animate thing was killed (Leviticus 27:26-29). Compare the anathemas of Jericho and Achan (Joshua 6:16; Joshua 7:15; Joshua 7:22-26). But the New Testament prefers that use of the word which indicates spiritual punishment; viz., exclusion, banishment, as in the case of one resting under a ban (Galatians 1:8-9; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 16:22), for Paul certainly ordered no one to be physically put to death. The idea of banishment is, in this case, made even more apparent by the addition of the words "from Christ." Paul therefore means to say, "I may, indeed, be regarded as an enemy of my people, delighting in their being excluded from salvation by their rejection of the gospel (as they indeed are—Galatians 1:8-9; Galatians 5:4); but so far am I from doing this that I could, were it permissible, wish for their sakes that I might so exchange places with them that I might be cut off from Christ, and be lost, that they might be joined to him and be saved. For their sakes I could go into eternal perdition to keep them from going there." Men of prudent self-interest and cold, speculative deliberation regard Paul’s words as so unreasonable that they would pervert them in order to alter their meaning. They forget that Judah offered to become a slave in Benjamin’s stead (Genesis 44:18-34); that David wished he had died for Absalom (2 Samuel 18:33), and that the petition of Moses exceeded this unexpressed wish of the apostle (Exodus 32:32). They are blind to the great truth that in instances like this "the foolishness of God" (even operating spiritually in men of God) "is wiser than men" (1 Corinthians 1:25). No man can be a propitiation for the souls of other men. Only the Christ can offer himself as a vicarious sacrifice for the lives of others so as to become in their stead a curse (Galatians 3:13), abandoned of God (Mark 15:34). But surely the true servant of Christ may so far partake of the Spirit of his Master as to have moments of exalted spiritual grace wherein he could wish, were it permissible, to make the Christlike sacrifice. (Comp. 2 Corinthians 12:15; Philippians 2:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 John 3:16.) In this instance we may conceive of Paul as ardently contemplating such a wish, for: 1. He had prophetic insight into the age-long and almost universal casting off of the Jews, and their consequent sorrows and distresses, all of which moved him to unusual compassion. 2. He had also spiritual insight into the torments of the damned, which would stir him to superhuman efforts on behalf of his people. 3. He could conceive of the superior honor to Christ if received by the millions of Israel instead of the one, Paul. 4. He could deem it a sweeter joy to Christ to give salvation unto the many, rather than merely unto the one, Paul. 5. He could contrast the joys his exchange might give to the many with the single sorrow of damnation meted out to himself alone, and could therefore feel some satisfaction in contemplating such a sacrifice for such a purpose. (Comp. Hebrews 12:2.) 6. Finally, just before this he has asserted the possibility of one dying for a righteous or good man (Romans 5:7). If such a thing is possible, might not Paul be excused if he felt ready, not only to die, but even to suffer eternal exclusion from Christ, if his act could avail to save a whole covenanted people, so worthy and so loved of God, as Israel was shown to be by those honors and favors bestowed upon it, which he proceeds at once to enumerate? Under all the circ*mstances, therefore, it is apparent that such strong words and deep emotions are to be expected from one who loved as did Paul. For further evidences of his love toward churches and individuals, see 1 Corinthians 1:4; Philippians 1:3-4; Ephesians 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; Philemon 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 11:28-29], my kinsmen according to the flesh [And here we have the first impulse for the strong expression of passion just uttered. In the Jew an ardent family affection, blending with an intense national pride, combine to form a patriotism unparalleled in its fervor and devotion]:
4 who are Israelites [The first distinction of the chosen people was their descent from and right to the name "Israel": a name won by Jacob when, wrestling, he so prevailed with God that he was called Israel, or prince of God (Genesis 32:28). and also won for himself the unique honor of having all his descendants bear his name, and be accepted as God’s covenant people]; whose is the adoption [i. e., the Sonship. Israel is always represented as the Lord’s son or firstborn, in contradistinction to the Gentiles, who are his creatures—Exodus 4:22-23; Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 14:1; Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 31:9 : Hosea 11:1; Malachi 1:6], and the glory [The glory of having God manifested visibly as their friend and protector. This glory was called the Shekinah and appeared in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22), and rested on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 24:16) and on the tabernacle (Exodus 29:43), and in the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38; Leviticus 9:23-24), and enlightened the face of Moses (Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Corinthians 3:7-18), and filled Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:10-11), and is thought to have abode between the cherubim, over the mercy-seat of the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25:22; Exodus 29:43-44; Hebrews 9:5), whence it is also thought that the ark itself is once called "the glory of Israel"—1 Samuel 4:21], and the covenants [Especially the Messianic and promised-land covenants given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to which may be added the covenants with Aaron (Exodus 29:9) and Phinehas (Numbers 25:10-13), and those made with Israel on the plains of Moab (Deuteronomy 29, 30) and at Shechem (Joshua 24:25), and the throne covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:12-17], and the giving of the law [It was given at Mt. Sinai directly from the person of God himself, and its retention in Israel was a notable mark of distinction between them and all other people, for it placed them under the divine government, as the peculiar heritage of Jehovah], and the service of God [The order of praise and worship in tabernacle and temple under charge of Levites and priests and explained at length in the Epistle to the Hebrews. "The grandest ritual," says Plumer. "ever known on earth, with its priests, altars, sacrifices, feasts, and splendid temple"], and the promises [The term "promise" is about the same as "covenant" (Acts 2:39; Romans 15:8; Galatians 3:16; Ephesians 2:12; Hebrews 11:17). If there is any distinction to be drawn between the two words, covenant is the larger, including threatenings as well as assurances of grace. In the promises the threatenings are omitted, and the details of the good are enlarged];
5 whose are the fathers [At Hebrews 11 we have the list of the chief of these fathers. They were Israel’s pride and inspiration. "The heroes of a people," says Godet, "are regarded as its most precious treasure." The three pre-eminent "fathers" were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—Exodus 3:6; Exodus 3:13; Exodus 3:15; Exodus 4:5; Matthew 22:32; Acts 3:13; Acts 7:32], and of whom [i. e., of or descended from the fathers] is Christ as concerning the flesh [Paul’s enumeration of Israel’s endowments ends in this as the climax of all their glories when coupled with the statement as to the divine nature of this Christ. But to this climax Israel failed to attain. They accepted neither the humanity nor divinity of Christ, hence Paul’s grief], who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. [These words have quite a history. None of the so-called Ante-Nicene Fathers (theologians who wrote prior to A. D. 325) ever thought of contorting them from their plain reference to Christ. Even among later writers, but two—Diodorus of Tarsus (bishop in A. D. 378; died in 394) and Theodore of Mopseustia (A. D. 350-429)—ever questioned their reference to Christ. Then came Erasmus (A. D. 1465-1536). This fertile genius seems to have exerted all his ingenuity on this passage, for, by changing the punctuation, he made it read four different ways, two of which have attracted some notice. The first of these reads thus: "Of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all. Blessed be God for ever. Amen." This effort to cut off the last clause and make a benediction of it is open to several objections; we note two. 1. It is too abrupt. 2. It is not grammatical if taken as a benediction, for to be in correct form eulogetos("blessed") should precede Theos("God"), but. instead, it follows it, as in narrative form (Romans 1:25; 2 Corinthians 11:31), which it is. The second reading makes the whole passage a benediction, thus: "Of whom is Christ concerning the flesh. Blessed for ever be God, who is over all. Amen." To this reading it may be properly objected: 1. That a benediction is contrary to the apostle’s mood and thought. He is mourning over the rejection of Israel. Though he does recount the endowments of Israel, why should he burst forth in ecstatic benediction when all these endowments only brought the heavier condemnation because of Israel’s unbelief? 2. Why should he leave his analysis of Christ unfinished (compare the finished, similar analysis at Romans 1:3-4) to wind up in a benediction, when he might have finished his analysis and thereby laid, in a finished climax, a better basis for a benediction? 3. Again, the eulogetosstill follows the Theos, when it should precede it to form a benediction, as it does above twenty times in Scripture (Luke 1:68; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Ephesians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3, etc.). 4. The ho oon,"who is," stands naturally as in apposition to the preceding subject, ho Christos, "the Christ," and if by any unusual construction it has been meant to be taken in apposition to Theos, "God," it is hardly conceivable that we should have had the participle oon, "is" (literally "being"), which under such a construction is superfluous and awkward. This untenable reading would soon have been forgotten, but, unfortunately, Meyer has given respectability to it by a long argument in its favor; in which he insists that the reading, "Christ... who is over all, God blessed for ever," is contrary to the invariable teaching of Paul, who always recognizes the subordination of the Son to the Father and who does this by never calling the Son "God"; always reserving that title for the Father. It is true that Paul recognizes this subordination, and generally does it in the way indicated, but he does it as to Christ the unit; i. e., Christ the united compound of God and man. But Paul is here resolving that compound into its two elements; viz., Christ, man-descended after the flesh; and Christ, God after the Spirit. Now, when thus resolved into his elements, the divine in Christ is not described as subordinate to the Father, nor is the full measure of deity withheld from him. On the contrary, John and Paul (whom Meyer conceives of as disagreeing as to the Christ’s subordination) agree perfectly in this, only Paul is even clearer and more explicit in his statement. John begins with our Lord before his divinity became compounded with humanity, and calls him the Word. "In the beginning," says he, "was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Surely there is no subordination indicated by John in treating of the separate divine nature of our Lord. Then he tells of the compounding of that divine nature with the human nature. "And the Word," says he, "became flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Here, then, is that compounding of divinity and humanity which we call Jesus, and this Jesus is, according to John, subordinate to the Father. On this important point John lets the God-man speak for himself. "The Father," says Jesus, "is greater than I" (John 14:28). Now let us compare this teaching with the doctrine of Paul. "Have this mind in you," says he, "which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God" (that is, when he was what John calls the Word; when he was not as yet compounded with humanity), "counted not the being on an equality with God" (here. Paul is more explicit than John in asserting our Lord’s unsubordinate condition before he became incarnate) "a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men" (equivalent to John’s "the Word became flesh," after which follows the statement of subordination; viz.); "and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross," etc. (Philippians 2:5-11). To one, therefore, who carefully compares these passages, it is apparent that according to apostolic doctrine Jesus, the unit, is subordinate to the Father, but when Jesus is separated by analysis into his component parts, his divine nature is God, and equal with God (Colossians 2:9). At Romans 1:3-4 this divine nature is called "Son. of God"; here it is called "God over all, blessed for ever." So Meyer’s contention against the reading of the text is not well taken. The natural reading refers the words to Christ, and there is good Scriptural reason why this should be done, for all things here said of Christ rest on Scriptural authority; for (1) he is called God (Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1; Philippians 2:5-11; John 20:28; Titus 1:3; Titus 2:13; Titus 3:4; Titus 3:6; Colossians 2:9. Comp. 1 Timothy 2:5 with Acts 20:28, and the "my church" of Matthew 16:18). (2) The term eulogetosmay be fittingly applied to him, for it is even applied to mere men by the LXX. (Deuteronomy 7:14; Ruth 2:20; 1 Samuel 15:13), and is no stronger than the term "glory" (2 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 13:21; 2 Timothy 4:18). (3) Christ himself claims to be "over all" (John 3:31; Matthew 28:18), and it is abundantly asserted that such is the case (Philippians 2:6-11; Ephesians 1:20-23; Romans 10:12; Acts 10:36). So complete is his dominion that Paul deems it needful to expressly state that the Father is not made subordinate (1 Corinthians 15:25-28). The whole passage, as Gifford well says, constitutes "a noble protest against the indignity cast upon him (Christ) by the unbelief of the Jews."
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. The Rejection of Israel Not Inconsistent with
God’s Promise or Election—His Promise Has
Been Kept to Those to Whom it Was Given
Romans 9:6-13
6 But it is not as though the word of God hath come to nought. [Or, as Fritsche translates, "The matter, however, is not so as that the word of God had come to nought." Paul is answering the reasoning of the Jew which runs thus: "You speak of God’s covenants and promises given to the fathers and enlarged in the Scriptures, yet you say the Jew has failed to receive the blessings guaranteed to him by God in those covenants and promises. If such is the case, then you must admit that the word of God has failed of fulfillment." Paul begins his answer by denying the failure of the word of God, and proceeds to prove his denial. But his argument is not rigidly polemic; it is rather a heart-to-heart discussion of well-known historic facts which show that God’s present enactments, rulings and executions harmonize perfectly with those of the past, which, too, have been heartily and unanimously approved by the Jews. "No," is then Paul’s answer, "the word of God has not come to nought in Israel’s rejection, for it (in the Old Testament), as you well know and approve, taught and worked out in precedent and example the same principles and same distinctions which are today affecting the rejection of Israel." God has not changed, nor has his word failed: it was Israel which had changed and failed.] For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel [The Jews would never have regarded Paul’s teaching as subversive of the promises or word of God if they had not misconstrued the promises. They read them thus: "The promises guarantee salvation to all Jews, and the Jews alone are to be saved." Paul begins his argument by denying the correctness of their construction of God’s word. "The word of God has not failed," says he, "because God has cast off a part of Israel (the fleshly part represented by the Jews), for God’s word is kept as long as he keeps covenant with the other part (the spiritual part, represented by the Christians, principally Gentiles), for you are wrong in thinking that all the descendants of Jacob are reckoned by God as Israelites, or covenant people, and also wrong in supposing that Israel has only fleshly children, and no spiritual children." This argument apparently concedes for the moment that God’s covenant was to give Israel salvation, which was not really the case. God’s covenant was to provide the sacrifice in his Son, which would afford the means of salvation, conditioned on faith and obedience]:
7 neither, because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children: but [as God said to Abraham—Genesis 21:12], In Isaac shall thy seed be called. [i. e., the children of Isaac alone shall be known distinctively as thy children, the heirs of thy covenant. Here, again, Paul attacks a second false construction which the Jews placed upon the promises. They said: "We must all be saved because we have Abraham for our father (Matthew 3:9). If God does not save us, he breaks his word with Abraham." "Here again ye err," says Paul, "for at the very start when Abraham had but two sons, God rejected one of them, casting Ishmael off, and choosing Isaac; and later when Abraham had many sons God still refused all but Isaac, saying, The sons of yours which I shall call mine shall descend from Isaac alone. "] 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh [of Abraham] that are [reckoned or accounted as] children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. [Are accounted the children of God through Abraham. Fleshly descent from Abraham, of itself and without more—i. e., without promise—never availed for any spiritual blessing (Galatians 4:23). "This," says Trapp, "profiteth them no more than it did Dives, that Abraham called him son" (Luke 16:25). So flesh avails neither then nor now, but promise. Paul proceeds to show that Isaac was a son of promise, and whatever covenants or promises availed for his children came to them because they, through him, became symbolically sons of promise, Isaac typifying Christ, the real son of promise given to Abraham (Galatians 3:16), and Isaac’s posterity typifying the real children of promise, the regenerated sons of God begotten unto Christ through the gospel (Galatians 4:28; John 1:12-13). So as Abraham had a fleshly seed according to the first promise, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," these being Jews; so he had a spiritual seed according to the second promise, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations [Gentiles; but not excluding Jews] of the earth be blessed," these being Gentiles. Hence, if the two promises were each kept with the two parties to whom they were severally given, the word of God was not broken, and his promise had not failed.
But such was indeed the case, for God kept his word with the fleshly seed, fulfilling to them the fleshly promise that Christ should be born of their stock (John 4:22; Galatians 3:16), and to the spiritual seed he was fulfilling the spiritual promise granting them eternal life through that faith in Christ which made them spiritual children of Abraham, the father of the faithful (Galatians 3:7-14). So it was not two promises to one seed, but two promises to two seeds, and each promise was kept of God to each promisee. And why, says Paul, do we call Isaac the son of promise? Because he was not born according to the natural law of the flesh, his mother being past bearing, but contrary to nature and by reason of the divine power, working to fulfill the promise of God, which promise is as follows]
9 For this is a word of promise [this is the saying or promise that brought Isaac into being, and made him a child of promise and not of natural birth—Genesis 18:10], According to this season [Godet translates, "Next year at the moment when this same time (this same epoch) will return"] will I come [to fulfill my promise], and Sarah shall have a son. [This fixing of the definite time (an exact year from the date of the promise) when the child of promise should be born, is extremely significant. Ishmael was alive when this promise was given. But what Jew would have justified him in urging a claim as against the promised Isaac? Later, in the days of Daniel, a time limit was set for Christ, the greater Son of promise, by which it is made sure that he would begin his ministry in A. D. 26. If Ishmael had no reason or right to complain that he and his offspring (though he was established as a son) were stood aside for Isaac and his offspring, what right had Isaac in his turn to complain if God set a date when he and his offspring (though established son as was Ishmael) should in like manner be stood aside for the greater Son of promise, the. Christ and his offspring? God fixed the dates in each case, and the dates in Daniel 9:24-25 are equally explicit with Genesis 17:21. The Christ, "the anointed one, the prince," was to appear at the end of sixty-nine weeks of years, or in A. D. 26, and at the full end of the seventy weeks, or eight years later, in A. D. 34, the time "decreed upon thy [Daniel’s] people" came to an end. The Holy Spirit that year emphasized the rejection of fleshly Israel and the acceptance of the children of promise (believers in Christ, his spiritual offspring) by withdrawing from the Jews and appearing upon the household of Cornelius, the firstfruits of the Gentiles (Acts 10). God gave Ishmael only one year’s warning, and no especial call to repent, or opportunity to save himself in any way. But through Daniel, Israel had five hundred years of warning, and was invited of Christ and of all his apostles (even being invariably invited first, by Paul the apostle to the Gentiles) to become joint children of promise with the Gentiles; a joint relationship wherein they were bound by every circ*mstance to obtain and hold the preeminence. Surely, then, the word of God had not failed as to them, but they had failed as to it.].
10 And not only so [Not only is Ishmael rejected for the promised Isaac, but even Isaac’s seed, his two sons Esau and Jacob, are made the subject of choice by God, showing that even the seed of the children of promise may be so sifted that part may be received and part rejected, for God indeed did this, accepting Jacob and rejecting Esau]; but Rebecca also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac [Now, it might be objected by the Jew (unjustly in view of the fact that four of the tribes of Israel were descended from bondwomen) that his case was not parallel to that of Ishmael, for Ishmael was the son of a bondwoman (an Egyptian), and was of a mocking, spiteful disposition (Genesis 21:9). Ishmael’s rejection, therefore, was justifiable, while the exclusion of the Jew by Paul’s so-called gospel was utterly unwarranted. To this Paul makes answer by citing the cases of Jacob and Esau. They had one father, Isaac the child of promise; and one mother, Rebecca the well beloved, approved of God; they were begotten at one conception, and were twins of one birth, yet God exercised his right to choose between them, and no Jew had ever questioned this, his right of choice. Yea, the unbounded freedom of choice was even more clearly manifest in other details which Paul enumerates]—11 for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good [as might be supposed of Jacob] or bad [as might be presumed of Esau], that the purpose of God according to election [choosing] might stand [might be made apparent and be fully and finally confirmed], not of works, but of him that calleth [not a choosing enforced on God by the irresistible, meritorious claims of man, in keeping the law of works, human and divine; but a free choosing on God’s part manifested in his calling those who suit his purpose], 12 it was said unto her, The elder shall serve ["Servitude," says Trapp, "came in with a curse, and figureth reprobation—Genesis 9:25; John 8:34-35; Galatians 4:30"] the younger. [i. e., Esau shall serve Jacob. It is evident from these words that Jacob and Esau do not figure personally, but as the heads of elect and non-elect nations, for personally Esau never served Jacob. On the contrary, he lived the life of a prince or petty king, while Jacob was a hireling, and Jacob feared Esau as the man of power.
But the nation sprung of the elder son did serve the nation descended from the younger. "History," says Alford, "records several subjugations of Edom by the kings of Judah; first by David (2 Samuel 8:14);—under Joram they rebelled (2 Kings 8:20), but were defeated by Amaziah (2 Kings 14:7), and Elath taken from them by Uzziah (2 Kings 14:22); under Ahaz they were again free, and troubled Judah (2 Chronicles 28:16-17; comp. 2 Kings 16:6-7,—and continued free as prophesied in Genesis 27:40, till the time of John Hyrcanus, who (Jos. Antt. 13:9, 1) reduced them finally, so that thenceforward they were incorporated among the Jews. "]
13 Even as it is written [Malachi 1:2-3], Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. [Expositors of Calvinistic bias insist upon the full, literal meaning of "hatred" in this passage; but Hodge, whose leaning that way is so decided that he can see no more injustice in eternal than in temporal election (he apparently never weighed the words of our Saviour at Luke 16:25; Luke 12:48, and kindred passages which show that temporal favors which are indeed bestowed arbitrarily are taken into account to form the basis of just judgment in the bestowal of eternal favors), is nevertheless too fair-minded an exegete to be misled here. He says: "It is evident that in this case the word hate means to love less, to regard and treat with less favor. Thus, in Genesis 29:33, Leah says she was hated by her husband; while in the preceding verse the same idea is expressed by saying, ’Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah’ (Matthew 8:24; Luke 14:26). ’If a man come to me and hate not his father and mother, etc.’ (John 12:25)." As this ninth of Romans is the stronghold of Calvinism, the arsenal of that disappearing remnant who believe in eternal foreordination according to the absolute decree of the sovereign will of God, we feel that a word ought to be said about the doctrinal trend of its sections. We therefore submit a few points. 1. It is rather odd that this chapter should be used to prove salvation by election when, so far as it bears on election at all, it is wholly an effort to justify God in casting off an elect people (Jews) and choosing a non-elect people (Gentiles). If, therefore, the chapter as a whole teaches anything as to arbitrary election, it is plainly this, that those who depend upon God to show partiality in electing some and condemning others, will either be disappointed as were the Jews, or surprised as were the Gentiles, for election will never work out as they suppose. For, after showing favor to Abraham’s seed for nineteen hundred years, God adjusted the balances, and, turning from Jews to Gentiles, made the first last, and the last first; the elect, non-elect; and the non-elect, elect. And now, the non-elect, having enjoyed the favors and privileges for a like term of nineteen hundred years, are now being called to account, and will, in their turn, be cut off. But if they are, it will be wholly their own fault, just as the rejection nineteen hundred years ago was by Israel’s fault, and not by arbitrary decree of God. 2. Moreover, Paul is not discussing salvation, or foreordination as to eternity. There is not one word on that subject in the entire ninth chapter. The apostle is introducing no new doctrine, no unheard-of and strange enormity like Calvinism. "The difficulty," as Olshausen aptly puts it, "and obscurity of the whole section before us are diminished when we reflect that it by no means contains anything peculiar; since the same ideas which so startle us in reading it, are also expressed throughout the whole of the Old as well as the New Testament. It is only their conciseness, their bold and powerful utterance, that lends them, as it were, an unprecedented appearance here." The apostle is speaking of the bestowal of temporal advantages and benefits, and is showing that these, even when relating to Messianic privileges, are bestowed according to God’s free will—they have to be! They are like mother earthly benefits or privileges; for instance, the distinction as to new-born souls. It is God alone who must determine how each shall enter the world, whether as of the white, brown, red, black or yellow race, whether among the rich or poor. So also, rising a step higher, whether a soul shall have a perfect or a defective brain to think with, and whether it shall enter a Christian or a pagan home. Now, as God gave a promise to Eve, the same law of necessity made it compulsory that he choose arbitrarily what household should be the repository of that promise and thus perpetuate a lively expectation of its fulfillment. God therefore first chose the Chaldees among the nations, then, as second choice, he elected Abraham among the Chaldees; third, he chose Isaac from Abraham’s seed, and, fourth, Jacob from Isaac’s offspring. Up to this time there was a marked separation, both spiritual and geographical, between the elect and the non-elect, so that there was no confusion in anybody’s mind as to the inherent exclusiveness of election. But with Jacob a change came. His sons all dwell together, and during his lifetime till his last sickness no election was announced as to them until on his deathbed Jacob gave Judah the preeminence (Genesis 49:8-12). But Moses passes over this preeminence (Deuteronomy 33:7) and there was no segregation of Judah. In fact, other tribes seem to have overshadowed Judah in importance, notably that of Levi, all of whom were set apart as Levites for God’s service, and of which tribe also came Moses the lawgiver and Aaron the father of the priesthood. Moreover, many of the great judges came from other tribes, and the house of Benjamin furnished the first king. This community of interest, this privilege of enjoying the appurtenances and collaterals of election, should have taught Israel that the blessing promised was greater, wider and more gracious than the mere privilege of being the repository of that blessing, but, instead, it begot in them the mistaken idea that all the twelve tribes were elect. So, indeed, they were as to possessing the land, but they were not elect as to being repositories of the Messianic promise, which honor was first limited to Judah (1 Chronicles 5:2) and afterwards to the house of David (2 Samuel 7:12; Micah 5:2; John 7:42). Now, this is what Paul is discussing. With him it is a question of fixing a promise so that men may watch for its fulfillment in a certain race and family—a promise which, when fulfilled, brings blessings and benefits not confined to any race or family, but open and free to all who accept them, and denied to all who refuse and reject them, yea, even to the very race and family which have been the age-long repositories of the promise. And the point of Paul’s whole argument is this: As God was absolutely free to choose who should be the repositories of the promise, so is he absolutely free to fix the terms by which men shall enjoy the blessings promised, even if those terms (because of rebellion against them on the part of the repositories) work out the failure of the repositories to enjoy the blessings so long held by them in the form of unfulfilled promise. And what has all this to do with electing infants to eternal damnation? No more than the election which makes one child black and the other white, when both are born the same moment. In short, no temporal election, no matter how blessed, includes salvation to the elect or necessitates damnation upon the non-elect, for it is apparent to all that the election of the Gentiles as repositories of Christian truth does not save half of them, and the rejection of the Jews from this holy office damns none of them. Salvation is accorded the Jew who believes as freely as it is to the Gentile, and the unbelieving Gentile is damned with the unbelieving Jew, and rests under heavier condemnation because he sins against greater temporal privileges and advantages. In either case the temporal advantage or disadvantage will be duly considered in forming a just judgment (Luke 12:48). 3. It should be noted that Paul proves God’s right at any time to limit his promise. Thus the blessing to Abraham’s seed was first "nakedly and generally expressed, ", as Chalmers puts it. Then it was limited to one son, Isaac. Again it was limited to Isaac’s son, Jacob. Therefore, as God established his right of limiting the promise to those whom he chose in the inner circle of the promise, so he could in the gospel age limit the promise to spiritual to the exclusion of fleshly seed. This is not just what he did, but this is what he established his right to do, for if he could disinherit Ishmael after he had apparently obtained vested rights, and if he disinherited Esau before he was born, there was no limit to his right to disinherit, providing only, that he kept within the promise and chose some one of Abraham’s seed, or the seed of some one of his descendants to whom a like covenant was given. Compare his offer to make Moses the head of a new people (Exodus 32:10), which he was free to do, not having confirmed the rights in Judah pronounced by Jacob (Genesis 49:8-12).
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
III. Rejection of Israel Not Inconsistent
with the Justice of God
Rom 9:14-18
14 What shall, we say then? [The apostle makes frequent use of the semi-dialogue. Five times already in this Epistle he has asked this question (3:5; 4:1; 6:1; 7:7; 8:31): He begins with this question which calls out an objection in the form of a question, to which he replies with an indignant denial, which he backs up by a full and detailed answer, or explanation. The question called out is] Is there unrighteousness with God? [The indignant denial is as usual] God forbid. [Poole calls this "Paul’s repeated note of detestation." He uses it fourteen times. It expresses indignant, pious horror. Literally it is, "Let it not be;" but as this form of expression was too tame for our English ancestry who have ever held God’s name in that light reverence which makes free use of it for emphasis, we find it translated "God forbid" by Wyclif, Coverdale, Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevan, etc. But the use of God’s name, being needless, is inexcusable. The import, then, of verse 14 runs thus: If God chooses arbitrarily, is he not unjust? and does he not thereby do violence to his moral character, his holiness? The apostle’s answer is unique; for it is merely a quotation from Scripture. His argument, therefore, rests upon a double assumption; first, that God is truly represented in the Scripture, and, second, the Scripture everywhere represents him as just, holy and perfect. Paul’s objector, in this case, would be a Jew, and any Jew would accept both these assumptions as axiomatic. If, therefore, Paul’s Scripture quotation shows that God’s power of choice is absolutely free, then the apostle by it has likewise shown that God’s arbitrary choices are nevertheless just and holy, and objection to them as unjust is not well founded. The arbitrary choice of a sinful heart is sinful, but the arbitrary choice of the Sinless is likewise sinless, just and holy partaking of his nature who chooses.]
15 For he saith to Moses [Exodus 33:19. Surely if the Scripture generally was final authority to the Jew, that part of it would be least questioned wherein God is the speaker and Moses the reporter], I will have mercy on whom I have mercy [God chooses both the occasion and the object of mercy, and it is not regulated by anything external to him. That which is bestowed upon the meritorious and deserving is not pure mercy; for, as Shakespeare expresses it, "The quality of mercy is not strained"], and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. [Compassion is a stronger term than mercy; it is mercy with the heart in it. The words quoted were spoken to Moses when he requested to see God, and his request was in part granted. In expounding Exodus 33:19, Keil and Delitzsch speak thus: "These words, though only connected with the previous clause by the copulative vav, are to be understood in a causal sense as expressing the reason why Moses’ request was granted, that it was an act of unconditional grace and compassion on the part of God, to which no man, not even Moses, could lay any just claim." This interpretation is strengthened by the Old Testament reading, which runs thus: "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy," for the act was one of grace rather than of compassion. Let us remember that Paul is here addressing a hypothetical Jewish objector. The Jew, influenced by false reasoning on his law, held a theory that man’s conduct regulated God’s and that man took the initiative and that God’s actions were merely responsive. Such might, in some measure, have been the case had any man ever kept the. law; but as things actually stood, to the subversion of all such things, it was evident from Scripture that Moses, the great lawgiver, himself had never been able to merit a favor at God’s hands, but, on the contrary, God granted that to him as a matter of gracious mercy which he could never claim as a matter of right; viz., not eternal life with God, but the mere momentary glimpse of the passing of God’s glory. Surely, with such a precedent before him, the rational, thoughtful Jew, whether of Paul’s day or of our own, could and can have small hope of gaining heaven by the works of the law. Since it is true that Abraham obtained favor by faith and Moses received it solely by grace, who shall win it by merit under the law?]
16 So then [With these words Paul introduces the answer to the question in verse 14, as inferred or deduced from the citation in verse 15; as though he said, "As a conclusion from what I have cited, it is proven that as to the obtaining of God’s favor"] it is not [the accomplishment] of him that willeth [of him that wants it], nor of him that runneth [of him that ardently strives, or offers works for it, as a runner does for his prize], but of God that hath mercy. [Many expositors, following Theophylact, refer this "willing" to. Isaac, who sought to bless Esau against God’s choice in Jacob, and refer the running to that of Esau, who ran to get the venison. But that running of Esau was too literal; it lacked in that moral effort Godward which Paul’s argument implies. Others, as Meyer, Godet, etc., confine the willing and running to Moses, but this, too, is objectionable, as too narrow a base for so broad a principle. Paul includes Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Esau, Moses, and all like them. No man is chosen of God because he chooses or strives to be chosen till God has first chosen him (John 15:16-19). The first choice rests in the will of God. If God did not call all (John 3:16; Titus 2:11; Revelation 22:17) and choose all who respond by sincerely wishing and striving to be chosen, the dark side of Calvinism might indeed be true. Originally there was no curb to the freedom of God in dealing with fallen man save the unspeakable mercy and goodness of God. Justice at that time afforded no curb; for man was a sinner without means of propitiation or atonement, and stood condemned by justice. The verbal form "runneth," though it comes in abruptly, is not of special, but of general, reference ("him" being equivalent to "any one"), and indicates strenuous moral effect toward God, or salvation (Psalms 119:32). It is part of the old and familiar figure wherein life is regarded as a race or "course," moral effort being a "running" therein (see comment, Romans 9:31-32). This figure is so well known that it is customarily introduced thus abruptly (Acts 13:25; Acts 20:24; 2 Timothy 4:6-7). The use of the verb "to run" is as common as the noun "course," and is also brought in abruptly, as needing no gloss (Galatians 2:2; Galatians 5:7; Philippians 2:16; Hebrews 12:1. Comp. Philippians 3:11-14 and 1 Corinthians 9:24-26, where the apostle elaborates the figure). These very references to Paul’s use of this figure afford abundant proof that after God chooses us (and he has now chosen us all, for he would not that any should perish, but that all men be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth—2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4; Romans 2:4; Titus 2:1-1; Ezekiel 18:23; Ezekiel 18:32; Ezekiel 33:11), then everything depends upon our "willing" (Luke 13:34; Acts 13:46) and "running," for we ourselves having obtained of God’s free will and grace a calling and election, must of ourselves make that calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10-11); yea, we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and the aid of God (Philippians 2:12), and must so "run" that we may obtain. Paul is here proving the unfettered freedom of the Almighty before he gave the gospel. A freedom which permitted him to give it when, how, where and to whom he chose, save as he had gradually limited himself, slightly, from time to time, by his promises. This freedom permitted him at last to give such a gospel that the self-righteous Jews saw fit to reject it and become castaways. Paul in all his argument says never a word about God’s limitations in the gospel after the gospel was given; for they have nothing to do with his argument which relates to God’s freedom when preparing the gospel and before the gospel was given. Failure to note this simple, obvious distinction has brought forth that abortive system of inexorable logic called Calvinism, which has gone near to attribute both the sins of man and the iniquities of the devil to God himself. God was free, but in his goodness he chose to provide salvation to those who would accept it on his conditions. Thus the Lord, being free, chose to be bound by his covenants and promises, even as the Lord Jesus, being rich, chose to be poor (2 Corinthians 8:9). Paul proves God’s past freedom; no one save the Jew of his day ever denied it; but to say that Paul establishes a present freedom and absolute sovereignty in God, which robs man of his freedom to do right, or wrong: repent, or continue in sin; accept Christ, or reject him, etc., is to dynamite the gospel, and blast to shivers the entire rock of New Testament Scripture. Calvinism denies to God the possibility of making a covenant, or giving a promise, for each of these is a forfeiture of freedom, a limitation of liberty. According to Calvinism, God is absolutely free; according to the Scripture, he is free save where he has pledged himself to man in the gospel.]
17 For the scripture [Paul is still answering the question at verse 14 by Scripture citation] saith unto Pharaoh [We have had election choosing between Ishmael and Isaac, and Esau and Jacob: we now have it choosing between a third pair, Moses and Pharaoh. In the first case God blessed both Isaac and Ishmael with promises (Genesis 17:20; Genesis 21:13; Genesis 21:18; Genesis 21:20); in the second case he blessed Jacob and withheld his promise from Esau; in the third case he granted favor to Moses, and meted out punishment to Pharaoh. Thus there is a marked progress in reprobation in the three non-elect characters, which is suggestive, since Israel was thrice given over to a reprobate mind, and each punishment was more intense. First, all were rejected in the wilderness, but all their children were permitted to enter the promised land—time, forty years; second, all were rejected at the carrying away into Babylon, and only a small body were permitted to return—time, seventy years; third, the race as a race was rejected in Paul’s day and only a remnant will, even at the end, be restored (Isaiah 10:22-23; Isaiah 1:9)—time, about nineteen hundred years], For this very purpose did I raise thee up [caused thee to occupy a time and place which made thee conspicuous in sacred history], that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. [For the publishing of God’s name, see Exodus 15:14-16; Joshua 2:9-10; Joshua 9:9. The dispersion of the Jews and the spread of Christianity have kept God’s name glorified in the history of Pharaoh to this day. Paul is still establishing by Scripture God’s freedom of choice. He chose the unborn in preference to the born; he chose between unborn twins; he chose between the shepherd Moses and Pharaoh the king. In this last choice Moses was chosen as an object of mercy, and Pharaoh as a creature of wrath, but his latter choice in no way violates even man’s sense of justice. Instead of raising up a weak and timid owner of the Hebrew slaves, God exalted Pharaoh, the stubborn, the fearless. And who would question God’s right to do this? Having put Pharaoh in power, God so managed the contest with him that his stubbornness was fully developed and made manifest, and- in overcoming his power and stubbornness through the weakness of Moses, God showed his power. The transaction is very complex. God starts by stating the determined nature of Pharaoh (Exodus 3:19) and follows the statement with the thrice repeated promise, "I will harden his heart" (Exodus 4:21; Exodus 7:3; Exodus 14:4. Comp. 14:17). Once Jehovah says, "I have hardened his heart" (Exodus 10:1). Thrice it is said that his "heart was hardened as Jehovah had spoken" (Exodus 7:13; Exodus 8:19; Exodus 9:35). Once it reads, that his "heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as Jehovah had spoken" (Exodus 7:22). Five times we read that "Jehovah hardened" his heart (Exodus 9:12; Exodus 10:20; Exodus 10:27; Exodus 11:10; Exodus 14:8). Thus thirteen times (with Exodus 8:15, fourteen times) Pharaoh’s hardness of heart is said to be the act of God. (Comp. Deuteronomy 2:30; Joshua 11:20; Isaiah 63:17; John 12:40; John 9:39; Mark 4:12.) Inexorably so? By no means: God would have gotten honor had he relented before matters reached extremes. Hence Pharaoh is called upon to repent (Exodus 10:3), and several times he is near repenting, and might have done so had not God been too ready to show mercy (Exodus 8:28; Exodus 9:27; Exodus 10:24). So there was sin in Pharaoh. We read that his "heart is stubborn" (Exodus 7:14); "was stubborn" (Exodus 9:7). "Pharaoh hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had spoken" (Exodus 8:15). "Pharaoh hardened his heart" (Exodus 8:32; 1 Samuel 6:6). "Pharaoh sinned yet more, and hardened his heart" (Exodus 9:34). As the hardening" was the joint work of Pharaoh and God, and as Pharaoh sinned in hardening his heart, God’s part in the hardening was not an absolute, overmastering act. It was not even a persuasive act, as in cases of conversion. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by providing opportunity and occasion, as the narrative shows, and Pharaoh did the. rest by improving the opportunity in the service of the devil. The same act of patience, forbearance and mercy which softens one heart, hardens another by delaying punishment, as we may see every day. The same sunshine that quickens the live seed, rots the dead one. The Jews approved God’s course toward Pharaoh, but resented the same treatment when turned upon themselves, ignoring the natural law that like causes produce like effects. God found Pharaoh hard and used him for his glory negatively. He found Israel hard and made the same negative use of them, causing the gospel to succeed without them, thus provoking them to jealousy—Romans 10:19 :]
18 So then [see verse 16] he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth. [This does not mean, that God arbitrarily chooses the worst people upon whom to shower his mercies, and chooses those who are trying hard to serve him and hardens them that he may punish them. The point is that, in the absence of any promise or other self-imposed limitation. God is free to choose whom he will for what he will. As applicable to Paul’s argument, it means that God’s freedom of choice is not bound by man’s judgment or estimation, for he may prefer the publican to the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14) and may choose rather to be known as the friend of sinners than the companion of the rulers and chief priests, and he may elect the hedge-row Gentile to the exclusion of invited but indifferent Jews (Luke 14:23-24). God is bound by his nature to choose justly and righteously, but all history shows that man can not depend upon his sin-debased judgment when he attempts to specify what or whom God approves or rejects. Here we must be guided wholly by his word, and must also be prayerfully careful not to wrest it. In short, it is safer to say that God chooses absolutely, than to say that God chooses according to my judgment, for human judgment must rarely square with the divine mind. Had the Jew accepted Paul’s proposition, he might centuries ago have seen the obvious fact that God has chosen the Gentiles and rejected him; but, persisting in his erroneous theory that God’s judgment and choice must follow his own petty notions and whims, he is blind to that liberty of God’s of which the apostle wrote, and naturally—
"For, Och! mankind are unto weak,
An’ little to be trusted;
If self the wavering balance shake,
It’s rarely right adjusted!"]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
IV. God’s Absolute Power Asserted—His Justice Vindicated
and Also His Course in Rejecting the Unbelieving Jews
and Accepting the Believing Gentiles
Romans 9:19-29
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? [That God actually and always does find fault with sinners is a fact never to be overlooked, and is also a fact which shows beyond all question or peradventure that God abhors evil and takes no positive steps toward its production. Even in the case cited by Paul, where God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, the act of God was permissive, for else how could the Lord expostulate with Pharaoh for a rebellious spirit for which God himself was responsible? (Exodus 9:17; Exodus 10:3-4.) Again, let us consider the case in point. If God hardened Israel by positive act, why did his representative and "express image" weep over Jerusalem? and why was the Book of Romans written?] For who withstandeth his will? [Since Paul is still justifying God in formulating a gospel which results in the condemnation of Jews and the saving of Gentiles, this objector is naturally either a Jew or some one speaking from the Jewish standpoint: This fact is made more apparent in the subsequent verses, for in them the apostle appropriately answers the Jew out of his Jewish Scriptures. The objection runs thus: But, Paul, if God shows mercy to whom he will, and if he hardens whom he will, then it is he who has hardened us Jews in unbelief against the gospel. Why, then, does he still find fault with us, since he himself, according to your argument, has excluded us from blessedness, and made us unfit for mercy? This reply implies three things:1. God, not the Jew, was at fault. 2. The Jew was ill used of God, in being deprived of blessing through hardening. 3. The rewards of saints and sinners should be equal, since each did God’s will absolutely in the several fields of good and evil where God had elected each to work. To each of these three implications the apostle replies with lightning-like brevity:1. It is impious, O man, to so argue in self-justification as to compromise the good name of God. 2. It is folly for the thing formed to complain against him that formed it. 3. Rewards and destinies need not be equal, since, for instance, the potter out of the same lump forms vessels for different destinies, whether of honor or dishonor. But it must be borne in mind that in the last of these three brief answers the apostle aims rather, as Alford says, "at striking dumb the objector by a statement of God’s indubitable right, against which it does not become us men to murmur, than at unfolding to us the actual state of the case." Let us now consider the three answers in detail.]
20 Nay but [One word in Greek; viz., the particle menounge. "This particle is," says Hodge, "often used in replies, and is partly concessive and partly corrective, as in Luke 11:28, where it is rendered, yea, rather; in Romans 10:18, yes, verily. It may here, as elsewhere, have an ironical force. Sometimes it is strongly affirmative, as in Philippians 3:8, and at others introduces, as here, a strong negation or repudiation of what has been said." "I do not examine the intrinsic verity of what you allege, but, be that as it may, this much is certain, that you are not in a position to dispute with God"—Godet], O man ["Man" stands at the beginning and "God" at the end of the clause to emphasize the contrast. Man, thou feeble morsel of sinful dust, wilt thou, wrangle with God!], who art thou that repliest against God? ["That chattest and wordest it with him" (Trapp). "Repliest" signifies an answer to an answer. It suggests, to those familiar with legal parlance, the declaration and answer, the replication and rejoinder, the rebutter and surrebutter to the limits both of human impudence and divine patience. Before answering the objection, Paul, therefore, felt it necessary to rebuke the impious presumption of the objector. It is permissible to fathom and understand what God reveals about himself, but it is not allowable for us, out of our own sense of justice, arrogantly and confidently to fix and formulate what principles must guide God in his judging. To do this is to incur the censure meted out to Job (Job 38-41). "No man," says Haldane, "has a right to bring God to trial." Man’s understanding is not adequate to such a task.] Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? [In the Greek the form of the question indicates that a negative answer is expected. The question is not a quotation, but rather "an echo" of Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9. "Formed" implies, not creation, but subsequent, ethical moulding. God does not create us evil, but we are born into a world which, if not resisted, will form us thus. This is the actual work of God in the case. If we find ourselves formed after the pattern of evil, can we, in the light of all that he has done in the gospel, censure God for our life-result? Being insensate, the wood can not quarrel with the carpenter, nor the iron with the smith. Being sensate, and knowing the grace of God, and his own free will, man also is silent, and can render no complaint. The free will of man is an offset to the insensibility of the wood and iron, and makes their cases equal, or, legally speaking, "on all-fours." Inanimate material can not complain of malformation, for it lacks understanding of the facts; but man, having understanding, likewise can not complain, for the malformation was his own free choice. Speaking mathematically, the "free will" cancels the "lack of understanding," and leaves the animate and the inanimate equal, and therefore alike silent as to the results of the processes of moulding.] 21 Or [This word presents a dilemma, thus: Either the clay (thing formed) has no right to question, or the potter has no right to dictate. In the Greek the form of the question indicates the affirmative answer: "The potter has a right to dictate"]
21 hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another [part of the lump a vessel] unto dishonor? [God is the potter, the human race is the clay, and the vessels are nations. Being under obligations to none, for all, having fallen into sin, had thereby forfeited his regard and care as Creator, God, for the good of all, made election that the Jewish nation should be a vessel of honor (Acts 13:17) to hold the truth (2 Corinthians 4:7; Romans 3:1-2), the covenants and the progenital line through which came the Messiah. Later he chose the Egyptians as a vessel of dishonor, to be punished for their abuse of the covenant people, and the murder of their little ones. In Paul’s day he was choosing Gentiles (Europeans) as vessels of honor to hold the knowledge of the gospel. This choosing and forming is to the prejudice of no man’s salvation, for all are invited in matters pertaining to eternal life, and each temporal election is for the eternal benefit of all. Potter’s clay and potter’s vessels are used to indicate national weakness (Daniel 2:41-44; Lamentations 4:2; Isaiah 41:25; Psalms 2:9; Revelation 2:26-27) and national dependence (Isaiah 64:8-12) and national punishment (Jeremiah 19:1; Jeremiah 19:10-13; Isaiah 30:14). It is a national figure (Sirach 33:10-12), yet it recognizes national free will (Jeremiah 18:1-12). In the single instance where it is used individually, it is employed by Paul in a passage very similar to this, yet clearly recognizing the power of human vessels to change destinies by the exercise of free will (2 Timothy 2:20-21). But no individual vessel is one of honor till cleansed by blood (Hebrews 9:21-22; Acts 9:15; Acts 22:14-16), and who will say that a vessel cleansed in Christ’s blood is one of dishonor? And we are cleansed or not according to our own free choice.]
22 What if [With these words Paul introduces his real answer to the question asked in verse 19. The full idea runs thus: "I have answered your impudent question by an assertion of the absolute right of God, which you can not deny (Proverbs 26:5; Psalms 18:26). But what will you say if, etc." If the absolute abstract right of God puts man to silence, how much more must he be silent before the actual, applied mercy and grace of God which forbears to use the right because of his longsuffering pity toward the impenitent, and his forgiving leniency toward the repentant. Paul asserts the absolute right of God, but denies that he applies it. Herein he differs from Calvinism, which insists that he applies it] God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction [And now, O man, how silent must you be if it appears that God, although willing to show his displeasure against wickedness, and ready to show his power to crush its designs, nevertheless endured with much longsuffering evil men whose conduct had already fitted them for, or made them worthy of, destruction. Paul has already told us that the longsuffering of God is exercised to induce repentance, though its abuse may incidentally increase both wrath and punishment (Romans 2:4-11). It is not affirmed that God "fitted" these evil ones for destruction. "And," says Barnes, "there is an evident design in not affirming it, and a distinction made between them and the vessels of mercy which ought to be regarded. In relation to the latter it is expressly affirmed that God fitted or prepared them for glory. (See vs. 23.) ’Which HE had afore prepared unto glory.’ The same distinction is remarkably striking in the account of the last judgment in Matthew 25:34-41. To the righteous, Christ will say, ’Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for YOU,’ etc. To the wicked, ’Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS;’ not said to have been originally prepared for them. It is clear, therefore, that God intends to keep the great truth in view, that he prepares his people by direct agency for heaven; but that he exerts no such agency in preparing the wicked for destruction." No potter, either divine or human, ever made vessels just to destroy them. But any potter, finding a vessel suited to a dishonorable use, may so use it, and may afterwards destroy it. How the Jews "fitted" themselves for destruction is told elsewhere by the apostle--1 Thessalonians 2:15-16]:
23 and [A copula of thoughts, rather than of clauses: God spared the wicked because of longsuffering mercy to them, and because they could be used to aid him in making known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy. Without attempting to show that God’s patience with the godless aids him to win the godly, we will let it suffice to say that God spares the wicked for the sake of the righteous, lest the hasty uprooting of the former might jeopardize the safety of the latter--Matthew 13:28-30] that [he showed longsuffering to the wicked, in order that] he might make known the riches of his glory [God’s glory is his holiness, his perfection; "riches," as Bengel observes, "of goodness, grace, mercy, wisdom, omnipotence"] upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory [It is much disputed whether the "glory" here mentioned is the temporal honor of being a church militant, a covenant people, a temple of the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22), a new dispensation of grace supplanting that of the law (glories won by the Gentiles, and lost by the Jews), or whether it refers to the glory of the land celestial, and the bliss of heaven. The context favors the latter view, for "glory" is the antithesis of "destruction" in the parallel clause, and destruction can refer to nothing temporal. By comparing the two parallel clauses, Gifford deduces the following: "We see (1) that St. Paul is here speaking, not of election or predestination, but of an actual preparation and purgation undergone by vessels of mercy to fit them for glory, before God ’makes known the riches of his glory upon them.’ Compare 2 Timothy 2:20-21, a passage which evidently looks back on this. (2) We observe that this preparation, unlike that by which ’vessels of wrath’ are ’fitted for destruction,’ is ascribed directly and exclusively to God as its author, being wholly brought about by his providence and prevenient grace. The idea of fitness, akin to that of desert, is ascribed only to the vessels of wrath. The vessels of mercy God has made ready for glory, but there is no idea of merit involved"],
24 even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? [The apostle ends his question with a clear specification of who the vessels of mercy are. They are those called impartially from both Jews and Gentiles. "In calling to salvation," says Lard, "God is equally merciful to all. He sends to all the same Christ, the same gospel; on them he spends the same influences, and to them presents the same incentives to duty. But beyond this he strictly discriminates in bestowing mercy. He bestows it on those only that obey his Son. On the rest he will one day pour out his wrath." We may add, that toward those who accept his call he is equally impartial in preparing for glory, giving them the same remission of sins, the same gift of the Holy Spirit, the same promises, etc. But the impartiality which the apostle emphasizes is that which gave no preference to the Jew.] 25 As he saith also in Hosea [Paul does not seek to prove his question about God’s grace to the wicked which he exercises instead of his right to immediate punishment--that needs no proof. That God wishes to save all, and hath no pleasure in the damnation of any, has always been Scripturally plain. What he now seeks to prove is his last assertion about impartiality. He has shown out of the Scriptures that God has elected between the apparently elect; he now wishes to also show, out of the same Scriptures, that he has elected the apparently non-elect--viz., the Gentiles--and that the apparently elect, or Jews, are all to be rejected save a remnant. The first quotation is a compilation of Hosea 2:23; Hosea 1:10. The translation is from the Hebrew, modified by the LXX., and by Paul, but not so as to affect the meaning. It reads thus:],
25 I will call that my people, which was not my people; And her beloved, that was not beloved. 26 And it shall be [shall come to pass], that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God. [These verses originally apply to the to-be-returned-and-reinstated ten tribes, after the devastation and deportation inflicted by the Assyrians. To illustrate the stages in the rejection of Israel, Hosea was to take a wife and name his daughter by her Lo-ruhamah, which means, "that hath not obtained mercy" (1 Peter 2:10), which Paul translates "not beloved"; and the son by her he was to name Lo-ammi; i. e., "not my people." This symbolic action is followed by the prophecy (not yet fulfilled) that the day should come when "Lo-ruhamah" would be changed to "Ruhamah," "that which hath obtained mercy" or "beloved"; and "Lo-ammi" would be changed to "Ammi," "my people." Some expositors have been at a loss to see how Paul could find in this prophecy concerning Israel a prediction relating to the call of the Gentiles. But the prophecy and the facts should make the matter plain. By calling them "not my people," God, through Hosea, reduced the ten tribes to the status of Gentiles, who were likewise rejected and cast off. Paul therefore reasons that if the restoration of the ten tribes would be the same as calling the Gentiles, the prophecy indicates the call of Gentiles. All this is borne out by the facts in the case. The "lost tribes" are to-day so completely Gentile, that, without special revelation from God, their call must be the same as calling Gentiles. The word "place" (vs. 26) is significant. The land of the Gentiles, where the ten tribes are dispersed and rejected, and are become as Gentiles, is to be the place of their reinstatement and acceptance, and this acceptance shall resound among the Gentiles. This publishing on the part of the Gentiles is a strong indication of their interest, hence of their like conversion. Having shown by Hosea that the "no-people" or non-elect Gentiles are clearly marked in Scripture, as called and chosen, Paul now turns to Isaiah to show that of the elect, or Jewish people, only a remnant shall be saved. And this fact is the source of that grief which Paul mentions at the beginning of the chapter.]
27 And Isaiah crieth [in deep feeling, excessive passion--John 1:15; John 7:28; John 7:37; John 12:44; Matthew 27:46] concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea [thus Isaiah minishes the promise given to Abraham (Genesis 22:17) and quoted by Hosea--Hosea 1:10], it is the remnant that shall be saved: 28 for the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short. [Isaiah 10:22-23. This prophecy, like that of Hosea, refers to the return of the ten tribes in the latter days, and is therefore an unfulfilled prophecy, save as it had a preliminary and minor literal fulfillment in the destruction of Jerusalem, a few years after Paul wrote this Epistle, which was the climax of rejection for the generation to which Paul wrote, and the full establishment of that age-long rejection of the majority which pertains unto this day. Daniel, dealing with its spiritual fulfillment, foretold that the labors of the Christ "confirming the covenant" with Israel would only last a week--a jubilee week having in it eight years, or from A. D. 26 to A. D. 34 (Daniel 9:27). How small the remnant gathered then! In the centuries since how small the ingathering! And, alas! now that we have come to the "latter days" and the last gathering, and the final literal and spiritual fulfillment of the prophecy, it gives us assurance of no more than a mere remnant still! Verse 28, as given in full by Isaiah, is thus happily paraphrased by Riddle, "He (the Lord) is finishing and cutting short the word (making it a fact by rapid accomplishment) in righteousness, for a cut-short word (one rapidly accomplished) will the Lord make (execute, render actual) upon the earth." When we consider that the Lord reckons a thousand years as but a day, how short was the spiritual privilege of the eight years exclusive ministry of Jesus and his apostles! and how brief was the forty years’ (A. D. 30-70) temporal privilege between the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem! Isaiah’s word shows us that the final fulfillment will be also a brief season, a cut-short word, doubtless a repetition of Daniel’s week.]
29 And, as Isaiah hath said before [This may mean, Isaiah has said this before me, so that I need not prophesy myself, but may appropriate his word, or, as earlier expositors (Erasmus, Calvin, Grotius, etc.) render it, Isaiah spoke the words which I am about to quote earlier than those which I have already quoted, the latter being Isaiah 10:22-23, and the former being at Isaiah 1:9. Since the apostle is proving his case by the Scripture and not resting it upon his own authority, the former reading seems out of place. It would be somewhat trite in Paul to state that Isaiah wrote before him! It is objected that the latter rendering states an unimportant fact. What difference can it make which saying came first or last? But it is not so much the order as the repetition of the saving that the apostle has in mind. Isaiah did not see some moment of national disaster in a single vision, and so cry out. He saw this destruction of all save a remnant in the very first vision of his book, and it is the oft-repeated burden and refrain of a large portion of his prophecies], Except the Lord of Sabaoth [Hebrew for "hosts"] had left us a seed [for replanting], We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah. [Like "cities of which now," as Chalmers observes, "no vestige is found, and of whose people the descendants are altogether lost in the history or our species." (Comp. Jeremiah 50:40.) In contrast with these, the Jews, though few in number, have ever been found in the kingdom of God. Since the section just finished is the stronghold of Calvinism, we should not leave it without noting that Simon Peter warns us not to put false construction upon it. He says: "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things" (a new heaven and a new earth), "give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his [God’s] sight, and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstedfast wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from you" own stedfastness" (2 Peter 3:14-17). Now, Paul uses the word "longsuffering" ten times. Seven times he speaks of the longsuffering of men. Once he speaks of the longsuffering of Christ extended to him personally and individually as chief of sinners. Twice (Romans 2:4-11; Romans 9:19-29) he fills the measure of Peter’s statement, and writes that men should "account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation." As the first of these passages (Romans 2:4-11) has never been in dispute, it follows either that all have wrested it, or that none have wrested it, so that in either case its history does not comply with Peter’s description. The passage before us, then, is the one which the ignorant and unsteadfast have wrested, and that so seriously that it has compassed their destruction. In further support of this identification, note (1) that this passage was, as we have seen, addressed to the Jews, and it therefore answers to the "wrote unto you" of Peter’s letter, which was also addressed to Jews; (2) while "the longsuffering of God," etc., is not prominent in all Paul’s Epistles, as we have just shown, the doctrine of election, which is the stumbling-block here, is a common topic with the apostle. Since, then, Peter warns us against wresting this section, let us see who wrests it. According to Peter, it is those who get a soul-destroying doctrine out of it, and such is Calvinism. It is those who derive from it a doctrine which palsies their effort, so that, believing themselves impelled by inexorable will and sovereign, immutable decree, they hold they can do nothing either to please or displease God, and therefore cease to "give diligence that they may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight," and cease to "account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation," and thus, "being carried away with the error of the wicked" that human effort is of no avail, they cease to make any, and so "fall from their own stedfastness." Surely with so plain a warning from so trustworthy a source we are foolish indeed if we wrest this Scripture so as to make it contradict the doctrines of human free will and responsibility so plainly taught in other Scriptures.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
V. The Grand Conclusion and its Explanations
Romans 9:30 to Romans 11:36
Subdivision A.
The Conclusion of the Argument Reached; Namely,
Gentiles Justified by Following God’s Law of Faith, While
Jews, Following Their Own Law of Works, Are Condemned.
Romans 9:30-33
30 What shall we say then? ["Shall we raise objection, as at verse 14, or shall we at last rest in a correct conclusion? Let us, from the Scriptures and facts adduced, reach a sound conclusion." Paul’s conclusion, briefly stated, is this: God’s sovereign will has elected that men shall be saved by belief in his Son. The Gentiles (apparently least apt and prepared) have, as a class, yielded to God’s will, and are being saved. The Jews (apparently most apt and prepared) have, as a class, resisted God’s will, and are being lost.] That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith [The righteousness which the apostle has in mind is that which leads to justification before God. Righteousness is the means, justification the end, so that the word as here used includes the idea of justification. Now, the Gentiles were not without desire for moral righteousness. The Greeks entertained lofty ideals of it, and the Romans, following the legalistic bent of their nature, plodded after it in their systems of law and government; but as Gentiles they had no knowledge of a God calling them to strict account in a final judgment, and demanding full justification. Hence they were not seeking it. But when the revelation of God and his demand for justification, and his graciously provided means for obtaining it, all burst upon their spiritual vision, they at once accepted the revelation in its entirety; being conscious that they had no righteousness of their own; being, indeed, filled with its opposite (Romans 1:18; Ephesians 2:2-3). "Faith," the leading and initiatory part of the conditions of justification, is, by a form of synecdoche, employed to designate the whole of the conditions, so Bloomfield justly observes: "Faith in Christ implies a full acceptance of his gospel, and an obedience to all its requisitions, whether of belief or practice"]:
31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. [Israel was not seeking justification. Their search was rather for a law that would produce in them a righteousness meriting justification. This craving arose from a proud, self-sufficient spirit, and God answered it by giving the law of Moses, for the express purpose of revealing their universal sinful weakness and insufficiency (Acts 15:10; Galatians 2:16), and need of a Saviour (Romans 7:24-25); wherefore Paul describes the law as "our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24). Realizing the impossible task of attaining justifying righteousness by the law of Moses, the Jew began adulterating that law by traditions; but even the law thus modified gave small delusive hope, and the cry was still, "What shall 1 do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25; Luke 18:18). But to this solemn and awful question there were but two answers: (1) Keep the law of Moses (Matthew 19:17; Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:12), and when the Jew answered, "I can not," then (2) the "Follow me" of Christ (Matthew 19:21). Since no man could keep the law of Moses, all men were and are shut in by God to the one law of salvation through faith in Christ. No wonder, then, that the Jew, seeking relief by Moses, or by a third law, failed to find any law that satisfied his soul or operated with God. Godet calls this success of the uninterested Gentile, and failure of the Jew who made the search of righteousness his daily business, "the most poignant irony in the whole of history"; yet the cases of the two parties are not wholly antithetical, as Paul clearly shows, by the use of the word "righteousness" instead of "justification." If both parties had sought justification, the Jew would have no doubt been the first to find it. But the object of the Jewish search was a law which would give life, yet preserve his pride and self-conceit, and his search was therefore for an impossibility. The Master himself discloses the difference in heart between the Jew and the Gentile in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9-14). The humble spirit of the Gentile accepted righteousness as the gift of the humble Christ, but the proud Jew could not so demean himself as to place himself under obligations so lofty to One so lowly. Let us note that the words "follow after" and "attain" are agonistic; that is to say, they are technical words describing the running after the prize, and the grasping of it, as used in the Olympic games. Their presence here at the end of the argument shows that the "willeth" and "runneth" of verse 16 also have the agonistic force which we gave to them in interpreting that verse. Paul’s conclusion explains the willing and running. It is folly to will and run contrary to the law and will of Him who, as supreme Sovereign, has laid down the immutable rules of the great race or game of life. The prize is the free gift of the King: there is no merit in running that can win it, when the running is random and contrary to rule, as the Jews suppose. There is no merit in running that can give a legal right to it, even when the running is according to rule, but there is in him who runs a moral fitness and aptness for the prize which makes it his, according to the will of him who called him to so run for it.]
32 Wherefore? [Why, then, did the Jews fail to find any law of life? Answer: Because there is but one such law, and they sought another.] Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. [In interpreting, we have contrasted the law of works with what we have called "the law of faith," but the apostle does not use this latter term: with him life it attained by "faith," though he treats it as a working principle in that he contrasts it with the other active principle, or law of works. In this verse, however, he drops the abstract altogether, and places the concrete "faith" and "works" in vivid opposition. It is not so much a question of law against law, and principle against principle; it is one of faith which appropriates the perfect righteousness of Christ, and of Jewish works which, scorning the garment of the purity of God, revealed in his Son, still clings to the filthy rags of self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, Phariseeism, etc.--Philippians 3:4-14.] They stumbled at the stone of stumbling [The language here still follows the metaphor of the race-course. The Jew, running with his eye on an imaginary, non-existing, phantom goal, and blind as to the real goal, stumbles over it and falls. The picture presented by the apostle suggests the sad truth that the Jew has run far enough and fast enough to win, but, as he has rejected the terms and rules of the race, his efforts are not counted by the Lord of the race. Christ was placed of God as a goal, and not as a stumbling-block; as a Saviour, not as a source of condemnation; but he is indeed either man’s salvation or his ruin--Matthew 21:42-45]; 33 even as it is written [The passage about to be quoted is a compound of the Hebrew at Isaiah 8:14 and the LXX. at Isaiah 28:16. The first reads thus, "But he shall be... for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel," and the second, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation... he that believeth shall not be in haste." The reader can see how the apostle, for brevity, has blended them; quoting only such part of each as suited his purpose], Behold, I lay in Zion [Jerusalem, the capital city of my people] a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence: And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. [Why the LXX. substituted "not be put to shame," for "not be in haste," is not clear, though the meaning of the latter phrase is near kin to the former, conveying the idea of fleeing away in confusion. Shame, however, is a very appropriate word here, for it was the chief cause of Christ’s rejection by the Jews: they were ashamed of him (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; Romans 1:16; 2 Timothy 1:8). The apostle is justified by New Testament authority in regarding both these Scriptures as Messianic prophecies (1 Peter 2:6-8; Matthew 21:42, Acts 4:11. Comp. Psalms 118:22; 1 Corinthians 3:11; Ephesians 2:20); but it adds greatly to the weight of his argument to know that the Jews also conceded them to be such. "Neither of these passages," says Olshausen, "relates to the Messiah in its immediate connection, but they had been typically applied to him as early as the Chaldean and Rabbinical paraphrases, and Paul with propriety so applies them. The Old Testament is one great prophecy of Christ." And Tholuck says: "Jarchi and Kimchi also testify that it (Isaiah 28:16) was explained of the Messias." And our Lord was a stone of stumbling! As Moule exclaims: "Was ever prophecy more profoundly verified in event?" If he spake plainly, they were offended; and if he spake in parables, they were equally angered. If he healed, they took offense; and if he forbore healing, and refused to give a sign, they were likewise dissatisfied. If he came to the feast, they sought his life; and if he stayed away, they were busy searching for him. Nothing that he did pleased them, nothing that he forbore to do won him any favor. His whole ministry developed an ever-increasing distaste for his person, and animosity toward his claims. As a final word on this great chapter, let us note that God’s foreordination rejected the Jew by presenting a gospel which appealed to sinners, and was offensive to that worst class of sinners, the self-righteous. God sent his Son as Physician to the sick, and those who supposed themselves well, died of their maladies according to a reasonable, rational and equitable plan--but also a foreordained plan. This conclusion of the ninth chapter will be fully discussed in the tenth.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
Subdivision B.
Five Explanations of the Grand Conclusion,
and Ascriptions of Praise.
Romans 10:1 to Romans 11:36
I. First Explanation--Jews Responsible for
Their Rejection, Since They Had an Equal
Chance with the Gentiles of Being Accepted
Romans 10:1-13
1 Brethren [Seven times in this Epistle Paul thus addresses the brethren at Rome generally (Romans 1:13; Romans 8:12; Romans 11:25; Romans 12:1; Romans 15:14; Romans 15:30; Romans 16:17). Twice he thus addresses the Christian Jews (Romans 7:1; Romans 7:4), and this "brethren" is evidently a third time they are especially spoken to. So thought Chrysostom, Bengel, Pool, Alford, Barnes, Hodge, etc. "Dropping now," says Bengel, "the severity of the preceding discussion, he kindly styles them brethren"], my heart’s desire [literally, "my heart’s eudokia, or good pleasure, or good will" (Luke 2:14; Ephesians 1:5-9; Philippians 1:15; Philippians 2:13). At Matthew 11:26, and Luke 10:21, it is translated "well pleasing"; at 2 Thessalonians 1:11, the literal "fulfil every good pleasure of goodness" is translated, "fulfil every desire of goodness." Eudokia does not mean desire, but we have no English word which better translates Paul’s use of it. Stuart conveys the idea fairly in a paraphrase "the benevolent and kind desire"] and my supplication to God is for them [the Israelites], that they may be saved. [Those who tell our faults and foretell their punishment usually appear to us to be our enemies. Paul described the sin and rejection of Israel so clearly that many of them would be apt to think that he prayed for their punishment. This did him gross wrong. Every time the Evangelist denounces sin from love toward the sinner. (Comp. Galatians 4:16.) As to the apostle’s prayer, it showed that his conception of foreordination was not Calvinistic. It would be of no avail to pray against God’s irrevocable decree; but it was very well worth while to pray against Jewish stubbornness in unbelief, trusting to the measureless resources of God to find a remedy. So the remark of Bengel is pertinent, "Paul would not have prayed, had they been utterly reprobates." Paul’s prayer being in the Spirit (Romans 9:1) was a pledge that no fixed decree prevented God from forgiving, if Israel would only repent and seek forgiveness.]
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. ["For" introduces Paul’s reason for having hope in his prayer. Had Israel been sodden in sin, or stupefied in indifference, he would have had less heart to pray. But they were ardently religious, though ignorantly so, for, had they possessed a true knowledge of their law, it would have led them to Christ, and had they understood their prophets, they would have recognized that Jesus was the Christ (Galatians 3:24; Luke 24:25-27; Revelation 19:10). But the chief ignorance of which Paul complained was their failure to see that there is no other way to justification and salvation save by faith in Christ Jesus. As to their zeal, which in the centuries wore out the vital energy of the Greek, and amazed the stolidity of the Roman, till in the siege of Jerusalem it dashed itself to atoms against the impregnable iron of the legionaries, no tongue nor pen can describe it. Of this zeal, Paul was a fitting witness, for before conversion he shared it as a persecutor, and after conversion he endured it as a martyr (Philippians 3:6; 2 Corinthians 11:24; Acts 21:20-31; Acts 22:4). But misguided zeal miscarries like a misdirected letter, and the value of the contents does not mend the address. "It is better," says Augustine, "to go limping in the right way, than to run with all our might out of the way." Their lack of knowledge, being due to their own stubborn refusal to either hear or see, was inexcusable.]
3 For being ignorant of God’s righteousness [Here Paul shows wherein they lacked knowledge. "For they," says Scott, "not knowing the perfect justice of the divine character, law and government; and the nature of that righteousness which God has provided for the justification of sinners consistently with his own glory"--Romans 3:26], and seeking to establish their own [Refusing to "put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27), they clothed themselves with a garment of their own spinning, which they, like all other worms, spun from their own filthy inwards. Or, to suit the figure more nearly to the language of the apostle, refusing to accept Christ as the Rock for life-building, they reared their crumbling structure on their own sandy, unstable nature, and as fast as the wind, rain and flood of temptation undermined their work, they set about rebuilding and re-establishing it, oblivious of the results of that supreme, unavertable, ever-impending storm, the last judgment--Matthew 7:24-27], they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. ["Subject" is the keyword here. The best comment on this passage is found at John 8:31-36. Those who admit themselves bondservants of sin find it no hardship to enter the free service of Christ, but those whose pride and self-sufficiency and self-righteousness make them self-worshipers, can bring themselves to submit to no one. By use of the phrase "righteousness of God," Paul indicts them of rebellion against the Father and his plan of salvation, rather than of rebellion against the person of the Christ, who is the sum and substance of the Father’s plan--the concrete righteousness whereby we are saved.]
4 For [With this word the apostle gives further evidence of the ignorance of the Jews. He has shown that they did not know that they could not merit eternal life by good works; he now proceeds to show that they did not know that the law itself, which was the sole basis on which they rested their hopes of justification by the merit of works, was now a nonentity, a thing of the past; having been fulfilled, abolished and brought to an absolute and unqualified end by Christ. The Jews, therefore, are proven ignorant, for] Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth. [The apostle places the enlightenment of believers in contrast with the lack of knowledge of the Jews. All believers understand (not only that Christ is the end or aim or purpose for which the law was given, and that he also ended or fulfilled it, but) that Christ, by providing the gospel, put an end to the law—killed it. The apostle does not mean that the law only dies to a man when he believes in Christ, else it would still live, as to unbelieving Jews: "to every one that believeth," therefore, expresses a contrast in enlightenment, and not in state or condition. The new covenant or testament, which is the gospel, made the first testament old (Hebrews 8:13). That is to say, the new or last will revokes and makes null and void all former wills, and no one can make good his claim to an inheritance by pleading ignorance of the New Will, for the Old Will is abrogated whether he chooses to know it or not. As the word "end" has many meanings, such as aim, object, purpose, fulfillment, etc., expositors construe Paul’s words many ways, but the literal meaning, an end—i. e., a termination—best suits the context. "Of two contrary things," says Godet, "when one appears, the other must take and end." "Christ is the end of the law, as ’death,’ saith Demosthenes, ’is the end of life’" (Gifford). The Lord does not operate two antagonistic dispensations and covenants at one time. To make evident the fact that the gospel terminates the law, the apostle now shows the inherent antagonism between the two; one of them promising life to those obedient to law, the other promising salvation to the one being obedient to or openly confessing his faith. And so there is an antagonism between the gospel and the law.]
5 For Moses [the lawgiver] writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby. [Leviticus 18:5. (Comp. Nehemiah 9:29; Ezekiel 20:11; Ezekiel 20:13; Ezekiel 20:21; Luke 16:27-29; Galatians 3:12.) The context indicates that the life promised is merely the possession of the land of Canaan (Leviticus 18:26-29); but Tholuck observes that "among the later Jews, we find the notion widely diffused that the blessings promised likewise involve those of eternal life. Orkelos translates: ’Whosoever keeps these commandments, shall thereby live in the life eternal.’ And in the Targums of the Pseudo-Jonathan, Moses’ words are rendered: ’Whosoever fulfils the commandments shall thereby live in the life eternal, and his portion shall be with the righteous.’" Paul evidently construes it as being a promise of eternal life. (Comp. Luke 18:18-20.) But no man could keep the law. Was, then, the promise of God ironical? By no means. The law taught humble men the need of grace and a gospel, and for all such God had foreordained a gospel and an atoning Christ. But to the proud, the self-righteous, the Pharisaical who would merit heaven rejecting grace and the gospel, the promise was ironical, for "doeth... live," implies that whoso fails, dies (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10; James 2:10). There was, then, righteousness by the law, and such as had it were ripe for the gospel which it foreshadowed, especially in its continual sacrificial deaths for sin; but there was no self-righteousness by the law, and those who strove for it invariably rejected Christ. Those seeking life by law supplemented by grace found in Jesus that fullness of grace which redeemed from law, but those seeking life by law without grace, failed and were hardened—Romans 11:5-7.]
6 But [marking the irreconcilable contrast and antagonism between the new gospel and the old law] the righteousness which is of faith saith thus [we would here expect Christ to speak, as the antithesis of Moses in verse 5. But if Jesus had been made spokesman, Paul would have been limited to a quotation of the exact words of the Master. It, therefore, suited his purpose better to personify Righteousness-which-is-of-faith, or the gospel, and let it speak for itself. Compare his personifications of Faith and Law at Galatians 3:23-25. By doing this, he (Paul) could, in this his final summary of the gospel’s sufficiency and applicability to the needs of men, employ words similar to those in which Moses in his final summary of the law, spake of its sufficiency and applicability (Deuteronomy 30:11-14). Thus on a similar occasion, and with a similar theme, Paul speaks words similar to those of Moses; so varying them, however, as to bring into vivid contrast the differences between the law and the gospel—between that which typified and foreshadowed, and that which in its superlative superiority fulfilled, terminated and forever abolished. Moses said of the law: "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." His meaning is, first, that the law is not so hard but that a man who makes right use of it may please God in it (this was true of the law till the gospel abolished it); second, the law was the fully prepared gift of God, and, being possessed by the Jews, they neither had to scale the heavens to get false gods to give a law to them, nor did they have to cross the sea (a dangerous and rarely attempted task among those of Moses’ day) to get unknown, remote and inaccessible nations of men to bring a law to them. They were required to perform no impractical, semi-miraculous feat to secure the law—it was theirs already by gift of God, and that so fully and utterly that, instead of being locked in the holy seclusion of the sanctuary, it was their common property, found in their mouths (daily talk) and hearts (worshipful, reverential meditation—Exodus 13:9; Joshua 1:8; Psalms 37:30-31; Psalms 1:2; Psalms 119:14-16). Such was the law as described by Moses. In contrast with it Paul lets the gospel describe itself thus], Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down:) 7 or, Who shall descend into the abyss? [Hades, the abode of the dead—Luke 8:31; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:1; Psalms 139:8] (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.) 8 But what saith it? [Here Paul interrupts the gospel with a question. If the word of life is not in these places (heaven and Hades), where, then, is it? Where does the gospel say it is? He now resumes the gospel’s personification, and lets it answer the question.] The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart [Here end the words spoken by the gospel. Their import is similar to that of the second meaning of Moses’ words found above. The gospel is the fully prepared gift of God (John 3:16), and, being once accepted and possessed by the believer, he is not called upon to scale the heavens to procure a Christ and bring him down to see the needs of man and devise a gospel (for the Word has already become incarnate, and has dwelt among us—John 1:14—and seeing what sacrifice was needed for man’s forgiveness and cleansing, he has provided it—Hebrews 10:3-9); neither is it demanded of him that he descend into the abyss (Hades, the abode of the dead) to find there a Christ who has died for our sins, and to raise thence a Christ whose resurrection shall be for our justification (for God has already provided the Christ who died for our sins—1 Corinthians 15:3; Isaiah 53:5-6; Romans 3:25; Romans 5:6; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18—thus making an end of sins, and making reconciliation for iniquity—Daniel 9:24—and who also was raised for our justification—Romans 4:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:17; 1 Peter 1:21—thus bringing in everlasting righteousness—Daniel 9:24). Thus far the apostle’s argument runs thus: As the sources whence a law might be found were questions about which the Jew needed not to trouble himself, since God provided it; so the sources whence a Christ-gospel might be procured were also questions about which the Christian need feel no care, for the all-sufficient wisdom and might of God which provided the law had likewise perfected and supplied the gospel, so that men need only to accept it by faith. In either case His was the provision and theirs the acceptance; and what the apostle makes particularly emphatic was that the gospel was as easily accepted as the law, for it, too, could be familiarly discussed with the lips and meditated upon with the heart, being as nigh as the law. Nearness represents influence, power over us; remoteness, the lack of it (Romans 7:18; Romans 7:21). As the words of Moses were spoken about the type of the gospel (the law), they were of course prophetically applicable to the Christ who is the sum of the gospel, and likewise the living embodiment of the law. But to make plain their prophetic import, Paul gave them a personal application to Christ, and changed the search among the distant living (where law might be found) to search among the farther distant dead (where Christ must be found to have been in order to give life). Thus Paul’s variations from Moses constitute what Luther calls "a holy and lovely play of God’s Spirit in the Lord’s word"]: that is, the word of faith, which we preach [At this point the apostle begins again to speak for himself and his fellow-ministers, and shows that the "word" of which Moses spoke is the gospel or "word of faith" preached by Christians. He also shows that the words "mouth" and "heart," as used by Moses, have prophetic reference to the gospel terms of salvation]:
9 because [the gospel (and Moses) speak of the mouth and heart, because] if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved [Moses emphasized the nearness of the law. The Jew was to keep it near (accept it), for, as a far-off, neglected thing, it would be of no avail. As an accepted rule, loved and talked over daily, it would be effective unto righteousness. Jeremiah, foretelling the days when a new law would be more effective than the old, declared that the promise of Jehovah was: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I write it." Thus it would become nearer than when written externally upon stone. When this new law came, Jesus indicated the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s word by saying, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Jeremiah 31:33; Luke 17:20). Therefore, when Paul quotes Moses’ words about that nearness of the law which makes it effective, he takes occasion to describe how the gospel or "word of faith" is made effective unto righteousness by the believer’s full consent to the will of God that it be near him, making it an inward nearness by confession with the mouth and belief in the heart. In short, the gospel is not righteousness unto life until it is accepted, and the prescribed method by which it is to be accepted is faith leading to confession, followed by obedience of faith, beginning with baptism, which symbolically unites us with our Lord in his death and resurrection. But Paul makes no reference to the ordinance, laying stress on the central truth of Christianity which the ordinance shows forth; namely, God raised Jesus from the dead. The zealous lover of first principles might expect Paul to make the Christhood of Jesus the object of belief (Matthew 16:16). But that is already taken care of by the apostle in the brief summary: "Confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord." The truth is, the resurrection is the demonstration of that proposition: "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God." "Jesus" means "Saviour," and the resurrection proves or demonstrates his ability to save from death and the grave (1 Corinthians 15:12-19; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 2 Corinthians 4:14). Jesus is Christ; that is, God’s anointed Prophet, Priest and King over all men; for such is the meaning of "Christ." Now, the resurrection proves that Jesus was a teacher of truth, for God honors no liars with a resurrection like that of Jesus; it proves that he is an acceptable High Priest, for had not his offering for sin canceled the guilt of sin, he had appeared no more in the land of the living (Matthew 5:26), but he was raised to complete his priestly work for our justification (see note on Romans 4:25, p. 336, and Acts 13:37-39); it demonstrated that he was the King, for by his resurrection he led captivity captive (Ephesians 4:8) and received the gift of universal power (Matthew 28:18; Acts 2:23-36; Acts 13:34-37; Acts 17:31; Philippians 2:8-11; Ephesians 1:19-23); and, finally, it declared him to be the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4; Acts 13:32-33):
10 for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ["The seat of faith," says Calvin, "is not in the brain, but in the heart. Yet I would not contend about the part of the body in which faith is located: but as the word heart is often taken for a serious and sincere feeling, I would say that faith is a firm and effectual confidence, and not a bare notion only." The belief must be such as to incite to love (1 Corinthians 13:1-2) and the obedience of faith (James 2:14-26). The faith of the heart introduces the sinner into that state of righteousness which in this present world reconciles him to God. The continual profession of that faith by word and deed works out his salvation, which ushers him into the glory of the world to come. Salvation relates to the life to come (Romans 13:11). When attained it delivers us from the dominion of the devil, which is the bondage of sin; from the power of death, which is the wages of sin, and from eternal torment, which is the punishment of sin. Such is salvation negatively defined, but only the redeemed know what it is positively, for flesh can neither inherit it (1 Corinthians 15:50) nor utter it—2 Corinthians 12:1-5.]
11 For the scripture saith [Again Paul appeals to the Scripture to show that what he is telling the Jews has all been prophetically announced in their own Scriptures. Thus he slays their law with its own sword], Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame. [A passage already quoted at Romans 9:33; but Paul changes "he" into "whosoever," thus emphasizing the universality of the verse, for God’s universal mercy to believers is his theme, and we shall find him amplifying and proving it in the next two verses. "Shame" has especial reference to the judgment-day. By faith we learn to so live that God ceases to be ashamed of us (Hebrews 11:6-16). By faith also we are brought into such union with Christ that he also no longer feels ashamed to recognize us (Hebrews 2:10-11). But if we glory in sin which is our shame (Philippians 3:18-19), walking nakedly in our shame (Revelation 16:15), and refusing the gift of the garment of Christ’s righteousness (Revelation 3:18), being ashamed of it and him; in that day he also will be ashamed of us (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26), and great then will be our shame in the sight of all God’s hosts, and marked will be the contrast between us and the believers who are not ashamed—1 John 2:28.] 12 For [The Scripture uses such universal language about our being freed from shame by justification, because] there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him [Paul here announces the same truth which Peter discovered when he said: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34). As the Jews were for several centuries under the dominion of the Greeks, and as the cultured of the Romans, their later masters, also spoke Greek, the term Greek became to them a synonym for Gentile, for they had more dealing with Greeks than with any other people. Now, as there is but one God, the Jews and Greeks were compelled to receive blessings from that same God, and as the Jew and Greek stood in equal need of salvation, God offered the same salvation to each upon the same free terms and each had equal ability to accept the terms (Ephesians 2:11-22). Thus God showed the riches of his favor to all, and so rich is God in his mercy and providences toward salvation, that no multitude can exhaust them; therefore the Jew had no reason to envy or begrudge the Gentiles their call, since it in no way impoverished him. But this breaking down of distinctions was, nevertheless, very offensive to the Jew]:
13 for [and this lack of distinction on God’s part is further proved by Scripture, for it saith], Whosoever shall call upon the name [i. e., person—Proverbs 18:10; Psalms 18:2-3] of the Lord shall be saved. [Joel 2:32. This passage is quoted by Simon Peter at Acts 2:21. In place of "Lord," Joel has the word "Jehovah," which latter term the Jews regard as describing God the Father. The application of this word to Christ by Paul (and it is so applied to Christ, as the next verse shows) is proof of our Lord’s divinity. "There is," says Alford, "hardly a stronger proof, or one more irrefragable by those who deny the Godhead of our blessed Lord, of the unhesitating application to Him by the apostle of the name and attributes of Jehovah." (Comp. 1 Corinthians 1:2.) It is evident that the mere crying out, "Lord, Lord!" is of no avail (Matthew 7:21-23). One must call upon Jesus as he directs, and must worshipfully accept him as the Son and Revelation of God. "The language," says Johnson, "wherever used, implies coming to the Lord and calling upon him in his appointed way. (Comp. Acts 22:16; Acts 2:21; Genesis 12:8.)" Having thus demonstrated the gratuitous and universal nature of the gospel, the apostle prepares us for his next paragraph, which presents the thought of extension. That which God has made free and for all should be published and offered to all. How unreasonable, therefore, the hatred which the Jews bore toward Paul for being apostle to the Gentiles!
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. Second Explanation of the Grand Conclusion—
The Universality of the Gospel Demands Its Worldwide
Extension—But This Universality is Limited by Human Rejection
Romans 10:14-21
[Since the apostle’s thought in this section is obscurely connected, the line of argument has been found difficult to follow. It will aid us, therefore, at the start to get his purpose clearly in view. He has shown that the gospel is universal. But in giving a universal blessing God would of course see to it that it was universally published and propagated. This, God had earnestly attempted to do, but his efforts had largely been frustrated so far as Israel was concerned. But this was Israel’s fault, and therefore that people were utterly without excuse (1) for not becoming part of the universality which God contemplated and attempted; (2) for not fully understanding this universality and rejoicing in it; nay, for so misunderstanding it, despite full Scripture warning, as to be made jealous by it. so as to spurn it and reject it.] 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? [The form of the Greek question demands the answer, "They can not." Though the question presents a psychological impossibility, Paul is not thinking of psychology, but of his two quotations from Scripture; viz., verse 11, which (as interpreted by verse 9) conditions salvation on belief, and verse 13, which conditions it on invocation or calling on the name of the Lord. He has twice coupled these two conditions in the belief" and "confession" of verses 9 and 10; and now he couples them a third time in the question before us, which is a strong way of asserting there can be no acceptable calling without believing. Since, then, salvation, the all in all of man’s hopes—salvation which God desired should be universal—depends upon acceptable calling or invocation, and since acceptable calling in its turn depends upon belief, whatever steps are necessary to produce universal invocation and belief should by all means be taken on the part of God and his evangelists, and should likewise by all means be universally accepted by man. What these steps are the apostle proceeds to enumerate] and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? [Hearing is the next step. We can believe nothing till we have first heard it. But in the apostle’s thought our belief is not directed toward an abstraction, but toward Jesus, a person. We are to hear him, and believe him, and believe on him. As we can not meet him face to face, we must believe on him as he presents himself to us by his commissioned agents (Luke 10:16; John 13:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:8; Ephesians 2:17; Ephesians 4:19-20; 1 John 4:5-6), called preachers (1 Timothy 2:7; Mark 16:15). Therefore the next question reads] and how shall they hear without a preacher? [and the Jews hated Paul for being one!]
15 and how shall they preach, except they be sent? [Sending is the last step as we reason backward, but the first as we look forward toward salvation; for, as Gifford observes, "Paul argues back from effect to cause," so that, turning his series around, it will read, Sending, preaching, hearing, believing, turning to or calling upon God, salvation (Acts 8:4-39). In these days of missions we have grown so familiar with the gospel that the idea of sending has become fairly limited to the transportation of the missionary; when, therefore, we enlarge Paul’s sending till it includes the idea of a divine commission or command to go, we feel that we have achieved his conception. But the thought of the apostle is wider still. With him the. sending finds its full meaning in that unction of God which provides the messenger with a divine message, a message of good news, which only the lips of God can speak, a message which he could gather from no other source, and without which all going would be vanity, a mere running without tidings. Compare Paul’s vindication of the heavenly origin of his message (Galatians 1:11-24). To understand the relevancy of the quotation with which the apostle closes the sentence, let us remember that while this is an argument, it is also, by reason of the matter argued, a hymn of praise, a love-song, a jubilation, an ecstasy of joy. How could it be otherwise? Now, at Romans 8:28-30 the apostle presents the heaven-forged links of the unbreakable chain of God’s holy and gracious purpose to glorify man. Having presented that chain, he devotes the remainder of the chapter (31-39) to an elaboration of the joyful confidence which wells up within him at its contemplation, for a heart of flesh could not do otherwise. So here the apostle has presented the links of the corresponding chain—the chain of means whereby the purpose is effected or consummated, so that man is saved or glorified; and that chain ends, as Paul inversely counts its links, in the unspeakable honor of being a messenger of God, sent to bear the gospel of Christ to a dying world. Could the apostle pass this by and stick to his argument? (Comp. Ephesians 3:7-12; Acts 26:17-18; Romans 15:15-16; Galatians 1:15-16.) Nay, if he did so, would it not weaken his argument? For, while the passage at Romans 8:31-39, and the quotation here about "beautiful feet," may not fit in syllogistically, they have unspeakable power suggestively; for the first pictures that peace of God that passes all understanding, which the Jew was rejecting; and this second depicts the glorious ministry of God’s mercy to the lost and life to the dying, which the Jew was missing by his proud unbelief. Let us note in passing how Paul’s argument emphasizes Christ unto the unbelievers. "All this," says Plumer, "relates to Christ, Jehovah. The prayer is to him or through him; the faith is in him; the report respects him; the heralds are his messengers; the sum of all they proclaim relates to his person, work, offices and grace; he is himself the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely." With this introduction we are ready for the quotation] even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things! [Isaiah 52:7. Paul quotes enough to suggest the full passage, which reads thus: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" Paul quotes this exuberant, throbbing joy of Israel’s prophet which expressed his own feelings, as a sharp contrast to the sullen, malignant, vindictive spirit of those to whom he prophesied. How acceptable was Paul and how glorious his worldwide message as visioned to the evangelical Isaiah! How despisable was Paul, and how abhorrent his message, to the Israel of the gospel age! The contrast suggests that some one erred: which was it? Were the prophet and apostle indulging in a sinful joy? or were the Jews playing the fool of all fools in excluding themselves from it? Though the citation from Isaiah has a primary reference to the restoration of the Jews from the land of exile, yet it is unquestionably Messianic, for that very restoration from exile "derived all its value," as Hodge observes, "from being introductory to that most glorious deliverance to be effected by the Redeemer." "That return," says Alford, "has regard to a more glorious one under the future Redeemer." Besides, the prophet has been talking of Messianic times, when "the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" (Isaiah 40:5). "Jewish expositors," says Tholuck, "no less apply to the Messias almost the whole of the chapter (Isaiah 52), besides the quotation. (See Wetstein, ad h. l.)." The law was to end in the gospel, and Israel was to be the apostles of this joyful development, but failed through blindness as to the personality of the Messiah (a suffering sacrifice for sin, and not a great conqueror and temporal ruler); through ignorance as to the nature of the gospel (salvation by faith, and not by the accident of Abrahamic descent); through a bigoted narrowness which took offense at the gospel’s universality (a universality which offered salvation to Jew and Gentile on equal terms, and was devoid of all partiality). Thus, it happened that Paul ran, and Israel forebore. Finally, as to the words of Isaiah, let us compare them with 2 Samuel 18:26 : "And the king said, He also bringeth tidings. And the watchman said, I think the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. And the king said, He is a good man and cometh with good tidings." Here we see that men were known by their running, and their tidings known by their character. With these facts before us, the imagery of Isaiah becomes complete. Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, bereft of all her children by the Babylonians, sits in sackcloth, covered with the dust of mourning and bowed with grief as though drawn down with chains about her neck. Suddenly the phantom watchmen on her desolated walls see her Ahimaaz—her good man that cometh with good tidings!—tidings of the return of all her lost children! Far off upon the mountains the swift glint of the white feet tell of that speed of the heart which urges to the limit of human endurance. With such a message what place is there for weariness! All the long miles that lie behind are forgotten, and as the goal comes in view the wings of the soul possess the feet, and the pace increases with each step as the runner presses toward the mark or prize of his heart’s desires! Ah, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings! Sing! watchmen, for ye shall see face to face how Jehovah returned to Zion to glorify and comfort it with his presence. Awake, awake, O Zion! Shake off thy dust, loose thyself from the bonds of thy neck, and put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, for the messenger of salvation is at thy very gates, and how beautiful is his approach! He tells of thy children who are coming! coming! journeying homeward behind him! No wonder that with this imagery before him Paul clung to the figure of the runner to the very end (Philippians 3:12-14; 2 Timothy 4:7). No wonder, either, that he could not forbear adding this quotation as the climax of his argument, that, having reared a granite mountain, he might cap it with the glorifying coronet of sunshine upon snow, thus making his argument as persuasive by its glory as it was convincing by its power. No wonder that he discerned the Messianic meaning of Isaiah’s message, patent even to uninspired eyes. Having thus completed the circle of his argument from the message to the universality of the message, thence to the extension of it, and thence again to the means of extension, and finally back to the message itself as glorified in the vision of the prophet, the apostle is ready once more to grapple the Jew and show his inexcusable sin in rejecting the message. However, before discussing what follows it is well to note that its connection of ideas is uncertain, so much so that Stuart justly complains of not having found a single commentator who gives him satisfaction respecting it. The connection is not stated, and is therefore difficult. To solve the problem we must find the unspoken thought in the mind of the apostle, and we think it is this. The glorious chain of God’s purpose to glorify men (Romans 8:28-30) and this equally glorious chain of means to that end, ought to make the gospel as universal as God designed it to be; but, nevertheless, so great is man’s sinful perversity, such is not the case; and the Scripture so foretold it, and, in foretelling explained it, and exposed the reason. Hence he continues]
16 But they did not all hearken to [Hupakouoo: a word derived from the verb akouoo, which is translated "heard," and "hear" in verse 14. It means to hear attentively, to give heed to, to obey] the glad tidings. For Isaiah saith [predicted], Lord, who hath believed our report? [Akoe; also a word derived from akouooof verse 14, meaning the thing that is caused to be heard] 17 So [as I said, and, as you see, Isaiah corroborates] belief cometh of [is born of, or grows out of] hearing, and hearing by [by reason of, because of] the word [saying, behest, command. See Luke 5:5; Hebrews 11:3; Hebrews 1:3] of Christ. [And so, briefly paraphrasing the apostle’s thought, it runs thus: Can God’s glorious purpose and inimitable means fail to accomplish the universal glorification of man? Assuredly they can, for Isaiah so predicted. To accomplish universal salvation there must be a universal heed-hearing. But Isaiah complained, "Lord, who hath believed that which we have caused them to hear?" meaning that very few gave a heed-hearing. So we see from Isaiah that it is precisely as I said (vs. 14, 15); namely, that belief comes of hearing, and hearing is caused by the command or commission of Christ, as is made apparent by the fact that Isaiah reports back to Christ (whom he calls Lord) that men have not heard what Christ sent, or commissioned, him to tell them. How culpable, then, was Israel as foreseen in the visions of Isaiah and as literally seen by the eyes of Paul! A message commanded by Christ the Lord! How could they be excused for not giving it a heed-hearing, an obedience? Only in two ways: first, by showing that they had never heard it; second, by proving that they were misled by their Scriptures so that they could not recognize it as coming from their Lord—and the point where they would assert and attempt to prove the misleading was this very one now mooted; namely, universality, for the Jew regarded the reception of the Gentile as contrary to all that God had ever revealed, or caused to be written down. Therefore the apostle takes these two excuses in order, and exposes their emptiness.]
18 But I say [To give my cornered Jewish objector every chance to escape from his obvious culpability, I ask in his behalf this question], Did they not hear? [This question demands a negative answer—a denial of the "not heard," and is therefore an emphatic way of asserting that they had heard. "They" is unlimited, all had heard it, so the Jew could never plead lack of hearing as an excuse for rejecting the gospel. Having thus asserted his position in the question, he proceeds to prove it in the answer] Yea, verily [Menounge. See note on Romans 9:20, p. 402.], Their sound [Psalms 19:4. "The Psalmist," says Clark, "has kavvam, their line, which the LXX., and the apostle who, quotes from them, render phthoggos, sound." Line means stringy harpstring, a tone, a chord, and then, metonymically, sound] went out into all the earth, And their words unto the ends of the world. [It was Alford who, in this connection, discovered "that Psalms 19 is a comparison of the sun, and glory of the heavens, with the word of God. As far as verse 6 the glories of nature are described: then the great subject is taken up, and the parallelism carried out. to the end. So that the apostle has not, as alleged in nearly all the commentators, merely accommodated the text allegorically, but taken it in its context, and followed the comparison of the Psalm." The light of the knowledge of God had hitherto been confined to the narrow space of Palestine, but the light of the gospel had now passed beyond these boundaries, and had begun to be as world-illuminating as the celestial orbs, and in doing this it had only fulfilled the words of David. God had done his part as thoroughly in grace as it had been done in nature, and no Jew could excuse himself at the expense of God’s good name. "There is not," says Godet, expressing the sentiments of Paul, born of the memories of his own ministry, "a synagogue which has not been filled with it, not a Jew in the world who can justly plead ignorance on the subject." "When the vast multitude converted at Pentecost," says Johnson, "were scattered to their homes, they carried the gospel into all parts of the civilized world." (Comp. Titus 2:11; Colossians 1:6; Colossians 1:23.) This bestowal of natural light and bounty universally was more than a suggestion that God intended to bestow spiritual light and grace upon all. (Comp. Acts 14:17.) "As he spake," says Calvin, "to the Gentiles by the voice of the heavens, he showed by this prelude that he designed to make himself known at length to them also." "It was," says Hengstenberg, "a pledge of their participation in the clearer, higher revelation. "]
19 But I say [Again I ask a question to give my Jewish objector the benefit of every loophole of escape. See verse 18], Did Israel not know? [This question also requires a negative answer, and thus, being like the preceding question, the negative of a negative, it amounts to a strong affirmative. Assuredly Israel knew. But knew what? Why, the fact just asserted, to wit, that the gospel should sound out to all, both Jew and Gentile, as freely as light and sunshine, according to the worldwide commission or command of Christ. Did this fact take Israel by surprise? Was the issuing of a worldwide commission a thing untaught in their Scriptures, allowing them to plead ignorance of it? Had Paul cited the promise to Abraham, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:3), then the Jew would have claimed that this promise must be fulfilled by their all becoming Jews (Acts 15:1). But he begins with Moses, the first writer of Scripture, and cites a passage which precludes the idea of blessing by absorption or amalgamation, for it is plainly blessing in rivalry and opposition.] First Moses saith ["First in the prophetic line" (De Wette), First in point of time and place, as Isaiah was near the last. His two citations therefore suggest the entire trend of Scripture, from beginning to end. Compare the "said before" of Romans 9:29], I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, With a nation void of understanding will I anger you. [The passage cited is Deuteronomy 32:21. The Jews had moved God to jealousy by their "no-gods" (idols), and had provoked him to anger by their vanities; he therefore prophetically announces that he will provoke them to like jealousy and anger by adopting in their stead a "no-people," a foolish nation. A "no-people" describes a nation which has no covenant relation with God, and hence is not recognized as his people. A "foolish nation" describes one made wise by no revelation. The weight of the citation was greatly increased by the name of Moses attached to it, and by the remoteness of the period when uttered. Many utterances of the prophets sounded harsh and hostile, but no one had ever doubted the loyal friendship of Moses to Israel; yet Moses said this even in his day.]
20 And Isaiah is very bold ["What Moses insinuates, Isaiah cries out boldly and plainly" (Bengel). And Isaiah is the favorite prophet of the Jewish people to this day!], and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I became manifest unto them that asked not of me. [Isaiah 65:1. (Comp. Isaiah 49:1-9; Isaiah 52:15; Isaiah 54:5; Isaiah 66:3-5; Isaiah 66:18-21.) They sought me not until I first sought them, and they asked not of me until I made myself known and invited them to offer their petitions. Such is the full meaning in the light of gospel facts. "That the calling of the Gentiles," says Brown, "was meant by these words of the prophet, is manifest from what immediately follows. ’I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.’" Thus God’s design to call another people besides the Jews was so plainly revealed in Scripture that Israel was without excuse for not knowing it. "Nothing," says Lard, "is more inexplicable than their blindness, unless it be their persistence in it." Normally we would say that if God was found of strangers, much more would he be found of his own people. But the ignorance and corruption of the Gentiles constituted a darkness more easily dissipated by the light of the gospel, than the proud obduracy and abnormal self-righteousness of the Jews. The universal preaching of the gospel made this quickly manifest, and, as Paul shows us, Isaiah foretold it.]
21 But as to Israel he saith [Isaiah 65:2], All the day long did I spread out of my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. [Here Isaiah presents the full contrast between the Gentiles and Jews. Commentators generally regard the spread-out hands as picturing those of a parent extended toward a wayward or prodigal child; but we have no such usage in Scripture. As Plumer observes: "When Paul stretched out his hand, he beckoned to the people that he might cause silence and secure attention (Acts 21:40). Sometimes stretching out the hand is for rescue and deliverance (Deuteronomy 26:8). Sometimes it is to offer and bestow benefits (Isaiah 26:10-11). Sometimes it is the gesture of threatening, chastening, displaying of powers in miracles (Deuteronomy 4:34). Sometimes it points the way in which we should walk or run. No gesture is more natural than this. Again, stretching out the hand is the posture of earnest address and imploring supplication." This last is evidently the sense in which it is here used. "All the day long" may refer to the entire length of the Mosaic dispensation, but it has here especial reference to the time of Christ and his apostles, and their exclusive ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; for at no other time was God’s supplication with Israel so marked, and at no other season was the rejection of the Lord so personal, so vehement, so bitter and cruel; all the Gospels are full of it, and the rejection of the Son was the rejection of the Father (John 14:7-9; 2 John 1:9; John 5:23; 1 John 5:7). Moreover, compare the "this day" of Luke 19:42. "Gainsaying" is added to the Hebrew by the LXX. Pool aptly says: "They were disobedient in heart and gainsaying with their tongues, contrary to those two gracious qualifications mentioned at verses 9 and 10, belief in the heart and confession of the mouth. Their gainsaying answers to "repliest" of Romans 9:20. For examples of this sin on their part, see Mark 15:8-15; Acts 3:13-14; Acts 7:51-57; Acts 13:45; Acts 13:50; Acts 14:2; Acts 14:19; Acts 17:5; Acts 17:13; Acts 18:12. "Gainsaying," says Godet, "characterizes the hair-splittings and sophisms whereby the Israelites seek, to justify their persevering refusal to return to God." As we glance back over the ninth and tenth chapters, they reveal clearly how Israel, zealous for religious monopoly and their exclusive rights under the law, hardened their hearts and rejected the gospel, though grace followed them to the ends of the earth with the offer of salvation. Surely it was their own wickedness, and no arbitrary, cold decree absolute, which excluded them from salvation; and it is equally certain that the Being whom Jesus called Father, and who sent our Lord as a world’s Saviour, will never rest or desist until the dark picture of a lost Israel is transformed and transfigured with the glory of the heavenly light by the ultimate inbringing of all Israel, to be, with the purged Gentiles, one kingdom of God upon earth.
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
III. Third Explanation of the Grand Conclusion—
the Casting Off of Israel is but Partial, an Elect
Remnant Being Saved by Faith
Romans 11:1-10
[In the tenth chapter Paul’s argument for gospel universality only required him to show by Scripture that the Gentiles were to be received independently; i. e., without first becoming Jews. But the Scripture which best established this fact also proved a larger, greater fact; viz., that the reception of the Gentiles would so move the Jews to anger and jealousy that they would, as a people, reject the gospel, and thereby cease to be a covenant people, and become a cast-off, rejected nation. This fact is so clearly and emphatically proved that it might be thought that, as Tholuck puts it, "the whole nation, conjointly and severally, had, by some special judgment of God, been shut out from the Messiah’s kingdom." The denial of this false inference is the burden of the section now before us. In this section he will show that the casting off of Israel is not total, but partial: in the next section he will show that it is not final, but temporary.] 1 I say then [Again, as in verses 18 and 19 of the previous chapter, Paul, for the benefit of the Jewish objector, draws a false inference from what has been said, that he may face it and correct it], Did God cast off his people? [Apparently, yes; but really, no. He had only rejected the unbelieving who first rejected him. True, these constituted almost the entire nation; but it was not God’s act that rejected them; it was what they themselves did in rejecting God in the person of his Son that fixed their fate. Israel as believing was as welcome and acceptable as ever. So God has not rejected them. "The very title his people," says Bengel, "contains the reason for denying it." Comp. 1 Samuel 12:22.) God had promised not to forsake his people (Psalms 94:14). He kept the promise with those who did not utterly forsake him, but as to the rest, the majority, Jesus foretold that the kingdom should be taken from them (Matthew 21:41-43). Comp. Matthew 22:7; Luke 21:24.] God forbid. [A formal denial to be followed by double proof.] For I also am an Israelite [De Wette, Meyer and Gifford construe this as equal to: I am too good a Jew, too patriotic, to say such a thing. As if Scripture were warped and twisted to suit the whims and to avoid offending the political prejudices of its writers! If Paul was governed by his personal feelings, he ceased to be a true prophet. Had he followed his feelings, instead of revealed truth, he would have avoided the necessity for writing the sad lines at Romans 9:1-3. The true meaning is this: God has not cast away en masse, and without discrimination or distinction, the totality of his ancient people, for I myself am a living denial of such a conclusion; or, as Eubank interprets it, such a concession would exclude the writer himself (as to whose Christianity no Jew has ever had any doubts). "Had it been," says Chrysostom, "God’s intention to reject that nation, he never would have selected from it the individual [Paul] to whom he was about to entrust [had already entrusted] the entire work of preaching and the concerns of the whole globe, and all the mysteries and the whole economy of the church"], of the seed of Abraham ["A Jew by nurture and nation" (Burkitt). Not a proselyte, nor the son of a proselyte, but a lineal descendant from Abraham. Compare his words at Acts 22:28], of the tribe of Benjamin. [Comp. Philippians 3:5. Though the apostle had reason to be proud of his tribe as furnishing the first king in Saul (1 Samuel 9:16) and the last Biblical queen in Esther (Esther 2:17), yet that is not the reason for mentioning Benjamin here. He is showing that God had not cast off the Theocracy, and he mentions himself as of Benjamin, which was second only to Judah in theocratic honor. On the revolt of the ten tribes it constituted with Judah the surviving Theocracy (1 Kings 12:21), and after the captivity it returned with Judah and again helped to form the core or kernel of the Jewish nation (Ezra 4:1; Ezra 10:9). The apostle was no Jew by mere family tradition (Ezra 2:61-63; Nehemiah 7:63-65), nor was he of the ten tribes of outcasts, but he was duly registered as of the inner circle, and therefore his acceptance proved the point desired.]
2 God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. [Here is the second proof that God did not cast off his people. It is in the nature of an axiom, a statement which is so palpably true that it needs no corroboration. God’s foreknowledge can not fail, therefore that nation which in the eternity before the world he knew to be his own nation, can not ultimately fail to become his nation. "Of all the peoples of the earth," says Godet, "one only was [published and openly designated as] chosen and known beforehand, by an act of divine foreknowledge and love, as the people whose history would be identified with the realization of salvation. In all others salvation is the affair of individuals, but here the notion of salvation is attached to the nation itself; not that the liberty of individuals is in the least compromised by the collective designation. The Israelites contemporary with Jesus might reject him; an indefinite series of generations may for ages perpetuate this fact of national unbelief. God is under no pressure; time can stretch out as long as he pleases. He will add, if need be, ages to ages, until there come at length the generation disposed to open their eyes and freely welcome their Messiah. God foreknew this nation as believing and saved, and sooner or later they can not fail to be both." Comp. Acts 15:15-18; Isaiah 45:17; Isaiah 59:20; Jeremiah 31:31; Jeremiah 31:34; Ezekiel 34:22; Ezekiel 37:23; Ezekiel 39:25; Romans 11:26.] Or know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? [Literally, in Elijah. Anciently Scripture and other writings were not divided into chapters and verses, but into sections. These among the Jews were called Parashah. Instead of being numbered, they had titles to them, describing the contents. Thus it came to pass that any one wishing to refer to a passage of Scripture would quote enough of the Parashah’s title to identify it. So Paul here quotes words found "in [the Parashah about] Elijah"; viz., 1 Kings 19:10-18. Comp. Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37] how he pleadeth with God against Israel:
3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. [Against these two proofs adduced by the apostle it might be objected that if God was not rejecting his people he must be receiving them, but you, Paul, practically admit that this is not the case, for, were it so, why can you point only to your single self as accepted? Surely your very proofs are against you. To this objection Paul presents a third proof—i. e., the case of Elijah—and his argument, paraphrased, runs thus: You err in supposing that I alone am accepted, and this I will prove by the case of Elijah, who, prophet of prophets though he was, erred in so judging by appearances as to think that he alone remained acceptable. The law required that the nation use the one altar which stood in front of the sanctuary in Jerusalem (Leviticus 17:8-9; Deuteronomy 12:1-14). But the Rabbins say (see Lightfoot and Whitby ad h. l.) that when the ten tribes revolted, and their kings forbade them to go up to Jerusalem to worship, then this law ceased as to them, and the Lord permitted them to build other altars and sacrifice on them as at the beginning (Genesis 12:7-8; Genesis 13:4; Genesis 13:18; Genesis 22:9; Genesis 26:25; Genesis 33:20; Genesis 35:1-7; Genesis 46:1), and as they did before worship was centered at Jerusalem (1 Samuel 7:9; 1 Samuel 7:17; 1 Samuel 9:13; 1 Samuel 11:15; 1 Samuel 16:2-3). That this is so is proved by the conduct of Elijah, who reconstructed the Lord’s altar on Mt. Carmel (which these apostates of whom he speaks had thrown down) and offered sacrifice thereon, and the Lord publicly sanctioned and approved the altar by sending fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:30-39). The altars were to be made of earth and unhewn stone (Exodus 20:24-25), hence it was proper to speak of digging them down.]
4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. [Jezebel and Ahab, in their zeal for the Phoenician god, Baal, had apparently exterminated the worship of the true God. At least, Elijah was deceived into so thinking. But the answer of God corrected his mistakes: Paul inserts the words "for myself." "I. e." says Meyer, "to myself as my property, and for my service, in contrast to the idolatrous abomination," or service of idols. The feminine article te is inserted before Baal, and this has greatly puzzled expositors, for the LXX. have the masculine article. It has been explained in various ways; Erasmus and others by supposing a feminine noun such as eikoni(image) to be understood; Estius, etc., by supposing stele (statue) to be supplied, or, as Lightfoot and Alford think, damalei(calf); or, according to Reiche, that there was a female Baal; or, as Wetstein and Olshausen, that Baal was androgynous (an hermaphrodite); or, as Gesenius and Tholuck, that the feminine was used of idols in contempt; or, as Fritsche, Ewald and Barmby, that Paul may have happened upon a copy of the LXX. which gave the feminine instead of the masculine. Of the above we prefer to supply damalei, calf, following the reasoning of Lightfoot. Baal was both a specific name for the Phoenician god, and also a common name for idols, hence the plural, Baalim. Of idols at the time referred to, Israel had two of great prominence: 1. The idol to the Phoenician god Baal, whose image was a bull. 2. The golden calves set up by Jeroboam, at Bethel and Dan. Now, it would avail nothing if Israel rejected one of these idols, yet worshiped the other, as in the case of Jehu, who rooted out the Phoenician, but accepted the calf of Jeroboam. But calf Baal would be an inclusive expression, striking at both forms of idolatry. (Comp. also 1 Kings 19:18 with Hosea 13:2.) Moreover, the Phoenician worship was but recently re-established and had received a terrific blow at the hand of Elijah, while Jeroboam’s calves were old and popular, hence we find in Tobit the expression, "And all the tribes that revolted together, sacrificed to the calf Baal" (literally, te Baal, te damalei; to Baal, to the calf—Tobit 1:5). Here we have an instance where the word damaleiis actually supplied, and that by a Hebrew writer, and "where," as Alford adds, "the golden calves of the ten tribes seem to be identified with Baal, and were a curious addition in [the manuscript] Aleph refers expressly to their establishment by Jeroboam.]
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. [Resuming the argument. "As at the time of the great deflection in Elijah’s day there seemed to him to be but one, yet God had reserved to himself seven thousand, so now in this time of falling away, you who judge by outward appearance will judge just as poorly. You may think derisively that I am the sole representative of the election of which I speak, but, scattered and dispersed as they are, there are vastly more than you dream (comp. Acts 21:20); for the unchangeable God always reserves to himself a remnant, whom he has chosen as his own." "One thing indeed," says Godet, "follows from the election of grace applied to the whole of Israel; not the salvation of such or such individuals, but the indestructible existence of a believing remnant at all periods of their history, even in the most disastrous crises of unbelief, as at the time of the ministry of Elijah, or of the coming of Jesus Christ. The idea contained in the words, ’according to the election of grace,’ is therefore this: In virtue of the election of Israel as the salvation-people, God has not left them in our day without a faithful remnant, any more than he did in the kingdom of the ten tribes at the period when a far grosser heathenism was triumphant." In the eternal purpose of God the election of the salvation-class preceded any human act, but it does not therefore follow that it preceded a presumptive, supposititious act. The same wisdom which foresaw the election also foresaw the compliance of the elect individual with the terms and conditions of election. This must be so, for in the outworking of the eternal purpose in the realms of the actual, man must first comply with the conditions of election before he becomes one of the elect; for, as Lard wisely says, "election or choosing, in the case of the redeemed, does not precede obedience, and therefore is neither the cause of it nor reason for it. On the contrary, obedience precedes election, and is both the condition of it and reason for it. Obedience is man’s own free act, to which he is never moved by any prior election of God. Choosing, on the other hand, is God’s free act, prompted by favor and conditioned on, obedience. This obedience, it is true, he seeks to elicit by the proper motives; but to this he is led solely by love of man, and never by previous choice. True Scriptural election, therefore, is a simple, intelligible thing, when suffered to remain unperplexed by the subtleties of schoolmen." As the open reference to Elijah contains a covert one to Ahab and his Israel, Chrysostom bids us "reflect on the apostle’s skill, and how, in proving the proposition before him, he secretly augments the charge against the Jews. For the object he had in view, in bringing forward the whole of that testimony, was to manifest their ingratitude, and to show that of old they had been what they were now. "]
6 But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. [With these words, Paul explains the last clause of the preceding verse—viz., "the election of grace"—and thereby shows that he means them in their full sense, and abides by that meaning. Alford paraphrases his meaning thus: "And let us remember, when we say an election of grace, how much those words imply; viz., nothing short of the entire exclusion of all human work from the question. Let these two terms [grace and work] be regarded as and kept distinct from one another, and do not let us attempt to mix them and so destroy the meaning of each." He means that grace and works are absolutely antithetical and mutually exclusive. Paul is talking about works of the law, not about the gospel terms or conditions of salvation. These terms are faith, repentance and baptism, and complying with them made, and still makes, anybody one of the elect. But does this compliance fulfill any part, parcel or portion of the Mosaic law? Assuredly not. On the contrary, it is seeking salvation by another way. Moreover, the one complying with these conditions is immediately one of the elect. Has he, then, in any way merited election, or is it wholly of grace?" Even granting that there is some work in complying with these conditions, could any one so lack brains as to be confused into thinking that the work weighs anything as a meritorious basis on which to demand election to that unspeakable gift, eternal life? But do not the works of a Christian life count as merit toward election? Assuredly not; for, they are wrought after the election has taken place. In short, almost like Jacob, we are elected at the moment of our birth from the water, when we are spiritual babes in Christ (John 3:5; Titus 3:5), "neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God," etc. (Romans 9:11). Complying with the gospel conditions of election is mere spiritual birth, and what merit hath an infant though its struggles aid in its parturition? We are by the process of conversion brought no further than the condition of babes in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:11-14; 1 Peter 2:2), and our birth-throes are without merit, though essential to our further continuance in life. There is, therefore, nothing in the gospel conditions which conflict with the doctrine of election by grace, nor do they mix works with grace.]
7 What then? [What results from the facts just stated? If God only acknowledges covenant relations with a remnant, and with them only by grace, surely you expect me to make some statement as to the status of the bulk of Israel. My statement is this:] That which Israel [the bulk or main body of the nation] seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened [The search spoken of is that with which we are already familiar; viz., the endeavor to obtain justification before God. All Israel sought this treasure. Those seeking it by the works of the law (the vast majority of the nation) failed to find it, but the remnant, seeking it by faith in Christ, found themselves chosen of God or elected to it. The Jew, he says, fights against himself. Although seeking righteousness, he does not choose to accept it" (Chrysostom). If he could not find it by his own impossible road of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, he would have none of it, though the apostle showed how easily it might be obtained by pointing out those who made it theirs by receiving it as a free gift from God through faith in Christ. But for those despising this rich gift, God had another gift, even that of hardening, which means the depriving of any organ of its natural sensibility. The calloused finger loses the sense of touch; the cataractous eye no longer sees clearly; the hardened mind loses its discernment between things good and bad, and readily believes a specious lie (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12); the hardened heart becomes obdurate like that of Pharaoh’s, and is not touched or softened by appeals to pity, mercy, etc. We have seen, in the case of Pharaoh, that the hardness was the joint act of God and Pharaoh. The same is shown to be the case of the Jews, for Paul here attributes it to God, while it is elsewhere charged against the Jews themselves (Matthew 13:14-15). Of course God’s part is always merely permissive, and Satan is the active agent. "God," says Lard, "never yet hardened any man to keep him from doing right, or in order to lead him to do wrong. He is not the author of sin. He may permit other agencies, as Satan and the wickedness of men, to harden them, but he himself never does it"]:
8 according as it is written [Isaiah 29:10; Ezekiel 12:2; Deuteronomy 29:4], God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day. [As the passage quoted is a combination of Isaiah and Deuteronomy, and is found in part also in Ezekiel, it suggests that the spirit of stupor, deafness and blindness characterized the course of Israel from beginning to end; and it was therefore to be guarded against as a chronic sin. Katanuxis (stupor) may be derived from katanussoo (Fritsche, Meyer), which means to prick or sting, and hence, as in bites of reptiles, etc., to cause stupefaction; or it may come from katanusoo (Volkmar), which means to bend the head in order to sleep, to fall asleep. It is used in Psalms 60:3, where it is translated "wine of staggering," though Hammond contends that the passage refers to the stupefying wine given to them who were to be. put to death. It means, then, that condition of stupor, or intellectual numbness, which is almost wholly insensate; for the term "spirit" means a pervading tendency. "Such expressions," says Gifford, "as ’the spirit of heaviness’ (Isaiah 61:3), ’a spirit of meekness’ (1 Corinthians 4:21), ’the spirit of bondage’ (Romans 8:15), show that ’spirit’ is used for the pervading tendency and tone of mind, the special character of which is denoted by the genitive which follows. "]
9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, And a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them [Psalms 69:22-23. the word "trap" is added from Psalms 35:8. Theodoret says that Psalms 69 "is a prediction of the sufferings of Christ, and the final destruction of the Jews on that account." That which is presented in the form of a wish is, therefore, really a prophecy. Let the food on their table be as the bait to the snare and the trap, and the stumblingblock over which the tempted creature falls to lame itself. Let that which they think a source of pleasure and life become an enticement to pain and death. Dropping the figure, the words mean that the very religion of the Old Dispensation, to which the Jew looked for spiritual joy and sustenance, should become to him a sorrow and a fatal famine, so that this very blessing became to him a curse. The word "recompense" denotes a punishment for an evil deed; its presence here shows that the evil which came upon the Jews was caused by their own fault and sin, and not by absolute decree]:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow thou down their back always.] This verse is usually construed to picture the political servitude and spiritual bondage of Israel after the fall of Jerusalem. No doubt it has reference to conditions ushered in by that event, but it pictures the dimness and decrepitude of old age—a blind eye, and a back beyond straightening. The Jews were to partake of the nature of the old, worn-out dispensation to which they clung (Matthew 9:16-17; Hebrews 8:13). God’s people can not grow old, they renew their youth like the eagle’s (Psalms 103:5), but a people which ceases to be his, falls into decay. J. A. Alexander’s comment on Psalms 69:22 deserves note. He says: "The imprecations in this verse, and those following it, are revolting only when considered as the expressions of malignant selfishness. If uttered by God, they shock no reader’s sensibilities; nor should they when considered as the language of an ideal person, representing the whole class of righteous sufferers, and particularly Him who, though he prayed for his murderers while dying (Luke 23:34), had before applied the words of this very passage to the unbelieving Jews (Matthew 23:38), as Paul did afterward."
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
IV. Fourth Explanation of the Grand Conclusion—
Salutary Results of the Temporal Fall and Future
Rise of Israel—Gentiles Warned Not to Glory Over Israel
Romans 11:11-24
11 I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? [Fall (piptoo) is a much stronger word than stumble, and the contrast between the two words makes the former emphatic. To fall means to be killed, and is in Greek, as in English, applied to those slain in battle. (Homer, Il. 8:475; 11:84.) As emphasized, then, it means to become "utterly irrevocable" (Clark); "irrevocable ruin, in opposition to that which is temporary" (Hodge); "to fall forever, finally" (Pool); "perish forever" (Meyer); "so as utterly to fall" (Stuart). Paul is arguing as to God’s intention. Therefore, according to his established custom, he asks a question that he may guard against a false conclusion, and the form of the question, as usual, demands a negative answer, for the false conclusion is to be denied. From the foreseen "stumbling" of Israel (Romans 9:33; Romans 11:9), and from the "hardening" (v. 7), it might be concluded that God sent a stumblingblock Saviour, a Messiah in an unwelcome form, and an unpalatable gospel-salvation with the intent and purpose of working Israel’s downfall and ruin—his final, irrevocable fall. Did God bring about or cause a stumbling of the Jews of Christ’s day, that all future generations might fall, or be cast off forever? Such is the question, and the answer is] God forbid [This general denial is followed by a threefold explanation: (1) The fall of Israel was permitted because spiritually profitable to the Gentiles (11); (2) the rising again of Israel will be for the greater spiritual profit to the Gentiles (12-15); (3) the fall of Israel is only temporary—they shall rise again—26]: but [introducing the real purpose or design of Israel’s fall] by their fall [paraptoma, from the verb parapiptoo, which means to sideslip, to fall away, to fall. Hence paraptomameans fall, trespass (Alford), lapse (Stuart), slip (Green), false step (Godet), offence (Gifford), fault, sin. It is best translated here by the word "offence"] salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. [Emulation is a better translation than jealousy. Their offence was their unbelief, which caused God to put them away, and this putting away greatly facilitated the success of the gospel among the Gentiles. So great was the pride and exclusiveness of the Jews, and such was their blind loyalty to their race, ritual, temple, law, etc., that even the most thoroughly converted and indoctrinated Christians among them, such as the very apostles themselves (Paul alone excepted), never manifested any enthusiasm in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. It took a miracle to constrain Peter to do such a thing (Acts 10), and, after having done so, his Christian brethren demanded an explanation and apology for his intercourse with Gentiles (Acts 11), and later, instead of yielding to his apostolic leadership, they were so stubborn in their aversion to the free admission of Gentiles into the church, that the fear of them triumphed and caused Peter to conform to their views (Galatians 2:11-14; for further evidence of their bigotry, see Acts 15:1-2; Acts 21:17-24). Their opposition to Paul only ceased with his life. With such a spirit among Jewish Christians, two things were sure to happen if they retained their preeminence in the church, and continued to dominate its policy. (1) There would be but little preaching supplied to the Gentiles, since pride and enmity made the Jews unwilling to serve them (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16); (2) such gospel as was preached to the Gentiles would be woefully corrupted and perverted by Judaistic teaching and practice (Galatians 1:6-9; Galatians 3:1-3; Galatians 6:12-14), for "Israel," as Lange observes, "did not desire the Gentiles, under the most favorable circ*mstances, to participate in the Messianic salvation, except as proselytes of the Jews," since they took more pride and joy in converting men to Moses than in winning them to Christ. Thus by their zeal for the law they would imperil the Gentiles’ liberty in Christ (Galatians 4:9; Galatians 4:21-31; Galatians 5:1), so that Christianity could scarce escape becoming merely a new patch on an old garment, even as the Master forewarned (Matthew 9:16), in which secondary capacity it could never so save the Gentile as to convert the world. Hence to save the wine Jesus cast aside the old Jewish bottle, and stored the gracious gospel fluid in the new Gentile wine-skin (Matthew 9:17). And he not only cast off the Jewish people as unworthy of that preeminence in the church which was naturally theirs, but he even stood aside the eleven apostles as too hopelessly narrow-minded for Gentile evangelism, and committed the whole of this colossal ministry to the one man, Paul (Acts 9:15; Acts 22:21; Acts 26:17-18; Romans 1:5; Romans 11:13; Romans 15:16; Galatians 1:15-16; Ephesians 3:7-8; 1 Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:11; especially Galatians 2:7-9). And even in his case we note how the prompt "offence," or unbelief, of the Jews enabled him to preach "to the Jew first," yet speedily left him free and unfettered to push the work among the Gentiles (Acts 13:45-48; Acts 28:28). So the "offence" and consequent casting off of Israel did facilitate the conversion of the Gentiles. Israel, as a reluctant, sluggish, half-converted hindrance, was thrust from the doorway, that the Gentiles might enter freely and fully into the kingdom (Luke 11:52; Matthew 23:13). Salvation of the Gentiles was the proximate purpose accomplished, and still being accomplished, by the rejection of the Jews: the salvation of the Jews themselves was the remote purpose of the rejection, and it is largely future, even yet. It is to be brought about by a spirit of emulation. "Seeing," says Godet, "all the blessings of the kingdom, pardon, justification, the Holy Spirit, adoption, shed down abundantly on the Gentile nations through faith in Him whom they had rejected, how can they help saying at length: These things are ours? And how can they help opening their eyes and recognizing that Jesus is the Messiah, since in him the works predicted of the Messiah are accomplished? How shall the elder son, seeing his younger brother seated and celebrating the feast at his father’s table, fail to ask that he may re-enter the paternal home and come to sit down side by side with his brother, after throwing himself into the arms of the common father?" A blessed result indeed, but long delayed by the carnal, half-converted state of the Gentile church, as witnessed by the Roman Catholicism which is Sardis (Revelation 3:1) and Protestantism which is sectarianism (1 Corinthians 3:1-5). a Philadelphia church lapsing into Laodicean indifference—Revelation 3:14-19.]
12 Now if their fall [paraptoma] is the riches of the world, and their loss [hettema, that loss or diminution which an army suffers by defeat, also moral loss, impoverishment, to be defeated, to be reduced, or made inferior. "A reduction in one aspect to a race of scattered exiles, in another to a mere remnant of ’Israelites indeed’ "—Moule] the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? [Pleroma, the full number, the whole body, the totality. To emphasize the situation and impress it upon his readers, Paul makes use of the Hebrew parallelism, presenting two clauses which express substantially the same thing. If there be any difference, we would say that "world" indicates sinners, and "Gentiles" the uncovertanted races. If paraphrased thus, it would read, Now, if the sin or offence of godly Israel enriched the ungodly, sinful world, and if the loss or spiritual impoverishment and numerical diminution of the covenanted people enriched and multiplied the covenanted among the hitherto uncovenanted people, how much more would both the sinful world and its uncovenanted inhabitants have been blessed every way, had Israel been of the right spirit, so as to have received enrichment instead of being cast off and diminished. Because Israel had a proud, narrow, inimical spirit (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16), its depletion worked blessing to the world and the Gentiles; but if Israel had yielded to Christ so as to be transformed like that persecuting Saul who became Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, who can measure the fullness of blessing which would have come to the inhabitants of the earth by the enlargement, enrichment and full spiritual endowment of every son of Abraham dispersed through the world! With millions of Pauls in all lands throughout all generations, we should have measured our heavenward progress by milestones instead of inches. "Goodness," says Thomas Aquinas, "is more capable of bearing blessing than is evil; but the evil of the Jews brought great blessing to the Gentiles; therefore much more should their goodness bring greater blessing to the world. "]
13 But [A note of correction. At Romans 7:1; Romans 7:4 Paul began to address the Jews, and all that he has said since then has had specific reference to that people. Since verse 11, however, the thought has gradually passed to the Gentiles and now Paul openly notes that he is speaking to them, lest any should think he was still speaking to Jews about Jews] I speak to you that are Gentiles. [Much that the apostle has said might be misconstrued by the Gentiles so as to minister to their pride. The apostle therefore addresses them personally, and prepares the way for an admonition against vainglory in themselves and a contemptuous spirit against the Jews.] Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my ministry; 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh [my kindred: the Jews], and may save [do the human part of saving] some of them. [Finding myself set apart by Christ to minister to Gentiles instead of Jews, I perform my task with a double zest, for (I not only rejoice to save Gentiles, but) it is a means (also) of saving some of Israel by provoking them to an honorable and generous emulation even now; since the mass of them will be won that way in the end, as indicated above. And, moreover, I do this in fullest love and goodwill to you Gentiles, for I foresee what incalculable blessings the conversion of the Jews will bring to you.]
15 For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? [Again we have a passage wherein "the apostle," as Meyer expresses it, "argues from the happy effect of the worse cause, to the happier effect of the better cause." If a curse, so to speak, brought a blessing, what would not a blessing bring? If the casting away of Israel in Paul’s day resulted in the beginning of the times of the Gentiles, and the turning of them from idols and imaginary deities to seek after the true God as part of a theocratic family wherein converted Jew and Gentile are reconciled to each other and to God (see Ephesians 2:11-22 for a full description of this double reconciliation), what would the receiving again of the vast body of unconverted Jews at the end of the times of the Gentiles (vs. 25, 26) be but a veritable life from the dead, an unprecedented, semi-miraculous revival? Theophylact, Augustine, Melanchthon, Calvin, Beza, Bucer, Turretin, Philippi, Bengel, Auberlen, Clark, Macknight, Plumer, Brown, Lard, Gifford, Moule, Riddle, etc., view this as a great spiritual resurrection, a revival of grace accompanying the conversion of the whole world. Others, as Origen, Chrysostom, the earlier commentators generally, Ruckert, Meyer, De Wette, etc., look upon it as a literal, bodily resurrection, while Olshausen, Lange and Alford consider it as a combination of spiritual and bodily resurrections. The first of these positions is most tenable. "This," says Barnes, "is an instance of the peculiar, glowing and vigorous manner, of the apostle Paul. His mind catches at the thought of what may be produced by the recovery of the Jews, and no ordinary language would convey his idea. He had already exhausted the usual forms of speech by saying that even their rejection had reconciled the world, and that it was the riches of the Gentiles. To say that their recovery—a striking and momentous event; an event so much better fitted to produce important results—would be attended by the conversion of the world, would be insipid and tame. He uses, therefore, a most bold and striking figure. The resurrection of the dead was an image of the most vast and wonderful event that could take place." Some of those who view this as a literal resurrection, do so from a lack of clear conception as to the order of the dispensations. They look upon the conversion of the Jews as taking place at the very end of the world, and hence synchronous with the final resurrection. They do not know that the Jewish dispensation, or age, gave place to the present one, which is called "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24), and that this dispensation will give place to a third, known as the millennium or age of a thousand years (Revelation 20:1-6). The Jewish dispensation ended with the death of Christ, and the Gentile dispensation will end when the gospel is preached unto all nations (Matthew 24:14). Its end, as Paul shows us at verses 25 and 26, will also be synchronous with the conversion of the Jews. Failure to grasp these important facts has led to much general confusion, and to gross mistakes in the interpretation and application of prophecies for many Biblical references to the end of the Gentile dispensation, or age, have been erroneously referred to the end of the world, or end of the ages. The last age, or millennium, will be the triumph of the kingdom of God, the thousand-year reign of the saints on earth, and it will begin with the conversion of the world under the leadership of the Jews, and this is the event which Paul fittingly describes as "life from the dead." The millennium will be as a resurrection to the Jews (Ezekiel 37), for they will return to their own land (Ezekiel 37:11-14; Ezekiel 37:21; Ezekiel 37:25) and revive their national life as a united people (Ezekiel 37:22). It will be as a resurrection of primitive, apostolic Christianity to the Gentiles, for the deadness of the "last days" of their dispensation (2 Timothy 3:1-9; 2 Timothy 4:3-4), with its Catholic Sardis and its Protestant Laodicea (Revelation 3:1-6; Revelation 3:14-22), will give place to the new life of the new age, wherein the "first love" of the Ephesian, or first, church will be revived (Revelation 2:4-5), and the martyr spirit of Smyrna, its successor, will again come forth (Revelation 2:10), and the devil will be chained and the saints will reign (Revelation 20:1-6). This spiritual resurrection of the last age is called the "first resurrection," for it is like, and it is followed by, the real or literal resurrection which winds it up, and begins the heavenly age, or eternity with God. Ezekiel tells what the last age will do to the Jews, Paul what it will be to the Gentiles, and John what it will mean to them both. As to Paul’s description Pool thus writes: "The conversion of the Jewish people and nation will strengthen the things that are languishing and like to die in the Christian church. It will confirm the faith of the Gentiles, and reconcile their differences in religion, and occasion a more thorough reformation amongst them: there will be a much more happy and flourishing estate of the church, even such as shall be in the end of the world, at the resurrection of the dead." All this, as Paul boldly asserts, will result from the blessed power of Jewish leadership, as in the beginning. "The light," says Godet, "which converted Jews bring to the church, and the power of life which they have sometimes awakened in it, are the pledge of that spiritual renovation which will be produced in Gentile Christendom by their entrance en masse. Do we not feel that in our present condition there is something, and that much, wanting to us that the promises of the gospel may be realized in all their fullness; that there is, as it were, a mysterious hindrance to the efficacy of preaching, a debility inherent in our spiritual life, a lack of joy and force which contrasts strangely with the joyful outbursts of prophets and psalmists; that, in fine, the feast in the father’s house is not complete... why? because it can not be so, so long as the family is not entirely reconstituted by the return of the elder son. Then shall come the Pentecost of the last times, the latter rain." Against the above view that Paul speaks of a spiritual resurrection it is weakly urged that it assumes a future falling away of the Gentiles, and a lapse on their part into spiritual death, and that the apostle gives no intimation of such a declension by them. But it is right to assume such a declension, for Paul most clearly intimates it; for (1) all the remainder of this section is a discussion of how the Jews brought their dispensation to an end, and a warning to the Gentiles not to follow their example and have their dispensation end in a like manner. (2) In verse 25 he speaks of the fullness or completeness of the Gentiles. But, according to the divine method, this dispensation of the Gentiles could not reach completeness and be done away with until it became corrupt and worthless. God does not cast off till iniquity is full and failure complete (Genesis 6:13; Genesis 15:16; Matthew 23:29-33). Moreover, some five years before this, in the second Epistle that ever came from his pen, Paul had foretold this declension in the church, and had described it as even then "working," though restrained (2 Thessalonians 2:3-12). The assumption on which this view of a spiritual resurrection rests is both contextual and natural. Finally, as to this being a literal body resurrection, we must of course admit that an all-powerful God can begin the millennium that way if he chooses, but to suppose that the literally resurrected dead shall mingle and dwell with the rest of humanity for a thousand years, or throughout an entire dispensation, savors of fanaticism. Even Jesus kept aloof during his forty days of waiting before his ascension. A healthy mind can not long retain such an idea, nor can we think that Paul would introduce so marvelous and abnormal a social condition without in some measure elaborating it. As against a literal, physical resurrection Hodge argues strongly. We give a sentence or two: "Not only in Scriptures, but also in profane literature, the transition from a state of depression and misery, to one of prosperity, is expressed by the natural figure of passing from death to life. The Old Testament prophets represented the glorious condition of the Theocracy, consequent on the coming of Christ, in contrast with its previous condition, as a rising from the dead.... Nowhere else in Scripture is the literal resurrection expressed by the words ’life from the dead.’ Had Paul intended a reference to the resurrection, no reason can be assigned why he did not employ the established and familiar words ’resurrection from the dead.’ If he meant the resurrection, why did he not say so? Why use a general phrase, which is elsewhere used to express another idea? Besides this, it is not according to the analogy of Scripture, that the resurrection of the dead, and the change of those who shall then be alive (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18), are to be immediate, consequent on the conversion of the Jews. The resurrection is not to occur until ’the end.’ A new state of things, a new mode of existence, is to be then introduced. Flesh and blood—i. e., our bodies as now organized—can not inherit the kingdom, of God." For a full discussion of the spiritual nature of the resurrection, from the pen of A. Campbell, see his articles on the second coming of the Lord, in the Millennial Harbinger. We shall never know how dead our liquor-licensing, sectarian, wealth-worshiping, stock-gambling, religio-fad-loving, political, war-waging Christendom has been until the spirit of the early church rises from the dead to form the new age; then it will be at once apparent to all what Paul meant by this bold figure, "life from the dead." But the glorious prospect here presented rests on the supposition that the Jews en masse shall be converted. As that is a supposition which many expositors even in our day regard with doubt, the apostle first shows its Scriptural and natural reasonableness, and then plainly and unequivocally predicts it. He presents its reasonableness thus]
16 And if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump: and if the root is holy, so are the branches. [Another parallelism. The apostle demonstrates the same truth, first, from the standpoint of the law of God in the Bible (firstfruit and lump); second, from the law of God in nature (root and tree). As the harvest or raw material of the Jew was regarded as unclean, or ceremonially unholy, and not to be eaten till it was cleansed by the waving of a first-portion, or firstfruit, of it as a heave-offering before the Lord (Leviticus 23:9-14; Exodus 34:26); so the meal or prepared material was likewise prescribed until a portion of the first dough was offered as a heave-offering. This offered "firstfruit," or, better, "first-portion" (aparche), made the whole lump (phurama) from which it was taken holy, and thus sanctified all the future meal, of which it was the representative or symbol, so that it could now be used by the owner (Numbers 15:19-21; Nehemiah 10:37). The apostle, then, means that as the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (called fathers in verse 28), the firstfruit by the revealed law, and the root by the natural law, were holy, so all their descendants as lump and tree were likewise holy. But holiness has two distinct meanings: (1) Purity, moral and spiritual perfection, absolute righteousness—a holiness unto salvation; (2) that which is consecrated or set apart for divine use—a holiness short of salvation. The second meaning is the one intended here. The Jews, being out of Christ, are certainly not holy or righteous unto salvation, Paul being witness; but they have what Gifford styles "this legal and relative holiness of that which has been consecrated to God." In this respect they are still "the holy people" (Daniel 12:7), "the chosen people" (Daniel 11:15), preserved from fusion with the Gentiles, and ultimately to be restored to their original preeminence as leaders in the worship of Jehovah. In short, then, there is no divinely erected barrier rendering them irrevocably unholy, and preventing their conversion. On the contrary, they are preeminently susceptible to conversion both by law divine and natural, and only their persistent unbelief prevents their Christianization.]
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou [O Gentile believer], being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree [Some commentators, recognizing that Christianity is a distinct thing from Judaism, have been unduly frightened at the manner in which the apostle here blends them as one tree. This has led them to forsake the obvious meaning of the apostle’s words, in an endeavor to contort them so as to keep distinct the Christian and Jewish bodies. Some of these, therefore, regard Christ as the tree, and others regard it as representing the Christian church. But such exegesis violates the text, for the Jewish unbelievers are pictured as branches "broken off." Now, they could neither be broken off from Christ nor the church, for they were never joined to cither. The tree is the Theocracy (Jeremiah 11:16; Hosea 14:6; Ezekiel 17:3; Zechariah 11:2). In a sense it is one continuous tree, for it bears to God the continuous relation of being his peculiar people, but in another sense it is, as the apostle here presents it, an entirely different tree, for all the branches which were formerly accepted on the basis of natural Abrahamic descent were broken off, and all the branches, whether Jew or Gentile, which had the new requirement of faith in Christ, were grafted in. Surely, then, the tree is distinct enough as presented in its two conditions. Yet is it the same Theocracy, with the same patriarchal root and developed from the same basic covenants and promises (Hebrews 11:39-40; Ephesians 2:11-22). Christianity is not Judaism, and no pen ever taught this truth more clearly than Paul’s. Yet Christianity is a development of the did Theocracy, and is still a Theocracy, a kingdom of God, and this is plainly taught; for the Christian, be he Jew or Gentile, is still a spiritual son of Abraham (Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:7; Galatians 3:29; Galatians 4:28), a member of the true Israel; the true Jew. Now, the Christian Jew, having already an organic connection with the Theocracy, is viewed by Paul as simply remaining in it. And here is the point where the confusion arises. If he became regenerate (John 3:1-6), and, dropping the carnal tie of the old, received the spiritual tie of the new (John 8:37-44), he indeed remained in the theocratic tree, but in it as transformed at Pentecost. If the Jew did not undergo this change, he was broken off and cast aside (Matthew 8:11-12). Thus the apostle makes it clear that the Jew, as a Jew, and without spiritual change through faith in Christ, did not remain in any divinely accepted Theocracy. But as God originally contemplated the tree, every Jew was to develop into a Christian, in which case the tree would have been indeed continuous. Jewish unbelief frustrated the divine harmony and made it necessary for the apostle himself to here and elsewhere emphasize the difference between the old and new Theocracies. "The Gentiles are called a wild olive because God had not cultivated them as he did the Jews, who, on that account, are called (v. 24) the good or garden olives.... The juice of the olive is called ’fatness,’ because from its fruit, which is formed by that juice, oil is expressed" (Macknight). "The oleaster, or wild olive," says Parens, "has the same form as the olive, but lacks its generous sap and fruits. "];
18 glory not over the branches: but if thou gloriest [remember], it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee. [Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). Religious pride had proved the undoing of the Jews. It made them despise and reject an unregal Messiah; it caused them to spurn a gospel preached to the poor; it moved them to reject a salvation in which the unclean Gentile might freely share. As Paul opens before his Gentile readers the high estate into which they had come, he anticipates the religious pride which the contemplation of their good fortune was so soon to beget in them, hence he at once sounds the timely note of warning. As to the Jew they had no reason to boast, for they were debtor to him, not he to them, for "salvation is from the Jew" (John 4:22). As to themselves they could not speak proudly, for the depression of the Jew was due to God’s severity, and the exaltation of the Gentile was due to his goodness. The Gentile church was incorporated into a previously existing Jewish church, and their new Theocracy had its root in the old, so that in neither case were these privileges original, but wholly secondary and derived from the Jews. Moreover, "such presumption toward the branches," says Tholuck, "could not be without presumption toward the root." Would that the Gentiles, who today boast of their Christianity and despise the Jew from whence it was derived, could comprehend the folly of their course. How great is the sin of Christendom! "In its pride," says Godet, "it tramples underfoot the very nation of that grace which has made it what it is. It moves on. therefore, to a judgment of rejection like that of Israel, but which shall not have to soften it a promise [of final restoration] like that which accompanied the fall of the Jews. "]
19 Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. [The apostle here puts in the mouth of a representative Gentile the cause or justification of the pride. Was it not ground for self-esteem and self-gratulation when God cast off his covenanted people to receive strangers?—Ephesians 2:19.] 20 Well [A form of partial and often ironical assent: equal to, very true, grant it, etc. It was not strictly true that God had cast off the Jew to make room for the Gentile, for there was room for both. The marriage supper shows the truth very clearly. The refusal of the Jew was the reason why he was cast off, not because there was lack of room, or partial favor on God’s part, or superior merit on the part of the Gentiles—Luke 14:15-24]; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith [not merit]. Be not highminded, but fear: 21 for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. [Faith justified no boast, yet faith constituted the only divinely recognized distinction in the Gentiles’ favor, in estimating between the Gentile Christian and the cast-off Jew. All the past history of the Jew stood in his favor; therefore the Gentile has vastly more reason to fear than had the Jew; for if natural branches fell through false pride which induced unbelief, how much more likely the adopted branches were to be cut off. Again, he had more reason for fear than for pride; for being on trial as the Jews had been, he was succumbing to the same sin of self-righteous pride, and more liable to suffer the same rejection. Paul now presents the even-balanced equality of Jew and Gentile if weighed in the scales of merit instead of the new scales of grace-toward-faith.]
22 Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them [the Jews] that fell, severity [for lack of faith, not want of merit]; but toward thee [O Gentile], God’s goodness [kindness not won by thy merit, else it were justice, not goodness; but goodness toward thee by reason of thy faith: a goodness which will be continued to thee], if thou continue, [by faith, and the works thereof, to keep thyself] in his goodness: otherwise thou also [even as was the Jew for like reasons before thee] shalt be cut off. [From the theocratic tree. Severity and goodness, as used here, are merely relative. They do not express the true condition, but merely the state of affairs as viewed by those who still clung to the idea of legal justification and salvation by merit. To those holding such views it seemed severe indeed that the better man should be cut off for lack of faith, and a strange act of goodness that the worse should be received by reason of it and given opportunity to become fruitful; but the seeming severity vanishes and only the goodness remains when we reflect that according to the righteous judgment of God it was impossible that either of them should be received any other way. The apostle’s next purpose is to present a further argument against Gentile pride; viz., the final restoration of the Jewish people and the restitution of all their original privileges and rights. This prophetic fact is revealed as a possibility in the next two verses, and established fully as a decreed event in the next section.] 23 And they [the unbelieving mass of Israel] also [together with you], if they continue not in their unbelief [for it is not a question of any comparative lack of legal merit on their part], shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. [There is no insuperable reason why they can not be grafted in, and that blessed event will take place whenever the unbelief which has caused their severance shall cease. In Paul’s day individual Jews were being grafted in (the "some" of verse 14); but in the glad future of which the apostle here speaks, the nation (or the "all Israel" of verse 26) shall be grafted in. However, the word "able" suggests the extreme difficulty of overcoming the obdurate unbelief of Israel. It is a task for God’s almightiness, but, though difficult, yet, as verse 24 shows, most natural, after all.]
24 For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? [Here we are referred to nature for the point emphasized in the apostle’s lesson, that we may see that the present system of grace, as operating under the terms of conversion established as the basis of theocratic life in the New Testament, operates in double contradiction to nature. For (1) grafting is unnatural; (2) grafting bad to good is unnatural; for in nature the engraft always changes the juice of the stalk to its own nature, so as to still bear its own fruit. Hence the superior is always grafted into the inferior. But in grace this rule is so changed and operated so "contrary to nature," that the sap, passing into the tame, natural, superior Jewish branches, yielded corrupt fruit, so that they had to be severed; while the same sap, passing into the wild, grafted, inferior Gentile branches, communicated its fatness to them, so that they yielded good fruit. But as it is an accepted axiomatic premise that even God works more readily, regularly and satisfactorily along the lines of the natural than he does along those of the supernatural and miraculous, so it is unquestionably reasonable to suppose that if the Jew will consent to be grafted in by belief, the sap of his own tree will work more readily for him than it did in Paul’s day for the Gentiles, or wild olive branches which were not of the tree save by the grafting, or union, of belief. "For," says Chrysostom, "if faith can achieve that which is contrary to nature, much more can it achieve what is according to it." By age-long, hereditary and educational qualifications the Jew has acquired a natural affinity for, and a pre-established harmony with, all that has come to the world through the promises to Abraham, and in fulfillment of the words of the prophets. In short, the conversion of the Jew of our day is a vastly more reasonable expectation than the conversion of the Gentiles which actually took place in Paul’s day. Let no man, therefore, doubt Paul’s prediction of the ultimate conversion of the Jews. "If God," says Stuart, "had mercy on the Gentiles, who were outcasts from his favor and strangers to the covenant of his promise, shall he not have mercy on the people whom he has always distinguished as being peculiarly his own, by the bestowment of many important privileges and advantages upon them?"
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
V. Fifth Explanation of the Grand Conclusion—Gentiles and Jews
Having Each Passed Through a Like Season of Disobedience,
a Like Mercy Shall be Shown to Each
Romans 11:25-32
["The future conversion of Israel," says Gifford, "having been proved to be both possible and probable, is now shown to be the subject of direct revelation. "] 25 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant [This form of expression is used by the apostle to indicate a most important communication to which he wishes his readers to give special attention, as something strange and contrary to their expectation (Romans 1:13; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 1 Corinthians 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13)—in this case, a revelation from God] of this mystery [The word musterionis used twenty-seven times in the New Testament. As digested and classified by Tholuck, it has three meanings; thus: 1. Such matters of fact as are inaccessible to human reason, and can only be known through revelation (Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7-10; Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 3:4; Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 1:26; etc.). 2. Such matters as are patent facts, but the process of which can not be entirely taken in by the reason (1 Corinthians 14:2; 1 Corinthians 13:2; Ephesians 5:32; 1 Timothy 3:9; 1 Timothy 3:16). 3. That which is no mystery in itself, but by its figurative import (Matthew 13:11; Revelation 1:20; Revelation 17:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:7). The first is the meaning here. Paul is about to communicate a revelation which was given of God, and could never have been divined by any process of the human intellect. As the conversion of the Gentiles was so unthinkable that it had to be made known to the Jew by revelation (Ephesians 3:1-6; Acts 10, 11), so here the conversion of the Jew was so unbelievable that it also had to be made known to the Gentile by revelation], lest ye be wise in your own conceits [This revelation of the conversion and ultimate elevation of Israel to his former position of leadership comes to Paul, and is imparted by him to the Gentiles, to prevent them from following their own vain and mistaken opinions as to the relative theocratic positions of Jews and Gentiles, by which they would flatteringly deceive themselves into thinking too well of themselves as occupying permanently Israel’s ancient post of honor, and too ill of Israel as thrust out and cast off forever. The reversal of the Jews and Gentiles in fortune and honor was but a temporary affair. It is significant that this publication of a revelation, and accompanying rebuke of the opposing self-conceit of human opinion and judgment, should be addressed to the Church of Rome! The more one ponders it, the more portentous it becomes], that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel [Here is the first term of the threefold revelation. Calvin and others connect "in part" with "hardening," so that the meaning is that a partial hardening has befallen Israel. But hardening, as mentioned at 9:18 or 11:7, is not qualified as partial. "In part" is properly connected with "Israel." A portion of Israel is hardened. This agrees with the entire context, which tells of a remnant saved (11:5), and the rest or larger portion fallen (11:12), cast away (11:15), and hardened. So "in part" stands for "the rest" of 11:7, and in contrast to the "some" of 11:17. The bulk of the Jewish nation, persistently and rebelliously refusing to believe in Christ, had, as their punishment, a dulling of their perceptions and a deadening of their sensibilities sent upon them. We can understand this punishment better if we compare it with its counterpart which befell the Gentiles. As they dishonored the form or body of God by presuming to make degrading, beast-shaped images of it, so God gave them up to degrade their own bodies (1:23, 24). As they preferred lies to truth in things pertaining to God, he gave them up to prefer lying, deceptive, unnatural uses of themselves, to the true and natural uses (1:25-27). As they refused to have a right mind about God, he gave them up to a reprobate mind (1:28-32). So here, in his parallel treatment of the Jew, he found them steeling their hearts against his love (John 3:16) and against the drawing power of the cross (John 8:28; John 12:32), and he gave them up to the hardness which they chose and desired. Now follows the second term of the revelation which makes known how long this hardness should endure; viz.], until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in [The hardness of the Jews shall cease, and the veil which blinds their eyes shall fall (1 Corinthians 3:14-15), when the number of saved which God has allotted to be gathered during the Gentile dispensation (or "times of the Gentiles"—Luke 21:24) has been made complete, and has "come in," to the theocratic olive-tree. In other words, as the Gentiles were "given up" (1:23, 25, 28) during the entire period of the Jewish dispensation, so the Jews are to be "hardened" during the entire period of the Gentile dispensation. The millennium, or final dispensation, which is to follow this present Gentile dispensation, will be given into the hands of Jew and Gentile jointly, and will be as life from the dead to both parties, because of the glorious season of revival which shall characterize it almost to its end. "Fulness of the Gentiles" is, therefore, "not the general conversion of the world to Christ, as many take it," says Brown; "for this would seem to contradict the latter part of this chapter, and throw the national recovery of Israel too far into the future: besides, in verse 15, the apostle seems to speak of the receiving of Israel, not as following, but as contributing largely to bring about, the general conversion of the world—but, until the Gentiles have had their full time [as possessors] of the visible church all to themselves while the Jews are out, which the Jews had till the Gentiles were brought in. See Luke 21:24." And this brings us to the conditions, or developments, which succeed the hardening, or the third term of the mystery or revelation which Paul is here making known; viz.];
26 and so [that is, in this way; namely, by abiding till this determinate time] all Israel [the national totality, the portion hardened; a round-number expression, allowing liberty to any small remnant which may possibly still persist in unbelief] shall be saved [Shall be Christianized by overcoming their unbelief. And this revelation, fully detailed by Paul, had already been adumbrated or partially published in the prophets, as follows]: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob [Isaiah 59:20 f]: 27 And this is my covenant [lit. the covenant from me] unto them, When I shall take away their sins. [Isaiah 27:9. (Comp. Jeremiah 31:31-34.) Verse 26 is quoted from the LXX., but Paul changes "come in favor of Zion" to read, "come out of Zion," following a phrase found at Psalms 14:7. None can say why he made this change, but it prevents confusion as to the first and second advent. Christ’s second advent will be out of heaven, not out of Zion. Bengel calls attention to the fact that as Paul in Romans 3 combines Isaiah 59 and Psalms 14, to prove the sinfulness of mankind, especially of the Jews, so he here seems to combine the same two parts of Scripture to prove the salvation of Israel from sin. Moreover, as in chapter 9 he lets Isaiah describe Israel as reduced to a remnant (9:27-29), so he here appeals to the same inspired penman as the foreteller of the salvation of all Israel. Christ the Deliverer had already come, so that part of the prophecy had been fulfilled, but the future effects of the gospel were yet to accomplish the salvation of the Jews as a nation in two ways: (1) By turning them from their ungodly infidelity; (2) by forgiving their sins. Jewish unbelief will not be removed by any change in the gospel: it is complete and unalterable. The changes which will work upon the Jews will be those wrought in the world by the gospel. "And this is the covenant from me," etc., signifies, My covenant unto them shall be executed and completed on my part when I forgive their sins. To the Jews, therefore, there was, on God’s part, in Paul’s day, a present attitude of rejection manifesting itself in hardening, and a future attitude of acceptance sometime to manifest itself in forgiveness, and these attitudes are thus described]
28 As touching the gospel, they [the unbelieving Israelites] are [regarded by God as] enemies for your sake [that their fall might enrich you. See __Romans 11verse12]: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. [Or on account of the fathers. The call, or election, of Israel gave them national, hereditary rights (of which salvation was not an essential part; it being eternally designed to be an individual, not a national, matter) that were to last to the end of the world (Leviticus 26:40-45); but which provided for, or anticipated, that break, interim or hiatus known as "the times of the Gentiles." During all the years of the Gentile dispensation God cast off his people and regarded, them as enemies in every field of vision where they came in conflict with or interfered with the Christians, or New Covenant, Gentile people. Yet, notwithstanding, in all other respects they have been and will be loved and cared for by God, on account of his own love for the fathers, and his eternal covenants with them. This mixture of present enmity and future benevolence characterizes God’s attitude toward every unrepentant sinner who is to become a future saint. So long as he abides in sin he is an enemy, yet loved for the sake of the Lord Jesus. The condition of the Jew is therefore well defined. His ancestral covenants have no value unto salvation, but they are invaluable as an assurance that he shall be continued as a people until he accepts the gospel which is the covenant unto salvation.] 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of. [A corollary growing out of the axiom that the all-wise. God makes no mistakes and consequently knows no repentance (Numbers 23:19; Ezekiel 24:14; 1 Samuel 15:29). Repentance and regret imply miscalculation (James 1:17). The term "gifts" is of very wide application. God gave to the Jew certain spiritual endowments and moral aptitudes fitting him for religious leadership; God also gave to him manifold promises and covenants, and the general rights of the elder brother or firstborn (Luke 15:25-32), including priority in all spiritual matters (Acts 1:8; Acts 3:25-26; Acts 13:46; Romans 1:16; Romans 2:9-10; 1 Peter 4:17). The calling is closely related to the gifts, for the Jews were called to be God’s peculiar people (Deuteronomy 7:6; Psalms 135:4), and were thereby called upon to discharge all the duties and obligations belonging to their station and arising out of their endowments (Luke 20:9-18); and likewise called to enjoy all the blessings and privileges of their stewardship, if found faithful in it (Luke 12:35-48). Now, God has not changed his purpose as to either gifts or calling. The Jew’s rights are temporarily suspended during the Gentile dispensation. They have never been withdrawn, and will be restored whenever the Jew becomes a believer. As pledge of the permanent nature of Jewish precedence, the twelve gates of the Eternal City bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel (Revelation 21:12), and the twelve foundations thereof bear the names of the twelve Jewish apostles—Revelation 21:14.]
30 For as ye [Gentiles] in time past were disobedient to God [Romans 1:16-32; Acts 17:30], but now have obtained mercy by their [the Jews’] disobedience [v. 15], 31 even so have these [the Jews] also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now obtain mercy. [How the Gentile received blessing by reason of the casting off of the Jew has already been explained at verse 15. As the Gentile went through a season of disobedience, from which he was saved by severity shown to the Jew, so the Jew was to have a like season of disobedience, from which he in turn is to be eventually saved by God’s mercy to the Gentiles. Some construe the "mercy" to mean that the Gentiles are to have a continuous, ever-increasing spiritual prosperity until finally the very excess of the flood of it sweeps Israel into belief, and therefore into the kingdom. But such a construction plainly denies the New Testament prophecies which speak of a "falling away" (2 Thessalonians 2:3) in "the last days" (2 Timothy 3:1-9), and do not accord with the effects of gospel preaching as announced by Christ (Matthew 24:14). The meaning is that God’s mercy to the Gentiles in Paul’s day preserved the gospel in the world for the ultimate blessing of the Jews, and God’s continued mercy to the Gentiles through the centuries, and even through the latter days of their acute apostasy, will still keep the gospel till the Jews are ready to accept it. God’s mercy to the evil, Gentile earthen vessel preserves the truth wherein lies salvation, and will continue to preserve it till the Jew drinks of the water of life which it conserves (2 Corinthians 4:7). In short, the cases are reversed. The Jewish dispensation ended in a breakdown, but not until the Gentiles became receptacles of the truth. Mercy was shown to the Jew till this Gentile belief was assured. So the Gentile dispensation shall likewise terminate in failure, but not until Jewish belief is assured. We are even now obtaining mercy waiting for the consummation of that part of God’s plan. As God once spared the Jew till his blessings were transferred without loss to the Gentiles, so will he now spare the Gentile till the truth now stored in him has time to pass safely to the Jew. And as surely as he shifted his Spirit and mercies from Jew to Gentile, just so surely will he in turn shift back and re-endow the Jew. The apostle is here giving his whole attention to the acts of God, and omits for the time all reference to that human agency which paved the way for the divine action. However, it is indicated in the word "mercy." The change in either case was in justice long overdue before it came.]
32 For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. [The verb "shut up" is, as Barnes observes, "properly used in reference to those who are shut up in prison, or to those in a city who are shut up by a besieging army (1 Maccabees 5:5; 1 Maccabees 6:18; 1 Maccabees 11:65; 1 Maccabees 15:25; Joshua 6:1; Isaiah 45:1). It is used in the New Testament of fish taken in a net (Luke 5:6)." It here means that God has rendered it impossible for any man, either Jew or Gentile, to save himself by his own merit. For some two thousand years the Gentiles sinned against God as revealed in nature, and broke his unwritten law found in their own consciences (Romans 1:19-20; Romans 2:14-16), their sin being known generally as idolatry. And now, for about an equal length of time the Jews have sinned against God as revealed in Christ, and have broken his written law as found in the Old Testament, their sin being practically the same as that of the Gentiles, though called infidelity. Thus God shut each class up under a hopeless condemnation of disobedience as in a jail, that he might extend a general pardon to each, and save each by his grace and not by human merit. "All" is used in the general sense, and does not signify universal salvation irrespective of belief in Christ (Galatians 3:22). It is used here to show that, in shifting from Gentile to Jew, God will act in no arbitrary or partial spirit. He will not reject any of either class who live worthily. It means that hereafter each class shall be equally favored in preaching and all other gospel privileges. "The emphasis," says Calvin, "in this verse is on the word mercy. It signifies that God is under obligation to no one, and therefore that all are saved by grace, because all are equally ruined."
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
VI. Concluding Ascriptions of Praise to
God for His Judgments, Ways and Riches
Romans 11:33-36
[Guided by the revelations imparted by the Holy Spirit, the apostle has made known many profound and blessed mysteries, and has satisfactorily answered many critical and perplexing questions, and has traced for his readers the course of the two branches of the human family, the Jew and the Gentile, from their beginning in the distant past, in a condition of unity, through the period of their separation by reason of the call of the Jews into a Theocracy, followed by a continuation of the separation, by the call of the Gentiles into a Theocracy, on into the future when both are to be again brought together in unity (Matthew 15:24; John 10:16). "Never," says Godet, "was survey more vast taken of the divine plan of the world’s history." As the apostle surveyed it all, beheld its wisdom and grace, its justice and symmetry, he bursts forth in the ascriptions of praise which follow.] 33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! [We prefer the marginal reading, "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge," etc. Either of the readings is perfectly grammatical. It is objected against the marginal reading that the reading in the text is "simpler and more natural" (Dwight); that the context following says nothing about riches (Brown); that the notion of riches is too diverse in kind to be coordinated with knowledge and wisdom (Godet). To these it may be added (as suggested by Meyer) that the style of the apostle usually follows that of the text. Compare "riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 2:7; Philippians 4:19). Nevertheless, depth of riches and wisdom and knowledge is the best reading here, for riches, as we have just seen, imply, with reference to God, his wealth of grace, or some kindred virtue; as, goodness, forbearance, longsuffering, etc. (Romans 2:4; Romans 10:12; Ephesians 2:4). Now, in this instance the mercy of God was the thrice-repeated and last idea (in the Greek, the last word) dropping from the apostle’s pen (see vs. 31, 32), and it is these riches of mercy and grace that move him to praise, and that give birth to the section before us. Moreover, these riches are the burden of what has gone before. See 9:23 for "riches of glory upon vessels of mercy," and 10:12 for "rich unto all," and 8:35-39 for a description of the saints’ wealth in God’s love. As, therefore, the mercy or lovingkindness of God is uppermost in the apostle’s thoughts, and as it is the main inspiration for all human praise (Psalms 107, 118, 136), it is hard to conceive that Paul would turn from it in silence, and burst forth in raptures over God’s wisdom and knowledge, for the wisdom and knowledge of God stir us to highest raptures only as we see them expended in merciful lovingkindness. "Depth" is a common Greek expression for inexhaustible fullness or superabundance. It is so used by Sophocles, Æschylus, Pindar and Plato (see references in Gifford). It is so used here, though, as employed by Bible writers, it generally means that which is so vast or intricate as to be incomprehensible to the common mind (Psalms 36:6; 1 Corinthians 2:10; Revelation 2:24). The superabundance of God’s knowledge has been made apparent in this Epistle. It, as Plumer describes it, "is his perfect intelligence of all that ever is, ever was, or ever shall be, and of all that could now be, or could heretofore have been, or could hereafter be on any conceivable supposition." It enables God to grant perfect free will to man, and still foresee his every act, and empowers him to combine men of free will in endless social, political and commercial complications, and yet foresee results arising from myriads of combined free agencies, thus enabling him to discern the effects upon the Gentiles wrought by the rejection of the Jews, and the results, proximate and ultimate, wrought upon the Jew by the acceptance and rejection of the Gentiles. Such are samples of the knowledge of God exhibited in Romans. The wisdom of God enables him to design the best purposes, the most blessed and happy results, the most perfect and satisfactory ends, while his knowledge empowers him to choose the best means, employ the best methods or modes of procedure, devise the best plans, select the most perfect instruments, etc., for accomplishing of those holy and benevolent purposes. In short, the wisdom of God foresees the desired end, and his knowledge causes all things to work together for the accomplishment of it. Refraining, for the moment, from describing the riches of God, the apostle proceeds to give a parallel setting forth of the excellency of God’s wisdom and knowledge, thus:] how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! [Job 5:9; Job 11:7]
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? [Isaiah 40:13; Jeremiah 23:18. "Judgments" and "mind" have reference to God’s wisdom; "ways" and "counsellor" look toward his knowledge. Knowledge precedes wisdom. It gathers the facts and ascertains the truths and perceives their meaning, and then wisdom enters with its powers of ratiocination and traces the relations of truth to truth and fact to fact, and invents procedures, devises methods, constructs processes, etc., and utilizes the raw material of knowledge to effect ends, accomplish purposes and achieve results. Therefore, as Gifford observes, "knowledge" is theoretical, "wisdom" is practical, and while "knowledge" is purely intellectual, "wisdom" is also moral, and for that reason is both the most perfect of mental gifts (Aristotle, Nic. Eth. 6:10) and the queen of all virtues (Cicero, ’de Off.’ 1:43)." God’s knowledge foresees all the evil desires, designs, intentions and actions of men and demons, of the devil and his angels; and his wisdom expends itself in transforming all these opposing powers and forces into so many means and aids for the accomplishment of his own holy designs and beneficent purposes. Exercising his wisdom, God judges or decrees, or determines or purposes in his mind, what is best to be done, or to be brought to pass, and these designs or purposes are wholly hidden from man save as God reveals them. We see his moves upon the chessboard of events, but the motives back of the moves lie hidden in a depth of wisdom too profound for man to fathom. "Ways" is derived from the word for "footsteps," and "tracing" is a metaphor borrowed from the chase, where the dog, scenting the footstep, follows the trail, or "way," the game has taken. The means which God chooses leave no track, and they can not be run down and taken captive by the mind of man. Nor does God seek information or ask counsel of man. He is a ruler without a cabinet, a sovereign without a privy council, a king without a parliament. His knowledge needs no augmentation. He accepts no derived information, and borrows no knowledge, but draws all from his own boundless resources. If we can not divine the purpose of his chessboard moves as chosen by his wisdom, neither can we even guess their effects which his knowledge foresees, for he produces unexpected results from contrary causes, so that he makes the Gentiles rich by Jewish poverty, and yet richer by Jewish riches. His wisdom sought the salvation of Jew and Gentile, yet his knowledge foresaw that racial antipathy would keep them from working together till ripened in character; so he worked with each separately. As each sought to establish the sufficiency of his own self-righteousness, he let them each try it, one with natural and the other with revealed law. To each he gave a season of covenant relation and a season of rejection, and in the end he will unite the two and have mercy on both. Such is the coworking of God’s wisdom and knowledge. The scheme is outlined in the parable of the prodigal son, the prodigal being the Gentile and the Jew the elder brother, not yet reconciled to the Father, but still offended at his kindness to the outcast. When the elder brother is reconciled, the story will be complete.]
35 or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? [Job 41:11. This question emphasizes the riches of God, introduced at verse 33. The riches mentioned are those of mercy and grace. If we can not exchange gifts with God along the most material lines, as here indicated, how shall we purchase his mercy, buy up his love, or merit his salvation? The moralist, whether Jew or Gentile, can place God under no obligation whatever, for naught can be given to him who justly claims all things (Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalms 24:1; Psalms 50:12). "Do we not," says Trapp, "owe him all that we have and are, and can a man merit by paying his debts?" (Luke 17:10). God gives all and to all, and he receives from none. Behold his grace! He freely publishes his unknowable knowledge, that the simplest may profit by his omniscience; he fully reveals his unsearchable wisdom, that the feeblest may co-operate with his omnipotence; and he lovingly gives his unmeritable gifts, that the poorest may enjoy his riches forever! Oh that men might know their riches in him, their folly, their weakness, their poverty without him!—Revelation 3:17-18.]
36 For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. [Summary statement of the all-comprehensive riches of God. 1. God, in the beginning or past, is the author, origin and creative source of all existence. He is the efficient original cause from whence all came (hence his perfect knowledge). 2. God, in the middle or present, is the sustaining, supporting means of all existence. He is the continuous cause by which all things are upheld. By ruling and overruling all forces, he is the preserving governor and the providential director of creation in its course toward to-morrow (hence his unerring wisdom). 3. God, in the end or future, is the ultimate purpose or end of all existence. He is the final cause for which creation was and is and will be; for all things move to consummate his purposes, fulfill his pleasure and satisfy his love. They shall glorify him and be glorified, by him (hence his riches: he is all in all—1 Corinthians 15:28.] To him be the glory for ever. Amen. [Thus with the customary benediction (Galatians 1:5; 2 Timothy 4:18; Hebrews 13:21; 1 Peter 5:11) and the formal "Amen," the apostle closes the doctrinal division of his Epistle.]
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
I. Basis of the Faith-Life Defined—
It is Sacrificial and Sanctified
Romans 12:1-2
[The theme of this great Epistle is that "the righteous shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17), and its grand conclusion is that those who seek life this way find it, and all who seek it in other ways fail (Romans 9:30-33) But the popular way of seeking it was by obeying the precepts of the great moral or Mosaic law. If, then, Paul’s letter overthrows all trust in morality, of what use is morality? And what bearing has his doctrine on life? May one live as he pleases and still be saved by his faith? Such are the questions which have ever arisen in men’s minds on first acquaintance with this merciful and gracious doctrine. The carnal mind’s first impulse on hearing the publication of grace is to abuse grace (Romans 6:1. Comp. James 2:14-26). Anticipating the questionings and tendencies of the weak and sinful natures of his readers, Paul proceeds to first define the life of faith (Romans 12:1-2). It is a sanctified, sacrificial life. He then illustrates the workings of this sanctified life in the two grand spheres of its activities, the spiritual kingdom of God or the church (Romans 12:3-8) and the civil kingdom of the world (Romans 12:9-21). But the faith-life is not defined didactically, but in an impassioned, hortatory manner, for Paul is not content that his hearers should know theoretically what it is; he wishes them to have experimental knowledge of it, to actually live it. In fact, it has been for the purpose of making the exhortation of this section that all the previous chapters have been written, for no Bible doctrine is a barren speculation, but a life-root, developed that it may bear fruit in the lives of those who read it. And here is the hortatory definition of the faith-life.] 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual [more correctly, "logical"] service. [I entreat you, brethren, in the light of all that I have written you about this faith-life, making as the motive or ground of my appeal to you these mercies of God which purchased for you the privilege of this life by the death of his Son (Romans 3:23-24), which pardoned your iniquities that you might receive it (Romans 3:25-26), which cast out his chosen people that your access to it might not be hindered (Romans 11:12), etc., etc., that you continuously consecrate your lives to God as living thank and peace offerings, keeping them ever holy and acceptable to God, which is the service you should logically render in the light of the truth presented to you and comprehended by you. The word "mercies" here used (oiktermos) is a stronger word than that (eleos) used in verbal form in the eleventh chapter, expressing the tenderest compassion. God’s main mercies in the gospel are of that sort. If we are not saved by works, why is sacrifice demanded? The answer was plain to the Jew. Of the four sacrifices demanded by the law, two were offered before propitiation and to obtain it. These were the sin and trespass offerings. Christ, who is our propitiation, offered these expiatory sacrifices for believers, so that they are pardoned, justified and saved not by their own merit, no matter what their sacrifice, but are redeemed by his purchase in the offering of his priceless blood, and save by his merit as acknowledged by the Father. If the Jewish program of sacrifices had stopped here, there would have been no Biblical symbolism showing that Christians are called upon to do anything in a sacrificial way. But there were two other sacrifices offered after propitiation and expiation. These were the burnt-offering, offered as an act of worship daily and also on occasions of joy and thanksgiving (2 Chronicles 29:31-32), and the peace-offerings, which spoke of restored fellowship and communion with God. Now, the faith-life was exempted from the expiatory or sin and trespass offerings by the cross of Christ, but it was not relieved of the burnt and peace offerings, the former of which required that the entire carcass of the victim be consumed in the flame (Exodus 29:38-42; Numbers 28:3-8) as a symbol of the entire consecration of the offerer or devotee to the service of God, for the life of the offering stood for his own life. Here, then, is the true basis or foundation principle on which the faith-life rests. Here is the supreme fundamental law which must govern its every action. Though the purposes and motives of its sacrifice may be changed so that expiation gives place to thanksgiving and communion, yet it is still essentially and intrinsically a consecrated, sacrificial life, and is as far removed from antinomianism as it was when under the Mosaic law. The force of this marvelous instruction is not weakened, but rather strengthened, by being couched in hortatory form. Let us note, in passing, the continuousness of sacrifice implied by the term "living." The animal sacrifice was over and ended when its body was consumed. If perfect and accepted as without blemish, then (Deuteronomy 15:21; Deuteronomy 17:1; Leviticus 1:3; Leviticus 1:10; Leviticus 3:1; Leviticus 22:20; Malachi 1:8), it had passed all danger or possibility of future rejection at God’s hands. But not so the Christian’s sacrifice. In presenting himself he is to "reckon himself dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11-13). For the Christian’s dying leads at once to his being alive (Romans 6:2; Romans 7:4; Galatians 2:19-20; Colossians 2:20; Colossians 3:5-10; 1 Peter 2:5), and therefore, as Bengel says, "it is an abomination to offer a dead carcass." The Christian, therefore, as a living, never-to-be-recalled sacrifice, is required to keep up and perpetuate his holiness and acceptability, as "an odor of a sweet smell" (Ephesians 5:2; Philippians 4:18; Leviticus 1:9), lest he become a castaway. For this reason Paul lays emphasis on the "body," as the corpus or substance of the sacrifice, for our fleshly nature is spoken of in Scripture as the seat of sin, which is to be transformed into a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Moreover, this direct reference to the body corrects the heresy that the faith-life is purely mental or spiritual, and devoid of bodily sacrifice or works (Galatians 5:13; James 2:14-26). "How," asks Chrysostom, "can the body become a sacrifice? Let the eye look on no evil, and it is a sacrifice. Let the tongue utter nothing base, and it is an offering. Let the hand work no sin, and it is a holocaust. But more, this suffices not, but, besides, we must actively exert ourselves for good; the hand giving alms, the mouth blessing them that curse us, the ear ever at leisure for listening to God." Moreover, the sacrifice of the body includes that of mind, soul and spirit, for "bodily sacrifice is an ethical act" (Meyer). The comment of Barnes on this verse is very practical. "Men," says he, "are not to invent services; or to make crosses; or seek persecutions and trials; or provoke opposition." Romish and Mohammedan pilgrimages, Catholic and Oriental penances, thorn-beds, juggernauts, flagellations, and man-made ordinances of sacrifice, are worthless (Colossians 2:20-23). Moreover, the designs of many to wait till sickness or old age overtakes them before presenting their sacrifice are misplaced, for such conduct is analogous to presenting the maimed and halt and blind to God. Finally, it is taught elsewhere, and so it is indeed true that the Christian’s sacrifice is a "spiritual [pneumatike] service" (Philippians 3:3; 1 Peter 2:5; cf. John 4:24), but the apostle has here conveyed that idea in the word "living," and he does not repeat the thought. Hence he does not say pneumatikenservice, but logikenservice, or, literally, logical or rational service. Logikenlinks itself with "therefore" at the opening of the sentence. Therefore your logical service (the one rationally expected of you by reason of the truths revealed in this Epistle, especially chapter 6) is to present your bodies, etc. In short, the very purpose for which the apostle wrote this Epistle was to convince his readers that they must render this service, and this exhortation enforces that conclusion.]
2 And be not fashioned according to this world [or, literally, "age"]: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. [Here the apostle shows in general terms by what manner of life the demanded sacrifice is rendered or accomplished. To each soul there was presented then, as now, two models for character-building, the standards of the world-life and the Christ-life, the first represented by the imperative suschematizesthai, which means to imitate the pose or attitude of any one, to conform to the outward appearance or fashion of any one. The demands of the world require no more than an outward, superficial conformity to its ways and customs. As these ways and customs are the natural actions and methods of the unregenerate life, the sacrifice-resenting, fleshly nature of the Christian has no difficulty in conforming to them, if given rein and permission. Attainment to the Christ-life is, however, represented by the imperative metamorphousthai, which demands that complete and fundamental inner change which fulfills and accomplishes regeneration, and which, in turn, is accomplished by the renewing of the mind. The natural mind, weakened, trammeled, confused and darkened by sin and Satan, can neither fully discern nor adequately appreciate the Christ model, so as to metamorphose the life to its standards. But in the regenerated man the mind once fleshly (Colossians 2:18; Romans 7:23), but now renewed by Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:21-24) and the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), and strengthened to apprehend by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16-19), is able to so discern and love the Christ model as to be gradually metamorphosed into his image (Philippians 3:8-16). With this recovered capacity to discern and appreciate the life which God wills us to live, as exemplified in the incarnation of his Son, we are exhorted by the apostle to set about exploring, investigating, proving or testing the excellence of the will of God in selecting such a pattern for us, that we may have experimental knowledge that his will was devised in goodness toward us, that its choice for us is really well pleasing and acceptable to us; as our minds have become enlightened to truly understand it, and that considered in all ways its purposes and ends for us are the perfection of grace and. benevolence, leaving nothing more to be asked or even dreamed of by us. Thus the renewed mind tests by experience the will of God, and knows it to be indeed the will of the Holy One of Israel (John 7:17), to "be admired, followed and reduced to life. It remains to be shown how the word "age" comes to be translated "world." The Jews divided time into two divisions; viz., before the Messiah, and after the advent of the Messiah. The former they called "this age"; the latter, "the age to come." Thus the term "this age" became associated with those evils, vanities and Satanic workings which the Christian now. calls "this world." Both terms are used by Jesus (Matthew 12:32. Comp. Hebrews 6:5), and the expression "this age" is commonly used after the advent of Jesus to describe the moral and spiritual conditions which then and still oppose Christ and the age which he is developing (Matthew 13:22; Luke 16:8; Luke 20:34; 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 2:6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus 2:12).
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. The Faith-Life Operating in
Church Affairs in Humility
Romans 12:3-8
[Having defined the faith-life as sacrificial and sanctified, the apostle next points out the principal virtues which it must manifest in the several spheres of its activities. The first sphere is the church, and the first virtue enjoined therein is humility.] 3 For I say ["For" is epexigetical; i. e., it introduces matter which further explains or elucidates the nature of the required living sacrifice; viz., that the Christian must humble himself. "I say" is mildly imperative], through [by right or authority of] the grace [the apostleship in Christ—Romans 1:5; Romans 15:15-16; Ephesians 3:7-8] that was given me, to every man that is among you [As apostle to the Gentiles, Paul divided his duties into evangelistic and didactic. In discharge of the former he founded churches, and in fulfillment of the latter we find him here instructing a church which he did not found. He addresses his instruction to each member without exception, and though his words in this section are more particularly meant for the more gifted, they also have the man with one talent in mind, and make allowance for no drones in the hive. "Among you" means "in your community"— Meyer], not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly [It is evident that Paul anticipated a spirit of presumption among the Christians at Rome, by reason of their spiritual gifts, like that which he rebuked at Corinth (1 Corinthians 12, 14). It is well known that for the guidance, edification, etc., of the church, and for the converting of the world, spiritual gifts abounded among Christians in that age, and many of these were markedly supernatural or miraculous. These latter were well calculated to excite a false pride in the vainglorious pagans, so recently converted to Christ. As such pride is contrary to the spirit of Christ, and prompts the one yielding to it to save his life for the ends of ambition, rather than to offer it as a living sacrifice on the altar of service, Paul first sets himself to correct it, by commanding each to give to himself that sober, fair self-inspection which will correct overestimates of self and underestimates of one’s neighbor], according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. [Here was another check to pride. Sober thought would remind the proud and puffed up that the miraculous gifts were not of their own acquiring, but were gifts of God, and were therefore matters for gratitude rather than for vainglory (comp. 1 Corinthians 4:6-7; 1 Corinthians 12:11); stewardships to be carefully and conscientiously administered for the benefit of the church and not for selfish display and aggrandizement. "Measure of faith" is an expositor’s puzzle. As saving faith is belief in testimony, it is the product of a man’s own action, and God does not deal it out, or give it to any one. If he did, how could he consistently condemn men for the lack of it (Mark 16:16), or how could he exhort men to believe (John 20:27)? But even those whose theological errors permit them to look upon faith as a gift, are still in a quandary, for Paul is evidently talking about measure of gifts, and not measure of saving faith, and the passage parallels 1 Corinthians 12:11; Ephesians 4:7. Barnes says that faith here means religion. Hodge, hitting nearer truth, says that faith is used metonymically for its effects; viz., the various graces or gifts mentioned: "that which is confided to any, and equivalent to gift." Brown declares that it is "the receptive faculty of the renewed soul, the capacity to take gifts." Godet assigns it "the capacity assigned to each man in the domain of faith." These, and many similar passages which might be quoted, show that expositors are forced to recognize that faith here is employed in a very unusual sense, which is near akin to miraculous gifts. Now, as sound exegesis compels us to distinguish between the natural, perpetual gift of the Holy Spirit, bestowed upon every penitent believer at his baptism, and that miraculous gift which descended on the apostles at Pentecost and on the house of Cornelius, which passed away in the apostolic age; so we would here distinguish between natural, saving faith which is the possession of each Christian to this present hour, and miraculous faith, or faith which had power to work miracles, which was unquestionably dealt out as here described, so that different miraculous powers were displayed by different Christians. It was of this faith that Jesus spoke at Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:6, for had he meant the saving faith now possessed by us, it is evident that none of us possess a mustard-seed measure of it. This special, divinely bestowed (comp. Luke 17:5), miraculous faith also vanished with the apostolic age.]
4 For [also epexigetical. See verse 3] even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. [As God gives to each member of the human body its several function for the good of the whole body, so he distributed the miraculous gifts of the Spirit to the different members of the Roman church for the good of the whole church. The gifts were intended to be held in common, so that each member should contribute to the needs of all the others, and in return receive from all the others in mutual helpfulness and interdependence. Difference in office or function, therefore, was not a matter for pride or boasting, for the gift was held in trust for service, and was a gift to the whole body, through the individual member. There is no room for comparison or pride between the related members of one living organism. This comparison of the relationship of Christians to the mutual dependence of the members of the human body is a favorite one with Paul, and. he elaborates it at 1 Corinthians 12:4-31 and Ephesians 4:1-16. See also Ephesians 4:25; Ephesians 5:30.]
6 And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith [It would be as unreasonable and unwise to give all Christians the same gift as it would be to give all the members of the body the same function. Since, then, the gifts had to differ, and since God dealt them out, each member was to exercise humbly and contentedly that gift which God had portioned out to him, whether, compared with others, proportionately large or small, important or unimportant, for should the ear stubbornly refuse to hear, and set up a determined effort to smell or to see, it would produce anarchy in the body. Let each Christian, therefore, retain the place and station and discharge the work which God has designated as his by the proportion of faith, a miracle-working power, assigned to him. The power of Christ, operating through the Holy Spirit, awoke in Christians talents and endowments unexampled in the world’s history. The greatest of these were bestowed upon the apostles. The next in order of importance were the gifts bestowed upon the prophet (1 Corinthians 12:28; 1 Corinthians 14:29-32; 1 Corinthians 14:39). His gift was that inspiration of the Holy Spirit which enabled him to proclaim the divine truth, and make known the will and purpose of God, etc., whether as to past, present or future events. His work was supplementary to that of the apostles, and was greatly needed in the days when the New Testament was but partly written, and when even what was written was not yet diffused among the churches. Eventually the prophet ceased (1 Corinthians 13:8-9) and the Scripture took his place. In his day he was as the mouth of God (Exodus 7:1; Exodus 4:16; Jeremiah 15:19; Deuteronomy 18:18); he delivered a divine message at first-hand (Ezekiel 2:7-10; Ezekiel 3:4-11; Luke 7:26-29) and was inspired of God—1 Peter 1:10-12; Acts 2:2-4; 2 Peter 1:19-21];
7 or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching [Most of the spiritual gifts of Paul’s day were either wholly supernatural or shaded into the miraculous, and, as miracles have ceased, it becomes hard for us today to accurately define gifts which have passed away. "Ministry" (diakonia) is derived from the Greek word for deacon, and probably described such services as deacons (Philippians 1:1; Romans 16:1) then rendered. The order, "apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments" (1 Corinthians 12:28), compared with the order here—viz., prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving—suggests that miracles of healing may have been part of the ministry (comp. 1 Peter 4:11), as well as caring for the poor, serving tables, etc. (Acts 6:1-6; 1 Timothy 3:8-13). Teaching was probably much the same as that of today, only the teacher had to remember the verbal instruction of the apostles and prophets (2 Thessalonians 2:15; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 3:10; 2 Timothy 3:14) until the same was reduced to writing as we now have it in the Scriptures];
8 or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality [Exhortation is addressed to the feeling as teaching is to the understanding. It is used to stir or excite people, whether of the church or not, to do their duty. As endowed or spiritually gifted Christians of that day spoke with tongues (1 Corinthians 12, 14), both the teacher and the exhorter would be properly classed as among the workers of miracles. After mentioning the exhorter, Paul drops the word "or" (eite), and thus seems to make a distinction between the workers of miracles whom he has been admonishing, and the class of workers who follow, who evidently had no miraculous power whatever. "Liberality" (haplotes) signifies "the disposition not to turn back on oneself; and it is obvious that from this first meaning there may follow either that of generosity, when a man gives without letting himself be arrested by any selfish calculation; or that of simplicity, when he gives without his left hand knowing what his right hand does—that is to say, without any vain going back on himself, and without any air of haughtiness" (Godet). The word may be correctly translated objectively "liberality" (2 Corinthians 8:2; 2 Corinthians 9:11; 2 Corinthians 9:13; James 1:5); but, used subjectively and more naturally, it signifies singleness of purpose, simplicity, sincerity (Matthew 6:22; Luke 11:34; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22). The latter meaning is clearly indicated here by the context, for Paul is rebuking ostentation (comp. Matthew 6:1-4) and enforcing humility, sober self-thought, subjective investigation, simplicity. The giving was to be with honesty of aim, without ulterior or personal or selfish motive]; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. [Whether they ruled as elders and deacons in the church, or as parents at home (1 Timothy 3:3-5; 1 Timothy 3:12), they were to do so with a spirit of zealous attention to the work entrusted to them, not with a vainglorious desire to lord it, or to exalt or enrich themselves (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13; 1 Timothy 3:4-5; 1 Timothy 3:12; 1 Timothy 5:17; 1 Peter 5:1-4). Showing mercy is probably best defined at Matthew 25:35-36. Paul here directs that these acts be performed with cheerfulness. The context shows that he means inward joy, not outward simulation of it; for the whole passage is subjective, not objective. (Comp. 2 Corinthians 9:7.) Cheer, like love, must be without hypocrisy, for the one showing mercy has the better end of the blessing (Acts 20:35). The purpose of the entire passage is to enforce the spirit of contented humility upon Christians in all their actions, lest those having superior gifts be thereby betrayed into pride and self-exaltation, and those having inferior gifts be seduced by envy to fall into bitterness of spirit or idleness. "In the school of Christ," says Leighton, "the first lesson of all is, self-denial and humility; yea, it is written above the door, as the rule of entry or admission, ’Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.’"
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
III. The Faith-Life Operating in Church and
Social Affairs in Love and Other Heavenly Virtues
Romans 12:9-21
[In the last section we were told that spiritual and remarkable gifts are to be exercised in humility. This section deals with the ordinary and natural gifts, and is therefore addressed to the whole church. It shows that these ordinary, natural gifts or faculties are to. be employed in harmony with the other Christian graces and virtues, the principal or basic one of which is love. Therefore we may roughly subdivide the section as follows: 1. The faith-life showing love to the friendly or Christian (9-16). 2. The faith-life showing love to the unfriendly or unchristian—17-21.] 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. [The apostle opens this section with a call for pure, genuine love, for it is the common or fundamental element of all the virtues of which he is about to write. This love must be unfeigned (2 Corinthians 6:6; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:18). The heart must really feel that measure of affection to which the conduct bears testimony. The Christian must not bear himself "like Judas to Christ, or Joab to Abner: a kiss and a stab"—Johnson.] Abhor [literally, "abhorring"] that which is evil; cleave [literally, "cleaving"] to that which is good. [The participles relate grammatically to "love" as their subject, and explain the two main ways in which an unfeigned love is required to operate. Love is not up to the required standard unless it abhors evil and cleaves to (literally, glues itself to) that which is good. "What a lofty tone of moral principle and feeling is here inculcated! It is not, Abstain from the one and do the other; nor, Turn away from the one and draw to the other; but, Abhor the one and cling with deepest sympathy to the other" (Brown). Objectively it must hate evil even in the character of a loved one, and not fall into Eli’s sin (1 Samuel 3:13); and it must cling to the good, even in an enemy, and rejoice to increase it. Otherwise love is mere selfishness. "There are," says Lard, "many Christians, and among them many preachers, who oppose evil, it is true, but they do it so faintly as virtually to countenance it. They will not publicly endorse evil; but they will rather go quietly home, or get out of its way, and leave it to riot unrebuked. They do not abhor it.... These men are not obeying Paul." Subjectively the Christian’s love will make him abhor in himself all retaliatory and revengeful promptings, all injurious and malicious mental suggestions against his enemy, and will hug to his heart every kind and generous and benevolent impulse, whether entertained toward an enemy or a friend. This general love toward all is next specialized, and love toward members in the church is thus described.]
10 In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another ["tenderly affectioned" is a word compounded of philos, loving, and stergos, which is from stergeoo, to feel natural affection, as an animal for its offspring, a parent for its child, a near relative for his close kin. Its use here indicates that the church tie should rival that of the family. Christians should love each other "as natural brethren, and more. More close are the ties of the heart than of the body. We are brethren in Adam according to the flesh, in and by Christ according to the Spirit" (Trapp). "Preferring" means going before; hence guiding, setting an example. In matters of giving reverence, respect, and causing people to be held high in public estimation, Christians are to strive to outdo each other. The idea is that each should be more eager to confer honors than to obtain them. "Nothing," says Chrysostom, "tends so much to make friends as endeavoring to overcome one’s neighbor in doing him honor." "The Talmudists," according to Bengel, "say, Whoever knows that his neighbor has been accustomed to salute him, should anticipate his salutation"];
11 in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord [These three commands refer more especially to the outward life of the Christian. In all matters of employment, whether religious or secular, be active and energetic (Ecclesiastes 9:10), let your activities be vital with enthusiasm ("fervent" means seething, boiling; hence stirring), for life-service is Christ-service; the manifestation of love toward him (Colossians 3:22-24). "Ever considering," says Clark, "that his eye is upon you, and that you are accountable to him for all that you do, and that you should do everything so as to please him. In order to do this there must be simplicity in the intention, and purity in the affection." "To be cold and careless in God’s service disparages his excellency," says Burkitt];
12 rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing stedfastly in prayer [In this triplet the apostle directs the manner in which the Christian life is to inwardly manifest its love toward God. The hopes of his begetting which make bright the future are to fill it with joy; the chastisem*nts of his sending which make heavy the present are to be endured with loyal, unmurmuring patience, as from him (Hebrews 12:3-11), and both hope and patience are to be augmented and sustained by prayer which grants us the consolation of his presence. Persecutions added greatly to the afflictions of the church in Paul’s day, and it was often beyond expectation that the Christian should rejoice in his present circ*mstances, but he could always be cheered by hope. "By patience," says Burkitt, "we possess ourselves; by hope we possess God; by prayer we are enabled to possess both"];
13 communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality. ["Communicating" (koinoonountes) means, literally, to be or act as a partner. Sometimes it means to receive (15:27; 1 Peter 4:13; 1 Timothy 5:22). Here, as in Galatians 6:6, it means to bestow. The wants and needs of God’s people are to be ours to the extent of our ability. This precept is obeyed by very few. "The scanty manner," says Lard, "in which the rich disciples of the present day share the wants of the poor, is a sham. From their thousands they dole out dimes; and from storehouses full, mete out handfuls.... Such precepts as the present will, in the day of eternity, prove the fatal reef on which many a saintly bark has stranded." "Hospitality" (philoxenia) means, literally, "love for strangers." It is often found in Biblical precept and example (Genesis 19:1-2; Job 31:16-17; Matthew 10:40-42; Matthew 25:43, Luke 10:7; Luke 11:5; 1 Timothy 5:10; Titus 1:8; 1 Peter 4:9 : Hebrews 13:2). In apostolic days the lack of hotels made hospitality imperative, and the journeys, missions and exiles of Christians gave the churches constant opportunities to exercise this grace. "Given" (diookontes) means to pursue. It is translated "follow after" (9:30, 31; 14:19). The idea is that Christ’s disciple is not to passively wait till hospitality is unavoidable, but he is to be aggressively hospitable, seeking opportunity to entertain strangers. Hospitality is not to be limited to Christians, and Biblical hospitality is not to be confused with that so-called hospitality which bestows lavish entertainment upon congenial spirits from a general love of conviviality and good fellowship, and a desire for reputation as a generous host. Biblical hospitality is born of a desire to help the poor, especially the godly poor—Luke 1:53; Luke 14:12-14.]
14 Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. ["Thus," says Johnson, "did Christ on the cross, and the martyred Stephen." The apostle here drops into the imperative because quoting from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:44 : Luke 6:28). We would expect to find this command classified among duties to persons entirely outside the church, but the apostle’s life reminds us that cursings were apt to come from those inside as well as from those without (2 Corinthians 11:26). "This doubling of the exhortation (bless) shows both the difficulty of the duty, how contrary it is to corrupt nature, and also the constancy of the duty; we must ever bless, and never curse" (Burkitt). Love must win this battle for our untrue brother’s sake.] 15 Rejoice with them that rejoice [1 Corinthians 12:26]; weep with them that weep. ["One might think," says Chrysostom, "it was no difficult task to rejoice with others. But it is harder than to weep with them. For that is done even by the natural man when he beholds a friend in distress. There is need of grace, however, to enable us, not merely to abstain from envying, but even with all our hearts to rejoice at the good fortune of a friend." Love is to bind us to God’s people in full sympathy, both in their prosperity and adversity.]
16 Be of the same mind one toward another. [A general repetition of the special command just given. Enter into the mind or feeling of your brother, whether in joy or sorrow. In the mental and sentimental sphere keep the Golden Rule with him.] Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly. [Luke 12:15. This injunction also has loving concord for its object. Class distinctions, high positions, situations, social eminence, etc., are to be avoided as tending to sever your sympathies, interests and desires from your humble brethren. "The greatest enemy to concord is pride" (Tholuck). Christ was meek, and we should be like the Master. Avoid such things as lead one "to flatter the great, to court the rich, and be servile to the mighty" (Plumer). It is a question whether we should here read "lowly things," or "lowly people." Either reading is correct, and commentators are about equally divided on the point. Meyer, who favors the neuter, reads: "Yielding to that which is humble, to the claims and tasks which are presented to you by the humbler relations of life." He illustrates by Paul’s following the trade of tentmaker. Against this, Gifford says: "The adjective tapeinos(lowly) is used in the New Testament frequently of persons, never of things. It is better, therefore, to follow the same usage here, and understand it of lowly persons as in the Authorized Version." But Paul doubtless used the adjective in its fullest sense, combining both persons and things, making it, as it were, a double command; for he wished his readers to do all things needful to keep them in brotherly accord. If we keep in touch with the lowly, we must yield ourselves to be interested in their lowly affairs; and if we keep our hearts warm toward humble things, we will find ourselves in sympathy with humble people. So even if the command be made single, it will either way affect the double result of a double command, and without the double result either command would be insufficient. "Honor all your fellow-Christians, and that alike," says Chalmers, "on the ground of their common and exalted prospects. When on this high level, do not plume yourselves on the insignificant distinctions of your superior wealth or superior earthly consideration of whatever sort." Moreover, let your condescension be invisible; let it be so hid in love that no one, not even yourself, is conscious of its presence, for condescension without love is as spittle without healing—John 9:6.] Be not wise in your own conceits. [Proverbs 7:3. Setting our hearts on high things as our proper sphere, and despising lowly things as unworthy of our lofty notice, begets in us a false idea of our own importance and wisdom, and a conceited spirit full of pride and vanity. This is the besetting sin of those having large mental endowment—those whom the world counts wise. The culmination of this self-conceit is that spirit which even cavils at God’s precepts, and lightly criticizes and rejects his revelation. The proper spirit before God is childlike, teachable (Matthew 18:1-4; Mark 10:15), and it is better to be wise in the sight of the all-wise God than to be a Solomon in your own foolish estimation. As conceit grows, love ebbs, and all loveless life is profitless (1 Corinthians 13:1-2). We now approach a sphere of duties relating to forbearance in persecution, and life-relations outside the church.]
17 Render to no man evil for evil. [Quoted from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-48). The precept bids us reject the lex talionis, and live contrary to it: it commands us to eschew both the spirit and practice of vindictiveness. "The heathen," says Burkitt, "reckoned revenge as a part of justice," but the Christian must look on justice as subservient to love.] Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men. [Proverbs 3:4, LXX. Give no cause for suspicion or offense, but disarm all enmity by open, fair-minded dealing. Let your light shine (Matthew 5:16). Let men note what company you keep (Acts 4:13). "Not letting habits, talk, expenses," says Moule, "drift into inconsistency; watching with open and considerate eyes against what others may fairly think to be unchristian in you. Here is no counsel of cowardice, no recommendation of slavery to a public opinion which may be altogether wrong. It is a precept of loyal jealousy for the heavenly Master’s honor. His servant is to be nobly indifferent to the world’s thought and word when he is sure that God and the world antagonize. But he is to be sensitively attentive to the world’s observation where the world, more or less acquainted with the Christian precept or principle, and more or less conscious of its truth and right, is watching maliciously, or it may be wistfully, to see if it governs the Christian’s practice. In view of this, the man will never be content even with the satisfaction of his own conscience; he will set himself, not only to do right, but to be seen to do it. He will not only be true to a monetary trust, for example; he will take care that the proofs of his fidelity shall be open. He will not only mean well toward others; he will take care that his manner and bearing, his dealings and intercourse shall unmistakably breathe the Christian air. "]
18 If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. [It takes two to live at peace. So far as the Christian is concerned, the rule of peace is absolute. He must stir up no needless opposition, he must avoid every act likely to give offense, he must harbor no resentment. But, so far as the other party is concerned, the rule is conditional, for no one knew better than Paul, out of life’s bitter experiences, that the most sacrificial efforts to keep the peace may be frustrated by the acts of enemies whom no consideration can pacify, no concession quiet. For an event after this writing see Acts 21:26-27. Our own conduct is in our power; our neighbor’s, not. Here, too, love must do its best.] 19 Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord. [The quotation is from Deuteronomy 32:35. We may look upon verse 17 as designed to check hasty, personal retaliation, or as relating to injuries of a more personal nature. The avenging of this verse savors more of a judicial punishment—a punishment which one’s calm judgment, unbefogged by passion and unbiased by the sense of wrong, might haply mete out as absolutely just and unqualifiedly deserved. But even under such circ*mstances the Christian is to leave the culprit in God’s hands, for the Lord claims exclusive jurisdiction in the case, and promises to give the just recompense. We bar God’s judgments by attempting to anticipate them, and we also call down his tremendous sentence upon ourselves for the small satisfaction of executing our puny sentence upon one whom he would in time deal with if we were only patient. The wrath to which we must give place is evidently neither our own nor our enemy’s, but God’s (as appears by the context. Comp. Proverbs 20:22; Proverbs 24:29). Waiting persuades us to forgiveness, for when we reflect on the severity and lasting nature of God’s punishment, we partake of his desire to show grace and grant pardon. But how just are the awards of his throne! His mind is clouded by no passion, biased by no prejudice, deceived by no false appearances, misled by no lying testimony, warped by no illwill. And when his judgment is formed, grace guides its course, mercy mollifies its execution, and, as far as righteousness permits, the love of a Father who pities his feeble, earth-born children transforms it into a blessing. Nevertheless, it is a judgment of God, and not of man, and the majesty of God is upheld in it. God-revealed religion bids us thus wait upon this judgment of God, but man-made religion speaks otherwise. "Mahomet’s laws," says Trapp, "run thus: Avenge yourselves of your enemies; rather do wrong than take wrong; kill the infidels, etc." In giving this command Paul uses the term "beloved." "By this title," says Bengel, "he soothes the angry." "The more difficult the duty, the more affectionately does the apostle address his readers with this word"—Tholuck.]
20 But [instead of avenging] if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. [Quoted from Proverbs 25:21-22 LXX., where the words, "And Jehovah will reward thee," are added. Simply to forbear from avenging is only half a victory. The full conquest is to return good for evil (Luke 6:27-30). In feeding enemies we are like God, who daily feeds sinners, and the conduct of God is our law (Matthew 5:44-48). Heaping coals of fire is a figure derived from the crucible, where they were heaped upon the hard metal till it softened and melted. Kindness is not utterly lost on beasts, but with man it ought always to prevail, for it heaps coals upon the head, or seat of intelligence, filling the mind with the vehement pangs and pains of conscience, the torments of shame, remorse and self-reproach. The most effectual way of subduing an enemy is by the unbearable punishment of unfailing kindness—it is God’s way. "The logic of kindness," says Johnson, "is more powerful than the logic of argument." The same thought is now repeated by the apostle without a figure.] 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. [Evil is the weak weapon of the sinner; goodness, the puissant, all-conquering blade of the saint. What shame, then, if the saint lose in the unequal conflict! "Thus David overcame. Saul" (Trapp). "In revenge," says Basil, "he is the loser who is the victor." When evil leads us to do evil, then are we overcome of evil. When we meet evil with good, we have at least overcome the evil in ourselves, if not in our enemy.
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
IV. The Faith-Life Discharging Civil Duties, and
Recognizing the Divine Ordination of Governments
Romans 13:1-7
[Paul, having shown how the faith-life offers itself as a daily sacrifice of love in spiritual and social spheres, now gives an outline of the sacrifice of self which it is to make in civil and business affairs. This he does in two sections, the first of which sets forth the Christian’s relationship to government (Romans 13:1-7), and the second his civil relations to men, business, etc., under government (Romans 13:8-10.) As in spiritual matters he was to first limit himself by humility (12:1-8) and then give himself in love (Romans 12:9-21), so he is here to limit himself by submission to the state (Romans 13:1-7), and then give himself in love to his fellow-citizens (Romans 13:8-10). But conditions at Rome made this instruction as to the Christian’s duty to be loyal and submissive to government particularly opportune, for (1) the Jew believed that, as a citizen of the Theocracy, it was at least derogatory to his character, if not an act of treason toward God, to acknowledge allegiance to any earthly government (Deuteronomy 17:15). This belief had already fomented that unrest in Palestine (Acts 5:36-37; Josep. Antt. 8:1:1) which ten years later broke out in rebellion, and necessitated the destruction of Jerusalem. This unrest had already resulted in banishment of Jews and Christians from Rome about seven years before, in A. D. 51 (Acts 18:2; Suet. "Claudius" c. 25; Dio Cassius 60:6). This unrest was sure to permeate the church (Ewald), for a considerable percentage of the churches, the world over, were Jews, and this influence in the church was great. There is nothing in Acts 28 to contradict the idea that there were Jews enough in the Roman church to have influence in it (contra, see Weiss and Alford). (2) The world generally looked upon the Christians as a mere Jewish sect, and the suspicions of disloyalty which attached to the Jews would readily attach to the Christians (Calvin). History confirms this. Nero had no difficulty in turning suspicion against them. How circ*mspectly, then, should they have walked. (3) Moreover, many Christians entertained notions similar to the Jews. They belonged to the new Theocracy, and held that loyalty to Christ absolved them from all allegiance to earthly government. Rome, as the center of the world-power, at once inspired and hindered the false dreams of well-intentioned but deceived disciples. History proves that the world-power of the Roman capital seduced Christians into attempting to form of Christ’s kingdom a temporal world-power like that of the Cæsars—viz., the Roman Catholic hierarchy—and Paul tells us that this evil influence was already at work, though hindered, in his day (2 Thessalonians 2:6-12). (4) On general principles, the atrocities so soon to be perpetrated by Nero were apt to put revolutionary and even anarchistic ideas in the heads of the most staid and sober. Nero’s persecutions began about a year after this Epistle was written (Tholuck). These conditions made Paul’s words timely indeed, but they are not, however, to be regarded as savoring of the temporary. His words are abiding and eternal truth, and contain fundamental and organic instruction for all ages.]
1 Let every soul [all humanity, whether in the church or not] be in subjection to the higher powers [Be subject to all civil powers—power higher than that of the common citizen, whether monarchic, oligarchial or republican. This injunction includes both persons and offices, and asserts that there is no inherent and essential conflict between the claims of God and those of the state. One can render, and must render, what is due to each—Matthew 22:21]: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. [Having asserted and commanded duty toward the state, the apostle next states the ground or reason of that duty, the justification of his command, in two heads: (1) Abstractly considered, governments are of divine origin; (2) concretely considered, God has ordained the present system of government, and has chosen the officers now in power; not directly, according to the exploded notion of the divine right of kings, but indirectly by the workings of governmental principles which God sanctions, by the operations of general providences of his ordering. Thus the government in force and the ruler in power in any country at any given time are, de facto, God-appointed. The apostle’s first statement, that governments, viewed in general and abstractly, are ordained of God, is readily accepted as true; but this latter concrete statement, that each particular government and governor is also of divine appointment, is harder to receive. The reason is that God’s providences working evil to the evil, as well as good to the good, often place evil men in power as a cure to the evil in man which helped to place them there.]
2 Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God [This is the enunciation of the general principle without any accompanying exceptions. Pressed to its limits, this precept would pre vent any revolution from succeeding, for the leader of the revolution could never be permitted of God to rule, as his rulership would then be countenanced by God as of his ordaining, and thus, in countenancing and ordaining both opposing governments, God would be divided against himself. The principle and its exceptions would best be understood by comparing the life of a government with that of a man. Each life is an emanation from God, and therefore each is protected by the general, fundamental law, "Thou shalt not kill." But this law in each case presumes that each life, whether governmental or individual, will so comply with the precepts and purposes of God, and so fulfill the ends for which it was created, as to deserve to live. If it does things worthy of death, it shall be put to death (Genesis 9:6). Paul, therefore, in laying down the rule, has in mind the age-long principle which, in our common law, finds expression in the maxim, "The king [government] can do no wrong." Only the most obvious, evident breach of this maxim can justify revolution. Each life must, as it were, be rigidly protected from lynch law, and must be given the calm deliberation of a judicial trial. When this is not the case, the one who assails the individual life becomes a murderer, and the one who attempts the life of the state "resists the ordinance of God." Every revolt, for a time, shakes public confidence in a divine institution, so there must be no resistance until the demand for it becomes practically unavoidable; otherwise we incur the resentment of God, for our conduct has tended toward anarchy and confusion. We should therefore exhaust legitimate expedients, such as protests, political reactions, etc., before we resort to revolutionary extremes]: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment. [Commentators, unable to define the preceding precept, and regarding it as ostensibly a prohibition of all revolution, or practically to that effect, have consoled themselves by limiting "judgment" to the punishments which the state inflicts, thus arriving at the conclusion that rebels have a right to rebel if they are willing to suffer the temporal punishment attendant on failure. But the context forbids this mollifying modification. If we resist the ordinance of God, we shall undoubtedly taste the judgment of God, and rightly, too, for what terrific misery, poverty, suffering and loss of life attend on revolution! Shall not God award justice to those who lightly and for personal ambitions fill the world with such horrors?]
3 For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. ["For" explains why the punishment comes upon the rebel. It is because government exists to promote the good and suppress the evil (1 Timothy 2:1-2; 1 Peter 2:13-17). If it does otherwise,. "it," as Burkitt sagely remarks, "was not ordained for that end." A good man may suffer through misunderstanding, the machination of evil men, or even maladministration, but he can never suffer as a good man. Even Nero punished Christians as evil-doers (2 Timothy 2:9). History presents no instance where any government set itself to put down righteousness and exalt evil as such; though there are myriads of cases where human ignorance, prejudice and bigotry mistook the wrong for the right, and made havoc of the good, supposing it to be evil. Paul himself, as an executive of the Jewish Government, had been party to such an error (Acts 8:3; Acts 9:1-2; 1 Timothy 1:13). Intentional punishment of the good and countenancing of the evil would be governmental insanity and suicide. When it becomes apparent to the populace that the government has fallen into this state of aberrance, revolution is inevitable; but till the information becomes general, the individual must submit, for slight mistakes do not justify momentous changes and vast social upheavals, and peace for the many may well be purchased at the discomfiture of the few. But if armed or physical resistance is forbidden, moral resistance is strictly and unequivocally enjoined. The government must exact nothing contrary to or inconsistent with Christian duty. If it does, we must obey God rather than men (Acts 4:18-20; Acts 5:28-29); for under no circ*mstance can God’s children be justified in doing wrong (Matthew 10:28; Romans 3:8). Allegiance ceases when the law of the land seeks to subvert the law of God; and Paul teaches nothing to the contrary. As the martyr Polycarp said to the governor who bade him denounce Christ, and swear by the fortunes of Cæsar: "We are taught to give honor to princes and potentates, but such honor as is not contrary to God’s religion." "It was the student of Paul," says Moule, "who, alone before the great Diet, uttering no denunciation, temperate and respectful in his whole bearing, was yet found immovable by pope and emperor: I can not otherwise; so help me God.’ "] And wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same [comp. 1 Peter 2:14]: 4 for he is a minister of God to thee for good. [The law-abiding have no fear of the laws, and have just reason to expect the recognition and consideration which are the rightful dues of honesty and probity. "Commendations by magistrates," says Lange, "in opposition to punishments, were common even in ancient times." "When Paul wrote these things," says Grotius, "rage did not riot against the Christians at Rome." Seneca and Burrhus were still in power, and good men were the objects of governmental protection. "How much to be regretted it is," observes Lard, "that rulers do not more generally recognize the fact here stated by the apostle. Instead of this, however, they appear seldom even to dream that they are placed in office merely as God’s servants. Rather, they seem to think that they are placed there solely for their own benefit. The fear of God is often not before their eyes, nor yet the good of the people a tithe as much as their own. Too frequently they serve merely self, with no regard for God, and but little for any one else. Such rulers serve not God, but Satan."] But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil. [As we understand it, the idea which the apostle is seeking to convey is that duties to God and duties to the state are parallel, rather than antagonistic. If the Christian is true to his religion, he need fear neither the state nor God, for God rules, generally speaking, in and through the state, as well as in his providences. If, on the other hand, we do evil, we have reason to fear both God and the state, for the state is merely one of the forms of God’s administration. The Romans made much of the sword as symbol of the power of life and death. Her magistrates and officers, holding the power of capital punishment, caused the sword (and the ax) to be borne before them in their public processions. Thus Paul declares that the office-holder is a servant of God to foster the good by praise and commendation, and to suppress the evil as an avenger appointed to inflict wrath—i. e., punishment—upon it.]
5 Wherefore [because of all that has been said—vs. 1-4] ye must needs be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. [1 Peter 2:13. The Christian has a double incentive for keeping the civil law; for if he resists the government he will not only be punished, but he will sin against God; thus both fear and conscience move him to obedience.] 6 For [epexigetic, introducing a detail or illustrative fact proving the principle] for this cause ye pay tribute also [i. e., among other acts of submission]; for they [the recipients of the taxes] are ministers of God’s service, attending continually upon this very thing. [i. e., acting continually as servants of God in his civil administrations. The apostle cites the conduct of subjects in the payment of taxes, for no matter what theories the Jews or the Judaistic Christians might have as to the rights of government to his allegiance, he never failed to pay his taxes, being moved thereby by the very influences here named by the apostle; viz., fear and conscience. He feared the penal consequences of refusing to pay, and he conscientiously felt that the government deserved some compensation for maintaining peace and order, especially since, as Paul notes, they made this their business, gave their whole time to it, and made no other provision for their livelihood than their salaries as public functionaries, all of which is implied in "attending continuously," etc. Christians in our age have well-nigh universally forgotten that the tax assessor and the tax collector are ministers of God, and many evade mankind true returns with as little compunction as they would were the tax officials the servants of the devil. This sin has, become so universal that it is well-nigh regarded as a virtue.] 7 Render to all [civil officials] their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. [Kypke points out the distinction between tribute and custom. The former means direct taxes; poll, real and personal; custom refers to tolls, imports, indirect taxes on goods and merchandise, known to us in the familiar tariffs on imports and exports. In Paul’s time they appear to have been principally on imported goods, and were levied at the gates of the city at the time of entry (Matthew 9:9). As the Christian paid his taxes, so he was to go on discharging his other duties, fearing those in authority as those whom God placed over him, and honoring all those in governmental position because the officers are part of God’s ordained plan, and those who hold them have been placed there by his general providence. Some hundred years later Paul’s words about taxes were being strictly obeyed, for Tertullian, representing that time, says that what the Romans lost by the Christians refusing to bestow gifts on the idolatrous temples, they gained by their conscientious payment of taxes (Apolog. 42, Vol. I., p. 494).
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
V. The Faith-Life Operating in All Civil and Social Affairs
in Love, and Recognizing the Just Rights of Others
Romans 13:8-10
[Having shown that the Christian must recognize the rights of those above him ("the higher powers"), the apostle now proceeds to enjoin upon him the recognition of the just rights of his fellow-beings who are all about him. If the state has a right to demand dutiful conduct of him, his neighbors, fellow-citizens, and the human race generally, may likewise exact of him the ministrations of love.] 8 Owe no man anything, save to love one another [The indebtedness here meant includes, but is not confined to, pecuniary obligations. The precept does not prohibit the contraction of a. debt, but it constrains us to be prepared to pay it when due. "Owe no tax, no custom, no fear, no honor, and pay all their dues" (Lard). The obligation to give the gospel to those that have it not is one of the Christian’s greatest debts (1:14, 15). Love also is, as Bengel observes, "an eternal debt." "This," says Trapp, "is that desperate debt that a man can not discharge himself of; but must be ever paying, and yet ever owing. As we say of thanks, ’Thanks must be given, and yet held as still due:’ so must this debt of love." Moreover, it is an ever-increasing debt, for it is like the payment of interest; only in this case each payment of interest is such an exercise, and turning over of the principal as tends to its increase, thereby enlarging in a kind of arithmetical progression the payments of interest]: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. ["The perfect pepleroken(hath fulfilled) denotes that in the one act of loving there is virtually contained the fulfillment of all the duties prescribed by the law. For a man does not offend or kill, or calumniate or rob, those whom he loves. Such is the idea developed in the two following verses"—Godet.]
9 For this [Paul here begins the statement of a first premise, and in the eleventh verse, with the words "and this," he begins the statement of a second premise. The first premise is that the Christian (or faith) life, freed from the complications and onerous burden of the multitudinous laws of the Jewish (or law) life, is governed by the principle underlying all these laws most happily reduced to a simple commandment; viz., "Love thy neighbor as thyself" (9, 10). The second premise is that salvation, which is so dimly suggested to the Jewish (or law) life as to be no incentive at all to good deeds, is clearly and distinctly promised to the Christian (or faith) life, and is comprehended by it to be as rapidly and as surely approaching as the dawning day. From these two premises the conclusion is drawn that we should lead the faith-life becomingly, by putting on Christ. If we supply the word "reason" after each "this," the meaning will be clear. Surely the simplicity of the Christian life, and the sureness and exceeding greatness of the salvation which is its reward, are sufficient reasons for our leading it becomingly], Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. [The Ten Commandments are divided into two divisions of four and six. The first four relate to duties to God, and are taken no notice of here, for they do not pertain to justice to our fellowman, and hence are outside the sphere of Paul’s present argument. The second division, or second table of the Ten Commandments, contains six precepts which relate to man’s duty to his fellows: four of them are given here, and two relating to honoring parents and bearing false witness are omitted (Exodus 20:12-17). Though not named, they are included in the phrase "any other commandment." The order, too, is not that given in the Hebrew Bible, but follows one of the versions of the LXX. The order in which the commands are here given is likewise found at Mark 10:19 Luke 18:20; James 2:11 and also in Philo, and Clement of Alexandria. It is surmised that the LXX. changed the order because of some of their traditions. Many commands as to conduct towards neighbors are summed up by Moses in this love commandment in a manner somewhat similar to Paul’s (Leviticus 19:9-18; comp. Matthew 19:19; Matthew 22:39-40; Galatians 5:14; Galatians 5:22-23). The last of the ten forbids covetousness, a passion which presents almost as broad and powerful an impulse for the breaking of all the commandments as love does for keeping them, for the love of money alone is a root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10), though it is but one phase of covetousness. The truth is that covetousness gives wider scope to self-love than any other passion, and self-love is the motive which leads to all breaches of law. Love of neighbor is the opposite motive, counteracting all lawlessness, and tending to the manifestation of the perfect life. But we have no perfect example of this ideal, altruistic love save in the Christ himself. Plesionmeans near, close by: with the article it means "neighbor"; i. e., the near by. We readily acknowledge the one who is permanently and literally near by as our neighbor; but Christ taught us that the one who is temporarily near is also a neighbor (Luke 10:30-37), and so. likewise are those who are constructively near; that is, those with whom modern means of communication have made us acquainted, so that, knowing their needs, we are thereby prompted to sympathize and impelled to help—Acts 16:9-10.]
10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. [All divine law, whether of Moses and the prophets, of Christ or the apostles, is fulfilled by love, for those things that law requires are the natural, normal acts of a loving heart. "Love," says Leibnitz, "is that which finds its felicity in another’s good." Another has defined it thus: "Love is holiness, spelt short." How easily, then, will it keep all precepts, whether toward man or God! "The expression implies more than a simple performance of the precepts of the law; true love does more than this: it adds a completeness to the performance. It reaches those lesser courtesies and sympathies which can not be digested into a code or reduced to rule. To the bare framework of law, which is as the bones and sinews, it adds the flesh which fills it, and the life which actuates it" (Webster and Wilkinson). "Nor is it possible to find for human life, amid all the intricate mazes of conduct, any other principle that should be at once as simple, as powerful and as profound" (Sanday). "How many schemes would it crush. It would silence the voice of the slanderer; it would stay the plans of the seducer and the adulterer; it would put an end to cheating and fraud, and all schemes of dishonest gain. The gambler desires the property of his neighbor without any compensation, and thus works ill to him. The dealer in lotteries desires property for which he has never toiled, and which must be obtained at the expense and loss of others. And there are many employments all whose tendency is to work ill to a neighbor. This is preeminently true of the traffic in ardent spirits" (Barnes). Love is the spirit of gracious addition, while covetousness, theft, etc., are the spirits of subtraction. Love emanates from God, whose name is Love, but selfishness is of the devil, who asserts himself even against God. Love, therefore, is the basis of all godlike action, the motive power for every noble deed.
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
VI. The Faith-Life Finds Its Motives for All These
Duties in the Ever-Impending Coming of the Lord
Romans 13:11-14
[At Romans 12:1-2 Paul began this hortatory division of his Epistle by reminding his readers of the past mercies of God, making of those blessings which lay behind them a strong motive, impelling them by every sense of gratitude to go forward in the Christian life. He here closes his exhortation with an appeal to the future rewards of God, summed up in that endless and glorious day of salvation which lay before them, attracting them by every sense of heavenly aspiration to continue on in the faith-life. Thus the spiritual forces of memory and hope are made use of by the apostle to push and pull his readers heavenward.] 11 And this [see note at verse 9 above], knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep ["The imagery seems to be taken originally from our Lord’s discourse concerning his coming (Matthew 24:42; Mark 13:33; Luke 21:28-38), where several points of similarity to our verses 11-14 occur" (Alford). For other uses of the imagery, see 1 Corinthians 15:34; Ephesians 5:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 : Matthew 25:1-13. Sleep is a figurative expression denoting that moral inattention, indifference and carelessness which permits sin. Out of this torpor the Christian is evermore striving to rouse himself, and into it the worldling is as constantly seeking to resign himself, that conscience, fear, and other awakening influences, may not disturb him. To be fully aroused is to be keenly and thoroughly conscious of all spiritual facts and responsibilities, all truths and possibilities. Some need to make the effort to come back to consciousness; all need to keep up their efforts to prevent the return of drowsiness. The warning here is addressed to Christians. Whiles the crocodile sleepeth with open mouth," says Trapp, "the Indian rat gets into his stomach, and eateth through his entrails. Whiles Ishbosheth slept upon his bed at noon, Baanah and Rechab took away his head. Security ushereth in destruction. Go forth and shake yourselves as Samson did who the Philistines were upon him; lest Satan serve you for your souls, as Captain Drake did the Spaniard at Tamapasa in the West Indies for his treasure; he found him sleeping securely upon the shore, and by him thirteen bars of silver to the value of forty thousand ducats, which he commanded to be carried away, not so much as waking the man. Or lest Christ himself deal by us as Epimonidas did by the watchman whom he found asleep: he thrust him through with his sword; and being blamed for so severe a fact, he replied, ’I left him as I found him’ "]: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. [Paul meant that his readers were nearer that state of final blessedness which we call salvation than they were when they were converted. The thought that each day takes from us forever an opportunity of service, and that it also brings us that much nearer the time of accounting, is a most powerful incentive to action; "one of the most awakening exhortations," says Plumer, "that can be presented. The Judge standeth before the door. Eternity is at hand." (Comp. Hebrews 10:25.) In and of itself "nearer" does not necessarily imply that Paul expected the speedy approach of Christ; but the context, full of suggestion of a day about to dawn, does imply close nearness. In fact, the need of the immediate awakening suggested by "already it is time," lies as much in the rapidity as in the certainty of Christ’s coming: a coming so rapid that the interval had appreciably diminished since Paul’s readers had entered on the new life. Now, the second coming of Christ may be viewed under two aspects; i. e., either as racial or individual. In either case it is speedy, but the comparative speed, or the proportion of speed, is measured far differently, for the centuries of the life of the race are long compared with the brief span of life apportioned to each individual. Viewed racially, the long night of heathenish darkness was drawing to a close. The day began to dawn when Christ was born. An increase of light came when he gathered his first disciples, and now the full light, and consequently the salvation accompanying the second coming of the Christ, was spiritually (rather than temporarily) nearer than when believers first began to gather to the Master. While such a construction is well suited to the large ideas of Christ’s coming, we yet prefer the more personal construction which limits the range of view to the individual. For the members of the church at Rome the day began to dawn at the hour of their conversion, and since then the advancing years had brought them nearer their salvation. There is, moreover, no direct mention of the Lord’s coming; but it is clearly implied. This implication, however, suits the idea of the individual Christian’s entrance into the Lord’s presence by death as readily as does the Lord’s approach to all in the hour of final judgment. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23). We naturally look upon death as a going on our part; but may it not likewise be truly a coming on the part of Christ? (See John 14:3; Luke 12:37.) Surely to the individual Christian salvation speedily grows nearer after conversion, and this night period of sin and sorrow soon gives place to the day of salvation, the state of eternal blessedness and peace and joy unending, and the brevity of the individual life is far more of a stimulus than the brevity of the race life. The commands of our Saviour to watch for his coming are a constant tonic if viewed as addressed to the individual, but they lose in power if viewed from the standpoint of the race. There are many apparently unfulfilled prophecies which delay our expectation that he will come for final judgment in the next year or two at least, but there is nothing, prophetic or otherwise, which justifies any one in feeling assured that he may not come for us individually before nightfall. "Stir up yourselves, therefore," says Trapp, "and strain toward the mark. There is a Greek word (nuosta) signifying the end of the race, which is derived of a word that signifieth to spur or prick forward. Surely as they that run their horses for a wager spur hardest at the race’s end, therefore, since our salvation is nearer now than ever it was, we should run faster now than ever we did. When a cart is in a quagmire, if the horses feel it coming they pull the harder; so must we, now that full deliverance is hard at hand. Rivers run more speedily and forcibly, when they come near the sea, than they did at the spring: the sun shineth most amiably toward the going down. ’It is even high time for you and me,’ said old Zanchius to his friend Sturmius, who was elder than he, ’to hasten to heaven; as knowing that we shall be with Christ, which is far, far better." "]
12 The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. [In this figure "night" stands for the Christian’s earthly life, which is constantly being shortened and quickly becomes "far spent." "Day" stands for eternity, that unending day which is swiftly approaching. The passing of the night calls for a cessation of sleep; the dawning of the day demands ever-increasing wakefulness and activity. The Christian’s former, unregenerate habits are called "works of darkness," not only because righteousness is emblematically viewed as "white," and sin as "black," but because sin is ashamed of light and consequent exposure (Job 24:13-17; John 3:19-21). Moreover, they are pictured here as a foul nightdress to be "cast off" as a repulsive thing (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 2:11; Colossians 3:8-9; 1 Peter 2:1), and in their place the Christian is to don the works of righteousness, or all the duties of his new life (Ephesians 4:23-24; Romans 6:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Colossians 3:10), as defensive armor against temptations, and offensive weapons for an aggressive campaign against the powers of evil, and as the fitting harness in which to report to Christ for present service, the proper garb in which to have him find us should he come suddenly and without warning, for we are his soldiers, and on duty. Some five years before this Paul wrote in similar strains to the Thessalonians, emphasizing the escape from darkness and mentioning the armor (1 Thessalonians 5:4-8), and about four years after this we find him again using this figurative language in addressing the Ephesians, mentioning the darkness, and emphasizing the armor—Ephesians 6:11-18.]
13 Let us walk becomingly, as in the day [i. e., as if the day of salvation and the presence of God (Revelation 21:3) were already here]; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. [Here are three couplets of vices. The first pair relate to intemperance in eating and drinking (Luke 21:34). The "revel" (komos) was a drunken carousal; it usually burst forth and paraded the streets, filling the night air with noisy songs, and annoying pedestrians with its buffoonery. Being a favorite entertainment among the devotees of Bacchus, the Romans were accustomed to it from their youth up, and found it hard to resist the old-time fun and frolic once so acceptable. The second pair described the varied forms of sexual lust, libertinism, lascivious dalliance, etc. "Chambering" means literally lying abed. It describes the more definite, and "wantonness" the more general, acts of lewdness and abandoned sensuality. The third pair portray the various forms of venomous and hateful feelings leading to discord, open rupture and brutal violence—feelings the very opposite of love of which the apostle has been discoursing. While these vices may be found singly, they normally go in pairs, and also naturally fall into the order here given. Beginning with revelry in the early evening, how many a poor, sinful youth has passed thence to drunkenness, and thence in turn to sexual uncleanness, and thence once more to strife and passion with his fellows, till, when the night was passed and morning broke, he was found either a murderer or murdered, to the disgrace of his friends and the broken-hearted sorrow of his kindred. Plain speech was needful in Paul’s day: alas that it should be so badly needed still!]
14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ [Kypke’s researches reveal the fact that this bold figure of speech, so little used by us, was very familiar to the writers who were read by those of Paul’s day. If a man chose any hero or teacher as an example for -his life, or as an object for his imitation, he was said to "put on" that hero or teacher. Chrysostom says it was a common figure. Thus Dionysius Halicarnassus says of Appius and the other decemvirs: "They were no longer the servants of Tarquin, but they clothed themselves with him." Lucian speaks of one "having put on Pythagoras," meaning that to the fullest extent he accepted the great mathematician as his teacher and guide. Some centuries after Paul, Eusebius says of the sons of Constantine, "They put on their father." "The mode of speech itself," says Clark, "is taken from the custom of stage players: they assumed the name and garments of the person whose character they were to act, and endeavored as closely as possible to imitate him in their spirit, words and actions." The initial step by which we put on Christ is by being baptized into him. This great truth Paul had revealed only a few months before he wrote to the Romans (Galatians 3:27). Only after the inward change wrought by being born of the water and of the Spirit (John 3:5; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5) are we capable of making the vesture of our outward conduct such that men may see Him and not ourselves in our daily life (Romans 6:1-11; 2 Corinthians 3:2-3; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 2:11 to Colossians 3:10). He becomes to us, then, the wedding garment which guarantees our acceptability to God (Matthew 22:11), and causes us to cast aside our garment of legal righteousness as a filthy rag—Philippians 3:6-11], and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. [We are allowed to make reasonable provision for the just needs of the flesh (Matthew 6:26; Ephesians 5:29; 1 Corinthians 11:34; 1 Timothy 5:23), but our provision must, as it were, go on tiptoe, and be exercised with extreme caution, so as not to waken in us those slumbering dogs of lust which, if aroused, will tear our spiritual life to pieces. Pool aptly says of our fleshly life, "Sustain it we may, but pamper it we may not." Fulfilling the lusts of the flesh was the main object of life in pagan Rome.
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
VII. The Faith-Life Operating in Mutual
Forbearance Between Christians, as Unto the Lord
Romans 14:1 to Romans 15:13
[The apostle begins this section with "but," thus marking its connection with the preceding paragraph as setting forth matter in the nature of an exception thereto. He has been exhorting his readers to armed activity and vigilance in the cause of righteousness, and he now enters his caveat lest they should turn this needful and virtuous aggressiveness into a sinful belligerency, so that the strong should devour the weak. The Christian is indeed called upon to wage constant warfare with sin, but as to all things of an immoral or indifferent nature he must suppress this martial spirit and show courteous and affectionate forbearance when dealing with the scruples of those whose consciences are by nature or education legalistic and puritanic. And the weak must show a like mutual consideration toward the liberties of the strong. This section is, as Lard remarks, "preeminently a chapter as to duties in regard to things indifferent in themselves." For things not indifferent there is another rule (Galatians 1:6-10; Galatians 2). This section is also subordinately connected with the preceding paragraph by continuous reference to the second coming of Christ. (See vs. 4, 10-12.) Verses 1-12 are addressed both to the strong and the weak; verses 13-23 and 1 are addressed to the strong alone, and verses 2-13 are addressed both to the strong and the weak.] 1 But him that is weak in faith receive [a strong word. See Acts 28:2; Romans 15:7; Philemon 1:15-17] ye, yet not for decision of scruples. [Do not by your reception, which ought to be to him a blessing, bring him into the misery of unrest by discussions and contentions which can end only in vain reasonings and valueless conclusions. Do not discuss his doubts and pompously and condescendingly insinuate that he is a fool for having them. The Jew and the Gentile have stood in contrast throughout this book and they are here still in this passage, and it is therefore not necessary to hunt, as does Eichhorn for Pythagorean or other scrupulous Gentiles. The Jew with his qualms sufficiently answers all the calls of the context. Educated under the narrowing, restricting influences of the law, he could not readily and at once comprehend the liberty of the gospel; hence he was weak in comparison with the Gentile who was unhampered by legalistic conceptions of meats, days, etc. (Galatians 5:1-15; Colossians 2:10-23; 1 Timothy 4:1-8). He is said to be "weak in the faith" because his judgment, still bound and tethered by silly scruples and obsolete laws, failed to assert that strength which the liberty of the new faith allowed it. Thus the Jewish conscience still shuddered at acts which the Gentile Christian regarded as wholly innocent and permissible; but, since its "failings leaned to virtue’s side," and were usually capable of correction if patiently handled, it was to be treated with consideration and affectionate kindness. In fact, the apostle, for "is weak," uses a participle and not an adjective, thus indicating that the weakness is not inherent and permanent, but only a temporary defect, liable to be self-corrected at any moment.]
2 One man hath faith [believes he has the liberty or right] to eat all things: but he that is weak eateth herbs. [We are familiar with the universal Jewish scruples with regard to swine’s flesh and meat offered to idols; but there were some who refined their diet to far greater extremes—to the "mint, anise and cummin" standard. A sect called Therapeutæ had a regimen thus described by Philo: "Wine is not introduced... and the table bears nothing which has blood, but there is placed upon it bread food, and salt for seasoning, to which also hyssop is sometimes added as an extra sauce for those who are delicate in their eating." However, the abstinence here mentioned was most widely practiced by all scattered Jews. Knowing that any meat bought in Gentile markets was open to question and liable to be unclean, they, being unable to purchase clean meat as prepared by Jewish butchers, abstained from all meat and ate only those things (classed as herbs by the apostle) which they could trace from natural growth to use on their tables. (See Daniel 1; Tobit 1:10-11.) Josephus’ "Life," Sec. 3, mentions certain priests who fed solely on figs and dates.] 3 Let not him that eateth set at nought him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. [Eating or not eating was, with Paul, a matter of indifference; but uncharitable conduct toward a Christian brother was not a matter of indifference—it was sin. Hence the apostle interferes, not by way of counsel, but by unequivocal commandment, strictly forbidding the strong to look with disdainful eye Upon the temerity of the weak, contemptuously despising him as the victim of narrow prejudice and baseless superstition; and with equal strictures charging the weak not to commit the sin of censorious judgment by ignorantly confounding liberty with license and thus unjustly condemning the strong as libertines and heretics, unscrupulous and irreverent. In modern times controversy over meat sacrificed to idols is unknown, but the principle still applies as to instrumental music, missionary societies, etc. Such matters of indifference are not to be injected into the terms of salvation, or set up as tests of fellowship. As to them there is to be neither contempt on the one part, nor judgment on the other. Baptism, however, is not a matter of indifference, being as much a divinely established term in the plan of salvation as faith itself (Mark 16:16). "It is a notable fact," observes Lard, "that the weak are always more exacting and sensitive than the strong, as well as more ready than they to press their grievances to extremes. "]
4 Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? to his own lord he standeth or faileth. Yea, he shall be made to stand; for the Lord hath power to make him stand. [We must avoid the sacrilegious presumption which condemns where God hath not condemned. Whether our brother in Christ stands in favor, so that his daily life and service are accepted of God, or whether he falls from grace, so that his labors are rejected, is a matter for the Master, and does not pertain to us servants. (Comp. 1 Corinthians 10:12; 1 Corinthians 16:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:8; Romans 8:33-34; Romans 11:22.) A kindly, affectionate concern is commendable, but a censorious condemnation is forbidden. Moreover, the latter is useless and idle, for it is the duty of each disciple to please his Master, not his fellow-servant, and the Master is able to justify and will justify without consulting human accusers (chap. 8:33), or paying respect to man-made technicalities about indifferent things. Christ’s ability to justify extends to even positive, inexcusable sin (chap. 3:26; John 8:11). If we could only learn that the consciences of others, though different, are as active and as exacting as our own, we would judge less and love more. Acting by contrary rule, if we find that any man’s conscience varies from our own, we straightway conclude that he has no conscience at all, and hence is a proper subject for our condemnation, a culprit well within the bounds of our jurisdiction.]
5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. [Jewish Christians generally continued to reverence and observe the sabbath, new moons and festival days commanded by the law of Moses, but which are no part of the Christian system (Galatians 4:10; Colossians 2:15-16); while the Gentile Christian regarded all days as equally holy, and to be spent in the fear and service of God.] Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. [About indifferent matters God has given no command, hence each must follow his own judgment and conscience, and none is required to adjust his conduct to satisfy the conscience, much less the scruples of another, though he must show charity and forbearance toward his brother’s conscience.] 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord: and he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, unto the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. [The conduct of each was equally commendable, as the object of each was the same; that is, to serve God. The one who rested and the one who labored each sought to please God in his act. One gave thanks for meat and all, and the other gave thanks for all, less meat. "This so remarkable saying of the apostle furnishes us," says Godet, "with the true means of deciding all those questions of casuistry which so often arise in Christian life, and cause the believer so much embarrassment. May I allow myself this or that pleasure? Yes, if I can enjoy it to the Lord, and while giving him thanks for it; no, if I can not receive it as a gift from his hand, and bless him for it. This mode of solution respects at once the rights of the Lord and those of individual liberty." The passage indicates that grace before meals was the universal practice of Christians in Paul’s day. It probably rested on the habit of Jesus—Luke 9:16; Luke 22:17-19; Luke 24:30-35.]
7 For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. 8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. [As we are Christ’s by right of redemption and purchase (Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 7:23; 1 Peter 1:18-19), we are not our own, but the rights of Christ overshadow all our individual rights, whether exercised in asserting our liberty or indulging our spirit of censorious-ness. To live to self is forbidden; we must live with a view to our Lord and his interest in others. Whether, therefore, a man regard any particular act, food or pleasure as a thing permissible—a thing wherein he may, figuratively speaking, live; or whether he regards it as an affair wherein he must deny himself, and so, figuratively, die, in either case he must take more than himself into account, for he must include the Lord and others. Comp. 2 Corinthians 5:15; Romans 12:1; Philippians 1:21-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-9.] 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. [We are here told to what lengths Christ went to obtain the important right to rule over us in both spheres of being, or as literally living and dead. A right so dearly bought is not readily abandoned, and, moreover, if Christ rules over us in the literal, his rule also, of course, governs us in all lesser or figurative realms. He became purchaser of us by death (Acts 20:28), and ruler by his resurrection—Acts 2:30-36; Acts 17:31; Romans 1:4.] 10 But thou [O weak one], why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again [O strong one], why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God. [The fact that each is so great a sinner that Christ must needs die for him, should prevent the one from judging and the other from despising. Since Christ, having died, is able to justify whom he will, what folly is it to attempt to usurp Christ’s office so as to condemn any who trust in him! The believer is not even judged of Christ, but is called into judgment that he may be justified—2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 8:33.]
11 For it is written [and hence was an already established doctrine, and not one just now promulgated by Paul], As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, And every tongue shall confess to God. [The quotation gives the sense of Isaiah 45:23. Comp. Philippians 2:10-11.] 12 So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. [God judges all, hence it is superfluous for the Christian to judge any. Why gather stones of condemnation and judgment when, after all, Jesus renders us powerless to throw them? (John 8:7.) Since, then, our judgments are futile and worthless, affecting no one but ourselves, let us refrain from them, and cultivate charity, remembering the rule which metes unto us as we measure to others (Matthew 7:1-2). We should be glad that we escape the responsibility of judging, since Jesus himself expressed no eagerness to assume the burden. Comp. John 5:22; John 5:27; John 5:30; John 5:45; John 3:17-19; John 8:15-16; John 12:47; Luke 12:13-14.] 13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge [decide] ye this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock in his brother’s way, or an occasion of falling. [This warning is addressed both to the weak and to the strong. Each censorious judgment tempts the strong to a reactionary and excessive assertion of liberty, and each despising of the weak tends to decrease his faith in the power of God and the influence of the Holy Spirit to regenerate and sanctify men. Hence each is warned to show charity, and thus avoid placing stumbling-blocks in his brother’s way. At this point Paul ceases to address both parties, and turns his remarks exclusively to the strong, since the weak have less control over their actions than the strong, and hence are mercifully spared the imposition of burdens too heavy for their strength.] 1
4 I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus [I am convinced in my apostolic capacity, as enlightened by the Holy Spirit sent of the Lord Jesus (John 14:26; John 16:13-15). Paul’s teachings in this entire section are contrary to his education and prejudice as a Jew. He is speaking as one freed and enlightened in Christ], that nothing is unclean of itself: save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. [See Matthew 15:11; Mark 7:18; Acts 10:14-28; 1 Timothy 4:4. In the gospel all ceremonial uncleanness is abolished, so that no food is any longer unclean, but if a man acts contrary to his conscience, he defiles it: hence food, clean of itself, may work sad havoc in his spiritual nature who eats contrary to his conscience—1 Corinthians 8:7-13.] 15 For if because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love. ["For" looks back to verse 13. Recklessness as to the welfare or safety of others is not loving. "Grieved" may express either a lapse into Judaism on the part of the weak because of the apparent worldliness of the strong, or it may indicate that the weak, tempted by the conduct of the strong, do things which are contrary to conscience, and hence come to grief (Matthew 27:3-5). It is likely that the latter danger was most prominent to the apostle’s mind. (Comp. v. 20, and 1 Corinthians 8:10.) The context, containing the words "destroy" and "overthrow" (v. 20), shows that the grief is more than mere fraternal disappointment at another’s laxity.] Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died. [This is the strongest possible appeal. What pleasure of liberty can be so sweet as to justify us in destroying our brother’s life, and frustrating the agony and sacrifice of the Master in his behalf? Shall we set a higher value on our meat than Christ did on his divine life? How shall we look our Lord in the face if we have wantonly done such a thing!]
16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of [Do not so use your liberty—the good you enjoy—as to provoke blame or censure, for by so doing you lose your power to influence others for good, whether they be weak or strong. A bad name has no power in God’s kingdom—1 Timothy 3:7 : Matthew 5:16 : Acts 22:22]: 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he that herein serveth Christ is well-pleasing to God, and approved of men. 19 So then let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify one another. [Humanly prescribed and wholly external ordinances neither usher us into the kingdom nor increase its power within us, nor does the failure to observe them exclude us from it. Its blessings are not linked to sumptuary liberties, but are found in graces socially applied; in righteousness toward God; justice toward our neighbor; peace, or concord and harmony, with all; joy, or expressions of loving happiness prompted in us by the Holy Spirit, the source of all grace: these are the things which work the advance and glorification of the kingdom both within us and about us. These, then, are the habits of life which please both God who reads the heart, and man who looks upon the outward conduct, and, moreover, build up the kingdom.] 20 Overthrow not for meat’s sake the work of God. All things indeed are clean; howbeit it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. 21 It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth. [Do not for a trifling indulgence destroy a man, the noblest work and likeness of God. Look not at your act alone, but consider also its consequences. True, indeed, that your weak brother, in following your example, will not be harmed by the food itself, yet he will surely do evil if he offends his conscience in eating. Therefore your proper course is abstinence that your brother may not be tempted. Though Paul’s reference is to the contamination of the wine of idolatry, yet the principle applies equally well to the wine of intemperance.]
22 The faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before God. [The faith or conviction of liberty which thou hast need not be abandoned; but it should be held or preserved in the heart before God, and should not be vauntingly paraded in the sight of the weak.] Happy is he that judgeth not himself in that which he approveth. 23 But he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. [The apostle here presents the contrast between the strong and the weak. The former is blest indeed in that he has liberty without the sense of inward disapproval, while the other, not sure of his ground, plunges recklessly on, and, acting contrary to his convictions, and hence to that respect and reverence which is due to God, sins. His eating is sinful because not of faith (faith is here used in the abstract sense, and means grounded, undoubting conviction that God approves), for whatever is done without such settled conviction is sinful recklessness, and must not be done at all, for to act contrary to the will of God is to destroy his work in us. Diakrenesthai, translated "doubteth," means to be divided into two persons, one of whom says "yes," and the other "no." In the case of the weak the flesh says "yes," and conscience cries "no. "]
Romans 15:1. Now ["Now" is progressive; it means, "to proceed with the matter in hand"] we [It is a characteristic of Paul’s to identify himself with those on whom he lays especial burdens] that are strong ought [1 Corinthians 9:19-22. Strength in the gospel always brings upon its owner the obligation and command to serve (Galatians 6:2), and the one who would truly serve must eliminate his self-conceit and arrogance] to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying. 3 For Christ also pleased not himself [The strong ought to give way to the weak because strength can yield better than weakness, since in so doing it in no way violates conscience and because this forbearance tends to build up the weak and make them strong. But this rule applies, of course, only to matters that are indifferent; in things that are erroneous or wrong we have no choice or discretion, but must stand for the right as God would have us. The only objection that the strong can urge against yielding to the weak is that to do so involves them in great sacrifice. In answer to this argument Paul sets forth the example of Christ. How can he that is self-pleasing, and that shrinks from sacrifice, make claim to be the disciple and follower of the One whose life was the supreme self-sacrifice of the annals of all time? Had Christ pleased himself hell itself might well shudder at the consequences]; but, as it is written [Psalms 69:9], The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me. [When Christ bore the heavy burden of our reproaches and disgrace—pur sin, and its consequences—can we not, as his disciples, cheerfully bear each other’s light foibles and infirmities? We must not only be unselfishly fair; we must be self-denyingly generous, if we would be Christlike.]
4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. 5 Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus [I cite the Scripture as written for the instruction of the unborn church, for all Scripture, as it outlines what Christ would do sacrificially, also establishes what we should do as imitators of him. It also affords us, in our perusal of it, patience and hope in the doing, for God, the original source back of all Scripture, will not fail in administering aid and comfort to you in your effort toward that spirit of unity and concord which is according to Christ; i. e., according to his desire, will, commandment and example]: 6 that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Beautiful picture! When in concord the whole church as a harmonious choir renders praise to God, the Father of our Lord, as one mouth! And how this will glorify our Saviour, Christ, showing the perfection of his work in us! Unanimity of inward feeling can not but result in harmony of outward expression, whether in doctrine, worship or praise.] 7 Wherefore receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God. [Against the trifling, selfish enjoyment of personal liberty, the apostle sets the supreme end and joy of life; viz., the glorification of God (Matthew 22:36-38; John 4:34). As Christ, suppressing all selfish promptings to assert his own rights and liberties, and ignoring all distinctions in his favor, however pronounced or impossible (Philippians 2:5-8), received us in all loving compassion to affect that glory; so also should we mutually receive one another in full love and fellowship to that end, excluding all unworthy selfishness, and all social, national or racial antipathies. Unity glorifies God, as the amity of a household reflects honor on its head.]
8 For ["for" introduces the explanation as to how Christ’s coming and ministry was for the purpose of glorifying God by receiving each party, Jew or Gentile] I say that Christ hath been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given unto the fathers, 9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy [In order that he might vindicate the veracity of God in confirming and in keeping the promises of the covenant given unto the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: (now these covenant promises contained blessings for the Gentiles—Genesis 22:18; these blessings thus coming to them through the circumcision people and covenant—John 4:22; therefore Christ became the minister of the circumcision for the sake of the Gentiles also, that the Gentiles might also be received) and that they might glorify God for his mercy. If Christ, then, the Lord and Master, was a minister (Matthew 20:27-28) unto each for purposes of unity and concord (Ephesians 2:11-22), with what lowly humility should his servants receive and serve each other to effect these results]; as it is written, Therefore will I give praise unto thee among the Gentiles, And sing unto thy name. ["Sing" (psalloo) means, literally, "strike the harp to thy name." This quotation argues that the use of that instrument, as a means of divine praise, is innocent and permissible.]
10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. 11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentilee; And let all the peoples praise him. 12 And again, Isaiah saith, There shall be the root of Jesse, And he that ariseth to rule over the Gentiles; On him shall the Gentiles hope. [The quotations found in verses 9-12 are presented to confirm Paul’s teaching that it was God’s original, eternal purpose to include the Gentiles in Israel, the passages forming a parenthesis elucidating the idea of verse 7; viz., "even as Christ received you." The first passage is from Psalms 18:49, and introduces David as confessing and praising as theocratic King under God not apart from, but among, the Gentiles. In the second, taken from Deuteronomy 32:43, Moses exhorts the Gentiles to rejoice in God together with all his people, or Israel. The third, from Psalms 117:1, repeats the thought of the second; while the last, from Isaiah 11:10, is a definite announcement of the reign of Messiah as the root of Jesse, or head of the Davidic dynasty (and hence Jewish) over the Gentiles also, and that not as a foreign oppressor, but as a hope-fulfilling native king. The great prophetic fact forecast in all these quotations is a coming day of joint praise for Jew and Gentile. What a consolation and what an aid toward patience these Scripture quotations must have been to Paul, in his work as apostle to the Gentiles! (See v. 4.) The trend of the argument toward his apostolic ministry forms a transition leading to the epistolary conclusion which follows the benediction of the thirteenth verse.]
13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. [The apostle concludes the hortatory part of his letter with this solemn petition for his readers’ welfare. Note what beautiful names for God are derived from the attributes which he inspires. "God of hope," "God of patience" (v. 5), "God of peace"—v. 33.].
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
Part Fourth
Epistolary Conclusion, Containing Plans, Requests,
Explanations, Commendations, Salutations, Etc.
Romans 15:14 to Romans 16:27
The apostle, having finished his didactic and doctrinal instruction, turns to renew the personal tone with which his letter opened. He presents: (1) An apology for the liberty taken in so plainly admonishing them, reminding them of his office as apostle to the Gentiles which laid such a duty upon him (Romans 15:14-16; comp. Romans 1:14-15). (2) An explanation concerning his labors and his failure to visit them (Romans 15:17-24; comp. Romans 1:11-13). (3) A statement of his present and future plans, and a request for prayer (Romans 15:25-33). (4) Commendations and salutations (Romans 16:1-24; comp. Romans 1:7). (5) Doxology (Romans 16:25-27; comp. Romans 1:1-2).
I. The Apostle’s Ministry and Plans—
A Request for Prayers
Romans 15:14-33
14 And I myself also am persuaded of you [as to you], my brethren, that ye yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. [These Roman Christians were by no means "babes in Christ," yet even men, and that the best instructed, need apostolic preaching. But Paul’s confidence in their understanding is shown in the quality of this letter which he wrote to them. Compare a contrary feeling in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3), and in milder form the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 6:11-12). Moreover, the list of names of church leaders contained in this epistolary conclusion proves the efficiency of this Roman church, its goodness, and its ability to impart knowledge and admonition.] 15 But I write the more boldly unto you in some measure, as putting you again in remembrance [Thus suggesting that the matter of his Epistle was not wholly new to them: comp. 2 Peter 1:12-13], because of the grace [i. e., apostleship: comp. Romans 1:5; Romans 12:3; Galatians 2:9; Ephesians 3:7-11] that was given me of God, 16 that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles [I have not carefully weighed my words as a stranger should, but have used some measure of boldness because it is my duty to so speak as your apostle commissioned by God’s grace. "As though he said, ’I did not snatch the honor for myself, nor rush upon it first, but God laid this upon me, and that by way of grace, not a setting apart a worthy person to this office. Be not therefore offended, for it is not I that rise up against you, but God that has laid this upon me’ "—Chrysostom], ministering [Greek, "ministering in sacrifice." He speaks in metaphor, assuming to himself the office of priest] the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. [Christians are nowhere in the New Testament spoken of as literal priests, yet the idea of priestly sacrifice is forcefully used in a figurative way. (Comp. Romans 12:1; Philippians 2:17.) Paul here speaks of himself metaphorically as a priest, not of the Levitical order with its material temple and tangible altar, but as pertaining to the gospel with its spiritual cleansing in Christ. As priests offered many offerings at the great festivals, so Paul, as apostle to the Gentiles, came before God in the festal hour or time of the glad tidings or the gospel of salvation, with the multitudinous offering of the myriads of the Gentiles. As carnal offerings were first cleansed by water before being offered, so these Gentiles, as victims of grace, were first made acceptable offerings by being cleansed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, after which they offered themselves as daily sacrifices. Compare his metaphor to that used by Isaiah in describing the final gathering of Israel (Isaiah 66:19-20). At Romans 12:1 the apostle began by exhorting members of the Roman church to offer themselves as living sacrifices. He then proceeded to elaborate the things wherein self-sacrifice was demanded of them. Now in the verse before us he presents himself as a priest presiding officially over their sacrifice and presenting it to God, which was, figuratively speaking, his duty as apostle to the Gentiles.]
17 I have therefore my glorying in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God. ["Therefore" refers back to verse 15. I have therefore a right to address you boldly in things pertaining to God, for I am not contemptible in such matters, being able to glory, not in myself, but in reference to Christ Jesus in that I am called by him to be his apostle. My boldness in glorying, therefore, is not in myself, but in my apostleship and its resultant spiritual duties and powers. Compare 2 Corinthians 12:1-13; Colossians 1:25-29.] 18 For I will not dare to speak of any things save those which Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ [I, as I have intimated, would not dare to glory in anything that I find in myself, but I glory in the manifest powers of the Holy Spirit, both in speech and miracle which have been mine by reason of my apostolic office, and which have enabled me to convincingly preach the gospel, not in any limited field, but far and wide in that great curve of the earth which begins at Jerusalem in the east and ends at Illyricum in the west. "Chrysostom observeth," says Trapp, "that Plato came three times to Sicily to convert Dionysius the tyrant to philosophy, and could not. But Paul set a great compass, converted many souls, planted many churches: and why? Christ sat upon him as one of his white horses, and went forth conquering and to conquer (Revelation 6:2)." Paul began preaching at Damascus, but took a second start at Jerusalem under special commission to the Gentiles (Acts 9:19-20; Acts 9:27-29; Galatians 1:17-18; Acts 22:17-21). Acts makes no direct mention of Paul’s labors in Illyricum. However, the Romans incorporated Illyricum as part of Macedonia, and hence the journey thither may be included in the trip described at Acts 20:1-2. Note the calm, sane way in which Paul speaks of his miraculous powers as a trust from Christ and a seal of his apostleship, both being mere accessories to that all-important task, the preaching of the gospel];
20 yea [yes, so full was the spiritual power imparted to me that I thought it an honor and recognition due to my office and to those powers to use them only on the hard, unbroken soil of utterly unenlightened paganism], making it my aim so to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man’s foundation [Had Paul done otherwise he would have used his supreme powers as though they were secondary, and he would have been choosing the easy tasks, leaving to others those harder undertakings for which Christ was hourly fitting and equipping him (1 Corinthians 3:10; Ephesians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 10:12-16). It ill becomes a ten-talent man to seek a one-talent position. The pressing needs of the field also forbade the waste of time in resowing. Had Paul’s example been followed, what needless overlapping of missionary effort might have been avoided. Sectarianism has caused and committed this sin, and it has been especially reprehensible where it has been done to foster points of difference which are matters of indifference, as is the case where factions of the same sect compete in the same field]; 21 but [on the contrary, I preach as following the program outlined by the prophet], as it is written [Isaiah 52:15], They shall see, to whom no tidings of him came, And they who have not heard shall understand. [This verse, which speaks of the original enlightening of the Gentiles, might well appeal to the one commissioned to be their apostle, inciting him to be ever the first to rush to their relief.] 22 Wherefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you: 23 but now, having no more any place [territory where Christ is not known] in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come unto you [Because of the many benighted places in the unevangelized east, I have hitherto been held back from visiting you, but now the work here being finished, leaving me free, I find the very principle which once detained me in the east now impels me to seek those of the west, thus permitting me to visit you in passing (comp. chap. 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Corinthians 7:7-11; Philippians 1:8), and I purpose to so do. As Rome was a place already founded in Christ, Paul’s principle limited his stay there to a mere visit, but as it was the center of all influence in his Gentile field, it was fitting that it rest under his instruction. To compass this instruction Paul wrote this Epistle],
24 whensoever I go unto Spain [We have no contemporary record stating that Paul visited Spain in his lifetime, but his noble wish was in large measure gratified, for he visited Spain in later centuries by his Epistles, which wrought so mightily that the Inquisition could only stamp out his influence by stamping out all the influenced] (for I hope to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first in some measure I shall have been satisfied with your company) ["Brought on;" proempthenaimeans primarily "to accompany, to go with." (See its use at Acts 15:3; Acts 20:38; Acts 21:5; 1 Corinthians 16:6; 2 Corinthians 1:16.) Paul thus delicately suggests, but does not deliberately ask, pecuniary and other aid to his journey. He also makes it plain that his stay will be merely a visit—a tarrying to satisfy his hungry desire for their fellowship. But the counsels of God decreed that Paul’s stay should be lengthened greatly (Acts 28:30) so as to let his influence over the Gentiles radiate from the great Gentile center, and so as to fully gratify his longings for a fellowship which was as loyal and as loving as any that ever refreshed his soul—Acts 28:14-15]—25 but now, I say, I go unto Jerusalem, ministering unto the saints. [Despite the earnestness of my desire to see you just at present, I can not come, for duty calls me to Jerusalem. Verses 31 and 32 show that Paul anticipated danger and trouble at Jerusalem, but joy and rest at Rome. His anticipations were, however, partly mistaken, for he found rest while a prisoner at Cæsarea perhaps more than at Rome (Acts 24:23). Thus it often happens that along the dark road toward duty we find the sunniest spots in life.] 26 For it hath been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints that are at Jeursalem. [It was quite natural that there should be many Christians in Jerusalem, for Palestine was filled with poor, and it was to that class that the gospel was especially preached (Luke 7:22), and it was among that class that it was everywhere successful (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). But it is also likely that these poor, being converted, lost their employment because of their faith, for such petty persecution has been common in. all ages (James 2:4-7; Galatians 2:10; 1 Peter 4:15-16). But, unhappily, these cruel distinctions, when made by Jews against Jewish Christians, did not cause the latter to affiliate with Gentile Christians. On the contrary, Jerusalem became the center of a vast and practically worldwide enmity cherished by Jewish against Gentile Christians, by reason of racial and educational prejudice. To break down this prejudice and hatred, that the partition wall might be removed between Jew and Gentile, Paul conceived the idea of inducing the Gentile Christians to send an offering to the poor Jewish Christians at Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1-3), hoping thereby to make each faction think more kindly of the other. In this he partly succeeded (2 Corinthians 9:12-15). The Bible accounts of this collection lead us to think that it was quite large. See Acts 19:21; Acts 24:17; 2 Corinthians 8:1 to 2 Corinthians 9:15.]
27 Yea, it hath been their good pleasure [The apostle twice notes the free-will or "good pleasure" nature of this offering. It dropped as the ripe fruit of the orchard; it was not squeezed as cider in the mill]; and their debtors they are. [The Gentiles are indebted to the Jews, and hence their offering is but a proper expression of gratitude.] For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to minister unto them in carnal things. [Salvation is from the Jews (John 4:22). If, therefore, the Gentiles received eternal and heavenly treasure from the Jews, how small a matter was it that they make return of temporal and earthly treasure to such benefactors. The Gentile still owes this debt to the Jewish race, for of it came the Christ and the Scriptures. The law here announced might well be remembered by many rich congregations in dealing with their ministers in questions of salary, vacations, etc. (Comp. Luke 16:9.) By mentioning this offering, Paul sowed good seed in the heart of the Roman church—seed promising a harvest of liberality.] 28 When therefore I have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by you unto Spain. ["Seal" is a figurative expression for "deliver safely." Compare its use at 2 Kings 22:4, where it is translated "sum"; i. e., count out. Our English word "consign" is a similar figure. Paul wished to complete a good work for them: to insure to them the benefit of a noble deed fully accomplished.] 29 And I know that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of Christ. [Paul had no doubt about the favorable conditions in the Roman church, nor about his kindly reception by the Christians at Rome. He felt that they would so receive him that he would be able to greatly enrich them in instruction and in all other spiritual blessings. "Beyond these blessings," says Lard, "he had nothing to bestow, nor they anything to ask." Far other were his presentiments as to Jerusalem, as he immediately shows us. For a like expectation of an evil reception, see 2 Corinthians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 12:20-21; 2 Corinthians 13:1-2.]
30 Now I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me [Paul appeals to no natural love such as is provoked by environment, propinquity, social or fleshly ties, but to a love induced by the Spirit of God toward one whose face they had never seen. As Christ has power over you, and the Spirit prompts love within you, pray with me and for me. The word "strive" suggests the force of opposing spiritual powers which resist the accomplishment of the things prayed for, and the necessity of ardent prayer to overcome it. The prayer was granted, but by other means than those praying anticipated. With Paul position raised no presumption: neither visions, revelations, miraculous gifts, inspiration nor apostleship lifted him above praying for their prayers. "Spiritual beggary," says Trapp, "is the hardest and richest of all trades. Learn with Paul to beg prayer with all earnestness. ’Pray for me, I say; pray for me, I say,’ quoth Father Latimer. ’Pray for me, pray for me, for God’s sake pray for me,’ said blessed Bradford"]; 31 that I may be delivered from them that are disobedient in Judæa, and that my ministration [offering] which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints; 32 that I may come unto you in joy through the will of God, and together with you find rest. 33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. [The prayer is fourfold. (1) Personal safety. (2) A successful mission with the offering. (3) Divine permission to reach Rome. (4) Joyful rest in Rome. The prayer designates as "saints" those thousands of believers whose prejudice against Paul amounted to hatred (Acts 21:20-21). As to these Paul asks prayer that they may duly appreciate the offering which the Gentiles have made them, and that they may be properly softened and broadened by it. This prayer, as we have seen (v. 26), was answered. He describes as "disobedient" those Jews who were beyond all hope of conversion. Paul was already filled with dark forebodings and painful presentiments as to these latter, and like feelings were soon expressed by others (see Acts 20:22-23; Acts 21:4-14); yet God, who restrains the wrath of men (Psalms 76:10), caused the very illwill of these disobedient to provide for Paul the long rest at Caesarea and the free journey to Rome, attended with no greater hardship than usually accompanied his travels. Here, too, prayer was answered. He closes with his prayer for them, which is, as Lard remarks, "the sum of all prayers, the embodiment of all good wishes."
J.W. McGarvey on Romans
II. Commendation of Phœbe—Salutations—Warnings
Against Dissensions and Apostasy—Benediction
Romans 16:1-27
[This chapter is mostly taken up with salutations or greetings sent to individuals, groups of individuals, and to small bodies of people which met separately, yet composed jointly the church at Rome. Aquila and Priscilla are known to us. The rest are practically unknown, hence their names are passed by us without comment.] 1 I commend unto you Phoebe [It is generally admitted that Phoebe alone was the bearer of this letter to the Romans. (Comp. Colossians 4:7; Ephesians 6:21.) Had there been others with her, they would doubtless have been also commended] our sister [our fellow-Christian], who is a servant [Literally a "deaconess." For deacons, see Acts 6:1-6; Philippians 1:1, etc. The word "deaconess" is found only here; but this single reference with commendation stamps the office with apostolic sanction and approval, though the attempt to revive the office in our modern churches has not as yet met with any marked success. Pliny, in his letter to Trajan (A. D. 107-111), mentions deaconesses, saying that he extorted information from "two old women who were called ministrœ." The Latin minister (feminine, ministrœ) is the equivalent of the Greek diakonos, or deacon] of the church that is at Cenchreæ [This city was the port of Corinth on the Saronic Gulf, opening out to the Ægean Sea. It was nine miles east of Corinth, and was important because of its harbor and the great fortress which commanded the isthmus uniting northern and southern Greece. From this port Paul sailed for Syria after his second missionary journey, and may have at that time paused long enough to sow the seed from which the church at that point sprang]: 2 that ye receive her in the Lord [i. e., as Christians should receive a Christian], worthily of the saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need of you [what Phoebe’s business was is unknown]: for she herself also hath been a helper of many, and of mine own self. [In the Greek there is a play upon words here: "Help her, for she is a helper." She probably helped the apostle during his stay in Cenchreæ—Acts 18:18.]
3 Salute Prisca [The diminutive of this name is Priscilla. Compare Jane and Jennie, Drusa and Drusilla] and Aquila [Paul met these two at Corinth in A. D. 53, and they sailed with him from thence to Syria (Acts 18:1-18; 1 Corinthians 16:19). Again, two years later they were with him at Ephesus—Acts 19] my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus [It is probable that as he sent two before him into Macedonia (Acts 19:22), so these two were now in Rome preparing the field for his coming (comp. Luke 10:1) and ready to aid him with information as to its condition and needs and in other ways when he accomplished his declared purpose to visit that metropolis (Acts 19:21). But Paul’s visit was delayed beyond expectation—more than two years (Acts 24:27). Confident of their unchanging loyalty, Paul salutes them first of all and as fellow-workers in the present tense, not as those who "labored" in the past—comp. v. 12], 4 who for my life laid down their own necks [As Paul’s chief danger lay in Ephesus (1 Corinthians 15:32), it was evidently there that Aquila and Priscilla risked their lives for him, though no specific account is given us of any such service, or of other dangers than the great riot—Acts 19:23-41]; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles [being grateful to the pair for aiding in saving so precious a life as that of their apostle, their light in gospel truth, the bulwark guarding their liberties against Jewish aggression]: 5 and salute the church that is in their house. [That portion of the church that has its usual place of meeting in their house. (Comp. 1 Corinthians 16:19; Acts 12:12; Acts 18:7; Colossians 4:1-5; Philemon 1:2.) Church buildings did not then exist in Rome.] Salute Epænetus my beloved, who is the firstfruits of Asia unto Christ. [Of Epænetus and the rest of these Christians nothing is known. "But thus it is on earth," as Lard remarks. "Single short sentences tell the story of those who have prepared its inhabitants for eternal life, while huge tomes are insufficient to record the exploits of those who have often turned it into a slaughterhouse." By "Asia" Paul means proconsular Asia, that province in the. southwest corner of Asia Minor of which Ephesus was the capital.]
6 Salute Mary, who bestowed much labor on you. 7 Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen [my fellow-countrymen—Jews—Romans 9:3], and my fellow-prisoners [When or where we do not know. Scripture tells of four imprisonments of Paul, but Clement of Rome enumerates seven. There may have been even more—2 Corinthians 11:23], who are of note among the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me. [Meaning that these were converted to Christ before he was—early enough to be well known to the apostles and to be honored by them before that body was scattered by persecution, it being slow to depart from Jerusalem—Acts 8:1; Acts 12:1-3.] 8 Salute Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord. 9 Salute Urbanus our fellow-worker in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. 10 Salute Apelles the approved in Christ. Salute them that are of the household of Aristobulus. [A Roman "household" included all in service from the noblest retainer to the meanest slave. This was probably the younger Aristobulus of the Herodian family. See Jos. Antt. 20:1, 2.] 11 Salute Herodion my kinsman. Salute them of the household of Narcissus, that are in the Lord. [This is probably Narcissus the rich freedman and favorite of Caesar’s, whose household would therefore be compounded with Cæsar’s. (Comp. Philippians 4:22.) He died A. D. 54, or some three years before Paul wrote this Epistle. For references as to Narcissus, see Tac. Ann. 11:29, seq.; 12:57; 13:1; Suet. Claud. 28. "Bishop Lightfoot argues very plausibly that most of those here greeted by Paul were Nero’s servants, once in Greece, especially Philippi, and now called to Rome, whence they later sent back greetings to Philippi (Philippians 4:22). An imperial burial-ground at Rome bears names like most of these, and the parties there buried lived in Paul’s day"—Moule.]
12 Salute Tryphæna and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Salute Persis the beloved, who labored much in the Lord. 13 Salute Rufus the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. [We know nothing certain of these. Paul had evidently spent time in the home of Rufus, and had received motherly care at that time, which he now gracefully acknowledges, reckoning that if the woman of the home was Rufus’ mother by nature, she was also his by service and affection (Matthew 19:29). Possibly this Rufus may have been Simon’s son (Mark 15:21), and Paul may have lived with them while a youthful student in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3). The tradition that Mark wrote his Gospel while at Rome adds to the plausibility that both he and Paul refer to the same Rufus.] 14 Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brethren that are with them. ["With them" indicates another section of the church meeting in the homes of these men. Comp. vs. 5, 15.] 15 Salute Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints that are with them. [These apostolic salutations are addressed to twenty-five individuals. Not a large group for one as widely known as Paul in a city as large as Rome, yet when we consider the limited circulation of news and the meager means of communication afforded in that day, it shows the deep affection of the apostle that he knew the whereabouts of so many of his brethren. Note also the women workers named in this small group. It was evidently only to Corinth, and not to Rome, that Paul wrote, "Let your women keep silence"—1 Corinthians 14:34; comp. Philippians 4:3.]
16 Salute one another with a holy kiss. [Oscillatory salutation has always been common in the East (2 Samuel 20:9; Luke 7:45; Matthew 26:49). It early became an established practice among the Jews, from whence it passed to the apostolic church (1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14). It is still retained in the Greek Church, in which the men thus salute men, and women, women. Paul is not teaching the Roman church a new custom, but is purifying an old one, insisting that the salutation be holy and void of all such dissimulation as characterized the kiss of Judas (Matthew 26:49). His precept still applies to all our salutations, no matter what their form.] All the churches of Christ salute you. [Having ended his own salutation, Paul adds those of the Gentile churches which he had just been visiting in collecting the offering (ch. 15: 26). These salutations indicate that the apostle talked much about his letter before he wrote it. Possibly he was drafting it as he journeyed. And it also shows that the church at the great metropolis, the center of government and civilization, was an object of interest and esteem to all. Comp. ch. 1:8.]
17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions [in Corinth, Galatia, etc.] and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned [from the brethren to whom I have sent salutations and others of their fellowship]: and turn away from them. [In an unregenerate world the gospel produces division (Matthew 10:34-37), but these divisions are along the cleavage line between good and evil. We are not responsible for these divisions; nay, we would sin if we shrank from causing them. "But," says Lard, "where we, by our own errors of teaching or conduct, produce divisions among the children of God, we sin against Christ. Nor is it a less offense to countenance or defend divisions, than it is to cause them. They must be utterly disfavored by the Christian. He is not at liberty even to feel indifferent toward them. He must actively oppose them where they exist, and actively endeavor to prevent them where they do not exist." It is against division in the church, then, that Paul warns his readers. Having named and saluted those whose doctrine he sanctioned and approved, he warns the church at once to be on the lookout for any who might oppose them, and seek to divide the church now united under them. The opening to the Epistle to the Philippians (written four or five years later) shows what these heretics afterwards did at Rome (Philippians 1:15-18; Philippians 3:2-3; Philippians 3:17-19). Their appearance at Antioch, in Galatia and at Corinth made Paul sure that they would also invade Rome. Those whom Paul commended could, out of their own observation and experience, tell the Roman church what evil these pernicious Judaizers had done . Acts 15:1 seq.; Galatians 1:6 seq.; 3:1 seq.; Colossians 2:8-23; 2 Corinthians 11:13 seq.). At the time of Paul’s writing the orthodox leaders appear to have been able to keep the church in unity.]
18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly ["Belly" is meant to express all the appetites of the carnal life. The heretics here referred to, being mediocre and insufficient teachers in the true faith, resorted to the artifice of stirring up factions for the purpose of obtaining there from physical and pecuniary support. (Comp. Philippians 3:19.) Their breed is not extinct. There are many who shine as heretics who would pass their lives in obscurity if they were orthodox, and there are also many who amass fortunes preaching lies who would live at a poor, starving rate if they preached the truth. But nothing better can be expected of the devotees of the belly]; and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent. [They succeeded, not by the inherent power of what they taught, but by the insidious manner in which they taught it. "Truth," says Trapp, "persuadeth by teaching, it doth not teach by persuading." It has always been a characteristic of truth that it comes to us in plain and simple garb, rugged, unadorned (Matthew 11:20; Acts 4:13; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 2 Corinthians 3:12-13; 2 Corinthians 10:10; 2 Corinthians 11:6; James 3:17), and its rival, error, sits in the seat of the mighty, speaks with all subtilty and charms with rhetoric and oratorical display—Acts 8:9; Acts 13:10; Acts 12:21-23; 1 Corinthians 8:1-2; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 3:7-8.]
19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I rejoice therefore over you: but I would have you wise unto that which is good. and simple unto that which is evil. [I warn you. for your obedience and docility, being so notorious, will sooner or later draw them to seek you as an enticing spoil. The apostle rejoiced in their simplicity, yet urges them to be careful in whom they placed their trust. (Comp. Matthew 10:16; John 10:4-5; 1 Corinthians 14:20; 2 Corinthians 11:3.) If the church could only attain the paradoxical state of being simple toward Christ, and wise toward those who pervert his word, sectarianism, with its divisions, would be at an end.] 20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. [Bruise is equivalent to "crush." (See Genesis 3:15; 2 Corinthians 11:12-15.) If the Roman Christians hearkened to the apostle as to these open, material, visible enemies, they would quickly gain a victory over the supreme spiritual and invisible leader who inspired them. Thus the God of peace (not of division) would triumph over the prince of all strife. Life’s battle is brief, and the Christian soldier who is steadfast soon gains the victory and is honorably discharged.] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. [The apostle ends the personal section of his salutations with a blessing, after which he presents in another division the salutations of other friends.]
21 Timothy [Acts 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 1:1, and Epistles to Timothy] my fellow-worker saluteth you; and Lucius [Acts 13:1 (?)] and Jason [Acts 17:5-7; Acts 17:9 (?)] and Sosipater [Acts 20:4 (?)], my kinsmen. [If Paul’s colaborers were known personally to churches to which he addressed Epistles, he evidently inserted their names with his own at the beginning of the Epistle (see 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians , 1 and 2 Thessalonians); but where they were only known by reputation, he appears to have merely subjoined their salutations as he has done here.] 22 I Tertius, who write the epistle, salute you in the Lord. [Paul habitually used amanuenses (Galatians 6:11; Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17). Tertius, the penman of this Epistle, and known to us only here, shows to us by his salutation that he was no mere hireling in this service.]
23 Gaius my host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. [Very likely the Gaius of 1 Corinthians 1:14. The name is found elsewhere (Acts 19:29; Acts 20:4; 3 John 1:1). This Gaius evidently entertained Paul at the time the Epistle was written, and at least occasionally, probably to hear Paul preach, the many sections of the entire Corinthian church met at his house. It must have been a capacious home—Acts 18:8-11.] Erastus [possibly the person mentioned at Acts 19:22 and 2 Timothy 4:20] the treasurer of the city saluteth you, and Quartus the brother. [Here end the salutations, and there follows the most condensed yet most comprehensive benediction ever penned.] 25 Now to him that is able to establish you [i. e., to the one who has given you an eternal foundation for your life (Matthew 7:24-27) and is able to build you as enduring material thereon (1 Corinthians 3:10-17). Comp. ch. 1:11] according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ [Establish you according to, or in conformity with, the terms, conditions, means, grace and power found in that gospel which was revealed to me personally (Romans 2:16; Galatians 1:11-17), even the heavenly truth contained in the preaching of Jesus Christ, who is the core and heart of that gospel. (Comp. ch. 1:3; 2:16; 10:8-12; Galatians 1:6-8.) Paul’s gospel did not differ from that committed to the twelve, but he calls it specifically "my gospel" because it was delivered to him in lessons where he was the sole pupil (Galatians 1:12), and because his spiritual discernment, coupled with his special commission as apostle to the Gentiles, enabled him to see clearly two things in the gospel which were but faintly comprehended by the others; viz., that gospel salvation is wholly gratuitous and is not partly gratuitous and partly a matter of purchase by obedience to the Mosaic law (Galatians 5:1-12); that it is universal to all who are obedient unto the faith, and is in no sense confined to the Jews or their proselytes—Galatians 3:26-29], according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal [Establish you by the gospel and preaching which accords with or is true to the revelation or unveiling of the great mystery or secret; i. e., the divine purpose of God to save the world by the sacrifice of his Son—a secret of times eternal (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2), known only to the Father, and therefore capable of no revelation till his voice broke silence as to it. Comp. Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32; 1 Peter 1:12; Acts 1:7],
26 but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith [Comp. Colossians 1:26; Colossians 4:4; Galatians 1:12; Galatians 1:16; 1 Corinthians 2:10. "Manifested... made known." These two words express the two phases of revelation. Christ himself was the manifestation (Luke 2:30-32; John 1:14-18; John 2:11; Hebrews 1:3), the Light of the world (John 1:4-9; John 8:12); but this manifestation is introduced, interpreted, explained, "made known" by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament writers or prophets, the former with their types, shadows and forecasts (Luke 24:25-27; Galatians 4:21-31; Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 10:1-9), the latter with their gospel sermons and doctrinal epistles (1 Corinthians 15:1; Galatians 1:11; 1 John 1:1-3). And these Scriptures were written for that purpose, not at the motion, option or choice of the writers, but by order and command of God himself (Deuteronomy 5:22; Jeremiah 36:27-28; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16), that men might know, and, knowing, might believe and obey, the gospel in its conditions and be saved thereby. Thus the apostle assures Us that the Father, who gave us the Christ, gave us also correct biographies as to his incarnation, miracles, life, death, resurrection and coronation; that the God who gave us a gospel also insured to us the preservation of it in an efficient and effective form in the record which he commanded; that the Lord who gave us a church has also provided for the perpetual safeguarding of its plans, specifications and model as designed in his holy mountain (Hebrews 8:5), preserving them forever in those Chronicles of his kingdom which we call the Bible. Common sense should tell us this, even if Paul had kept silence. How could we attribute infinite wisdom to a God who sacrificed his Son to make a gospel and then neglected to preserve that gospel that it might be used for the purposes for which it was prepared at so much cost? Moreover, this passage shows that God himself, back of the human penman, wrote the Bible; for he, and not they—no, not even the angels (1 Peter 1:10; 1 Peter 1:12)—knew the secret which these Scriptures were revealing. Yea, he wrote it for the universal instruction of the unborn church in matters which no human wisdom could discover for itself. Therefore, whoso strikes at the Old Testament would destroy the foundation of the New, would annul what God has commanded, obliterate what God has revealed, and rob the dying world of the gospel, the salvation and the Christ which God has given. The one who attempts to do this thing (God be praised, he can not succeed save for a brief season—Revelation 11:3-12) would destroy God’s means of life, and would leave the world, "all nations," with their teeming but helpless millions to perish without hope, setting his wisdom against that of "the only Wise." Such an one rivals the devil, both in unfeeling heartlessness and in supreme presumption]:
27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever. Amen. [Owing to difference in Greek and English construction, the long sentence beginning with verse 25 is grammatically incomplete as rendered in English. If, however, the "to whom" of the last phrase be changed to read "to him," the sense is complete and plain. "To him that is able... to him be the glory." The whole passage, then, is an ascription of praise, with reasons for it injected in the form of a parenthesis. It is an implied prayer for the safety of the Roman church expressed in the form of a burst of confident praise to him in whom that safety lay. Of this benediction Gifford thus writes: "Comparing it with the introduction in chapter 1, we find in both the same fundamental thoughts of the Epistle: ’the power of God unto salvation’ (Romans 1:16), the gospel entrusted to Paul for the Gentiles (Romans 1:5), the testimony of the prophets (Romans 1:2), the ’obedience of the faith’ (Romans 1:5), the acceptance of all nations (Romans 1:5; Romans 1:14-16)—all these thoughts are here gathered up into one harmonious burst of ’wonder, love and praise.’" Thus the conclusion of the Epistle swings back to the beginning, so that the whole instruction assumes the form of the circle, symbol of its divine perfection, its unending authority.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER I. PART I. – Romans 1:1-15
THIS chapter consists of three parts. In the first fifteen verses, which form a general preface to the whole Epistle, Paul, after announcing his office and commission, declares the majesty and power of Him by whom he was appointed, who is at once the Author and Subject of the Gospel. He then characterizes those to whom he writes, and states his longing desire to visit them, for the purpose of confirming their faith. The second part of the chapter, comprising only the 16th and 17th verses, embraces the substance of the grand truths which were about to be discussed. In the remainder of the chapter, the Apostle, at once entering on the doctrine thus briefly but strikingly asserted, shows that the Gentiles were immersed in corruption and guilt and consequently subjected to condemnation.
Romans 1:1 — Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.
Conformably to the practice of antiquity, Paul commences his Epistle by prefixing his name, title, and designation. He had, as was usual among his countrymen, two names: by the first, as a Jew, he was known in his own land; by the second, among the Gentiles. Formerly his name was SAUL, but after the occurrence related of him, Acts 13:9, he was called PAUL.
Paul was of unmingled Jewish descent, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, born st Tarsus in Cilicia, but educated at Jerusalem; a Pharisee by profession, and distinguished among the disciples of Gamaliel, one of the most celebrated teachers of his age and nation. Before his conversion, he was an ardent and bigoted supporter of the traditions of his fathers, violently opposed to the humbling doctrines of Christianity, and a cruel persecutor of the Church. From the period of his miraculous conversion — from the hour when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus — down to the moment when he sealed his testimony with his blood, his eventful life was devoted to the promulgation of the faith which once he destroyed. Throughout the whole of his long and arduous course, he experienced a continual alternation of trials and graces, of afflictions and benedictions; always borne down by the hand of man, always sustained by the hand of God. The multiplied persecutions he endured, furnish a remarkable example of that just retribution which even believers seldom fail to experience in this world.
When scourged in the synagogues of the Jews — when persecuted from city to city, or suffering from cold and hunger in the dungeons of Nero — with what feelings must he have remembered the time when, "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord," he "banished them oft in every synagogue," and, "being exceedingly mad against them, persecuted them even unto strange cities;’ or, when he was stoned at Lystra, ad cast out of the city as dead, how must he have reflected on the prominent part he bore in the stoning of Stephen?
A servant of Jesus — Paul, who once verily thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, now subscribes himself His servant — literally, slave. This is an expression both of humility and of dignity — of humility, to signify that he was not his own, but belonged to Jesus Christ; of dignity, to show that he was accounted worthy to be His minister, as Moses and Joshua are called the servants of God. It the first sense, it is an appellation common to believers, all of whom are the slaves, or exclusive property of Jesus Christ, who has purchased them for Himself by the right of redemption, and retains them by the power of His word and Holy Spirit. In the second view, it denotes that Jesus Christ had honored Paul by employing him in His Church, and making use of his services in extending the interests of His kingdom. He assumes this title to distinguish himself from the ministers or servants of men, and in order to command respect for his instructions, since he writes in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ.
Called to be an Apostle, or a called Apostle. — Paul adds this second title to explain more particularly the first, and to show the rank to which he had been raised, and the employment with which he was entrusted. He was called to it by Jesus Christ Himself; for no man could bestow the office of an Apostle, or receive it from the hand of man, like the other offices in the church. Called, too, not merely externally as Judas, but internally and efficaciously; and called with a vocation which conferred on him all the qualities necessary to discharge the duties of the office he was appointed to; for the Divine calling is in this respect different from that which is merely human, inasmuch as the latter supposes those qualities to exist in the person called, while the former actually confers them. The state of Paul before his calling, and that in which his calling placed him, were directly opposite to each other.
The office to which Paul was called was that of an Apostle, which signifies one that is sent by another. The word in the original is sometimes translated messenger, but is specially appropriated in Scripture to those who were sent forth by Jesus Christ to preach His Gospel to the ends of the earth; and this appellation was given to the twelve by Himself, Luke 6:13, and has, as to them, a more specific signification than that of being sent, or being messengers. This office was the highest in the church, distinct from all others, in which, both from its nature and authority, the manner of its appointment, and the qualifications necessary for its discharge, those on whom it was conferred could have no successors. The whole system of the man of sin is built on the false assumption that he occupies the place of one of the Apostles. On this ground he usurps a claim to infallibility, as well as the power of working miracles, and in so far he is more consistent than others who, classing themselves with those first ministers of the word, advance no such pretensions.
As the Apostles were appointed to be the witnesses of the Lord, it was indispensably necessary that they should have seen Him after His resurrection. The keys of the kingdom of heaven were committed to them exclusively. They were to promulgate its laws, which bind in heaven and on earth, proclaiming that word by which all men shall be judged at the last day. When Jesus Christ said to them, "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you," He pledged Himself for the truth of their doctrine; just as when the voice from the excellent glory proclaimed, "This is My beloved Son, hear Him," the Father set His seal to whatever His Son taught. In preaching the Divine word, though not in their personal conduct, the Apostles were fully inspired; and the Holy Scriptures, as indicted or sanctioned by them, are not the words of man, but the words of the Holy Ghost. The most awful anathema is accordingly annexed to the prohibition either to add to or take from the sacred record. Thus the Lord, who had appointed the Apostles not to a ministry limited or attached to a particular flock, but to one which extended generally through all places, to preach the Gospel in all the world, and to regulate the churches, endowed them with an infallible Spirit which led them into all truth. They were also invested with the gift of working miracles on every necessary occasion, and of exclusively communicating that gift to others by the laying on of their hands. From all this it followed that they were perfectly qualified to preach the everlasting Gospel, and possessed full authority in the churches to deliver to them those immutable and permanent laws to which thenceforth to the end of time they were to be subject. The names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb are accordingly inscribed in the twelve foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem; and all His people are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.
Every qualification of an Apostle centered in Paul, as he shows in various places. He had seen the Lord after His resurrection, 1 Corinthians 9:1. He had received his commission directly from Jesus Christ and God the Father, Galatians 1:1. He possessed the signs of an Apostle, 2 Corinthians 12:12. He had received the knowledge of the Gospel, not through any man, or by any external means, but by the, revelation of Jesus Christ, Galatians 1:11-12; and although he was as one born out of due time, yet, by the grace vouchsafed to him, he labored more abundantly than all the rest.
When he here designates himself a called Apostle, he seems to refer to the insinuations of his enemies, who, from his not having been appointed during the ministry of our Lord, considered him as inferior to the other Apostles. The object of nearly the whole of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians is to establish his apostolic authority; in the third chapter especially, he exhibits the superiority of the ministration committed to the Apostles, over that entrusted to Moses. Thus the designation of servant, the first of the titles here assumed, denotes his general character; the second, of Apostle, his particular office; and the term Apostle being placed at the beginning of this Epistle, impresses the stamp of Divine authority on all that it contains.
Separated unto the Gospel of God — This may regard either God’s eternal purpose concerning Paul, or His pre-ordination of him to be a preacher of the Gospel, to which he was separated from his mother’s womb, as it was said to Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified these and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations;’ or rather it refers to the time when God revealed His Son in him, that he might preach Him along the heathen, Galatians 1:16. The term separated, here used, appears to allude to his having been a Pharisee before his conversion, which signifies one separated or set apart. Now, however, he was separated in a far different manner; for then it was by human pride, now it was by Divine grace. Formerly he was set apart to uphold the inventions and traditions of men, but now to preach the Gospel of God.
The Gospel of God to which Paul was separated, signifies the glad tidings of salvation which God has proclaimed. It is the supernatural revelation which He has given, distinguished from the revelation of the works of nature. It denotes that revelation of mercy and salvation, which excels in glory, as distinguished from the law, which was the revelation of condemnation. It is the Gospel of God, inasmuch as God is its author, its interpreter, its subject: its author, as He has purposed it in His eternal decrees; its interpreter, as He Himself hath — declared it to men; its subject, because in the Gospel His sovereign perfections and purposes towards men are manifested. For the same reasons it is also called the Gospel of the grace of God, the Gospel of peace, the Gospel of the kingdom, the Gospel of salvation, the everlasting Gospel, the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. This Gospel is the glad tidings from God of the accomplishment of the promise of salvation that had been made to Adam. That promise had been typically represented by the institution of sacrifice, and transmitted by oral tradition. It had been solemnly proclaimed by Enoch and by Noah before the flood; it had been more particularly announced to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; by Moses, it was exhibited in those typical representations contained in the law, which had a shadow of good things to come. Its fulfillment was the spirit and object of the whole prophetic testimony, in the predictions concerning a new covenant, and in all that was foretold respecting the advent of the Messiah.
Romans 1:2 — Which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
By declaring that the Gospel had been before promised, Paul tacitly repels the accusation that it was a novel doctrine. At the same time, he states its Divine origin as a reason why nothing new is to be admitted in religion. He further shows in what respect the Old and New Testaments differ — not as containing two religions essentially dissimilar, but as exhibiting the same grand truth — predicted, prefigured, and fulfilled. The Old Testament is the promise of the New, and the New the accomplishment of the Old. The Gospel had been promised by all the prophecies which foretold a new covenant, — by those which predicted the coming of the Messiah, — by all the observances, under the law, that contained in themselves the promise of the things they prefigured, — by the whole of the legal economy, that preceded the Gospel, in which was displayed the strictness of Divine justice, which in itself would have been a ministration only of condemnation, had it not been accompanied by all the revelations of grace and mercy, which were in substance and embryo the Gospel itself, and consequently foretold and prepared the way for a more perfect development.
By His Prophets. — Paul here also repels another accusation of the Jews, namely, that the Apostles were opposed to Moses and the Prophets; and intimates their complete agreement. He thus endeavors to secure attention and submission to his doctrine, by removing the prejudices entertained against it, and by showing that none could reject it without rejecting the Prophets. In addition to this, he establishes the authority of the Prophets by intimating that it was God Himself who spoke by them, and consequently that their words must be received as a revelation from heaven.
In the Holy Scriptures. — Here he establishes the inspiration of the Scriptures, by pronouncing them holy, and asserting that it was God Himself who spoke in them; and shows whence we are now to take the true word of God and of His Prophets, — not from oral tradition, which must be uncertain and fluctuating, but from the written word, which is certain and permanent. He teaches that we ought always to resort to the Scriptures; for that, in religion, whatever they do not contain is really novel, although it may have passed current for ages; while all that is found there is really ancient, although it may have been lost sight of for a long period.
Romans 1:3 — Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which has made of the seed of David according to the flesh
The Gospel of God concerns His Son. The whole of it is comprised in the knowledge of Jesus Christ; so that whoever departs one step from Him, departs from the Gospel. For as Jesus Christ is the Divine image of the Father, He is set before us as the real object of our faith. It is of Him that the Gospel of God, promised by the Prophets, treats; so that He is not simply a legislator or interpreter of the Divine will, like Moses, and the Prophets, and the Apostles. Had the law and the Gospel been given by others than Moses and the Apostles, the essential characteristics of these two economies would have remained the same. But it is altogether different respecting Jesus Christ, who is exclusively the Alpha and Omega of the Gospel, its proper object, its beginning and its end. For it is He who founded it in His blood, and who has communicated to it all its virtue. On this account He Himself says, ’I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.’ He is the Son of God, His own Son, the Only-begotten of the Father; which proves that He is truly and exclusively His Son, of the same nature, and equal with the Father, and not figuratively, or in a secondary sense, as angels or men, as Israel or believers.
Jesus Christ — He was called Jesus, the Greek name of the Hebrew Joshua, signifying Jehovah that saveth; and so called by the angel before He was born. ’Thou shalt call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins,’ Matthew 1:21. The title Christ —that is, Messiah, or ’Anointed’, — being so often added in designation of His office, at length came into use as a part of His name. Our Lord. — This follows from His being the Son of God. The word translated Lord, comprehends the different names or titles which the Hebrews gave to God, but most usually corresponds with that of Jehovah. Where it is used as the name of God, it designates essentially the three persons of the Godhead; but it is also applied to any one of the Divine persons. In the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles, it generally refers to Christ; and in these Divine writings this appellation is applied to Him in innumerable instances. He is called ’the Lord of glory;’ ’the Lord both of the dead and living;’ ’the Lord of all.’ The name Jesus refers to His saving His people; the designation Christ, to His being anointed for that purpose; and that of Lord, to His sovereign authority.
On whatever subject Paul treats, he constantly introduces the mystery of Christ. In writing to the Corinthians, he says, ’I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’ This is a declaration that the doctrine concerning Christ is the whole of religion; in which all besides is comprehended. In delivering his instructions to the saints at Corinth respecting the incestuous person he points out to them Jesus Christ as the Lamb that was sacrificed. If his subject respects the promises he has made, or the engagements he has entered into, he draws our attention to the promises of God, which are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus. When he treats of the precepts to be obeyed, he regards them as connected with the knowledge of Christ. All duties are considered in relation to Him, as the only Savior from whom we can derive power to fulfill them, the only altar on which they can be accepted, that model according to which they are to be performed, and the motive by which those who perform them are to be actuated. He is the head that gives life to the members, the root which renders the branches fruitful. Believers are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Jesus Christ is the end and object of their obedience, in order that the name of the Father may be glorified in the Son, and that the name of the Son may be glorified in them. Accordingly, the Scriptures speak of the commencement and the continuation of the life of believers as being derived from Christ; of their being planted together with Him; buried and risen with Him; walking in Him; living and dying with Him. The principal motives to holiness, in general, or to any particular duty, are drawn from some special view of the work of redemption, fitted to excite to the fulfillment of such obligations. The love of God in Christ is set before us, in a multitude of passages, as the most powerful motive we can have to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. When we are exhorted to look not to our own things only, but also to those of others, it is because we ought to have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, humbled Himself to do such wonderful things for us. The duty of almsgiving is enforced by the consideration that He who was rich for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. Forbearance to weak brethren has for its motive the death of Christ for them. If we are exhorted to forgive the offenses of others, it is because God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven us.
The reciprocal duties of husband and wife are enforced by the consideration of the love of Christ, and the relation in which He stands to His Church. The motive to chastity is, that we are members of Christ’s body, and temples of the Holy Ghost. In one word, the various exhortations to the particular duties of a holy life, and the motives which correspond to each of them, are all taken from different views of one grand and important object, the mystery of redemption. He ’His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.’ ’Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.’ Having referred to Jesus Christ under the title of the Son of God, the Apostle immediately subjoins a declaration concerning His person as God and man.
Which was made of the seed of David. — The wisdom of God was displayed in the whole of the dispensation that related to the Messiah, who, in His human nature, was, conformably to many express predictions, to descend from David king of Israel . He was born of a virgin of the family of David; and the first promise, containing His earliest name, the seed of the woman, indicated that He was in this supernatural manner to come into the world; as also that He was to be equally related to Jews and to Gentiles. To Abraham it was afterwards promised, that the Messiah should spring from him. ’In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.’ But as this promise was still very general, it was next limited to the tribe of Judah. ’The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come.And to David the Lord had sworn, ’Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.’ Thus, as the period of His birth approached, the promises concerning Him were more particular and more restricted. The wisdom of God was pleased in this manner to designate the family in which the Messiah, as to His human nature, was to be born, that it might be one of the characteristics which should distinguish and make Him known, as well as to confound the unbelief of those who should reject Him, and deny His advent. For, if He has not yet come, it was to no purpose that the prophets foretold that He should descend from a certain family, since all the genealogies of the Jews are now lost. It must therefore be admitted either that these predictions, thus restricted, were given in vain, or that the Messiah must have appeared while the distinction of Jewish families still subsisted, and the royal house of David could still be recognized. This declaration of the Apostle was calculated to have great weight with all, both Jews and Gentiles, who reverenced the Old Testament Scriptures, in convincing them that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah, the hope of Israel.
God has also seen it good to exhibit, in the birth of Jesus Christ, that union of majesty and dignity on the one hand, and weakness and abasem*nt on the other, which reigns through the whole of His economy on earth. For what family had there been in the world more glorious than that of David, the great king of Israel, most honored and beloved of God, both as a prophet and a king? And what family was more reduced or obscure when Jesus Christ was born? This is the reason why He is represented by the prophet Isaiah as the rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch growing out of his roots, which marks a family reduced, as if nothing more remained but the roots, which scarcely appeared above ground. And by the same prophet it is also said, ’He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground.’
According to the flesh. — The prophets had abundantly testified that the Messiah was to be truly man, as well as truly God, which was necessary in order to accomplish the purpose of His advent. ’For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death.’ The Apostle John declares that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This expression could not be employed respecting any mere man, as no one who was only a man could come except in the flesh. Since, then, Jesus Christ might have come in some other manner, these words affirm His humanity, while at the same time they prove His pre-existence.
Romans 1:4 — And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Declared to be the Son of God. — The word here translated ’declared,’ imports, according to the sense of the original as well as the connection, defined or proved. The term properly signifies, to point out, or to limit, as when bounds are set to a field to regulate its measurement. Jesus Christ was made or became the Son of David; but He did not become, but was declared, defined, or demonstrated to be the Son of God. That Jesus Christ is not called in this place the Son of God with reference to His incarnation or resurrection merely, is evident from the fact that His nature as the Son of God is here distinguished from His descent from David. This expression, the Son of God, definitely imports Deity, as applied to Jesus Christ. It as properly denotes participation of the Divine nature, as the contrasted expression, Son of Man, denotes participation of the human nature. As Jesus Christ is called the Son of Man in the proper sense to assert His humanity, so, when in contrast with this He is called the Son of God, the phrase must be understood in its proper sense as asserting His Deity. The words, indeed, are capable of a figurative application, of which there are many examples in Scripture. But one part of the contrast is not to be taken as literal, and the other as figurative; and if the fact of a phrase being capable of figurative acceptation incapacitates it from expressing its proper meaning, or renders its meaning inexplicably uncertain, no word or phrase could ever be definite. A word or phrase is never to be taken in a figurative sense, where its proper sense is suitable; for language would be unintelligible if it might be arbitrarily explained away as figurative. This appellation, Son of God, was indeed frequently ascribed to pious men; but if this circ*mstance disqualified the phrase from bearings a literal and definite meaning, there is not a word or phrase in language that is capable of a definite meaning in its proper signification.
The Apostle John says, ’But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,’ by which he means to say who Christ is. Paul, after his conversion, ’preached Christ in the synagogues.’ And what did he preach concerning Him? — ’That He was the Son of God.’ The great burden of Paul’s doctrine was, to prove that Jesus is the Son of God. That term, then, must definitely import His Divine nature. It is not only used definitely, but as expressing the most important article in the Christian faith; it is used as an epitome of the whole creed. When the eunuch desired to be baptized, ’Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And He answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ The belief, then, of the import of this term is the substance of Christianity. Faith in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, overcometh the world. ’Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that JESUS is the Son of God?’ In the confession of Peter, Matthew 16:16, this phrase is employed as an epitome of the Christian faith. To the question, ’Whom say ye that I am?’ Peter replies, ’Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ We have here the very essence of Christianity. It is asked, Who is Christ? The reply, then, must answer this question; it must inform us who Christ is, both as to His person, His office, and nature. Thou art the Christ, is the answer to the question, so far as it respects His person and office; Thou art the Son of the living God, is the answer as to His nature. The parable in which the king makes a marriage for his son, speaks the same doctrine, Matthew 22:2. Christ is there represented to be the Son of God, in the same sense in which a royal heir is the son of the king his father. If, then, the king’s son partake of the nature of his father, so must Jesus Christ, the Son of God, partake of the nature of His Father; if the king’s son be a son in the perfect sense of the term, and not a son figuratively, in like manner the Son of God is God’s Son in the proper sense.
The question put to the Pharisees by Jesus, Matthew 22:42, proves that the phrase Son of God means sonship by nature. ’What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?’ This question evidently refers to proper, not figurative sonship. When we ask whose son such a person is, it is palpably evident that we mean real, not figurative sonship. Though the question might have reference to our Lord’s human nature, and the inquiry relate to His father after the flesh, as the Pharisees understood, still it clearly denotes the natural relation; but that Christ did not intend it exclusively of His father as to the flesh, is evident from His next question: ’If David, then, call Him Lord, how is He his Son?’ Jesus Christ could not mean to deny that He was the Son of David; but He intimates that, though He was the Son of David as to the flesh, He must be the Son of God in the same sense in which He was David’s Son. He asks, Who is the father of the Messiah? and from something affirmed of Him, intimates that there is a sense in which He is not David’s Son. The answer He received was true, but not full; the supply of the deficiency is ’the Son of God’ The question, then, and the proper answer, imports that Jesus was the Son of God in the literal sense of the words. Besides, David could not call Him Lord as to His human nature; nor was He David’s Lord in any sense but that in which He was God.
The condemnation, also, of unbelievers rests on the foundation of the Savior’s dignity as the Son of God. ’He that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten son of God.’ They are condemned not merely for rejecting His message, but for not believing in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. Faith, then, respects not His doctrine only, but Himself, especially as exhibited in His doctrine. Such sonship implies Deity.
In this Epistle, chapter 8, Paul argues that God will deny nothing to those for whom He has given His Son. But this argument would be ill founded, if Jesus be only figuratively His Son. ’He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ This supposes that the gift of Christ is greater than the gift of all other things besides, and that in such a disproportion as to bear no comparison. If so, can He be anything else than truly Divine? Had He been the highest of created beings, it would not follow as a self-evident consequence that such a gift of Him implied the gift of all things else. The epithets attached to this phrase, Son of God, show it to import proper sonship. Jesus is called God’s own Son, — the beloved — the well beloved Son, — the begotten — the only-begotten Son of God. This sonship, then is a sonship not only in a more eminent degree, but in a sense in which it is not true of any other in the lowest degree. God has other sons, but He has no other son in the sense in which Jesus is His Son. He has no other son who enjoys the community of His nature. Therefore this Son is called His begotten, or His only-begotten Son. A begotten son is a son by nature; and Jesus must be designedly so designated, to distinguish His natural sonship from that which is figurative. The phrase is rendered still more definite by the addition of the word only. Jesus is the ONLY—begotten Son, because He is the only Son of God in the proper sense of the term. Other sons are figuratively sons, but He is the begotten Son, and the only-begotten Son.
The phrase own Son imports the truth of the sonship by another term, and is therefore an additional source of evidence. Own Son is a son by nature, in opposition to the son of another, to a son by law, and to all figurative sons. Christ, then, is God’s own Son, because He is His Son by nature, because He is not His Son by adoption in the view of the law, and because He is His Son in opposition to figurative sonships.
That the words, I and my Father are one, John 10:30, mean nity of nature, and not unity of design, is clear from our Lord’s account of the charge of the Jews: they charged Him with blasphemy for calling Himself the Son of God. ’Say ye of Him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?’ Now the words used were not, I am the Son of God. The words I and My Father are one must therefore be the same in import as I am the Son of God; but if the expression, I and My Father are one, is the same in import as, I am the Son of God, the former cannot mean, I am one in design with My Father. Jesus, in the 36th verse, represents the Jews as charging Him with blasphemy, not for saying that He was God, but for saying that He was the Son of God. This incontrovertibly proves that the Jews understood the phrase, Son of God, as importing Deity. The phrase is blasphemous when applied to a mere creature in no other sense than as importing Deity.
That the Lord Jesus Christ, in his eternal equality with the Father, and not merely as God manifested in the flesh, is called the Son of God, flows directly from the fact that, wherever the first person of the adorable Trinity is personally distinguished in Scripture, it is under the title, the co-relative title, of the Father. And what is the objection to this doctrine of our Lord’s eternal sonship? It is simply that it differs from all our ordinary notions of the filial relation, to represent the Son as co-eternal with the Father; or that begotten must necessarily mean ’derived,’ and that to grant derivation is to surrender Deity. In regard to the last form of the objection, it is only necessary to remark, that the doctrine of Scripture is not to be held chargeable with the vain and unprofitable speculations about derived personality, on which some of its upholders have adventured. And in regard to the first, it is not difficult to see that it is destitute of force, except on the impious assumption that we are not bound to receive any declaration about the Divine nature, about the deepest mysteries which are veiled from our reason, and revealed only to our faith, unless we can fully comprehend it. To demand that the distinction of persons in the undivided essence of the Godhead, and the mode of their eternal subsistence, shall be made plain to us; or to reject the doctrine of the eternal filiation of the Son of God, because it overpasses the boundaries of our notions of sonship, — what is this but the very summit of unthinking arrogance? What is it but to say that we will make our own narrow minds the measure of all things, — that we will accept nothing from pure respect to the authority of God, — that we will give the Faithful One only the credit which we allow to a suspected witness, receiving His evidence where it harmonizes with our own apprehensions, — and that, while to our feeble minds every insect is a mystery, there must be no arcana in the nature of Him who dwelleth in the light that is inaccessible?
With power — Some explain the meaning of this to be, that by His resurrection Jesus Christ was powerfully declared to be the Son of God. But He was not merely powerfully declared — which would intimate the high degree of the evidence — but, according to the Apostle, He was absolutely declared to be the Son of God. Some, again, suppose that He was declared to be the Son of God by the power of the Father who raised Him up. If this had been intended, it would not, it appears, have simply been said, with power, but by the power and glory of the Father, as in Romans 6:4, and 2 Corinthians 13:4. The expression, with power, is to be construed with that of the Son of God which immediately precedes it, not with the word declared, and signifies invested with power. All power was inherent in Him, as ’God blessed for ever;’ but it was given to Him as Mediator, as He Himself declares, Matthew 28:18, John 17:2, and clearly manifested by His resurrection. He then appeared possessed of eternal, sovereign, and universal power, and that in opposition to the semblance of weakness in which He had appeared on earth. The dignity of His person having remained for some time concealed under the veil of weakness, His resurrection gloriously displayed His ineffable power, as the Conqueror of death, and by His power also evinced His dignity as the Son of God. The power which was given to our Lord when He rose from the dead, was eminently displayed by His sending out the Holy Spirit, when He returned to the Father. Before His resurrection, if only the veil of infirmity with which, in His birth, he had been covered, was contemplated, He appeared merely as a man. But after His resurrection, if we turn our eyes to His sending forth the Holy Spirit, we behold Him as the Son of God invested with all power. For He who thus sends forth this glorious Spirit must be’ possessed of sovereign and infinite power, and consequently must be the Son of God. The Holy Spirit, too, whom Jesus Christ communicates, marks His divinity by other characters besides that of power, namely, by that of holiness, by that of majesty, by that of eternity, and that of infinity, proving that He only who bestows the Holy Spirit can be the eternal God, sovereignty holy, and sovereignly glorious. The Apostle has, however, chosen the characteristic of power for two reasons — the one is to oppose it to the flesh, denoting weakness; and the other, because He has overcome the world, which is an act of ineffable power. To destroy the empire of Satan, to subdue the hearts of men, to change the face of the universe, displays a power which is truly Divine.
According to the Spirit of Holiness — There are various interpretations of these terms, but the proper antithesis can only be preserved by referring them to Christ’s Divine nature. If the words are capable of this application, we need not hesitate to adopt it in this place; and though the phrase is unusual, there can be no doubt that it is capable of this meaning. It is equally unusual in whatever sense it may be applied. This circ*mstance, then, cannot prevent it from referring to the Deity of Jesus Christ, in direct contrast to His humanity. Spirit of Holiness may be used here rather than the phrase Holy Spirit, because the latter is usually assigned to the third person of the Trinity. Though the exact expression does not occur elsewhere in the Scriptures, other passages corroborate this meaning, as ’the Lord (that is, Christ) is that Spirit,’ 2 Corinthians 3:17. He is called ’a quickening Spirit,’ 1 Corinthians 15:45, which character’ belonged to Him in a particular manner after His resurrection, when He appeared as the spiritual Head of His Church, communicating spirit and life to all His members. The unusual expression, Spirit of Holiness, appears, then, here to denote His Deity, in contrast with His humanity, characterizing Him as God, who is a Spirit essentially holy.
In the verse before us, connected with the preceding, we see that it is upon the foundation of the union of the Divine and human natures, in the person of the Messiah, that Paul proceeds to establish all the great and important truths which he sets forth in this Epistle. In another passage, he afterwards explicitly asserts this union: ’Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.’ Romans 9:5.
In the same manner Matthew commences his Gospel. He traces the genealogy of the human nature of Jesus Christ, and afterwards declares His Divine nature, Matthew 1:18; Matthew 1:21; Matthew 1:23. Mark begins by proclaiming Him to be the Son of God. ’As it is written in the Prophets, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord (of Jehovah), make His paths (for our God) straight,’ Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1. Luke introduces his Gospel by asserting His Divine nature. In speaking of the coming of John the Baptist, he says, ’And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God; and he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias;’ and then he declares His genealogy according to His human nature, Luke 1:16; Luke 3:23. John commences his Gospel by saying, ’In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;’ and afterwards, ’The Word was made flesh,’ John 1:1-14. Nearly in the same terms he commences and closes his first Epistle. The leading truth which the Apostles taught when they preached to the Jews at Jerusalem was, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah promised, who had been crucified, and who was raised from the dead, and exalted to the right hand of the Father; and the same great truth was declared to Cornelius, when the Gospel was first preached to the Gentiles. The foundation of all that the Apostle advances in the Epistle to the Hebrews, respecting the superiority of the new over the old covenant, is established upon the union of the Divine and human natures of Jesus Christ. Having announced that He is the Son of God, he determines the import of that title, by quoting a passage which ascribes to Him the name, the throne, the kingdom, the righteousness, and the eternity of God. ’Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.’ The Apostle Peter begins his first Epistle by referring to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and his second, by designating Him as ’our God and Savior.’ And as in the last prophetical book of the Old Testament the Messiah is called Jehovah, so the prophetical book which terminates the New Testament opens with announcing Him to be ’Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty,’ and closes in a similar manner, ’I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last,’ which signifies the self-existent eternal Jehovah.
By the resurrection from the dead. — His resurrection defined or determined Jesus Christ to be the person spoken of by the Prophets as the Son of God, and was the authentic and solemn judgment of God pronouncing Him to be His Son. As it is also written in the second Psalm, ’Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee, Acts 13:33. In Scripture, things are often said to be done when they are publicly declared and manifested. Then the Son of God was raised from the dead, His eternal dignity, which was before concealed, was brought to light. His Divine power, being infinite and unchangeable, could receive no augmentation of dignity or majesty. But, having chosen to appear among men enveloped as in a cloud of sufferings and apparent weakness, His glorification consisted in His emerging from that cloud, leaving the veil of infirmities in the tomb, without any of them adhering to Him, when, as the sun breaks forth in his splendor, He was gloriously manifested as the Son of God.
By His resurrection, God proclaimed to the universe that Christ was His only-begotten Son. The Apostle having in the foregoing verse called Jesus Christ the Son of God, here adds that He was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. His resurrection, then, did not constitute Him the Son of God; it only evinced that He was truly so. Jesus Christ had declared Himself to be the Son of God; and on this account the Jews charged Him with blasphemy, and asserted that He was a deceiver. By His resurrection, the clear manifestation of the character He had assumed, gloriously and for ever terminated the controversy which had been maintained during the whole of His ministry on earth. In raising Him from the dead, God decided the contest. He declared Him to be His Son, and showed that He had accepted His death in satisfaction for the sins of His people, and consequently that He had suffered not for Himself, but for them, which none could have done but the Son of God. On this great fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul rests the truth of the Christian religion, without which the testimony of the Apostles would be false, and the faith of God’s people vain. ’But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.’ His resurrection is a sure pledge that they who sleep in Jesus, God at His second appearance will bring with Him. As He triumphed in His resurrection over all His enemies, so His people shall arise to victory and blessedness. Then they shall know the power of the resurrection of Jesus, the grandeur of that event, and their interest in it through eternity.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ proved His sonship, because He had claimed that character during His life, and had appealed in proof of it to His rising from the dead, John 2:19. Had this testimony been untrue, it could not have taken place. And it not only proved His own eternal power and Godhead, but also manifested His oneness and union in all the perfections and distinguishing characters which constitute Godhead, in common with the Father and the Holy Ghost, each of these glorious persons concurring in that act, as we learn from other Scriptures. Professor Stuart, in his Commentary, asks in this place, ’How could the resurrection declare, in any special manner that Christ was the Son of God? Was not Lazarus raised from the dead? Were not others raised from the dead by Christ, by the Apostles, by Elijah, and by the bones of Elisha? And yet was their resurrection proof that they were the sons of God? God did indeed prepare the way for universal dominion to be given to Christ by raising Him from the dead. To the like purpose is the Apostle’s assertion in Acts 17:31. But how an event common to Him, to Lazarus, and to many others, could of itself demonstrate Him to be the Son of God, ejn dunamei — remains yet to be shown.’ This is feeble reasoning. It shows that Mr. Stuart is entirely mistaken as to the manner in which the resurrection of Christ bears testimony to His character. Jesus Christ came into the world professing to be the Son of God, and was put to death for that profession. His resurrection, then, was God’s seal to the truth of this claim. In itself, it did not testify whether He was God or only man, but it fully established the truth of everything He taught; and as He taught His own Godhead, His resurrection is proof of His Deity. But how could it ever be supposed that the resurrection of Lazarus would prove as much for him as for Christ? Lazarus did not, before his death, profess to be the Son of God, and Mediator. He never predicted his resurrection as an event which was to decide the justice of his pretensions; and had he done so, he would not have been raised to confirm a falsehood. Professor Stuart’s argument concludes as strongly against the proof of sonship, in any sense, from the resurrection of Christ, as against proper sonship. The mere fact of being raised from the dead is not evidence of being even a good man. But in whatever sense Jesus is the Son of God, His resurrection is here stated by the Apostle to be the grand proof.
Before His departure, Jesus Christ told His disciples that when the Comforter came He should convince the world ’of righteousness, because,’ said He, ’I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.’ In raising Him from the dead, and receiving Him up into glory, God declared that the everlasting righteousness which the Messiah came to ’bring in’ was accomplished. His honorable reception by His Father who sent Him, furnished the most complete proof that He had faithfully fulfilled the purposes of His mission. ’For if,’ says Archbishop Usher, ’He had broken prison and made an escape, the payment of the debt which, as our surety, He took upon Himself, being not yet satisfied, He should have been seen here again; Heaven would not have held Him more than Paradise did Adam, after He had fallen into God’s debt.’ To the same purpose says Bates, ’If He had remained in the grave, it had been reasonable to believe Him an ordinary person, and that His death had been the punishment of His presumption; but His resurrection was the most illustrious and convincing evidence that He was what He declared Himself to be. For it is not conceivable that God should put forth an almighty power to raise Him, and thereby authorize His resurrection, if by robbery He had assumed that glorious title of the Son of God. If, indeed, a single sin which had been "laid on Him" had been left unexpiated, He must have remained for ever in the grave: death would in that case have detained Him as its prisoner; for the wages of sin is death.’
By His incarnation, Jesus Christ received in His human nature the fullness of His Spirit; but He received it covered with the veil of His flesh. By His death He merited the Spirit to sanctify His people; but still this was only a right which He had acquired, without its execution. By His resurrection He entered into the full exercise of this right; He received the full dispensation of the Spirit, to communicate it to them; and it was then He was declared to be the Son of God with power.
Romans 1:5 — By Whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His name.
One of the first acts of the power of Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, was to bestow His Spirit and His grace on those who were chosen by Him, to qualify them to be His witnesses and the heralds of His Gospel. Paul was among that number, although appointed at a later period than the rest. We have received — He here speaks of himself in the plural number. He does not appear to use this style that he may include the other Apostles: what is true of him will, however, as to everything essential, apply to all the others. He distinguishes these two things, Grace and Apostleship. The first, which he had experienced in his conversion, and in every subsequent part of his course, he had received from Jesus Christ; and by Him also he was appointed to the office of an Apostle, to the discharge of which that grace was indispensably necessary.
To the obedience of faith — Paul, as an Apostle, was commissioned to preach the Gospel in order to the obedience of faith. Some understand this of the obedience which faith produces; but the usual import of the expression, as well as the connection in this place, determines it to apply to the belief of the Gospel. Obedience is no doubt an effect produced by that belief; but the office of an Apostle was, in the first place, to persuade men to believe the Gospel. This is the grand object, which includes the other. The Gospel reforms those who believe it; but it would be presenting an imperfect view of the subject to say that it was given to reform the world. It was given that men might believe and be saved. The obedience, then, here referred to, signifies submission to the doctrine of the Gospel. This is quite in accordance with those passages in which the expression is elsewhere found, as in Acts 6:7; Romans 6:17; Romans 16:26; Galatians 3:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 1:22; and in Romans 10:3; where the Israelites are charged with not submitting to the righteousness of God; and especially in the 16th verse of that chapter it is said, ’But they have not all obeyed the Gospel; for Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?’ This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, 1 John 3:23.
The object, then, of faith, is not only a promise, but a promise accompanied with a command to accept it. For since it is God who promises, His majesty and authority accompany His promise. In respect to the promise, that which on our part corresponds to it is called faith; but in regard to the commandment which enjoins us to receive the promise, the act on our part is obedience. On this account, unbelief is rebellion against God. Faith, on the other hand, is an act of submission, or the surrender of ourselves to God, contrary to the natural opposition of our minds, in order that He may possess and conduct us, and make us whatever He pleases. When, therefore, that opposition is overcome by the weapons with which the Apostles were armed, namely, the word of truth, our submission is called the obedience of faith. ’This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.’ The obedience of faith which His people render to Jesus Christ is an adoration which supposes His Deity; for when reason entirely submits and is swallowed up in His authority, it is a real adoration. ’Faith,’ says Calvin on this passage, ’is adorned with the title of obedience, because the Lord calls us by His Gospel, and by faith we answer when He calls us; as, on the contrary, unbelief is the height of all rebellion against God.’
Among all nations — Paul here assigns the reason why he preaches to Gentiles, namely, that it is the destination of his office or apostleship, and not solely his own choice, Galatians 2:7. In past ages, God had suffered all nations, with the exception of the Jews, to walk in their own ways, although He had not left Himself without witness in the works of creation and providence. Both in the universal deluge, and also upon other occasions, He had manifested His wrath on account of sin, and His determination to punish it. But after the establishment of the nation of Israel in Canaan, after the institution of His public worship among them, and after He had given to them His written revelation, He did not generally interpose His authority in a visible manner to turn the nations from the ways they had chosen. Although, therefore, the times of this ignorance God winked at, He now commanded all men to repent. For ’thus it is written,’ that when Christ suffered and rose from the dead, ’repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations,’ Luke 24:47. And accordingly Paul closes this Epistle by declaring that it was by the commandment of the everlasting God that the mystery, which had been kept secret from ages and generations, should be made known to all nations, in order to the obedience of faith. This was in conformity to the commission given by the Lord Himself to His eleven Apostles, to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature; and likewise to the particular command afterwards received by Paul respecting the Gentiles, ’To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.’ Thus the Gospel of the uncircumcision was in a special manner committed to Paul, to which in the verse before us he refers.
For His name — The Gospel is preached among all nations for the obedience of faith, but paramount to this is the glory of the name of Jesus Christ. The name, the glory, and the authority of God have the same signification. The world was created for God’s glory, and His glory is the chief end of the restoration of sinners. The acts of His goodness to His people are declared to be done for His own name’s sake; and for the same end His judgments also are executed on sinners, for His own name, Romans 9:17. Men are very unwilling to admit that God should have any end with respect to them greater than their happiness. But His own glory is everywhere in the Scriptures represented as the chief end of man’s existence, and of the existence of all things. It is in the name of Jesus that His people are taught to pray; and we are baptized into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, as into one name. This affords unanswerable proof of the divinity of Christ. Paul was a chosen vessel to bear His name before the Gentiles, Acts 9:15. This verse concludes the general introduction to the Epistle; the easy transition to the particular address should not pass unnoticed.
Romans 1:6 — Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ.
Those to whom Paul wrote, were included among the nations to whom his commission extended. He mentions this, that it might not appear strange that he addresses them for the purpose of instructing them, but that, on the contrary, they should receive what he wrote with due confidence and respect. He was unknown to them by sight; he was far distant from them. They might say, What interest had he in them? He assures them that his apostleship regarded and comprehended them, and that he did nothing beyond his calling when he desired to increase their knowledge, and confirm their faith. They were the called of Jesus Christ. Thus he had a double right, and was laid under a double obligation to address them, both as belonging to the nations to whom his commission extended, and also as having already become obedient to the faith. The apostolic commission consisted of two parts: first, to make disciples, and then to teach them to observe all things that Jesus had commanded. Thus Paul had a measure at Corinth, 2 Corinthians 10:13.
Of Jesus Christ — Not only called to Jesus, but called by Him; for He is not only that glorious person to whom we ought to go, but who Himself says, Come unto Me. The believers at Rome were called both with an external calling by the Gospel, and also with an internal calling by the Holy Spirit. Both these callings are ascribed to the Father, and also, as in this passage, to Jesus Christ, because the Son, as Mediator, is the minister of the Father, and executes all things for Him. As the high Priest of His people, He has done for them all that is required for establishing the New Covenant; but as the Prophet and King of His Church, He converts them and leads them to the Father. This expression, the called of Jesus Christ, imports that they belonged to Him, as in Isaiah 48:12, ’Israel, my called,’ that is, who are mine by the right of calling.
Verse 7 — to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called, saints: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ To all.
The Apostle here addresses all the saints at Rome without distinction, whether they were Jews or Gentiles, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, bond or free. He does not distinguish the pastors from the people, but addresses himself to them all in common — what he writes being equally intended for their common instruction and edification. He addresses them by three designations, Beloved of God, Called, Saints. They were saints because they were called, and they were called because they were beloved of God. Their character as saints, then, was not the cause, but the effect, of their being beloved of God.
Beloved of God — In opposition to the rest of mankind, whom God hath left in unbelief and the corruption of the world. Here, then, is the electing love of God placed first in order. It is that love wherewith He loved them when they were dead in sins, Ephesians 2:5. It is the greatest love that God can show to man, being everlasting love, which originates with Himself. It is purely gratuitous, and does not spring from the foresight of anything worthy in those who are its objects; but, on the contrary, goes before all that is good in the creature, and brings with it infinite blessings. It has for its primary object Jesus Christ, the beloved of the Father; and those whom He beholds in Christ, although in themselves children of wrath, are beloved for His sake. This love is unvarying from eternity and through eternity, although God’s dealings towards His people may vary, as it is declared in the 99th Psalm, ’Thou takest vengeance On their inventions.’ He may thus be displeased with them, as it is said, ’The thing that David did displeased the Lord,’ but His love to them remains the same, like the love of a father to a child, even when he chastens him for his disobedience.
Called — The first outward effect of election, or of the love of God to His people, is His calling them, not merely by the word, which is common to many, but by the Holy Spirit, which is limited to few, Matthew 22:14. ’I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee,’ Jeremiah 31:3. The election, then, of believers is to be traced through their calling, 2 Peter 1:10, and their calling to the everlasting love of God.
Saints — The end of the Divine calling is to convert sinners into saints or holy persons. Their sanctification is not an eternal or figurative consecration, as that of Israel was, but a real consecration by which they are made to give themselves to God. It arises from union with Jesus Christ, which is the source of the sanctification of His people; and it consists in internal purity of heart, for God purifies the heart by faith. It supposes a real change of heart and disposition, a new creation, for ’if any man be in Christ he is a new creature.’ ’That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ They were not then saints by natural birth, nor did they make themselves saints either in whole or in part; but they were made so altogether by sovereign grace resulting from sovereign love. All believers are saints, and in one sense all of them are equally sanctified. They are equally separated or consecrated to God, and equally justified, but they are not all equally holy. The work of sanctification in them is progressive. There are babes, and young men, and fathers in Christ. Some are weak in faith, and some are strong; but none of them are yet perfect, neither have they attained to that measure of holiness at which it is their duty constantly to aim, Philippians 3:12. They are therefore to forget those things which are behind, and to reach forth unto those things which are before, and are commanded to ’grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’ ’The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’ ’Certainly, according to Paul,’ says Calvin on this place, ’the praise of our salvation does not depend upon our own power, but is derived entirely from the fountain of God’s love to us. What other cause but His own goodness can, moreover, be assigned for His love? On this also depends His calling, by which, in His own time, He seals the adoption in those who were first gratuitously chosen by Him. From these premises the conclusion follows, that none truly associate themselves with the faithful who do not place a certain degree of confidence in the Lord’s kindness to them: although undeserving and wretched sinners, being called by His goodness, they aspire to holiness. For He hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.’
Grace to you, and peace — In this way the Apostles usually commence their Epistles to the churches. In those addressed to individuals, mercy is generally added to grace and peace. Grace is uniformly placed first in order, because it is the source whence peace and all the blessings of salvation flow. Grace is the free unmerited favor of God to sinners in the plan of salvation. Grace and peace are joined together, because they are separable. God communicates all blessings to those to whom He gives grace, and to none besides; for whatever does not proceed from grace is not a blessing. It is to the praise of His grace that God exercises mercy, and brings those who were His enemies into a state of peace with Him. Grace differs from mercy, as it regards the unworthiness, while mercy regards the sufferings, of its objects.
Grace or favor is spoken of in Scripture in three points of view: either as the unmerited favor of God towards men, as existing in himself; or as manifested in the Gospel which is called the Gospel of the grace of God; or in its operation in men. Every part of redemption proceeds on the footing of grace. It originates in the grace of God, and flows, in its first manifestations and in all its after acts, from the same unceasing fountain, in calling, adopting, regenerating justifying, sanctifying, strengthening, confirming grace, — in one word, it is all of grace. On this account Peter calls God the God of all grace, which teaches that God is in Himself towards His people grace — grace in His very nature, — that He knows what each of them needs, and lays it up for them, and communicates it to them. The whole of the salvation of man, from the counsels of God from eternity, is planned and executed to ’the praise of the glory of His grace,’ Ephesians 1:6; ’who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,’ 2 Timothy 1:9.
In the operation of grace in the soul, men are not simply passive, nor can it be said that God does a part and they do the rest; but God produces all, and they act all. God is the sole author and source of their acts, but they themselves properly are the agents. In some respects they are wholly passive, and in others wholly active. In the Scriptures, the same things are spoken of as coming from God, and as coming from men. It is said that God purifies the hearts of believers, Acts 15:9, and that they purify themselves, 1 John 3:3. They are commanded to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God who worketh in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure, Philippians 2:12. It is not the Holy Spirit, but themselves, by virtue of His power, who love God and their neighbor, who fear the Lord, who confide in Him, and trust in His promises. Paul designates as fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. The origin of them all is the Holy Spirit — it is from Him they are derived; but in their exercise or development they properly belong to believers. If any one falsely infers from the doctrine of grace that there remains nothing for man to do, because it is the grace of God that leads him to act, he understands neither what he says, nor whereof he affirms. He might with the same reason conclude that, as God is the Author of our existence, of our souls, and of all our faculties, therefore we can neither think, nor reason, nor love. Grace is in our hearts a living principle, implanted by God, and at His sovereign disposal. To exercise this principle, is as much our duty as to preserve our life and health; and as the care which these require demand attention and certain acts of the will, in the same manner the exercise of grace in the soul supposes corresponding dispositions and acts. But it is not thus with grace as manifested, which is an object of choice, received or rejected, according as grace has operated in us or not. In this manner, grace, as the principle of renovation, by the sole operation of the Holy Spirit, stands in opposition to every notion of independent power in man, by which it might be supposed he could regenerate himself; while, on the other hand, considered in its exercise, it supposes the efforts of man.
Peace includes everything that belongs to the idea of tranquillity in its largest extent. But the foundation of all must be peace with God. Without this, the Christian can have no peace, though he should be on good terms with all mankind; but, possessing this, God will either give him peace with his enemies, or He will give him peace along with their enmity. The Christian may not only have peace, but joy, in the midst of persecution and external affliction. Peace with God is the substance of happiness, because without it there can be no happiness, and with it there is happiness, whatever else is wanting. This salutation, grace to you and peace, may be considered either as a prayer or a benediction. In the latter sense, it bears the character of apostolic authority.
From God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ — God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Father of all who are in Him. Paul here speaks of God as both his Father and the Father of all those whom he addressed, and so constituting one family, whether Jews or Gentiles. God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, are the source of all grace and peace, and can alone communicate these blessings, which are the gracious effects that flow from the covenant of love and favor of the Triune Jehovah. Here again we see an incontrovertible proof of the deity of Jesus Christ; for, if He were not God, He could not without impiety be thus joined with, or invoked along with, the Father to impart blessings, of which God alone is the author.
Romans 1:8 — First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, there your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
First, I thank my God. — This is a first in order, as if Paul had said, I commence my Epistle by giving thanks to God. It proceeds from that feeling of piety which ought to pervade all our actions; at the same time he bestows on those whom he addresses the praise which they deserved. It is also a first in importance, as if he said, Above all, I render thanks to God for you. He shows that their state was a matter of great joy to him, arising both from his zeal for the glory of God, and from the interest he took in those whom he addressed.
My God — Paul calls God his God, indicating a lively and ardent feeling of love to Him, of confidence in Him, and of liberty of access, which includes a persuasion that his thanksgivings will be agreeable to God. It is also a confession of his duty, and of the obligations he is under to render thanks to God, because He is his God. It is, besides, an intimation of his own character, as walking in communion with God. This is an example of the working of the Spirit of adoption, and of a believer taking to himself, in particular, the blessing of having God for his God, and of being a partaker of all the blessings of the New Covenant, flowing from that most gracious declaration, ’I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Of such appropriation there are numerous instances recorded in the Book of Psalms. ’I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower,’ Psalms 18:1. Job says, ’I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ ’I live,’ says Paul, by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ Such language it is the privilege of every believer to use, and he will do so in proportion as the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto him. The Christian can thus address God as his own God, and often he should do so even in his public declarations. This displeases the world, because it condemns the world. They affect to consider it as presumption, but it is only a proper expression of our belief of God’s testimony with regard to His Son. Studiously to avoid such expressions on proper occasions, is not to show humility, but to be ashamed of the truth.
Paul thanked God, through Jesus Christ, who is our Great High Priest, and presents the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar before the throne. It is through Him alone that all our worship and all our works in the service of God are acceptable. Thus, not only must our petitions ascend to the Father through the Son, but our thanksgivings also, according to the precept, ’By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the faith of our lips, giving thanks to His name,’ Hebrews 13:1; Hebrews 13:5. We can have no intercourse with God, but through the one Mediator between God and man, John 14:6; and except through Him, we are not permitted even to return thanksgivings to God.
Paul thanks God for all to whom he writes. He had addressed them all as saints, making no exception. It is to such exclusively that the apostolic Epistles are written, whether as churches or individuals, — as being all united to Christ, children of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, — who should first suffer and afterwards reign with Him. In the first churches, in which everything was regulated by the Apostles according to the will of God, there may have been hypocrites or self-deceivers; but as far as man could judge, they were all believers; or is any among them appeared not to be such, the churches were told it was to their shame. If any were discovered who had crept in unawares, or were convicted of unbecoming conduct, or who had a form of godliness, but denied its power, from such they were commanded to turn away. They were not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers; wherefore it is said, ’Come out from among them, and be ye separate.’ It was in the confidence that they obeyed such commands, that the Apostles addressed them all, as in the passage before us, as the children of God. In the same manner, in writing to the church at Philippi, Paul, after thanking God for their fellowship in the Gospel, and declaring that he was confident that He who had begun a good work in them would perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ, adds, ’Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are partakers with me of grace.’ This mode of address runs through the whole of the apostolic Epistles. The Apostles generally commence their Epistles with the most encouraging views of the present state and future prospects of those to whom they write, and on these considerations are founded the succeeding exhortations. They first remind those who are addressed of the rich grace of God towards them in Jesus Christ, and the spiritual blessings of which they are made partakers, for their strong consolation, and then they exhort them to a holy conversation becoming such privileges. Of this we have a striking example in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, which, although Paul had so many faults to reprehend in them, he commences by declaring that they were sanctified in Christ Jesus — that he thanked God always for the grace given unto them by Jesus Christ, who would also confirm them to the end, that they might be blameless in the day of His coming, reminding them that God was faithful, by whom they were called unto the fewer than ten, in which, in the first ten verses of that Epistle, Paul introduces the name of Jesus Christ, should be remarked.
In these Epistles we find no exhortations to unbelievers. This ought to be particularly observed, as being a key to them, without which they cannot be understood. This is no reason, however, for supposing that exhortations to believe the Gospel ought not to be addressed to those who are still in unbelief. The Gospel is to be preached to every creature, and all should be enjoined, first to believe it, and then to do all that God requires. In the Book of Acts, when the Apostles preached to the unconverted, their subject was repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. But in the Epistles, where they address believers, they also admonish and exhort them to the practice of every duty. There is no exhortation to the performance of any duty which does not imply that it is to be performed in faith. ’Without faith it is impossible to please God.’
Believers are taught to regulate all their conduct according to the great things which the Gospel reveals, which are freely given to them of God; to be imitators of God, and to live not to themselves but to Him, as being not their own, but bought with a price, and therefore bound to glorify God in their bodies and in their spirits, which are His. Their obedience, as described in the Scriptures, is as much distinguished by its motives and its foundation from the morality of the unbelieving world, as it is elevated above it in its nature and effects. It is in all respects a life of faith, subject to the authority of God, and is practiced under the influence and direction of motives inculcated in the Gospel, of which the light of nature gives no knowledge. Those who have not this faith regard it as a barren speculation; but they who possess it know that it is the sole and powerful source of all their works that are acceptable to God, which are opposed to ’dead works,’ Hebrews 9:14; and that no works are really good, however excellent they may appear, and however much esteemed among men, or useful in society, which do not proceed from faith. fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The number of times, no knowledge. Those who have not this faith regard it as a barren speculation; but they who possess it know that it is the sole and powerful source of all their works that are acceptable to God, which are opposed to ’dead works,’ Hebrews 9:14; and that no works are really good, however excellent they may appear, and however much esteemed among men, or useful in society, which do not proceed from faith.
That your faith is spoken of — It is not the piety of the saints at Rome, but their faith, that is here noticed. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord; but it is faith in Christ that is the distinguishing mark of the Christian. Paul thanks God that the faith of those to whom he writes was spoken of. He thus acknowledges God as the author of the Gospel, not only on account of His causing it to be preached to them, but because He had actually given them grace to believe; for if God is thanked for the distinguished faith of Christians, then not only their faith is His gift, but also its measure and advancement. That faith is the gift of God, is a truth frequently declared, as in Matthew 16:17; Luke 17:5; Acts 11:21; Acts 13:48; Acts 16:14; Romans 12:3; Philippians 1:29. This is also acknowledged in all the thanksgivings of the Apostles for those to whom they write, and is according to the whole of the doctrine of the Scriptures. It is from God that every good and every perfect gift descendeth, and a man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. For ’all things,’ therefore, we re commanded to give thanks. Paul thanks God for his own prayers, 2 Timothy 1:3. Here, as in other places, Paul commences with thanksgiving, thus reminding us that every blessing is from the kindness of God. If we should observe this in blessings of small importance, we ought to do it much more with respect to faith, which is neither an ordinary nor a common blessing of God.
Throughout the whole world — That is to say, throughout the whole Roman empire, of which Rome being the capital, all that took place there was circulated throughout the whole civilized world. Their faith was proclaimed by the voice of all believers, who alone could form a proper opinion regarding it; for the reference is evidently to their approbation. Unbelievers, who hated both the people of God and their faith, could give no proper testimony concerning it. The commendation of the servants of God was all that the Apostle valued. Thus the faith of the believers whom God had assembled at Rome was held up as an example; and the Apostle here declares, not only for their encouragement, but also to excite them more and more to the performance of their duty, that the eyes of all the servants of God throughout the world were upon them. He says, their faith was spoken of, not that he rests in this circ*mstance, or that he wishes them to rest in their reputation, as if he would flatter them. Reputation in itself is nothing. If it be unmerited, it only convinces the conscience of imposture; and when it is real, it is not our chief joy. Paul regards it with reference to the believers at Rome, as a mark of the reality of their faith; and it is on this reality that he grounds his thanksgiving. It was a reason for thanksgiving that they were thus letting their light shine before men, and so glorifying their Father in heaven. The glory of all that is good in His people belongs to God, and all comes through Jesus Christ.
Verse 9 — For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.
God is my witness — This is substantially an oath; and refutes the erroneous and mischievous notion of some who maintain, from a misapprehension of what is said by our Lord and the Apostle James, that all oaths are unlawful. Paul’s affection for those to whom he wrote was such, that, in making his appeal to God, he desires to expose it to His judgment in respect to its truth and sincerity.
Whom I serve with my spirit — All the service of God is of this kind; but it is here expressed for the sake of energy, and to distinguish the true servants of God, who serve in the Gospel with their heart in the work, from hirelings, whose labors are formal and only external. It expresses the sincerity and ardor of the service that Paul rendered to God, as if he had said, with all his heart and all the faculties of his soul. It also imports the nature of the service in which he was employed, namely, a spiritual service, in opposition to the service of the priests and Levites in the tabernacle, which was in a great measure a bodily service. On this account he adds, in the Gospel of His Son; that is to say, in the ministry of the Gospel in which he labored for the unfolding of the Divine mysteries to make them known. Thus Paul shows, from the character of his ministry, that his obedience was not in pretense only, but in sincerity.
Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers — Some place these last words, ’always in my prayers,’ in the beginning of the next verse, as in the Vulgate and the French versions; but the difference is not material. This is a striking proof of the frequency of Paul’s prayers, in which he interceded for those whom he was addressing — ’without ceasing’ — ’always.’ In like manner, in writing to the Philippians, he says, ’Always, in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy.’ We thus learn the duty of Christians to pray for one another, and that those who believe the Gospel are as much bound to pray for its success, and the prosperity of the churches, as to labor in the work. Both prayer and labor ought to go together. To pray without laboring is to mock God: to labor without prayer is to rob God of His glory. Until these are conjoined, the Gospel will not be extensively successful. From many other parts of Paul’s writings, we learn how assiduous he was in the duty of prayer, which he so earnestly inculcates on all believers. ’In everything giving thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,’ 1 Thessalonians 5:18. ’Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God,’ Philippians 4:6. How precious is the promise connected with this admonition! ’And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’
But since all events are fixed, even from eternity, in the counsels and wisdom of God, of what avail, it may be said, are these prayers? Can they change His eternal counsels, and the settled order of events? Certainly not. But God commands us to pray, and even the prayers of His people are included in His decrees; and what God has resolved to do, He often gives to their prayers. Instead, then, of being vain, they are among the means through which God executes His decrees. If, indeed, all things happened by a blind chance, or a fatal necessity, prayers in that case could be of no moral efficacy, and of no use; but since they are regulated by the direction of Divine wisdom, prayers have a place in the order of events. After many gracious promises, it is added, Ezekiel 36:37, ’Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.’ In this verse Paul shows his zeal for God and his love for believers, which ought never to be separated. We should love our brethren because we love God. These two things corresponded in Paul to the two favors he had received, which he marked in the fifth verse, namely, ’Grace and Apostleship.’ ’God, as if he said, ’has given me grace, and on my part I serve Him with my spirit; He has given me Apostleship, and I have you continually in remembrance.’
Romans 1:10 — Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey, by the will of God, to come unto you.
Making request — Paul’s affection for those to whom he wrote impelled him, not once or twice with a passing wish, but at all times, to desire to be present with them, notwithstanding the inconveniences of so long and perilous a journey. He asks of God that by some means now at length he might be permitted to visit them. Thus Christian love searches out new objects on which to exercise itself, and extends itself even to those who are personally unknown.
I might have a prosperous journey, by the will of God. — This teaches us that God, by His providence, regulates all that takes place. There is nothing with which Christians should be more habitually impressed, than that God is the disposer of all events. They should look to His will in the smallest concerns of life, as well as in affairs of the greatest moment. Even a prosperous journey is from the Lord. In this way they glorify God by acknowledging His providence in all things, and have the greatest confidence and happiness in walking before Him. Here we also learn that, while the will of God concerning any event is not ascertained, we have liberty to desire and pray for what we wish, provided our prayers and desires are conformed to His holiness. But will our prayers be agreeable to God if they be contrary to His decrees? Yes, provided they be offered in submission to Him, and not opposed to any known command; for it is the revealed, and not the secret will of God that must be the rule of our prayers. We also learn in this place, that since all events depend on the will of God, we ought to acquiesce in them, however contrary they may be to our wishes; and likewise, that in those things in which the will of God is not apparent, we should always accompany our prayers and our desires with this condition, if it be pleasing to God, and be ready to renounce our desires as soon as they appear not to be conformed to His will. ’O how sweet a thing,’ as one has well observed, ’were it for us to learn to make our burdens light, by framing our hearts to the burden, and making our Lord’s will a law!’
Romans 1:11 — For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established.
Paul greatly desired to see the believers at Rome, to impart to them some spiritual gift. The opinion of Augustine, that this means the love of one’s neighbor, in which he supposes the church at Rome was deficient, has no foundation. It was not a new degree of the Spirit of sanctification that he desired to communicate, for this Paul had it not in his power to bestow, 1 Corinthians 3:6. He appears to refer to some of the extraordinary gifts conferred by the Apostles, by which they might be more established in their most holy faith.
Romans 1:12 — That is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me.
That is — This does not mean that what follows is intended as an explanation of what he had just said, for to those whom Paul addressed it must have been sufficiently clear; but is a modification of it respecting his purpose, lest he should appear to consider them as not well instructed or established in their faith. For although he always acted faithfully, no one, as is evident from his writings, was ever more cautious to avoid unnecessary offense. He therefore joins himself with those to whom he wrote, and refers to the advantage which he also expected reciprocally to derive from them. It is no valid objection to understanding it to be a miraculous gift which he desired to communicate, that he hoped for mutual advantage and comfort with those whom he was about to visit. This comfort or confirmation which he looked for, was not from a spiritual gift to be bestowed by them, but would be the effect of their confirmation, by the gift they received through him. The gift, too, bestowed by him, would be a new proof of the power of God in him, and of His approbation in enabling him to exert such power. He would be comforted and strengthened in witnessing their faith in respect to his own labors in his ministry, by seeing the kingdom of God advancing more and more, and with respect to his numerous afflictions to which he was on all hands subjected, and also in contrasting the coldness and weakness of many of which he often complains, when he observed the increasing power of Divine grace in the saints at Rome. On the other hand, they would derive from Paul’s presence the greatest consolation from his instructions in the mysteries of salvation, from his exhortations, which must contribute much to their edification, as well as from his example, his counsels, and his prayers. It is thus the duty of Christians to confirm each other in the faith; and their mutual intercourse makes known the faith that each possesses. They see that their experience answers as face answers to face in a glass; and by beholding the strength of faith in their brethren, Christians are edified and confirmed.
Romans 1:13 — Now, I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you (but was let hitherto), that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
Paul’s zeal and affection for those to whom he wrote, were not of recent origin; they had long been cherished in his heart. Of this he did not wish them to be ignorant. It is of importance that believers should know the love entertained for them by the servants of God. It is a testimony of the love of God Himself. Paul wished to see some fruit of his ministry among them. This was his great desire everywhere in the service of Christ. ’I have chosen you and ordained you,’ said Jesus to His Apostles, ’that ye should go and bring forth fruit;’ and Paul ardently longed to see the fulfillment of this gracious promise among those to whom he wrote, for believers were his joy and crown.
As among other Gentiles — The apostleship of Paul had not been unfruitful, Romans 15:17. He had traveled through a great part of Syria, of Asia, and of Greece, and everywhere he had either been the means of converting sinners or edifying believers. This was a source of much joy to him; but after so many labors, he did not wish for repose. He desired to go to Rome to obtain fruit there also. He had been let, or hindered, hitherto. Our desires are always pleasing to God when their object is to promote His glory; but sometimes He does not see good to give them effect. It was good that it was in David’s heart, although he was not permitted, to build the house of God. The times and the ways of God’s providence are often unknown to us, and therefore our desires and designs in His service ought always to be cherished in submission to His Divine wisdom. Paul had been hindered till now from going to Rome. This may have happened in different ways, and through what are called second causes. It may have been occasioned by the services he found it indispensable to perform in other churches before leaving them; or it may have arisen from the machinations of Satan, the God of this world, exciting disturbances and opposition in these churches, 1 Thessalonians 2:18; or he may have been prevented by the Spirit of God, Acts 16:7. His being hindered, by whatever means, from going to Rome, when he intended it, shows that the Apostles were sometimes thwarted in their purposes, and were not always under the guidance of Divine inspiration in their plans. This, however, has nothing to do with the subject of their inspiration as it respects the Scriptures, or as it regards their doctrine. Thou who raise any objection to the inspiration of the Scriptures, from the disappointments or misconduct of the Apostles, confound things that entirely and essentially differ.
Romans 1:14 — I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the universe.
Paul was their debtor, not by any right that either Greeks or Barbarians had acquired over him, but by the destination which God had given to his ministry towards them. He does not, however, hesitate to recognize the debt or obligation, because, when God called him to their service, he was in effect their servant, as he says in another place, ’Ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.’ The foundation of this duty was not in those whom he desired to serve, but in God, and the force of this obligation was so much the stronger as it was Divine; it was a law imposed by sovereign authority, and consequently an inviolable law. With regard to Paul, it included, on the one hand, all the duties of the apostolic office, and, on the other, the dangers and persecutions to which that office exposed him, without even excepting martyrdom, when he should be called to that last trial. All this is similar to what every Christian owes in the service of God, as far as his abilities, of whatever kind they are, and his opportunities, extend.
As the Greeks — under which term all civilized nations were included — were the source of the arts and sciences, of knowledge and civilization, it might be said that the Apostle should attach himself solely to them, and that he owed nothing to the Barbarians. On the contrary, it might be alleged that he was debtor only to the Barbarians, as the Greeks were already so enlightened. But in whatever way these distinctions were viewed, he declares that both the one and the other were equal to him: he was debtor to them all, — to the Greeks, because their light was only the darkness of error or of idle speculation — to the Barbarians, for he ought to have compassion on their ignorance. He was debtor to the wise, that is to say, the philosophers, as they were called among the Greeks; and to the unwise, or those who made no profession of philosophy. He knew that both stood equally in need of the Gospel, and that for them all it was equally adapted. This is the case with the learned and the unlearned, who are both altogether ignorant of the way of salvation, till it be revealed to them by the Gospel, to which everything, by the command of God, the wisdom as well as the folly of the world, — in one word, all things besides, — must yield subjection.
Romans 1:15 — So, as much as in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
Paul was always zealous to do his duty; at the same time, he always acknowledged his dependence on God. This is an example which Christians ought to imitate on all occasions, never to deviate from the path of duty, but to leave events in the hands of God. The contrary of this is generally the case. Christians are often more anxious and perplexed about their success, than with respect to their duty. They forget what regards themselves, and wish to meddle with what does not belong to them but to God. To you also. — He does not inquire or decide whether they ought to be reckoned among the Barbarians or the Greeks, the wise or unwise; he was ready to preach the Gospel to them all.
Here terminates the preface to the Epistle. The first five verses include the general introduction, the last ten embrace the particular address to those to whom it is written. The introduction contains the name, the character, and the office of the writer; his vindication of the Gospel against the cavils of the Jews, proving that it was not a novel doctrine, and that the Apostles were not opposed to the Prophets. It authenticates the whole of the Jewish canon, and attests its inspiration. It undermines the errors of the Jews respecting tradition, and directs them to the Scriptures alone. It next announces the Messiah as the subject of the Gospel, — His glorious person as God and man, His birth and resurrection, His abasem*nt and exaltation, and His almighty power. It finally asserts the communication of grace to the Apostle, his appointment to the office he sustained, the purpose for which it was conferred, along with a commission, of which he states the grounds, to all the nations under heaven. Where else shall be found so much matter compressed in so little space? where so much brevity connected with so much fullness?
In the latter part, in which Paul addresses those to whom his Epistle was directed, he introduces many things well calculated to rivet their attention and engage their affections, while at the same time he conveys very grave and salutary instructions. What must have been the feelings of the Roman converts, when they saw the intense interest with which they were regarded by this great Apostle; when they considered the grandeur and value of the Gospel, to which he was about to call their attention in his Epistle; and when they were cheered by the hope of shortly seeing in the midst of them one whose heart glowed with such love to God, and such benevolence to them! All this must have tended to produce a reciprocal regard and reverential feeling towards the Apostle, an ardent desire to profit by his instructions, together with much gratitude to God, and many prayers to hasten his voyage to come among them. Paul did arrive at Rome, but, in the providence of God, in a very different manner, and in circ*mstances very different, from what he appears to have expected when he prayed for ’a prosperous journey.’ He went there a prisoner in bonds, was shipwrecked on his voyage, and kept in confinement after his arrival. But although he was bound, the word of God was not bound; and all fell out, in the adorable providence of God, for the furtherance of the Gospel. The circ*mstances, however, in which he was placed were not in the meantime joyous, but grievous. Yet now that he stands before the throne, now that he has received the crown of righteousness, and is numbered among the spirits of just men made perfect, what regret can he experience that, during the few and evil days he spent on earth, he was conducted to Rome through persecutions, imprisonments, storms, and shipwreck, an outcast among men, but approved and accepted of God?
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER I. PART II. – Romans 1:16-32.
HAVING concluded his prefatory address, the Apostle now announces, in brief but comprehensive terms, the grand subject which occupies the first five chapters of this Epistle, namely, the doctrine of justification by faith.
Romans 1:16 — For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
I am not ashamed — Paul here follows up what he had just said of his readiness to preach the Gospel at Rome, by declaring that he was not ashamed of it. This would also convey a caution to those whom he addressed against giving way to a strong temptation to which they were exposed, and which was no doubt a means of deterring many from embracing the Gospel, to whom it was preached. He knew from personal experience the opposition which the Gospel everywhere encountered. By the Pagans it was branded as Atheism; and by the Jews it was abhorred as subverting the law and tending to licentiousness; while both Jews and Gentiles united in denouncing the Christians as disturbers of the public peace, who, in their pride and presumption, separated themselves from the rest of mankind. Besides, a crucified Savior was to the one a stumbling-block, and to the other foolishness. This doctrine was everywhere spoken against; and the Christian fortitude of the Apostle, in acting on the avowal he here makes, was as truly manifested in the calmness with which he viewed the disdain of the philosophers, the contempt of the proud, and the ridicule of the multitude, as in the steadfast resolution with which, for the name of the Lord Jesus, he confronted personal danger, and even death itself. His courage was not more conspicuous when he was ready ’not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem,’ than when he was enabled to enter Athens or Rome without being moved by the prospect of all that scorn and derision which in these great cities awaited him.
But the grand reason which induced the Apostle to declare at the outset of this Epistle that he was not ashamed of the Gospel, is a reason which applies to every age as well as to that in which Christ was first preached. His declaration implies that, while in reality there is no just cause to be ashamed of the Gospel, there is in it something which is not acceptable, and that it is generally hated and despised among men. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him. They run counter to his most fondly-cherished notions of independence; they abase in the dust all the pride of his self-reliance, and, stripping him of every ground of boasting, and demanding implicit submission, they awaken all the enmity of the carnal mind. Even they who have tasted of the grace of God, are liable to experience, and often to yield to, the deeply-rooted and sinful feeling of being ashamed of the things of God. So prevalent is this even among Christians the most advanced, that Paul deemed it necessary to warn Timothy respecting it, whose faithfulness he so highly celebrates. ’Be not that therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.’ In connection with this, he makes the same avowal for himself as in the passage before us, declaring at the same time the strong ground on which he rested, and was enabled to resist this temptation. Whereunto, he says, ’I am appointed a preacher, and an Apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.’ At ’the same time he commends Onesiphorus for not being ashamed of his chain, 2 Timothy 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 1:16. And He who knew what is in man, solemnly and repeatedly guarded His disciples against this criminal shame, enforcing His admonitions by the most awful sanction. ’For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of His holy angels.’
That system, in which there is nothing of ’foolishness’ in the eyes of this world’s wisdom, cannot be the Gospel of which Paul deemed it necessary to affirm that he was not ashamed. No other religion is so offensive to the pride of man; no other system awakens shame in the breasts of its votaries; and yet every false doctrine has in it more or less of what is positively absurd, irrational, and disgraceful. It is also observable that the more the Gospel is corrupted, and the more its peculiar features are obscured by error, the less do we observe of the shame it is calculated to produce. It is, in fact, the fear of opposition and contempt that often leads to the corruption of the Gospel. But this peculiarity affords a strong proof of the truth of the Apostle’s doctrine. Had he not been convinced of its truth, would it not have been madness to invent a forgery in a form which excites the natural prejudices of mankind! Why should he forge a doctrine which he was aware would be hateful to the world? In this declaration Paul may also have had reference to the false mysteries of the Pagans, which they carefully concealed, because they contained many things that were infamous, and of which they were justly ashamed. When the Apostle says he is not ashamed of the Gospel, it further implies that he gloried in it, as he says, Galatians 6:14, ’God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ;’ and thus he endeavors to enhance, in the eyes of those to whom he wrote, the value and excellence of the Gospel, in order more fully to arrest their attention before he entered on his subject.
The Gospel of Christ — A little before he had called it ’the Gospel of God;’ he now designates it the Gospel of Christ, who is not only its author, but also its essential subject. The Gospel is therefore called the preaching of Jesus Christ, and of the unsearchable riches of Christ. This Gospel, then, which Paul was ready to preach, and of which he was not ashamed, was the Gospel of God concerning His Son. The term Gospel, which signifies glad tidings, is taken from Isaiah 52:7; Isaiah 61:1, where the Messiah is introduced as saying, ’The Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings.’
For it is the power of God unto salvation. — Here the Apostle gives the reason why he is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel is the great and admirable mystery, which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God, into which the angels desire to look, whereby His manifold wisdom is made known unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places. It is the efficacious means by which God saves men from sin and misery, and bestows on them eternal life, — the instrument by which He triumphs in their hearts, and destroys in them the dominion of Satan. The Gospel, which is the word of God, is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. By it, as the word of truth, men are begotten by the will of God, James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23; and through the faith of the Gospel they are kept by His power unto salvation, 1 Peter 1:5. The exceeding greatness of the power of God exerted in the Gospel toward those who believe, is compared to His mighty power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand, Ephesians 1:19. Thus, while the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, to those who are saved it is the power of God. The Gospel is power in the hand of God, as opposed to our natural impotence and utter inability to obtain salvation by anything we can do, Romans 5:6; and also in opposition to the law, which cannot save, being ’weak through the flesh,’ Romans 8:3. It has been observed that the article the, before power, is not in the original. The article, however, is not necessary. The Apostle does not mean power as an attribute, for the Gospel is no attribute of God. It is power, as it is the means which God employs to accomplish a certain end. When it is said, the Gospel is God’s power unto salvation, all other means of salvation are excluded.
To every one that believeth — This power of God unto salvation is applied through faith, without which God will neither justify nor save any man, because it is the appointed means of His people’s union with Jesus Christ. Faith accepts the promise of God. Faith embraces the satisfaction and merit of Jesus Christ, which are the foundation of salvation; and neither that satisfaction nor that merit would be imputed, were it not rendered ours by faith. Finally, by faith we give ourselves to Jesus Christ, in order that He may possess and conduct us for ever. When God justifies, He gives grace; but it is always in maintaining the rights of His majesty, in making us submit to His law and to the direction of His holiness, that Jesus Christ may reign in our hearts. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one, without any distinction of age, sex, or condition — of birth or of country, — without excepting any one, provided he be a believer in Christ. The expression, ’every one,’ respects the extent of the call of the Gospel, in opposition to that of the law, which was addressed to the single family of Abraham.
To the Jew first, and also to the Greek — This distinction includes all nations; for the Jews were accustomed to comprehend under the name of Greek all the rest of the world, as opposed to their own nation. The Greeks, from the establishment of the Macedonian empire, were better known to the Jews than any other people, not only on account of their power, but likewise of their knowledge and civilization. Paul frequently avails himself of this distinction.
To the Jew first. — From the days of Abraham, their great progenitor, the Jews had been highly distinguished from all the rest of the world by their many and great privileges. It was their high distinction that of them Christ came, ’who is over all, God blessed forever.’ They were thus, as His kinsmen, the royal family of the human race, in this respect higher than all others, and they inherited Emmanuel’s land. While, therefore, the evangelical covenant, and consequently justification and salvation, equally regarded all believers, the Jews held the first rank, as the ancient people of God, while the other nations were strangers from the covenants of promise. The preaching of the Gospel was to be addressed to them first, and, at the beginning, to them alone, Matthew 10:6; for, during the abode of Jesus Christ upon earth, He was the minister only of the circumcision, Romans 15:8. ’I am not sent,’ He says, ’but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel;’ and He commanded that repentance and remission of Sins should be preached in His name among all nations, ’beginning at Jerusalem,’ Acts 3:26; Acts 14:26. Thus, while Jews and Gentiles were united in the participation of the Gospel, the Jews were not deprived of their rank, since they were the first called.
The preaching of the Gospel to the Jews first, served various important ends. It fulfilled Old Testament prophecies, as Isaiah 2:3. It manifested the compassion of the Lord Jesus for those who shed His blood, to whom, after His resurrection, He commanded His Gospel to be first proclaimed. It showed that it was to be preached to the chief of sinners, and proved the sovereign efficacy of His atonement in expatiating the guilt even of His murderers. It was fit, too, that the Gospel should be begun to be preached where the great transactions took place on which it was founded and established; and this furnished an example of the way in which it is the will of the Lord that His Gospel should be propagated by His disciples, beginning in their own houses and their own country.
Romans 1:17 — For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
The righteousness of God. — This phrase may, according to circ*mstances, mean either the personal attribute of God, or, as in this place, the righteousness which God has provided, which He has effected, and which He imputes for justification to all His elect. It is through this righteousness, revealed in the Gospel, that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Paul reverts to its manifestation, Romans 3:21, where the signification of this most important expression will be fully considered. At present it is sufficient to remark that the grand object of the Apostle is to show that man, having lost his own righteousness, and thereby fallen under condemnation, God has provided for him a righteousness — the complete fulfillment of the law in all its threatenings and all its precepts — by which, being placed to his account through faith, he is acquitted from guilt, freed from condemnation, and entitled to the reward of eternal life.
Is revealed — This expression regards the assertion in the second verse of this chapter, that the Gospel had formerly been promised by the Prophets The righteousness of God must be contemplated at three periods: first, at the period when God purposed it; second, at the period when He promised it; and third, at the period when He revealed it. He purposed it in His eternal decrees, He promised it after the fall, and now it is actually revealed in the Gospel. Paul does not say that it began only under the Gospel to display its efficacy, or that it was not known under the Mosaic dispensation; on the contrary, he was about to show that the Prophet Habakkuk had referred to it, and in the fourth chapter he proves that Abraham was justified by the imputation of this same righteousness; but he here declares that its full and perfect revelation was made by the Gospel, in which it is testified that at length it has been ’brought in,’ as had been promised, Daniel 9:24. Looking forward to the revelation of this righteousness, the Prophet Isaiah , 56 :l, writes, ’Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice; for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed.’ The Prophet thus announced in his time that it was near to be revealed, and the Apostle affirms that it is now revealed.
From faith to faith — Various interpretations have been given of this phrase, although there appears to be little difficulty in ascertaining its meaning. Some explain it as signifying from the faith of the Old Testament to the faith of the New; some, from one degree of faith to another; some, from the faith of the Jew to the faith of the Gentile; and others, altogether of faith. The expression is evidently elliptical; and in order to understand it, it is necessary to observe that the literal rendering is not ’from faith to faith,’ but ’by faith to faith.’ The same words in the original are thus translated in the same verse: ’The just shall live by faith.’ The meaning, then, is, the righteousness which is by faith, namely, which is received by faith, is revealed to faith, or in order to be believed. This is entirely constant with what the Apostle says in Romans 3:22, where he reverts to the subject, and announces that the righteousness of God, which is by, or through, faith of Jesus Christ, is unto all and upon all them that believe. There is then no difficulty in this expression, especially since the meaning is placed beyond dispute in this passage, where the same truth is fully expressed.
As it is written — Here is a reference to the Old Testament Scriptures, as attesting what had just been affirmed, thus proving the correspondence between the Old Testament and the New, as was also shown in the second verse of this chapter, and teaching us to rest our faith on the testimony of the Scriptures, in whatever part of them it is found. The just shall live by faith, or rather, following the order of the words in the original, be just, or the righteous, by faith shall live. The doctrine, however, is substantially the same in whichsoever of these ways the phrase is rendered, and the meaning is, they who are righteous by faith, that is, by having the righteousness of God which is received by faith imputed to them, shall live. Paul repeats the same declaration in two other places, namely, in Galatians 3:11, where he proves that men cannot be justified by the law, and also in Hebrews 10:38, where he is exhorting those to whom he writes to continue firm in the faith; and immediately afterwards, explaining the meaning of that expression, he shows at large, in the following chapter, that men were saved by faith before, as well as after, the coming of the Messiah. In both cases the eye of faith was steadfastly fixed on the same glorious object. Before His advent, faith rested on that event, considered in the promise. After the coming of the Messiah, faith rejoices in the accomplishment of the promise. Thus it is only by faith in the testimony of God, as receiving His righteousness wrought by the Messiah, that man can be just or righteous in His sight. The passage itself is quoted from the prophecies of Habakkuk, and is generally supposed to relate, in its primary sense, to the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, which was a type of the deliverance obtained by the Gospel. Through faith in the Divine promises the first was obtained, and the second in like manner is obtained through faith. But in whatever sense the Prophet used these words, the Apostle, speaking by the same Spirit, assigns to them their just and legitimate extension. They are true in respect to an earthly and temporal deliverance, and are equally true in respect to a spiritual deliverance.
Many, however, understand such quotations, where the Apostle says it is written, as mere accommodation, not implying prediction of the thing to which they are applied. This is a most unwarrantable and baneful method of handling the word of God. It is in this light that Professors Tholuck and Stuart, in their commentaries on this Epistle, often view this form of expression. But, on the contrary, it is always used as introducing what is represented as a fulfillment of prediction, or an interpretation of its meaning. If Neologians are to be held guilty for explaining the miracles of Christ on natural principles, are they less criminal who explain, as mere accommodation of Scripture language, what is quoted by an Apostle as a fulfillment of prophecy? Several quotations from the Old Testament in this Epistle are explained by both these authors on the above Neological principle. Professor Stuart, on this passage, says, ’It is not necessary to suppose, in all cases of this nature, that the writer who makes such an appeal regards the passage which he quotes as prediction. Plainly this is not always the case with the writers of the New Testament, as nearly all commentators now concede.’ Professor Tholuck remarks that ’the pious Jew loved to use Bible phrases in speaking of the things of common life, as this seemed to connect, in a manner, his personal observations and the events of his own history with those of holy writ.’ He adds, that the Talmud contains numerous quotations introduced by such forms, ’without,’ he continues, ’there being understood any real fulfillment of the text in the fact which is spoken of. This practice was also followed by the Apostles.’ The subject of quotation by accommodation is one of such paramount importance, involving so deeply the honor of the Holy Scriptures, and at the same time is so lightly thought of by many, that it challenges the most serious attention.
Nothing can be more dishonorable to the character of Divine revelation, and injurious to the edification of believers, than this method of explaining the quotations in the New Testament from the Old, not as predictions or interpretations, but as mere illustrations by way of accommodation. In this way many of the prophecies referred to in the Epistles are thrust aside from their proper application, and Christians are taught that they do not prove the very things the Apostles adduced them to establish.
The great temptation to this manner of understanding them, is the fact that such prophecies generally, as they lie in the Old Testament, are obviously applied to temporal events, whereas, in the New, they are applied to the affairs of Christ and His kingdom. But this is a difficulty to none who understand the nature of the Old Testament dispensation, while the supposition that it is a difficulty, argues an astonishing want of attention to both covenants. Not only the ceremonies, but the personages, facts, and whole history of the Jewish people, have a letter and a spirit, without the knowledge of which they cannot be understood either in their true sense, or in a sense at all worthy of God. That the Old Testament predictions, then, should primarily refer to temporal events in the Jewish history, and in a secondary but more important view, to the Messiah and the Gospel, is quite in accordance with what is taught us everywhere by the New Testament. Instead of creating a difficulty, this peculiarity is entirely consistent with the prominent features of Christianity, and calls for fresh admiration of the Divine wisdom. It is one of those characteristics which prove the Bible to be God’s own book; and, as usual, men’s attempts to mend it only serve to mar its beauty and obscure its evidence. In Galatians 3:10, it is asserted that ’as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.’ Why are they affirmed to be under the curse? Because it is written, ’Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.’ The phrase it is written is used here to connect an inference or conclusion with the premises on which it is founded. The assertion, that all who are of the works of the law are under the curse, is founded on the thing said to be written. The phrase, then, is indicative of true fulfillment or interpretation of meaning.
In like manner, what is spoken of, Matthew 13:14, and John 12:39-40, is, in Romans 11:8, introduced with the phrase ’it is written.’ By the same phrase also is introduced, Galatians 4:27, the reference to the prophecy of Isaiah 54:1. This must be prediction, because there does not appear to be any reference to a subordinate event in the Jewish history. It is an immediate prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles.
We learn from Galatians 4:21-26, that even the history of Abraham’s family was typical, and the recorded facts of ancient times are explained as predictions of Gospel times. ’Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?’ In what respect could they hear the law on the point referred to? In the events that took place in Abraham’s house. These facts are represented as a part of the law, and the spiritual truth at the proper interpretation.
Not only is the phrase ’it is written’ always applied to indicate prediction or interpretation, but it was so understood and applied in our Lord’s time. When the priests and scribes were asked where Christ should be born, they answered, in Bethlehem, for thus it is written, Matthew 2:5. This phrase, then, they employed to indicate true fulfillment of prediction. This very reference to Habakkuk is explained, Galatians 3:11, as prediction. It is asserted in the beginning of the verse, that no man can be justified by the law, because it is written by the Prophet. Here the impossibility of justification by the law is founded on the prophecy quoted. But if this prophecy related only to a temporal event in the Jewish history, the fact being so written would not bear out the conclusion. That the prophecy there refers to the justification of sinners before God, as its true and most important meaning, is the necessary sense of the passage. So little foundation have the above-named writers for their bold perversions of the word of God on their, point. Their doctrine respecting it manifests great ignorance of Scripture.
The passage in Matthew 2:15, has been supposed by some to be utterly incapable of interpretation, in the sense of real fulfillment, as prediction. ’Out of Egypt have I called My Son.’ The prophecy there referred to is found in Hosea 11:1, and evidently refers to the calling of the Israelites out of Egypt. How then can it be the fulfillment of the prophecy according to the application in the Evangelist? Nothing is more easy than the solution of this supposed insuperable difficulty. The words of the Prophet have, in the primary or literal sense, a reference to the historical event — the calling of the Israelites, as nationally the typical Son of God, out of the land of Egypt; and, in the secondary or spiritual sense, couched under the figure, they refer to the calling of the true Son of God out of Egypt, where He had gone to sojourn in order to accomplish this prediction. The Son of God is, in Isaiah 49:3, expressly addressed under the name of Israel. It argues the highest presumption, and even blasphemy, to explain this quotation on the principle of accommodation, when the Evangelist says ’that it might be fulfilled,’ and thus intimates that this event was one predetermined in the counsels of Eternity. Is mere accommodation fulfillment in any sense? How must infidels sneer at such violent efforts to explain away a difficulty, which is, after all, imaginary. The language here used by the Evangelist establishes beyond all contradiction the double reference of many of the prophecies of the Old Testament.
Some commentators refer to Acts 28:25, as an example of a passage which the Apostle quotes as prediction, when it is not prediction. This Scripture is supposed to have reference to the Jews, as neglecting all warnings till they were finally carried into captivity. It may have such a reference. But this is not so certain as that it has the secondary reference to the state of the Jews with respect to the rejection of the Gospel. Instead, then, of being received as applied to the latter by way of accommodation, or as illustrative of the same principle, there is no absolute certainty of a primary reference; but there can be no doubt that it predicts the unbelief and hardness of heart manifested by the Jews in the time of our Lord, and afterwards. This is irresistibly evident from Matthew 13:14. Here it is expressly said to be a fulfilling of the prophecy, that ’in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith,’ etc. The unbelief of the Jews is here, in express words, stated as the fulfillment of this same prophecy. Is it not wonderful blindness, is it not the most profane temerity, to explain as mere accommodation what the Holy Spirit asserts to be a real fulfillment?
The same prophecy is referred to in John’s Gospel as fulfilled in the Jews of our Lord’s time, John 12:39, ’Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again.’ What can more strongly express prediction? Belief was impossible, because of the prediction. They were the words of God, and, therefore, must be fulfilled. As this is a subject of so much importance, demanding the serious attention of all who tremble at the word of God, and one which is so frequently, I may say so generally, misrepresented, I shall further repeat the following remarks respecting it, from my Book of Evidences, vol. 1: p. 450, third edition, on the Old Testament prophecies: —
’It is not as setting aside the literal application of such passages, that the Apostles quote them in their spiritual import; nor in the way of accommodation, as is often erroneously asserted: but in their ultimate and most extensive significations. Nothing has been more mischievous, more audacious, and more dishonorable to the character of revelation, than the doctrine that represents the New Testament writers as quoting the Old Testament prophecies by way of accommodation. It is based on the supposed difficulty or impossibility of explaining the agreement in the literal accomplishment. To this it may be replied, that satisfactory solutions of the cases of difficulty have been given. But though no satisfactory solution were given, the supposition would be inadmissible. It contradicts most explicitly the Spirit of God, and must be rejected, let the solution be what it may. The New Testament writers, in quoting the Old Testament prophecies, quote them as being fulfilled in the event which is related. If it is not truly fulfilled, the assertion of fulfillment is false. The fulfillment by accommodation is no fulfillment in any real sense of the word. This interpretation, then, cannot be admitted, as being palpably contradictory to the language of inspiration. To quote the Old Testament prophecies in this way, could not, in any respect, serve the purpose of the writers of the New Testament. What confirmation to their doctrine could they find from the language of a prophecy that did not really refer to the subject to which they applied it, but was merely capable of some fanciful accommodation? It is ascribing to these writers, or rather to the Spirit of God, a puerility of which every writer of sound judgment would be ashamed. The application of the language of inspiration by way of accommodation, is a theory that has sometimes found patrons among a certain class of writers; but a due respect for the inspired writings will ever reject it with abhorrence. It is an idle parade of ingenuity, even when it coincides in its explanations with the truths of the Scriptures; but to call such an accommodation of Scripture language a fulfillment, is completely absurd. There is nothing in Scripture to warrant such a mode of explanation.’
’To say,’ observes Mr. Bell, on the Covenants, ’that these Scriptures had no relation to these events, what is this but to give the inspired penman the lie? The question is not what the Old Testament writers intended in such and such sayings, but what the Spirit which was in them did signify. The Prophets might often not know the full extent of their own prophecy, but certainly the Spirit, by which they spake, always did. The Spirit in the Old Testament writers was the same who inspired those of the New, 2 Corinthians 4:13; therefore, when the latter quote the words of the former as predictive of, and fulfilled in, certain events, the Holy Spirit is pointing out what He Himself intended. And who dare say but that He may point out more fully under the New Testament what He intended in the Old, than ever could have entered into the heart of man? 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. Surely the only wise God must be allowed to know the full sense of His own words. When the Evangelists or Apostles tell us that such and such Scriptures were fulfilled in such events, they do not give a new sense to these Scriptures which they never had before, but only show what before was latent with us. To say that any of their quotations from the Old Testament are mere allusions, or only used by way of accommodation to their purpose, beyond the true sense of the words and the intention of the Holy Ghost, effectually cuts the sinews of their argumentation, and, of course, destroys the proofs they adduce,’ p. 56. The misunderstanding, or rather denial on this point, of the plain import of Scripture, in representing the New Testament writers as quoting from the Old Testament in the way of accommodation, appears to originate, so far as concerns Professors Tholuck and Stuart, in their want of acquaintance with the nature of the inspiration of the Bible. Were this not the case, they could not have ventured to take such liberties with the Scriptures as appear in their Commentaries.
The declaration in the 16th and 17th verses, that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, because therein is the righteousness of God revealed, serves as the text or ground of the whole of the subsequent disquisition in this and the following nine chapters.
Romans 1:18 — For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Here commences the third division of this chapter; where the Apostle enters into the discussion, to prove that all men being under the just condemnation of God, there remains for them no way of justification but that by grace, which the Gospel holds out through Jesus Christ. Mr. Stuart understands this verse and the 17th as coordinate, and as supplying — each of them severally — a reason of the statement that Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel; but the subsequent discussion shows the utter inapplicability of verse 18th to the Gospel, inasmuch as the Apostle develops, at great length, the truth that the, wrath of God is declared against those to whom no explicit revelation has been given. It is connected by the particle for with the preceding verse, and constitutes an argument in favor of the statement, that nowhere, except in the Gospel is the righteousness of God revealed for the justification of sinners, and marks the necessity, for this purpose, of that revelation. This argument is evolved at great length, and the exposition of it does not terminate till the 20th verse of the third chapter. In this long section of the Epistle, a foundation is laid for the doctrine of grace in the announcement of the doctrine of wrath: all men are concluded under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe — that it might be shown, beyond question, that if men are to be justified, it cannot be by a righteousness of their own, but by the righteousness provided by God, and revealed in the Gospel The Apostle begins here by proving that the Gentiles were all guilty, and all subjected to the just judgment of God.
The wrath of God is revealed — The declaration of the wrath of God is a fit preparation for the announcement of grace, — not only because wrath necessarily precedes grace in the order of nature, but because, to dispose men to resort to grace, they must be affected with the dread of wrath and a sense of their danger. The wrath of God denotes His vengeance, by ascribing, as is usual in Scripture, the passions of men to God. It implies no emotion in God, but has reference to the judgment and feeling of the sinner who is punished. It is the universal voice of nature, and is also revealed in the consciences of men. It was revealed when the sentence of death was first pronounced, the earth cursed, and man driven out of the earthly paradise, and afterwards by such examples of punishment as those of the deluge, and the destruction of the Cities of the Plain by fire from heaven, but especially by the reign of death throughout the world. It was proclaimed in the curse of the law on every transgression, and was intimated in the institution of sacrifice, and in all the services of the Mosaic dispensation. In the eighth chapter of this Epistle, the Apostle calls the attention of believers to the fact that the whole creation has become subject to vanity, and groaneth and travaileth together in pain. The same creation which declares that there is a God, and publishes His glory, also proves that He is the enemy of sin and the avenger of the crimes of men. So that this revelation of wrath is universal throughout the world, and none can plead ignorance of it. But, above all, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven when the Son of God came down to manifest the Divine character, and when that wrath was displayed in His sufferings and death, in a manner more awful than by all the tokens God had before given of His displeasure against sin. Besides this, the future and eternal punishment of the wicked is now declared in terms more solemn and explicit than formerly. Under the new dispensation, there are two revelations given from heaven, one of wrath, the other of grace.
Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. — Here the Apostle proceeds to describe the awful state of the Gentiles, living under the revelation of nature, but destitute of the knowledge of the grace of God revealed in the Gospel. He begins with accusing the whole heathen world, first of ungodliness, and next of unrighteousness. He proves that, so far from rendering to their Creator the love and obedience of a grateful heart, they trampled on His authority, and strove to rob Him of His glory. Failing, then, in their duty towards God, and having plunged into the depths of all ungodliness, it was no wonder that their dealings with their fellowmen were characterized by all unrighteousness. The word all denotes two things: the one is, that the wrath of God extends to the entire mass of ungodliness and unrighteousness, which reigns among men, without excepting the least part; the other is, that ungodliness and unrighteousness had arrived at their height, and reigned among the Gentiles with such undisturbed supremacy, that there remained no soundness among them.
The first charge brought under the head of ungodliness, is that of holding the truth in unrighteousness. The expression, the truth, when it stands unconnected in the New Testament, generally denotes the Gospel. Here, however, it is evidently limited to the truth concerning God, which, by the works of creation, and the remains of the law of conscience, and partly from tradition, was notified to the heathens. The word ’hold,’ in the original, signifies to hold fast a thing supposed to be valuable, as well as to withhold, as it is rendered 2 Thessalonians 2:6, and to restrain or suppress. The latter is the meaning here. The heathens did not hold fast the truth, but they suppressed or restrained what they knew about God. The expression signifies they retained it as in a prison, under the weight and oppression of their iniquities.
The first charge brought under the head of ungodliness, is that of holding the truth in unrighteousness. The expression, the truth, when it stands unconnected in the New Testament, generally denotes the Gospel. Here, however, it is evidently limited to the truth concerning God, which, by the works of creation, and the remains of the law of conscience, and partly from tradition, was notified to the heathens. The word ’hold,’ in the original, signifies to hold fast a thing supposed to be valuable, as well as to withhold, as it is rendered 2 Thessalonians 2:6, and to restrain or suppress. The latter is the meaning here. The heathens did not hold fast the truth, but they suppressed or restrained what they knew about God. The expression signifies they retained it as in a prison, under the weight and oppression of their iniquities.
But besides this general accusation, the Apostle appears particularly to have had reference to the chief men among the Pagans, whom they called philosophers, and who professed themselves wise. The declaration that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, attacked directly the principle which they universally held to be true, namely, that God could not be angry with any man. Almost all of them believed the truth of the Divine unity, which they communicated to those who were initiated into their mysteries. But all of them, at the same time, held it as a maxim, and enjoined it as a precept on their disciples, that nothing should be changed in the popular worship of their country, to which, without a single exception, they conformed, although it consisted of the most absurd and wicked idolatrous rites, in honor of a multitude of gods of the most odious and abominable character. Thus they not only resisted and constantly acted in opposition to the force of the truth in their own minds, but also suppressed what they knew of it, and prevented it from being told to the people.
Romans 1:19 — Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.
The Apostle here assigns the reason of what he had just affirmed respecting the Gentiles as suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, namely, that which may be known of God, God hath manifested to them. They might have said, they did not suppress the truth in unrighteousness, for God had not declared it to them as He had done to the Jews. He had, however, sufficiently displayed, in the works of creation, His almighty power, wisdom, and goodness, and other of His Divine attributes, so as to render them without excuse in their ungodliness and unrighteousness. That which may be known of God, — that is to say, not absolutely, for that surpasses the capacity of the creature. — God is incomprehensible even by angels, and it is by Himself alone that He can be fully and perfectly comprehended; the finite never can comprehend the infinite, Job 11:7. Nor do the words before us mean all that can be known of Him by a supernatural revelation, as the mystery of redemption, that of the Trinity, and various other doctrines; for it is only the Spirit of God who has manifested these things by His word. It is on this account that David says, ’He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them,’ Psalms 147:19. But what may be known of God by the works of creation, He has not concealed from men.
Is manifest in them, or rather, to them — This respects the clearness of the evidence of the object in itself, for it is not an obscure or ambiguous revelation; it is a manifestation which renders the thing certain. It is made to them; for the Apostle is referring here only to the external object, as appears by the following verse, and not to the actual knowledge which men had of it, of which he does not speak till the 21st verse.
For God hath showed it unto them — He has presented it before their eyes. They all see it, though they do not draw the proper conclusion from it. In like manner He has shown Himself to the world in His Son Jesus Christ. ’He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ Yet many saw Him who did not recognize the Father in Him. These words, ’hath showed it unto them,’ teach us that in the works of creation God has manifested Himself to men to be glorified by them; and that, in preserving the world after sin had entered, He has set before their eyes those great and wonderful works in which He is represented; and they further show that there is no one who can manifest God to man except Himself, and consequently that all we know of Him must be founded on His own revelation, and not on the authority of any creature.
Romans 1:20 — For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Invisible things of Him — God is invisible in Himself, for He is a Spirit, elevated beyond the reach of all our senses. Being a Spirit, He is exempted from all composition of parts, so that when the Apostle here ascribes to Him ’invisible things’ in the plural, it must not be imagined that there is not in God a perfect unity. It is only intended to mark the different attributes of Deity, which, although one in principle, are yet distinguished in their objects, so that we conceive of them as if they were many. From the creation of the world are clearly seen. — By the works of creation, and from those of a general providence, God can be fully recognized as the Creator of heaven and earth, and thence His natural attributes may be inferred. For that which is invisible in itself has, as it were, taken a form or body to render itself visible, and visible in a manner so clear that it is easy to discover it. This visibility of the invisible perfections of God, which began at the creation, has continued ever since, and proves that the Apostle here includes with the works of creation those of providence, in the government of the universe. Both in the one and the other, the Divine perfections very admirably appear.
Being understood by the things that are made. — The works of creation and providence are so many signs or marks, which elevate us to the contemplation of the perfections of Him who made them, and that so directly, that in a manner these works, and these perfections of their Author, are as only one and the same thing. Here the Apostle tacitly refutes the opinion of some of the philosophers respecting the eternity of the world; he establishes the fact of its creation, and at the same time teaches, contrary to the Atheists, that, from the sole contemplation of the world, there are sufficient proofs of the existence of God. Finally, by referring to the works of creation, he indicates the idea that ought to be formed of God, contrary to the false and chimerical notions of the wisest heathens respecting Him.
Even His eternal power and Godhead — The Apostle here only specifies God’s eternal power and Godhead, marking His eternal power as the first object which discovers itself in the works of creation, and in the government of the world; and afterwards denoting, by His Godhead, the other attributes essential to Him as Creator. His power is seen to be eternal, because it is such as could neither begin to exist, nor to be communicated. Its present exertion proves its eternal existence. Such power, it is evident, could have neither a beginning nor an end. In the contemplation of the heavens and the earth, everyone must be convinced that the power which called them into existence is eternal. Godhead. — This does not refer to all the Divine attributes, for they are not all manifested in the works of creation. It refers to those which manifest God’s deity. The heavens and the earth prove the deity of their Author. In the revelation of the word, the grand truth is the deity of Christ; in the light of nature, the grand truth is the deity of the Creator. By His power may be understood all the attributes called relative, such as those of Creator, Preserver, Judge, Lawgiver, and others that relate to creatures; and by His Godhead, those that are absolute, such as His majesty, His infinity, His immortality.
So that they are without excuse — The words in the original may either refer to the end intended, or to the actual result — either to those circ*mstances being designed to leave men without excuse, or to the fact that they are without excuse. The latter is the interpretation adopted by our translators, and appears to be the true meaning. It cannot be said that God manifested Himself in His works, in order to leave men without excuse. This was the result, not the grand end. The revelation of God by the light of nature the heathens neglected or misunderstood, and therefore are justly liable to condemnation. Will not then the world, now under the light of the supernatural revelation of grace, be much more inexcusable? If the perverters of the doctrine taught by the works of creation were without excuse, will God sustain the excuses now made for the corrupters of the doctrine of the Bible?
When the heathens had nothing else than the manifestation of the Divine perfections in the works of creation and providence, there was enough to render them inexcusable, since it was their duty to make a good use of them, and the only cause of their not doing so was their perversity. From this, however, it must not be inferred, that since the entrance of sin, the subsistence of the world, and the providence which governs it, sufficiently furnish man, who is a sinner, with the knowledge of God, and the means of glorifying Him in order to salvation. The Apostle here speaks only of the revelation of the natural attributes of God, which make Him indeed the sovereign good to man in innocence, but the sovereign evil to man when guilty. The purpose of God to show mercy is not revealed but by the Spirit of God, who alone searcheth the deep things of God, 1 Corinthians 2:10. In order to this revelation, it was necessary that the Holy Spirit should have animated the Prophets and Apostles. It is therefore to be particularly observed that, while, in the next chapter, where the Apostle proceeds to prove that the Jews are also without excuse, he urges that the forbearance, and long-suffering, and goodness of God, in the revelation of grace, led them to repentance, he says nothing similar respecting the heathens. He does not assert that God, in His revelation to them, called them to repentance, or that He held out to them the hope of salvation, but affirms that revelation renders them inexcusable. This clearly shows that in the whole of the dispensation to the heathen, there was no revelation of mercy, and no accompanying Spirit of grace, as there had been to the Jews.
The manifestations made by God of Himself in the works of creation, together with what is declared concerning the conduct of His providence, Acts 14:17; and what is again said in chapter 2 of this Epistle, Verse 14, 15, respecting the law written in the heart, comprise the whole of the revelation made to the heathen, after they had lost sight of the original promise to Adam of a deliverer, and the preaching of the righteousness of God by Noah; but in these ways God had never left Himself without a witness. The works of creation and providence spoke to them from without, and the law written in their heart from within. In c conjunction, they declared the being and sovereign authority of God, and man’s accountableness to his Creator. This placed all men under a positive obligation of obedience to God. But His law, thus made known, admits not of forgiveness when transgressed, and could not be the cause of justification, but of condemnation. The whole, therefore, of that revelation of God’s power and Godhead, of which the Apostle speaks in this discourse, he regards as the foundation of the just condemnation of men, in order afterwards to infer from it the necessity of the revelation of grace. It must not be supposed, then, that he regards it as containing in itself a revelation of grace in any manner whatever, for this is an idea opposed to the whole train of his reflections. But how, then, it may be said, are men rendered inexcusable? They are inexcusable, because their natural corruption is thus discovered; for they are convicted of being sinners, and consequently alienated from communion with God, and subjected to condemnation, which is thus shown to be just.
Romans 1:21 — Because that, where they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Knew God — Besides the manifestation of God in the works of creation, the heathens had still some internal lights, some principles and natural notions, which are spoken of, chapter 2:12, 15, from which they had, in a measure, the knowledge of the existence and authority of God. There may be here, besides, a reference to the knowledge of God which He communicated in the first promise after the fall, and again after the flood, but which, not liking to retain God in their knowledge, and being ’haters of God,’ mankind had lost. Elsewhere, Paul says that the Gentiles were without God in the world, Ephesians 2:12; yet here he says they knew God. On this it may be observed, that they had very confused ideas of the Godhead, but that they further corrupted them by an almost infinite number of errors. Respecting their general notions of deity, these represented the true God; but respecting their erroneous notions, these only represented the phantoms of their imagination. In this way they knew God, yet nevertheless they were without God. They knew his existence and some of His perfections; but they had so entirely bewildered their minds, and added so many errors to the truth, that they were in reality living without God. They might be said to know God when they confessed Him as the Creator of the world, and had some conception of His unity, wisdom, and power. The Apostle may particularly refer to the wise men among the heathen, but the same truth applies to all. They all knew more than they practiced, and the most ignorant might have discovered God in His works, had not enmity against Him remained in their hearts. But when Paul says, Ephesians 2:12, that they were without God, he has respect to their worship and their practice. For all their superstitions were exclusively those of impiety, which could only serve to alienate them from the love and the communion of the true God. They were therefore, in reality, without God in the world, inasmuch as they set up devils, whom, under the name of gods, they served with the most abominable rites.
They glorified Him not as God — Paul here marks what ought to be the true and just knowledge of God, namely, that knowledge which leads men to serve and worship Him in a manner agreeable to His sovereign will, and worthy of His holy character. To glorify God signifies to acknowledge and worship Him with ascriptions of praise, because of His glorious attributes. Now the heathens, though in their speculations they might speak of God in a certain way consistent with some of His attributes, as His unity, spirituality, power, wisdom, and goodness, yet never reduced this to practice. The objects of their professed worship were either the works of God, or idols. To these they gave the glory that belonged to God; to these they felt and expressed gratitude for the blessings which God bestowed on them. God left them not without a witness of His existence and goodness, in that He gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons; but the glory for these things, and for all other blessings, they rendered to the objects of their false worship. It appears also that the Apostle had in view the fact, that the philosophers in their schools entertained some proper ideas of God, but in their worship conformed to the popular errors. Men often justify their neglect of God by alleging that He has no need of their service, and that it cannot be profitable to Him; but we here see that He is to be glorified for His perfections, and thanked for His blessings.
Neither were thankful — We should constantly remember that God is the source of all that we are, and of all that we possess. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. From this it follows that He ought to be our last end. Consequently, one of the principal parts of our worship is to acknowledge our dependence, and to magnify Him in all things by consecrating ourselves to His service. The opposite of this is what is meant by the expression, ’neither were thankful;’ and this is what the heathens were not, for they ascribed one part of what they possessed to the stars, another part to fortune, and another to their own wisdom.
But became vain in their imaginations, or rather in their reasonings, that is, speculations. — Paul calls all their philosophy reasonings, because they related to words and notions, divested of use or efficacy. Some apply this expression, ’became vain in their reasonings,’ to the attempts of the heathen philosophers to explore, in a physical sense, the things which the poets ascribed to the gods. Dr. Macknight supposes that the object of the wise men was to show that the religion of the vulgar, though untrue, was the fittest for them. Many explanations, equally fanciful, have been given of these words. The language itself, in connection with the writings of the wise men to whom the Apostle refers, leaves no good reason to doubt that he speaks of those speculations of the Grecian philosophers in which they have manifested the most profound subtlety and the most extravagant folly. Their reasonings diverged very far from that truth which they might have discovered by the contemplation of the works of creation; and, besides, produced nothing for the glory of God, in which they ought to have issued. In fact, all their reasonings were to no purpose, so far as regarded their sanctification, or the peace of their conscience. The whole of what the Apostle here says aptly describes, and will equally apply to, vain speculations of modern times. It suits not only modern schools of philosophy, but also some of theology; not only the vain interpretations of Neologians, but of all who explain away the distinguishing doctrines of revelation. Without being carried away with the learning and research of such persons, every one who loves the Scriptures and the souls of men, should lift up his voice against such degradations of the oracles of God.
Their foolish heart was darkened — ’Imprudent heart,’ as Dr. Macknight translates this, comes not up to the amount of the phrase. It designates the heart, or understanding, as void of spiritual discernment and wisdom — unintelligent in Divine things, though subtle and perspicacious as to the things of the world. Their speculations, instead of leading them to the truth, or nearer to God, were the means of darkening their minds, and blinding them still more than they were naturally. The Apostle here marks two evils: the one, that they were destitute of the knowledge of the truth; and the other, that they were filled with error, for here their darkness does not simply signify ignorance, but a knowledge false and depraved. These two things are joined together.
Romans 1:22 — Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
It appears that, by the term wise, the Apostle intended to point out the philosophers, — that is to say, in general, those who were most esteemed for their knowledge, like those among the Greeks who were celebrated by the titles either of men wise or philosophers. To the two evils remarked in the foregoing verse, of their foolishness and their darkness, Paul here adds a third — that with all this they believed themselves to be wise. This is the greatest unhappiness of man, not only not to feel his malady, but to extract matter of pride from what ought to be his shame. What they esteemed their wisdom was truly their folly. All their knowledge, for which they valued themselves, was of no avail in promoting virtue or happiness. Their superstitions were in themselves absurd; and instead of worshipping God, they actually insulted Him in their professed religious observances. How wonderfully was all this exhibited in the sages of Greece and Rome, who rushed headlong into the boundless extravagances of skepticism, doubting or denying what was evident to common sense! How strikingly is this also verified in many modern philosophers!
So far were the heathen philosophers from wisdom, that they made no approach towards the discovery of the true character either of the justice or mercy of God; while with respect to the harmony of these attributes, in relation to man, they had not the remotest conception. The idea of a plan to save sinners which, instead of violating the law of God, and lowering His character as the moral governor of the world, magnifies the law and makes it honorable, giving full satisfaction to His justice, and, commensurate with His holiness, is as far beyond the conception of man, as to create the world was beyond his power. It is an idea that could not have suggested itself to any finite intellect.
Want of knowledge of the justice of God gave occasion to the manifestation of human ignorance. All the ancient philosophers considered that consummate virtue and happiness were attainable by man’s own efforts; and some of them carried this to such an extravagant pitch, that they taught that the wise man’s virtue and happiness were independent of God. Such was the insanity of their wisdom, that they boasted that their wise man had in some respect the advantage of Jupiter himself, because his virtue was not only independent, or his own property, but was voluntary, whereas that of the divinity was necessary. Their wise man could maintain his happiness, not only independent of man and in the midst of external evils, but also in defiance of God Himself: No power, either human or divine, could deprive the sage of his virtue or happiness. How well does all this prove and illustrate the declaration of the Apostle, that professing themselves to be wise, they became fools!
Romans 1:23 — And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds, and four-footed beast, and creeping things.
Here Paul produces a proof of the excess of the folly of those who professed themselves to be wise. Their ideas of God were embodied in images of men, and even of birds and beasts, and the meanest reptiles. Changed the glory of the incorruptible God, — that is, the ideas of His spirituality; His immateriality, His infinity, His eternity, and His majesty, which are His glory, and distinguish Him from all creatures. All these are included in the term incorruptible; and as the Apostle supposes them to be needful to the right conception of God, he teaches that these are all debased and destroyed in the mind of man when the Creator is represented under human or other bodily resemblances; for these lead to conceptions of God as material, circ*mscribed, and corruptible, and cause men to attribute to Him the meanness of the creature, thus eclipsing His glory, and changing it into ignominy. The glory of God, then, refers to His attributes, which distinguish Him from the idols which the heathens worshipped. In verse 25 it is called the truth of God, because it essentially belongs to the Divine character. Both expressions embrace the same attributes, but under different aspects. In the one expression, these attributes are considered as constituting the Divine glory; in the other, as essential to His being, and distinguishing Him from the false gods of the heathen.
It is impossible to conceive of anything more deplorably absurd, further removed from every semblance of wisdom, or more degrading in itself and dishonoring to God, than the idolatrous worship of the heathens; yet among them it was universal. The debasing images to which the Apostle here refers, were worshipped and feared by the whole body of the people, and not even one among all their philosophers, orators, magistrates, sages, statesmen, or poets, had discernment sufficient to detect the enormity of this wickedness, or honesty enough to reclaim against it. On the contrary, every one of them conformed to what the Apostle Peter calls ’abominable idolatries.’
It is to no purpose to say that the heathens did not believe that their images which they set up, were gods, but only resemblances; for the Apostle condemns them under the character of resemblances or likenesses.
Nor is it to any purpose to affirm that those resemblances were only aids to assist the weakness of the human mind; for he also shows that those pretended aids were hurtful and not beneficial because they corrupted the holy and reverential notions we ought to entertain of the Deity. Neither does it avail to say that they did not serve their images as God, but that the adoration they rendered was to God, since the medium itself derogates from His glory. Nor will it do to profess that by those images they did not intend to express the essence, but only the perfections or attributes of God, and that they were rather emblems than images. The heathens said all this, and the Roman Catholics now say the same; but they are not on this account the less condemned by the Apostle.
Romans 1:24 — Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.
Wherefore God also gave them up — The impurities into which the Gentiles were plunged, sprung from their own corrupt hearts. We must therefore distinguish between their abandonment by God, and the awful effects of that abandonment. The abandonment proceeded from Divine justice, but the effect from the corruption of man, in which God had no part. The abandonment is a negative act of God, or rather a negation of acting, of which God is absolutely master, since, being under no obligation to confer grace on any man, He is free to withhold it as He sees good; so that in this withholding there is no injustice: But besides this, it is a negation of acting which men have deserved by their previous sins, and consequently it proceeds from His justice, and is in this view to be considered as a punishment. Sin is indeed the consequence of this abandonment, but the only cause of it is human perversity. God’s giving them up, then, does not signify any positive act, but denotes His not holding them in check by those restraints by means of which He usually maintains a certain degree of order and appearance of moral rectitude among sinners. God did not, however, totally withdraw those restraints, by which His providence rules the world in the midst of its corruption; for if He had done so, it would have been impossible that society could have subsisted, or the succession of generations continued. God, for these ends, still preserved among them some common rectitude, and certain bonds of humanity. But in other respects, so far as concerned the impurities to which the Apostle here refers, He released His restraints on the fury of their passions, as a corresponding punishment for their idolatries. Thus was His justice manifested in giving up those who had dishonored Him to dishonor themselves, in a manner the most degrading and revolting.
Romans 1:25 — Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
By changing the truth of God, referring to the attributes essential to His being is here meant the changing of the just and legitimate notions which ought to be formed of Him, not only in contemplation, but chiefly in practice. The lie in the same way principally refers to practice, not consisting only in speculative errors, but in perversity of action in superstitions and idolatries. The heathens changed the truth of God, that is, the true idea of God exhibited in the works of creation, into the false representations made of Him in their superstition idolatries. Thus departing from the true God, and receiving false gods in His stead, they worshipped the creature more, or rather, than the creator They pretended, indeed, that they did not forsake the Creator, while they served numerous divinities. They acknowledged that these were inferior to the sovereign God, whom they called the Father of gods and men. But whenever religious worship is offered to the creature in any manner whatever, it is forsaking God, whose will it is, not only that His creatures should serve Him, but that they should serve Him alone, on which account He calls Himself a jealous God. The idolatry of the Pagans was in reality, according to the view here given by the Apostle, a total abandonment of the worship of God.
Who is blessed for ever. Amen — This expression is here used by the Apostle for the purpose of inflicting a greater stigma on idolatry, denoting that we ought to honor and adore God alone, and are not permitted to take away from Him even the smallest ray of His glory. It is an expression that was almost in perpetual use among the Jews, and is still frequently found in their writings when they speak of God. It denotes that we should never speak of God but with profound respect, and that this respect ought to be accompanied with praise and thanksgiving. In particular, it condemns idolatry, and signifies that God alone is worthy to be eternally served and adored. The word ’Amen’ is here not only an affirmation, or an approval; it is also an aspiration of pious feeling, and a token of regard for the honor of God.
Romans 1:26 — For this cause and gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.
Romans 1:27 — And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
The Apostle having awfully depicted the magnitude of Pagan wickedness, and having shown that their ungodliness in abandoning the worship of the true God was the reason why they had been abandoned to their lusts, here descends into particulars, for the purpose of showing to what horrible excesses God had permitted them to proceed. This was necessary, to prove how odious in the sight of God is the crime of idolatry. Its recompense was this fearful abandonment. It was also necessary, in order to give a just idea of human corruption, as evinced in its monstrous enormities when allowed to take its course, and also in order to exhibit to believers a living proof of the depth of the evil from which God had delivered them; and, finally, to prove the falsity of the Pagan religion since, so far from preventing such excesses, it even incited and conducted men to their commission.
Receiving in themselves that recompense — As the impiety of the Pagans respecting God reached even to madness, it was also just that God should permit their corruption to recoil upon themselves, and proceed also to madness. It was just that they who had done what they could to cover the Godhead with reproaches, should likewise cover themselves with infamy, and thus receive a proportionate and retributive recompense.
Romans 1:28 — And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.
The Apostle shows here how justly the Pagan idolaters were abandoned since they had so far departed from the right knowledge of God. In the 18th verse he had declared that the wrath of God was revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. He had now conclusively established the first charge of ungodliness against the Gentiles, adding to it their consequent abandonment to the vilest affections; he next proceeds to demonstrate their unrighteousness.
And as they did not like, — This is not quite literal, yet it seems the best phrase that can be used to convey the spirit of the original. The word is the Greek signifies to prove or approve. They did not approve of retaining God in their knowledge. But this cannot mean that their approbation respected their conscience, dark as it was. They did not approve, because, as the common translation well expresses it, they did not like. There is no just ground to conclude, with Dr. Macknight, that there is here a reference to the magistrates and lawgivers, who did not approve of giving the knowledge of God to the people. It applies to them all; neither the lawgivers, nor the people, liked to hold in remembrance a God of holiness and justice.
To retain God in their knowledge — The common translation has here substantially given the spirit of the original, and is better than ’holding God with acknowledgment,’ as rendered by Dr. Macknight. The heathens are thus said to have known God, but, knowing Him, they did not wish to retain that knowledge. This is a crime in the sight of God which subjects men to the most awful judgments of His justice; for it is on this account that the Apostle adds, that God also gave them up to a reprobate mind. This pointedly refers to the word applied to them, as not approving the retaining of the knowledge of God. It denotes a mind judicially blinded, so as not to discern the difference between things distinguished even by the light of nature. Thus the dark eclipse of their understanding concerning Divine things, which they had despised and rejected, had been followed by another general eclipse respecting things human, to which they had applied themselves, and in this consisted the proportion which God observed in their punishment. They did not act according to right reason and judgment towards God, — this is their crime; they did not act according to it among themselves in society, — this was the effect of the abandonment of God, and became their punishment. This passage clearly shows that all that remains of moral uprightness among men is from God, who restrains and sets bounds to the force of their perversity.
Not convenient — This is a very just and literal translation, according to the meaning of the word convenient in an early stage of the history of our language; but it does not, at present, give the exact idea. The original word signifies what is suitable to the nature of man as a rational and moral being. To do things not convenient, is a figurative expression denoting the doing of things directly contrary and opposite, namely, to the light of reason, the reflections of prudence, and the dictates of conscience.
Romans 1:29 — Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers.
Being filled — This signifies that the vices here exposed were not tempered with virtues, but were alone and uncontrolled, occupying the mind and heart even to overflowing. Unrighteousness — When this word in the original is taken in a limited sense, it signifies injustice. It is often used for iniquity in general, as in the 18th verse. Some understand it here in the latter sense, as a general word which includes all the different particulars that follow. There is no reason, however, why we should not understand it as one species of the evils which are here enumerated, and confine it to its specific meaning, viz. injustice. This was the public crime of the Romans, who built their empire on usurpation and rapine.
Fornication — Cicero speaks of fornication as unblameable, as a thing universally allowed and practiced, which he had never heard was condemned, either in ancient or modern times. Here it includes all the violations of the seventh commandment, and is not to be confined to the distinctive idea which the term bears in our language. Wickedness — This refers to the general inclination to evil that reigned among the heathens, and made them practice and take pleasure in vicious and unprofitable actions. Covetousness — The original word strictly signifies taking the advantage, overreaching in a bargain, having more than what is just in any transaction with our neighbor. Of this, covetousness is the motive. This was universal among rich and poor, and was the spring of all their actions. Maliciousness denotes a disposition to injury and revenge. Full of envy — Tacitus remarks that this was the usual vice of the villages, towns, and cities. Murder was familiar to them, especially with respect to their slaves, whom they caused to be put to death for the slightest offenses. Debate, strife about words for vainglory, and not truth. Deceit was common to them all, and exemplified in their conduct and conversation, as is said, Romans 3:13. Malignity — Though the word in the original, when resolved into its component parts, literally signifies bad custom or disposition, yet it generally signifies something more specific, and is with sufficient propriety rendered malignity, which is a desire to hurt others without any other reason than that of doing evil to them, and finding pleasure in their sufferings. The definition of the term, as quoted from Aristotle by Dr.Macknight, seems true rather as a specification than as a definition. It ’is a disposition,’ he says, ’to take everything in the worst sense.’ No doubt malevolence is inclined to this, but this is only one mode of discovering itself. Whisperers — Dr. Macknight errs in saying that the original word signifies ’those who secretly speak evil of persons when they are present.’The word does not import that the speaker whispers lest the person against whom he speaks, being present, should hear. The person spoken against may as well be absent. It refers to that sort of evil speaking which is communicated in secret, and not spoken in society. It is called whispering, not from the tone of the voice, but from the secrecy. It is common to speak of a thing being whispered, not from being communicated in a low voice, but from being privately spoken to individuals. It refers to sowing divisions. It is one of the most frequent and injurious methods of calumny, because, on the one hand, the whisperer escapes conviction of falsehood, and, on the other, the accused has no means of repelling the secret calumny.
Romans 1:30 — Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents.
Backbiters — The original word is here improperly translated backbiters. Dr. Macknight equally misses the meaning of this term, which he translates ’revilers,’ distinguishing it from whisperers, or ’persons who speak evil of others to their face,’ giving them opprobrious language and bad names. The word indeed includes such persons; but it applies to evil speaking in general, — to those, in short, who take a pleasure in scandalizing their neighbors, without any reference to the presence or absence of those who are spoken against; and it by no means designates, as he says, the giving of ’opprobrious language and bad names.’ Such persons are included in it, but not designated by it. Whisperers or tattlers are evil-speakers, without any peculiar distinction. Our translators have erred in rendering it backbiters. As Dr. Macknight has no authority to limit the word to what is spoken face to face, it is equally unwarrantable to confine it to what is spoken in the absence of those who are spoken against. The word translated ’whisperers’ refers, according to Mr. Tholuck, to a secret, and the word translated ’backbiters,’ to an open slander. Secrecy is undoubtedly the characteristic of the first word, but the last is not distinguished from it by contrast, as implying publicity; on the contrary, the former class is included in the latter, though here specifically marked. Besides, though the communication of both the classes referred to may usually be slander, yet it appears that the signification is more extensive. Whisperers, as speakers of evil, may be guilty when they speak nothing but truth. Mr. Stuart has here followed Mr. Tholuck. The former he makes a slander in secret, the latter a slander in public. It is not necessary that all such persons should be slanderers, and the evil-speaking of the latter may be in private as well as in public.
Haters of God — There is no occasion, with Mr. Tholuck, to seek a reference here to ’those heathens mentioned by Cyprian, who, whenever a calamity befell them, used to cast the blame of it upon God, and denied a providence.’ Nor is it necessary to suppose, with him, that the propriety of the charge is to be found in the fact that superstition begets a hatred of the gods. The charge is applicable to the whole heathen world, who hated God, and therefore did not like to keep Him in remembrance. This was manifest throughout the world in the early introduction of Polytheism and idolatry. No other cause can be assigned for the nations losing the knowledge of the true God. They did not like to retain Him in their knowledge. Had men loved God, He would have been known to them in all ages and all countries. Did not mankind receive a sufficient lesson from the flood? Yet such was their natural enmity to God, that they were not restrained even by that awful manifestation of Divine displeasure at forgetfulness of the Almighty. Although no one will acknowledge this charge to be applicable to himself, yet it is one which the Spirit of God, looking deeply into human nature, and penetrating the various disguises it assumes, brings home to all men in their natural state. ’The carnal mind is enmity against God.’ They hate His holiness, His justice, His sovereignty, and even His mercy in the way in which it is vouchsafed. The charge here advanced by the Apostle against the heathens was remarkably verified, when Christianity, on its first appearance among them, was so violently opposed by the philosophers and the whole body of the people, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. This melancholy fact is written in the history of the persecutions of the early Christians in characters of blood. Despiteful — This term does not express the meaning of the original. Archbishop Newcome translates it injurious; but though this is one of the ideas contained in the word, it is essentially deficient. It signifies injury accompanied with contumely; insolence, implying insult. It always implies contempt, and usually reproach. Often, treatment violent and insulting. Mr. Stuart translates it ’reproachful,’ i.e., he says, ’lacerating others by slanderous, abusive, passionate declarations.’ But this does not come up to the meaning of the original. All this might be done without affecting to despise its object, or in any point of view to assume superiority over him, an idea always implied in the original word. Besides, the reproachful words may not be slanderous. Mr. Tholuck makes it pride towards a fellow-creature; but this designation is not sufficiently peculiar. A proud man may not insult others. This vice aims at attaching disgrace to its object; even in the injuries it commits on the body, it designs chiefly to wound the mind. It well applies to hootings, hissings, and peltings of a mob, in which, even when the most dignified persons are the objects of attack, there is some mixture of contempt.
Proud — This word translates the original correctly, as it refers to the feeling generally, and not to any particular mode of it, which is implied in arrogance, insolence, haughtiness, to persons puffed up with a high opinion of themselves, and regarding others with contempt, as if they were unworthy of any intercourse with them. Boasters — The term in the original designates ostentatious persons in general; but as these usually affect more than belongs to them, it generally applies to persons who extend their pretensions to consideration beyond their just claims.
Inventors of evil things — Dr. Macknight translates this inventors of unlawful pleasures, and no doubt such inventions are referred to, but there is no reason to restrict it to the invention of pleasures when there are many other evil inventions. In such a case it is proper to give the expression the utmost latitude it will admit, as including all evils. Disobedient to parents — Obedience to parents is here considered as a duty taught by the light of nature, the breach of which condemns the heathens, who had not the fifth commandment written in words. It is a part of the law originally inscribed on the heart, the traces of which are still to be found in the natural love of children to their parents. When the heathens, then, disregarded this duty, they departed from the original constitution of their nature, and disregarded the voice of God in their hearts.
Romans 1:31 — Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.
Without understanding — This well expresses the original; for although the persons so described were not destitute of understanding as to the things of this world, but as to these might be the most intelligent and enlightened, yet, in a moral sense, or as respects the things of God, they were unintelligent and stupid. This agrees with the usual signification of the word, and it perfectly coincides with universal experience. All men are by nature undiscerning as to the things of God, and to this there never was an exception. Dr. Macknight entirely misses the meaning, when he explains it as signifying persons who are ’imprudent in the management of affairs.’ The translation of Mr. Stuart, ’inconsiderate’ is equally erroneous.
Covenant-breakers — This is a correct translation, if covenant is understood to apply to every agreement or bargain referring to the common business of life, as well as solemn all important contracts between nations and individuals. Without natural attention — There is no occasion to seek for some particular reference in this, which has evidently its verification in many different things. Dr. Macknight supposes that the Apostle has the Stoics in his eye. Beza, and after him Mr. Stuart, supposes that it refer to the exposure of children. Mr. Tholuck, with more propriety, extends the term to filial and parental love. But still the reference is broader; still there are more varieties comprehended in the term. Why limit to one thing what applies to many? Even though one class should be peculiarly prominent in the reference, to confine it to this robs it of its force.
Implacable — The word in the original signifies as we persons who will not enter into league, as persons who, having entered into league, perfidiously break it. In the former sense it signifies implacable, and designates those who are peculiarly savage. In the latter sense it refers to those who violate the most sacred engagements, entered into with all the solemnities of oaths and religious rites. Our translation affixes to it the first sense. But in this sense it applies to none but the rudest and most uncivilized nations, and was not generally exemplified in the Roman empire. It appears that it should rather be understood in the latter sense, as designating the common practice of nations in every age, who, without hesitation, violate treaties and break oaths sanctioned by every solemn obligation. The word above rendered covenant-breakers, designates the violators of any engagement. The word employed here signifies the breaker of solemn engagements, ratified with all the solemnities of oaths and religious ceremonies.
Unmerciful — There is no reason, like Dr. Macknight, to confine this to those who are unmerciful to the poor. Such, no doubt, are included; but it extends to all who are without compassion. Persons need our compassion who are not in want; they may be suffering in many ways. It applies to those who do not feel for the distresses of others, whatever may be the cause of their distresses; and to those who inflict these distresses it peculiarly applies.
Romans 1:32 — Who, knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Knowing the judgment of God — Sentence or ordinance of God. This the heathens knew, from the work of the law written in their hearts. Although they had almost entirely stifled in themselves the dictates of conscience, it did not cease, in some measure, to remonstrate against the unworthiness of their conduct, and to threaten the wrath of God, which their sins deserved. They recognized it by some remains they had of right notions of the Godhead, and by which they still understood that God was judge of the world; and this was confirmed to them by examples of Divine vengeance which sometimes passed before their eyes. They knew it even by the false ideas of the superstition in which they were plunged, which required them to seek for expiations. That they knew it in a measure is evident by their laws, which awarded punishments to some of those vices of which they were guilty.
Worthy of death — It is difficult to determine with certainty whether death is here to be understood literally or figuratively. Mr. Stuart considers it as decided that it cannot mean literal death, because it cannot be supposed that the heathens judged everything condemned by the Apostle to deserve capital punishment. He understands it in its figurative sense, as referring to future punishment. But an equal difficulty meets him here. Did the heathens know that God had determined to punish the things thus specified with death, according to its figurative import — everlasting punishment? He does not take the word, then, in this sense to its full amount, but as meaning punishment, misery, suffering. But this is a sense which the word never bears. If it refer to future punishment, it must apply to that punishment in its full sense. That the heathens judged many of the sins here enumerated worthy of death, is clear from their ordaining death as their punishment. And the Apostle does not assert that they judged them all worthy of death, but that they judged the doers of such things worthy of death. It seems quite enough, then, that those things, for the commission of which they ordained death, were such as he mentions. In this sense Archbishop Newcome understands the word, ’For they themselves,’ he says, ’punished some of their vices with death.’
Not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. — This is added to mark the depth of their corruption. For when men are not entirely abandoned to sin, although they allow of it in their own circ*mstances and practice, yet they condemn it in their general notions, and in the practice of others, because then it is not connected with their own interest and self-love. But when human corruption has arrived at its height, men not only commit sins, but approve of them in those who commit them. While this was strictly applicable to the whole body of the people, it was chargeable in the highest degree on the leaders and philosophers, who, having more light than the others, treated in their schools some of those things as crimes of which they were not only guilty themselves, but the commission of which they encouraged by their connivance, especially in the abominable rites practiced in the worship of their gods.
By these conclusive proofs Paul substantiates his charge, in verse 18, against the whole Gentile world, first of ungodliness, and then of unrighteousness as its consequence, against which the wrath of God is revealed. It should also be observed that as, in another place, Titus 2:12, he divides Christian holiness into three parts, namely, sobriety, righteousness, and godliness, in the same way, in this chapter, he classes Pagan depravity under three heads. The first is their ungodliness, namely, that they have not glorified God — that they have changed His glory into images made like to corruptible creatures — that they have changed His truth into a lie, which is opposed to godliness. The second is intemperance. God had delivered them up to uncleanness and vile affections, which are opposed to sobriety. The third is unrighteousness, and all the other vices noted in the last verses, which are opposed to righteousness.
It is impossible to add anything to the view here given of the reign of corruption among the heathens; even the most celebrated and civilized, which is fully attested by their own historians. Nothing can be more horrible than this representation of their state; and as the picture is drawn by the Spirit of God, who is acquainted not only with the outward actions, but with the secret motives of men, no Christian can suppose that it is exaggerated. The Apostle, then, had good reason to conclude in the sequel, that justification by works is impossible, and that in no other way can it be obtained but by grace. From the whole, we see how terrible to his posterity have been the consequences of the sin of the first man; and, on the other hand, how glorious in the plan of redemption is the grace of God by His Son.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER II – Romans 2:1-29
IN the preceding chapter, the Apostle had described the state of the idolatrous Pagans, whom he had proved to be under the just condemnation of God. He now passes to that of the Jews, who, while they rejected the righteousness of God, to which the law and the prophets bore witness, looked for salvation from their relation to Abraham, from their exclusive privileges as a nation, and from their observance of the law. In this and the two following chapters, Paul combats these deeply-rooted prejudices, and is thus furnished with an opportunity of clearly unfolding the doctrine of the Gospel, and of proving that it alone is the power of God unto salvation. In the first part of this chapter, to the 24th verse he shows that the just judgment of God must be the same against the Jews as against the Gentiles, since the Jews are equally sinners. In the second part, from the beginning of the 25th verse to the end, he proves that the external advantages which the Jews had enjoyed, were insufficient to ward off this judgment. From his language at the commencement of this chapter, in respect to that judgment which the Jews were accustomed to pass on the other nations, and to which he reverts in the 17th verse, it is evident that through the whole of it he is addressing the Jews, and not referring, as many suppose, to the heathen philosophers or magistrates It was not the Apostle’s object to convince them in particular that they were sinners.
Besides, neither the philosophers nor magistrates, nor any of the heathens, occupied themselves in judging others respecting their religious worship and ceremonies. Such observances, as well as their moral effects on those by whom they were practiced, appeared to the sages of Greece and Rome a matter of perfect indifference. The Jews, on the contrary, had learned from their law, to judge, to condemn, and to abhor all other religions; to keep themselves at the greatest distance from those who profess them; and to regard all idolaters as under the wrath of God. The man, then, who judges others — to whom, by a figure of speech, Paul addresses his discourse in the first verse — is the same to whom he continues to speak in the rest of the chapter, and whom he names in the 17th verse, ’Behold, thou art called a Jew.’
Romans 2:1 — Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
Therefore — This particle introduces a conclusion, not from anything in the preceding chapter, but to establish a truth from what follows. The Apostle had proved the guilt of the Gentiles, who, since they had a revelation vouchsafed to them in the works of God, though they did not possess His word, were inexcusable. The Jews, who had His word, yet practiced the same things for which the former were condemned, must therefore also be inexcusable. In the sequel, he specifies and unfolds the charge thus generally preferred.
O Man — This is a manner of address betokening his earnestness, which Paul frequently employs, as in the ninth chapter of this Epistle. Whosoever thou art that judgest. — The Apostle here refers to the judgment which the Jews passed on the Gentiles. It is generally explained as if he was finding fault with those whom he addressed, and declaring they were inexcusable, because they judged others. But this is erroneous. What he censures, is not their judging, but their doing the same things with those whom they condemned. The character of the Jews, which distinguished them from the Gentiles, was that they judged others. God had conferred on them this distinction, when He manifested His covenant to them, to the exclusion of all the other nations of the world. This character of judging, then, can belong only to the Jews, who, according to a principle of their religion, condemned the other nations of the earth, and regarded them as strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. In this manner the Jews were seated as on a tribunal, from which they pronounced judgment on all other men. Paul, then, had good reason for apostrophizing the Jew as thou that judgest. But as there were also distinctions among the Jews themselves, and as the priests, the scribes, and chiefly the Pharisees, were regarded as more holy than others, he says, whosoever thou art, — thus not excepting even one of them.
Thou art inexcusable — Paul intended to bring in all men guilty before God, as appears by what he says in the 19th verse of the third chapter, ’that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.’ He had already proved the inexcusableness of the Gentiles, and he here proceeds to do the same respecting the Jews, whom he addresses directly, and not in a manner only implying that he refers to them, as is supposed by Professors Tholuck and Stuart. Mr. Stuart, especially, endeavors to show that in the first part of this chapter Paul does not proceed at once to address the Jews, ’but first,’ he says, ’prepares the way, by illustrating and enforcing the general proposition, that all who have a knowledge of what is right, and approve of it, but yet sin against it, are guilty.’ This view of the passage is equally erroneous with that of those who suppose that the Apostle is addressing the philosophers and magistrates. Both these interpretations lead away from the true meaning of the several parts of the chapter, through the whole of which the address to the Jew is direct and exclusive. The Apostle’s object was to conduct men to the grace of the Gospel, and so to be justified in the way of pardon and acquaintance. Now, in order to this, their conviction of sin and of their ruined condition was absolutely necessary, since they never would have recourse to mercy, if they did not feel compelled to confess themselves condemned. It is with this view that he here proceeds to strip the Jews, as he had done the Gentiles, of all excuse.
For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself — Wherein, that is, in the thing in which thou condemnest another, thou condemnest thyself. Dr. Macknight translates it whilst. But though the words in the original thus translated often in certain situations bear this signification, here this cannot be the case. When there is nothing in the context to fix the reference, the most general substantive must be chosen. There is nothing in the context to suggest the idea of time, and thing is a more general idea. It is indeed true that the self-condemnation of the Jew is contemporaneous with his condemnation of the Gentile. But it is so, because this is implied in the very thing that is alleged, and the thing alleged is more important than the time in which it occurs. Nothing, then, is gained by thus deviating from the common version. The translation, because that, which is suggested by Professors Tholuck and Stuart as a possible meaning, is also to be rejected. To suggest a great variety of possible meanings has the worst tendency; instead of serving the truth, it essentially injures it. Besides, as has been remarked, the cause of the condemnation of the Jew was not his judging the Gentiles: the cause of his condemnation was his doing the things which he condemned.
The reasoning of the Apostle is clear and convincing. It consists of three particulars, on which the Jew had nothing to object, namely, —
·1st, Thou judgest another;
·2nd, Thou doest the same things;
·3rd, Thou condemnest thyself; consequently thou art without excuse. Thou judgest another. — That is to say, Thou holdest the Gentiles to be criminal and guilty before God; thou regardest them as people whom God has abandoned to themselves, and who, therefore, being plunged in vice and sin of all kinds, are the objects of His just vengeance. This is what the Jew could not deny. Thou doest the same things. — This the Apostle was to prove in the sequel. Thou condemnest thyself: — The consequence is unavoidable; for the same evidence that convicts the Gentiles in the judgment of the Jew, must, if found in him, also bring him in guilty.
Romans 2:2 — But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
Paul proceeds here to preclude a thought that might present itself, and to stifle it as it were, before its birth. It might be suggested that the judgment of God — that is, the sentence of condemnation with respect to transgressors — is not uniform; that He condemns some and acquits others, as it pleases Him; and therefore, although the Jew does the same things as the Gentile, it does not follow that he will be held equally culpable, — God having extended indulgence to the one, which He has not vouchsafed to the other. The Jew, then, does not hold himself guilty when he condemns the Gentile, although he does the same things. This is the odious and perverse imagination which the Apostle here repels. We are sure, or more literally, we know. Who knows? ’Koppe,’ says Mr. Tholuck, ’deems that there is here an allusion to the Jews, who boasted that they alone possessed the true knowledge.’ But this is palpably erroneous, because the Jews in general did not believe the thing asserted to be known. The Apostle’s object is to correct their error. Mr. Tholuck himself is still farther astray when he understands it of ’those apprehensions of a Divine judgment which are spread among all mankind, to which the Apostle had alluded, chapter 1:32.’ It was the Apostle himself, and those taught by the same Spirit, who knew with unfaltering assurance the thing referred to. The judgment of God, — that is, sentence of condemnation, — not, as Dr. Macknight says, the curse of the law of Moses. The law of Moses and its curse are different from the sentence which God pronounces according to them. According to truth, against them which commit such things. — Not truly. This would qualify the assertion that the judgment of God is against such persons, which, as a general truth, neither the Jew nor the Gentile is supposed to question. In this sense, truly would express the same as really. Nor does it signify according to truth, as synonymous with justice, as Mr. Tholuck supposes. About the justice of the thing there is no question. If the Gentile is justly condemned for every breach of the law written on the heart, the justice of the condemnation of the transgressing Jew could not be a question. Nor, with Mr. Stuart, is it to be understood as meaning, agreeably to the real state of things, — that is, according to the real character of the person judged. This is doubtless a truth, but not the truth asserted in this passage. This meaning applies to the judgment that examines and distinguishes between the righteous and the wicked. But the judgment here spoken of, is the sentence of condemnation with respect to transgressors. Nor, with Dr. Macknight, are we to understand this phrase as signifying, ’according to the true meaning of God’s covenant with the fathers of the Jewish nation.’ This is not expressed in the text, nor is it suggested by the context.
The real import of this phrase will be ascertained in considering the chief error of the Jews about this matter. While they admitted that God’s law, in general, condemns all its transgressors, yet they hoped that, as the children of Abraham, God would in their case relax the vigor of His requirements. What the Apostle asserts, then, is designed to explode this error. If God should sentence Gentiles to condemnation for transgression of the work of the law written in the heart, and pass a different sentence on Jews transgressing the law of Moses, His judgment or sentence would not be according to truth. If some transgressors escaped, while others were punished, the truth of the threat or penalty was destroyed. The truth of God in His threatening, or in the penalty of the breach of His law, is not affected by the deliverance of those saved by the Gospel. The penalty and the precept are fulfilled in Jesus Christ the surety. While God pardons, He by no means clears the guilty. His people are absolved, because they are righteous; they have fulfilled the law, and suffered its penalty, in the death and obedience of Jesus Christ, with whom they are one. The object of the Apostle, then, was to undeceive the Jew in their vain hope of escape, while they knew themselves to be transgressors. And it equally applies to nominal Christians. It is the most prevalent ground of hope among false professors of Christianity, that God will not be so strict with them as His general threatening declares, because of their relation to Him as His professed people.
Romans 2:3 — And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Thinkest thou — This question evidently implies that the Jews did think they would escape, while they committed the very sins for which they believed the heathens would be condemned. This affords a key to the meaning of the foregoing phrase, according to truth, which implies the contrary of this, namely, that all will be punished according to the truth of the threatening or penalty. Escape — This expression imports three things: first, that the Jew could not avoid being judged; second, that he could not avoid being condemned; and third, that he could not prevent the execution of the sentence that God will pronounce. We may decline the jurisdiction of men, or even, when condemned by them, escape from their hands, and elude the execution of their sentence; but all must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; all must be judged according to their works; and all who are not written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire.
We may here observe how prone men are to abuse, to their own destruction, those external advantages which God bestows on them. God had separated the Jews from the Gentiles, to manifest Himself unto them; and, by doing so, He had exalted them above the rest of the world, to whom He had not vouchsafed the same favor. The proper and legitimate use of this superiority would have been to distinguish themselves from the Gentiles by a holy life. But instead of this, owing to a fatal confidence which they placed in this advantage, they committed the same sins as the Gentiles, and plunged into the same excesses. By this means, what they considered as an advantage became a snare to them; for wherein they judged others, they condemned themselves. We may likewise remark how much self-love blinds and betrays men into false judgments. When all the question was respecting the Gentiles, the Jews judged correctly, and conformably to Divine justice; but when the question is respecting themselves, although they were equal in guilt, they would not admit that they were equally the subjects of condemnation.
Romans 2:4 — Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
Goodness — This is the best translation of the word. Mr. Tholuck says that it signifies love in general. But the idea expressed is more general than love. An object of goodness may be very unworthy of being an object of love. A distinction must be made between goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering. Goodness imports the benefits which God hath bestowed on the Jews. Forbearance denotes God’s bearing with them, without immediately executing vengeance — His delaying to punish them. It signifies the toleration which He had exercised towards them after extending to them His goodness; so that this term implies their ingratitude after having received the benefits which God had bestowed, notwithstanding which He had continued the course of His goodness.
Long-suffering signifies the extent of that forbearance during many ages, denoting a degree of patience still unexhausted. Their sins were not immediately visited with the Divine displeasure, as would be the case in the government of men. The term goodness respects their first calling, which was purely gratuitous, Deuteronomy 7:7. Forbearance respects what had passed after their calling, when, on different occasions, the people having offended God, He had, notwithstanding, restrained His wrath, and had not consumed them. It is this that David celebrates in Psalms 103:10, and Psalms 106. Long-suffering adds something more to forbearance; for it respects a long course of ingratitude and sins on the part of that people, and imports an extreme degree of patience on the part of God, — a patience which many ages, and a vast accumulation of offenses, had not exhausted. The Apostle calls all this the riches of His goodness, and long-suffering, and forbearance, to mark the greatness of their extent, their value and abundance, and to excite admiration in beholding a God all-powerful, who has no need of any of His creatures, and is infinitely exalted above them, striving for so long a period with an unrighteous, ungrateful, rebellious, and stiff-necked people, but striving with them by His goodness and patience. This language is also introduced to correct the false judgments of men on this patience of God; for they are apt, on this account, to imagine that there is no God. If, say they, God existed, He would not endure the wicked. They suppose that God does not exercise His providence in the government of the world, since He does not immediately punish their sins. To repress these impious thoughts, the Apostle holds forth this manner of God’s procedure as the riches of goodness and patience, in order that the impunity which it appears that sinners enjoy, might not be attributed to any wrong principle.
Or despisest thou — God’s goodness is despised when it is not improved as a means to lead men to repentance, but, on the contrary, serves to harden them, from the supposition that God entirely overlooks their sin. The Jews despised that goodness; for the greatest contempt that could be shown to it was to shut the ear against its voice, and to continue in sin. This is acting as if it were imagined that the justice which lingers in its execution has no existence, and that it consists solely in empty threats. The interrogations of the Apostle in this and the preceding verse add much force to his discourse. Thinkest thou, says he, that thou canst avoid the judgment of God? By this he marks the erroneousness and folly of such a thought. Despisest thou the riches of His goodness? This is added to indicate the greatness of the crime.
Not knowing — There is no necessity, with Professors Tholuck and Stuart, to translate this ’not acknowledging.’ The thing itself the Jews did not know, and the bulk of those called Christians are equally ignorant of it. The whole of the Old Testament was sufficiently clear on this point, but the Jews excluded the light it furnished. They did so by the presumptuous opinion they entertained of their own external righteousness, in which they made the essence of holiness to consist, imagining that by it they would obtain acceptance with God. They likewise did so by the confidence they placed in the promises that God had made to Abraham and his posterity, flattering themselves with the vain thought that these promises acquired for them a right of impunity in their sins. And, finally, they did so by the gross error into which they had fallen, that the sacrifices and other legal expiations were sufficient to procure the pardon of their sins. By reason of these delusive prejudices they remained in their state of corruption, and did not penetrate farther into the design of God, who, by lavishing on them so much goodness, loudly called them to repentance.
Leadeth thee to repentance — It has been already remarked that the Apostle said nothing like this when speaking in the first chapter respecting the Gentiles. He did not ascribe to God either goodness, or forbearance, or long-suffering in regard to them. He did not say that God invited, or called, or led them to repentance. This shows, as has also been observed, that in the dispensation of providence which regarded them, there was no revelation of mercy. But if there was none for the Gentiles, it was otherwise with the Jews. The Old Testament contained in substance all the promises of the Gospel, as well as the temporal covenant which God had made with the Jews, which was a figure and type of the spiritual covenant made in Christ; and even all the rigors of the law indirectly conducted the Jews to the grace of God, and consequently called them to repentance.
This call was all along accompanied among some of them by the spirit of sanctification, as appears by the example of the prophets and others. But with respect to the greater number, it remained unaccompanied with that spirit, and consequently continued to be merely an external calling, without any saving effect. The Apostle, in the following verse, declares that the Jews by their impenitence drew down upon themselves the just anger of God. From this it evidently follows that God externally calls many to whom He has not purposed to give the grace of conversion. It also follows that it cannot be said that when God thus externally calls persons on whom it is not His purpose to bestow grace, His object is only to render them inexcusable. For if that were the case, the Apostle would not have spoken of the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, — terms which would not be applicable, if, by such a call, it was intended merely to render men inexcusable.
Romans 2:5 — But, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
The Apostle here intimates that the contempt which the Jews had evinced of the Divine calling could not remain unpunished. Thy hardness — This is a figurative expression, and strongly expresses the natural obduracy and insensibility of their hearts with respect to God, as impenetrable by the strongest external force. Nothing but the power of the Spirit of God can overcome it. It is the term which Moses often employs to express the obstinacy of Pharaoh. He also employs it to mark the corruption of the Israelites; and, in general, the Prophets use it to signify the inflexible perversity of sinners. It is in this sense that Ezekiel attributes to man a heart of stone, — a heart which does not feel, and which nothing in man himself can soften. These passages, and many similar ones, denote an inclination to wickedness so strong and so rooted, that it has entire possession of the man and of all the powers of the soul, without his being able to undeceive himself, and to turn to God. It is this also which is marked by the expression impenitent heart; for it does not refer merely to the act of impenitence, and to the heart being in that state at present, but to the fact of its being so enslaved to sin, that it never would or could repent. Dr. Macknight, while he admits that the word literally signifies ’cannot repent,’ most erroneously adds, ’here it signifies, which does not repent.’ The greatness of this obduracy was made manifest by the number and force of the external invitations which God had employed to lead the Jews to repentance, and which the Apostle calls His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering; for these invitations refer to the frequent and earnest exhortations of His word, His temporal favors, the afflictions and the chastisem*nts He had sent, and all His other dispensations towards the Jewish people, respecting which it is said, ’What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it?’ Isaiah 5:4; and again, ’I have spread out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people,’ Isaiah 65:2. When men remain inflexible under such calls, it is the indication of an awful obduracy, of a heart steeled and shut up in impenitence. Such was the state of the Jews. This passage is explicit in opposition to all who suppose that God employs nothing for men’s conversion but the efficacy of His word, accompanied with other circ*mstances calculated to make an impression on their minds. Without the immediate operation of the Holy Spirit, these will always prove ineffectual.
Thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath. — This is a strong expression, and a beautiful figure. It proves that sins will be punished according to their accumulation. A man is rich according to his treasures. The wicked will be punished according to the number and aggravation of their sins. Dr. Macknight makes the whole beauty and energy of the expression to evaporate, when he explains it as comprehending the thing referred to by an Hebraistic extension of meaning. There are two treasures, which Paul opposes to each other, — that of goodness, of forbearance, and long-suffering, — and that of wrath; and the one may be compared to the other. The one provides and amasses blessings for the creature, the other punishments; the one invites to heaven, the other precipitates to hell; the one looks on sin to pardon it on repentance, the other regards obstinate continuance to punish it, and avenge favors that are despised. God alone prepares the first, but man himself the second; and on this account the Apostle says, ’Thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath.’ He had just before ascribed to the Jew a hard and impenitent heart, — expressions which, as we have seen, signify an entire and settled inclination to evil, a corruption which nothing in man can overcome. He adds, that by this means he treasures up wrath. This is very far, then, from countenancing the opinion of those who say that if men were absolutely and entirely unable to convert themselves, they would be excusable, and that God could not justly require of them repentance. Such is not the doctrine of the Apostle Paul, which, on the contrary, teaches that the more a man is hardened in crime, the more he becomes an object of Divine justice and wrath. The reason is, that this want of power has its seat in the will itself, and in the heart, and that it consists in an extreme degree of wickedness and perversity, for which there can be no excuse.
Against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. — That is, the day of the last judgment, which is called the day of wrath, because then the wrath of God will display itself upon the wicked without measure. Till that day the judgments of heavenly justice remain, as it were, concealed and covered under the veil of Divine patience; and till then the sins of men are treasured up as in a heap, and punishment is awaiting them. But on that day, the coming of which is plainly declared in the Scriptures, but which will then be actually revealed, a deluge of wrath will descend upon the wicked. It is called the day of the righteous judgment of God, namely, of the display of His strict justice; for judgment will then be laid to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place. It will therefore be the day of the execution of the justice of God; for it is in its execution that it will be fully made manifest.
When the Apostle speaks here of the day of wrath, and of God’s righteous judgment, he refers to the judgment of those who are under the law. There is no judgment of God which is not according to strict justice; there is none that is a judgment of mercy. Mercy and justice are irreconcilable except in Christ, in whom mercy is exercised consistently with justice. There is no judgment that admits repentance and amendment of life as satisfactory to justice. Repentance and amendment are not admitted to stand in the room of righteousness. It is a truth to which there is no exception, either with respect to God or man, that righteous judgment admits no mercy. The acquittal of the believer in that day will be as just as the condemnation of the sinner. It will be the day in which God, by Jesus Christ, will judge the world in righteousness, according to the strict rules of justice, Acts 17:31, in which none will be acquitted except those whom the Lord, in His representation of the judgment, calls the ’righteous,’ Matthew 25:37-46; and He calls them righteous because they are really so in Christ Jesus. But the judgment to which the Apostle here refers, which he characterizes as the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, is that of the execution of unmingled wrath upon the wicked. He is not speaking of believers who are in Christ, but of those who are under the law, before which nothing but perfect and personal conformity to all its demands can subsist; ’for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.’ All the sins of such persons will be punished, but especially those of obstinacy and contempt which shall have been shown towards the goodness and patience of God; for what the Apostle is here aiming at, is to convince the Jews that it is to that judgment those will be remitted who reject the grace manifested to them.
Romans 2:6 — Who will render to every man according to his deeds.
God, as the sovereign judge of men, receives from them their good and evil actions. These He takes from their hands, so to speak, such as they are, and places them to their account, whether they are to His glory or dishonor. Sinners do not calculate upon this righteous procedure. They commit sin without thinking of God, and without considering that He remembers all their actions. There is, however, an invisible hand which is treasuring up all that a man thinks all that he says, and all that he does; not the least part is lost; all is laid up in the treasury of justice. Then, after God has thus received all, He will also restore all, — He will cause to descend again upon men what they have made to ascend to Him. To every man. — The judgment will be particular to every individual; every one will have to answer for himself This judgment of those who are under the law will not receive either an imputation of good or of bad works of one to another, as the judgment of those who are under grace receives for them the merits of Jesus Christ; but every one of the former shall answer for his own proper works.
According to his deeds — That is to say, either according to his righteousness, if any were found in himself righteous, which will not be the case, for all men are sinners, but it will be according to the judgment to require righteousness, — or it will be according to his sins, — in one word, according as every one shall be found either righteous or unrighteous. This signifies also that there will be a diversity of punishment, according to the number or greatness of the sins of each individual, not only as to the nature, but also the degree, of their works, good or bad; for the punishment of all will not be equal, Matthew 11:22; Matthew 11:24; Luke 12:47-48. There will not, however, as the Pharisees imagined, and as many nominal Christians suppose, be two accounts for each person, the one of his good works, the other of his sins, — the judgment being favorable or unfavorable to him according as the one or the other predominates; for there will be no balancing this sort. ’According to his deeds,’ means that, in the judgment, God will have no regard either to descent or to birth, either to the dignity or quality of the person, — or whether he were Jew or Gentile, as to the privileges he enjoyed, or any such thing, which might counteract justice, or turn it from its course; but that it will regard solely the works of each individual, and that their deeds will comprehend everything that is either obedience or disobedience to the law of God. The judgment of the great day will be to all men according to their works. The works of those who shall be condemned will be the evidence that they are wicked. The works of believers will not be appealed to as the cause of their acquittal, but as the evidence of their union with Christ, on account of which they will be pronounced righteous, for in them the law has been fulfilled in their Divine surety.
Romans 2:7 — To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal life.
Patient continuance in well-doing. — This well expresses the sense of the original. It signifies perseverance in something arduous. It is not mere continuance, but continuance in doing or suffering something that tries patience. The word is used to signify perseverance, patience, endurance, — a perseverance with resistance to all that opposes, namely, to all temptations, all snares, all persecutions, and, in general, to all that could discourage or divert from it, in however small a degree. It is not meant that any man can produce such a perseverance in good works, for there is only one, Jesus Christ, who can glory in having wrought out a perfect righteousness. He alone is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. But here the Apostle only declares what the Divine judgment will demand according to the law, to which the Jews were adhering for justification before God, and rejecting that righteousness which He has provided in the Gospel. He marks what the law will require for the justification of man, in order to conclude from it, as he does in the sequel, that none can be justified in this way, because are guilty. This shows how ignorantly the Church of Rome seeks to draw from this passage a proof of the merit of works, and of justification by works, since it teaches a doctrine the very contrary; for all that the Apostle says in this chapter is intended to show the necessity of another mode of justification than that of the law, namely, by grace, which the Gospel sets before us through faith in Jesus Christ, according to which God pardons sins, as the Apostle afterwards shows in the third chapter. To pretend, then, to establish justification by works, and the merit of works, by what is said here, is directly to oppose the meaning and reasoning of the Apostle.
Seek for glory, and honor, and immortality. — Glory signifies a state brilliant and illustrious, and honor the approbation and praise of God, which, with immortality, designate the blessings of eternal life. These God would, without doubt, confer in consequence of perseverance in good works, but which cannot be obtained by the law. Here we see a condemnation of that opinion which teaches that a man should have no motive in what he does in the service of God but the love of God. The love of God, indeed, must be the predominant motive, and without it no action is morally good. But it is not the only motive. The Scriptures everywhere address men’s hopes and fears, and avail themselves of every motive that has a tendency to influence the human heart. The principles of human nature have God for their author, and are all originally right. Sin has given them a wrong direction. Of the expressions, glory and honor, Dr. Macknight gives the following explanations: — ’Glory is the good fame which commonly attends virtuous actions, but honor is the respect paid to the virtuous person himself by those who have intercourse with him.’ According to this interpretation, those who are seeking for immortality and eternal life are seeking for the favor and respect of men!
Eternal life — The Apostle does not say that God will render salvation, but ’eternal life.’ The truth declared in this verse, and in those that follow, is the same as that exhibited by our Lord when the rich young man asked Him, ’What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ His reply was, ’If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,’ Matthew 19:16; and when the lawyer, tempting Him, said, ’Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? ’Jesus answered, ’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,’ Luke 10:25. The verse before us, then, which declares that eternal life shall be awarded to those who seek it by patient continuance in well-doing, and who, according to the 10th verse, work good, both of which announce the full demand of the law, are of the same import with the 13th verse, which affirms that the doers of the law shall be justified. In all these verses the Apostle is referring to the law, and not, as it is generally understood, to the Gospel. It would have been obviously calculated to mislead the Jews, with whom Paul was reasoning, to set before them in this place personal obedience as the way to eternal life, which, in connection with what he had said on repentance, would tend directly to lead them to mistake his meaning on that subject.
But besides this, if these verses refer to the Gospel, they break in upon and disturb the whole train of his reasoning, from the 18th verse of the first chapter to the 20th of the third, where he arrives at his conclusion, that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. Paul was afterwards to declare the way of justification, as he does, chapter 3:21, 26, immediately after he drew the above conclusion; but till then, his object was to exhibit, both to Jews and Gentiles, the impossibility of obtaining justification by any works of their own, and, by convincing them of this, to lead them to the grace of the Gospel. In conversing with the late Mr. Robert Hall at Leicester, respecting the Epistle to the Romans, he remarked to me that this passage had always greatly perplexed him, as it seemed to be not only aside from, but even opposed to what appeared, from the whole context, to be the drift of the Apostle; and I believe that every one who supposes that the Apostle is here referring to the Gospel will experience a similar difficulty.
I know that the view here given of these verses is contrary to that of almost all the English commentaries on this Epistle. I have consulted a great number of them, besides those of Calvin, and Beza, and Maretz, and the Dutch annotations, and that of Quesnel, all of which, with one voice, explain the 7th and 10th verses of this chapter as referring to the Gospel. The only exception that I am aware of among the English commentaries is that of Mr. Fry, who, in his exposition of the 16th verse, remarks as follows: — ’He (the Apostle) introduces this statement of the certainty of a judgment to come, of the universal guilt and inevitable condemnation of mankind in the course of justice, in order to show the universal necessity of a Savior, and of that righteousness which was of God by faith. And it seems altogether extraordinary that some expositors should concede the above account of the last judgment to include a description of the Redeemer’s bestowing the reward of the inheritance upon His people, and that of such the Apostle speaks when he says, "To them that, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek glory, honor, and immortality, eternal life;" "Glory, honor, and peace, to everyone that doeth good." For most assuredly this is not the language of the righteousness of faith, but the exact manner of speaking which the Apostle ascribes to the righteousness of the law. To the same purpose Mr. Marshall, in his work on The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, 14th edition, p. 94, observes, ’They grossly pervert these words of Paul, "Who will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal life," where they will have Paul to be declaring the terms of the Gospel, when he is evidently declaring the terms of the law, to prove that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, and that no flesh can be justified by the works of the law, as appeareth by the tenor of the following discourse.’
I have noticed that from this passage the Church of Rome endeavors to establish the merit of works, and of justification by means of works. Accordingly, Quesnel, a Roman Catholic, in expounding the 6th verse, exclaims, ’Merites veritables; necessite des bonnes oeuvres. Ce sont nos actions bonnes ou mauvaises qui rendent doux ou severe le jugement de Dieu!’ ’Real merits; necessity of good works. They are our good or bad actions which render the judgment of God mild or severe!’ And indeed, were the usual interpretation of this and the three following verses the just one, it must be confessed that this Romanist would have some ground for his triumph. But if we take the words in their plain and obvious import, and understand the Apostle in this place as announcing the terms of the law, in order to prove to the Jews the necessity of having recourse to grace, and of yielding to the goodness and forbearance of God, leading them to repentance, while he assures them that ’not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified,’ then the whole train of his discourse is clear and consistent. On the other supposition, it appears confused and self contradictory, and calculated not merely to perplex, but positively to mislead, and to strengthen the prejudices of those who were going about to establish their own righteousness. For in whatever way these expressions may with certain explanations and qualifications be interpreted in an evangelical sense, yet unquestionably, as taken by themselves, and especially in the connection in which they stand in this place, they present the same meaning as is announced in the 13th verse, where the Apostle declares that the doers of the law shall be justified.
Romans 2:8 — But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteous, indignation and wrath.
Paul here describes the wicked by three characteristics. Their first characteristic is, that they are contentious; that is, rebellious, and murmurers against the Divine laws, quarrelers with God, and indicating their natural enmity against God by disapproving of His government or authority. The second is, rebels against the truth; that is to say, in revolt and at open war against what is true and right concerning God and His will as made known to them, and as opposed to unrighteousness, which God abhors. The third is, obedient to unrighteousness; that is, revolting against what is good, and becoming slaves to what is evil. Here a striking contrast is indicated between that contentious spirit which disobeys the truth, and yet obeys unrighteousness. The one denotes an extraordinary haughtiness, and an exceeding boldness; and the other, extreme meanness and servility of soul. They who do not choose to serve God as their legitimate sovereign, become the slaves of a master who is both a tyrant and usurper.
Indignation and wrath — These two terms united, mark the greatness of the wrath of God, proportioned to the dignity of the sovereign Judge of the world, to the authority of those eternal laws which have been violated, to the majesty of the legislator by whom they have been promulgated, to the favors which sinners have received from Him, and proportioned also to the unworthiness and meanness of the creature compared with God. Although, when human passions are ascribed to God, we must not suppose that He is affected as we are, yet the expressions employed here show that God will certainly punish the wicked. The Scriptures represent God in the character of a just judge, as well as of a merciful father. The flattering doctrine which insinuates the hope of the final universal happiness of transgressors, both of devils and men, is altogether without countenance from Scripture. The word of God contains the most awful denunciations of the Divine wrath. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Yet some writers lead sinners to hope that the character of God will secure them from punishment.
Romans 2:9 — Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.
Tribulation and anguish — These two terms denote the punishment, as the indignation and wrath designate the principle on which the condemnation proceeds. They also designate the greatness of the punishment. Upon every soul of man — This universality is intended to point to the vain expectations of the Jews, that they would be exempt from that punishment, and assists in determining the import of the phrase ’according to truth’ in verse 2, meaning what is just. It signifies, too, the whole man, for it must not be imagined that the wicked do not also suffer in their body. Jesus Christ says expressly that they shall come forth unto the resurrection of damnation. This refutes the opinion of Socinian heretics and others, who insist that the punishment of the wicked will consist in an entire annihilation both of body and soul. The terms ’tribulation and anguish’ signify a pain of sensation, and consequently suppose the subsistence of the subject.
That doeth evil — The word in the original designates evil workers, as persons who practice wickedness habitually. The connection of punishment with sin is according to the order of Divine justice; for it is just that those who have offended infinite Majesty should receive the retribution of their wickedness. It is likewise according to the denunciation of the law, whether it is viewed as given externally by the word, or as engraved internally in the conscience of every man, for it threatens punishment to transgressors. Of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile (literally Greek). — In this place, ’the Jew first’ must mean the Jew principally, and implies that the Jew is more accountable than the Gentile, and will be punished according to his superior light; for as the Jew will have received more than the Gentile, he will also be held more culpable before the Divine tribunal, and will consequently be more severely punished. His privileges will aggravate his culpability, and increase his punishment. ’You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities,’ Amos 3:2; Matthew 11:22; Luke 12:47. But although the judgment will begin with the Jew, and on him be more heavily executed, it will not terminate with him, but will be also extended to the Gentile, who will be found guilty, though not with the same aggravation.
Romans 2:10 — But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.
Glory, honor, and peace — Glory, as has already been observed, refers to the state of blessedness to which those who shall inherit eternal life will be admitted; honor, to the praise and approbation of God, to which is here added peace. Peace is a state of confirmed joy and prosperity. As added to glory and honor, it may appear feeble as a climax, but in reality it has all the value that is here ascribed to it. No blessing can be enjoyed without it. What would glory and honor be without peace? What would they be if there was a possibility of falling from the high dignity, or of being afterwards miserable?
To every man that worketh good — Happiness, by the established order of things, is here asserted to be the inseparable consequence of righteousness, so that virtue should never be unfruitful; and he who had performed what is his duty, if any such could be found, should enjoy rest and satisfaction. This is also according to the declaration of the Divine law; for if, on the one hand, it threatens transgressors, on the other, it promises good to those who observe it. ’The man that doeth them shall live in them,’ Galatians 3:12. Since, then, no righteous man could be disappointed of the fruit of his righteousness, it may, in consequence, be asked if any creature who had performed his duty exactly would merit anything from God? To this it is replied, that the infinite majesty of God, which admits of no proportion between Himself and the creature, absolutely excludes all idea of merit. For God can never be laid under any obligation to His creature; and the creature, who is nothing in comparison of Him, and who, besides, has nothing but what God has given him, can never acquire any claim on his Creator. Whenever God makes a covenant with man, and promises anything, that promise, indeed, engages God on His part, on the ground of His truth and faithfulness; but it does not so engage Him as to give us any claim of merit upon Him. ’Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?’ Romans 11:35. Thus, in whatever manner we view it, there can be before God no merit in men; whence it follows that happiness would not be conferred as a matter of right on a man who should be found innocent. It must be said, however, that it would be given by a right of judgment, by which the order and proportion of things is preserved, the majesty of the law of God maintained, and the Divine promises accomplished. But, in awarding life and salvation to him who has the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, God is both faithful and just, on account of the infinite merit of His Son. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. — When glory and honor are promised to the Jew first, it implies that he had walked according to his superior advantages, and of course would be rewarded in proportion; while the Gentile, in his degree, would not be excluded.
Romans 2:11 — For there is no respect of persons with God.
Whatever difference of order there may be between the Jew and the Gentile, that difference does not change the foundation and substance of the judgment. To have respect to the appearance of persons, or to accept of persons, is the vice of an iniquitous judge, who in some way violates justice; but the Divine judgment cannot commit such a fault. Besides, we must never lose sight of the train of the Apostle’s reasoning. His design is to show that the Jews, being, as they really are, sinners equally with the Gentiles, are involved with them in the same condemnation. This is what he proves by the nature of the Divine judgment, which is according to truth, that is, which is perfectly just, Verse 2; which renders to every man according to his deeds, Verse 6; and which has no respect of persons, Verse 11; and consequently it will be equal to the Jew and the Gentile, so that neither the one nor the other can defend himself against its sentence. The declaration that God has no respect of persons is frequently quoted as militating against the doctrine of election; but it has no bearing on the subject. It relates to men’s character, and God’s judgment according to character. Every man will be judged according to his works. This, however, does not say that God may not choose some eternally to life, and give them faith, and create them unto good works, according to which, as evidences that they belong to Christ, they shall be judged. God’s sovereign love to the elect is manifested in a way that not only shows Him to be just in their justification, but also true to His declaration with respect to the future judgment. The assertion of the Apostle in this place is a truth of great importance, not only with respect to the Jews, but also with respect to the professors of Christianity, many of whom fancy that there is a sort of favoritism in the judgment of God, that will overlook in some what is in others accounted condemnatory.
Romans 2:12 — For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in (or under) law shall be judged by law.
Here Paul explains the equality of the judgment, both with respect to the gentiles and the Jews. Without law, that is, a written law; for none are without law, as the Apostle immediately afterwards shows. The Gentiles had not received the written law; they had, however, sinned, and they shall perish — that is to say, be condemned — without that law. The Jews had receded the written law; they had also sinned, they will be judged — that is to say condemned — by that law; for in the next verse Paul declares that only the doers of the law shall be justified; and consequently, as condemnation stands opposed to justification, they who are not doers of it will be condemned. In one word, the Divine justice will only regard the sins of men; and wherever these are found, it will condemn the sinner. The Gentiles shall perish without law. They will perish, though they are not to be judged by the written law. It is alleged by some, that although the Apostle’s language shows that all the Gentiles are guilty before God, yet it does not imply that they will be condemned; for that they may he guilty, yet be saved by mercy through Jesus Christ. But the language of the Apostle entirely precludes the possibility of such a supposition. It is not said that they who have sinned without law are guilty without law, but that they shall ’perish without law.’ The language, then, does not merely assert their guilt, but clearly asserts their condemnation. They shall perish. No criticism can make this expression consistent with the salvation of the Gentiles who know not God. They will be condemned by the work of the law written in their hearts. Many are inclined to think that the condemnation of the heathen is peculiarly hard; but it is equally just, and not more severe, than the punishment of those who have sinned against revelation. They will not be Judged by the light which they had not, nor punished so severely as they who resisted that light.
Romans 2:13 — (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
This verse, with the two following, forms a parenthesis between the 12th and 16th, explanatory of the two propositions contained in the 12th. Some also include the 11th and 12th in the parenthesis. If this mode of punctuation were adopted, the 13th, 14th, and 15th verses would be a parenthesis within a parenthesis; but for this there is no occasion, as the 11th and 12th verses connect with the 10th, and also with the 16th. For not the hearers of the law. — Against what the Apostle had just said concerning the equality of the judgment, two objections might be urged, — the one in favor of the Gentiles, the other in favor of the Jews. The first is, that since God has not given His law to the Gentiles, there can be no place for their condemnation, — for how can they be condemned as transgressors if they have not received a law? The second objection, which is contrary to the first, supposes that the Jews ought to be more leniently treated, since God, who has given them His law, has, by doing so, declared in their favor, and made them His people: He will therefore, without doubt, have a regard for them which He has not for the others, whom he has abandoned. The Apostle obviates both these objections in this and the two following verses, and thus defends his position respecting the equality of the judgment. As for the last of them, which he answers first in this 13th verse, he says that it is not sufficient for justification before God to have received the law, and simply to be hearers of it; but that it must be observed and reduced to practice. This is an incontestable truth. For the law has not been given as a matter of curiosity or contemplation as a philosophical science, but to be obeyed; and the greatest outrage against the law and the Legislator, is to hear it and not to take heed to practice it. It will be in vain, therefore, for the Jew to say, I am a hearer of the law, I attend on its services, I belong to the covenant of God, who has given me His testimonies. On all these accounts, being a transgressor, as he is, he must be condemned. The presence of the article before the word law in both the clauses of this verse, which is wanting in the preceding verse, shows that the reference is here to the Jews under the written law.
The doers of the law shall be justified. — By this we must understand an exact obedience to the law to be intended, which can defend itself against that declaration, ’Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.’ For it is not the same with the judgment of the law as with that of grace. The Gospel indeed requires of us a perfect obedience to its commands, yet it not only provides for believers’ pardon of the sins committed before their calling, but of those also which they afterwards commit. But the judgment of the law admits of no indulgence to those who are under it; it demands a full and perfect personal observance of all its requirements — a patient continuance in well-doing, without the least deviation, or the smallest speck of sin; and when it does not find this state of perfection, condemns the man. But did not the law itself contain expiations for sin? and consequently, shall not the judgment which will be passed according to the law, be accompanied with grace and indulgence through the benefit of these expiations? The legal expiations had no virtue in themselves; but inasmuch as they were figures of the expiation made by Jesus Christ, they directed men to His sacrifice. But as they belonged to the temporal or carnal covenant, they neither expiated nor could expiate any but typical sins, that is to say, uncleanness of the flesh, Hebrews 9:13, which were not real sins, but only external pollutions. Thus, as far as regarded the legal sacrifices, all real sins remained on the conscience, Hebrews 10:1, for from these the law did not in the smallest degree discharge; whence it follows that the judgment, according to the law, to those who are under it, will be a strict judgment according to law, which pardons nothing. The word justified occurs here for the first time in this Epistle, and being introduced in connection with the general judgment, means being declared just or righteous by a judicial sentence.
Romans 2:14 — For when the gentiles, which have not a law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not a law, are a law unto themselves.
For — This is the proper translation of the Greek particle, and not therefore according to Dr. Macknight, who entirely misunderstands both the meaning of the passage itself, and the connection in which it stands, and founds upon it a doctrine opposed to all that is contained on the subject, both in the Old Testament and the New. This verse has no connection with, or dependence whatever on, the foregoing, as is generally supposed, but connects with the first clause of verse 12, which it explains. Together with the following verse, it supplies the answer to the objection that might be made to what is contained in the beginning of that verse, namely, that God cannot justly condemn the Gentiles, since He has not given them a law. To this the Apostle here replies, that though they have not an external and written law, as that which God gave to the Israelites, they have, however, the law of the conscience, which is sufficient to establish the justice of their condemnation. This is the meaning of that proposition, having not a law, are a law unto themselves; and of that other, which show the work of the law written in their hearts; by which he also establishes the justice of what he had said in the 12th verse, that as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law. He proves it in two ways: 1st, Because they do naturally the things that the law requires, which shows that they have a law in themselves, since they sometimes act according to its rule; 2nd, He proves it by their not being devoid of a conscience, since, according to its decisions, they accuse or excuse one another. This evidently shows that they have a law, the work of which is written in their hearts, by which they discern the difference between right and wrong — what is just, and what is unjust.
They who have not a law, — that is, an externally written law, — do by nature the things contained in the law. It could not be the Apostle’s intention to assert that the heathens in general, or that any one of them, kept the law written in the heart, when the contrary had been proved in the preceding chapter; but they did certain things, though imperfectly, commanded by the law, which proved that they had, by their original constitution, a discernment of the difference between right and wrong. They did nothing, however, in the manner which the law required, that is, from the only motive that makes an action good, namely, a spirit of obedience, and of love to God. God governs the world in this way. He rules the actions of men and beasts by the instincts and affections which He has implanted in them. Every good action that men perform by nature, they do by their constitution, not from respect to the authority of God. That the Pagans do many things that, as to the outward act, are agreeable to the law of God, is obviously true, and should not be denied. That they do anything acceptable to God is not true, and is not here asserted.
Romans 2:15 — Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
The work of the law — We have here a distinction between the law itself, and the work of the law. The work of the law is the thing that the law doeth, — that is, what it teaches about actions, as good or bad. This work,or business, or office of the law, is to teach what is right or wrong. This, in some measure, is taught by the light of nature in the heart of every man. There remains, then, in all men, to a certain degree, a discernment of what the law requires, designated here the ’work’ of the law; the performance or neglect of which is followed by the approbation or disapprobation of the conscience. It has no relation to the authority of the lawgiver, as the principle of the law itself; but solely to the distinction between actions, as right or wrong in themselves, and the hope of escaping future punishment, or of obtaining future reward. The love and the reverential fear of God, which are the true principles of obedience, have been effaced from the mind; but a degree of knowledge of His justice, and the consciousness that the violations of His law deserve and will be followed by punishment, have been retained.
Written in their hearts — This is an allusion to the law written by the finger of God upon tables of stone, and afterwards recorded in the Scriptures. The great principles of this law were communicated to man in his creation, and much of it remains with him in his fallen state. This natural light of the understanding is called the law written in the heart, because it is imprinted on the mind by the Author of creation, and is God’s work as much as the writing on the tables of stone. Conscience witnessing together, — together with the law written in the heart. But it may be asked, Are not these two things the same? They are not. They are different principles. Light, or knowledge of duty, is one thing, and conscience is another. Knowledge shows what is right, — the conscience approves of it, and condemns the contrary. We might suppose a being to have the knowledge of duty, without the principle that approves of it, and blames the transgression.
Their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing between one another. — Not alternately, nor in turn. Their reasonings (not thoughts) between one another, condemning, or else defending. What is the object of their condemnation or defense? Not themselves, but one another; that is, those between whom the reasonings take place. The reference evidently is to the fact that, in all places, in all ages, men are continually, in their mutual intercourse, blaming or excusing human conduct. This supposes a standard of reference, — a knowledge of right and wrong. No man could accuse and condemn another, if there were not some standard of right and wrong; and no man could defend an action without a similar standard. This is obviously the meaning of the Apostle. To these ideas of right and wrong are naturally joined the idea of God, who is the sovereign Judge of the world, and that of rewards and punishments, which will follow either good or bad actions. These ideas do not fail to present themselves to the sinner, and inspire fear and inquietude. But as, on the other hand, self-love and corruption reign in the heart, these come to his support, and strive, by vain reasonings, to defend or to extenuate the sin. The Gentiles, then, however depraved, lost, and abandoned, and however destitute of the aid of the written law, are, notwithstanding, a law to themselves, having the law written in their hearts. They have still sufficient light to discern between good and evil, virtue and vice, honesty and dishonesty; and their conscience enables them sufficiently to make that distinction, whether before committing sin, or in the commission of it, or after they have committed it. Besides this, remorse on account of their crimes reminds them that there is a God, a Judge before whom they must appear to render account to Him of their actions. They are, then, a law to themselves; they have the work of the law written in their hearts.
That the knowledge of the revealed law of God has not been preserved in every nation, is, however, entirely to be attributed to human depravity; and if it was restored to one nation for the benefit of others, it must be ascribed to the goodness of God. The law of God, and the revelation respecting the Messiah, had been delivered to all men after the flood by Noah, who was a preacher of the everlasting righteousness, 2 Peter 2:5, which was to be brought in, to answer the demands of that law. But all the nations of the earth had lost the remembrance of it, not liking to retain God in their knowledge. God again discovered it to the Jews in that written revelation with which they were favored. If it he asked, Why was the law vouchsafed in this manner to that nation and not also to the Gentiles? Paul explains this mystery, chapter 11: It is sufficient then to say that God has willed to make known, by this abandonment, how great and dreadful was the fall of the human race, and by that means one day to magnify the glory of the grace which He purposed to bestow on men by Jesus Christ. He willed to leave a great part of men a prey to Satan, to show how great is His abhorrence of sin, and how great was the wrath which our disobedience had kindled against the world. But why did He not also abandon the Jews? Because He chose to leave some ray of hope in the world, and it pleased Him to lay the foundation of redemption by His Son. But why was the greater part abandoned? Because then was the time of Divine wrath and justices and sin must be allowed to abound that grace might super abound. Why, in fine, choose the nation of the Jews rather than any other nation? Because, without any further reason, it was the sovereign good pleasure of God.
Romans 2:16 — In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to any gospel.
This verse is to be construed in connection with the 12th, to the contents of which the three intermediate verses had given, in a parenthesis, the explanatory answers. In the day when God shall judge. — It is here assumed by the Apostle that God is the Judge of the world. This is a truth which nature and right reason teach. Since intelligent creatures are capable of obedience to law, it necessarily follows that they have a judge, for the law would be null and void if it were left as a dead letter, without a judge to put it in execution. And as there is a law common to the whole human race, it must also be admitted that there is a common Judge. Now this Judge of all can only be God, for it is only God who possesses all the qualifications for such an office. The Apostle likewise assumes that there will be a day when God will hold this judgment. This is also a truth conformable to right reason, for there must be a fired time for rendering public the decrees of justice, otherwise it would not be duly honored, since its honor consists in being recognized to be what it is before all creatures. If, then, there were only individual judgments, either in this life or at death, justice would not be manifested as it ought to be. Hence it follows that there must be a public and solemn day in which God will execute judgment before the assembled universe. Besides, the Apostle here intimates that there will be an end to the duration of the world, and the succession of generations; for if there be a day appointed for a universal judgment, it follows that all men must there appear. And if such be the case, their number must also be determined, while, without a single exception, the time of their calling and of their life must terminate, so that the succession of generations must come to an end.
The secrets of men. — It is not here meant that God will judge only their secrets, so that their public and known actions should pass without being judged; for there is nothing that God does not judge. But it is intended to show with what exactness the judgment will proceed, since it takes account of things the most secret and the most concealed. It will not resemble the judgment of men, which cannot fathom the hearts and thoughts. God will not only take cognizance of external, but also of internal actions, and will discover even the inmost thoughts of men. All actions, then, whether open or secret, will come into judgment; but secrets or hidden things are here said to be judged, because they are reached by no other judgment. If men can conceal their evil deeds, they are safe from human judgment. Not so with respect to the Judge at the great day. The most secret sins will then be manifested and punished.
By Jesus Christ — God will carry into effect that judgment by Jesus Christ. ’He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained,’ Acts 17:31. Jesus Christ will conduct the judgment, not only as it respects believers, but also the wicked. If the secrets of men are to be brought into judgment, and if Jesus Christ is to be the Judge, He must be the Searcher of hearts, Acts 1:24; Revelation 2:23. He must then be truly God.
In the economy of Jesus Christ there are two extreme degrees, one of abasem*nt, the other of exaltation. The lowest degree of His abasem*nt was His death and burial. The opposite degree of His exaltation will be the last judgment. In the former He received the sentence which condemned Him, and which included in His condemnation the absolution of His people. In the latter He will pronounce the condemnation or absolution of all creatures. In the one, covered over with reproaches, and pierced with the arrows of Divine justice, He was exposed on the cross as a spectacle to the whole city of Jerusalem, when He cried, ’My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ In the other, arrayed in glory and majesty, He will appear before the whole universe, in the glory of His Father, who commands all the angels to worship Him.
According to my Gospel — Paul calls the Gospel his Gospel, not that he is the author of it, for it is solely from God; but to say that of it he is the minister and herald, — that it is the Gospel which he preached. The Gospel, in a large sense, includes everything revealed by Jesus Christ. The Judgment then shall take place according to the declarations therein contained.
Romans 2:17 — Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God.
Here commences the second part of this chapter, where Paul purposes to show that all the external advantages of the Jews over the Gentiles were unavailing for their protection from the just condemnation of God. In the first place, he enumerates all their privileges, on account of which the Jews could exalt themselves above the Gentiles. Afterwards he lays it to their charge that, notwithstanding all these privileges, they were sinners, equally guilty as others. Finally, he shows that, being sinners, as they all were, their advantages would avail them nothing, and would only aggravate their condemnation.
Behold, thou art called a Jew — The Apostle here continues his discourse to the same persons whom, from the commencement of the chapter, he had addressed, and now calls on the Jew by name. In this verse, and the three following, Paul classes the advantages of the Jews under six particulars:
1.Their bearing the name of Jew.
2.Having received the Law.
3.Having the true God as their God.
4.Knowing His will.
5.Discerning what is evil.
6.Their ability to teach and guide other men.
As to the first of these, the name Jew embraces three significations: — confession, praise, and thanksgiving; and by these three things that people was distinguished from all other nations. The Jew alone had been chosen as the confessor of God, while all the rest of the world had abjured His service. The Jew alone was appointed to celebrate His praises, while by others He was blasphemed. The Jew alone was appointed to render thanksgiving to God for multiplied benefits received, while others were passed by. In that name, then, in which the Jews gloried, and which distinguished them from all other nations, and implied all the privileges they enjoyed, they possessed already a signal advantage over the Gentiles Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart prefer surnamed to called; but the name was not exactly what is called a surname. It was the name of a whole people. The word called, or denominated, is more appropriate, for it answers both to their name as a people and to their religion, both of which are comprised in the name Jew.
And restest in the law — That is to say, thou hast no occasion to study any other wisdom or philosophy than the law. It is thy wisdom and thy understanding, Deuteronomy 4:6. The term restest signifies two things: the one, that the labor was spared the Jews of employing many years and great endeavors, and traveling to distant countries, as was the case with other nations, in acquiring some knowledge and certain rules of direction. The law which God had given them rendered this unnecessary, and furnished abundantly all that was required for the regulation of their conduct. The other idea which this term conveys is, that they had an entire confidence in the law as a heavenly and Divine rule which could not mislead them, while the Gentiles could have no reliance on their deceitful philosophy.
And makest thy boast of God — Namely, in having Him for their God, and being His people, while the Gentiles, having only false gods, were ’without God in the world,’ Ephesians 2:12. The Jews had the true God, the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, the Lord who had performed glorious miracles in their favor, who had even spoken to them from the midst of fire, for the Author of their calling, for their Deliverer, for their Legislator, for the Founder of their government, and for their King and Protector. His earthly palace was in the midst of them; He had regulated their worship, and caused them to hear His voice. The other nations possessed nothing similar. They had therefore great reason to glory in Him, and on this account David said that in God was his strength and his refuge, Psalms 18, 62:7, and 144.
Romans 2:18 — And knowest His wall, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law.
And knowest His will — That is, what is agreeable to Him, what He requires them to do, what He commands, what He prohibits, what He approves, and what He rewards. The term knowest signifies not a confused knowledge, such as the Gentiles had by the revelation of nature, but a distinct knowledge by the revelation of the word, which the Gentiles did not possess. ’He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for His judgments, they have not known them,’ Psalms 147:19-20. At the same time, the Apostle does not mean to say that the Jews had a practical knowledge of the will of God, for he immediately accuses them of the contrary.
And approvest things that are excellent — This is the fifth advantage, which follows from the preceding. They knew the will of God, and, knowing that will, they consequently knew what was contrary to it; that is to say, those things which God does not approve, and which He condemns. For the declaration of what God approves includes, in the way of opposition and negation, those things which He does not approve. From this we learn the perfection of the written law, in opposition to unwritten traditions; for nothing more is needed in order to know the will of God, and to discern what contradicts it. Being instructed out of the law. — This refers to the two preceding articles — to the knowledge of the will of God, and to the discernment of the things that are contrary to it. From their infancy the Jews were instructed in the law.
Romans 2:19 — And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness:
This is the sixth advantage, depending on those preceding. The law not only instructed the Jews for themselves, but also for others, and in this they held that they enjoyed a great superiority over the other nations. A guide to the blind. — The Gentiles are here called blind, for with all the lights of their philosophy, of their laws and their arts, they were after all blind, since, with the exception of those of true religion, which they did not possess, there is no true saving light in the world. A light of them which are in darkness. — The Rabbis called themselves the light of the world, to which our Lord appears to refer when He gives this title to His Apostles.
Romans 2:20 — An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes. — These titles explain clearly what the others indicate in metaphorical terms, and further exalt the privileges of the Jews. Here we may remark that, although to the Gentiles God had given abundance of temporal good things, all this was still as nothing in comparison of the blessings vouchsafed to the Jews. Which hast the form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law. — This does not signify semblance in contradistinction to substance, for it was the thing of which the Jews boasted. It means the representation or exhibition of truth and summary of knowledge which was contained in the law. The meaning is the same as when we speak of a body of divinity. The Jews considered that they had a body of truth and knowledge in the law. In these expressions, then, truth and knowledge are represented as embodied in a visible form. The Jews had that form in the law, that is to say, the law was to them a form and model, whence they were to take all the true notions of God, of His religion, and of the duty of man, and a rule to which they ought to be referred. In general, from all these advantages which God had so liberally bestowed on the Jews, we may collect that His goodness had been great in not entirely abandoning the human race, but in having still lighted up for it, in a corner of the earth, the lamp of His law, to serve as His witness. His wisdom has not been less conspicuous in having thus prepared the way for the mission of His Son, and the establishment of His Gospel throughout the whole world. For the law was a schoolmaster until the coming of Christ. We also learn that when God does not accompany His external favors with the internal grace of His Holy Spirit, the depravity of man is such, that, instead of turning to God, he multiplies his transgressions, as the Apostle immediately proceeds to show by the example of the Jews. We see, too, how aggravated was their ingratitude in the midst of such distinguished benefits.
Romans 2:21 — Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
This and the two following verses are in the Vulgate without interrogation, but the ancient interpreters read them with the interrogation. The meaning, in either case, remains the same. After having exalted the advantages of the Jews above the Gentiles with as much force as they could have done themselves, Paul unveils their hypocrisy, and exhibits the vices which were concealed under so fair an exterior He afterwards confirms the whole of his charges by the testimony of Scripture. In this manner he establishes more fully what he had said in the beginning of the chapter, that they condemned themselves, and that they could not hope to escape the just judgment of God, but were accumulating a treasure of wrath. Teachest thou not thyself. — This implies that the Jews did not practice the precepts of their law. It implies that they were practically ignorant of it. Preachest, or proclaimest. — There is no reason to suppose, with Dr. Macknight, that the learned Jews are here the persons addressed. The whole of the Jews are addressed as one person. What is said applies to them as a body, and does not exclusively relate to the scribes and teachers. Should not steal. — The sins here specified were evidently such as were practiced among the Jews. They are not merely supposed cases, or specifications for illustration. It is taken for granted that, as a body, the sins mentioned were very generally chargeable on them. Would the Apostle, addressing the Jews as one man, have asked why they were guilty of such a sin, if they were not very generally guilty of it? Mr. Tholuck, then, has no ground to suppose the contrary.
Romans 2:22 — Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Oppression of the poor, and adultery, are the crimes with which the Jews were chiefly charged by our Lord. Abhorrest idols. — The Jews now generally abhorred the idolatry to which in the former ages of their history they were so prone, even in its grossest forms. The word in the original signifies to abominate, alluding to things most disagreeable to the senses. This is according to God’s account of the sin of idolatry. According to human standards of morality, idolatry appears a very innocent thing, or at least not very sinful; but in Scripture it is classed among the works of the flesh, Galatians 5:20, and is called ’abominable,’ 1 Peter 4:3. It robs God of His glory, transferring it to the creature. Commit sacrilege. — The word here used literally applies to the robbery of temples, for which the Jews and many opportunities, as well as of appropriating to themselves what was devoted to religion, as is complained of, Nehemiah 13:10; and of robbing God in tithes and offerings, Malachi 3:8; also of violating and profaning things sacred.
Romans 2:23 — Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God?
The Jews gloried in the law as their great national distinction, yet they were egregiously guilty of breaking it, which was highly inconsistent and dishonorable to God, not merely ’as God was the author of the law,’which is the explanation of Mr. Stuart, but because they professed to be God’s people and to glory in His law. In any other light, the breach of the law by the Gentiles, when they knew it to be God’s law, would have been equally dishonorable to God. But God is dishonored by the transgressions of His people, in a manner in which He is not dishonored by the same transgressions in the wicked, who make no profession of being His. It is a great aggravation of the sins of God’s people, if they are the occasion of bringing reproach on His religion. The world is ready to throw the blame on that religion which He has given them; and it is for this that the Apostle, in the following verse, reproaches the Jews in regard to the heathen. Sinners also are thus emboldened to sin with the hope of impunity, and opposers make it a handle to impede the progress of Divine truth.
It appears that in the above three verses the Apostle alludes to what is said, Psalms 50:16-21. ’But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldst take My covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest My words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept hence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I was reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.’ On this it may be remarked, that the 50th Psalm predicts the change which God was to make in His covenant at the coming of the Messiah, and likewise His rejection of His ancient people. As to the change of the covenant, it was declared that the sacrifices of the law were not acceptable to Him, and that henceforth He will not require from men any other than those of praises, thanksgivings, and prayers, which are the only acceptable worship.
Respecting the rejection of His ancient people, God reproaches them with their crimes, and more especially with hypocrisy, which are precisely the charges made against them in this place by the Apostle. The conclusion from the whole is, that the pretended justification of the Jews by the external advantages of the law was a vain pretense; and that, as they had so vilely abused the law of which they boasted, according to the prediction of the Psalmist, it must follow that the accusation now brought against them was established.
The Apostle, in these verses, exhibits the most lively image of hypocrisy. Was there ever a more beautiful veil than that under which the Jew presents himself? He is a man of confession, of praise, of thanksgiving; a man whose trust is in the law, whose boast is of God, who knows His will, who approves of things that are excellent; a man who calls himself a conductor of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of babes; a man who directs others, who preaches against theft, against adultery, against idolatry; and, to sum up the whole, a man who glories in the commandments of the Lord. Who would not say that this is an angel arrayed in human form — a star detached from the firmament and brought nearer to enlighten the earth? But observe what is concealed under this mask. It is a man who is himself untaught; it is a thief, an adulterer, a sacrilegious person, — in one word, a wicked man, who continually dishonors God by the transgression of His law. Is it possible to imagine a contrast more monstrous than between these fair appearances and this awful reality?
Doubtless Paul might have presented a greater assemblage of particular vices prevalent among the Jews, for there were few to which that nation was not addicted. But he deems it sufficient to generalize them all under these charges, — that they did not teach themselves that they dishonored God by their transgressions of the law; and of these vices he has only particularized three, namely, theft, adultery, and sacrilege: and this for two reasons, — first, because it was of these three that God had showed the greatest abhorrence in His law; and, secondly, because these three sins, in spite of all their professions to the contrary, were usual and common among the Jews. There was no people on earth more avaricious and self-interested than they. It is only necessary to read the narrations of their prophets and historians, to be convinced how much they were addicted to robbery, to usury, and to injustice. They were no less obnoxious to the charge of fornication and adultery, as appears from the many charges preferred against them in the writings of the Prophets. They converted the offerings to the purposes of their avarice, they profaned the holy places by vile and criminal actions; and as the Lord Himself, after Jeremiah, upbraided them they turned God’s house of prayer into a den of thieves. These three capital vices, which the Apostle stigmatizes in the Jews, like those which he had preferred against the Gentiles, stand opposed, on the one hand, to the three principal virtue which he elsewhere enumerates as comprehending the whole system of sanctity, namely, to live soberly, righteously, and godly; and, on the other hand, they are conformable to the three odious vices which he had noted among the Gentiles, namely, ungodliness, intemperance, unrighteousness. For theft includes, in general, every notion of unrighteousness; adultery includes that of intemperance; and the guilt of sacrilege, that of ungodliness. Hence it is easy to conclude that, whatever advantages the Jews possessed above the Gentiles, they were, notwithstanding, in the same condition before the tribunal of God, — like them unrighteous, like them intemperate, like them ungodly, and, consequently, like them subjected to the same condemnation.
Romans 2:24 — For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
The charge alleged here against the Jews, is not that they themselves blasphemed the name of God as some understand it, but that they gave occasion to the heathen to blaspheme. The Apostle is not charging the Jews with speaking evil of God, or with one particular sin, but with the breach of their law in general. He here confirms what he had just said to this purpose in the foregoing verse, by the authority of Scripture. Many suppose that he refers to a passage of Isaiah 52:5, where the Prophet says, ’And my name continually every day is blasphemed.’ But there the Prophet does not charge the Jews as having, by their bad conduct, occasioned the injury which the name of God received. He ascribes it, on the contrary, to the Assyrians, by whom they had been subjected. In the passage before us, the reference is to Ezekiel 36:17-20, where it is evident that the Jews, by the greatness and the number of their sins, had given occasion to the Gentiles to insult and blaspheme the holy name of God, which is precisely the meaning of the Apostle.
The Gentiles, as the Prophet there relates, seized on two pretexts to insult the name of God, — the one drawn from the afflictions which the sins of His people had brought upon them, and the other from the contemplation of the sins themselves. According to the first, they accused the God of Israel of weakness and want of power, since He had not saved His people from so miserable a dispersion. According to the second, they imputed to the religion and the God of the Israelites all the crimes which they saw that people commit, as if it had been by the influence of God Himself that they were committed. It is on account of these two arrogant and malignant accusations that God reproaches His people for having profaned His name among the nations; and adds (not for the sake of His people, who had rendered themselves altogether unworthy, but for that of His own name) two promises opposed to those two accusations, — the one of deliverance, the other of sanctification: — ’For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you unto your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean,’ Ezekiel 36:24-25. I will deliver you, in order to repel their insult on Me, in accusing Me of want of power. I will cleanse you, in order to vindicate Myself from the accusation of being the author of your crimes. God had no need of either of these ways of justifying Himself. He had shown, on numerous occasions, the irresistible power of His arm in favor of the Israelites; and the sanctity of His law was self-evident. Yet He promises to do these things for His own glory, inasmuch as the Gentiles and His people had dishonored His name.
No accusation against the Jews could be more forcible than that which, in the verse before us, was preferred from the testimony of their own Scriptures. It proved that not only were they chargeable before God with their own sins, but that they were likewise chargeable with the sins which the Gentiles committed in blaspheming His name. This showed clearly that they were no more prepared to sustain the judgment of the strict justice of God than were the Gentiles, whom they were as ready to condemn as the Apostle himself was.
Romans 2:25 — For circumcisions verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
Paul here pursues the Jew into his last retreat, in which he imagined himself most secure. He presses him on the subject of circumcision, which the Jews viewed as their stronghold — that rite even more ancient than Moses, and by which they were distinguished from the other nations. The sum of this, and the following verses to the end of the chapter, is, that the Jews being such as the Apostle had represented them, all their advantages, including circumcision, could only enhance their condemnation before the tribunal of God, and that, on the contrary, if the Gentiles, who have not received the law, observed its precepts, they would be justified without circumcision. Two things are here to be observed, namely, what is asserted of the Jews and Gentiles, and the proof that follows. The assertions are, that circumcision serves only as a ground of condemnation to transgressors of the law; and, on the other hand, that the want of it would be no detriment to those who fulfilled the law. The proof is, that before God the true Jew and the true circumcision consist not in external qualities, but in internal and real holiness. The reason why circumcision was not included in the enumeration before given of the advantages of the Jews is, that in itself it is not an advantage, but only a sign of other advantages; and it is mentioned here, because, in the character of a sign, it includes them: to name circumcision then, is to refer to them all. In this verse the Apostle does not speak of circumcision according to its real and most important signification as he does in the two concluding verses, but in that view in which the Jews themselves considered it, as the initiatory and distinctive rite of their religion, without the observance of which they believed they could not be saved.
Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law. — It is not meant that circumcision will come into the account before the tribunal of God, as the fulfilling of the law, but that it would be an aid and motive to the observance of the law, and viewed in the light of an obligation to keep the law; if the Jew had kept it, he could refer to his circumcision as an obligation which he had fulfilled. Circumcision may be viewed in two lights, either as given to Abraham, or as enjoined by Moses.
1. It was the token of the covenant that Abraham should be the father of the promised Savior, and, moreover, a seal or pledge of the introduction and reality of the righteousness imputed to him through faith, while uncircumcised, in order that he might be the father of all believers, whether circumcised or not, to whom that righteousness should also be imputed.
2. Circumcision, as enjoined by Moses, was a part of his law, John 7:22-23. In the first view, it was connected with all the privileges of Israel, Philippians 3:4-5; in the second, it was a part of the law, whose righteousness is described, Romans 10:5.
The Jews entirely mistook the object of the law, Romans 5:20, Galatians 3:19, which shut up all under sin, Galatians 3:22, by cursing everyone who continued not in all things written in the book of the law to do them; and in this view, as a part of the law of Moses, circumcision could only profit those who kept the whole law. But instead of this, the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles, through the wickedness of the Jews, and hence their having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law would only aggravate their condemnation. When, therefore, the Apostle says, if thou keep the law, he supposes a case, not implying that it was ever verified; but if it should exist, the result would be what is stated. If, on the other hand, the Jew was a breaker of the law, his circumcision was made uncircumcision, Jeremiah 9:26; it would be of no more avail than if he had not received it, and would give him no advantage over the uncircumcised Gentile. This declaration is similar to the way in which our Lord answers the rich young man. If the law is perfectly kept, eternal life will be the reward, as the Apostle had also said in verses 7 and 10; but if there be any breach of it, circumcision is of no value for salvation.
Romans 2:26 — Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
The Apostle does not mean to affirm that an uncircumcised Gentile can fulfill the righteousness of the law, nor does he here retract what he had said in the first chapter respecting the corruption and guilt of the Gentiles, but he supposes a case in regard to them like that concerning the Jews in the preceding verse. This hypothetical mode of reasoning is common with Paul, of which we have an example in this same chapter, where he says that the doers of the law shall be justified; of whom, however, in the conclusion of his argument, chapter 3:19, he affirms that none can be found. The supposition, then, as to the obedience of the Gentile, though in itself impossible, is made in order to prove that, before the judgment seat of God, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision enters at all into consideration for justification or condemnation. If an uncircumcised Gentile kept the law, his uncircumcision would avail as much as the circumcision of the Jew. The reason of this is, that the judgment of God regards only the observance or the violation of the law, and not extraneous advantages or disadvantages, and, as is said above, with God there is no respect of persons. In reality, then, the Jews and Gentiles were on a level as to the impossibility of salvation by the law; in confirmation of which truth, the inquiry here introduced is for the conviction of the Jew on this important point. But what is true upon a supposition never realized, is actually true with respect to all who believe in Jesus. In Him they have this righteousness which the law demands, and without circumcision have salvation. Dr. Macknight egregiously errs when he supposes that the law here referred to is the law of faith, which heathens may keep and be saved: this is a complication of errors.
Romans 2:27 — And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
Paul continues in this verse to reason on the same supposition as in the one preceding, and draws from it another consequence, which is, that if the Gentile who is uncircumcised fulfilled the law, he would not only be justified, notwithstanding his uncircumcision, but would judge and condemn the circumcised Jew who did not fulfill it. The reason of this conclusion is, that in the comparison between the one and the other, the case of the circumcised transgressor would appear much worse, because of the superior advantages he enjoyed. In the same way it is said, Matthew 12:41, that the Ninevites shall condemn the Jews. The uncircumcision which is by nature. — That is to say, the Gentiles in their natural uncircumcised state, in opposition to the Jews, who had been distinguished and set apart by a particular calling of God. Dr. Macknight commits great violence when he joins the words ’by nature’ with the words ’fulfill the law,’ as if it implied that some Gentiles did fulfill the law by the light of nature. Who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law. — Dr. Macknight affirms that the common translation here ’is not sense.’ But it contains a very important meaning. The Jews transgressed the law by means of their covenant and circumcision being misunderstood by them. This fact is notoriously true: they were hardened in their sin from a false confidence in their relation to God. Instead of being led to the Savior by the law, according to its true end, they transgressed it, through their views of the letter of the law and of circumcision; of both of which, especially of circumcision, they made a savior. The fulfilling of the law and its transgression are here to be taken in their fullest import, namely, for an entire and complete fulfillment, and for the slightest transgression of the law; for the Apostle is speaking of the strict judgment of justice by the law, before which nothing can subsist but a perfect and uninterrupted fulfillment of all the commandments of God. But it may be asked how the uncircumcised Gentiles could fulfill the law which they had never received.
They could not indeed fulfill it as written on tables of stone and in the books of Moses, for it had never been given to them in that way; but as the work of the law, or the doctrine it teaches, was written in their hearts, it was their bounded duty to obey it. From this it is evident that in all this discussion respecting the condemnation of both Gentiles and Jews, the Apostle understands by the law, not the ceremonial law, as some imagine, but the moral law; for it is the work of it only which the Gentiles have by nature written in their hearts. Besides, it is clear that he speaks here of that same law of which he says the Jews were transgressors when they stole, committed adultery, and were guilty of sacrilege.
Romans 2:28 — For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Romans 2:29 — But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
The Apostle now passes to what is reality, not supposition, and gives here the proof of what he had affirmed, namely, that circumcision effects nothing for transgressors of the law, except to cause their deeper condemnation, and that the want of circumcision would be no loss to those who should have fulfilled the law. The reason of this is, that when the Jew shall appear before the tribunal of God, to be there judged, and when he shall produce his title as a Jew, as possessing it by birth, and his circumcision, as having received it as a sign of the covenant of God, God will not be satisfied with such appearances, but will demand of him what is essential and real. Now the essence and reality of things do not consist in names or in eternal signs; and when nothing more is produced, God will not consider a man who possesses them as a true Jew, nor his circumcision as true circumcision. He is only a Jew in shadow and appearance, and his is only a figurative circumcision void of its truth.
But he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; that is to say, that in judging, God will only acknowledge as a true Jew, and a true confessor of His name, him who has the reality, — namely, him who is indeed holy and righteous, and who shall have fulfilled the law; for it is in this fulfillment that confession, and praise, and giving of thanks consist, which are the things signified by the name Jew. It is thus we are to understand the contrast which Paul makes between ’outwardly’ and ’inwardly.’ What is outward is the name, what is inward is the thing itself represented by the name.
And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter. — It is essential to keep in view that here, and in all that precedes, from the beginning of the 18th verse of the first chapter, Paul is referring not to the Gospel, but exclusively to the law, and clearing the ground for the establishment of his conclusion in the following chapter, verses 19th and 20th, concerning the universal guilt of mankind, and the consequent impossibility of their being justified by the law. The whole is intended to prepare the way for the demonstration of the grand truth announced, Romans 1:17, and resumed, Romans 3:21, of the revelation of a righteousness adequate to the demands of the law, and provided for all who believe. From a misapprehension in this respect, very erroneous explanations have been given by many of this verse and the context, as well as of the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of the second chapter, representing these passages as referring to the Gospel, and not exclusively to the law. This introduces confusion into the whole train of the Apostle’s reasoning, and their explanations are entirely at variance with his meaning and object.
And circumcision. — This passage is often considered as parallel to that in the Epistle to the Colossians, ch. 2:11. ’In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.’ But the purpose of the Apostle in the one place and the other is altogether different. Many passages, in different connections, which are similar in their expressions, are not so at all in their meanings. For the illustration of this, it is necessary to remember that the Apostle, as has just been observed, is here referring solely to the law, and likewise that circumcision in one view respected the legal covenant, of which it was a ceremonial obligation, and in another, the evangelical covenant, of which it was a type. In the character of a ceremonial obligation of the legal covenant, it represented the entire and perfect fulfilling of the law, which consisted not merely in external holiness, but in perfect purity of soul; and in this sense it represented what no man possessed, but which every man must have in order to be justified by the law. In the character of a type, it represented regeneration and evangelical holiness, which consists in repentance and amendment of life by the Spirit of Christ, and in that sense shadowed forth what really takes place in those who believe in Jesus Christ. In Colossians, 2:11, the Apostle views it in this last aspect; for he means to say that what the Jew had in type and figure under the law, the believer has in reality and truth under the Gospel.
But in the passage before us Paul views it in its first aspect; for he is treating of the judgment of strict justice by the law, which admits of no repentance or amendment of life. The meaning, then, here is, that if the Jew will satisfy himself with bringing before the judgment of the law what is only external and merely a ceremonial observance, without his possessing that perfect righteousness which this observance denotes, and which the Judge will demand, it will serve for no purpose but his condemnation.
That of the heart in the spirit — That is to say, what penetrates to the bottom of the soul; in one word, that which is real and effective. The term spirit does not here mean the Holy Spirit, nor has it a mystical or evangelical signification; but it signifies what is internal, solid, and real, in opposition to that which was ceremonial and figurative. And not in the letter — Not that which takes place only in the flesh, according to the literal commandment, and in all the prescribed forms. In one word, it is to the spiritual circumcision that the Apostle refers, which is real in the heart and spirit. Whose praise is not of men, but of God. — Here Paul alludes to the name of Jew, which signifies praise, which may be taken either in an active sense, as signifying praising, or in a passive sense, as praised.
Moses has taken it in this second meaning; when relating the blessing of Jacob, he says, ’Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.’ The Apostle here takes it in the same way; but he does not mean that this praise is of men, but of God. The meaning is, that in order to be a true Jew, it is not sufficient to possess external advantages, which attract human praise, but it is necessary to be in a condition to obtain the praise of God. The object of the whole of this chapter is to show that the Jews are sinners, violators of the law as well as the Gentiles, and consequently that they cannot be justified before God by their works; but that, on the contrary, however superior their advantages are to those of the Gentiles, they can only expect from His strict justice, condemnation. The Jews esteemed it the highest honor to belong to their nation, and they gloried over all other nations. An uncircumcised person was by them regarded with abhorrence. They did not look to character, but to circumcision or uncircumcision. Nothing, then, could be more cogent, or more calculated to arrest the attention of the Jews, than this argument respecting the name in which they gloried, and circumcision, their distinguishing national rite, with which Paul here follows up what he had said concerning the demands of the law, and of their outward transgressions of its precepts. He had dwelt, in the preceding part of this chapter, on their more glaring and atrocious outward violations of the law, as theft, adultery, and sacrilege, by which they openly dishonored God. Now he enters into the recesses of the heart, of which, even if their outward conduct had been blameless, and the subject of the praise of men, its want of inward conformity to that law, which was manifest in the sight of God, could not obtain his praise.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER III. PART I. – Romans 3:1-20.
THIS chapter consists of three parts. The first part extends to the 8th verse inclusively, and is designed to answer and remove some objections to the doctrine previously advanced by the Apostle. In the second part, from the 9th to the 20th verses, it is proved, by the testimonies of various scriptures, that the Jews, as well as the Gentiles, are involved in sin and guilt, and consequently that none can be justified by the law. The third part commences at verse 21, where the Apostle reverts to the declaration, Romans 1:17, with which his discussion commenced, and exhibits the true and only way of justification for all men, by the righteousness of God imputed through faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:1 — What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
If the preceding doctrine be true, it may be asked, What advantage hath the Jew over the Gentile; and what profit is there in circumcision, if it does not save from sin? If, on the contrary, the Jews, on account of their superior privileges, will be held more culpable before the tribunal of Divine justice, as the Apostle had just shown, it appears obviously improper to allege that God has favored them more than the Gentiles. This objection it was necessary to obviate, not only because it is specious, but because it is important, and might, in regard to the Jews, arrest the course of the Gospel. It is specious; for if, in truth, the advantages of the Jews, so far from justifying them, contribute nothing to cause the balance of Divine judgment to preponderate in their favor — if their advantages rather enhance their condemnation — does it not appear that they are not only useless, but positively pernicious? In these advantages, then, it is impossible to repose confidence. But the objection is also important; for it would be difficult to imagine that all God had done for the Jews — His care of them so peculiar, and His love of them so great, — in short, all the privileges which Moses exalts so highly — were lavished on them in vain, or turned to their disadvantage. The previous statement of the Apostle might then be injurious to the doctrine of the Gospel, by rendering him more odious in the eyes of his countrymen, and therefore he had good reasons for fully encountering and answering this objection. In a similar way, it is still asked by carnal professors of Christianity, Of what use is obedience to the law of God or the observance of His ordinances, if they do not save the soul, or contribute somewhat to this end?
Romans 3:2 — Much every way; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Paul here repels the foregoing objection as false and unfounded. Although the privileges of the Jews cannot come into consideration for their justification before the judgment-seat of God, it does not follow that they were as nothing, or of no advantage; on the contrary, they were marks of the peculiar care of God for that people, while He had, as it were, abandoned all the other nations. They were as aids, too, which God had given to deliver them from the impiety and depravity of the Gentiles; and, by the accompanying influences of His Spirit, they were made effectual to the salvation of many of them. Finally, the revelation made to the Jews contained not only figures and shadows of the Gospel, but also preparations for the new covenant. God had bestowed nothing similar on the Gentiles: the advantage, then, of the Jews was great. Much every way — This does not mean, in every sense; for the Apostle does not retract what he had said in the preceding chapter, namely, that their advantages were of no avail for justification to the Jews continuing to be sinners, — for, on the contrary, in that case they only enhanced their condemnation; but this expression signifies that their advantages were very great, and very considerable.
Chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. — The original denotes primarily, which is not a priority of order, but a priority in dignity and advantage; that is to say, that of all the advantages God had vouchsafed to them, the most estimable and most excellent was that of having entrusted to them His oracles. The word here used for oracles signifies the responses or answers given by an oracle; and when the Scriptures are so designated, it implies that they are altogether, in word, as well as in sense, the communications of God. By these oracles we must understand, in general, all the Scriptures of the Old Testament, especially as they regarded the Messiah; and, in particular, the prophecies which predicted His advent. They were oracles, inasmuch as they were the words from the mouth of God Himself, in opposition to the revelation of nature, which was common to Jews and Gentiles; and they were promises in respect to their matter, because they contained the great promise of sending Jesus Christ into the world. God had entrusted these oracles to the Jews, who had been constituted their guardians and depositories till the time of their fulfillment, when they were to be communicated to all, Isaiah 2:3; and through them possessed the high character of the witnesses of God, Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 44:8, even till the time of their execution, when they were commanded to be communicated to the whole world, according to what Isaiah 2:3, had said, — ’For out of Sin shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. These oracles had not, however, been entrusted to the Jews simply as good things for the benefit of others, but also for their own advantage, that they might themselves make use of them; for in the oracles the Messiah — who was to be born among them, and among them to accomplish the work of redemption — was declared to be the proper object of their confidence, and through them they had the means of becoming acquainted with the way of salvation.
But why were these oracles given so long before the coming of the Messiah? It was for three principal reasons: —
First, To serve as a testimony that, notwithstanding man’s apostasy, God had not abandoned the earth, but had always reserved for Himself a people; and it was by these great and Divine promises that He had preserved His elect in all ages.
Secondly, These oracles were to characterize and designate the Messiah when He should come, in order that He might be known and distinguished; for they pointed Him out in such a manner that He could be certainly recognized when He appeared. On this account Philip said to Nathaniel, John 1:45, ’We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the Prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. ’ Thirdly, They were to serve as a proof of the Divine origin of the Christian religion; for the admirable correspondence between the Old Testament and the New is a clear and palpable demonstration of its divinity. It is, moreover, to be observed that this favor of having been constituted the depositories of the sacred oracles was peculiar to the Jews, and one in which the Gentiles did not at all participate. This is what the Apostle here expressly teaches, since he considers it as an illustrious distinction conferred upon his nation, a pre-eminence over all the kingdoms of the world.
But why, again, does the Apostle account the possession of these oracles their greatest advantage? Might not other privileges have been considered as equal, or even preferable, such as the glorious miracles which God had wrought for the deliverance of the Israelites; His causing them to pass through the Red Sea, in the face of all the pride and power of their haughty oppressor; His guiding them through the sandy desert by a pillar of fire by night, and of cloud by day; His causing them to hear His voice out of the fire, when He descended in awful majesty upon Sinai; or, finally, His giving them His law, written with His own finger, on tables of stone? It is replied, the promises respecting the Messiah, and His coming to redeem men, were much greater than all the others. Apart from these, all the other advantages would not only have been useless, but fatal to the Jews; for, being sinners, they could only have served to overwhelm them with despair, in discovering, on the one hand, their corruption, unmitigated by the kindness of Jehovah, and, on the other, the avenging justice of God. In these circ*mstances, they would have been left under the awful impossibility of finding any expiation for their sins. If, then, God had not added the promises concerning the Messiah, all the rest would have been death to them, and therefore the oracles which contained these promises were the first and chief of their privileges.
Romans 3:3 — For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
This is not the objection of a Jew, but, as it might readily occur, is supposed by the Apostle. It is not ’But what,’ as Dr. Macknight translates the first words, it is ’For that.’ The Apostle answers the objection in stating it. ’For what if some have not believed;’ that is, ’the unbelief of some is no objection to my doctrine.’ ’Will their unbelief destroy the faithfulness of God?’ This repels, and does not, as Dr. Macknight understands it, assert the supposition. The meaning is, that the unbelief of the Jews did not make void God’s faithfulness with respect to the covenant with Abraham. Though the mass of his descendants were unbelievers at this time, yet many of them, both then, as the Apostle asserts, chapter 11:2, and at all other times, were saved in virtue of that covenant. Paul, then, here anticipates and meets an objection which might be urged against his assertion of the pre-eminence of the Jews over the Gentiles, testified by the fact that to them God had confided His oracles. The objection is this, that since they had not believed in the Messiah, whom these oracles promised, this advantage must not only be reckoned of little value, but, on the contrary, prejudicial.
In reply to this objection, the Apostle, in the first place, intimates that their unbelief had not been universal, which is tacitly understood in his only attributing unbelief to some; for when it is said that some have not believed, it is plainly intimated that some have believed. It does not, indeed, appear that it would have been worthy of the Divine wisdom to have given to one nation, in preference to all others, so excellent and glorious an economy as that of the Old Testament, to have chosen them above all others of His free love and good pleasure, and to have revealed to them the mysteries respecting the Messiah, while, at the same time, none of them should have responded to all this by a true faith. There is too much glory and too much majesty in the person of Jesus Christ, and in His work of redemption, to allow it to be supposed that He should be revealed only externally by the word, without profit to some, Isaiah 55:10-11. In all ages, before as well as since the coming of the Messiah, although in a different measure, the Gospel has been the ministration of the Spirit. It was fitting, then, that the ancient promises, which were in substance the Gospel, should be accompanied with a measure of that Divine Spirit who imprints them in the hearts of men, and that, as the Spirit was to be poured out on all flesh, the nation of the Jews should not be absolutely deprived of this blessing. This was the first answer, namely, that unbelief had not been so general, but that many had profited by the Divine oracles; and consequently, in respect to them at least, the advantage to the Jews had been great. But the Apostle goes farther; for, in the second place, he admits that many had fallen in incredulity, but denies that their incredulity impeached the faithfulness of God. Here it may be asked whether the Apostle refers to the Jews under the legal economy who did not believe the Scriptures, or to those only who, at the appearing of the Messiah, rejected the Gospel? The reference, it may be answered, is both to the one and the other.
But it may be said, How could unbelief respecting these oracles be ascribed to the Jews, when they had only rejected the person of Jesus Christ? For they did not doubt the truth of the oracles; on the contrary, they expected with confidence their accomplishment; they only denied that Jesus was the predicted Messiah. It is replied, that to reject, as they did, the person of Jesus Christ, was the same as if they had formally rejected the oracles themselves, since all that was contained in them could only unite and be accomplished in His person. The Jews, therefore, in reality rejected the oracles; and so much the more was their guilt aggravated, inasmuch as it was their prejudices, and their carnal and unauthorized anticipations of a temporal Messiah, which caused their rejection of Jesus Christ. Thus it was a real disbelief of the oracles themselves; for all who reject the true meaning of the Scriptures, and attach to them another sense, do in reality disbelieve them, and set up in their stead a phantom of their own imagination, even while they profess to believe the truth of what the Scriptures contain. The Apostle, then, had good reason to attribute unbelief to the Jews respecting the oracles, but he denies that their unbelief can make void the faith, or rather destroy the faithfulness, of God.
By the faithfulness of God some understand the constancy and faithfulness of His love to the Jews; and they suppose that the meaning is, that while the Jews have at present fallen into unbelief, God will not, however, fail to recall them, as is fully taught in the eleventh chapter. But the question here is not respecting the recall of the Jews, or the constancy of God’s love to them, but respecting their condemnation before His tribunal of strict justice, which they attempted to elude by producing these advantages, and in maintaining that if these advantages only led to their condemnation, as the Apostle had said, it was not in sincerity that God had conferred them. ’This objection alone the Apostle here refutes. The term, then, faith of God, signifies His sincerity or faithfulness, according to which He had given to the Jews these oracles; and the Apostle’s meaning is, that the incredulity of the Jews did not impeach that sincerity and faithfulness, whence it followed that it drew down on them a more just condemnation, as he had shown in the preceding chapter.
Romans 3:4 — God forbid: yea, let and be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, that Thou might be justified in Thy sayings, and might overcome when Thou art judged.
God forbid — Literally, let it not be, or far be it, a denial frequently made by the Apostle in the same way in this Epistle. It intimates two things, namely, the rejecting of that which the objection would infer, not only as what is false, but even impious; for it is an affront to God to make His faithfulness dependent on the depravity of man, and His favor on our corruption. Though the privileges of the Jew, and the good which God had done for him, terminated only in his condemnation, by reason of his unbelief, it would be derogatory to the Almighty to question His faithfulness, because of the fault of the unprincipled objects of these privileges. The Apostle also wished to clear his doctrine from this calumny, that God was unfaithful in His promises, and insincere in His proceedings. Let God be true, but every man a liar. — The calling of men, inasmuch as it is of God, is faithful and sincere; but the fact that it produces a result contrary to its nature and tendency, is to he attributed to man, who is always deceitful and vain. If the Jews had not been corrupted by their perversity, their calling would have issued in salvation; if it has turned to their condemnation, this is to be attributed to their own unbelief. We must therefore always distinguish between what comes from God and what proceeds from man: that which is from God is good, and right, and true; that which is from man is evil, and false, and deceitful. Mr. Tholuck grievously errs in his Neological supposition, that this inspired Apostle ’utters, in the warmth of his discourse, the wish that all mankind might prove covenant-breakers, as this would only tend to glorify God the more, by being the occasion of manifesting how great is His fidelity.’ This would be a bad wish; it would be desiring evil that good might come. It is not a wish. Paul states a truth. God in every instance is to be believed, although this should imply that every man on earth is to be condemned as a liar.
As it is written, That thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged. — This passage may be taken either in a passive signification, when Thou shalt be judged, or in an active signification, when Thou shalt judge. In this latter sense, according to the translation in Psalms 51:4, the meaning will be clear, if we have recourse to the history referred to in the Second Book of Samuel, chapter 12:7, 11, where it is said that Nathan was sent from God to David. In that address, God assumed two characters, the one, of the party complaining and accusing David as an ungrateful man, who had abused the favors he had received, and who had offended his benefactor; the other, of the judge who pronounces in his own cause, according to his own accusation. It is to this David answers, in the 4th verse of the Psalm: — ’Against thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified when thou speakest.’ As if he had said, Thou hast good cause to decide against me; I have offended Thee; I am ungrateful; Thou hast reason to complain and to accuse me; Thou hast truth and justice in the words which Thy prophet has spoken from Thee. He adds, that Thou mightest be clear when Thou judgest; that is to say, as my accuser Thou wilt obtain the victory over me, before Thy tribunal, when Thou pronouncest Thy sentence. In one word, it signifies that whether in regard to the found of that sentence or its form, David had nothing to allege against the judgment which God had pronounced in His own cause, and that he fully acknowledged the truth and justice of God. Hence it clearly follow that when God pleads against us, and sets before us His goodness to us, and, on the other hand, the evil return we have made, it is always found that God is sincere and true towards us, but that we have been deceivers and unbelieving in regard to Him, and therefore that our condemnation is just.
This is precisely what the Apostle proposed to conclude against the Jews. God had extended to them His favors, and they had requited them only by their sins, and by a base incredulity. When, therefore, He shall bring them to answer before His judgment-seat, God will decide that He had been sincere in respect to them, and that they, on the contrary, had been wicked, whence will follow their awful but just condemnation. Paul could not have adduced anything more to the purpose than the example and words of David on a subject altogether similar, nor more solidly have replied to the objection supposed.
The answer of the Apostle will lead to the same conclusion, if the passive sense be taken, Thou shalt be judged. Though so eminent a servant of God, David had been permitted to fall into his foul transgressions, that God might be justified in the declarations of His word, which assert that all men are evil, guilty and polluted by nature, and that in themselves there is no difference. Had all the eminent saints whose lives are recorded in Scripture, been preserved blameless, the world would have supposed that such men were an exception to the character given of man in the word of God. They would have concluded that human nature is better than it is. But when Abraham and Jacob, David and Solomon, and Peter and many others, were permitted to manifest what is in human nature, God’s word is justified in its description of man. God ’overcomes when He is judged;’ that is, such examples as that of the fall of David prove that man is what God declares him to be. Wicked men are not afraid to bring God to their bar, and impeach His veracity, by denying that man is as bad as He declares. But by such examples God is justified. The passive sense, then, of the word ’judge’ is a good and appropriate meaning; and the phrase acquitting, or clearing, or overcoming may be applicable, not to the person who judges God, but to God who is judged. This meaning is also entirely to the Apostle’s purpose. Let all men be accounted liars, rather than impugn the veracity of God, because, in reality, all men are in themselves such. Whenever, then, the Divine testimony is contradicted by human testimony, let man be accounted a liar.
Romans 3:5 — But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
Out of the answer to the question in the first verse of this chapter, another objection might arise, which is here supposed. It is such as a Jew would make, but is proposed by the Apostle classing himself with the Jews, as is intimated when he says, I speak as a man, just as any writer is in the habit of stating objections in order to obviate them. The objection is this: if, then, it be so that the righteousness of God, — that righteousness which is revealed in the Gospel, Rom 1:17, by the imputation of which men are justified, — if that righteousness which God has provided is more illustriously manifested by our sin, showing how suitable and efficacious it is to us as sinners, shall it not be said that God is unjust in punishing the sin that has this effect? What shall we say? or what answer can be made to such an objection? Is God, or rather, is not God unjust, who in this case taketh vengeance? This is a sort of insult against the doctrine of the Gospel, as if the objection was so strong and well founded that no reply could be made to it. I speak as a man. — That is to say, in the way that the impiety of men, and their want of reverence for God, leads them to speak. The above was, in effect, a manner of reasoning common among the Jews and other enemies of the Gospel. It is, indeed, such language as is often heard, that if such doctrines as those of election and special grace be true, men are not to be blamed who reject the Gospel.
Romans 3:6 — God forbid; for then how shall God judge the world?
Far be it — Paul thus at once rejects such a consequence, and so perverse a manner of reasoning, as altogether inadmissible, and proceeds to answer it by showing to what it would lead, if admitted. For then how shall God judge the world? — If the objection were well founded, it would entirely divest God of the character of judge of the world. The reason of this is manifest, for there is no sin that any man can commit which does not exalt some perfection of God, in the way of contrast. If, then, it be concluded that because unrighteousness in man illustrates the righteousness of God, God is unrighteous when He taketh vengeance, it must be further said, that there is no sin that God can justly punish; whence it follows that God can no longer be judge of the world. But this would subvert all order and all religion. The objection, then, is such that, were it admitted, all the religion in the world would at once be annihilated. For those sins, for which men will be everlastingly punished, will no doubt be made to manifest God’s glory. Such is the force of the Apostle’s reply.
Romans 3:7 — For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto His glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
This verse is generally supposed to contain the objection here reiterated, which was before stated in the 5th verse. It would appear strange, however, that the Apostle should in this manner repeat an objection — in a way, too, in which it is not strengthened — which he had effectually removed, and that after proposing it a second time he should add nothing to his preceding reply, further than denouncing it. It is not, then, a repetition of the same objection, but a second way in which Paul replies to what had been advanced in the 5th verse. In the preceding verse he had, in his usual brief but energetic manner, first repudiated the consequence alleged in the 5th verse, and had next replied to it by a particular reference, which proved that it was inadmissible. Here, by the word for, he introduces another consideration, and proceeds to set aside the objection, by exposing the inconsistency of those by whom it was preferred. The expression kajgw I also, shows that Paul speaks here in his own person, and not in that of an opponent, for otherwise he would not have said, I also, which marks an application to a particular individual. His reply, then, here to the objection is this: If, according to those by whom it is supposed and brought forward, it would be unrighteous in God to punish any action which redounds to His own glory, Paul would in like manner say that if his lie — his false doctrine, as his adversaries stigmatized it — commended the truth of God, they, according to their own principle, were unjust, because on this account they persecuted him as a sinner. In this manner he makes their objection reach upon those by whom it was advanced, and refutes them by referring to their own conduct towards him, so that they could have nothing to reply. For it could not be denied that the doctrine which Paul taught respecting the justification of sinners solely by the righteousness of God, whether true or false, ascribed all the glory of their salvation to God.
Romans 3:8 — And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil that good may come; whose damnation is just.
This is the third thing which the Apostle advances against the objection of his adversaries, and is in substance, that they established as a good and just principle what they ascribed to him as a crime, namely, that men might do evil that good may come. They calumniously imputed to Paul and his fellow-laborers this impious maxim, in order to render them odious, while it was they themselves who maintained it. For if, according to them, God was unrighteous in punishing the unrighteousness of men when their unrighteousness redounded to His glory, it followed that the Apostles might without blame do evil, provided that out of it good should arise. Their own objection, then, proved them guilty of maintaining that same hateful doctrine which they so falsely laid to his charge.
As we slanderously reported. — Here Paul satisfies himself with stigmatizing as a slanderous imputation this vile calumny, from which the doctrine he taught was altogether clear. Whose damnation is just. — This indignant manner of cutting short the matter by simply affirming the righteous condemnation of his adversaries, was the more proper, not only as they were calumniators, but also because the principle of doing evil that good might come, was avowed by them in extenuation of sin and unbelief. It was fitting, then, that an expression of abhorrence, containing a solemn denunciation of the vengeance of God, on account of such a complication of perversity and falsehood, should for ever close the subject. On these verses we may observe, that men often adduce specious reasonings to contradict the decisions of the Divine word; but Christians ought upon every subject implicitly to credit the testimony of God, though many subtle and plausible objections should present themselves, which they are unable to answer.
Romans 3:9 — What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jew and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.
Here commences the second part of the chapter, in which, having proposed and replied to the above objections to his doctrine, Paul now resumes the thread of his discourse. In the two preceding chapters he had asserted the guilt of the Gentiles and of the Jews separately; in what follows he takes them together, and proves by express testimonies from Scripture that all men are sinners, and that there is none righteous, no, not one. In this manner he follows up and completes his argument to support the conclusion at which he is about to arrive in the 20th verse, which all along he had in view, namely, that by works of law no man can be justified, and with the purpose of fully unfolding, in verses 21, 22, 23, and 24, the means that God has provided for our justification, which he had briefly announced, Romans 1:17. In the verse before us he shows that, although he has admitted that the advantages of the Jews over the Gentiles are great, it must not thence be concluded that the Jews are better than they. When he says ’are we better,’ he classes himself with the Jews, to whom he was evidently referring; but when, in the last clause of the verse, he employs the same term ’we,’ he evidently speaks in his own person, although, as in some other places, in the plural number.
What then? are we better than they? — The common translation here is juster than Mr. Stuart’s, which is, ’have we any preference?’ The Jews had a preference. The Apostle allows that they had many advantages, and that they had a preference over the Gentiles; but he denies that they were better.Not at all — By no means. This is a strong denial of what is the subject of the question. Then he gives the reason of the denial, namely, that he had before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. All not only signifies that there were sinners among both Jews and Gentiles, for the Jews did not deny this; on this point there was no difference between them and the Apostle; but he includes them all singly, without one exception. It is in this sense of universality that what he has hitherto said, both of Jews and Gentiles, must be taken. Of all that multitude of men there was not found one who had not wandered from the right way. One alone, Jesus Christ, was without sin, and it is on this account that the Scriptures call Him the ’Just or Righteous One,’ to distinguish Him by this singular character from the rest of men.
Under sin — That is to say, guilty; for it is in relation to the tribunal of Divine justice that the Apostle here considers sin, in the same way as he says, Galatians 3:22, ’The Scripture hath concluded (shut up) all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.’ That it is in this sense we must understand the expression under sin and not, as Roman Catholic commentators explain it, as under the dominion of sin, evidently appears, — 1st, Because in this discussion, to be under sin is opposed to being under grace. Now, to be under grace, Romans 6:14-15, signifies to be in a state of justification before God, our sins being pardoned. To be under sin, then, signifies to be guilty in the eye of justice. 2nd, It is in reference to the tribunal of Divine justice, and in the view of condemnation, that Paul has all along been considering sin, both in respect to Jews and Gentiles. To be under sin, then, can only signify to be guilty, since he here repeats in summary all that he had before advanced. Finally, he explains his meaning clearly when he says, in verse 19, ’that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.’
Romans 3:10 — As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.
After having proceeded in his discussion, appealing to the natural sentiments of conscience and undeniable fact, Paul now employs the authority of Scripture, and alleges several passages drawn from the books of the Old Testament, written at different times, more clearly to establish the universal guilt both of Jews and Gentiles, in order that he might prove them all under condemnation before the tribunal of God. There is none righteous. — This passage may be regarded as the leading proposition, the truth of which the Apostle is about to establish by the following quotations. None could be more appropriate or better adapted to his purpose, which was to show that every man is in himself entirely divested of righteousness. There is none righteous, no, not one. Not one possessed of a righteousness that can meet the demands of God’s holy law. The words in this verse, and those contained in verses 11 and 12, are taken from Psalms 14, 53, which are the same as to the sense, although they do not follow the exact expressions. But does it seem proper that Paul should draw a consequence in relation to all, from what David has only said of the wicked of his time? The answer is, That the terms which David employs are too strong not to contemplate the universal sinfulness of the human race. ’The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside; they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.’ This notifies universal depravity, so that, according to the Prophet, the application is just. It is not that David denies that God had sanctified some men by His Spirit; for, on the contrary, in the same Psalm, he speaks of the afflicted, of whom God is the refuge; but the intention is to say that, in their natural condition, without the grace of regeneration, which God vouchsafes only to His people, who are a small number, the whole human race is in a state of universal guilt and condemnation. This is also what is meant by Paul, and it is the use, as is clear from the context, that he designed to make of this passage of David, according to which none are excepted in such a way as that, if God examined them by their obedience to the law, they could stand before Him; and, besides this, whatever holiness is found in any man, it is not by the efficacy of the law, but by that of the Gospel, and if they are now sanctified, they were formerly under sin as well as others; so that it remains a truth, that all who are under the law, to which the Apostle is exclusively referring, are under sin that is, guilty before God. Through the whole of this discussion, it is to be observed that the Apostle makes no reference to the doctrine of sanctification. It is to the law exclusively that he refers, and here, without qualification, he asserts it as a universal truth that there is none righteous — not one who possesses righteousness, that is, in perfect conformity to the law; and his sole object is to prove the necessity of receiving the righteousness of God in order to be delivered from condemnation. The passage, then, here adduced by Paul, is strictly applicable to his design.
Dr. Macknight supposes that this expression, ’There is none righteous,’ applies to the Jewish common people, and is an Eastern expression, which means that comparatively very few are excepted. There is not the shadow of ground for such a supposition. It is evident that both the passages quoted, and the Apostle’s argument, require that every individual of the human race be included. And on what pretense can it be restricted to ’the Jewish common people’? Whether were they or their leaders the objects of the severest reprehensions of our Lord during His ministry? Did not Jesus pronounce the heaviest woes on the scribes and Pharisees? Matthew 23:15. Did He not tell the chief priests and elders that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before them? Matthew 21:31. Mr. Stuart also supposes that the charge is not unlimited, and justifies this by alleging that the believing Jews must be excepted. But it is clear that the believing Jews are not excepted. For though they are now delivered, yet they were by nature under sin as well as others; and that all men are so, is what Paul is teaching, without having the smallest reference to the Gospel or its effects. In this manner Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart, entirely mistaking the meaning of the Apostle and the whole drift of his argument, remove the foundation of the proofs he adduces that all men are sinners. Mr. Stuart also appears to limit the charges to the Jews, and in support of this refers to the 9th and 19th verses. The 9th verse speaks of both Jews and Gentiles; and the purpose of the 19th evidently is to prove that the Jews are not excepted; while the 20th clearly shows that the whole race of mankind are included, it being the general conclusion which the Apostle draws from all he had said, from the 18th verse of the first chapter, respecting both Jews and Gentiles, of whom he affirms in the 9th verse that they were all under sin. And is it not strictly true, in the fullest import of the term, that there is none righteous in himself, no, not one? Is not righteousness the fulfilling of the law? ’And do not the Scriptures testify and everywhere show that ’there is no man that sinneth not’? 1 Kings 8:46. ’Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?’
Proverbs 20:9. ’For there is not a just man upon earth; that doeth good and sinneth not,’ Ecclesiastes 7:20. And the Apostle James, including himself as well as his brethren to whom he wrote, declares, ’In many things we all offend’.
Like Mr. Stuart, Taylor of Norwich in his Commentary, supposes that in this and the following verses to the 19th, the Apostle means no universality at all, but only the far greater part, and that they refer to bodies of people, of Jews and Gentiles in a collective sense, and not to particular persons. To this President Edwards, in his treatise On Original Sin, p. 245, replies, ’If the words which the Apostle uses do not most fully and determinably signify a universality, no words ever used in the Bible are sufficient to do it. I might challenge any man to produce any one paragraph in the Scripture, from the beginning to the end, where there is such a repetition and accumulation of terms, so strongly and emphatically, and carefully, to express the most perfect and absolute universality, or any place to be compared to it. What instance is there in the scripture, or indeed any other writing, when the meaning is only the much greater part, where this meaning is signified in such a manner by repeating such expressions, They are all — they are all — they are all — together one — all the world, joined to multiplied negative terms, to show the universality to be without exception, saying, There is no flesh — there is none — there is none — there is none — there is none four times over, besides the addition of no, not one — no, not one, once and again! When the Apostle says, ’That every mouth may be stopped, must we suppose that he speaks only of those two great collective bodies, figuratively ascribing to each of them a mouth, and means that those two mouths are stopped?’ Again, p. 241, ’Here the thing which I would prove, viz., that mankind, in their first state, before they are interested in the benefits of Christ redemption, are universally wicked, is declared with the utmost possible fullness and precision. So that, if here this matter be not set forth plainly, expressly, and fully, it must be because no words can do it; and it is not in the power of language, or any manner of terms or phrases, however contrived and heaped one upon another, determinably to signify any such thing.’
Romans 3:11 — There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Paul here applies equally to Jews and Gentiles that which he charges upon the Gentiles, Ephesians 4:18, ’Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness (or hardness) of their hearts.’ This is true of every individual of the human race naturally. ’The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him.’ In the parable of the sower, the radical distinction between those who finally reject, and those who receive the word and bring forth fruit, is, that they who were fruitful ’understood’ the word, while the others understood it not, Matthew 13:19-23, and the new man, he who is born again, is said to be renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him that created him. The assertion, then, in this passage, requires no limitation with respect to those who are now believers, for they were originally like others. All men are naturally ignorant of God, and by neglecting the one thing needful, show no understanding. They act more irrationally than the beasts.
Now that seeketh after God. — To seek God is an expression frequently used in Scripture to denote the acts of religion and piety. It supposes the need all men have to go out of themselves to seek elsewhere their support, their life, and happiness, and the distance at which naturally we are from God, and God from us, — we by our perversity, and He by His just wrath. It teaches how great is the blindness of those who seek anything else but God, in order to be happy, since true wisdom consists in seeking God for this, for He alone is the sovereign good to man. It also teaches us that during the whole course of our life God proposes Himself as the object that men are to seek, Isaiah 55:6, for the present is the time of His calling them, and if they do not find Him, it is owing to their perversity, which causes them to flee from Him, or to seek Him in a wrong way. To seek God is, in general, to answer to all His relative perfections; that is to say, to respect and adore His sovereign majesty, to instruct ourselves in His word as the primary truth, to obey His commandments as the commandments of the sovereign Legislator of men, to have recourse to Him by prayer as the origin of all things. In particular, it is to have recourse to His mercy by repentance; it is to place our confidence in Him; it is to ask for his Holy Spirit to support us, and to implore His protection and blessing; and all this through Him who is the way to the Father, and who declares that no man cometh to the Father but by Him.
Romans 3:12 — They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Sin is a wandering or departure from the right way; that is to say, out of the way of duty and obligation, out of the way of the means which conduct to felicity. These are the ways open before the eyes of men to walk in them; he who turns from there wanders out of the way. The Prophet here teaches what is the nature of sin; he also shows us what are its consequences; for as the man who loses his way cannot have any rest in his mind, nor any security, it is the same with the sinner; and as a wanderer cannot restore himself to the right way without the help of a guide, in the same manner the sinner cannot restore himself, if the Holy Spirit comes not to his aid. They are together become unprofitable. — They have become corrupted, or have rendered themselves useless; for everything that is corrupted loses its use. They are become unfit for that for which God made them; unprofitable to God, to themselves, and to their neighbor. There is none that doeth good, no, not one — not one who cometh up to the requirements of the law of God. This is the same as is said above, there is none righteous, and both the Prophet and the Apostle make use of this repetition to enhance the greatness and the extent of human corruption.
Romans 3:13 — Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips.
What the Apostle had said in the preceding verses was general; he now descends to something more particular, both respecting words and actions, and in this manner follows up his assertion, that there is none that doeth good, by showing that all men are engaged in doing evil. As to their words, he marks in this and the following verse, all the organs of speech, the throat, the tongue, the lips, the mouth. All this tends to aggravate the depravity of which he speaks. The first part of this verse is taken from Psalms 5:9, and the last from Psalms 140:3. Open sepulcher — This figure graphically portrays the filthy conversation of the wicked. Nothing can be more abominable to the senses than an open sepulcher, where a dead body beginning to putrefy steams forth its tainted exhalations. What proceeds out of their mouth is infected and putrid; and as the exhalation from a sepulcher proves the corruption within, so it is with the corrupt conversation of sinners. With their tongues they have used deceit — used them to deceive their neighbor, or they have flattered with the tongue, and this flattery is joined with the intention to deceive. This also characterizes in a striking manner the way in which men employ speech to deceive each other, in bargains, and in everything in which their interest is concerned. The poison of asps is under their lips. — This denotes the mortal poison, such as that of vipers or asps, that lies concealed under the lips, and is emitted in poisoned words. As these venomous creatures kill with their poisonous sting, so slanderers and evil-minded persons destroy the characters of their neighbors. ’Death and life,’ it is said in the Book of Proverbs, ’are in the power of the tongue.’
Romans 3:14 — Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
This is taken from Psalms 10:7. Paul describes in this and the foregoing verse the four principal vices of the tongue, — filthy and infected discourse; deceitful flatteries; subtle and piercing evil-speaking; finally, outrageous and open malediction. This last relates to the extraordinary propensity of men to utter imprecations against one another, proceeding from their being hateful and hating one another. Bitterness applies to the bitterness of spirit to which men give vent by bitter words. All deceit and fraud is bitter in the end, — that is to say, desolating and afflicting. ’They bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words.’ ’Their teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword,’ Psalms 64:3; Psalms 57:4. ’The tongue,’ says the Apostle James, ’is set on fire of hell.’
Romans 3:15 — Their feet are swift to shed blood.
After having spoken of men’s sinfulness, as shown by their words, the Apostle comes to that of actions, which he describes in this and the two following verses. This passage is taken from Isaiah 59:7, and from Proverbs 1:16, which describe the general sinfulness of men; the injustice and violence committed among them, and how ready they are to shed blood when not restrained either by the consideration of the good of society, or by fear of the laws. Every page of history attests the truth of this awful charge.
Romans 3:16 — Destruction and misery are in their ways.
This declaration, taken also from Isaiah 59:7, must be understood in an active sense, — that is to say, men labor to destroy and to ruin one another; proceeding in their perverse ways, they cause destruction and misery.
Romans 3:17 — And the way of peace have they not known.
They have not known peace to follow and approve of it; and are not acquainted with its ways, in which they do not walk in order to procure the good of their neighbor, — for peace imports prosperity, or the way to maintain concord and friendship. Such is a just description of man’s ferocity, which fills the world with animosities, quarrels, hatred in the private connections of families and neighborhoods; and with revolutions, and wars, and murders, among nations. The most savage animals do not destroy so many of their own species to appease their hunger, as man destroys of his fellows; to satiate his ambition, his revenge, or cupidity.
Romans 3:18 — There is no fear of and before their eyes.
This is taken from Psalms 36:1. After having followed up the general charge, that there is ’none righteous, no, not one,’ by producing the preceding awful descriptions of human depravity, and having begun with the declaration of man’s want of understanding and his alienation from God, the Apostle here refers to the primary source of all these evils, with which he sums them up. There is ’no fear of God before their eyes.’ They have not that reverential fear of Him which is the beginning of wisdom, which is connected with departing from evil, and honoring and obeying Him, and is often spoken of in Scripture as the sum of all practical religion; on the contrary, they are regardless of His majesty and authority, His precepts and His threatenings. It is astonishing that men, while they acknowledge that there is a God, should act without any fear of His displeasure. Yet this is their character. They fear a worm of the dust like themselves, but disregard the Most-High, Isaiah 51:12; Isaiah 51:18. They are more afraid of man than of God — of his anger, his contempt, or ridicule. The fear of man prevents them from doing many things from which they are not restrained by the fear of God. That God will put His fear in the hearts of His people, is one of the distinguishing promises of the new covenant, which shows that proof to this it is not found there.
The Apostle could have collected a much greater number of passages from the law and the Prophets to prove what he intended, for there is nothing more frequent in the Old Testament than the reproaches of God against the Israelites, and all men, on account of their abandoning themselves to sin; but these form a very complete description of the reign of sin among men. The first of them, Verse 10, prefers the general charge of unrighteousness; the second, verses 11, 12, marks the internal character or disorders of the heart; the third, verses 13, 14, those of the words; the fourth, verses 15, 16, 17, those of the actions; and the last, Verse 18, declares the cause of the whole. In the first and second, we see the greatness of the corruption, and its universality: its greatness, in the extinction of all righteousness, of all wisdom, of all religion, of all rectitude, of all that is proper, and, in one word, of all that is good; its universality, in that it has seized upon the whole man, without leaving anything that is sound or entire. In the third, we observe the four vices of the tongue, which have been already pointed out, — namely corrupt conversation, flattery and deceit, envenomed slander, outrageous malediction. In the fourth, justice violated in what is most sacred — the life of man; charity subverted, in doing the evil which it prohibits; and that which is most fundamental and most necessary — peace — destroyed. And in the last, what is most essential entirely cast off, which is the fear of God. In this manner, having commenced his enumeration of the evils to which men are addicted, by pointing out their want of understanding and desire to seek Gods the Apostle terminates his description by exposing the source from whence they all show, which is, that men are destitute of the fear of God; His fear is not before their eyes to restrain them from evil. They love not His character, not rendering to it that veneration which is due; they respect not His authority. Such is the state of human nature while the heart is unchanged. From all this a faint idea may be formed of what will be the future state of those who shall perish, from whom the Gospel has been hid, — of those whose minds the God of this world has blinded, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them. Then the various restraints which in this life operate so powerfully, so extensively, and so constantly, will be taken off, and the natural depravity of fallen man will burst forth in all its unbridled and horrible wickedness.
Romans 3:19 — Now we know that whatsoever thing the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
The article is in this verse prefixed to the term law, while it is wanting in the following verse. This shows that here the reference is to the legal dispensation, and applies in the first clause specially to the Jews; while, in the law clause, the expression ’all the world,’ and, in the following verse, the term ’law,’ without the article, refers to all mankind.
Paul here anticipates two general answers which might be made to those passages which he had just quoted, to convict the Jews, as well as all other men, of sin. First, that they are applicable not to the Jews but to the Gentiles, and that, therefore, it is improper to employ them against the Jews. Second, that even if they referred to the Jews they could only be applied to some wicked persons among them, and not to the whole nation; so that what he intended to prove could not thence be concluded, namely, that no man can be justified before God by the law. In opposition to these two objections, he says, that when the law speaks, it speaks to those who are under it, — to the Jews therefore; and that it does so in order that the mouths of all, without distinction, may be stopped. If God should try the Jews according to the law, they could not stand before His strict justice, as David said, ’If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand?’ Psalms 130:3. And, in addition to this, whatever there was of piety and holiness in some it was not by the efficacy of the law, but by that of the Gospel — not by the spirit of bondage, but by the spirit of adoption; so that it remains true that all those who are under the law are under sin.
That, or in order that. — This must be taken in three senses.
1st, The law brought against the Jews those accusations and reproaches of which Paul had produced a specimen in the passages quoted, in order that every mouth may be stopped; this is the end which the law proposed.
2nd, This was also the object of God, when He gave the law, for He purposed to make manifest the iniquity of man, and the rights of justice, Romans 5:20.
3rd, It was likewise the result of the legal economy. Every mouth may be stopped. — This expression should be carefully remarked. For if a man had fulfilled the law, he would have something to allege before the Divine tribunal, to answer to the demands of justice; but when convicted as a sinner, he can only be silent — he can have nothing to answer to the accusations against him; he must remain convicted. This silence, then, is a silence of confession, of astonishment, and of conviction. This is what is elsewhere expressed by confusion of face. ’O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee; but unto us, confusion of faces,’ Daniel 9:7.
And all the world. — That is to say, both Jews and Gentiles. The first clause of this verse, though specially applicable to the Jews, proves that since they, who enjoyed such peculiar privileges, were chargeable with those things of which the law accused them, the rest of mankind, whom the Apostle here includes under the term ’all the world,’ must also be under the same condemnation. The law of nature, written on their consciences, sufficiently convicts the Gentile’s; and as to the Jews who try to stifle the conviction of their consciences by abusing the advantages of the law, that law itself, while it accuses, convicts then; also. This expression, then, must include the whole human race. It applies to all men, of every age and every nation. None of all the children of Adam are excepted. Words cannot more clearly include, in one general condemnation, the whole human race. Who can be excepted? Not the Gentiles, since they have all been destitute of the knowledge of the true God. Not the Jews, for them the law itself accuses. Not believers, for they are only such through their acknowledgment of their sins, since grace is the remedy to which they have resorted to be freed from condemnation. All the world, then, signifies all men universally.
May become guilty — That is, be compelled to acknowledge themselves guilty. The term guilty signifies subject to condemnation, and respects the Divine judgment. It denotes the state of a man justly charged with a crime, and is used both in the sense of legal responsibility and of blame worthiness. This manifestly proves that in all this discussion the Apostle considers sin in relation to the condemnation which it deserves. Before God — When the question respects appearing before men, people find many ways of escape, either by concealing their actions, by disguising facts, or by disputing what is right. And even when men pass in review before themselves, self-love finds excuses, and various shifts are resorted to, and false reasonings, which deceive. But nothing of this sort can have place before God. For although the Jews flattered themselves in the confidence of their own righteousness, and on this point all men try to deceive themselves, it will be entirely different in the day when they shall appear before the tribunal of God; for then there will be no more illusions of conscience, no more excuses, no way to escape condemnation. His knowledge is infinite, His hand is omnipotent, His justice is incorruptible, and from Him nothing can be concealed. Before Him, therefore, every mouth will be stopped, and all the world must confess themselves guilty.
Romans 3:20 — Therefore by the deeds of law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by law is the knowledge of sin.
This is the final conclusion drawn from the whole of the preceding discussion, beginning at verse 18th of chapter first. The Apostle had shown that both the Gentiles and the Jews are under sin; that is, they have brought down upon themselves the just condemnation of God. He had proved the same thing in the preceding verse, according to the scriptures before quoted. Therefore — The conclusion, then, from the whole, as containing in this verse, is evident. By the deeds of the law, or, as in the original, of law. — The reference here is to every law that God has given to man, whether expressed in words, or imprinted in the heart. It is that law which the Gentiles have transgressed, which they have naturally inscribed in their hearts. It is that law which the Jews have violated, when they committed theft, adulteries, and sacrileges, and which convicted them of impiety, of evil-speaking, of calumny, of murder, of injustice. In one word, it is that law which shuts the mouth of the whole world, as had been said in the preceding verse, and brings in all men guilty before God. The deeds, or works of law. — When it is said, by works of law no flesh shall be justified, it is not meant that the law, whether natural or written, was not capable of justifying. Neither is it meant that the righteousness thus resulting from man’s fulfillment of all its demands would not be a true righteousness, but that no man being able to plead this fulfillment of the law before the tribunal of God — that perfect obedience which it requires — no man can receive by the law a sentence pronouncing him to be righteous. To say that the works of the law, if performed, are not good and acceptable, and would not form a true righteousness, would contradict what had been affirmed in the preceding chapter, verse 13, that the doers of the law shall be justified. The Apostle, then, does not propose here to show either the want of power of the law in itself, or of the insufficiency of its works for justification, but solely to prove that no man fulfills the law, that both Gentiles and Jews are under sin, and that all the world is guilty before God. No flesh — This reference appears to be to Psalms 143 David there says, ’no man living.’ Paul says, ’no flesh.’ The one is a term which marks a certain dignity, the other denotes meanness. The one imports that whatever excellence there might be supposed to be in man, he could not be justified before God; and the other, that being only flesh, — that is to say, corruption and weakness, — he ought not to pretend to justification by himself. Thus, on whatever side man regards himself, he is far from being able to stand before the strict judgment of God. Shall be justified in His sight. — The meaning of the term justified, as used by the Apostle in the whole of this discussion, is evident by the different expressions in this verse. It appears by the therefore, with which the verse begins, that it is a conclusion which the Apostle draws from the whole of the foregoing discussion. Now, all this discussion has been intended to show that neither Gentiles nor Jews could elude the condemnation of the Divine judgment. The conclusion, then, that no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God by the works of law, can only signify that no man can be regarded as righteous, or obtain by means of his works a favorable sentence from Divine justice. It is in this sense that David has taken the term justify in Psalms 143, to which the Apostle had reference, Enter not unto judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. The terms in His sight testify the same thing, for they accommodate themselves to the idea of a tribunal before which men must appear to be judged. It is the same with regard to the other terms, by the deeds of law; for if we understand a justification of judgment, the sense is plain: no one can plead before the tribunal of God a perfect and complete fulfillment of the law, such as strict and exact justice demands; no one, therefore, can in that way obtain justification. In justifying men, God does all, and men receiving justification, contribute nothing towards it. This is in opposition to the justification proposed by the law by means of obedience, in which way a man would be justified by his own righteousness, and not by the righteousness which God has provided and bestows.
For by law is the knowledge of sin. — Paul does not here intend simply to say that the law makes known in general the nature of sin, inasmuch as it discovers what is acceptable or displeasing to God, what He commands, and what He forbids; but he means to affirm that the law convicts men of being sinners. For his words refer to what he had just before said in the preceding verse, that all that the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God, which marks a conviction of sin. But how, it may be said, does the law give that knowledge or that conviction of sin? It does so in two ways. By the application of its commandments, and its prohibitions in the present state in which man is placed, for it excites and awakens the conscience, and gives birth to accusing thoughts. This is common both to the written law and the law of nature. It does this, secondly, by the declaration of punishments and rewards which it sets before its transgressors and observers, and as it excites the conscience, and gives rise to fear and agitation, thus bringing before the eyes of men the dreadful evil of sin. This also is alike common to the law of nature and the written law.
Here it is important to remark that God, having purposed to establish but one way of justification for all men, has permitted, in His providence, that all should be guilty. For if there had been any excepted, there would have been two different methods of justification, and consequently two true religions, and two true churches, and believers would not have had that oneness of communion which grace produces. It was necessary, then, that all should become guilty. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe, Galatians 3:22; Romans 11:32.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER III. PART II. – Romans 3:21-31
AT the opening of his discussion, Romans 1:16-17, Paul had announced that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, because therein is the righteousness of God revealed. He had said that the righteous by faith shall live, intimating that there is no other way of obtaining life. In proof of this, he had declared that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and had shown at large that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, and that, therefore, by obedience to law no flesh shall be justified. He now proceeds to speak more particularly of the righteousness of God provided for man’s justification, describing the manner in which it is conferred, and the character of those by whom it is received. To this subject, therefore, he here reverts.
Romans 3:21 — But now the righteousness of God without law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Now, — that is to say, under the preaching of the Gospel — in the period of the revelation of the Messiah; for it denotes the time present, in opposition to that time when God appeared not to take notice of the state of the Gentile nations as it is said, Acts 17:30, ’The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.’ And also in opposition to the legal economy respecting the Jews, as again it is said, John 1:17, ’The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’ This is what the Scriptures call ’ the fullness of times,’ Ephesians 1:10; Galatians 4:4. ’The last days,’ Isaiah 2:2; Hebrews 1:2; Acts 2:17; 1 John 2:18. ’The acceptable year of the Lord,’ Isaiah 61:2. ’Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,’ 2 Corinthians 6:2. The day of the Savior that Abraham saw, John 8:56. The righteousness of God — This is one of the most important expressions in the Scriptures. It frequently occurs both in the Old Testament and the New; it stands connected with the argument of the whole of the first five chapters of this Epistle, and signifies that fulfillment of the law which God has provided, by the imputation of which sinners are saved. Although perfectly clear in itself, its meaning has been involved in much obscurity by the learned labors of some who know not the truth, and by the perversions of others by whom it has been greatly corrupted. By many it has been misunderstood, and has in general been very slightly noticed even by those whose views on the subject are correct and scriptural. To consider its real signification is the more necessary, as it does not appear always to receive that attention from Christians which its importance demands. When the question is put, why is the Gospel the power of God unto salvation? how few give the clear and unfaltering answer of the Apostle, Because therein is THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD revealed. Before attending to the true import of this phrase, it is proper to advert to some of the significations erroneously attached to it. Of these I shall select only a few examples from many that might be furnished. Origin understood by this righteousness God’s attribute of justice, while St John Chrysostom explained it as Divine Clemency.
According to Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen, the righteousness of God consists in man’s conformity to the declared will of God. In his note on Matthew 6:33, he says, ’The righteousness of God, in our idiom, can mean only the justice or moral rectitude of the Divine nature, which it were absurd in us to seek, it being, as all God’s attributes are, inseparable from His essence. But in the Hebrew idiom, that righteousness, which consists in a conformity to the declared will of God, is called His righteousness. In this way the phrase is used by Paul, Romans 3:21-22; Romans 10:3, where the righteousness of God is opposed by the Apostle to that of the unconverted Jews; and their own righteousness, which he tells us they went about to establish, does not appear to signify their personal righteousness, any more than the righteousness of God signifies His personal righteousness. The word righteousness, as I conceive, denotes there what we should call a system of morality or righteousness, which he denominates their own, because fabricated by themselves, founded partly on the letter of the law, partly on tradition, and consisting mostly in ceremonies and mere externals. ’This creature of their own imaginations they had cherished, to the neglect of that purer scheme of morality which was truly of God, which they might have learned even formerly from the law and the Prophets, properly understood, but now more explicitly from the doctrine of Christ.’
Such is the explanation by this learned critic of that leading phrase, ’the righteousness of God,’ according to which, the reason why the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, is, because therein a pure schemes of morality is revealed. Were this explanation just, so far from being the reason why the Gospel should be the means of salvation to sinners, it would be the cause of their universal and hopeless condemnation. Dr. Macknight supposes that the righteousness of God signifies a righteousness belonging to faith itself, and not the righteousness conveyed and received by faith. ’Righteousness by faith,’ he says, on Romans 3:22, ’is called the righteousness of God, —
1st, Because God hath enjoined faith as the righteousness which He will count to sinners, and hath declared that He will accept and reward it as righteousness;
2nd, Because it stands in opposition to the righteousness of men, which consists in a sinless obedience to the law of God.’ Thus, while Dr. Macknight differs from Dr. Campbell in the meaning of the expression, the righteousness of God, he so far coincides with him in his radical error as to suppose that it does not signify the righteousness which God provides for the salvation of sinners, but the righteousness which He requires them to perform. The explanations of both of these writers are destructive of the Scripture doctrine of justification, opposed to the justice of God, subversive of the plan of salvation, and render the whole train of the Apostle’s reasoning, from Romans 1:16 to the end of the fifth chapter, inconclusive and self-contradictory.
Archbishop Newcombe, whose translations are so much eulogized by Socinians, together with many who have followed him, translates this phrase, ’God’s method of justification.’ What the Apostle has declared in precise terms, is thus converted into a general and indefinite annunciation, pointing to a different sense. In the Socinian version, as might be anticipated, it is also translated, ’God’s method of justification.’
’The righteousness of God’ cannot mean God’s method of justification nor the justification which God bestows, because the word translated righteousness does not signify justification. Righteousness and justification are two things quite different. God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel, just as God Himself is said to be revealed. To reveal God is not to reveal a method of God’s acting, and to reveal God’s righteousness is not to reveal a method of God’s making sinners righteous, but to reveal the righteousness itself. This righteousness is also said to be of God by faith, that is, sinners become partakers of it by faith. The righteousness of God, then, is not a method of justification, but the thing itself which God has provided, and which He confers through faith. Nor can the expression, ’the righteousness of God,’ in the tenth chapter, signify God’s method of justification. It is true the Jews were ignorant of God’s method of justification, but that is not the thing which is there asserted. They were ignorant of the righteousness which God had provided for the guilty, and, in consequence, went about to establish their own righteousness. What is there meant by God’s righteousness, is seen by the contrast. It is opposed to their own righteousness. Now, it was not a method of justification that the Jews went about to establish, but it was their own righteousness which they endeavored to establish — a righteousness in which they trusted, of their own working. If so, the righteousness of God contrasted with this must be, not a method of justification, but the righteousness which God confers on His people through faith. To establish a man’s righteousness is not to establish a method with respect to this, but to establish the thing itself.
’The righteousness of God’ cannot mean God’s method of justification nor the justification which God bestows, because the word translated righteousness does not signify justification. Righteousness and justification are two things quite different. God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel, just as God Himself is said to be revealed. To reveal God is not to reveal a method of God’s acting, and to reveal God’s righteousness is not to reveal a method of God’s making sinners righteous, but to reveal the righteousness itself. This righteousness is also said to be of God by faith, that is, sinners become partakers of it by faith. The righteousness of God, then, is not a method of justification, but the thing itself which God has provided, and which He confers through faith. Nor can the expression, ’the righteousness of God,’ in the tenth chapter, signify God’s method of justification. It is true the Jews were ignorant of God’s method of justification, but that is not the thing which is there asserted. They were ignorant of the righteousness which God had provided for the guilty, and, in consequence, went about to establish their own righteousness. What is there meant by God’s righteousness, is seen by the contrast. It is opposed to their own righteousness. Now, it was not a method of justification that the Jews went about to establish, but it was their own righteousness which they endeavored to establish — a righteousness in which they trusted, of their own working. If so, the righteousness of God contrasted with this must be, not a method of justification, but the righteousness which God confers on His people through faith. To establish a man’s righteousness is not to establish a method with respect to this, but to establish the thing itself.
To say that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because that in it is revealed a divine method of justification, or the justification which God bestows, leaves the great question which immediately presents itself utterly without an answer. It gives no light to the reader as to what the Gospel reveals. It is only in general a Divine scheme of justification. But the language itself, Romans 1:17, leaves no such uncertainty. It shows that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because it reveals God’s righteousness, — that righteousness which fulfills the demands of His law,which His justice will accept, and which is upon all them that believe. Mr. Tholuck explains the phrase, the righteousness of God, thus: — ’The Gospel makes known a way to that perfect fulfillment of the law which is required by God.’ What is the meaning of this exposition? It does not give the true meaning, and may have a most erroneous import. The best that can be said for it is, that it is so dark, and vague, and equivocal, that it may elude condemnation on the principle of its not having any one definite meaning. It is more ambiguous than the answer of an oracle that has only two meanings, for it may have several. Does it mean that the Gospel reveals a way by which man may himself fulfill the law, so as to be perfectly righteous? If Mr. Tholuck does not mean this, the expression might mean it. Does it mean that the law is not yet fulfilled, but that the Gospel reveals a way in which it may be fulfilled? This is the most obvious sense. Does it mean that the Gospel reveals a way in which men perfectly fulfill the law by faith? This is evidently false, even according to Mr. Tholuck’s sentiments; for though faith were, as held forth by him, ’the most excellent of virtues,’ he could not admit that it fulfills the law. After this dark and vague account of the term righteousness we need not wonder at that most erroneous meaning which he affixes to it in chapter 4:3.
Mr. Stuart, in his translation of the Epistle, renders this phrase, in Romans 1:17; Romans 3:21, ’The justification which is of God,’ and in His explanation of it, the justification which God bestows, or the justification of which God is the author.’ He observes that this ’is a phrase among the most important which the New Testament contains, and fundamental in the right interpretation of the Epistle before us.’ This is true; and the effect of his misunderstanding the proper signification of the original word in these passages, and rendering it justification instead of righteousness, appears most prominently in several of his subsequent interpretations especially as shall afterwards be pointed out in the beginning of the fourth chapter, where, like Mr. Tholuck, he entirely misrepresents the doctrine of justification. His translation he endeavors to defend at some length; but none of his allegations support his conclusion. The proper meaning of the original word in chapter 1:17, and 3:21, which he makes justification, is righteousness; and this meaning will apply in the other passages where it is found. In the New Testament it occurs ninety-two times, and, in the common version, is uniformly rendered righteousness. It occurs thirty-six times in the Epistle to the Romans, in which Mr. Stuart has sixteen times translated it righteousness. But he appears to have been led to adopt the translation he has given in the above verses from the supposed necessity of the case; and, indeed, this was necessary for Mr. Stuart, who not only denies expressly the imputation of Adam’s sin to his posterity, but also the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers. This should put Christians on their guard against a translation founded on the denial that Christ’s righteousness is placed to their account for salvation, a doctrine which Dr. Macknight most ignorantly maintains is not to be found in the Bible.
Mr. Stuart observes that there are three expressions, viz., dikaiosu>nh, dikai>wma, and dikai>wsiv, all employed occasionally in the very same sense, viz., that of justification, i.e., acquittal, pardon, freeing from condemnation, accepting and treating as righteous.’ There may be situations in which the one might supply the place of the other, but theyhave a clear characteristic difference. ’The difference appears to be this: dikaiosu>nh, the original word in the verse before us, is not justification; it signifies justice or righteousness in the abstract; that is, the quality of righteousness. It signifies also complete conformity or obedience to the law; for if there be any breach of the law, there is no righteousness. Dikai>wma, as distinguished from this, signifies an act of righteousness, or some righteous deed. It is accordingly used for the ordinances of God, because they are His righteous appointments, and perhaps because they typically refer to the true ’righteousness of God.’ In a few places it may be an equivalent to dikaiosu>nh. Dikai>wsiv, is neither the one nor the other of the above. It is the act of being justified by this righteousness when on trial. Obedience to law is a different thing from being cleared, or acquitted, or justified, when tried by law. A man is justified on the ground of righteousness. There is the same difference between dikaiosu>n, and dikai>wsiv, that there is in English between righteousness and justification.
In support of his explanation of the phrase, ’the righteousness of God,’ namely, that it is the justification which God bestows, Mr. Stuart, in the following observations, shows a wonderful misapprehension of the doctrine of those who oppose the view of it which he adopts. On verse 22 he says, ’What that dikaiosu>nh de qeou~ (righteousness of God) is, which is cwri>v no>mou (without law), the Apostle next proceeds explicitly to develop. Dikaiosu>nh de... jIhsou~ Cristou~, the justification which is of God by faith in Jesus Christ. This explanation makes it clear as the noonday sun that dikaiosu>nh qeou~ (righteousness of God), in this connection, does not mean righteousness, or the love of justice, as an attribute of God. For in what possible sense can it be said that God’s righteousness or justice (as an essential attribute) is by faith in Christ? Does He possess or exercise this attribute, or reveal it, by faith in Christ? The answer is so plain; that it cannot be mistaken,’ p. 157. Why does Mr. Stuart labor to prove that the phrase in question cannot here mean the justice of God, or a Divine attribute? Does any man suppose that it has here such a sense? We do not understand it of a Divine attribute, but of conformity to law by a Divine work. This righteousness is God’s righteousness, not because it is an attribute of His nature, but because it is the righteousness which God has provided and effected for His people, through the obedience unto death of His own Son. The word dikaiosu>nh, indeed, always signifies righteousness; but it may mean either a personal attribute, or conformity to law. Does not Mr. Stuart himself afterwards explain the phrase in this latter sense? Why, then, does he take it for granted that if it does not signify justification, as he makes it here, it must signify a personal attribute of God? In chapter 4:3, 6, and elsewhere, he admits that the word dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) cannot signify justification, but must be understood as denoting righteousness. ’To say,’ he observes (p. 177), ’was counted for justification would make no tolerable sense.’ But nothing can be more obvious than that the Apostle is in the fourth chapter treating of the same thing of which he is treating in this chapter, from the 21st verse. In all this connection he is still speaking of this dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) in the same view. Having here spoken of God’s righteousness, he goes on to show that it was through this very righteousness that Abraham was justified The justification of Abraham, instead of being an exception to what he had been teaching, as if it had been on the ground of Abraham’s own obedience to law, is appealed to by the Apostle as a proof, as well as an illustration and example, of justification by God’s righteousness received by faith.
It makes nothing in favor of Mr. Stuart that there may be instances in which the word — dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) may be interpreted by the word justification, so as to make sense. There is no signification that may not be ascribed to any word upon this principle. A word may make sense in a passage, when it is explained in a meaning directly the opposite of its true meaning. This principle the reader may see fully established in the writings of Dr. Carson. Several instances have been alleged from the Septuagint, in which it is asserted that dikaiosu>nh (has the meaning of goodness, etc.; but there is no instance there in which the word may not have its true meaning, and it is only ignorance of the import of the phrase, ’righteousness of God,’ that has induced writers to give the term a different meaning. For instance, nothing at first sight appears more to countenance the idea that dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) expresses mercy than Psalms 51:14. How could David speak of righteousness, if God would deliver him from blood-guiltiness? He might well speak of goodness or compassion, but would not righteousness in God prevent him from being acquitted? Not so. The righteousness of God was what David looked to, — the same righteousness that is more clearly revealed by Paul in this Epistle. And well might David speak of that righteousness, when by it he was cleared from all the guilt of his enormous wickedness.
The word rendered ’righteousness,’ Romans 1:17, and in the verse before us, signifies both justice and righteousness; that is to say, conformity to the law. But while both of these expressions denote this conformity, there is an essential difference between them. Justice imports conformity to the law in executing its sentence; righteousness, conformity in obeying its precepts, and this is the meaning of the word here. If these ideas be interchanged or confounded, as they often are, the whole scope of the Apostle’s reasoning will be misunderstood.
In various parts of Scripture this phrase, ’the righteousness of God,’ signifies either that holiness and rectitude of character which is the attribute of God, or that distributive justice by which He maintains the authority of His law; but where it refers to man’s salvation, and is not merely a personal attribute of Deity, it signifies, as in the passage before us, Verse 21, that fulfillment of the law, or perfect conformity to it in all its demands, which, consistently with His justice, God has appointed and provided for the salvation of sinners. This implies that the infinite justice of His character requires what is provided, and also that it is approved and accepted; for if it be God’s righteousness, it must be required, and must be accepted by the justice of God. The righteousness of God, which is received by faith, denotes something that becomes the property of the believer It cannot, then, be here the Divine attribute of justice, but the Divine work which God has wrought through His Son. This, therefore, determines the phrase in this place as referring immediately not to the Divine attribute, but to the Divine work. The former never can become ours. This also is decisive against explaining the phrase as signifying a Divine method of justification. The righteousness of God is contrasted with the righteousness of man; and as Israel’s own righteousness, which they went about to establish, was the righteousness of their works, not their method of justification, so God’s righteousness, as opposed to this, Romans 10:3, must be a righteousness wrought by Jehovah. As in 2 Corinthians 5:21, the imputation of sin to Christ is contrasted with our becoming the righteousness of God in Him, the latter cannot be a method of justification, but must intimate our becoming perfectly righteous by possessing Christ’s righteousness, which is provided by God for us, and is perfectly commensurate with the Divine justice.
No explanation of the expression, ’the righteousness of God,’ will at once suit the phrase and the situation in which it is found in the passage before us, but that which makes it that righteousness, or obedience to the law, both in its penalty and requirements, which has been yielded to it by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is indeed the righteousness of God, for it has been provided by God, and from first to last has been effected by His Son Jesus Christ, who is the mighty God and the Father of eternity. Everything that draws it off from this signification tends to darken the Scriptures, to cloud the apprehension of the truth in the children of God, and to corrupt the simplicity that is in Christ. To that righteousness is the eye of the believer ever to be directed; on that righteousness must he rest; on that righteousness must he live; on that righteousness must he die; in that righteousness must he appear before the judgment-seat; in that righteousness must he stand for ever in the presence of a righteous God. ’I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God: for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,’ Isaiah 61:10.
The righteousness of God provided for the salvation of sinners, like that salvation itself, differs essentially from all other righteousness that ever was or can ever be performed. It differs entirely from the righteousness of men and angels in its AUTHOR, for it is the righteousness not of creatures but of the Creator. ’I the Lord have created it,’ Isaiah 45:8. It is a Divine and infinitely perfect righteousness, wrought out by Jehovah Himself, which in the salvation of man preserves all His attributes inviolate. It is the righteousness of God, as of the Godhead, without respect to distinction of personality, and strictly so in that sense in which the world is the work of God. The Father created it by the Son, in the same way as by the Son He created the world: and if the Father effected this righteousness because His Son effected it, then His Son must be one with Himself. Peter, in his Second Epistle, chapter 1:1, according to the literal rendering of the passage, calls this righteousness the righteousness of Jesus Christ. ’Simon Peter, a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.’ Most of the places in which the righteousness of God is spoken of, refer to it as the righteousness of the Fatherly as in 2 Corinthians 5:21, where the Father is distinguished from the Son; but in this passage of Peter it is explicitly declared to be the righteousness of the Son, where He is expressly called God. As it would be a palpable contradiction to assert that the work of creation could be executed by any creature, for He that built all things must be God, so the righteousness of God could not be ascribed to Jesus Christ unless He had been in the beginning, ’God,’ ’with God,’ and ’over all, God blessed for ever’
It was dueling His incarnation that the Son of God wrought out this righteousness. Before He came into the world, He was not a member or subject of the kingdom of heaven, — He was its Head. He then acted in the form of God, — that is to say, as the Creator and Sovereign of the world, — but afterwards in the form of a servant. Before that period He was perfectly holy, but that holiness could not be called obedience. It might rather be said that the law was conformed to Him, than that He was conformed to the law. His holiness was exercised in making the law, and by it governing the world. But in His latter condition it was that law by which He Himself was governed. His righteousness or obedience, then, was that of infinitely the most glorious person that could be subjected to the law. It was the righteousness of Emmanuel, God with us; and this obedience of the Son of God in our nature conferred more honor on the law than the obedience of all intelligent creatures. He gave to every commandment of the law, and to every duty it enjoined, more honor that it had received of dishonor from all the transgressors that have been in the world. When others obey the law, they derive from that obedience honor to themselves; but on the occasion now referred to, it was the law that was honored by the obedience of its Sovereign. ’The Lord,’ says the Prophet, ’is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable,’ Isaiah 42:21.
The obedience of Jesus Christ magnified the law, because it was rendered by Divine appointment. He was chosen of God, and anointed for this end. He was Jehovah, whom Jehovah sent. ’Lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah; and thou shalt know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent Me unto thee,’ Zechariah 2:10-11. And when it is considered that the most astonishing work of God which can be conceived is the incarnation of His Son, and His sojourning in the world, and that these wonders were performed in order to magnify the law, it necessarily follows that it is impossible to entertain too exalted an idea of the regard which God has for the character of His holy law. In its AUTHOR, then, this righteousness is immeasurably distinguished from any other righteousness. And not Only does it differ in its AUTHOR it differs also in its NATURE, in its EXTENT, in its DURATION, and in its INFLUENCE, from all other righteousness that ever was or ever can be performed.
In its NATURE this righteousness is twofold, fulfilling both the precept of the law and its penalty. This, by any creature the most exalted, is absolutely impossible. The fulfillment of the law, in its precepts, is all that could be required of creatures in their original sinless condition. Such was at the beginning the state of all the angels, and of the first man. But the state of the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, when He came into the world, was essentially different. Christ was made under the law, but it was a BROKEN LAW; and consequently He was made under its curse. This is not only implied when it is said, He was ’made of a woman,’ who was a transgressor, but it is also expressly asserted that He was ’made a curse for us,’ Galatians 3:13. Justice therefore required that He should fulfill not only the precept, but also the penalty of the law, — all that it threatens, as well as all that it commands.
A mere creature may obey the precept of the law, or suffer the penalty it denounces, but he cannot do both. If he be a transgressor, he may be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord; and God, whose vengeance he is suffering, being to him an object of unmingled hatred and abhorrence, there can be no place for his repentance, his love, or obedience. But Jesus Christ was capable at the same moment of suffering at the hand of God and of obeying the precept to love God. This was made manifest during the whole period of His incarnation, as well as by the memorable words which He uttered on the cross, ’My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ We are here taught that the prediction by the Prophet, ’Awake, O sword, against the man that is My fellow,’ was at that moment receiving its accomplishment. The sword of Divine justice, according to the prophetic declarations contained in the 22nd Psalm, was then piercing His in most soul, but still He addressed God as His God. From this it is evident that, while suffering under the full weight of His Father’s wrath against the sins of His people, which He had taken upon Him, all the feedings both of love and confidence also expressed in the same Psalm were at that moment in full exercise. His righteousness, therefore, or conformity to the law, was at once a conformity in two respects, which could not have been exemplified but by Himself throughout the whole universe.
By the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the execution of the law was complete; while no punishment which creatures could suffer can be thus designated. The law was fully executed when all the threatenings it contained were carried into effect. Those who are consigned to everlasting punishment will never be able to say, as our blessed Lord said on the cross, ’It is finished.’ It is He only who could put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself By enduring the threatened punishment, He fully satisfied justice. In token of having received a full discharge, He came forth from the grave; and when He shall appear the second time, it shall be without sin, — the sin which He had taken upon Him, and all its effects, being for ever done away. This fulfillment of the law, in its penalty, by the Son of God, is an end which cannot otherwise than through eternity be attained by the punishment of mere creatures. Sin, as committed against God, is an infinite evil, and request an infinite punishment, which cannot be borne in any limited time by those who are not capable of suffering punishment in an infinite degree. But the sufferings, as well as the obedience, in time, of Him who is infinite, are equivalent to the eternal obedience and sufferings of those who are finite.
The doctrine that sin is an infinite evil, and requires an infinite punishment, is objected to by the Socinians. They say that if each sin we commit merits eternal death — in other words, an infinite punishment — and since there are almost an infinite number of sins committed by men, then it must be said that they merit an almost infinite number of punishments, and consequently that they cannot be expiated but by a like number of infinite satisfactions. It is replied, that the infinite value of the death of the Redeemer equals an infinite number of infinite punishments. For such is the nature of infinitude, that it admits of no degrees; it knows nothing of more or less; it cannot be measured; it cannot be augmented; so that ten thousand infinities are still only one infinite. And if Jesus Christ had suffered death as many times as the number of the sins of the redeemed, His satisfaction would not have been greater or more complete than by the one death which He suffered.
The death of the Son of God serves to magnify the law, by demonstrating the certainty of that eternal punishment, which, if broken, it denounces as its penalty. There are no limits to eternity; but when the Son of God bore what was equivalent to the eternal punishment of those who had sinned, He furnished a visible demonstration of the eternal punishment of sin. But if nothing beyond the suffering of the penalty of the law had taken place, men would only have been released from the punishment due to sin. If they were to obtain the reward of obedience, its precepts must also be obeyed; and this was accomplished to the utmost by Jesus Christ. Every command it enjoins, as well as every prohibition it contains, were in all respects fully honored by Him. In this manner, and by His sufferings, He fulfilled all righteousness The righteousness, therefore, of our God and Savior Jesus Christ is infinitely glorious. It is the righteousness of the Lawgiver; and, being in its character twofold, it differs entirely in its NATURE from all other righteousness, and is of an order infinitely higher than ever was or can be exemplified by any or all of the orders of intelligent creatures.
This righteousness differs also from all other righteousness in its EXTENT. Every creature is bound for himself to all that obedience to his Creator of which he is capable. He is under the obligation to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, and beyond this he cannot advance. It is evident, therefore, that he can have no superabounding righteousness to be placed in the way of merit to the account of another. And, besides this, if he has sinned, he is bound to suffer for himself the whole penalty annexed to disobedience, no part of which, consequently, can be borne by him to satisfy for the transgression of others. He is not in possession of a life at his own disposal to lay down for them; and if he had laid it down, it being in that case forfeited for ever, he could not take it again. But the obedience of Jesus Christ, who is Himself infinite, as well as the punishment He suffered, being in themselves of infinite value, are capable of being transferred in their effects without any diminution in their respective values. His life, too, was His own; and as He suffered voluntarily, His obedience and sufferings, which were infinitely meritorious, might, with the most perfect regard to justice, be imputed to as many of those of whose nature He partook, as to the Supreme Ruler shall seem good.
This righteousness likewise differs from all other righteousness in its DURATION. The righteousness of Adam or of angels could only be available while it continued to be performed. The law was binding on them in every instant of their existence. The moment, therefore, in which they transgressed, the advantages derived from all their previous obedience ceased. But the righteousness of God, brought in by His Son, is an ’everlasting righteousness,’ Daniel 9:24. It was performed within a limited period of time, but in its effects it can never terminate. ’Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished — My righteousness shall before ever,’ Isaiah 51:6; Isaiah 51:8. ’Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,’ Psalms 119:142. ’By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,’ Hebrews 10:14. ’By His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption,’ Hebrews 9:12. In respect to its duration, then, this righteousness reaches back to the period of man’s fall, and forward through the endless ages of eternity.
The paramount INFLUENCE of this righteousness is also gloriously conspicuous. It is the sole ground of the reconciliation of sinners with God, and their justification before Him, and also of intercession with Him before the throne. ’If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,’ 1 John 2:1. It is the price paid for those new heavens and that new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; for that kingdom prepared for those who are clothed with righteousness — a kingdom commensurate with the dignity of Him for whom it was provided. The paradise in which Adam was placed at his creation was a paradise on earth. It might be corrupted, it might be defiled, and it might fade away, all of which accordingly took place. But the paradise which, in virtue of the righteousness of God, is provided, and to the hope of which, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, His people are begotten, is an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven. This righteousness, then, is the ransom by which men are delivered from going down to the pit of everlasting destruction, and the price of heavenly and eternal glory. It is the fine linen, clean and white, in which the bride, the Lamb’s wife, shall be arrayed, ’for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.’ Man was made lower than the angels, but this righteousness exalts him above them. The redeemed people of God stand nearest to the throne, while the angels stand ’round about’ them. They enter heaven clothed with a righteousness infinitely better than that which angels possess, or in which Adam was created.
The idea which some entertain, that the loss incurred by the fall is only compensated by what is obtained through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, is so far from being just, that the super abounding of the gain is unspeakable and immense. By the disobedience of the first Adam, the righteousness with which he was originally invested was lost for himself and all his posterity, and the sin which he had committed was laid to their charge. By the obedience of the second Adam, not only the guilt of that one offense is removed, but pardon also is procured for all the personal transgressions of the children of God; while the righteousness, infinitely glorious, which He wrought, is placed to their account. By the entrance of sin and death, the inheritance on earth was forfeited. By the gift of the everlasting righteousness, their title to eternal glory in heaven is secured.
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ, Romans 5:16-17.
The evidence of the truth of Christianity might be rested on this one point — THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD provided for the salvation of sinners. How could such an idea as that of a vicarious everlasting righteousness, to meet all the demands of a BROKEN LAW, have ever entered into the conception of men and angels? If it could have suggested itself to the highest created intelligence, and had the question been asked of all the host of heaven standing around the throne of God, ’on His right hand and His left,’ Who shall work this righteousness? what answer could have been given? what expedient for its accomplishment could have been proposed by one or all of them together? All must have stood silent before their Maker. As no one in heaven, nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book with the seven seals, neither to look thereon, — which was a subject of such bitter lamentation to the beloved disciple, — so no one, neither man nor angel, nor all the elect angels together, could have wrought the righteousness necessary for the justification of a sinner. He alone who is Emmanuel, God with us, who alone could open that book and loose the seals thereof, could ’bring in this everlasting righteousness,’ of which it may be truly said that eye had not seen it, nor ear heard it, neither had it entered into the heart of man, till God revealed it by His Spirit. Without law. — This righteousness is ’the righteousness of God,’ and altogether independent of any obedience of man to law, more or less. As the righteousness of God is the perfect fulfillment which the law demands, it is evidently impossible that any other righteousness or obedience can be added to it or mixed with it. On the cross, Jesus Christ said, It is finished, — that is, it is perfected. To exhibit this PERFECTION, this fulfillment of the law, this grand consummation, is the great object of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 6:1. And Christ, it is said, Romans 10:4, is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. In each of these passages the word used for ’perfection,’ or ’end,’ is, in the original, the same as the word ’finished,’ used on the cross. And those persons are described as ignorant of God’s righteousness who go about to establish their own righteousness, and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. ’Without law,’ then, signifies, not without perfect obedience, but without any regard whatever to the obedience of man to the law. The obedience which the believer is enabled to render to the law has no part in his justification, nor could it justify, being always imperfect. The Apostle had, in the foregoing verse, affirmed that by his obedience to the law no man could be justified. He establishes the same truth in the 28th verse of this chapter, and in the fifth verse of the fourth chapter, in a manner so explicit, as to place his meaning beyond all question. In the same sense he declares, Galatians 3:21, that ’if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.’ And again, he affirms, Galatians 2:21, ’If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.’ It is needless here to dispute, as many do, about what law the Apostle alludes to, whether moral or ceremonial. It is to the law of God, whether written or unwritten, — whatever is sanctioned by His authority, whether ceremonial or moral, — all of which have been fulfilled by the righteousness of God, Matthew 3:15.
The righteousness of God is now manifested, — that is, clearly discovered, or made fully evident. It was darkly revealed in the shadows of the law, and more clearly in the writings of the Prophets; but now it is revealed in its accomplishment. It was manifested in the life and death of Jesus Christ, and was, by His resurrection from the dead, openly declared on the part of God. By Him, who was God manifest in the flesh, it was wrought out while He was on earth. He fulfilled all righteousness; not one jot of the law, either in its precepts or threatenings, passed from it; but all was accomplished; and of this righteousness the Holy Spirit, when He came, was to convince the world, John 16:8.
This righteousness is manifested in the doctrine of the Apostles. Besides being introduced so frequently in this Epistle to the Romans, it is often referred to and exhibited in the other apostolical Epistles. To the Apostles was committed the ministration of the new dispensation characterized as the ’ministration of righteousness,’ 2 Corinthians 3:9. By that dispensation, and not by the law, righteousness is come, Galatians 2:21. In writing to the Philippians, Paul calls it ’the righteousness which is of God by faith,’ and contrasts it with his own righteousness, which is of the law, Philippians 3:9. Peter addresses his Second Epistle to those who had obtained precious faith in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:1. In one word, besides expressly naming it in many places under the designation of righteousness, the grand theme of the writings of the Apostles, as well as of their preaching, was the obedience and sufferings even unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him they declared to be ’the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth; ’while they exposed the error of such as went about to establish their own righteousness, and did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God.
Being witnessed by the law — In the first part of this verse, ’without law,’ where the article is wanting, signifies law indefinitely, — whatever has been delivered to man by God as His law, and in whatever way; but here, with the article, it refers to the five books of Moses, thus distinguished from the writings of the Prophets, according to the usual division of the Old Testament Scriptures, and adopted by our Lord, Luke 24:44. This righteousness was obscurely testified in the first promise respecting the bruising of the serpent’s head. It was expressly named in the declaration of the manner of Abraham’s justification, where it is recorded that he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness, Genesis 15:6; as also in the covenant which God made with him, of which the sign — that is, circumcision — was a seal or pledge of the righteousness which is by faith; and when it was promised that the blessing of Abraham, which is this righteousness, was to come on all nations; Genesis 12:3. It was intimated in the writings of Moses, in every declaration of the forgiveness of sin, and every call to repentance. All the declarations of mercy that are to be found in the law of Moses belong to the Gospel. They are all founded on the Messiah and His righteousness, and are made in consequence of God’s purpose to send His Son in the fullness of time into the world, and of the first promise respecting the seed of the woman. The righteousness of God was witnessed not only in all the declarations of mercy and calls to repentance, but also by the whole economy of the law of which Moses was the mediator. Abraham was chosen, his posterity collected into a nation, and a country appropriated to them, that from the midst of them, according to His promise, God might raise up a Prophet, who, like unto Moses, was to be a Lawgiver and Mediator, to whom, turning from Moses, they should listen so soon as He appeared, Deuteronomy 18:15; Deuteronomy 18:19. The law of everlasting obligation was given to that nation, and renewed after it had been broken by them, and then solemnly deposited in the ark of the testimony, in token that it should be preserved entire, and in due time fulfilled by him of whom the ark was a type.
The sacrifices offered by the patriarchs, and the whole of the ceremonial law in all its typical ordinances and observances, bear their direct though shadowy testimony to the righteousness of God, of which Noah was alike a preacher and an heir, 2 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 11:7.
The righteousness of God was witnessed by the Prophets. Of their testimonies to it the following are a few examples from the Psalms: — ’Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.’ Psalms 51:14. ’My mouth shall show forth Thy righteousness and Thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only. Thy righteousness, also, O God, is very high. My tongue also shall talk of Thy righteousness all the day long,’ Psalms 71:15-16; Psalms 71:19; Psalms 71:24. ’Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps,’ Psalms 85:10; Psalms 85:13. ’In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted, ’Psalms 89:16. ’Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,’ Psalms 119, 142. ’They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness,’ Psalms 145:7.
The righteousness of the Messiah, as connected with salvation, is the constant theme of the Prophets, especially of Isaiah. ’The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable,’ Isaiah 42:21. ’Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it,’ Isaiah 45:8. The heavens were to drop down this righteousness, and the skies were to pour it down, while men’s hearts, barren like the earth without rain, were to be opened to receive it by faith, having no part in doing anything to procure the gift. ’Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength: In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory,’ Isaiah 45:24-25. ’I bring near My righteousness; it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory,’ Isaiah 46:13. ’My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth — My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness,’ Isaiah 51:5; Isaiah 51:7. ’By His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many,’ Isaiah 61:11. ’This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord,’ Isaiah 54:17. ’Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed,’ Isaiah 56:1. ’For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations,’ Isaiah 61:11. ’For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth And the Gentiles shall see Thy righteousness, and all kings Thy glory,’ Isaiah 62:1-2.
’Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,’ Jeremiah 23:5. ’Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteous,’ Daniel 9:24. ’It is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you,’ Hosea 10:12. ’But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings,’ Malachi 4:2. To Balaam, who beheld the Savior at a distance, He appeared as a star; ’There shall come a Star out of Jacob,’ Numbers 24:17; while to Malachi, the last of the Prophets, on His nearer approach, He appeared as the sun.
Romans 3:22 — When the righteousness of and, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all their that believe.
This righteousness of God, to which the law and the Prophets render their testimony, and which is now manifested in the Gospel, whereby man is justified, is not imputed to him on account of any work of his own in obedience to the law, but is received, as the Apostle had already declared in the 17th verse of chapter first, by faith alone. Faith is no part of that righteousness; but it is through faith that it is received, and becomes available for salvation. Faith is the belief of the Divine testimony concerning that righteousness, and trust in Him who is its Author. Faith perceives and acknowledges the excellency and suitableness of God’s righteousness, and cordially embraces it. ’Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;’ because, though we do not yet possess what God has promised, and do not yet see it accomplished in ourselves, we see it accomplished in Jesus Christ, in whom what we hope for really exists. In respect to the promises not yet fulfilled, believers are now in the same situation as the fathers were of old respecting the unaccomplished promises in their day. Like them, they see these promises afar off, are persuaded of them, and embrace them. Believers thus flee to Christ and His righteousness as the refuge set before them in the Gospel. By faith they receive Him as their surety, and place their trust in Him, as representing them on the cross, in His death, and in His resurrection. Before we can have a right to anything in Christ, we must be one with Him; we must be joined with Him as our head, being dead to the law and married to Him; and as this union is accomplished through faith, His righteousness, which we receive, and which becomes ours in this way, is therefore called the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ, Romans 3:22; the righteousness of faith, Romans 4:11; Romans 4:13; and the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Philippians 3:9. It is called the righteousness of faith, because faith is the only instrument which God is pleased to employ in applying His righteousness. It is not called the righteousness of any other grace but of faith; we never read of the righteousness of repentance, of humility, of meekness, or of charity. These are of great price in the sight of God, but they have no office in justifying a sinner. This belongs solely to faith; for to him that worketh not, but believeth, is righteousness imputed; and faith is the gift of God.
This righteousness is unto all — It is set before all, and proclaimed to all, according to the commandment of our blessed Lord, — ’ Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ Upon all, is connected with the words that follow, viz., them that believe. While it is proclaimed to all men, it is actually upon believers. It is not put into them, as their sanctification is brought in the soul by the Holy Spirit; but it is placed upon them as a robe: — ’He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,’ Isaiah 61:10. It is the white raiment given by Jesus Christ to them who hear His voice, that they may be clothed, and that the shame of their nakedness may not appear, Revelation 3:18. It is the fine linen, clean and white, with which the bride, the Lamb’s wife, is arrayed; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints, Revelation 19:8. Thus Jesus Christ is made of God, to them that are in Him, righteousness, 1 Corinthians 1:30.
Righteousness — ’This, doubtless, is meant,’ says Archbishop Leighton, in his sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:30, ’of the righteousness by which we are justified before God; and He is made this to us, applied by faith: righteousness becomes ours. That exchange made, our sins are laid over upon Him, and His obedience put upon us. This, the great glad tidings, that we are made righteous by Christ: It is not a righteousness wrought by us, but given to us, and put upon us. This, carnal reason cannot apprehend, and, being proud, therefore rejects and argues against it, and says, how can this thing be? But faith closes with it, and rejoices in it; without either doing or suffering, the sinner is acquitted and justified, and stands as guiltless of breach, yea, as having fulfilled the whole law. And happy they that thus fasten upon this righteousness — they may lift up their faces with gladness and boldness before God: whereas the most industrious self-saving justiciary, though in other men’s eyes, and his own, possibly, for the present, he makes a glistering show, yet when he shall come to be examined of God, and tried according to the law, he shall be covered with shame, and confounded in his folly and guiltiness. But faith triumphs over self-unworthiness, and sin, and death, and the law; shrouding the soul under the mantle of Jesus Christ; and there it is safe. All accusations fall off, having nowhere to fasten, unless some blemish could be found in that righteousness in which faith hath wrapt itself. This is the very spring of solid peace, and fills the soul with peace and joy. But still men would have something within themselves to make out the matter, as if this robe needed any such piecing, and not finding what they desire, thence disquiet and unsettlement of mind arise! True it is that faith purifies the heart and works holiness, and all graces flow from it: But in this work of justifying the sinner it is alone, and cannot admit of any mixture.’
Romans 3:23 — (For there is no difference; For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.)
The Apostle introduces this parenthesis to preclude the supposition that the receiving of the righteousness of God is not indispensably necessary to every individual of the human race in order to his salvation, and lest it should be imagined that there is any difference in the way in which, or on account of which, it is received. As there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles with respect to their character as sinners, so there is no difference with respect to them as to the receiving of God’s righteousness — no difference either as to sin or salvation — all of them are guilty, and salvation through faith is published to them all. ’For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him,’ Romans 10:12. Before men receive this righteousness, they are all under the curse of the broken law, and in a state of condemnation. Whatever distinction there may be among them otherwise, whether moral in their conduct, good and useful members of society, discharging respectably and decently the external duties of that situation in which they are placed, or having a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, and going about to establish their own righteousness, — or whether they be immoral in their lives, entirely abandoned to every vice, — they all stand equally in need of this righteousness — it is equally preached to them all — it is in the same manner bestowed upon all who believe. The reason of this is, that all have sinned — all, without one exception, as had been proved, are ’under sin.’
The Apostle adds, as a consequence of this, that they have come short of the glory of God. They have come short, as in running a race, having now lost all strength (Romans 5:6) and ability in themselves to glorify God, and attain to the possession and enjoyment of His glory. In the second chapter, the Apostle, in announcing the terms of the law, had declared that the way to obtain eternal life was in seeking for glory by patient continuance in well-doing, and that to those who work good, honor and peace would be awarded. In other words, ’if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments; ’but he had afterwards proved that in this way it was altogether unattainable, since by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified. In this place he more briefly repeats the same truth, that all men, without exception, being sinners, have come short of this glory, while he is pointing out the way in which, through the atonement of the Savior, and faith in that atonement, believers may now ’rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’ All men, on the ground of their obedience to law, come short of glorifying God, for to glorify God is the whole of the law, — even the second table is to be obeyed to glorify God, who requires it. If they come short of obeying the law, they have, as sinners, come short of that glory, and honor, and immortality, in His presence, which can only be obtained through the ’salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory,’ 2 Timothy 2:10.
Romans 3:24 — Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Justified — Justification stands opposed both to accusation and condemnation. ’Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’ ’Them whom God effectually calleth, He also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them,’ as is well expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, ’but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, — not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience, to them as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.’ Or, according to Dr. Owen On Justification, ’This imputation is an act of God, ex mera gratia, of His mere love and grace, whereby, on the consideration of the mediation of Christ, He makes an effectual grant and donation of a true, real, perfect righteousness — even that of Christ Himself — unto all that do believe, and accounting it as theirs, on His own gracious act, both absolves them from sin, and granteth them right and title unto eternal life.’The Helvetic Confession of Faith, adopted by the church at Geneva in 1536, and by all the evangelical churches in Switzerland thirty years afterwards, explains justification as follows: — ’The word, to justify, signifies, in the writings of the Apostle St. Paul, when he speaks of justification, to pardon sins, to absolve from guilt and punishment, to receive into grace, and to declare righteous. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to believers. — Our Savior is then charged with the sins of the world, He has taken them away, He has satisfied Divine justice. It is, then, only on account of Jesus Christ, dead and risen, that God, pacified towards us, does not impute to us our sins, but that He imputes to us the righteousness of his Son, as if it were ours; so that thenceforward, we are not only cleansed from our sins, but, besides, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and by it absolved from the punishment of sins, from death, or from condemnation, accounted righteous, and heirs of eternal life. Thus, to speak properly, it is God only who justifies us, and He justifies us solely for the sake of Jesus Christ, not imputing to us our sins, but imputing to us the righteousness of Christ.’
In the Homily of the Church of England, on ’justification,’ it is said — ’Justification is not the office of man, but of God; for man cannot make himself righteous by his own works, neither in part nor in whole; for that were the greatest arrogancy and presumption of man that Antichrist could set up against God, to affirm that a man might, by his own works, take away and purge his own sins, and so justify himself.
But justification is the office of God only, and is not a thing which we render unto Him, but which we receive of Him; not which we give to Him, but which we take of Him by His free mercy, and by the only merits of His most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Savior, and Justifier, Jesus Christ: So that the true understanding of this doctrine, we be justified freely by faith without works, or that we be justified by Christ only, is not that this our own act to believe in Christ, or this our faith in Christ which is within us doth justify us, and deserve our justification unto us (for that were to count ourselves to be justified by some act or virtue that is within ourselves), but the true understanding and meaning thereof is, that although we hear God’s word, and believe it, although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread, and fear of God within us, do never so many works thereunto; yet we must renounce the merit of all our said virtues, of faith, hope, charity, and all other virtues, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that must be far too weak, and insufficient, and imperfect; to deserve remission of our sins and our justification; and therefore we must trust only in God’s mercy, and that sacrifice which our High Priest and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, once offered for us on the cross.’ Again, ’This doctrine all old and ancient authors of Christ’s Church do approve. This doctrine adorneth and setteth forth the glory of Christ, and beateth down the glory of man; this whosoever denieth, is not to be accounted for a Christian man, nor for a setter forth of Christ’s glory, but for an adversary of Christ and His Gospel, and for a setter forth of man’s vain glory.’ The above quotations are not given in the way of authority, but as expressing the truth, and evincing the unanimity of believers of different communions on this all-important point. The sum of them is, that believers are absolved from condemnation, and entitled to eternal life, by the free and sovereign favor of God as its original first moving cause, without any desert in themselves, but solely in virtue of the righteousness of Christ, which includes an infinitely valuable price of redemption, a price that was paid for them by His obedience and sufferings to death.
There is no ’condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.’ The moment a sinner is united to Him, the sentence of condemnation under which he formerly lay, is remitted, and a sentence of justification is pronounced by God. Justification, then, is at once complete — in the imputation of a perfect righteousness, the actual pardon of all past sins, the virtual pardon of future sins, and the grant and title to the heavenly inheritance. The believer is found in Christ having the righteousness which is of God, Philippians 3:9. ’Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness,’ Isaiah 45:24. He is complete in Christ, Colossians 2:10, who, by one offering, hath for ever perfected him, Hebrews 10:14. In Him the law has been fulfilled, Romans 8:4; his sin has been made Christ’s, and the righteousness which God requireth by the law has been made his. ’He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,’ 2 Corinthians 5:21. On this passage Chrysostom remarks, ’What word, what speech is this? what mind can comprehend or express it? For He saith, He made Him who was righteous to be made a sinner, that He might make sinners righteous. Nor yet doth He say so neither, but that which is far more sublime and excellent. For He speaks not of an inclination or affection, but expresseth the quality itself. For He says not, He made him a sinner, but sin, that we might be made not merely righteous, but righteousness — and that the righteousness of God.’ When we are here said to be made the righteousness of God in Him, the meaning is, that we are made righteous in such a degree as admits of no addition. We could not be more righteous if our whole nature and constitution were made up of this one attribute, and there were nothing in us or about us but righteousness.
After the Lord Jesus Christ condescended to take on Him our sins, it would not have been just for Him not to account for them; His responsibility for them was then the same as if He had Himself sinned. On this proceeded God’s treatment of Him in hiding His face from Him, till the debt was paid. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; that is, being cursed, as the Apostle explains it. As the sins of Israel were all laid on the head of the scapegoat, so ’the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’ ’How could He die,’ says Charnock, ’if He was not a reputed sinner? Had He not first had a relation to our sin, He could not in justice have undergone our punishment. He must, in the order of justice, be supposed a sinner really, or by imputation. Really He was not; by imputation, then, He was.’ On the whole, believers are accounted and pronounced righteous by God; and if so accounted by Him, it is and must be true in fact that they are righteous, for righteousness is imputed to them; that is, it is placed to their account — made over to them, because really theirs — and, therefore, without the smallest deviation from truth or fact — which is impossible in the great Judge — he will, from His throne of judgment in the last day, pronounce them ’righteous,’ Matthew 25:37; Matthew 25:46.
The plan of salvation through the righteousness of Jesus Christ is so deep and astonishing an instance of Divine wisdom, that while it is not at all perceived by the wisdom of the world, it even in some measure lies hid from those who are savingly enlightened by it. Many Christians are afraid to give the scriptural language on this subject the full extent of its meaning; and instead of representing themselves as being made righteous, perfectly righteous; by the righteousness of the Son of Gods they look on their justification as merely an accounting of them as righteous while they are not so in reality. They think that God mercifully looks on them in a light which is more favorable than the strictness of truth will warrant. But the Scriptures represent believers as truly righteous, possessing a righteousness fully answerable to all the demands of the law. By their union with Christ they are ’dead to sin,’ and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them, chapter 8:4. They have paid its penalty and fulfilled its utmost demands, and are ’made the righteousness of God in Him.’ God never accounts any one to be what he is not in reality; and as Christ righteousness is reckoned ours as well as Adam’s sin, believers ought to consider themselves as truly righteous in Christ as they are truly guilty in Adam. These two facts mutually reflect light on each other. Adam was the figure of Christ, and our sin in Adam is perfectly analogous to our righteousness in Christ, ’For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous,’ Romans 5:19.
Freely by his grace — The expression is redoubled, to show that all is of God, and that nothing in this act of justification belongs to, or proceeds from man. It is perfectly gratuitous on the part of God, both as to the mode of conveyance and the motive on which it is vouchsafed. Nothing being required of man in order to his justification, in the way of price or satisfaction, and there being no prerequisite or preparatory dispositions to merit it at the hand of God, believers are therefore said to be justified by His grace, which excludes on their part both price and merit. And lest it should be imagined that grace does not proceed in its operation, as well as in the choice of its objects, consistently with its character of sovereign and unmerited goodness, the Apostle adds the word freely; that is, without cause or motive on the part of man. The word here rendered ’freely’ is the same as that used by our Lord when He says, they hated Me without a cause, John 15:25. ’Freely’ (gratuitously) ye have receded, freely give, Matthew 10:8; 2 Corinthians 11:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; ’For naught’ (gratis), Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17; or without price, as Isaiah 55:1. This term ’freely’ in the most absolute manner excludes all consideration of anything in man as the cause or condition of his justification. The means by which it is received is faith; and, in the commencement of the next chapter, faith is placed in opposition to all works whatever, and in verse 16th of that chapter it is said, ’Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.’ Faith is the constituted medium through which man receives ’the gift of righteousness;’ because, as Paul there affirms, it interferes not with the gratuitous nature of the gift. It is impossible to express more strongly than in this place, that justification is bestowed without the smallest regard to anything done by man. It cannot be pretended that it comes in consequence of repentance, or anything good either existing or foreseen in him. God ’justifieth the ungodly,’ Romans 4:5. It comes, then, solely by grace — free, unmerited favor. ’And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace,’ Romans 11:6. This is said respecting the election of believers to eternal life, and equally holds, according to the passage before us, in respect to their justification. Speaking of the advocates of human merit, ’What can they say,’ observes Luther, in answer to Erasmus, ’to the declaration of St. Paul? Being justified freely by His grace. Freely, what does that word mean? How are good endeavors and merit consistent with a gratuitous donation? Perhaps you do not insist on a merit of condignity, but only of congruity. Empty distinctions. How does Paul in one word confound in one mass all the assertors of every species and of every degree of merit? All are justified freely, and without, the works of the law. He who affirms the justification of all men who are justified to be perfectly free and gratuitous, leaves no place for works, merits, or preparations of any kind — no place for works either of condignity or congruity; and thus, at one blow, he demolishes both the Pelagians with their complete merits, and our sophists with their petty performances.’
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus — The great blessing of justification is described above as proceeding from the free grace of God, which is the fountain from whence flow pardon, righteousness, and salvation, excluding all works, whether before or after faith. Here it is referred to the meritorious price provided by God, and that is the redemption which is in Christ Jesus For though it comes freely to man, yet it is through the redemption or purchase of the Son of God. The word redemption signifies a buying back, and necessarily supposes an alienation of what is redeemed. In general, it imports a deliverance effected by a price, and sometimes a deliverance by power. In this last sense it is said, ’Now these are Thy servants, and Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power,’ Nehemiah 1:10. ’I will redeem you with a stretched out arm,’ Exodus 6:6; Psalms 77:15. The resurrection of the body by an act of Divine power is called a redemption, Psalms 49:15; Romans 8:23. But, more generally, redemption signifies, in Scripture, deliverance by price, as that of slaves, or prisoners, or persons condemned, hen they are delivered from slavery, captivity, or death, by means of a ransom. The word is here used in this last acceptation. Man had rebelled against God, and incurred the just condemnation of His law; but God, by His free grace, and of infinite compassion, hath substituted His own Son in the place of the guilty, and transferred from them to Him the obligation of their punishment. He hath made Him to suffer and die for their sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring them to Himself. ’His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,’ 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 2:24. In this manner the Scriptures represent the blood or death of Jesus Christ as the ransom price. He came to give His life a ransom for many, Matthew 20:28; 1 Corinthians 6:20. ’Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ,’ 1 Peter 1:18. ’Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood,’ Revelation 5:9. ’Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,’ Ephesians 1:5-8; Colossians 1:14. If, then, we are accounted righteous before God, because redeemed with a price paid by another, we receive what is not in ourselves, or in any measure from ourselves.
In every place in Scripture where our redemption in Christ is mentioned, there is an allusion to the law of redemption among the Jews. This law is contained in the Book of Leviticus, chapter 25, where we and regulations laid down for a twofold redemption, a redemption of persons and a redemption of possessions. The redemption of possessions or inheritances is regulated, verses 23-28, and that of persons, from verse 47 to the end of the chapter. In both these cases, none had a right to redeem but either the person himself who had made the alienation, or some other that was near of kin to him. But none of Adam’s family ever was, or ever will be, able to redeem himself or others. ’None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their soul is precious,’ Psalms 49:7. It is too precious to be accomplished by such means; and had there been no other, it would have ’ceased for ever.’ All mankind had been engaged in a warfare against God, and, as rebels, were condemned to death. Satan had taken the whole human race captive, and employed them in the drudgery of sin. From the sentence of death and the slavery of sin, it was impossible for any of them ever to have been set free, if Christ had not paid the ransom of His blood. But He, the Son of God, having from all eternity undertaken the work of redemption of those whom God gave Him, and being substituted by the everlasting covenant which God made with Him in their place, the right of redemption was vested in Him, by virtue of His covenant relation to them. And that nothing might be wanting either to constitute Him their legal kinsman-Redeemer, or to evidence Him to be so, He took on Him their nature, and in that nature paid their ransom to the last mite. Thus He performs the part of the Redeemer of His people, redeeming them from slavery and from death, and redeeming for them that inheritance which they had forfeited, and which they could not redeem for themselves. In some cases both these sorts of redemption were conjoined, and the person redeemed was espoused to him who redeemed her; and in this manner our Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed His Church. Having redeemed the heavenly inheritance for her, He has at the same time redeemed her from her state of bondage, and has betrothed her to Himself. ’I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord,’ Hosea 2:19-20.
The Socinian talks of redemption as an act merely of God’s power, and of Christ as offering His sacrifice by presenting Himself in heaven after His death. But this is not redemption. There is not only a price paid, but that price is expressly stated. ’In whom we have redemption through His blood.’ His blood, then, is the price by which we have redemption, ’even the forgiveness of sins,’ Colossians 1:14. The same thing that is redemption, is in another point of view forgiveness; yet these two things in human transactions are incompatible. Where there is forgiveness, there is no price or redemption; where there is redemption there is no forgiveness. But in the salvation of the Gospel there are both. There is a price; but as God Himself has paid the price, it is forgiveness with respect to man, as much as if there had been no price. How wonderful is the wisdom of God manifested in the Gospel! Grace and justice, mercy and punishment, are blended together in the most perfect harmony.
Many seem to think that nothing can be essentially wrong in the views of those who speak of gratuitous salvation. Yet this may be most explicitly confessed, and the distinguishing features of the Gospel overlooked or even denied. Arians do not deny a gratuitous salvation. They contend that salvation is gratuitous, and boast that they are the only persons who consistently hold this doctrine. Calvinists, they say, have not a God of mercy: He gives nothing without a price. Their God they boast, is a God of mercy; for He pardons without any ransom. Now the glory of the Gospel is, that grace reigns through righteousness. Salvation is of grace; but this grace comes to us in a way of RIGHTEOUSNESS. It is grace to us; but it was brought about in such a way that all our debt was paid. This exhibits God as just, as well as merciful. Just; in requiring full compensation to justice; and merciful, because it was He, and not the sinner, who provided the ransom. He who is saved, is saved without an injury to justice. Salvation is in one point of view forgiveness, but in another it is redemption.
Still, however, it is urged, that though it is here said that God justifies man freely by His grace, yet, as a price has been paid for it, this takes away from the freeness of the gift. But He who pays the ransom is one and the same, as has just been observed, with Him who justifies; so that the freeness of the blessing on the part of God is not in the smallest degree diminished. This proves that the doctrine of a free justification, through an atonement, rests entirely on the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ; on which also rests the transfer of His righteousness to the guilty; for, as has already been shown, no mere creature can have the least particle of merit to transfer to another. Every creature is bound for himself to fulfill the whole law. After doing all that is possible for him in the way of obedience, he must confess himself to be an unprofitable servant, Luke 17:10.
This redemption is in, or by, Christ Jesus — It is wholly in Him, and solely accomplished by Him. Through the period of His ministry on earth, His disciples who followed Him were not aware of the work He was accomplishing. During His agony in the garden they were asleep. When seized by His persecutors to be put to death, they all forsook Him and fled. ’Behold,’ says He, ’the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone.’ No one participated or bore any share with Him in that great work, which, according to His appeal to His Father, on which He founded the petitions He offered for Himself and His people, He alone had consummated: ’I have gloried Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.’
Romans 3:25 — When God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.
In the end of the preceding verse, the Apostle had said that believers are justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This redemption he here further explains. God hath set forth His Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice to make satisfaction to His justice. The expression, set forth, means to exhibit to public view — to place before the eyes of men — to manifest, — according as it is said, ’Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you,’ 1 Peter 1:20. To be a propitiation. — Some understand this as meaning a propitiatory, signifying the mercy-seat, as the same word is translated, Hebrews 9:5; some as a propitiatory sacrifice, which is to be preferred. But it comes to the same thing, if, according to our translation, it be rendered propitiation, considering the word to be the adjective taken substantively. And this is countenanced by 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10, though a different word is employed, but of the same derivation. By a propitiation is meant that which appeareth the wrath of God for sins and obtains His favor, as it is said, Hebrews 2:17, where the corresponding verb is used, to make reconciliation for (to propitiate) the sins of the people; and ’God be merciful to me a sinner.’ He was thus pacified towards believers in Jesus Christ, and made favorable to them, the demands of His law and justice being satisfied, and every obstruction to the exercise of His mercy towards them removed. This propitiation of Christ was typified by the propitiatory sacrifices whose blood was shed, and by the mercy-seat, which was called the propitiatory, that illustrious type of Christ and His work, covering the ark in which the law to be fulfilled by Him was deposited, and on it, and before it, the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled by the high priest. Through faith in His blood — This propitiation was made by blood, by which is to be understood all the sufferings of Christ, and, above all, His death, by which they were consummated. And this becomes a propitiation to us through faith in His blood, — that is, when we believe that His death is a sacrifice which make atonement for us, and when we rest on it as a sufficient answer to all accusations against us of the law of God, which in the punishment of death it demanded for sin, for ’without shedding of blood is no remission.’ The expression, ’through faith in His blood,’ limits to believers the effect of this propitiation. .
God hath not only set forth His Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice, to be available through faith in His blood, but also hath done this to declare or manifest His righteousness. Righteousness. — Some here translate this word faithfulness, or the righteousness of the character of God, or veracity; some goodness; some holiness; some pardoning mercy. But all are wrong, and such translations are opposed to the sense of the passage. It is righteousness, namely, the righteousness of God, on account of which the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, chapter 1:17, to which the Apostle had recurred in the 21st and 22nd verses of this chapter, declaring that it is now manifested. ’Righteousness’ in the above passages is the same as in the one before us, and in the following verse. In the 21st and 22nd verses, the expression employed is the ’righteousness of God;’ and in this and the following verse, ’His righteousness.’ Is it then to be supposed that, in repeating the same expression four times in the same breath, and with a view to establish the same truth, the Apostle used it in various senses, — first, as that righteousness which fulfills the law which God has provided for sinners; and then as the faithfulness, or goodness, or holiness, or mercy, or justice of God, or the righteousness of His character? — ideas entirely different from the former. That the meaning of the expression, ’His righteousness,’ is the same in this and the following verse as that of the ’righteousness of God’ in verses 21, 22, appears unquestionable, from the reason given in this 25th verse for setting forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation for sin. This, as is twice repeated, first here, and then in the following verse, was for the purpose of declaring or manifesting God’s righteousness. In the 21st verse it is asserted that the righteousness of God is now manifested; and in the 25th verse it is shown in what way it is now manifested, namely, by setting forth Christ as a propitiation for sin; and in the following verse the reason is given, namely, for what purpose it is now manifested. On the whole, then, notwithstanding that a different sense is generally affixed to it by commentators, it appears clear that the signification of the expression ’righteousness’ is the same in each of these four verses, which stand in so close a connection. This signification being the same in all the above instances, and generally in the various other places in the Epistle, in which it so often occurs, entirely corresponds with the whole tenor of the Apostle’s discourse, which is to prove that a perfect righteousness is provided by God for man, who has lost his own righteousness, and on which he had so forcibly dwelt throughout the first and second chapters, and down to the 21st verse of the chapter before us.
For the remission of sins that are past; — rather, as to, or with regard to, the passing by of sins before committed. Jesus Christ hath been set forth by God to be a propitiatory sacrifice, by which He brought in ’everlasting righteousness,’ and by which it is now publicly manifested. On account, then, of this righteousness, even before it was introduced, God pardoned or remitted the sins of His people under the Old Testament dispensation. These, having received the promises, although their accomplishment was yet afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them; thus exercising faith in the blood of that great propitiatory sacrifice which was typified by the legal sacrifices, and through this faith they received the remission of their sins.
Through the forbearance of God — It was owing to God’s forbearance that He passed by the sins of His people before the death of Christ, till which time His law was not honored, and His justice had received no satisfaction. No sufficient atonement previous to that event was made for their sins, yet, through the forbearance of God, He did not immediately proceed to punish them, but had respect to the everlasting righteousness to be brought in, in the fullness of time, Daniel 9:24, by the propitiatory sacrifice of His Son, by which their sins were to be expiated. This verse beautifully indicates the ground on which Old Testament saints were admitted into heaven before the death of Christ.
The same truth is declared in the Epistle to the Hebrews 9:15, where the Apostle refers to the inefficacy of the legal sacrifices to take away sins, and speaks of the blood of Jesus, by which He entered into the holy place, and obtained eternal redemption for His people. ’And for this cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called (literally the called) might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.’ All the people on whom the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled, were sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, but those of them who were efficaciously called, and offered the sacrifices in faith of the promise of God, received a real remission of their sins. They were, like Noah, heirs of the righteousness which is by faith, and consequently partakers in its benefits. To the same purpose the Apostle speaks towards the end of that Epistle, of ’the spirits of just men made perfect,’ Hebrews 12:23. They had entered heaven on the pledge of that righteousness which was afterwards to be wrought; but until that took place, their title to heavenly glory had not been completed or perfected. Hence the declaration at the end of the eleventh chapter of that Epistle, ’that they without us should not be made perfect,’ that is, without the introduction of that righteousness in the days of the Gospel, the ministration of which was committed to the Apostles, 2 Corinthians 3:3.
Romans 3:26 — To declare, I say at this time His righteousness; that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
God hath at this time also set forth His Son as a propitiatory sacrifice, in order to make manifest His righteousness, on account of which now, under the Gospel dispensation, He remits the sins of His people. He was always just in forgiving sin, but now the ground on which He forgives it is manifested, which vindicates His justice in doing so. The word here rendered just, is variously translated by those who do not understand God’s plan of salvation. Some make it to signify benevolent, kind, merciful, etc.; but it has here its own proper meaning, which it never deserts. God is just; He acts according to strict justice, as becometh His character, while He justifies, accounts, and treats as perfectly righteous all who believe in Jesus, who are thus one with Him, and consequently have His righteousness imputed to them. In all this we see the accomplishment of that prediction, ’Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps,’ Psalms 85:10.
From the last two verses we learn that, in the continuance of the legal dispensation, notwithstanding the sins of men, and also in the preservation of the nations, God had suspended the immediate effects of His justice. For if He had not acted in this manner, He would at once have put an end to that dispensation and to the economy of His providence with respect to the other nations in destroying both them and the people of Israel. During all that time which preceded the coming of His Son, He appeared to have forgotten the merited punishment of men’s sins, and all the world remained under the shadow of His forbearance. But when Jesus Christ came, God did two things: the first was to continue no longer an economy of patience, or of an apparent forgetfulness of sin, bat to bring in everlasting righteousness, by which He bestowed a true justification, which the law, whether written or natural, could not do, as it left men under guilt; but Jesus Christ has brought the true grace of God. The second thing which God has done, is to manifest, in the revelation of His righteousness, His avenging justice, by the shedding of the blood of His Son upon the cross. And thus he now appears to be just in Himself as the real avenger of sins, and, at the same time, the justifier of men, granting them a real remission of their sins by the imputation of His righteousness, which answers every demand of law and justice; whereas in the period of the forbearance of God, which continued to the time of Jesus Christ, God neither appeared just nor justifying. He did not appear just, for He suspended the effects of His justice. He did not appear the justifier, for He seemed only to suspend for a time the punishment of sins, and to leave men under the obligation of that punishment. But in the economy of Jesus Christ He manifests Himself both as just and as the justifier, for He displays the awful effects of His justice in the person of His Son in the work of propitiation, in the shedding of His blood; and, at the same time, He justifies His people, granting to them a true remission of their sins. And when the greatness of Him by whom this expiation was made is considered, the glory of the Divine justice, as exhibited in His death, is elevated in the highest possible degree.
In the propitiation, then, of Jesus Christ, the justice of God in the salvation of sinners shines conspicuously. No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son hath in His own person revealed Him. Jesus Christ was set forth to display every attribute of Godhead. The wisdom and power of God are seen in the constitution and person of Christ and His work, incomparably more fully than in the creation of the heavens and the earth. Perfect justice, mercy, and love to sinners, are beheld nowhere else. Here God is revealed as infinite in mercy; not so the God of man’s imagination, whose mercy is a mixture of injustice and weak compassion, and extends only to those who are supposed to deserve it. But in the incarnate God infinite mercy is extended to the chief of sinners. Here is pure mercy without merit on the part of man. And where do we find the perfection of Divine justice? Not in the God of man’s imagination, where justice is tempered with mercy, and limited in a thousand ways. Not even in the eternal punishment of the wicked shall we find justice so fully displayed as in the propitiation of Jesus Christ. He gave justice all it could demand, so that it is now shown to have secured the salvation of the redeemed in every age of the world as much as mercy itself. God is shown not only to be merciful to forgive, but He is faithful and just to forgive the sinner his sins. Justice, instead of being reduced to the necessity of taking a part from the bankrupt, has received full payment, and guarantees his deliverance. Even the chief of sinners are shown, in the propitiatory sacrifice of their Surety, to be perfectly worthy of Divine love, because they are not only perfectly innocent, but have the righteousness of God He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Romans 3:27 — Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith.
Where is boasting then? — That is, according to the doctrine which the Apostle, by the Spirit of God, is teaching. There is no ground for it, or for ascribing salvation in any part or degree to the works of men. This shows that salvation was appointed to come to the redeemed through faith, for the very purpose of excluding all pretenses to allege that human merit has any share in it. This applies to all works, moral as well as ceremonial. If ceremonial works only were here meant, as many contend, and if moral works have some influence in procuring salvation, or in justification, then the Apostle could not have asked this question. Boasting would not have been excluded.
Paul had declared the only way in which a man can be ’just with God.’ He had proved that it is not by His own righteousness, which is of the law, but by that righteousness which is received by faith. This is clear from what had been advanced in the preceding verse, from which this is an inference. If, then — as if he had said — God had purposed that men should have any group of boasting, He would not have set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, that thereby a way might be opened for justifying sinners, so that His justice might suffer no prejudice. But now He has taken this course; and therefore the only way of justification precludes all boasting.
’Paul is not here,’ says Calvin, ’disputing merely concerning ceremonies, or any external works, but comprehends all works of every kind and degree. Boasting is excluded without all doubt, since we can produce nothing of our own that merits the approbation or commendation of God. And here he is not speaking of limitation or diminution of merit, since he does not allow the least particle of it. Thus, if boasting of works be removed by faith, so that it takes away from man all praise, while all power and glory are ascribed to God, it follows that no works whatever contribute to the attainment of righteousness.’
By what law is boasting excluded? — It is not by that of works; for if works were admitted, in the smallest degree, to advance or aid man’s justification, he might in that proportion have ground of boasting. It is, then, by the law of faith; not by a law requiring faith, or as if the Gospel was a law, a new law, or, as it has been termed, a remedial or mitigated law; but the word law is here used in allusion to the law of works, according to a figure usual in the Scriptures. By the same figure Jesus says, ’This is the work of God, that ye believe in Him whom He hath sent.’ Here faith is called a work, for a similar reason. Faith in the righteousness of Christ is, by the appointment of God, the medium of a sinner’s justification, without any consideration of works. This way of justification clearly shows that a man has no righteousness of his own, and that he can obtain nothing by means of conformity to the law, which can have no place, since he must admit that he is a transgressor. It impels him to flee out of himself, and to lay hold of the righteousness of another, and so leaves no room for glorying or boasting in himself, or in his own performances more or less. His justification is solely by faith; and it is clear that to believe a testimony, and rely on what has been done by another, furnish no ground for boasting. ’Therefore it is by faith, that it might be by grace.’ The whole plan of salvation proceeds on this principle, ’that no flesh should glory in His presence,’ but ’that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.’ No ingenuity can ever make elevation by human merit consistent with the passage before us.
Romans 3:28 — Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Therefore we conclude — In the 20th verse the Apostle had arrived at the conclusion, from all he had said before, that by works of law no man shall be justified in the sight of God. He had next pointed out the way of justification by faith in the atonement; and here He comes to His second grand and final conclusion, as the sum of all He had taught in the preceding part of the Epistle. Justified by faith — Faith does not justify as an act of righteousness, but as the instrument by which we receive Christ and His righteousness. Believers are said to be justified by faith and of faith, and through faith, but never on account of faith. The declaration of James, that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only, is not in any respect opposed to the affirmation in the passage before us. The question with him is not how men may obtain righteousness for themselves in the presence of God, but how they are proved to be righteous; for he is refuting those who make a vain boast of having faith, when they have only what he calls a dead faith, — that is, faith only in profession, which he illustrates by a man’s having the appearance of compassion without the reality, and by referring to the body without the spirit or breath.
Without the deeds of the law, literally without works of law, for here, as in verse 31st, the article is wanting. — This does not signify, as Dr. Macknight understands it, that ’perfect obedience’ to law is not necessary; it signifies that no degree of obedience to law is necessary. Good works are necessary for the believer, and are the things which accompany salvation, but they are not in any respect necessary to his justification. They have nothing to do with it. This passage asserts not merely that men are justified by faith without perfect obedience to any law, but without any obedience of their own. It may likewise be remarked, that believers will not be acquitted at the last day on account of their works, but will be judged according to their works. But God does not justify any according to their works, but freely by His grace; and not by works, or according to the works of righteousness which they have done, Titus 3:5.
Romans 3:29 — Is He the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.
Rather, Is He the God of Jews only? Is He not also of Gentiles? The article before Jews and Gentiles, which is not in the original, makes the assertion respect Jews and Gentiles in general. In the sense of the passage, God is not the God either of the Jews or of the Gentiles in general; but He is the God of Jews and Gentiles indifferently, when they believe in His Son.
Romans 3:30 — Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Seeing it is one God — This assigns the reason why God must be the God of Gentiles as well as of Jews. If He justifies both in the same way, He must be equally the God of both. In the previous part of the discussion, Paul had shown that by works of law no flesh shall be justified, proving it first respecting Gentiles, and afterwards respecting Jews. Now he affirms that God’s method of justifying man applies equally to Jews and Gentiles. This confirms his doctrine respecting the ruin of all men by sin, and of there being only one way of recovery by the righteousness of God received through faith. To urge this was likewise of great importance, with a view to establish the kingdom of Christ in all the earth, Romans 10:11; Romans 10:13. Having thus reduced the whole human race to the same level, it follows that all distinction among them must be from God, and not from themselves, — all standing on the same footing with respect to their works. There is but one God, and so but one way of becoming His people, which is by faith.
By faith, and through faith — It is difficult to see why the prepositions here are varied. Similar variations, however, occur in other places, where there appears to be no difference of meaning, as in Galatians 2:16, where justification, as applied to the same persons, is spoken of in the same sense, ’knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but through the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.’
Romans 3:31 — Do we then make void law through faith God forbid: yea, we establish law.
From the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which the Apostle had been declaring, it might be supposed that the law of God was made void. This consequence might be drawn from the conclusion that a man is justified by faith without any respect to his obedience to law. This the Apostle denies, and, on the contrary, asserts that by his doctrine the law is established. The article is here wanting before law, indicating that the reference is not to the legal dispensation, or to the books of Moses, as in the last clause of verse 21, but to the general law of God, whether written or unwritten. Make void law — ’Bring it to naught,’ as the same word in the original is rendered, 1 Corinthians 1:28; or ’destroy,’ 1 Corinthians 6:13; 1 Corinthians 15:26; ’done away,’ 2 Corinthians 3:7-14; ’abolished,’ Ephesians 2:15; 2 Timothy 1:10. Professors Tholuck and Stuart, not perceiving how the doctrine of the Apostle establishes the authority of the law, understand law in this place as signifying the Old Testament. This entirely destroys the meaning and use of the passage. That the Old Testament teaches the same way of justification as that taught by the Apostles, is indeed a truth, an important truth, but not the truth here asserted. Mr. Stuart says, ’How gratuitous justification can be said to confirm or establish the moral law (as this text has been often explained), it seems difficult to make out.’ There is not here the smallest difficulty. It is quite obvious in what way gratuitous justification by Christ establishes Law. Can there be any greater respect shown to the law, than that when God determines to save men from its curse, He makes His own Son sustain its curse in their stead, and fulfill for them all its demands? When a surety pays all that is due by a debtor, the debtor receives a gratuitous discharge: but has the debt, or the law that enforces the debt, been on that account made void? Here, as well as in so many other parts of his exposition of this Epistle, we discover the unhappy effect of this commentator’s misunderstanding the meaning of the expression at its commencement, the righteousness of God. That he should feel the difficulty he states above, is not surprising, for, according to the view he gives of justification, the law of God is completely made void.
Dr. Macknight explains establishing law to be making it ’necessary in many respects.’ ’The Gospel,’ he says, in his view and illustration of Romans 1:16-17, ’teaches, that because all have sinned, and are incapable of perfect obedience, God hath appointed, for their salvation, a righteousness without law; that is, a righteousness which does not consist in perfect obedience to any law whatever, even the righteousness of faith, that being the only righteousness attainable by sinners; and at the same time declares that God will accept and reward that kind of righteousness through Christ, as if it were a perfect righteousness.’ Accordingly, in this interpretation of the 21st verse of chapter 3, he says: ’But now, under the Gospel, a righteousness appointed by God, as the means of the justification of sinners, without perfect obedience to law of any kind, is made known.’ In this manner, mistaking, like Professors Tholuck and Stuart, although in a different way, the import of the expression, ’the righteousness of God,’ he misunderstands the whole train of the Apostle’s reasoning, from the 17th verse of the first chapter to the end of the fifth chapter, as well as its object; in this discussion on justification, and by his explanation, altogether makes void the law. Instead of making it ’necessary in many respects,’ Dr. Macknight, as well as Dr. Stuart and Mr. Tholuck, by representing it as satisfied with an imperfect obedience, which does not meet the demands of any law, either human or Divine, makes it void in every respect. Such is the entire consistency among themselves of the doctrines of Scripture, that whenever any one of them is misunderstood, it invariably leads to the misunderstanding of the rest.
Many commentators, with more or less clearness, refer to the doctrine of sanctification, either in whole or in part, the Apostle’s denial that he makes void the law. According to them, it is not made void for this reason, because it convinces men of sin, and does not release from personal obedience to its precepts. That the doctrine of justification, by the imputation of Christs righteousness, does not release believers from obedience to the law, is a most important truth, which Paul fully establishes in the sixth chapter of this Epistle. On the contrary, it lays them under additional obligations to obey it, by furnishing additional motives to the love of God. But since their sanctification is always in this life imperfect, were there nothing else to meet the demands of the law, it would be made void — it would remain unfulfilled, both in its precept and penalty. In addition to this, the whole of the previous discussion regards the doctrine of justification, while not a word is said respecting sanctification. And it is evident that this verse is introduced to obviate an objection which might naturally present itself, namely, if man’s obedience, in order to his justification, be set aside, the law, which requires obedience, is made void.
But Paul appeals to his doctrine, and, according to his usual manner, strongly rejects such an inference. In the preceding verses, from the 20th, he had been announcing that the righteousness of God, which is the complete fulfillment of the law, is placed to the account of him who believes for his justification, whereby God, in thus justifying the sinner solely on the ground of a perfect obedience, shows Himself to be just. Do we then, he says, make void the law? This doctrine not only maintains the authority of the law of God, but also exhibits the fulfillment of all its demands. The connecting particle shows that Paul rests his proof on what had gone before, to which he appeals, and not on the ground of sanctification, to which he had been making no reference, and which, if he had referred to it, would not have borne out his assertion.
’Think not,’ said our blessed Lord, ’that I am come to destroy the law and the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’ It is to this fulfillment — to the righteousness of God, which in the context the Apostle had been illustrating, and which Jesus Christ brought in — that he here appeals. Do we make law void when we conclude that a man is justified by faith without doing the works of law, since we show that through his faith he receives a perfect righteousness, by which, in all its demands and all its sanction, it is fulfilled? No; it is in this very way we establish it. In this glorious establishment of the law of God, Paul, in another place, exults, when he counts all things but loss for the excellency of Christ, and desires to be found in Him, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. While he thus tramples on his own righteousness, by which the law never could be established, he confidently appeals to the righteousness of God, now made his by faith. This is precisely in accordance with his conclusion in the 28th verse, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of law; and afterwards, at the termination of his mortal career, in the immediate prospect of death, he triumphs in the consideration that there is laid up for him a crown of righteous — a crown, the reward of that perfect obedience by which the law is magnified and made honorable.
Robert Haldane On Romans
CHAPTER IV – Romans 4:1-25
THIS chapter beautifully connects with all that precedes it. In the first chapter the Apostle had announced that ’the righteousness of God’ was revealed in the Gospel, which is on that account the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. He had shown at great length that this way of salvation was necessary for man, proving by an appeal to fact, and then to Scripture, that both Jews and Gentiles were guilty before God, and that, consequently, no one could be justified by his own obedience. He had afterwards reverted to this righteousness which God had provided in His Son. In this fourth chapter he strikingly illustrates these truths, by first obviating the objection that might be offered by the Jews respecting their great progenitor Abraham, whose character they held in such veneration. This would lead them to suppose that he must be an exception to the Apostle’s doctrine, by furnishing an example of one justified by works. Having refuted this objection in the particular case of Abraham, and confirmed the truth of what he had advanced by the testimony of David, Paul makes use of the history of Abraham himself to prove what he had previously asserted, and to show that in the matter of justification before God there was no exception, and no difference between Jews and Gentiles. The chapter consists of four parts. In the first, the Apostle, by referring, as has just been observed, to the history of Abraham and the authority of David, illustrates his doctrine of justification by faith. Nothing could be so well calculated to convince both Jewish and Gentile believers, especially the former, how vain is the expectation of those who look for justification by their own works. Abraham was a patriarch eminently holy, the head of the nation of Israel, the friend of God, the father of all who believe, in whose seed all the nations of the world were to be blessed. David was a man according to God’s own heart, the progenitor of the Messiah, His great personal type, and a chosen and anointed king of Israel. If, then, Abraham had not been justified by his works, but by the righteousness of God imputed to him through faith, and David, speaking by the Spirit of God, had declared that the only way in which a man can receive justification is by his sin being covered by the imputation of that righteousness, who could suppose that it was to be obtained by any other means? By these two references, the Apostle likewise shows that the way of justification was the same from the beginning, both under the old and the new dispensation. This he had before intimated, in saying that both the law and the Prophets bore witness to the righteousness of God, which is now manifested, and which is upon all them that believe.
In the other three parts of this chapter, Paul shows, first, that circumcision, to which the Jews ascribed so much efficacy, contributed nothing to Abraham’s justification, and that the righteousness imputed to him was bestowed before his circumcision, with the express intention of proving that righteousness should be imputed to all who believe though they be not circumcised. In the next place, he proves that the promise of the inheritance made to Abraham was not through obedience to law, but through that righteousness which is received by faith; and that the whole plan of justification was arranged in this manner, in order that the blessing conveyed through faith by the free favor of God might be made sure to all the seed of Abraham, — that is, to ’the children of the promise,’ Romans 9:8, whether Jews or Gentiles. And, lastly Paul describes Abraham’s faith, and states the benefit resulting from its exhibition to believers, for whose sake chiefly his faith was recorded. It is particularly to be noticed that not a word is said respecting Abraham’s sanctification, although his whole history, after leaving his own country, furnishes so remarkable an example of a holy walk and conversation. All that is brought into view is his faith. It is thus shown that neither moral nor ceremonial, neither evangelical nor legal works, are of any account whatever in the act of justification, or contribute in any degree to procure that blessing. The whole of this chapter is particularly calculated to make a deep impression on the Jews; and no doubt the day is approaching, and probably near at hand, when they will read it with much interest, and derive from it signal benefit.
Romans 4:1 — What shall we then say that Abraham, our father as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
In the third chapter the Apostle had replied to the objections which might be offered to what he had before advanced respecting the Jews. First, it might be inquired if, as appeared from his doctrine, the Jew could not be saved by their distinguished privileges connected with the law, or by observing the rite of circumcision, what advantage did they possess over others, and what profit had they from circumcision? Second, on the supposition of their being transgressors, it was asked, if their sin was the means of condemning the righteousness of God, was it not unjust to punish them as sinners? Lastly, if all that had been said was true, what were they better than others? After obviating all these objections, and proving from the character of the Jews, and of all other men as delineated in the Scriptures, the impossibility of their justification by the works of law, Paul had exhibited the only way in which sinners could be justified before God, and had shown that it was effected in such a way that all boasting on the part of man is excluded. Another objection might now naturally present itself to the Jews in connection with the case of Abraham, who had received the ordinance of circumcision from God Himself, and whose eminent piety they held in such veneration. It might be asked what, according to the Apostle’s doctrine, could be said regarding him: what had he found, or obtained? Did not he obtain justification in these ways? Such is the objection which the Apostle introduces in this and the following verse, and answers fully in both its parts.
Abraham our father — In the course of this chapter Abraham is again and again denominated, in a spiritual sense, the father of all believers; but in this place, in which the argument from his circumcision and holy character refers chiefly to the Jews, to whom much of what is said in the preceding chapter relates, it appears that he is here spoken of as the natural progenitor of the Jewish nation. The expression our is therefore to be considered as referring to the Jews, with whom, as being a Jew, the Apostle here classes himself, and not to believers generally, whether Jews or Gentiles, as in other verses of this chapter. That it is thus to be understood does not appear, however, from the expression pertaining to the flesh, since it is not joined with that of father in the original. The order there is, ’Abraham our father hath found as pertaining to the flesh.’ As pertaining to the flesh — That is, by circumcision, of which the Apostle had spoken, chapter 2; or by any work or privilege, Philippians 3:4. The expression, to the flesh, should rather be translated by the flesh, as the word here translated as pertaining to, is rendered, chapter 2:7, and in many other passages. Circumcision especially was the token of the covenant which contained all the promises that God had made to Abraham, saying,’My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.’ Could it be supposed that this rite, so solemnly enjoined and collected with such privileges, and his other good works, had no procuring influence in Abraham’s justification? Such is the objection which it is supposed in this first verse would occur to the Jews, and is therefore stated by the Apostle, which he fully answers in the sequel.
Romans 4:2 — For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
The term ’works’ is here explanatory of the word flesh in the first verse, signifying any works, whether moral or ceremonial. If Abraham were justified on account of his works, as the Jews believed, it must be admitted that he had something to boast of, contrary to what the Apostle had just before declared, that all boasting on such grounds is excluded, whose doctrine, consequently, must be set aside. Than this, no objection that could be offered would appear to the Jews more forcible; it was therefore important to advert to it. Being, however, entirely groundless, the Apostle at once repels it, and replies to the question previously proposed, respecting circumcision, or any work or privilege, in that prompt and brief manner of which we see an example at the end of the 8th verse of the former chapter. He answers, But not before God. Abraham had no ground of boasting before God, not having been justified either by the observance of the rite of circumcision, or by any other work of obedience which he had performed; and this Paul fully proves in the sequel.
Romans 4:3 — For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was covered unto him for righteousness.
Having denied in the foregoing verse that Abraham was justified, or had any ground of boasting, either on account of his circumcision or his obedience, Paul next supports his denial by an appeal to Scripture, which was calculated to carry stronger conviction to the Jews than all things else he could have alleged. His proof is drawn from the historical records of the Old Testament, and thus he sets his seal to its complete verbal inspiration, quoting what is there recorded as the decision of God; yet some who profess to receive the Bible as the word of God, deny that portion of it to be inspired! His meaning, then, by the question, What saith the Scripture? is, that God Himself, by His own word, has decided this matter; for the fact is there declared that Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. This quotation is taken from Genesis 15:6, where the promise to Abraham is recorded that his seed should be innumerable as the stars of heaven, being the renewal of the promise, Genesis 12:2, when he was called out of his own country. It thus comprehended the truth announced to him at different times, that all the nations of the world should be blessed in his seed, that is, in the Messiah, Galatians 3:16. That promise referred to the one made to our first parents after the fall, in which was included the hope of redemption to be accomplished by the Deliverer of mankind, who was to spring from him, as God declared to Abraham.
The above passage, then, according to Paul, proves that the righteousness of God is received by faith, and is an example of the testimony that is rendered to it by the law. It refutes the opinion of those who, misunderstanding the manner in which the Apostle James expresses himself, affirm that a man is first justified only by faith, but afterwards by works which flow from faith.
And it was counted to him for righteousness, rather, unto righteousness. — It is not instead of righteousness, as this translation for righteousness has led many to suppose. By faith a man becomes truly righteous. Faith is the recipient of that righteousness by which we are justified. Unto righteousness is the literal rendering, as the same word in the original is so often translated in this discussion, as where it is said, chapter 1:16, the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation; and chapter 3:22, even the righteousness of God which is unto all; and so in innumerable other places, but especially in a passage precisely parallel to the one before us, chapter 10:10, ’For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.’ This is the signification of the phrase in the verse before us, which ought to have been translated in the same way. The expression ’unto righteousness’ is elliptical, and signifies unto the receiving of righteousness. In the different French translations, the meaning of the original is properly expressed Justice;’ that is, to, or unto righteousness; and in the same way in the Vulgate, ’ad justitiam,’ to righteousness; and in this meaning is fixed down definitely by the verses immediately succeeding, where the Apostle introduces a passage from the Psalms in illustration of the manner in which Abraham and his spiritual seed are justified.
That faith is not itself the justifying righteousness, is demonstrably evident from the phraseology of many passages that speak of faith and righteousness in the same place. ’Even the righteousness of God, which isby faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe.’ Here righteousness is supposed to be one thing, and faith to be another. Can language more expressly show that righteousness and faith are two different things, for two different purposes, though always found united in the same persons, and both equally necessary? Righteousness is what we want in order to justification; faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as testified in the Gospel, is the means through which we receive this righteousness. Believing, then, is not the righteousness, but it is the means through which we become righteous. In like manner, in Romans 10:10, above quoted, the Apostle says, ’For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.’ Here it is necessarily implied that faith is not righteousness, but that it in the means through which we receive righteousness. Nothing, then, can be a greater corruption of the truth than to represent faith itself as accepted instead of righteousness, or to be the righteousness that saves the sinner. Faith is not righteousness. Righteousness is the fulfilling of the law.This verse, connected with the following, proves, like the 28th verse of the foregoing chapter, that faith is opposed to works, and not considered as a work in the matter of justification. Yet many speak of the excellence of Abraham’s faith in such a way as to represent the patriarch to be saved by faith as a work — as the most excellent of all works. Mr. Tholuck advances many observations on this subject that are altogether unscriptural, discovering most erroneous views of the Gospel. He quotes various passages from Philo Judaeus, which he calls ’beautiful,’ in which Philo extols faith as ’the queen of virtues,’ ’the price of every blessing;’ and adds, ’and well is it said that faith was counted to him (Abraham) for righteousness.’ Here Philo exhibits faith as the righteousness by which Abraham was justified — the price of that blessing. Mr. Tholuck says, ’Dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) denotes here subjective holiness. God looked upon Abraham’s childlike submission as if it were real holiness, and attached value to it alone.’ A greater perversion of Scripture, or a sentiment more directly opposed to the meaning of the passage and to all the Apostle is proving in the context, and has been laboring to prove throughout the whole of his previous discussion from the 16th verse of the first chapter, as well as subversive of the grand doctrine of justification, cannot be imagined. If Abraham was justified by faith as a ’price,’ or ’as righteousness,’ — an expression which Mr. Tholuck employs again and again, — then he was justified by faith as a work, ’as if it were real holiness,’ and God is thus represented as attaching a value to faith which does not belong to it! In opposition to such unscriptural and fallacious statements, which at once make void the law and the Gospel, we are here taught that Abraham was not justified by faith, either as a price, or as a virtue, or as if it were really righteousness, but as the appointed medium of receiving righteousness, even the righteousness of God. This fundamental error of Mr. Tholuck and Mr. Stuart, and long ago of Socinus, that faith, although it is really not righteousness, is reckoned by God as righteousness, is most dishonorable to the character of God, and derogatory to His holy law. That law, which is a transcript of His own unchangeable nature, can acknowledge nothing as its fulfillment but perfect conformity to all its requirements. Nor did the Gospel come to pour dishonor upon it by modifying its demands, or to substitute another law for it, making faith meritorious. And besides, the nature of faith will not admit of this, for it excludes boasting. It implies a fleeing out of one’s self, and our own performances, — it consists in looking to another as the bestower of eternal salvation.
Dr. Macknight has a long note on this verse, which is also directly opposed to the Apostle’s doctrine of justification. ’In judging Abraham,’ he says, ’God will place on the one side of the account his duties, and on the other his performances. And on the side of his performances he will place his faith, and by mere favor will value it as equal to a complete performance of his duties, and reward him as if he were a righteous person. But neither here, nor in Galatians 3:6, is it said that Christ’s righteousness was counted to Abraham. In both passages the expression is, Abraham believed God, and it, viz., his believing God, was counted to him for righteousness. — Further, as it is nowhere said in Scripture that Christ’s righteousness was imputed to Abraham, so neither is it said anywhere that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers.’ These statements, affirming that God, in judging Abraham, will place on the one side of the account his duties, and on the other his performances, and by mere favor will value faith as equal to a complete performance of his duties, argue most deplorable ignorance of the whole plan of salvation. The assertion, that it is nowhere said in Scripture that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers, is directly contrary to fact. It is contradicted by the whole strain of Scripture relating to the subject, and expressly by the Apostle Peter, in his address to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:1. (This is the literal rendering.) And also by the Prophet Jeremiah 23:6, by whom Jesus Christ is called the Lord our righteousness. But by such groundless assertions does Dr. Macknight misrepresent the character of God, and labors to banish from the Bible the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, without which, consistently with the perfections of God and the demands of the law, there could be no salvation. He misunderstands, too, the meaning of the expression, for righteousness.
Romans 4:4 — Now to him that worketh in the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Some understand this as implying working perfectly — doing all that a man is bound to do. But this is contrary to the meaning: it applies to work of any kind, and excludes all working of every kind or degree. No reward can be said to be of grace that is given for work of any description. Abraham did not obtain righteousness by faith as a good disposition, or by counting that disposition above its value. Had Abraham been justified by faith as an act or disposition worthy of approbation, or by anything whatsoever that he had done, he would have been justified by works, and might have boasted.
Romans 4:5 — But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
But to him that worketh not — This is entirely misunderstood by Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart, as if it meant, according to Dr. Macknight, ’one who does not work all that he is bound to do;’ or according to Mr. Stuart, ’the sinner who has not exhibited perfect obedience.’ It means, however, what it literally expresses, namely, that the person who is justified does not work at all for his justification. It is not that he does not perform all the works that he ought, but that for justification he does nothing. It is true that he works, but not for justification. Mr. Tholuck, who likewise misunderstands in this place the whole of the Apostle’s argument, seems to think that the case of Abraham is only an analogy, and not an example of justification by faith. But Abraham’s faith respected the Messiah, whose day he saw afar off, and by His righteousness he was justified. Justifieth the ungodly — If the expression, ’to him that worketh not,’ needed any explanation, this term — the ungodly — would place its meaning beyond all doubt. The term ungodly is applied throughout the Scriptures to wicked men, Romans 5:6; 1 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 4:18; 2 Peter 2:5; 2 Peter 3:7; Judges 1:4; Judges 1:15. Men are ungodly in themselves, though, as soon as they are justified, they cease to be ungodly. They are ungodly till they believe; but in the moment that they receive the gift of faith, they are thereby united to the Savior, and are instantly invested with the robe of righteousness, and also partake, according to the measure of their faith, of all those other graces that are received out of His fullness. They then pass from death to life, — a transition in which there is no medium; they are turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; for till then, being without Christ, they are the children of the devil. They cannot at the same time be both dead and alive — under the power of God, and under the power of the devil; they must in every instant of their existence be either under the one or the other. In that moment, then, in which they believe, they are justified; and to justify, signifies not to treat men as if they were just or righteous, though they are not so, but because they are in truth righteous by imputation, really righteous, the law having been fulfilled in them, chapter 8:4. In this Professors Tholuck and Stuart most grossly err. To justify, with them, is not to acquit as being perfectly righteous, but to hold men to be righteous when they are not righteous. The expression, justifieth the ungodly, Dr. Macknight says, ’does not imply that Abraham was an ungodly person when he was justified; the Apostle’s meaning is, justifieth Him who had been ungodly.’ This is making, not explaining Scripture. It entirely sets aside the Apostle’s declaration.
It is much to be regretted that it should be necessary to introduce the name of Mr. Scott in connection with such writers as Macknight, Stuart, and Tholuck. As an expositor of Scripture, he deserves to be spoken of in terms very different from any of them; but an impartial regard for the interest of truth requires that his very erroneous remarks on the passage last referred to should not pass unnoticed. Mr. Scott’s note, in his Commentary on this expression, ’justifieth the ungodly,’ is incorrect, and his ideas on the subject are confused, Contrary to the Apostle, he asserts that a man is not ’absolutely ungodly at the time of his justification.’ It is true, as has been observed, that the moment a man is justified, he is godly; but the question is, if he be godly or ungodly in the moment which precedes his justification? If he be godly before, then the words of the Apostle are false; and the contrary, that God justifies the godly, would be true. But Mr. Scott’s views on this point are very erroneous, as appears from his remarks on Cornelius, in his note preceding the verse before us. He says, ’Even the proposition, Good works are the fruits of faith, and follow after faith, in Christ, though a general truth, may admit of some exception, in such cases as that of Cornelius.’ This contradicts the 12th and 13th articles of his church, to which he appears to refer; but what is of more consequence, his statement explicitly contradicts the whole tenor of the Holy Scriptures, and of the plan of redemption. The case of Cornelius forms no exception, nor does it contain even the shadow of an exception to the truth declared in the verse we are considering. Mr. Scott closes his note on Acts 10:1-2, by remarking, ’Perhaps these observations may assist the reader in understanding this instructing chapter, which cannot easily be made to accord with the exactness of systematically writers on these subjects.’ Now there is not the smallest difficulty in showing that all which that chapter contains is in exact accordance with every other part of Scripture.
Mr. Scott, after some further remarks on the justification of the ungodly, says, ’Nay, the justified believer, whatever his holiness or diligence may be, never works for this purpose, and he still comes before God as ungodly in this respect.’ This is incorrect. He always comes as a sinner; that is, as one who is daily, hourly, and every moment sinning. And when he comes so, he comes as he is; for this is truth. But he is not ungodly after he believes, which is a character belonging only to the enemies of God. The Christian, then, cannot in any respect come in such a character, for he cannot come in a character that is no longer his. There is an essential difference between coming to God as a sinner, and coming to Him as ungodly. ’Abraham,’ Mr. Scott subjoins, ’several years before, by faith obeyed the call and command of God, and therefore could not be, strictly speaking, altogether ungodly, when it was said, "He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness;" so that the example of Abraham alone is a full and clear refutation of the construction by some put upon this text, that men are altogether and in every sense ungodly and unregenerate at the time when God justifies them, — a sentiment of most dangerous tendency.’ The assertion of the Apostle is, that God justifies the ungodly, which can have no other meaning than that men are ungodly in the moment that precedes their justification. It is truly astonishing that the example of Abraham should be referred to as a full and clear refutation of the plain and obvious construction of this assertion of the Apostle, which it never can be of dangerous tendency implicitly to believe. The danger lies in not receiving it, and in raising difficulties and objections which obscure and neutralize a declaration, the meaning of which is so clear and manifest. This must always have the effect, as in the case before us, of leading into most palpable error, inconsistency, and misrepresentation of the Divine testimony. If Abraham was godly before the time when it was recorded that he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, he was also a believer before that time, and justified before that time, although his justification was then first recorded. The limitations, therefore, ’strictly speaking,’ and ’altogether ungodly,’ which Mr. Scott introduces, are entirely misplaced. He was not ungodly at all. To intimate, as Mr. Scott does, that Abraham was not a justified believer till the period when it is recorded that his faith was counted to him for righteousness, is to say that a man may exercise strong faith, and obey God, and walk in communion with Him, long before he is justified, which is to overturn the doctrine of justification. But no such confusion and discrepancies are to be found in the Scriptures. When, in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, the Apostle illustrates his declaration in the end of the tenth chapter, that the just shall live by faith, he affirms that ’By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place, which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed.’ If, then, faith justifies, as the Apostle is there showing, Abraham was justified by faith when he ’departed as the Lord had spoken to him,’ Genesis 12:4, many years before the time of the declaration recorded in Genesis 15:6. On the whole, there is not a spark of godliness in any man before he is united to Christ;and the moment he is united to Him, he is for ever justified.
In the 4th and 5th verses before us, the distinction between receiving a reward for works, and receiving it through faith, is clearly established. In the first case, a man receives what is due to him as his wages; in the second, all comes in the way of favor. Here also faith and works are directly opposed to each other. To preserve the doctrine of these verses from abuse, it is only necessary to recollect that works are denied as having anything to do in justification, but that they are absolutely necessary in the life of the believer ’Works,’ says Luther, ’are not taken into consideration when the question respects justification. But true faith will no more fail to produce them than the sun can cease to give light. But it is not on account of works that God justifies us.’ ’We offer nothing to God,’ says Calvin; ’but we are prevented by His grace altogether free, without His having any respect to our works.’
Men are prone to magnify one part of the Divine counsel, by disparaging or denying another, which to their wisdom appears to stand in opposition to it. Some speak of faith in such a manner as to disparage works; others are so zealous for works as to disparage faith; while some, in order to honor both, confound them together. The Apostle Paul gives every truth its proper value and its proper place. In this Epistle he establishes the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and speaks not of the fruits of faith till the fifth chapter. But these fruits he shows to be the necessary result of that faith which justifies.
Romans 4:6 — Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
As the blessing of the pardon of sin cannot be separated from our being viewed as perfectly righteous in the sight of God, Paul further confirms his doctrine by a reference to the 32nd Psalm, which gives the meaning of David’s words. In this manner one part of Scripture is employed to open and explain what is said in another part. Imputeth. — The same word in the original, which in verses 3, 4, 5, is rendered counted or reckoned, is here rendered imputed. All of them bear the same meaning, of placing to the believer’s account the righteousness of Jesus Christ, called in chapter 5:19 His ’obedience.’ ’Here we see,’ says Calvin, ’the mere cavil of those who limit the works of the law within ceremonial rites, since what before were denominated works of the law are now called works simply, and without an adjunct. The simple and unrestricted language occurring in this passage, which all readers must understand as applying indifferently to every kind of work, must forever conclude the whole of this dispute. For nothing is more inconsistent than to deprive ceremonies alone of the power of justifying, when Paul excludes works indefinitely.’
The expression ’imputeth righteousness without works,’ is important, as it clearly ascertains that the phrase ’for righteousness, literally unto righteousness, signifies unto the receiving of righteousness. It signifies receiving righteousness itself, not a substitute for righteousness, nor a thing of less value than righteousness, which is accounted or accepted as righteousness. In Dr. Macknight’s note, however, on verse 3rd, already quoted, where he is laboring to prove that faith is counted FOR righteousness, or, according to Mr. Stuart and Mr. Tholuck, AS righteousness, he affirms, as has been observed, that God values faith as equal to complete performance of duty, and that it is nowhere said in Scripture that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers. The verse before us contains no explicit refutation of these unscriptural statements, which subvert not only the whole of the apostle’s reasoning on the doctrine of justification, but the whole doctrine of salvation. The righteousness here said to be imputed is that righteousness to which Paul had all along been referring, even the righteousness of God on account of the revelation of which the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and which, as has been noticed above, is by the Apostle Peter called the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, in which believers have obtained precious faith. That the apostle refers in the verse before us to this righteousness which fulfills the law, is evident, if we look back to what he says in the 21st verse of the preceding chapter, and to what he continues to say respecting it onwards to this 6th verse, and to the effect he here ascribes to it. If any one can suppose that all this is insufficient to settle the question, I shall produce an argument which is unanswerable, and which all the ingenuity of man is unable to gainsay It must be the righteousness of God (or the righteousness of Christ, which is the same) that is here spoken of BECAUSE THERE IS NO OTHER RIGHTEOUSNESS ON EARTH.
To say with the above writers, that the God of truth values anything ’as equal to the complete performance of duty,’ which is not so in reality, is to give a most unworthy, not to say a blasphemous, representation of His character. Far different are the following sentiments of Dr. Owen in his treatise On Justification. ’The sinner is not accepted as if he were righteous, but because in Christ Jesus he is so. The majesty of the law is not sacrificed; its requirements are fulfilled in their exceeding breadth; its penalty is endured in all its awfulness. And thus, from the meeting of mercy and loving-kindness with justice and judgment, there shines a most excellent glory, of which the full demonstration to men, and angels, and all the rational creatures of God, shall fill up the cycles of eternity.’ Mr. Stuart comes far short of the truth when he represents the Apostle as here confirming his doctrine by the case of David, as a second example or single instance. David is appealed to by Paul, not in respect to his own justification, but as to the doctrine which he taught with respect to this subject in one of his Psalms, where he speaks as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. He is here teaching how all are justified, who ever were, or ever shall be justified. It is, then, much more than a second example. It is the declaration of God himself, who spoke by the mouth of His servant David, Acts 4:25. The effect of Mr. Stuart’s misunderstanding the expression, ’the righteousness of God,’ chapter 1:17, and 3:21, and ascribing to it the signification of ’the justification which God bestows,’ is, in his explanation of the verse before us, as in so many other places, abundantly evident. Although compelled here to attach to the original word its proper meaning of righteousness, instead of ’justification,’ the vagueness of the meaning he had, as above, so erroneously ascribed to it, leaves an opening for explaining it to be a fictitious righteousness belonging to faith itself, instead of a real righteousness, namely, the righteousness of Christ received by faith. ’Here,’ he says, ’and elsewhere in this chapter, where the same phraseology occurs, it is evident that the word is not to be understood in the sense of justification, which is the most common meaning of it in our Epistle.’ So far from this being its most common meaning, it is not even once its meaning out of no fewer than thirty-six times in which it occurs in this Epistle.
Mr. Stuart’s views on the all-important subject of justification, are not only completely erroneous and unscriptural, but such as they are, he holds them in a manner so confused and indistinct, that he alternately asserts and contradicts what he has advanced. He one while speaks of faith as ’not of itself such an act of obedience to the Divine law, as that it will supply the place of perfect obedience.’ ’Nor has it,’ he adds, ’any efficacy in itself, as a meritum ex condigno to save men; it is merely the instrument of union to Christ, in order that they may receive a gratuitous salvation,’ p. 176. At other times, he speaks as if faith were accepted at a rate much above its value, and that the justification of a sinner is gratuitous because of such acceptance. ’Their faith,’ he says, ’was gratuitously reckoned as equivalent to the dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) demanded by the law.’ Here faith itself is made the ground of justification, and taken at a value far above its intrinsic worth. But faith is in no point of view equivalent to the obedience the law requires. It is Christ’s obedience that is taken as an equivalent to an obedience to the law; and for the best of all reasons, because it is an equivalent. The value of faith is, that by the Divine appointment it is the medium of union with Christ. If it be true that faith is ’merely’ an instrument of union to Christ, in order that we may receive a gratuitous salvation, as, in one of these passages, Mr. Stuart asserts, how is it that faith was gratuitously reckoned as equivalent to the righteousness demanded by the law? If faith be accepted as an equivalent to righteousness, then it cannot be merely the medium of connecting us with Christ. He observes, p. 177, ’To say, was counted (namely, their faith) for justification, would make no tolerable sense; but to say, was counted as complete obedience, would be saying just what the Apostle means to say, viz., that the believer is gratuitously justified.’ And again, he affirms that faith ’is counted as righteousness,’ p. 172. Here and in other places the imputation of Christ’s righteousness for the justification of a sinner is excluded by Mr. Stuart, as it is by Dr. Macknight. Mr. Stuart’s self-contradictions, contained in his Commentary, are noticed in the following term sin the American theological magazine, called The Biblical Repertory, of July 1833, where it is reviewed. ’Respected sir, you admit what you deny, and deny what you admit, in such rapid succession, your readers are bewildered.’
According, then, to these statements, righteousness, that is, the righteousness of Christ, which does indeed fulfill the demands of the law, is not imputed to the believer for justification — although this is explicitly asserted in the text, when it is said, ’God imputeth righteousness,’ for on earth, as has been observed there is no other righteousness — while faith, which does not fulfill so much as one of its demands, is reckoned as equivalent to all its demands; and besides, righteousness is thus counted to a man as belonging to him, which ’in reality does not belong to him.’ And this, we are told by Mr. Stuart, is ’just what the Apostle means to say.’ Paul affirms that God is just when He justifies him that believeth. But, according to Mr. Stuart, in thus representing God as counting for a reality what is a mere figment, and counting ’something’ to a man ’which does not belong to him,’ not a trace of anything that has even the semblance of justice in a sinner’s justification is left. And on these grounds, salvation is asserted by him to be ’gratuitous!’
Mr. Stuart considers that the mercy of God, for Christ’s sake, accepts believers as just, while they are not so in reality. This overturns the Gospel and the justice of the Divine character. It destroys both law and Gospel. If a man is not truly just, God cannot account him just, nor treat him as just. Why cannot Mr. Stuart see believers perfectly just in Jesus Christ, their head and substitute? But this is what might be expected from one who cannot see the human race guilty in Adam. It is quite natural, then, that he should not see believers righteous in Christ. According to Mr. Stuart, God is not a just God in saving sinners, for He acquits as just those whom He knows to be unjust. He represents God as an unjust God in punishing the innocent, for He visits with suffering and death infants, who are supposed innocent of Adam’s sin.
According to the doctrine of the Apostle, when a sinner is justified, it is by the imputation of righteousness — not a fictitious, but a real righteousness. The believer, in his union with Christ, is viewed as perfectly righteous, because in truth he is so, for the righteousness of God is ’upon him,’ chapter 3:22; Jehovah is his righteousness, Jeremiah 23:6. God is therefore just in justifying him; and in the day of judgment the Great Judge will pronounce him ’righteous,’ Matthew 25:37-46, and award to him ’a crowd of righteousness,’ according to the strictest justice. The gift of this righteousness, with the justification it brings along with it, is indeed perfectly gratuitous, and the manner of bestowing it is gratuitous — freely by grace; but ’grace reigns through righteousness,’ Romans 5:21, — in that way which meets every demand of law and justice. This last is a most important declaration, with which the Apostle closes his discussion on the doctrine of justification; but important as it is, Mr. Stuart has altogether mistaken its meaning, and misrepresented it in the same way as he has misrepresented the corresponding expression at the opening of this discussion, chapter 1:17. Had he understood it, he would not have perverted the Apostle’s reasoning as he has done, and propounded sentiments respecting the all-important doctrine of justification which annihilate the glory of that redemption in which righteousness and peace have kissed each other, — sentiments which compromise the justice, and dishonor the character of God.
’Faith,’ says Mr. Bell, in his View of the Covenants, p. 226, ’rests upon Christ alone It in effect excludes itself as a work in the matter of justification. It is not a thing upon which a sinner rests; it is his resting on the Surety. Therefore, that man who would bring in his faith as a part of his justifying righteousness before God, thereby proves that he has no faith in Jesus Christ. He comes as with a lie in his right hand; for such is the absurdity, that he trusts in the act of faith, not in its object, — i.e., he believes in his faith, not in Jesus Christ. Having taken Christ, as he pretends, he would have that very act whereby he received Him sustained at the Divine tribunal as his righteousness. Thus Christ is bid to stand at a distance, and the sinner’s own act is by himself bid to come near in the case of justification. This is nothing else but works under another name. It is not faith, for that necessarily establishes grace.’
Romans 4:7 — Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
This verse, in connection with the preceding, shows that sins are not forgiven, except in a way in which righteousness is imputed. Anciently, the high priest was appointed to bless the people, Numbers 6:24, as the type of Jesus Christ, who, as the Great High Priest, imparts a real blessedness. ’Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.’ In Him it was promised that all nations should be blessed. When about to ascend into heaven, He lifted up His hands and blessed His disciples; and at the last day He will, from the throne of His glory, pronounce all His people the blessed of His Father. On that day, and not till then, shall any of them be able fully to comprehend all that is implied in this term in the verse before us.
Blessed are they — ’Blessed is he’ (the man), says David ’whose transgression is forgiven.’ David speaks of one person, but Paul speaks of many. This alteration which the Apostle makes should not be overlooked. The work of redemption being now finished, the Apostle is commissioned by the Holy Ghost, who dictated the words, thus to include for their encouragement the whole mystical body of Christ, — all that are His, whether Jews or Gentiles. Covered — This appears to be in allusion to the mercy-seat, which covered the law. Sins must be covered before they can be forgiven. There must be a way in which this is done according to justice. This way is by the blood of Christ; and he that is dead with Him is justified from sin, Romans 6:7. His sins are for ever covered, as being cast into the depths of the sea, Micah 7:19. They are blotted out with the, Savior’s blood. ’I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins,’ Isaiah 43:25. He is saved from the guilt of sin immediately on his believing. The righteousness of the Savior being imputed to the sinner, none of his own unrighteousness can attach to him; the imputation of both cannot take place. There is a full remission of his past sins, and none which he shall afterwards commit shall be judicially laid to his charge, Romans 8:33. Being stripped of the filthy garments, and clothed with a change of raiment, Zechariah 3:4, as certain as God is unchangeable, it shall never be taken off him. ’He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,’ Isaiah 61:10. ’I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,’ Jeremiah 31:34. ’As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us, Psalms 103:12. ’Wearied at length,’ says Luther, ’with your own righteousness, rejoice and confide in the righteousness of Christ. Learn, my dear brother, to know Christ, and Christ crucified, and learn to despair of thyself and to the Lord this song: — Lord Jesus! Thou art my righteousness, but I am Thy sin. Thou hast taken what belonged to me; Thou hast given me what was Thine. Thou becamest what Thou wert not in order that I was not myself.’
Romans 4:8 — Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Righteousness is imputed when sin is not imputed, for we here see that the man to whom sin is not imputed is blessed. As Jesus was accursed, Galatians 3:13, when the sins of His people were imputed to Him, so they are blessed when His righteousness is imputed to them. Justification, or the judgment of God by which He renders us ’blessed,’ consists of two acts, by one of which He pardons our sins, by the other He gives us the kingdom. This appears in the sequel of this chapter, where we see that the justification of Abraham includes the promise of making him heir of the world, Verse 13; and this truth the Apostle establishes not only in the person of Abraham, but also extends it to all the people of God, Verse 16. In the eighth chapter of this Epistle, where Paul joins together the Divine calling and justification, he also connects justification and glorification. Afterwards he adds, ’What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things’ The expression, Romans 4 :marks the effect of justification. It is not said, God is not against us, as should be said if justification was only the pardon of sin; but God is for us, — which signifies that He not only pardons but blesses us, giving us a right to the kingdom. He not only delivers us from being children of wrath, but adopts us into His family, and makes us His own children. When He discharges us from the pains of the second death, He destines us to the glory of heaven. The words that follow, respecting the delivering up of His Son, and freely giving us all things, clearly import these two great acts of pardon and blessing. The same is also declared by the Prophet Malachi 3:17, ’And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son.’ Justification, then, corresponds to the righteousness of God, by the imputation of which it is received. By that righteousness the penalty of the law is fulfilled, which secures the pardon of sin, and also the precept on account of which the inheritance is awarded.
Romans 4:9 — Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
The Apostle having fully established the truth, that a man is justified by faith without works, now reverts to the allusion made to circumcision at the beginning of this chapter, in demanding what Abraham had obtained as pertaining to the flesh. He now shows, in the most decisive manner, that Abraham had not obtained justification by means of circumcision, since he was justified before he was circumcised. And, proceeding to prove what he had affirmed, Romans 3:30, that justification is not confined to the Jews, he asks if the blessedness he had spoken of comes only to those who are circumcised, or to the uncircumcised also. It was the more necessary to decide this question, because the Jews not only believed that justification depended, at least in part, on their works, but that the privileges of the people of God were inseparably connected with circumcision. In the sequel Paul shows that justification has no necessary connection with, or dependence on, circumcision. For we say — This is not the language of an objector, as Mr. Stuart supposes; it is the position which the Apostle lays down for the purpose of establishing his conclusion. The fact that faith was counted to Abraham unto righteousness, is the groundwork on which he builds.
Romans 4:10 — How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
How was it? or in what circ*mstances was righteousness counted to him? — This question, with the affirmation which follows, determines that Abraham’s justification by faith was previous to circumcision, and therefore circumcision could not be its cause. If righteousness was imputed to him before he was circumcised, then circumcision is not necessary to justification. It may come on Gentiles as well as on Jews. This is founded on the history of Abraham, recorded in the Old Testament, who was in a state of justification before Ishmael’s birth, many years antecedent to the appointment of circumcision.
Romans 4:11 — And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.
If, then, Abraham was justified in uncircumcision, for what purpose, it might be asked, was he circumcised? It is replied, that he received circumcision, which was appointed as a figure or sign of his paternity, literally with respect to a numerous seed, and spiritually of all believers. It intimated that He in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, was to spring from Abraham. This blessedness is described by David as consisting, in the imputation of righteousness without works. But this was not all: circumcision was not only a sign, but a seal of that righteousness which was imputed to Abraham through faith while he was uncircumcised.
This does not mean, as is generally understood, that it was a seal of Abraham’s faith. This is not said. It is said that it was a seal of the ’righteousness’ of the faith which he had; that is, a seal of that righteousness itself, namely, the righteousness of God, which he had received by his faith. It was a seal, assurance, or pledge that the righteousness, by the imputation of which, through his faith, he was justified, although not then in existence, should in its appointed period be brought in. Circumcision, then, being such a seal or pledge, and as the appointment of Abraham as the father of Christ, by whom this righteousness was to be introduced, included his being the father of the line from which Christ was to spring, it was to be affixed to his posterity, and not to cease to be so till the thing signified was accomplished. Here, it would appear, we learn the reason why this seal was to be affixed on the eighth day after birth. On the eighth day, the first day of the week, when Jesus, the seed of Abraham, arose from the dead, that righteousness, of which circumcision was a seal or pledge, was accomplished. In reference to this, and to the change respecting the Sabbath from the seventh to the eighth day, in consequence of His resurrection, when our Lord brought in the everlasting righteousness, and entered into His rest, the eighth day is in many ways distinguished throughout the Old Testament. That he might be the father, etc. — In order to his being the father. This, mark, then, was a sign of Abraham’s being the father of all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, to all of whom this righteousness was to be imputed. As it was a seal of the righteousness which he had received by the faith which he had in a state of uncircumcision, it implied that righteousness would be imputed to believers in the same state.
Romans 4:12 — And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but unto also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised.
This implies that there is a sense in which Abraham is a father of some of his descendants, in which he is not a father to others. To those of them who walk in the steps of his faith, he is a spiritual father. While all Abraham’s children were circumcised, he was not equally the father of them all. It was only to such of them as had his faith that he was a father in what is spiritually represented by circumcision. As it is said, ’They are not all Israel which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called; that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed,’ Romans 9:6. This is also established by our Lord Himself, who denied that the unbelieving Jews were the children of Abraham, John 8:39. He was, however, not only the father of his believing children, who were circumcised, but of all, in every nation, who walk in the steps of his faith. Believing Gentiles are therefore said to be grafted, contrary to nature, into a good olive tree, Romans 11:24; and to be Abraham’s seed, Galatians 3:29.
Romans 4:13 — For the promise, that he should be the heir of the word, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Paul here continues to prove that the blessing of justification is received through faith, and not in any other way. Heir of the world — The promise to Abraham included three things, —
1.That the promised seed of the woman should descend from him;
2.That all nations should be blessed in that seed;
3.That, as a pledge of all this, he and his seed should inherit the land of Canaan. ’And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.’ Canaan, however, was but an emblem of the heavenly country, of which last only Abraham could have an everlasting possession; for he was a stranger on the earth, and Canaan was to him ’a strange country,’ Hebrews 11:9.
This he understood it to be, and accordingly to the former he looked forward as what was substantially promised, Hebrews 11:13; Hebrews 11:16. This was ’that world,’ as it is designated by our Lord, Luke 20:35, — a possession so often called an inheritance, Hebrews 9:15; 1 Peter 1:4, of which not only Abraham, but also his spiritual posterity, were constituted heirs. They were to inherit all things, Revelation 21:7; and although the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain, yet all things are theirs, 1 Corinthians 3:21-23. Abraham, however, being the father or first heir according to that promise, he might properly, by way of distinction, be called ’the heir,’ and on the same ground, the father of many nations, being the father of all God’s people; as is likewise promised in the covenant, which is so often referred to in this chapter.
The expression ’heir’ has a manifest relation to the title of children, which is given to the people of God in their adoption. It is on this account that Paul joins them together, — ’If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ,’ Romans 8:17; by which he teaches that they have not only a right to the good things that God confers, but that they have right in virtue of their adoption, and not of their works. The birthright of a child, which gives him a right to the good things of his father, and distinguishes him from those who may gain them by their services, resembles the privilege conferred by the free and gratuitous adoption of God of His children. In conferring the right in this way, every pretension to merit is excluded; and as God, in the law, had rendered inheritances inalienable, such also is the inviolable stability of the inheritance which God confers. The grandeur of this inheritance is represented in Scripture by the appellations of a kingdom, Luke 12:32; of a crown, 2 Timothy 4:8; and of a throne, Revelation 3:21.
Or to his seed — The covenant, in all its promises, and in its fullest extent, in reference to spiritual blessings, was established in Christ, who was emphatically and eminently Abraham’s seed, Galatians 3:16; and in Him,with all His members, who are the spiritual seed of Abraham, of whom the natural seed were typical, as the land of Canaan was typical of the heavenly inheritance. The promise to the seed was, that all nations should be blessed in Him, and this promise was made to Abraham also, as it implied that the Messiah was to be Abraham’s seed. The promise to Christ included all the children that God had given Him, who are in Him, and one with Him. These are all ’joint heirs with Jesus Christ,’ Romans 8:17.
Many are spoken of before Abraham as the children of God; but we do not read that the first promise respecting the seed, Genesis 3, was repeated to any of them. Though, in the time of Enos, men began to call themselves by the name of the Lord; though Enoch walked with God; though Noah was an heir of the righteousness which is by faith; though Jehovah was the God of Shem — it is not said that the promise of the seed was renewed to them. But to Abraham it was expressly renewed; and hence we see the reason why he is so frequently alluded to in the New Testament, and spoken of as the father of believers.
Through the law — Literally through law without the article. The Apostle had shown above that the blessing of righteousness came upon Abraham before he was circumcised, and here he shows that the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not made to him on account of any works of law, but through the righteousness received by faith. In this way Paul follows out his argument in proof that justification and the blessings connected with it were not the consequence either of circumcision or of personal obedience, but were received through faith
.
But through the righteousness of faith — The righteousness of faith is an elliptical expression, meaning the righteousness which is received by faith. This is the only way in which the promise, in order to prove effectual, could be given. ’If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law; but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.’ It was therefore to receive its accomplishment only by virtue of, and through the communication of, the righteousness received by faith. This is that righteousness which was counted or imputed to Abraham, when, upon the promise being made to him of a numerous seed, he believed in the Lord, Genesis 15:6. The inheritance comes solely in virtue of this righteousness to those who by it are ’made righteous.’ ’They shall be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified,’ Isaiah 61:3. ’Thy people shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever,’ Isaiah 60:21.
Romans 4:14-15. — For if they which are of law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: for the law worketh wrath: for where no law is there is no transgression.
When it is said, ’If they which are of law,’ that is, who by obeying the law of God be heirs, the case is supposed, as in chapter 2:13, 26, 27, though not admitted, which would be contrary to the whole train of the Apostle’s argument. If, however, possession of the inheritance come by obedience to law, then the obtaining it by faith is set aside, and consequently, as by works of law no man can be justified, the promise is made of none effect. This is entirely consistent with all the Apostle had said before respecting the manner in which the blessedness of Abraham had come upon him, solely by the imputation of righteousness received by faith, irrespective of any works of his. For the law worketh wrath — It is indeed the nature of every law to afford opportunity of transgression. But this does not make it work wrath. It is law which is transgressed that works wrath. The Apostle had shown that by obedience to law no man can be justified, since all men are transgressors, and that the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness; and this is what here he again declares. Such is the state of human nature, that the law of God, which all men transgress, so far from justifying them, can only work wrath, or punishment; for no law makes provision for the exercise of mercy, but requires perfect obedience to all its commands, and when this is not yielded, denounces wrath on every transgressor. For where no law is, there is no transgression. — This is the reason why the law works wrath. It gives occasion to transgress, and transgression brings wrath. And this, the Apostle asserts, is the nature of law in general. Where there is law, there is occasion or room for transgression. Where there is no law, there can be no breach of law. If a man could be placed in a situation without law, he would not be exposed to wrath as guilty; for as sin is the transgression of the law, so no transgression could be charged on him. This assertion, then, is equivalent to affirming that, considering the character of man, where law is there must be transgression, and only where there is no law there is no transgression, as it is said, Romans 5:13, ’Sin is not imputed where there is no law.’ From all this it follows, that if the fulfillment of the promise was dependent on man’s obedience to the law, the obtaining of the inheritance by faith would be made void, and so the promise would become of no effect; thus the possibility of obtaining the inheritance would be destroyed altogether.
Romans 4:16 — Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
Having affirmed, in the end of the 13th verse, that the promise of the inheritance was not through obedience to law, but through the righteousness received by faith, and having in the 14th and 15th verses shown that it would not be obtained through obedience to law, Paul here proceeds to state why faith was appointed to be the way through which it should be carried into effect.
Therefore it is of faith, that is might be by grace. — Since, then, the promise of the inheritance, that is, of eternal salvation, could not be fulfilled through obedience to law, it was appointed that it should be fulfilled through faith, because in this way it is effected by grace. A reward must be reckoned either of grace, or of debt, on account of works performed; and these cannot be combined. For ’if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace; but if it be of works, then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work,’ Romans 11:6. As the reward, then, could not be bestowed through the works of the law, of which every man is a transgressor, and which, therefore, could only work wrath to him, it must be conferred by grace through faith, which can in nowise be considered as meritorious, but is the gift of God, and simply receives His righteousness, opposed through the whole of this discussion to the works of man of every description. In this way, then, the promise is bestowed by grace. This accords with the whole plan of salvation, that regards man as a sinner, and according to which, as had been shown, Romans 3:27, boasting is excluded, and he is saved, not of works, but by grace through faith, Ephesians 2:8. In no other way, then, but through faith, could salvation have been by grace. Had it been bestowed in part or in whole as the reward of one good thought, it would not have been by grace.
Paul had before declared that they who have obtained the righteousness of God by faith are justified freely by His grace; and now he affirms that salvation is through faith, for this very purpose, that it might be by grace. To the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed. — The fulfillment of the promise to Abraham and to his seed not being grounded on obedience to law, which, in the case of every man, would have made it void, and as its fulfillment was determined by God, He has rested its accomplishment wholly on grace — His own gratuitous favor, which cannot be frustrated. Grace selects its objects, and its only motive is in God Himself The way, then, in which the promise was to be accomplished, depending on the sovereign will of God, who hath said, ’My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’ Isaiah 46:10, and whose gifts and calling are without repentance, was rendered secure, and the promise could not be made void by the unworthiness or mutability of man.
Not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham. — The promise, then, was made sure by the grace of God, through faith, to all Abraham’s spiritual seed, not only to such as were ’of the law,’ namely, his natural offspring under the legal dispensation, denominated in verses 9 and 12 the circumcision, but also to all of every nation who, though uncircumcised, possess his faith. To himself and to all of them it is accomplished through the righteousness of faith. Here it is worthy of observation, that none are supposed to be Abraham’s spiritual seed, or heirs as his seed, except believers, whether they ’be his descendants or Gentiles. Who is the father of us all — That is, the spiritual father both of Jewish and Gentile believers. He is equally in this sense the father of all believers. It is only by faith that he is the spiritual father of any.
Romans 4:17 — (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, — According to the Apostle’s interpretation of this promise, it imports a numerous spiritual offspring, as well as a numerous natural posterity. It is not by way of what is called accommodation that this is said; it is the real interpretation of the promise, whether Abraham himself understood it so or not. This interpretation of the Apostle is a key to all that is said on this subject. It shows that Abraham had a double seed, that the promise had a double meaning, and both are distinctly verified. Thus, each of the three promises made to Abraham had a double fulfillment: — Of a numerous posterity; of God being a God to his seed; and of the earthly and heavenly country. Before Him. — At that moment, when he stood in the presence of God whom he believed, Genesis 17:4, he was made the father of all his natural and spiritual posterity; and though he was not then actually a father, yet, being so in the purpose of God, it was made as sure to him as if it had already taken place. God now willed it, and the result would follow as surely as creation followed His word. Quickeneth the dead — Does this refer to the literal general fact of bringing the dead to life, or to Abraham’s body now dead, and Sarah’s incapacity of having children at her advanced age, or to the raising of Isaac had he been sacrificed? The first appears to be the meaning, and includes the others; and the belief of it is the ground on which the others rest. Faith in God’s power, as raising the dead, is a proper ground of believing any other work of power which God engages to perform, or which is necessary to be performed, in order to fulfill His word. If God raises the dead, why should Abraham look with distrust on his own body, or consider Sarah’s natural incapacity to bear children? Why should he doubt that God will fulfill His promise as to his numerous seed by Isaac, even though Isaac shall be slain? God could raise him from the dead. Calleth those things which be not as though they were. — This does not say that God calls into existence the things that exist not, as He calls into existence the things that are. But God speaks of the things that exist not, in the same way as He speaks of the things that exist; that is, He speaks of them as existing, though they do not then actually exist. And this is the way He spoke of Abraham as the father of many nations. I have made thee — God calls him now a father, though he was not actually a father of many nations, because, before God, or in God’s counsel, he was such a father.
Romans 4:18 — Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Against hope, or beyond hope — The thing was utterly beyond all that could be expected according to natural principles. In hope, or upon hope; that is, he believed the thing that was an object of hope. He believed the promise. Belief respects anything that is testified, whether desirable or otherwise. But the thing testified to Abraham was an object of hope, therefore he is said beyond hope to believe in hope. That he might become — This is explained by some as importing that Abraham believed that he should become, etc.; that is, his becoming the father of many nations was the object of his belief. Others explain it, that he believed the promise in order that he might become; that is, his faith was the means through which the promise was to be made good to him. Both of these are true, but the last appears to be most agreeable to the expression, and is the more important sense. He was made such a father through faith. Had he not believed the promise, he would not have been made such a father.
According to that which was spoken — This shows that Abraham’s expectation rested solely on the Divine promise. He had no ground to hope for so numerous a posterity, or any posterity at all, except on the warrant of the promise of God. This he received in its true and obvious meaning, and did not, like many, explain away, modify, or fritter it down into something less wonderful. He hoped for the very thing which the words of the promise intimated, and to the very utmost extent of the meaning of these words, So shall thy seed be.
Romans 4:19 — And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
Not weak in faith — This is a usual way of expressing the opposite, implying that his faith was peculiarly strong Faith is the substance of things hoped for, inasmuch as we believe that we shall in due time be put in possession of them. It is the evidence of things not seen, as thereby we are persuaded of the truth of all the unseen things declared in Scripture. Faith thus makes future things present, and unseen things evident. He considered not his own body. — This is an example which ought ever to direct our faith. There are always obstacles and difficulties in the way of faith. We should give them no more weight than if they did not exist, reflecting that it is God who has to remove them. Nothing can be a difficulty in the way of the fulfillment of God’s own word. This ought to encourage us, not only with respect to ourselves, but with respect to the cause of God in the world. The government rests on the shoulders of Emmanuel. His own body now dead, etc. — Had Abraham looked on any natural means, he would have staggered; but he looked only to the power of Him who promised.
Romans 4:20 — He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.
He staggered not — This well expresses the meaning, the word signifying to doubt or hesitate. Dr. Macknight’s translation is bad, — ’He did not dispute.’ He might have hesitated or doubted, though he did not dispute.At the promise, or with respect to the promise, Abraham was not staggered by the difficulties or seeming impossibilities that stood in the way, but believed the promise of God, and trusted that it would be fulfilled. He would not listen to the suggestions of carnal reasonings; they were all set aside; he rested entirely on the fidelity of the promise. And all are bound to imitate this; for the Apostle says that the history of Abraham’s faith stands on record in Scripture, not for his sake only, but for us also, that we, after his example, may be encouraged to believe in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
But was strong in faith — In the foregoing verse, Abraham is said not to have been weak in faith; here it is affirmed that he was strong in faith. This imports that there are degrees in faith, — a doctrine which some deny, but a doctrine which Scripture, in many places, most clearly establishes. Our Lord charges His disciples in general, and at another time Peter particularly, Matthew 6:30; Matthew 14:31, as having little faith: they had faith;but, unlike to Abraham’s, it was deficient in strength. Our Lord, too, speaks of the comparatively strong faith of the centurion, Matthew 8:10. He had not found so great faith in Israel. The Apostles, also, addressing Jesus, pray, ’Lord, increase our faith,’ Luke 17:5. In the same manner, the Apostle Paul speaks of the ’measure of faith,’ Romans 12:3, importing that believers were endowed with different degrees of this gift. With such a profusion of instruction as the Scriptures afford on this point, it is strange that the love of theory should induce any to assert that faith is equal in all Christians. Giving glory to God. — How did he give glory to God? By believing that He would do what He promised, although nothing less than almighty power could effect what was promised. This is an important thought, that we glorify God by ascribing to Him His attributes, and believing that He will act according to them, notwithstanding many present appearances to the contrary. But how often is the opposite of this exemplified among many who profess to have the faith of Abraham, who, when unable to trace Divine wisdom, are apt to hesitate in yielding submission to Divine authority. Nothing, however, to countenance this is found in Scripture. On the contrary, no human action is more applauded than that of Abraham offering up Isaac in obedience to the command of God, in which he certainly could not then discover either the reason or the wisdom from which it proceeded. Without disregarding it for a moment, he yielded to the Divine authority. He was strong in faith, giving glory to God; that is, he gave full credit for the propriety of what was enjoined, and a ready acknowledgment of that implicit submission which on his part was due.
Romans 4:21-22 — And being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Fully persuaded, or fully assured, being strongly convinced. — This is the explanation of the way in which he gave glory to God. We might suppose that every one who professes to believe in the attributes of God, would judge as Abraham did; yet experience shows the contrary. Even Christians do not act up to their principles on this point. The Israelites believed in God’s power and favor to them; but in time of trial they failed in giving Him glory by confiding in Him. In like manner, Christians, in their own individual cases, do not generally manifest that confidence in God which their principles would lead to expect. Also, that is, He was as able to perform as to promise. And therefore. — Because he believed God, notwithstanding all contrary appearances, his faith was imputed to him unto righteousness.
Romans 4:23 — Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him.
This history of the way in which Abraham received righteousness is not recorded for his sake alone, or applicable to himself only, but is equally applicable to all believers. The Apostle here guards us against supposing that this method of justification was peculiar to Abraham, and teaches that it is the pattern of the justification of all who shall ever find acceptance with God. The first recorded testimony respecting the justification of any sinner, as has been already observed, is that of Abraham. Others had been justified from the fall down to his time; but it was reserved for him to possess the high privilege and distinction of being thus the first man singled out and constituted the progenitor of the Messiah. In him all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, and consequently he was to be the father of all believers, who are all the children of Christ, Hebrews 2:13, and the heir of that inheritance on earth that typified the inheritance in heaven, which belongs to Jesus Christ, who is ’appointed heir of all things,’ with whom all believers are joint heirs. And in Abraham we see that, in the first declaration of the nature of justification, it is held out as being conferred by the imputation of righteousness through faith only. This passage, then, which refers to what is written, as well as those preceding it in this chapter, it must again be remarked, exhibit the character of the historical parts of Scripture as all divinely inspired, and all divinely arranged, in the wisdom of God, to apply to events the most important in the future dispensation. Every fact and every circ*mstance which they announce, as well as the whole narrative, was ordered and dictated by Him, to whom all His works are known from the beginning of the world, Acts 15:18.
Romans 4:24 — But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Righteousness shall be imputed to us, as well as to Abraham, if we have his faith. If we believe on Him that raised, etc. — Here God is characterized by the fact that He raised up Christ. This, then, is not a mere circ*mstance, but it is in this very character that our faith must view God. To believe for salvation, we must believe not in God absolutely, but in God as the raiser up of Jesus Christ This faith in God, as raising up our Lord, must also include a right view of Him. It must imply a belief of the Gospel, not only as to the fact of a resurrection, but also as to the person and work of Christ.
Romans 4:25 — Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.
Delivered — The Father gave over the Son to death, delivering Him into the hands of wicked men. Here we must look to a higher tribunal than that of Pilate, who delivered Him into the hands of the Jews. He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. When Herod, Pilate, and the Gentiles, with the people of Israel, were gathered together against Him, it was to do whatsoever God’s word and counsel had determined before to be done Acts 4:28. The crucifixion of Christ being the greatest of all crimes, was hateful and highly provoking in the sight of God; yet it was the will of God that it should take place, in order to bring to pass the greatest good. God decreed this event; He willed that it should come to pass, and ordered circ*mstances, in His providence, in such a way as gave men an opportunity to carry into effect their wicked intentions. In their sin God had no part; and His determination that the deed should be done, formed no excuse for its perpetrators, nor did it in any degree extenuate their wickedness, which the Scriptures charge upon them in the fullest manner. ’Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,’ Acts 2:23. This was an example of the same truth declared by Joseph to his brethren, ’As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good,’ Genesis 1:20. For our offenses or on account of our offenses. — This shows the need of Christ’s death. It was not for an example, or for a witness merely, but for our offenses. Raised again for our justification — That is, He was raised that He might enter the holy place not made with hands, and present His own blood, that we might be made righteous, through His death for us. As the death of Christ, according to the determinate counsel of a holy and righteous God, was a demonstration of the guilt of His people, so His resurrection was their acquittal from every charge.
It is of importance to distinguish the persons to whom the Apostle refers in this and the following verses, where he says, if we believe, and speaks of righteousness being imputed to us, and of our offenses, and our justification. In the beginning of the chapter he uses the expression, ’Abraham our father;’ but there he is introducing an objection that might be offered by the Jews, and appears to speak of Abraham as his own and their progenitor. But when, in the 12th verse, he says, ’Our father Abraham,’ and, in the 16th, ’the father of us all,’ he applied these expressions not to the Jews, or the natural descendants of Abraham, but to himself and those to whom he is writing, that is, to believers, to all of whom, whether Jews or Gentiles, in every age, as walking in the same steps of Abraham’s faith, they are applicable. And of the same persons he here speaks in the 24th and 25th verses, for whose offenses Jesus was delivered, and for whose justification He was raised again. They are those whom the Father had given Him, John 6:37; John 17:2; Hebrews 2:13; for the effect of His death was not to depend on the contingent will of man, but was fixed by the eternal purpose of God. They are those of whom it was promised to the Redeemer, that when He should make Himself an offering for sin, He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, — those who are or shall be saved, and called with an holy calling, not according to their works, but according to God’s purpose and grace which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9, — those who have the faith of God’s elect, who are brought by Him to the acknowledgment of the truth which is after godliness, who have the hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised from eternity to their Head and Surety, Titus 1:1-2. No one, then, is entitled to consider himself among the number of those to whom the Apostle’s words are here applicable, unless he has obtained precious faith in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Yet the expression, our Savior, is often used by persons who reject God’s testimony concerning Him, and consequently have neither part nor lot in His salvation.
Having substituted Himself in the place of sinners, Jesus Christ suffered in His own person the punishment of sin, conformably to that declaration, ’In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ He came forth from among the dead, in testimony that the threatening of God was accomplished, and as a pledge of the acceptance of His sacrifice, and that by His obedience unto death Divine justice was satisfied, the law honored and magnified, and eternal life awarded to those for whom He died, whose sins He had borne in His own body on the tree, 1 Peter 2:24. He was quickened by the Spirit, 1 Peter 3:18; by whom He was also justified, 1 Timothy 3:16, from every charge that could be alleged against Him as the Surety and Covenant-head of those whose iniquities He bore. The justification, therefore, of His people, which includes not only the pardon of their sins, but also their title to the eternal inheritance, was begun in His death, and perfected by His resurrection. He wrought their justification by His death, but its efficacy depended on His resurrection. By His death He paid their debt; in His resurrection He received their acquaintance. He arose to assure to them their right to eternal life, by fully discovering and establishing it in His own person, for all who are the members of His body.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER V – Romans 5:1-21
THE Apostle describes in this chapter the blessed accompaniments, the security, and the foundation of justification. This last branch of the subject is interwoven with an account of the entrance of sin and death into the world; while a parallel is drawn between the first and the second Adam in their opposite tendencies and influences. By the first came sin, condemnation, and death; by the second, righteousness, justification, and life. From this comparison, occasion is taken to show why God had made the promulgation of the written law to intervene betwixt the author of condemnation and the author of justification. On the one hand, the extent, the evil, and the demerit of sin, and the obstructions raised up by law and justice to man’s recovery, were thus made fully manifest; while, on the other hand, the superabundant riches of Divine grace, in its complete ascendancy and victory over them in the way of righteousness, were displayed to the greatest advantage, and with the fullest effect.
Romans 5:1 — Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore — This particle of inference draws its conclusion from the whole foregoing discussion concerning justification by faith, though it may have a more immediate reference to the nearest preceding context. The Apostle having fully proved that salvation is by grace, and that it is by faith, now shows the consequences of this doctrine.
Justified by faith — This expression is elliptical; faith must be understood as inclusive of its object. This is very usual in all cases where the thing elliptically expressed is frequently spoken of, and therefore sufficiently explained by the elliptical expression. It is not by faith, abstractly considered, that we are justified, nor even by faith in everything that God reveals. It is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even this phrase itself, namely, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is still elliptical, and supposes the knowledge of what is to be believed with respect to Christ. It is not believing in His existence, but believing on Him as revealed in the Scriptures, in His person and work. In the same manner as we have the phrase, ’justified by faith,’ we have the phrase, justified by the blood of Christ. As, in the former case, faith implies its object, so, in the latter, it is implied that we are justified by faith in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ justifies by being the object of belief and of trust.
We have peace with God — This shows that all men, till they are justified, are at war with God, and that He is at war with them. But when they are justified by faith, the wrath of God, which abideth on those who believe not on His Son, John 3:36, is turned away, and they cease to be enemies to God. Thus peace, succeeding hostility, brings with it every blessing; for there is no middle place for the creature between the love and the wrath of God. This peace, then, arises from righteousness, — the imputation of the righteousness of God by which the believer is justified, — and is followed by a sense of peace obtained. While guilt remains in the conscience, enmity will also rankle in the heart; for so long as men look upon their sins as unpardoned, and on God as the avenger of their transgressions, they must regard Him as being to them a consuming fire. But when they view God in Christ reconciling them to Himself, not imputing their iniquities to them, peace, according to the measure of faith, is established in the conscience. This never can be experienced by going about to establish our own righteousness. If any man have peace in his conscience, it must flow from Christ’s righteousness — it must be the effect of that righteousness which God has ’created,’ Isaiah 45:8; and of which the Spirit, when He comes, brings with Him the conviction, John 16:8. Resting on this righteousness, the believer beholds God at peace with him, perfectly reconciled. The belief of this satisfies his conscience, which, being purged by blood, Hebrews 9:14, he is freed from guilty fears, and reconciled to God. Through this sense of the pardon of sin, and of friendship with God, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeps his heart and mind through Christ Jesus. The maintenance of this peace, by preserving the conscience free from guilt by continual application to the blood of Christ, is the main point in the believer’s walk with God and the powerful spring of His obedience. In the New Testament God is frequently denominated ’the God of peace.’ The Apostle prays that the Lord Himself may give His people peace by all means, and enjoins that the peace of God should rule in the hearts of believers, to which they are also called in one body, and that they should be thankful. Peace is the fruit of the Spirit; and the kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ — Peace comes through the death of Jesus Christ. The faith, therefore, by which it is obtained, must refer to Him who made peace through the blood of His cross. He alone, as the one Mediator, can make peace between God, who is holy, and man, who is sinful. God has established three covenants, or three ways of communication with man. The first was the covenant of nature; the second, the covenant of the law; the third, the covenant of the Gospel. Under the first covenant, man, being in a state of innocence, needed no mediator. Under the second, there was a mediator simply of communication, and not of reconciliation, — a mediator as to the exterior, or a messenger who goes between two parties, a simple depository of words spoken on the one side of the other, without having any part in the interior or essence of the covenant, of which he was neither the founder nor the bond. Under the third covenant, Jesus Christ is a true mediator of reconciliation, who has produced a real peace between God and man, and is the founder of their mutual communion. ’He is our peace.’ It is established by the new covenant in His hands, and is everlasting, being made through the blood of that everlasting covenant. ’The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake,’ Isaiah 42:21. ’The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever,’ Isaiah 32:17. This peace, then, is through Jesus Christ and His righteousness, which brings this quietness and assurance. He is the King of righteousness and Prince of Peace. In parting from His disciples before His death, He said, ’These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace;’ and this peace He bequeathed to them. ’Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.’ When He met them again after His resurrection, His first salutation to them was, ’Peace be unto you.’
Romans 5:2 — By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Believers have access into grace as well as peace — The one is distinguished from the other. In what, then, do they differ? Peace denotes a particular blessing; access into grace, or a state of favor, implies general blessings, among which peace and all other privileges are included. And as they are justified by means of faith, and have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, so likewise it is through Him that they enter into this state of grace; for it is through Him they have access by one Spirit unto the Father, by that new and living way which He hath consecrated for them through the vail; that is to say, His flesh. They have access to a mercy-seat, to which they are invited to come freely; and boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Jesus — boldness to come to the throne of grace, and enter into the holiest by His blood. And as it is by Him they enter into this state of grace, so by Him they stand in it, accepted before God, 1 Peter 5:12; secured, according to His everlasting covenant, that they shall not be cast down; but that they are fixed in this state of perfect acceptance, conferred by sovereign grace, brought into it by unchangeable love, and kept in it by the power of a faithful God. ’They shall be My people, and I will be their God.’ ’I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me,’ Jeremiah 32:38; Jeremiah 32:40.
And rejoice — This is an additional blessing. The word here translated rejoice signifies to glory or exult, and is the same that in the following verse is rendered ’to glory.’ It may designate not only the excess of joy possessed by the soul in the contemplation of the future inheritance, but the language of triumph expressing this joy, which is properly meant by glorying. The Christian should speak nothing boastingly, so far as concerns himself; but he has no reason to conceal his sense of his high destination as a son of God, and an heir of glory. In this he ought to result, in this he ought to glory, — and, in obedience to His Lord’s command, to rejoice, because his name is written in heaven. The hope of eternal salvation through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot but produce joy; for as there can be no true joy without such a hope, so it carries with it the very essence of joy. Joy springing from faith is called the joy of faith, Philippians 1:25, and is made a distinguishing characteristic of the Christian, Philippians 3:3.
’Where Christ is truly seen,’ says Luther, On the Galatians, p. 85, ’there must needs be full and perfect joy in the Lord, with peace of conscience, which most certainly thus thinketh: — Although I am a sinner, by the law, and under condemnation of the law, yet I despair not, I die not, because Christ liveth, who is both my righteousness and my everlasting life. In that righteousness and life I have no sin, no fear, no sting of conscience, no care of death. I am indeed a sinner, as touching this present life, and the righteousness thereof, as the child of Adam; where the law accuseth me, death reigneth over me, and at length would devour me. But I have another righteousness and life above this life, which is Christ, the Son of God, who knoweth no sin nor death, but righteousness and life eternal; by whom this, my body, being dead, and brought into dust, shall be raised up again, and delivered from the bondage of the law, and sin, and shall be sanctified together with the Spirit.’
In the hope of the glory of God — This form of expression will equally apply to the glory that God bestows on His people, and to His own glory. The view and enjoyment of God’s glory is the hope of believers. It is the glory that shall be revealed in them when they shall he glorified together in Christ — when they shall behold the glory which the Father hath given to the Son, and which the Son gives to them, John 17:22-24. Thus faith relies on the truth of what God has promised, and hope expects the enjoyment of it. This hope is full of rejoicing, because everything it looks for depends on the truth and faithfulness of a covenant God. There can be no failure on His part, and consequently on the believer’s no disappointment.
Here it should be particularly observed, that before saying one word of the fruits Produced by the believer, the Apostle describes him as rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. He represents him as drawing no motive of consolation but from a view of God in Christ, whom he has received as his Savior by faith; and this is the true source of his hope and joy. The disciples, after the day of Pentecost, as soon as they heard the word that Peter preached, gladly embraced it, and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. In the same way, when Christ was preached to them, the eunuch and the jailor rejoiced the moment they believed. This hope is indeed capable of confirmation; but if it has not its origin in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice alone, it is a false hope. As soon as a man believes the Gospel of Christ, he ought to imitate the faith of Abraham, and give glory to God, resting securely on the sure foundation which is the basis of the hope; and he never can acquire a different title to glory, than that of which he is in possession in the moment when he believes, although, as he grows in grace, he perceives it more distinctly. Paul, while he urges the brethren at Colosse to a higher degree of conformity, in many particulars, to the will of God, yet gives thanks to the Father, who had already made them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, Colossians 1:12. This was the state of the thief on the cross, and is so of every converted sinner, in the moment when he is united to Christ; for then he is justified by faith, and has peace with God. Christians are characterized as holding fast the beginning of their confidence, and the rejoicing of their hope, firm unto the end, Hebrews 3:6-15. The beginning of their confidence and hope of salvation rested wholly on the person and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Surety of the new covenant. It is true that at the commencement of their new life, faith is often weak, and its object seen indistinctly. Love, and joy, and hope, cannot transcend the faith from which they flow. Hence the propriety of that prayer by all the disciples of Jesus, ’Lord, increase our faith;’ hence also the necessity of using diligence in the work and labor of love, to the full assurance of hope unto the end, Hebrews 6:11.
Romans 5:3 — And not only so, but hope glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience.
Not only does the believer rejoice in hope of future glory, but he rejoices even in tribulations. This rejoicing, however, is not in tribulations considered in themselves, but in their effects. It is only the knowledge of the effects of afflictions, and of their being appointed by his heavenly Father, that enables the Christian to rejoice in them. Being in themselves an evil, and not joyous but grievous, they would not otherwise be a matter of rejoicing, but of sorrow. But viewed as proceeding from his heavenly Father’s love, Hebrews 12:6; Revelation 3:19, they are so far from depriving him of his joy, that they tend to increase it. The way to the cross was to his Savior the way to the crown, and he knows that through much tribulation he must enter into the kingdom of God, Acts 14:22. The greatest tribulations are among those things that work together for his good. God comforts him in the midst of his sorrows, 2 Corinthians 1:4. Tribulation, even death itself, which is numbered among his privileges, 1 Corinthians 3:22, shall not separate him from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Apostle Peter addresses believers as greatly rejoicing in the hope of salvation, though now, if need be, they are in heaviness through manifold trials.
Tribulation worketh or effecteth patience — Christians should be well instructed on this point, and should have it continually in their eye: their happiness is greatly concerned in it. If they forget the end and tendency of afflictions, they will murmur like the Israelites. Patience is a habit of endurance; and Christian patience implies submission to the will of God Paul says here that affliction worketh patience, and James 1:3, says that the trying of faith worketh patience. This proves that the afflictions of a Christian are intended as a trial of his faith. What by the one Apostle is called tribulation, is by the other called trial of faith. The effect of affliction is patience, a grace which is so necessary, as we are all naturally impatient and unwilling to submit unreservedly to the dispensations of God. Patience gives occasion to the exercise of the graces of the Spirit, and of submission under afflictions to the will of God.
Romans 5:4 — And patience, experience; and experience, hope.
Experience — The Greek word translated experience signifies trial or proof. Here it means proof; for trial may detect a hypocrite as well as a manifest saint. But proof implies that the trial has proved the genuineness of the tried person, and also of the faithfulness and support of God, which will enable us to overcome every difficulty. And proof worketh hope. That is, when the genuineness of our profession is manifested by being proved, our hope of enjoying the glory promised to the genuine people of God is confirmed. Hope is here introduced a second time. This should be carefully noticed. At first, as we have seen, it springs solely from a view of the mediation and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here; it acquires a new force, from the proof the believer has of the reality of his union with the Savior, by his being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ. Thus the ’good hope through grace’ must be produced solely by faith, and confirmed, not produced, by the fruits of faith.
Romans 5:5 — And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.
Hope maketh not ashamed — This may import, either that hope will not be disappointed, or that hope will not allow us to be ashamed of its object. Various passages speak of the believer as not being put to shame in the day of retribution; and the expression here is generally interpreted to signify that hope will not be disappointed, but will receive the object of its anticipation. This is an important truth; yet the Apostle may rather be understood as speaking of the usual effect of hope as exemplified in the life of a Christian; and that it is not the future effect of hope in believers, but its present effect, as it is the present effect of the other particulars mentioned, to which he refers. Besides, the primary signification of the word in the original is, not to disappoint, but to shame, put to shame, or make ashamed. Paul here evidently speaks of hope as a general principle, which, in every instance, and on all subjects, has this effect ascribed to it.
It is its nature, with regard to everything which is its object, to destroy shame, and excite to an open avowal, and even glorying in it, though it may be a thing of which others may be ashamed, and which is ridiculed in the world. The experience of every Christian confirms this view. When is he inclined to be ashamed of the Gospel? Not when his hopes are high, his faith unwavering, and his impressions of future glory strong. It is when His hopes fade and grow weak. Just in proportion as his hope is strong, will he make an open and a bold profession of the truth. Here, then, by a well-known figure, the assertion before us appears to import that, so far from being ashamed, believers glory and exult. Hope causes Christians, instead of being ashamed of Christ and His word (which without hope they would be), to glory and proclaim their prospects before the world, Galatians 6:14; 1 Peter 1:6-8; 1 Peter 5:1; 1 John 3:2. They glory in the cross of Christ through hope. This shows the great importance of keeping our hope unclouded. If we suffer it to flag or grow faint, we shall be ashamed of it before men, to which, from the enmity of the world against the Gospel, there is much temptation. Accordingly, our blessed Lord, who knew what was in man, has in the most solemn and awful manner warned His disciples against it; and the Apostle Peter enjoins on believers to add to their faith virtue — courage to profess it.
Because — This casual particle may be understood to intimate the reason why hope makes not ashamed, or to give an additional reason why Christians are not ashamed. Agreeably to the latter interpretation, hope is one reason, and then another is subjoined; and certainly the love of God is a strong reason to prevent us from being ashamed of the Gospel. Love of God — This phrase in itself is ambiguous, and, according to the connection or other circ*mstances, it may be understood, in its different occurrences, to refer either to God’s love to us, or to our love to God, — two things which are entirely distinct. God’s love to us is in Himself; but the love lie pours into our hearts may signify either a sense of His love to us, or, as Augustine explains it, our love to Him. The use of language admits of the first of these meanings, which appears to be the true one; and it is certain that it contributes more to our consolation to have our minds fixed upon God’s love to us, than upon our love to God; while our hope does not depend on our love to God, but on our sense of His love to us. The connection, too, leads us to understand the phrase in the sense of God’s love to us. It connects with what follows, where the Apostle proceeds to prove God’s love to His people from the wonderful manner in which, as is said in the 8th verse, He commendeth His love towards us in the way He has acted in the gift of His Son, notwithstanding our unworthiness and enmity against Him. In the same way it is said, John 3:16, ’God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ It coincides, too, with such declarations as, ’In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.’ ’We have known and believed the love of God to us,’ 1 John 4:9; 1 John 4:16. We cannot be beforehand with God in love, and we must perceive His love to make us love Him. The first feeling of love springs up in the heart from a view of His grace and mercy to us in Jesus Christ. His love to us is the foundation of our love to God; and it is a view of His love that not only produces, but maintains and increases, our love to Him. ’Thy love is better than wine.’
Poured out — This refers to the abundant measure of the sense of the love of God to us, which is communicated to His people, and poured into their hearts, through all the faculties of their souls, moving and captivating their affections. By the Holy Ghost — It is the Holy Ghost who pours out into the heart of the believer a sense of the love of God to him, fully convincing him of it, and witnessing this love to his spirit, Romans 8:16. This sense of the love of God never exists in the human heart till communicated by the Holy Ghost. All men naturally hate God, Romans 8:7; and it is only when they have a view of His love thus given by the promised Comforter, and behold His love in the gift of His Son, that they repent and love God.
Given unto us — The gift of the Holy Ghost, in His operation in the heart in His sanctifying influences, was not confined to Apostles and Evangelists, but is enjoyed in common by all the saints, in all of whom the Holy Spirit dwells, and who are habitations of God through the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:22; Romans 8:9. Here we see that everything in us that is good is the effect of the Spirit of God. Man possesses by nature no holy disposition. The lowest degree of true humility, and godly sorrow for sin, and a sense of the love of God, and consequently our love to God, are not to be found in any of the children of Adam till they are enlightened by the Spirit through the knowledge of the Gospel, nor can they be maintained for one moment in the soul without His sacred influence. Though sinners should hear ten thousand times of the love of God in the gift of His Son, they are never properly affected by it, till the Holy Spirit enters into their hearts, and till love to Him is produced by the truth through the Spirit. Here also we may see the distinct work of the Holy Spirit in the economy of redemption. Each of the persons of the Godhead sustains a peculiar office in the salvation of sinners, and it is the office of the Spirit to convert and sanctify those for whom Christ died. What fullness and variety of instruction and consolation are contained in the first five verses of this chapter! The work of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is exhibited, all severally acting, as God alone can act, in the various parts of man’s salvation. The righteousness of God is imputed to the believer, who is therefore justified, and pronounced by the Judge of all the earth righteous. As righteous, he has peace with God, and free access to Him through Jesus Christ; and being thus introduced into the favor of God, he stands in a justified state, rejoicing in hope of future glory. Being justified, he is also sanctified, and enabled to glory even in present afflictions. He enjoys the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, through whose Divine influence the love of God is infused into his soul. Here, then, are the peace, the joy, the triumph of the Christian. Here are faith, hope, and love, the three regulators of the Christian’s life. Faith is the great and only means of obtaining every privilege, because it unites the soul to Christ, and receives all out of His fullness. Hope cheers the believer in his passage through this world, with the expectation of promised blessings to be accomplished in future glory, and is thus the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which holds it firm, and enables it to ride out all the storms and troubles of life. Love is the renewal of the image of God in the soul, and the true principle of obedience. ’The end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.’ Faith is thus the root of the whole. Faith in the resurrection of Christ produces a good conscience, 1 Peter 3:21; the conscience being discharged from guilt, the heart is purified; and from the heart when purified proceeds love. Thus faith purifies the heart, Acts 15:9; faith works by love, Galatians 5:6. Faith overcomes the world, 1 John 5:4.
Romans 5:6 — For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For — This introduces the proof of the love of God to us, not a reason why the hope of the Christian will not disappoints him. Having spoken of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, the Apostle here declares the evidence of this love. Though the Holy Ghost inspires our love to God, yet in doing so He shows us the grounds on which it rests, or the reasons why it should exist. In making us love God, He makes us perceive the grounds on which we ought to love Him. This also shows us another important fact, namely, that the Holy Spirit works in His people according to their constitution or the nature that He has given them; and, in endowing us with proper feelings and affections, He discovers to us the proper objects towards which they ought to be excited. The word of God through the Spirit, both in conversion and growth of grace, acts according to the original constitution that God has been pleased to bestow on the Christians.
Without strength — Christ died for us while we were unable to obey Him, and without ability to save ourselves. This weakness or inability is no doubt sinful; but it is our inability, not our guilt, that the Apostle here designates. When we were unable to keep the law of God, or do anything- towards our deliverance from Divine wrath, Christ interposed, and died for those whom He came to redeem.
In due time — At the time appointed of the Father, Galatians 4:2; Galatians 4:4. The fruits of the earth are gathered in their season; so in His season, that is, at the time appointed, Christ died for us, 1 Timothy 2:6. For the ungodly — Christ died for us, considered as ungodly, and without His gift of Himself we must have forever continued to be so. It was not then for those who were in some degree godly, or disposed in some measure to do the will of God, that Christ died. There are none of this character by nature. It is by faith in His death that any are made godly.
Romans 5:7 — For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
For — This brings into view a fact that heightens and illustrates the love of God to sinners. A righteous or just man. — A just man is distinguished here from a good or benevolent man. They are quite distinct characters among men. A just man is approved — a benevolent man is loved. Scarcely, however, would any one give his life for the former, yet perhaps someone might do so for the latter. Scarcely. — This furnishes the reason why the Apostle uses the word righteous or just, when he denies that anyone would die in his stead, because he does not mean to make the denial universal. ’Even.’ — This is designed to qualify the verb to die, not the verb to dare, though it stands immediately before it. It is not even dare, but dare even to die. This intimates that to die is a thing to which men are of all things most averse. It is the greatest trial of love, John 15:13. ’Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid His life down for us,’ 1 John 3:16.
Romans 5:8 — But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
His love — Here God’s love to us is distinguished in the original as His own love, which in this place takes away all ambiguity from the expression. Yet sinners — This is literally true with respect to all who are saved since Christ’s death, and is substantially true of all who were saved before it. This may be said of Abel as well as of Paul. Christ died for him as a sinner. It was Christ’s death through which Abel was accepted. For us — Not for us as including all men, but for those believers and himself whom the Apostle was addressing; and this equally applies to all believers, — to all who are or shall be in Christ. Christ’s death for us as sinners, in an astonishing manner, commends, manifests, or exhibits God’s love to us.
Romans 5:9 — Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
If God’s love to us were such that Christ died for us when we were sinners, much more, when we are perfectly righteous through that death, He will save us from future punishment. The meaning of the expression much more in this verse, which is repeated in the 10th, 15th, and 17th verses, is not at first sight obvious in these different occurrences, since the things, which are compared to what follows, are complete in themselves.
The sense appears to be, that in using these expressions, the Apostle, though inspired, reasons on the common principles that commend themselves to the mind of man. Having stated one thing, he proceeds to state another as still more clear to our perception. Justified by His blood — This shows that when we are said to be justified by faith, faith includes its object, and imports that we are not saved by faith as a virtue. It shows also that Christ’s death was not that of a mere witness to the truth which He declared, but that it was for sin, and in order that we should be saved from wrath through Him. All men are by nature the children of wrath; and without the death of Christ, and faith in Him, we must have continued in that awful condition. ’He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.’ Dr. Macknight’s explanation of this verse is as follows: — ’Much more then being now allowed to live under the new covenant, through the shedding of His blood, we shall be saved from future punishment through Him, if we behave well under that covenant.’ In his note he adds: — ’Here justified by His blood means, that, in the view of Christ’s shedding His blood, Adam and Eve were respited from death, and, being allowed to live, be and they were placed under a new covenant, by which they might regain immortality. This is what is called justification of life,’ Romans 5:18. And this explanation follows naturally from what he gives as the meaning of the foregoing verse: — ’His own love to man, God hath raised above all human love because we being still sinners, Christ died for us, to procure us a temporary life on earth, under a better covenant than the first.’ On such interpretations it is unnecessary to remark. They contain statements the most unscriptural and heretical, exhibiting most deplorable ignorance. He supposes, too, that it is here implied that some are said to be justified who are not saved from wrath.
But this is not the fact. Justification is spoken of as having taken place, and salvation as future, — not because any shall be punished who have been justified, but because the wrath spoken of is future. The salvation of the Christian from wrath is said to be future, in reference to the time of the general execution of wrath in the day of judgment. It is evidently implied in the expression, that they who are justified shall never be punished. This expression, justified by His blood, gives a most awful view of the infinite evil of sin, of the strict justice of God, and of His faithfulness in carrying into execution the first sentence, ’In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.’ Without the shedding of His blood, and entering with it into the holy place, Christ could not have obtained eternal salvation for those who had sinned. On the other hand, what an astonishing view is thus presented of the love of God, who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for His people, and who with Him will freely give them all things.
The Divine wisdom is admirable in the manner in which the Scriptures are written. It is not without design that inspiration varies the phraseology respecting justification. Each variety is calculated to meet a different abuse of the doctrine. The human heart is so prone to self-righteousness, that the very doctrine of faith has been made to assume a legal sense. Faith is represented as a work; and the office assigned to it is not merely that of the medium of communicating righteousness, but it is made to stand itself for a certain value, either real or supposed. Had inspiration never varied the expressions, and always used the phrase justified by faith, though there would have been no real ground to conclude that faith is in itself the ground of justification, yet evidence to the contrary would not have been exhibited in the manner in which it is held forth by varying the diction. Instead of ’justified by faith,’ we here read justified by the blood of Christ. This shows that when we are said to be justified by faith, it is not by faith as a work of the law, but by faith as a medium, — that is, faith in the blood of Christ. To the same purpose, also, is the expression in the following verse, reconciled to God by the death of His Son. On the other hand, there are some who, strongly impressed with the great evil of making faith a work, have plunged into a contrary extreme, and are unwilling to look at the subject in any light but that in which it is represented in the phrase, ’justified by His blood,’ as if justification were independent of faith, or as if faith were merely an accidental or unimportant thing in justification.
This also is a great error. Faith is as necessary in justification as the sacrifice of Christ itself, but necessary for a different purpose. The blood of Christ is the price that has value in itself. Faith, which unites the soul to Christ, is the necessary medium, through the Divine appointment. Again, we have justified freely by grace, Romans 3:24. Self-righteousness is fruitful in expedients. It is difficult to put it to silence. It will admit that justification is by faith in its own legal sense, and that it is through Christ’s blood, as a general price for the sins of all men; but it holds that every man must do something to entitle him to the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice. Here, then, the phrase justification by grace comes in to cut off every evasion.
Another variety of phraseology on this subject we have in the expression justified by Christ, Galatians 2:17. This points to the ground of our justification, or our union with Christ. We are accounted perfectly righteous, having paid the debt of sin, and having fulfilled the whole law, by our union or oneness with Christ, as we were sinners by our natural connection with Adam. It is of immense importance to the satisfaction of the mind of the believer, constantly and steadfastly to consider himself as a member of Christ — as truly a part of Him. He rose for our justification.
When He was justified from the Sins which He took on Him by having suffered for them, and when He had fulfilled the law, we were justified in His justification. We are therefore said not merely to be pardoned, but to be justified, by Christ. We have suffered all the punishment due to our sins, and have kept every precept of the law, because He with whom we are one has done so. It is also worthy of remark that, while the Apostle speaks of being justified by Christ, he had in the preceding verse spoken of being justified by the faith of Christ. This shows that faith is the way in which our union with Christ is effected.
Romans 5:10 — For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death by His Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Enemies — It greatly enhances the love of God that He gave His Son for us while we were yet His enemies. Had we discovered any symptoms of willingness to obey Him, or any degree of love to Him, His love to us would not have been so astonishing. But it is in this light only that the proud heart of man is willing to view his obligations to redeeming love. He will not look upon himself as totally depraved and helpless. He desires to do something on his part to induce God to begin His work in him by His Spirit. But Christ died for His people when they were the enemies of God, and He calls them to the knowledge of Himself when they are His enemies. Here, then, is the love of God. At the time when Christ died for us, we were not His friends, but His enemies. ’The carnal mind is enmity against God.’
Reconciled to God by the death of His Son — The word rendered ’reconciled,’ signifies to change the state of matters between persons at variance, by removing their grounds of difference. The Divine word and declarations, as well as the Divine persecutions, forbid us to imagine that God will clear the guilty. In order, then, to reconciliation with God, satisfaction must be made to His justice. What is meant here, is not our laying aside our enmity to God, but God’s laying aside His enmity to us, on account of the death of His Son. It is true that we lay aside our enmity to God when we see that He has laid aside His enmity to us, and never till then will we do so; but what is here meant is, that God is reconciled to us. In Scripture this is spoken of as our being reconciled to God. We are reconciled to God, when He is pacified towards us through His Son, in whom we believe. This is quite agreeable to the use of the term in Scripture with respect to other cases, 1 Samuel 29:4; Matthew 5:23-24. Socinians, however, maintain that reconciliation between God and man consists only in bending and pacifying the heart of man towards God, and not in averting His just anger. This error, arising from their denial of the satisfaction made by Jesus Christ, is refuted by the consideration that God pardons our sins: whence it follows that He was angry with us; and the redemption of Jesus Christ is declared to be made by a propitiatory sacrifice, which clearly proves that God was angry. To this the idea of a sacrifice necessarily leads; for a sacrifice is offered to pacify God towards men, and not to reconcile men to God. Aaron was commanded to make an atonement for the congregation, for there was wrath gone out from the Lord. ’And be stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed,’ Numbers 16:46. God’s anger was thus turned away by making this atonement. In David’s time, by offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, the Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. By this it is clear that the primarily intention of such sacrifices, and consequently of the priest who offered them, immediately respected the reconciliation of God. The same is evident from the following passages: — ’Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of The people; Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. Thou hast taken away all Thy wrath; Thou hast turned from the fierceness of Thine anger,’ Psalms 85:2-3. ’Though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortedst me,’ Isaiah 12:1. ’I will establish My covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified (reconciled, Leviticus 8:15; Leviticus 16:20; 2 Chronicles 29:24) toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God,’ Ezekiel 16:63.
All men being sinners, are in themselves, while in unbelief, under the displeasure of God, who cannot look upon iniquity, Habakkuk 1:13, and are by nature children of wrath, or of the judgment of God; but as viewed in Christ, and in relation to His death, the elect are the objects of God’s everlasting love, and this love in His good time takes effect. He sends His Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice for them, — thus making satisfaction to His justice, and removing every obstacle to His being reconciled. He unites them to the Son of His love; and in Him, clothed with His righteousness, they become the children of God, and then in themselves the proper objects of His love. The ministry committed to the Apostles is called the ministry of reconciliation. Men are besought to be reconciled to God from the consideration of His having made Him to be sin for His people who knew no sin. Here is a double reconciliation, namely, of God to men, and of men to God. The latter is urged from the consideration of the former, and this consideration is effectual for all for whom the reconciliation was made. The whole of this reconciliation is through the death of His Son.
Thus does God call His people with a holy calling. He invites them to friendship with Himself, through an all-sufficient atonement; and they lay aside their enmity to Him when they see that God has laid aside His anger against them. They are reconciled to Him through the death of His Son. What, in the preceding verse, is spoken of as the blood of Christ, is here spoken of as His death. These varied terms are useful to express the idea in such a manner that it cannot be innocently evaded. Christ’s blood was an atonement, as it was His death. This shows that no degree of suffering would have been sufficient as an atonement for our sins without the actual death of the sacrifice, according to the original sentence against man. Jesus Christ might have suffered all that He did suffer without a total extinction of life; but He must not only suffer, — He must also die. This phraseology, then, is calculated to meet the error of those Christians who, from a desire of magnifying the efficacy of the blood of Christ, have said that one drop of it would have been sufficient to save. Had one drop been sufficient, two drops would never have been shed.
Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. — If we were reconciled by His death, much more clear is it that we shall be saved by His life. Some find a difficulty in this, as if it implied that the atonement and price of redemption were not complete at the death of Christ. But the Apostle is not speaking on that point. He is speaking of the security of the believer from any danger, by Christ as alive. The meaning is, we shall be saved by Him as existing alive, or as living, Hebrews 7:25. We need Christ raised from the dead to intercede for our daily transgressions, and to save us from wrath. The efficacy of the death and the intercession of Jesus Christ have the same objects and the same extent, John 17:9. He intercedes for all those for whom He died. ’It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us,’ Romans 8:34. For us, that is, for those whom the Apostle is addressing as beloved of God, and called, and saints, Romans 1:7, and all that are such.
Two comparisons are made in this passage, one between the past and the present state of believers they were once the enemies, they are now the friends, of God. The other is between the past and the present condition of Christ: He was once dead, He is now alive. And the proposition that unites these two is, that reconciliation with God is entirely owing to the death of Christ as its meritorious cause. Since, then, the death of the Redeemer could produce so great an effect as the reconciliation to Himself of those who were the enemies of the Most High, what room can there be to doubt that the life of Christ is sufficient to accomplish what is less difficult; that is to say, to obtain the continuation of the Divine friendship and benevolence for those whose reconciliation has been already purchased at a price of such infinite cost? By the death which He suffered in their place, they are freed from condemnation, the rigor of the law having run its course, and received its execution by the punishment of their sins in Him; and thus they are saved from the effects of wrath. By His resurrection, His life, and His entrance into eternal glory, the reward reserved for His work as Mediator, they become partakers of that glory. ’In My Fathers house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.’ ’Because I live, ye shall live also.’ ’Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me.’ Thus Jesus Christ, who was delivered for the offenses of His people, was raised again for their justification; and this unparalleled love of God, who has not spared His well-beloved Son, is the surest foundation for the absolute and unlimited confidence in Him of every man who, renouncing his own righteousness, submits to His righteousness. At the same time, the necessity of the shedding of blood infinitely precious, in order to the justification of believers, is the strongest proof of the infinite evil of sin, and of the infinite holiness and awful justice of God. It shows the extreme difficulty there was in reconciling God to man, as it could only be done by a satisfaction to His justice, which could not be accomplished but by the death of His only-begotten Son.
Romans 5:11 — And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
This verse exhibits the last of those fruits which proceed from being brought into a state of justification. The first of them is peace with God, involving the communication and enjoyment of every blessing which the creature is capable of receiving; for if God be with us, who can be against us? and when this peace is known to be permanently established, immediately the cheering hope of future glory springs up in the mind. This hope, transporting the believer beyond this world, and looking forward to unbounded blessedness, enables him to bear up under those tribulations that are inseparable from his present state. In them, through not in themselves joyous but grievous, be even glories; and, experiencing their salutary effects, they confirm his hope of future and eternal enjoyment.
The Holy Ghost, too, sheds abroad the love of God in his heart; while his attention is directed to what God has done in giving for him His Son to the death, even while he was in the most determined state of hostility towards God. From the whole, the Apostle argues how much more it is evident that, being reconciled, he shall be saved from all the fearful effects of the wrath and displeasure of God against sin. The view of all of these unspeakable blessings conducts to that feeling of exultation and joy, with the declaration of which the enumeration is here terminated, of the effects which the knowledge of his justification in the sight of God, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, produces in the heart of the believer Not only so. — That is, we shall not only escape the wrath to come, by the death of Christ, but attain to glory by His life. The measure of excess is future glory above mere exemption from misery. These two things are entirely distinct, and afford distinct grounds of thanksgiving. Joy in God — The word here translated joy, is the same which in Romans 5:2 is rendered rejoice, and in Romans 5:3, glory. It was before declared that believers have peace with God, that they have access to Him, and that they rejoice in the hope of His glory. Now, the Apostle represents them as arrived at the fountain-head, looking through all the blessings conferred on them, and rejoicing, boasting, or glorying in God Himself as the source of them all.
The Christian’s joy is all in God. He exults in his prospects; but all are ascribed to God, and not to anything in Himself. God, even His own covenant-God, is the great and ultimate object of his joy. ’My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.’ ’O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.’ ’I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ ’The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, my portion forever. I will go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.’ The sentiment of the love of God, in so great a salvation, and of joy in Him, is more deeply impressed upon the believer, by considering the rock from which he has been hewn, and the hole of the pit from which he has been dug. In the above verses, the former situation of those who are saved is declared in the strongest language. They were WITHOUT STRENGTH, GODLY, SINNERS, UNDER WRATH, ENEMIES TO GOD. If such, then, was their original condition, what reason have they not only to rejoice in the hope of glory, but, above all, in the goodness and mercy of God, who has now reconciled them to Himself! Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ — Joy in God, with all those unspeakable blessings above enumerated, are again and again declared to come by Him, through whom God manifests His loves and is reconciled to His people. The name of Jesus Christ being here introduced so often, should be especially remarked. The Christian joys and glories in God only through Christ; without Christ, God could not be viewed as a friend. He must be an object of hatred. Our friendly relation to God is all through Christ. By whom we have now received the atonement, or reconciliation, according to the translation of the same word in the preceding verse. Atonement has been made through the death of Christ. The Apostle, and they whom he addressed, being believers, had received the atonement, which Christ has not only accomplished, but makes His people receive it. Among the various errors that have discovered themselves in modern times, few are more lamentable or dangerous than the views of the atonement that have been adopted by many. Instead of considering the atonement of Christ as a real compensation to the Divine justice for the sins of those who are saved, so that God may remain just, while He is merciful to the chief of sinners, many look on it as nothing but a mere exhibition of the displeasure of God against sin, intended for the honor and maintenance of His government of the universe. This altogether destroys the Gospel, and in reality leaves men exposed to the Divine justice.
It is alleged by those who represent the atonement as only a expedient, subservient to the interests of morality, that sins are called debts merely in a figurative sense. But nothing can be more clear than that the Scriptures, which speak of sin as a debt, speak quite literally. The word debt extends to everything that justly demands an equivalent. We are said to be bought with the blood of Christ, as the price paid for our sins, which certainly implies that the blood of Christ is that which has given an equivalent to the justice of God, and made an atonement for those who, according to justice, must otherwise have suffered the penalty of sin, which is death. In the remission, then, of the sins of those who have received the atonement, God is at once the just God and the Savior, which He could not be without this atonement.
In reference to the sacrifice of Christ, by which He made the atonement, it is said, ’Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood,’ Revelation 5:9. ’Without shedding of blood is no remission, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul,’ Hebrews 9:22; Leviticus 17:11. The blood is the life, Deuteronomy 12:23. It was the shedding, then, of the blood of Christ, which signifies His death, that procured this remission of sin. This was the ransom that God declared He had found, by which He saved His people from going down to destruction, Job 33:24. It was their redemption. Redemption signifies a purchasing back, and supposes an alienation of what is redeemed; and thus Christ redeemed them with His blood, which was the price He paid, and they are ’His purchased possession.’ His blood was the ransom paid to the justice of God; without which it was impossible they should have been released from the bondage of Satan and the sentence of death. He died for the ungodly, who, being justified by His blood, shall be saved from wrath. The ransom, then, which Christ paid, was the price that Divine justice demanded; and, having made His soul an offering for sin, God has declared Himself ’well pleased for His righteousness’ sake,’ He having ’magnified the law, and made it honorable.’ It was necessary that He should yield obedience to its precepts, and suffer the penalty annexed to its violation.
The law condemned sinners to eternal death. In order, then, to redeem them, it behooved Him to suffer, and He did actually suffer, the full equivalent of that death by which He made atonement for sin, and through faith His people receive that atonement. His blood is put, by a usual figure of speech, for His death, in which His sufferings and His obedience terminated, and which was their consummation, containing a full answer to all the demands on His people, of law and justice. God, then, is now ’faithful and just to forgive them their sins, and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness,’ 1 John 1:9. Believers have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14. Ye are bought with a price, 1 Corinthians 7:20-23. ’Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ,’ 1 Peter 1:18.
Many who look on atonement as something real, yet overturn it by making it universal. This is an error which at once opposes the Scriptures, and could be of no service, even were it true. Where is the difference, as respects the Divine character, whether a man does not obtain pardon, from his sins not being atoned for by the blood of Christ, or because he has not been elected to eternal life? If Christ’s death pays the price of the sins of all men, all men must be saved. If His redemption be universal, then all are redeemed from the captivity of Satan and the guilt of sin, and delivered from wrath. For what can they be punished, if atonement has been made for their sins? If a man’s debts are paid, how can he afterwards be imprisoned for those debts? A just God cannot punish a second time for the same offense. If Christ has paid the debt of all sinners, there is nothing remaining to pay in the case of any man. Would it be just that any should be punished in hell for the sins for which Christ was punished on earth? If Christ bore the sins of all men in His own body on the tree, shall any man bear them a second time? Had the sins of all men been imputed to Christ, in that case His sacrifice did not answer its end. It left the greater part of them for whom it was offered under the curse of the broken law. But God, in appointing Christ to make atonement for sin, and Christ Himself, in undertaking to perform it, had in view from all eternity a certain select number of mankind, who were and still are known to God. For their salvation only was that atonement made, and for them it will be ultimately effectual. A Savior being provided for any of the lost children of Adam was an act of pure grace; and therefore the extent of this salvation depends solely on Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own evil.
Romans 5:11 — And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
This verse exhibits the last of those fruits which proceed from being brought into a state of justification. The first of them is peace with God, involving the communication and enjoyment of every blessing which the creature is capable of receiving; for if God be with us, who can be against us? and when this peace is known to be permanently established, immediately the cheering hope of future glory springs up in the mind. This hope, transporting the believer beyond this world, and looking forward to unbounded blessedness, enables him to bear up under those tribulations that are inseparable from his present state. In them, though not in themselves joyous but grievous, be even glories; and, experiencing their salutary effects, they confirm his hope of future and eternal enjoyment. The Holy Ghost, too, sheds abroad the love of God in his heart; while his attention is directed to what God has done in giving for him His Son to the death, even while he was in the most determined state of hostility towards God. From the whole, the Apostle argues how much more it is evident that, being reconciled, he shall be saved from all the fearful effects of the wrath and displeasure of God against sin. The view of all of these unspeakable blessings conducts to that feeling of exultation and joy, with the declaration of which the enumeration is here terminated, of the effects which the knowledge of his justification in the sight of God, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, produces in the heart of the believer.
Not only so — That is, we shall not only escape the wrath to come, by the death of Christ, but attain to glory by His life. The measure of excess is future glory above mere exemption from misery. These two things are entirely distinct, and afford distinct grounds of thanksgiving. Joy in God — The word here translated joy, is the same which in Romans 5:2 is rendered rejoice, and in Romans 5:3, glory. It was before declared that believers have peace with God, that they have access to Him, and that they rejoice in the hope of His glory. Now, the Apostle represents them as arrived at the fountain-head, looking through all the blessings conferred on them, and rejoicing, boasting, or glorying in God Himself as the source of them all. The Christian’s joy is all in God. He exults in his prospects; but all are ascribed to God, and not to anything in Himself. God, even His own covenant-God, is the great and ultimate object of his joy. ’My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.’ ’O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.’ ’I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ ’The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, my portion forever I will go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.’ The sentiment of the love of God, in so great a salvation, and of joy in Him, is more deeply impressed upon the believer, by considering the rock from which he has been hewn, and the hole of the pit from which he has been dug. In the above verses, the former situation of those who are saved is declared in the strongest language. They were WITHOUT STRENGTH, GODLY, SINNERS, UNDER WRATH, ENEMIES TO GOD. If such, then, was their original condition, what reason have they not only to rejoice in the hope of glory, but, above all, in the goodness and mercy of God, who has now reconciled them to Himself! Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ — Joy in God, with all those unspeakable blessings above enumerated, are again and again declared to come by Him, through whom God manifests His loves and is reconciled to His people. The name of Jesus Christ being here introduced so often, should be especially remarked. The Christian joys and glories in God only through Christ; without Christ, God could not be viewed as a friend. He must be an object of hatred. Our friendly relation to God is all through Christ. By whom we have now received the atonement, or reconciliation, according to the translation of the same word in the preceding verse. Atonement has been made through the death of Christ. The Apostle, and they whom he addressed, being believers, had received the atonement, which Christ has not only accomplished, but makes His people receive it. Among the various errors that have discovered themselves in modern times, few are more lamentable or dangerous than the views of the atonement that have been adopted by many. Instead of considering the atonement of Christ as a real compensation to the Divine justice for the sins of those who are saved, so that God may remain just, while He is merciful to the chief of sinners, many look on it as nothing but a mere exhibition of the displeasure of God against sin, intended for the honor and maintenance of His government of the universe. This altogether destroys the Gospel, and in reality leaves men exposed to the Divine justice. It is alleged by those who represent the atonement as only a expedient, subservient to the interests of morality, that sins are called debts merely in a figurative sense. But nothing can be more clear than that the Scriptures, which speak of sin as a debt, speak quite literally. The word debt extends to everything that justly demands an equivalent. We are said to be bought with the blood of Christ, as the price paid for our sins, which certainly implies that the blood of Christ is that which has given an equivalent to the justice of God, and made an atonement for those who, according to justice, must otherwise have suffered the penalty of sin, which is death. In the remission, then, of the sins of those who have received the atonement, God is at once the just God and the Savior, which He could not be without this atonement.
In reference to the sacrifice of Christ, by which He made the atonement, it is said, ’Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood,’ Revelation 5:9. ’Without shedding of blood is no remission, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul,’ Hebrews 9:22; Leviticus 17:11. The blood is the life, Deuteronomy 12:23. It was the shedding, then, of the blood of Christ, which signifies His death, that procured this remission of sin. This was the ransom that God declared He had found, by which He saved His people from going down to destruction, Job 33:24. It was their redemption. Redemption signifies a purchasing back, and supposes an alienation of what is redeemed; and thus Christ redeemed them with His blood, which was the price He paid, and they are ’His purchased possession.’ His blood was the ransom paid to the justice of God; without which it was impossible they should have been released from the bondage of Satan and the sentence of death. He died for the ungodly, who, being justified by His blood, shall be saved from wrath. The ransom, then, which Christ paid, was the price that Divine justice demanded; and, having made His soul an offering for sin, God has declared Himself ’well pleased for His righteousness’ sake,’ He having ’magnified the law, and made it honorable.’ It was necessary that He should yield obedience to its precepts, and suffer the penalty annexed to its violation. The law condemned sinners to eternal death. In order, then, to redeem them, it behooved Him to suffer, and He did actually suffer, the full equivalent of that death by which He made atonement for sin, and through faith His people receive that atonement. His blood is put, by a usual figure of speech, for His death, in which His sufferings and His obedience terminated, and which was their consummation, containing a full answer to all the demands on His people, of law and justice. God, then, is now ’faithful and just to forgive them their sins, and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness,’ 1 John 1:9. Believers have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14. Ye are bought with a price, 1 Corinthians 7:20-23. ’Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ,’ 1 Peter 1:18.
Many who look on atonement as something real, yet overturn it by making it universal. This is an error which at once opposes the Scriptures, and could be of no service, even were it true. Where is the difference, as respects the Divine character, whether a man does not obtain pardon, from his sins not being atoned for by the blood of Christ, or because he has not been elected to eternal life? If Christ’s death pays the price of the sins of all men, all men must be saved. If His redemption be universal, then all are redeemed from the captivity of Satan and the guilt of sin, and delivered from wrath. For what can they be punished, if atonement has been made for their sins? If a man’s debts are paid, how can he afterwards be imprisoned for those debts? A just God cannot punish a second time for the same offense. If Christ has paid the debt of all sinners, there is nothing remaining to pay in the case of any man. Would it be just that any should be punished in hell for the sins for which Christ was punished on earth? If Christ bore the sins of all men in His own body on the tree, shall any man bear them a second time? Had the sins of all men been imputed to Christ, in that case His sacrifice did not answer its end. It left the greater part of them for whom it was offered under the curse of the broken law. But God, in appointing Christ to make atonement for sin, and Christ Himself, in undertaking to perform it, had in view from all eternity a certain select number of mankind, who were and still are known to God. For their salvation only was that atonement made, and for them it will be ultimately effectual. A Savior being provided for any of the lost children of Adam was an act of pure grace; and therefore the extent of this salvation depends solely on Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own evil.
As Christ prayed not, John 17:9, so He died ’not, for the world,’ but for those whom God had given Him out of the world. And all that the Father giveth Him shall come to Him. For those for whom He is the propitiation He is the Advocate, and for whom He died He makes intercession, and for no others. In Israel there were sacrifices accompanied with the burning of incense, but these were not for the world but for Israel. The sin-offering, on the great day of atonement, was for Israel only. It was for Israel, whose sins were laid upon the scape-goat, that intercession was made; and when, after offering his sacrifice, the high priest came out from the holiest of all, it was Israel who received the blessing. Of whose redemption was the deliverance of Israel from Egypt a figure? For whose healing was the serpent lifted up in the wilderness? In one word, of whom was Israel a type? Not of all mankind, but only of the people of God. As, then, the high priest under the law offered sacrifice only for Israel, interceded only for then., and blessed them only, so Christ, the High Priest of our profession, has offered His sacrifice only for His people, for whom He intercedes on the ground of that sacrifice, and whom, in consequence of His sacrifice and intercession, He will at last come out of the heavenly sanctuary to bless, Matthew 25:34; thus discharging for them, and for them only, the three functions of the priestly office. His sacrifice and intercession, then, which are inseparable, are of the same extent, and for all for whom He offered His sacrifice He presents His intercession, which is founded upon it. Could it be supposed that He never intercedes for those for whom He gave the highest proof of His love in laying down His life? Did He bear in His own body on the tree the sins of those to whom at last He will profess, ’I never knew you,’ and will leave them under the curse, saying, ’Depart from Me, ye cursed,’ whose sins, as the Lamb of God, He had taken away, on account of which, notwithstanding, He will consign them to punishment everlasting? Far different is His language respecting those whom He calls His sheep, for whom He says He lays down His life. Them He professes to know, and declares that they know Him. ’I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, so know I the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life.’
Witsius, in his Economy of the Covenants, observes: — ’That fictitious satisfaction for the reprobate and those who perish is altogether a vain and useless thing. For whom does it profit? Not certainly God, who by no act can be rendered happier than He is. Not Christ Himself, who, as He never seeks them, so He never receives them, for His peculiar property, and neither is He enriched by possessing them, though supposed to have purchased them at a dear rate. Not believers, who, content with their portion in God and in Christ, and fully redeemed by Christ, enjoy a happiness in every respect complete. In fine, not those that perish, who are constrained to satisfy in their own persons for their sins, to the uttermost farthing. The blood of Christ, says Remigius, formerly Bishop of Lyons, is a great price; such a price can in no respect be in vain and ineffectual, but rather is filled with the superabundant advantage arising from those blessings for which it is paid. Nay, the satisfaction of Christ for the reprobate had not only been useless, but highly unworthy both of God and of Christ. Unworthy of the wisdom, goodness, and justice of God, to exact and receive satisfaction from His most beloved Son for those whom He neither gave nor wanted to give His Son, and whom He decreed to consign to everlasting confinement to suffer in their own persons, according to the demerit of their crimes. Unworthy of Christ, to give His blood a price of redemption for those whom He had not in charge to redeem.’
’In respect of its intrinsic worth,’ says Brown of Haddington, ’as the obedience and sufferings of a Divine person, Christ’s satisfaction is sufficient for the ransom of all mankind, and, being fulfilled in human nature, is equally suited to all their necessities. But in respect of His and His Father’s intention, it was paid and accepted instead of the elect, and to purchase their eternal happiness. Christ died for those only for whom He undertook, as SURETY, in the covenant of grace, in order to obtain their eternal salvation.’ Brown of Wamphray, in his Arguments against Universal Redemption, says: — ’All that Christ died for must certainly be saved. But all men shall not be saved. Christ’s death was a redemption, and we are said to be redeemed thereby. And therefore all such as He laid down this redemption or redemption-money for, must of necessity be redeemed and saved; and consequently He did not die for all, seeing all are not redeemed and saved. That all such for whom this redemption-money was paid, and this ransom was given, must be saved, is clear, otherwise it were no redemption; a ransom given for captives doth say that these captives, in law and justice, ought to be set at liberty. Christ’s intercession is really a presenting unto God the oblation made. Therefore, says the Apostle, Hebrews 9:24, that Christ is entered into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us; and so, by appearing, He intercedeth, and His appearing in His own blood, whereby He obtained eternal redemption, Hebrews 9:12; and so His intercession must be for all for whom the oblation was made, and the eternal redemption was obtained.’
Many suppose that in preaching the Gospel it is necessary to tell every man that Christ died for him, and that if Christ did not actually atone for the sins of every individual, the Gospel cannot be preached at all. But this is very erroneous. The Gospel declares that Christ died for the guilty, and that the most guilty who believe it shall be saved. ’It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’ even the chief of sinners. The Gospel does not tell every individual to whom it is addressed, that Christ died for him, but that if he believes he shall be saved. This is a warrant to preach the Gospel unto all men; and it is only as he is a believer that it is known to any man that Christ died for him individually. To preach the Gospel then to every man, and call on every one to believe and be saved, is quite consistent, as it is a truth that whoever believes shall be saved. If the most guilty of the human race believe in Jesus, there is the most perfect certainty that he shall be saved. If any man is straitened in preaching the Gospel, and finds a difficulty in calling on all men to believe, except he can at the same time tell them that Christ died for every individual of the human race, he does not clearly understand what the Gospel is. It is the good news that Christ died for the most guilty that believe, not that He died for every individual, whether he believe or not. To the truth that every man shall be saved who believes, there is no exception. If there are any sins that will never be pardoned, they imply that the individuals guilty of them will never believe; for if they believe, they will be saved. Whatever, then, the sin against the Holy Ghost may be supposed to be, it implies final unbelief; and the best way to relieve those persons who may think they are guilty of this sin, is not to labor to make them understand what the sin against the Holy Ghost is, but to make them see that, if they now believe, they cannot have ever committed the unpardonable sin. To suppose that any believe who will not be saved, is to suppose a contradiction in the word of God.
The difficulty of those who feel themselves restrained in exhorting sinners to believe the Gospel, on the ground that the atonement of Christ was not made for all, is the same as that which is experienced by some who, believing the doctrine of election, suppose it inconsistent to exhort all indiscriminately to believe the Gospel, since it is certain that they who are not chosen to eternal life will never be saved. In this they err. The Gospel, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, is to be made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. It is certain, however, that they for whom Christ did not die, and who do not belong to the election of grace, will not believe. These are secret things which belong to God, to be revealed in their proper time. But the Gospel is the fan in Christ’s hand, who, by means of it, will thoroughly purge His adore, separating those who are His sheep from the rest of the world lying in the wicked one. He has therefore commanded it to be preached to all men; and by it those will be discovered for whom His atonement was made, and whom God hath chosen from the foundation of the world, and predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself We are not, then, to inquire first, either for ourselves or others, for whom Christ died, and who are chosen to eternal life, before we determine to whom the Gospel is to be preached; but to preach it to all, with the assurance that whoever believes it shall receive the remission of sins. In believing it, we ascertain for ourselves that Christ bare our sins in His own body on the tree, and that God from the beginning hath chosen us to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
The atonement of Christ is of infinite value; and the reason why all men are not saved by it, is not for want of its being of sufficient value, but because it was not made for all. In itself, it was sufficient to make atonement for the sins of all mankind, had it been so intended. His sacrifice could not have been sufficient for any, if it had not been sufficient for all. An atonement of infinite value was necessary for every individual that shall be saved, and more could not be necessary for all the world. This intrinsic sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice was doubtless in view in the Divine appointment concerning it. God made provision of such a sacrifice as was not only sufficient effectually to take away the sins of all the elect, but also sufficient to be laid before all mankind, in the dispensation of the Gospel. In the Gospel it was to be declared to all men, that in their nature the Son of God had made an atonement of infinite value, and brought in everlasting righteousness, which shall be upon all that believe. This atonement, then, being all-sufficient in itself, is proclaimed to all who hear the Gospel. All are invited to rely upon it for pardon and acceptance, as freely and fully as if they knew that God designed it for them from all eternity; and all who thus rely upon it shall experience the blessing of its efficacy and infinite value. In the proclamation of the Gospel, no restriction is held forth respecting election or reprobation. No difference is announced between one sinner and another. Without any distinction the call is addressed, and a gracious welcome proclaimed, to all the children of Adam. ’Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.’ And well might the Apostle say in his own name, and that of the believers whom he addresses in the passage before us, ’We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.’
We come now to the second division of this chapter, from Romans 5:12-19. Having spoken of justification by faith, and having called our attention to several points connected with it, the Apostle now speaks of it as it was as figuratively exhibited in the condemnation of the human race in Adam. He first directs attention to the one man by whom sin was brought into the world, and declares that death came by sin. This necessarily imports that death is the lot of all that sin, and of none but such as are sinners. If death entered because of sin, it could affect none who were not guilty. But the Apostle does not leave this to be inferred, although this inference is both necessary and obvious. He draws it himself. ’So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; ’thus plainly asserting that all are sinners upon whom death passes. Every step in this process is natural and obvious. We may trace the very train in the Apostle’s mind. We may see the reason of every subjoined expression. Having said that all are sinners who die, it immediately occurs to him that to some this would appear strange; he proceeds, therefore, to show how all have sinned. This he does by observing that sin was in the world before the law of Moses, and that it had existed from Adam until the law was given. But this, as he observes, could not have been the case, had not law existed; ’for sin is not imputed where there is no law.’ What, then, is the evidence that sin existed before the law of Moses? The evidence is, that death reigned. And what is the evidence that sin existed in infants? The evidence is, that death reigned over them. If death came upon man by sin, it could have no dominion over any of the human race who were not sinners. Adam is called the figure of Him that was to come; and this must not be confined to one or two particulars, but must extend to everything in which Christ’s seed are one with Him, as contrasted with everything in which Adam’s seed are one with him. If Christ’s seed are one with him in any characteristic point in which Adam’s seed are not one with him, then the ’figure,’ or type, would fail. Having shown the similarity, the Apostle proceeds to show the dissimilarity, or the abounding of grace over what was lost in Adam. This he continues to the end of Romans 5:19, summing up in the 18th and 19th verses what he had referred to in the 12th, from which he was led by the considerations above specified.
In proceeding to analyze what is taught in Romans 5:12-19, Mr. Stuart professes to feel great difficulty. Considering the lamentable manner in which he has perverted and misrepresented the whole passage, this is not at all surprising. In his Synopsis, he says, ’As the consequences of Adam’s sin were extended to all men, so the consequences of Christ’s obedience (viz., unto death) are extended to all; i.e., Jesus and Gentiles, all come on an equal footing into the kingdom of Christ,’ p. 196. And again he says, that verses 12-19 ’are designed at once to confirm the statement made in chapter 3:23-30, and 4:10-19; i.e., to confirm the sentiment that Gentiles as well as Jews may rejoice in the reconciliation effected by Christ; while, at the same time, the whole representation serves very much to enhance the greatness of the blessings which Christ has procured for sinners by the contrast in which these blessings are placed,’ p. 198. There is here no reference at all to the distinction between Jews and Gentiles. The design is evidently to show the likeness between the way in which righteousness and life came, and the way in which condemnation and death came, the former by Christ, the latter by Adam. He adds, ’I cannot perceive the particular design of introducing such a contrast in this place, unless it be to show the propriety and justice of extending the blessings of reconciliation to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews, and to set off to the best advantage the greatness of these blessings.’ But the extension of these blessings to the Gentiles, however important a truth, and however much dwelt on in other places, has nothing to do in this place, or with this contrast. The contrast here introduced is the same, whether the blessings are supposed to be confined to the Jews, or also extended to the Gentiles. The contrast is not between Jew and Gentile, but between Adam and Christ, between the way of condemnation and the way of justification. How does Mr. Stuart bring in the distinction between Jews and Gentiles? He might as well introduce it into the history of the creation. But the common view of the passage is quite in accordance with the preceding context. The difficulty he feels is a difficulty to reconcile it with his own unscriptural views of this part of the word of God.
The following observations of President Edwards on the connection of this passage, in reference to the Commentary of Dr. Taylor, are equally applicable to the difficulties experienced respecting it by Mr. Stuart: — ’No wonder, when the Apostle is treating so fully and largely of our restoration, righteousness, and life by Christ, that he is led by it to consider our fall, sin, death, and ruin by Adam; and to observe wherein these two opposite heads of mankind agree, and wherein they differ, in the manner of conveyance of opposite influences and communications from each. Thus, if this place be understood, as it is used to be understood by orthodox divines, the whole stands in a natural, easy, and clear connection with the preceding part of the chapter, and all the former part of the Epistle; and in a plain agreement with the express design of all that the Apostle had been saying; and also in connection with the words last before spoken, as introduced by the two immediately preceding verses where he is speaking of our justification, reconciliation, and salvation by Christ; which leads the Apostle directly to observe how, on the contrary, we have sin and death by Adam. Taking this discourse of the Apostle in its true and plain sense, there is no need of great extent of learning, or depth of criticism, to find out the connection; but if it be understood in Dr. Taylor’s sense, the plain scope and connection are wholly lost, and there was truly need of a skill in criticism, and art of discerning, beyond, or at least different from, that of former divines, and a faculty of seeing something afar off, which other men’s sight could not reach, in order to find out the connection.’ — Original Sin, p. 312. It would be well if those who will not receive the kingdom of God as little children, would employ their ’skill in criticism, and art of discerning,’ on any other book than the Bible.
Romans 5:12 — Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
The general object of the Apostle in this place it is not at all difficult to perceive. He had treated largely of the doctrine of justification by faith, evinced its necessity, shown its accordance with the Old Testament Scriptures, and unfolded some of the privileges of a justified state; and now he illustrates and displays the Gospel salvation, by contrasting it with the misery and ruin introduced by the fall, and manifesting, in the plan of mercy, a super abounding of grace over transgression, and thus, as has been already remarked, exhibits the foundation both of condemnation and of justification.
In the preceding verse, Paul had stated that he himself, and those to whom he wrote, had been brought into a state of reconciliation with God. Reconciliation, as has been noticed, implies two things, — first, that the parties referred to had been in a state of alienation and hostility; and, secondly, that this hostility has ceased, and their discord been amicably terminated. Occasion is here given to the development and illustration of both these points, — first, the ground of the hostility and its effects, with which the Apostle commences in the verse before us; and next, the manner, with its consequences, in which this hostility has been terminated. This last he unfolds in the 15th and following verses, to the end of the 18th verse, and then in the 19th sums up the whole discussion which properly follows from the declaration in the 11th verse of the reconciliation.
Wherefore — This introduces the conclusion which the Apostle draws in the 18th verse, but which is for a few moments interrupted by the explanatory parenthesis interposed from verse 13th to 17th inclusive. It connects with what goes before from the beginning of the 10th verse, especially with the one preceding, in which it is declared that through our Lord Jesus Christ believers have now received the reconciliation. It also connects with what follows, as an inference drawn from what is still to be mentioned, of which we have several examples in the apostolic writings. Wherefore, or for this reason, namely, that as by one man sin entered, so by one Man came righteousness. As introduces a comparison or contrast, of which, however, only one branch is here stated, as the Apostle is immediately led off into the explanatory parenthesis already noticed, which terminates with the 17th verse. In the 18th verse he reverts to the comparison, not directly, however, but with reference to the intermediate verses and on account of the interruption, not only states it in substance, but repeats it in both its parts.
By one man sin entered into the world — Mr. Stuart interprets this as equivalent to sin commenced with one man. Sin did indeed commence with one man; but this is not the Apostle’s meaning. If ever sin commenced among the human race, it must have commenced by one. But the Apostle means to tell us not merely that sin commenced by one, but that it came upon all the world from one. This is the only point of view in which the sin of Adam causing death can be contrasted with the righteousness of Christ giving life.
Death by sin: — If death came through sin, then all who die are sinners. This proves, contrary to Mr. Stuart’s view, that infants are sinners in Adam. Death is the wages of sin. It is the dark badge of man’s alienation from God, the standing evidence that he is by nature separated from the Fountain of Life, and allied to corruption. If infants did not participate in the guilt of Adam’s sin, they would not experience death, disease, or misery, until they become themselves actual transgressors. ’Who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?’ Job 4:7. And so, that is, consequently, or in this manner, and not, as Mr. Stuart interprets it, in like manner — This shows the consequence of what is said in the former clauses, namely, that death comes upon all because all have sinned, being participators in the one man’s offense. Death passed, literally passed through; that is, passed through from father to son. All men — that is, all of the human race, and not all merely who actually sin. As a matter of fact, we see that death does pass upon all without exception. For that — or inasmuch as. Augustine, Beza, and others, translate this ’in whom,’ and this interpretation most conclusively supports the doctrine of imputed sin. But the ordinary rendering, as adopted by our translators, as well as by Calvin and others, seems on the whole to be preferable; nor does the doctrine in question require for its support any other than the common translation. The meaning is, that death passes on all men because all men are sinners. Mr. Stuart makes this to refer to those who are actually sinners. But there is no warrant for this. Besides, all have not actually sinned. And this would not serve his purpose, because, at all events, it is here implied that death comes on men on account of sin. Since, then, infants die, it proves that they are sinners If the assertion be, that death passes on adults because they are sinners, it may be asked why death, which is ’the wages of sin,’ passes upon children, on the supposition that they are not sinners? And further, where is the likeness, if the expression ’and so’ be interpreted in like manner? Is there any likeness between sin entering the world through one offense, and a man dying by his own actual sin? Is there not rather the strongest contrast? Still less would this illustrate the way of justification through Christ, which is the Apostle’s object in this place. It is quite obvious that the Apostle designs to assert that all die because all are sinners.
All have sinned — That is, all have really sinned, though not in their own persons. This does not mean, as some explain it, that infants become involved in the consequences of Adam’s sin without his guilt. Adam stood as the head, the forefather and representative of all his posterity They were all created in him; and in the guilt of his sin, as well as its consequence, they became partakers. These truths, that sin, death, and condemnation come upon all by one man, are clearly expressed in the following verses, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Through the offense of one, many are dead. The judgment was by the one that sinned to condemnation. By one man’s offense death reigned by one. By the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. Mr. Stuart labors to restrict the declaration in the first to an assertion of individual and actual transgression. If he could have succeeded, the doctrine of the sin of Adam being counted to us would have remained unshaken, because it no more depends only on this verse, than the doctrine of our Lord’s divinity solely upon those individual texts against which Socinians direct all the force of their unhallowed criticisms. But the doctrine of imputed sin is evidently contained in the verse under consideration. Adam’s sin was as truly the sin of every one of his posterity, as if it had been personally committed by him. It is only in this way that all could be involved in its consequences. Besides, it is only in this light that it is illustrative of justification by Christ. Believers truly die with Christ, and pay the debt in Him by their union or oneness with Him. It belongs not to us to inquire how these things can be. We receive them on the testimony of God. Secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our children.
Romans 5:13 — For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed where there is no law.
This verse and the following are obviously interposed in vindication of the assertion that ’all have sinned.’ It might be argued by opponents of the Gospel, that if there was no law, and therefore no transgression, anterior to Moses, the Apostle’s declaration would not hold good in respect to that long period which elapsed before the promulgation of the written commandments at Mount Sinai. In reply, Paul reasons backward from death to sin, and from sin to law. Admitting, in the last clause of the verse, that sin could not be imputed without law, he proves that sin was in the world by the undeniable fact that there was death; and if this proves that there was sin, then it inevitably follows that there must have been law: and thus he evinces the fallacy of the assumption on which the objection is founded. Death, he had shown, was, in all, the consequence of sin. But before the Mosaic law, as well as afterward, death reigned in the world universally, and with supreme dominion.
Until the Law. — That is, from the entrance of sin and death by Adam until the law of Moses. It is hardly needful to remark that the use of the word ’until’ does not imply a cessation of sin on the introduction of the Mosaic economy. Was, — that is, really was, or truly existed, — not, according to Dr. Macknight, ’was counted,’ as if Adam’s posterity had his first sin counted to them, though it was not really theirs. It was their sin as truly as it was that of Adam, otherwise the justice of God would never have required that they should suffer for it. But it is not our business to try to account for this on principles level to the capacity of man, but to receive it as little children, on the authority of God. But sin is not imputed — Many are greatly in error in the interpretation of this expression, understanding it as if before the giving of the law sin existed, but was not imputed; but if sin exists, it must be reckoned sin. It means that sin does not exist where there is no law. The conclusion, therefore, is, that as sin is not reckoned where there is no law, and as sin was reckoned, or as it existed, before the law of Moses, therefore there was law before the law of Moses. The passage may be thus paraphrased: — ’For sin existed among men from Adam to Moses, as well as afterwards. Yet there is no sin where there is no law. There were, then, both sin and law before the giving of the law of Moses.’ The law before Moses is that which God had promulgated, besides the law written in the heart, which makes all men accountable.
Romans 5:14 — Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come.
Nevertheless, or but — That is, though it is a truth that there is no sin where there is no law, and that where there is no law transgressed there is no death, yet we see that death reigned from Adam to Moses, as well as from Moses to the present time. The conclusion from this is self-evident, and therefore the Apostle leaves his readers to draw it, — namely, that the human race have always been under law, and have universally been transgressors. Even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. — Some suppose that the persons referred to are those who did not, like Adam, break a revealed or a positive law. But this is objected to on the following grounds: —
1st, There is no strong or striking difference, and therefore no contrast, between the different methods of promulgating a law. Whether a law is made known by being written on the heart or on tables, is to the persons to whom it comes a matter with which they have no concern. A contrast might as well be made between those who know a law by reading it themselves, and those who hear it read, or between those who hear it immediately from the lawgiver, and those who hear it through the medium of others.
2nd, The reason of introducing the persons referred to by the word even, implies that they are such persons as apparently ought to be excluded from the reign of sin and death. This cannot designate those who in any way know the law. But it evidently applies to infants. No one will cordially receive this except the man who, like a little child, submits to the testimony of God. Indeed, no man can understand the grounds of this imputation, so as to be able perfectly to justify it on principles applicable to human life. It must always stand, not on our ability to see its justice, but on our belief that God speaks true, and that it is just, as the Judge of all the earth in all things does justly, whether we are able to see it or not.
3rd, The word even supposes that the persons referred to are but a portion of those generally included in the declaration of the preceding clauses. These cannot be such as received not a positive law, for all, from Adam to Moses, are such; but it will apply to infants. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, over all the human race, even over infants, who did not actually sin, but sinned in Adam.
4th, Who is the image, figure, or type. — This appears to have been suggested from the immediately preceding clause, and to imply that the persons referred to were sinners, or transgressors of law, just as the saved are righteous — the former sinners in Adam, although they had not actually sinned as he did, just as the others are righteous in Christ, although not actually righteous like Him. Those who are saved fulfill the law just as the others break the law, namely, in their great head or representative. But,
5th, Even if the persons here referred to were those who did not break a positive or a revealed law, yet it will come to the same thing. If the reign of death proves the reign of sin in such persons, must not the reign of death over infants equally prove the reign of sin? If the death of adults before the time of Moses was a proof of their being sinners, then of necessity the death of infants must prove the same thing. If death does not prove sin in infants, it cannot prove sin in any. If infants may die though they are not sinners, then may adults die without being sinners.
In alluding to the second and third reasons given above, it is observed in the Presbyterian Review, ’Such reasons as the two which we have copied above from Mr. Haldane, no advocate of the other explanation, so far as we have observed, has ever attempted to touch. They are clear and unembarrassed, and the last of them, especially, possesses all the power of a reductio ad absurdum. It places in a strange light the somewhat inelegant and feeble iteration, to say the least, which Turretine and Stuart would ascribe to the Apostle, — nevertheless sin reigned where there was no law, even over those who sinned without a law. The general import of verses 13 and 14 is given with great precision and beauty by Cornelius à Lapide. "You will object, that where there is no law, there can be no sin. As the men, however, in the interval between Adam and Moses died, it is obvious that they must necessarily have been sinners. And in case you may perchance insinuate that this is merely a proof of their actual sins, and not of original guilt, I appeal to children, who, although they had not offended against any (positive) Divine law, were also, during that period, subject to death. If infants, then, are included in the Apostle’s declaration, we may infer from it directly the imputation to them of Adam’s sin, as they have no actual transgression of their own which could render them obnoxious to the threatened punishment; and indeed, whether they are directly included or not, the simple fact that they die cannot be set aside, nor can the inference be evaded, that they are sinners by imputation." We are not ignorant that Mr. Stuart, in one of his Excursus, demurs to this conclusion, considering "temporal evils and death as discipline, probation, sui generis," — p. 521. We started, we confess, to find so glaring a revival of the miserable sophistry of Taylor of Norwich, and felt disposed just to repeat the words "sui generis," and leave to his own power of refutation a sentiment which would have made even Heracl*tus smile. But, seriously, if death is discipline, it is of the nature of chastisem*nt; and is it the custom of a most tender parent to chastise a child that never offended him? Is it the practice of men who wish to be understood, to speak of mere discipline in such language as this, — "Cursed is the ground for thy sake;" — "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death?" Is it quite consistent to deny, under every variety of form, and with all possible intensity of asseveration, the moral agency of infants, and then to represent them as the subjects of a discipline from which, on this hypothesis, they can derive no benefit, or to resolve death, in one place, into a kind of sui generas probation, and in another to admit that the facts of the evils of this life turning to a good account in respect to those who love God, "does not show that they are not evils in themselves, nor that they are not a part of the curse?" In fine, does not the fantasy that death is a sort of discipline, go to overturn the doctrine of the Savior’s sacrifice? If death is discipline generally, how can you show that it was anything else in the case of Christ? Yet unless in His case it was punitive, the salvation of sinners must cease for ever, — it is not true that by His stripes we can be healed.’
Figure of Him that was to come — Efforts are made by some to involve in uncertainty and obscurity a very clear subject, making it a matter of difficulty. What are the aspects in which this likeness consists? Mr. Stuart instances a number of particulars, in which he makes the likeness on the part of Christ to extend to certain benefits, which His death has conferred on all mankind. But this is neither contained in this place, nor in any other passage of Scripture. This fanciful and most unscriptural commentator wishes to evade the conclusion that Adam’s sin condemned all his posterity, and attempts to establish that it only indirectly led to that result. But it is evident, from the connection, that Adam must here be represented as a figure of Christ in that transgression which is spoken of, and in its consequences. His transgression, and the ruin it brought on all mankind, as being one with him, was a figure of the obedience to the law, and the suffering of the penalty, and the recovery from its condemnation, by our being one with Christ as our covenant-head.
The resemblance, on account of which Adam is regarded as the type of Christ, consists in this, that Adam communicated to those whom he represented what belonged to him, and that Christ also communicated to those whom He represents what belonged to Him. There is, however, a great dissimilarity between what the one and the other communicates By his disobedience Adam has communicated sin and death, and by His obedience Christ has communicated righteousness and life; and as Adam was the author of the natural life of his posterity, so Christ is the author of the spiritual life which His people now possess, and which they shall enjoy at their resurrection, so that, in accordance with these analogies, He is called the last Adam. If, then, the actual obedience of Christ is thus imputed to all those of whom He is the head, and is counted to them for their justification as their own obedience; in the same way, the actual sin of Adam, who is the type of Christ, is imputed to all those of whom he is the head, and is counted for their condemnation, as their own sin. In writing to those at Corinth, who were ’sanctified in Christ Jesus,’ the Apostle says, ’The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.’ The information which the Scriptures give us of the sin of the first man, show that it was a complete subversion of nature, and the establishment of the kingdom of Satan in the world; they also show us that the purpose of sending Jesus Christ into the world was to destroy the empire of Satan, sin, and death. ’We read, says Mr. Bell On the Covenants,’ of two Adams, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49. As the one is called the first man, the other is called the second, even the Lord from heaven. Now, as there were innumerable multitudes of men between the first man and Him, it is plain that He is called the second man for some very peculiar reason. And what else can that be, but because He is the representative and father of all His spiritual seed, as the first man was of all his natural seed? The one is the head, the federal head of the earthly men, the other of the heavenly. Since the one is called the second man, not because He was the second in the order of creation, but because He was the second public head, it follows that the other is called the first man not because he was first created, or in opposition to his descendants, but because he was the first public head in opposition to Christ the second. Thus the two Adams are the heads of the two covenants. The one the representative of all who are under the covenant of works, communicating his image unto them; the other the representative of all who are under the covenant of grace, and communicating His image unto them. By the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, and by the obedience of the other many shall be made righteous.’
Romans 5:15 — But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Not as the offense, so also is the free gift — There is a likeness between the sin of Adam and the gift of righteousness by Christ. But, as in most instances with regard to types, the anti type surpasses the type; and while in some respects the type furnishes a likeness, in others it may be very dissimilar. The sin of Adam involved all his posterity in guilt and ruin, as they were all created in him as their head, and consequently in him are guilty by his disobedience. This was a shadow of the gift of righteousness by grace. All Christ’s seed were created in Him, Ephesians 2:10, and are righteous by His obedience. But while the one was a type of the other in this respect, there is a great dissimilarity both as to the degree of the evil and of the blessing. The evil brought death, but the blessing not only recovered from ruin, but abounded to unspeakable happiness. If through the offense of one many be dead, or died. — Here it is taken for granted that ’the many’ who die, die through Adam’s offense. Infants, then, die through Adam’s offense, for they are a part of ’the many.’ But we have before seen that death comes only by sin, — that is, none die who are not sinners, and there is no sin where there is no law, — consequently infants are sinners, and must be included in the law under which Adam sinned. If infants die by Adam’s offense, they must be guilty by Adam’s offense; for God does not visit with the punishment of sin where there is no sin. Grace of God, and gift by grace. — These differ, as the one is the spring and fountain of the other. The gift, namely, the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17), is a gift which results purely from grace. Some explain this phrase as if by a figure one thing is made into two. But they are really two things. By one man, Jesus Christ. — The gift comes only by Jesus Christ. Without His atonement for sin, the gift could not have been made. Grace could not operate till justice was satisfied.
Much more hath abounded unto many. — The greater abounding cannot possibly be with respect to the greater number of individuals benefited. None are benefited by Christ but those who were ruined in Adam; and only a part of those who were ruined are benefited. In this respect, then, instead of an abounding, there is a shortcoming. The abounding is evidently in the gift extending, not only to the recovery of what Adam lost, but to blessings which Adam did not possess, and had no reason to expect. The redeemed are raised in the scale of being above all creatures, whereas they were created lower than the angels. Some are of opinion that the Apostle here rests the abounding of the gift on a supposition, which in the following verses he proves. Thus, as so much evil has come by Adam, it may well be supposed that much more good will come by Christ. But this is evidently mistaking the meaning altogether. The Apostle does not rest on supposition derived from the nature of the case; he asserts a fact. He does not say that it may well be supposed that a greater good comes by Christ than the evil that came by Adam; but he says that the good that comes by Christ does more than repair the evil that came by Adam.
Romans 5:16 — And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification.
By one that sinned — Many read by one sin; but the common reading is preferable. The meaning is, in the case of the one that sinned, namely, Adam, condemnation came by one offense; but the free gift of righteousness extends to many offenses, and to life eternal. This is another particular in which the gift exceeds the evil. It not only, as is stated in the last verse, confers more than Adam lost, but it pardons many sins; whereas condemnation came by one sin on the part of Adam. The gift by grace, then, not only procures to him who receives it the pardon of that one offense on account of which he fell under condemnation, but it brings to him the pardon of his many personal offenses, although these offenses deepen and aggravate the condemnation, and bear witness that he allows the deeds of his first father. Judgment, or sentence — The original word here often itself signifies condemnation, or a condemning sentence; but as it here issues in condemnation, it must denote simply sentence, a judgment, without involving the nature of that sentence. Condemnation — Here it is expressly asserted that condemnation has come by the one sin of the one man. If, then, all are condemned by that sin, all must be guilty by it, for the righteous Judge would not condemn the innocent. To say that any are condemned or punished for Adam’s sin, who are not guilty by it, is to accuse the righteous God of injustice. Can God impute to any man anything that is not true? If Adam’s sin is not ours as truly as it was Adam’s sin, could God impute it to us? Does God deal with men as sinners, while they are not truly such? If God deals with men as sinners on account of Adam’s sin, then it is self-evident that they are sinners on that account. The just God could not deal with men as sinners on any account which did not make them truly sinners. The assertion, however, that Adam’s sin is as truly ours as it was his, does not imply that it is his and ours in the same sense. It was his personally; it is ours because we were in him. Adam’s sin, then, is as truly ours as it was his sin, though not in the same way. By one — Some make the substantive understood to be man. But though this would be a truth, yet, from the nature of the sentence, it is evident that the substantive understood is not man, but sin; for it is opposed to the many offenses. It is, then, the one offense opposed to many offenses. Unto justification — the free gift confers the pardon of the many offenses in such a way that the person becomes righteous; he is, of course, justified.
Romans 5:17 — For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
By one man’s offense — rather, by the offense of the one man. The margin has ’by one offense,’ for which there is no foundation. Death reigned — It is here said that death reigned by the offense of the one man; consequently every one over whom death reigns is involved in that one offense of that one man. The empire of death, then, extends over infants and all men, on account of the one man. Instead of dying for their actual sins, death is to all men the penalty of the first sin. Reigned — Those who die are here supposed to be the subjects of death, and death is considered as their king. If infants were not guilty in Adam, they could not be under the dominion of death. If they are not worthy of condemnation till they sin actually, they would not die till they sin actually. Much more — Here the abounding of the gift over the evil is specified. Those redeemed by the death of Christ are not merely recovered from the fall, but made to reign through Jesus Christ, to which they had no title in Adam’s communion. The saved are described as receiving abundance of grace, or the superabundance, — that is, the grace that abounds over the loss. This applies to all the redeemed. They all receive the superabundance of grace; they all receive more than was lost. They are also said to receive the super abounding of the gift of righteousness. This refers to the superior righteousness possessed by the redeemed, which is better than that which in innocence was possessed by Adam; for theirs is the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of Him who is God. To this the righteousness of Adam and of angels cannot be compared. Shall reign in life — Believers are to be kings as well as priests. All this they are to be through the one Jesus Christ; for as they were one with Adam in his fall, so they are one with Christ in His victory and triumph. If He be a king, they also are kings; for they are one with Him as they were one with Adam. They shall not be re-established in the terrestrial paradise in which man was first placed subject to the danger of falling, but shall be conducted to honor, and glory, and immortality, in the heavenly world, before the throne of God, without the smallest danger of ever losing that blessing. They shall eat of the tree of life, which, says Christ, ’I will give’ them, not on earth, but in the midst of the paradise of God. Speaking of His sheep, in the character of a Shepherd, Jesus Christ Himself says, ’I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’ ’I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.’ ’Your life is hid with Christ in God,’ Colossians 3:3. By all this we learn the excellence of that life in which believers shall reign, by whom it is conferred, its absolute security, and eternal duration.
Romans 5:18 — Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Therefore, or wherefore, then. — There are two words in the original: the one word signifies wherefore, the other signifies then, or consequently. It states the result of what was said. By the offense of one, or by one offense. — Both of these are equally true, but the latter appears to be the design of the Apostle, as the word one wants the article. There is nothing in the original corresponding to the terms judgment and free gift, but they are rightly supplied by an ellipsis from Romans 5:16. Condemnation — Here it is expressly asserted that all men are condemned in the first offense. Infants, then, are included. If they are condemned, they cannot be innocent — they must be sinners; for condemnation would not have come upon them for a sin that is not theirs. The whole human race came under the condemnation of death in all its extent — spiritual, temporal, and eternal. Even so, — that is, in the same manner. By the righteousness of one, or rather, by one righteousness. Mr. Stuart prefers the former because of the antithesis, di’ eJno>v dikaiw>atov, which, he says, ’naturally cannot mean anything but the righteousness of one (not one righteousness).’ But the phrase alluded to can very naturally and properly signify one righteousness, as the obedience of Christ is summed up in His act of obedience to death. Righteousness here, Mr. Stuart renders obedience, holiness, righteousness. But it is righteousness in its proper sense. By the one act of giving Himself for our sins, Christ brought in everlasting righteousness. The free gift came upon all men. — How did the free gift of the righteousness of God come upon all men, seeing all are not saved? Mr. Stuart explains it as signifying that righteousness is provided for all. But this is not the Apostle’s statement. The coming of the free gift upon all is contrasted with the coming of condemnation on all, and therefore it cannot mean that condemnation actually came upon all, while the free gift was only provided for all. Besides, it is added, unto justification of life. — This is the issue of the coming of the free gift. It ends in the justification of life. Upon all men — The persons here referred to must be those, and those only, who are partakers of justification, and who shall be finally saved. What then? Are all men to be justified? No; but the ’all men’ here said to be justified, are evidently the ’all’ of every nation, tribe, and kindred, whether Jews or Gentiles, represented by Christ. All who have been one with Adam were involved in his condemnation, and all who are one with Christ shall be justified by His righteousness.
No violence is necessary in order to restrict the universality of the terms ’all men’ as they appear in this verse. General expressions must ever be construed with reference to their connection, and the context sufficiently defines their meaning. There is here an obvious and specific reference to the two heads of the human race, the first and the second man; and the ’all men,’ twice spoken of in this verse, are placed in contrast to each other, as denoting the two families into which the world is divided. The all men, then, must be limited to their respective heads. When this is understood, the meaning is alike clear and consistent, but without this all is dark and incongruous. If the ’all men’ in the latter clause of the verse are made to apply to mankind without exception, then it follows that all men are justified, and all are made partakers of eternal life. But as this would contradict truth and Scripture, so the whole tenor of the Apostle’s argument proves that the interpretation already stated is the true one. On account of the offense of Adam, sentence of death was pronounced upon all whom he represented. On account of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, sentence of justification unto life was pronounced in favor of all whom He represented.
’That the two multitudes,’ it is observed in the Presbyterian Review, ’are co-extensive, that the point of the similitude is in some effect common to the whole human race,’ Mr. Stuart infers, quite as a matter of course, from this 18th verse, "As by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life." And were we to confine our view to that verse, the inference might appear sufficiently probable. But we must attend to the scope of the whole section, and take care that we do not affix to one clause a signification which would make it a downright contradiction of another, of which the meaning is written as with a sunbeam. Now the sacred penman is throughout comparing Adam and Christ in their influence on two great bodies of human beings, and illustrating, by the comparison, the doctrine of justification. He states the likeness at first broadly, but lest his readers should be disposed to extend it too far, he accompanies it, in verses 15-17, with some explanations and restrictions. In these verses, therefore, the two contrasted multitudes must be the same as those mentioned in the general statement of verses 18 and 19, unless we wish to make the Apostle guilty of the deception of changing his terms upon us in the course of his argument, and while he is developing a similarity between A and B, interposing some limitations which have no reference to the connection of these terms, but which bear upon the relative positions of A and C. Now the multitude mentioned in the latter member of the contrast, which verses 15-17 express, is not the whole of mankind. It will not be pretended that all men obtain justification (Romans 5:16), or that all "shall reign in life through Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17). In these verses the second member cannot be understood as comprising the entire human race; and as, confessedly, the phrase "all men" (see John 12:32; 2 Corinthians 3:2) may be used in a limited signification, there is no obvious reason why, in Romans 5:18, it must be so used.
There is just one objection to this exegesis which it is worth while to notice. Mr. Stuart thus states it: — "If we say that sentence of eternal perdition, in its highest sense, comes upon all men by the offense of Adam, and this without any act on their part, or even any voluntary concurrence in their present state and condition of existence, then, in order to make grace superabound over all this, how can we avoid the conclusion that justification, in its highest sense, comes upon all men without their concurrence?" It is always a great convenience to a reviewer when an author refutes himself. This is the case in the present instance. "In regard to the superabounding of the grace of the Gospel," says Mr. Stuart in the very same page, "it must be noted, in order to avoid mistake, that I do not construe it as appertaining to the member of the subjects, but to the number of offenses forgiven by it." Now, on this principle, our view of the diversity of the two multitudes does not abolish the superabundance of grace. To the elect, not merely the penal consequences of Adam’s sin are remitted, but those of all their own innumerable transgressions, and thus grace still maintains its due pre-eminence.
’This objection vanishing so easily by a wave of the same wand which conjured it up, we are enabled fully to conclude, that although the whole of mankind are comprehended in the first number of the comparison, only the elect are included in the second; that the notion of placing extent of influence — the number of persons to whom the condemning or saving energy reaches — among the points of resemblance, obtains no countenance from Paul; and that the opinion resting upon it, that sentence of condemnation can be passed upon none except for actual transgression, has no foundation.’
Romans 5:19 — For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
For — This assigns a reason for what the Apostle has said in the preceding verses. By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. — Here it is expressly asserted that the many (not many; it includes all who were in Adam, that is all the human race) were made sinners by Adam’s disobedience. Mr. Stuart attempts to evade this, by supposing that they are led into sin by the occasion of Adam’s sin. This is a great perversion. Adam’s disobedience is said not merely to be the occasion of leading his posterity into sin, but to have made them sinners. Mr. Stuart rests much on the absurdity of supposing that one man is punished for another’s offense. But, Adam’s offense is the offense of all his posterity. It made them sinners. That sin must be theirs by which they were made sinners. If there is any self-evident truth, this is one of the clearest. We must, like little children, receive God’s testimony upon this as well as every other subject. We must not rest our acquiescence in God’s testimony upon our ability to fathom the depth of His unsearchable counsels. Mr. Stuart makes Adam’s sin merely what he calls the instrumental or occasional cause. But with no propriety can Adam’s sin be called the instrument by which his posterity sinned. This is altogether absurd. And an occasional cause is no cause. Every person knows the difference between a cause and an occasion. Besides, to suppose that Christ’s own obedience is the real cause of our justification, and that Adam’s sin is only the occasion, not properly the cause, of our condemnation, is to destroy the contrast between Adam and Christ, on which the Apostle here insists. If Christ’s obedience is the ground of our justification, Adam’s disobedience must, by the contrast, be the ground of our condemnation.
So by the obedience of one shall the many be made righteous. — Only a part of mankind are included in that covenant of which Christ is the surety. In consequence of Adam being the covenant-head of all mankind, all are involved in his condemnation; but Christ is not the head of all mankind, but of the Church, and to all but the Church He will say, ’I never knew you.’ So, — that is, in this way, not in like manner. — It is not in a manner that has merely some likeness, but it is in the very same manner. For although there is a contrast in the things, the one being disobedience, and the other obedience, yet there is a perfect identity in the manner. This is important, as by the turn given to the word translated so, Mr. Stuart perverts the passage. The many shall be constituted righteous. The many here applies to all in Christ. It is argued that the phrase, ’the many,’ must be equally extensive in its application in both cases. So it is as to the respective representatives. The many, with reference to Adam, includes all his race. The many, with respect to Christ, implies all His seed. Again, if it is said that Adam’s posterity became sinners merely by the example, influence, or occasion of his sin, it may with equal propriety be said that Christ’s posterity became righteous by the example or occasion of His righteousness. This makes the Gospel altogether void.
The passage before us is of the highest importance. It forms a striking conclusion to all that goes before, from the beginning of the 12th verse, and asserts, in plain terms, two grand truths, on which the Gospel in all its parts proceeds, though by many they are strenuously opposed, and by others only partially admitted. In the 12th verse, the Apostle had said that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. In the 13th and 14th verses, he had shown that to this there is no exception; and had further declared that Adam was the figure of Christ who was to come. In the following verses, to the end of the 17th, he had asserted the opposite effects that follow from the sin of the one and the righteousness of the other. In the 18th verse, he had given a summary of what he had said in the preceding verses. Condemnation, he had there affirmed, had come by the offense of one, and justification by the righteousness of one. But as it would not be readily admitted that either a curse or a blessing should come on men on account of the sin or righteousness of another, he here explicitly affirms this truth, which was indeed included in his preceding statements, but being of so great importance, it was proper that it should be declared in the plainest terms. It is grounded on the constituted unity of all men with their covenant-heads. By the disobedience of Adam, those who were one with him in the first creation were made sinners. In the same way, by the obedience of Jesus Christ, they who are one with Him in the new creation are made righteous. This 19th verse contains the explicit declaration of these two facts, and the appellations ’sinners’ and ’righteous’ must be understood in the full extent of these terms. Here, then, these two doctrines of the imputation of sin and of righteousness, which is taught throughout the whole of the Scriptures, is exhibited in a manner so clear, that, without opposing the obvious meaning of the words, they cannot be contested. It is impossible to conceive how men could be made sinners by the disobedience of Adam, or righteous by the obedience of Jesus Christ, in any degree whatever, if the truth of the doctrine of the imputation of the sin of the former, and of the righteousness of the latter, be not admitted.
In order to remove every pretext for the supposition that the sin of Adam is not asserted in this 19th verse to be truly our sin, it is essential to observe that when it is here said that by one man’s disobedience many were made ’sinners,’ there is no reference to the commission of sin, or to our proneness to it from our innate corruption. The reference is exclusively to its guilt. It was formerly shown, in the exposition of the third chapter, that it was in reference to the Divine tribunal, and respecting condemnation, that Paul had all along been considering sin both in regard to Jews and Gentiles, and that his assertion that they are under sin can only signify that they are guilty, since he there repeats in summary what he had before advanced. And he fully establishes this meaning when he afterwards says, in the 19th verse of that chapter, ’that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.’ Now these remarks equally apply to every part of his discussion, from the beginning of the Epistle to the end of this fifth chapter. In the whole course of it, all he says of the commission of sin is solely with a view to establish the guilt of those of whom he speaks, on account of which they are under condemnation, in order that, in contrast, he might exhibit that righteousness by which men, being justified, are freed from guilt and condemnation. In the same manner, it is evident from all the preceding context that by the term sinners in the verse before us, Paul does not mean that through the disobedience of one many were rendered depraved and addicted to the commission of sin, but that they become guilty of sin. In the 15th and 17th verses, he says that through the offense of one many are ’dead,’ and that death reigned; and in verse 16, that the judgment was by one to ’condemnation;’ and this he repeats in the 18th verse, where he says that as by the offense of one or by one offense judgment came upon all men to ’condemnation,’ so by the righteousness of one, or by one righteousness, the free gift came upon all men unto ’justification’ of life. He is speaking, then, all along of sin only in reference to condemnation, and of righteousness only in reference to justification. In the same way, in this 19th verse, where he repeats or sums up all that he had asserted in the preceding verses, when he says that by the disobedience of one many were made ’sinners,’ the reference is exclusively to the guilt of sin, which occasions condemnation. When, on the other hand, he says that by the obedience of one many were made righteous, the reference is exclusively to justification. And as it is evident that the expression righteousness has here no reference to inherent righteousness or sanctification, so the term sinners has no reference to the pollution, indwelling, or actual commission of sin, or the transmission of a corrupt nature; otherwise the contrast would be destroyed, and, without any notification, a new idea would be introduced entirely at variance with the whole of the previous discussion from the beginning of the Epistle, and of that in the immediate connection of this verse with its preceding context. It is then in the guilt of Adam’s sin that the Apostle here asserts we partake; and therefore that sin must be truly our sin, otherwise its guilt could not attach to us.
But although men are here expressly declared to be sinners by the disobedience of Adam, just as they are righteous by the obedience of Christ, this is rejected by multitudes, and by every man in his natural state, to whom the things of God are foolishness. If such an one attends to it at all, it must undergo certain modifications, which, changing its aspect, makes it altogether void. On the other hand, that men are righteous in the way here declared, though not so repulsive to the natural prepossessions of the human mind, meets also with much opposition. But why should there be such reluctance to receive these truths, which by every means possible are attempted to be avoided? To him that submits to them nothing can be more consolatory. He is compelled to acknowledge that he sinned in Adam, and fell under condemnation; but at the same time he is called to rejoice in the heart-cheering declaration, that the righteousness of Christ is his righteousness, because he has been ’created in Christ Jesus,’ Ephesians 2:10, with whom he is one, Galatians 3:28; and that, being thus righteous in Him, he shall reign with Him in life.
While, however, it is solely of the implication of Adam’s sin, and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, that the Apostle is treating, showing that by our oneness with these our respective covenant-heads the sin of the first and the righteousness of the last Adam are really ours, it is proper to remark that, though it is not touched upon in the verse before us, there is a further beautiful analogy between the effect of our union with the first man, who is of the earth earthy, and of our union with the second man, who is the Lord from heaven. We not only partake of the guilt of the personal sin of Adam, and consequently of condemnation, but also of a corrupt nature transmitted from him. In the same way we are partakers not only of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and consequently of justifications but also of sanctification, by a new nature derived from Him.
Mr. Stuart seems to understand that, according to the doctrine of imputation, sins are accounted to Adam’s race that are not their sins, or, in other words, that God accounts a thing to be fact which is not fact; just as he had before affirmed that faith is imputed as righteousness. But Adam’s sin is imputed to his posterity because it is their sin in reality, though we may not be able to see the way in which it is so. Indeed, we should not pretend to explain this? because it is to be believed on the foundation of the Divine testimony, and not on human speculation, or on our ability to account for it.
·1. If God testifies that Adam’s first sin is also that of all his posterity, is He not to be credited? If there be no such Divine testimony, we do not plead for the doctrine. It is on the Divine testimony the doctrine must rest.
·2. Mr. Stuart speaks of imputation in its strict sense, or in a rigid sense. This too much resembles an artifice designed to deceive the simple into the belief that he admits the doctrine, if not substantially, at least in some sense. This, however, is not the fact. He cannot admit imputation in any sense. He does not admit Adam’s sin to be our sin in the lowest degree.
·3. If, in reality, he does admit imputation in the lowest degree, then it is not impossible in the highest. If it is essentially unjust, it cannot exist in the lowest degree. Why then does he speak in this uncandid manner? Does this language betoken a man writing under the full conviction that he is contending for the truth of God? He professes to determine this question by an appeal to the natural sentiments of men. But if this tribunal is sufficient to decide this point, is it not equally of with respect to innumerable others, in which deists and heretics have made a like appeal? On this ground, may not a man say, I cannot admit the eternity of future punishment, for it is contrary to my natural sentiments; I cannot admit that a good Being is the Creator of the world, for He would not have permitted evil to enter it, had He been able to keep it out? He says, p. 233, ’We never did, and never can, feel guilty of another’s act, which was done without any knowledge or concurrence of our own.’ But if God has testified that there is a sense in which that act is our own, shall we not be able to admit and feel it? It altogether depends on the Divine testimony.
Now, such is the testimony of the verse before us in its obvious sense. How this is, or in what sense this is the case, we may not be able to comprehend. This is no part of our business; this is no part of the Divine testimony. We are to believe God on His word, not from our capacity to understand the manner in which the thing testified is true. Mr. Stuart himself asserts, p. 235, that the sufferings of infants may conduce to their eternal good, yet he says, ’in what way I pretend not to determine.’ And are we to determine in what way Adam’s sin is ours, before we admit the fact on the Divine testimony? He says, p. 233, ’We may just as well say that we can appropriate to ourselves and make our own the righteousness of another, as his unrighteousness.’ Here he denies the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. If the Divine testimony assures us that by a Divine constitution we are made one with Christ, is not His righteousness ours? If it be declared that God ’hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,’ shall we not believe it? In opposition to all such infidel reasonings, it is becoming in the believer to say, I fully acknowledge, and I humbly confess, on the testimony of my God, that I am guilty of Adam’s sin; but by the same testimony, and by the same Divine constitution, I believe that I am a partaker of God’s righteousness — the righteousness of my God and Savior Jesus Christ — of the free gift of that righteousness, which not only removes the guilt and all the fatal consequences of that first sin, but of the many offenses which I have myself committed. Regarding the difficulties that in both these respects present themselves, I hear my Savior say, ’What is that to thee? follow thou Me.’ In the meantime, it is sufficient for me to know that the Judge of all the earth will do right. What I know not now, I shall know hereafter.
The summary argument commonly used against the imputation of Adam’s sin, namely, that it is ’contrary to reason,’ proceeds on a mere assumption — an assumption as unwarrantable as that of the Socinian, who denies the Trinity in unity because it is above his comprehension. Most persons are in the habit of considering many things which they cannot fathom, and which they cannot relish, as being contrary to reason. But this is not just. A thing may be very disagreeable, and far beyond the ken of human penetration, which is not contrary to reason. We are not entitled to pronounce anything contrary to reason which does not imply a contradiction. A contradiction cannot be true, but all other things may be true, and, on sufficient evidence, ought to be received as true. That Adam’s sin may, in a certain view, be our sin, and that Christ’s righteousness may, in a certain view, be our righteousness, no man is entitled to deny on the ground of self-evident truth. Whether it is true or not must depend on evidence. Now the testimony of God in the Scriptures leaves no doubt on the subject. Adam’s sin is our sin. Christ’s righteousness is the righteousness of all His people.
If it be contrary to reason to have the sin of Adam counted as our own, it is still worse to suppose that we suffer, as is generally admitted, for a sin which is not ours. If there is injustice in the one, there is much more injustice in the other. This surely is the language of reason, and, as such, has been insisted on by orthodox writers both of our own and of other countries. Of this I shall give the following examples: — ’If that sin of Adam,’ says Brown of Wamphray, in his Life of Justification Opened, p. 179, ’If that sin of Adam be imputed in its curse and punishment, the sin itself must be imputed as to its guilt; else we must say that God curseth and punisheth the posterity that is no ways guilty, which to do suiteth not the justice of God, the righteous Governor of the world.’
’Certainly,’ says B. Pictet, in his Christian Theology, vol. 1: p. 368, ’if the sin of Adam had not been imputed to his descendants, we could not give a reason why God has permitted that the corruption which was in Adam, the consequence of his first sin, should have passed to his posterity. That this reasoning may appear just, we must consider that the corruption which we bring from the womb of our mothers is a very great evil, for it is the source of all sins. To permit, then, that this corruption should pass from fathers to their children, is to inflict a punishment. But how is it that God should punish men, if they had not sinned, and if they were not guilty? Now it is certain that, when this corruption communicates itself from fathers to children, the children themselves have not sinned. It must then be the fact that the sin of Adam is imputed to them, and that God considers them as having part in the sin of their first father.’
’It cannot be explained, consistent with Divine justice,’ says Witsius in his Economy, vol. 1: p. 153, ’how, without a crime, death should have passed upon Adam’s posterity. Prosper reasoned solidly and elegantly as follows: — "Unless, perhaps, it can be said that the punishment, and not the guilt, passed on the posterity of Adam; but to say this is in every respect false, for it is too impious to judge so of the justice of God, as if He would, contrary to His own law, condemn the innocent with the guilty. The guilt, therefore, is evident where the punishment is so; and a partaking in punishment shows a partaking in guilt, — that human misery is not the appointment of the Creator, but the retribution of the Judge."’If, therefore,’ continues Witsius, ’through Adam all are obnoxious to punishment, all, too, must have sinned in Adam.’
A considerable part of the resistance to the imputation of Adam’s sin is owing to the ground on which the evidence of the fact is often rested. It is not simply placed on the authority of the testimony of God, but is attempted to be justified by human procedure. The difficulty that some persons feel on this subject, arises from the supposition that though the sin of the first man is charged upon his posterity, yet it is not theirs. But the Scriptures hold it forth as ours in as true a sense as it was Adam’s. We may be asked to explain how it can be ours, and here we may find ourselves at a loss for an answer. But we ought to consider that we are not obliged to give an answer on this point either to ourselves or others. We are to receive it on the Divine testimony, assured that what God declares must be true, however unable we may be to comprehend it. We ought not to perplex ourselves by endeavoring to ascertain the grounds of the Divine testimony on this subject. Our duty is to understand the import of what is testified, and to receive it on that authority — not to inquire into the justice of the constitution from which our guilt results. This is not revealed, and it is utterly beyond our province and beyond our depth. Did Abraham understand why he was commanded to offer up his son? No. But he was strong in faith, and his faith in obeying in that instance is held forth in Scripture for our imitation. Like Abraham, let us give glory to God, by believing implicitly what we have no means of knowing to be true, but simply on the testimony of God.
The defenders of scriptural truth take wrong ground when they rest it on anything but the testimony of Scripture. It is highly dishonorable to God to refuse to submit to His decisions till we can demonstrate their justice. Those who have endeavored to vindicate the Divine justice in accounting Adam’s sin to be ours, and to reconcile the mind of man to that procedure, have not only labored in vain, but actually injured the cause they meant to uphold. The connection according to which we suffer with our first father, is not such as is to be vindicated or illustrated by human transactions. The union of Adam and his posterity is a Divine constitution. The grounds of this constitution are not to be found in any of the justifiable transactions of men; and all attempts to make us submit by convincing us of its propriety, from what we are able to understand upon a comparison with the affairs of men, are only calculated to impose on credulity, and to produce unbelief. We receive it because God says it, not because we see it to be just. We know it to be just because it is part of the ways of the just God. But how it is just we may not be able to see. We receive it like little children who believe the testimony of their father, though they do not understand the grounds or reasons of the thing testified.
Nothing is more common than to vindicate the equity of our implication in the ruin of Adam’s fall, by alleging that had he stood, we should have been partakers in all his blessings. Had he stood, it is said, you would have reaped the benefit of his standing; is it not therefore just that you should also suffer the loss of his failure? Here the matter is rested, not on God’s testimony, but on our sense of justice in the affairs of men. To this it will be replied, that if the transaction is not entered into with our consent, there is no apparent equity in our being punished with the loss. Adam’s sin, then, we acknowledge to be ours, not because a similar thing would be just among men, but because God, the just God, testifies that it is so; and we know that the righteous God will do righteously. To submit in this way is rational; to submit on the ground of understanding the justice of the thing, is to pretend to understand what is incomprehensible, and to rest faith on a fallacy, namely, that the ground of the imputation of Adam’s sin is of the same nature with human transactions. The method of vindicating Divine truth here censured, has also the most unhappy tendency in encouraging Christians to think that they must always be able to give a reason for their believing God’s testimony, from their ability to comprehend the thing testified. It accustoms them to think that they should believe God, not simply on His testimony, but on seeing with their own eyes that the thing is true independently of His testimony. On the contrary, the Christian ought to be accustomed to submit to God’s testimony without question, and without reluctance, even in things the farthest beyond the reach of the human mind. ’Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth,’ ought to be the motto of every Christian. Yet how few follow out to their full extent the plain statements of the word of God on these subjects; and while many utterly deny and abhor every representation of the imputation of sin and righteousness, others hide its genuine features by an attempt to enable men to understand the reasons of it, and to justify the Divine procedure. This is altogether improper. The ways of God are too deep for our feeble minds to fathom them, and it is impious as well as arrogant to make the attempt. Against nothing ought Christians to be more constantly and earnestly guarded, than the opinion that they ought to be able to comprehend and justify what they believe on the authority of God.
The true ground on which to vindicate it is the explicit testimony of God in the Scripture. This is so clear, that no man can set it aside, we need not say, without wresting the Scriptures, but, we may assert, without being conscious of violence of interpretation. Our defense of this doctrine, then, should ever be, ’Thus saith the Lord.’ This method of defense, which we are taught in this same Epistle, chapter 9:20, is not merely the only scriptural one, but it is the one that will have the greatest success. As long as a reason is alleged by the wisdom of man in support of the doctrine, so long, from the same source, an argument will be produced on the other side. But when the word of God is appealed to, and upon it all the stress of evidence rested, the Christian must submit. The writer knows from personal experience the effect of this method of teaching this doctrine.
’You cannot comprehend,’ says Luther, ’how a just God can condemn those who are born in sin, and cannot help themselves, but must, by a necessity of their natural constitution, continue in sin, and remain children of wrath. The answer is, God is incomprehensible throughout; and therefore His justice, as well as His other attributes, must be incomprehensible. It is on this very ground that St. Paul exclaims, "O the depth of the riches and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" Now His judgments would not be past finding out, if we could always perceive them to be Just. The imputation and consequences of Adam’s sin are well expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, in which it is said, ’These (our first parents) being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupt nature conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation.’ And again, ’The covenant being made with Adam as a public person, not for himself only, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him in the first transgression.... The sinfulness of that estate where into man fell consisteth in the guilt of Adam’s first sin.’
Romans 5:20 — Moreover; the law entered, that the offense might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
The Apostle had now arrived at the conclusion of the discussion, commencing at the 17th verse of the first chapter, in the course of which, after having briefly announced the remedy which God had provided for the salvation of man, he had proceeded to show the need there is for the application of this remedy by proving the sinful state of all, both Jews and Gentiles, whatever had been their various means of instruction. He had next fully exhibited that remedy for their deliverance, and also the manner in which it is applied. In the beginning of this fifth chapter he had unfolded the blessed effects that follow from its reception, in the experience of all believers, and had extolled the love of God in its appointment. Having next proved, from the universality of the reign of death, that the law and sin existed from the beginning, and so before the public promulgation of the law at Mount Sinai, he had taken occasion to point out the entrance both of sin and righteousness, and of the imputation first of the one and next of the other. And as it might now be asked, ’Wherefore, then, serveth the law?’ Galatians 3:19, if man’s personal obedience to it enters in no respect into his justification, it therefore formed a proper conclusion to the whole to recur, as in the verse before us to that law at which, in passing, Paul had glanced in the 13th verse, and to show that it had been introduced in order that on the one hand the abounding of sin might be made manifest, and on the other the superabounding of grace, on both of which he had been insisting in proof of the reality and fatal effects of the former, and the necessity, the glory, and the blessedness of the latter.
The law entered, ’privily entered,’ says Dr. Macknight, referring to the law of nature, which, he says, privily entered after the fall of our first parents. But no new law entered after the fall. What is called the law of nature, is only the remains of the law written in creation on the heart of man. The law here is evidently the law of Moses, and the word in the original signifies that the law entered in addition to the law which Adam transgressed, and to the law written in the heart. This is the effect of para> in this place. That the offense might abound — The word translated offense, here and in several of the verses above, literally signifies ’fall,’ and is applied in these verses to the first sin of Adam. In verse 16, however, in the plural, it refers to sins in general, and in some other places is rendered trespasses. In that before us it may refer particularly, as in those preceding, to the first sin, which, as the root and cause of all other sins, has abounded in its baneful effects, and, like a noxious plant, shot up and spread in all directions; so that, as God had testified before the flood, ’the wickedness of man is great on the earth,’ Genesis 6:5. This was fully discovered by the entrance of the law. The law then entered, not that sinners might be justified by it, for no law could give life to fallen man, Galatians 3:21. Sinners, in order to be saved, must be redeemed from the curse of the law, and created again in Christ Jesus. But it entered that the offense might abound, and that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God, Romans 3:19; that we might learn that the righteous God loveth righteousness, that His law is exceeding broad, that it is spiritual, extending to all the imaginations of the thoughts, that He will not abate one jot or tittle of this perfect standard, which is a transcript of His character. The law is a perfect standard, by which men are taught to measure themselves, that they may see their guilt and condemnation, and be led to look to Him who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Some translate this clause, which is rendered, that the offense might abound, ’so as the offense eventually abounds.’ This is not the Apostle’s meaning. They say that the intention of the law was not to make sin abound, but to restrain sin, and make fewer sins. If this was the intention of giving the law, the Lawgiver has been disappointed, for sins have been multiplied a thousand fold by the entrance of the law. This their view of the matter admits; for they acknowledge that this was the event, though not the intention. But if this was the event, it must also have been the intention of the Lawgiver, though not of the law. God cannot be disappointed of His intentions. But it is self-evidently clear that the intention of the promulgation of the law of Moses could not be to lessen the number of sins, when almost the whole ceremonial part of it makes things to be sin which were not sin before the giving of the law, and which are not sinful in their own nature. Besides, sin is greatly increased as to the guilt of the breach of the moral law, by the promulgation of the law of Moses. While the law of God is holy, and just, and good, it was evidently God’s intention, in the giving of it, that offenses might abound. In this way the wickedness of the human heart was manifested. It showed men that they were sinners. Had not the law been repeated in its extent and purity at Sinai, such was the darkness in men’s minds, that they would not have thought themselves transgressors of its precepts, or obnoxious to its curse; and not seeing themselves sinners, they would not have seen the necessity of a surety. The ’commandment is a lamp, and the law is light,’ Proverbs 6:23. It discovers the real state of human nature, and manifests not only the evil and aggravation, but also the vast accumulation and extent, of the wickedness of man. The entrance, then, of the law between the author of condemnation and the author of justification, in order that sin might abound, was of the highest importance. ’By the law is the knowledge of sin.’ The law did not put sin into the heart, but it was an instrument to display the depravity already existing in the heart. But vain man will be wise, and he will compel the word of God to submit to his own views It may be justly said that such displays of the deep things of God as are made in His word, are intended to manifest the blindness of the human mind, and the deep depravity of human nature.
Where sin abounded grace did much more abound — This was another effect of the entrance of the law, that as, by the clear light it imparts, sin would abound in all its extent and enormity, so grace might be exhibited as abounding above sin. The grace of God, dispensed from His throne, not only pardons the most numerous and most heinous sins, but also confers eternal life upon him who has sinned. It restores him to communion with God, which by transgression be had forfeited, re-establishing it not only in a far higher degree, but in a manner so permanent as never again to be interrupted. ’When sin,’ says Calvin, ’had held men plunged under its power, grace came to their relief. For Paul teaches us that the more sin is known, the grandeur and magnificence of grace is the more evident; and is poured out in so copious a manner as not only to overcome, but even to overwhelm the overflowing deluge of iniquity.’
Romans 5:21 — That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
As sin hath reigned unto death — Death here, and throughout this chapter, as well as in many other places, signifies not temporal death merely, but the whole punishment of sin, of which temporal death is perhaps the smallest part. Eternal misery is included in it, but the word ’death’ does not literally denote eternal misery. This is called the ’second death,’ and this expression gives us the key to understand the full extent of the meaning of the word. The punishment of hell is the second death, according to Scripture explanation, Revelation 20:14; Revelation 21:8, and therefore it is no fancy to understand future eternal punishment as included in the term. But though the expression includes this, it is not proved from the literal meaning of the word death. As death is the greatest of all temporal evils, it was not only a part of the punishment of the first sin, but it was the symbol of the second death. It is another proof that death includes the whole punishment of sin, that, in Romans 6:23, death is called the wages of sin. If death be the wages of sin, then death must include everything that is the wages or punishment of sin. But the Scriptures point out future misery, as well as temporal death, as the wages of sin. This proof is incontrovertible. The scriptures show that the punishment of sin is eternal misery; if so, death includes eternal misery. While this lays no stress on the necessary literal meaning of the word death, it comes to the same conclusion. Another proof that death here signifies the whole punishment of sin, and consequently that it includes eternal misery, is, that the gift of God is said to be ’eternal life.’ Now life literally is as limited as death. Yet life here signifies not merely existence in a state of consciousness, but of happiness. Life, indeed, even without the word eternal, is in Scripture taken to signify all the happiness of the future state of the blessed. What objection, then, can there be to a like extended signification of the term death? That it includes spiritual death is beyond a question, as the Scriptures expressly use this term in this sense, Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13. That they are all included in the threatening against the eating of the forbidden fruit, is most certain. It is no objection that it was not explained to Adam in this sense. If any part of Scripture explains it in this sense, it is sufficient. It may be said that it would be unjust to punish Adam in any extent that he did not understand as included in the threatening. He understood by it destruction, or at least we have no ground to say that he did not. Returning to the dust is not the explanation of the threatening, it being God’s appointment in connection with the promise of Christ. But it is perfectly sufficient that he knew the law that was given him. To make him guilty, there was no necessity for any threatening. Is not a child guilty when he breaks the command of a father, even though the command be unaccompanied with threatening? With regard to Christ’s suffering for us, it was not necessary that He should suffer eternally. It answers all the ends of justice if He has suffered a perfect equivalent. That He has done so, we have the clear testimony of the Scriptures, and we have no need to show how He has done so by metaphysical explanations and calculations of our own.
Even so might grace reign through righteousness — Mr. Stuart having subverted, by his interpretations and reasonings, every idea of the imputation of sin, as he had formerly altogether set aside the imputation of righteousness, is only consistent in misrepresenting the meaning of this passage. As he has mistaken the import of the expression righteousness at the commencement of this discussion, so he also misunderstands it here. His explanation is, that ’grace might reign or have an influence widely extended, in the bestowment of justification or pardoning mercy.’ The passage informs us that grace reigns unto eternal life, which does indeed include the bestowment of justification. But it informs us of something more, and that of the last importance, which Mr. Stuart’s mistaking righteousness for justification leads him entirely to omit. Grace reigns THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS, even the righteousness of God, which fulfills His law, and satisfies His justice, and displays His holiness; whereas, did grace bestow a justification in such a way as Mr. Stuart describes, it would do so at the expense of law and justice, and dishonor the whole Divine administration.
Unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord — This is that life of which Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead, is the author, as the death here Spoken of is that which He came to destroy. The source of our natural life is Adam, but he is dead, and in his communion we all die. But a new source of life is provided in the second Adam, that He may deliver from death all that are in His communion. ’The first Adam was made a living soul,’ that he might communicate natural life to those who had not received it. ’The last Adam was made a quickening spirit,’ that He might impart spiritual life to those who had lost it. The first communicated an earthly and perishable life, the second a life that is celestial and immortal. Jesus Christ is that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us; and the Father hath given Him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many as He hath given Him. ’My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life.’ The termination, then, of the reign of death over those whom He represents, and the establishment of the reign of grace through the everlasting righteousness which He has brought in, are all by Jesus Christ. He hath abolished death. By Him came grace and truth; He brought life and immortality to light. He ’is the true God, and eternal life.’ And ’to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be the Lord both of the dead and the living.’ The similarity of the Apostle’s commencement in unfolding the doctrine of justification, and of his conclusion, is very striking. He begins, chapter 1:17, by declaring that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, because therein is the righteousness of God revealed; and he here ends by affirming that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
In this 21st verse the doctrine of the whole preceding context, of the salvation of believers, is summed up in a manner most beautiful and striking. Having exhibited in a strong light the righteousness of God, Romans 3:21-22, the Apostle returns to it in this chapter; and, having contrasted Christ and Adam, he brings out his conclusion in this verse with a contrast of the reign of sin and grace. Sin had an absolute sway over all the descendants of Adam. There was nothing good among them, or in any of them. Sin existed and predominated in every human soul. Therefore it is said to reign. The absolute and universal influence of sin is figured by the empire of a monarch exercising authority in uncontrolled sovereignty. Grace also reigns. There was nothing in men to merit salvation, or to recommend them in any measure to God. Grace therefore reigns in their salvation, which is wholly and entirely of free favor. Sin is said to reign unto, or in, death. This shows that death was, in every human being, the effect of his sin. The way in which death manifested its universal reign over the human race, was in causing their death. This most fully proves that infants are sinners. If sin ruled in causing death to its subjects, then all who died are the subjects of sin. Death to the human race is in every instance the effect of the dominion of sin. Sin reigns unto death. — But if sin has reigned, grace reigns. If the former has reigned in death, the latter reigns in life; yea, it reigns unto eternal life. How, then, does it reign unto life.
Is it by a gratuitous pardon? Doubtless it is. But it is not by forgiving the sinner in an arbitrary way, with respect to the punishment due to sin. Forgiveness is indeed entirely gratuitous; but if it cost believers nothing, it has cost much to their Surety. Grace reigns through righteousness. — How beautifully is thus fulfilled the prophetic declaration of Psalms 85:10-13. Grace did not, could not, deliver the lawful captives without paying the ransom. It did not trample on justice, or evade its demands. It reigns by providing a Savior to suffer in the room of the guilty. By the death of Jesus Christ, full compensation was made to the law and justice of God.
The Apostle, in the end of this chapter, brings his argument to a close. Every individual of the human race is proved to be guilty before God and on the ground of his own righteousness no man can be saved. The state of the Gentile world is exhibited in the most degrading view, while history and experience fully concur in the condemnation. Man is represented as vile, as degraded below the condition of the brutes; and the facts on which the charge is grounded were so notorious that they could not be denied. Nor could the most uncultivated Pagans offer any apology for their conduct. Their sins were against nature, and their ignorance of God was in spite of the revelation of His character in the works of creation. They are condemned by the standard they themselves recognize, and their own mutual recriminations and defenses prove that they were fully aware of sin and responsibility.
But are not the Jews excepted from this black catalogue of crimes Are they not righteous through that holy, Just, and good law which they received from the God of Israel? By no means. By the testimony of that revelation which they received, all men are guilty, and this testimony directly implies those to whom the revelation was given. With this experience also coincides. The Apostle charges them as actually doing the same things which they condemned in the heathens. Both, then, are guilty; and, from their superior light, the Jews must be the most guilty.
Nor was it ever in contemplation of the law of Moses to give the Jews a righteousness by their own obedience. The law was designed rather to manifest their guilt. By the law there was to no individual a righteousness unto life; by the law was the ’knowledge of sin.’ All men, then, without exception, were shut up unto condemnation.
But this law veiled the truth which the Apostle now unfolds and exhibits in the strongest light. He proclaims a righteousness so perfect, as to answer all the demands of law, both as to penalty and obedience — a righteousness so free, as to extend to the very chief of sinners. This righteousness is in Jesus Christ. He has borne the curse of the law, and perfectly obeyed all its precepts. All His obedience becomes ours by believing the testimony of the Father concerning His Son, and trusting in Him. The most guilty child of Adam, whether he be Jew or Gentile, becomes perfectly righteous the moment he believes in the work of Christ. This glorious plan of salvation vindicates the law, exalts the character of God, and reconciles mercy with justice. In the Gospel grace appears; in the Gospel grace reigns; but it reigns not on the ruins of law and justice, but in the more glorious establishment of both; it reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. In the salvation of men by the Son of God, the law is not made void. It is magnified and made honorable. In this salvation sin is not represented as harmless. It is here seen in a more awful light than in the future punishment of the wicked. The Gospel is the only manifestation of God in the full glory of His character as the just God, yet the Savior — punishing sin to the utmost extent of its demerit, at the same time that His mercy reaches to the most guilty of the children of men.
The doctrine contained in this chapter is so important, and often so ill understood, that it appears proper to subjoin the following valuable remarks from the Presbyterian Magazine, contained in the conclusion of the review which has again and again been quoted above. They are introduced by observing that Mr. Stuart’s denial of a federal theology bears a most impressive witness respecting the evil of surrendering any part of the truth of Scriptures.
’The rejection of Adam’s covenant headship has led Mr. Stuart to an abandonment of the doctrine of Christ’s representative character. The indissoluble connection between these was, indeed, long ago remarked, and the progress of error, as exemplified in this author, verifies with surprising accuracy the anticipation of the doctors of the Theological Faculty of Leyden, in a testimony on the subject of original sin, borne by them on the 15th November 1645. "We have learned," say they, "with great pain, that the doctrine which has been, by common consent, received as scriptural, respecting the imputation of Adam’s sin, is now disturbed; although, when it is denied, the original corruption of human nature cannot be just, and a transition is easy to a denial of the imputation of the second Adam’s righteousness."
’We need not enter into any lengthened refutation of the perilous and unsupported assertion that the federal "form of theology" is not essential "to the Christian doctrine of redemption." The marvel is, how any man who had studied the Epistle to the Hebrews could evade the force of such declarations as that Christ is "the Mediator of the new covenant," or escape the conviction that He represented the elect as their head in a federal arrangement. To such a relationship between Him and His people, likewise, the whole legal dispensation pointed. The impressive ceremony of the scape-goat represented, by the plainest symbols, a transfer — an imputation of guilt; and prophecy intimated it in the unambiguous announcement, that "the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all." The Scripture is so pervaded by federal language and allusions that he who would remove from it the doctrine of Christ’s covenant headship, would need either to write it anew, or to expound it on some unheard-of principle.
’But is a covenant relation necessary "to the Christian doctrine of depravity"? So at least it appears to us; and the reader who will consult the dissertation of Rivetus, from which the above opinion of the divines of Leyden has been extracted, will find that it has appeared so to almost all the fathers of the Reformation, and to a host of eminent reformed divines, a mere catalogue of whose names would occupy several of our pages. But we are very far from resting this sentiment on human authority; we appeal to the law and to the testimony of God.
’First, then, that God treated with Adam not merely by way of commandment, but by way of covenant, we regard as manifest from the train of events as recorded in the commencement of Genesis. There were two contracting parties. There was something to be done by the one, which on the part of the other was to meet with a certain recompense; for the threatening of death, in case of eating the forbidden fruit, bears with it the counterpart assurance that, if the creature continued in obedience, his state of happiness would be indefinitely prolonged; the existence of a promise is implied in the words of the Apostle (Galatians 3:12), "the man that doeth them shall live in them," and similar expressions elsewhere; and the very thought that a menace was uttered, unmingled with any more cheering intimation, accuses the God of all grace of being more ready to punish than to crown. There was, in fine, on the part of Adam, an acceptance of the offered terms; for to suppose it otherwise is to embrace the contradiction that a creature could be holy, and yet his will at war with his Creator’s. It is of no consequence to object that the covenant is not fully developed; for the early part of the Mosaic narrative is remarkable for its rapidity; and neither is the covenant of grace evolved into any amplitude of detail in the record of its first announcement in paradise.
’Secondly, that Adam in the covenant was the head of all his offspring, appears from a variety of considerations. For example, the train of events as recorded in Genesis, to which we may here renew our reference, intimates, not obscurely, that Adam was dealt with in all things as the representative of humanity. The blessing of increase was not designed for him alone; nor the donation of empire over the creatures; nor the institution of the sabbatic rest; nor the curse that was launched forth against the ground; nor the sentence which consigned him over to the grave. It is in vain to object that not one word is said of posterity in the recital of these promises, and injunctions, and threatenings, and maledictions; for experience proves their universal application, and proves it antecedently to all individual guilt, for the infant is affected by that curse wherewith the earth is stricken. And if any one is included in the sentence, he must first have been comprehended in the threatening; which lands us in the doctrine of the federal headship of Adam. Again, why, in 1 Corinthians 15, is Christ called the second man — the second Adam? The only assignable reason in His covenant headship; for never could His resurrection have been viewed, not only as demonstrative of the possibility of the reviviscence of others, but as betokening and implying the final disruption, by all believers, of the bands of death, except on some principle, amounting to the admission of the fundamental truth that He was their great federal representative.
’From this view, which rests on such clear grounds, of the constituted connection between our first progenitor and his offspring, the imputation of his guilt to them directly follows. If they were one with him in receiving the law, in possessing ability to observe it, and in coming under an obligation to obedience, they were one with him also in his breach of the condition of the covenant. He broke the first link of the golden chain which primarily united all mankind to their Maker, and the dependent parts of it necessarily partook of the separation. But imputation might be established by independent processes of reasoning; and thus, from two different directions, a flood of light might be poured upon the doctrines, if we had space to pursue the inquiry.
’1. We might refer, for a strong presumptive proof, to the analogy and correspondence between the economy of condemnation and the economy of redemption — the ministration of death and the ministration of life. In the latter we find an imputed righteousness and an inherent holiness, the one constituting the matter of the believer’s justification, and the other preparing him for glory; and so, in the former, we might expect to find an imputed guilt and an inherent sinfulness, the one being the antecedent ground of the sentence of death, and the other carrying the criminal downwards in an augmented fitness for the society of the lost. Thus imputed guilt occupies, in the one part of the scheme, a place co-ordinate to that which imputed righteousness holds in the other; inborn depravity corresponds to the implanted principles of sanctification, and an exact harmony is maintained between the Divine dispensations.
’2. We might prosecute, in the next place, an argument, at which we have already hinted, from the sufferings and mortality of sucklings. Not only do "the cries of infants, who are only eloquent to grief, but dumb to all things else, discover the miseries that attend them," and "the tears which are born with their eyes, signify they are come into a state of sorrow," but a very large proportion of the human race is swept away into the grave at the very dawn of their being. Like Jonah’s gourd, they spring up and wither in a night. Now, on Mr. Stuart’s principle, that nothing but actual transgression deserves the name, we have here a punishment without a crime — the wages apart from the deed which earns them. But this cannot be under the government of Him who is righteous in all His ways. Assuredly infants would not die if they were not guilty — a sinless soul would not be lodged in a mortal habitation. It is no valid objection to this, that Christ’s body was mortal; for "He was made sin for us." Death, then, follows sin like its shadow; and, like the shadow, demonstrates the real presence of the substance. It follows that infants are sinners; and since actual offense is impossible, they are sinners in the ancient transgression of their first father.
’3. We might, in fine, argue backwards from the fact, acknowledged even by Mr. Stuart, that we "are born destitute of holiness." This original destitution, in virtue of which we are "by nature children of wrath," must proceed from God, either as a Creator, or as the Sovereign Lord, or as a Judge. But it does not come from Him as Creator simply, for in this respect we hold the same relation to Him as Adam did, who was formed in righteousness and true holiness; nor as Lord over all, for it were blasphemy to imagine that He would employ His supreme dominion in promoting the ruin of a rational creature. It is resolved, therefore, into a judicial infliction — an infliction on account of some sin committed before we had a being; and as this infliction has passed upon every man since our first progenitor, to his grand offense, which the Apostle throughout this passage represents as so pregnant with evil, it must of consequence be referred. Hence, as punishment infers guilt, the stain of his iniquity is ours — his guilt is ours by imputation.
’Mr. Stuart admits that, "in consequence of Adam’s fall, and without any act or concurrence of their own," all his posterity are subject to "sufferings in the present state; "that their nature is brought under a "moral degradation," — "an imperfect condition, in which it is certain that the sensual passions will get the victory and lead them to sin, and certain that they will never have any holiness without being born again," — and in which "the second death will certainly come upon them, without the interposition of mercy through Christ." This is stated, doubtless, in milder phrases than the other, — in the language of a man giving forth an opinion which he receives, not denouncing one which he rejects; but it possesses all the substantial features of the other scheme, and involves all its principles, with the exception of that principle, the principle of imputation, which, so far as man’s feeble intellect can penetrate, supplies the only key to the whole, and vindicates the Creator from the charge of cruelty. The question is simply, — shall we regard the deprivation of original righteousness as judicially connected with Adam’s first transgression, or as linked to it by some bond of arbitrary and mysterious severity? The reader expects, no doubt, to find all "the elements" of Mr. Stuart’s "moral nature spontaneously in array" against the latter of these suppositions. But no; it is his own opinion, — an opinion of which the native hideousness can only be veiled by the novel expedient of transforming into a peculiar species of discipline all the evils which originate in the fall.
’But it is urged, again, that such an imputation of guilt is at variance with the general principles of the Divine administration, of which it is a fundamental law that "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father," Ezekiel 18:20. We had always understood that the fundamental laws of God’s moral government were embodied in the Decalogue. And there we read (Exodus 20:5) that the Lord is a "jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children." But is there indeed an inconsistency in the word of inspiration? Are contradictory principles announced as alike fundamental? No, truly. God’s general right to punish the offspring for their parent’s guilt was declared from Sinai; and the course of Providence, in such cases as that of Dathan and Abiram, as well as in the indiscriminate destruction wrought by the flood, which spared not a single infant because of its imagined innocency, has impressively repeated the intimation.Ezekiel was only commissioned to declare, in a special instance, a forbearing to insist on this right. Besides, were the Prophet’s message taken as the promulgation of a fundamental statute, it would be impossible to escape from the imputation of contravening it, even although we were to prune and pare down our theological system till it was reduced to the most meager Pelagianism. By having the evil example of our parents set before us — to take no higher ground — we are, in consequence of Adam’s transgression, placed in less favorable circ*mstances than those in which be was situated; and in this way we bear the iniquity of our father. On Mr. Stuart’s system, this becomes more obvious still; so that, with his view of the announcement of Ezekiel, his own scheme is at irreconcilable variance. The view of that announcement, which we have presented above removes this difficulty from his scheme; but it also removes it from ours.
’But there is one consequence of Mr. Stuart’s views of original sin, which, at the risk of being blamed for prolixity, we cannot omit to notice. This opinion, as already stated, is, that no one can be sentenced to the extreme punishment of sin, except for actual transgression — that we are not born in a state of condemnation — that, in the highest and most awful sense of the words, we are not "by nature the children of wrath." Now, from this it irresistibly follows that infants, not having sinned actually, and so (according to him) not being under the curse, do not need salvation. The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. Mr. Stuart evidently feels this difficulty, and labors to escape from it. He urges that, since infants are born destitute of holiness, and since "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," Christ has much to do for them by His Spirit, in removing the imperfection of their nature, and in imparting to them a positive taste for the sacred exercises and joys of heaven. On this ground, and to this extent, he thinks that the Lord Jesus may properly enough be called their Savior. But this falls far short of the scriptural representations of the great salvation of the Gospel. In that salvation, deliverance from wrath is a principal element. But, according to Mr. Stuart’s scheme, this has no place in the case of infants. They are not saved from wrath; they are not saved from sin; no positive evil is removed from them; they are only made partakers of certain good dispositions to which they were primarily strangers. Their first state is a pure negative; Christ bestows some positive gifts upon them, and so becomes their Savior. In short, He sanctifies them by His Spirit. But He does not procure their justification; they obtain it for themselves; although not holy, they are harmless and undefiled. And hence ipso facto they are accepted as righteous. They are directly, and without Emmanuel’s intervention, embraced in the provisions of that eternal law which annexes immortality to innocence; of redemption, therefore, properly so called, they have no necessity. This system involves some strange anomalies — enough to destroy the authority of any scheme of doctrine. Christ is in it called a Savior; but the first step in the mighty process is taken, and one important part of it is fully accomplished, not in consequence of His work, but because of the very condition of nature in those whom He came to save. These objects of His love are promoted and perfected, but not redeemed; and although in a certain sense He saved them, their lips must be sealed, when, among the ranks of the glorified, there reverberates the everlasting song, — "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood."
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER VI – Romans 6:1-23
IN the preceding part of the Epistle the universal depravity and guilt of man, and the free salvation through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, had been fully exhibited. Paul now proceeds to prove the intimate connection between the justification of believers and their sanctification. He commences by stating an objection which has in all ages been advanced as an unanswerable argument against salvation by grace. He asks, What is the consequence of the doctrine he has been inculcating? If justification be bestowed through faith, without works, and if, where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded, may we not continue in sin that grace may abound? No objection could be more plausible. It is such as will forcibly strike every natural man, and is as common now as it was in the days of the Apostle.
Paul repels this charge by declaring the union of believers with Jesus Christ, by whom, as is represented in baptism, His people are dead to sin, and risen with Him to walk in newness of life. Having established these important truths, he urges (Romans 6:11) on those whom he addresses the duty of being convinced that such is their actual state. In verses 12 and 13, he warns them not to abuse this conviction; and for their encouragement in fighting the good fight of faith, to which they are called, assures them, in the 14th verse, that sin shall not have dominion over them, because they are not under the law but under grace. Thus the Apostle proves that, by the gracious provision of the covenant of God, ratified by the blood of Him with whom they are inseparably united, they who are justified cannot continue to live in sin; but though sin shall not have dominion over them,still, as their sanctification is not yet perfect, he goes on to address them as liable to temptation. What he had said, therefore, concerning their state as being in Christ, did not preclude the duty of watchfulness; nor, since they had formerly been the servants of sin, of now proving that they were the servants of God, by walking in holiness of life. Paul concludes by an animated appeal to their own experience of the past, and to their prospects for the future. He asks, what fruit had they in their former ways, which could only conduct to shame and death? On the other hand, he exhorts them to press onwards in the course of holiness, at the end of which they would receive the crown of everlasting life. But, along with this assurance, he reminds them of the important truth, that while the just recompense of sin is death, eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:1 — What shall we say then? Shall use continue in sin, that Grace may abound?
What shall we say then? — That is, what conclusion are we to draw from the doctrine previously taught? The question is first asked generally. In the following words it is asked particularly, — Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Many expound this objection as coming from a Jew, and imagine a sort of dialogue between him and the Apostle. For this there is no ground. The supposition of a dialogue in different parts of this Epistle, has been said to give life and interest to the argument; but instead of this, it is only cumbersome and entangling. There is no necessity for the introduction of an objector. It is quite sufficient for the writer to state the substance of the objection in his own words.
It was essential for the Apostle to vindicate his doctrine, not only from such objections as he knew would be made by the enemies of the cross of Christ, to whom he has an eye throughout the whole of the Epistle, but also to Christians themselves, whom he was directly addressing. We see in his answer in the following verses, to the questions thus proposed, what an ample field it opened for demonstrating the beautiful harmony of the plan of salvation, and of proving how every part of it bears upon and supports the rest.
Romans 6:2 — God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Paul, in his usual manner on similar occasions, strongly rejects such a consequence as the question in the first verse supposes, and asks another, which implies the absolute incongruity of the assumption that Christians will be emboldened to continue in sin, by the knowledge of their being freely justified. On the very ground on which the objection rests, he shows that this is impossible.
We that are dead to sin — The meaning of this expression is very generally misunderstood, and extended to include death to the power of sin, to which it has not the smallest reference. It exclusively indicates the justification of believers, and their freedom from the guilt of sin, having no allusion to their sanctification, which, however, as the Apostle immediately proceeds to prove, necessarily follows. It was indispensable, in the view of obviating the objection proposed, distinctly to characterize both the persons, and their state of justification, to whom the answer he was about to give applied. Accordingly, by using the term we, he shows that he speaks of the same persons of whose justification he had been treating in the conclusion of the fourth, and in the first part of the foregoing chapter, to whom, in this way, he there refers more than twenty times. Their justification he expresses by the term dead to sin, which, though only a part of justification, implies all that it includes. No other designation could have been so well adapted to introduce the development of their state, and its inseparable consequences, as contained in the following verses. This term, then, is most appropriately employed. Formerly, the persons spoken of were dead in sin, but now they were dead to it, as it is said in the 7th verse, they are justified from it. In the seventh chapter, it is affirmed that believers are dead to the law. They are therefore dead to sin, for the strength of sin is the law; and consequently sin has lost its power to condemn them, their connection with it, in respect to its guilt, being forever broken. In the 10th verse, it is said that Christ died unto sin, and liveth to God; and in the same way believers have died to sin, and are alive to God, to serve Him in newness of life.
It has indeed been argued, that if the expression dead to sin does not comprehend death to the power of sin, it does not contain an answer to the objection urged in the preceding verse. Even, however, though the power of sin were included, it could not be considered as an answer by which the objection was removed, but simply a denial of its validity. But it is not intended as an answer, though it clearly infers that union with Jesus Christ which is immediately after exhibited as the complete answer. Without this union we cannot be dead to sin; but, being united to Him, believers are not only dead to it, but also, by necessary con sequence, risen with Him to walk in newness of life. Nothing could be more conclusive than in this manner to show that, so far from the doctrine of justification leading to the evil supposed, on the contrary, it provides full security against it. Paul accordingly presents that very aspect of this doctrine, namely, death to sin, which peculiarly bears on the point and this for the purpose of introducing that union by which it takes place, which is at once the cause both of justification and sanctification. So far, therefore, from these being contrary the one to the other, or of the first being in the smallest degree opposed to the last, they are in separable; and thus the possibility of those who are justified continuing in sin, that grace may abound, is absolutely precluded.
Dr. Macknight translates the phrase, ’dead to sin, have died by sin.’ This does not convey the Apostle’s meaning, but an idea altogether different, and entirely misrepresents the import of the passage. All men have died by sin, but believers only are dead to the guilt of sin; and it is of its guilt exclusively that the Apostle here speaks. Unbelievers will not, through all eternity, be dead to sin. Dr. Macknight says that the common translation ’is absurd, for a person’s living in sin who is dead to it, is evidently a contradiction in terms.’ But had he understood the meaning of the expression ’dead to sin,’ he would have seen that there is nothing in this translation either contradictory or absurd. He ought also to have observed that the phraseology to which he objects is not an assertion that they who are dead to sin live in it, but is a question that supposes the incompatibility of the thing referred to.
Mr. Stuart also totally misunderstands the signification of the expression ’dead to sin,’ which, he says, ’means to renounce sin; to become, as it were, insensible to its exciting power and influence, as a dead person is incapable of sensibility.’ The clause that follows — Shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? — he interprets thus: ’How shall we, who have renounced sin, and profess to be insensible to its influence, any more continue to practice it, or to be influenced by it?’ On this it is remarked, in the Presbyterian Review that ’the objection stated by the Apostle is, that the tendency of his doctrine of justification by faith was bad, leading to licentiousness; and what sort of refutation is it to reply, whatever its tendency may be, nevertheless it should not produce such effects, because we have professed otherwise? Professions might be multiplied a thousand fold, and yet the tendency of the doctrine would remain the same, and the objection consequently would remain in all its force. Nay, it is plain that such a reply as this takes for granted that the tendency of the doctrine by itself is to licentiousness; and that, in order to prevent these its natural effects from being developed, the person who receives it must be hemmed around with innumerable professions and obligations to renounce those sins into which he might naturally be led by such a doctrine standing alone.’ Mr. Stuart’s explanation of becoming insensible to the exciting power or influence of sin, as a dead person is incapable of sensibility, perfectly coincides with the popish interpretation of the passage: — ’The spirit, the heart, the judgment, have no more life for sin than those of a dead man for the world.’ But the Roman Catholic Quesnel, perceiving that his interpretation is contradicted by experience, immediately adds: ’Ah, who is it that is dead and insensible to the praises, to the pleasures, to the advantages of the world?’ Mr. Stuart, however, disregarding both fact and experience, adheres to his interpretation, and announces the third time, ’To become dead to sin or to die to sin plainly means, then, to become insensible to its influence, to be unmoved by it; in other words, to renounce it, and refrain from the practice of it.’ This is justly chargeable with the absurdity unjustly charged by Dr. Macknight on the common translation of the passage. The assertion, then, would be, as we refrain from the practice of sin, we cannot continue to practice it. According to Mr. Stuart’s interpretation, when it is enjoined on believers, Romans 6:11, to reckon themselves dead to sin, the meaning would be, that they should reckon themselves perfect.
In order to understand the manner in which the Apostle meets and obviates the objection that the doctrine of justification by grace tends to encourage Christians to continue in sin, the ground on which he founds his denial of its validity must be particularly attended to. He does not rest it, according to Dr. Macknight, on the impossibility of believers ’hoping to live eternally by continuing in sin,’ if they have died by it. This would not only be no adequate security against such an effect, but, owing to the strength of human depravity, no security at all. Neither does he rest it on their having ceased, according to Mr. Stuart, to feel the influence of sin, which is alike contrary to Scripture and experience. Nor, according to Mr. Tholuck, because ’they obey it in nothing more,’ which is not only repugnant to truth, but would be simply a denial of the allegation without the shadow of proof. He rests it in no degree either on any motive presented to them, or on any change produced in themselves, as these writers suppose. It should also be observed that, when the Apostle characterizes believers as dead to sin, he is not introducing something new, as would be the case were either Dr. Macknight’s, or Mr. Stuart’s, or Mr. Tholuck’s explanation of the term correct. He is indicating the state of those to whom the objection applies, in order to its refutation. That it does not lead them to continue in sin, he had in effect shown already, in verses 3rd and 4th of the foregoing chapter, where he had declared the accompaniments of their justification. But as this objection is constantly insisted on, and is so congenial to human nature, and, besides, might appear plausible from the fact that they are the ungodly who are justified, chapter 4:5, he still considered it proper to meet it fully and directly. Paul therefore proceeds formally to repel such a calumny against his doctrine, by exhibiting in further detail, in the following verses, the grounds of justification to which he had referred, chapter 4:24, 25, — namely, the interest of believers both in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The expression, then, dead to sin, does not in any degree relate to their character or conduct but exclusively to their state before God. Their character or conduct with regard to abstinence from the commission of sin, is referred to in the question that follows, demanding, How those who are dead to sin shall ’live any longer therein?’ But to explain the expression, ’dead to sin,’ as meaning dead to the influence and love of sin, is entirely erroneous, and what the Apostle by no means asserts. Death to the influence and love of sin must involve their annihilation in the person of whom this could be affirmed; for death annihilates to its subject all things whatsoever; and in this case it might well be said, with Mr. Stuart, that a man who is dead to sin has ’become insensible to its exciting power or influence, as a dead person is incapable of sensibility.’ How Mr. Stuart could make such statements, thrice repeated, yet totally unfounded, and flatly contradicted by every man’s experience, is indeed astonishing.
Utterly erroneous, too, is the explanation of other commentators, who say that the meaning is, dead to ’the guilt and power’ of sin, — thus joining death to the power to death to the guilt, of sin. This indicates a condition with respect to sin which was never realized in any of the children of Adam while in this world. No believer is dead to the power of sin, as Paul has abundantly short in the seventh chapter of this Epistle. On the contrary, he there affirms that there was a law in his members which warred against the law of his mind; that he did the things he would not; and that when he would do good, evil (and what is this but the power of sin?) was present with him. The same truth is clearly exhibited in all the other Epistles, in which believers are so often reproved for giving way to the power of sin, and earnestly exhorted and warned against doing so. But when the expression is understood as exclusively signifying dead to the GUILT of sin, it may and must be taken in the full sense of what death imparts, being nothing less than absolute, total, and final deliverance from its guilt. To suppose, then, that in these words there is the smallest reference to the character or conduct of believers — to their freedom from the love or power of sin — to conjoin these in any respect or in any degree with their freedom from its guilt, — in other words, with their justified state, — is not merely to misapprehend the meaning of the Apostle, but to represent him as stating that to be a fact which has no existence; while it deprives the passage of the consolation to believers which, when properly understood, it is so eminently calculated to impart.
In proof of the correctness of this view of the subject, let it be remembered that the Apostle’s refutation, in the following verses, of the supposed objection, does not rest on the supposition that sin is mortified in himself and those whom he is addressing, or that they are released from any propensity to it, but on the fact of their being one with Jesus Christ. They are united to Him in His death, and consequently in His life, which was communicated to them by Him who is a ’quickening Spirit;’ and thus their walking with Him in newness of life, as well as their resurrection with Him, are secured. These ideas are exhibited in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th verses. In the 7th verse, the reason of the whole is summed up, — ’For he who is dead (with Christ) is justified from sin;’ and in the 8th verse, that which will afterwards follow our being justified from sin is stated, — ’If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.’ Finally, in the 9th and 10th verses, the Apostle declares the consequence of Christ’s dying to sin to be, that He liveth unto God. The same effect in respect to the members must follow as to the Head with whom believers are one; and therefore he immediately proceeds to assure them, in the 14th verse, that sin shall not have dominion over them. The result, then, of the doctrine of justification by grace is the very rever. of giving not merely license, but even place, to continue in sin. On the contrary, according to that doctrine, the power of God is engaged to secure to those who are dead to sin — i.e., justified — a life of holiness, corresponding with that state into which, by their union with His Son, He has brought them. The full import and consequence of being dead to sin will be found, Romans 4:7-8 : — ’Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.’ They who are dead to sin, are those from whom, in its guilt or condemning power, it is in Christ Jesus entirely removed. Such persons, whose sins are thus covered, are pronounced ’blessed.’ They enjoy the favor and blessing of God. The necessary effect of this blessing is declared in the new covenant, according to which, when God is merciful to the unrighteousness of His people, and remembers their sins and iniquities no more, He puts His laws into their mind, and writes them in their hearts, and promises that He will be to them a God, and they shall be to Him a people. In one word, they who are dead to Sin are limited to Him who is the Fountain of life and holiness, and are thus delivered from the curse pronounced upon those who, being under the law, continue not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. The guilt of their sins, which separated between them and God, having now been canceled, they enjoy His favor, and all its blessed effects. It is upon these great truths that the Apostle rests his absolute denial that the doctrine of justification by grace, which he had been unfolding, is compatible with continuing to live in sin.
Live any longer therein — To continue in sin, and to live any longer therein, are equivalent expressions, implying that, before their death to sin, the Apostle himself, and all those whom he now addressed, were enslaved by sin, and lived in it. In the same way, in writing to the saints at Ephesus, he says that formerly he and all of them had their conversation among the children of disobedience, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. By denying, then, that believers continue in sin, he does not mean to say that they never commit sin, or fall into it, or, according to Mr. Stuart, have become insensible to its influence, or to Mr. Tholuck, that they ’obey it in nothing anymore;’ for, as has been observed, it is abundantly shown in the seventh chapter, where he gives an account of his own experience (which is also the experience of every Christian), that this is very far from being a fact; but he denies that they continue to live as formerly in sin and ungodliness, which he had shown was impossible. Here it may, however, be remarked, that the full answer which in the following verses is given to the objection brought against the tendency of the doctrine of justification, cannot be understood by the natural man, to whom it must appear foolishness. Hence the same calumny is repeated to the present day against this part of Divine truth.
Romans 6:3 — Know ye not, that so many of was were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death?
In this and the following verses, Paul proceeds to give his full answer to the objection he had supposed, by showing that the sanctification believers rests on the same foundation, and springs from the same source, as their justification, namely, their union was Jesus Christ, and therefore, so far from their being contrary to each other, they are not merely in perfect harmony, but absolutely inseparable; and not only so, but the one cannot exist without the other. In the conclusion of the preceding chapter, he had declared that sin had reigned unto death. It reigned unto the death of Jesus Christ, the surety of His people, who, as is said in the 10th verse of the chapter before us, ’died unto sin.’ But as in His death its reign as to Him terminated, so its reign also terminated as to all His people, who with Him are ’dead to sin.’ The effect, then, of His death being the termination of the reign of sin, it was at the same time to them the commencement of the reign of grace, which took place ’through righteousness, — the everlasting righteousness brought in by His death.’ Instead, therefore, of being under the reign of sin, Christians are under grace, whereby they ’serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear,’ Hebrews 12:28. It may, however, be remarked, that although their union with Christ is the ground of the Apostle’s denial, that believers will be induced to continue in sin that grace may abound, and of their absolute security that this shall not be its effect, yet he does not fail to present, as in the concluding part of this chapter, such motives to abstain from sin as are calculated powerfully to influence their conduct. The consideration, too, that they died with Christ, and are risen with Him to newness of life, connected with the certainty that they shall live with Him in future glory, announced in the 5th and 8th verses, furnishes the strongest motives to the love of God, which is the grand spring of obedience, for we love Him when we know that He has first loved us. That this view of the death of Christ, and of our death with Him, operates as a powerful motive to the love of God, is shown, 2 Corinthians 5:14, where it is said, ’The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead (or all died). And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.’ Although, then, the solid ground and absolute security that believers shall not live in sin, is shown to consist in their union with Christ, yet motives are not excluded.
In the verse before us, the Apostle proves that Christians are dead to sin, because they died with Christ. The rite of baptism exhibits Christians as dying, as buried, and as risen with Christ. Know ye not — He refers to what he is now declaring as a thing well known to those whom he addresses. Baptized into Jesus Christ — By faith believers are made one with Christ: they become members of His body. This oneness is represented emblematically by baptism. Baptized into His death. — In baptism, they are also represented as dying with Christ. This rite, then, proceeds on the fact that they have died with Him who bore their sins. Thus the satisfaction rendered to the justice of God by Him, is a satisfaction from them, as they are constituent parts of His body. The believer is one with Christ as truly as he was one with Adam — he dies with Christ as truly as he died with Adam. Christ’s righteousness is his as truly as Adam’s sin was his. By a Divine constitution, all Adam’s posterity are one with him, and so his first sin is really and truly theirs. By a similar Divine constitution, all Christ’s people are one with Him, and His obedience is as truly theirs as if they had yielded it, and His death as if they had suffered it. When it is said that Christians have died with Christ, there is no more figure than when it is said that they have died in Adam.
The figure of baptism was very early mistaken for a reality, and accordingly some of the fathers speak of the baptized person as truly born again in the water. They supposed him to go into the water with all his sins upon him, and to come out of it without them. This indeed is the case with baptism figuratively. But the carnal mind soon turned the figure into a reality. It appears to the impatience of man too tedious and ineffectual a way to wait on God’s method of converting sinners by His Holy Spirit through the truth, and therefore they have effected this much more extensively by the performance of external rites. When, according to many, the rite is observed, it cannot be doubted that the truth denoted by it has been accomplished. The same disposition has been the origin of Transubstantiation. The bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper are figuratively the body and blood of Christ; but they have been turned into the real body, blood, soul, and divinity of the Lord, and the external rite has become salvation.
So many of us — This does not imply that any of those to whom the Apostle wrote were not baptized, for there could be no room for such a possibility. It applies to the whole of them, as well as to himself, and not merely to a part. It amounts to the same thing as if it had been said, ’We who were baptized;’ as in Acts 3:24, ’As many as have spoken,’ that is, all who have spoken, for all the Prophets spoke.
Romans 6:4 — Therefore we are buried with him baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
The death of Christ was the means by which sin was destroyed, and His burial the proof of the reality of His death. Christians are therefore represented as buried with Him by baptism into His death, in token that they really died with Him; and if buried with Him, it is not that they shall remain in the grave, but that, as Christ arose from the dead, they should also rise. Their baptism, then, is the figure of their complete deliverance from the guilt of sin, signifying that God places to their account the death of Christ as their own death: it is also a figure of their purification and resurrection for the service of God.
By the glory of the Father — The exercise of that almighty power of God, by which, in various passages, it is asserted that Christ was made alive gain, was most glorious to God who raised Him up. Christ’s resurrection is also ascribed to Himself, because He was a partaker with the Father of that power by which He was raised. ’I lay down my life, that I might take it again.’ ’Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ To reconcile these and similar passages with those that ascribe His resurrection to the Father, it must be observed, that if the principle be regarded by which our Lord was raised up, it is to be referred to that Divine power which belongs in common to the Father and the Son. The Son was raised equally by His own power as by that of His Father, because He possessed the Divine as well as the human nature. But as in the work of redemption the Father acts as the sovereign ruler, it is He who as received the satisfaction, and who, having received it, has given to the Son its just recompense in raising Him from the dead. His resurrection, then, in this view, took place by the decree of the Eternal Father, pronounced from His judgment throne.
Even so we also should walk in newness of life — It is the purpose of our rising with Christ, that we also, by the glory or power of the Father, 2 Corinthians 13:4, should walk in newness of life. The resurrection of Christ was the effect of the power of God, not in the ordinary way of nature, but of a supernatural exertion of power. In the same manner, believers are raised to walk in newness of life. It is thus that, when Paul, Ephesians 1:20, exalts the supernatural virtue of grace by which we are converted, he compares it to the exceeding greatness of that power by which Christ was raised from the dead. This shows the force of the Apostle’s answer to the objection he is combating. Believers are dead to the guilt of sin, and if so, the ground of their separation from God being removed His almighty power is engaged and asserted to cause them to walk with their risen Lord in that new life which they derive from Him. It was, then, the purpose of Christ’s death that His people should become dead to sin, and alive unto righteousness. ’Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,’ 1 Peter 2:24. On this same ground, when viewing it simply as a motive, Paul reminds believers that since they are dead with Christ, they should set their affections on things above, and not on things on the earth, assuring them that when He who is their life shall appear, then shall they also appear with Him in glory, Colossians 3:4. And again he declares, ’If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him,’ 2 Timothy 2:11. Dr. Macknight is greatly mistaken when he applies what is said in this verse to the new life, which does not take place till after the resurrection of the body. This destroys the whole force of the Apostle’s reasoning, who is showing that believers cannot continue in sin, not only as they are dead to sin, but as they are risen with Christ, thus receiving a new and supernatural life, for the purpose of walking in obedience to God.
Romans 6:5 — For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:
For if — The conditional statement is here evidently founded on what is premised. The Apostle does not pass to a new argument to prove that we are dead with Christ; but, having asserted the burial of the Christian with Christ in baptism, he goes on to show that his resurrection with Him is equally implied. If we have been buried with Christ, so we shall rise with Him. Planted together — The word in the original, when it refers to trees, designates planting them in the same place or bed. It signifies the closest union of any kind, as being incorporated, growing together, joined with, united. The meaning, then, is, that as in baptism we have been exhibited as one with Christ in His death, so in due time we shall be conformed to Him in the likeness of His resurrection.
We shall be — The use here of the future tense has caused much perplexity respecting the connection of this verse with the preceding, and, contrary to its obvious meaning, the present time has been substituted. But, while the proper force of the future time is preserved, the two verses stand closely connected. Both a spiritual and a literal resurrection are referred to in the emblem of baptism; but, in the preceding verse, the former only is brought into view, as being that which served the Apostle’s immediate purpose. In this verse, in employing the future tense, he refers to the literal resurrection hereafter, as being inseparably connected with what he had just advanced concerning walking in newness of life; and thus he unfolds the whole mystery included in dying and rising with Christ, both in this world and the world to come. Believers have already been raised spiritually with Christ to walk with Him on earth in newness of life, and with equal certainty they shall be raised to live with Him in heaven. This meaning is confirmed by what is said afterwards in the 8th and 9th verses. How powerful is this consideration, if viewed as a motive to the believer to walk in this world with his risen Lord in newness of life! ’Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure,’ 1 John 3:3.
Romans 6:6 — Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Knowing this — That is, assuming it as a thing with which they were already well acquainted, or a thing which they should know. That our old man was crucified with Him. — Paul draws here the same conclusion from the believer’s crucifixion with Christ that he had previously drawn from is baptism into Christ’s death. All believers died with Christ on the cross, as they were all one in Him, and represented by Him. Their old man, Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9, or sinful nature, was crucified together with Christ. If, then, their old man has been crucified with Him, it cannot be that they will for the future live according to their old nature. That the body of sin might be destroyed. — Body of sin, that is, sin embodied, meaning the whole combination and strength of corruption, as having all its members Joined into a perfect body. The purpose of His people’s crucifixion with Christ was, that this body of sin should finally perish and be annihilated. It is called a body, as consisting of various members, like a complete and entire body — a mass of sin; not one sin, but all sin. The term body is used, because it is of a body only that there can be a literal crucifixion; and this body is called the body of sin, that it may not be supposed that it is the natural body which is meant.
What henceforth we should not serve sin. — The design of the believer’s crucifixion with Christ is, that he may not henceforth be a slave to sin. This implies that all men who do not believe in Christ are slaves to sin, as wholly and as absolutely under its power as a slave is to his master. But the end of our crucifixion with Christ, by faith in His death, is, that we may be delivered from this slavery. Believers, then, should resist sin as they would avoid the most cruel slavery. If this be the end of crucifixion with Christ, those cannot be considered as crucified with Christ who are the slaves of sin. Christians, then, may be known by their lives, as the tree is known by its fruits. It was the result of Paul’s crucifixion with Christ, that Christ lived in him. ’I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,’ Galatians 2:20.
Romans 6:7 — For he that is dead is freed from sin.
For he that is dead; that is, dead with Christ, as is said in the following verse. — This does not mean natural death, but death in all its extent, signifying ’the second death,’ the penalty of which Christ suffered, and therefore all His members have suffered it with Him. Freed from sin. — The original word, which is here translated freed, different from that rendered free in verses 18, 20, 22, is literally justified It occurs fifteen times in this Epistle, and twenty-five times in other parts of the New Testament; and, except in this verse, and one other where it is translated righteous, is uniformly rendered by the word justified. In this verse, as in all the other passages its proper rendering ought to be retained, instead of being exchanged for the term ’freed,’ which has evidently been selected to convey a different sense. To retain its proper translation in this place is absolutely necessary, in order clearly to perceive the great and cheering truth here announced, as well as to apprehend the full force of the Apostle’s answer to the objection stated in the first verse. As to the phrase, ’justified from sin,’ we find the Apostle expressing himself in the same manner (Acts 13:39), ’By Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.’ No objection can be made to the use of the expression ’justified, since the Apostle is speaking of the state of believers, to which it is strictly applicable. In justification, which is a judicial and irrevocable sentence pronounced by God, there are two parts: the one includes absolution from the guilt of the breach of the law; the other, the possession of that obedience to its precepts which the law demands. These being inseparable, they are both included in the expression justified from sin. If a man be dead with Christ, he possesses, as has been observed, all the blessings which, according to the tenor of the new covenant, are included in, and connected with, the state of justification by grace. Instead, then, of encouraging him to continue in sin, it furnishes absolute security against such a result, and ensures the certainty that he shall walk in newness of life until he attains the possession of eternal glory. The Apostle, therefore, is so far from admitting that, according to the supposed objection which he is combating, gratuitous justification is opposed to sanctification, that, after having shown in the preceding verses that sanctification springs from union with Christ, he here asserts, as he had formerly proved, that on the very same ground the doctrine of justification is established. The one cannot, therefore, be hostile to the interests of the other.
The bond by which sinners are kept under the power of sin, is the curse of the law. This curse, which is the penalty of disobedience, consists in man being cut off from all communion with God. By throwing off his allegiance to his Creator, he has become the subject of the devil, and is led captive by him at his will. The curse consists in being given up to sin, which is represented as reigning over the human race, and exercising an absolute dominion. So long as the sinner is under the guilt of sin, God can have no friendly intercourse with him; for what communion hath light with darkness? But Christ having canceled His people’s guilt, having redeemed them from the curse of the law and invested them with the robe of His righteousness, there is no longer any obstacle to their communion with God, or any barrier to the free ingress of sanctifying grace. As the sin of the first man divested of holiness every one of his descendants, causing each individual to enter the world dead in trespasses and sins, in like manner the obedience of the second Adam imparts holiness to all His members, so that they can no longer remain under the thralldom of sin. Were a sinner, when he is redeemed, not also sanctified, it would argue that he was still under the curse, and not restored to the favor of God. Besides, what is the state of the believer? He is now united to Him who has the inexhaustible fullness of the Spirit, and he cannot fail to participate in the spirit of holiness which dwells without measure in his glorious Head. It is impossible that the ’streams can be dried up when the fountain continues to flow; and it is equally impossible for the members not to share in the same holiness which dwells so abundantly in the Head. As the branch, when united to the living vine, necessarily partakes of its life and fatness, so the sinner, when united to Christ, must receive an abundant supply of sanctifying grace out of His immeasurable fullness. The moment, therefore, that he is by faith brought into union with the second Adam — the grand truth on which the Apostle had been insisting in the preceding part of this chapter, by means of which believers are dead to sin — in that moment the source of sanctification is opened up, and streams of purifying grace flow into his soul. He is delivered from the law whereby sin had dominion over him. He is one with Him who is the fountain of holiness.
These are the grounds on which justification and sanctification are inseparably connected, and the reasons why those who are dead to sin, or, as it is here expressed, justified from sin, can no longer live therein. From all this we see the necessity of retaining the Apostle’s expression in the verse before us, justified from sin. That it has been exchanged for the term freed in the English, as well as in most of the French versions, and that commentators are so generally undecided as to the proper rendering, arises from not clearly perceiving the ground on which the Apostle exclusively rests his denial of the consequence charged on his doctrine of justification, as leading to licentiousness. But on no other ground than that, as above explained, on which he has triumphantly vindicated it from this supposed pernicious consequence, can it be proved not to have such a tendency, and not to lead to such a result. On this ground his vindication must for ever stand unshaken. Had his answer to the question in the first verse ultimately rested, according to the reason given by Dr. Macknight, on the force of a motive presented to believers, however strong in itself, such as their having experienced the dreadful effects of sin in having died by it, or on the fallacious idea, according to Mr. Stuart, that they were insensible to its influence, how weak, as has been remarked, insufficient, and delusive, considering the state of human nature, would such reasons have been, on which to have rested his confident denial that they could continue to live in sin? But when the Apostle exhibits, as the cause of the believer’s not continuing in sin, his union with Christ, and the power of God in Christ Jesus, as he does in the preceding verses, he rests it on a foundation as stable as the throne of God. He had taught, in the foregoing part of the Epistle, that Jesus Christ is made to His people righteousness: he here teaches that He is also made to them sanctification. Throughout the whole of the discussion, it is material to keep in mind that they to whom, along with himself, the Apostle is referring, are those whom he had addressed (Romans 1:7) as ’beloved of God,’ as ’called,’ as ’saints.’
The same great truths are fully developed in the 29th and 30th verses of the eighth chapter, where it is shown that the persons who are conformed to the image of Christ were those who are justified, and who shall be glorified, the whole of which Paul there traces up to the sovereign appointment of God. There, in like manner, he shows that the people of God, being conformed to Christ in His death, are also conformed to Him in their walking in newness of life, as the prelude of their resurrection with Him to glory. To the same purpose he writes to the saints at Colosse, where he assures them that they are ’complete in Christ, being buried with Him in baptism, wherein also they are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.’
Romans 6:8 — Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him:
Now — rather, since then — believers are one with Christ in His death, they have the certain prospect of forever living with Him. That the life here mentioned is the life after the resurrection, as in verse 5th, appears from the phraseology. The Apostle speaks of it as a future life, which it is unnatural to interpret as signifying the believer’s spiritual life here, or as importing the continuation of it to the end of his course. There is no need of such straining, when the obvious meaning is true and most important. Besides, the point is decided by the assertion, ’we believe.’ It is a matter of faith, and not of present experience.
’We believe’ — Upon this it is useful to remark, that though the Apostle reasons and deduces from principles, yet we are to be cautious not to consider his doctrine as needing any other support but his own assertion. His statement, or expression of belief, is demonstration to a Christian. It was a truth believed by those whom he addressed, because taught by Paul and the other Apostles.
Romans 6:9 — Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him.
Knowing that — The Apostle states the assumption that, as Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again, so neither will those die again who have died and risen with Him. This obviously refers to the resurrection life, and not to the present spiritual life. It is a fact of inconceivable consolation, that after the resurrection the believer will never again die. All the glory of heaven could not make us happy without this truth.
Death hath no more dominion over Him. — This implies that death had once dominion over Christ Himself He was its lawful captive, as he took our place, and bore our sins. It is far from being true, according to Mr. Tholuck, that the word here used ’seems to involve the idea of a usurped power, for properly, as Christ was an innocent being, there vas no reason why He should die.’ Christ was lawfully under the power of death for a time; and the word which signifies this applies to a lawful Lord as well as to a usurper. Jesus Christ being declared by His resurrection to be the Son of God with power, His people are engaged to put their trust in Him as the Creator and Ruler of the universe. In His resurrection they receive the assurance of the effect of His death, in satisfying Divine justice while making full atonement for their sins; and in His rising from the dead to an immortal life, as their Lord and Head, they have a certain pledge of their own resurrection to life and immortality.
Romans 6:10 — For in that he died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.
In that — or with respect to that — He died, He died unto sin. — Here we have the same declaration concerning our Lord and Savior as in the 2nd verse concerning believers, of whom the Apostle says that they are dead to sin. Whatever, then, the expression signifies in the one case, it must also be understood to signify in the other. But those who attach a wrong interpretation to the phrase in the first occurrence, are necessitated to attribute to it a different one in the second. Accordingly Calvin remarks on this 10th verse, — ’The very form of expression, as applied to Christ, shows that He did not, like us, die to sin for the purpose of ceasing to commit it.’ Here are two misinterpretations, — first, of the 2nd verse, and next, as a natural consequence, of this 10th. A similar difference of interpretation will be found in the other commentators. Having mistaken the meaning of the one, they are compelled to vary it in the other. In the first, they introduce the idea of death to the power of sin, but in the last this is impossible. Our Lord never felt the power of sin, and therefore could not die to it. But He died to the guilt of sin — to the guilt of His people’s sins, which He had taken upon Him; and they, dying with Him, as is above declared, die to sin precisely in the same sense in which He died to it. This declaration, then, that Christ died to sin, explains in the clearest manner the meaning of the expression ’dead to sin,’ Romans 6:2, proving that it signifies exclusively dying to the guilt of sin; for in no other sense could our Lord Jesus Christ die to sin.
The effect of the death of believers to sin, the Apostle, after concluding his argument, shows to be, that sin shall not have dominion over them, Romans 6:14, for they are not under the law but under grace. His argument is, that the doctrine of a free justification, which he had asserted in the fifth chapter, according to which believers are dead to, or justified from sin, by their oneness with Christ in His death, brings them into an entirely different state from that in which they formerly were in respect to their relation to God. Having been delivered from its guilt, — dead to it, or justified from it, Romans 6:7, — they are in consequence delivered from its power. But to include the idea of power in the expression, ’dead to sin,’ Romans 6:2, entirely confuses and misrepresents his meaning.
Jesus Christ suffered the penalty of sin, and ceased to bear it. Till His death He had sin upon Him; and therefore, though it was not committed by Him personally, yet it was His own, inasmuch as He had taken it upon Him. When He took it on Him, so as to free His people from its guilt, it became His own debt as truly as if it had been contracted by Him. When, therefore, He died on account of sin, He died to it, as He was now for ever justified from it. He was not justified from it till His resurrection; but from that moment He was dead to it. When He shall appear the second time, it will be ’without sin,’ Hebrews 9:28.
Once — He died to sin once, and but once, because He fully atoned for it by His death. On this circ*mstance the Apostle, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, lays much stress, and, in proving the excellence of His sacrifice beyond the legal sacrifices, often repeats it, Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 9:26; Hebrews 9:28; Hebrews 10:10; Hebrews 10:12; Hebrews 10:14. He liveth unto God — It need not excite any surprise that Christ is said henceforth to live unto God. The glory of God must be the great end of all life. Christ’s eternal life in human nature will, no doubt, more than all things else, be for the glory of God.
Romans 6:11 — Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Believers are here commanded to reckon themselves to be really and effectually dead to sin — dead to its guilt — and alive unto God in Jesus Christ, as it ought to be rendered. The obligation thus enjoined follows from all that the Apostle had been inculcating respecting their blessed state as partakers with Christ, both in His death and in His life. As this is their real condition, he here commands them to maintain a full sense and conviction of it. The duties of the Christian life, flowing from their union with Jesus Christ and acceptance with God, he immediately proceeds to enforce. But here it is the obligation to maintain the conviction of their state that he exclusively presses upon them. To note this is of the greatest importance. Unless we keep in mind that we are dead to sin, and alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord, we cannot serve Him as we ought: we shall otherwise be serving in the oldness of the letter, and not in newness of spirit. But when the believer’s state of reconciliation with God, and his death to sin, from which he is delivered, is steadily kept in view, then he cultivates the spirit of adoption — then he strives to walk worthy of his calling, and, in the consideration of the mercies of God, presents his body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, Romans 12:1; he rejoices in the Lord, and abounds in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost; he has peace in his conscience, his heart is enlarged, and he runs the way of God’s commandments.
Of their high privileges and state of acceptance with God, believers are ever reminded in Scripture; and it is not till a man has the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 3:21, and a sense of being justified from sin, having his conscience purged from dead works by the blood of Christ, that he can serve the living God, Hebrews 9:14. How important, then, is this admonition of the Apostle, Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, though often much obscured by false glosses turning it away from its true and appropriate meanings By many it would be accounted presumptuous in Christians to take it home to themselves. Hence they are not aware of the obligations they are under to labor to maintain the assurance of their union with Christ, and of their participation with Him in His death and resurrection. But we see that the Apostle, after he had fully developed the blessed state of believers, and declared the foundation on which it rests, with which their continuing to live in sin is incompatible, expressly enjoins this as a positive duty on those whom he addresses, and consequently on all Christians, thus reminding them that what he had said was not to be viewed in the light of abstract truth, but ought to be practically and individually brought home to their own bosoms. How seldom is this use made of the text before us! How seldom, if ever, is the duty it enforces urged upon Christians! How little is it considered as binding on their consciences! Yet, without attending to this duty, which, in connection with a right understanding of the Gospel, is consistent with the deepest humility, how can, they possibly bring forth those precious fruits of the Spirit which lie at the foundation of all the rest, love, and joy, and peace? How, in a word, can they walk with God?
There was no part of the Exposition in which I felt so much difficulty as in the commencement of this chapter. In consulting a multitude of commentators, I found no satisfactory solution. Most of them explain the expression ’dead to sin,’ in the 2nd verse, as importing death not only to the guilt, but also, as has been remarked, to the power of sin, — a proof that the assertion of the Apostle is misunderstood. But when it is perceived that the guilt of sin only is included, a clear light is thrown on this highly important part of the Epistle. This is the way in which it appears to have been viewed by Mr. Romaine, of which, till lately, I was not aware, and I do not recollect ever meeting with it in the works of any other writer. I subjoin the following interesting passage from his treatise On the Walk of Faith.
’True spiritual mortification does not consist in sin not being in thee, nor in its being put upon the cross daily, nor yet in its being kept upon it. There must be something more to establish perfect peace in thy conscience; and that is the testimony of God concerning the body of sin. He has provided for thy perfect deliverance from it in Christ. Everything needful for this purpose was finished by Him upon the cross. He was thy Surety. He suffered for thee. Thy sins were crucified with Him, and nailed to His cross. They were put to death when He died: for He was thy covenant-head, and thou wast legally represented by Him, and art indeed dead to sin by His dying to sin once. The law has now no more right to condemn thee, a believer, than it has to condemn Him. Justice is bound to deal with thee, as it has with thy risen and ascended Savior. If thou dost not thus see thy complete mortification in Him, sin will reign in thee. No sin can be crucified either in heart or life, unless it be first pardoned in conscience; because there will be want of faith to receive the strength of Jesus, by whom alone it can be crucified. If it be not mortified in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power. If the believer does not see his perfect deadness to sin in Jesus, he will open a wide door to unbelief; and if he be not persuaded of his completeness in Christ, he gives room for the attacks of self-righteous and legal tempers. If Christ be not all in all, self must still be looked upon as something great, and there will be food left for the pride of self-importance and self-sufficiency; so that he cannot grow into the death of Christ in sensible experience, further than he believes himself to be dead to sin in Christ. The more clearly and steadfastly he believes this, as the Apostle did — I am crucified with Christ — in proportion will he cleave to Christ, and receive from Him greater power to crucify sin. This believing view of his absolute mortification in Christ, is the true Gospel method of mortifying sin in our own persons. Read the sixth of the Romans, and pray for the Spirit of revelation to open it to thee. There thou wilt discover the true way to mortify sin. It is by believing that thou art planted together with Christ in His death; from thence only thy pardon flows, from thence thy daily victory is received, and from thence thy eternal victory will be perfected.’
Romans 6:12 — Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Having proved how unfounded is the objection that the doctrine of justification leads to the indulgence of sin, the Apostle now exhorts those whom he addresses to live agreeably to the holy nature and design of the Gospel. With this object he presents, throughout the rest of the chapter, various considerations adapted to induce them to walk in that newness of life to which they are risen with Christ. It should here be remarked, that although the apostle had expressly taught that they who are justified are likewise sanctified, yet as God is pleased to cause His people to act with Him in their sanctification — so that they shall both will and do, because He worketh in them to will and to do of His good pleasure — the earnest exhortations to obedience, and the motives held forth in the conclusion of the chapter, are entirely consistent with what had been declared as to the certainty of their sanctification resting on the power of God, and to be viewed as outward means which God employs to effect this purpose.
Therefore — The exhortation in this verse is founded on the preceding. Here, then, we have an example of the manner in which the Apostle urges believers to the performance of their duty to God. Because being united to Christ they were dead to sin, the conviction of which he had just before enjoined them to maintain, he exhorts them in this and the following verse to abstain from sin. Unless they possessed that conviction, the motive on which he here rests his exhortation would be inapplicable. This is his manner in all his Epistles, in common with the other Apostles, of enforcing the obligation of Christians to the performance of their duty. ’Be ye kind one to another, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.’ He proceeds on the fact of their knowledge that their sins were forgiven.
It is difficult to see what precise idea the Apostle intends to communicate by the addition of the epithet mortal; yet it is certain that he uses no unmeaning appendages, and that this word must add to the sense. The propriety of the epithet, as ascribed to the body, is evident; but still, why is this epithet added here? Paul had just charged believers to reckon themselves dead to sin, but alive to God. When, therefore, he here urges them not to allow sin to reign in their bodies, and designates their bodies as mortal, it may be that he means to intimate either that their struggle with sin, which will only continue while they are in the body, will be short, or to contrast the present state of the body with its future spiritual state. As in its future glorified state it is to live entirely to God, and to be without sin, so it follows that, even in its present mortal state, sin should not have it in subjection. Calvin is undoubtedly mistaken in saying that the word body here ’is not taken in the sense of flesh, skin, and bones; but means, if I may be allowed the expression, the whole mass of the man; ’that is, man as soul and body in its present earthly state. This would import that the soul is now mortal.
Sin reign — Sin is here personified and viewed as a king. Such a ruler is sin over all the world, except those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 John 5:19. This is the reason why men will spend their substance and their labor in the works of the flesh. Sin rules in them as a sovereign; and they of their own accord with eagerness pursue every ungodly course to which their corrupt nature impels them; and in the service of sin they will often ruin their health as well as their fortune. That ye should obey it, or, so as to obey it. — Sin is still a law in the members of believers, but it is not to be allowed to reign. It must be constantly resisted. Obey it in the lusts thereof: —That is, to obey sin in the lusts of the body. Sin is obeyed in gratifying the lusts or corrupt appetites of the body. The term lusts imports the inward corrupt inclination to sin from whence the acts of sin proceed, and of which the Apostle speaks particularly in the following chapter, where he shows that till after the commandment came to him in power, he had not known that corrupt inclination to be sin. Augustine here remarks that the Apostle does not say that in believers there is no sin, but that it should not reign, because while they live there must be sin in their members.
Romans 6:13 — Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Neither yield — That is, do not present, afford, or make a donation of your members. Instruments — or weapons, or organs, to be employed in works of unrighteousness. Unto sin — This surrender, against which the believer is cautioned, is to sin. They who employ the members of their bodies in doing the works of the flesh, present their bodies to sin as their sovereign. Members — There is no occasion, with Dr. Macknight and others, to suppose that the word members here includes the faculties of the mind as well as the members of the body. It is of the body that the Apostle is speaking. It follows? indeed, as a consequence, that if sin is not to be practiced through the members of the body, neither is it to be indulged in the thoughts of the mind, for it is the latter that leads to the former. The word instruments evidently limits the expression to the members of the body.
But yield yourselves unto God — Yield yourselves soul and body. The exhortation, as it respected the service of sin, mentions only the members of the body which are the instruments of gratifying the corruptions of the mind. But this, as was observed, sufficiently implies that we are forbidden to employ the faculties of the soul in the service of sin, as well as the members of the body. There can be no doubt that all we are commanded to give to God, we are prohibited from giving to sin. If we are commanded to present ourselves unto God, then we are forbidden to present either the faculties of the mind or the members of the body to sin. The believer is to give himself up to God without any reservation. He is to employ both body and mind in every work required of him by God. He must decline no labor which the Lord sets before him, no trial to which He calls him, no cross which He lays upon him. He is not to count even his life dear if God demands its sacrifice.
As those that are alive from the dead — Here again Christians are addressed as those who know their state. They are already in one sense raised from the dead. They have a spiritual life, of which they were by nature entirely destitute, and of which unbelievers are not only altogether destitute, but which they cannot even comprehend. Your members as instruments of righteousness — The members of the body are not only to be used in the direct worship of God, and in doing those things in which their instrumentality is required, but in every action they ought to be employed in this manner, even in the common business of life, in which the glory of God should be constantly kept in view. The laborer who toils in the field, if he acts with an eye to the glory of God, ought to console himself with the consideration that when he has finished his day to man, he has wrought a day to God. This view of the matter is a great relief under his daily toils. Unto God — That is, yield your members unto God. As the natural man presents his members to sin, so the believer is to present his members to God.
Romans 6:14 — For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
For sin shall not have dominion over you — Such is the unqualified affirmation with which Paul in this place shuts up his triumphant reply to the objection to his doctrine urged in the first verse. No truth is more certain than that sin shall not have dominion over believers. God’s veracity and glory are pledged to prevent it. They are dead to the guilt of sin, and therefore its power shall no more predominate in them. They have put on the new man, and the warfare with the old man shall finally terminate in his destruction. The first for in this verse gives a reason why believers should exert themselves to give their members to the service of God. They shall not fail in their attempt, for sin shall not have dominion over them. The next for gives the reason why sin shall not have dominion over them. For ye are not under the law — literally, under law. — A great variety of interpretations are given of this declaration. But the meaning cannot be a matter of doubt to those who are well instructed in the nature of salvation by grace. It is quite obvious that the law which believers are here said not to be under, is the moral law, as a covenant of works, and not the legal dispensation, — to distinguish it from which may be the reason why the article is here omitted. To affirm that law here is the legal dispensation, is to say that all who lived under the law of Moses were under the dominion of sin. In the sense in which law is here understood, the Old Testament saints were not under it. They had the Gospel in figure. They trusted in the promised Savior, and sought not to justify themselves by their obedience to the law. Besides, all unbelievers, both Jews and Gentiles, are under the law, in the sense in which believers are here said not to be under it. Believers are not under the law as a covenant, because they have endured its curse and obeyed its precept in the person of their great Head, by whom the righteousness of the law has been fulfilled in them, chapter 8:4. But every man, till he is united to Christ, is under the law, which condemns him. When united to Him, the believer is no longer under the law either to be condemned or to be justified. When Mr. Stuart says that it is from the law, ’as inadequate to effect the sanctification and secure the obedience of sinners,’ that the Apostle here declares us to be free, he proves that he entirely misunderstands what is meant. The circ*mstance that the law cannot sanctify the sinner, and secure his obedience, confers no emancipation from its demands. The believer is free from the law, because another has taken his place, and fulfilled it in his stead. This implies that all who are under the law are also under the dominion of sin, and under the curse, Galatians 3:10. The self-righteous who trust in their works, and boast of their natural ability to serve God, are under the dominion of sin; and the very works in which they trust are sinful, or ’dead works,’ Hebrews 9:14. They are such works as men perform before their consciences are purged by the blood of Christ.
But under grace — Believers are not under the covenant of works, but under the covenant of grace, by which they enjoy all the blessings of that gracious covenant in which all that is required of them is promised to them. They are in a state of reconciliation with God. They know the Lord. According to the tenor of that gracious covenant, His law is written in their hearts, and His fear is put within them. He has promised not to depart from them, and that they shall not depart from Him, Jeremiah 32:40; and their sins and iniquities, which separated them from God, are no more remembered by Him. Being made partakers of the favor of God through Jesus Christ, in whom grace was given them before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9, they have every spiritual supply through Him who is full of grace. His grace is sufficient for them, 2 Corinthians 12:9. The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, that hath appeared to all men, teacheth them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly Titus 2:11. Not only is this grace manifested to them, but it operates within them. God works in them what is well pleasing in His sight, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. They who are under the law have nothing but their own strength in order to their obedience: sin, therefore, must have the dominion over them. But they who are under grace are by God Himself thoroughly furnished unto all good works: sin, therefore, shall not have dominion over them. The great principle of evangelical obedience is taught in this passage. Holiness is not the result of the law, but of the liberty wherewith Christ has made His people free. He sends forth the Spirit of grace into the hearts of all who belong to the election of grace, whom God hath from the beginning chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth; and the word of God worketh effectually in all who believe, 1 Thessalonians 2:13. Jesus Christ is the absolute master of the hearts of His people, of which He has taken possession, and in whom He reigns by the invincible power of the Spirit of grace. The new covenant made with Him, for those whom He has redeemed, and which is ratified with His blood, is immutable and irreversible.
Here, again, it should be observed that the assurance thus given to believers, that sin shall not have dominion over them, could not be duly appreciated except on the ground that they knew that they were dead to sin and alive to God. Just in proportion as Christians are convinced of this, they will feel encouragement from this promise to persevere in their course. The assurance given to them that sin shall not have the dominion over them, is then very far from furnishing a pretext or inducement to a life of sin. On the contrary, they are thereby bound by every consideration of love and gratitude to serve God, while, by the certain prospect of final victory, they are encouraged to persevere, in spite of all difficulties and opposition, either from within or from without.
Romans 6:15 — What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid.
The Apostle had been proving that his doctrine of a free justification by faith without works furnishes no license to believers to continue in sin, but, on the contrary, that the death of Jesus Christ for the sins of His people, and His resurrection for their justification, secures their walking in holiness of life. On this ground, in verses 12 and 13, he had urged on them the duty of obedience to God; and having finally declared, in the 14th verse, that, by the blessing of God, they should be enabled to perform it, he now proceeds to caution them against the abuse of this gracious declaration. If a man voluntarily sins, on the pretext that he is not under the law, but under grace, it is a proof that the grace of God is not in him. ’Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.’
What then — What is the inference which should be deduced from the preceding declaration? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? — This question, proposed by the Apostle as an objection likely to be urged against his doctrine, plainly shows in what sense we are to understand the term law in the 14th verse. Were it not under stood of the moral law, it would not be liable to the supposed objection. The fact of not being under the ceremonial law, or of a change of dispensation from that of Moses to that of Christ, would never lead to such an objection. No one could suppose that the abolition of certain external rites would authorize men to break moral precepts. No view of the law could give occasion to the objection but that which includes freedom from the moral law. This would at once appear to furnish a license to sin with impunity; and it would be justly liable to this objection if freedom from the moral law meant, as some have argued, a freedom from it in every point of view. The freedom from the moral law which the believer enjoys, is a freedom from an obligation to fulfill it in his own person for his justification — a freedom from its condemnation on account of imperfection of obedience. But this is quite consistent with the eternal obligation of the moral law as a rule of life to the Christian. Nothing can be more self-evidently certain than that, if the moral law is not a rule of life to believers, they are at liberty to disregard its precepts. But the very thought of this is abominable. The Apostle therefore rejects it in the strongest terms, in the way in which he usually expresses his disapprobation of what is most egregiously wrong.
Romans 6:16 — Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Know ye not? — That is, the thing by which I am now going to illustrate the subject, is a fact of which you cannot be ignorant. All of them well knew the truth of what Paul was about to say, and by this similitude they would be able to comprehend the doctrine he was teaching. The ground, however, of the use of this phraseology has no resemblance, as Mr. Stuart supposes, to that used in verses 6 and 9. Here the Apostle speaks of a thing which all men know, and which belongs to the common relations of society. There he speaks of what they know only as Christians by revelation.
Yield yourselves or, present yourselves. — Not, as Mr. Stuart translates it, ’proffer yourselves.’ It is possible among men that proffered service may be rejected, or that, at least, something may occur to prevent performance of the actual service; and it is of transactions among men that the Apostle is speaking; but, in the Apostle’s view, the presented service is accepted. Mr. Stuart’s translation in his Commentary is better. ’Where you have once given up yourselves to any one as servants.’ This, however, is quite a different idea from what he expresses in the text.
Servants to obey, literally, unto obedience. — Mr. Stuart’s translation is not to be approved of here, ’ready to obey,’ or ’bound to obey.’ The idea is not that they were bound by this presentation of themselves to continue in obedience to the master. The servants unto obedience are not servants who are bound to obey, but servants who actually obey — whose servitude is proved and perfected in their works. Mr. Stuart entirely mistakes the sentiment expressed by the Apostle when he paraphrases thus: — ’When you have once given up yourselves to any one as dou>louv eijv uJpakoh>n, you are no longer your own masters, or at your own disposal; you have put yourselves within the power and at the disposal of another master.’ The language of the Apostle is not designed to prove that, by presenting themselves to a master, they are bound to his service, but to state the obvious fact that they are the servants of him whose work they do. If we see a number of laborers in a field, we know they are the servants of the proprietor of the field — of the person in whose work they are employed. The application of this fact to the Apostle’s purpose is obvious and important. If men are doing the work of Satan, must they not be Satan’s servants? If they are doing God’s work, must they not be the servants of God? Mr. Stuart’s exposition leads entirely away from the Apostle’s meaning.
Of sin — Sin is here personified, and sinners are its servants. Unto death — That is, which ends in death. This is the wages with which sin rewards its servants. Obedience unto righteousness. — Obedience is also personified, and the work performed to obedience is righteousness; that is, the works of the believer are righteous works. Nothing can be more false as a translation, or more erroneous in sentiment, than the version of Mr. Stuart. ’Obedience unto justification.’ In his paraphrase he says, ’But if you are the servants of that obedience which is unto justification — i.e. which is connected with justification, which ends in it — then you may expect eternal life.’ Dikaiosu>nh, which he here translates justification, is righteousness, and never justification. In verses 18, 19, and 20, that follow, he himself translates it righteousness. And what can be more completely subversive of the doctrine of justification, and of the Gospel itself, than the assertion that obedience ’ends in,’ or, as he says afterwards, will lead to justification? This is the translation of the English Socinian version, and of that adopted in their different editions of the New Testament by the Socinian pastors of the church of Geneva. ’De l’obeissance qui conduit ?a justification.’ Of obedience which leads to justification. They have, however, printed the word ’conduit’ (leads to) in italics, to show that it is a supplement.
Mr. Stuart says that his view seems to him quite clear, from justification being the antithesis unto death. But justification is not an exact antithesis to death. It is life that is the antithesis to death. There is no need, however, that there should be such an exact correspondence in the parts of the antithesis as is supposed. And there is a most obvious reason why it could not be so. Death is the wages of sin but life is not the wages of obedience. Mr. Stuart asks, ’How can >nhn here mean holiness uprightness when uJpakoh> itself necessarily designates this very idea? What is an obedience which leads to righteousness? Or how does it differ from righteousness itself, inasmuch as it is the very act of obedience which constitutes righteousness in the sense now contemplated? ’It is replied that obedience is here personified, and therefore righteous actions are properly represented as performed to it. Mr. Stuart might as well ask why are obedience to sin, and the lusts of sin, supposed to be different things in Romans 6:12. In like manner we have righteousness and holiness in Romans 6:19,and fruit and holiness in Romans 6:22. Besides, obedience and righteousness are not ideas perfectly coincident. Righteousness refers to works as to their nature; obedience refers to the same works as to their principle. Mr. Stuart’s remark is both false in criticism, and heretical in doctrine.
Romans 6:17 — But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
The Apostle here expresses his thankfulness to God that they who had formerly been the servants of sin were now the servants of righteousness. To suppose, as some do, that sin itself could be a matter of thankfulness, is a most palpable error, than which nothing can be more remote from the meaning of this passage. Obeyed from the heart — Christian obedience is obedience from the heart, in opposition to an obedience which is by constraint. Any attempt at obedience by an unconverted man, is an obedience produced by some motive of fear, self-interest, or constraint, and not from the heart. Nothing can be more convincing evidence of the truth of the Gospel than the change which, in this respect, it produces on the mind of the believers Nothing but almighty power could at once transform a man from the love of sin to the love of holiness.
That form of doctrine which was delivered you — There are various solutions of this expression, all substantially agreeing in meaning, but differing in the manner of bringing out that meaning. The most usual way is to suppose that there is a reference to melted metals transferred to a mold, which obey or exactly conform to the mold. It is perhaps as probable that the reference is to wax or clay or any soft matter that takes the form of the stamp or seal. There is another method of explaining the phraseology not unworthy of consideration — Ye have obeyed from the heart that form or model of doctrine unto which you have been committed. In this way the form of doctrine or the Gospel is considered as a teacher, and believers are committed to its instructions. The word translated delivered, will admit of this interpretation, and it is sufficiently agreeable to the general meaning of the expression. The substance of the phrase, however, is obvious, and let it be translated as it may, there is no essential difference in the meaning. It proves the holy tendency of the doctrine of grace which believers have retrieved, the blessed effects of which they have felt, and manifested in its fruits, Titus 2:11-12.
Romans 6:18 — Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Being then made free from sin — The original word here rendered free, as also in Romans 6:20 and Romans 6:22, is different, as has been observed, from that improperly rendered freed in Romans 6:7, and has no respect to the justified state of the believer, as is clear from the context, but relates to his freedom from the dominion of sin assured to him in the 14th verse. There is here a reference to the emancipation of slaves from their masters. For merely they were slaves to sin; now they have been emancipated by the Gospel. This deliverance is called their freedom. It does not, however, by any means import what has been called sinless perfection, or an entire freedom from the influence of sin. Ye became servants of righteousness. — Here we see the proper meaning of the word dikaiosu>nh. The servants of righteousness are men obedient to righteousness, being devoted to the practice of such works as are righteous, or, as is said in other words, in Romans 6:22, ’servants of God.’ What meaning could we attach to servants of justification? The idea is, that the believer ought to be as entirely devoted to God as a servant or slave is to his master. Mr. Stuart is here of necessity compelled to allow the true meaning of the same word, which, in the 16th verse, in consistency with his unscriptural system, he had mistranslated, by rendering it justification.
Romans 6:19 — I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
I speak after the manner of men. — This refers to the illustration of the subject by the customs of men as to slavery. Mr. Stuart has either missed the idea here, or expressed it too generally. He translates, ’in language usual to men,’ and expounds, ’I speak as men are accustomed to speak, viz., I use such language as they usually employ in regard to the affairs of common life’ This makes the reference merely to the words used; whereas the reference is to the illustration drawn from human customs. In what way could the Apostle speak but as men are accustomed to speak? Could he speak in any other language than that which was usual to men? This is a thing in which there is no choice. If he speaks at all, he must use human language. But to illustrate spiritual subjects by the customs of men is a matter of choice, because it might have been avoided This establishes the propriety of teaching Divine truth through illustrations taken from all subjects with which those addressed are acquainted. This method not only facilitates the right perception or apprehension of the subject, but also assists the memory in retaining the information received. Accordingly, it was much used by our Lord and His Apostles.
Calvin has not caught the spirit of this passage: ’Paul,’ he says, ’means that he speaks after the manner of men with respect to forms, not the subject-matter, as Christ (John 3:12) says, "If I have told you earthly things," when He is, however, discoursing on heavenly mysteries, but not with so much majesty as the dignity of the subject demanded, because He accommodated Himself to the capacity of a rude, dull, and slow people.’ Here Calvin also makes the reference apply not to human customs, but to human language and style. It may also be asked, why the Lord did not express Himself with so much majesty as the dignity of the subject demanded? It cannot be admitted that His language, or the language of inspiration, ever falls short of the dignity demanded by the subject. Because of the infirmity of your flesh — That is, the weakness of their spiritual discernment through the corruption of human nature. This does not refer, as Mr. Stuart supposes, to ’the feeble or infantile state of spiritual knowledge among the Romans,’ but is applicable to mankind in general. Men in all places, and in all ages, and in every period of their lives, are weak through the flesh, both in spiritual discernment, and in the practice of holiness. Men of the most powerful mental capacity are naturally dull in apprehending the things of the Spirit. Accordingly errors abound with them as much as with the most illiterate, and often in a far greater degree. Besides, such a peculiar application to those in the church at Rome is inconsistent with chapter 15:14, where the Apostle says that they were ’filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.’ For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness. — This shows the state of men by nature, and especially the state of the heathen world at the period of the highest refinement. Uncleanness means all impurity, but especially the vice opposed to chastity. Iniquity, as distinguished from this, refers to conduct opposed to laws human and Divine. The one refers principally to the pollution, the other to the guilt of sin.
Romans 6:20 — For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Mr. Tholuck misunderstands this verse, which, in connection with the 21st, he paraphrases thus: ’While engaged in the service of sin, you possessed, it is true, the advantage of standing entirely out of all subjection to righteousness; but let us look to what is to be the final result.’ The Apostle is not speaking of freedom from righteousness as an advantage either real or supposed, nor could he thus speak of it. He is speaking of it as a fact; and from that fact he argues that, as when they were the servants of sin they were free from righteousness — yielding no obedience to it, and acting as if they had nothing to do with, and had no relation to it — so now, as they are the servants of righteousness, they ought to hold themselves free from the slavery of sin. The consequence, indeed, is not drawn, but is so plain that it is left to the reader. The sentiment is just and obvious. When they were the subjects of their former sovereign, they were free from the service of their present sovereign. So now, as they are subjects to righteousness, they ought to be free from sin.
Mr. Stuart also misunderstands this verse. He explains it thus: ’When you served sin, you deemed yourselves free from all obligation to righteousness.’ This the Apostle neither says, nor could say. For it is not true that natural men, whether Pagans or under a profession of Christianity, regard themselves as bound by no obligations to righteousness. The law of nature teaches the contrary. But whatever is their light on this subject, it is a fact that they are free from righteousness. This, we learn, is the state of all natural men.
Romans 6:21 — What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
What fruit had ye then in those things? — Besides the exhortations to holiness which he had already employed, the Apostle here sets before believers the nature and consequences of sin. Unprofitable and shameful in it character, its end is death. He asks what advantage had they derived from their former conduct. Fruit here signifies advantage, and not pleasure. Many interpret this verse as if the Apostle denied that they had any pleasure in their sins at the time of committing them. This the Apostle could not do; for it is a fact that men have pleasure in sin. To say that sinful pleasure is no pleasure, but is imaginary, is to abuse terms. All pleasure is a matter of feeling, and a man is no less happy than he feels himself to be; if he imagines that he enjoys pleasure, he actually enjoys pleasure. But what advantage is there in such pleasure? This is the question which the Apostle asks.
Whereof ye are now ashamed. — It is a remarkable fact that men in a state of alienation from God will commit sin not only without shame, but will glory in many things of which they are ashamed the moment they are changed by the Gospel. They now see their conduct in another light. They see that it was not only sinful but shameful. For the end of those things is death. — Here is the answer to the question with respect to the fruit of unrighteous conduct. Whatever pleasure they might have found in it, the end of it is ruin. Death. — This cannot be confined to natural death, for that is equally the end with respect to the righteous as well as the wicked. It includes the whole penalty of sin — eternal punishment.
Romans 6:22 — But note, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Having concluded his triumphant reply to the objection, that his doctrine concerning justification leads to indulgence in sin, the Apostle here assures those to whom he wrote of the blessed effects of becoming servants to God. In the eighth chapter these are fully developed. But now, being made free from sin, — that is, emancipated from a state of slavery to sin. Fruit unto holiness. — Fruit, in this verse, denotes conduct, and holiness its specific character or quality. When conduct or works are called fruit, their nature is not expressed; they are merely considered as the production of the man. Fruit unto holiness is conduct that is holy. And the end everlasting life. — Fruit unto holiness, or holy conduct, is the present result of freedom from sin, and of becoming servants to God; eternal life is the final result. Eternal life is the issue of the service of God, but it is not the reward of its merit. Hence the Apostle here uses the phrase eternal life when he is speaking of the issue of the service of God. But in Romans 6:16 he says, ’obedience unto righteousness,’ and not ’obedience unto eternal life,’ because he had, in the preceding member of the sentence, spoken of death as the punishment of sin. Had he used the word eternal life in connection with obedience in this antithesis, it would have too much resembled an assertion that eternal life is the reward of our obedience.
Romans 6:23 — For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wages of sin is death. — Here, as in the conclusion of the preceding chapter, death is contrasted with eternal life. Sin is a service or slavery, and its reward is death, or eternal misery. As death is the greatest evil in this world, so the future punishment of the wicked is called death figuratively, or the second death. In this sense death is frequently spoken of in Scripture; as when our Lord says, ’Whosoever believeth on Me shall never die.’ Death is the just recompense of sin. The Apostle does not add, But the wages of obedience is eternal life. This is not the doctrine of Scripture. He adds, But the gift of God is eternal life. The gift that God bestows is eternal life. He bestows no less upon any of His people; and it is the greatest gift that can be bestowed.
Dr. Gill on this passage remarks, ’These words, at first sight, look as if the sense of them was, that eternal life is the gift of God through Christ, which is a great and glorious truth of the Gospel; but their standing in opposition to the preceding words require another sense, namely, that God’s gift of grace issues in eternal life, through Christ: Wherefore, by the gift of God is not meant eternal life, but either the gift of a justifying righteousness or the grace of God in regeneration and sanctification, or both, which issue in eternal life.’ This remark does not appear to be well founded. The wages of sin do not issue in death, or lead to it, but the wages of sin is death. Death is asserted to be the wages of sin, and not to be another issue to which the wages of sin lead; and the gift of God is not said to issue in eternal life, but to be eternal life. Eternal life is the gift here spoken of. It is not, as Dr. Gill represents, ’eternal life is the gift of God,’ but ’the gift of God is eternal life.’ The meaning of these two propositions, though nearly alike, are not entirely coincident. The common version is perfectly correct. Both of the propositions might with truth be rendered convertible, but as they are expressed by the Apostle they are not convertible; and we should receive the expression as it stands. No doubt the gift of righteousness issues in eternal life; but it is of the gift of eternal life itself, and not of the gift of righteousness, that the Apostle is here speaking; and the Apostle’s language should not be pressed into a meaning which is foreign to his design.
Life after death are set before us in the Scriptures. On the one hand, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish; on the other, glory, and honor, and peace. To one or other of these states every child of Adam will finally be consigned. To both of them, in the concluding verse of this chapter, our attention is directed; and the grounds on which never-ending misery or everlasting blessedness will be awarded, are expressly declared. ’The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
The punishment of that death which was the threatened penalty of the first transgression, will, according to Scripture, consist in the pains both of privation and suffering. Its subjects will not only be bereaved of all that is good, they will also be overwhelmed with all that is terrible. As the chief good of the creature is the enjoyment of the love of God, how great must be the punishment of being deprived of the sense of His love, and oppressed with the consciousness of His hatred! The condemned will be entirely divested of every token of the protection and blessing of God, and visited with every proof of His wrath and indignation. According to the awful declaration of the Apostle, they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, in that day ’when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ This punishment will be adapted to both the component parts of man’s nature — to the soul as well as to the body. It will connect all the ideas of the past, the present, and the future. As to the past, it will bring to the recollection of the wicked the sins they committed, the good they abused, and the false pleasures by which they were deluded. As to the present, their misery will be aggravated by their knowledge of the glory of the righteous, from which they themselves are for ever separated, and by the direful company of the devil and his angels, to the endurance of whose cruel slavery they are for ever doomed. As to the future, the horrors of their irreversible condition will be rendered more insupportable by the overwhelming conviction of its eternity. To the whole must be added that rage against God, whom they will hate as their enemy, without any abatement or diminution.
It is not to be questioned that there will be degrees in the punishment of the wicked. This is established by our Lord Himself, when He declares that it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for the Jews. This punishment being the effect of Divine justice, the necessary proportion between crime and suffering will be observed; and as some crimes are greater and more aggravated than others, there will be a difference in the punishment inflicted. In one view, indeed, all sins are equal, because equally offenses against God, and transgressions of His law; but, in another view, they differ from each other. Sin is in degree proportioned not only to the want of love to God and man which it displays, but likewise to the manner in which it is perpetrated. Murder is more aggravated than theft, and the sins against the second table of the law are less heinous than those committed against the first. Sins likewise vary in degree, according to the knowledge of him who commits them, and inasmuch as one is carried into full execution, and another remains but in thought or purpose. The difference in the degree of punishment will not consist, however, in what belongs to privation — for in this it must be equal to all — but in those sufferings which will be positively inflicted by God.
Our Lord three times in one discourse repeats that awful declaration, ’Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’ The term fire presents the idea of the intensity of the wrath or vengeance of God. It denotes that the sufferings of the condemned sinner are such as the body experiences from material fire, and that entire desolation which accompanies its devouring flames. Fire, however, consumes the matter on which it acts, and is thus itself extinguished. But it is not so with those who shall be delivered over to that fire which is not quenched. They will be upheld in existence by Divine justice, as the subjects on which it will be ever displayed. The expression, ’their worm dieth not,’ indicates a continuance of pain and putrefaction such as the gnawing of worms would produce. As fire is extinguished when its fuel is consumed, in the same way the worm dies when the subject on which it subsists is destroyed. But here it is represented as never dying, because the persons of the wicked are supported for the endurance of this punishment. In employing these figures, the Lord seems to refer to the two methods in which the bodies of the dead were in former times consigned to darkness and oblivion, either by in cremation or interment. In the first, they were consumed by fire; in the second, devoured by worms. The final punishment of the enemies of God is likewise represented by their being cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. This imports the multitude of griefs with which the wicked will be overwhelmed. What emblem can more strikingly portray the place of torment than the tossing waves, not merely of a flood of waters, but of liquid fire? And what can describe more awfully the intensity of the sufferings of those who are condemned, than the image of that brimstone by which the fierceness of fire is augmented?
These expressions, their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, to which it is added, ’for every one shall be salted with fire,’ preclude every idea either of annihilation or of a future restoration to happiness. Under the law, the victims offered in sacrifice were appointed to be salted with salt, called ’the salt of the covenant,’ Leviticus 2:13. Salt is an emblem of incorruptibility, and its employment announced the perpetuity of the covenant of God with His people. In the same manner, all the sacrifices to His justice will be salted with fire. Every sinner will be preserved by the fire itself; becoming thereby incorruptible, and fitted to endure those torments to which he is destined. The just vengeance of God will render incorruptible the children of wrath, whose misery, any more than the blessedness of the righteous, will never come to an end.
’The Son of Man,’ said Jesus, ’goeth, as it is written of Him; but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.’ If the punishment of the wicked in the future state were to terminate in a period, however remote, and were it to be followed with eternal happiness, what is here affirmed of Judas would not be true. A great gulf is fixed between the abodes of blessedness and misery, and every passage from the one to the other is for ever barred.
The punishment, then, of the wicked will be eternal, according to the figures employed, as well as to the express declarations of Scripture. Sin being committed against the infinity of God, merits an infinite punishment. In the natural order of justice, this punishment ought to be infinitely great; but as that is impossible, since the creature is incapable of suffering pain in an infinite degree, infinity in greatness is compensated by infinity in duration. The punishment, then, is finite in itself, and on this account it is capable of being inflicted in a greater or less degree; but as it is eternal, it bears the same proportion to the greatness of Him who is offended.
The metaphors and comparisons employed in Scripture to describe the intensity of the punishment of the wicked, are calculated deeply to impress the sentiment of the awful nature of that final retribution. ’Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it,’ Isaiah 30:33.
While the doctrine of eternal happiness is generally admitted, the eternity of future punishment is doubted by many. The declarations, however, of the Holy Scriptures respecting both are equally explicit. Concerning each of them the very same expressions are used. ’These shall go away into everlasting (literally, eternal) punishment: but the righteous unto life eternal,’ Matthew 25:46. Owing to the hardness of their hearts, men are insensible to the great evil of sin. Hence the threatenings of future punishment, according to the word of God, shock all their prejudices, and seem to them unjust, and such as never can be realized. The tempter said to the woman, ’Ye shall not surely die,’ although God had declared it. In the same way that malignant deceiver now suggests that the doctrine of eternal punishment, although written as with a sunbeam in the book of God, although expressly affirmed by the Savior in the description of the last judgment, and so often repeated by Him during His abode on earth, is contrary to every idea that men ought to entertain of the goodness and mercy of God. He conceals from his votaries the fact that if God is merciful He is also just; and that, while forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, He will by no means clear the guilty. Some who act as His servants in promoting this delusion, have admitted that the Scriptures do indeed threaten everlasting punishment to transgressors, but they say that God employs such threatenings as a veil to deter men from sin, while He by no means intends their execution. The veil, then, which God has provided, is, according to them, too transparent to answer the purpose He designs, and they, in their superior wisdom, have been able to penetrate it. And this is one of their apologies for the Bible, with the design of making its doctrines more palatable to the world. On their own principles, then, they are chargeable with doing all in their power to frustrate what they affirm to be a provision of mercy. Shall men, however eminent in the world, be for a moment listened to, who stand confessedly guilty of conduct so impious?
Infinitely great are the obligations of believers to that grace by which they have been made to differ from others, to flee to the refuge set before them in the Gospel, and to wait for the Son of God from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Eternal life — Of the nature of that glory of which the people of God shall be put in possession in the day of their redemption, we cannot form a clear and distinct idea. ’It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ In the present state, believers, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. This transformation, while they see only through a glass darkly, is gradually proceeding; but when they see face to face, and shall know even as they are known, this image shall be perfected. Their blessedness will consist in a knowledge of God and His mysteries, a full and exquisite sense of His love, ineffable consolation, profound tranquillity of soul, a perfect concord and harmony of the soul with the body, and with all the powers of the soul among themselves; in one word, in an assemblage of all sorts of blessings. These blessings will not be measured in the proportion of the creatures who receive them, but of God who confers them; and of the dignity of the person of Jesus Christ, and of His merit: of His person, for they shall obtain that felicity only in virtue of the communion which they have with Him; of His merit, for He has purchased it with the price of His blood. So far, then, as we can conceive of majesty, excellency, and glory, in the person of the Redeemer, so far, keeping always in view the proportion of the creature to the Creator, ought we to conceive of the value, the excellence, and the abundance of the eternal blessings which He will bestow upon His people. The Scriptures call it a fullness of satisfaction, not a fullness of satiety, but a fullness of joy, at the right hand of God, where there are pleasures for evermore. It will be a crown of righteousness; they shall sit down with Christ in His throne, as He is set down with His Father in His throne. ’Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb.’
As to the duration of this blessedness, it shall be eternal. But why eternal? Because God will bestow it upon a supernatural principle, and consequently upon a principle free from changes to which nature is exposed, in opposition to the happiness of Adam, which was natural. Because God will give it, not as to hirelings, but as to His children in title of inheritance. ’The servant,’ or the hireling, says Jesus Christ, ’abideth not in the house for ever, but the son abideth ever.’ Because God will confer it as a donation, that is to say, irrevocably. On this account Paul declares that ’the gift of God is eternal life.’ None of the causes which produce changes will have place in heaven; — not the inequality of nature, for it shall be swallowed up in glory — not sin, for it will be entirely abolished — not the temptations of Satan, for Satan will have no entrance there — not the mutability of the creature, for God will possess His people fully and perfectly.
Through Jesus Christ — Eternal life comes to the people of God as a free gift, yet it is through Jesus Christ. By His mediation alone reconciliation between God and man is effected, peace established, communion restored, and every blessing conferred. The smallest as well as the greatest gift is bestowed through Him; and they are not the less free gifts from God, because Christ our Lord has paid the price of redemption. He Himself was given for this end by the Father, and He and the Father are one. He, then, who pays the ransom is one and the same who justifies, so that the freeness of the gift is not in the smallest degree diminished.
This gift of eternal life is bestowed through Jesus Christ, and by Him it is dispensed, — ’Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee: as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.’ ’My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life.’ Our Lord. — His people are constantly to keep in mind that Jesus Christ is their Lord, whose authority they are ever to regard, and whom, as their Lord and Master, they are implicitly to obey. He is the Lord both of the dead and the living, to whom every knee shall bow, and before whose judgment-seat we shall all stand.
There is a striking similarity between the manner in which the Apostle winds up his discussion on the free justification of sinners, in the close of the preceding chapter, and that in which he now concludes the doctrine of their sanctification. ’Grace,’ he there says, reigns ’through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord;’ and through Him, it is here said, ’the gift of God is eternal life.’ All is of grace, all is a free gift, all is vouchsafed through and in Him who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification, from whom neither death nor life shall separate us. ’Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.’
The doctrine of free justification by faith without works, on which the Apostle had been insisting in the preceding part of the Epistle, is vindicated in this chapter from the charge of producing those consequences which are ascribed to it by the wisdom of the world, and by all who are opposed to the Gospel. Far from conducting to licentiousness, as many venture to affirm, it stands inseparably connected with the sanctification of the children of God.
In the conclusion of the preceding chapter, Paul had asserted that, as the reign of sin had been terminated by the death of the Redeemer, so the reign of grace, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord, has succeeded. He had shown in the third and fourth chapters that this righteousness is upon all them that believe, who are thus justified freely by grace. In the fifth chapter, he had exhibited the effects and accompaniments of their justification. The objection which he had seen it proper to introduce in the beginning of this sixth chapter, had led to a further development of the way in which these blessed effects are produced. In order to this, he says nothing, as has been observed, of the character or attainments of believers, but simply describes their state before God, in consequence of their union with Christ. The sanctification of believers, he thus shows, proceeds from the sovereign determination, the eternal purpose, and the irresistible power of God, which are exerted according to His everlasting covenant, through the mediation of His beloved Son, and in consistency with every part of the plan of salvation. While this, however, is the truth — truth so consolatory to every Christian — it is an incumbent duty to consider, and to seek to give effect to those motives to holiness, presented by the Spirit of God in His own word, as the means which He employs to carry on this great work in the soul — presented, too, in those very doctrines which the wisdom of the world has always supposed will lead to licentiousness. Every view of the character of God, and every part of the plan of salvation, tends to promote holiness in His people; and on every doctrine contained in the Scriptures, holiness is conspicuously inscribed.
The doctrine of justification without works, so far from leading to licentiousness, furnishes the most powerful motive to obedience to God. They who receive the doctrine of justification by the righteousness of God, have the fullest and most awful sense of the obligation which the holy law of God enforces on His creatures, and of the extent and purity of that law connected with the most profound sentiment of the evil of sin. Every new view that believers take of the Gospel of their salvation is calculated to impress on their minds a hatred of sin, and a desire to flee from it. In the doctrine of Christ crucified, they perceive that God, who is holy and just, pardons nothing without an atonement, and manifests His hatred of sin by the plan which He adopts for the salvation of sinners. The extent of the evil of sin is exhibited in the dignity and glory of Him by whom it has been expiated, the depth of His humiliation, and the greatness of His sufferings. The obligation of the law of God also derives unutterable force from the purity of its precepts as well as from the awfulness of its sanction.
If the principal object, or one of the essential characteristics, of the doctrine of justification by faith was to represent God as easily pacified towards the guilty, as taking a superficial cognizance of the breach of His holy law, and punishing it lightly, it might with reason be concluded that it relaxes the bonds of moral obligation. But far from this, that doctrine maintains in the highest degree the holiness of God, and discovers the danger of continuing in sin. It teaches that, even when the Almighty is determined to show compassion to the sinner, He cannot deny Himself, and therefore His justice must be satisfied. That Jesus Christ should have purchased, at the price of His own blood, a license to sin against God, would be utterly incompatible with the wisdom and uniformity of the Divine government. God cannot hate sin before its expiation by His Son, and love it after the sufferings inflicted on account of it. If it behooved Him to punish sin so severely in the Divine Surety of His people, it can never be pleasing to Him in those for whom the Surety has made satisfaction. His holiness is further displayed by this doctrine, which teaches that it is only through a righteous advocate and intercessor that they who are justified have access to God.
The Gospel method of justification by the blood of Christ discovers sin and its fatal consequences in the most hideous aspect, while at the same time it displays the mercy of God in the most attractive form. Believers are punished with death in the person of their Divine Surety, according to the original and irrevocable sentence pronounced against man on account of his transgression. But as Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead by the power of the Father, they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life. They are therefore bound by every consideration of love and fear, of gratitude and joyful hope, to regulate the actions of that life which has thus been granted to them in a new and holy way. Being baptized into the death of Christ, in whom they are ’complete,’ they ought to be conformed to Him, and to separate themselves from sin by its entire destruction. Their baptism, which is the instituted sign of their forfeiture by sin of Adam’s life, and their regeneration and fellowship with Christ in His death and resurrection, exhibit to them in the clearest manner the necessity of purity and holiness, the way by which these are attained conformably to the Gospel, and their obligation to renounce everything incompatible with the service of God. ’I am crucified,’ says the Apostle Paul, ’with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ And, addressing the believers to whom he wrote, he says, ’As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.’ Ye are ’buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye have risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead,’ Colossians 2:12. These blessings believers enjoy by that faith which unites them to Christ, and which is wrought in their hearts by the same power that raised up Jesus from the dead, and that will raise them up at the last day. The inducements, then, to love and gratitude to God, held out and enforced by the doctrine of justification by faith, are the strongest that can be conceived. The inexpressible magnitude of the blessings which they who are justified have received; their deliverance from everlasting destruction; the right they have obtained to eternal blessedness, and their meetness for its enjoyment; the infinite condescension of the great Author of these gifts, extending mercy to those who, so far from serving Him, have provoked His wrath; the astonishing means employed in the execution of His purpose of saving them, and the conviction which believers entertain of their own unworthiness, — all impose the strongest obligations, and furnish the most powerful motives, to walk in obedience to God. ’We have known and believed,’ says the Apostle John, ’the love that God hath to us.’ As long as the sinner continues to live under the burden of unpardoned guilt, so long as he sees Divine justice and holiness armed against him, he can only be actuated, in any attempt towards obedience, by servile fear; but when he believes the precious promises of pardon flowing from the love of God, when he knows the just foundation on which this pardon is established, he cleaves with reciprocal love to God. He rests his confidence solely on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, and ascribes to his Heavenly Father all the glory of his salvation. Being justified by faith, he has peace with God, which he no longer labors to acquire by his own works. His obedience is a constant expression of love and thankfulness for the free gift of that righteousness which the Son of God was sent to introduce, which He finished on the cross, and which confers a title to Divine favor sufficient for the most guilty of mankind. If any man professes to believe in Jesus Christ, to love His name, and to enjoy communion with God, yet obeys not His commandments, he ’is a liar, and The truth is not in Him. But whose keepeth His word, in Him verily is the love of God perfected.’ That which does not produce obedience is not love; and what does not proceed from love is unworthy of the name of obedience. The pretense of love without obedience is hypocrisy; and obedience without love is a real slavery.
The sanctification of the people of God depends on the death of Christ in the way of its meritorious cause: for through His death they receive the Holy Spirit, by whom they are sanctified. Jesus Christ has also sanctified Himself, that He might sanctify them. — He had, indeed, no corruption from which He needed sanctification; but when He took on Him the sins of His people, they were His sins as truly as if He had been personally guilty. This is in accordance with what is declared, 2 Corinthians 5:21, ’He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin: that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.’ In this light, then, He must be sanctified from sin, and this was effected by His suffering death. He was sanctified from the sin He had taken upon him by His own blood shed upon the cross, and in Him they are sanctified.
The sanctification of believers depends, too, on the death of Jesus Christ in the way of obligation; for, having redeemed His people to Himself, He has laid them under an inviolable obligation to be holy.’ ’Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.’ ’Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God’s.’ Their sanctification arises also from the example of Jesus Christ; for, in His death, as well as in His life, all Christian virtues were exhibited and exercised in a manner the most admirable, and set before us for our imitation. ’Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps’
The sanctification of believers likewise depends on the death of Christ in the way of motive; for it furnishes an almost infinite number of motives to holiness of life. In His death, believers discover the profound misery in which they were plunged in the slavery of sin and Satan — as children of rebellion and wrath separated from the communion of God. To procure their deliverance, it was necessary not only that the Son of God should come into the world, but that He should suffer on the cross; whence they ought to regard their former condition with holy terror and abhorrence. In His death they perceive how hateful sin is in the sight of God, since it was necessary that the blood of an infinite and Divine person should be shed in order to its expiation. In that death they discover the ineffable love of God, which has even led to the delivering up of His only begotten Son for their salvation. They discover the love and compassion of the Son Himself, which induced Him to come down from heaven to save them, which should beget reciprocal love, and an ardent zeal for His service. They perceive the hope of their calling, and realize the blessings of the eternal inheritance of God, which have been acquired by that death. They contemplate the honor and dignity of their adoption, for Jesus Christ has died that they might become the children of God. They have been born of His blood, which binds them never to lose sight of this heavenly dignity, but to conduct themselves in a manner suitable to their high vocation.
In the death of Jesus Christ the eyes of believers are directed to the Spirit of sanctification, whom God hath sent forth; for in dying Jesus Christ has obtained for His people the inexhaustible graces of the Holy Spirit. This leads them to renounce the spirit of the world, and submit to the direction and guidance of the Spirit from on high. ’They feel the honor of their communion with Jesus Christ, being His brethren and joint heirs, the members of His body, those for whom He shed His blood, and whom He hath redeemed at so astonishing a price. They behold the peace which He has made between God and them, which imposes on them the duty of never disturbing that blessed reconciliation, but, on the contrary, of rendering the most profound obedience to the Divine law. They discover the most powerful motives to humility; for the death of Jesus Christ is a mirror, in which they behold the vileness and indignity of their natural corruption, and perceive that they have nothing in themselves wherewith to satisfy Divine justice for their sins. His death, placing before their eyes their original condition, leads them to cry out before God, ’O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee; but unto us confusion of face.’ Our justification is a blessing which proceeds from Thy grace: Thou hast conferred on us the righteousness of Thy Son; but to ourselves belongeth nothing but misery and ruin. The death of Jesus Christ presents the strongest motives to repentance; for if, after the redemption He has wrought, they should still continue in their sins, it would be making Him, as the Apostle says, ’the minister of sin.’ And, finally, the death of Jesus Christ teaches them not to dread their own death; for He hath sanctified the tomb, and rendered death itself innoxious to His people, since for them He has condescended to suffer it Himself. Their death is the last part of their fellowship on earth with their suffering Redeemer; and as His death was the gate through which He entered into His glory, so the earthly house of their tabernacle must be dissolved, that they may be also glorified together with Him. ’O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’
The resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as His death, presents the strongest motives for the encouragement and sanctification of believers. His resurrection establishes their faith, as being the heavenly seal with which God has been pleased to confirm the truth of the Gospel. Having been declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead, they regard Him as the Creator of the world, and the eternal Son of the Father. It assures them of the effect of His death in expiating their sins, and obliges them to embrace the blood of His cross as the price of their redemption. His resurrection being the victory which He obtained over the enemies of His Church, they are bound to place all their confidence in Him, and to resign themselves for ever to His guidance. It presents the most powerful motive to have constant recourse to the mercy of the Father, for having Himself raised up the Head and Surety of His people; it is an evident pledge of His eternal purpose to love them, and of their freedom of access to God by His Son.
In the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ, believers are taught the certainty of their immortality and future blessedness. Lazarus, and others who were raised up, received their life in the same state as they possessed it before; and after they arose they died a second time; but Jesus Christ, in His resurrection, obtained a life entirely different. In his birth a life was communicated to Him which was soon to terminate on the cross. His resurrection communicated a life imperishable and immortal. Jesus Christ being raised from the dead, death hath no more dominion over him. Of this new life the Apostle speaks as being already enjoyed by His people. ’He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ Elsewhere he calls that heavenly life which Jesus Christ now possesses, their life. ’Your life is hid with Christ in God.’ ’When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, ye also shall appear with Him in glory.’ ’Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me,’ He Himself hath said, ’shall never die.’ All this should inspire His people with courage to finish their course here, in order to go to take possession of the heavenly inheritance which He has gone before to prepare for them, and from whence He will come again to receive them to Himself. It should inspire them with fortitude, that they may not sink under the afflictions and trials which they experience on earth. The Apostle counted all things but loss and dung that he might win Christ — that he might know Him, and the power of His resurrection. On the resurrection of Jesus Christ he rests the whole value and evidence of the truth of the Gospel. ’If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is vain.’ ’But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.’
The resurrection of Jesus Christ, on which believers rest their hope, is intimately connected with every part of the Christian religion. The perfections of the Father — His power, His justice, His faithfulness — were all engaged in raising up His Son from the grave. The constitution of the person of Jesus Christ Himself also required it. He was the Son of God, the Prince of Life, holy, and without spot, — consequently, having nothing in common with death. His body was joined with His deity, of which it was the temple, so that it could not always remain under the power of the grave. His resurrection was also necessary on account of His office as Mediator, and of the general purposes of His coming into the world to destroy the works of the devil, to subvert the empire of death, to make peace between God and man, and to bring life and immortality to light. It was necessary, too, in consideration of His office as a Prophet, in order to confirm by His resurrection the word which He had spoken; and of His office as a Priest, for, after having presented His sacrifice, He must live to intercede for His people and to bless them. And to reign as a King, He must first triumph personally Himself over all His enemies, in order to cause His people to triumph.
Upon the whole, as in the preceding part of the Epistle, the Apostle had rested the justification of believers on their union with Jesus Christ, so upon the same union he rests in this chapter their sanctification. It is in virtue of this union between Him as the Head, and the Church as His body, that the elect of God are the subjects of His regenerating grace, enjoy the indwelling of his Spirit, and bring forth fruit unto God. ’As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing.’
This union of believers with Jesus Christ is represented in Scripture in various expressions, and by different images. The Scriptures declare that we are one with Him, that He dwells in our hearts, that He lives in us and we in Him, that we are changed into His image, and that He is formed in us. This union is spoken of as resembling the union of the head with the other parts of the body, and the foundation with the superstructure. This union does not result solely from Jesus Christ having taken upon Him, by His incarnation, the human nature. For if in this alone our union with Him consisted, unbelievers would be as much united with Him as believers. The union of believers with Jesus Christ is a spiritual and mystical union; and, as one with Him, by Him they are represented. He represents them in the act of making satisfaction to the Father, taking their sins upon Him, and enduring the punishment they deserved; for it was in their place, as their Head and Mediator, that He presented to God that great and solemn sacrifice which has obtained for them heavenly glory. He represents them in the act of His resurrection; for, as the Head, He has received for them of His Father life and immortality. He represents them in His intercession in their name, and also in His exaltation on His throne. The spiritual life which they derive from Him consists in present grace and future glory. In grace there are three degrees. The first is peace with God; the second is holiness, comprehending all that constitutes their duty; and the third is hope, which, like an anchor of the soul, enters into that within the veil. In glory there are also three degrees: the resurrection of the bodies of believers; their elevation to heaven; and the eternal enjoyment of the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
Paul enjoins on Titus to affirm constantly the great truths he had been declaring, in order that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. Those doctrines alone, which, in the opinion of many, make void the law, and give a license to sin — against which, since the days of the Apostle, the same objections have been repeated which in this chapter Paul combats — those doctrines are the means which the Holy Spirit employs for the conversion of sinners, and for producing effects entirely the opposite in their hearts. The Bible teaches us that the plan of salvation, which delivers man from sin and from death by the death of the Son of God, which had its origin in eternity in the counsels of God, both as to the choice of its objects, and the manner in which they are justified and sanctified, and as to its consummation in glory, is founded wholly in grace. ’By the grace of God,’ says Paul, ’I am what I am.’ ’Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.’
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER VII – Romans 7:1-25
IN the preceding chapter the Apostle had answered the chief objection against the doctrine of justification by faith without works. He had proved that, by union with Christ in His death and resurrection, believers who are thereby justified are also sanctified; he had exhibited and enforced the motives to holiness furnished by the consideration of that union; he had, moreover, affirmed that sin shall not have dominion over them, for this specific reason, that they are not under the law, but under grace. To the import of this declaration he now reverts, both to explain its meaning, and to state the ground of deliverance from the law. This, again, rendered it proper to vindicate the holiness of the law, as well as to demonstrate its use in convincing of sin; while at the same time he proves that all its light and all its authority, so far from being sufficient to subdue sin, on the contrary, only tend, by the strictness of its precepts and the awful nature of its sanctions, the more to excite and bring into action the corruptions of the human heart.
Paul next proceeds plainly to show what might be inferred from the preceding chapter. Although he had there described believers as dead to the guilt of sin, he had, notwithstanding, by his earnest exhortations to watchfulness and holiness, clearly intimated that they were still exposed to its seductions. He now exhibits this fact, by relating his own experience since he became dead to the law and was united to Christ By thus describing his inward conflict with sin, and showing how far short he came of the demands of the law, he proves the necessity of being dead to the law as a covenant, since, in the highest attainments of grace during this mortal life, the old nature, which he calls flesh, still remains in believers. At the same time he represents himself as delighting in the law of God, as hating sin, and looking forward with confidence to future deliverance from its power. In this manner he illustrates not only the believer’s real character, but the important fact that the obedience of the most eminent Christian, which is always imperfect, cannot have the smallest influence in procuring his justification. He had proved that men cannot be justified by their works in their natural state. He now shows, by a reference to himself, that as little can they be justified by their works in their regenerated state. And thus he confirms his assertion in the 3rd chapter, that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified. He might have described more generally the incessant combat between the old and new natures in the believer; but he does this more practically, as well as more efficiently, by laying open the secrets of his own heart, and exhibiting it in his own person.
Romans 7:1 — Know ye not, Brethren (for I speak to them that know law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Brethren — Some have erroneously supposed that, by employing the term brethren, the Apostle was now addressing himself exclusively to the Jews who belonged to the church at Rome. He is here, as in other parts of the Epistle, addressing the whole Church, — all its members, whether Jews or Gentiles, being equally concerned in the doctrine he was inculcating. It is evident, besides, that he continues in the following chapters to address the same persons to whom he had been writing from the commencement of the Epistle. They are the same of whom he had affirmed in the preceding chapter, verse 14, that they were not under the law, which is the proposition he here illustrates. Brethren is an appellation whereby Paul designates all Christians, Gentiles as well as Jews, and by which, in the tenth chapter, he distinguishes them from the unbelieving Jews.
Know ye not — There is much force in this interrogation, and it is one usual with Paul when he is affirming what is in itself sufficiently clear, as in Romans 6:16; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19. He here appeals to the personal knowledge of those to whom he wrote. For I speak to them that know law — This parenthesis appears to imply that, as they were acquainted with the nature of law, they must in the sequel be convinced of the truth of the explanations he was about to bring under their notice; and in this manner he bespeaks their particular attention.
The law hath dominion over a man — Man here is not man as distinguished from woman, but man including both men and women, denoting the species. This first assertion is not confined to the law of marriage, by which the Apostle afterwards illustrates his subject, but extends to the whole law, namely, the law of God in all its parts. As long as he liveth — The words in the original, as far as respects the phraseology, are capable of being rendered, either as long as he liveth, or as long as it liveth. It appears, however, that the meaning is, as long as the man liveth; for to say that the law hath dominion as long as it liveth, would be saying it is in force as long as it is in force.
Romans 7:2 — For the woman which hath an husband is bound by law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
Romans 7:3 — So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress, but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
The Apostle here proves his assertion by a particular reference to the law of marriage. And no doubt this law of marriage was purposely adapted by God to illustrate and shadow forth the subject to which it is here applied. Had it not been so, it might have been unlawful to become a second time a wife or a husband. But the Author of human nature and of the law by which man is to be governed, has ordained the lawfulness of second marriages, for the purpose of shadowing forth the truth referred to, as marriage itself was from the first a shadow of the relation between Christ and His Church. Some apply the term law in this place to the Roman law, with which those addressed must have been acquainted; but it is well known that it was usual both for husbands and wives among the Romans to be married to other husbands and wives during the life of their former consorts, without being considered guilty of adultery. The reference is to the general law of marriage, as instituted at the beginning.
Romans 7:4 — Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised, from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
In the illustration it was the husband that died, and the wife remained alive to be married to another. Here it is the wife who dies; but this does not make the smallest difference in the argument; for whether it is the husband or wife that dies, the union is equally dissolved.
Dead to the law — By the term the law, in this place, is intended that law which is obligatory both on Jews and Gentiles. It is the law, the work of which is written in the hearts of all men; and that law which was given to the Jews in which they rested, Romans 2:17. It is the law, taken in the largest extent of the word, including the whole will of God in any way manifested to all mankind, whether Jew or Gentile. All those whom the Apostle was addressing had been under this law in their unconverted state. Under the ceremonial law, those among them who were Gentiles had never been placed. It was therefore to the moral law only that they had been married. Those who were Jews had been under the law in every form in which it was delivered to them, of the whole of which the moral law was the grand basis and sum. To the moral law exclusively, here and throughout the rest of the chapter, the Apostle refers. The ordinances of the ceremonial law, now that their purpose was accomplished, he elsewhere characterizes as ’weak and beggarly elements,’ but in the law of which he here speaks he declares, in Romans 7:22 of this chapter, that he delights.
Mr. Stuart understands the term ’dead to the law’ as importing to renounce it ’as an adequate means of sanctification.’ But renouncing it in this sense is no freedom from the law. A man does not become free from the law of his creditor when he becomes sensible of his in solvency. The most perfect conviction of our inability to keep the law, and of its want of power to do us effectual service, would not have the smallest tendency to dissolve our marriage with the law. Mr. Stuart entirely misapprehends this matter. Dead to the law means freedom from the power of the law, as having endured its curse and satisfied its demands. It has ceased to have a claim on the obedience of believers in order to life, although it still remains their rule of duty. All men are by nature placed under the law, as the covenant of works made with the first man, who, as the Apostle had been teaching in the fifth chapter, was the federal or covenant-head of all his posterity; and it is only when they are united to Christ that they are freed from this covenant.
What is simply a law implies no more than a direction and obligation authoritatively enforcing obedience. A covenant implies promises made on certain conditions, with threatenings added, if such conditions be not fulfilled. The language, accordingly, of the law, as the covenant of works, is, ’Do and live;’ or, ’If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments;’ and ’Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.’ It thus requires perfect obedience as the condition of life, and pronounces a curse on the smallest failure. This law is here represented as being man’s original or first husband. But it is now a broken law, and therefore all men are by nature under its curse. Its curse must be executed on every one of the human race, either personally on all who remain under it, or in Christ, who was made under the law, and who, according also to the fifth chapter of this Epistle, is the covenant-head or representative of all believers who are united to Him and born of God. For them He has borne its curse, under which He died, and fulfilled all its demands, and they are consequently dead to it, that is, no longer under it as a covenant.
By the body of Christ — That is, by ’the offering of the body of Jesus Christ,’ Hebrews 10:10. Although the body is only mentioned in this place, as it is said on His coming into the world, ’A body hast Thou prepared Me,’ yet His whole human nature, composed of soul and body, is intended. Elsewhere His soul, without mentioning His body, is spoken of as being offered. ’When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,’ Isaiah 53:10. Dead to the law by the body of Christ, means dead to it by dying in Christ’s death. As believers are one body with Christ, so when His body died, they also died, Romans 6:3-4. They are therefore, by the sacrifice of His body, or by His death, dead to the law. They are freed from it, and done with it, as it respects either their justification or condemnation, its curse or its reward. They cannot be justified by it, having failed to render to it perfect obedience, Romans 3:20; and they cannot be condemned by it, being redeemed from its curse by Him who was made a curse for them. As, then, the covenant relation of a wife to her husband is dissolved by death, so believers are released from their covenant relation to the law by the death of Christ, with whom they died; for He died to sin, chapter 6:10, and to the law having fulfilled it by His obedience and death, so that it hath no further demand upon Him.
Married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead. — Being dead to the law, their first husband, by their union with Christ in His death, believers are married to Him, and are one with Him in His resurrection. Christ is now their lawful husband, according to the clear illustration employed by the Apostle respecting the institution of marriage, so that, though now married to Him, no fault can be found in respect to their original connection with their first husband, which has been dissolved by death. To believers this is a most consoling truth. They are as completely and as blamelessly free from the covenant of the law as if they had never been under it. Thus the Apostle fully explains here what he had briefly announced in the 14th verse of the preceding chapter, ’Ye are not under the law, but under grace.’ From the covenant of Adam or of works, believers have been transferred to the covenant of Christ or of grace. I will ’give thee for a covenant of the people’ — all the redeemed people of, God.
Before the coming of Christ, those who relied on the promise concerning Him, likewise partook of all the blessings of the marriage union with Him, and were therefore admitted to heavenly glory, though, as to their title to it, not ’made perfect’ (Hebrews 12:23) till He died under the law, and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Till that period there was in the Jewish ceremonial law a perpetual recognition of sin, and of a future expiation, which had not been made while that economy subsisted. It was, so to speak, the bond of acknowledgment for the debt yet unpaid — the handwriting of ordinances which Jesus Christ, in paying the debt, canceled and tore asunder, ’nailing it to His cross,’ Colossians 2:14, as a trophy of the victory He had accomplished.
Christ, then, is the husband of the Church; and, under this figure, His marriage relation to His people is very frequently referred to in Scripture. Thus it was exhibited in the marriage of our first parents. In the same way it is represented in the Book of Psalms, and the Song of Solomon, and in the New Testament, where Christ is so often spoken of under the character of ’the Bridegroom,’ and where the Church is called ’the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ What ignorance, then, does it argue in some to deny the inspiration and authenticity of the Song of Solomon, because of the use of this figure!
But though believers, in virtue of their marriage with Christ, are no longer under the law in respect to its power to award life or death, they are, as the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 9:21, ’not without law to God, but under law to Christ.’ They receive it from His hand as the rule of their duty, and are taught by His grace to love and delight in it; and, being delivered from its curse, they are engaged, by the strongest additional motives, to yield to it obedience. He hath made it the inviolable law of His kingdom. When Luther discovered the distinction between the law as a covenant and as a rule, it gave such relief to his mind, that he considered himself as at the gate of paradise.
That we should bring forth fruit unto God. — One of the great ends of marriage was to people the world, and the end of the marriage of believers to Christ is, that they may bring forth fruit to God, John 15:4-8. From this it is evident that no work is recognized as fruit unto God before union with Christ. All works that appear to be good previous to this union with Christ are ’dead works,’ proceeding from self-love, self-gratification, pride, self-righteousness, or other such motives. ’They that are in the flesh cannot please God.’ ’The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’ We can never look upon the law with a friendly eye till we see it disarmed of the sting of death; and never can bear fruit unto God, nor delight in the law as a rule, till we are freed from it as a covenant, and are thus dead unto sin. How important, then, is the injunction, ’Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,’ — and this applies equally to the law, — ’but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord,’ Romans 6:11.
’It is impossible,’ says Luther, ’for a man to be a Christian without having Christ; and if he has Christ, he has at the same time all that is in Christ. What gives peace to the conscience is, that by faith our sins are no more ours, but Christ’s, upon whom God has laid them all; and that, on the other hand, all Christ’s righteousness is ours, to whom God hath given it. Christ lays His hand upon us, and we are healed. He casts his mantle upon us, and we are clothed; for He is the glorious Savior, blessed for ever. Many wish to do good works before their sins are forgiven them, whilst it is indispensable that our sins be pardoned before good works can be done; for good works must be done with a joyful heart, and a good conscience toward God, that is, with remission of sins.’
Romans 7:5 — For when we were in the flesh, the motives of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
When we were in the Flesh, that is, in our natural state. — The flesh here means the corrupt state of nature, not ’the subjects of God’s temporal kingdom,’ as paraphrased by Dr. Macknight, to which many of those whom the Apostle was addressing never belonged, flesh is often opposed to spirit, which indicates that new and holy nature communicated by the Spirit of God in the new birth. ’That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,’ John 3:6. In these words our Lord points out the necessity of regeneration, in order to our becoming subjects of His spiritual kingdom. The nature of man since the fall, when left to itself, possesses no renovating principle of holiness, but is essentially corrupt and entirely depraved. On this account, the word flesh here signifies man in his ruined condition, or that state of total corruption in which all the children of Adam are born. On the other hand, the word spirit has acquired the meaning of a holy and Divine principle, or a new nature, because it comes not from man but from God, who communicates it by the living and permanent influence of His Holy Spirit. Hence the Apostle Peter, in addressing believers, speaks of them as ’partakers of the Divine nature.’
The motions of sins, or affections or feelings of sins. When the Apostle and the believers at Rome were in the flesh, the desires or affections forbidden by the law forcibly operated in all the faculties of their depraved nature, subjecting them to death by its sentence. Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart translate this our ’sinful passions.’ But this has the appearance of asserting that the evil passions of our nature have their origin in the law. The Apostle does not mean what, in English, is understood by the passions, but the working of the passions. Which were by the law, rather, through the law — Dr. Macknight translates the original thus, ’which we had under the law.’ But the meaning is, not which we had under the law, but that were through the law. The motions of sin, or those sinful thoughts or desires, on our knowing that the things desired are forbidden, are called into action through the law. That it is thus natural to the corrupt mind to desire what is forbidden, is a fact attested by experience, and is here the clear testimony of Scripture. With the philosophy of the question we have nothing to do. Why or how this should be, is a question we are not called to resolve. Thus the law as a covenant of works not only cannot produce fruits of righteousness in those who are under it, but excites in them the motions of sin, bringing forth fruit unto death. Did work in our members — The sinful desires of the mind actuate the members of the body to gratify them, in a manner adapted to different occasions and constitutions. Members appear to be mentioned here rather than body, to denote that sin, by the impulse of their various evil desires, employs as its slaves all the different members of the body. To bring forth fruit unto death — In the same way as bringing forth fruit unto God is spoken of in the 4th verse, so here the Apostle speaks of bringing forth fruit unto death, that is, doing works which issue in death. Death is not viewed as the parent of the works. It is the desires that are the parents of the works. This is contrasted with fruit unto God, which does not mean that God is the parent of the fruit, but that the fruit is produced on God’s account.
Romans 7:6 — But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein were held; that we should serve in newness of sprit, and not in the holiness of the letter.
But now we are delivered from the law. — This does not import merely that the Jews were, according to Dr. Macknight, delivered from the law of Moses, but that believers are delivered from the moral law, in that sense in which they were bound by it when in unbelief. Christ hath fulfilled the law, and suffered its penalty for them, and they in consequence are free from its demands for the purpose of obtaining life, or that, on account of the breach of it, they should suffer death. Mr. Stuart paraphrases thus: ’No longer placing our reliance on it as a means of subduing and sanctifying our sinful natures.’ But ceasing to rely on the law for such a purpose was not, in any sense, to be delivered from the law. The law never proposed such a thing, and therefore ceasing to look for such an effect is not a deliverance from the law.
That beings dead wherein we were held. — By death, whether it be considered of the law to believers, or of believers to the law, the connection in which they stood to it, and in which they were held in bondage under its curse, is dissolved. All men, Jews and Gentiles, are by nature bound to the moral law, under its condemning power and curse, from which nothing but Christ can to all eternity deliver them. Dr. Macknight translates the passage, ’having died in that by which we were tied,’ and paraphrases thus: ’But now we Jews are loosed from the law of Moses, having died with Christ by its curse, in that fleshly nature by which, as descendants of Abraham, we were tied to the law.’ But this most erroneously confines the declaration of the Apostle to the Jews and the legal dispensation.
That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. — This is the effect of being delivered from the law. The Apostle here refers to the difference in practice between those who were married to Christ, and those who were still under the law. A believer serves God from such principles, dispositions, and views, as the Spirit of God implants in hearts which He renews. Serving in the spirit is a service of filial obedience to Him who gave Himself for us, as constrained by His love, and in the enjoyment of all the privileges of the grace of the new covenant. Believers have thus, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, become capable of serving God with that new and Divine nature of which they partake, according to the spiritual meaning of the law, as His children, with cordial affection and gratitude. It is the service not of the hireling but of the son, not of the slave but of the friend, not with the view of being saved by the keeping of the law, but of rendering grateful obedience to their almighty Deliverer.
Serving in the oldness of the letter, respects such service as the law, by its light, authority, and terror, can procure from one who is under it, and seeking life by it, without the Spirit of God, and His sanctifying grace and influence. Much outward conformity to the law may in this way be attained from the pride of self-righteousness, without any principle better than that of a selfish, slavish, mercenary, carnal disposition, influenced only by fear of punishment and hope of reward. Serving, then, in the oldness of the letter, is serving in a cold, constrained, and wholly external manner. Such service is essentially defective, proceeding from a carnal, unrenewed heart, destitute of holiness. In this way Paul describes himself, Philippians 3, as having formerly served, when he had confidence in the ’flesh,’ as he there designates such outward service. Serving in newness of spirit and in oldness of the letter, are here contrasted as not only different, but as incompatible the one with the other.
Romans 7:7 — What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
What Shall we say then! Is the law sin! — In the 5th verse Paul had described the effect of the law on himself and those whom he addressed before conversion, while he and they were under its dominion. In the 6th verse he had spoken of their deliverance and his own from the law; here and in the four following verses he illustrates what were the effects of the law on himself. While he peremptorily rejects the supposition that there was anything evil in the law, he shows that, by the strictness of its precepts exciting the corruptions of his heart, it was the means of convincing him that he was a sinner, and under its condemnation, and was thus the instrument to him of much good, for he would not have known sin to be sin but by the law.
Mr. Stuart says this is the language of an objector against the Apostle. For this there is no foundation whatever. It is a mere figment to suppose that there is here a kind of discussion between the Apostle and a Jewish objector. It is an objection stated by the Apostle in his own name, an objection that will occur to the carnal mind in every age and country, and is therefore properly introduced by the Apostle. If the law occasions more sin, is it not itself sinful? God forbid — literally, let it not be, by no means. — It is the expression, as formerly noticed, by which the Apostle usually intimates his abhorrence of whatever is peculiarly unworthy of God. Paul now begins to describe his own experience respecting the operation of the law.
Nay — Mr. Stuart says that this expression intimates that the Apostle had some exception to the universal sense of the words translated God forbid. But this is not the effect here of the word rendered ’Nay.’ There could be no exception to the denial of the consequence in the sense in which the thing is denied. Is it possible that there can be any exception to the denial that the law is sinful? It is not possible. That the law is the occasion of sin, or, as Mr. Stuart expresses it, though ’not the sinful or efficient cause of sin,’ is no exception to the universal denial in any point of view. An occasion of sin and a cause of sin are two things essentially different. It is no exception to the assertion that the law is not the cause of sin, to say that it is the occasion of sin. The word here translated nay, intimates opposition. So far from the law being sinful, I had not known sin, says the Apostle, but by the law.
Known sin but by the law — Paul does not say that he would not have been a sinner without the law, but that he would not have known sin as now he knew it, or have seen himself to be a sinner. Now, though no man is without sin, yet a proud Pharisee might think himself free from sin by his keeping the law, when he did not look to it as extending to the thoughts of the heart. Paul, referring to his state before his conversion, says that, touching the righteousness of the law he was blameless, Philippians 3:6; and it was only when he understood the law in its full extent, that he became self-condemned.
For I had not known lust — The original word for lust signifies strong desire, whether good or bad. Here it is used in as bad sense. It is that disposition by which we are inclined to evil, — the habit and inclination to sin, and not merely the acts which proceed from it. It is evident that the Apostle here speaks of this habit, that is to say, of our inclination to sin, and habitual corruption; for he distinguishes this inclination from its acts in verse 8th, saying, sin, taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, or lust.
Accept the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. — Without the law he would not have known that the desire of what is forbidden is sinful; that the very thought of sin is sin, is known only by the word of God. Indeed, many who hear that word will not receive this doctrine. The Roman Catholics hold that such desires are not criminal, if the mind do not acquiesce in them. Thou shalt not covet. — This implies lusting against the will of God, and extends to the first rise and lowest degree of every evil thought. It is not to be confined to what are called inordinate desires, or desires carried to excess, but comprehends every desire contrary to the commandment.
Romans 7:8 — But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
The same word rendered lust in the foregoing verse is here rendered concupiscence, which is not so proper a translation, having a more limited meaning generally attached to it. In both verses the original word indicates our natural inclination to sin, and not voluntary sinful acts — not sins produced, which are the acts proceeding from lust, but our innate and vicious propensity to sin producing those acts. In the preceding verse Paul had shown that the law does not cause sin, but discovers it, stripping it of its disguise, and bringing it to light. Here he asserts that the commandment discovered to him the sinful nature of evil desires. It laid on him the most solemn obligations to resist them; and the natural corruption of his heart took occasion, from the restraints of the law, to struggle against it, and break out with more violence. Sin, he says, wrought in him all manner of lust. It excited and discovered in him those corruptions of which he had been unconscious, until they were encountered and provoked by the restraints of the law. It does not appear that it is by feeling the curse and condemnation of the law that sin takes occasion by the law to work in us all manner of concupiscence. By feeling the curse and condemnation of the law, the impenitent sinner is excited to hate the law and to hate God. But the thing to which we are here said to be excited is not this, but we are excited to does, things forbidden by the law. It is quite true that the feeling of the condemnation of the law aggravates the evil of our hearts, but it is lust or concupiscence that is here said to be inflamed by the prohibitions of the law, nothing can more clearly discover the depravity of human nature than the holy law of God, the unerring standard of right and wrong becoming an occasion of sin; yet so it is. Whatever is prohibited is only the more eagerly desired. So far, then, was the law from subduing the love of sin, that its prohibitions increased the desire of what is prohibited. It may restrain from the outward act, but it excites the evil inclinations of the mind.
Without the law sin was dead. — Some understand this as meaning the same with the declaration, that ’where there is no law there is no transgression;’ but the connection requires that we understand it of the sleeping or dormant state of sin. The Apostle would not have been without sin, but he would not have felt the action of his unlawful desires, if the strictness of the commandment had not become the occasion of exciting and making them manifest; for without the law, sin, or the workings of his corrupt nature, encountering no opposition, their operation would not have been perceived.
Every Christian knows by experience the truth of all the Apostle declares in this verse. He knows that, as soon as his eyes were opened to discover the spirituality of the law, he discerned in himself the fearful working of that corruption in his heart, which, not being perceived before, had given him no uneasiness. He knows that this corruption was even increased in violence by the discovery of the strictness of the law, which makes not the smallest allowance for sin, but condemns it in its root, and in its every motion. ’The wicked nature,’ says Luther, ’cannot bear either the good, or the demands of the law; as a sick man is indignant when he is desired to do all that a man in health can do.’ Such is the effect of the law when the eyes of the understanding are first opened by the Spirit of God. A power, formerly latent and ineficacious, then appears on a sudden to have gathered strength, and to stand up in order to oppress and defeat the purposes of the man, who hitherto was altogether unconscious of the existence in himself of such evils as those which he now perceives.
Romans 7:9 — For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Paul was alive without the law when he thought proudly of his good life; but when the commandment came with the power of the Spirit, then it slew him, and destroyed all his legal hopes. I was alive. — That is, in my own opinion. Mr. Stuart finds fault with this sense, as given by Augustine, Calvin, and many others. But his reasons are without weight. After exhibiting the meaning of the whole connection in this view, he asks, ’Is this, then, the way in which the law of God proves fatal to the sinner, viz., by convincing him of the true and deadly nature of sin? ’Not fatal to the sinner, but fatal to his view of salvation by the law. Nothing can be clearer than this passage, and nothing more consistent than this meaning with the whole context. Without the law once. — Was Paul ever without the law? He was in ignorance of it till his conversion; and this he here calls being without the law. He was ignorant of its spirituality, and consequently had no true discernment of his innate corruption. Mr. Stuart asks, ’But when did the commandment come?’ and answers, ’We may suppose it to be in childhood, or in riper years.’ It cannot have been in childhood, or in riper years, at any time previous to his seeing Christ. For if he had had such a view of the law previously, he would not, in his own opinion, have been blameless concerning its righteousness. It is obvious that Paul had his proper view of the law only in the cross of Christ.
When the commandment came — That is, when he understood the true import of the commandment as forbidding the desire of anything prohibited by the law. He had heard and studied it before in its letter; but never till then did it come in its full extent and power to his conscience. All men know that, to a certain extent, they are sinners; but from this passage and its context, in which the Apostle gives an account of his own experience both in his unconverted and renewed state, we learn that unconverted men do not perceive the sin that is in them in its root, called, in the 7th and 8th verses, ’lust’ or ’concupiscence.’ This is only felt and known when, by the Holy Spirit, a man is convinced of sin — when, as it is here said, the commandment comes — when it comes to him with power, so that he perceives its real extent and spiritual import. He then discerns sin, not only in its various ramifications and actings, both internal and external, but also sees that it is inherent in him, and that in his flesh dwells no good thing; that he is not only by nature a sinner and an enemy to God, but that he is without strength, Romans 5:6, entirely unable to deliver himself from the power of sin, and that this can only be effected by the Spirit of God, by whom he is at the same time convinced of the righteousness of God — that righteousness which has been provided for those who are destitute in themselves of all righteousness.
Sin revived — It was, in a manner, dead before, dormant, and unobserved. Now that the law was understood, it was raised to new life, and came to be perceived as living and moving. The contrast is with sin as dead, without the understanding of the law. It is true, as Mr. Stuart observes, that sin gathers additional strength in such circ*mstances; but this is not the idea held forth in the context. I died — That is, I saw myself dead by the law, as far as my own observance of the law was concerned. All Paul’s hopes, founded on what he was in himself, were destroyed, and he discovered that he was a sinner condemned by the law; so that the law which promised life to those who observed it, to which he had looked for justification, he now saw subjected him to death. The expression by no means imports, as Mr. Stuart understands it, that Paul at the period referred to was really under the sentence of death as a sinner who had not fled to Jesus. ’I fell under the sentence of death’ is the explanation that Mr. Stuart goes; which he confirms by ’The soul that sinneth shall die.’ ’The wages of sin is death.’ At the period when Paul died, in the sense of this passage, he was really brought to spiritual life. It was then that he, through the law, became dead to the law, that he might live unto God, Galatians 2:19.
Thus Paul was without the law during all that time when he profited in the Jews’ religion above many of his equals, when, according to the straightest sect of their religion, he lived a Pharisee, and when, as touching the law, according to the common estimation, he was blameless. He was without the true knowledge of it and its spiritual application to his heart; but, in his own esteem, he was alive. He was confident of the Divine favor. Sin lay as dead in his heart. He could therefore go about to establish his own righteousness. He had not found the law to be a ’killing letter,’ working wrath; so far from it, he could make his boast of the law, and assume it as the ground of his rejoicing before God. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and he died. Such is the account which Paul now gives of himself, who declared, Acts 22:3, that formerly he had been, and, as he affirms in the beginning of the tenth chapter of this Epistle, that the unconverted Jews still were, ’zealous towards God.’
Romans 7:10 — And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
And the commandment, which was ordained to life. — Literally, the commandment which was unto life. That is, which was appointed to give continuance of life to those who obeyed, and which, therefore, it would have been life to obey, as it is said, ’The man that doeth them shall live in them.’ By the commandment here referred to, the law, in all its parts, appears to be meant, with a special allusion to the tenth commandment, which shows that the desire of what is forbidden is sin. This commandment might well be put for the whole law; for it could not be obeyed without the whole law being kept. As the law held out the promise of life to those who obeyed it, on this ground Paul had sought, and imagined he had attained, a title to eternal life. Unto death. — The law was ordained to life, but, through sin, it was found to be unto death. As soon, then, as it came home to his conscience, Paul found himself condemned by that law from which he had expected life, for, though it could not justify a sinner, it was powerful to condemn him. It then destroyed all the hope he had founded on it, and showed him that he was obnoxious to the curse which it pronounces on all transgressors. The law, however, which was ordained to life, will at last be proved to have attained this object in all in whom it has been fulfilled, Romans 8:4, by Him who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. All such shall, according to its original appointment, enjoy everlasting life.
Romans 7:11 — For sin, taken occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Sin, by blinding his mind as to the extent of the demands of the law, had led Paul to believe that he could fulfill it, and so obtain justification and life, and had thus by the law taken occasion to deceive him. Till the commandment came home to him in its spiritual application, sin was never brought to such a test as to make a discovery to Paul of its real power. But when he was enlightened to perceive this, sin by the law slew him. It showed him that he was a transgressor of the law, and therefore condemned by that very law from which he had before expected life. Thus sin, as he had said, revived, and he died. All his high thoughts of himself, and self-confidence, from supposing that he had kept the law, were swept away and destroyed.
Romans 7:12 — Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Having now shown that the law is not the cause, but only the occasion of sin, Paul here draws the conclusion as to its character and excellence. Wherefore. — In the 7th verse he had strongly denied that there was anything sinful in the law; and, in the intermediate verses, had shown, by its effects, that, so far from being the cause of sin, it had been the means of enlightening his mind, in giving him to discover the evil nature of sin, and its deceitful workings in himself. From these effects he now draws the conclusion here stated, which fully illustrates the above assertion, proving how far the law is removed from sin, namely, that it is holy, and just, and good. The two words, law and commandment, appear to be used to give the greater force to his declaration, — thus meaning the law and every precept it enjoins. It is holy, in opposition to whatever is sinful, holy, as embodying the perfect rule of what is right and conformable to the character of God, and a transcript of His perfections. It is just. Can anything be more just than that we should abstain from all that God prohibits? It is highly just that we should not only abstain from all that God forbids, but that we should not even desire what is forbidden. The law demands what is equitable, and due to God, and nothing more, — and what is just and equitable in regard to man; and a just law could demand no less. And good. — It is not only just, it is also good. It is good in itself, and its whole tendency is adapted to maintain perfect order, and to establish in the highest degree the happiness of all who are under its authority. Every commandment of the Decalogue tends to promote human happiness. This is the glory of the law, and shows that it proceeds from the Giver of every good and perfect gift — from Him who alone is good. But this is not the ground of obedience; and those who have endeavored to place the foundation of morals on the principle of utility, or of the happiness of the many, have only proved their shortsighted ignorance, and verified the declaration of Scripture, ’professing themselves to be wise, they become fools.’
From the nature of the Apostle’s description of the glory and excellence of the law, it is clear that he is speaking of the Decalogue, and not of the ceremonial law or the Mosaic institutions. These had a figurative excellence ’for the time present,’ but ’made nothing perfect,’ as he himself declares in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but consisted only in ’carnal ordinances’ intended to continue ’until the time of reformation.’ But the law as embodied in the ten commandments, is in itself eternal and immutable, while the words of the Apostle in this verse beautifully accord with those of the Psalmist in the nineteenth Psalm: — ’The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb.’ If God had left men free from the law, it would still be for the happiness of society that they should strictly obey its precepts.
Romans 7:13 — Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
Was that then which is good made death unto me? — This is not, as Dr. Macknight supposes, an objection in the person of a Jew, but an objection put by the Apostle himself, which was likely to occur to every carnal man in every age. It might require an answer even with respect to Christians themselves. If the law is holy, and just, and good, how could it be found by the Apostle to be unto death? Could a good law be the cause of death? By no means, It was not the good law that was the cause of death. But sin. — That is, it is sin, which is the transgression of the law, that causeth death.
That it might appear sin — Dr. Macknight translates, ’That sin might appear working out death.’ But the construction evidently is, ’But sin has caused death, that it might appear sin,’ — that is, that it might manifest itself in its own proper character. Working death in me by that which is good — It was not the good law that wrought death in him, but sin by means of the good law. Hence the manifestation of the exceeding vileness and hatefulness of sin. How evil must that thing be which works the greatest evil through that which is the perfection of righteousness! That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. — This, again, is another form of expression designed to aggravate the evil character of sin. There is nothing worse than sin itself. The Apostle, then, does not resolve it into supposed first principles that would exhibit its guilt. The worst that can be said of it is, that it is sin, and is so in excess. Here, and in the preceding verses from the 7th, Paul does not speak merely of outward sin, or sinful acts, but also, and chiefly, of the sinful and disordered lusts of the mind, or the depraved inclination to commit sin; and this naturally conducts him, in what follows to the end of the chapter, to describe and dwell on the workings of that inward evil disposition which he calls the law of sin in his members. It was by having his attention turned to this inward working of sin, when, as he says, ’the commandment came,’ that he was convinced he was a sinner.
Romans 7:14 — For we know that the law is spiritual; bat I am carnal, soil under sin.
In the foregoing part of the chapter, the Apostle had illustrated the truth that believers are dead to the law by the sacrifice of Christ. He had next shown the effects of the law on Himself before his conversion, when he was under it, and after his conversion, when delivered from it. During the former period, he was ignorant of its true nature, and consequently of himself, supposing that he was righteous. ’I was alive without the law.’ But when he understood its real character, he discovered the deceitfulness and sinfulness of sin closely cleaving to him, and inherent in him. ’When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.’ He had remarked that sin, taking occasion by the commandment, had wrought in him all manner of evil desires, and had deceived him. He affirms, nevertheless, that the law is holy, and just, and good; and, lastly, he now further asserts that it is spiritual. This last characteristic of the holy law, proving that it takes cognizance not only of the outward conduct, but also of the thoughts and intents of the heart, leads him, as has just been observed, to show how far sin still continued to adhere to and afflict him. The view, however, which he gives, through the remainder of the chapter, of this working of sin in his members, in no respect contradicts his assertion in the preceding chapter, that believers are ’dead to sin;’ for there he refers exclusively to its guilt, but here to its power. Nor does it contradict his affirmation that sin should ’not have dominion’ over them; for, notwithstanding the struggle he describes, proving the power of the law of sin in his flesh, he asserts that with his mind he serves the law of God; while he expresses his conviction that even from that power of indwelling sin God would finally deliver him. From all this we see how naturally the Apostle was conducted to detail in what follows his own personal and internal experience, both past and present, which formed also so full an illustration of his leading argument throughout the whole of the previous part of the Epistle, of the impossibility of a just law justifying those by whom it is not perfectly obeyed.
For we know — This assertion, ’we know,’ is the usual form under which Paul states what needs no proof. This fundamental and important truth, that the law is spiritual, although, while in his unconverted state, he was ignorant of it, he now affirms that both he and they to whom he wrote knew it. It is a thing of which no Christian is ignorant. All Christians know it experimentally. They know it when the commandment comes to them, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost; when, according to the promise of the new covenant, God puts His law in their inward parts, and writes it in their hearts; when they receive it, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, — not outwardly in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.
The law is spiritual — The law which proceeds from the Holy Spirit of God, demands not only the obedience of external conduct, but the internal obedience of the heart. If Paul had still regarded the law as a rule extending merely to his outward conduct, he might, as formerly, when he strictly adhered to its letter, have continued to suppose himself just and good. But when he now understood that it was also spiritual, extending to the most secret desires of his heart, he discovered in himself so much opposition to its penetrating and discerning power, that, as he had said, sin revived, and he died. Perceiving, then, that it requires truth in the inward parts, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, not only prohibiting the smallest outward deviation from holiness, but detecting every hidden ambush of the deceitful heart, Paul the Apostle, a man of like passions with ourselves, exclaims, I am carnal, sold under sin. He here begins to declare his present experience, and changes the past time for the present, in which he continues afterwards to speak to the end of the chapter. Having so fully declared the nature and extent of the law, the Apostle now, applying the whole to his own case, proceeds to exhibit in its light the inward state of his own mind. And all he here says is entirely conformable to every description in the word of God of man in his present fallen condition; for ’if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ Thus, in the most forcible and impressive manner, Paul, in declaring his own experience, exhibits the light which the law in its spiritual aspect also sheds on the character of all other believers, in whom, notwithstanding that they are renewed in the spirit of their minds, the old man is not yet dead, nor the body of sin altogether destroyed. For if such was the state of mind of Paul the Apostle in regard to the remainder within him of indwelling sin, and the working of the old man, where is the Christian that can suppose that he is exempted from that inherent corruption, and that internal spiritual warfare, which, in the following context, the Apostle so feelingly describes?
I am carnal — This respects what the Apostle was in himself. It does not imply that he was not regenerated, but shows what he was even in his renewed state, so far as concerned anything that was natural to him. Every Christian in this sense is carnal: in himself he is corrupt. Paul applies the epithet carnal to the Corinthians, although they were sanctified in Christ Jesus, and even in the same sentence in which he denominates them carnal he calls them babes in Christ. The word carnal, however, has not here exactly the same meaning that it has in 1 Corinthians 3:3. The Corinthians were comparatively carnal. Their disputes and envying showed their attainments in the Divine life to be low. But, in the sense of the word in this place, all Christians — the best on earth not excepted — are always carnal. They are so when compared with the spiritual law of God. They have an evil principle in their hearts or nature. While in this world, Adam lives in them, called the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts.
Sold under sin — Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart suppose that this expression decidedly proves that this account of carnality belongs not to the regenerate, but only to the unregenerate. It has, however, no such import. All men have been sold under sin by the fall, and as long as any of the evil of their nature, introduced by the fall, remains in them, so long do they remain sold under sin, to whatever extent and in whatever respect it exists. The Christian, it is true, receives a new nature, and the old nature is mortified; but it still lives, and, so far as it lives, the individual is properly said to be sold under sin. The old nature is not made holy, but a new nature is communicated. As far, then, as the old man manifests himself, and acts, so far even the Christian is sold under sin. It is not to be admitted, as these writers take it for granted, that the phrase imports the height of wickedness. Let it be remarked, also, that, as signifying the greatest wickedness, the expression is not more suitable to their own view, than it is to that of those whom they oppose. If the Apostle speaks of unregenerate men, it must be in a character that will suit all unregenerate men. But all unregenerate men are not excessively abandoned to wickedness. Many of them are moral in their lives.
Looking to the external form of the law, the Apostle declares (Philippians 3:6) that he was, in his unconverted state, blameless; and in respect to his conduct afterwards as before men, he could appeal to them (1 Thessalonians 2:10) how holily, and justly, and unblameably he had behaved himself among them. But in referring, also, as he does here, to what is internal, and therefore speaking as before God, who alone searcheth the heart, and measuring himself by the holy law in all its extent, he confesses himself to be carnal and sold under sin. His nature, or old man, was entirely opposed to the spirituality of the law. He felt a law or power within him against which he struggled, from which he desired to be free, but which still asserted its tyrannical authority. Notwithstanding the grace he had obtained, he found himself far from perfection, and in all respects unable, though ardently desiring, to attain that much wished for object. When he says he is carnal — sold under sin — he expresses the same sentiment as in the 18th verse where, distinguishing between his old and new nature, he says, ’in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing;’ or, as he speaks elsewhere concerning the old man in believers, ’which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,’ which he exhorts them to put off. It ought to be noted that, when the Apostle says, I am carnal, sold under sin, it is the language of bitter complaint, as appears from the sequel, and especially from the 24th verse, which expresses a feeling respecting sin that does not belong to any unregenerate man.
It is, then, in comparing himself with the holy, just, good, and spiritual law, now come home in its power to his conscience, that the Apostle here declares himself to be carnal, sold under sin. The law requires us to love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength; and our neighbor as ourselves. Of this, every man in his best state, and in his very best thought or action, falls continually short. He proceeds a certain length in his obedience, but beyond that he cannot go. And why is it that into the region beyond this he does not advance? Because he is carnal, sold under sin. The sin that remains in him binds him so that he cannot proceed. Sin, however, does not reign over him; otherwise, as it is directly opposed to every degree of obedience to the law, it would not suffer him to do anything, even the least, in conformity to the will of God. Yet it so far prevails as to hinder him, as is here immediately added, from doing the good that he would, and in so far he is sold under it. It therefore prevents him from attaining to that perfection of obedience to the law of God which is the most earnest desire of every Christian, and to which the believer shall attain when he sees his blessed Lord as He is, 1 John 3:2. That Paul had not attained to this state of perfection, he in another place assures us, Philippians 3:12. ’Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.’ How, then, are these expressions, carnal, sold under sin, inapplicable to the Apostle? If Paul had said he had no sin, he would have deceived himself, and the truth would not have been in him, 1 John 1:8. And if he had sin, and was unable to free himself from its power, was he not carnal, sold under it? There was spirit in him, but there was also flesh, and in his flesh he tells us dwelt no good thing: it was still sin or corrupt nature, and nothing but sin. In one point of view, then, Paul the Apostle could truly say that he was spiritual; in another, with equal truth, that he was carnal: literally and truly both spiritual and carnal. ’The flesh lusted against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these were contrary the one to the other.’ He was sold under sin as a child of the first Adam, and he delighted in the law of God as a child of the second Adam. Accordingly, through the whole of this passage to the end of the chapter, Paul describes himself as a twofold person, and points to two distinct natures operating within him. This is a universal truth respecting all believers. As Paul declares to the churches of Galatia, and, as in the passage before us, he affirms of himself, they cannot do the things that they would, Galatians 5:17. In the end of this chapter he asserts the same truth. So then with the mind — what he before called the inward man — I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh — what remained of his corrupt nature, in which dwelt no good thing — the law of sin. — Sin was displaced from its dominion, but not from its indwelling. There was, then, in the Apostle Paul, as in every Christian, ’as it were the company of two armies,’ Song of Solomon 6:13. From this warfare, and these opposing principles within, no Christian in this world is ever exempt; and of this every one who knows the plague of his own heart is fully convinced.
Romans 7:15 — For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I.
For — This verse explains and confirms the preceding. That which I do, I allow not. — Literally, I know not. The English word know, as well as the word in the original, is often used as implying recognition or acknowledgment. We are said not to know a person whom we do not choose to recognize. Paul committed sin, but he did not recognize or approve it. He disclaimed all friendly acquaintance with it. For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. — Every man, regenerate or unregenerate, must be sensible of the truth of this, so far as it imports that he does what he knows to be wrong. As there is no regenerate man in whom this is not verified, it cannot be confined to the unregenerate. But as it is of the regenerate the Apostle is here speaking, — that is, as he is speaking of himself at the time of writing, — it is necessary to apply it here peculiarly to the regenerate. Besides, as it is said that he did what he hated, it must be here applied exclusively to the regenerate. Though an unregenerate man disapproves of evil, he cannot be said to hate sin. This is characteristic of the regenerate, and of such only: ’Ye that love the Lord, hate evil,’ Psalms 97:10. It is characteristic of the Redeemer Himself: ’Thou hast loved righteousness an hated iniquity,’ Hebrews 1:9. The following words are decisive on the subject: — ’The fear of the Lord is to hate evil,’ Proverbs 8:13. Some suppose that what the Apostle says in this verse is to the same purpose with the noted heathen confession, ’Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor.’ — ’I see what is better and approve of it; I follow what is worse.’ But these propositions are not at all identical. The heathen confesses that he practices what he knows to be wrong, but his inconsistency arises from the love of the evil. Paul confesses that he does what is wrong, but declares that instead of loving the evil, he regards it with hatred and abhorrence.
Romans 7:16 — If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
If then I do that which I world not. — Dr. Macknight translates ’which I incline not.’ But this is not according to fact. A man may do what his conscience disapproves, but in acting thus he does not thwart his inclination. Inclination is a tendency or bent in a particular direction, and the bent of every man is naturally to sin. Mr. Stuart translates the word ’desire,’ but neither is this correct. Sin may be contrary to reason and conscience, but it is agreeable to desire. I consent unto the law that it is good. — When a regenerate man does what he hates, his own mind testifies his approval of the law that prohibits the sin which he has practiced.
Romans 7:17 — Not then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
By the I here, Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart understand reason and conscience. But reason and conscience can in no sense be called a man’s self: In this way a murderer might affirm that it was not he who committed the crime, for no doubt his reason and conscience disapproved of the action. It is quite obvious that the reason why Paul says that it was not he but sin in him, is because, as he had just stated, that which he did he allowed not, for he did that which he would not. This implies more than reason and conscience. It was therefore sin that dwelt in him — the old man, his carnal nature, which not only existed and wrought in him, but had its abode in him, as it has in all those who are regenerated, and will have so long as they are in the body. It is not, then, to extenuate the evil of sin, or to furnish an excuse for it, that Paul says, It is no more I, but sin that dwelleth in me; but to show that, notwithstanding his seeing it to be evil, and hating it, the root still subsisted in him, and was chargeable upon him. It is not necessary to be able to point out metaphysically the way in which the truth that all sin is voluntary, harmonizes with Paul’s declaration, the good that I would I do not. Things may be consistent which the human mind cannot penetrate. We are to receive God’s testimony from the Apostle, and believe it on God’s authority; and every Christian knows, by painful experience, the truth of all that the Apostle asserts.
’What here would strike any mind free of bias,’ says Mr. Frazer in his excellent exposition of this chapter, in his work On Sanctification, ’is, that this (I) on the side of holiness against sin is the most prevailing, and what represents the true character of the man; and that sin which he distinguishes from this (I) is not the prevailing reigning power in the man here represented; as it is, however, in every unregenerate man. On this verse Calvin also has remarked, — ’This passage clearly proves Paul is disputing concerning none but the pious, who are now regenerated. For man, while he continues like himself, whatever his character may be, is justly considered to be vicious.’ No one can disclaim sin, as in this verse it is disclaimed, except the converted man; for who besides can conscientiously and intelligibly affirm, ’Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me?’
Romans 7:18 — For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
I know — This is a thing which Paul knew as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he must have known by experience also. Whoever has a proper knowledge of himself will be convinced that naturally there is nothing good in him. What Paul knew was, that in him dwelt no good thing. This goes beyond what he had asserted in the end of the preceding verse. There he asserts that the evil which he did was caused by sin dwelling in him. Here he asserts not only that sin dwelt in him, but that no good thing dwelt in him. But how could he say so, if he was a regenerated man? If there was something in him which he calls himself, and which he would not allow to have any share in his sin, how can he say that there is in him no good thing? Is not this principle that hates the sin which he commits a good principle? Certainly it is. And to prevent such an inference from his words, he explains by a parenthesis the sense in which he asserts that no good thing dwelt in him. That is in my flesh. — He confines the assertion to his carnal nature. Nothing can more clearly and expressly show that this description is a description of the regenerate man. What has an unrenewed man but flesh? His very reason and conscience are defiled, Titus 1:15.
To will is present with me; not how to perform that which is good I find not. — ’That is,’ says Mr. Frazer, ’to will what is good and holy: and thus it is with him habitually and ready with him.’ Mr. Stuart, in his Commentary, renders this, ’For to will that which is good, is in my power; but to do it, I do not find (in my power).’ Yet in the text he translates it, ’For to desire what is good, is easy for me; but to do it, I find difficult,’ which is an entirely different and contradictory idea. A thing that is very difficult may yet be performed. Dr. Macknight renders it, ’Indeed, to incline lies nears me; but to work out what is excellent, I do not find NEAR ME,’ — giving no distinct sense, from an affectation of rendering literally, Calvin says ’He (Paul) does not mean that he has nothing but an ineffectual volition and desire, but he asserts the efficacy of the work does not correspond to the will, because the flesh hinders him from exactly performing what he is engaged in executing.’
Romans 7:19 — For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not that I do.
For the good that I would I do not. — This does not imply that he did not attempt, or in some sense perform, what he purposed, but that in all he came short. Calvin, in continuation of the last quotation from him, says, ’What follows to do the end which he would not — must also be taken in the same sense, because the faithful are not only hindered from running speedily by their own flesh, but it also opposes many obstacles against which they stumble; and they do not, therefore, perform their duty, because they do not engage in it with becoming alacrity. The will, therefore, here mentioned, is the readiness of faith, while the Holy Spirit forces the pious to be prepared and zealous in employing their time to perform obedience to God. But Paul, because his power is unequal to the task, asserts that he does not find what he was wishing to attain — the accomplishment of his good desires.’ But the evil which I would not do, that I do. — So far from being unsuitable to the real character of a regenerate man, every regenerate man must be sensible from his own experience that this charge is true.
Romans 7:20 — Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
This is a confirmation of what was asserted, Romans 7:17, by alleging the reason on which the assertion is founded. It is not reason and conscience that Paul here declares to have no share in the evil; it is the will which he expressly mentions, and, whatever metaphysical difficulties it may involve, of the will it must be understood. The conclusion we ought to draw, is not to contradict the Apostle by denying that he speaks of the will, but that in one sense it is true that no sin is involuntary, and that, in another sense, what the Apostle here asserts is also an undoubted truth.
Romans 7:21 — I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
The evil propensity of our nature the Apostle calls a law, because of its strength and permanence. It has the force of a law in corrupt nature. This proves that it is of himself, as to his present state, that the Apostle speaks. None but the regenerate man is properly sensible of this law. It does not refer to conscience, which in an unregenerate man will smite him when he does that which he knows to be wrong. It refers to the evil principle which counteracts him when he would do that which is right. This law is the greatest grievance to every Christian. It disturbs his happiness and peace more than any other cause. It constantly besets him, and, from its influence, his very prayers, instead of being in themselves worthy of God, need forgiveness, and can be accepted only through the mediation of Christ. It is strange that any Christian should even hesitate as to the character in which the Apostle uses this language. It entirely suits the Christian, and not in one solitary feature does it wear the feeblest semblance of any other character.
Romans 7:22 — For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
In the preceding verse Paul had said, I would do good; here he more fully expresses the same desire after conformity to the holy law. For I delight in the law of God. — This is decisive of the character in which the Apostle speaks. None but the regenerate delight in the law of God. Mr. Stuart, after the Arminian Whitby, and the Arian Taylor, has referred to a number of passages, in order to lower the import of this term. But they have no similarity to the present case. They are too numerous to be introduced and discussed in this place. Whoever wishes to examine them may consult Mr. Frazer’s work On Sanctification, in which they are most satisfactorily proved to be misapplied, and wrested to the perversion of the truth. To delight in the law of the Lord is characteristic of the regenerate man. The unregenerate man hates that law as far as he sees the extent of its demands to transcend his power of fulfillment. He is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, chapter 8:7. How, then, can he delight in it? After the inward man — The inward man is a term used only by Paul, and in reference to those who are regenerated. It is the new or spiritual nature, not merely the reason and conscience. Than this nothing can be more obviously characteristic of the Christian. Notwithstanding the evil of his corrupt nature, he is conscious of delighting in the law of God in its full extent.
Romans 7:23 — But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
In the preceding verse the Apostle had spoken of the law of God in the inward man; here he speaks of another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind Thus he denominates his new and spiritual nature his ’inward man’ and his ’mind,’ and his old and carnal nature his ’members.’ The bent of the Apostle’s mind, according to his renewed nature, inclined him to delight in the law of God. But he found an opposite bent in his corrupt nature, which he calls a law in his members. This he represents as warring against the other. Is not this the experience of every Christian? Is there not a constant struggle of the corruptions of the heart against the principle of holiness implanted by the Spirit of God in the new birth?
And bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death. — Mr. Stuart endeavors to aggravate this description in such a manner as to render it unsuitable to the regenerate man. He supposes that this represents the person as brought entirely and completely into captivity, which cannot be supposed of the regenerate. He refers to captives taken in war, who are entirely in the power of their conquerors, and are reduced to the most abject slavery. This is feeble reasoning. How far this captivity extends cannot be known from the figure. And, as a matter of fact, if the evil principle of our nature prevails in exciting one evil thought, it has taken us captive. So far it has conquered, and so far we are defeated and made prisoners. But this is quite consistent with the supposition that, on the whole, we may have the victory over sin.
Romans 7:24 — O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
O wretched man that I am — This language is suitable only to the regenerate. An unregenerate man is indeed wretched, but he does not feel the wretchedness here expressed. He may be sensible of misery, and he may be filled with anxious fears and dreadful foreboding; but the person here described is wretched only from a sense of the evil principle which is in his members. Such a feeling no unregenerate man ever possessed. An unregenerate man may wish to be delivered from danger and punishment; but instead of wishing to be delivered from the law of his nature, he delights in that law. He has so much pleasure in indulging that law, that for its sake he risks all consequences.
The body of this death — Some understand this of his natural body, and suppose the exclamation to be a wish to die. But this would be a sentiment totally at variance with the principles of the Apostle, and unsuitable to the scope of the passage. It is evidently an expression of a wish to be free from that corrupt principle which caused him so much addiction. This he calls a body, as before he had called it his members. And he calls it a body of death because its demerit is death. It causes death and everlasting ruin to the world; and had it not been for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, it must have had the same consequences with respect to all.
Romans 7:25 — I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
I thank God — Some suppose that this expresses thanks for the victory as already obtained. But this cannot be the meaning, as, in the same breath, the apostle speaks of his wretchedness because of the existence of the evil. Some, again, supposing that it refers to present deliverance, explain it to be the freedom from the law spoken of in the preceding part of the chapter. But this would make the Apostle speak entirely away from the purpose. He is discoursing of that corruption which he still experiences. Besides, the form of the expression requires that the deliverance should be supposed future, — who SHALL deliver me. I thank God through Jesus Christ. — The natural supplement is, He will deliver me. At death Paul was to be entirely freed from the evil of his nature. The consolation of the Christian against the corruption of his nature is, that although he shall not get free from it in this world, he shall hereafter be entirely delivered.
So then — This is the consequence which Paul draws, and the sum of all that he had said from the 14th verse. In one point of view he served the law of God, and in another the law of sin. Happy is the man who can thus, like Paul, with conscious sincerity say of himself, — ’With the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.’ Here he divides himself, as it were, into two parts, — the mind by which he means his inward man, his renewed self; and the flesh, by which he designs his carnal nature, or the old man, that was sold under sin; and thus he accounts for his serving two different laws — the law of God written on his mind, and in the service of which he delighted as a regenerate man; and the law of sin by which he was sometimes carried captive. Beyond this no child of God can go while in this world; it will ever remain the character of the regenerate man. But this fully ascertains that Paul himself, in his predominant disposition and fixed purpose, serves God, although he is compelled to acknowledge that the power of the old man within him still subsists, and exerts itself; while it is his earnest desire daily to put him off, Ephesians 4:22, and to be transformed by the renewing of his mind.
In every believer, and in no one else, there are these two principles, — sin and grace, flesh and spirit, the law of the members and the law of the mind. This may be perverted by the opposer of Divine truth into a handle against the Gospel, and by the hypocrite to excuse his sin. But it gives ground to neither. It is the truth of God, and the experience of every Christian. If any man will pervert it to a wicked purpose, he shall bear his sin. We are not at liberty to pervert the word of God in order to preserve it from a contrary perversion. Many, no doubt, wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction. I serve — Employing, as he does, through the whole of this passage, the present tense, Paul does not say, I have served, as referring to his state of unregenerate, but ’I serve,’ as respecting his present state as a believer in Christ, composed of flesh and spirit, which, as they are different principles, regard two different laws. It is further to be observed, that this last account which he gives of himself, and which agrees with all he had said before, and confirms the whole, is delivered by him, after he had, with so much faith and fervency, given thanks to God in view of his future and complete deliverance from sin. This, as Gill well remarks, is a conclusive argument and proof that he speaks of himself, in this whole discourse concerning indwelling sin, as a regenerated person.
As if to render it altogether impossible to imagine that the Apostle was personating another man, he here, in conclusion, uses the expression I myself, which cannot, if language has a meaning, be applied to another person. It is a phrase which again and again he employs, — Romans 9:3; 2 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 12:13.
On the whole, then, we here learn that the Apostle Paul, notwithstanding all the grace with which he was favored, found a principle of evil operating so strongly in his heart, that he denominates it a law always present and always active to retard him in his course. He was not, however, under its dominion. He was in Christ Jesus a new creature, born of God, renewed in the spirit of his mind. He delighted in the holy law of God in all its extent and spirituality, while at the same time he felt the influence of the other hateful principle — that tendency to evil which characterizes the old man, — which waged perpetual war against the work of grace in his soul, impelling him to the commission of sin, and constantly striving to bring him under its power. Nothing can more clearly demonstrate the fallen state of man, and the entire corruption of his nature, than the perpetual and irreconcilable warfare which that corruption maintains in the hearts of all believers against ’the Divine nature’ of which they are made partakers; and nothing can more forcibly enhance the value of the Gospel, and prove its necessity in order to salvation, or more fully illustrate the great truth which Paul had been illustrating, that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God.
When, in the hour and power of darkness, the prince of this world came to assault the Redeemer, he found nothing in Him — nothing on which his temptations could fix or make an impression; but how different was it when he assailed the Apostle Peter! Him he overcame, and to such an extent as to prevail on him to deny his Lord and Master, notwithstanding all the firmness and sincerity of his previous resolutions. Had not the Lord interposed to prevent his faith from entirely failing, Satan would have taken full possession of him, as he did of Judas. In the same way, it was only by grace that the Apostle Paul was what he was, 1 Corinthians 15:10; and by that grace he was enabled to maintain the struggle against his old corrupt nature, until he could exclaim, in the triumphant language of victory, ’I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.’ ’My grace,’ said Jesus to him, ’is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’
The whole concluding part of this chapter is most violently perverted by Dr. Macknight, and Mr. Stuart, and Mr. Tholuck. In his explanation of this last verse, Dr. Macknight, by first converting the assertion it contains into a question, and then boldly adding to it, makes the Apostle say precisely the rever. of what he actually affirms. ’Do I myself then as a slave, serve with the mind the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin? BY NO MEANS.’
Mr. Tholuck, after denying all along that the Apostle, in the conclusion of this chapter, describes his own experience, and affirming that he is speaking in the name of a legalist, arrives at the 25th verse, in the first clause of which, though not in the last, he judges that the Apostle must be speaking in his own person.
’After the struggle of the legalist,’ he says, ’with the wretchedness arising from his sense of inward schism has in this description been wrought up to the highest pitch, Paul comes forward to a sudden in his own person, and breaks forth in thankfulness to God for having delivered him by the redemption from that miserable condition.’ A more unfounded interpretation cannot be imagined.
Mr. Tholuck considers the position in which, according to his view, Paul has thus placed himself to be so awkward, that he does not allow it to pass unnoticed. ’As this sally of gratitude, however, interrupts,’ he adds, ’the course of the argument, and is quite involuntary, inasmuch as Paul meant still to draw his inference from all that he had previously said, he finds himself compelled, in a way not the most appropriate, after the expression of his gratitude, still to append the conclusion, which is intended briefly and distinctly to show the state of the legalist.’ Can any Christian be satisfied with this manner of treating the Scriptures? Can any sober-minded man acquiesce in such an interpretation? This is a ’sally of gratitude,’ and worse, it is involuntary! Did Paul utter things INCOHERENTLY? He finds himself compelled in a way NOT THE MOST APPROPRIATE, to append the conclusion. Is this a reverent manner of speaking of the dictate of the Holy Ghost? In the proper and obvious sense of the expression, as employed by the Apostle, it is most appropriate; yet Mr. Tholuck affixes to it a ludicrous import!
The warfare between the flesh and the spirit, described in this chapter, has greatly exercised the ingenuity of men not practically acquainted with its truth. Few are willing to believe that all mankind are naturally so bad as they are here represented, and it is fondly imagined that the best of men to much better than this description would prove them to be. Every effort of ingenuity has accordingly been resorted to, to divert the Apostle’s statements from the obvious conclusion to which they lead, and so to modify his doctrine as to make it worthy of acceptance by human wisdom. But they have labored in vain. Their theories not only contradict the Apostle’s doctrine, but are generally self-contradictory. Every Christian has in his own breast a commentary on the Apostle’s language. If there be anything of which he is fully assured, it is that Paul has in this passage described his experience; and the more the believer advances in knowledge and holiness, the more does he loathe himself, as by nature a child of that corruption which still so closely cleaves to him. So far is the feeling of the power of indwelling sin from being inconsistent with regeneration, that it must be experienced in proportion to the progress of sanctification. The more sensitive we are, the more do we feel pain; and the more our hearts are purified, the more painful to us will sin be. Men perceive themselves to be sinners in proportion as they have previously discovered the holiness of God and of His law.
The conflict here described by Paul, his deep conviction of sin consisting with delight in the law of God, and this agreement of heart with its holy precepts, are peculiar to those only who are regenerated by the Spirit of God. They who know the excellence of that law, and earnestly desire to obey it, will feel the force of the Apostle’s language. It results from the degree of sanctification to which he had attained, from his hatred of sin and profound humility. This conflict was the most painful of his trials,compelling him in bitterness to exclaim, ’O wretched man that I am!’ — an exclamation never wrung from him by all his multiplied persecutions and outward sufferings. The proof that from the 14th verse to the end of the chapter he relates his own experience at the time when he wrote this Epistle, is full and complete.
Throughout the whole of this passage, instead of employing the past time, as he does from the 7th to the 14th verse, Paul uniformly adopts the present, while he speaks in the first person about forty times, without the smallest intimation that he is referring to anyone else or to himself at any former period. His professed object, all along, is to show that the law can effect nothing for the salvation of a sinner, which he had proved to be the character of all men; and, by speaking in his own name, he shows that of this everyone who is a partaker of His grace is in his best state convinced. In the end he triumphantly affirms that Christ will deliver him, while in the meantime he experiences this painful and unremitting warfare; and closes the whole by saying, ’So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.’ Can it be supposed that in saying, ’I myself,’ the Apostle meant another man; or that, in using the present time, he refers to a former period? Of what value is language, if it can be so tortured as to admit of an interpretation at direct variance with its obvious meaning? To suppose that another, and not the Apostle himself, is here designed, is contrary to every principle of sound interpretation.
Paul, in this chapter, contrasts his former with his present state. Formerly, when ignorant of the true import of the law, he entertained a high opinion of himself. ’I was alive without the law once.’ Accordingly he speaks in other parts of his writings of his sincerity, his religious zeal, and his irreproachable moral conduct before his conversion. Afterwards, when the veil of self-delusion was removed, he discovered that he had been a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious, and in unbelief; so that, when he was an Apostle, he calls himself the chief of sinners. If he owns convinced that he had been a sinner, condemned by the law, it was when the Lord Jesus was revealed to him; for till then he was righteous in his own esteem. Before that time he was dead in trespasses and sins, having nothing but his original corrupted nature, which he calls sin. He had no conviction that he was radically and practically a sinner, of which the passage before us proves he was now fully conscious. From this period, the flesh, or sin, which he elsewhere calls ’the old man,’ remained in him. Though it harassed him much, he did not walk according to it; but, being now in the spirit, the new nature which he had received predominated. He therefore clearly establishes, in this chapter, the opposition between the old man and the working of the new nature. This is according to the uniform language of his Epistles, as well as of the whole of Scripture, both in its doctrinal and historical parts. In consistency with this, he exhorts the saints at Ephesus to ’put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;’ and calls on the faithful brethren at Colosse to mortify their members which are upon the earth. All his instructions to ’them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus’ proceed on the same principle. And why were they cautioned by him even against the grossest sins, but because there was still in them a principle disposed to every sin?
There are three circ*mstances in this passage which are of themselves decisive of the fact that Paul here recounts his own present experience. The first is, that the Apostle hates sin. He hates it, because it is rebellion against God, and the violation of His law. This no unconverted man does, or can do. He may dislike the evil effects of sin, and consequently wish that he had not committed it; but he does not, as the Apostle here declares of himself, hate sin. Hating sin is the counterpart of loving the law of God. The second circ*mstance in proof that the Apostle is here referring to the present time, is, that he delights in the law of God after the inward man. Now it is only when sin is dethroned, and grace reigns in the heart, that this can be a truth. ’I delight,’ says the Psalmist, ’to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is in my heart.’ ’I will delight myself in Thy commandments, which I love,’ Psalms 40:8; Psalms 119:16; Psalms 119:24; Psalms 119:35; Psalms 119:47; Psalms 119:92; Psalms 119:97; Psalms 119:174. Delight in His law and the fear of God cannot be separated. The Holy Spirit pronounces such persons blessed. ’Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments,’ Psalms 112:1. ’Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord,’ Psalms 1:1. Thus the man that delights in the law of the Lord is blessed; and who will affirm that an unconverted man is blessed? Far from delighting in the law of God, which the first commandment enjoins, — ’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,’ — ’the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’ Such is the state of every unconverted man. And if, as all Scripture testifies, enmity against God be the characteristic of the wicked, and delight in God and His law be the characteristic of a regenerate man, by what perversion of language, by what species of sophistry, can it be affirmed that the Apostle, while describing his inward delight in God, is to be regarded as portraying himself in his original unconverted state? So far was he, while in that state, from delighting in God, either inwardly or outwardly, that his carnal mind was enmity against Jehovah, and his zeal was manifested in persecuting the Lord of glory.
The third circ*mstance which incontestably proves that Paul is here relating his present personal experience, is his declaration that he expects his deliverance from Jesus Christ. Is this the language of a man dead in trespasses and sins — of one who is a stranger to the truth as it is in Jesus, and to whom the things revealed by the Spirit of God are foolishness? 1 Corinthians 2:14. ’No man,’ says Jesus, ’can come to Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him,’ John 6:44. ’No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,’ 1 Corinthians 12:3. How, then, shall an unconverted man look to Him for deliverance?
In another place already referred to, the Apostle describes the internal warfare experienced by Christians between the flesh and the spirit, or the old and new man, in language precisely similar to what he here employs concerning himself; ’The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,’ Galatians 5:17.
In the midst of his apostolic labors, where he is endeavoring to animate those to whom he wrote, Paul represents himself engaged as here in the same arduous struggle. ’I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway,’ 1 Corinthians 9:27. Having there a different object in view, he refers to his success in the struggle; while, in the chapter before us, his design is to exhibit the power of the enemy with whom he has to contend. But in both cases he speaks of a severe contest with an enemy within, striving to bring him into captivity to sin and death. In another place, addressing those at Ephesus, whom he describes as ’quickened together with Christ,’ and including himself, whilst speaking in the character of ’an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,’ he uses the following unequivocal and energetic language — ’For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’ He therefore calls on those to whom he wrote to ’take the whole armor of God, that they may be able to withstand and to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one,’ Ephesians 6:12. Does not this describe a conflict equally severe as that in which, in the passage before us, he represents himself to be engaged? Does not this imply that evil existed in himself, as well as in those to whom he wrote, without which the fiery darts of the devil could have taken no more effect than on Him in whom the prince of this world when he came found ’nothing’? And what is the purpose of the Christian armor, but to fit us to fight with flesh and blood, namely, our corruptions, as well as other enemies, against which Paul says, we wrestle?
Was the Apostle Peter chargeable with the sin of dissimulation, and did the Apostle Paul experience no internal struggle with the old man which caused the fall of his fellow Apostle? Did Paul call upon other saints to put off the old man, and was there not in him an old man? Did he admonish all his brethren, without exception, to mortify their members which were upon the earth, and had he no sins to mortify? And why was it necessary for the Lord to send him a thorn in the Flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him, to curb the pride of his nature and prevent him from being exalted above measure, had it not been for the remaining corruption of his nature working powerfully in his heart, which from this it appears all his other severe trials and afflictions were insufficient to subdue? This alone determines the question. Was it not incumbent, too, on Paul, as on all other believers, to pray daily for the forgiveness of his sins? Was it not necessary for him, like David, to pray that his heart might be enlarged, that he might run the way of God’s commandments? Psalms 119:32.
All that Paul says in this chapter concerning himself and his inward corruption, entirely corresponds with what we are taught both in the Old Testament and the New respecting the people of God. The piety and devotedness to God of the holiest men did not prevent the evil that was in them from appearing in many parts of their conduct; while at the same time we are informed of the horror they expressed on account of their transgressions. God declares that there was no man like Job on the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil; and by God Himself Job is classed with two others of His most eminent saints, Ezekiel 14:14. Yet Job exclaims, ’Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.’ ’I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes,’ Job 40:4; Job 42:5-6. ’My soul,’ says the Psalmist, in the same Psalm in which he so often asserts that he delights in the law of God, — ’my soul cleaveth unto the dust;’ while in the preceding sentence he had declared, ’Thy testimonies also are my delight:’ and again, ’I will delight myself in Thy commandments, which I have loved;’ ’O how I love Thy law! it is my meditation all the day;’ ’My soul hath kept Thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly;’ yet he says, ’Mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden; they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness;’ ’My loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh;’ ’My groaning is nothing from Thee;’ ’I will declare mine iniquity.’ Yet in the same Psalm David says, ’In Thee, O Lord, do I hope.’ ’They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries, because I follow the thing that is good. Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.’ ’Iniquities,’ he says, ’prevail against me,’ while he rejoices in the forgiveness of his sins. ’Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.’
’Woe is me,’ exclaims the Prophet Isaiah, ’for I am a man of unclean lips,’ Isaiah 6:5. ’Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?’ Proverbs 20:9. God promised to establish an everlasting covenant with Israel, Ezekiel 16:63; and the consequence was to be, that they should loathe themselves and be confounded when God was pacified towards them. The complaints of the servants of God all proceeded from the same source, namely, their humiliating experience of indwelling sin, at the same time that, after the inward man, they delighted in the law of God. And could it be otherwise in men who, by the Spirit of God, were convinced of sin? John 16:8. There is not a man on earth that delights in the law of God who does not know that his soul cleaveth unto the dust.
Comparing himself with the law of God, Paul might well lament his remaining corruption, as the Apostle Peter, experiencing the same consciousness of his sinfulness, exclaims, ’Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord;’ or as the Apostle James confesses, ’In many things we all offend.’ Both Peter and James here declare that they themselves, although Apostles of Christ, had sin in them. Was then Paul an exception to this? and if he had sin, is it not a just account of it, when he says that there was a law within him warring against the law of his mind; in short, a contest between what he elsewhere calls the new and the old man? If, on the other hand, on account of anything done either by him or in him, of any zeal, excellency, or attainment, Paul, or any man, should fancy himself in a state of sinless perfection, the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of the Apostle John, charges him with self-deception. ’If we’ (Apostle or others) ’say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,’ 1 John 1:8. Whence, then, is there any difficulty in admitting that in the account of the internal struggle in the passage before us, Paul described his own warfare with indwelling sin, or that it portrays a state of mind incompatible with that of an Apostle? Did Paul’s sanctification differ in kind from that of other believers, so as to render this incredible, or, in as far as it may have exceeded that of most other believers, did it differ only in degree? There is then no ground whatever for denying that he here related his own personal experience, according to the plain literal, and obvious import of the expressions he employs. Were Paul, when judged at the tribunal of God, to take his stand on the best action he ever performed in the midst of his apostolic labors, he would be condemned forever Imperfection would be found to cleave to the very best of his services; and imperfection, even in the least possible degree, as it respects the law of God, is sin. ’Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.’ And who is the mere man that, since the fall, came up for one moment to the standard of this holy law, which says, ’Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart?’
It was on a ground very different from that of his own obedience, that Paul, when about to depart from the world, joyfully exclaimed, ’Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day.’ Yes, it will be a crown of righteousness, because Christ, having been made of God unto him ’wisdom,’ Paul had renounced his own righteousness, that so being found in Him he might possess ’the righteousness which is of God by faith.’ He was therefore covered with the robe of righteousness, even the righteousness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, — Jehovah our righteousness, — who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And thus, in the judgment of strict justice, Paul, with all believers, notwithstanding all his and their sins and shortcomings, shall be pronounced ’righteous,’ — a character twice given to those who shall appear on the right hand of the throne, Matthew 25:37-46, — in that day when the ’righteous servant’ of Jehovah shall judge the world in righteousness. Thus, too, when the great multitude of those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb shall stand before the throne, the full import of the words of Paul, with which in the fifth chapter of this Epistle he closes the account of the entrance of sin and death, and of righteousness and life, will be made gloriously manifest. ’That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.’ That great truth, which Paul has also declared will then be fully verified, that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
With carnality, then — the corruption of his nature — Paul the Apostle was chargeable; and of this, at all times after his conversion, he was fully sensible. Conscious that he had never for one moment attained to the perfection of obedience to the law of God, and knowing, by the teaching of the Spirit of God, that there was a depth of wickedness in his heart which he never could fathom, — for who but God can know the heart, which ’is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked’? Jeremiah 17:9, — well might he designate himself a ’wretched man,’ and turn with more earnestness than ever to his blessed Lord to be delivered from such a body of death. With what holy indignation would he have spurned from him such perverse glosses as are put upon his words to explain away their obvious import, by men who profess to believe the doctrines, and to understand the principles, which form the basis of all he was commissioned by his Divine Master to proclaim to the fallen children of Adam. He would have warned them not to think of him above that which is written, 1 Corinthians 4:6. And most assuredly they who cannot persuade themselves that the confessions and lamentations in the passage before us, strong as they undoubtedly are, could possibly be applicable to the Apostle Paul, do think of him above what is declared in every part of the word of God to be the character of every renewed man while he remains in this world.
In Mr. Toplady’s works it is stated that some of Dr. Doddridge’s last words were, ’The best prayer I ever offered up in my life deserves damnation.’ In this sentiment Dr. Doddridge did not in the smallest degree exceed the truth. And with equal truth Mr. Toplady says of himself, ’Oh that ever such a wretch as I should be tempted to think highly of himself! I that am of myself nothing but sin and weakness. In whose flesh naturally dwells no good thing; I who deserve damnation for the best work I ever performed,’ vol. 4:171, and 1-41. These are the matured opinions concerning themselves of men who had been taught by the same Spirit as the Apostle Paul.
Every man who knows ’the plague of his own heart,’ whatever may be the view he has taken of this passage, knows for certain that even if the Apostle Paul has not given here an account of his own experience at the time when he wrote this Epistle such was actually the Apostle’s experience day by day. He also knows that the man who is not daily constrained to cry out to himself, ’O wretched man that I am,’ from a sense of his indwelling corruption and his shortcomings, is not a Christian. He has not been convinced of sin by the spirit of God; he is not one of those who, like the Apostle Paul, are forced to confess, ’We that are in this tabernacle do groan,’ 2 Corinthians 5:2; 2 Corinthians 5:4; or to say, ’We ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves,’ Romans 8:23. The Apostle’s exclamation in the passage before us, ’O wretched man that I am,’ is no other than this groaning. And every regenerate man, the more he is convinced of sin, which in his natural state never disturbed his thoughts, the more he advances in the course of holiness, and the more nearly he approaches to the image of his Divine Master, the more deeply will he groan under the more vivid conception and the stronger abhorrence of the malignity of his indwelling sin.
It is easy to see how suitable it was that the author of this Epistle should detail his own experience, and thus describe the internal workings of his heart, and not merely refer to his external conduct. He speaks of himself, that it might not be supposed that the miserable condition he described did not concern believers; and to prove that the most holy ought to humble themselves before God, since God would find in them a body of sin and death; guilty, as in themselves, of eternal death. Nothing, then, could serve more fully to illustrate his doctrine in the preceding part of it, respecting human depravity and guilt, and the universality of the inveterate malady of sin, than to show that it was capable, even in himself, with all the grace of which he was so distinguished a subject, of opposing with such force the principles of the new life in his soul. In this view, the passage before us perfectly accords with the Apostle’s design in this chapter, in which, for the comfort of believers, he is testifying that by their marriage with Christ they are dead to the law, as he had taught in the preceding chapter that by union with Him in His death and resurrection they are dead to sin, which amounts to the same thing. As, in the concluding part of that chapter, he had shown by his exhortations to duty, that, by affirming that they were dead to sin he did not mean that they were exempt from its commission, so, in the concluding part of this chapter, he shows, by detailing his own experience, that he did not mean that by their being dead to the law they were exempt from its violation. In one word, while, by both of these expressions, dead to sin, and dead to the law, he intended to teach that their justification was complete, he proves, by what he says in the concluding parts of both chapters, that their sanctification was incomplete. And as, referring to himself personally, he proves the incompleteness of the sanctification of believers, by looking forward to a future period of deliverance, saying, ’Who shall deliver me? ’so, referring to himself personally in the beginning of the 2nd verse of the next chapter, he proves the completeness of their justification by speaking of his deliverance in respect to it as past, saying, ’The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.’
The view which the Apostle here gives of his own experience clearly demonstrates that the pain experienced by believers in their internal conflicts is quite compatible with the blessed and consolatory assurance of eternal Life. This he also proves in those passages above quoted, 2 Corinthians 5:1, ’We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this (tabernacle) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven.’ And in Romans 8:23, where he says, ’Ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit; even we ourselves groan within ourselves.’
It was, then, to confirm the faith of the disciples, and furnish a living exhibition of their spiritual conflict, that Paul here lays open his own heart,and discloses the working of those two warring principles, which to a greater or less extent contend for the mastery in the bosom of every child of God. Every perversion, then, of this highly important part of the Divine testimony ought to be most strenuously opposed. It is not an insulated passage; it contains the clear development of a great general principle which belongs to the whole of Divine revelation, and is essential to its truth, — a principle of the utmost importance in Christian experience. ’Blessed be God,’ says Mr. Romaine, ’for the seventh chapter of the Romans.’
The wisdom discovered in making the present experience of Paul the object of contemplation, ought to awaken in our hearts feelings of the liveliest gratitude. Had we been presented with a spectacle of the internal feelings of one less eminently holy, the effect would have been greatly weakened. But when this Apostle, whose life was spent in laboring for the glory of God; when he, whose blameless conduct was such as to confound his enemies who sought occasion against him; when he, who finished his course with joy, having fought a good fight, and kept the faith; when he, whose conscience enabled him to look back with satisfaction on the past, and forward with joy to the future; when he, who stood ready to receive the crown of righteousness which, by the eye of faith, he beheld laid up for him in heaven, — when one so favored, so distinguished, as the great Apostle of the Gentiles, is himself constrained, in turning his eye inward upon the rebellious strivings of his old nature, to cry out, ’O wretched man that I am!’ — what a wonderful exhibition do we behold of the malignity of that sin, which has so deeply poisoned and corrupted our original nature, that death itself is needful in order to sever its chains and destroy its power in the soul!
This passage, then, is peculiarly fitted to comfort those who are oppressed with a sense of indwelling sin in the midst of their spiritual conflicts, unknown to all except themselves and the Searcher of hearts. There may be some believers, who, not having examined it with sufficient care, or being misled by false interpretations, mistake its natural and obvious meaning, and fear to apply the words which it contains to Paul as an Apostle. When these shall have viewed this portion of the Divine word in its true light, they will bless God for the instruction and consolation it is calculated to afford; while the whole of the representation, under this aspect, will appear foolishness to all who are Christians only in name, and who never experienced in themselves that internal conflict which the Apostle here describes. It is a conflict from which not one of the people of God, since the fall of the first man, was ever exempted, — a conflict which He alone never experienced who is called ’the Son of the Highest,’ of whom, notwithstanding, it has of late been impiously affirmed that He also was subjected to it.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER VIII – Romans 8:1-39
THIS chapter presents a glorious display of the power of Divine grace, and of the provision which God has made for the consolation of His people. While the Apostle had proved, in the sixth, that his previous doctrine gave no license to believers to continue in sin, he had still kept in view his main purpose of establishing their free justification. In the seventh he had prosecuted the same object, declaring that by their marriage with Christ they were delivered from the law as a covenant of life or death, while he vindicated its character, use, and authority. In this chapter, he continues the subject of justification, and resumes that of the believer’s assurance of his salvation, of which he had spoken in the fifth, establishing it on new grounds; and from the whole train of his argument from the commencement of the Epistle, he now draws the general conclusion, that to them who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. While this could not have been accomplished by the law, he shows that it had been effected by the incarnation of the Son of God, by whom the law has been fulfilled for all who are one with Him as members of His body. Paul next points out the difference of character between those who, being in their natural state under the law and under sin, are carnally-minded; and those who, being renewed by grace, in whom the law has been fulfilled, are spiritually-minded. The condition of the former is death, that of the latter life and peace. Of these last he proceeds, through the remainder of the chapter, to assert the high privileges and absolute security.
Those who are spiritually-minded have the Spirit of Christ, and possess spiritual life. Although their bodies must return to the dust, they shall be raised up again. They are led by the Spirit; they are the sons of God, and in His service are delivered from a spirit of bondage. They look to Him as their Father; are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. To encourage believers to sustain the sufferings to which, while in this world, they are exposed, the most varied and abundant consolations are exhibited. Their salvation is declared to have taken its rise in the eternal counsels of God, by whom, through all its steps, it is carried into effect. Their condemnation, then, is impossible; for who shall condemn those whom God justifieth, — for whom Christ died, and rose, and intercedes? The Apostle concludes by defying the whole universe to separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In this manner he follows out, in this chapter, what had been his grand object through all the preceding part of the Epistle.
Romans 8:1 — There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jews who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Therefore — This is an inference from the general strain of the doctrine which the Apostle had been teaching in the preceding part of the Epistle; especially it follows from what he had asserted, in the sixth and seventh chapters, with respect to believers dying with Christ, and consequently being dead to sin and to the law.
Now no condemnation — This implies that there would have been condemnation to those to whom he wrote, had they remained under the law; but now, since they have died with Christ, and thereby given complete satisfaction to the law, both in its penalty and precept, it is not possible that by it they can be condemned. And, to mark the completeness of this exemption, he says, there is now no condemnation to them; the reason of which he fully explains in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th verses. This now, then, distinguishes two conditions of a man, namely, his condition under the law, and his condition under grace, — that is, his natural and his supernatural conditions. For by nature we are children of wrath, but now God has rendered us accepted in the Beloved. Being now in Christ, we are not under the curse of the law, because He has borne it for us In the moment in which we believed in Him, we were redeemed from its curse; we entered into another covenant, in which there is nothing but grace and pardon. That there is now no condemnation to them that are in Him is according to our Lord’s declaration, ’Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and ’shall not come into condemnation.’ It is often remarked that the Apostle does not say that there is in them which are in Christ Jesus neither matter of accusation nor cause of condemnation; and yet this is all included in what he does say. In themselves there is much indeed for both, but here they are viewed exclusively in Jesus Christ. Afterwards, in express terms, he denies that they can be either accused or condemned — which they might be, were there any ground for either. All that was commendable in them, which was sin, has been condemned in their Surety, as is shown in the 3rd verse.
To them — The Apostle, discoursing in the preceding chapter of the remainder of sin in believers, speaks of himself in his own person, in order to show that the highest advances in grace do not exempt from the internal warfare which he there describes. But in this verse he changes the number, and does not say, there is no condemnation to me, but to them, who are in Christ Jesus. This was proper, lest believers, who are often disposed to deprive themselves of those consolations which the Scriptures present, and prone either to despair or to presume on account of their own righteousness, should say that such a declaration was right and suitable in an Apostle, who enjoyed peculiar privileges, but it did not follow that they could say of themselves, ’There is for us no condemnation.’ Paul therefore here changes the expression, and speaks in general terms, to show that he ascribes nothing peculiar to himself, but that he refers to the general condition of believers, in order that each of them might apply to himself the fruit of this consideration. In the seventh chapter he had spoken of himself to prove that the holiest among men have reason to humble themselves before God, and to acknowledge that, if God should view them in themselves, they would be found to be a body of death, — that is to say, guilty of eternal death. But here he does not speak in his own person, in order that we may not doubt that he refers to the condition of believers in general. Again, in the 4th verse, he speaks of the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in us; thus showing that the unspeakable blessing of deliverance from condemnation equally belongs to all the people of God. In the 2nd verse, for an obvious and important reason, as we shall presently see, he reverts again to the singular number, and says, ’hath made me free.’ This manner of expressing himself ought to be particularly noted; for we are certain that, in the word of God, nothing of this kind occurs without a purpose.
Which are in Christ Jesus — To be in Christ Jesus is to be one with Him, as united to Him by faith. Those and those only who are the one with Him are the persons to whom there is no condemnation. All who are not in Christ Jesus are under the law and its curse. It is not here said that Christ is with His people, or at their right hand, but that they are in Him, in order that they may know that, being in Him, they have nothing to fear; for what evil can reach those who are one with the Son of God? This union is represented in Scripture by various terms and by many similitudes; its efficacy and power are shown, when it is said, ’He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.’ It is in virtue of this union that the sufferings and obedience of Christ are imputed to His people, they being one with Him who fulfilled the law, and satisfied the justice of God. Their union with Him is the source of that spiritual life by which they are quickened together with Christ, and from which they derive their justification, their sanctification, and consolation. ’It is impossible,’ Luther remarks, ’for a man to be a Christian without having Christ, and if he has Christ, he has at the same time all that is in Christ. What gives peace to the conscience is, that by faith our sins are no more ours, but Christ’s, upon whom God hath laid them all; and that, on the other hand, all Christ’s righteousness is ours, to whom God hath given it. Christ lays His hand upon us, and we are healed. He casts His mantle upon us, and we are clothed; for He is the glorious Savior, blessed for ever’ This union was typified under the law in the person of the high priest, who carried on his breast the twelve stones, on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel; so that, when he appeared before God, all the people appeared in him, thus showing that all believers are before God in Jesus Christ, their great High Priest. They are all delivered from condemnation, as being one body with Christ. As the debts of a wife must be discharged by her husband, and as, by her marriage, all her previous obligations are at once transferred to him, so the believer, being married to Christ, is no longer exposed to the curse of the law. All its demands have been met and satisfied by His covenant Head, with whom, as the wife is one with the husband, so he is one.
It is by the human nature of Jesus Christ that we enjoy union with His Divine nature, and that He is Emmanuel, God with us. His humanity is the medium by which His divinity communicates itself with all its graces. Under the former dispensation, God communicated with His people through the ark of the covenant, which was a type of the human nature of Jesus Christ, in order to show us that by it we have union with the whole of His person. And by union with the person of Jesus Christ we obtain communion with the Father. ’At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.’
It is not by nature that we enjoy this union, since by nature we are ’children of wrath’ and ’without Christ.’ The means by which we are united to Christ are on His part by His Spirit, and on our part by faith. He communicates His Spirit to us, which is as the soul that unites all the members of the body with the head, so that ’he who is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.’ On our part we receive Jesus Christ by faith produced in us by His Spirit, in order that we may reciprocally receive Him in our hearts. He dwells in our hearts by faith; and thus we learn what is meant when it is said we are justified by faith, not as being a work, or anything meritorious, but as the medium through which His righteousness, and all the graces and blessings that are in Jesus Christ, are communicated to our souls.
’Faith,’ says Luther, ’unites the soul with Christ as a spouse with her husband. Everything which Christ has, becomes the property of the believing soul: everything which the soul has, becomes the property of Christ. Christ possesses all blessings and eternal life: they are thenceforward the property of the soul. The soul has all its iniquities and sins: they become thenceforward the property of Christ. It is then that a blessed exchange commences: Christ who is both God and man, Christ who has never sinned, and whose holiness is perfect, Christ the Almighty and Eternal, taking to Himself, by His nuptial ring of faith, all the sins of the believer, those sins are lost and abolished in Him; for no sins dwell before His infinite righteousness. Thus, by faith, the believer’s soul is delivered from sins, and clothed with the eternal righteousness of her bridegroom Christ. O happy union! The rich, the noble, the holy Bridegroom takes in marriage his poor, guilty, and despised spouse, delivers her from every evil, and enriches her with the most precious blessings. Christ, a King and a Priest, shares this honor and glory with all Christians. The Christian is a king, and consequently possesses all things; he is a priest, and consequently possesses God; and it is faith, not works, which brings him all this honor. A Christian is free from all things, above all things, faith giving him richly all things.’
On account of this union, all believers bear the name of Christ, being that of their Head. ’For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,’ 1 Corinthians 12:13. ’We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones,’ Ephesians 5:30. And in this Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle denominates the Church not only the body of Jesus Christ, but even His fullness. God ’gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all,’ Ephesians 1:22. He thus shows that this union with Jesus Christ is such that He who filleth all things would consider Himself without His people to be imperfect and incomplete.
Who walk not after (according to) the flesh, but after (according to) the Spirit. — These words not being found in all the manuscripts, are considered by some as spurious. But they connect perfectly well with the preceding clause of the verse, as characterizing those who are in Christ Jesus. In no respect, however, do they assign the cause of exemption from condemnation to them who are in Christ. The Apostle does not say, because they do not walk, but who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. There is an essential difference between asserting the character of those who are freed from condemnation, and declaring the cause of their being delivered from it. These words refer to the proof of our justification, which proceeds from the efficacy of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, who applies the merit of the blood of Jesus, and imparts a new and eternal life, opposed to sin and corruption, which the Scriptures call death in sin, for the minding of the flesh is death, but the minding of the Spirit is life. In this way, then, we may be assured that we are in Christ Jesus, and that there is no condemnation to us, if we experience the effects of His Spirit in our hearts causing us to walk in holiness. For the life which Jesus Christ has merited for us on the cross, consists not only in the remission of sins, which is a removal of what is evil, but also in the communication of what is good, namely, in our bearing the image of God. The same words as in the clause before us occur again in verse 4th, in which their genuineness is not disputed, where their full import shall be considered.
Romans 8:2 — For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
This verse, as is evident by the particle for, is connected with the preceding. It connects, however, with the first part of that verse, where the great truth of which it is explanatory is announced, assigning the reason why there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus; which is continued to the middle of the 4th verse, in the latter part of which the last clause of the first is repeated. On the supposition of that clause being genuine, the Apostle follows here the same method as in the second chapter of this Epistle, where the 14th verse connects with the first part of the 12th. Many, by the phrase ’law of the Spirit of life,’ understand the commanding influence of the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of the believers to be intended, and by ’the law of sin and death,’ the corrupt principle, or power of sin in them, as in chapter 7:23 and 25. But these explanations do not suit the context. The main proposition contained in the preceding verse is, that to them who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. But why is there no condemnation? Is it because they are sanctified? No; but because by their union with Christ they have been freed from the law and its curse, as the Apostle had shown in the preceding chapter, verse 4. Besides, it is not true that believers are delivered from the law of sin that is in them as respects their sanctification, which would contradict what Paul had just before said of the Christian’s internal warfare with sin, as exhibited in his own experience, to which deliverance he looked forward, but which he had not yet obtained. It is further to be observed, that the above explanations do not accord with the two following verses, which point out the ground of that freedom from condemnation which is here asserted, being explanatory of the verse before us, declaring that sin has been punished in Christ, and that the righteousness which the law demands has been fulfilled by Him in those who belong to Him.
Law of the Spirit — Various significations belong to the term law,according to the connection in which it stands, and to which it is applied. In the conclusion of the preceding chapter, and in the verse before us, where it occurs twice, it is employed in three different senses. In the first of these it is denominated the ’law of sin,’ namely, the strength of corruption acting with the force of a law. In the end of the verse before us, where the term ’death’ is added to that of sin, it imports the moral law, the transgression of which is sin, and the consequence death, and is employed in the same sense in the two following verses. To the law of the spirit of life belongs a different meaning, signifying the power of the Holy Spirit, by which He unites the soul to Christ, in whose righteousness as being thus one with Him, it therefore partakes, and is consequently justified. This law is the Gospel, whereof the Holy Ghost is the author, being the authoritative rule and the instrument by which He acts in the plan of salvation. It is the medium through which He promulgates Divine testimony, and His commands to receive that testimony, and exerts His power to produce this effect; by which, also, He quickens and enlightens those in whom He dwells, convinces them of their sin and of the righteousness of Christ, and testifies of the almighty Savior, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. The Gospel may thus be properly denominated the law, or power of the Holy Spirit, because, as a law has authority and binds to obedience, so the Gospel bears the stamp of Divine authority to which, in all that it reveals, we are bound to ’submit,’ chapter 10:3. It requires the obedience of faith, and for this end is to be made known to all nations, chapter 1:5, 16:26; and when men refuse this submission, it is said that they have not ’obeyed the Gospel,’ chapter 10:16. Although, therefore, the Gospel is proclaimed as a grace, it is a grace accompanied with authority, which God commands to be received. Accordingly it is expressly called a ’law,’ Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2. ’Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’ In the Book of Psalms it is again and again called ’ the law;’ and in Psalms 110:2, referring to the power exerted by its means, it is said, ’The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion,’ that is, the Gospel. ’Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,’ namely, by Thine almighty power. The Gospel, then, is the law of the Spirit by which He rules, and the rod of His strength, or His power, by which He effects our salvation, just as, in chapter 1:16, it is denominated ’the power of God unto salvation.’ The Gospel is itself called ’the Spirit,’ as being ministered by the Holy Spirit, 2 Corinthians 3:8.
The Gospel is the law of the Spirit of life, the ministration of which, being committed to the Apostles, ’giveth life,’ in opposition to the ’letter,’ or old covenant that killeth, 2 Corinthians 3:6. ’It is the Spirit that quickeneth,’ John 6:63, as it is said, ’I shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live,’ Ezekiel 37:14. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians 15:45, the Apostle speaks of two sources of life. He says, ’The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.’ By the living soul is meant the principle of natural life which we derive from Adam by natural generation. The quickening spirit refers to the heavenly and supernatural life communicated by the Holy Spirit from Jesus Christ. The reason of the comparison is, that as Adam, receiving a living soul, his body was made alive; in like manner, believers, receiving in their souls the Spirit of Christ, receive a new life. It is not meant that the Spirit of Christ is not also the author of natural life, Job 33:4. Jesus Christ is the life itself, and the source of life to all creatures. But here the life referred to is that life which we receive through the Gospel, as the law or power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which the Apostle calls ’the life of God,’ Ephesians 4:18.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus — Jesus Christ is set before us in two aspects, namely, as God, and as Mediator. As God, the spirit of life resides essentially in Him; but as Mediator, and having in that character satisfied the justice of God by His death, the Spirit of life hasbeen given to Him to be communicated to all who are one with Him. On this account the Spirit was not given in His fullness, John 7:39, till Jesus Christ as Mediator had entered into heaven, to appear in the heavenly sanctuary with His blood, when the Father, solemnly receiving His satisfaction, gave this testimony of His acceptance, in pouring out the abundance of the Spirit on His people. Jesus Christ accordingly says, ’It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you,’ John 16:7. And the Apostle declares that ’God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,’ Ephesians 1:3. He says, ’spiritual blessings,’ because he speaks of the graces of the Holy Spirit. He says, ’in Christ,’ because it is through the Mediator, and in His communion, that our spiritual life and those graces are bestowed on us. He adds, ’in heavenly places,’ because, as anciently the high priest entered the sanctuary with the blood of the sacrifice, in order that God, in accepting that blood, might bestow His blessing on the people; in like manner, Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, has entered the heavenly sanctuary, that, being accepted, He should, as Mediator, and so receiving the Holy Spirit, be the source of life, even of that spiritual and eternal life to which He rose from the dead, and of all grace, to communicate it to His Church. This is what His forerunner John teaches when he says that ’God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him,’ and is the reason why it is said that He was ’full of grace and truth,’ and that ’of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.’ The Apostle John, too, speaks of the anointing which believers have received from Jesus Christ; for as the oil was poured on the head of the high priest, and ran down to the skirts of his garments, in like manner Jesus Christ has been anointed with the Holy Spirit, as He says, ’The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed Me;’ and this anointing was to be poured out on all His body, which is the Church.
That the Spirit of life, then, is in Jesus Christ, not only as God, but also as Mediator, is a ground of the most unspeakable consolation. It might be in Him as God, without being communicated to men; but, as the Head of His people, it must be diffused through them as His members, who are thus complete in Him. Dost thou feel in thyself the sentence of death? — listen, then, to the testimony of the Scriptures concerning Him. ’This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son.’ ’I am come that they might have life.’ He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die.’ ’Because I live, ye shall live also.’ ’I am that bread of life; he that eateth of this bread shall never die.’ ’I am the resurrection and the life.’ ’This life, then, is in Jesus Christ, and is communicated to believers by the Holy Spirit, by whom they are united to Christ, and from whom it is derived to all who through the law of the Spirit of life are in Him. It is on this account that, in the passage above quoted, 1 Corinthians 15:45, Jesus Christ, as Mediator, is said to be made a quickening spirit. In obtaining this life, the believer receives his justification, the opposite of condemnation, which without this life cannot subsist, and from which it cannot be separated.
Law of sin and death — In the preceding chapter, verses 23 and 25, ’the law of sin,’ which the Apostle says he served with the flesh, signifies, as has been observed, the powerful corrupt principle in the heart, operating with the force of a law. But in the former part of the same chapter, the word ’law’ is employed to denote the moral law. It is there spoken of as the law of God, which, though holy, and just, and good, is to fallen man the occasion both of sin and death; and, accordingly, in the point of view in which the Apostle is here regarding it, it is called ’the law of sin and death.’ It may be called the law of sin, since without it sin could not exist; for ’sin is the transgression of the law,’ 1 John 3:4; but ’where no law is, there is no transgression,’ and ’sin is not imputed when there is no law,’ Romans 5:13. ’The motions of sin are by the law,’ Romans 7:5; and ’the strength of sin is the law,’ 1 Corinthians 15:56. ’By the commandment sin becomes exceeding sinful,’ Romans 7:13. ’The law entered that the offense might abound,’ Romans 5:20. As, therefore, sin could have no existence but by the law, and as the law is the strength of sin, and makes it to abound, the law may, as here, be properly denominated ’the law of sin.’
The holy law may also be called the law of death. It threatens with death in case of disobedience, and on account of transgression adjudges to death.’The commandment,’ says the Apostle, ’which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.’ It brings the sinner under the penalty of death. ’In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ The law ’killeth;’ and the ministration of the law, written and engraved on stones, was death, 2 Corinthians 3:6-7. By the law ’death reigned from Adam to Moses,’ Romans 5:14; and the wages of sin, which is the transgression of the law, is death. Since, then, the law of God, which, though it commands holiness, gives the knowledge of sin, and the breach of it is death, and since, without the law, there could neither be sin nor death, it may, without arguing the smallest disrespect or disparagement to the holy law, be called the law of sin and death. That it is so denominated in the verse before us, appears from the repetition of the term law in the beginning of the following verse, evidently in connection with that in the end of this verse, where the reference is clearly to the moral law, namely, the law which had been spoken of from the 4th to the 13th verse of the foregoing chapter, which the Apostle had there shown, as he asserts in verse 3 of this chapter, could not set free from sin and death. Besides, that by the law of sin and death is here meant the moral law, appears unquestionable, when it is considered that if the same meaning be attached to it as belongs to the phrase ’the law of sin’ in the conclusion of the preceding chapter, the Apostle must be held to have contradicted himself. For in that case he bitterly laments his being under the power of the law of sin, and speaks only of his hope of future deliverance; and here, in the same breath, he unqualifiedly asserts his freedom from it. Notwithstanding, then, the similarity of these two expressions, and their juxtaposition, it is impossible, without charging a contradiction on the Apostle, to assert that he attached the same meaning in both places to the word law, which in different connections is capable of significations quite distinct.
Hath made me free — The reason why there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus is, that being in Him they have been made free from the law of sin and death, all its requirements having been fulfilled by Him in them, as is affirmed in Romans 8:4. This freedom is likewise declared in 2 Corinthians 3:17, in which passage it is said, ’Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ ’If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’
Me free — Here it is to be observed that the Apostle, instead of speaking generally of believers, as he does in the first and fourth verses, saying ’them’ and ’us,’ changes, as has been above remarked, the mode of expression, and refers to himself personally — ’hath made me free.’ A very striking contrast is thus pointed out between his declaration in the 24th verse of the preceding chapter, and that contained in the verse before us. There, he is speaking of the power of sin, which operates in believers as long as they are in this world. Here, in reference to condemnation, he is speaking of the guilt of sin, from which they are perfectly freed the moment they are united to the Savior. In the former case, therefore, where he speaks respecting sanctification, he refers in verse 24th to his deliverance as future, and exclaims, ’Who shall deliver me?’ In reference to the latter, in which he is treating of justification, he speaks of his deliverance as already obtained, and affirms, He ’hath made me free.’
The following explanation of the verse before us is given in the Westminster Confession of Faith. ’Albeit the Apostle himself (brought in here for example’s cause), and all other true believers in Christ, be by nature under the law of sin and death, or under the covenant of works (called the law of sin and death, because it bindeth sin and death upon us, till Christ set us free); yet the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, or the covenant of grace (so called because it doth enable and quicken a man to a spiritual life through Christ), doth set the Apostle, and all true believers, free from the covenant of works, or the law of sin and death; so that every man may say with him, ’The law of the Spirit of life,’ or the covenant of grace, hath made me free from the law of sin and death, or covenant of works,’ ed. 1773, p. 434.
Every believer should take to himself all the consolation which this verse contains, and with Paul he may with confidence say, ’The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.’ Many, however, will say, We should be happy indeed if we could, with Paul, adopt this language; but what assurance can we have of being free from condemnation, and of being in Christ Jesus, since the flesh is so strong in us and the spirit so weak, — since we are still prone to so many sins, and subject to so many defects? Assuredly if a man is satisfied in sinning and following carnal desires, and is not desirous to turn from these ways, he has no ground to conclude that he is freed from condemnation, for such is not the state of any believer But if, on the other hand, he groans on account of his sins, crying out with the Apostle, ’O wretched man that I am;’ if they displease him, if he have a godly sadness on account of having committed them, and earnestly prays to God to be delivered from them, he may be assured of his salvation. For the Christian is not one who is without sin and evil inclinations, as is abundantly shown in the preceding chapters; but one who resists and combats against them, and returns to God by repentance. His groans on account of his sins, and his meditating on the word of God, — his earnest endeavors to be holy and to grow in grace, although not with all the success he desires, — are proofs of his regeneration. For if he were dead in his sins, he would not be affected on account of them, nor would he resist them. And whoever resists the flesh by the Spirit of God, will in the end obtain the victory, for the Holy Spirit in us is greater in goodness and power than all that is against us, — Satan, and the world, and the flesh. All this should inspire the believer with courage to fight the good fight of faith, and to follow the movements of the blessed Spirit, and the Lord will say to his soul, ’I am thy salvation,’ Psalms 35:3; ’My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness,’ 2 Corinthians 12:9; and he, on the other hand, may say with confidence, ’O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord,’ Psalms 16:2.
Romans 8:3 — For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, and sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh:
This verse confirms the interpretation that has been given of the preceding, with which it stands connected. It is introduced to explain what is said in the two preceding verses. Both this and the following verse are illustrations of that great truth, that to the believer in Christ there is no condemnation There are here three principal considerations: namely, the misery of our natural condition; the mercy of God in the incarnation of His Son; and the effect of sending Him into the world, which is our redemption. Under these three heads, the Apostle removes the difficulties that might present themselves from the supposition that, on account of some imperfection in the law, it could not justify. In answer to this, it is here shown that the imperfection is not in the law, but in us. The law could justify those who fulfilled it, as it is said, ’The man that doeth them shall live in them; ’but the corruption of human nature renders this impossible. And as it might be objected that the law, which subjects every transgressor to death, is violated by the freedom from it which we obtain by the death of Jesus Christ, the Apostle shows that the punishment it demands was inflicted upon Him. Hence the first proposition, that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, is established; and in the following verse it is added, that the law, which we were required to fulfill, has by Him been fulfilled in us. In this view, the justice of God, which naturally terrifies man, inspires us with confidence. For if God is just, will He exact double payment and satisfaction? Will He condemn those for whom the Surety has borne the condemnation? No; ’He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,’ for ’the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the Flesh. — The law here meant is the same as that spoken of in the end of the preceding verse, namely, the moral law, under which our first parents in the state of innocence were placed, and which was afterwards promulgated by the ministry of Moses. This law was ordained to life, chapter 7:10, — that is, to justify man, if he had remained in innocence; but by his sinning it condemns him, as the Apostle adds, ’I found it to be unto death;’ so that the law, the breach of which constitutes sin, and which on account of this awards death, is now unable to justify, but powerful to condemn.
This verse proves that the method which God takes to justify the sinner is entirely consistent with law and justice. Firsts the Apostle shows the necessity of this method. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. — What is it that the law could not do? It could not justify. Mr. Frazer, however, says that the reason of this alleged weakness of the law forbids this interpretation. ’That,’ says he, is not the reason why the law cannot justify.’ But surely it is the very reason why the law cannot justify. Were it not for the weakness of the flesh, or the corruption and sinfulness of man, the law could justify. ’But,’ he continues, ’to turn the disability of the law to justify the sinner upon the corruption of his nature, as the text would do, according to the interpretation I am considering, would imply something by no means consistent with the Apostle’s clear doctrine, viz., that after a person had transgressed he might be justified, even by the law, for returning to his duty, and for his subsequent righteousness, if the weakness and poverty of his nature, called the flesh, did not disable him from doing his duty; which how contrary to Scripture doctrine I need not stay to prove, the thing is so clear.’ But did this acute and worthy author overlook what our Lord says to the rich young man, ’If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments’? In fact, however, the commandments could not be kept unless every commandment that respects man is obeyed; therefore the commandment in the garden of Eden is included; because, being guilty of breaking it, no man can be said to have obeyed God as he ought. The weakness of the flesh includes everything that befell us by the fall. Every man is as truly accountable for that first sin of Adam as he is for his own personal sins; and therefore, as long as he is under condemnation for that sin, he cannot be said to keep the commandments. ’By the law is the knowledge of sin.’ It is the test of men being sinners. If it were kept, this would prove that we were not sinners. It entered, that the offense might abound; and the Lord applied this test for the young man’s conviction. Yet what he said was truth: if the young man had kept the commandments, he would, as a holy creature, have enjoyed life; he would not have been a sinner. But he was so ignorant as to say he had kept them all. The Lord replied, ’One thing thou lackest,’ and said, ’Follow Me.’ If he had really kept the commandments, he would have had no need of a Savior; but he was a sinner, and Christ informed him of the only way of salvation. The law could not give life to one by whom it was forfeited.
The weakness of the law through the flesh Mr. Stuart explains thus: ’Because, through the strength of our carnal inclinations and desires, it was unable to regulate our lives, so that we should be perfect or actually free from sin.’ But as Christ is said to do what the law through this weakness could not do, this interpretation supposes that Christ has enabled us to regulate our lives so as to be entirely free from sin. Nothing can be more obvious than that the weakness of the law through the flesh is its inability to justify, as it would have done, had not sin entered. The weakness of the law for justification is no disparagement to it. It was never designed to save a sinner. How could it be supposed that a creature who had apostatized, and was a rebel against God, could re-establish himself in the Divine favor? Yet such re-establishment, in order to the enjoyment of the favor of God, was necessary. A creature in such circ*mstances could only be re-established by God Himself, and that by an act of free and sovereign mercy, compatible with His Justice and truth, as well as with the essential glory of His character. It is also impossible that mercy could be extended in any other way than that which the Gospel reveals. How could the justice of God be satisfied but by an atonement of infinite value, to meet the infinite evil of sin? And how could such an atonement be made for man but by one who was at the same time both God and man — the infinite God manifest in human nature? This was the remedy which God provided; therefore it was the best remedy. It was the highest possible remedy; therefore there could be no other. It would be inconsistent with infinite wisdom to employ means greater than are necessary in order to accomplish an end. The law was strong to perform its own office, — that is, to justify all by whom it was perfectly obeyed. Its weakness was through the flesh, — that is, the guilt and corruption of our nature. The weakness is not in the law; it is in man.
God sending His own Son. — God sent His Son to do that which the law could not do. He sent Him in consequence of His great love to His people, 1 John 4:9; and as the accomplishment of His Divine purpose, Acts 4:28. The object, then, of Christ’s mission was not merely that of a messenger or witness; it was to effect the salvation of guilty sinners in the way of righteousness. He did what the law could not do. The law could justify those only by whom it was observed; but it could not justify or save those who should violate even the least of its commands. But Christ Jesus both justifies and saves the ungodly.
His own son — Christ was God’s own Son in the literal sense. It is on this supposition only that the sending of Him is a manifestation of infinite love to men. There is no more appearance of any figurative meaning in the use of this appellation, when ascribed to Jesus Christ, than there is when Isaac is called the son of Abraham. He is here emphatically called not only the Son of God, but the Son of Himself, or His own Son — His very Son. Whether Christ’s sonship is a relation in Godhead, or a figurative sonship, has been much disputed. Many who hold the Godhead of Christ explain the passages that assert His sonship as referring to His incarnation. That the phrase Son of God imports the Divine nature of Jesus Christ, there can be no doubt, John 5:18 (see pp. 21-25); and that it relates not merely to His incarnation, but to His eternal relation to the Father, appears the obvious testimony of Scripture. No reasoning from the import of the relation among men can form a valid objection to this view.
Adam is called the son of God because he was created by the immediate exercise of Divine power. The angels are called the sons of God on account of their creation, and the greatness of their condition; believers, by the right of their adoption and regeneration; but none except the Messiah is called the Only-begotten of the Father. These words, ’I have begotten Thee,’ are indeed applied to Jesus Christ, Acts 13:33, not with respect to His eternal generation, but to His resurrection and establishment in the priesthood; and import that He was thus made known to be the Son of God, as it is said, Romans 1:4, that He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by His resurrection from the dead. The exaltation of Jesus Christ, whether in His office of Mediator or in sovereign glory, is the authoritative declaration of the Father that He was His Son, His only-begotten Son; and this is signified in the second Psalm. There, the elevation of Jesus Christ to the sovereign dominion of the world is spoken of. ’I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion.’ It is as to the act of His elevation that this declaration is made. ’I will declare the decree: The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.’ Thus, according to the usual style of Scripture, things are said to be done when they are declared or publicly manifested. When it is said, ’This day have I begotten Thee, the eternal dignity of the Savior, which had been before concealed, was brought to light and fully discovered.
In the likeness of sinful flesh — Jesus Christ was sent, not in the likeness of flesh, but in the flesh. He was sent, however, not in sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. Nothing can more clearly prove that the Lord Jesus Christ, though He assumed our nature, took it without taint of sin or corruption. To His perfect holiness the Scriptures bear the fullest testimony. ’He knew no sin.’ ’The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me.’ He was ’holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.’ His absolute freedom from sin was indispensable. As God becoming manifest in the flesh, He could not unite Himself to a nature tainted with the smallest impurity. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, and did not spring from Adam by ordinary generation; and, not belonging to his covenant, had no part in his sin. His freedom from sin, original and actual, was necessary, in order that He should be offered as ’a Lamb without blemish and without spot,’ so that He might be the truth of His types, the legal sacrifices, which it was expressly provided should be free from all blemish; thus distinctly indicating this transcendent characteristic of Him who was to be the one great sacrifice.
If the flesh of Jesus Christ was the likeness of sinful flesh, there must be a difference between the appearance of sinful flesh and our nature, or flesh in its original state when Adam was created. Christ, then, was not made in the likeness of the flesh of man before sin entered the world, but in the likeness of his fallen flesh. Though He had no corruption in His nature, yet He had all the sinless infirmities of our flesh. The person of man, in his present state, may be greatly different from what it was when Adam came from the hand of his Creator. Our bodies, as they are at present, are called ’the bodies of our humiliation,’ Philippians 3:21. Jesus Christ was made in man’s present likeness. Tradition speaks of the beauty of His person when on earth; but this is the wisdom of man. The Scriptures nowhere represent Christ in His manhood as distinguished by personal beauty. No observation of this kind, proceeding either from His friends or enemies, is recorded in the Gospels.
And for sin — The reason of the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world — of His incarnation and humiliation — was the abolition of sin, its destruction, both as to its guilt and power. The same expression occurs, 1 Peter 3:18, ’Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.’ It is sin that is the cause of separation from God; and by its removal reconciliation is made, and peace restored.
Condemned sin in the flesh — Here, by the flesh is meant, not the body of Jesus Christ only, but His human nature. In this sense the word flesh isused where it is said, ’the Word was made flesh,’ — that is to say, was made man, and took our nature, composed of body and soul. The nature and the person who suffered must also be distinguished. Respecting the person, it is Jesus Christ, God and man; as to the nature in which He suffered, it is in the flesh. Of the person we can say that it is God, as the Apostle says that God hath purchased the Church with His own blood, and consequently that His suffering was of infinite value, since it is that of an infinite person; and this is the more evident, since Jesus Christ is Mediator in both His natures, and not in His human nature only. For if this were so, His suffering would be finite, since His human nature, in which alone He could suffer, by which He offered His sacrifice, was in itself only finite; and if He had been Mediator only as to His human nature — which, however, could not be, as He represents both God and man — He could not have been the Mediator of the Old Testament, when He had not taken the human nature. And as it is necessary that, in regard to His person, we should consider Jesus Christ suffering, it is also necessary that we consider that it was in the flesh that He suffered, — that is to say, in our nature, which He took and joined personally to the Divine nature. In this we may admire the wisdom of God, who caused sin to be punished and destroyed in the human nature, in which it had been committed.
Condemned sin — Condemnation is here taken for the punishment of sin. God punished sin in Christ’s human nature. This is the method that God took to justify sinners. It was God who, by His determinate counsel and foreknowledge, Acts 2:23, punished sin by inflicting those sufferings on Christ of which men were only the instruments. Sin had corrupted the flesh of man, and in that very flesh it was condemned. The guilt and punishment of sin are eminently seen in the death of Christ. Nowhere else is sin so completely judged and condemned. Not even in hell are its guilt and demerits so fully manifested. What must be its demerit, if it could be atoned for by nothing but the death of the Son of God? and what can afford clearer evidence of God’s determination to punish sin to the utmost extent of its demerit, than that He thus punished it even when laid on the head of His only-begotten Son.
In all this we see the Father assuming the place of judge against His Son, in order to become the Father of those who were His enemies. The Father condemns the Son of His love, that He may absolve the children of wrath. If we inquire into the cause that moved God to save us by such means, what can we say, but that it proceeded from His incomprehensible wisdom, His ineffable goodness, and the unfathomable depth of His mercies? For what was there in man that could induce the Creator to act in this manner, since He saw nothing in him, after his rebellion by sin, but what was hateful and offensive? And what was it but His love that passeth knowledge which induced the only-begotten Son of God to take the form of a servant, to humble Himself even to the death of the cross, and to submit to be despised and rejected of men? These are the things into which the angels desire to look.
But besides the love of God, we see the wonderful display of His justice in condemning sin in His Son, rather than allowing it to go unpunished. In this assuredly the work of redemption surpasses that of creation. In creation God had made nothing that was not good, and nothing especially on which He could exercise the rigor of His justice; but here He punishes our sins to the utmost in Jesus Christ. It may be inquired if, when God condemned sin in His Son, we are to understand this of God the Father, so as to exclude the Son; or if we can say that God the Son also condemned sin in Himself. This can undoubtedly be affirmed; for in the Father and the Son there is only one will and one regard for justice; so that, as it was the will of the Father to require satisfaction for sin from the Son, it was also the will of the Son to humble Himself, and to condemn sin in Himself. We must, however, distinguish between Jesus Christ considered as God, and as our Surety and Mediator. As God, He condemns and punishes sin; as Mediator, He is Himself condemned and punished for sin.
When sin was condemned or punished in the Son of God, to suppose that He felt nothing more than bodily pain, would be to conclude that He had less confidence in God than many martyrs who have gone to death cheerfully, and without fear. The extremity of the pain He suffered when He said in the garden, ’My soul is sorrowful even unto death,’ was the sentiment of the wrath of God against sin, from which martyrs felt themselves delivered. For the curse of the law is principally spiritual, namely, privation of communion with God in the sense of His wrath. Jesus Christ, therefore, was made a curse for us, as the Apostle says, Galatians 3:13, proving it by the declaration, ’Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.’ For this punishment of the cross was the figure and symbol of the spiritual curse of God. As in His body, then, He suffered this most accursed punishment, so likewise in His soul He suffered those pains that are most insupportable, such as are suffered by those finally condemned. But that was only for a short time, the infinity of His person rendering that suffering equivalent to that of an infinity of time. Such, then, was the grief which He experienced when on the cross He cried, ’My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ What forsaking was this, unless that for a time God left Him to feel the weight of His indignation against sin? This feeling is the sovereign evil of the soul, in which consists the griefs of eternal death; as, on the other hand, the sovereign good of the soul, and that in which the happiness of eternal life consists, is to enjoy gracious communion with God.
In this verse we see the ground of the Apostle’s declaration, that there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, because their sin was punished in Him. This is according to numerous other passages in Scripture, as, Isaiah 53:4-6; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24; Revelation 5:9; and, as it is said in 1 Timothy 2:6, ’who gave Himself a ransom for all.’ For our sins are debts of which the payment and the satisfaction for them is their punishment — a payment without which we were held captives under the wrath and by the justice of God. All this shows that sin was really punished in Jesus Christ; and it is evident that, according to the justice and truth of God, such a punishment was necessary in order to our redemption.
Romans 8:4 — That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. — God not only sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might punish sin in that nature in which it had been committed, but that all which the law demands might by Him be fulfilled in those who are united to Him; for which purpose He obeyed its precepts as well as fulfilled its penalty. The original word here translated righteousness is the same as is rendered judgment or sentence, Romans 1:32, where, and also in the verse before us, it is in some of the French versions, and in the Dutch annotations, rendered ’right.’ It is properly here the right of the law. The right of the law is twofold, being that which belongs to it at all times, or what only belongs to it in the event of sin. The first is obedience to its precepts; the second, subjection to its penalty. The first, or what may be called the proper right of the law, corresponds with its prosper end, according to which it was ordained unto life to all who obey it. What it demands beyond its proper or first end, is the fulfillment of its penalty, as cursing all who disobey it. For it is not the first end of the law to curse men, but only what it demands since the entrance of sin. Such is the right of the law. The Gospel does not take away this right; for it does not make void the law, Romans 3:31, but establishes it. In those, therefore, who are saved by the Gospel, they being all sinners, both the one and the other of the rights of the law are fulfilled in Christ, who is the end or fulfilling of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, Romans 10:4. His people having sinned, He fulfills its right as to them, in suffering the punishment of sin, — namely, the curse of the law, to save them from punishment. And to introduce them into life. He accomplishes its proper or original right, according to which, as it is said, ’the man that doeth them shall live in them.’ For if the Gospel establishes the law, it must do so as to its first end, and it must also do so as to its end since the entrance of sin, otherwise the law would, as to those who are saved, rather be abolished than fulfilled by the Gospel. In this way Christ has fully satisfied the law, having fulfilled its righteousness, — all that conformity to it which is its right in every respect, and under every aspect, and as to every state of those who are its subjects. And as His people are in Him, so the law is thus, in all its extent, fulfilled in them, which is the very circ*mstance in which their justification consists. For if they are one body, or one with Him, as the Apostle had been showing, His fulfillment of the law is their fulfillment of it. Such being their communion with Him, that they sit with Him in heavenly places, Ephesians 2:6; and by the same communion His righteousness is their righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21.
The end, then, of Christ’s mission was, that the right of the law might be fulfilled in His people. Here we see the ground on which believers are saved. It is in a way consistent with the law, a way in which all that it has a right to demand is fulfilled in them. The mercy, then, which saves sinners does not interfere with justice. They who are saved by mercy have that very righteousness which the law demands. In Christ they have paid the penalty of their disobedience, and in Christ they have yielded obedience to every precept of the law. This fulfillment of the law cannot signify, as some commentators erroneously explain it, that obedience which believers are enabled to yield by the Holy Spirit in their regenerate state; for it is obvious that this is not the righteousness of the law. The very best of all their actions and thoughts come short of the perfection which the law demands; besides, its penalty would in this way be unfulfilled. They are indeed sanctified, but their sanctification is far from being commensurate with the claims of the holy law, either as to its penalty or its precept. Here, then, is solid consolation for the believer in Jesus. For, divested as he is of righteousness in himself, he enjoys the blessedness of having the righteousness of God — the righteousness of his Lord and Savior — imputed to Him, so that the law which had been broken is fulfilled in him in all its precepts, and in its full penalty.
Hitherto, from the beginning of the 2nd verse, the Apostle had been illustrating the truth contained in the first clause of the first verse, namely,that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. He now repeats the last clause of that verse which he goes on to illustrate to the end of the 8th verse.
Who walk not after (according to) the flesh, but after (according to) the Spirit. — These words characterize those in whom the righteousness of the law is fulfilled and serve the double purpose of showing that they who are walking according to the principles of the renewed spiritual nature, and according to that covenant of which the Lord Jesus is the spirit, are one with Him, and that none are united to Him who are living after the principles of their corrupt nature, and seeking justification and acceptance with God, by cleaving to the covenant of works. The expression, to ’walk,’ is frequently employed in Scripture regarding any particular line of conduct, as when it is said, Acts 21:21, ’that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs; ’or it denotes the course of life in which we are proceeding as in Ephesians 2:2, ’Ye walked according to the course of this world.’ In this way, comparing our life to a journey, in the usual style of Scripture, the Apostle comprehends all our actions under the figure of walking. To walk, then, according to the flesh, is to act agreeably to the principles of corrupt nature. To walk according to the Spirit, means to regulate the conduct according to the influence and dictates of the Holy Spirit, who has given us a new nature, serving God in newness of spirit.
The terms flesh and spirit have various significations, and are employed in different senses in this chapter. The word flesh is used in a sense either bad or indifferent. Sometimes it means simply human nature, and sometimes corrupt human nature, or man in his natural state without the Holy Spirit, and frequently wicked works. At other times it denotes outward services in adherence to the law for justification, Philippians 3:4. To the word spirit various meanings are likewise attached. It imports either the angelic nature, or the soul of man, or the Holy Spirit, or the renewed image of the Son of God in the soul. In both of these last senses it is employed by our Lord, when, declaring the necessity of regeneration, He says, ’That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ Sometimes, when opposed to flesh or to letter, it is used as equivalent to the new covenant, — ’who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit.’
The expression, walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, in the verse before us, is generally interpreted as referring exclusively to the practice of good or of wicked works. It is supposed that the Apostle is here guarding his doctrine of gratuitous justification from abuse, by excluding all claim to union with Christ, and to exemption from condemnation, where there is not purity of conduct, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. This is undoubtedly a highly important truth, which is to be constantly affirmed and insisted on. Holiness of life and conversation is an inseparable concomitant of union with Christ; for to whom He is made righteousness He is also made sanctification, and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Of this the Apostle never loses sight, not indeed in any point of view as the cause of that union, but as its never-failing consequence and concomitant, as he has abundantly proved in the sixth chapter. There are, however, many different paths in the broad way; that is, many ways of walking after the flesh, all of which lead to destruction. Among these, that of seeking acceptance with God by works of righteousness, either moral or ceremonial, is equally incompatible with union to Christ and freedom from condemnation, as living in the grosser indulgence of wicked works; and this way of going about to establish their own righteousness, by those who profess to have received the Gospel, and who have even a zeal of God, chapter 10:2, is probably that by which the greater number of them are deceived. There is the greatest danger lest the fleshly wisdom, under the notion of a zeal for God and of regard for the interests of virtue, should set men on the painful endeavor of working out their salvation, in part at least, by keeping the law as a covenant, thus attending to its requirements for justification, serving in the oldness of the letter, and not in the newness of spirit. In this ways multitudes who profess to have received the Gospel, are walking after the flesh, seeking to satisfy their conscience, and saying peace when there is no peace.
While, therefore, the other ways of walking according to the flesh may all be comprehended under the term as here employed by the Apostle, for they are all involved in each other, it would appear (especially as in the 5th verse, minding the things of the flesh, which certainly denotes immoral conduct, is distinguished from walking after the flesh) that it is to the above import of the word, rather than to immoral conduct, that he is referring in this place. In this way Paul himself walked before his conversion, when he thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth; and it was this same way of walking according to the flesh which he so strenuously opposes in his Epistle to the churches of Galatia. We see, too, how suitable to his purpose it would be in confirming the doctrine he had been teaching, particularly to direct to this point the attention of those to whom he was writing. Paul, then, appears to be here prosecuting his main design, which is to prove that believers are to be justified, not by works of righteousness which they have done, of whatever description, but solely by faith in Jesus Christ, in whom their reconciliation with God is complete. It is this grand truth which, from the beginning of the Epistle, he had been exhibiting, for the conviction and establishment in the faith of those whom he addressed. It is indeed a truth in which Christians need to be fully instructed, which they are all apt to let slip out of their minds, but by which they are saved, if they keep it in memory. There is nothing which so much retards them in their course as their proneness to walk according to the flesh, in seeking to establish their own righteousness; and nothing more powerfully tends, when giving way to it in any degree, to bring them into bondage, to lead them to serve in the oldness of the letter, and not in newness of spirit, and to mar their joy and peace in believing. In the sense here ascribed to it, the word flesh is employed in the beginning of the fourth chapter of this Epistle. Flesh, in that place, cannot, it is evident, signify immoral conduct; for that Abraham was justified by wicked works could never be supposed. It must there signify works, moral or ceremonial, as is proved by the rest of that chapter.
In the Epistle to the Galatians, the terms flesh and spirit are likewise used in this acceptation. ’Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?’ Galatians 3:3. ’Having begun your Christian course by receiving the doctrine of the new covenant, namely, justification by the righteousness of Christ, are ye seeking to be made perfect by legal observances, or works of any kind?’ In this passage the word flesh cannot be taken for wicked works, any more than in the fourth chapter of the Romans, just quoted. It must be understood in the sense of working for life, or self-justification, in opposition to the way of salvation according to the Gospel. The Apostle’s main object, in the whole of that Epistle, is to reclaim the Galatian churches from the error of mixing ceremonial observances, or any works of law, with the faith of Christ, and thus walking according to the flesh, and not according to the Spirit. ’Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from (the doctrine of) grace. For we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.’ This reasoning applies to all works of law, of whatever description, as clearly appears by the third chapter of that Epistle.
In the same manner, the terms flesh and Spirit are employed, Philippians 3:3, ’For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.’ Here the word flesh, opposed to Spirit, just as in the passage before us, cannot signify immoral conduct, in which it would be absurd to suppose that the Apostle placed confidence. In the sequel, Paul furnishes a practical commentary on these words, by referring to his own conduct, as having formerly walked according to the flesh, resting in external privileges, and observances, and his obedience to the law; but afterwards as renouncing them all, and relying solely on ’the righteousness which is of God by faith.’
According, then, to the above signification of the word flesh, as employed in the fourth chapter of this Epistle, and of the word Spirit; denoting the new covenant, 2 Corinthians 3:6, this clause, ’who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit,’ indicates the course of those who are not walking according to the old covenant, in seeking justification by the works of law, but who attain it by faith in Him who is the Lord the Spirit, 2 Corinthians 3:17. The same idea appears to be expressed here as in the preceding chapter, where the Apostle reminds believers that they are delivered from the law under which, while in the flesh, they were held, that they should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. This is consistent with the whole of the previous train of the Apostle’s reasoning, in which, as was already noticed, he has been asserting the freedom of believers from the law, and their justification by the righteousness of Christ through faith, in opposition to all self-justifying efforts or obedience of their own. They, then, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, are no longer seeking justification by works of law, but are brought to act on Gospel and spiritual principles. They live in the Spirit, and they also walk in the Spirit.
All men who profess to worship God in any form, walk by nature according to the flesh. As man was originally placed under the law to live by his obedience to it, so, ever since it has been broken, he naturally seeks acceptance with God, and justification by the works of law. This is fully verified at all times, and in all nations, by those who are not in Christ. All men, without exception, have the work of the law written in their hearts, and if ignorant of the only Savior of sinners, they attempt to satisfy their conscience by means of some religious observances or moral works, — the idolater, by his sacrifices; the Mohammedan, by his lustrations; the Brahmin, by his austerities; the Roman Catholic, by his masses and penances; the Socinian, by his vaunted philanthropy; the nominal Christian, by his assiduous attendance at the Lord’s Supper and other religious services: and all, in some way or other, by the merit of their works, moral or ceremonial, seek to obtain their acquittal from sin before God, and a favorable sentence at His tribunal. All of them are going about to establish their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness of God. In this way Saul of Tarsus, as has been noticed, describes himself as having walked, when he had ’confidence in the flesh.’ To wait, through the Spirit, for the hope of righteousness by faith, Galatians 5:5, is peculiar to those to whom, being in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation, and in whom the righteousness of the law is by Him fulfilled.
The verse before us, and the three preceding, contain a summary of the whole that Paul had advanced in the foregoing part of the Epistle, both respecting the justification and the sanctification of believers, and open the way for illustrating the difference between those who are carnal — remaining in their natural state — and those who are spiritual, as renewed by grace. This afterwards leads to a particular and most interesting description, through the remainder of the chapter, of the various trials of believers, as also of their unspeakably glorious privileges, and of the gracious operations and influences of the Holy Spirit in the great work of their sanctification, and to the Apostle’s concluding the whole by the most sublime view of the eternal source and absolute security of the state of dignity and blessedness to which, through Divine favor, they have been elevated.
Romans 8:5 — For they that are after the, flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
This appears to confirm the explanation that has been given of the last clause of the first verse and of that of the fourth; for the Apostle here distinguishes between walking after the flesh, and minding the things of the flesh, and between walking after the Spirit, and minding the things of the Spirit. As he had proved that union with Christ was necessary to justification, he here shows that its certain consequence is also sanctification; while they who do not enjoy this union are still under the dominion of sin.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. — This verse connects with the preceding, and contrasts the opposite effects that follow from walking according to the flesh, or according to the Spirit. The word here translated ’mind,’ includes both the understanding and the affections, and signifies the strong bent of the mind regarding the object desired. The minding of the flesh comprehends all the faculties of man in his unregenerate state, there being no power of the mind exempt from sin. If, then, a man walks according to the flesh, seeking acceptance with God by his own works, moral or ceremonial, however earnest or sincere he may be in his endeavors, he will remain under the prevalence and dominion of sinful appetites. Such persons have their minds intent on the things that gratify their corrupt nature. They have no relish for spiritual things; whatever they may be induced to do from dread of punishment, or hope of reward in a future world, their desires are, in reality, centered in the things of this world. Whatever may be their profession of religion, their hearts are supremely engrossed with earthly things; and for these, if they could obtain their wish through eternity, they would gladly barter all the glories of heaven. In one word, they mind the things of the flesh, they love the world, and all that is in the world. ’If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.’
But they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit — They who act according to the principles of the renewed spiritual nature, and seek acceptance with God by faith in Him who is ’the Lord the Spirit,’ 2 Corinthians 3:17, mind spiritual things. Jesus Christ is the source of every blessing, and they who are in Him are not only justified, and consequently freed from condemnation, but also walk in newness of life. They employ their thoughts and efforts about the things of God. To these they attend, and on these their affections are fixed. None will seek the things which are above, but those who serve God in newness of spirit. All others will ’mind earthly things,’ Philippians 3:19.
On the verse before us Mr. Adam of Wintringham remarks, ’For they that are after the flesh, that is, according to the common interpretation, not led and governed by the Spirit in practice, "still under the direction of the flesh and its sinful appetites," says Mr. Lock, do mind the things of the flesh: very true; but then this is only affirming a thing of itself, or saying it twice over And therefore, to clear St. Paul of this absurdity, we suppose that by "they that are after the flesh," he means those who are destitute of faith, or not in Christ: and of them he affirms that, let them pretend to do what they will, they are still under the prevalence of flesh and its appetites, and cannot act from a higher principle, or a nature which they have not. And it must be observed that he is now advancing a step farther in the doctrine of faith, and, besides the necessity of it in order to justification, showing its happy effects as a principle of holiness: but they that are after the Spirit — in the Spirits dispensation of grace, through faith — and say that. Jesus is the Lord by the Holy Ghost, by whom only they can say it, mind the things of the Spirit, now possessing and ruling them.’
Romans 8:6 — For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
In the preceding verse the Apostle contrasts the dispositions and practices of believers and unbelievers; here he contrasts their opposite states and conditions. These two states of carnal and spiritual mindedness include and divide the whole world. All men belong either to the one or the other. They are either in the flesh or in the Spirit; in a state of nature or in a state of grace. For to be carnally minded is death. — This is the awful state of the carnal mind — the mind of the flesh without faith in Christ, and renovation of the Spirit of God. It is death spiritual and eternal. All the works of those who are in this state are ’dead works,’ Hebrews 9:14. ’The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,’ although the Lord commanded to offer sacrifices, which therefore was in itself a good work. ’She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.’ All by nature being in this carnal state, are ’dead in trespasses and sins.’ Let those whose minds are set on the things of the world consider this fearful saying, that to be carnally minded is death, and let them look to Jesus the Savior of the guilty, through whom alone they can escape condemnation.
But to be spiritually minded is life and peace — These are the effects of being enlightened and guided by the Spirit of God, and so having the mind turned from earthly things to the things of the Spirit. To be spiritually minded is life, even eternal life. This life is already enjoyed by the believer ’Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life;’ and with his Redeemer he has risen from the death of sin to walk in this new life. It is also peace, both here and hereafter. This peace is the harmony of all the faculties of the soul with God, and with His will, and is altogether the opposite of that enmity against God, which in the following verse is affirmed concerning the carnal mind. While there is nothing so miserable for man as war with his Creator, there is nothing so blessed as peace and communion with God. It is peace in the conscience, in opposition to doubt, for which the Church of Rome contends, as if the effect of being spiritually minded, instead of peace and confidence in God, was servile fear and harassing distrust. That church maintains that the man who is regenerated should doubt of his salvation, and be uncertain of God’s love to him. What, then, becomes of this peace that flows from being spiritually minded — which passeth all understanding, keeping the heart and mind through Christ Jesus — this peace, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and a characteristic of the kingdom of God? Romans 14:17. The peace here spoken of is opposed to the terrors of conscience which the unregenerate experience, and to the opposition in their hearts to God, as well as to every species of false peace by which they may be deluded. ’There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.’ And again it is said, ’Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.’
Romans 8:7 — Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to law of God neither indeed can be.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. — The word rendered carnal mind — or, as it may be rendered, minding of the flesh — comprehends the acts both of the understanding and of the will. Some render it the prudence, or wisdom, of the flesh — or the wise thoughts. The carnal mind in its wisest thoughts is rooted enmity against God. This is the reason why the carnal mind is punished with death. The mind of the flesh, or of man in his unconverted state, walking according to the flesh, in its best as well as in its worst character — however moral in conduct — whether seeking acceptance with God by its own services, or following altogether the course of this world in its sinful practices — is not merely an enemy, but enmity itself against God in the understanding, will, and affections. Every man whose heart is set on this world hates God, 1 John 2:15. ’If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;’ and the heart of every one who has not been renewed in his mind by the Spirit of God is set on this world. Such men hate the holiness of God, His justice, His sovereignty, and even His mercy in the way in which it is exercised. Men of this character, however, have no notion that they hate God. Nay, many of them profess to love Him. But God’s testimony is, that they are His enemies; and His testimony is to be taken against the testimony of all men. This, however, does not suppose that men may not imagine that they love God. But is it not the true God whom they are regarding, but a God of their own imagination — a God all mercy, and therefore a God unjust; while they abhor the just God, and the Savior, who is the God of the Scriptures. ’He that cometh to God must believe that He is,’ Hebrews 11:6. He must believe that He is what He is.
For it is not subject to the law of God. — The carnal mind is not under subjection to the law of God. Whatever it may do to obtain salvation or avoid wrath, it does it not from subjection to the law. It has a rooted aversion to the spiritual law of God, and admits not its claim to perfect and unceasing obedience. All its performances in the way of religion spring from selfish motives, and a hope that, on account of these doings, it will be accepted; whereas the holy law of God utterly rejects all such service. So far from giving the law all its demands, the carnal mind gives it nothing. Nothing which it does constitutes obedience to the law. The law does not in any degree, or in any instance, recognize the works of the carnal mind as obedience to its requirements.
Neither indeed can be — Not only is it a matter of fact that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, but such subjection is impossible. Sin cannot be in subjection to the law. This would be a contradiction in terms. For, so far as it would be subject to the law of God, it would be holy. If, then, sin is essentially, and in direct terms, contrary to holiness, the sinful nature can never yield subjection to the holy law. Men may speculate about metaphysical possibilities; but whatever explanation may be given of the matter, the decision of the inspired Apostle determines that the thing is impossible.
That an unconverted man cannot be subject to the law of God, appears to many a hard saying; but it is the uniform doctrine of the word of God. All men in their natural state, though they boast that they are free, are the slaves of sin. Then Jesus, addressing the Jews who professed to believe in Him, but who understood not His doctrine, said to them, ’Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,’ they answered, ’We were never in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?’ In the same manner the unconverted boast of their freedom. They affirm that their will is free; and that, as they can choose the evil, so they can choose the good. If, by this freedom, they intend that they can choose without any external force constraining or preventing them, it is true that, in this sense, they are free. But a moral agent chooses according to his inclinations or dispositions. It should always be recollected that the will is the will of the mind, and the judgment the judgment of the mind. It is the mind that judges and that wills. A fool judges foolishly; a wicked man judges wickedly; a good man wills that which is good. In Scripture, it is said that God cannot deny Himself; that He cannot lie. His nature being perfectly holy, it is impossible that He can do what is wrong. On the other hand, the wicked and condemned spirits cannot choose what is holy. When the devil ’speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.’ Man, therefore, in his carnal state, chooses what is evil; but he cannot choose what is good, not indeed because of any external obstruction, for in that case he would not be criminal, but by reason of the opposition of his perverse dispositions. He is inclined to do evil, and evil he will do. ’Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.’ His language is, ’I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.’ ’As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee.’ ’My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would have none of Me.’ They say ’unto God, Depart from us.’ ’Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.’ ’We will not have this man to reign over us.’ ’Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their cords from us.’
It is thus that ’wickedness proceedeth from the wicked.’ ’Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.’ ’Wept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ ’Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’ ’How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?’ ’No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him.’ ’Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me except it were given unto him of My Father.’ ’The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’ ’Their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken.’ ’How can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.’ ’The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive.’ ’Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot hear My word.’ ’No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.’
According, then, to Scripture, the natural man is entirely incapable of choosing what is good, although it is his duty, and therefore fit that it should be enjoined on him. He is ’ungodly,’ a ’sinner,’ an ’enemy to God,’ and ’without strength,’ Romans 5:6; Romans 5:10. Men in this state are represented as walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; as being under ’the power of Satan,’ and ’taken captive by him at his will.’ They are his lawful captives, because they are so voluntarily. From this slavery they cannot be freed but by means of the word of God, the sword of the Spirit, which the Lord employs; granting to those to whom it seemeth good to Him the blessing of regeneration; ’distributing His gifts, and dividing to every man severally as He will.’ It is God ’who hath delivered us,’ says the Apostle, ’from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.’ ’Who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ ’If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’
When God purposes to do good to men, He fulfills to them this gracious promise, ’I will give them a heart to know Me.’ It was this preparation of heart that David prayed to God to grant to his son Solomon. At the same time, he acknowledged with gratitude that his own willingness to offer to God, of which he was Conscious, and that of his people, were from Him. After celebrating the praises of Jehovah, David says, ’But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee. O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people, and prepare their hearts unto Thee,’ 1 Chronicles 29:10-18. There is nothing to prevent men from obeying the will of God but their own depraved dispositions, and aversion to the things of God. The natural faculties of men would be sufficient to enable them to do what He commands, if they employ them properly. If they employ them otherwise, the fault rests exclusively with themselves. And as the corruption of our nature does not deprive a man of any of his natural faculties, or of perfect liberty to act conformably to the decision of his own mind, the obligation under which he lies to do right continues in full force. From this we see, first, how justly God punishes men for their crimes, who, unless inclined and enabled by His grace, cannot liberate themselves from the slavery of sin; and further, that the inability of men to obey God, not being natural but moral inability, cannot deprive God of the right to command obedience, under the pain of His most awful displeasure.
On this subject, the distinction between natural and moral inability should always be kept in view. Natural inability consists in a defect in the mind or body, which deprives a man of the power of knowing or doing anything, however desirous he may be of knowing or doing it. Natural inability, then, can never render a man criminal. Moral inability consists in an aversion to anything, so great that the mind, even when acting freely — that is, without any external impulse or constraint — cannot overcome it. When this aversion exists as to what is good, it is inseparable from blame; and the greater this aversion is, the greater is the criminality. All men are daily accustomed to make these distinctions, and according to this rule they constantly form their opinion of the conduct of others.
In the nature of things, it is impossible that the justice of God can ever demand of reasonable creatures less than perfect obedience. To say that the moral inability of man to obey the law of God destroys or weakens, in the smallest degree, his obligation to obey that law, is to add insult to rebellion. For what is that moral inability? It is, as has been observed, no other than aversion to God, the depraved inclination of the carnal mind, which not only entertains and cherishes enmity against God, but is itself that enmity. And let it not be said that the view the Scriptures give of the natural depravity of men, and of the sovereign and efficacious grace of God, reduces them to the condition of machines. Between men and machines there is this essential difference, and it is enough for us to know that man is a voluntary agent both in the state of nature and of grace. He wills and acts according to his own dispositions, while machines have neither thought nor will. As long, then, as a man’s will is depraved and opposed to God, his conduct will be bad, — he will fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and, on the other hand, when God gives the sinner a new disposition, and a new spirit, his conduct will undergo a corresponding change. ’The liberty of a moral agent consists in the power of acting conformably to his choice. Every action performed without external constraint, and in pursuance of the determination of the soul itself, is a free action. The soul is determined by motives; but we constantly see the same motives acting diversely on different minds. Many do not act conformably to the motives of which they yet acknowledge all the force. This failure of the motive proceeds from obstacles opposed by the corruption of the heart and understanding. But God, in giving a new heart and a new spirit, takes away these obstacles; and, in removing them, far from depriving a man of liberty, He removes that which hindered him from acting freely, and from following the light of his conscience, and thus, as the Scriptures express it, makes him free. The will of man, without Divine grace, is not free but enslaved, and willing to be so.’
Is it objected, that if a man be so entirely corrupt that he cannot do what is right, he should not be blamed for doing evil? To this it is sufficient to reply, that if there be any force in the objection, the more a voluntary agent is diabolically wicked, the more innocent he should be considered. A creature is not subject to blame if he is not a voluntary agent; but if he be so, and if his dispositions and his will were absolutely wicked, he would certainly be incapable of doing good, and, according to the above argument, he could not be blamed for doing evil. On this ground the devil must be excused, nay, held perfectly innocent, in his desperate and irreconcilable enmity against God. A consequence so monstrous totally destroys the force of the objection whence it is deduced. But if the objection be still pressed — if any one shall proudly demand, who hath resisted His will? Why hath He made me thus? — the only proper answer is that of the Apostle, ’Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?’
Some, indeed, taking a different and the most common view of this matter, deny the innate depravity of their nature, and, in spite of all that the Scriptures declare on this subject, persist in maintaining that they have not an inclination to evil, and are under no moral incapacity to do what is right. To such persons the same reply should be made as that of our Lord to the ignorant young man who asked Him what he should do to inherit eternal life. ’If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ You cannot refuse to admit that this is your duty. You ought to love God with all your heart, and soul, and strength, and in all things constantly to obey Him. Have you done so? No! Then, on your own principles, you are justly condemned, for you say that you can do what is right, and yet you have not done it. If, then, you will not submit unconditionally, and without reserve, to be saved in the way which the Gospel points out, in which you learn at once your malady and the remedy of which you stand in need, your blood will be upon your own head. ’Now, you say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.’ The whole, then, resolves itself into this, that all is according to the good pleasure of God. ’Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Ye shall know them by their fruits.’ Every man, then, being by nature bad, must be made good before he can do good. In this and the two preceding verses we observe the strong, and expressive, and accumulated terms in which the Apostle describes the alienation of the natural man from God. 1st, He declares that they who walk after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh; 2nd, That the minding of the flesh is death; 3rd, That the carnal mind is enmity against God; 4th, That it is not subject to the law of God; 5th, That so great is the corruption of the carnal mind, that this is impossible.
From the passage before us, we learn how miserable the state of man is by nature, since even his wisdom and intelligence, in his unconverted state, is enmity against God, so that he cannot submit himself to His law. We learn, too, that the ability both to will and to do anything good must be from God. We should adore His compassion and mercy to us, if our natural enmity against Him has been subdued, and we have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. In proportion to the greatness of this compassion, we should place our entire confidence in Him as our covenant God. For if, when we were enmity against Him, He loved us, how much more now that we are reconciled and His children? Romans 5:10. And, since there are still remains of the flesh and enmity against God and His holy law in our minds, we ought to deny ourselves daily, and flee to Him who can and will entirely deliver us from the body of this death.
Romans 8:8 — So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
This is the result of what has been said. A man must be born of the Spirit before he can even begin to serve God. How unscriptural and pernicious, then, is that system which teaches men to seek to please God by commencing a religious life, that God may be induced to co-operate with them in their further exertions. If the man who is not born again cannot please God, every act of the sinner before faith must be displeasing to God. An action may be materially good in itself, but unless it proceeds from a right motive — the love of God — and be directed to a right end — his glory — it cannot be acknowledged by God. Before a man’s services can be acceptable, his person must be accepted, as it is said, ’The Lord had respect unto Abel , and to his offering.’ ’Without faith it is impossible to please God.’ It is by faith we are united to Christ, and so reconciled to God; and till this union and reconciliation take place, there can be no communion with Him. If, then, no man who is in the flesh — that is, in his natural or unconverted state — can please God, how dreadful is the situation of those who do not even profess to be renewed in the spirit of their mind! How many are there who discard the idea of regeneration! However specious may be the works of such persons in the eyes of men, they cannot please God; and not pleasing God, they must abide the condemnation that awaits all His enemies.
Romans 8:9 — But we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God and dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
In the preceding verses the Apostle had given a description of carnal and spiritual mindedness. Here he applies what he had said to those whom he was addressing. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. — As the flesh is here taken for the nature of man corrupted by sin, so to be in the flesh signifies to be in a state of natural corruption. On the other hand, to be in the spirit signifies to be in a state of grace or regeneration, John 3:6. Flesh is a principle that attaches to the earth, and the things of the earth; but the spirit of regeneration is as a light, which, coming from heaven, elevates the mind to those things that are celestial. As to the understanding, the man in the flesh, or the carnal man, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness Unto him; but he who is in the spirit, or spiritual, knows and approves the will of God, having ’the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God,’ ’the eyes of his understanding being enlightened.’ The will of the carnal man is such that the imagination of his thoughts are only evil continually; but he who is spiritual his conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God. The affections of him who is carnal are enmity against God, and in rebellion against His law; but the spiritual man delights in the law of God, and loves His commandments. The former considers the things of the world as his sovereign good; the latter seeks the things that are above at the right hand of God.
Not being in the flesh, but in the spirit, was the state of all in the church at Rome. All belonging to it were, as far as man could judge, ’saints,’ chapter 1:7, the regenerated children of God. The Apostle was persuaded that they were all ’his brethren’ in Christ, ’full of goodness,’ chapter 15:14. It was meet for him to think this of them all, Philippians 1:7. They were not then in the corrupt state of nature, but in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, renewed by the Spirit of God. How different at that period was the church at Rome from that apostate body which now usurps its name! Nor only are natural or carnal men recognized as its members, but, like the temples of heathenish, it is filled with abominations and filthiness.
If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you — The Apostle, in order to confirm those to whom he wrote in the assurance of their happy condition, now calls their attention to the evidence of being in a converted state, namely, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. ’Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit,’ 1 John 4:13. This indwelling of the Spirit is a sure evidence of a renewed state; and believers should be careful not to grieve the Spirit, and should labor to enjoy a constant sense of His presence in their hearts.
In this verse the word spirit in the first occurrence imports the gift and grace of regeneration. In the 2nd and 3rd it denotes the Author of that gift, namely, the Holy Spirit, who is Jehovah, a person in the self existent Godhead; equal with the Father and the Son in every attribute. He is called the Spirit, as being the breather or inspirer of spiritual life. Everything done by Him in this character tends to holiness, and therefore He is so often called the Holy Spirit. It is His Divine office to apply the salvation of Jesus, and to make it effectual. He does all in the heirs of promise. The Father gave them to the Son, the Son redeemed them, but they are in the common mass of corruption, dead in trespasses and sins, till the Spirit of life opens their hearts to receive Him, enters into them, unites them by faith to the Savior, and makes them the subjects of a new birth. Of the Holy Spirit it is said, 1 Corinthians 3:16, ’Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’ If it be asked how the Holy Spirit, who is co-essential with the Father and the Son, and consequently infinite, can dwell in believers, the answer is, that though everywhere present, He is said nevertheless to dwell in them on account of His operation and the grace of regeneration, which He produces. It is the Holy Spirit who unites them to Christ the Lord. It is He who quickens and regenerates them, on account of which regeneration is called he ’renewing of the Holy Ghost.’ He it is who leads, rules, and governs them, as it is said in the 14th verse, that as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. What this expression, ’dwell in you,’ imports is, that being united to Jesus Christ and regenerated, the Holy Spirit dwells in His people not as inactive, but operates in them continually, and leads and governs them. In the indwelling, then, of the Holy Spirit, is included His gracious and continuing presence, and His operations in the soul. The effects of these are illumination, sanctification, supplication, and consolation. Of the Holy Spirit, one of the early Christian writers says, ’He is the author of regeneration, the pledge of the promised inheritance, and, as it were, the handwriting of eternal salvation; who makes us the temple of God and His house, who intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, acting as our advocate and defender, dwelling in our bodies, and sanctifying them for immortality. He it is who fights against the flesh, hence the flesh fights against the Spirit.’
It is Jesus Christ who gives to His people the Holy Spirit. ’It is expedient for you,’ He says, ’that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.’ At the ancient Pentecost, God gave the law to the people of Israel fifty days after the institution of the Passover Jesus Christ, as being the body and truth of the typical ordinances, having chosen to suffer at the feast of the Passover, was pleased also to send forth the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, who by His power accomplishes in the hearts of believers what the law outwardly required; for the law was a letter written in stone, and therefore in itself without efficacy; but the Holy Spirit is that internal power which He puts within them and writes on their hearts. As, then, in the ancient Pentecost, God had given the law inscribed in tables of stone, so on the Christian Pentecost, Jesus Christ, by the power of His Spirit, writes it in their hearts. ’Ye’ says the Apostle, ’are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.’ And why do we so often read in the New Testament of the contrast between the spirit and the letter, but to teach us that we have in the Christian Pentecost, by the Spirit of Christ, the truth and effect which the law in vain required from sinners.
Now, or rather, But, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His — Here is a necessary reservation. If the Spirit of God did not really dwell in any of those whom the Apostle addressed, they were still in the flesh, notwithstanding all their profession, and all their present appearances, and his persuasion respecting them. And no doubt some will be found to have escaped for a time the pollutions of the world, who may afterwards show that they were never renewed in heart. Many ridicule the pretensions of those who speak of the Holy Spirit as dwelling in believers; yet if the Spirit of God dwell not in any, they are still in the flesh; that is, they are enemies to God.
The same Spirit that is called the Spirit of God in the preceding part of the sentence, is in this latter part called the Spirit of Christ, because Christ having, by virtue of His sacrifice, obtained the Spirit for His people, sends Him into their hearts, John 16:7. Christ, then, who sends the Holy Spirit, must be God. Every Christian has the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him. When Christ takes possession of any man as His, He puts His Holy Spirit within him. Without the presence of His Spirit, we can have no interest in Christ.
Romans 8:10 — And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The Apostle having affirmed in the 2nd verse that the law of the Spirit of life had made him free from the law of sin and death, and having declared in the 3rd and 4th verses in what manner we are freed from the law as the law of sin, it remained for him to show how we are freed from it as the law of death. This he accordingly does here, and in the following verse. In the 7th and 8th verses, he had confirmed his declaration in the 6th, that to be carnally minded is death. He now illustrates the opposite declaration, that to be spiritually minded is life. He admits, however, that notwithstanding the believer’s communion with Christ, the body is dead; but to this he opposes the double consolation of the eternal life of our souls on account of the righteousness of Christ, and, in the next verse, the resurrection of our bodies through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
There is in this verse a triple opposition: first, of the body to the soul; second, of a state of death to a state of life; third, of sin to righteousness. It was necessary to remove the objection replied to in this verse, especially as the Apostle had said that to those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. Whence, then, it might be asked, does it happen that we who are in Him are still subject to death like other men? He answers, If Jesus Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. In what follows, he abundantly shows that the temporary sufferings of believers, among which is the death of the body, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in them; and that in the meantime all things that happen to them are working for their good. The term body is, in this verse, to be taken, as is evident from the following verse, in its literal signification; and by the spirit, as opposed to it, is meant the soul, as in the 16th verse, where our spirit is distinguished from the Holy Spirit.
And, or rather, But, if Christ be in you — The Apostle had just affirmed that if any man have not the, Spirit of Christ, he is none of His; but if He be in us, then the consequences here stated follow. Jesus Christ, in regard to His Divine nature, is everywhere present; but He is in a special manner in believers, as it is said, Ephesians 3:17, ’That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.’ This indwelling of Christ signifies two things, namely, the close and intimate union we have with Him, and His operation in us. As the Scriptures declare that Jesus Christ is in us, so they also assure us that we are in Him, Romans 8:1; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 1:27. And thus we dwell in Him and He in us, John 6:56. This union with Jesus Christ is necessary, in order that He should work in us. For He works only in His members; so that, for this purpose, we must be first incorporated in Him, John 15:4. By this union we participate in His grace; because, as we are in Him and He in us, we have all things with Him in common. Our sins are reputed His sins, and His righteousness ours. He that persecutes His people persecutes Him; he that touches them touches the apple of His eye. And as in this life they partake of His grace, so in the life to come they shall participate in His glory.
The body is dead — Notwithstanding our union with Jesus Christ, our bodies are dead. The Scriptures speak of three kinds of death: one is in this life, the other at the end of this life, and the third after this life. The first is spiritual death, Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13. Natural death takes place at the separation of the soul from the body; and after this life is the second, or eternal death, which consists in everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. It is only of the second or natural death that the Apostle here speaks, for believers are delivered from the first and the third. He says the body is dead, to show that it is the lowest part of man that for a time is affected by death, as it is said, ’Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was,’ Ecclesiastes 12:7.
Because of sin — Men die for the sin of Adam. ’By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin’ and God said, ’In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ But why do believers die, since death is the punishment of sin, and as to them God hath remitted this punishment? for the Apostle shows, chapter 4, that their sins are not imputed to them; in chapter 6, that they are dead to sin; and in the beginning of the chapter before us, that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ, too, has made complete satisfaction for the punishment of their sins, sin having been condemned in His flesh. The Apostle also says, ’Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us;’ but death is among the curses of the law. We must then distinguish between death considered in itself, and in its nature, and as having changed its nature in Jesus Christ our Lord. In itself, death is the punishment of sin and the curse of the law, and it is such to the wicked and unbelievers. But, by the work of Christ, it is to His people no more a punishment of sin, but the destruction of sin. It is no more the curse of the law, but is changed into a blessing, and has become the passage to eternal life, and the entrance into the heavenly paradise.
The death of believers does not, then, in the least degree derogate from the complete satisfaction of Jesus Christ, and the perfect redemption from the curse of the law, since their death is not a punishment of sin in vindictive justice, as all the afflictions of this life as well as death are to the enemies of God. But by Jesus Christ, in respect to those whom the Father hath given to Him, and who are united to Him, God acts in mercy, and afflictions and death are only chastisem*nts from His fatherly hand — trials of their faith, and salutary discipline, as the Apostle in this chapter declares that all things work together for good; and in the First Epistle, to the Corinthians 3:22, that all things are theirs, whether life or death, God has established another covenant, which is that of grace, according to which those who partake in the death of Christ, by which that sentence was, as to them, carried into full execution, must indeed die; but death to them is swallowed up in victory; and instead of the day of their death being a day of punishment of sin, it is a day of triumph over death. The death of the body is as to them the preparation for its immortality and in corruption, as the seed deposited in the earth passes in such a way through death as to overcome it, and revives and fructifies, so that when in the earth it is not lost. In like manner the bodies of believers do not perish by death, but derive from the grave what is contrary to its natural character. They are sown in corruption, but they are to rise in corruption. They are sown in weakness, but they are to rise in power. They are sown in dishonor, but they are to rise in glory. They are sown natural bodies, but they are to rise spiritual bodies. And as to the soul, death indeed separates it from the body, but transmits it to God. It is evident, then, that such a death is not a punishment of sin, or a curse of the law. Its end and use to the regenerate, as to their bodies, is to extirpate and destroy the sin that remains in them: they must die in order to be purified. The infusion of that moral poison has so corrupted our bodies, that, like the leprous house, they must be taken down and renewed, to be purified from sin. As the grain is not quickened except it die, in the same way our bodies die and molder in the dust, to be revived and reconstructed in holiness.
If it be said that God, without dooming His people to die, could have changed them in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as He will do with respect to those who shall survive to the day of His coming, it should be considered that the wisdom of God hath judged it proper that the believer should be subjected to the death of the body. This tends to lead him to hold sin in abhorrence whence death proceeds. He also sees in death the goodness and the severity of God, and by it and his other afflictions he may judge what will be the end of those whom God punishes in His anger. He may observe in it the goodness of God to him in depriving it of its sting, and ordering it so that he may more fully taste the sweetness of a lasting and immortal life. Such discipline, too, tends to humble the believer, by which also his graces, given to him by God, are increased, and the power of the Lord made manifest in his weakness. Finally, believers die, that in their death they may be conformed to Jesus Christ; for it He died, shall they, who are His members, be exempt from this lot? and if He must in that way enter into His glory, shall they, who are His members, enter by any other way? And this assuredly is a great consolation, that in dying we follow Jesus Christ, our Head, who hath gone before us.
The eye of nature, which loves its preservation, regards death with fear, in which it sees its destruction. The eye of the flesh, which is enmity against God, regards it with still greater dread, perceiving in it the summons to stand before the tribunal of God. But the believer, by the eye of faith, discovers in death what dissipates the fears of nature, and repels the despair of the flesh. To nature, which apprehends its destruction, faith opposes the weakness of death, which cannot prevent the resurrection; and to the condemnation which the flesh apprehends, opposes that life which it discovers under the mask of death. It sees that, though its appearance be terrific, yet in Christ it has lost its sting. It is like the phantom walking on the sea which approached to the terrified disciples, but it was Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. If unknown evils that may happen in death be apprehended, the believer remembers that the very hairs of his head are all numbered. Jesus, who is with him he knows will not abandon him. He will not permit him to be tempted above what he is able to bear, for ’precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’
The nature, then, of death, is changed to believers by Jesus Christ, so that ’the day of their death is better than the day of their birth.’ Death to them is no more a curse, but a blessing, which puts an end to their sins and troubles, causing them to pass to perfect holiness and happiness, and from being absent from the Lord to carry them into His presence in paradise. From being strangers on the earth, it introduces them into their heavenly inheritance. From their wanderings and agitations here below, it brings them into the haven of everlasting rest. If the children of Israel, when they arrived at the river Jordan, were dismayed at the over flowings of its waters, had they not reason to rejoice when they beheld on the other side that fertile land which God had promised them, and into which they were about to enter to enjoy its fruits? But, above all, had they not cause of encouragement when they saw that the ark of the covenant was in the midst of Jordan? Death is the passage of Jordan by which believers enter the heavenly Canaan. In order that its waves may not overwhelm them in passing, Jesus Christ arrests them, since He is in His people, and consequently with them. This was David’s support, ’Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me.’ When the devouring lion roars around His people, ready to destroy them, Jesus Himself is still nearer to defend them; and He commands His angels to encamp about them, who have in charge to bear their spirits to the paradise of God.
But the spirit is life — To the fact that the body is dead, the Apostle here opposes, as a ground of comfort, the consideration that our souls are life. The life here spoken of is the life of God in the soul; it is the new and eternal life which His Spirit communicates in regeneration. The souls of believers are possessed of this spiritual life, of which the Scriptures inform us when they say that God hath ’quickened us together with Christ.’ ’Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life.’ It is life, and eternal life, already possessed, and the commencement of that glorious life which shall be enjoyed in heaven. It is the blessing which the Lord commands, ’even Life for evermore.’ This life, which, being borne down by so many encumbrances here, is still feeble, and but imperfectly enjoyed, shall, in the world to come, flourish in full vigor, and without any abatement. It is the life of our Lord and Savior, subsisting in Him, and derived from Him. In Him, His people shall rise and live, and live forever He Himself hath said, ’I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in Me, shall never die.’
In the verse before us we have a remarkable example of the accuracy with which the Scriptures are written. The Apostle does not say that the body is dead, and the spirit alive or living; or that the body is death, and the spirit life. Either of these would have formed the natural contrast; but neither would have conveyed the important sense of this passage, but, on the contrary, a false one. He says the body is dead, and the spirit is life. The body is not death, that is, in a state of everlasting death; it is only dead, and shall live again. On the other hand, the spirit is not merely said to be alive, which it might be although under sentence of death, afterwards to be inflicted; but it is life in the sense of that declaration of our Lord, ’He that hath the Son hath life.’ The body is dead on account of Sin; that is, the body is not only mortal, but may, in some sense, be said to be already dead, being under sentence of death, and in constant progress towards dissolution. It remains with its infirmities unaltered. There is no difference between the body of the wicked man and the body of the believer. Every one may perceive a difference in their minds. The believer’s body is dead because of sin, according to the original sentence, ’Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’ But the spirit is life — possessed of life eternal, in virtue of its union with Him who is ’the life.’
Became of righteousness — Here a great difficulty is removed; for it may be said, If our bodies are dead because of sin, how is it that our souls are life, since they are stained with sin, and that it is on account of their sinfulness that our bodies are infected with the same malady? The Apostle, in answer, brings into view the righteousness of Him who is in us, and shows that it is on account of His righteousness that our souls are life. And this necessarily follows; for if we have such union with our Lord and Savior, that we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, that we are His members, and if He and we are one; His righteousness must be ours; for where there is one body, there is one righteousness. On the other hand, through the same union our sins have been transferred to Him, as is said by the Prophet Isaiah, ’The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all.’ And the Apostle Peter says that He ’bore our sins in His own body on the tree;’ He bore their punishment. ’He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.’ An exchange, then, of sin and righteousness has taken place. By imputation He has been made sin, and by imputation we also are made righteousness. Jesus Christ, as being the surety of the new covenant, has appeared before God for us, and consequently His righteousness is ours.
In the verse before us we have an undeniable proof of the imputation to us of righteousness, for otherwise it would be a manifest contradiction to say that we die on account of our sins, and that we have life on account of our righteousness; for what is sin but the opposite of righteousness? Whoever, then, dies on account of the sin that is in him, cannot obtain life by his own righteousness. Now, if all men die on account of sin, as the Apostle here teaches, then no man can have life be his own righteousness.
Romans 8:11 — But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
The Apostle here obviates a difficulty which might present itself from what he had said in the preceding verse, of the bodies of believers being dead though their souls have life. He now assures them that, if the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in them, God will also raise up their bodies, though at present mortal. Thus he sets before them, first, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and next their own resurrection, as being His members; for he deduces their resurrection from His resurrection. Their Head has conquered death and the grave, and with Him they shall overcome. Their freedom, then, from death he rests on the same foundation on which he had already shown that their freedom from sin was secured — on Jesus Christ, the surety of God’s gracious covenant.
The Apostle elsewhere proves the resurrection of the bodies of believers, by comparing Jesus Christ with Adam, saying, ’As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,’ 1 Corinthians 15:22; showing that if we do not rise by virtue of Jesus Christ our Lord, Christ would be inferior to Adam. For could the sin and death of Adam have more power to subject those who were in Him to death, than the righteousness and resurrection of Jesus Christ to deliver those who are in Him from death? The Apostle also declares that Jesus Christ, having risen from the dead, has become the first fruits of them that slept, and adds, ’Every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits, afterwards the that are Christ’s at His corning.’ This he does for the purpose of showing that, as the first fruits of the ground precede the harvest, so the first fruits of the resurrection of Christ will be followed by that great harvest, in which the bodies of believers sown in the earth, after having died like grain cast into it, shall be revived and raised up. The life which has been communicated to our souls will, at the glorious resurrection, be also communicated to our bodies. All men will then arise, but not in glory, as all will not arise in virtue of the resurrection of our Lord. The wicked shall arise by the power of their Judge, to receive in their body the punishment of their sins, and to suffer ’the second death;’ but believers, in virtue of the resurrection, and by the Spirit of Jesus Christ as their Head. For that Spirit which has been communicated to them from Jesus Christ, as from the head to the members, and who hath made their bodies His temples on earth, will raise them from the dust, and will perfect His work in them. Believers, then, may defy the grave, and glory over death, being assured of this resurrection. From the guilt of sin they have been delivered, it being ’condemned’ in Christ — punished in His death; from the power of death they are released by His resurrection. On Jesus Christ, then, the sure foundation, is the whole of our salvation built. In Him God is well pleased; through Him the Holy Spirit is vouchsafed. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega; He is the ’All in All.’
Quicken your mortal bodies — From this it appears that, as to their substance, the bodies of believers will in their resurrection be the same as hose that died. ’Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God,’ Job 19:26. ’Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead,’ Isaiah 26:19. The soul of each man will be reunited to his own body in which he has done good or evil. For as the body is the organ of the soul in this world, so it must participate in the felicity or punishment that shall follow, whether the whole man has remained under the law, or has been received into the covenant of grace. But as to the qualities of the bodies of believers, these will be different from what they were here, as the Apostle teaches, 1 Corinthians 15:50. For as in this world they have borne the image of the first man, who was of the earth earthy; so, in the resurrection, when this corruptible shall put on in corruption, they shalt bear the image of the second man, who is heavenly; the bodies of their humiliation being fashioned like unto the glorious body of the Son of God, Philippians 3:21, not only in having a perfect beauty, exempt from all maladies, but as being spiritual, adapted to their spiritual and heavenly state. And as, when Jesus was transfigured, His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as light, so the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. From all this we may judge what will be the condition of the soul,and what its glory conformable to so glorious a body. We see also what is the death of believers, which is only a sleep, since it is to be followed by such a resurrection. Inasmuch as this mystery of the resurrection exceeds our reason, so is it clearly represented to us in Scripture.
By the Spirit that dwelleth in you — The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who communicates life to those who are habitations of God through Him, is here set before believers as a pledge that their bodies shall not remain under the power of death. This indwelling, which renders their resurrection certain, imports His love, His government, the operation of His grace, and His care to adorn and to beautify the temple in which He resides; and the end of it is to confer everlasting life, everlasting purity, and everlasting communion with Himself. It would be derogatory to the majesty and glory of the blessed Spirit to allow those bodies, in which He dwelt as His temple, to lie for ever in ruins in the dust. And God, who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, will raise up the bodies of His people in virtue of that blood, which purchased not only the redemption of their souls, but also of their bodies, Romans 8:23. The power and efficacy of the three glorious persons of the Godhead are thus brought into view as securing the complete re-establishment of the bodies of believers, which, though at present mortal, shall hereafter partake in all the glories and blessedness of eternal life.
This concurrence of the power of the Godhead in the plan of redemption, in which the Father provides for our salvation, the Son merits it, and the Holy Spirit applies it, is established in a multitude of passages of the Holy Scriptures. In this economy the Father occupies the place of the founder of the Church, the sovereign of the world, the protector and avenger of His laws, and the first director of the work of our salvation. The Son has become the Mediator between God and man, to do everything necessary for our redemption, while the Holy Spirit has assumed the office of the comforter and sanctifier of the Church. The first preparation for our salvation is found in what the Father has done, namely, in the plan which He has formed, in the election of His people, and His giving them to His Son; in the appointment of the sacrifice, in the transfer of our sins to Him who has suffered, and in respect to the satisfaction He has received. The second step is seen in what the Son has merited and effected in coming into the world, by His obedience, His death, and resurrection. The third discovers the Holy Spirit making actual application of the whole, uniting us to the Savior, producing in us faith and sanctification, diffusing in our hearts the sentiment of our peace with God in our justification, causing us to persevere to the end, and raising us up again, as He will do, at the last day. In this Divine economy the Son has received His mission from the Father to come into the world. On this account He so often refers His first advent to His being sent by the Father to take on Himself the office of the Prophet, the Priest, and the King of His Church. To this inequality of office such passages as the following ought to be referred: ’— my Father is greater than I,’ John 14:28; and that in 1 Corinthians 15:28, where it is said, ’Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him;’ thus terminating His mediatorial office in delivering up the kingdom by an act of humiliation, in the same way as He had entered upon it. For in neither of these texts is any personal inequality spoken of between the Father and Son, but an inequality of office according to which the Father is greater than the Son, and the Son inferior to the Father.
The resurrection of Christ, in the passage before us, is ascribed to the Father and the Holy Spirit; but in other places this is also ascribed to the Son Himself. The Father, and the Holy Spirit, and the Son, then, must be one God. It is only those in whom the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead dwells, who shall have their mortal bodies thus quickened, so as to rise again in glory. Christ, indeed, will also raise His enemies, but His own people will be made alive — which is never said of the wicked — to live with Him in glory for ever.
Romans 8:12 — Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
This is a consequence drawn from what the Apostle had said with reference to the state of enmity against God, and of the death of those who are in the flesh; and likewise from what He had been showing to be the great privilege of believers, as being not in the flesh but in the Spirit; as having the Spirit of God dwelling in them; and not only giving life to their souls, but securing the future quickening and raising of their bodies. From all this he infers their obligation to live a holy life, in walking according to the Spirit in the character which he had shown belonged to them. They were not then debtors to the flesh — the state in which they had been by nature, which is a state of corruption, guilt, and weakness — to live after the flesh, either to expect life from its best efforts, or to obey it in its lusts.
The ways of the flesh promise happiness, but misery is their reward. On the contrary, it is implied that they were debtors to God, to whom they were under so great obligations as being redeemed from the law of sin and death, to serve and obey Him, in walking according to the Spirit, in that new and Divine nature which He has graciously imparted to them.
Romans 8:13 — For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. — The reason in the former verse why those to whom the Apostle wrote were not debtors to live after the flesh — under any obligation to obey its dictates — was taken from their obligations to God in respect of their privileges; here it is taken from the doom of those who thus live. If ye live agreeably to your carnal nature, without Christ and faith in Him, and according to the corrupt principles that belong to man in the state in which he is born, ye shall die. Ye shall suffer all the misery that throughout eternity shall be the portion of the wicked, which is called death, as death is the greatest evil in this world. Thus the wrath of God is denounced against all who do not live to God, in obedience to His commands, but serve the lusts of the flesh, and do not seek salvation in the way He has appointed, however harmless and even useful they may be in society. At the same time, this proves that nothing done by the natural man, in his best efforts and highest attainments, will lead to God and to life. The Apostle thus repeats what he had affirmed in the sixth verse, that to be carnally minded is death.
But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of this body — The deeds of the body are the works which corrupt nature produces. The believer neither indulges nor walks according to them, but mortifies and puts them to death. Those to whom the Apostle wrote had mortified the deeds of the body, yet they are here called to a further mortification of them, which imports that this is both a gradual work, and to be continued and persevered in while we are in the world. This shows that the sanctification of the believer is progressive.
Some have objected to the doctrine of progressive sanctification, and have conceived that to assert it is a great error. They hold that there is no more progress in sanctification than there is in justification, and that both are complete at once on believing the truth. There is just so much truth in this as serves to make the error plausible. It is true that there is a sense in which believers are perfectly sanctified from the moment they believe. That sanctification, however, is not in themselves; it is in Christ, as much as their justification. The moment they believe, they are justified in Christ and perfectly righteous; and the moment they believe, they are sanctified in Him, and in Him are perfectly holy. Viewed in Christ, they are ’complete.’ But there is a personal sanctification, which commences with the new birth on believing the truth, and which is not perfected till death. Many passages of Scripture import this doctrine. The following prayer of the Apostle is explicit and decisive: — ’And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly,’ 1 Thessalonians 5:23. The Apostle Peter enjoins on believers to desire the pure milk of the word, that they may grow thereby, and begins his second Epistle by praying that grace might be multiplied to those to whom he wrote, and concludes it by enjoining on them to grow in grace. ’The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’
Believers obtain sanctification by the Spirit through the truth. Their sanctification, then, must be in proportion as the truth is understood and believed. It is through faith in Christ, Acts 26:18; if so, according to the degree of faith will be the degree of sanctification. But all Christians are not equal in faith, neither, then, are they equal in sanctification; and as a Christian advances in faith, he advances in sanctification. If he may say, ’Lord, increase my faith,’ he may likewise say, ’Lord, increase my sanctification.’ He receives the Holy Spirit only in a measure. He may and ought, therefore, to pray for a larger measure of influence and grace from Him who gives grace in that measure which pleases Him. We should pray that God would grant unto us according to the riches of His glory, that we may be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. They who have already put on Christ as their sanctifier, are still exhorted to put Him on, chapter 13:14 — that is, more and more. There are babes in Christ, 1 Corinthians 3:1; there are little children, and young men, and fathers, 1 John 2:12.
Through the Spirit. — It is through the power of the Holy Spirit, who testifies of Christ and His salvation, and according to the new nature which He communicates, that the believer mortifies his sinful propensities. It is not then of himself, of his own power or will, that he is able to do this. ’Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.’ No man overcomes the corruptions of his heart but by the influence of the Spirit of God. Though it is the Spirit of God who enables us to mortify the deeds of the body, yet it is also said to be our own act. We do this through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit works in men according to the constitution that God has given them. The same work is, in one point of view, the work of God, and in another the work of man. Ye shall live. — Here eternal life is promised to all who, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body. The promise of life by the Gospel is not made to the work, but to the worker; and to the worker, not for or on account of his work, but according to his work, for the sake of Christ’s work. The promise, then, of life is not made to the work of mortification, but to him that mortifies his flesh; and that not for his mortification, but because he is in Christ, of which this mortification is the effect and the evidence. That they who mortify the flesh shall live, is quite consistent with the truth that the gift of God is eternal life, Romans 6:23; and in this gift there is no respect to the merit of the receiver. This describes the character of all who shall receive eternal life; and it is of great importance. It takes away every ground of hope from those who profess to know God, and in works deny Him; for they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
In all this we are reminded that, while we cannot in this life attain to the fulfilling of the law in our own persons, we must seek to be conformed to that law, and so mortify the old man in our members, otherwise it is a proof that we have no part in the righteousness of Christ. For can it be supposed that by Him we are absolved from sin in order to obtain a license to continue in sin ourselves? On the contrary, our justification and our sanctification, as is shown in the sixth chapter, are inseparable. Jesus Christ came by water and blood; not by water only, but by water and blood, — signifying by the blood the expiation of the guilt of our sins by His death, and by water the virtue of His Spirit for our sanctification in washing our souls from the pollution of sin. In like manner, under the law, there were not only sacrifices of animals whose blood was shed, but various washings, to teach us that these two benefits are inseparable in the Gospel. Accordingly, when David describes the blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, he immediately adds, in whose spirits there is no guile. For ought we to wish to receive the remission of sin, and to continue to walk in guile? Ought we thus to seek to divide Christ, receiving only the efficacy of His blood and not that of His Spirit; desiring that He should be made to us righteousness and not also sanctification? We are to seek in Him the cause of our justification, and observe in ourselves its proofs and effects. We should see that, as we are pilgrims in this world, we have for our guide the Spirit of sanctification.
Romans 8:14 — For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Here is a proof of what had just been said, namely, that if, through the Spirit, those whom the Apostle addressed mortified the deeds of the body, they should live; for all who do so are led by the Spirit. In spiritual things we are as little children, who, on account of their weakness, have need to be led by the hand that they may not fall. It is necessary, then, that believers be led by the Spirit of God. The manner in which the Spirit leads them is not by violence against their inclination, but by bending and changing their will, in a manner consistent with its nature. When Jesus Christ says, ’No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me, draw Him,’ it is not meant that God forces against their will those whom He draws, but it shows us that we are naturally so indisposed to go to Jesus Christ, that it is necessary that God, by His Spirit, draw us to Him, and that by His secret but powerful influence He changes our resistance into consent. This is what is meant by the Church in the Song of Solomon, when she says, ’Draw me, we will run after Thee;’ for this shows that she is drawn in such a way that she runs, that is, that her will being changed, and her perversity removed, she with alacrity follows the Lord. God gives His people to will and to do of His good pleasure, making them willing in the day of His power, and by His Spirit changes their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. This leading of the Spirit consists, too, in enlightening our understandings, as Jesus Christ says, ’When He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.’ It consists also in the sanctification of our will and afflictions; so that he who is led by the Spirit is transformed by the renewing of his mind, proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. He has the eyes of his understanding enlightened to know what is the hope of the calling of God, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. The Apostle shows what the Spirit leads to, when he says that the fruit of the Spirit is ’love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.’ It must, however, be remarked that this leading of the Spirit is not such in this world as to exclude all imperfection. For notwithstanding that we are thus led, ’in many things we all offend,’ James 3:2. We have still within us a principle opposing the Spirit, as it is said, ’The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,’ Galatians 5:17. But he is led by the Spirit, who, though enticed by the flesh to walk in a contrary direction, yet resists and contends against it, and mortifies the deeds of the body.
The Holy Spirit thus leads those in whom He dwells to the mortification of in. He takes of the glory of the person of Jesus, as God manifest in the flesh, and of His office, as the one Mediator between God and man, and discovers it to His people. Convincing them of their sinful condition, and of Christ’s righteousness, He leads them to renounce everything of their own, in the hope of acceptance with God. He teaches them as the Spirit of truth shining upon His own word, striving with ’them by it externally, and internally by His grace conducting, guiding, and bringing them onwards in the way of duty, and, as the promised Comforter, filling them with Divine consolation. Thus He leads them to Christ, to prayer as the spirit of grace and of supplication, to holiness, and to happiness. This shows us the cause why the children of God, notwithstanding their remaining ignorance and depravity, and the many temptations with which they are assailed, hold on in the way of the Lord. ’Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me, for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.’ ’Thy Spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness.’ This leading is enjoyed by none but Christians; for ’as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.’
The sons of God — The Scriptures give this character of sons of God differently, according as it is ascribed either by nature or by peace. By nature it belongs to Jesus Christ alone, and that in respect to His Divine nature, so that He is called the only-begotten Son of God. By grace there are others who are called the sons of God. The grace of the conception by the Holy Spirit, and of the personal union of the Divine nature which belongs to Jesus Christ as man, is a particular grace, He having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and His human nature has been joined to His Divine nature, forming one person; and it is of this grace that the angel speaks in announcing His birth, Luke 1:35. There is also a grace more general, which is that of creation, by which the angels are called the sons of God, and from this grace those of them who sinned have fallen. Finally, there is the grace of redemption, according to which men are called, as in this place, the sons of God.
As among men there are two ways of becoming children, the one by birth, the other by adoption, so God hath also appointed that in these two ways His people should become His children. Adoption supplied among men the want of children by birth, and no one could be a son except by one of these titles; but God has been pleased that we should be His sons by both of them together. Here and in the following verses the Apostle exhibits four proofs of our being the sons of God. The first is our being led by the Spirit of God; the second is the Spirit of adoption which we receive, crying, ’Abba, Father,’ Romans 8:15; the third is the witness of the Spirit with our spirits, Romans 8:16; the fourth is our sufferings in the communion of Jesus Christ; to which is joined the fruit of our sonship, the Apostle saying that if children we are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.
It is of the greatest importance to believers to be assured that they are indeed the sons of God. Without a measure of this assurance they cannot serve Him with love in newness of spirit. The Apostle therefore enlarges here on his preceding declaration, that as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. In confirmation of this, he reminds those whom he addresses that they had not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, leading them to call on God as their Father. The word spirit occurs twice in this verse. In this chapter, as has already been remarked, it is used in various senses. Sometimes it is taken in Scripture in a bad sense, as when it is said, Isaiah 19:14, ’The Lord hath, mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof;’ and again, Isaiah 29:10, ’For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep.’ In the verse before us it is taken both in a bad sense, signifying a sinful affection of the mind, namely, the spirit of bondage, and in a good sense, signifying by the Spirit of adoption the Holy Spirit, as in the parallel passage, Galatians 4:6, ’And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’
The spirit of bondage — All who are not dead to the law, and know of no way to escape Divine wrath but by obeying it, must be under the spirit of bondage; serving in the oldness of the letter, and not in newness of spirit. For so far from fulfilling the demands of the law, they fail in satisfying themselves. A spirit of bondage, then, must belong to all who are not acquainted with God’s method of salvation.
The spirit of bondage is the effect of the law, which, manifesting his sinfulness to man, and the fearful wrath of God, makes him tremble under the apprehension of its curse. The Apostle, comparing the two covenants, namely the law from Mount Sinai, and the Gospel from Mount Zion, says that the one from Mount Sinai gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar, but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of all believers; because, like Isaac, they are the children of the promise. Now this promise is the promise of grace. For as man has sinned, the law, which demands perfect obedience, and pronounces a curse against him who continues not in all things which it commands, must condemn and reduce him to the condition of a slave, who, after he transgresses, expects nothing but punishment. On this account, when God promulgated His law amidst thunderings and lightnings, the mountain trembled, and the people feared and stood afar off. This showed that man could only tremble under the law, as he could not be justified by it; but that he must have recourse to another covenant, namely, the covenant of grace, in which God manifests His mercy and His love, in which He presents to sinners the remission of their sins, and the righteousness of His well beloved Son; for in this covenant He justifies the ungodly, Romans 4:5, and imputes to them righteousness without works. He adopts as His own children those who were formerly children of wrath, and gives the Spirit of adoption to them who had before a spirit of bondage and servile fear.
Again to fear — Paul uses the word again to indicate a double opposition, — the one of the state of a man before and after his regeneration, the other of the New Testament and the Old. Before regeneration, a man, sensible that he is a sinner, must be apprehensive of punishment, not having embraced the only remedy provided for the remission of his sins by Jesus Christ. Not that it should be supposed that this is the case with all unregenerate men, or at all times, but only when their consciences are awakened, summoning them before the judgment-seat of God. For the greater part of them live in profane security, with hardened consciences, and without any apprehension of their ruined state. God, however, often impresses that fear on those whom He purposes to lead to the knowledge of His salvation. But when they are born of the Spirit, this servile fear gives place to a filial fear which proceeds from love, as the proper effect of the Spirit of adoption. ’Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.’
The other opposition which the Apostle marks in saying again, is between the Churches of the Old and of the New Testament. Not that the believers under the Old Testament had not the Spirit of adoption; for they were sanctified by the Spirit of God, and had fellowship with Jesus Christ the promised Messiah, being justified by faith, as is declared in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, and called God their Father, Isaiah 63:16. But the Church under the Old Testament, being still in its infancy, did not enjoy the Spirit of adoption in that abundance, nor had it so clear a revelation of grace, as that of the New. Believers only saw Christ at a distance under shadows and figures, while the law and its curses were strongly exhibited. Thus, in comparison of the New Testament and its freedom, they were, in a measure, held under bondage, Galatians 4:1-3. The believers at Rome, then, whether originally Jews or Gentiles, had not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. They were not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, or to the law, the work of which is written in the hearts of all men, which speaks nothing of mercy; but they were come to Mount Zion. It was the design of Christ’s advent that believers in Him might serve God ’without fear,’ Luke 1:74. Jesus Christ came that through death He might destroy death, and him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage, Hebrews 2:14. All the movements excited by the spirit of bondage are only those of a slave, — selfish and mercenary motives of desire, hope of what will give them happiness, and fear of evil, but no movement of love either of God or holiness, or of hatred of sin.
The passage before us, and many others, as that of 2 Timothy 1:7, — ’God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,’ — teaches us that servile fear ought to be banished from the minds of believers. This fear is a fear of distrust, and not that fear to which we are enjoined in various parts of Scripture, namely, a reverential fear of God impressed by a sense of His majesty, which is the beginning of wisdom, and which His children should at all times cherish. This fear is connected with the consolations of the Holy Ghost. ’Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.’ There is also a salutary fear which ought always to be maintained in the hearts of Christians; for the assurance of his salvation, which a believer ought to cherish, is not a profane assurance which prompts him to disregard the authority of God, but leads to a diligent carefulness to conform to His word, and make use of the means for edification of His appointment. This is what the Apostle intends when he says, ’Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;’ for God designs to banish from our hearts a carnal security, as appears when it is added, ’for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure,’ showing that it is God who produces in His people both the will and the performance. This fear is required from the consideration of our weakness, our propensity to evil, and the many spiritual enemies with whom we are surrounded; and for the purpose of making us careful that we do not fall; while we ought not to doubt of the love of our Heavenly Father, but, considering the infallible promises of our God, and the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should hold fast the assurance of our salvation. The Apostle Peter enjoins on those whom he addressed as elect unto obedience, through the foreknowledge of God, as loving Jesus Christ, and as rejoicing in Him with joy unspeakable and full of glory, to pass the time of their sojourning here in fear, because they had been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. This consideration shows how horrible and dangerous is the nature of sin which works in our members. This fear implanted in the hearts of the children of God tends to their preservation in the midst of dangers, as that instinctive fear which exists in all men operates to the preservation of natural life, and is entirely consistent with the fullest confidence in God, with love, and the joyful hope of eternal glory. If, however, the fear of man, or of any evil from the world, deter believers from doing their duty to God, it arises from the remains of carnal and unmortified fear. But nothing is more unworthy of the Gospel, or more contrary to its spirit, which, in proportion as it is believed, begets love, and communicates joy, peace, and consolation, in every situation in which we are placed.
But ye have received the Spirit of adoption. — The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of adoption, either as the cause by which God makes us His children, or as the earnest and seal of our adoption. Contrary to the spirit of bondage, the Spirit of adoption produces in the heart a sense of reconciliation with God, love to Him, a regard to holiness, hatred of sin, and peace of conscience through the knowledge of the love of God in Jesus Christ. It begets a desire to glorify God here on earth, and to enjoy the glory of heaven hereafter. Formerly, in their unregenerate state, those to whom Paul wrote had the spirit of slaves, now they had the spirit of sons. Adoption is not a work of grace in us, but an act of God’s grace without us. According to the original word, it signifies putting among children. It is taking those who were by nature children of wrath from the family of Satan, to which they originally belonged, into the family of God. By union with Jesus Christ, being joined with Him, we are one body, and we enter into the communion of His righteousness, and of His title as the Son of God, so that, as we are righteous in Him, we are also in Him, as His members, the sons of God, who, in the moment that the Holy Spirit unites us to Jesus Christ, receives us as His children. All this shows us how great is the benefit which we obtain when we receive the Spirit of adoption and communion with the Son of God. We are thus made children of God, the sons of the Father of lights — a title permanent, and a nature immortal and Divine.
Our adoption reminds us of our original state as children of wrath and rebellion, and strangers to the covenant of God. It discovers to us the honor to which God has called us, in becoming our Father and making us His children, — including so many advantages, rights, and privileges, and at the same time imposing on us so many duties. These may be comprised under four heads. The first regards the privilege and glory of having God for our Father, and being His children. The second includes the rights which this adoption confers, as of free access to God, the knowledge of His ways, and the assurance of His protection. The third implies God’s love for us, His jealousy for our interest, and His care to defend us. The fourth, all the duties which the title or relation of children engages us to perform towards our Father and our God.
The term adoption is borrowed from the ancient custom, especially prevalent among the Romans, of a man who had no children of his own adopting into his family the child of another. The father and the adopted child appeared before the praetor, when the adopting father said to the child, Wilt thou be my son? and the child answered, I will. The allusion to this custom reminds believers that they are not the children of God otherwise than by His free and voluntary election, and that thus they are under far more powerful obligations to serve Him than are their own children to obey them, since it is entirely by His love and free good pleasure that they have been elevated to this dignity. We should also remark the difference between the adoption of man and the adoption of God. In choosing a son by adoption, the adopting party has regard to certain real or supposed qualities which appear meritorious or agreeable; but God, in adopting His people, Himself produces the qualities in those whom He thus chooses. Man can impart his goods and give his name to those whom he adopts, but he cannot change their descent, nor transfer them into his own image; but God renders those whom He adopts not only partakers of His name and of His blessings, but of His nature itself, charging and transforming them into His own blessed resemblance. This adoption, then, is accompanied with a real change, and so great a change, that it bears the name of that which is the real ground of sonship, and is called regeneration. And these are inseparable. There are no sons of God by adoption, but such as are also His sons by regeneration. There is a new life breathed into them by God. He is not only the Father of their spirits by their first infusion into the body, enlivening it by them, but by this new infusion of grace into their souls, which were dead without it; and the Spirit of God renewing them is the Spirit of adoption, by which they cry, ’Abba, Father.’ He gives them a supernatural life by His Spirit sent into their hearts; and the Spirit by that regeneration which He works, ascertains to them that adoption which is in Christ Jesus; and in the persuasion of both they call God their Father.
In this manner, after adoption comes our sonship by regeneration, not in the order of time, but of nature; for, being united to Christ, God forms in us His image, and this is the second way in which we are made the children of God. Regeneration, or this new birth, is not a figurative but a real change. ’If any man be in Christ he is a new creature,’ or a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17; for when we are regenerated, we are created in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:10. Nor is it a reformation of character, but the renewal of the image of God in the soul, which had been totally effaced. They who are born again, are begotten in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, being born not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. Thus they are ’born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ For this new birth the man can do nothing to prepare himself. Neither after he is renewed can he effect anything to ensure his perseverance in his new state. The Spirit of God alone both renews and preserves those who are renewed.
By this regeneration we obtain qualities which are analogous to the nature of God. He enlightens our understanding, sanctifies our will, purifies our affections, and, by the communication of those qualities which have a relation to His Divine nature, begets us in His image and likeness, which is the new man of which Paul speaks, Ephesians 4:23-24; Colossians 3:10; and, as the Apostle Peter declares, we are made ’partakers of the Divine nature.’ The fall of Adam has not deprived man of his subsistence or of his faculties, but has introduced into his understanding the darkness of ignorance, with malice and evil into his will, and disorder in his affections; so that, before his adoption and regeneration, he is by these vicious qualities the child of Satan, whose image he bears. The opposite of all this is that spiritual regeneration by means of which he is the child of God, consisting in the re-establishment of the uprightness of his faculties, and the abolition of those vicious qualities which have been introduced by sin. God begets us by His Spirit and by His word, James 1:18; and on His sons, thus formed, He bestows two graces, — the one is their justification, and the other their sanctification. By the first, they are invested with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to them; and this is the principal part of their spiritual and supernatural life, which is hid in Jesus Christ, Colossians 3:3. By the second, the Holy Spirit operates in them, to quicken and make them walk in newness of life. And as this last grace is not perfect in this world, but still leaves many faults and imperfections, although they are the children of God, there are still in them remains of the old man, and of the image of Satan. In this sense they have more or less the character of children of God, as they advance more or less in sanctification; and to this advancement they are continually urged by the exhortations of the word of God. The adoption of God’s people, and their regeneration, are both declared, John 1:12-13. Adoption confers the name of sons, and a title to the inheritance; regeneration confers the nature of sons, and a meetness for the inheritance.
Abba, Father — The interpretation which is generally given of this expression is, that Paul employs these two words — Syriac and Greek, the one taken from the language in use among the Jews, the other from that of the Gentiles — to show that there is no longer any distinction between the Jew and the Greek, and that all believers, in every nation, may address God as their Father in their own language. It would rather appear that the Apostle alludes to the fact that among the Jews slaves were not allowed to call a free man Abba, which signified a real father. ’I cannot help remarking’ (says Claude in his Essay on the Composition of a Sermon) ’the ignorance of Messieurs of Port-Royal, who have translated this passage, My Father, instead of Abba, Father, under pretense that the Syriac word Abba signifies Father. They did not know that St. Paul alluded to a law among the Jews which forbade slaves to call a free man Abba, or a free woman Imma. The Apostle meant that we were no more slaves, but freed by Jesus Christ; and consequently that we might call God Abba, as we call the Church Imma. In translating the passage, then, the word Abba, although it be a Syriac word, and unknown in our tongue, must always be preserved, for in this term consists the force of the Apostle’s reasoning.’
God is indeed our Father, as the Author of our being, beyond all visible creatures, as it is said, ’We are also His offspring,’ Acts 17:28. But the privilege of this our natural relation, the sin of our nature hath made fruitless to us, till we be restored by grace, and made partakers of a new sonship. We are indeed the workmanship of God; but, it being defaced by sin, our true name, as considered in that state, is ’children of wrath.’ But the sonship that emboldens us to draw near unto God as our Father is derived from His only-begotten Son. He became the Son of man to make us anew the sons of God. Being thus restored, we may indeed look back upon; our creation, and remember in prayer that we are His creatures, the workmanship of His hands, and He in that sense our Father; but by reason of our rebellion this argument is not strong enough alone, but must be supported with this other, as the main ground of our comfort, and that wherein the strength of our confidence lies, that He is our Father in His Son Jesus Christ; that by faith we are introduced into a new sonship, and by virtue of that may call Him Father, and move Him by that name to help and answer us. ’To as many as received Him, He gave power to become the sons of God,’ John 1:12. But adoption holds in Jesus Christ, as the Head of this fraternity; therefore He says, ’I go to My Father, and your Father; to holy God, and your God.’ He does not say, ’to our Father and our God,’ but severally mine and yours; teaching us the order of the new covenant, that the sonship of Jesus Christ is not only more eminent in nature, but in order is the spring and cause of ours. So, then, He that puts this word in our mouths, to call God ’Father,’ He it is by whom we have this dignity and comfort that we call Him so.
Whereby we cry — The Spirit of adoption, which, enabling those who receive this Spirit to address God as their Father, gives filial dispositions and filial confidence. ’Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father,’ Galatians 4:6. It is by the Spirit of God that we cry unto Him, according to what is said afterwards, that the Spirit ’helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’ This teaches us that it is not our own disposition that excites us to prayer, but the Spirit of God. Accordingly we are commanded to pray ’always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,’ Ephesians 6:18; and to build up ’ourselves on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,’ Judges 1:20. He is called ’the Spirit of grace and of supplications,’ Zechariah 12:10, to teach us that prayer, being His work, and not an effort of our own strength, we are to ask of God His Spirit to enable us to pray. This is the source of our consolation, that since our prayers are effects of His own Spirit within us, they are pleasing to God. ’He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.’
The Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of adoption, also influences the prayers of believers as to their manner and earnestness, for by Him they not only say, but cry, ’Abba, Father.’ They not only speak, but groan, for they cry not so much with the mouth as with the heart. By the term ’we cry’ is also intimated the assurance of faith with which we ought to draw near to God. This expression signifies that we address God with earnestness and confidence; and that, having full reliance on His promises, which He hath confirmed even with an oath, we should ’come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.’ We are also commanded to ask in faith, nothing wavering, for we come before the throne of God by His beloved Son. We appear as His members, in virtue of His blood, by which our sins, which would hinder our prayers from being heard, are expiated, so that God has no more remembrance of them. It is on this ground that we pray with assurance, for, as we cannot pray to God as our Father, but by His Son, so we cannot cry, ’Abba, Father,’ but by Him; and on this account Jesus says, ’I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.’ Thus the consideration that we invoke God as our Father forms in believers a holy assurance, for, as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. Since, then, we call God our Father, as our Lord teaches us to address Him, we should do it with the assurance of His love, and of His readiness to hear us. ’Thou shalt call Me, My Father; and shalt not turn away from Me,’ Jeremiah 3:19.
The word Father also indicates the substance of our prayers; for when we can say no more to God than ’O God, Thou art our Father,’ we say all, and comprehend in this all that we can ask; as the Church said in its captivity, ’Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us.’ Thus, in whatever situation the believer finds himself, the crying, ’Abba, Father,’ contains an appeal sufficient to move the compassion of God. Is he in want? he says, ’Abba, Father,’ as if he said, ’O Lord, Thou feedest the ravens, provide for Thy son.’ Is he in danger? it is as if he said, the bed of death? it is as if he said, ’Since thou art my Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.’ All acceptable prayer must proceed from the Spirit of adoption; and the cry of the Spirit of adoption is no other than Ababa, Father. The crying ’Abba, Father,’ then, denotes the earnestness and importunity in prayer to God, which is the effect of the Spirit of adoption in the hearts of the children of God, as well as that holy familiarity, to the exercise of which, as viewing God sitting on a throne of grace, they are encouraged. They call upon God as their Father, after the example of our Lord, who at all times addressed God in this manner during His ministry on earth, with that one memorable exception, when, under the pressure of the sins of His people, and the withdrawing of the light of His countenance, He addressed Him not as His Father but His God, Matthew 27:46. After His resurrection, in like manner, He comforted His disciples with the consolatory assurance that He was about to ascend to His Father and their Father.
The different expressions which the Scriptures employ to denote the filial relation of His people to God, are calculated to aid their conceptions, and to elevate their thoughts to that great and ineffable blessing. One mode of expression serves to supply what is wanting in another. The origin of the spiritual life, and the re-establishment of the image of God in the soul, are expressed by these words — born of God. But that they may not forget the state of their natural alienation from God, and ill order to indicate their title to the heavenly inheritance, it is said that they are adopted by God. And lest they should suppose that this adoption is to be attributed to anything meritorious in them, they are informed that God has predestinated them unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, to Himself, accordingly to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grave, Ephesians 1:5.
The passage before us is conclusive against the doctrine of the Church of Rome, which maintains that the believer ought to be always in fear of condemnation, always in doubt of the love of God, and of his salvation. But is not this expressly to contradict the words of the Apostle? It should be remarked that they cannot plead here the exception that it was a prerogative peculiar to the Apostle, to be assured of his salvation, by a special revelation that had been made to him. For he speaks expressly to believers, ’Ye have received the Spirit of adoption,’ and next he speaks of them with himself, when he says, ’whereby we cry, Abba, Father.’ This assurance of the believer is clearly taught in many other places. The Apostle, after saying, Romans 5:1, ’Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ,’ adds, ’By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God,’ — expressing by the word rejoice (literally boast) a full assurance; for it would be rashness to boast or glory (as the same word is translated in the following verse) in what was not a real certainty. He also declares that hope maketh not ashamed; and that we even glory in tribulations, as assured that they cannot deprive us of the love of God. ’We have boldness, too, and access with confidence,’ by the faith we have in Jesus Christ, Ephesians 3:12. ’Let us, therefore’ (seeing that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens), ’come boldly unto the throne of grace,’ Hebrews 4:14-16. And why is the Spirit which is given to believers called the seal and earnest of their inheritance, if it is not to give them this assurance? Why, also, are the declarations so express, that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, and that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life? The Apostle John says, ’These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life,’ — thus showing that he desires that all who believe should know that they have eternal life. The reply of the Roman Catholics, that we cannot know assuredly if we have faith, is altogether vain. Paul proves the contrary, when he says, ’Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves; know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?’ 2 Corinthians 13:5. This proves that believers may recognize their own faith. Faith combats doubts, as the Apostle James shows when he says, ’Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that watereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.’ And speaking of Abraham, Paul says, ’He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.’ Believing, then, His promises, and drawing near in the full assurance of faith, gives glory to God.
But does faith, then, exclude all uncertainty of salvation, and has the believer no misgivings after he has received the Spirit of adoption? It is replied, that as faith is more or less perfect, there is more or less uncertainty or doubt connected with it, for doubts are owing to the weakness or to the want of faith. Faith, as viewed in itself, is one thing, and another as viewed in an imperfect subject. Faith in itself excludes all doubts and misgivings; but, because our sanctification is incomplete in this world, and as there is always in us the remains of the old man and of the flesh, which is the source of doubts, faith has always to combat within us, and to resist the servile fear of distrust, arising from the remains of our corruption. The believer, therefore, need not wonder though he should sometimes find himself agitated and troubled with doubts; on which account he should, indeed, be humbled, but not discouraged, for in the end faith will again raise up itself from under the burden of temptation, and comfort him. The Spirit of adoption is sometimes as if it was extinguished in us; but in the end it exerts its force in our hearts, so that we cry, ’Abba, Father,’ and say with David, ’Make me to have joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.’ The language of the Spirit of adoption is, ’Lord, Thou art my Father, make the light of Thy countenance to shine upon me; cause Thy peace to reign in my conscience; expel all doubts, scatter the clouds which prevent me from seeing clearly the light of Thy face, and which hinder the Sun of Righteousness from shining in my heart.’ ’Say Thou to my soul, I am Thy salvation,’ Psalms 35:3. ’O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord,’ Psalms 16:2. And God says, Hosea 2:23, ’I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.’ That is, ’I will speak within the believer by My Spirit; I will assure him of My grace, and of My love; and he also shall lift up his heart to Me, and call Me his Father and his God.’ All this teaches us that the conscience, sprinkled with the blood of the Son of God, does not accuse or condemn, but consoles and comforts; for we have, by means of the Spirit that is given us, the earnest of our final deliverance. This proves how precious the promise of the Spirit should be to us, in order that we may not grieve Him by giving way to sin.
Romans 8:16 — The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
In the preceding verse it is said, ’Ye have received the Spirit of adoption;’ here it is added, ’The Spirit itself’ — the same Spirit — ’beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God.’ In this verse the Apostle shows that the sons of God may be assured of their adoption, because it is witnessed by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, in the heart of a believer, joins His testimony with his spirit, in confirmation of this truth, that he is a son of God. It is not merely the fruits of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers which afford this testimony, but the Spirit Himself, by imparting filial confidence, inspires it in the heart. This is a testimony which is designed for the satisfaction of believers themselves, and cannot be submitted to the scrutiny of others.
The witnesses here spoken of are two, — our spirit, and the Spirit of God together with our spirit. We have the testimony of our spirit when we are convinced of our sinfulness, misery, and ruin, and of our utter inability to relieve ourselves from the curse of the broken law, and are at the same time convinced of the righteousness of Christ, and of our dependence upon Him for acceptance with God. We have this testimony when we possess the consciousness of cordially acquiescing in God’s plan of salvation, and of putting our trust in Christ; and when we are convinced that His blood is sufficient to cleanse us from all sin, and know that we are willing to rest on it; and when in this way, and in this way alone, we draw near to gods with a true heart, sprinkled from an evil conscience in the discernment of the efficacy of His atonement, thus having the answer of a good conscience towards God. And we have the above testimony confirmed to us when we experience and observe the effects of the renovation of our souls in the work of sanctification begun and carrying on in us; and that not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have our conversation in the world.
In all this the Holy Spirit enables us to ascertain our sonship, from being conscious of, and discovering in ourselves, the true marks of a renewed state. But to say that this is all that is signified by the Holy Spirits testimony, would be falling short of what is affirmed in this text; for in that case the Holy Spirit would only help the conscience to be a witness, but could not be said to be a witness Himself, even another witness besides the conscience, which the text asserts. What we learn, therefore, from it is, that the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit in a distinct and immediate testimony, and also with our spirit in a concurrent testimony. This testimony, although it cannot be explained, is nevertheless felt by the believer; it is felt by him, too, in its variations, as sometimes stronger and more palpable, and at other times more feeble and less discernible. As the heart knoweth its own bitterness, in like manner a stranger intermeddles not with the joy communicated by this secret testimony to our spirit. Its reality is indicated in Scripture by such expressions as those of the Father and the Son coming unto us, and making their abode with us, — Christ manifesting Himself to us, and stepping with us, — His giving us the hidden manna, and the white stone, denoting the communication to us of the knowledge of an acquittal from guilt, and a written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. ’The new name love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.’ ’He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself,’ 1 John 5:10. This witnessing of the Spirit to the believer’s spirit, communicating consolation, is never His first work, but is consequent on His other work of renovation. He first gives faith, and then seals. ’After that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.’ He also witnesseth with our spirit, graciously shining on His own promises, making them clear, assuring us of their truth, enabling our spirit to embrace them and to discover our interest in them. He witnesseth with our spirit in all the blessedness of. His gracious fruits, diffusing through the soul love, and joy, and peace. In the first method of His witnessing with our spirit we are passive; but in the last method there is a concurrence on our part with His testimony. The testimony of the Spirit, then, is attended with the testimony of conscience, and is thus a co-witness with our spirit. It may also be observed, that where this exists, it brings with it a disposition and promptitude for prayer. It is the testimony of the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, ’Abba, Father;’ it disposes the soul to holiness.
The important truth here affirmed, that the Holy Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, does not seduce believers from the written word, or expose them to delusions, mistaken for internal revelations, differing from the revelations of Scripture. This internal revelation must be agreeable to Scripture revelation, and is no revelation of a new article of faith unknown to Scripture. It is the revelation of a truth consonant to the word of God, and made to a believer in that blessed book for his comfort. The Spirit testifies to our sonship by an external revelation in the Scriptures that believers are the sons of God. He concurs with this testimony by illuminating the mind and understanding, and persuading it of the truth of this external revelation. He unites with this testimony by reason of His gracious sanctifying presence in us, and is therefore called the earnest of our inheritance, and God’s seal, marking us as His own.
Romans 8:17 — And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also, glorified together.
If children, then heirs. — The Apostle, having proved the adoption of believers from the confirmation of the double and concurrent testimony of their own spirit and of the Spirit of God, here infers from it the certainty of their possessing the eternal inheritance. The fact of their being heirs he deduces from their being children. In this world children are, in all nations, heirs of their parents’ possessions. This is the law of nature. As such, it not only illustrates but confirms the fact that believers are heirs as being children. By the declaration that they are heirs, we are reminded that it is not by purchase, or by any work of their own, that they obtain the inheritance to which they are predestinated, Ephesians 1:11, and begotten, 1 Peter 1:3. It is solely in virtue of their sonship. The inheritance, which is a kingdom, was provided for them from the foundation of the world, Matthew 25:34, before they existed; and as inheritances were under the law inalienable, so this inheritance is eternal. They are heirs according to the promise, Galatians 3:29; heirs of promise, Hebrews 6:17, — that is, of all the blessings contained in the promise of God, which He confirmed by an oath; heirs of salvation, Hebrews 1:14; heirs of the grace of life, 1 Peter 3:7; heirs according to the hope of eternal life, Titus 3:7; heirs of righteousness, Hebrews 11:7; heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised, James 2:5. All things are theirs: for they are Christ’s and Christ is God’s, 1 Corinthians 3:23.
Heirs of God — Here, in one word, the Apostle states what is the inheritance of those who are the children of God. It is God Himself. ’If a son, then an heir of God through Christ,’ Galatians 4:7. This expression, ’heirs of God,’ has a manifest relation to the title of ’son,’ which is acquired by adoption, on which account the Apostle here joins them together. This teaches that believers have not only a right to the good things of God, but that they have this right by their adoption, and not by merit. As the birthright of a child confers a title to the property of its father, and so distinguishes such property from what the child may acquire by industry and labor, so also is the case with adoption. Here we see the difference between the law and the Gospel. The law treats men as mercenaries, and says, Do, and live; the Gospel treats them as children, and says, Live, and do. God is the portion of His people; and in Him, who is ’the possessor of heaven and’ earth, they are heirs of all things. ’He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be his God, and he shall be My son,’ Revelation 21:7. God is all sufficient; and this is an all-sufficient inheritance. God is eternal and unchangeable; and therefore it is an eternal inheritance, — an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. They cannot be dispossessed of it, for the omnipotence of God secures against all opposition. It is reserved for them in heaven, which is the throne of God, and where He manifests His glory. It is God Himself, then, who is the inheritance of His children. This shows that He communicates Himself to them by His grace, His light, His holiness, His life. They possess God as their inheritance in two degrees, namely, in possessing in this life His grace, and in the life to come His glory. ’Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee!’ Psalms 73:24. And what is the inheritance in glory, if it be not God, who is all in all! Here we have the life of grace, ’The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.’ In the life to come, it is the enjoyment or the vision of God which, in the seventeenth Psalm, the Prophet opposes to the inheritance of the men of this world, — ’Deliver me, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life. As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.’ Into this inheritance Moses — that is to say, the law — cannot introduce us. He alone can do it who is the great Joshua — Jesus Christ, the Mediator of a better covenant.
Joint heirs with Christ — This, with the expression ’heirs of God,’ shows the glorious nature of the inheritance of the children of God. What must this honor be when they are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ? Adam was a son of God; the lordship of paradise was given him, but he lost it. Satan and his angels were also sons of God by creation, and they fell. But the joint heirs of Christ can never fall. They have their inheritance secured by their union with Christ, and hold it by a title which is indefeasible, and a right which never can be revoked. Christ is the heir, as being the Son of God. All things that the Father hath are His; and, as Mediator, He is appointed ’heir of all things,’ and they are joint heirs with Him. The inheritance to be possessed by them is the same in its nature as that possessed by the man Christ Jesus; and the glory that the Father gives to Him, He gives to them, John 18:22. They participate of the same Spirit with Him; for they that have not the Spirit of Christ are none of His. That same life that He has is conferred on them; and because He lives, they live also. He is the fountain of their life, Psalms 36:9. The glory of their bodies will be of the same kind with His, Philippians 3:21. The glory that the Father gave to Him, He has given to them, John 17:22. They shall be admitted to the same glorious place with Him, and shall behold His glory, John 17:24. There must be a conformity between the head and the members, but as to the degree, He who is the first-born among many brethren must in all things have the pre-eminence.
If so be that ye suffer with Him. — The Apostle had shown that believers are the adopted children of God, heirs of ’God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. He now refers to a possible objection, namely, that notwithstanding this they are often full of trouble and afflictions in this life, which appears not to be suitable to so near a relationship with God. This he obviates by reminding them that they suffer with Christ, and that their sufferings, which result from their bearing them with Him, will issue in future glory.
The sufferings of Jesus Christ are to be regarded in two points of view. On the one hand, He suffered as the propitiation for the sins of His people. On the other hand, His sufferings are to be viewed as the road conducting Him to glory. In the first of these His people have no part; He alone was the sacrifice offered for their salvation; He alone made satisfaction to the justice of God; and He alone merited the reward for them. But in the second point of view, He is the pattern of their condition; in this they must follow His steps, and be made conformable to Him. Suffering, then, is a peculiarity in the earthly lot of all the heirs of heaven; they are all called to suffer with Christ. The man professing Christ’s religion, who meets with no persecution or opposition from the world for Christ’s sake, may well doubt the sincerity of his profession. ’All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.’ All the heirs will come to the enjoyment of their inheritance through tribulation; most of them through much tribulation. But so far from this being an argument against the sure prospect of that inheritance, it tends to confirm it. The expression ’if so be,’ or since, does not intimate that this is doubtful, but establishes its certainty. God causes His children to suffer in different ways, and for different reasons, for their good, as for the trial of their faith, the exercise of patience, the mortification of sin, and in order to wean them from this world and prepare them for heaven. Their sufferings are effects of His fatherly love; and the great object of them is, that they may be conformed to Christ. Sufferings are appointed for them in order that they should not be condemned with the world, and, to work out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
That we may be also glorified together. — This ought to support Christians under their sufferings. What a consolation in the midst of afflictions for Christ’s sake, that they shall also be glorified together with Him! In His sufferings He is set forth as their pattern, and the issue of them is their encouragement. They have the honor of suffering with Him, and they shall have the honor of being glorified with Him. They not only accompany him in His sufferings, but He also accompanies them in theirs; not only to sympathize with them, but to be their surety and defender. This community in suffering with Jesus Christ is sufficient to impart to His people the highest consolation. What an honor is it to bear, here below, His cross, on the way to where one day they shall have a place upon His throne! Having the same enemies with Him, they must have the some combats, the same victories, and the same triumphs. Since the Lord has been pleased to suffer for them before reigning over them in heaven, it is proper that they should suffer also for His sake and in the prospect of reigning with Him. For suffering with Him, they shall overcome with Him; and overcoming with Him, they shall obtain the crown of life and eternal glory.
Romans 8:18 — For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
The Apostle had been reminding those to whom he wrote, that their sufferings with Christ is the way appointed by God to bring them to glory. Here he encourages them to endure affliction, because there is no comparison between their present sufferings and their future glory. In order to encourage the Israelites to sustain the difficulties that presented themselves to their entry into Canaan, God sent them of the fruits of the land while they were still in the desert. Our blessed Lord, too, permitted some of His disciples to witness His transfiguration, when His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as light. This was calculated to inspire them with an ardent desire to behold that heavenly glory, of which, on that occasion, they had a transient glimpse, and to render them more patient in sustaining the troubles they were about to encounter. In the same manner God acts towards His people when they suffer in this world. He sends them of the fruits of the heavenly Canaan, and allowing them to enjoy a measure of that peace which passeth all understanding, He favors them with some foretastes of the glory to be revealed.
The first testimony to the truth that the, Apostle is here declaring is his own. I reckon — Paul was better qualified to judge in this matter than any other man, both as having endured the greatest sufferings, and as having been favored with a sight of the glory of heaven. His sufferings, 1 Corinthians 4:9; 2 Corinthians 11:23, appear not to have been inferior to those that exercised the patience of Job, while his being caught up into the third heaven was peculiar to himself. But, independently of this, we have here the testimony of an inspired Apostle, which must be according to truth, as being immediately communicated by the Holy Ghost. Paul makes use of a word which refers to the casting up of an account, marking accurately the calculation, by comparing one thing with another, so as to arrive at the true result.
The sufferings of the present time — By this we are reminded that the present is a time of suffering, and that this world is to believers as a field of battle. The shortness, too, of the period of suffering is indicated. It is limited to the present life, respecting which man is compared to a flower which cometh forth and is cut down; to a shadow that fleeth and continueth not. ’His days are swifter than a post; and as the flight of the eagle hastening after its prey.’ It is in the present time exclusively that sufferings are to be endured by the children of God. But if they promise to themselves the enjoyment of ease and carnal prosperity, they miscalculate the times, and confound the present with the future. They forget the many assurances of their Heavenly Father that this is not their rest.
They overlook the example of those who by faith obtained a good report. Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. David, envying for a moment the prosperity of the wicked, having entered the sanctuary and considered their end, views it in a different light. ’Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou hast holden me by Thy right hand; Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.’ ’In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ ’Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety.’
Christians often dwell upon their own sufferings, while they overlook the sufferings of their Lord, to whom they must be conformed. They forget their sins, on account of which they receive chastisem*nt that they may not be condemned with the world, and for which they must also partake of their bitter fruits. But as there is no proportion between what is finite, however great it may be, and what is infinite, so their afflictions here, even were their lives prolonged to any period, and although they had no respite, would bear no proportion to their future glory either in intensity or duration The felicity of that glory is unspeakable, but their afflictions here are not insupportable. They are always accompanied with the compassion and the consolations of God. ’As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.’ The patriarch Jacob, a fugitive from his father’s house, constrained to pass the night without a covering, with stones only for his pillow, enjoyed a vision excelling all with which he had been before favored. This is recorded to show that the believer, in his tribulation, often experiences more joy and peace than in his prosperity. ’Thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.’ God never permits the sufferings of His people to be extreme.
The glory that shall be revealed — While the sufferings of believers here are only temporary, the glory which is to be revealed is eternal. Though yet concealed, it is already in existence, its discovery only is future. Now it is veiled from us in heaven, but ere long it shall be revealed. God is a source of ineffable light, joy, knowledge, power, and goodness. He is the sovereign good, and will communicate Himself to them that behold Him, in a way that is incomprehensible.
In us — The glory here spoken of is that to which the Apostle John refers, when he says that we shall see the Lord as He is, and that we shall be made like Him. If the rays of the sun illuminate the darkness on which they shine, what will be that light which the Sun of Righteousness will produce in the children of Him who is the Father of Lights! If the face of Moses shone, when, amidst the terrors of the law, he talked with God, what shall their condition be who shall behold Him, not on the mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, but in the heaven of heavens; not amidst thunderings and lightnings, but amidst the express testimonies of His favor and blessing They shall appear in the sanctuary of the Lord, and discern plainly the mysteries of the wisdom of God. They shall behold not the ark and the propitiatory, but the things in the heavens which these were made to represent. They shall see as they are seen, and know as they are known. To the enjoyment of this glory after the persecutions and troubles of this life, the Bridegroom is represented as calling His Church. ’Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.’ As there is no proportion between finite and infinite, so no comparison can be made between the things that are seen and temporal, and the things that are unseen and eternal — between our light afflictions which are but for a moment, and that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that shall be revealed in us. Such is the consolation which the Apostle here presents to the children of God.
Verses 19-22 — For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God (for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same), in hope that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
In the 18th verse, the Apostle, for the comfort of believers, had declared that there is reserved for them a weight of glory to which their sufferings while in this world bear no comparison. To the same purpose he now refers to the existing state and future destination of the visible creation. In thus appealing to a double testimony — the one the voice of grace uttered by himself, the other the voice of universal nature, which speaks the same language — he encourages the children of God to endure with patience their present trials.
In the verses before us, Paul, by an example of personification common in the Scriptures, which consists in attributing human affections to things inanimate or unintelligent, calls the attention of believers to the fact that the whole creation is in a state of suffering and degradation; and that, wearied with the vanity to which it has been reduced, it is earnestly looking for deliverance.
That interpretation which, according to Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart, applies this expectation to mankind in general, is contrary to fact. Men in general are not looking for a glorious deliverance, nor is it a fact that they will obtain it; but it is a fact that there will be new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. All that Mr. Stuart alleges against this is easily obviated. Most of it applies to passages that have been injudiciously appealed to on the subject, which do not bear the conclusion. But if the earth, after being burnt up, shall be restored in glory, there is a just foundation for the figurative expectation. In order to understand these verses, it is necessary to ascertain the import, —
·1st, of the term creation, or creature;
·2nd, of that of the vanity to which it is subjected;
·3rd, of that deliverance which it shall experience.
Creature — The word in the original, which is translated in the 19th, 20th, and 21st verses, creature, and in the 22nd, creation, can have no reference to the fallen angels, for they do not desire the manifestation of the children of God; this they dread, and, looking forward to it, tremble. Neither can it refer to the elect angels, of whom it cannot be said that they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, for to this they were never subjected. It does not apply to men, all of whom are either the children of God or of the wicked one. It cannot refer to the children of God, for they are here expressly distinguished from the creation of which the Apostle speaks; nor can it apply to wicked men, for they have no wish for the manifestation of the sons of God whom they hate, nor will they ever be delivered from the bondage of corruption, but cast into the lake of fire. It remains, then, that the creatures destitute of intelligence, animate and inanimate, the heavens and the earth, the elements, the plants and animals, are here referred to. The Apostle means to say that the creation, which, on account of sin, has, by the sentence of God, been subjected to vanity, shall be rescued from the present degradation under which it groans, and that, according to the hope held out to it, is longing to participate with the sons of God in that freedom from vanity into which it shall at length be introduced, partaking with them in their future and glorious deliverance from all evil. This indeed cannot mean that the plants and animals, as they at present exist, shall be restored; but that the condition of those things which shall belong to the new heavens and the new earth, prepared for the sons of God, shall be delivered from the curse, and restored to a perfect state, as when all things that God had created were pronounced by Him very good, and when, as at the beginning, before sin entered, they shall be fully adapted to the use of man.
As men earnestly desire what is good, and, on the contrary, groan and sigh in their sufferings, the like emotions of joy and sorrow are here ascribed to the inanimate and unintelligent creation. In this way the prophets introduce the earth as groaning, and the animals as crying to God, in sympathy with the condition of man. ’The land mourneth, for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up; the oil languisheth, because joy is withered away from the sons of men! How do the beasts groan! The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee!’ Joel 1:10-20. ’How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein?’ Jeremiah 12:4. ’The earth mourneth and fadeth away; the world languishes and fadeth away; the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled, under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth. The new wine mourneth; the wine languisheth!’ Isaiah 24:4-7. To the same purpose, Isaiah 13:13; Isaiah 33:9; Isaiah 34:4. On the other hand, the Prophet Isaiah 49:13, predicting a better state of things, exclaims, ’Sing, O heavens; and be joyful O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for the Lord hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted!’ And in Psalms 98:4-6, ’Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praises! Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof! Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together!’ Thus, in the language of Scripture, the sins of men cause the creation to mourn; but the mercy of God, withdrawing His rebukes, causeth it to rejoice.
Vanity — What is called vanity in the 20th verse, is in the 21st denominated bondage of corruption. When the creation was brought into existence, God bestowed on it His blessing, and pronounced everything that He had made very good. Viewing that admirable palace which He had provided, He appointed man to reign in it, commanding all creation to be subject to him whom He had made in His own image. But when sin entered, then, in a certain sense, it may be said that all things had become evil, and were diverted from their proper end. The creatures by their nature were appointed for the service of the friends of their Creator; but since the entrance of sin they had become subservient to His enemies. Instead of the sun and the heavens being honored to give light to those who obey God, and the earth to support the righteous, they now minister to rebels. The sun shines upon the wicked, the earth nourishes those who blaspheme their Maker; while its various productions, instead of being employed for the glory of God, are used as instruments of ambition, of avarice, of intemperance, of cruelty, of idolatry, and are often employed for the destruction of His children. All these are subjected to vanity when applied by men for vain purposes. This degradation is a grievance to the works of God, which in themselves have remained in allegiance. They groan under it, but, keeping within their proper limits, hold on their course. Had it been the will of the Creator, after the entrance of sin, the creature might have refused to serve the vices, or even the necessities of man. This is sometimes threatened. In reproving the idolatry of the children of Israel, God speaks as if He intended to withdraw His creatures from their service, in taking them entirely away. ’Therefore will I return and take away My corn in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness,’ Hosea 2:9. And sometimes the creature is represented as reclaiming against the covetousness and wickedness of men. ’The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it,’ Habakkuk 2:11. The whole creation, then, groaneth together, and is under bondage on account of the sin of man, and has suffered by it immensely. As to the inanimate creation, in many ways it shows its figurative groaning, and the vanity to which it has been reduced. ’Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.’ It produces all noxious weeds, and in many places is entirely barren. It is subject to earthquakes, floods, and storms destructive to human life, and in various respects labors under the curse pronounced upon it. The lower animals have largely shared in the sufferings of man. They are made ’to be taken and destroyed,’ 2 Peter 2:12, and to devour one another. They have become subservient to the criminal pleasures of man, and are the victims of his oppressive cruelty. Some partake in the labors to which he is subjected; and all of them terminate their short existence by death, the effect of sin. All that belongs to the creation is fading and transitory, and death reigns universally. The heavens and the earth shall wax old like a garment. The earth once perished by water, and now it is reserved unto fire. ’The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up. The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved.’ The cause of this subjection to vanity is not from their original tendencies, or from any fault in the creatures. They have been so subjected, not willingly, not owing to any natural defect or improper disposition in themselves, but by reason of the sin of man, and in order to his greater punishment. The houses of those who were guilty of rebellion were destroyed, Ezra 6:11; Daniel 2:5, not that there was guilt in the stones or the wood, but in order to inflict the severer punishment on their criminal possessors, and also to testify the greater abhorrence of their crime, in thus visiting them in the things that belonged to them. In the same manner, man, haring been constituted the Lord of the creatures, his punishment has been extended to them. This in a very striking manner demonstrates the hatred of God against sin. For as the leprosy not only defiled the man who was infected with it, but also the house he inhabited, in the same way, sin, which is the spiritual leprosy of man, has not only defiled our bodies and our souls, but, by the just judgment of God, has infected all creation.
In whatever way it may be attempted to be accounted for, it is a fact that the world and all around us is in a suffering and degraded condition. This state of things bears the appearance of being inconsistent with the government of God, all-powerful, wise, and good. The proud skeptic is here completely at a stand. He cannot even conjecture why such a state of things should have had place. With Mr. Hume, the language of every reflecting unbeliever must be, ’The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspense of judgment, appear the only result of our most accurate scrutiny concerning this subject.’ The Book of God alone dispels the darkness, and unveils the mystery.
Here, then, we learn how great is the evil of sin. It has polluted the heavens and the earth and has subjected the whole to vanity and corruption. Evil and misery prevail, and creation itself is compelled to witness the dishonor done to its Author. It would be derogatory to the glory of God to suppose that His works are now in the same condition in which they were at first formed, or that they will always continue as at present. In the meantime, all the creatures are groaning under their degradation, until the moment when God shall remove those obstacles which prevent them from answering their proper ends, and render them incapable of suitably glorifying Him. But the righteous Judge, who subjected them to vanity in consequence of the disobedience of man; has made provision for their final restoration.
The creation, then, is not in that state in which it was originally constituted. A fearful change and disorganization, even in the frame of the natural world, has taken place. The introduction of sin has brought along with it this subjection to vanity and the bondage of corruption, and all that ruin under which nature groans. How miserable is the condition of those who have their portion in this world! Of them it may be truly said, ’Surely they have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.’ Of those ’who mind earthly things,’ it is written, their ’end is destruction.’ ’The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.’
Delivered — Some suppose that the word delivered signifies an entire annihilation, and in support of this opinion allege such passages as 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 20:11. But as a tendency of all things in nature is to their own preservation, how could the creation be represented as earnestly expecting the manifestation of the sons of God, if that manifestation were to be accompanied with its final ruin and destruction? Besides, the Apostle promises not merely a future deliverance, but also a glorious future existence. The Scriptures, too, in various places, predict the continued subsistence of the heavens and the earth, as 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1. Respecting the passages quoted above, as importing their annihilation, it ought to be observed that the destruction off the substance of things differs from a change in their qualities. When metal of a certain shape is subjected to fire, it is destroyed as to its figure, but not as to its substance.
Thus the heavens and the earth will pass through the fire, but only that they may be purified and come forth anew, more excellent than before. In Psalms 102:26, it is said, ’They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shall Thou change them, and they shall be changed.’ That the Apostle Peter, when he says that the heavens shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, does not refer to the destruction of their substance, but to their purification, is evident from what he immediately adds, — ’Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;’ A little before he had said, ’The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished,’ although its substance remains as at the beginning. If, then, the punishment of sin has extended to the creatures, in bringing them under the bondage of corruption, so, according to the passage before us, that grace which reigns above sin, will also be extended to their deliverance. And, as the punishment of the sins of men is so much the greater as their effects extend to the creatures, in like manner so much the greater will be the glory that shall be revealed in them, that the creatures which were formed for their use shall be made to participate with them in the day of the restitution of all things. Through the goodness of God they shall follow the deliverance and final destination of the children of God, and not that of His enemies. When God created the world, He ’saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.’ When man transgressed, God viewed it a second time, and said, ’Cursed is the ground for thy sake.’ When the promise that the Deliverer should come into the world to re-establish peace between God and man was given, the effect of this blessed reconciliation was to extend even to the inanimate and unintelligent creation; and God, it may be said, then viewed His work a third time, and held out the hope of a glorious restoration.
The creature, then, has been subjected to the indignity which it now suffers, in hope that it will one day be delivered from the bondage of corruption, and partake of the glorious freedom of the children of God. This hope was held out in the sentence pronounced on man, for, in the doom of our first parents, the Divine purpose of providing a deliverer was revealed. We know not the circ*mstances of this change, how it will be effected, or in what form the creation — those new heavens and that new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, suited for the abode of the sons of God — shall then exist; but we are sure that it shall be worthy of the Divine wisdom, although at present beyond our comprehension.
Manifestation of the sons of God — Believers are even now The sons of God, but the world knows them not, 1 John 3:1. In this respect they are not seen. Their bodies, as well as their spirits, have been purchased by Christ, and they are become His members. Their bodies have, however, no marks of this Divine relation, but, like those of other men, are subject to disease, to death, and corruption. And although they have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, there is still a law in their members warring against the law of their mind. But the period approaches when their souls shall be freed from every remainder of corruption, and their bodies shall be made like unto the glorious body of the Son of God. Then this corruptible shall put on in corruption, and then shall they shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. It is then that they shall be manifested in their true character, illustrious as the sons of God, seated upon thrones, and conspicuous in robes of light and glory.
Romans 8:23 — And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
In the four preceding verses, the Apostle had appealed to the state of nature, which, by a striking and beautiful figure, is personified and represented as groaning under the oppression of suffering, through the entrance of sin, and looking forward with ardent expectation, as with outstretched neck, to a future and better dispensation. He now proceeds to call the attention of believers to their own feelings and experience, meaning to say that if the unintelligent creation is longing for the manifestation of the sons of God, how much more earnestly must they themselves long for that glorious event.
Christians who have received the foretastes of everlasting felicity, sympathize with the groans of nature. They enjoy, indeed, even at present, a blessed freedom. They are delivered from the guilt and dominion of sin, the curse of the law, and a servile spirit in their obedience to God. Still, however, they have much to suffer while in the world; but they wait for the redemption of their bodies, and the full manifestation of their character as the children of God. Their bodies, as well as their spirits, have been given to Christ. They are equally the fruit of His purchase, and are become His members. But it is not till His people shall have arisen from the grave that they will enjoy all the privileges consequent on His redemption.
The first fruits of the Spirit — These are love and joy in the Holy Ghost, peace of conscience, and communion with God. They are the graces of the Spirit conferred on believers, called first fruits, because, as the first fruits of the fields were offered to God under the law, so these graces redound to God’s glory. And as the first ears of corn were a pledge of an abundant harvest, so these graces are a pledge to believers of their complete felicity, because they are given to them Of God for the confirmation of their hope. They are a pledge, because the same love and grace that moved their Heavenly Father to impart these beginnings of their salvation will move Him to perfect the good work. These first fruits, then, are the foretastes of heaven, or the earnest of the inheritance. This is the most invaluable privilege of the children of God in the present life. It is a joy the world cannot give and cannot take away. The error which would represent these privileges as peculiar to the Apostles and the first Christians, and restrict the fruits of the Spirit to miraculous gifts, ought not for one moment to be admitted. The Apostle is speaking of all the children of God to the end of the world, without excepting even the weakest. As the first fruits of the harvest were consecrated to God, so we should be careful not to abuse the gifts of the Spirit of God in us. As the first fruits were to be carried to the house of God, so, as God has communicated to us His grace, we should also go to His house making a public profession of His name. The children of Israel, in offering the first fruits, were commanded to confess their miserable original state, and to recount their experience of the goodness of God, Deuteronomy 26:5. In the same way we should consider the graces of the Holy Spirit in us as the first fruits of the heavenly Canaan which God hath given us, and confess that we were by nature children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins, and that the Lord, having had compassion on us, has delivered us from the servitude of sin, and the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.
Groan within ourselves — Not only they — the whole creation or every creature — but also believers themselves, will all their advantages, groan. Even they find it difficult to bear up under the pressure which in their present state weighs them down, while carrying about with them a body of sin and death. Of this groaning the Apostle, as we have seen, chapter 7:24, presents himself as an example, — ’O wretched man that I am;’ and again when he says, ’We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened,’ 2 Corinthians 5:4. In the same manner David groaned, when he complained that his iniquities were a burden too heavy for him. Believers groan on account of indwelling sin, of the temptations of Satan and the world, and of the evils that afflict their bodies and souls. They feel that something is always wanting to them in this world. There is nothing but that sovereign good, which can only be found in God, fully able to satisfy their desires. Believers groan within themselves. Their groanings are not such as those of hypocrites, which are only outward; they are from within. They do not always meet the ear of man, but they reach the throne of God. ’All my desire,’ says David, ’is before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee,’ Psalms 38:9. These groanings are sighs and prayers to God, which are spoken of in the 26th verse of this chapter, where we learn their efficient cause, which is not flesh and blood. They are fruits of the Spirit, so that by them believes observe in themselves the spirit of regeneration. Waiting for the adoption. — Believers have already been adopted into the family of God, and are His children; but they have not yet been openly declared to be so, nor made in all respects suitable to this character. If they are the sons of God, they must be made glorious, both in soul and body; but till they arrive in heaven, their adoption will not be fully manifested. Adoption may be viewed at three periods. It may be considered in the election of His people, when God decrees their adoption before they are called or united to Jesus Christ; yet they are even then denominated the children of God. In the eleventh chapter of John, where Caiaphas, prophesying of the death of Jesus, says that he should die, not for that nation only, but for all the children of God that were scattered abroad. Under the term children of God were comprehended those who had not yet been called, Acts 18:10. In their calling and regeneration they are adopted into God’s family, being then united to Christ; but as their bodies do not partake in that regeneration, and are not yet conformed to the glorious body of Jesus Christ, they still wait for the entire accomplishment of their adoption, when, at the resurrection, they shall enter on the full possession of the inheritance. Accordingly Jesus denominates that blessed resurrection ’the regeneration,’ because then not only the souls of believers, but also their bodies, shall bear the heavenly image of the second Adam. Then they shall enter fully into the possession of their inheritance; for in that day Jesus Christ will say to His elect ’Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ Heaven, into which they will then enter, is an inheritance suitable to the dignity of the sons of God, and for this they are waiting.
The children of God wait for the accomplishment of all that their adoption imports. They wait for it as Jacob did. ’I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!’ Genesis 49:18. They wait as the believers at Corinth were waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:7; and as all believers who through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, Galatians 5:5. ’Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, even our Savior Jesus Christ,’ Titus 2:13. And as the Thessalonians, who, having been turned from idols to serve the living and true God, waited for His Son from heaven, 1 Thessalonians 1:10; also as is recorded in Hebrews 9:28; James 5:7-8; 2 Peter 3:12. In this manner Paul waited for his crown, 2 Timothy 4:8. It was this waiting for, or expectation of, deliverance from the Lord, that encouraged Noah to build the ark, and Abraham to leave his country, and Moses to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, and the elders who obtained a good report through faith, to seek a better, that is, an heavenly country. It was the expectation of eternal life that sustained those who shed their blood for the testimony of Jesus.
The redemption of our body — That there might be no mistake respecting the meaning of the adoption in this unusual application, the Apostle himself subjoins an explanation — even the redemption of our body, because the body will then be delivered from the grave, as a prisoner when redeemed is delivered from his prison.
But why, it may be asked, does the Apostle here employ the term redemption rather than that of resurrection, which is so common in the New Testament? To this it may be replied, that the Holy Scriptures often make use of this expression to represent a great deliverance, as in Psalms 107:2 : ’Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy’ And as in Isaiah 63, where those are spoken of who are redeemed of the Lord from the hand of the enemy. It is evident that Paul employs this expression forcibly to designate the greatest of all deliverances, the highest object of our desires, which is to be the subject of our eternal gratitude. When this term is so used, it commonly denotes two things, — the one, that the deliverance spoken of is effected in a manner glorious and conspicuous, exhibiting the greatest effort of power; the other, that it is a complete deliverance, placing us beyond all danger. On this ground, then, it is evident that no work is better entitled to the appellation of redemption than that of the re-establishment of our bodies, which will be an illustrious effect of the infinite power of God. It is the work of the Lord of nature — of Him who holds in His hands the keys of life and death. His light alone can dispel the darkness of the tomb. It is only His hand that can break its seal and its silence. On this account the Apostle appeals, with an accumulation of terms, to the exceeding greatness of the power of God to upward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, Ephesians 1:19-20.
This last deliverance will be so perfect, that nothing can be more complete,since ’the children of the resurrection’ shall be restored not to their first life, but to a state which will be one of surpassing glory and never-ending immortality. Death will be swallowed up in victory. Earthly warriors may obtain two sorts of victories over their enemies. One may be called a temporary or partial victory, which causes the enemy to fly, which deprives him of part of his force, but does not prevent him from re-establishing himself; returning to the field of battle, and placing the conqueror in the hazard of losing what he has gained. The other may be termed a complete and decisive victory, which so effectually subdues the hostile power, that it can never regain what it has lost. There are also two sorts of resurrections, one like that of Lazarus, in which death was overcome but not destroyed, since Lazarus died a second time; the other is, that of believers at the last day, when death will not only be overcome, but cast out and for ever exterminated. Both of these may be properly called a resurrection; but to speak with greater force, the second is here called a redemption. Besides, the Apostle, in employing this term, has reference to the redemption which Jesus Christ has effected at the infinite price of His blood. It is true this price was fully paid on the day of His death; yet two things are certain: the one is, that our resurrection will only take place in virtue of the value and imperishable efficacy of that blood, which has acquired for us life and happiness; the other, that the redemption accomplished on the cross and the resurrection are not two different works. They are hut one work, viewed under different aspects, and at different periods; the redemption on the cross being our redemption by price, and the resurrection our redemption by power — a perfect and undivided salvation begun and terminated.
The day, then, of the redemption of our bodies will be the day of the entire accomplishment of our adoption, as then only we shall enter on the complete possession of the children of God. In Jesus Christ our redemption was fully accomplished when He said on the cross, ’It is finished.’ In us it is accomplished by different degrees. The first degree is in this life; the second, at death; the third, at the resurrection. In this life, the degree of redemption which we obtain is the remission of our sins, our sanctification, and freedom from the law and the slavery of sin. At death, our souls are delivered from all sin, and their sanctification is complete; for the soul, at its departure from the body, is received into the heavenly sanctuary, into which nothing can enter that defileth; and as to the body, death prepares it for in corruption and immortality, for that which we sow is not quickened except it die. It must therefore return to dust, there to leave its corruption, its weakness, its dishonor. Hence it follows that believers should not fear death, since death obtains for them the second degree of their redemption. But as our bodies remain in the dust till the day of our blessed resurrection, that day is called the day of the redemption of our body, as being the last and highest degree of our redemption. Then the body being reunited to the soul, death will be swallowed up in victory; for the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for till then death will reign over our bodies. But then the children of God shall sing that triumphant song, ’O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ ’I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction.’ The elevation of His people to glory on the day of their redemption, will be the last act in the economy of Jesus Christ as Mediator. He will then terminate His reign and the whole work of their salvation. For then He will present the whole Church to the Father, saying, ’Behold I and the children whom Thou hast given Me.’ Then He will deliver up the kingdom, having nothing further to do in the work of redemption. This will be the rendering of the account by the Son to the Father of the charge committed to Him; and for this reason the Apostle says, ’When all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all;’ because, as His economy commenced by an act of submission of the Son to the Father, when in entering into the world He said, ’Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God,’ it will also terminate by a similar act, as the Son will then deliver up the kingdom to Him from whom He received it.
Believers are here said to have received the first fruits of the Spirit, and to be waiting for the redemption of their bodies. In the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle says, ’Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’ As this last passage has so much similarity to the one before us, and as they are calculated to throw light on each other, it may be proper in this place to consider its meaning.
The sealing of believers implies that God has marked them by His Spirit to distinguish them from the rest of mankind. Marking His people in this manner as His peculiar property, imports that He loves them as His own; that they are His ’jewels,’ or peculiar treasure, Malachi 3:17. But the Apostle does not say that believers have been merely marked, but that they have been sealed, which implies much more; for although every seal is a mark, every mark is not a seal. Seals are marks which bear the arms of those to whom they belong, and often their image or resemblance, as the seals of princes. Thus the principal effect of the Holy Spirit is to impress on the hearts of His people the image of the Son of God. As the matter to which the seal is applied contributes nothing to the formation of the character it receives, and only yields to the impression made on it, so the heart is not active, but passive, under the application of this Divine seal, by which we receive the image of God, the characters of which are traced by the Holy Spirit, and depend for their formation entirely on His efficiency. As seals confirm the covenants or promises to which they are affixed, in the same manner this heavenly signet firmly establishes the declaration of the Divine mercy, and makes it irreversible. It confirms to our faith the mysteries of the Gospel, and renders certain to our hope the promises of the covenant. The seal of man, although it alters the form, makes no change on the substance of the matter to which it is applied, and possesses no virtue to render it proper for receiving the impression. But the seal of God changes the matter on which it is impressed, and although naturally hard, renders it impressible, converting a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. The seal of man is speedily withdrawn from the matter it impresses, and the impression gradually becomes faint, till it is at length effaced. But the seal of the Holy Spirit remains in the heart, so that the image it forms can never be obliterated.
The Apostle not only affirms that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, but says that we are sealed unto the day of redemption; that is, this seal is given us in respect of our blessed resurrection; as the pledge of our complete transformation into the likeness of Christ. This Divine seal is that by which the Lord our great Judge will distinguish the righteous from the wicked, raising the one to the resurrection of life, and the other to the resurrection of damnation. It is also the Holy Spirit which forms in us the hope of that future redemption, our souls having no good desire whatever of which He is not the author. These things are certain; but it does not appear to be the principal design of the Apostle to enforce them here. It seems rather to be to teach that the Holy Spirit is to us a seal or assured pledge of the reality of our resurrection, or, as is said, ’the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.’ Besides this, the Holy Spirit confirms in our souls everything on which the hope of our resurrection depends.
That hope depends on the belief that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, of which the Holy Spirit bears record in our hearts by giving us the answer of a God conscience. It depends on knowing that Jesus Christ has in dying overcome death, and has gloriously risen again to restore to us life which we had forfeited. This is a truth which the Holy Spirit certifies to us, since He is the Spirit of Christ given in virtue of His resurrection. It depends on knowing that Jesus Christ is in heaven, reigning at the right hand of the Father, and that all power is given unto Him, that He may give eternal life to all His people. The Holy Spirit testifies to us this glory since His coming is its fruit and effect. ’The Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified;’ and the Savior Himself says that He will send the Comforter, ’even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,’ concerning which the Apostle Peter declares, ’Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.’ As if he had said that this marvelous effusion of the Holy Spirit is an effect, and consequently an assured proof, of the heavenly glory of Jesus Christ.
Since God gives His Holy Spirit to His children to seal them to the day of redemption, it is evident that His care of them must extend to the blessed consummation to which He purposes to conduct them. He will not withdraw His gracious hand from them, but will bring them to the possession and enjoyment of His glory. ’The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.’ ’Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ It may be remarked that the Apostle says ’unto the day of redemption,’ and not simply, to the redemption. This expression, the day of redemption’s leads us to consider the advantage that grace has over nature, and the future world over that which we now inhabit. When God created the universe, He made light and darkness, day and night; and our time consists of their alternate successions. But it will not be so in the second creation, for ’there shall be no night there.’ It will be one perpetual day of life without death, of holiness without sin, and of joy without grief.
The day here referred to may be viewed in contrast with two other solemn days, both of which are celebrated in the Scriptures. One is the day of Sinai, the other of Pentecost: this is the day of redemption. In the economy of the Father, the first was a day of public and extraordinary grandeur, appointed to display in the most remarkable manner His glory, when God descended with awful majesty amidst blackness, and darkness, and tempest: In the economy of the Holy Ghost, the second was the day when He came as a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, when the Apostles were assembled, and, under the symbol of cloven tongues of fire, rested upon them. In the economy of the Son, there will also be a day of public magnificence, and that will be the day of judgment, when, seated on the throne of His glory, Jesus Christ will come with His mighty angels to judge the quick and the dead. Then calling His elect from the four winds, with the voice of the archangel, He will raise them from the dust, and elevate them to the glory of His kingdom. The first of these days was the day of the publication of the law; the second was the day of the publication of grace; and the third will be the day of the publication of glory. This will be the day of the complete redemption of the children of God, unto which they have been sealed, and of their manifestation in their proper character. It will be the day when their bodies shall come forth from the grave, made like unto the glorious body of the Son of God, by the sovereign efficacy of the application of His blood, and by His infinite power. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Then they shall inherit the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, which they now expect according to the promise, for God will make all things new. Then they shall be with Jesus where He is and shall behold His glory which God hath given Him.
Let those rejoice who are waiting for the Divine Redeemer. Their bodies indeed must be dissolved, and it doth not yet appear what they shall be. But at that great day they shall be raised up incorruptible, they shall be rendered immortal, and shall dwell in heavenly mansions. And that they may not doubt this, God has already marked them with His Divine seal They have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God unto the day of the redemption.
Romans 8:24 — For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
For we are saved by hope — According to the original, this phrase may either be translated by hope, or in hope; but from the connection it appears that it ought to be translated, as in the French versions, in hope. The word salvation, or saved, signifies all the benefits of our redemption, — namely, remission of sins, sanctification, and glorification. ’The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost.’ In this sense Jesus Christ is called the Savior, because it is by Him that we are justified and sanctified, and glorified. This word has in Scripture sometimes a more limited, and sometimes a more extended, meaning. In particular places salvation is spoken of as already possessed, as where it is said, God has ’saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.’ Generally it signifies all the benefits of our redemption, when fully possessed by our final admission to glory, as when it is said, ’He that endureth to the end shall be saved.’ In this verse it is regarded as enjoyed only in hope, — that is to say, in expectancy, since we have not yet been put in possession of the glory of the kingdom of heaven.
In order to distinguish the measure of salvation which believers have in possession, and what they have of it in hope, we must consider its gradations. The first of these is their eternal election, of which the Apostle speaks, Ephesians 1:3-4, according to which their names were written in heaven before the creation of the world. The second gradation is their effectual calling, by which God has called them from darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son, so that their souls are already partakers of grace, and their bodies habitations of God through the Spirit, and members of Jesus Christ. Of these gradations of their salvation they are already in possession. But the third gradation, in which sin shall be entirely eradicated from their souls, and their bodies shall be made like to the glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ, is as yet enjoyed by them only in hope.
The term hope is used in two different senses, — the one proper, and the other figurative. Properly, it means the mixture of expectation and desire of that to which we look forward, so that we are kept students to one object, as where it is said, ’Hope is the anchor of the soul.’ Figuratively, it signifies that which we hope for, as when God is called our hope — ’Thou art my hope, O Lord God,’ Psalms 71:5; or, ’Jesus Christ, which is our hope,’ 1 Timothy 1:1; and as when it is said, we give thanks to God ’for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,’ Colossians 1:5. The word hope, then, either denotes as in the verse before us, the grace of hope, in reference to the person hoping, or the object of hope, in reference to the thing hoped for.
Hope is so closely allied to faith, that sometimes in Scripture it is taken for faith itself. They are, however, distinct the one from the other. By faith we believe the promises made to us by God; by hope we expect to receive the good things which God has promised; so that faith hath properly for its object the promise, and hope for its object the thing promised, and the execution of the promise. Faith regards its object as present, but hope regards it as future. Faith precedes hope, and is its foundation. We hope for life eternal, because we believe the promises which God has made respecting it; and if we believe these promises, we must expect their effect. Hope looks to eternal life as that which is future in regard to its remoteness; but in regard to its certainty, faith looks to it as a thing that is present. ’Hope,’ says the Apostle, ’maketh not ashamed;’ and he declares that ’we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’ Thus he ascribes to it the same certainty as to faith; and in the Epistle to the Hebrews he speaks of ’the full assurance of hope.’ Faith and hope are virtues of this like, which will have no place in the life that is to come. ’Now abideth faith, hope, and love.’ Faith and hope will cease; and in this respect love is the greatest, as love will abide for ever.
The objects of the believer’s hope are spiritual and heavenly blessings. They are different from earthly blessings. The men of the world hope for riches and the perishable things of this life; the believer hopes for an inheritance in heaven, that fadeth not away. For this hope Moses gave up the riches and treasures of Egypt. By this hope David distinguishes himself from the ungodly. ’Deliver me from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly Thou fullest with Thy hid treasure; they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness,’ Psalms 17:13-15. And, contrasting his condition with that of the children of this world, he says, Psalms 73:7, ’Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish;’ but as to himself, he had been plagued all the day long, and chastened every morning; yet he adds, ’Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.’ If it should be said by believers, May not we also hope for perishable and temporal blessings? The answer is, that Christian hope is founded on the promises of God, and on them it is rested. The hope which exceeds these promises is carnal and worldly. To know, therefore, what is the object of Christian hope, we must observe what are the promises of God. It is true that godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come; but respecting this life God’s promises are conditional, and to be fulfilled only as He sees their accomplishment to be subservient to His glory and our good; while as to the life that is to come, they are absolute. Are we, then, to expect only ease and happiness in this world, to whom it has been declared that ’we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God;’ and to whom the Lord Himself says, ’If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me?’ The people of God should therefore rest their hope on the absolute promises of God, which cannot fail, of blessings that are unperishable, and of a real and permanent felicity.
The foundations and support of Christian hope are firm and certain. First, the word and immutable promise of God; for heaven and earth shall pass away, but His word shall remain for ever God has promised heaven as the eternal inheritance of His people. Shall they doubt His fidelity? He has said, ’The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed,’ Isaiah 54:10. He has accompanied His promise with His oath. ’Willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have ’died for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,’ Hebrews 6:17. We have, besides, the blood of the Son of God, with which His promise has been sealed; and His obedience even unto death, which He has rendered to His Father, for the foundation of this hope. We have also the intercession of our great High Priest, of whom the Apostle, in establishing the grounds of the assurance of faith and hope, says not only that He is dead, but that He is risen, and at the right hand of God; who also maketh intercession for us. He declares, too, that our hope enters into heaven, where Jesus our forerunner has entered for us. To these foundations of our hope may be added, that it is said, ’Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession.’ The Apostle calls this hope an anchor of the soul, — representing the believer, in the temptations and assaults to which he is exposed, under the similitude of a ship tossed by the sea, but which has an anchor fixed in the ground, firm and steadfast, which prevents its being driven away by the waves. This hope is not only necessary in adversity, but also in prosperity, in raising our affections to things above, and disengaging them from the world. The good hope through grace tranquilizes the soul. ’Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God,’ Psalms 43:5. This hope consoles us in life and in death. It softens the bitterness of affliction, supports the soul in adversity, and in prosperity raises the affections to heavenly objects. It promotes our sanctification; for he who hath this hope of beholding Jesus as He is, purifieth himself even as He is pure, 1 John 3:3. It assures us that, if Jesus died and rose again, them all who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Let believers renounce their vain hopes of happiness in this world. Here they are strangers and pilgrims, and absent from the Lord. Let them hope for His presence, and communion with Him in glory. ’Now,’ says the Apostle, ’the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.’
Christian hope is a virtue produced by the Holy Spirit, in which, through His power, we should abound, and by which, resting on the promises of God in Jesus Christ, we expect our complete salvation. This hope is a part of our spiritual armor against principalities and powers, and spiritual! wickedness, with which we have to wrestle. We are commanded to put on ’for an helmet the hope of salvation,’ 1 Thessalonians 5:8.
In the preceding verse the Apostle had said, ’We wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’ Here he gives it as a reason of our waiting, that as yet we are saved only in hope. As far as the price of redemption is concerned, we are already saved; but in respect to the power by which we shall be put in possession of that for which the price has been paid, namely, our deliverance from the remainder of sin under which we groan, the resurrection of our bodies, and the enjoyment of the eternal inheritance, we are saved only in hope. The hope of all this is present with us, but the enjoyment is future. Hope that is seen is not hope. — That is, hope cannot respect anything which we already enjoy. For it is impossible, as the Apostle subjoins, for a man to hope for that which he possesses. Hope and possession are ideas altogether incongruous and contradictory.
Believers, then, are as yet saved only in hope. They have received but the earnest and foretaste of their salvation. They groan under the weight which is borne by them, and their bodies are subject to the sentence of temporal death. If they were in the full possession of their salvation, faith would no longer be the conviction of things hoped for, as things hoped for are not things enjoyed. This corresponds with what the Apostle says elsewhere, when he exhorts believers to work out their salvation, and when he remarks that our elevation is nearer than when we first believed. When it is said we are saved in hope, as it supposes our felicity to be future, so it implies that all the good we can for the present enjoy of that distant and future felicity is obtained by hoping for it; and, therefore, if we could not hope for it, we should lose all the encouragement we have in the prospect.
Romans 8:25 — But; if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Hope produces patience with respect to all the, trials, and labors, and difficulties that must be encountered before we obtain its object. Since we hope for what we see not, — that is, for what we possess not, — there must consequently be a virtue by which, being held firm, we wait for it, and that is patience. For between hope and enjoyment of the thing hoped for a delay intervenes, and there are many temptations within, and afflictions from without, by which hope would be turned into despair, if it were not supported by patience. As long as hope prevails, the combat will not be given up. In the 23rd verse, believers are said to be waiting for the adoption; here the inducement to their waiting, and patiently waiting, is stated, — it is their hope supported by patience. Patiently bearing their present burden, and waiting for heaven, implies their expectation that it is reserved for them. They have been begotten again to a lively hope of possessing it by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which is a sure pledge of the redemption of their bodies from the grave. This verse and the preceding teach the importance of hope to believers, and of their obeying the exhortation to give all diligence to the full assurance of hope. The hope of beholding Jesus as he is, and of obtaining ’a better resurrection,’ is calculated to enable them patiently to sustain the sufferings of the present time. This hope is represented as encouraging the Lord Himself, ’who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,’ Hebrews 12:2.
Romans 8:26 — Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Believers have need of patience, that, after they have done the will of God,they may receive the promise; but their patience is not perfect as it ought to be, and they are often ready to cast away their confidence, although it hath great recompense of reward. For their support, then, in their warfare, which is attended with so much difficulty, the Apostle presents a variety of considerations. He had reminded them, in the 17th verse, of their communion with Jesus Christ, and that, if they suffer with Him, they shall with Him also be glorified. In the 18th verse, he had told them that their sufferings bear no proportion to that glory of which they shall be made partakers. He had next drawn an argument, from the present state of creation, suffering, but waiting for and expecting its deliverance, and the manifestation of the sons of God; and reminding them of the pledges they certainty, although still future, and therefore as yet enjoyed only in hope. But as they might still object, How, even admitting the force of these encouragements, can we, who are so weak in ourselves, and so inferior in power to the enemies we have to encounter, bear up under so many trials? the Apostle, in the verse before us, points out an additional and internal source of encouragement of the highest consideration, namely, that the Holy spirit helps their infirmities, and also prays for them, which is sufficient to allay every desponding fear, and to communicate the strongest consolation.
At the close of the sacred canon, the Church is represented as saying, ’Come, Lord Jesus.’ Being a stranger on earth, and her felicity consisting in communion with her glorious Lord, she groans on account of His absence, and ardently desires His holy and blessed presence. In the meantime, however, He vouchsafes to His people great consolation to compensate for His absence. He assures them that He has ascended to His Father and their Father, to His God and their God; that in His Father’s house are many mansions; that He is gone to prepare a place for them; and that, when He has prepared a place He will return and receive them to Himself, that where He is they may be also. They also know the way, He Himself being the way and their guide. How encouraging is this doctrine, and how well calculated for the support of hope and patience in expecting the return of the Bridegroom! If He is gone to their common Father, communion in His glory will not long be delayed. If there be many mansions in the house of their Heavenly Father, these are prepared to receive not only the elder Brother, but all His brethren; for were there only one abode, it would be for Him alone. If He is gone to prepare a place, and if He is soon to come again to receive them to Himself, is it not calculated to fill them with joy in the midst of troubles and afflictions? But all these consolations would be insufficient unless Jesus had added, that He would not leave them orphans, but would give them another Comforter to abide with them for ever, even the Spirit of truth. Without such support they would be overwhelmed by the weight of their afflictions, and overcome by their manifold temptations. But since they have not only an almighty Surety, but also an almighty Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, who dwells in them, and abides with them, this is sufficient to confirm their joy, to establish their hope, and to give them the assurance that nothing shall separate them from the love of Christ. Such is the consolation, in addition to all the others which, in the passage before us, the Apostle presents.
Likewise the Spirits also helpeth our infirmities — Likewise, or in like manner, as we are supported by hope, so the Spirit also helps our infirmities. The expression helpeth our infirmities, is very significant. The Apostle intends to say that the Holy Spirit carries, or bears with us, our afflictions. If it be inquired why this help which we received from the Holy Spirit is distinguished from the support we have from hope and patience, the answer is, that the Holy Spirit supports us, as being the efficient principle and first cause; and hope and patience supports as His instruments. On this account the Apostle, after having referred to the two former, speaks of this support of the Spirit. And here we find the most abundant consolation in Him who is the promised Comforter, for the all-powerful God Himself comes to help our infirmities.
Paul does not say infirmity, but infirmities, that we may remember how numerous they are, and may humble ourselves before God, renouncing our pride and presumption, and imploring His support. He also says, our infirmities, thus recognizing them as also his own, and reminding the strongest of their weakness. The burdens of believers are of two kinds: the one is sin, the other is suffering. Under both of these they are supported. As to sin, Jesus has charged Himself with it. ’He bore our sins in His own body on the tree;’ and as to sufferings, they are helped by the Holy Spirit, but only in part, by imparting strength to bear them; for all Christians must bear their cross in following Jesus. But in the kingdom of heaven, where every tear shall be wiped from their eyes, they shall be for ever delivered from all suffering.
Christians have at present many infirmities; they are in themselves altogether weakness; but the Holy Spirit dwells in their hearts, and is their strong consolation. Without Him they could not bear their trials, or perform what they are called to endure. But as He dwells in them, He gives them that aid of which they stand in need. Are we weak, and our troubles great? Here the almighty God comes to support us. Are we bowed down under the weight of our afflictions? Behold, He who is all-powerful bears them with us! The care of shepherds over their flocks, and the care of mothers who carry their infants in their bosoms, are but feeble images of the love of God and the care He exercises over His people. A mother may forsake her sucking child, but the Lord will not forsake His children. ’When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.’
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. — There are two things in prayer: namely, the matter of prayer, that is, the things we ask for, and the act of prayer, by which we address God respecting our desires and necessities. But so great is the infirmity and ignorance of the believer, that he does not even know what he ought to ask. He is not thoroughly acquainted either with his dangers or his wants. He needs not only to be supplied from on high, but also Divine guidance to show him what he wants. When he knows not what to ask, the office of the Holy Spirit in the heart is to assist him in praying. Though, in a peculiar sense, Jesus is the believer’s intercessor in heaven, yet the Holy Spirit intercedes in him on earth, teaching him what to ask, and exciting in him groanings expressive of his wants, though they cannot be uttered; that is, they cannot be expressed in words. Yet these wants are uttered in groans, and in this manner most emphatically express what is meant, while they indicate the energy of the operation of the Spirit. Here the Apostle goes farther than in the former clause of the verse, and shows that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, by referring to a particular example of this aid. In order to prove the extent of our weakness, the importance of the help of the Holy Spirit, and the greatness of the assistance He gives, Paul declares that we know not what we should pray for as we ought. Our blindness and natural ignorance are such, that we know not how to make a proper choice of the things for which we ought to pray. Sometimes we are ready to ask what is not suitable, as when Moses prayed to be allowed to enter Canaan, although, as being a type of Christ, he must die before the people, for whom he was the mediator, could enter the promised land; and as Paul, when He prayed to be delivered from the thorn in his flesh, not understanding that it was proper that he should be thus afflicted, that he might not be exalted above measure. Sometimes, too, we ask even for things that would be hurtful were we to receive them; of which there are many examples in Scripture, as James 4:3.
The people of God are often so much oppressed, and experience such anguish of mind, that their agitated spirits, borne down by affliction, can neither perfectly conceive nor properly express their complaints and requests to God. Shall they then remain without prayer? No; the Holy Spirit acts in their hearts, exciting in them sighs and groans. Such appear to have been the groanings of Hezekiah, when he said, ’Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward; O Lords I am oppressed, undertake for me.’ Such also was the experience of David in the seventy-seventh Psalm, when he says, ’I am so troubled that I cannot speak.’ Thus, too, Hannah ’space in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.’ No words of Peter in his repentance are recorded; his groanings are represented by his weeping bitterly; and in the same way we read of the woman who was a sinner as only washing the feet of Jesus with her tears, which expressed the inward groanings of her heart.
Although these sightings or groanings of the children of God are here ascribed to the Holy spirit, it is not to be supposed that the Divine Spirit can be subject to such emotions or perturbations of mind; but it is so represented, because He: draws forth these groans from our hearts and excites them there. Thus it is for hearts that groan, but the operation and emotion is from the Holy Spirit; for the subject of these, and He who produces them, must not be confounded. In this way the Apostle speaks in the fourth chapter to the Galatians. ’Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’ And in the 15th verse of the chapter before us, he shows that it is we who cry ’Abba, Father,’ in order that we may observe that it is not the Spirit who cries, who prays, who groans, but that He causes us to cry, and pray, and groan. Such, then, is the work of the Holy Spirit here spoken of in the heart of believers, from which we learn that if there be any force in us to resist evil, and to overcome temptation, it is not of ourselves, but of our God. And hence it follows that if we have borne up under any affliction or temptation, we ought to render thanks to God, seeing that by His power He has supported us, and to pray, as David did, ’Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.’
The Holy Spirit often, in a peculiar manner, helpeth the infirmities of the children of God in the article of death enabling them to sustain the pains and weaknesses of their bodies, and supporting their souls by His consolations in that trying hour. The body is then borne down with trouble, but the mind is sustained by the consolations of God. The eye of the body is dim, but the eye of faith is often at that season most unclouded. The outward man perisheth, but the inward man is renewed. Then, when Satan makes his last and greatest effort to subvert the soul, and comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him, exciting in the believer a more ardent faith, and consoling him, though unable to express it, with a strong conviction of the Divine love and faithfulness. It is by this means that so many martyrs have triumphantly died, surmounting, by the power of the Spirit within them, the apprehension of the most excruciating bodily torture, and rejoicing in the midst of their sufferings.
Romans 8:27 — And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
It might be objected, To what purpose are those groanings which we cannot understand? To this the Apostle very fully replies in this verse, —
1.God knows what these prayers mean, for ’He searcheth the hearts’ of men, of which he hath perfect knowledge. The believer sighs and groans, while, owing to his perplexity and distress, he cannot utter a word before God; nevertheless these sighs and groanings are full of meaning.
2.God knoweth what is ’the mind of the Spirit,’ or what He is dictating in the heart, and therefore He must approve of it; for the Father and Spirit are one.
3.Because, or rather, ’that He maketh intercession.’ We are not to understand His intercession as the reason why God knows the mind of the Spirit, but as the reason why He will hear and answer the groans which the Holy Spirit excites. A further reason is, that this intercession is made for the saints; that is, for the children of God, of whom He hath said, ’Gather My saints together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice,’ Psalms 1:5.
Finally, it is added, that it is ’according to God,’ or to the will of God. These prayers, then, will be heard, because the Spirit intercedes for those who are the children of God, and because He excites no desires but what are agreeable to the will of God. From all this we see how certain it is that these groanings which cannot be uttered must be heard, and consequently answered. For ’this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us.’ The best prayers are not those of human eloquence, but which spring from earnest desires of the heart.
This verse is replete with instruction as well as consolation. We are here reminded that the Lord is the searcher of hearts. ’Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more then the hearts of the children of men.’ The reasons of the perfect knowledge that God has of our hearts, are declared in the 139th Psalm: —
1.The infinity, the omnipresence, and omniscience of God.
2.He forms the heart, and knows His own work.
3.He preserves and maintains the heart in all its operations.
4.He conducts and leads it, and therefore knows and sees it. The prayer of the heart, then, is attended to by God, as well as the prayer of the lips. Yet this does not prove that oral prayer is unnecessary — not even in our secret devotions.
This passage teaches us to look to God for an answer to the secret groanings of our heart; but it does not teach us to neglect communing with God with our lips, when we can express our thoughts. This is abundantly taught in the word of God, both by precept and example. Searching the heart is here given as a characteristic peculiar to God. As, then, it is ascribed in other passages to our Lord Jesus Christ, He must be God. This passage clearly establishes the personal distinction between the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The persons to whom the benefit of this intercession of the Spirit extends are said to be saints This proves that none can pray truly and effectually except the saints. It is only in the saints that the Spirit dwells, and of whose prayers He is the Author; and it is they only who are sanctified by Him. It is the saints, then, emphatically, and the saints exclusively, for whom the Spirit makes intercession. Such only are accepted of God, and fit subjects for the operation of the Spirit; but this is not the first work of the Spirit in them. He first sanctifies and then intercedes. First, He puts into us gracious dispositions, and then stirs up holy desires; and the latter supposes the former. In those in whom the Spirit is a Spirit of intercession, in them He is a Spirit of regeneration. These are therefore joined together in Zechariah 12:10, ’The Spirit of grace and of supplications.’ None but saints have an interest in the blood of Christ, as applied unto them, and in His intercession. None are able to pray for themselves, for whom Christ does not likewise pray. We can only approach God by the Spirit. ’We have access by one Spirit to the Father,’ Ephesians 2:18. We can only pray under the influence of the Holy Spirit with groanings which cannot be uttered; while the wicked may groan without prayer. ’They have not cried unto Me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds,’ Hosea 7:14.
The other reason which renders acceptable to God the prayers and sighs excited in the saints by the Holy Spirit, is, that they are according to the will of God. The Spirit Himself being God, these requests must be agreeable to God. The carnal mind, it is said in Romans 8:7, is enmity against God; but the mind (the same word here employed) of the Spirit is agreeable to God. The intercession made by the Holy Spirit is according to the command and the revealed will of God, and in the name and in dependence on Christ the Mediator. The Holy Spirit, then, teaches the saints how to pray, and what to pray for. What He teaches them to ask on earth, is in exact correspondence with that for which Jesus, their great High Priest, is interceding for them in heaven. The intercession of Jesus before the throne is an echo to the prayer taught by the Holy Spirit in their hearts. It is therefore not only in perfect unison with the intercession of Christ, and the indicting of the Holy Spirit, but it is in exact conformity to the will of God. Such, then, is the security to the saints that their prayers, although only expressed in groans, shall be heard by their Father in heaven. ’The prayer of the upright is His delight,’ Proverbs 15:8. ’He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him,’ Psalms 145:19.
Romans 8:28 — And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
Nothing is more necessary for Christians than to be well persuaded of the happiness and privileges of their condition, that they may be able to serve God with cheerfulness and freedom of spirit, and to pass through the troubles and difficulties of the world. Here, then, is further consolation: Christians are often in sorrows, sufferings, and trials. This is not in itself joyous, but grievous; but in another point of view it is a matter of joy. Though afflictions in themselves are evil, yet in their effects as overruled and directed by God, they are useful. Yea, all things, of every kind, that happen to the Christian, are overruled by God for his good!
Having previously spoken of the various sources of consolation, and, in the two preceding verses, of the Spirit helping our infirmities, and dictating those prayers which are heard of God, the Apostle now obviates another objection. If God hears our sighs and groanings, why are we not delivered from our afflictions and troubles? In answer, it is here shown that afflictions are salutary and profitable; so that, although they are not removed, God changes their natural tendency, and makes them work for our good. But in order that none should hereby be led into carnal security, the Apostle adds, that those for whom all things work together for good are such as love God, and are the called according to His purpose. This is not only true in itself, but it is here asserted to be a truth known to believers.
The Apostle had proposed various considerations, to which he now says we know this is to be added. This does not mean that believers know it merely in a speculative manner, but that it is a knowledge which enters into their heart and affections, producing in them confidence in its truth. It is a knowledge of faith which implies certainty and self application, by which the believer not only knows but applies the promises of God, and is able to say, This promise is mine, it belongs to me. For otherwise, what advantage would there be in a general knowledge of this fact? where would be its consolation, and where its practical use? ’The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.’ The experience, too, of the believer brings home to his mind the conviction of this encouraging truth. The Church of Rome accuses of presumption those who make such an application to themselves. They allow that the Christian should believe, in general, the promises of God, but that, as to a particular self-application or appropriation of them, he should hold this in doubt, and be always uncertain as to his own salvation. This is to destroy the nature of those consolations, and to render them useless. For if, inorder to console one who is afflicted, it be said to him, ’All things work together for good to them that love God,’ he will answer, True, but I must doubt whether this belongs to me; and thus the consolation is made of no effect. But if this error be not imbibed, and the duty of such appropriation be not denied, why is it that so many believers experience so little of this consolation in their afflictions? Is it not because they have little of that knowledge of which the Apostle speaks when he says, ’We know that all things work together for good to them that love God?’ Carnal affections, the love of the world, and indulgence of the flesh, prevent this consideration from being deeply impressed on their minds; they also darken their understandings, so as not to allow the light of the consolations of God to enter their hearts. But in proportion as their hearts are purified from these affections, in the same degree it is confirmed in their minds. The objection, why sufferings are not removed, should be answered by reminding believers that all things work together for their good.
All things work together for good to them that love God — All things, whatever they be — all things indefinitely — are here intended. The extent of this expression is by many limited to afflictions. ’Paul, it must be remembered,’ says Calvin on this text, ’is speaking only of adversity;’ and he adds, ’Paul is here speaking of the cross; and on this account the observation of Augustine, though true, does not bear on this passage — that even the sins of believers are so ordered by the providence of God as to serve rather to the advancement of their salvation than to their injury.’ It is true that the Apostle had been referring to the present sufferings of believers, and enumerating various special topics of consolation; but, approaching to the conclusion of his enumeration, it might be expected that the last of them would be no longer of a special but of a most comprehensive description. That it is so, the terms he employs warrant us to conclude. All things, he says. If the context necessarily limited this expression, its universality ought not to be contended for; but it does not If it be, as Calvin admits, that what is here said is true even of the sins of believers (and if applicable to sins, what else can be excepted?), why should the sense be limited to sufferings It is much more consolatory, and consequently more to the Apostle’s purpose, if literally all things be comprehended; and in this view it would form the most complete summing up of his subject. He had been pointing out to believers their high privileges as heirs of God, and partakers of glory with Christ. He had said that their sufferings in the present time are not worthy to be compared with that glory. He had suggested various topics to induce them to wait for it with patience; and had given them the highest encouragement, from the fact of the working of the Spirit of all grace within them, and of the acceptance of that work by God. Is it then more than was to be expected, that he should conclude the whole by saying that all things, without exception, were concurring for their good? Is it too much to suppose that it must be so to them whom he had addressed as heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, who are therefore under the guidance of the Good Shepherd, and honored by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost? Is it more than the Apostle says on another occasion, when he uses the very same expression, all things, and, so far from intimating any exception, adds a most comprehensive catalogue? ’All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, for ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s,’ 1 Corinthians 3:21. And again, ’All things are for your sakes,’ 2 Corinthians 4:15. Finally, ought the expression here to be restricted, when it is impossible to believe that the same expression, occurring a few sentences afterwards, Romans 8:32, can be restricted? That all things work together for the good of them that love God, is a truth affording the highest consolation. These words teach believers that whatever may be the number and overwhelming character of adverse circ*mstances, they are all contributing to conduct them into the possession of the inheritance provided for them in heaven. That they are thus working for the good of the children of God, is manifest from the consideration that God governs the world. The first cause of all is God; second causes are all His creatures, whether angels, good or bad men, animals, or the inanimate creation. Second causes move only under His direction; and when God withdraws His hand, they cannot more at all, as it is written, ’In Him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As God, then, the first cause, moves all second causes against His enemies, so, when He is favorable to us, He employs all to move and work for our good, as it is said, ’In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; and will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely,’ Hosea 2:18. And as of men it is said, ’When a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies-to be at peace with him,’ Proverbs 16:7.
If all things work together for good, there is nothing within the compass of being that is not, in one way or other, advantageous to the children of God. All the attributes of God, all the offices of Christ, all the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, are combined for their good. The creation of the world, the fall and the redemption of man, all the dispensations of Providence, whether prosperous or adverse, all occurrences and events — all things, whatsoever they be — work for their good. They work together in their efficacy, in their unity, and in their connection. They do not work thus of themselves: it is God that turns all things to the good of His children. The afflictions of believers, in a peculiar manner, contribute to this end. ’Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes.’ ’Tribulation worketh patience.’ ’No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness Unto them which are exercised thereby.’ And believers are chastened by God for their profit, that they may be partakers of His holiness. The Apostle himself was an example of this, when a thorn in his flesh was sent to him to prevent his being exalted above measure. We see how much the sufferings of those spoken of in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews were calculated to detach their affections from this present world, and lead them to seek a better, even a heavenly country. There is often a need be for their being in heaviness through manifold temptations. Even the sins of believers work for their good, not from the nature of sin, but by the goodness and power of Him who brings light out of darkness. Everywhere in Scripture we read of the great evil of sin. Everywhere we receive the most solemn warning against its commission; and everywhere we hear also of the chastisem*nts it brings, even upon those who are rescued from its finally condemning power. It is not sin, then, in itself that works the good, but God who overrules its effects to His children, — shows them, by means of it, what is in their hearts, as well as their entire dependence on Himself, and the necessity of walking with Him more closely. Their falls lead them to humiliation, to the acknowledgment of their weakness and depravity, to prayer for the guidance and overpowering influence of the Holy Spirit, to vigilance and caution against all carnal security, and to reliance on that righteousness provided for their appearance before God. It is evident that the sin of Adam, which is the source of all their sins, has wrought for their good in raising them to a higher degree of glory. Believers fall into sin, and on account of this God hides His face from them, and they are troubled; and, like Hezekiah, they go softly. God left Hezekiah to himself, but it was to do him good at his latter end.
But if our sins work together for our good, shall we sin that grace may abound? Far be the thought. This would be entirely to misunderstand the grace of God, and to turn it into an occasion of offending Him. Against such an abuse of the doctrine of grace, the Apostle contends in the 6th chapter of this Epistle. Sin should be considered in its nature, not as to what it is adventitiously, or in respect to what is foreign to it. Sin as committed by us is only sin, and rebellion against God and the holiness of His nature. It ought therefore to be regarded with abhorrence, and merits eternal punishment. That it is turned to good, is the world of God, and not ours. We ought no more to conclude that on this account we may sin, than that wicked men do what is right when they persecute the people of God, because persecutions are overruled by Him for good. That all things work together for good to them who love God, establishes the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints; for if all things work together for their good, what or where is that which God will permit to lead them into condemnation?
That all things happen for the best is a common saying among people of the world. This is a fact as to the final issue of the Divine administration, by which all things shall be made to contribute to the glory of God. But as to sinners individually, the reverse is true. All things are indeed working together in one complex plan in the providence of God for the good of those who love Him; but so far from working for good, or for the best to His enemies, everything is working to their final ruin. Both of these effects are remarkably exemplified in the lives of Saul and David. Even the aggravated sin of David led him to deep humiliation and godly sorrow, to a greater knowledge of his natural and original depravity, of the deceitfulness of his heart, and to his singing aloud of God’s righteousness. The sins of Saul, as well as everything that befell him in God’s providence, led to his becoming more hardened in his impiety, and at last conducted him to despair and suicide. The histories of many others, both believers and sinners, recorded in the Old Testament, abundantly confirm the words of the Psalmist, ’The Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked will be destroyed.’ ’The way of the wicked He turneth upside down.’
There are two scriptures which should fill the people of God with joy and consolation. The one is, ’The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that love Him,’ Psalms 84:11. The other is the passage before us, ’All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.’ If, then, God will withhold nothing that is good for us, and will order and dispose of all things for good to us, what can be wanting to our absolute and complete security? How admirable is the providence of God, not only as all things are ordered by Him, but as He overrules whatever is most disordered, and turns to good things that in themselves are most pernicious. We admire His providence in the regularity of the seasons, of the course of the sun and stars; but this is not so wonderful as His bringing good out of evil in all the complicated acts and occurrences in the lives of men, and making even the power and malice of Satan, with the naturally destructive tendency of his works, to minister to the good of His children.
That love God — What is said of all things working together for good is here limited to those who love God. This is given as a peculiar characteristic of a Christian. It imports that all behaviors love God, and that one but believers love Him. Philosophers, falsely so called, and men of various descriptions, may boast of loving God; but the decision of God Himself is, that to love Him is the peculiar characteristic of a Christian. No man can love God till He hath shined into his heart to give him the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. It is therefore only through faith in the blood of Christ that we can love God. Until our faith gives us some assurance of reconciliation with God, we cannot have the confidence which is essential to loving God. Till then we dread God as our enemy, and fear that He will punish us for our sins. In loving God, the affections of the believer terminate in God as their last and highest end; and this they can do in God only. In everything else, there being only a finite goodness, we cannot absolutely rest in it. This is the rest that David had when he said, ’Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee; God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever,’ Psalms 73:25. This is what satisfies the believer in his need and poverty, and in every situation in which he may be placed, for it suffices him to have God for his heritage and his possession, since God is his all; and as this Divine love expels the love of the world, so it overcomes the immoderate love of himself. He is led to love what God loves, and to hate what God hates, and thus he walks in communion with God, loving God, and more and more desiring to comprehend what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
To those who are the called according to His purpose — This is a further description or characteristic of God’s people. They are called not merely outwardly by the preaching of the Gospel, for this is common to them with unbelievers, but called also by the Spirit, with an internal and effectual calling, and made willing in the day of God’s power. They are called according to God’s eternal purpose, according to which He knew them, and purposed their calling before they were in existence; for all God’s purposes are eternal. It imports that their calling is solely the effect of grace; for when it is said to be a calling according to God’s purpose, it is distinguished from a calling according to works. ’Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,’ 2 Timothy 1:9. It imports that it is an effectual and permanent calling; for God’s purposes cannot be defeated. ’The counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.’ Their calling is according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will,’ Ephesians 1:11.
Romans 8:29 — For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
The Apostle having exhibited to believers many grounds of consolation, to induce them patiently to endure the sufferings of this present time, now points to the source of their future glory, in order to assure them of its certainty. The easy and natural transition to this branch of his subject should be particularly noticed. He had declared in the foregoing verse that all things work together for good to them who love God; but as it is always necessary to keep in mind that our love to God is not the cause of His love to us, nor, consequently, of the privileges with which we are favored, but the effects of His loving us, Deuteronomy 7:6-8; Jeremiah 1:5, the Apostle adds, ’Who are the called according to His purpose.’ This declaration leads at once to a full and most encouraging view of the progress of the Divine procedure originating with God, and carried, through all its connecting links, forward to the full possession of that glory which shall be revealed in us.
For whom He did foreknow — The word foreknow has three significations. One is general, importing simply a knowledge of things before they come into existence. In this general sense it is evident that it is not employed in this passage, since it is limited to those whom God predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. He foreknows all things before they come to pass; but here foreknowledge refers only to particular individuals. A second signification is a knowledge accompanied by a decree. In this sense it signifies ordinance and providence, as it is said, Acts 2:23, ’Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God;’ that is to say, by the ordinance and providence of God. The reason why this word is used to denote the Divine determinations is because the foreknowledge of God necessarily implies His purpose or decree with respect to the thing foreknown. For God foreknows what will be, by determining what shall be. God’s foreknowledge cannot in itself be the cause of any event; but events must be produced by His decree and ordination. It is not because God foresees a thing that it is decreed; but He foresees it because it is ordained by Him to happen in the order of His providence. Therefore His foreknowledge and decrees cannot be separated; for the one implies the other. When He decrees that a thing shall be, He foresees that it will be. There is nothing known as what will be, which is not certainly to be; and there is nothing certainly to be, unless it is ordained that it shall be. All the foreknowledge of future events, then, is founded on the decree of God; consequently He determined with Himself from eternity everything He executes in time, Acts 15:18. Nothing is contingent in the mind of God, who foresees and orders all events according to His own eternal and unchangeable will. Jesus Christ was not delivered by God fore knowing it before it took place, but by His fixed counsel and ordination, or His providence. Thus believers are called elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, 1 Peter 1:2; and in the same chapter, Verse 19, 20, the Apostle Peter says that Jesus Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Here foreknown signifies, as it is rendered, fore-ordained.
The third signification of this word consists in a knowledge of love and approbation; and in this sense it signifies to choose and recognize as His own, as it is said, Romans 11:2, ’God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew,’ — that is, whom He had before loved and chosen; for the Apostle alleges this foreknowledge as the reason why God had not rejected His people. In this manner the word ’know’ is often taken in Scripture in the sense of knowing with affection, loving, approving; as in the first Psalm, ’The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.’ To know the way of the just, is to love, to approve, as appears by the antithesis. Paul says to the Corinthians, ’If any man love God, the same is know of Him,’ 1 Corinthians 8:3; and to the Galatians, ’But now after ye have known God or rather are known of Him.’ In the same way, God said by His Prophet to Israel, ’You only have I known of all the families of the earth,’ Amos 3:2. At the day of judgment Jesus Christ will say to hypocrites, ’I never knew you,’ Matthew 7:23; that is to say, He never loved or acknowledged them, although He perfectly knew their characters and actions. In this last sense the word foreknow is employed in the passage before us. Those whom God foreknew — those whom He before loved, chose, acknowledged as His own — He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son It is not a general anticipated knowledge that is here intended. The Apostle does not speak of all, but of some, whom in Romans 8:33 he calls ’God’s elect;’ and not of anything in their persons, or belonging to them, but of the persons themselves, whom it is said God foreknew. And He adds, that those whom He foreknew He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son; and whom he predestinated He also called, and justified, and glorified. By foreknowledge, then, is not here meant a foreknowledge of faith or good works, or of concurrence with the external call Faith cannot be the cause of foreknowledge, because foreknowledge is before predestination, and faith is the effect of predestination. ’As many as were ordained to eternal life believed,’ Acts 13:48. Neither can it be meant of the foreknowledge of good works, because these are the effects of predestination. ’We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works; which God hath before ordained (or before prepared) that we should walk in them,’ Ephesians 2:10. Neither can it be meant of foreknowledge of our concurrence with the external call, because our effectual calling depends not upon that concurrence, but upon God’s purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9. By this foreknowledge, then, is meant, as has been observed, the love of God towards those whom He predestinates to be saved through Jesus Christ. All the called of God are foreknown by Him, — that is, they are the objects of His eternal love, and their calling comes from this free love. ’I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn thee,’ Jeremiah 31:3.
He also did predestinate — Foreknowledge and predestination are distinguished. The one is the choice of persons, the other the destination of those persons to the blessings for which they are designed. To predestinate signifies to appoint beforehand to some particular end. In Scripture it is taken sometimes generally for any decree of God, as in Acts 4:28, where the Apostles say that the Jews were assembled to do whatsoever the hand and the counsel of God had determined (predestinated) before to be done. And Paul says, 1 Corinthians 2:7, ’We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained (predestinated) before the world unto our glory.’ Sometimes this word is taken specially for the decree of the salvation of man, as Ephesians 1:5, ’Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.’ In whom also we have obtained an inheritance,being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.’ In the same way, in the passage before us, ’Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.’ As the term is here used, it respects not all men, but only those of whom God has placed His love from eternity, and on whom He purposes to bestow life through Jesus Christ. As, then, it is absolute and complete, so it is definite; and the number who are thus predestinated can neither be increased nor diminished. It is not that God had foreseen us as being in Christ Jesus by faith, and on that account had elected us, but that Jesus Christ, being the Mediator between God and man, God had predestinated us to salvation only in Him. For as the union which we have with Him is the foundation of all the good which we receive from God, so we must be elected in Him; that is to say, that God gives us to Him to be His members, and to partake in the good things to which God predestinates us. So that Jesus Christ has been the first predestinated and appointed to be the Mediator, in order that God should bless us with all spiritual blessings in Him.
In the passage above quoted, Ephesians 1:5, the cause of predestination is traced solely to God. After saying that God had predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, it is added, ’to Himself,’ to show that God has no cause out of Himself moving Him to this grace. In order to enforce this, it is further added, ’according to the good pleasure of His will;’ and, in the third place, it is subjoined, ’to the praise of the glory of His grace;’ from all which it follows that it must necessarily be by grace, — that is, free, unmerited favor. Love to God, or conformity to the image of Christ, cannot in any respect have its origin in fallen man. ’Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.’ ’We love Him, because He first loved us.’ ’It is a foolish inference,’ says Calvin, ’of these disputants, who say that God has elected such only as He foresaw would be worthy of grace. For Peter does not flatter believers, as if they were elected for their own individual merits, but refers their election to the eternal counsel of God, and strips them of all worthiness. In this passage, also, Paul repeats in another word what he had lately intimated concerning God’s eternal purpose; and it hence follows that this knowledge depends on the good pleasure of His will, because, by adopting whom He would, God did not extend His foreknowledge to anything out of Himself, but only marked out those whom He intended to elect.’
The foundation of predestination is Jesus Christ, by whom we receive the adoption of children. Its object is man, not invested with any quality which moves God to predestinate him, but as corrupted and guilty in Adam — dead in trespasses and sins until quickened by God. The blessing to which God had predestinated those whom He foreknew is salvation, as it is said, ’God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ;’ or, as it is expressed in the verse before us, ’to be conformed to the image of His Son.’ The means to all this are our calling and justification. The final end of predestination is the glory of God, — ’to the glory of His grace;’ ’and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.’ On the consideration of their election, the Apostles urge believers to walk in holiness. ’Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering,’ Colossians 3:12. ’Ye are a chosen (elected) generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,’ 1 Peter 2:9.
In the election of some, and the passing by of others, the wisdom of God is manifest; for by this means He displays both His justice and mercy, — otherwise one of these perfections would not have appeared. If all had been withdrawn from their state of corruption, the justice of God would not have manifested itself in their punishment. If none had been chosen, His mercy would not have been seen. In the salvation of these, God has displayed His grace; and in the punishment of sin in the others, He has discovered His justice and hatred of iniquity. This doctrine of election is full of consolation, and is the true source of Christian assurance. For who can shake this foundation, which is more firm than that of the heavens and the earth, and can no more be shaken than God Himself? The sheep whom God hath given to His Son by His predestination no one can pluck out of His hands.
But although this doctrine of election of the people of God to eternal life is a doctrine so consoling to them, and must have necessarily entered into the plan of salvation to render it consistent with itself, yet there are many who, in preaching the Gospel, deem it improper, notwithstanding they have the express example of our Lord, John 6:37; John 6:44; John 6:65, to declare it before promiscuous multitudes, or even generally to believers, although so frequently introduced by the Apostles in their Epistles to the churches. Against this practice, prompted by worldly wisdom, Luther has forcibly remonstrated in the following appeal to Erasmus: — ’If, my Erasmus, you consider these paradoxes (as you term them) to be no more than the inventions of men, why are you so extraordinarily heated on the occasion? In that case your arguments affect not me; for there is no person now living in the world who is a more avowed enemy to the doctrines of men than myself. But if you believe the doctrines in debate between us to be (as indeed they are) the doctrines of God, you must here bid adieu to all sense of shame and decency thus to oppose them. I will not ask, whither is the modesty of Erasmus fled? but, which is much more important, where, alas! are your fear and reverence of the Deity, when you roundly declare that this branch of truth, which He has revealed from heaven, is at best useless and unnecessary to know? What! shall the glorious Creator be taught by you, His creature, what is fit to be preached, and what to be suppressed? Is the adorable God so very defective in wisdom and prudence, as not to know, till you instruct Him, what would be useful and what pernicious? Or, could not He, whose understanding is infinite, foresee, previous to His revelation of this doctrine, what would be the consequences of His revealing it, till these consequences were pointed out by you? You cannot, you dare not, say this. If, then, it was the Divine pleasure to make known these things in His word, and to bid His messengers publish them abroad, and to leave the consequences of their so doing to the wisdom and providence of Him in whose name they speak, and whose message they declare, who art thou, O Erasmus, that thou shouldst reply against God?’
To be conformed to the image of His Son — This implies that the children of God must all be made to resemble Christ, their head and elder brother. This likeness respects character and suffering, as well as all things in which such similarity is found to exist. The Lord Jesus Christ, the first elect of God, is the model after which all the elect of God must be formed. Man was created in the image of God; but when sin entered, he lost this image; and Adam ’begat a son in his own likeness after his image,’ Genesis 5:3; thus communicating to his posterity his corrupted nature. But as God had determined to save a part of the fallen race, it was ’according to His good pleasure’ to renew His image in those whom He had chosen to this salvation. This was to be accomplished by the incarnation of His Son, ’who is the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person,’ to whose image they were predestinated to be conformed.
This image of the Son of God, consisting in supernatural, spiritual, and celestial qualities, is stamped upon all the children of God when they are adopted into His family. Imparting to them spiritual life, He renders them partakers of the Divine nature; that is to say, of His image, being the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. They are the workmanship of God, erected in Christ Jesus, being born of the Spirit, and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them; and he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. Thus the souls of believers are confirmed to the image of Christ, as their bodies will be also at his second coming, when they shall be ’fashioned like unto His glorious body.’ To this conformity to the image of His Son, all those whom God foreknew are predestinated. For as they have borne the image of the earthy, they shall also bear the image of the heavenly Adam.
Believers are conformed to the image of the Son of God in holiness and suffering in this life, and in glory in the life to come. They are conformed to Him in holiness, for Christ is made unto them sanctification. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image. They put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that erected him. In suffering they are conformed to Him who was ’a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.’ They must endure tribulation, and fill up what is behind of His affection. As the Captain of their salvation was made perfect through sufferings, and through sufferings entered into His glory, so the sufferings of His people, while they promote their conformity to Him in holiness constitute the path in which they follow Him to that glory. ’Ye are they who have continued with Me in My temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom.’ What the Apostle hath said in the 17th verse, that if believers suffer with Christ they share also be glorified together, is here confirmed by his declaration that they are predestinated to be conformed to His image. This image, of which the outlines are in this world traced in them, is only perfected in heaven.
That He might be the Firstborn among many brethren — Here is a reason for those whom God foreknew being conformed to the image of His Son; and a limitation of that conformity which they shall have to Him. The reason is, that He might have many brethren. Next to the glory of God, the object of His incarnation was the salvation of a multitude which no man can number of those whose nature He assumed, and this was accomplished by His death. Referring to this, He Himself says, ’Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’ Accordingly, in the everlasting covenant between the Father and the Son, when grace was given to His people in Him before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9, and when God promised to Him for them eternal life also before the world began, Titus 1:2, it was determined that when He should make His soul an offering for sin, He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and that by the knowledge of Him many should be justified. He was to bear the sins of many. ’Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee; as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.’ By His obedience many were to be made righteous. As the Captain of their salvation, He was to bring many sons unto glory. To Him many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ’The gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many.’ And as He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, He is not ashamed to call them brethren. But as in all things He must have the pre-eminence, so this limitation is introduced, that among them all He must be the ’firstborn;’ that is to say, the first, the principal the most excellent, The Governor, the Lord.
Under the law, the firstborn had authority over their brethren, and to them belonged a double portion, as well as the honor of acting as priests, — the firstborn in Israel being holy, that is to say, consecrated to the Lord Reuben, forfeiting his right of primogeniture by his sin, its privileges were divided, so that the dominion belonging to it was transferred to Judah, and the double portion to Joseph, who had two tribes and two portions in Canaan, by Ephraim and Manasseh; while the priesthood and right of sacrifice was transferred to Levi. The word first to born also signifies what surpasses anything else of the same kind, as ’the firstborn of the poor,’ Isaiah 14:30, that is to say, the most miserable of all; and the firstborn of death, Job 18:13, signifying a very terrible death, surpassing in grief and violence. The term firstborn is also applied to those who were most beloved, as Ephraim is called the firstborn of the Lord, Jeremiah 31:9, that is, His ’dear son.’ In all these respects the appellation of firstborn belongs to Jesus Christ, both as to the superiority of His nature, of His office, and of His glory.
Regarding His nature, He was as to His divinity truly the firstborn, since He alone is the only-begotten — the eternal Son of the Father. In this respect He is the Son of God by nature, while His brethren are sons of God by grace. In His humanity He was conceived without sin, beloved of God; instead of which they are conceived in sin, and are by nature children of wrath. In that nature He possessed the Spirit without measure; while they receive out of His fullness according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Regarding his office, He is their King, their Head, their Lord, their Priest, their Prophet, their Surety, their Advocate with the Father, — in one word, their Savior. It is He who of God is made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. They are all His subjects, whom He leads and governs by His Spirit, for whose sins He has made atonement by His sufferings. They are His disciples, whom He has called from darkness into His marvelous light. Concerning His glory, ’God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.’ ’He is the head of the body, the Church; what is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence He is the firstborn from the dead, as being raised the first, and being made the first-fruits of them that slept; and by His power they shall be raised to a life glorious and eternal.
Romans 8:30 — Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called — Here the Apostle connects our calling, which is known, with God’s decree, which is concealed, to teach us that we may judge of our election by our calling 2 Peter 1:10. For Paul says, they whom God hath predestinated He hath also called and justified; so we may say, those whom He hath called and justified He hath elected and predestinated. If God hath called us, then He hath elected us. Paul had spoken of God’s predestining His people to be conformed to the image of His Son: He now shows us how this is effected. They are to be molded into this likeness to their elder Brother by being called both by the word and Spirit of God. God calls them by His grace, Galatians 1:15, — that is, without regard to anything in themselves. Effectual calling is the first internal operation of grace on those who are elected. They are not merely called externally, as many who are not elected. The scriptures speak of the universal call of the Gospel, addressed to all men; but this is not inseparably connected with salvation; for in this sense the Lord has said that ’many are called, but few are chosen.’ At three periods, all mankind were called. They were called through Adam; they were called by Noah; and, finally, by the Apostles, Colossians 1:23; yet how soon in each period was the external call forgotten by the great body of the human race ’They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.’ In the passage before us, and in various other places, as in Romans 8:28, it is effectual calling that is spoken of. This calling, then, signifies more than the external calling of the word. It is accompanied with more than the partial and temporary effects which the word produces on some, and is always ascribed to the operation of God by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Even when the external means are employed to most advantage, it is God only who gives the increase, 1 Corinthians 3:6. It is He who opens the heart to receive the word, Acts 16:14, — who gives a new heart, Ezekiel 36:26, — who writes His law in it, — and who saves His people, not by works of righteousness which they have done, but by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Titus 3:5.
That which is meant, then, by the word called in this passage, and in many others, is the outward calling by the word accompanied with the operation of God, by His Spirit, in the regeneration and conversion of sinners. When Jesus Christ thus calls, men instantly believe, Matthew 4:19. Grace — the operation of the favor of God in the heart — is communicated, and the sinner becomes a new creature. Regeneration is not a work which is accomplished gradually; it is effected instantaneously. At first, indeed, faith is often weak; but as the new-born infant is as much in possession of life as the full-grown man, so the spiritual life is possessed as completely in the moment of regeneration as ever it is afterwards, and previous to that moment it had no existence. There is no medium between life and death: a man is either dead in sin, or quickened by receiving the Holy Spirit; he is either in Christ, or out of Christ; God has either begun a good work in him, or he is in a state of spiritual death and corruption. By means of the word, accompanied by His Spirit, God enlightens the understanding with a heavenly light, moves the will and the affections to receive and embrace Christ, and forms in the heart His image and the new man, of which the Apostle says that it is created in righteousness and true holiness. God says, ’Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.’ He prophesies upon the dry bones, and the Spirit enters into them. Thus the same grace that operates in the election of the saints is exercised in their calling and regeneration, without which they would remain dead in trespasses and sins. ’No man,’ says Jesus, ’can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him.’
All who are elected are in due time effectually called, and all who are effectually called have been from all eternity elected and ordained to eternal salvation. Effectual calling, then, is the proper and necessary consequence and effect of election, and the means to glorification. As those whom God hath predestinated He hath called, so He hath effectually called none besides. These words before us, therefore, are to be taken not only as emphatical, but as exclusive. Consistently with this, we read of the faith of God’s elect, Titus 1:1, as that which is peculiar to them. With this calling sanctification is inseparably connected. It is denominated a holy calling. ’Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, 2 Timothy 1:9. The Author of it is holy, and it is a call to holiness. ’As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,’ 1 Peter 1:15. ’Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,’ 1 Peter 2:9. It is a calling into the grace of Christ, Galatians 1:6. In this effectual calling the final perseverance of the saints is also secured, since it stands connected on the one hand with election and predestination, and on the other hand with sanctification and glorification. ’The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.’ Calling, as the effect of predestination, must be irresistible, or rather invincible, and also irreversible.
The Church of Rome perverts the meaning of this calling; for, instead of considering it as accompanied with the communication of life to the soul, they view it merely as an act which excites and calls into action some concealed qualities in man, and awakens some feelings of holiness that are in him, and some virtues which he possesses, to receive the grace that is proclaimed to him. In this way it must not be said, with the Scripture, that God communicates life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and regenerates them, but that He only aids their weakness, and calls forth their own exertions.
If it be inquired whether God calls all men with a calling sufficient for their salvation, that is to say, if He gives to all grace sufficient to save them, it is replied, that this calling may be considered as sufficient or insufficient in different points of view; for the sufficiency of grace may be considered either on the part of God or of man. On the part of God, it must be said that His general calling is sufficient, for God having created man upright, with a disposition to obey Him, if we consider this general calling connected with that original perfection, there can be no doubt that it is sufficient. But, on the part of man, viewed in his natural state of corruption, assuredly the outward call is not sufficient, unless accompanied with the internal operation of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten the eyes of the understanding, and to open the heart to receive the calling of God, any more than if Jesus Christ had spoken to a deaf or dead man, without removing his deafness, or imparting to him life. If the voice of Jesus calling Lazarus had been unaccompanied with His power, it would not have been sufficient to raise him from the grave. The calling, then,which is not accompanied with the power of the Spirit of God, is not sufficient in regard to man, while man is inexcusable, and has no just ground of complaint, for he resists that call which, unless he was a sinful creature and an enemy to God, would be sufficient. He is, as the Psalmist says, ’like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, charm they never so wisely.’
If, again, it be inquired whether men can resist the calling of God, it is evident that, when the calling is only external, and unaccompanied with the internal operation of the Spirit, they can, and always will, resist it, Genesis 6:3; Acts 7:51. But when the calling is, at the same time, internal, — when God regenerates men, and makes them new creatures, — the question, if they can resist this, is altogether nugatory; for it is as if it were inquired if a man could resist his creation, or a dead man his being brought to life. God here acts by His almighty power, without, however, forcing our will; for communicating to us spiritual qualities, He gives us to will and to do of His good pleasure. It is therefore absurd to say that a man can resist this influence by the hardness of his heart, since it removes that hardness, and is the converting of hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. In opposition to this, the saying of our Lord is stated as an objection: ’Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.’ On this it is to be remarked, that the reference here is to Christ’s miracles, not to His preaching; and what is said of Tyre and Sidon is by comparison, what is meant being, as it seems, that the hardness of heart of those of Chorazin and Bethsaida surpassed that of Tyre and Sidon, and that if such miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would not have had so little effect as upon the former, although it is not said that the latter would have repented unto life, or that they could have been conferred to God except by the operation of His Spirit. Here the declaration of our Lord in the same context is decisive: ’At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things (the truths of God which He proclaimed) from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.’ And this He resolves, not into the difference found in man, but into the sovereignty of God. ’Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.’ And He immediately adds, ’Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.’ This must refer to an internal revelation; for as to that which was solely external, Jesus was declaring it to all. Jesus Christ knew from the beginning who they were that would believe and who would not believe, because He knew who they were whom the Father had given Him and would draw unto Him. And it is this eternal decree which He here shows is the rule of God’s calling, according to which the Son is or is not revealed: ’Ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you.’
And whom He called, them He also justified — They whom the Holy Spirit effectually calls by the Gospel to the knowledge of God are also justified. They are ’ungodly,’ Romans 4:5, till the moment when they are called;but, being then united to Christ, they are in that moment justified. They are instantly absolved from guilt, and made righteous, as having perfectly answered all the demands of the law, for by Him it has been fulfilled in them, Romans 8:4. To justify signifies to pronounce and account righteous such as have transgressed, and forfeited the favor of God, as well as incurred a penalty, conveying to them deliverance from the penalty, and restoration to that favor. And they who are thus accounted righteous by God, must be righteous, for God looks upon things as they really are; as, being one with Christ, they are perfectly righteous. ’Justification,’ says Luther, ’takes place when, in the just judgment of God, our sins, and the eternal punishment due to them, are remitted, and when clothed with the righteousness of Christ, which is freely imputed to us, and reconciled to God, we are made His beloved children, and heirs of eternal life.’ The connection between calling and justification is manifest, for we must be united to Christ to enjoy the good derived from Him. We must be members of Christ that His obedience may be ours that in Him we may have righteousness. Now, he is by our calling that we are brought into His communion, and by communion with Him to the participation of His grace and blessing, which cannot fail to belong to them who are with Him one body, one flesh, and one spirit. Those who are called must therefore be justified. They who are the members of Jesus Christ must be partakers in His righteousness, and of the Spirit of life that is in Him. Whom He calls He justifies. This proves that there are none justified till they are called. We are justified by faith, which we receive when we are effectually called.
Whom He justified, them He also glorified. — A man is justified the moment He believes in Christ; and here being glorified is connected with justification. No believer, then, finally comes short of salvation. If he is justified, he must in due time be glorified. To be glorified is to be completely conformed to the glorious image of Jesus Christ; when we shall see Him as He is, and be made like unto Him, enjoying that felicity which the Psalmist anticipated: ’Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ The glorifying of the saints will have its consummation in the day of the blessed resurrection, when their bodies shall be made like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ; when that natural body, which was sown in corruption, in dishonor, in weakness, shall be raised a spiritual body in corruption, in glory, in power. Then death will be swallowed up in victory, all tears shall be wiped away, the Lamb will lead and feed them, and God shall be all in all.
In this verse glorification is spoken of as having already taken place, because what God has determined to do may be said to be already done. ’He calls those things that be not as though they were.’ The Apostle does not say that those whom God predestinates He calls, and that those whom He justifies He glorifies; but, speaking in the past time, he says that those whom God did predestinate, them He hath also called, and justified, and glorified. By this he expresses the certainty of the counsel of God. In the same way, in the Old Testament, things future were spoken of as already accomplished, on account of the infallibility of the promises of God; so that, before Jesus Christ came into the world, it was said, ’Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.’ And He Himself speaks of what is future as already accomplished. ’I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.’ ’Now I am no more in the world,’ John 17:4; John 17:11. In like manner the Apostle speaks here of glory as already come, to show how certain it is that those who are called and justified shall be glorified. And this is in accordance with the object he has in view, which is to console the believer amidst his afflictions. For when he thus suffers, and all things appear to conspire for his ruin, and to be opposed to his eternal salvation, he is represented as already glorified by God, and during the combat as having already received the crown of life.
The plan of salvation is here set before us in its commencement, in the intermediate steps of its progress, and in its consummation. Its commencement is laid in the eternal purpose of God, and its consummation in the eternal glory of the elect. He calls those whom He hath predestinated to faith in Christ, to repentance and to a new life. He justifies by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ those whom He hath called; and, finally, He will glorify those whom He hath justified. The opponents of the doctrine contained in this passage distort the whole plan of salvation. They deny that there is any indissoluble connection between those successive steps of grace, which are here united by the Apostle, and that these different expressions relate to the same individuals. They suppose that God may have foreknown and predestinated to life some whom He does not call, that He effectually calls some whom He does not justify, and that He justifies others whom He does not glorify. This contradicts the express language of this passage, which declares that those whom He foreknew He predestinated, that those whom he predestinated them He also called, that those whom He called them He also justified, and that those whom He justified them He also glorified. It is impossible to find words which could more forcibly and precisely express the indissoluble connection that subsists between all the parts of this series, or show that they are the same individuals that are spoken of throughout. The same doctrine is in other places explicitly taught: ’Of Him’ (by God, according to His sovereign election) ’are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God (by the appointment of God) ’is made unto us wisdom’ (in our calling), ’righteousness’ (by the imputation of His righteousness), ’sanctification’ (in making us conformed to His image), and ’redemption’ (in giving us eternal glory). ’These truths are also declared in 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
’God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth whereunto He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ It is, indeed, often objected to the doctrine of grace, that, according to it, men may live as they list; if they are certainly to be saved, they may indulge in sin with impunity. But, according to Paul’s statements in this chapter, all the doctrines respecting the salvation of the elect are indissolubly connected, and a single link in the chain is never wanting. He who has ordained the end, has ordained the means. He who has chosen them in Christ, from before the ’foundation of the world, has chosen them through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:13. If they are predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son, they are in due time called by the word and Spirit of God. If they are called, they are justified, so that there is no unrighteousness to stand in the way of their acceptance. If they are justified, they will also be glorified in the appointed season. How fatally erroneous, then, is the opinion of those who say that, if we are predestinated, we shall obtain eternal glory in whatever way we live! Such a conclusion breaks this heavenly chain. It is vain for human ingenuity to attempt to find an imperfection in the plans of Divine wisdom in ordering the steps in the salvation of His people: ’the word of God effectually worketh in them that believe,’ 1 Thessalonians 2:13.
In the passage before us, we see that all the links of that chain by which man is drawn up to heaven, are inseparable. In the whole of it there is nothing but grace, whether we contemplate its beginning, its middle, or its end. Each of its parts furnishes the most important instruction. If we are elected, let us feel and experience in ourselves the effects of our election. If we are called, let us walk worthy of our vocation. If we are justified, let us, like Abraham show our faith and prove our justification by our works. If we shall be glorified, let us live as fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God. Let our conversation be in heaven, and let us confess that we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth.
In looking back on this passage, we should observe that, in all that is stated, man acts no part, but is passive, and all is done by God. He is elected, and predestinated, and called, and justified, and glorified by God. The Apostle was here concluding all that he had said before in enumerating topics of consolation to believers, and is now going on to show that God is ’for us,’ or on the part of His people. Could anything, then, be more consolatory to those who love God, than to be in this manner assured that the great concern of their salvation is not left in their own keeping God, even their covenant God, hath taken the whole upon Himself. He hath undertaken for them. There is no room, then, for chance or change: He will perfect that which concerneth them.
The same great truths are held forth in every part of the new covenant which God makes with His people, Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-12. It consists exclusively of absolute promises on the part of God, and from beginning to end is grace and only grace. But does the doctrine of grace encourage licentiousness? To assert this directly contradicts the Scriptures, which show that grace has the very opposite tendency. ’The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,’ Titus 2:11-12. Such is the testimony of God. ’The grace of God manifests His love, and produces love in us, which is the first-fruit of the spirit, and the foundation of all acceptable obedience. Let every believer glory in this grace of God by which he is predestinated, and called, and justified, and glorified. This is all his consolation and all his joy, for it is an indissoluble chain, which neither the world nor the powers of hell can break. Does he feel a holy sadness for having offended God, a holy desire to struggle against the corruptions of his heart, and to advance in the work of sanctification? does he hunger and thirst after righteousness, and is he seeking to put on the new man, and to possess more of the image of Christ? Let him conclude, from these certain marks of his calling, that he is justified, the righteousness of Christ being imputed to him, and that his happiness is as certain as if he was already glorified. But, on the other hand, let none abuse these doctrines. No one shall be glorified who does not previously partake of this holy calling. Let no one attempt to take away any of the parts of this chain, and to pass from election without the intermediate steps to glory. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.
Romans 8:31 — What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Here the Apostle makes a sudden and solemn pause, while he emphatically demands, What shall we then say to these things? What can be said against them? Is it possible to value them too highly? What use shall we make of such consoling truths? What comfort shall we draw from them? Can anything detract from the peace they afford? On the foundation that God is for him, the eternal interest of the Christian is secured, and though he wrestles not only against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world; though of himself he can do nothing, yet, through Christ strengthening him, he can do all things. But what shall they say to these things who reject the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints; who maintain that God allows some to perish whom He hath justified; and that many things, instead of working for their good, contribute to their ruin? A conclusion entirely the reverse is to be deduced from all the consolations previously set forth by the Apostle, in reference to which he now exclaims, If God be for us who can be against us?
The expression if, which Paul here uses, does not denote doubt, but is a conclusion, or consequence, or affirmation, signifying since; as if he had said, Since we see by all these things that God is for us, who shall be against us? For is it not evident that God is for us, since He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ’Abba, Father;’ since the Spirit helps our infirmities; since all things work together for our good; since we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son? When we were alienated from Him, He called us; when we were sinners, He justified us; and, finally, translating us from a scene of trouble and afflictions, He will confer on us a crown of immortal glory. Since, then God thus favors us, who can be against us?
Many, however, in every age, speak of these things very blasphemously. They are far from being pleasing to man’s wisdom. But they excite a different feeling in the breast of every Christian. They give a security to God’s people which supports them under a sense of their own weakness. If they had no strength but their own, if there were no security for their perseverance but their own resolutions, they might indeed despond; for how could they ever arrive at heaven? But as this passage shows, that all things are secured by God, and that in His almighty hands all the links of the chain that connects them with heaven are indissolubly united, they have no language in which they can adequately express their wonder, gratitude, and joy. No truth can be more evident than this — that although we have innumerable enemies, and are ourselves utter weakness, yet, if God be for us, nothing can be so against us as finally to do us injury. As the angel said to Gideon, ’The Lord is with thee,’ so the same is said in this passage to every Christian. ’No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.’ ’All men forsook me,’ said Paul, ’but the Lord stood by me.’ As God had said to Israel, and Moses, and Joshua, so He said, ’Fear not, Paul, for I am with thee.’ When Christians, surrounded with difficulties and enemies, are disposed to say, with the servant of Elisha, ’Alas, what shall we do?’ the passage before us speaks the same language as did the Prophet, ’Fear not, for they that be with us, are more than they that be with them,’ and likewise that of Hezekiah, ’There be more with us than with them. With them is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles.’ It is added, ’And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, King of Judah.’
In the verse before us we have two propositions. One is, that God is for us; the other, that nothing can be — that is, can prevail — against us. From this we may consider who are against, and who is for believers. There is arrayed against them a formidable host composed of many powerful enemies. There are Satan and all wicked spirits; there are the world, and indwelling sin; there are all sufferings, and death itself. How could believers themselves withstand the power of such antagonists? But, on the other hand, the Apostle shows in one word who is for them. God, says he, is for us! God is the shield of His people: He holds them in His hand, and none can pluck them out of it. ’The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms!’
Romans 8:32 — He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
In the preceding verse, the Apostle had comforted believers from the consideration that, if God, with all His glorious attributes, were engaged for their defense, they might look without dismay upon an opposing universe. Here, in order to confirm their confidence in God, he presents an argument to prove that God is with them of a truths and also to assure them that they shall receive from Him every blessing.
There are two circ*mstances calculated to inspire distrust in the mind of the believer. The one is the affections which press upon him in this world; and these of two kinds, namely, such as are common to all men, and such as are peculiar to the followers of Christ. The other circ*mstance calculated to cloud the hopes of the Christian, is the sins of which he is guilty. When suffering so many troubles, he has difficulty in persuading himself that he is favored by God, and is ready, with Gideon, to exclaim to the angel, ’Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?’ And, on the other hand, as he is by nature a child of wrath, and sins daily, how can he be sure that God is with him, and not rather against him? To these objections the Apostle here opposes the declaration that God hath not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up to the death for His people. No stronger argument could be offered in proof of His favor to them than the gift of His own Son. Him He has given to redeem them from all their sins and all their troubles; while such is the dignity and excellency of Christ, that the Apostle, arguing from the greater to the less, further proves that after such a gift as that of His own Son, nothing can be refused which is consistent with the glory of God and the salvation of their souls. He thus assures them of freedom from the evils they might dread from sin and suffering.
Paul does not say that the Father has given His Son, but that God has given Him. This is calculated to establish the confidence of believers more firmly, since, by referring to God, He brings into view all His perfections as infinitely good, powerful, wise, and able to render them supremely blessed in holiness and eternal glory. Another effect is to draw their attention to the greatness of the love of God; for one to whom we are in some respects equal may confer upon us His favors, but here we are reminded that the bestower is infinitely above us, being the Creator to whom we are indebted even for our existence. His goodness, then, is so much the more wonderful, that though He is the infinite Jehovah, dwelling in light which is inaccessible, of whom it is said ’that He humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven’ Psalms 113:6, still He draws near to us, and condescends to raise us up, who are as nothing before Him, and who, being the Creator of all things, has set His love on those who are sinful, and poor, and miserable.
What God has given is His own Son — This imports that He is His Son in the sense of that relation among men. It is sonship in this sense only that shows the immensity of the love of God in this gift. This proves that it was greater than if He had given the whole creation. If His Son were related to Him in merely a figurative sonship, it could not be a proof of His ineffable love. God did not spare Him. — Not sparing Him may either mean that He spared Him not in a way of justice, 2 Peter 2:4, that is, exacted the utmost farthing of debt He had taken upon Him; or that He spared Him not in a way of bounty, that is, withheld Him not God spared Abraham’s son, but He spared not His own Son. This passage shows that Christ was given over by the Father to the sufferings which He bore, and that these sufferings were all necessary for the salvation of His people. Had they not been necessary, He would not have exposed His Son to them. ’It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.’ From all this it appears that God, who cannot deny Himself, 2 Timothy 2:13, could not show mercy to us without satisfying the demands of His justice, vindicating the authority of His law, and magnifying and honoring all the perfections of His nature.
Delivered Him up for us all — When the Jews seized and crucified our Lord Jesus Christ, He was delivered up by the Father’s decree, and by the direction of His providence, though it was through the guilty criminality of the Jews that He was put to death. It took place when His appointed hour arrived, for till then they could not accomplish their purpose. ’Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.’ As the Father delivered Him up, the great end of His suffering was satisfaction of the justice of God; and as He bore the whole curse of the broken law, His people are never, on that account, to bear any portion of vindictive wrath. ’It was exacted, and He answered,’ Isaiah 53:7. ’Then;’ says the Son Himself, ’I restored that which I took not away,’ Psalms 69:4. Thus the Father delivered up His Son to humiliation, involving an assumption of our nature and our transgressions. He delivered Him up to sorrows unparalleled, and even to death itself, — to death, not merely involving the dissolution of the soul and body, but the weight of the sins of men, and the wrath of God against sin. God thus delivered up His Son, that He might rescue us from that misery which He might have justly inflicted upon us, and might take us, who were children of wrath, into His heavenly presence, and there rejoice over us forever, as the trophies of His redeeming love.
For us all — That is, for all to whom the Apostle is writing, whom he had addressed as beloved of God, called, saints, Romans 1:7, among whom he ranks himself. But as these epistles to the churches equally apply to all believers to the end of time, so this expression includes all the elect of God — all who have been given to Jesus — all in whose behalf He addressed the Father in His intercessory prayer. ’I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me,’ John 17:9; John 17:20. That those to whom Paul here refers when he says, ’for us all,’ applies to none but believers, is evident, —
·1st, because in the preceding and following verses the Apostle speaks of those who love God, and who are the called according to His purpose;
·2nd, he says in express terms that He will with Him freely give us all things, which implies that we have faith, by which we receive Jesus Christ. This absolute gift, then, concerns only those who, being elected by God, believe in Him.
How shall He not with Him freely give us all things? — This is the most conclusive reasoning. If He has given us the greatest gift, He will not refuse the lesser. His Son is the greatest gift that could be given, — plainly, then, nothing will be withheld from those for whom He has given His Son. This also assumes the fact as granted, that Jesus is the Son of God in the literal sense; for in no other sense is the inference just. If Jesus were only figuratively a son, there is no room to infer, from the gift of Him to us, that he Father will give ’us all things.’ These ’all things’ are what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. He will give His Spirit and eternal life. His children are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, whom He hath appointed heir of all things. The Apostle does not here speak of himself alone, as if this were a privilege peculiar to himself, to receive freely all things with Christ, but of all believers, — He will freely give us. And the expression, How, with which he commences, imports the absolute certainty that on all such they shall be bestowed.
When it is here said that God will give us all things, we are reminded that all the good things that we obtain or hope for are from God, who is the Author of every good and perfect gift: for a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven; and all that God gives us He gives freely, without money and without price. Here it may be remarked that the Apostle’s manner of reasoning, who concludes that, since God has not spared His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, He will with Him also freely give us all things, teaches us that the believer ought to reason out of the Scriptures, and draw the necessary consequence from what is said in them.
Romans 8:33 — Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Among the temptations to which the believer is exposed in this life, some are from without, others are from within. Within are the alarms of conscience, fearing the wrath of God; without are adversity and tribulations. Unless he overcomes the first he cannot prevail against the last. It is impossible that he can possess true patience and confidence in God in his afflictions, if his conscience labors under the apprehension of the wrath of God. On this account the Apostle, in the fifth chapter of this Epistle, in setting forth the accompaniments of justification by faith, first speaks of peace with God, and afterwards of glorying in tribulations. In the chapter before us he observes the same order; for, in this last part of it, in which he speaks of the triumph of the believer, he first fortifies the conscience against its fears from guilt, and next secures it against external temptations from afflictions. As to the first, he says,
’Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; it is Christ that died, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ And as to the last, ’Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.’ He does not mean to say that nothing shall occur to trouble believers, but that nothing shall prevail against them. In assuring them of this, he ascends to their election as the source of all their blessings.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? — The Apostle speaks here of God’s elect. This reminds believers that their election is not to be ascribed to anything in themselves, but is to be traced solely to the grace and mercy of God, by whom they were chosen in Christ before the, foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4. Their election demonstrates the vanity of all accusations that can be brought against them, either by their own conscience, by the world, or by Satan. Thus, while the Apostle removes every ground of boasting and vainglory, and all presumptuous thoughts of themselves, of their freewill and self-righteousness, he lays the sure foundation of joy and peace in believing. He leads us to the election of God as the source of all the good we enjoy or hope for, in order to set aside every ground for vainglory, and all presumption as to any worthiness in ourselves of our own will or righteousness, so that we may fully recognize the grace and mercy of God to us, who, even when we did not exist, chose us for Himself, according to His own good pleasure, Ephesians 1:4-5. He likewise does so that we may have a sure foundation to rest on, even God’s eternal and unchangeable purpose, instead of any fallacious hope from reliance on anything in ourselves. When it is said here, ’Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?’ it does not refer to men generally, but to believers as the elect of God. The word elect must be taken in this place in its connection with called, as in the preceding verses, since it is here found connected with justification. For a man might be elected, and yet not be for the present justified, as Paul, when he persecuted the Church, who was not justified till he actually believed, though even then elected, and, according to God’s purpose and counsel, ordained to salvation.
It is God that justifeth. — This is the first thing which the Apostle opposes to the accusations that might be brought against the elect of God: God justifies them. There is none that justifies besides God. None can absolve and acquit a sinner from guilt, and constitute and pronounce him righteous, but God alone! ’I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake,’Isaiah 43:25; for it is God alone against whom sin is committed, in reference to future condemnation. ’Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,’ Psalms 51:4. It is God alone that condemns, and therefore it is God alone that justifies. If, then, God has made believers just or righteous, who is he that will bring them in guilty? There are here two grounds upon which the Apostle founds the justification of believers. One is taken from its Author — it is God that justifies; the other is taken from the subjects of this privilege — they are the elect. And thus the freeness of justification, and its permanency, are both certified.
It is here established that the elect are saved in such a way that nothing can be laid to their charge. All their debt, then, must be paid, and all their sins must be atoned for. If full compensation has not been made, something might be laid to their charge. This shows that salvation is by justice, as well as by mercy, and gives a view of salvation that never would have entered into the heart of man. Nay, it is so far from human view, that even after it is revealed, it still lies hid from all the world, except from those who are taught of God. And some, even of them, being slow of heart to believe, are but partially enlightened in this glorious view of the salvation of the guilty.
Romans 8:34 — Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who is he that condemneth? — In the preceding verse it is asked, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? here it is demanded, Who shall condemn them? They who cannot be accused cannot be condemned. God Himself is pleased to justify the elect, to deliver them from condemnation, and views them as possessing perfect righteousness; and being in this justified state by the judicial sentence of God, who shall dare to condemn them? None can discover a single sin of which to accuse them as still subjecting them to the curse of the law, and to bring them into that condemnation, from which they have been delivered by what God Himself hath done for them. It is here supposed that their condemnation is impossible, because it would be unjust. In similar language, the Lord Jesus Christ, the first elect of God, speaking by the Prophet Isaiah 50:8, says, ’He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me?’ These words relate to His confidence in His Heavenly Father, who would uphold Him as His righteous servant; and it is on His righteousness and work that the acquittal of all those whom the Father hath given Him, and who are elected in Him, is rested. The Apostle having said that it is God that justifieth them, next proceeds to give the reasons of their freedom from condemnation. Four grounds are here stated: —
·1st, Christ’s death;
·2nd, His resurrection;
·3rd, His enthronement at the right hand of God; and,
·4th, His intercession.
It is Christ that died — By His death, the penalty of the holy law, on account of its violation by His people, was executed, and satisfaction made to Divine justice. In answer to the question, Who is he that condemneth? the Apostle replies that Christ died. By this he intimates the impossibility of our being absolved from sin, without satisfaction for the injury done to the rights of God’s justice and the sacred majesty of His eternal laws which had been violated; for the just God could not set aside His justice by His mercy, and justify sinners without an atonement. It is on this account that God had instituted sacrifices under the law, to hold forth the necessity of a satisfaction, and to prove that without shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin. There is, then, a manifest necessity of repairing the outrage against the perfections of God, which are the original and fundamental rule of the duty of the creature. This reparation could only be made by a satisfaction that should correspond with the august majesty of the holiness of God; and consequently it must be of infinite value, which could only be found in a person of infinite dignity.
To the death of Jesus Christ as the atonement for sin, our eyes are constantly directed throughout the Scriptures, whether by types, by prophecies, or by historical descriptions of the event. Death was the punishment threatened in the covenant of works against sin. But Jesus Christ had neither transgressed that covenant, nor could participate in the imputation of the sin of Adam, because He sprang not from him by the way of natural generation. Being, therefore, without sin, either actual or imputed, the penalty of death could not be incurred on His own account. Death, then, which is the wages of sin, must have been suffered by Him for sinners. Their iniquities were laid on Him, and by His stripes they are healed. His death, therefore, utterly forbids the condemnation of the elect of God, who were given to Him, and are one with Him, of whom only the context speaks. It must be a just and full compensation for their sins. It is evidently implied that none for whom He died can be condemned. For if condemnation be forbidden by His death, then that condemnation must be prohibited with respect to all for whom He died. His death made satisfaction to justice for them, and therefore, in their case, both accusation and condemnation are rendered impossible.
Yea rather, that is risen again — This is the second ground affirmed by the Apostle against the possibility of the condemnation of God’s elect. What purpose would the death of Christ have served, if He had been overcome and swallowed up by it? ’If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.’ If He be not risen, it must be because He had not expiated those sins for which He died, and was therefore retained a prisoner by death. But since the Surety has been released from the grave, complete satisfaction must have been made; for if but one sin which had been laid upon Him had continued unatoned for, He would have remained for ever in the grave, death being the wages of sin. But now, since He has risen from the grave, the obligation against His people must be effaced and entirely abolished, His resurrection being their resurrection, Colossians 2:12. It is on this account that the Apostle here opposes to condemnation not only the death of Christ, but also His resurrection, as something higher, and as being our full absolution. And, by the commandment of Jesus Christ, the Gospel was not announced to the Gentiles, nor spread through the world, till after His resurrection, as He Himself said, Luke 24:46 : ’It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.’
The resurrection, then, of Christ, is the proof of His victory, and of the entire expiation of His people’s sins. It is therefore opposed to their condemnation, as being the evidence and completion of their absolution and acquittal; for as the death of Jesus Christ was His condemnation, and that of all united to Him, so His resurrection is His absolution and also theirs. As the Father, by delivering Him to death, condemned their sins in Him, so, in raising Him from the dead, he pronounced their acquittal from all the sins that had been laid upon Him. This is what the Apostle teaches respecting the justification of Jesus Christ. He was justified by the Spirit, 1 Timothy 3:16; that is, declared and recognized to be righteous; and with regard to His people’s justification in Him, that as He had died for their sins, so He was raised for their justification. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a manifestation of His Godhead and Divine power. He was declared to be the Son of God, and consequently possessing over all things absolute power and dominion. ’For to this end Christ both died and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.’
Who is even at the right hand of God — This is the third ground on which the security of God’s elect is rested. Jesus Christ sits at God’s right hand. This is a figurative expression taken from the custom of earthly monarchs, to express special favor, and denotes, with respect to Christ, both dignity and power. ’When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.’ Having finished the work of redemption, this was the result of His labors, and the testimony of its consummation. His thus sitting down indicates an essential difference between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Levitical priests. ’Every priest standeth daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down on the right hand of God.’ The Levitical priests had never finished their work: it was still imperfect. They stood, therefore, ministering daily, in token of continued service. But Christ having offered one sacrifice for sins, by which He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, for ever sat down on the right hand of God, Hebrews 10:12.
Jesus Christ, then, is not only raised from the dead, but has also ascended into heaven, and is possessed of all power and glory, and is there to defend His people. His seat at the right hand of God signifies His permanent exaltation as Mediator, and His communion with God in sovereign power and authority, reigning as the Head and King of His Church. The amount of the Apostles reasoning is, that such being the condition of Him who was dead and is risen again, possessed of the keys of hell and of death, who shall dare to appear before Him to bring an accusation against His members or to condemn the elect of God?
Who also maketh intercession for us — This is the fourth and last ground of the security of God’s elect. The intercession of Jesus Christ is the second act of His priesthood, and is a necessary consequence of His sacrifice, which is the first act, and precedes the third, namely, His coming forth from the heavenly sanctuary to bless those whom He has redeemed to God by His blood. His intercession consists in that perpetual application which He makes to His Father; in the name of His Church, of the blood which He shed on the cross for the salvation of His people, in order to obtain for them the fruits of that oblation. It was necessary that His sacrifice should be offered upon earth, because it was an act of His humiliation; but His intercession which supposes the establishment of righteousness and peace, is made in heaven, being an act of His exaltation. This intercession was figuratively represented by the high priest in Israel, when, after having offered in his linen garments the sacrifice, without the precincts of the holy place, he took the blood of the victim, and, clothed in his sacerdotal golden robes, entered alone into the most holy place, and sprinkled the blood on and before the mercy-seat. Jesus Christ, then, who suffered without the gate, Hebrews 13:12, in accomplishing the truth of this figure, first offered upon earth His sacrifice, and afterwards entered in His glory into heaven, to present to His Father the infinite price of His oblation by the mystical sprinkling of His blood. This is not to be understood as being any bodily humiliation, as bowing the knee before God, but it is the presenting of His blood of perpetual efficacy. It is the voice of that blood which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. The blood of Jesus Christ being the blood of the everlasting covenant —that blood which was to reunite God with men, and men with God — it was necessary, after its being shed on the cross, that it should be thus sprinkled in heaven. ’I go,’ says He to His disciples, ’to prepare a place for you.’ It was necessary that this blood should be sprinkled there, and also upon them, before they could be admitted. But by its means they were prepared to enter into heaven, and heaven itself was prepared for their reception, which without that sprinkling would have been defiled by their presence. ’Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.’ Jesus Christ is not only seated at the right hand of God, but He is there for the very purpose of interceding for His people. By the perpetual efficacy of His blood their sins are removed, and consequently every ground of their condemnation. This never-ceasing intercession of Him whoever liveth to advocate their cause, not only procures the remission of their sins, but also all the graces of the Holy Spirit; and by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit an internal aspersion is made upon their hearts when they are actually converted to God, and when by faith they receive the sprinkling of the blood of their Redeemer. For them He died, He rose, He ascended to heaven, and there intercedes. How, then, can they be condemned? How can they come short of eternal glory?
Romans 8:35 — Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,or sword?
In the contemplation of those glorious truths and Divine consolations which the Apostle had been unfolding, he had demanded, Who shall accuse, who shall condemn, the elect of God? he here triumphantly asks, Who shall separate them from the love of Christ? Having pointed out the grounds on which the fears of behaviors from within are relieved, he now fortifies them against fears from without. This order is the more proper, since their internal fears and misgivings are more formidable than their outward trials, and the hatred and opposition of the world; and until the believer, as has been observed, has overcome the former by having the answer of a good conscience towards God, he is not prepared to withstand the latter. Although the people of God are exposed to all the evils here enumerated, these shall not prevail to separate him from the love of Christ. The term the love of Christ, in itself, may signify either our love to Christ, or Christ’s love to us; but that it is Christ’s love to us in this place there can be no question. A person could not be said to be separated from his own feelings. Besides, the object of the Apostle is to assure us not so immediately of our love to God, as of His love to us, by directing our attention to His predestining, calling, justifying, and glorifying us, and not sparing His own Son, but delivering Him up for us. In addition to this, it contributes more to our consolation to have our minds fixed upon God’s love to us than upon our love to God; for, as our love is subject to many failings and infirmities, and as we are liable to change, to endeavor to impart consolation from the firmness of our love, would be less efficacious than holding forth to us the love of God, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of change. The language, too, employed, favors this sense; for the Apostle does not say, ’Who shall separate Christ from our love?’ but, ’Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ and, in the 37th verse, the meaning is determined by the expression, ’We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’ God, however, in loving His children, makes them love Him; and believers are enabled to love Christ because He loves them. It is He who first loved us, and in loving us has changed our hearts, and produced in them love to Him. Paul prays that believers, ’being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that they may be filled with all the fullness of God.’
To have a just idea of the love of Christ, we must contemplate its duration. It was from before the foundation of the world — from all eternity. We must consider that He who has loved us is the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, who dwelleth in light that is inaccessible; before whom the angels veil their faces, crying, ’Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts;’ and before whom the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers, and the nations as a drop of a bucket. We must remember, too, who we are, who are the objects of His love, — not only creatures who are but dust and ashes, dwelling in houses of clay, but who were His enemies, and by nature children of wrath. We must also reflect on the greatness of His love, that it is His will we should be one with Him, and that He guards us as the apple of His eye. He loves His people as His members, of whom He is the Head, and sympathizes with them when they suffer. He calls their sufferings His sufferings, and their persecutions His persecutions, as He said to Saul persecuting His members, ’Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?’ He will also say to those on His right hand in the day of judgment that He hungered, and thirsted, and was naked, and that they gave Him to eat and drink, and clothed Him, when these things were done to the least of His members. He loves His people, too, as being their Husband, by that spiritual marriage He has contracted with them, as it is said, ’Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.’
The love here spoken of as the security of believers being the love of Christ, Christ must be God. Were Christ not God, we might come short of heaven without being separated from His love. He might love, and yet not be able to save the objects of His love.
It is likewise to be remarked, that the confidence of believers that they shall not be separated from the love of Christ, is not founded on their high opinion of themselves, or on their own ability to remain firm against temptations, but is grounded on Christ’s love, and His ability to preserve and uphold them. As nothing can be laid to their charge — as none can condemn them — as all things that happen to them, instead of proving injurious, work together for their good, — it is impossible that they can be finally lost. If Christ so love them, what shall separate them from that love?
In specifying those evils which in appearance are calculated to separate the believer from the love of Christ, the Apostle points out the sufferings of the people of God, the time of these sufferings — all the day long; the manner — as sheep for the slaughter; the cause — or Thy sake. He distinguishes the seven evils that follow: —
1st, Tribulation. — This is placed first, as being a general term, comprehending all the particulars which he afterwards enumerates. It means affliction in general. It refers not only to the general state of suffering which, when man had sinned, it was pronounced should be his lot — ’In sorrow shalt thou eat of it (of the produce of the ground) all the days of thy life’ — but also more particularly to the tribulation which the disciples of Christ shall all more or less experience. ’In the world ye shall have tribulation,’ John 16:33. The tribulation of unbelievers is the effect of the wrath of God; but the afflictions of His people are salutary corrections, which, so far from separating them from His love, yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and are for their profit, that they might not be condemned with the world, but be partakers of His holiness. ’As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.’
To tribulation is added,
2nd, Distress, which signifies straits, difficulties, critical situations. It means the perplexity in which we are, when, under pressure or trouble, we see no way of deliverance, and no way to escape presents itself. The word denotes a narrow place, in which we are so much pressed or straitened that we know not where to go or turn; which expresses the condition of the believer when he is not only oppressed, but reduced to extremity. ’Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress,’ Psalms 4:1.
3rd, Persecution is affliction for the profession of the Gospel. The persecuted have often been pursued and constrained to flee from place to place, as the Lord Jesus was carried into Egypt when Herod sought to kill Him. ’If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.’ But so far is persecution from separating believers from the love of Christ, that ’Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.’
4th, Famine. — To this the persecuted are frequently subjected, though they may have been rich and powerful.
5th, Nakedness. — The disciples have often been reduced to indigence and poverty, stripped by their enemies, and obliged to wander naked in deserts, and to hide themselves, like wild beasts, in caves of the earth, Hebrews 11:38. Paul himself was frequently exercised with hunger, and thirst, and fastings, and cold, and nakedness.
6th, Peril. — This refers to the dangers to which the Lord’s people are exposed. These, at some times, and in some countries, are exceedingly many and great; and at all times, and in all countries, are more or less numerous and trying. If God were not their protector, even in this land of freedom, the followers of the Lamb would be cut off or injured. It is the Lord’s providence that averts such injuries, or overrules events for the protection of His people. This is too little considered even by themselves, and would be thought a most unfounded calumny or fanatical idea by the world. But let the Christian habitually consider his safety and protection as secured by the Lord, rather than by the liberality of the times. That time never yet was when the Lord’s people could be safe, if circ*mstances removed restraint from the wicked. Those who boast of their unbounded liberality would, if in situations calculated to develop their natural hatred of the truth, prove, after all, bitter persecutors.
7th, Sword. — This means violence carried to the utmost extremity. It is persecution which stops not with smaller injuries but inflicts even death.
Romans 8:36 — As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
As it is written — To the enumeration of evils presented in the foregoing verse, the Apostle here adds the testimony of the Scriptures, by which he verifies what is declared in the fifteenth chapter. ’For whatever things were written afore time, were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.’ And to what purpose would, it be to appeal to the afflictions of the Church under the former dispensation, were it not to lead us to patience under the Gospel? For if believers in that period bore their trials with patience, how much more should we do so when God now clearly reveals His saving grace, and not as formerly in figures and shadowed. In this manner the Lord and His Apostles frequently appeal to the Old Testament Scriptures, by which they testify to them as the word of God, and also show the agreement between the Old Testament and the New. The reference, then, is not intended to state a similar fact in similar language, by way of what is called accommodation, according to the interpretation of Mr. Stuart, Mr. Tholuck, and others. A greater indignity to the Scriptures, and the Spirit of God, by whom they were dictated, cannot be offered, than to assert that passages of the Old Testament, which are quoted by the Apostles as predictions, are only an accommodation of words. This would not merely be silly, but heinously criminal. It is not only irreverent to suppose that the Apostles, in order to enforce the truth of what they were teaching, would quote the language of the Spirit in a meaning which the Holy Spirit did not intend to convey, but it is a charge of palpable falsehood and dishonesty against the writers of the New Testament, as calling that a fulfillment which is not a fulfillment, and appealing to the Old Testament declarations as confirmatory of their own doctrine, when they were aware that it was merely a fanciful accommodation of words, and that they were deluding their readers. Are practices to be admitted, in explanation of the word of God, which are never tolerated on other subjects, and which, if detected, would cover their authors with disgrace?
The quotation here shows that this passage in the Psalms, to which the reference is made, was in its fullest sense a prediction, and this regards the fulfillment. It was indeed a historical fact, and verified with respect to the Jews. But this fact, instead of proving it not to be prophetical and typical, is the very circ*mstance that fits it for that purpose. ’The quotation here,’ says Professor Stuart, ’comes from Psalms 44:22 [Septuagint 43:22], and is applied to the state of Christians in the Apostle’s times, as it was originally to those whom the Psalmist describes; in other words, the Apostle describes the state of suffering Christians, by the terms which were employed in ancient days to describe the suffering people of God.’ What could be more degrading to the book of God than the supposition that the Apostles ever quoted the Scriptures in this manner, by way of accommodation? How does this hide the glory of the perfection of the Old Testament, as in figure it exhibits Christ and His Church!
For Thy sake — It was for God’s sake that the Jews were hated and persecuted by the other nations, because, according to the commandment of God, they separated themselves from them in all their worship. They could have not religious fellowship with them, and on that account they were regarded as enemies to the rest of mankind. In like manner, when Christianity appeared, preferring a solemn charge of falsehood against all other religions in the world, Christians were accused of hating all mankind. This was the grand accusation against them in primitive times by the heathens, and even by such historians as the so-called philosophic Tacitus. Christians, in the same way, are still hated by the world, because they profess that salvation is only through the blood of Christ. As this implies that all who do not hold that doctrine are in error and ignorance, and under condemnation, it excites in the strongest manner the enmity of the world. But the cause of this hatred must be traced to a principle still deeper, even the enmity of the carnal mind against God, and against His image in man, wherever it is seen. It is the working of that enmity which God put at the beginning between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15
The afflictions and trials of the people of God are here referred to, to induce believers to exercise patience, to teach them not to promise themselves exemption from the treatment experienced by those who formerly lived under the covenant of God, but rather to remember that, if sometimes spared, it is owing to the forbearance and mercy of God. They are appealed to in order to lead them to consider the goodness of God in former times, as exhibited in the issues of the afflictions with which He visited His people, not to separate them from His love, but to do them good in the latter end. ’Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.’ How much consolation and joy should Christians experience in suffering affliction of any description whatever, when they can appeal to their Lord and Savior, and say, It is for ’Thy sake,’ Matthew 5:11. So far from being separated from the love of Christ by such sufferings, they are by them made more conformable to His image. In suffering for evil, men are conformable to the image of the first Adam.
We are killed — In speaking of those sufferings, which shall not separate believers from God, the Apostle here refers to death, the highest point to which they can be carried. As to the time, he speaks of it as ’all the day long;’ that is, they are constantly exposed to the greatest measure of suffering in this life, and are frequently exercised with it. As to the manner,he says, We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. — The enemies of the people of God have often given them up to death with as little reluctance as sheep are driven to the slaughter. There is pity even for the murderer on the scaffold, but for Christ and His people there is none. The cry still is against the servants, as it was against the Master, ’Crucify, crucify.’ Even in death they find no sympathy. This is attested by history in every age and country; witness the repeated and dreadful persecutions of Christians during the first three centuries, when they were treated not like men but as wild beasts, and the cry of the multitude was, ’The Christians to the lions.’ When there is a respite from persecution, it is through the kind providence of God, when He restrains the malice of him who was a murderer from the beginning, and the evil passions of men, who are the willing instruments of Satan.
Romans 8:37 — Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.
The sufferings of believers above enumerated, which, as the Apostle had just shown, verify the truth of the ancient predictions of the word of God, shall not separate them from the love of Christ, but, on the contrary, are to them the sources of the greatest benefits. Through them they are more than conquerors. — This is a strong expression, but in its fullest import it is strictly true. The Christian not only overcomes in the worst of his trials, but more than overcomes his adversaries, and all those things which seem to be against him. It is possible to overcome, and yet obtain no advantage from The contest, nay, to find the victory a loss. But the Christian not only vanquishes, he is also a gainer by the assault of his enemy. It is better for him than if he had not been called to suffer. He is a gainer and a conqueror, both in the immediate fruits of his sufferings, as God overrules them for his good, bringing him forth from the furnace as gold refined, and also in their final issue; for ’our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ The term conquerors reminds us that the life of a believer is a warfare, in which he is called to combat, both within and without. We may remark, too, the difference between the judgment of God, and the judgment of men, respecting the victory of believers. In the world, persecutors and oppressors are judged as the conquerors; but here, those are pronounced to be such, who are oppressed and persecuted. They are the servants of Him whom the world put to death, but who said to His disciples, ’Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’
Through Him that loved us — The Apostle says that we are more than conquerors, not through Him that loves us, but through Him that loved us, — using the past time, thus directing our attention to Christ dying for us. His love to us is the character by which Christ is often described, as if it were that by which He should be best known to us, and as if, in comparison, here was none but He alone who loved us. ’Who loved me,’ says the Apostle, ’and gave Himself for me.’ ’Who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.’ ’Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.’ This expression shows that the confidence spoken of in this place is a confidence wholly grounded on Christ’s love and power, and not on our own firmness. It is not by our own loyalty and resolution, but through Him that loved us, that we are more than conquerors. In the Apostle Peter we see the weakness of all human affection and resolutions. All the glory, then, of this victory which we obtain is to be ascribed solely to God; for it is He who is at our right hand, and who supports us in all our afflictions. In the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ, is represented as combating against the enemies of His Church. He is our shield, our rock, and our refuge. It is declared that we are ’kept (as in a garrison) by the power of God,’ 1 Peter 1:5, in order that we may not presume on our own strength, or attribute to ourselves the glory of our preservation; but that we may keep our eyes fixed upon Him who, with His outstretched arm, conducts us to the heavenly Canaan.
Romans 8:38 — Far I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.
In the preceding verses Paul had proclaimed the triumph of believers over everything within and without them, that seemed to endanger their security. He had spoken of tribulation, and distress, and persecutions, and famine, and nakedness, and peril, and sword, over all of which he had pronounced them more than conquerors. He now proceeds, in the same triumphant language, to defy enemies still more formidable; asserting that all the conceivable powers of the universe shall not be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ.
For I am persuaded — Here Paul introduces his own persuasion of the love of God to His people, that in so doing others may imitate him. This appears more fully in the next verse, by his making the constancy of God’s love a privilege not peculiar to himself, but common to all His people. He sets before believers this persuasion, to confirm them in the conviction that they need not fear the want of God’s support to enable them to overcome all trials, and surmount all dangers. For this persuasion is not conjectural, but an assured confidence, such as he expresses when he says, ’I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day,’ 2 Timothy 1:12.
Here we see the nature and quality of faith as opposed to the doctrine of the Church of Rome, which holds it to be merely a general belief of all that God has said, without confidence in His promises, or assurance of His grace. But the object of the Gospel, which is called ’the Gospel of peace,’ is, that those who have fled for refuge to the hope set before them, should have strong consolation, Hebrews 6:18, and peace in their conscience. The words, ’I am persuaded,’ used by the Apostle, about that faith is a persuasion, and a union and conformity of heart to the word which we believe. Our reception of the promises, then, is a special application of them, when we take home to ourselves the grace and love of God, as the Apostle does when he says, verse 39, that nothing shall be able to separate us, to prove that he speaks in the name of all believers, and that, in this triumph of faith, he employs language common to them all. The objection that the language he used was appropriate only to Apostles, would set aside his intention and object altogether. The Church of Rome, however, objects, that in order to this application of faith, the Gospel should speak to each individual by his name, and say, ’Thou art saved, thou art pardoned.’ But if, as they admit, the law, by its general propositions, obliges every one to obey it, while it names no person individually, and in saying, ’Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,’ condemns every man who does not yield obedience to its commands, why should they deny that the propositions of the Gospel comprise every believer in particular, or affirm that in saying, ’He that believeth in Jesus hath eternal life,’ it does not speak to all who believe in Jesus, and declare that each one of them hath eternal life? When the law says, ’Thou shalt not kill,’ ’Thou shalt not steal,’ ought any one to doubt that these commandments are addressed to him? But, in the Gospel, we find the same manner of speaking. ’If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ Every believer, then, should rejoice in the declarations and promises of the Gospel, as if they were addressed to him by name.
That neither death — Death itself shall not separate believers from the love of God, nor should they question His love because He has appointed that they should die once. Death, with all its accompaniments, which are always solemn and sometimes terrible, may wear the semblance of God’s displeasure. But, notwithstanding the pains and sufferings by which it is usually preceded, especially when inflicted by persecution, to which there may be here a particular allusion, — notwithstanding the humiliating dissolution of the body into dust, — yet God is with His children when they walk through this dark valley, and ’precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’ In their death they have fellowship with Him who has disarmed it of its sting, and destroyed him that had the power of death. So far from separating them from God, it is His messenger to bring them home to Himself. If its aspect be terrible, it is still like the brazen serpent in the wilderness, which had but the form of a serpent, without its deadly poison. It dissolves the earthly house of their tabernacle, but introduces them into their house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. It discharges the soul from the burden of sin, that it may be clothed with perfect holiness; for death, although the effect of sin, is the occasion of slaying and destroying it in the believer.
Nor life — This is the next thing that the Apostle enumerates as threatening to separate believers from the love of God. It includes all the dangers and difficulties they have to encounter while passing through this world, and carrying about with them a body of sin and death amidst the various temptations from prosperity or adversity to which they are exposed. Yet Christ is their shepherd, and the Holy Spirit their leader. So far from separating them from the love of God, life as well as death are included among the privileges which belong to the children of God, 1 Corinthians 3:22.
Nor angels — Some restrict this to good angels, and some to evil angels. There is no reason why it should not include both. Mr. Stuart asks, How can the good angels, ’who are sent forth to minister to such as are heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14), be well supposed to be opposers and enemies of Christians?’ But how could Mr. Stuart pronounce such a judgment in the face of the Apostle himself on another occasion/ If ’an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.’ Could an angel from heaven be supposed a false preacher rather than a persecutor? But such suppositions are common in Scripture. They do not imply the possibility of the things supposed; and it fully justifies them, if the consequence would follow from the supposition, were it realized. By the expression, ’nor height, nor depth,’ Mr. Stuart understands is meant neither heaven nor hell. Did he not observe, then, that this is inconsistent with his objection to explaining the term principalities and powers as referring to heavenly angels? If height means heaven, surely it is the inhabitants of the place who are meant, not the place itself.
Nor principalities, nor powers — This is also variously interpreted. Some confine it to angels, and some to civil rulers. There is no reason that it should not extend to the words in their widest meaning. It is true of civil powers; it is equally true of all angelic powers. It is as true with respect to principalities in heaven, as it is with respect to those in hell. Were all the principalities, through all creation, to use their power against Christians, it would not succeed. They have Christ on their side; who, then, can prevail against them? This justifies strong expressions in the exhibition of Divine truth. We are warranted by this to illustrate Scripture doctrine from the supposition of things impossible, in order the more deeply to impress the human mind with the truth inculcated. This fact is of great importance as to the explanation of Scripture.
Nor things present, nor things to come — Neither the trials nor afflictions in which the children of God are at any time involved, nor with which they may at any future period be exercised, will avail to separate them from Christ. There is nothing that can happen against which the providence of God does not secure them. What dangers should they dread when He says, ’Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel’ ’When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior.’ Nothing does happen, nothing can happen, which, from eternity, He hath not appointed and foreseen, and over which He hath not complete control.
Romans 8:39 — Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nor height, nor depth — These expressions appear to comprise all that had been said of angels, principalities, and powers, including them altogether to give greater force to the declaration concerning them. Wherever they were, or whatever other power might inhabit heaven above, or hell beneath, if either a part of them, or the whole in combination, were to assail those whom Jesus loves, it would be of no avail. A reference may also be made to the highest state of prosperity to which a man may be elevated, or the lowest degree of adversity to which he may be depressed — of honor or of reproach. Neither the situation of Solomon the king, amidst the splendors of royalty, nor that of Lazarus the beggar, clothed in rags and covered with sores, although both are dangerous in the extreme, shall separate the believer from the love of God.
Nor any other Creature — The Apostle here, in conclusion of his discourse, after his long enumeration, intending to accumulate into one word all possible created existence in the whole universe, adds this expression, which completes the climax. Any other creature, that is, any creature which at present or hereafter should exist, all being created by and for Jesus Christ, and subordinate to His power, — no such creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Him. From all the evils above enumerated God has delivered His people, not that they should not suffer them, but that they should not be overcome by them.
The love of God — Here what was before called the love of Christ is called the love of God. Could such a variety of expressions be used if Christ were not God as well as the Father? Among all the uncertainties of this life, that which is certain and can never fail, is the love of God to His children. On this ground, Job, when deprived of all his earthly possessions, exclaims, ’Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,’ Job 13:15. ’My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever,’ Psalms 73:26.
In Christ Jesus our Lord. — The love of God is here declared to be in Christ Jesus, to show that it is not God’s love in general that is here referred to, but that covenant love with which God loves us as His children, His heirs, and joint heirs with His only-begotten and well-beloved Son. If it were simply said that God loves us, we might say, in reflecting on our sins, how can God love such sinful creatures as we are; and how can we assure ourselves of the continuance of His love, since we are daily sinning, and provoking Him to anger? The Apostle, therefore, sets forth to us Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, as the medium of this love, in order that while we see that we are sinners and worthy of condemnation we may regard ourselves as in Jesus Christ, in whom we are reconciled, and washed from our sins in His blood. It is this medium to which the Apostle refers when he says, ’He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,’ and God ’hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in, heavenly places in Christ; ’He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,’ Ephesians 1:4. As, then, Jesus Christ is the true object of the love of the Father, as He testified by the voice from heaven, so in Him He loves His people with an everlasting love. To Him He had given them from eternity, and has united them to Him in time, that He might love them in Him, and by Him. Thus the Father loves no man out of the Son. As the sins of men had rendered them enemies to God, His justice could never have permitted them to be the objects of His love, if He had not expiated their sins, and washed them in the blood of His Son. Whoever, then, is not or shall not be in Christ, is not loved by the Father, but the wrath of God abideth on him. As the Apostle John testifies that God hath given us life, and this life is in His Son, so the Apostle Paul here declares that God hath given us His love, but that this love is in Jesus Christ. Consequently, we should not look for its cause in our works, or in anything in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ alone. Its incomprehensible extent and eternal duration are seen in His own words, when, addressing His Father, He says, ’And hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me;’ and again, ’Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world,’ John 17:23. The love of God, then, to His people, flows entirely through Jesus Christ. Men in general are fond of contemplating God as a God of benevolence. They attempt to flatter Him by praising His beneficence. But God’s love to man is exercised only through the atonement made to His justice by the sacrifice of His Son. Those, therefore, who rejoice Christ and hope to partake of God’s love through any other means than Christ’s all-powerful mediation, must fail of success. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby a sinner can be saved. As there was no protection in Egypt from death by the destroying angel except in those houses that were sprinkled with the blood of the paschal lamb, so none will be saved in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, except those who are sprinkled with the blood of atonement.
The order followed by the Apostle in all this discourse is very remarkable. First, he challenges our enemies in general, and defies them all, saying, ’If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Next, he shows, in detail, that neither the want of anything good, nor the occurrence of any evil, ought to trouble us. Not the want of any good, for ’God hath not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how, then, shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ Not the occurrence of any evil, for that would be either within us or without us. Not within us, for the evil that is within us is sin, and as to sin, ’It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ Not anything without us, for it would be either in the creatures, or in God. Not in the creatures, for that would be ’tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.’ But ’in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.’ Not in God, for then there must be variableness and change in His love. ’Now,’ says the Apostle, ’I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ On this he rests the believer’s peace and assurance, and with these words he concludes his animated and most consolatory description of the victory and triumph of faith.
Well, indeed, may the Gospel be called the wisdom of God. It harmonizes things in themselves the most opposite. Is it not astonishing to find the man, who before had declared that there was no good thing in him, here challenging the whole universe to bring a charge against any of the elect of God? With respect to every Christian, in one point of view, it may be asserted that there is nothing good in him; and in another, it may be as confidently asserted that there is in him nothing evil. How could Paul say of himself, after he was a partaker of the holiness of the Spirit of truth, that there was nothing good in him? It was as concerned his own corrupt human nature. On what principle could he say, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It was as they are in Christ Jesus. This is beautifully exhibited, 1 Corinthians 1:30. God hath united us to Christ Jesus in such an intimate manner, that His obedience is our obedience; His sufferings are our sufferings; His righteousness is our righteousness, for He is made unto us righteousness. This fully explains the ground on which we stand righteous before God: we stand in Christ. He has taken away all our sins. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. It is of the highest importance fully to understand our oneness with Christ. This will give the utmost confidence before God, while we entertain of ourselves the lowest opinion. Besides all the other strong grounds of consolation contained in this chapter, it incontrovertibly establishes the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which, though clearly exhibited in so many other parts of Scripture, is opposed by the Church of Rome, which teaches that believers may finally fall from the love of God, thus representing that love as variable and inconstant. They make the grace of God to depend on the will of man for its effect; and as the will of man is mutable, so they believe that the grace of God is likewise mutable; and, having ascribed to their free will the glory of perseverance, they have like many who call themselves Protestants, lost altogether the doctrine of the perseverance of believers unto eternal life. Closely connected with this doctrine of perseverance, is the believer’s knowledge of his acceptance with God, without which that of final perseverance, or, more properly speaking, the certainty of preservation by God, could impart to him no comfort. When one of these doctrines is mentioned in Scriptures, the other is generally referred to. Both of them are intimately connected with the Christian’s love to God, his joy and peace, and with his being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. The enemies of this doctrine insist that it sets aside the necessity of attending to good works. On the contrary, it establishes them, and obliges us to perform them, not from servile fear, but from gratitude, and filial love to our Heavenly Father. God combats for us against principalities, and powers, and all our enemies; we ought, therefore, to fight under His banner. The believer combats along with God, while the issue of the combat and all the victory is from God, and not from the believer.
It was one great object of the apostle to hold out strong consolation to all who had fled for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before them, and to urge them to give all diligence to the full assurance of hope. In exhorting to the duties of the Christian life, they proceeded on the ground that those to whom they wrote had the knowledge of their interest in the mediation of Christ, of the forgiveness of their sins through His love, and of the enjoyment of the love of God, to whom, by that Spirit of adoption which they had received, they cried, ’Abba, Father’ and from all their Epistles it appears that those whom they addressed enjoyed this assurance. Paul accordingly exhorts the believers at Ephesus not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby they were soaked unto the day of redemption, and immediately after enjoins on them the duty of forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, had forgiven them. ’Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light.’ When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shalt ye also appear with Him in glory; mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth,’ Colossians 3:4. The Apostle Peter exhorts those to whom he wrote to love one another fervently, seeing they had purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit. And the Apostle John enjoins on the little children, the young men, and the fathers, not to love the world, because their sins were forgiven; because they had known Him that is from the beginning, and because they had known the Father. The exhortations of the Apostles are in this manner grounded on the knowledge that those to whom they were directed were supposed to have of their interest in the Savior. Without this, the motives on which they are pressed to obedience would be unavailing.
The whole strain of the apostolic Epistles is calculated to confirm this knowledge, which is referred to as the spring of that joy unspeakable and full of glory with which those who were addressed rejoiced, 1 Peter 1:8. Their faith, then, must have been an appropriating faith, taking home to themselves individually, according to its measure, the promises of mercy, and enabling them to say each for himself, with the Apostle, ’I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I have; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ No believer, without this persuasion that Christ gave Himself for him, and that he is ’dead unto sin,’ and ’alive unto God,’ should rest satisfied. If, in opposition to this, it be said that assurance of our interest in Christ is a gift of God, which He bestows as He sees good, it should be recollected that so also are all spiritual blessings; and if of these it is our duty diligently to seek for a continual supply and increase, it is our duty to seek for this personal assurance among the rest. It is glorifying to Christ our Savior, and highly important to ourselves. This assurance is what we are commanded to aim at, and to give all diligence to attain; and full provision is made for it in the Gospel, Hebrews 6:11-20; 2 Peter 1:10. We enjoy this assurance of our salvation, when we are walking with God, and in proportion as we walk with Him.
The full assurance of faith, in which believers are commanded to draw near to God, stands inseparably connected with having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. An evil conscience accuses a man as guilty, as deserving: and liable to punishment, and keeps him at a distance from God. It causes him to regard the Almighty as an enemy and avenger, so that the natural enmity of the mind against God is excited and strengthened. On the contrary, a good conscience is a conscience discharged from guilt, by the blood of Christ. Conscience tells a man that the wages of sin is death, and that he has incurred the penalty; but when the atonement made by Christ is believed in, it is seen that our sins are no more ours, but Christ’s, upon whom God hath laid them all, and that the punishment due for sin, which is death, has been inflicted upon Him; the demands of the law have been fulfilled, and its penalty suffered. On this the believer rests, and his conscience is satisfied. It is thus purged from dead works, and this is what is called the answer of a good conscience toward God, 1 Peter 3:21. This answer of a good conscience cannot be disjoined from assurance of our acceptance with Him to whom we draw near; and the degree in which both this assurance, and a good conscience, are enjoyed, will be equal. As far, then, as the duty of a Christian’s possessing this assurance is denied, so far the duty of having the answer of a good conscience is not admitted. The same also is true respecting the grace of hope. Hope is the anchor of the soul, to the attainment of the full assurance of which believers are commanded to give all diligence, and they are encouraged to hold fast the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. It is when they have the hope of beholding Jesus as He is that they purify themselves even as He is pure, 1 John 3:3. The ’hope of salvation’ covers their heads in the combat in which they are engaged, which they are therefore commanded to put on, and wear as an helmet, 1 Thessalonians 5:8. In writing to the Thessalonians, the Apostle ascribes to God and the Lord Jesus Christ the everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, which had been given to them. And he prays for the believers at Rome that the God of hope may fill them with all joy and peace in believing, and that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
This good hope through grace, then, as well as a conscience purged from dead works — the duty of possessing which no Christian will deny — stand inseparably connected with the personal assurance of an interest in the Savior, and all of them lie at the foundation of love to God, and consequently of acceptable obedience to Him. We love Him when we see that He hath loved us, and that His Son is the propitiation for our sins. ’Thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in Thy truth,’ Psalms 26:3. ’Lord, I have hoped for Thy salvation, and done Thy commandments,’ Psalms 119:166. In this manner was David led to serve God. When, according to the precious promise of our blessed Lord, the Spirit takes of the things that are His — the glory of His person, and the perfection of His work — and discovers them to us, we then know whom we have believed, the conscience is discharged from guilt; and thus, hoping in God, and having our hearts enlarged, we run the way of His commandments, Psalms 119:32, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, and peace. But how can there be love without a sense of reconciliation with God; and how can the fruits of joy and peace be brought forth till the conscience is discharged from guilt? It is earnestly and repeatedly enjoined on believers to rejoice in the Lord; but how can they rejoice in Him unless they have the persuasion that they belong to Him? ’The joy of the Lord is your strength,’ Nehemiah 8:10.
’The end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned,’ 1 Timothy 1:5. Love flows from a pure heart, a pure heart from a good conscience, and a good conscience from true faith. The necessity of a good conscience, in order to acceptable obedience to God, is forcibly pointed out, Hebrews 9:14. ’How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?’ Till this takes place, all a man’s doings are dead works, or, as the Apostle expresses it in the seventh chapter of this Epistle, ’fruit unto death.’ An evil or guilty conscience leads a man to keep at a distance from God, like Adam, who, conscious of his guilt, hid himself among the trees of the garden. But when the conscience is made good, — that is, is at peace, — the heart is purified, and love is produced. Then, and not till then, when ascribing praise to the Lamb who has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and having a sense of reconciliation with God, and of the enjoyment of His favor, we serve Him in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter — not from servile fear, but with gratitude and filial affection. Thus, having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, His flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God, we draw near with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. We enjoy the persuasion that by His mercy we are saved by the wishing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. ’Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.’ What is this rest but that peace and repose of the soul which can never be found but in God? Then we can adopt the language of the Psalmist, ’I will go unto God, my exceeding joy.’ The Spirit of God being holy, will not produce Christian assurance without at the same time producing sanctification, and by this sanctification the persuasion is confirmed of our communion with God; for although our sanctification be imperfect, it is a certain mark of our election. When we feel a holy sadness for having offended God, we enjoy the blessedness of those who mourn, and are assured that we shall be comforted. When we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we have the promise that we shall be filled. This mourning for sin, and thirsting after righteousness, on which the Savior pronounces His blessing, can only proceed from the Spirit of God, and not from the desire of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. The fruits of the Spirit are first produced by believing in Christ, trusting in Him, and regarding what He has done without us, and are increased and confirmed by what He is doing within us. Abounding in the fruits of righteousness, we make our calling and election sure. Keeping his commandments, we prove our love to our Savior, and He manifests Himself to us as He doeth not unto the world. Personal application, or the appropriation of faith, is often signalized in Scripture. Moses says; ’The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God,’ Exodus 15:2. Job says, ’I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God,’ Job 19:25. ’I know,’ says David, ’that God is for me,’ Psalms 56:9. ’The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,’ Psalms 23:1. ’The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup,’ Psalms 16:5.
’I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower,’ Psalms 18:1. ’I know,’ says Paul, ’whom I have believed.’ John says, ’We have known and believed the love that God hath to us.’ Peter, classing himself with those to whom he wrote, blesses God that he and they were begotten again to a lively hope of an inheritance reserved in heaven; and, referring to their final perseverance, he adds, that they were ’kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.’ In the hope of that salvation, those who received the doctrine of the Apostles rejoiced as soon as it was announced to them, Acts 2:41; Acts 8:39; Acts 16:34. Their joy, then, had not its source in reflection on, or consciousness of, their faith, or its effects, although afterwards so confirmed, but arose, in the first instance, from the view they had of the glory and all-sufficiency of the Savior, and His perfect righteousness made theirs by faith, resting on the Divine warrant and promise, ’In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him,’ Ephesians 3:12.
Although the assurance of sense be confirmatory of the assurance of faith it is not so strong as the latter. ’Sanctification,’ says Rutherford, ’does not evidence justification as faith doth evidence it, with such a sort of clearness as light evidences colors, though it be no sign or evident mark of them; but as smoke evidences fire, and as the morning star in the east evidenceth the sun will shortly rise; or as the streams prove there is a head-spring whence they issue; though none of these make what they evidence visible to the eye; so doth sanctification give evidence of justification, only as marks, signs, effects, give evidence of the cause. But the light of faith, the testimony of the Spirit by the operation of free grace, will cause us, as it were, with our eyes, see justification and faith, not by report, but as we see the sun’s light.’
If it be objected that a man cannot know that he has faith without seeing its effects; it is replied that this is contrary to fact. When a thing is testified, or a promise is made to us, we know whether or not we believe it, or trust in it. According to this objection, when Philip said, ’If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest,’ the eunuch should have replied, ’You ask me to tell you a thing I cannot know;’ but instead of this, he answers, ’I believe.’ When the Lord asked the blind man, ’Believest thou in the Son of God?’ he did not ask a question which it was impossible to answer. Does the Spirit of God cry in the hearts of believers, ’Abba, Father,’ and witness with their spirits that they are the children of God, without their being able to know it? If, however, the flesh raises doubts in the believer, from the weakness of his faith, he should consider that the weakness of his faith does not prevent it from being true faith; that God accepts not the perfection but the reality of faith; that Jesus Christ recognized the faith of him who said, ’Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief; ’and that these doubts are not in his faith, but opposed to it. They are in the flesh, with the believer resists, and says with Paul, ’Now, if I do what I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.’
’In the first act of believing,’ says Mr. Bell in his work On the Covenants, ’sinners have no evidence of grace in themselves: they feel nothing within but sin; they see a word without them as the sole foundation of faith, and on that alone they build for eternity. This is a point of no small importance to saints and sinners. Many of the modern builders are at great pains to keep their hearers from all confidence till they first discern the evidences of grace in their hearts; and, having got evidence, then, and not till then, can they have any just, lawful, or well-grounded confidence, — nay, they seem pretty plainly to intimate that a sinner’s right to Christ turns on something wrought in him, or done by him, and till he have evidence of this, he can claim no interest in Christ, nor assure himself of salvation by Him. According to this, Christ, the Tree of Life, is forbidden fruit, which the sinner must not touch till he has seen inward evidence. I confess I have not so learned Christ. The sinner’s right to Christ turns not at all upon any inward gracious qualifications, but purely on the Divine warrant revealed in the word. Faith is not a qualification in order to come to Christ, but the coming itself; it is not our right to Christ, but our taking and receiving Him to ourselves on the footing of the right conveyed by the Gospel offer.’
’Tis a thing of huge difficulty,’ says Archbishop Leighton, ’to bring men to a sense of their natural misery, to see that they have need of a Savior, and to look out for one. But then, being brought to that, ’tis no less, if not more difficult, to persuade them that Christ is He; that as they have need of Him, so they need no more, He being able and sufficient for them. All the waverings and fears of misbelieving minds do spring from dark and narrow apprehensions of Jesus; Christ. All the doubt is not of their interest, as they imagine; they who say so, and think it is so, do not perceive the bottom and root of their own malady. They say they do no whit doubt but that He is able enough, and His righteousness large enough, but all the doubt is, if He belong to me. Now, I say this doubt arises from a defect and doubt of the former, wherein you suspect it not. Why doubtest thou that He belongs to thee? Dost thou fly to Him, as lost and undone in thyself? Dost thou renounce all that can be called thine, and seek thy life in Him? Then He is thine. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Oh I but I find so much not only former but still daily renewed and increasing guiltiness. Why? Is He a sufficient Savior, or is He not? If thou dost say He is not, then it is manifest that here lies the defect and mistake. If thou sayest He is, then hast thou answered all thy objections of that kind: much guiltiness much or little, old or new, neither helps nor hinders, as to thy interest in Him, and salvation by Him. And for dispelling of these mists, nothing can be more effectual than the letting in of those Gospel beams, the clear expressions of His riches and fullness in the Scriptures, and eminently this — made of God wisdom and righteousness.’ The religion of the Church of Rome leaves a man nothing but doubts respecting his salvation. It teaches, as has been formerly remarked, that a Christian should believe in general the promises of God, while personal application of these promises, and assurance of God’s love, it calls presumption. This subject was one of the grand points of discussion between that church and the Reformers. But how many Protestants have forsaken the ground which their predecessors here occupied, and have gone over to that of their opponents! The doctrine of the duty of our personal assurance of salvation, and the persuasion of our interest in Christ, is denied by many, and doubts concerning this are even converted into evidences of faith, although they are directly opposed to it. Doubts of a personal interest in Christ, are evidences either of little faith or of no faith. ’O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ If this assurance were built on anything except on the foundation that God Himself hath laid, it would indeed be eminently presumptuous. But, in opposition to such opinions, the Apostle John has written a whole Epistle to lead Christians to this assurance. ’He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar: because He believeth not the witness which God hath witnessed concerning His Son. And this is the witness, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.’ ’This assurance,’ says Archbishop Leighton, ’is no enemy to holy diligence, nor friend to carnal security; on the contrary, it is the only thing that doth eminently enable and embolden the soul for all adventures and services. Base fears and doubtings, wherein some place much of religion, and many weak Christians seem to be in that mistake, to think it a kind of Holy Spiritual temper to be questioning and doubting. I say, then, base fears can never produce anything truly generous, no height of obedience, — they do nothing but entangle and disable the soul for every good work; perfect love casts out this fear, and works a sweet unperplexing fear, a holy wariness, not to offend, which fears nothing else. And this confidence of love is the great secret of comfort, and of ability to do God service. Nothing makes so strong and healthful a constitution of soul as pure love: it dare submit to God and resign itself to Him; it dare venture itself in His hand, and seeks no more but how to please Him. A heart thus composed goes readily and cheerfully unto all services, to do, to suffer, to live, to die, at His pleasure; and firmly stands to this, that nothing can separate from that which is sufficient to it, what is all its happiness, the love of God in Christ Jesus.’ ’It is true that all Christians have not alike clear and firm apprehension of their happy and true state, and scarce any of them are alike at all times; yet they have all and always the same right to this state and to the comfort of it; and where they stand in a right light to view it, they do see it so, and rejoice in it. Many Christians do prejudice their own comfort, and darken their spirits, by not giving freedom to faith to act according to its nature and proper principles; they will not believe till they find some evidence or assurance, which is quite to invert the order of the thing, and to look for fruit without settling a root for it to grow from. Would you take Christ upon the absolute word of promise tendering Him to you, and rest on Him, this would ingraft you into life itself, for that He is; and so those fruits of the Holy Ghost would bud and flourish in your hearts. From that very believing on Him would arise this persuasion, yea, even to a gloriation, and an humble boasting in His love, — who shall accuse? who shall condemn? who shall separate?’
In opposition to the believer’s personal assurance of salvation, Satan will represent to him the number and enormity of his sins, and the strictness of God’s justice, which has often fallen on those whom He hardens. But believers will answer, ’We know that to God belongeth righteousness, and unto us confusion of faces, but mercy and pardon belong to the Lord our God. If our sins ascend to heaven, His mercy is above the heavens. It is true that sin abounds in us; but where sin abounded grace and mercy have much more abounded; and the greater our misery, the greater towards us is the glory of the mercy of God. In entering into paradise, our Lord Jesus Christ has not taken with Him angels, but the spirit of a malefactor, that we might know that the greatest sinners are objects of His compassion. He came into the world to save sinners, and He calls to Himself those who are heavy laden with sin. He came to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. The more, then, that we feel the power of sin, the closer we cleave to Him. If Peter, affrighted, exclaimed, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," let us, on the contrary, say, Lord Jesus, we come to Thee, and the more so because we are sinners; for Thou hast been made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Thee. We have sinned seventy times, and seventy times have fallen again into sin; but God, who commands us to forgive offenses even seventy times seven, will many more times pardon! In comparison of His love, the love of man is not as a drop to the ocean.’
The foundation on which believers repel doubts concerning their salvation rests on the excellence of their Mediator, His love and compassion for them, the merit of His obedience, and their communion with Him. As to the excellence of their Mediator, He is the eternal Son of God, the Beloved of the Father, for whom they are beloved in Him, and His intercession for them is acceptable to God and efficacious. ’We have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.’ ’He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ It rests on the love and compassion of Jesus. ’For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.’ His love to us has been stronger than death; and He Himself saith, ’Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ Having thus given Himself for us, will He reject us? Having ascended to heaven, will He forget us, for whom He descended to earth and for whom, as the forerunner, He hath again entered heaven to intercede for us, to prepare a place, and to receive us to Himself?
Believers rest their assurance of salvation on the merit of their Redeemer’s obedience; for when their sins are red as crimson, they shall be made white as snow. Our robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, whose blood cleanseth us from all sin. It is impossible that sin can be more powerful to destroy us, than the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ to save us. We are condemned by the law; but, in answer to the law, we plead the blood of Jesus Christ, who hath borne the curse of the law, and who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. We have been condemned by the justice of God; but to this justice we present the righteousness of Christ, who is ’Jehovah our righteousness.’ God hath been angry with us; but in Jesus Christ He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel. To the temptations of Satan, believers also oppose their union with Jesus Christ; for Jesus Christ and they are one. We are His members, bone of His bones, and flesh of His flesh; His obedience is our obedience; for as we are one body with Him, we appear before our God in Him. We are found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. By union with Him we are already seated together in heavenly places in Christ. As Jesus Christ has risen to die no more, but to live eternally, it follows that the righteousness which He has wrought is an everlasting righteousness, and that, being united to Him as His members, we derive from Him a life which cannot fail, so that we shall never die; for as the risen Head dies no more, and His life is an everlasting life, in like manner, whoever receives spiritual life from Him, receives a life which can never terminate. Hence it follows that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, assuring us of our justification and eternal life, is a source of the greatest joy and consolation. The Psalmist, accordingly, prophesying of the resurrection of Christ, says ’that his heart is glad, and his glory rejoiceth.’ The first words of Jesus Christ to Mary, after His resurrection, were, ’Woman, why weepest thou?’ and to the other women, ’Be not afraid;’ and to the disciples, ’Why are ye troubled?’ His resurrection ought to wipe away the tears of His people, to tranquilize their minds, and dissipate their fears, by the assurance it gives of their acquittal from condemnation before God, and of the destruction of him who had the power of death.
’The words of Jesus, above referred to,’ says an eloquent writer, ’are generally applicable to the life of a Christian. He can look upon that rich field of privilege and of promise placed before him in the Bible, and can say that it is all his own. And where is the want that the blessed fruits of that field cannot supply, the distress which they cannot relieve, the wound that they cannot heal, the fear that they cannot quiet, or the sorrow for which they do not furnish abundant consolation? Where, then, is the cause of depression? Friend of Jesus, why weepest thou? If you have an Advocate with the Father, through whom you sins are all forgiven, and you are made a child of God, — and the Holy Ghost is given you as your Sanctifier and Comforter, — and you are assured of having almighty power for your support, and unerring wisdom for your guide, and heaven for your eternal home — what can overbalance or suppress the joy which naturally results from such privileges as these? Trials we may, we must, meet with; but can these depress us, when we know that our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding,even an eternal weight of glory? If tried by bodily pain, we feel more keenly the happiness of the hope which anticipates the time when we shall have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens! Worldly losses will not overwhelm us, if we know that we are undoubted heirs of an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Friends may change, but we will be comforted by the assurance that in Christ we have a brother born for adversity, — nay, a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. There rolls between us and our Father’s house the deep and restless tide of this world’s corruption, through which we must of necessity pass, and the deeper and still more dangerous tide of the corruption of our hearts, and we are surrounded by enemies on every side; and when we feel our own weakness, we may be ready to fear lest we should one day fall by the hand of some of them. But every distressing fear is removed, when we recollect that we shall not be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, and that, in point of fact, there is no limit to our power, for we can do all things through Christ strengthening us, and that the life that is in us is the life of Christ, a life which no power can extinguish in any one of Christ’s members, any more than it can extinguish it in our glorious Head.’
From the 28th verse to the conclusion of the chapter, the greatest encouragement is held out to repose all our confidence on the love of God in Christ Jesus, with the assured conviction that, receiving Him, we shall be enabled to persevere unto the end. The impossibility of plucking His people out of the Savior’s hand is here established in the most triumphant manner. Whatever objection is raised against it, is contrary to the power of Jesus Christ, contrary to His love, to the virtue of His sacrifice, and to the prevalence of His intercession, — contrary to the operation of the whole Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in every part of the plan of salvation. If we look upwards or downwards, — to heaven above, or the earth or hell beneath, — to all places, to all creatures, — neither any nor all of them together shall prevail against us. Were heaven and earth to combine, and all the powers of hell to rise up, they would avail nothing against the outstretched arm of Him who makes us more than conquerors. The power of Jesus, who is our Head, ascends above the heavens, and descends beneath the depths; and in His love there is a breadth, and length, and depth, and height, which passeth knowledge. ’Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep,’ Psalms 36:5. Can anything prevail to pluck out of the hands of Jesus Christ those who have fled to Him as their surety, — those who are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, — those whom He hath purchased with His precious blood?
The feelings of the believer, viewed in Christ, as described in the close of this chapter, form a striking contrast with what is said in the end of the former chapter, where he is viewed in himself. In the contemplation of himself as a sinner, he mournfully exclaims, ’O wretched man that I am!’ In the contemplation of himself as justified in Christ, he boldly demands, Who shall lay anything to my charge? Who is he that condemneth? Well may the man who loves God defy the universe to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus his Lord. Although at present the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together, although even he himself groaneth within himself, yet all things are working together for his good. The Holy Spirit is interceding for him in his heart; Jesus Christ is interceding for him before the throne; God the Father hath chosen him from eternity, hath called him, hath justified him, and will finally crown him with glory. The Apostle had begun this chapter by declaring that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus: he concludes it with the triumphant assurance that there is no separation from His love. The salvation of believers is complete in Christ, and their union with Him indissoluble.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER IX — Romans 9:1-33
THROUGH the whole of the doctrinal part of this Epistle, Paul has an eye to the state and character of the Jewish nation, and the aspect which the Gospel bears towards them. In the preceding chapters, he had exhibited that righteousness which God has provided for men, all of whom are entirely divested of any righteousness of their own, ’none being righteous, no, not one.’ He had discoursed largely on the justification and sanctification of believers, and now he proceeds to treat particularly of the doctrine of predestination, and to exhibit the sovereignty of God in His dealings both towards Jews and Gentiles. The way in which, in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters, he so particularly adverts to the present state and future destination of the Jews, in connection with what regards the Gentiles, furnishes the most ample opportunity for the illustration of this highly important subject.
In the eighth chapter, the Apostle had declared the glorious and exalted privileges of the people of God. But it was impossible for one so ardently attached to his own nation, and so zealously concerned for the welfare of his countrymen, not to be touched with the melancholy contrast which naturally arose to his mind, as he turned from these lofty and cheering contemplations to consider the deplorable state of apostate Israel. If there was a people upon earth to whom, more than to another, the blessings of the Gospel belonged as a birthright, it was assuredly to the descendants, according to the flesh, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. But they had willfully rebelled against their God; they had rejected the Messiah, and consequently forfeited the rights and immunities secured to their forefathers by covenant. Their condition was therefore itself well calculated to awaken the sympathies of Paul; while at the same time it was necessary to vindicate the faithfulness of God, and to prove that the rejection of the Jews was by no means opposed to the absolute security of God’s elect, on which he had been so largely expatiating. This subject is therefore discussed in the three following chapters; and as it is one of the greatest importance, so also it is introduced in a manner the most appropriate and the most affecting.
Scarcely has his sublime conclusion to the eighth chapter terminated, when, at the beginning of the ninth, the triumphant language of victory is exchanged by the Apostle for the voice of commiseration, in which he bewails the apostasy of his countrymen. He does not dwell so much upon the magnitude of their guilt, as he does upon the memory of their ancestral glory and ancient privileges. He strongly affirms the ardor of his affection for them as his brethren, and feelingly deplores the misery of their rejected condition. Finally, he turns from this scene of ruin and degradation, to declare that their apostasy, though general, was not universal, and to predict the dawn of a brighter day, which shall yet make manifest the truth and faithfulness of their covenant God, whose purposes concerning Israel had evidently alike included their present rejection and future restoration. The rejection of Israel, Paul proves to have been from the earliest periods of their history prefigured by God’s dealing towards them as a nation. For, after declaring that ’they are not all Israel which are of Israel,’ he adduces various and conclusive testimonies in confirmation of this truth, and thus forcibly illustrates the conduct of God towards the natural descendants of Abraham. In following this course of argument, he draws a solemn and most impressive picture of the sovereignty of God in the general administration of His government, and asserts the distinction which God makes between vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, in order ’that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.’ He further affirms the calling of a portion both of Jews and Gentiles, with whom in combination he classes himself as one of those ’called of God,’ concerning whom he had, in the preceding chapter, so largely discoursed. The introduction of the Gentiles into the Church of Christ, as well as of a remnant or portion of the Jews, being thus clearly intimated, he shows that both of these events had been expressly foretold by the Prophets, who had also affirmed that except the Lord of Sabbath had left them a seed, the national ruin of Israel would have been as complete as that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Apostle had thus two great objects in view. In the first place, he illustrates the sovereignty of God as exhibited in the infallible accomplishment of the Divine purposes predicted by the Prophets, which led to the national rejection of the Jews, with the exception of a remnant who were saved by grace. In the second place, he proves that the poses of God were equally fulfilled in bringing in the Gentiles; and this he does in such a way as to cut off, on their part, all pretensions to everything like merit, desert, or worthiness, since, without seeking for it, they attained to the righteousness which is of faith.
Having established these two important truths with great force and clearness, Paul accounts for the fact of the Jews having stumbled at and rejected the Messiah. He shows that the Messiah had been characterized by the Prophets as ’that stumbling stone’ which God had laid in Zion; and that the Jews stumbled in consequence of their ignorance of the righteousness which God had provided in the fulfillment of His violated law, and of their vain attempt to establish a righteousness of their own. His discussion of this topic is thus most appropriately introduced. It is also in the last degree important, as furnishing additional confirmation of the sovereignty of God, which is here exhibited in the certainty of the accomplishment of His purposes; while it is testified how well merited was that punishment of rejecting and casting off the great body of the Jews. Paul sums up the whole, by appealing, at the end of the tenth chapter, to the testimonies of Moses and Isaiah, in confirmation of what he had advanced. But still, as the apostasy was so general, it might be concluded that God had for ever cast off the Jewish nation, and had thus made void the promises made to the fathers. This error he once more encounters and largely confutes in the eleventh chapter, where he shows most conclusively that, in whatever form it presents itself, it cannot abide the test of truth. So far is this from being the case, that, in the infallible dispensations of God, a period will arrive when the Redeemer shall come out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob; when the whole of Israel shall, as one people, be brought within the bond of that new covenant established with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, of the blessings of which they shall all partake. The three following chapters thus hold a very distinguished place in this most instructive Epistle, and exhibit in a manner the most comprehensive, as well as conspicuous and edifying, the sovereignty of God in the government of the world, and the character of His dealings towards men in the whole of the Divine administration.
As the nation of Israel were types of the true Israel, and as their rejection might seem, as has been observed, to militate against the security of the people of God, it was necessary in this ninth chapter to enter fully upon the subject. It was, however, one sure to be highly offensive to the Jews; and therefore Paul introduces it in a manner calculated, as far as possible, to allay their prejudices against him, while at the same time he does not in this matter shun to declare the whole counsel of God, for the instruction of those to whom he wrote.
After expressing the grief with which he contemplated his countrymen, without specifying its cause, he enumerates their distinguished privileges as a nation. He then adverts to their being rejected of God, though not directly mentioning it; and begins with observing that it could not be said that among them the word of God had taken none effect. God had promised to be a God to Abraham and to his seed; and although the greater part of Israel were now cast off, that promise had not failed. When God said to Abraham, ’In Isaac shall thy seed be called,’ He intimated that the promise did not refer to all his children, but to a select number. Isaac was given to Abraham by the special promise of Jehovah; and further, in the case of Rebecca, one of her children was a child of promise, the other was not, and this was intimated before they were born. In order to silence all objections against this proceeding, as if the Almighty could be charged with injustice, Paul at once appeals to the sovereignty of God, who disposes of His creatures as to Him seems good. Especially he refers to what God had said to Moses, as recorded in the Scriptures, when He made all His goodness to pass before him, that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, — thus intimating that His favors were His own, and that in bestowing or withholding them there was no room for injustice. Against this view of God’s sovereignty, the pride of man, until subdued by grace, rises with rebellious violence; but such is its importance — such its tendency to abase the sinner and exalt the Savior — that Paul dwells on it in both its aspects, not only as exhibited in the exercise of mercy on whom He will, but also in hardening whom He will. In acting both in the one way and the other, he declares that God contemplates His own glory. This leads the Apostle immediately to the election of those whom God had prepared to be vessels of mercy, both from among the Jews and the Gentiles. These in reality were the only children of promise of whom Isaac was a type, Galatians 4:28. On the other hand, the rejection of the great body of Israel, so far from being contrary to the Divine purpose, had been distinctly predicted by their own Prophets. He closes the chapter by showing that, while this rejection had taken place according to the counsel of God, its immediate occasion was the culpable ignorance and prejudice of the Jews themselves in seeking acceptance with God by their own righteousness, instead of submitting to the righteousness of God brought in by the Messiah.
The manner in which Paul has treated the subject of this chapter, furnishes an opportunity of illustrating the doctrine of election to eternal life, to which, in the one preceding, he had traced up, as to their origin, all the privileges of believers in Christ. It likewise gives occasion to exhibit the sovereignty of God as all along displayed respecting the nation of Israel In this manner the astonishing fact is at the same time accounted for, that so great a portion of the Jews had rejected the promised Messiah, while a remnant among them at that time, as in every preceding age, acknowledged Him as their Lord. Mr. Stuart says that ’with the eighth chapter concludes what may appropriately be termed the doctrine part of our Epistle.’ But if the sovereignty of God be a doctrine of Divine revelation, this assertion is evidently erroneous. Without the development of this important doctrine, which accounts for the fact of the election of some, and the rejection of others, the Epistle would not be complete.
Romans 9:1 — I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.
I say the truth. — The Jews regarded the Apostle Paul as their most determined enemy. What, therefore, he was about to declare concerning his great sorrow on account of the present state of his countrymen, would not easily procure from them credit. Yet it was a truth which he could affirm without hypocrisy, and with the greatest sincerity. In Christ. — Paul was speaking as one united to, and belonging to, Christ — acting as in His service. This is a most solemn asseveration, and implies that what he was affirming was as true as if Christ Himself had spoken it. A reference to Christ would have no weight with the Jews. It appears, therefore, that the Apostle adopted this solemn language chiefly with a view of impressing those whom he addresses with a conviction of his sincerity, and also to prove that what he was about to say respecting the rejection of the Jewish nation did not arise, as might be supposed, from any prejudice or dislike to his countrymen. I lie not. — this is a repetition, but not properly tautology. In certain situations an assertion may be frequently in substance repeated, as indicating the earnestness of the speaker. The Apostle dwells on the statement, and is not willing to leave it without producing the effect. My conscience also bearing me witness. — For the sincerity of his love for the Jewish nation, the Apostle appeals to his conscience. His countrymen and others might deem him their enemy: they might consider all his conduct towards them as influenced by hatred; but he had the testimony of his conscience to the contrary. In the holy Ghost. — He not only had the testimony of his conscience, but what precluded the possibility of his deceiving, he spoke in the Holy Ghost — he spoke by inspiration.
Romans 9:2-3 — That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart (for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ) for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Many interpretations have been given of this passage. Calvin supposes that Paul, actually in ’a state of ecstasy,’ wished himself condemned in the place of his countrymen. ’The additional sentence,’ he says, ’proves the Apostle to be speaking not of temporal, but eternal death; and when he says from Christ, an allusion is made to the Greek word anathema, which means a separation from anything. Does not separation from Christ mean, being excluded from all hopes of salvation?’ Such a thing is impossible, and would be highly improper. This would do more than fulfill the demands of the law, — it would utterly go beyond the law, and would therefore be sinful; for all our affections ought to be regulated by the law of God. Some understand it of excommunication. But the Apostle could not be excommunicated by Christ, except for a cause which would exclude him from heaven, as well as from the church on earth. He could not be excommunicated without being guilty of some sin that manifested him to be an unbeliever It is not possible that one speaking in the Holy Ghost could wish to be in such a state. Paul’s affection for his countrymen is here indeed expressed in very strong terms, but the meaning often ascribed to it is not for a moment to be admitted. That any one should desire to be eternally separated from Christ, and consequently punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, is impossible. The law commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but not more than ourselves, which would be the case, if to promote his temporal or spiritual benefit we desired to be eternally miserable. It should also be recollected, that it is not only everlasting misery, but desperate and final enmity against God, that is comprised in Paul’s wish as it is generally understood. It represents him as loving the creature more than the Creator. But who could ever imagine that the desire of being eternally wicked, and of indulging everlasting hatred to God, could proceed from love to Christ, and be a proper manner of expressing zeal for His glory? It would be strange indeed if Paul, who had just been affirming, in a tone so triumphant, the impossibility of the combined efforts of creation to separate him from the love of Christ, should, the moment after, solemnly desire that this separation should take place, for the sake of any creature, however beloved.
To understand the meaning of this passage, there are three observations to which it is of importance to attend. In the first place, it is the past, and not the present tense, which is employed in the original. What is rendered ’I could wish,’ should be read in the past tense, ’I was wishing, or did wish,’ referring to the Apostle’s state before his conversion. The second observation is, that the verb which in our version is translated ’wish,’ would have been more correctly rendered in this place boast; ’for I myself boasted, or made it my boast, to be separated from Christ.’ For this translation, which makes the Apostle’s meaning far more explicit, there is the most unquestionable authority. The third observation is, that the first part of the 3rd verse should be read in a parenthesis, as follows: ’I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart (for I myself made it my boast to be separated from Christ) for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.’ By the usual interpretation, the Apostle is understood to say, ’I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart,’ and without stating for whom or for what, to add, ’I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.’ But it appears evident that these words, for my brethren, form the conclusion of the above expression, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. Paul had himself formerly made it his boast to be separated from Christ, rejecting Him as the Messiah; and to prove how much he sympathized with the situation of his countrymen, in the bosom of his lamentation over their fallen state, he appeals to his former experience, when, before his conversion, he had been in the same unbelief, and personally knew their deplorable condition. He also intimates his sorrow in such a manner as to show that he is far from glorying over them, having been himself as deeply guilty as they were; while, according to the doctrine he was inculcating, it was in no respect to be ascribed to his own merits that he was happily delivered from that awful condemnation in which, with grief, he beheld them now standing.
Paul’s sorrow was for those whom he calls his brethren. This does not respect a spiritual relationship, as the term brethren so generally denotes in the New Testament, but natural relationship, as Paul here explains it when he adds, my kinsmen according to the flesh. His sorrow for them is the subject of his testimony, which, in a manner so solemn, he had confirmed in the preceding verse. Instead of glorying over their calamities and rejection, he forgot his own wrongs, and their cruel persecutions, in the inexpressible affliction with which he contemplated their obstinate unbelief with all its fatal consequences. In this we may discern a characteristic of a Christian. He who has no sorrow for the perishing state of sinners, and especially of his kindred, is not a Christian. No man can be a Christian who is unconcerned for the salvation of others.
Romans 9:4 — Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.
Paul here recognizes and enumerates the great external privileges belonging to the Jews, which aggravated his profound sorrow, on account of their rejection of the Messiah, and their consequent deplorable condition. Who are Israelites — That is, the most honorable people on earth; the descendants of him who, as a prince, had power with God. They had the name, because that of Israel was given to Jacob their father by God, when vouchsafing so striking a pre-intimation of His future manifestation in the flesh. Adoption — That is, the nation of Israel was a nation adopted by God as a type of the adoption of His children in Christ Jesus; and in that typical sense, in which they were the children of God as no other nation ever was, they are frequently spoken of in Scripture, Exodus 4:22; Jeremiah 31:9-20. In this way our Lord Himself recognizes them, when anticipating their rejection, He says, ’The children of the kingdom shall be cast out,’ Matthew 8:12. Glory — This most probably refers to the manifestation of the glory of God over the mercy-seat in the sanctuary. God, too, set His tabernacle among the Israelites, and walked among them, which was their peculiar glory, by which they were distinguished from all other nations, Deuteronomy 4:32-36 The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud that went before them in he wilderness. It often filled the tabernacle and the temple. His house was the place of His glory. Covenants — The covenant with Abraham, and the covenant at Sinai, in both of which they were interested, and all the solemn engagements which God had entered into with mankind, were lodged in their hands and committed to their custody. Giving of the law. — To them the law was given at Mount Sinai; and they were the only people on earth so distinguished by God. The service of God. — This refers to the tabernacle and temple service, or Mosaic institutions of worship. All other nations were left to their own superstitious inventions; the Jews alone had ordinances of worship from God. Promises — The Jews had received the promises, both temporal and spiritual, especially those that related to the Messiah, Acts 2:39.
Romans 9:5 — Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever Amen.
Whose are the fathers — The Jews numbered among their illustrious progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with others to whom God had been pleased to manifest Himself in a manner so remarkable. Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came. — This was the completion of all the privileges which the Apostle here enumerates. It was a signal honor to the Jewish nation, that the Messiah was by descent an Israelite. Concerning the flesh — This declares that He was really a man having truly the human nature, and as a man of Jewish origin. At the same time it imports that He had another nature. Who is over all, God blessed for ever — This is a most clear and unequivocal attestation of the Divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every engine of false criticism has been employed by those who are desirous to evade the obvious meaning of this decisive testimony to the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ; but they have never even plausibly succeeded.
The awful blindness and obstinacy of Arians and Socinians in their explanations, or rather perversions, of the word of God, are in nothing more obvious than in their attempts to evade the meaning of this celebrated testimony to the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ. They often shelter themselves under various readings; but here they have no tenable ground for an evasion of this kind. Yet, strange to say, some of them have, without the authority of manuscripts, altered the original, in order that it may suit their purpose. There is no difficulty in the words — no intricacy in the construction; yet, by a forced construction and an unnatural punctuation, they have endeavored to turn away this testimony from its obvious import. Contrary to the genius and idiom of the Greek — contrary to all the usual rules of interpreting language, as has often been incontrovertibly shown — they substitute ’God be blessed,’ for ’God be blessed for ever;’ or, ’God, who is over all, be blessed,’ instead of, ’who is over all, God blessed for ever’ Such tortuous explanations are not only rejected by a sound interpretation of the original, but manifest themselves to be unnatural, even to the most illiterate who exercise an unprejudiced Judgment. The Scriptures have many real difficulties, which are calculated to try or to increase the faith and patience of the Christian, and are evidently designed to enlarge his acquaintance with the word of God, by obliging him more diligently to search into them, and place his dependence on the Spirit of all truth. But when language so clear as in the present passage is perverted, to avoid recognizing the obvious truth contained in the Divine testimony, it more fully manifests the depravity of human nature, and the rooted enmity of the carnal mind against God, than the grossest works of the flesh.
After speaking of the Messiah’s coming through the nation of Israel, in respect to His human nature, the Apostle, in order to enhance the greatness of this extraordinary distinction conferred upon it, here refers to His Divine nature, to union with which, in one person, His human nature was exalted. The declaration of His coming in the flesh clearly imports, as has been remarked, that Christ had another nature. When it is said, 1 John 4:3, that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh — which could not be said of a mere man, who could come in no other way — it shows that He might have come in another way, and therefore implies His pre-existence, which is asserted in a variety of passages of Scripture. Of such passages there are four orders. The first order consists of those where His incarnation is ascribed to Himself. ’Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple,’ Malachi 3:1. These words manifestly prove that His incarnation, and the preparation for it, such as the mission of John the Baptist, was a work of the Messiah Himself, and consequently that He existed before His incarnation. The same truth is declared, when it is said, ’For as much, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same; for verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham,’ Hebrews 2:14; Hebrews 2:16. Here His taking upon Him flesh and blood is represented to be by an act of His own will. The same truth is taught where He is introduced as addressing the Father in these terms. ’Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a body hast Thou prepared me: in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure: then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do Thy will, O God,’ Hebrews 10:5; Hebrews 10:7; and again, ’Jesus Christ, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant,’ Philippians 2:6. Here we are taught that Jesus Christ Himself took this form, and consequently existed before He took it. The second order of passages, asserting the pre-existence of our Lord, are those which expressly declare that Jesus Christ was in heaven before He came into the world. ’No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven.’ And a little after, ’He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all,’ John 3:13-31. ’The bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven,’ John 6:33; John 6:41; John 6:50-51; John 6:58. ’For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me,’ John 6:38. ’What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? ’John 6:62. ’And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was,’ John 17:5.
A third order of passages ascribes actions to Jesus Christ before His birth. ’By whom,’ says the Apostle, God ’made the worlds,’ Hebrews 1:2, which signifies the creation of the universe; and Romans 9:3, ’upholding all things by the word of His power,’ which signifies His providence; and Romans 9:10, ’And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands.’ This is part of the response of the Father in the 25th verse of the 102nd Psalm to His Son, complaining that He had weakened His strength in the way, and praying not to be taken away in the midst of His days; to which the Father immediately answers, ’Thy years are throughout all generations,’ and continues His reply to the end of the Psalm. ’One Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,’ 1 Corinthians 8:6, which implies both creation and preservation. ’Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature; for by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist,’ Colossians 1:15-16. Here Jesus Christ is declared to be the Creator of all things. This is also affirmed concerning Him before His incarnation, John 1:3. ’Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison,’ 1 Peter 3:19. The Son of God preached by His Spirit to the inhabitants of the earth before the flood, who are now in the prison of hell, which supposes His existence before He was born.
A fourth order of passages clearly proves the pre-existence of our Lord Jesus Christ. ’This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man, which is preferred before me; for He was before me,’ John 1:15; John 1:30. He could not be before John unless He had existed prior to his birth, since John was born before Him. ’Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am,’ John 8:58. ’But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,’ Micah 5:2. ’I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.’ ’I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.’ ’I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last,’ Revelation 1:8-11; Revelation 22:13.
To all these passages must be added that of Proverbs 8 :(compared with 1 Corinthians 1:24), where Wisdom is declared to have existed when God formed the universe; and also John 1:1, ’In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ Than this last passage nothing could more explicitly declare the pre-existence and Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are few of the predictions concerning the Messiah in which His two natures are not marked. In the first of them, ’the seed of the woman’ denotes His humanity; while the words, ’He shall bruise thy head,’ declare His divinity. In the promise to Abraham, His humanity is marked by the words, ’in thy seed;’ while in what follows, ’shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,’ we read His divinity. ’I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth’ — this is His divinity. ’Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold’ — this is His humanity. ’Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son’ — this is His humanity; ’and shall call His name Immanuel’ — this is His divinity. ’Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given’ — this marks His humanity. ’The government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father’ — these words denote His Godhead. There are multitudes of other passages in the Prophets to the same purpose.
In the same way the two natures of Jesus Christ are spoken of in numerous passages in the New Testament. ’The Word was God,’ and ’The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.’ ’Made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness.’ ’God was manifest in the flesh.’ The same distinction appeared in His actions, and almost all His miracles. Finally, this truth discovers itself in all the most remarkable parts of His economy. In His birth He is laid in a manger as a man, but it is announced by the hallelujahs of angels, and the ’wise men,’ led by a star, come to adore Him as God. At the commencement of His public ministry He is baptized in water, but the heavens open to Him, and the Father proclaims from heaven, ’This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ In His temptation in the desert He suffers hunger and thirst, but angels come and minister to their Lord. In the garden of Gethsemane He seems as if he were ready to sink under the agonies He endures; but more than twelve legions of the angelic host stand ready to fulfill His mandates, and prostrate His enemies in the dust. In His death He hangs like a malefactor upon the cross, but as Jehovah He bestows paradise upon the dying robber.
In completing the enumeration of the signal honors conferred on the nation of Israel, after having declared that of them the Messiah, as concerning the flesh, came, the reason is obvious why the Apostle immediately referred to our Lord’s Divine nature. Had he spoken only of Christ’s coming in the flesh, it would not have enhanced as he intended the high and unparalleled privileges by which his countrymen had been distinguished. It was necessary, both for this end, and in order fully to portray the character of Him of whom he spoke, to subjoin, ’who is over all, God blessed for ever’ This addition, then, is not superfluous, or that might have been omitted. It is indispensable, being essential to the Apostle’s argument.
To this great truth respecting the coming of God manifest in the flesh, as the foundation on which the whole work of redemption rests, the Apostle subjoins, Amen. In the same way he adds Amen to the expression, ’who is blessed forever,’ Romans 1:25, applying it to the Creator. Amen signifies truth, stability, or is an affirmation, or expresses consent. In the New Testament Jesus Christ alone makes use of this term at the beginning of sentences, as a word of affirmation. In this sense it appears to be employed at the end of each of the four Gospels. In the Gospel of John only have we any record of the Lord using this word more than once in the same sentence, Amen, amen, or Verily, verily. The Lord employs it again and again in His Sermon on the Mount, the purpose of which, it would seems was to impress on the minds of His hearers both the truth of what He said, and its importance. Luke, who records this term less frequent than the other evangelists, sometimes substitutes in place of it a simple affirmation, Luke 9:27; Matthew 16:28. Jesus, in addressing the seven churches of Asia, after dividing his glorious attributes and names amongst them, finally denominates Himself ’the Amen,’ Revelation 3:14; and God is called the God Amen, Isaiah 65:16. The Apostle John, in his ascription of praise to the Redeemer, adds Amen, as he does in the contemplation of His second coming in glory to judge the world, Revelation 1:6-7; and also in closing the canon of Scripture, when he repeats the declaration of Jesus, that He will come quickly, and after his prayer that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with all the churches to which he writes, Revelation 22:20-21. The Lord Himself makes use of this term when He declares that He liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore, Revelation 1:8.
Romans 9:6 — Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel.
Not as though — That is, my grief for the state of the Jewish nation, and their rejection by God, does not imply that with regard to them anything said in the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel — Here is the explanation of the mystery that the Jews, as a nation, had rejected the Messiah: they are not all true Israelites in the spiritual sense of the promise, who are Israelites after the flesh. The Jews might object, and say that if they were cast off and rejected, then God is unfaithful, and His promises are ineffectual. To this Paul answers by making a distinction among Israelites. Some are Israelites only in respect of their carnal descent, and others are children of the promise. ’The proposition of the Apostle,’ says Calvin, ’is that the promise was given in such a manner to Abraham and his seed, that the inheritance has no particular regard to every one of his descendants; and it hence follows, as a consequence, that the revolt of certain individuals from the Lord, who derive their birth from the father of the faithful, has no effect in preventing the stability, permanence, and steadfastness of the Divine covenant. The common election of the Israelitish nation does not prevent the Sovereign of infinite holiness from choosing for Himself, according to His secret counsel, whatever portion of that people He has determined to save. When Paul says they are not all Israel which are of Israel, and afterwards, neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children, he includes all the descendants of the father of believers under one member of the sentence, and points out by the other those only who are true and genuine sons of the friend of God, and not a degenerate race.’ Through the remaining part of this chapter, the Apostle shows that the rejection of the Messiah by the great body of the Jewish nation was neither contrary to the promises nor the purpose of God, but had been predetermined and also typified in His dealings towards individuals among their progenitors, as recorded in the Scriptures, and also there predicted. This furnishes an opportunity of more fully illustrating the doctrine of God’s sovereignty in choosing some to everlasting life, which had been spoken of in the 29th and 30th verses of the preceding chapter, and of His rejection of others.
Romans 9:7 — Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children. — In the preceding verse the Apostle had shown that there was a difference among Israelites; now he refers to a difference in the seed of Abraham. The error of the Jews was, that they thought they were the children of God by being the children of Abraham. But in this, as the Apostle declares, they were in error. The promise to Abraham and his seed was not made to him and all his descendants in general, but to him and a particular seed. As the children of Abraham, they were all, indeed, in one sense the children of God. God says to Pharaoh with respect to them, ’Let my son go.’ But the natural sonship was only a figure of the spiritual sonship of all believers of every nation. None but such are the spiritual seed of Abraham, whether among Jews or Gentiles.
But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. — Reckoned, chosen, or called into existence, as it is said respecting the birth of Isaac in the fourth chapter, ’God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.’ The Messiah, who was emphatically the seed of Abraham, says ’The Lord hath called Me from the womb, Isaiah 49:1. He was called into existence in His human nature, and to His office of Mediator, in the line of Isaac. And Israel was called or chosen as God’s people, Isaiah 48:12. ’Hearken unto Me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called.’ In this sense the expression called is used in the end of the 11th verse. By thus appealing to the declaration of God to Abraham, that in Isaac his seed should be called — and reckoned more especially the seed of Abraham — the Apostle showed that, notwithstanding the defection of the great body of the nation of Israel which he so much deplored, it was by no means the case that the word of God had taken none effect; for from the beginning a distinction had been made among the descendants of Abraham, indicating that they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Only a part of that nation, which he calls a remnant, Romans 9:27, and afterwards ’a remnant according to the election of grace,’ chapter 11:5, was to participate in the spiritual blessings to be conveyed by promise. ’When,’ says Calvin, ’we see in the two first sons of the patriarch, the younger chosen by a recent promise (Genesis 21:12; Hebrews 11:18), while the older was yet living, how much more might this take place in a long line of descendants! This prediction is taken from Genesis 17:20, where the Lord answers Abraham, As for Ishmael, I have heard thy prayers, but the blessing shall be granted to the son of Sarah, and the covenant established with Isaac. It hence follows as a consequence that certain individuals are, by a singular privilege, chosen from the elect people of the Jews, in whom the common adoption is ratified and rendered efficacious.’ It may be further remarked that when it is said, ’In Isaac shall thy seed be called,’ it did not imply that all the descendants of Isaac were to be the spiritual seed of Abraham. Only such were to be so who belonged to that seed to which the word, being used in the singular, emphatically and exclusively applied, as the Apostle declares, Galatians 3:16, ’Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.’ The meaning, then, of the declaration, ’In Isaac shall thy seed be called,’ is, that as all Abraham’s posterity were not to be the peculiar people whom God was nationally to adopt as His children, but only such as should descend from Isaac, so not all the Jews are the true sons of God, but only such as, like Isaac, are children of the promise. Here it is evident, as also from Galatians 4:28, that Isaac the child of promise was typical of all believers.
Romans 9:8 — That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
That is, or this explains, the declaration, ’In Isaac shall thy seed be called.’ It is intended to show that not carnal descent, but being included in the promise, constituted the true spiritual seed. This clearly establishes the difference between the sonship of Israel after the flesh, and the sonship of Israel after the Spirit. The nation of Israel stood in a relation to God in which no other nation was ever placed; but only a part of them enjoyed a spiritual relation. Hence the distinction here noted, that the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed a distinction which the Apostle also makes, chapter 2:28, between being a Jew outwardly, and a Jew inwardly. These distinctions are explanatory of the declaration, ’In Isaac shall thy seed be called,’ and of the rejection of the other children, though the seed of Abraham. In the Epistle to the Galatians 4:22, it is said that ’Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman.’ This appears in the original history to be a merely accidental and unimportant matter; but in that place we are taught that it was a shadow of futurity. Ishmael, who was of the bond woman, it is said, was ’born after the flesh.’ This denoted that though he was descended from Abraham according to the laws of nature, he was not a son of Abraham’s faith. Isaac was also in a certain sense born like Ishmael after the flesh, because he was naturally descended from Abraham; but not of the flesh merely, nor of the flesh naturally, — for according to the course of nature he never would have been born, — but at the same time he was more. He was not only a son of Abraham’s flesh, but his son as born after the Spirit, because he was given to Abraham, after, by the course of nature, he could not hope for children. All this indicated the distinction that existed in the nation of Israel, between those who, notwithstanding their being born in the line of Isaac, were the seed of Abraham merely by carnal descent, and not the children of God by a spiritual regeneration. Only these last were the children of the promise, as Isaac was, who were all one in Christ Jesus, and therefore in the highest sense Abraham’s seed, and ’heirs according to the promise,’ Galatians 3:29 — heirs of all the spiritual blessings secured to Abraham by promise. ’Paul,’ says Calvin, ’now deduces from the prophecy a proposition containing his whole meaning, intent, and aim. For if the seed is called in Isaac, not in Ishmael, and this latter is no less a son of the patriarch Abraham than the former, all his children by lineal descent cannot be reckoned as his seed; but the promise is in an especial and peculiar manner fulfilled by some, but has not a common and equal regard to all. Children by lineal descent mean such as are not distinguished by a more excellent privilege than their being offspring by blood; children of the promise are those who are peculiarly marked out and sealed by their Heavenly Father.’
Romans 9:9 — For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
The birth of Isaac was by promise, and without a miracle it would never have taken place. But the birth of Ishmael was not by promise, but in the ordinary course of nature. Thus the children of God specially promised to Abraham were those who, according to the election of God (who had chosen Isaac in preference to Ishmael), were to come into a spiritual relation with Christ, who is emphatically the promised seed in the line of Isaac, Galatians 3:16. To them the spiritual blessings were restricted, while only the temporal advantages of the national covenant belonged to the whole of Israel. This was intimated in God’s dealings with Abraham.
Romans 9:10 — And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
Not only in the case of Isaac was the election limited to him as the son of promise, but also in a still more remarkable instance was this truth indicated in the case of the two sons of Isaac. They were conceived by Rebecca of the same husband, yet God chose the one and rejected the other. An original difference between Isaac and Ishmael might be alleged, since the one was born of the lawful wife of Abraham, the free woman, and the other was the son of the bond woman; but in the case now brought forward there existed no original difference. Both were sons of the same father and mother, and both were born at the same time. The great distinction, then, made between the two brothers could only be traced to the sovereign will of God, who thus visibly notified, long before the event, the difference of the Divine purpose, according to election, towards the people of Israel.
Romans 9:11 — (For the children being not yet born, neither have done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand,not of works, but of Him that calleth;)
In the case of Isaac and Ishmael, it might still be said, that as the latter, as soon as he came to years, gave evidence of a wicked disposition, this was a sufficient reason for preferring Isaac. But here, in a parenthesis the Apostle shows that the preference was given to Jacob independently of all ground of merit, because it was made before the children were capable of doing either good or evil. This was done for the very purpose of taking away all pretense for merit as a ground of preference. Had the preference been given to Jacob when he had grown up to maturity, there would have been no more real ground for ascribing it to anything good in him; yet that use would have been made of it by the perverse ingenuity of man. But God made the preference before the children were born.
That the purpose of God according to election might stand — This was the very end and intention of the early indication of the will of God to Rebecca, the mother of the two children. It was hereby clearly established that, in choosing Jacob and rejecting Esau, God had respect to nothing but His own purpose. Than this what can more strongly declare His own eternal purpose to be the ground of all His favor to man?
Not of works but of Him that calleth. — Expressions indicating God’s sovereignty in this matter are heaped upon one another, because it is a thing so offensive to the human mind. Yet, after all the Apostle’s precaution, the perverseness of men still finds ground of boasting on account of works. Though the children had done neither good nor evil, yet God, it is supposed, might foresee that Jacob would be a godly man, and Esau wicked. But had not God made a difference between Jacob and Esau, Jacob would have been no better than his brother. Were not men blinded by opposition to this part of the will of God, would they not perceive that a preference on account of foreseen good works is a preference on account of works, and therefore expressly contrary to the assertion of the Apostle — Not of works, but of Him that calleth? The whole ground of preference is in Him that calleth, or chooseth, not in him that is called.
’Paul,’ says Calvin, ’had hitherto merely observed, in a few words, the difference between the carnal sons of Abraham; namely, though all by circumcision were made partakers of the covenant, yet the grace of God was not equally efficacious in all, and the sons of the promise enjoy the blessings of the Most High. He now plainly refers the whole cause to the gratuitous election of God, which in no respects depends on men, so that nothing can be traced in the salvation of believers higher than the goodness of God; nothing in the destruction of the reprobate can be discovered higher than the just severity of the Sovereign of the world. The first proposition of the Apostle is the following: — As the blessing of the covenant separates the nation of the Israelites from all other people, so the election of God separates the men of that nation, while He predestinates some to salvation, others to eternal damnation. The second proposition is, that there is no other foundation of election than the mere goodness and mercy of God, which embrace whom He chooses, without paying the least regard to works, even after the fall of Adam. Third, the Lord in His gratuitous election is free and unrestrained by the necessity of bestowing the same grace equally on all; He passes by such as He wills, and chooses for His own according to His will. Paul briefly comprehends all these propositions in one clause, and will afterwards consider other points. The following words, when they were not yet born, neither had done any good or evil, show that God, in making the difference between them, could have paid no regard to their works, which did not yet exist. Sophists, who state that God may elect from among mankind by a respect to their works, since He foresees from their future conduct who may be worthy or deserving of grace, attack a principle of theology which no Christian ought to be ignorant of; namely, that God can regard nothing in the corrupt nature of man, such as that of Jacob and Esau was, by which He may be induced to do them kindness. When, therefore, Paul says that neither of the children had done any good or evil, we must add also the opinion which he had already formed in his mind, of their both being children of Adam, sinners by nature, not possessed of a single particle of righteousness. Besides, although the vicious and depraved nature, which is diffused through the whole human race, be of itself sufficient to cause damnation before it has shown its unholiness by any act or deed, and Esau therefore deserved to be rejected, because he was by nature a child of wrath, yet to prevent the least difficulty, as if the state of the elder was worse with respect to the perpetration of any offense or vice than that of the younger, it was necessary for the Apostle to exclude the consideration both of transgressions and of virtues. I confess, indeed, that it is true that the near cause of reprobation is our being all cursed in Adam; but Paul withdraws us in the meantime from this consideration, that we may learn to rest in the naked and simple good pleasure of God, until he shall have established this doctrine, that the infinite Sovereign has a sufficiently just cause for election and reprobation, in His own will. He here urges, in almost every word, the gratuitous election of God; for had he considered works to have any place in our election, he would have stated the remuneration due to their performance. But he opposes to works the purpose of God, which consists in the good pleasure of His will. And to remove all doubts and controversy concerning the subject, he adds, according to election, and closes in a striking manner, — not of works, but of Him that calleth. The opinion, therefore, that God elects or reprobates every one according as He foresees good or evil in us, is false, and contrary to the word of eternal truth.’
Romans 9:12 — It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
This was a figure of the spiritual election, for in no other point of view is it here to the Apostle’s purpose. Not only did God choose one of these sons, who were equal as to their parentage, but chose that one who was inferior in priority of birth, the only point in which there was a difference. He chose the younger son, contrary to the usual custom of mankind, and contrary to the law of primogeniture established by God Himself respecting inheritances in the family of Jacob. The dominion of the younger, then, over the elder, flowed, as is shown in the nest verse, from God’s love to the one and hatred to the other; thus proving the election of the one and the reprobation of the other. This strikingly exemplified the manner of God’s dealings towards the nation of Israel, in discriminating between those who were the children of the flesh, and the others who were the children of God. How much instruction do these words, ’The elder shall serve the younger,’ contain, as standing in the connection in which they are here placed, as well as in that part of Scripture from which they are quoted! They practically teach the great fundamental doctrines of the PRESCIENCE, the PROVIDENCE, the SOVEREIGNTY of God; His PREDESTINATION, ELECTION, and REPROBATION.
Romans 9:13 — As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
As it is written. — Here and elsewhere it is remarkable that the writers of the New Testament, and our Lord Himself, generally, or at least very often, simply say, It is written, This is on the principle that the word Scripture signifies the word of God. Scripture literally signifies writing, and may refer to any writing; but in the appropriated sense, it signifies the written word of God. It is written, then, signifies, it is written in the word of God. When the Apostles refer in this manner to the Scriptures, they do it as adducing authority which is conclusive and not to be questioned. The words here quoted from Malachi expressly relate to Jacob and Esau. The Prophet likewise declares the dealing of God towards their posterity, but the part here referred to applies to the progenitors themselves. God is there reproving the people of Israel for their ingratitude, and manifesting His great goodness to them in loving their father Jacob, while He hated his brother Esau, and gave him a mountainous, barren country, as a sign of His hatred. Thus God preferred Jacob before Esau without respect to the goodness or wickedness of either, attaching good things to the one, and evil to the other, before they were born. And this quotation by the Apostle is intended to prove that the purpose of God, in choosing who shall be His children according to election, might stand, not by works, but of Him that calleth, Romans 9:11, which shows that all along the reference is to spiritual and eternal blessings, shadowed forth, as is usual in the Prophets, by things that are temporal and carnal. In the same place God likewise declares His dealings towards the posterity of Esau; but the words here quoted expressly refer to Jacob and Esau personally. The Apostle is speaking of heads of nations; and in God’s dealings towards them is found the reason of the difference of the treatment of their posterities. The introduction of Jacob and Esau personally, presents an emblem of this, while the design is to show that some among the Israelites were the children of God, and not others. That the Apostle quotes these words in reference to Jacob and Esau personally, is clear, since he speaks of them before they were born, and declares their conception by one mother, of one father, which could not be said of their posterity.
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. — Jacob was loved before he was born, consequently before he was capable of doing good; and Esau was hated before he was born, consequently before he was capable of doing evil. It may be asked why God hated him before he sinned personally; and human wisdom has proved its folly, by endeavoring to soften the word hated into something less than hatred: but the man who submits like a little child to the word of God, will find no difficulty in seeing in what sense Esau was worthy of the hatred of God before he was born. He sinned in Adam, and was therefore properly an object of God’s hatred as well as fallen Adam. There is no other view that will ever account for this language and this treatment of Esau. By nature, too, he was a wicked creature, conceived in sin, although his faculties were not expanded, or his innate depravity developed, which God, who hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and hardeneth whom He will, and who giveth no account of His matters, did not see good to counteract by His grace, as in the case of Jacob, who originally was equally wicked, and by nature, like Esau, a child of wrath and a fit object of hatred.
It is not unusual to take part with Esau who was rejected, against Jacob who was the object of Divine favor. Everything that can be made to appear either amiable or virtuous in the character of Esau is eagerly grasped at, and exhibited in the most advantageous light. We are told of his disinterestedness, frankness, and generosity; while we are reminded that Jacob was a cool, selfish, designing man, who was always watching to take advantage of his brother’s simplicity, and who ungenerously and unjustly robbed his elder brother of the blessing and the birthright.
This way of reasoning shows more zeal for the interest of a cause than discretion in its support. Instead of invalidating, it only serves to confirm the truth it opposes. While it is evident that Jacob possessed the fear of God, which was not the case with respect to Esau, — and therefore that the one was born of God, and the other remained a child of nature, — yet there is so much palpable imperfection and evil in Jacob, as to manifest that God did not choose him for the excellence of his foreseen works. In maintaining, then, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, it is by no means necessary to vindicate the conduct of Jacob towards his brother. Both he and his mother were undoubtedly to blame, much to blame, as to the way in which he obtained his father’s blessing, to the prejudice of Esau, while the revealed purpose of God formed no apology for their conduct. That sin is an evil thing and a bitter, Jacob fully experienced. His conduct in that transaction led him into a maze of troubles, from which through life he was never disentangled. While Jacob was a man of God, and Esau a man of the world, there is enough to show that the inheritance was bestowed on the former not of works but of grace.
Nothing can more clearly manifest the strong opposition of the human mind to the doctrine of the Divine sovereignty, than the violence which human ingenuity has employed to wrest the expression, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. By many this has been explained, ’Esau have I loved less.’ But Esau was not the object of any degree of the Divine love, and the word hate never signifies to love less. The occurrence of the word in that expression, ’hate father and mother,’ Luke 14:26, has been alleged in vindication of this explanation; but the word in this last phrase is used figuratively, and in a manner that cannot be mistaken. Although hatred is not meant to be asserted, yet hatred is the thing that is literally expressed. By a strong figure of speech, that is called hatred which resembles it in its effects. We will not obey those whom we hate, if we can avoid it. Just so, if our parents command us to disobey Jesus Christ, we must not obey them; and this is called hatred, figuratively, from the resemblance of its effects. But in this passage, in which the expression, ’Esau have I hatred’ occurs, everything is literal. The Apostle is reasoning from premises to a conclusion. Besides, the contrast of loving Jacob with hating Esau, shows that the last phrase is literal and proper hatred. If God’s love to Jacob was real literal love, God’s hatred to Esau must be real literal hatred. It might as well be said that the phrase, ’Jacob have I loved,’ does not signify that God really loved Jacob, but that to love here signifies only to hate less, and that all that is meant by the expression, is that God hated Jacob less than he hated Esau. If every man’s own mind is a sufficient security against concluding the meaning to be, ’Jacob have I hated less,’ his judgment ought to be a security against the equally unwarrantable meaning, ’Esau have I loved less.’ But why, it may be asked of those who object to the plain meaning of the words, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, and insist that their import is that God loved Esau less than Jacob — why should God love Esau less than Jacob, and that, too, before the children were born, or had done good or evil? Can they explain this? Would it not involve a difficulty which, even on their own principles, they are unable to remove? Why then refuse to admit the natural and obvious signification of the passage? If God says that He hated Esau, are we to avoid receiving God’s testimony, or justified in employing a mode of torture in expounding His words? If, again, Esau, as some insist, were the better character, why was Jacob preferred to him?
Others translate the word in the original by the term slighted. But if God had no just ground to hate Esau, He could have as little ground for slighting him. Why should Esau be unjustly slighted before he was born, more than unjustly hated? However, those who entertain a proper sense of man’s guilt by nature, will be at no loss to discern the ground of God’s hatred of Esau. Both Jacob and Esau were, like David, shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, and were in themselves sinners. Esau was justly the object of hatred before he was born, because he was viewed in Adam as a sinner. Jacob was justly the object of God’s love before he was born, because he was viewed in Christ as righteous. That the terms love and hatred are here to be understood in their full and proper import, is evident from the question put in the 14th verse, and answered in the 15th, 16th, and 17th verses, with the conclusion drawn in the 18th. ’Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.’ Compassion is a sign of love, and hardening a proof of hatred. And, besides this, the expression, ’Esau have I hatred,’ is not stronger than what the Apostle applies to all men when he says that by nature they are the children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins, and consequently objects of the hatred of the holy and just God. All of them are so in their natural state, as considered in themselves, and all of them continue to be so, unless delivered from that state by the distinguishing grace of God. To be hated on account of Adam’s sin and of their own corrupt nature, is common to all men with Esau who are not of the elect of God; and in Esau’s case this is exhibited in one instance. Nothing, then, is said of Esau here that might not be said of every man who shall finally perish.
There are few commentators, however, who have not wavered more or less in their explanation of this passage. Mr. Hodge, Professor of Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, America, gives here the following most erroneous interpretation: ’It is evident that in this case the word hate means to love less, to regard and treat with less favor.’ This false gloss completely destroys the import of the passage, on which no one who understands the doctrine of the fall, and consequent condemnation of all men in Adam, ought to feel the smallest difficulty. In its obvious and literal meaning, what is said of Jacob and Esau must be true of all the individuals of the human race before they are born. Each one of them must either be loved or hated of God.
The opinion held by some, that it may be questioned whether God be ever said to hate any man, is contrary to the revealed character of God. This sentiment appears to be near akin to that of the heathen philosophers, who held it as a maxim that God could not be angry with any one. Like many other unfounded dogmas, it stands in direct opposition to the whole tenor of the Scriptures, which represent God as angry with the wicked every day, and hating all workers of iniquity, Psalms 5:5. Does not the passage above quoted, which declares that men are by nature children of wrath, express this hatred of sin in the strongest manner; and especially of Adam’s sin, on account of which all men are children of wrath by nature? And does not this wrath abide on all them that believe not on the Son? John 3:36. ’The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies,’ Nahum 1:2.
In innumerable passages of Scripture, God ascribes to Himself hatred. Men, however, are averse to this. What, then, can be done? The Scriptures must be explained in a forced manner; and while they say that God hates sinners, they are made to say that He does not hate them. Nothing can be more unjustifiable than this method of tampering with and perverting the word of God, and nothing can be more uncalled for. Hatred in itself is not sinful. That which is sinful ought to be hated; and though there is a mixture of evil in man’s hatred of evil, yet there is the same mixture of evil in his love of good. In God’s hatred of sinners, as in all His attributes, there is nothing of sinful feeling. We are not able to comprehend this attribute of the Divine mind; but every other attribute has also its difficulties. We must in this, and in all things, submit to God’s word, and believe it as it speaks, and not as we would have it to speak.
Respecting God’s hatred of sin, and the punishment of transgressors, the late Dr. Thomson refers in his sermons to the following passages: — ’Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. The wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, will be rendered to every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. God is love; but it is also said, that God hates all workers of iniquity; — that the Lord revengeth, and is furious; — that His wrath cometh on the children of disobedience. The assertion that God is angry with the wicked every day, is just as level to our apprehension, as the assertion that God loves them that fear Him. We know that His anger is expressed in rebuking, chastening, punishing those who have provoked it, as we know that pity helps, relieves, comforts those who stand in need of its interposition. God is as certainly holy to hate sin, and just to inflict merited punishment on the sinner, as He is good and merciful, and compassionate to the guilty and the miserable for whom He interposed.’ ’I cannot help reverting to what I formerly observed respecting the necessity of attributing love to God no further than His own word has warranted, and no further than is consistent with that revelation of His character which He Himself has given us. A greater snare cannot be laid for your piety and your judgment, than that which consists in making love His paramount or His only perfection. For whenever there is a consciousness of guilt, and a dread of responsibility, it must be comfortable to have a God who is divested of all that is frowning and indignant towards transgressors, and clothed with all that is compassionate and kind. And whenever there is a soft or a sentimental temperament at work, that representation of the Divine nature must be peculiarly pleasing and acceptable. And whenever men wish to have a religion which will be without any rigorous exactions of self-denial and of duty, and without any tendency to excite apprehension and alarm, the same predictions must exist for a supreme Ruler in whose benevolence all other qualities are absorbed and lost. And, accordingly, not only is this partial and unscriptural view of the character of God adopted as the leading principle of certain systems of theology, but it is held and cherished and acted upon by multitudes, whose sole concern in matters of faith is to have not what is true, but what is agreeable, and who find in the tenet we are speaking of, the most soothing and satisfying of all persuasions, — that God loves every one of His creatures with such an affection as is depicted in the Gospel. I warn you against the delusion — so dishonorable to the Holy One, the Everlasting Father — so ruinous to all who have surrendered themselves to its influence — so inconsistent with what you read in the book of inspiration — so destructive of that mystery of godliness and of grace which has been made known to us in Jesus Christ.’ The Scriptures teach us that judgment has passed upon all men in Adam, and that it is altogether of grace that any of the human race are saved. Mr. Tholuck, in his exposition of this chapter, may speak most irreverently of God as destroying His hapless creatures, and quote the Apocrypha, which asserts that God does not abhor anything which He has made, from which it would follow that He does not abhor devils for whom everlasting fire is prepared; but the uniform doctrine of Scripture is, that man is self-destroyed, and that it was God’s eternal purpose to make known His manifold wisdom by the redemption of the Church, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. When the Savior was first announced, Genesis 3:15, mankind were divided into two classes, the one to be saved, the other to be lost. To the latter God did no wrong. He left them under condemnation, as is here exemplified in the case of Esau, while He plucked the former, like Jacob, as brands from the burning; and we are expressly told that in this case of Jacob and Esau the reception of the younger, and the rejection of the elder, which were declared previously to their birth, was in order that the purpose of God according to election might stand. This doctrine of the election of some and the rejection of others was also illustrated in Abraham, an idolater, and in the nation of Israel, to whom God showed His word, while He left all other nations to walk in their own ways. Had the whole of Adam’s race perished, God would only have dealt with them as He did with the fallen angels. Why then, it may be said, preach the Gospel to all men? Because it is the appointed means of the salvation of sinners; and while all naturally reject it, God makes His people willing in the day of His power, and produces in them faith by what they hear. Paul endured all things for the elect’s sake. He used the means, knowing that God would give the increase. The election thus obtain life, and the rest are blinded by the God of this world. Ishmael was rejected, and Isaac was chosen before he was born; and in the same way Jacob the younger was preferred to Esau his elder brother — Jacob was loved, but Esau was hated.
The passage in Malachi, from which these words, ’Esau have I hated,’ are quoted by the Apostle, proves what is meant by the expression in the verse before us. ’I have loved you, saith the Lord: yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever’ Here the Prophet first speaks of Esau personally as Jacob’s brother, which clearly indicates the meaning attached by the Apostle to the quotation. It implies, too, that Jacob had no claim to be preferred to his brother. Afterwards, in the denunciation, Esau’s descendants are spoken of under the name of Edom, when the singular is changed for the plural, and the past time for the future and the present. The denunciation of indignation for ever upon the Edomites, and the call of God to Israel to observe the difference of His dealings towards them, shows what is meant by God’s love of Jacob, and His hatred of Esau. The declarations of God by the Prophet in the above quoted passage are fully substantiated throughout the Scriptures, both in regard to His loving Jacob and hating Esau personally; and likewise in regard to the indignation which He manifested against Esau’s descendants. Jacob is everywhere spoken of as the servant of God, highly honored by many Divine communications. Jacob wrestled with God, and had power over Him, and prevailed, Hosea 12:4-5. With his dying breath, when he declared that he had waited for the salvation of the Lord, he was honored to announce as a prophet the future destinies of his sons, and, above all, to utter a most remarkable prediction concerning the advent of the Messiah. Jacob during his life was the object of many special blessings. He died in faith, Hebrews 11:13; Hebrews 11:21; and of him the Redeemer Himself has testified that, with Abraham and Isaac, he is now in the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 8:11. Concerning Jacob, such is the decisive testimony of the Scriptures, which cannot be broken.
In the life of Esau, nothing is recorded indicating that he had the fear of God before his eyes, but everything to prove the rever. The most important transaction recorded concerning him is his profane contempt for God’s blessing in selling his birthright, manifesting his unbelief and indifference respecting the promise to Abraham. We see him also taking women of Canaan as his wives, although he had the example before him of Abraham’s concern that Isaac should not marry any of the daughters of that country. In this we observe that he held as lightly the curse denounced against Canaan as he did the blessing promised to Abraham. We next see him deliberately resolving to murder his brother. ’The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob.’ Long after, although restrained from violence, he goes out to meet him with an armed force. At last he turns his back on the habitation of his fathers, and departs for ever from the land of promise. Towards the conclusion of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the sale of his birthright is referred to, and where Jacob is numbered among those who both lived and died in faith, Esau is characterized as ’a profane person,’ Hebrews 12:16. The same word, translated profane, is employed by Paul in his enumeration to Timothy of the most horrible vices, when speaking of the ’ungodly, of sinners, and of unholy persons,’ 1 Timothy 1:9. The selling of his birthright proved Esau to be an unbelieving, profane, and ungodly man, and the Apostle warns believers not to act according to his example. The birthright conferred a double inheritance among the Hebrew patriarchs, and likewise pre-eminence, because it was connected with the descent of the Messiah; and they to whom this right belonged were also types of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. Despising the birthright proved that he despised the high distinction respecting the coming of the Messiah, and also the eternal inheritance of which the land of Canaan and the double portion of the firstborn were typical. Here the question of Esau’s character as an ungodly man is decided by the pen of inspiration long after his death. And is this ’profane person,’ who not only despised the birthright fraught with such unspeakable privileges, but who had deliberately made up his mind revengefully to murder his brother in cold blood, to be viewed as he has been represented, as amiable, disinterested, and virtuous, in defiance of every moral principle, and in direct opposition to the testimony of the word of God?
Such is the account which the Scriptures give of Esau personally; and how fully the denunciations above quoted from the Prophet respecting his descendants were accomplished, we learn from numerous passages throughout the Scriptures, as Ezekiel 25:12; Ezekiel 25:14; Joel 3:19; Amos 1:11, and elsewhere; and from the whole of the prophecy of Obadiah, where the destruction of Edom, and the victories of the house of Jacob, are contrasted. ’But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau: for the Lord hath spoken it.’ Is it then in the unambiguous testimony of Scripture respecting Esau personally, as a profane person, and respecting his descendants, ’the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever,’ — is it among the many indications of God’s goodness to Jacob, — that we find any countenance given to the imagination that God loved Esau only in a less degree than He loved Jacob? When men, by such methods as are resorted to on this subject, pervert the obvious meaning of the word of God, in order to maintain their preconceived systems, it manifests deplorable disaffection to the truth of God, and most culpable inattention to His plainest declarations.
It is evident that the quotation from the Old Testament of these words, ’Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,’ is here made by the Apostle with the design of illustrating the great truth which he is laboring through the whole of this chapter to substantiate; namely, that in the rejection of the great body of the Jewish nation, as being ’vessels of wrath,’ while He reserved for Himself a remnant among them as ’vessels of mercy,’ verses 22, 23, neither the purpose nor the promises of God had failed. In proof of this, Paul asserts that all the seed of Abraham were not the children of God, and that God had plainly exhibited this truth in distinguishing and choosing Isaac, that in his line, in preference to that of Abraham’s other children, the Redeemer should come; and in further proof, he adduces the still stronger example of God’s loving Jacob and hating Esau, choosing the one and rejecting the other. And as the manner of God’s procedure is so contrary to the opinion which men naturally form of the way in which He should act, the Apostle immediately after affirms that in this there is no unrighteousness in God, and fully proves in what follows, that so far from being contrary to His usual mode of procedure, it is strictly in accordance with it, both in showing mercy on the one hand, according to His sovereign pleasure, and, on the other, in displaying His hatred of those whom He hardens. Having thus asserted that such is God’s manner of acting towards men, which, being established, ought to stop every mouth, the Apostle at once shuts the door against all impious reasonings on the subject, and indignantly demands of any one who should dare to controvert this view of the subject, — Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Such persons, then, as deny that the expression, ’Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,’ imports literal love of the one and literal hatred of the other, viewing it as an isolated declaration, detached from its connection, and judging of it from their preconceived opinions, as if such a manner of acting were unworthy of God, not only disregard the usual legitimate rules of interpreting language, and employ a most unwarrantable mode of torture in expounding these words, but prove that they misapprehend the whole drift of the Apostle’s argument, and have no discernment of his purpose in introducing this example. For how would God’s rejection of a part of the nation of Israel as ’vessels of wrath,’ and His reserving a remnant among them as ’vessels of mercy,’ be illustrated by His loving Esau only less than Jacob? Does the idea of loving less consist with the idea held forth in the expression vessels of WRATH?
Several commentators deny that the declaration, ’Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,’ has any reference to their personal, spiritual, and eternal state. ’It is certain,’ says Dr. Doddridge, ’the Apostle does not here speak of the eternal state of Jacob and Esau, nor does he indeed so much speak of their persons as of their posterity, since it is plainly to that posterity that both the prophecies which he quotes in support of his argument refer.’ On this Mr. Fry remarks, ’If so, the force and pertinency of the Apostle’s reasonings are lost. In attending, however, to the Apostle’s argument in the passage before us, it will appear plain to every inquirer, who is not biased by the apprehension of certain Consequences, supposed to result from this interpretation, that St. Paul does certainly consider Jacob and Esau to be personally referred to, and concerned in these prophecies which he quotes; and that with them personally, and not altogether with their respective seeds, has his argument to do. The Apostle is showing that the rejection of the natural descendants of the patriarchs does not argue a breach of that word of God, which promises eternal mercies to Abraham and his seed, because by that seed was not intended all the seed born to Abraham after the flesh, but a seed of true believers, of whom Abraham, in the view of God, was the constituted father. In confirmation of this, he refers to the case of Ishmael, who was rejected, and of all the other children of Abraham being passed over in silence, Isaac remaining the only seed to inherit and to entail the promise. Again, as a still more striking proof that the word of promise discriminated a particular seed, and addressed not the children of the flesh universally, the Apostle instances the cases of Jacob and Esau. The first of these is chosen of God, and invested with the promised blessing; the other is rejected, and that in circ*mstances, as he points out to us, which plainly show that of the descendants of the patriarchs, God, according to His will and pleasure, would make some, and not others, to be counted to Abraham for a "seed" in a spiritual sense, to be of the children of God. It is evident, therefore, that the Apostle means to assert that Jacob was counted for one of "the" spiritual "seed," was "a child of God," and that Esau, though one of "the children" of Abraham "according to the flesh," was "not a child of God," nor "counted for the seed;" and, moreover, that it was the election of God, and no merit or demerit of the parties, which made this difference between them. It follows that whatever these prophecies may refer to besides, if we admit that the Apostle understood them, they do refer most certainly to Jacob and Esau personally; nay more, are quoted by the Apostle with this reference alone. For though in these prophecies, as they stand in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, a doom was certainly pronounced, which affected very materially the posterity of Jacob and Esau, and the children of the former were elected to privileges, from the inheritance of which the children of the latter were excluded, yet the Apostle does not quote the prophecies in this sense. That were in fact to overturn his own argument. Because, if what was prognosticated of the respective posterities of the persons mentioned in the prophecies were the object in view, it would prove that the children of the flesh, as far, at least, as the children of Israel were concerned, were counted for the seed. But the Apostle’s argument goes to prove that the rever is the case, — that they are not all Israel who are of Israel. With respect to the natural privileges and the pre-eminence which was given to Jacob and denied to Esau, as the representatives of their respective seeds, it would not stand true that they were not all Israel who were of Israel. The privileges in question had been enjoyed by the children of the flesh, and have just been enumerated as possessed by those very Israelites whose rejection from being the children of God the Apostle is now deploring, while, at the same time, he proves that rejection not contrary to the promises made to the fathers. We may therefore safely conclude that the Apostle does not so much speak of the posterity, as of the persons of Jacob and Esau; and that he knew the prophecies he quotes in support of his argument not to refer alone to that posterity; and consequently that it is certain he does speak of the eternal state of Jacob and Esau.’ The whole of the context throughout this ninth chapter, as well as the concluding part of the eighth, proves that respecting Jacob and Esau the reference is to their spiritual and eternal state. At the 29th verse of the preceding chapter, the Apostle, after exhibiting to believers various topics of the richest consolation, had traced up all their high privileges to the eternal purpose of God, and had dwelt in the sequel on their perfect security as His elect. In the beginning of this chapter, he had turned his eye, with deep lamentation, to the very different state of his countrymen, who, notwithstanding all their distinguished advantages, had rejected the Messiah. This gave occasion for enlarging on the sovereignty of God in the opposite aspect to that in which he had treated it in respect to believers. In reference to believers, he had spoken of God’s sovereignty as displaying itself in their election, and now, in reference to the great body Of the Jews, as manifested in their rejection. By this arrangement, an opportunity was afforded most strikingly to exhibit that doctrine, by personal application in both cases.
It is evident that Paul, throughout this chapter, refers not to the external condition of the Jews, which was indeed involved in their rejection of Christ, but to their spiritual state, as rejecting the righteousness which is of faith, and stumbling at that stumbling stone, Romans 9:32. He observes that not only at that time, but in former ages, according to the testimony of their own Prophets, a remnant only should be saved. And, besides, while the whole tenor of his discourse makes it obvious that he is treating of their spiritual and eternal condition, this is conclusively evident from what he says in the 22nd and 23rd verses above referred to, where he speaks, on the one hand, of the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction, and, on the other, of the vessels of mercy, prepared unto glory. These two verses, were there no other proof, evince beyond all doubt what is his object. His lamentation for his countrymen was not called forth on account of the loss of their external privileges, the destruction of Jerusalem, and their expulsion from their own land. Had it been so, he must have included himself, and also those Jews whom, in the 24th verse, he says God had called. But so far is he from representing these to be in a lamentable state, that he describes them, along with himself, as vessels on whom the riches of the glory of God was made known; while, by the contrast, it is evident that by the wrath and destruction of which the others were vessels, he means something very different from temporal calamities. The vessels of the one description were the ’remnant’ which should be saved, the ’seed’ which the Lord of Sabbath had left, verses 27, 29. The vessels of the other description were these who were as ’Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah,’ which suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. What trifling, then, what wresting of this important portion of the word of God, what turning of it entirely away from its true meaning, to represent this chapter, as so many do, as treating of the outward state of the Jews, or to deny, with others, that the spiritual and everlasting condition of Jacob and Esau are here referred to! If the eternal condition of Abraham and of Judas be determined in the Scriptures, so also is that of Jacob and Esau; and no meaning, which, from whatever motive, any man may affix to the whole tenor of Scripture respecting them, will alter their condition. It is better to submit to the word of God on this and every other subject, taking it in its obvious import, than to be deterred from doing so on account of consequences from the admission of which we may shrink back. All Scripture will thus be profitable to us for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, while we are sure that the Judge of all the earth will do right.
On the whole, we see with what propriety the Apostle here introduces the different states of Jacob and Esau, the one beloved of God, the other hated. Besides elucidating the subject in question respecting God’s dealings with the nation of Israel, and of the word which He had spoken taking effect, they illustrate by particular examples both sides of the important doctrine of God’s sovereignty in the election, and of His justice in the reprobation of fallen men. For, by acting in this manner, God has clearly shown that He is the Sovereign Master in their calling and election, and of their rejection — that He chooses and rejects as seems good to Him any of the sinful race of Adam, all of whom are justly objects of His displeasure, without regarding natural qualities which distinguish them from one another.
What is said of Jacob and Esau in the Old Testament, in the place to which Paul refers, is both historical and typical. It relates, in the first view, to themselves personally, the elder being made subservient to the younger by selling his birthright. In consequence of that act, the declaration, The elder shall serve the younger, was verified from the time when it took place. All the rights of the firstborn were thus transferred to Jacob, and the inheritance of Canaan devolved on him by the surrender of his ungodly brother. At length Esau was compelled to leave that land, and to yield to Jacob. When the riches of both of them were more than that they might dwell together,’ ’Esau,’ it is said, ’took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance which he had got in the land of Canaan, and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob, Genesis 36:6. Whatever, therefore, might have previously been the opposition of their interests, in this the most important act of his life relating to Jacob, Esau was finally made subservient to his younger brother. And this subserviency, in yielding up the inheritance which naturally belonged to him, continued during the remainder of their lives; so that the declaration, ’The elder shall serve the younger,’ was, after various struggles between them, personally and literally fulfilled. In the second view, as being typical, what is said of them relates, on the one hand, to the state of Israel after the flesh, trampling on and forfeiting their high privileges, hated of God, and vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and, on the other hand, to the vessels of mercy which God had afore prepared unto glory.
In loving Jacob, God showed him unmerited favor, and acted towards him in mercy; and in hating Esau, He showed him no favor who was entitled to none, and acted according to justice. Had God acted also in justice without mercy towards Jacob, He would have hated both; for both were in their origin guilty in Adam, wicked and deserving of hatred. The Apostle unveils the reason why this was not the case, when he afterwards says that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy. The justice of God in hating Esau was made fully manifest in the sequel by his abuse of the high privileges in the course of providence bestowed upon him. Notwithstanding all the advantages of instruction and example with which, beyond all others of the human race (with the exception of the rest of his family), he was distinguished, Esau despised his birthright, fraught with so many blessings, the natural right to which had been conferred on him in preference to his brother Jacob, and lived an ungodly life. If Jacob, who was placed in the same situation proved himself to be a godly man, it was entirely owing to the distinguishing grace of God. If it be objected, why was not this grace also vouchsafed to Esau? it may as well be asked, why are not the whole of mankind saved? That this will not be the case, even they who oppose the sovereignty of God in the election of grace cannot deny. Besides, will they, who affirm that God chooses men to eternal life because He foresees that they will do good works, deny that, at least, God foresaw the wickedness of Esau’s life? Even on their own principles, then, it was just to hate Esau before he was born; and, on the same ground of foreseeing his good works, it would have been just to love Jacob. Or will they say that this hatred should not have taken place till after Esau had acted such a part? This would prove that there is variableness with God, and that He does not hate to-day what He will hate to-morrow. Where, then, is the necessity for any one, whatever may be his sentiments, to resort to the vain attempt to show that, when it is said God loved Jacob and hated Esau, it only means that He loved Esau less than Jacob? As well may it be affirmed that, when, in the prophecy of Amos 5:15, it is said, ’Hate the evil, and love the good,’ the meaning is, that we ought to love evil only in a less degree than good. But the truth is, that all opposition to the plain and obvious meaning of this passage proceeds from ignorance of, or inattention to, the state of death and ruin in which all men by nature lie, and from which no man can be recovered by any outward means alone, however powerful in themselves. This cannot be effected by anything short of the unmerited and invincibly efficacious grace of God, operating in the heart of those on whom He will have mercy according to His sovereign good pleasure. Undoubtedly God was under no more obligation to save any of the human race than He was to save the fallen angels. If He save any man, it is because He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, or as seemeth good to Him. According to those who oppose this manner of acting, God was under an obligation to send His Son into the world to save sinners. From the 7th to the end of this 13th verse, we have an incontestable proof of the typical nature of the historical facts of the Old Testament, by which God was pleased to exhibit a picture or representation of spiritual things, and of His dealings respecting the people of Israel, as well as what related to His Church in the future economy. This typical import is fully recognized in various places in the New Testament, showing, as the Apostle declares in the 15th chapter of this Epistle, that ’whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning,’ and also when he speaks of what took place respecting Israel in their journey from Egypt, which is equally applicable to so many other events. ’Now all these things happened to them for examples,’ literally, types, 1 Corinthians 10:6-11. This proves that these occurrences were expressly ordained by Divine wisdom to be ’a shadow of things to come.’ All this, too, we may collect from those types and figures of the Old Testament, which would have been wholly inconclusive, unless, by a particular destination of the providence of God, they had been really instituted to prefigure future events. By many it is indeed affirmed that such historical facts as the Apostle in these verses refers to, are only accommodated to the allegorical meaning. This unfounded allegation, so derogatory to the Holy Scriptures, and utterly repugnant to their character as a revelation from God, I have exposed in various parts of this work. I have adverted to it more fully, because, as formerly observed, it brings a palpable charge of falsehood and dishonesty against the inspired writers, representing them as quoting the language of the Holy Spirit in a meaning which He did not intend to convey, and as confirmatory of their own doctrine, when they knew that what they advanced was merely a fanciful accommodation of words. Although this degrading opinion is so much countenanced by such writers as Tholuck and Stuart, and by many others, I am not aware that it has hitherto attracted all that attention, and been marked with that abhorrence, which it so justly merits. Nothing is more clear than that such historical facts and occurrences as those to which Paul in the foregoing passages appeals, were divinely ordered and adapted to represent spiritual things; and it is of great importance in the present day, when interpreters are so much inclined to overlook the types of the Old Testament, to take every proper opportunity of placing them in their true lights and pointing out the important purpose which they were intended to serve in the future economy, and for which they are referred to as in the passages before us.
Romans 9:14 — What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
The Apostle anticipated the objection of the carnal mind to his doctrine. Does not loving Jacob and hating Esau before they had done any good or evil, imply that there is injustice in God? This objection clearly proves that the view taken of the preceding passage is correct. For it is this view which suggests the objection. Is it just in God to love one who has done no good, and to hate one who has done no evil? If the assertion respecting loving Jacob and hating Esau admitted of being explained away in the manner that so many do, there could be no place for such an objection. And what is the Apostle’s reply? Nothing but a decided rejection of the supposition that God’s treatment of Jacob and Esau implied injustice. By asking the question if there be unrighteousness with God, he strongly denies that in God there is here any injustice; and this denial is sufficient. According to the doctrine which he everywhere inculcates, consistently with that of the whole of Scripture, God is represented as infinitely just, as well as wise, holy, good, and faithful. In the exercise of His sovereignty, therefore, all that God wills to do must be in strict conformity with the perfection of His character. He cannot deny Himself; He cannot act inconsistently with any of His Divine attributes.
Romans 9:15 — For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
What is the ground on which the Apostle here rests his denial that there is unrighteousness with God? He makes no defense or apology for God, attempts no metaphysical distinctions, but rests solely on the authority of Scripture. He produces the testimony of God to Moses, declaring the same truth that he himself affirms. This is quite enough for Christians. It is not wise in them, as is often the case, to adopt a mode of vindicating God’s procedure, so very different from what He Himself employs. How many go about to justify God, and thereby bring God to the bar of man! From the defenses of Scripture doctrine, often resorted to, it might be supposed that God was on His trial before men, rather than that all shall stand before Him, and that the will of God is supreme justice. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. — That is, I will have mercy on whom I please — I will bestow My favors, or withhold them, as seemeth to Me good. God by this declaration proves that He is a debtor to none; that every blessing bestowed upon the elect flows from gratuitous love, and is freely granted to whom He pleases. The answer, then, of the Apostle amounts to this that what is recorded concerning God’s loving Jacob and hating Esau is in nothing different from His usual mode of procedure towards men, but is entirely consistent with the whole plan of His government. All men are lost and guilty in Adam; it is of mercy that any are saved; and God declares that He will have mercy or not upon men according to His own good pleasure. It is only of this attribute that such language as is contained in this passage can be employed. The exercise of every other attribute is at all times indispensable, and never can be suspended.
Romans 9:16 — So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
This is the conclusion from the whole. Salvation is not from the will of man, nor from his efforts in striving for it, but is entirely of God’s mercy vouchsafed to whom He pleases. What foundation, then, can be discovered in the word of God for those schemes of self-righteousness, which, in a greater or less degree, make salvation depend on man’s own exertions? There may be here an allusion to Jacob’s desiring the blessing of the birthright, and his running to provide the venison by which he deceived his father; but his obtaining the blessing was solely the consequence of God’s good pleasure, for the means he employed for the purpose merited punishment rather than success. In like manner, the salvation of any man is not to be ascribed to his own good will and diligent endeavors to arrive at it, but solely to the purpose of God according to election, which is ’not of works, but of Him that calleth.’ It is true, indeed, that believers both will and run, but this is the effect, not the cause, of the grace of God being vouchsafed to them. ’Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.’ To whom is this addressed? To ’the saints in Christ Jesus,’ in whom God had begun a good work, which He will perform until the day of Jesus Christ — to them who had always obeyed, Philippians 1:1; Philippians 1:6; Philippians 1:29; Philippians 2:12. But besides this, what is the motive or encouragement to work out their salvation? ’For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ Here all the willing and doing of men in the service of God is ascribed to His operation in causing them to will and to do. The whole of the new covenant is a promise of God that He Himself will act efficaciously for the salvation of those whom He will save. ’I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.’ ’I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me forever’ ’I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.’ ’A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them,’ Jeremiah 31, 32; Ezekiel 36 : In this way the means by which God’s elect are brought to Him, their calling, their justification, their sanctification, their perseverance, and their glorification, are all of God, as was shown in the preceding chapter, and not of themselves. ’There is great folly,’ say Calvin, ’in the argument that we are possessed of a certain energy in our zeal, but of such a kind as can effect nothing of itself, unless aided by the mercy of Jehovah, since the Apostle shows that we possess nothing of our own, by excluding all our efforts. To infer that we have the power either of running or willing, is a mere cavil, which Paul denies, and plainly asserts that our will or ardor in the race has not the smallest influence in procuring our election. On the ether hand, those merit the severest reproof who continue to indulge in sloth, that they may afford room and opportunity for the grace of God to act; since, although their own industry can accomplish nothing, yet the heavenly zeal inspired by the Father of Lights is endued with active efficacy.’ If any shall oppose the declaration of the Apostle, that it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy, and assert that the salvation of man depends on conditions which he is obliged to fulfill, then it may be asked, what is the condition? Is it faith? Faith is the gift of God. Is it repentance? Christ is exalted a Prince and a Savior to give repentance. Is it love? God promises to circumcise the heart in order to love Him. Are they good works? His people are the workmanship of God created unto good works. Is it perseverance to the end? They are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. It is true that all these things are commanded and enforced by the most powerful motives, consequently they are duties which require the exercise of our faculties. But they are assured by the decree of election, and are granted to the elect of God in the proper season; so that, in this view, they are the objects of promise, and the effects of supernatural and Divine influence. ’Thy people,’ saith Jehovah to the Messiah, ’shall be willing in the day of Thy power.’ Thus the believer, in running his race, and working out his salvation, is actuated by God, and animated by the consideration of His all-powerful operation in the beginning of his course; of the continuation of His support during its progress; and by the assurance that it shall be effectual in enabling him to overcome all obstacles, and to arrive in safety at its termination.
Romans 9:17 — For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.
This verse stands connected, not with the 15th and 16th, which immediately precede it, but with the 13th and 14th. In the 13th verse, God’s love to Jacob and His hatred to Esau are declared. In respect to both, it is demanded in the 14th verse, if there be injustice with God. In the 15th and 16th verses following, the answer is given regarding the preference and love of God to Jacob. In this 17th verse, the Apostle replies to the question as it refers to God’s hatred of Esau. And the answer here is precisely similar to that given respecting Jacob. God’s love to Jacob before he had done any good was according to His usual plan of procedure; and on the same ground, His hatred of Esau before he had done any evil is also vindicated. Paul here proves his doctrine from the example of one to whom, in Divine sovereignty, God acted according to justice without mercy. The Scripture saith that God raised up Pharaoh for the very purpose of manifesting His own glory in his punishment.
For the Scripture saith. — By the manner in which the Apostle begins this verse, we are taught that whatever the Scriptures declare on any subject is to be considered as decisive on the point. ’What saith the Scripture?’ This is the proof to which the Apostle appeals. It should further be observed, that Paul ascribes to the Scriptures what was said by God Himself, Exodus 9:16. This expressly teaches us that the words of Scripture are the words of God. In the same manner, in the Epistle to the Galatians, it is said, the Scripture, ’foreseeing that God would justify the heathen;’ and, ’the scripture hath concluded all under sin,’ Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:22. Here the word of God is so much identified with Himself, that the Scripture is represented as possessing and exercising the peculiar prerogatives of God. What is done by God, and what belongs only to Him, is ascribed to the Scriptures, — proving that they contain the very words of God. ’All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 2 Timothy 3:16. The word Scripture is here taken in its appropriated meaning — being confined to the book of God. All that is written in it is divinely inspired; and what does writing consist of but of words? If any of these are not inspired, then all Scripture is not inspired. Every word, then, in the book referred to, is the word of God, dictated by Him of whom the writers were the instruments He employed, who spoke or wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Why are so many unwilling to admit this view of the inspiration of Scripture so much insisted on in the Scriptures themselves? Is it on account of the difficulty of conceiving how words should thus be communicated? But is it easier to understand how ideas could be communicated? Do they believe that the Lord ’opened the mouth of the ass’ of Balaam, and communicated the words which she spake? Is it then more difficult to communicate words to men than to a dumb animal? To speak of difficulties where Omnipotence is concerned, is palpably absurd. Besides, all allow that in the parts of Scripture to which (making vain distinctions respecting inspiration, without the least foundation from any expression the Scriptures contain) they ascribe the inspiration of ’suggestion,’ the very words were communicated to the writers. Those who deny the plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, — who introduce various modifications of the manner in which they have been written, — neither can nor ought to entertain the same profound veneration for them as those who believe that, without any exception, from beginning to end, they are dictated by God Himself.
The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, — that is, the Scripture showeth how Moses was commanded to say unto Pharaoh, Exodus 9:16, — Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up. — Here is the destination of Pharaoh to his destruction. That I might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. — This is the end and design intended by it. It was not, then, by any concurrence of fortuitous circ*mstances that Pharaoh was seated on the throne of Egypt, and invested with the power he possessed when Moses was appointed to conduct Israel out of Egypt. He was raised up, or made to stand in that place, in order that, by his opposition, from the perversity of his heart, in him God might show His own power and exalt His own name. It is not merely alleged that God had not shown mercy to this king of Egypt, or that He had suffered him to go on in his wicked ways; but, in language which the unrenewed heart of man will never relish, it is declared, ’Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth.’ For this very end, the birth, the life, and the situation of Pharaoh were all of Divine appointment. This is language so clear that it cannot be guiltlessly misinterpreted. The unbelieving heart of man will revolt, and his ingenuity may invent expedients to soften this explicit declaration; but it never can be successfully evaded. All the shifts of sophistry will never be able fairly, or even plausibly, to explain this language in a sense that will not testify the sovereignty of God.
The above truth respecting Pharaoh is what the Scriptures declare; and we ought never to pretend to go further into the deep things of God than they go before us, but submissively to bow to every Divine declaration. We know that all sin will be found with man; but here we are taught that even the sin of man will turn out for the glory of God, and for this very purpose the wicked are raised up. If we cannot fathom this depth in the Divine counsels, still let us be certain that what God says is true, and must be received by us. We are assured that the Judge of all the earth will in all things act righteously, although we may not be able to comprehend His ways. Nor are we required to comprehend them. We are required to believe His word, and to believe that it is consistent with the eternal righteousness of His character. ’Let us treasure,’ says Calvin, ’the following observation in our minds, — never to feel the least desire to attain any other knowledge concerning this doctrine save what is taught us in Scripture. When the Lord shuts His sacred mouth, let us also stop our thoughts from advancing one step further in our inquiries.’ Consistently with the vain attempts that have been made to reconcile the truth above affirmed with philosophy falsely so called, the whole subject of this chapter might be rejected, equally with that of the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. It has accordingly been perverted by many who have explained it in such a way as to remove all the difficulties which it presents. Our Lord in one short sentence has declared the true reason of their finding it so hard to understand this chapter. ’Why do ye not understand My speech? — even because ye cannot hear My word.’ It is also written for our warning. ’Many, therefore, of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?’ There is no part of Scripture, the meaning of which is more obvious than that of this chapter. But if men will yield to the natural opposition of their minds to the truth it declares, and, wresting the plainest expressions, affirm that hatred signifies love, is it surprising that they are bewildered in following their own devices?
Romans 9:18 — Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.
Here the general conclusion is drawn from all the Apostle had said in the three preceding verses, in denying that God was unrighteous in loving Jacob and hating Esau. It exhibits the ground of God’s dealings both with the elect and the reprobate. It concludes that His own sovereign pleasure is the rule both with respect to those whom He receives, and those whom He rejects. He pardons one and hardens another, without reference to anything but His own sovereign will, in accordance with His infinite wisdom, holiness, and justice. ’Even so, Father,’ said our blessed Lord, ’for so it seemed good in Thy sight.’ God is not chargeable with any injustice in electing some and not others; for this is an act of mere mercy and compassion, and that can be no violation of justice.
Therefore hath He mercy On whom He will have mercy. — Paul here repeats for the third time, that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy, without intimating the least regard to anything in man as deserving mercy. The smallest degree of right in the creature would furnish reason for displaying justice, not mercy. Mercy is that adorable perfection of God by which He pities and relieves the miserable. Under the good and righteous government of God, no one is miserable who does not deserve to be so. The objects of mercy are persons who are miserable, because they are guilty, and therefore justly deserving of punishment. The exercise of mercy is a particular display of the grace or free favor of God. In no case can it be due to a guilty creature; it necessarily implies the absence of all right. A man can never have a right to mercy; and to talk of deserving mercy is a contradiction in terms. God, it is said, ’delighteth in mercy,’ Micah 7:18; and in the proclamation of His name to Moses, this attribute is particularly signalized. ’The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,’ Exodus 34:6. He is ’rich’ and ’plenteous’ in mercy, and ’His tender mercies are over all His works.’ Mercy, however, is an attribute, the constant exercise of which is not essential to God, like that of justice, which can never, as has been remarked, for a moment be suspended. Mercy is dispensed according to His sovereign pleasure in regard to persons or times, as to Him seemeth good. Towards the fallen children of men it was gloriously displayed when God sent His Son into the world, which was purely a work of mercy, and not demanded by justice. But to the fallen angels mercy was not vouchsafed. And is this any impeachment of the mercy of God? If not, is it a just ground for complaint, that in order to manifest His hatred of sin, His mercy is not extended to a certain portion of the human race, who we know for certain shall perish? Thus God has mercy on whom He will have mercy. It is one of the fundamental errors of Socinians, and of many besides, to hold that the mercy of God must be necessarily and constantly exercised; while, reversing the order of Scripture, and all its representations of the character of God, they deny this necessity regarding His justice. The same act, however, may be both an act of justice and an act of mercy in reference to different objects. The punishment of the enemies of God, the slaying of the firstborn in Egypt, the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, the discomfiture of kings, and the transfer of their lands for an heritage to Israel, while they were acts of justice towards the enemies of His people, are all ascribed to the mercy of God to them, Psalms 136 ’To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for His mercy endureth for ever: But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea: for His mercy endureth for ever: To Him which smote great kings: for His mercy endureth for ever: And slew famous kings: for His mercy endureth for ever: And gave their land for an heritage: for His mercy endureth for ever: Even an heritage to Israel His servant: for His mercy endureth for ever’ Mercy, then, which is a particular kind of Divine goodness, is sovereign; and to confer favors freely, consistently with Divine wisdom, does injury to no one. If God was only just, there would be no place for mercy; if He never acted as a sovereign benefactor, there could be no place for the plan of redemption. God may be considered under two different aspects, either as judging with equity, or as disposing at His will of His benefits; in other words, as a judge, or as a sovereign. Under either of these aspects, in whatever manner He acts, having nothing higher than Himself, He is the supreme God. Sovereignty, when this word is applied to God, signifies the arbitrary will of a benefactor, because that under the other aspects there is no place for the exercise of arbitrary will. In the exercise of His justice, God is sovereign in His judgments and His punishments, but not arbitrary, because He does not judge without demerit in the objects of His judgment. When, therefore, He acts as Judge and Supreme Ruler, His acts are founded upon equity; but when He acts as Sovereign, His acts are founded upon His free favor, and dispensed with wisdom.
Whatever offense the human mind may take at the attribute of Divine justice, and its exercise in punishing the guilty, we should think that all men would eagerly embrace the view given in Scripture of the Divine mercy. Yet, in reality, the peculiar character of the mercy of God is as disagreeable to men as is His justice itself. The Divine mercy is not only sovereign, but, respecting its object, it is unlimited. Neither of these peculiarities is agreeable to the mind of man. Human wisdom views God as merciful, but that mercy it makes to extend equally to all, and unlimitedly to none. For persons not guilty of glaring sins, God’s mercy is not only expected by the world, but even claimed and demanded. To deny it to those who are sober and regular in their lives, would be looked on as both cruel and unjust. In the passage before us, however, we see that God’s mercy is sovereign, that it extends to one and not to another, while no man can give a reason for the preference of one and the rejection of the other. The only reason God condescends to give is His own pleasure: ’I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.’ The unlimited character of the Divine mercy is a thing that ought to be most agreeable to every man. Even should any be so blind as not to perceive that they need such mercy for themselves, yet, if they loved mankind, they should rejoice that the Divine mercy is such as to extend to the chief of sinners. Constant experience, however, as well as the history of our Lord’s life, shows us that this is not the case. Instead of rejoicing in the extent of the Divine mercy, the heart of the self-righteous man will swell with indignation when he hears that mercy is extended to the vile and the profligate. Nothing in the conduct of our Lord gave such offense to the scribes and Pharisees as this peculiarity in His conduct of receiving sinners In the most prominent manner He exhibited this feature of mercy, and publicans and sinners heard Him, and received His doctrine, and turned from their sins unto God; while the proud, self-righteous Pharisees burned with indignation at the conduct of Christ in this instance. He was constantly upbraided as receiving sinners and eating with them.
Of the mercy of God, Dr. Thomson observes, ’It cannot be that His mercy should be exerted at the expense or to the disparagement, in any the least degree, of one excellence which beautifies His nature, or upholds His government, or speaks His praise. His mercy is sovereign and gratuitous; and therefore it can only be displayed when every other quality that belongs to Him is fully maintained, and there is no sacrifice of the honor that is due to each, and of the consistency which pervades the whole. Whenever His mercy cannot be exercised without refusing the demands of His justice, or without bringing into question the immutability of His faithfulness, or without denying the irresistible energy of His power, or without impeaching the infallibility of His wisdom, or without throwing suspicion on the absolute purity of His nature — in these cases His mercy cannot be exercised at all, for the exercise of it would involve some shortcoming in His perfection, which is necessarily unqualified and unlimited. It is only of this attribute that it can be said, ’He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.’ Of every other attribute it is requisite that we predicate positive and peremptory operation. He must be holy; He must be wise; He must be powerful; He must be just; He must be true; He must be each and all of these, whatever betide His universe; and if we, His apostate creatures, cannot be the objects of His mercy except by some surrender of the homage due to them, or some violation of the harmony that reigns among them, His mercy cannot save, and cannot reach us.’ And whom He will He hardeneth. — If God hath mercy on whom He will, He hardeneth whom He will. In hardening men, God does no injustice, nor does He act in any degree contrary to the perfection of His character. He does not communicate hardness or perversity to the hearts of men by any positive internal act, as when He communicates His grace. ’Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man.’ Wicked men are not restrained by the holy influences of grace, but by the different restraints under which they are placed by Providence. They are hardened when these restraints are removed, and when they are left free to act according to the depraved inclinations of their own hearts, to which the Lord gives them up, Psalms 81:12; Acts 7:42; Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28. Or they are hardened by the communication of qualities which are neither good nor bad in themselves, but which may become either good or bad according to the use made of them, such as courage, perseverance, or other dispositions which may be employed for bad purposes. Men are also hardened when they are abandoned to the suggestions of Satan, of whom they are the willing slaves. Thus Judas was hardened by Satan, who had taken possession of him, and to whom he submitted himself, although most solemnly warned of his danger. When a man is entirely left to himself, the commands, the warnings, the judgments, the deliverances, and all the truths of Scripture become causes of hardness, of insensibility, of pride, and presumption. Even the delay of merited punishment, and the deliverances from the plagues that fell on his country, were, in respect to Pharaoh, the occasion of hardening his heart. ’Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil’ In these ways men’s hearts are hardened, through means that in themselves are calculated to produce the opposite effect.
But by whatever means the heart of men is hardened, they are regulated by God, who also determines that they shall succeed. We see this remarkably verified in the case of Ahab. ’And the Lord said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail. Go out and do even so. Now, therefore, behold the Lord hath put a Lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee,’ 2 Chronicles 18:21. ’If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet; and I will stretch out My hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel,’ Ezekiel 14:9. ’Truly the Son of Man goeth, as it was determined; but woe unto that man by whom Me is betrayed,’ Luke 22:22. ’Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,’ Acts 2:23. ’Of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done,’ Acts 4:27. ’A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed,’ 1 Peter 2:8. This shows an ordination of God to the thing referred to, which thing was sinful. ’There are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.’ The persons here spoken of are said to be ordained to condemnation, which, whatever it may be supposed to be, implies pre-appointment to it by God, Judges 1:4. ’Therefore, they could not believe, because Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and I should heal them,’ John 12:39. ’According as it is written, God hath given them a spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day,’ Romans 11:8. ’And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,’ 2 Thessalonians 2:11. It is nothing to the purpose to allege that this was in judgment for not receiving the love of the truth; whatever was the cause, God sent them strong delusion, so that they should believe a lie. In the same way it is said, Revelation 17:17, ’God hath put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree and give their kingdom to the beast.’ ’Babylon,’ says Dr. Carson, in his History of Providence, ’was employed by Providence for the chastisem*nt of His people, and commissioned to carry the Jews into captivity. Babylon was guilty in executing the will of the Lord, and was providentially destroyed by Him with an unexampled destruction. The Medes and Persians are sent by God to execute His vengeance on Babylon. He calls out their hosts and gives them victory, yet the Medes and Persians were excited by their own passions. Besides, says God, I will bring up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. How awful does Providence appear here! Even when savage idolaters violate every dictate of humanity, they are the executors of the judgments of the Almighty. While their conduct is most horridly guilty, in the Divine sovereignty it fulfills God’s will. Who can fathom this depth? In God’s dealings with Assyria and Babylon we ought to find a key to His providence in His dealings with the western nations of Europe. Does not Jehovah govern the world? Is there evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?’ In all the above acts relating to men, God proceeds in conformity to His justice. He is infinitely just in hating, hardening, and condemning sinners, in adjudging them to punishment for their wickedness, and in placing them in situations in which, in the free exercise of their evil dispositions, they will do what the Lord has appointed for His own glory. Thus God orders events in such a manner, that, as in the passages above quoted, the sin will, through the wickedness of men: certainly be committed, while He is not the author of evil, but, on the contrary, of good. He displays His holiness in the events and in their consequences. Men may employ all their art in wresting the above and similar passages, but they are recorded in the Scriptures, which are the word of God, and which cannot be broken. ’The Lord hath made all things for Himself; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil,’ Proverbs 16:4. ’Why dost thou strive against Him? for He giveth not account of His matters,’ — or answereth not, Job 33:13. That God does not harden any man in such a way as to be the author of sin, is most certain. But there must be a sense in which He hardens sinners, or the thing would not be asserted. From His conduct with respect to Pharaoh, it is obvious that sinners are hardened by the providence of God bringing them into situations that manifest and excite their corruptions.
In the history of Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus, it is repeated ten times, that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh is also said to have hardened his own heart. This shows that there is a certain connection between God’s hardening the hearts of men and their voluntarily hardening their own hearts, so that when the one takes place the other does so likewise. It does not follow from this that God’s hardening the heart of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh’s hardening his own heart, are one and the same thing. This supposition, although adopted by many is contrary to the representations and the express words of Scripture. The just inference is, that there is one view in which Pharaoh hardened his heart, and another in which God is said to have hardened it. We should believe both; but to attempt to show the philosophy of their reconciliation, is to attempt to fathom infinity. In Psalms 105:25, it is said with respect to the people of Egypt, that God ’turned their heart to hate His people.’ Can anything be stronger or more clear than this passage? No doubt it was their own sin, but there is also a sense in which the thing was of God. Are we to deny this because we cannot explain the way in which God did this? On the same ground we might reject the doctrine of the Trinity, or any other of the incomprehensible doctrines of Christianity.
On this subject, Dr. Carson, in his book lately published, entitled, Examination of the Principles of Biblical Interpretation of Ernesti, Ammon, Stuart, and other Philologists, observes, ’It is said that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh; it is said also that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. What, then, is the lawful way to reconcile these two statements? The statements must both be true. There must be a sense in which God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, for this is as expressly asserted as that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. That this is not a sense implying that God is the author of Pharaoh’s sin, there cannot be a moment’s question. I may be asked how God could in any sense harden a man’s heart without being the author of sin a But the most assured belief of the fact does not require that an answer should be given to the question. A thing may be true, yet utterly inexplicable. God’s declaration is perfectly sufficient for the belief of anything which He testifies. Our reception of it does not imply that we know the grounds or nature of its truth. We receive it, not because we can explain how it is true, but because we know that God cannot lie. The Scriptures testify the fact; the fact, then, must be received as truth. The Scriptures do not testify the manner in which the thing is true of God; the manner, then, is not a thing to be believed, and consequently not a thing to be explained by man.... Many tell us that such assertions mean merely that God permits the thing which He is said to do. But is permission sufficient to secure accomplishment? God sent Joseph to Egypt; that is, it is said, He permitted his brethren to sell him. Nay, but it was God’s will, purpose, and plan, that Joseph should go down to Egypt, and His providence secured the event. "Now, therefore," says Joseph, "be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither! for God did send me before you to preserve life." His brethren did it wickedly; God did it in mercy and in wisdom. We know that he did it entirely in consistency with man’s accountability; but the manner of this consistency is not a matter of revelation, and therefore it is impossible to attempt explanation. "Romans 9:18," says Ammon, "appears to be an obscure passage relating to the absolute decrees of God. Light may be thrown upon this by 1 Samuel 6:6, where Pharaoh is said to have hardened his own heart." How does 1 Samuel 6:6 throw light upon Romans 9:18? We might have expected rather that Ammon would have found a contradiction, as the one passage ascribes to God what the other ascribes to man. The passages indeed are consistent; but their consistency must be made out, not by obliging one of them to silence the other, but by the principle that they assert the same thing in a different view. Ammon’s plan, I presume, is to make Romans 9:18 recant, in order to harmonize with 1 Samuel 6:6. But the honor of Scripture, and of God’s character, require that they should be reconciled in a way that renders both true.’ Calvin, in his commentary on Exodus, represents those as perverting the Scriptures who insist that no more is meant than a bare permission when God is said to harden the hearts of men. He speaks of such as frigid speculatores, diluti moderatores, to whose delicate ears such Scripture expressions seem harsh and offensive. They therefore, he observes, ’soften them down by turning an action into a permission, as if there were no difference between acting and suffering, i.e., suffering others to act.’ Such, he says, who will admit of permission only, suspend this counsel and determination of God, wholly on the will of man; but that he is not ashamed or afraid to speak as the Holy Spirit does, and does not hesitate to approve and embrace what the Scriptures so often declares, viz., that God blinds the minds of wicked men, and hardens their hearts. In his commentary on the passage before us, Romans 9:18, to the same purpose he observes, ’The word hardening, when attributed to God in Scripture, not only means permission (as some trifling theologians determine), but the action of Divine wrath; for all external circ*mstances, which contribute to blind the reprobates, are instruments of the Divine indignation. Satan also himself, the internal efficacious agent, is so completely the servant of the Most High, as to act only by His command. The frivolous attempt of the school men to avoid the difficulty by foreknowledge, is completely subverted; for Paul does not say that the ruin of the wicked is foreseen by the Lord, but ordained by His counsel, decree, and will. Solomon also teaches that the destruction of the wicked was not only foreknown, but they were made on purpose for the day of evil’ (Proverbs 16:4).
Some profess Calvinism, but affect to hold it in a more unexceptionable manner than it is held in the system in general. They seem to think that in the defense of that system, Calvin was extravagant, and that he gave unnecessary offense by exaggerated statements, and by language not warranted by the Scriptures. Such persons, it is presumed, are strangers to the writings of Calvin. Calvin himself is remarkable for keeping on Scripture ground, and avoiding anything that may justly be termed extravagant. No writer has ever indulged less in metaphysical speculation on the deep things of God than this writer. To support his system, it was necessary only to exhibit Scripture testimony, and he seems quite contented to rest the matter on this foundation.
What is called moderate Calvinism is in reality refined Arminianism. It is impossible to modify the former without sliding into the latter. If the doctrine of God’s sovereignty and of unconditional election be denied, regeneration and redemption must undergo a corresponding modification, and all the doctrines of grace will be more or less affected. While it is admitted that many of the people of God, through imperfect views of Divine truth, falter on the subject of election, it is a truth essential to the plan of salvation, and a truth most explicitly revealed. No truth in the Scriptures is more easily defended. The reason why many find it difficult to defend this doctrine is, that they suppose it necessary to account for it by human wisdom, and to justify the conduct of God. We have nothing to do with the grounds of the Divine procedure, we have to do only with the Divine testimony, that testimony which Mr. Tholuck so fearfully perverts. There are many who in words fully admit the doctrine of predestination, and at the same time neutralize it by dwelling exclusively upon God’s being love, and laying the blame of the whole world not being saved on the sloth of Christians.] That ordination, with respect to evil, is merely permission, is an opinion which cannot be maintained. Permission is not ordination in any sense of the term, and ordination is quite a different idea from permission. We may permit what we do not ordain, and when we ordain anything, we do more than permit it. But it will be replied, Does not this make God the author of sin? It is answered, that the sense in which God ordains sin is above our comprehension. It must be a sense in which He is not the author of sin — a sense, too, in which responsibility entirely rests with man. But the way in which this is true, we cannot explain. It is enough to know that God hath declared it. We are to believe Him on His own testimony, and to honor Him by submitting to whatever He declares. God tells us that He doth such things, He tells us also that men do these things. We should believe both assertions, though we cannot reconcile them. Does not God say in His word — ’As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts?’ Does He not say that His ways are past finding out? If we could fathom all the ways of God, the Scriptures could not be His word. What God reveals, let us know: what He conceals, let us not attempt to discover God is from eternity; but we are of yesterday and know nothing.
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, as He declared from the beginning of the history He would do; but did not put evil into his mind. There was no need for this, for he was previously wicked like all mankind. God has no occasion to put evil into the heart of any, in order to their destruction, for in consequence of the curse of the broken law (from which God’s people alone are delivered), there is in no natural man anything good towards God, Romans 8:7. While He thus punished Pharaoh’s wickedness no more than his iniquity deserved, God, in doing so, displayed to His people Israel their security under His protection.
Romans 9:19 — Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?
Here the Apostle obviates a third objection or cavil. The first was, that God is unfaithful, Romans 9:6. The second, that God is unjust, Romans 9:14. This third is, that God is severe and cruel. If God thus shows mercy, or hardens according to His sovereign pleasure, why, then, it may be asked, does He yet find fault with transgressors? This is the only objection that can be made to what the Apostle was stating. Thou wilt say, then, who hath resisted His will? If God wills sin, and if He is all-powerful, must He not be the author of sin? Mr. Fry here remarks, — ’The thought will frequently start in the mind of the inquirer: If Divine grace is bestowed on some, and withheld from others; especially if the sins and transgressions of men are so under the control of the Almighty, that they but serve His purposes, how is it that such blame and censure attaches to the sinner, and that such dreadful judgments are denounced against him? If our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say then, is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? This, it will be perceived, is no other than the difficulty so generally felt in attempting to reconcile the responsibility of man as a moral agent, with a pre-ordination of all events, after the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. This pre-ordination the Apostle had asserted and proved from the Scriptures. From the Scriptures, at the same time, is evinced the complete responsibility of man as a moral agent: God’s finding fault; His remonstrances with transgressors; the declaration of their amenableness to a just judgment the manner in which the Gospel addresses them, and bewails their hardness and their impenetrable heart, unquestionably establishes this point. The proud wisdom of rebellious man indeed, almost dares to charge the oracles of God with inconsistency on this head; or, what is nearly as bad, takes upon itself either to explain away or to invalidate one part of the Scripture truth in order to establish the other, and, in apologizing for Him before His creatures, to make God consistent with Himself! Such is the wicked presumption of man; such, we may lament to add, is the officious folly of some who mean to be the advocates of revelation; and the weak and imprudent defense of a friend is as dishonorable often as the open accusation of an enemy.’ The objection stated in the verse before us is in substance the same as is urged to this day, and it never can be put more strongly than here by the Apostle. What, then, does he answer? This we learn in the subsequent verses, in which he charges upon those who prefer it, their great impiety in presuming to arraign the ways of God, and to take up an argument against their Maker.
Romans 9:20 — Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
To the preceding objection, the Apostle, in this and the two following verses, gives three distinct answers. His first answer in this verse, similar to Isaiah 45:9, is directed against the proud reasonings of man who, though he be born like a wild ass’s colt, and being of yesterday, knows nothing, Job 11:12, presumes to scan the deep things of God, and to find fault with the plan of His government and providence, into which angels desire to look, while they find it incomprehensible. We are here taught that it is perfectly sufficient to silence all objections, to prove that anything is the will of God. No man, after this is done, has a right to hesitate or to doubt. The rectitude of God’s will is not to be questioned. What men have to do is to learn what God says, and then to receive it as unquestionably true and right. Nay but, O man, who art thou? — And what is man that he should take upon him to object to anything that God says? The reason and discernment between right and wrong which he possesses is the gift of God; it must, then, be the greatest abuse of these faculties to employ them to question the conduct of Him who gave them. The question of the Apostle imports that it is a thing most preposterous for such a creature as man to question the procedure of God.
Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou formed me this? — Can anything be more presumptuous than for the creature to pretend to greater wisdom than the Creator? Any wisdom the creature possesses must have been received from the Creator; and if the Creator has the power of forming rational beings, must He not Himself be infinite in wisdom? And does it not insult the Creator to pretend to find imperfection in His proceedings? Why, as Thou art all-powerful, hast Thou formed me in such a manner that I am capable of sin and misery? The rebellious heart of man is never satisfied with the Apostle’s answer, and still the question is, Why did He make men to be condemned? Let the Lord’s people be satisfied with the Apostle’s answer, and let it be sufficient for them to know that God has willed both the salvation of the elect, and the destruction of the wicked, although they are not able to fathom the depths of the ways of God. The Apostle tells us the fact, and shows us that it must be received on God’s testimony, and not on our ability to justify it. That God does all things right there is no question, but the grounds of His conduct He does not now explain to His people. Much less is it to be supposed that He would justify His conduct by explaining the grounds of it to His enemies. No man has a right to bring God to trial. What He tells us of Himself, or of ourselves, let us receive as unquestionably right. ’Paul,’ says Calvin, ’doth not busily labor to excuse God with a lying defense. He would not have neglected refuting the objection, that God reprobates or elects, according to His own will, those whom He does not honor with His favor, or love gratuitously, had he considered it to be false. The impious object, that men are exempted from guilt if the will of God has the chief part in the salvation of the elect, or destruction of the reprobate. Does Paul deny it? Nay; his answer confirms this truth — that God determines to do with mankind what He pleases, and that men rise up with unavailing fury to contest it, since the Maker of the world assigns to His creatures, by His own right, whatever lot He chooses. If we cannot declare a reason why He vouchsafeth to grant mercy to them that are His, but because it pleaseth Him, neither also shall we have any other cause in rejecting of others than His own will; for when it is said that God hardeneth or showeth mercy to whom He will, men are thereby savored to seek no cause elsewhere than in His own will’ ’Mere human reason,’ says Luther to Erasmus, ’can never comprehend how God is good and merciful; and therefore you make to yourself a God of your own fancy, who hardens nobody, condemns nobody, pities everybody. You cannot comprehend how a just God can condemn those who are born in sin, and cannot help themselves, but must, by a necessity of their natural constitution, continue in sin, and remain children of wrath. The answer is, God is incomprehensible throughout, and therefore His justice, as well as His other attributes, must be incomprehensible. It is on this very ground that St. Paul exclaims, "O the depth of the riches of the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" Now, His judgments would not be past finding out, if we could always perceive them to be just.’
Romans 9:21 — Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
This is the Apostle’s second answer to the objection contained in the 19th verse, in which, by another reference to Scripture, he asserts that the thing formed ought not to contend with Him that formed it, who has a right to dispose of it as He pleases. The words in the original, translated ’power’ in this verse and the following, are different. The word here employed is variously applied as signifying authority, license, liberty, right; but in its application to God there can be no question that it denotes power justly exercised. The mere power or ability of doing what God pleases, cannot be the meaning, for this is not the thing questioned. It is the justice of the procedure that is disputed, and it is consequently the justice of this exercise of power that must be asserted. With respect to all other beings, the license, liberty, or right referred to, may be, as it is, derived from a superior; but in this sense it cannot refer to God. When, therefore, it is said here that God has ’power,’ it must mean that He may, in the instance referred to, use His power in conformity to justice. The right has not a reference to a superior as conferring it, but a reference to His own character, to which all the actions of this sovereignty must be conformable. Power, then, in this place, signifies right or power which is consistent with justice. It is this right or power according to justice that is here asserted. When the potter molds the clay into what form he pleases, he does nothing contrary to justice; neither does God do injustice in the exercise of absolute power over His creatures. Out of the same original lump or mass He forms, in His holy sovereignty, one man unto honor, and another unto dishonor, without in any respect violating justice. Here it is implied that as there is no difference between the matter or lump out of which the potter forms diversity of vessels, so there is no difference in mankind, Romans 3:22; all men — both those who are elected, and those who are rejected, that are made vessels of mercy, or vessels of wrath — are alike by nature in the same condemnation in which God might in justice have left the whole, but out of which in His holy sovereignty He saves some, while He exercises His justice in pouring out His wrath.
That we are all in the hand of God as the clay in the potter’s hand, is humbling to the pride of man, yet nothing can be more self-evidently true. If so, God has the same right over us that a potter has over the clay of which he forms his vessels for his own purposes and interest. The same figure as is employed by the Prophet Isaiah, in declaring the right that God had over him and all the people of Israel, God likewise employs, Jeremiah 18:6 : ’O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel.’ A potter forms his vessels for himself, and not for his vessels. This determines the question with respect to God’s end in the creation of man. Philosophers can discern no higher end in creating man than that of making him happy. But the chief end of the potter in molding his vessels has a reference to himself, and God’s chief end in making man is His own glory. This is plainly held forth in a multitude of passages in Scripture. Let man strive with his Maker as he will, still he is nothing but the clay in the hand of the potter. There cannot, indeed, be a question but that God will act justly with all His creatures; but the security for this is in His own character, and we can have no greater security against God’s power than His own attributes. God will do His creatures no injustice; but this is because justice is a part of His own character. Our security for being treated justly by God is in Himself.
One vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. — Some endeavor to explain this as implying that certain vessels may be made for a less honorable use, while they are still vessels for the Master’s service. But it is not said that they are made for a less honorable use, but that they are made to dishonor, is the Apostle’s assertion. It is true, indeed, that even vessels employed for dishonorable purposes are useful, and it is equally true that the destruction of the wicked will be for the glory of God. If any are condemned at all, and on any ground whatever, it is certain that it must be for the glory of God, else He would not appoint it to take place. On the verse before us , and the preceding, it is to be observed that the Apostle does not say that his meaning in what he had previously affirmed had been mistaken, and that he had not said that it was agreeable to the will of God that the hardness of men’s hearts should take place as it does; he implicitly grants this as truth, and that he had asserted it. And so far from palliating or softening down the expression to which the objection is made, if possible, he heightens and strengthens it. All mankind are here represented as originally lying in the same lump or mass; a great difference afterwards appears among them. Whence does this difference arise? The Apostle explicitly answers, It is God who makes the difference. As the potter makes one vessel as readily as he makes another, and each vessel takes its form from his hand, so God makes one man to honor and another to dishonor. And God’s sovereign right to do this is here asserted; and he who objects to this, the Apostle says, speaks against God. Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? This representation is entirely consistent with all that the Scriptures elsewhere teach. In the fundamental doctrine of regeneration and the new creation in Christ Jesus, it is expressly inculcated, and is entirely coincident with the question, ’Who maketh thee to differ from another?’ 1 Corinthians 4:7.
Romans 9:22 — What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction;
In this and the following verse, in which the substance of the doctrine of predestination is contained in a few words, the Apostle gives his third and final answer to the objection stated in the 19th verse, subjoining the reasons of God’s different proceedings with one man and with another. Hereby God manifests His great displeasure against sin, and His power to take vengeance on sinners; He exercises great patience towards them, seeing they are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction by their own wickedness, to which God shuts them up in His judgment. On the other hand, what can be said against it, if He proceed in mercy with others, thereby manifesting the riches of His glory, or His glorious grace, since they are vessels of mercy, whom, by His sovereign election from eternity, and the sanctification of His Spirit in time, He had afore prepared unto glory? The sum of the Apostle’s answer here is, that the grand object of God, both in the election and the reprobation of men, is that which is paramount to all things else in the creation of the universe, namely, His own glory. With the assertion of this doctrine, however offensive to the natural man, which must always appear to him foolishness, Paul winds up, in the last verse of the eleventh chapter, the whole of his previous discussion in this Epistle.
What if God, willing to show His wrath. — Here the purpose of God, in enduring the wicked in this world, is expressly stated to arise from His willingness to show His wrath against sin. We see, then, that the entrance of sin into the world was necessary to manifest the Divine character in His justice and hatred of sin. Had sin never entered into the creation of God, His character would never have been fully developed. Let wicked men hear what God says in this place. They flatter themselves that in some way, through mercy, or because great severity, they suppose, would not be just, they will finally escape. But God here declares by the Apostle, that He has endured sin in the world for the very purpose of glorifying Himself in its punishment. How, then, shall they escape? And to make His power known. — The entrance of sin was also an occasion of manifesting God’s power and wisdom in overruling it for His glory. The power or ability of God, according to the original word used here, is different from the power (another word in the original) in the preceding verse, as is strikingly seen in this place. The 21st verse asserts the right of God to act in the manner supposed; this verse shows that His doing so was to manifest His wrath against sin, and His power to make even sin to glorify His name. Sin is in its own nature to God’s dishonor. He has overruled it so that He has turned it to His glory. This is the most wonderful display of power. Endured with much long-suffering. — How often do men wonder that God endures so much sin as appears in the world. Why does not God immediately cut off transgressors? Why does He not make an end of them at once? The answer is, He endures them for His own glory, and in their condemnation He will be glorified. To short-sighted mortals, it would appear preferable if God would cut off in childhood all whom He foresaw should continue in wickedness. But God endures them to old age, and to the utmost bounds of wickedness, for the glory of His own name. Vessels of wrath, — vessels ’full of the fury of the Lord,’ Isaiah 51:20. Here Paul calls the wicked vessels, in allusion to the figure which he had just before used. Fitted to destruction. — They are vessels, indeed, but they are vessels of wrath, and by their sins they are fitted for destruction; and it is in the counsel of Jehovah that this shall be so.
Romans 9:23 — And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.
In the preceding verse, Paul had declared that God exercised much long-suffering towards the vessels of wrath — that part of Israel which were not of Israel; and here he shows that it was the will of God to make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy whom He had afore prepared unto glory. In men’s rejection of the salvation of Christ, the exceeding sinfulness of sin is manifested; and we learn that no external means, in truth, nothing short of almighty power, could save a guilty and lost creature. Those, therefore, who are called and saved are saved by a new creation; not effected by a word, as the old creation was, but by the power and calling of the Holy Spirit through the incarnation and death of the Son of God for the sins of His people, and His resurrection for their justification, made known in the everlasting Gospel.
In this verse it is implied that the awful ruin of the wicked is necessary for the full display of the riches of Divine mercy in saving the elect. Both the righteous and the wicked are by nature equally exposed to wrath; and the deliverance of the elect from that situation to be made heirs of glory; wonderfully illustrates the infinitude of mercy. The salvation of the elect is mercy, pure mercy; and it is wonderful mercy, when we consider what was the doom they deserved, and would have experienced, had they not been delivered by God through Jesus Christ. These vessels of mercy were previously prepared for their happy lot by God Himself. Which He had afore prepared unto glory. — In the preceding verse it is said that the vessels of wrath are fitted for destruction, and in this verse, that the vessels of mercy are prepared unto glory. The wicked are fitted for destruction by their sins, and the elect prepared before by God unto glory. No particular stress is to be laid on the word fitted, as if it could not apply to the righteous, for they also are fitted for glory. It is usual to say that the wicked were fitted by Satan and their own folly for destruction. No doubt Satan is concerned in it, but as no agent is asserted, it is not necessary to determine this. They also may be said to fit themselves; yet it appears that it is not the agent, but the means that the Apostle has in view. It is their sins which fit them for destruction. On the other hand, the elect are afore prepared unto glory. This cannot be by themselves, but must be by God as the agent. This is expressly stated: ’Whom He hath prepared.’ The elect are not only afore prepared unto glory, but it is God who prepares them. It is suggested, by what is said in this and the preceding verse, that God does not harden sinners or punish them for the sake of hardening or making them miserable, or because He has any delight or pleasure in their sin or punishment considered in themselves, and unconnected with the end to be answered by them, but He does this to answer a wise and important end. This great end is the manifestation and display of His own perfections; to show His wrath, and to make His power known, and to make known the riches of His glory. That is, He does it for Himself — for His own glory. It is also suggested that what God does in hardening sinners, and making them vessels unto dishonor, and enduring with much long-suffering those vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, is consistent with their being blamable for their hardness, and for everything which renders them dishonorable. Consequently it is also consistent with His high displeasure at their conduct, and proves that He may justly destroy them for ever for their hardness and obstinacy in sin. This is supposed and asserted in the words, otherwise sinners could not be vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. To allege that these scriptures import no more than that God permits sin, and orders everything respecting the event, so that if God permits, it will certainly take place, does not obviate any difficulty which has been supposed here to present itself. For this is still representing God as willing that sin should take place, or, on the whole, choosing that it should exist rather than not.
Many who admit the doctrine of predestination object to the use of the term reprobation, so often employed by the first Reformers, and the old and most esteemed Christian writers. In its place they would substitute the word rejection. But that word does not always convey the full import of what is intended by the term reprobation; and whether this term be used or not, all that is comprehended under it is strictly according to Scripture. Reprobation includes two acts: the one is negative, which consists in what is called perpetration, or the passing by of those who are not elected, — that is, leaving them in their natural state of alienation or enmity against God; the other is positive, and is called condemnation, — the act of condemning on account of sin those who have been passed by. That first act consists in God’s simply withholding His grace, to which no man can have any claim. For this, accordingly, the Scriptures give no reason but the sovereign pleasure of God, who has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and who might justly have left all men to perish in their sins. In the second act, God considers man as guilty, and a child of wrath; and as on this account He punishes him in time, so from all eternity He has ordained to punish him. In electing sinners, then, or in passing them by, God acts as a sovereign dispensing or withholding His favors, which are His own, as to Him seemeth good. In condemning, He exercises His justice in the punishment of the guilty.
He may impart His grace to whomsoever He pleases, without any one having a right to find fault, since in regard to those whom He destines to salvation He has provided means to satisfy His justice. On the other hand, those who are guilty have no right to complain if He hath appointed them to wrath, 1 Thessalonians 5:9; 1 Peter 2:8; Judges 1:4; for God was under no obligation to exercise mercy towards sinners. Both these doctrines of election and reprobation are exemplified in the case of Jacob and Esau, in which there is nothing peculiar. Jacob was loved and chosen before he was born, and Esau before he was born was an object of hatred and reprobation. Under one or other of these descriptions, all who receive the above doctrines must be convinced that every individual of the human race is included. Whence comes it, then, that so many venture to set aside the obvious import of these words, ’Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated?’ The term reprobation has been used, then, because it expresses the idea intended, which the term rejection does not; if any are offended at it, it is to be feared that the offense taken is not at the word, but at its import. Unless men reject the Bible, they must admit that all were condemned in Adam; and if they were justly condemned, there can be no injustice in leaving them in that state of condemnation, and punishing them as sinners. It is only from the sovereign good pleasure and love of God that any of the human race are saved. He had no such love to the fallen angels, and they all perished; nor has He such love to those of the human race that shall perish, for He says, ’Depart from Me, ye cursed, I never knew you.’ Men had no more claim upon God for mercy than the angels. Whatever may be thought of these things at present, God informs us that there is a day coming when His righteous judgment shall be revealed. Then He will be clear when He speaketh, and just when He is judged. No one shall then feel that he has been treated unjustly. Happy they whose high imaginations are cast down by the proclamation of mercy in the Gospel, and who receive the kingdom as Little children, becoming fools that they may be wise. The high imaginations of all will be cast down at last, but with very many it will be too late, except to make them feel their condemnation to be just.
In strict conformity with the truths contained in the above verses, it is said in the Westminster Confession of Faith, which contains so scriptural a summary of Christian doctrine: — ’The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.’ ’The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby, for His own glory, He hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass. God executeth His decrees in the works of creation and providence. God’s works of providence are, His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions.’ And again, ’God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.’ ’By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death.’ In these articles it is asserted that God fore-ordained, decreed, and willed the existence of all the evil which ’comes to pass.’ It is also said that God brings His decrees or His will into effect by creation and His governing providence, by which, in the exercise of His wisdom and holiness, He powerfully governs His creatures, and superintends and directs, disposes and orders, all their actions.
According to the above truths, so well expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, to which so many profess to adhere as containing their creed, everything without exception, great and small, that has ever taken place, or shall ever take place in heaven, or on earth, or in hell has from all eternity been ordained by God, and yet so that the accountableness of the creature is not in the smallest degree removed. This is declared in the clearest manner respecting the greatest sin that ever was committed, even the crucifying of the Lord of glory. It took place according to the express ordination of God, yet the wickedness of those by whom it was perpetrated is explicitly asserted. ’Truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined; but woe unto that man by whom He is betrayed’ Luke 22:22. ’Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.’ ’Who by the mouth of Thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. For of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done,’ Acts 2:23; Acts 4:25. The crucifixion, then, of the Messiah was ordained by God, ’according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord,’ Ephesians 3:11, and was carried into execution by the wickedness of men, while God was not the author or actor of the sin. Every objection that can be made against the ordination of God respecting any wicked act, lies equally against these last two declarations. The crucifixion of Christ was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. If, then, the doctrine be chargeable with the consequences which some attribute to it, the admission of it in one case is just as impossible as in every case. It makes no difference how many evil actions are ordained, if it be admitted that one was ordained. The ordination of that one event must have been without reproach to the holiness of God, and this shows that the ordination of all others may be equally so.
Romans 9:24 — Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Hitherto the Apostle had been showing that the promise of God was never made to the carnal seed of Abraham. This argument he began, Romans 9:6-7, and had continued it till he comes to these words, in which he plainly states who are the true seed of Abraham and the children of the promise, even the called of God of all nations. The natural and easy manner in which, after several exemplifications, Paul here in a direct manner reverts to the main purpose of his discussion, ought not to be overlooked. Here he shows who are those vessels of mercy to whom he referred in the preceding verse. They are not only Jews but also Gentiles, and none of either Jews or Gentiles but those who are called by the Spirit and word of God. After expressing his unfeigned sorrow for the rejection of the Messiah by his countrymen in general, Paul had intimated at the 6th verse, that, notwithstanding this, the word of God had not been altogether without effect among them. He had next declared the reason why this effect had not been produced on the whole of them, namely, that all who belonged to that nation were not the true Israel of God, nor because they were descended from Abraham were they all his spiritual seed. This he had proved by the declarations of God to Abraham, and also by His dealings in regard to him, and especially respecting Isaac. In Isaac’s family God had in a remarkable manner typically intimated the same truth, and displayed His sovereignty in rejecting the elder of his sons, and choosing the younger. Paul had further proved that this was according to God’s usual manner of proceeding, in showing mercy to some, and hardening others. God had, notwithstanding, endured with much long-suffering that great multitude of the people of Israel who proved themselves to be vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and, on the other hand, had displayed the abundance of His free grace in preparing vessels of mercy both among Jews and Gentiles. The word of God had thus been effectual by His sovereign disposal to some among the people of Israel, corresponding with the examples which Paul had produced from their history; and in the exercise of the same sovereignty God had also prepared others among the Gentiles on whom He displayed His mercy. None of the Jews or Gentiles were vessels of mercy, except those whom He had effectually called to Himself. This verse incontestably proves, contrary to the erroneous glosses of many, that the Apostle is here speaking of the election of individuals, and not of nations.
Romans 9:25 — As He saith also in Osee, I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
In the preceding verse, the Apostle had spoken of those who were called among the Jews and the Gentiles, whom God had prepared unto glory. In this verse and the following, he shows that the calling of the Gentiles was not an unforeseen event, but that it was expressly foretold by the Prophets. God, by the Prophet Hosea 2:23, alluding to the calling of the Gentiles by the gospel says, I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art my people; that is, the Lord, at the period alluded to, would call to the knowledge of Himself, as His people, persons who were formerly living in heathenish, not having even the name of the people of God. And her beloved, that was not beloved. — The Jewish nation was typically the spouse of God. The Lord had betrothed Israel. But when Christ should come, He was to betroth Gentiles also, and to call her beloved that had not been beloved. Paul therefore shows, by this quotation, that the calling of these Gentiles as vessels of mercy was according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will — according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus.
Romans 9:26 — And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
Among the nations which formerly served idols, and of whom it was usually and truly said that they were not God’s people, there will be those of whom it shall be said that they are the children of the living God, Hosea 1:10. They shall be the children of the living God, in opposition to the dead idols or gods of their own imagination, which they formerly worshipped. This proves that, in their former state, they were without God in the world, Ephesians 2:12; Ephesians 4:18; and consequently that the Scriptures hold out no hope for those Gentiles who are left uncalled by the Gospel. This awful truth, though so many are unwilling to receive it, is everywhere testified in the Scriptures. It is held forth in what is said of the empire of Satan, the God of this world; and also in the character everywhere given in Scripture of heathens, who are declared not to have liked to retain God in their knowledge, and to have been ’haters of God.’ It is also held forth in all the passages that affirm the final doom of idolaters; as likewise in all that is taught respecting access to God by Him who is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; for there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Men may devise schemes to extend the blessings of salvation to those who never heard of Christ, but they are opposed to the plain declarations of His word. How thankful, then, ought we to be that we have lived not in the days of our heathen fathers, when God suffered them to walk in their own ways, but in the times when the Gospel has visited the Gentiles! How thankful, above all, if we have been made indeed the children of the living God! The nations of Europe are in general called Christians; but it is only in name that the great body of them bear that title. God will not recognize any as His children who are not born again of His Spirit, and conformed to the image of His Son.
Romans 9:27 — Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
Having spoken in the 24th verse of those whom God had called, both among Jews and Gentiles, and having referred in the two preceding verses to what had been foretold of the Gentiles, the Apostle, in the verse before us and the two that follow, introduces the predictions relative to the Jews. He quotes the Prophet Isaiah, as loudly testifying the doctrine which he is declaring. Hosea testifies with respect to God’s purpose of calling the Gentiles; and Isaiah, in the passage here quoted, 10:20-22, testifies of the rejection of the great body of the Jews, and of the election of a number among them comparatively small. The Israelites looked on themselves as being all the people of God, and on the Gentiles as shut out from this relation. The Prophet here shows that out of all those vast multitudes which composed their nation, only a remnant were to be among the number of the true Israel of God. Whatever fulfillment the prophecy had in the times of the Old Testament, this is its full and proper meaning, according to the Apostle.
At first sight, it might seem that the Prophet speaks only of the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon; but, in regard to this, two things must be remarked. One is, that all the great events that happened to the Jews were figures and types, representing beforehand the great work of redemption by Jesus Christ. Thus the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, their passage through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness, the passage of Jordan, and their entrance into Canaan, were representations of what was to take place under the Gospel as is declared, 1 Corinthians 10:11, ’Now all these things happened unto them for examples (types), and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.’ Hence it follows that the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, and consequently the predictions respecting it in Scripture, are typical of the future condition of the Church of Christ. This prophecy, then, has two meanings, — the first literal, the second mystical. The other thing to be remarked is, that in the work of God in regard to His Church, there being several gradations which follow each other, it often happens that the Prophets, who viewed from a distance those future events, join together many of them, as if they related only to one and the same thing, — which is a characteristic of the spirit of prophecy. The Prophet, then, in this place joins the temporal re-establishment of the Jews with the spiritual building up of the Church of Christ, although these two things are quite distinct and separate.
These words in this prophecy, ’They shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth,’ can only have their full accomplishment in believers in Jesus Christ. The same is the case respecting the words, ’The remnant shall return;’ for this returning or conversion denotes much more than that of the return of the Jews from Babylon — even that glorious turning to God which takes place by the Gospel. And when the Prophet says, Though Thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return it is clear that this is an allusion to the promise made to Abraham, that his posterity should be as the sand of the sea, and that he means to say that whatever confidence the Jews might place in that promise, taking it in a carnal and literal sense, yet that those who were saved would be a small remnant, whom God would take to Himself in abandoning all the rest to His avenging justice. As one event, then, in Scripture prophecy is often made to shadow forth and typify another, so the events of the Jewish history are made to illustrate the spiritual things of the kingdom of God. In this way the prophecies quoted in the New Testament from the Old are to be viewed, and not to be explained in a manner which ascribes to the Apostles of Christ that false and deceitful mode of quotation called accommodation, so disparaging to their character as stewards of the mysteries of God, and so degrading to the Holy Scriptures.
Romans 9:28 — For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness; because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
This refers to God’s judgments poured out upon the Jews for rejecting the Messiah. They were then cut off manifestly from being His people. He cut short the work in righteous judgment. The destruction determined, denotes the ruin and desolation of the whole house of Israel, with the exception of a small remnant. It was to overflow in righteous judgment, which gives the idea of an inundation. But this not having place in the re-establishment of the Jews after the Babylonish captivity, must necessarily be understood of the times of the Gospel. It was then that the consumption decreed took place; for the whole house of Israel was rejected from the covenant of God, and consumed or dispersed by the fire of His vengeance by the Roman armies, with the exception of a small remnant. Formerly God had borne with them in their sins; but now, when they had heard the Gospel and rejected it, they were destroyed or carried away into captivity as with a flood. The Lord made a short work with them at the destruction of Jerusalem. This verse and the preceding confirm what is said in the 22nd verse, that although God endures the wicked for a time, He determines to punish them at last with sudden and overwhelming destruction.
Romans 9:29 — And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.
This, again, verifies another prediction of Isaiah 1:9. It was no doubt fulfilled in the events of the Jewish history; but in its proper and full sense, it extended to the times of the Messiah, and predicted the small number of Jews who were left, and the purpose for which they were left. The Jews who escaped destruction at the overthrow of their city by the Romans, were spared merely as a ’seed’ from whence was to spring all the multitudes who will yet arise to Jesus Christ out of the seed of Abraham. Had it not been for this circ*mstance, not one individual at that time would have been left. They would have been all cut off as Sodom and Gomorrah. ’Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened,’ Matthew 24:22. Instead of remnant, the word employed by the Prophet, the Apostle substitutes the term seed, from the Septuagint translation, which, though the expression is varied, has a similar meaning, implying that after the whole heap besides was consumed, the remainder was reserved for sowing with a view to a future crop.
By this quotation from Isaiah, the Apostle proves that the doctrine of the unconditional election of individuals to eternal life — that doctrine against which such objections are raised by many — far from being contrary to the ideas we ought to entertain of the goodness of God, is so entirely consistent with it, that except for this election, not one of the nation of Israel would have been saved. Thus the doctrine of election, very far from being in any degree harsh or cruel, as many who misunderstand it affirm, is, as we see here, a glorious demonstration of Divine goodness and love. Had it not been for this election, through which God had before prepared vessels of mercy unto glory, neither Jew nor Gentile would have escaped, but all would have remained vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. In the case of the angels who sinned there was no election, and the whole were cast down to hell Had there been no election among men, the whole must in like manner have perished.
Romans 9:30 — What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith:
What shall we say then? — What is the result of all this discussion? The conclusion from the whole is, that those Gentiles who are called by God, of whom the Apostle had spoken in the 24th verse, who were not following righteousness, but were abandoned to every kind of wickedness, obtained true righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. This is an astonishing instance of mercy. Men who were ’haters of God,’ and guilty of all abominations, as Paul had shown in the first chapter of this Epistle, were thus made partakers of that righteousness which is commensurate to all the demands of the law.
Romans 9:31 — But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained so the law of righteousness.
Whatever objection might be made to the doctrine the Apostle was here inculcating, a clear proof was offered in the case of the Gentiles which he had adduced, of the truth he had advanced and illustrated by the examples of Jacob and Esau, namely, that the purpose of God, according to election, is unchangeable, and that salvation is not of works, but of Him that calleth. And here was a wonderful instance of Divine sovereignty. The nation of Israel were following after righteousness, yet God, instead of giving it to them, bestowed it on those who were not even looking for it. How different is this from the ways of men! How does the proud heart of the self-righteous legalist revolt at such a view of the Divine conduct! Man’s wisdom cannot endure that God should in this sovereign way bestow His favors. But this is God’s way, and whoever will not submit to it, resists the will of God. Nay, whoever finds fault with it, attempts to dethrone the Almighty, and to undeify God. The whole plan of salvation is so ordered, ’that no flesh should glory in His presence, but that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,’ 1 Corinthians 1:31.
Romans 9:32 — Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law: for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone;
The Apostle here asks why the people of Israel did not attain to the righteousness they were seeking. The word ’wherefore’ has no reference to election, or a supposed objection from it, as some understand. The question is asked to excite more attention to the answer; and the answer is, because they sought it in a way in which it is not to be found. The righteousness that answers the demands of the law, is the righteousness of God, which is received only by faith. The Jews, then, did not attain to it, because they sought it not by faith, but as of works of law. Some commentators lay stress on the phrase, ’as it were by the works of the law,’ according to our translation, assigning as its meaning, that the Jews did not suppose they kept the law perfectly, but expected to make up for their deficiencies in one respect by abounding in others. But this is not well founded. The Jews sought righteousness ’as by works of law;’ that is, as if righteousness was to be obtained by doing the works of the law. By the works of the law they could not obtain it, unless they perfectly obeyed the law. To this they could never attain. As, therefore, they would not submit to Christ, who alone has fulfilled the law, they failed in obtaining righteousness.
For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone — That is,they stumbled at Jesus Christ. Instead of choosing Him as the elect, precious foundation-stone, on which to rest their hope, they rejected Him altogether. They looked for a Messiah of a different character, and therefore they rejected the Christ of God. The Apostle thus charges it upon the Jews as their own fault that they did not attain to righteousness. They mistook the character of that law under which they were placed, by which, according to the testimony of their own Prophets, no man could be justified; and also the character of the Messiah who was promised, and so perverted that law, and rejected Him by whom alone they could be saved. They thus verified the words of the Apostle, — ’The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’ Of this Paul exhibits himself as having been an example. In the seventh chapter of this Epistle, he shows how entirely he once mistook the extent of the law; and in the beginning of the chapter before us, that he once made it his boast that he was opposed to Christ as the Messiah.
Romans 9:33 — As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offense: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.
As it is written. — The Apostle here confirms what he had just said concerning the stone of stumbling, by quoting from two places of Scripture, Isaiah 8:14; Isaiah 28:16. The stumbling, then, of the Jews at Christ, the rock of offense, was predicted by the Prophets It should not, therefore, appear strange to those who lived in the times when it was accomplished.
A stumbling-stone and rock of offense. — This language of the Prophet, applied by the Apostle to our Lord Jesus Christ, ought to be particularly observed, — ’Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense, to both the houses of Israel.’ As here the Prophet speaks directly of God, and the Apostle applies what he says to Jesus Christ, it is a conclusive proof that Jesus Christ is God, and that He is declared to be so both in the Old Testament and the New. The designations of a stone, and a rock, are given to Jesus Christ, both presenting the idea that the great work of redemption rests solely on Him. He is its author, the foundation on which it rests, the center in which all its lines meet, and their origin from which they proceed. He is to that work what the foundation-stone and the rock on which it is erected are to the building, sustaining it, and imparting to it form and stability. In another sense, He is a stone of stumbling, occasioning His rejection by those who, not believing in Him, are cut off from communion with God.
Behold, I lay in Zion. — This stone, or rock — this ’sure foundation’ — is laid by God, according to the Apostle’s reference, Isaiah 28:16, ’Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation.’ This stone was laid in Zion, the Church of God. It was laid by God Himself. That it was ’a sure foundation,’ which could not fail, is evident from all the promises of God concerning the Messiah, of upholding Him as His elect, and ensuring to Him success, dominion, and glory, in His character of Mediator, Isaiah 42:1-8; Isaiah 49:7-9.
All the promises to the Church of old, of the Messiah as a future Savior, from the declaration made to our first parents in paradise, to the last prediction concerning Him delivered by the Prophet Malachi, demonstrate the impossibility that Christ, the foundation which God has laid, should fail. These promises were often renewed with great solemnity, and confirmed by the oath of God, as in Genesis 22:16-18. And in Psalms 89:3-4, it is said, ’I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant, thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.’ Nothing is more abundantly set forth in Scripture as sure and irreversible than this promise and oath to David. The Scriptures expressly speak of it as utterly impossible that the everlasting dominion of the Messiah should fail. ’In those days, and at that time, I will cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David, for thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Jacob.’ ’If ye can break My covenant of the day, and My covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; then may also My covenant be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne,’ Jeremiah 33:15-21. David securely rested on this covenant concerning the future glorious work and kingdom of the Messiah, as all his salvation, and all his desire, and comforted himself that it was an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.
As being that foundation laid by Himself, which therefore could not fail, God proceeded to save sinners in virtue of the work of the Messiah before He appeared, as if it had been already accomplished. On this stone and rock the saints of old rested, and built their comfort. Abraham saw Christ’s day and rejoiced, and all the others died in the faith of His advent. What a view does this give of the faithfulness of God, and the truth of the Scriptures; and what an inducement to rely securely upon the Rock of Ages! Its solidity is assured to us by Him whose voice shakes the heavens and the earth — by the revelation of the eternal purpose of God, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, Ephesians 3:11.
Rock of offense. — While the Messiah was indeed the sure foundation which God had laid, He was, notwithstanding, as it was written, rejected by the great body of the Jewish nation. Had they understood the language of their own Scriptures, they would have seen that, instead of receiving their Messiah when He came, the Prophets had declared that they would stumble at the lowliness of His appearance, and generally reject His claims. And whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. — But they did not all reject Him. Some of them, referred to in verse 24th, who were called of God, acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, sent of God, and were comforted and saved by Him. They were not ashamed to own Him before the unbelieving part of their brethren, and they shall not be put to shame before Him at His second coming. It might be supposed that the followers of the Messiah would be honored in every country; on the contrary, they are hated and held in contempt. But when all other refuges fail, when Christ comes to judge the world, they shall not be ashamed.
A free salvation becomes an offense to men on account of their pride. They cannot bear the idea of being indebted for it to sovereign grace, which implies that in themselves they are guilty and ruined by sin. They desire to do something, were it ever so little, to merit salvation, at least in part. Salvation by a crucified Savior was in one way opposed to the pride of the Jews, and in another to that of the Greeks. The Jews expected a mighty conqueror, who should deliver them from a foreign yoke, and render them so powerful as to triumph over all the other nations of the earth; and in order to reconcile with these ideas what the Scriptures said of His humiliation, some among them supposed that there would be two Messiahs. The Greeks expected, in a revelation from heaven, something accordant with the systems of their vain philosophy, which might exalt their false notions of the dignity of man, and enlarge their boasted powers of understanding. All the unconverted reason in the same way. Those among them who call themselves Christians suppose that, not being perfect, they have need of Christ as a Savior to compensate for their deficiencies, and to give weight to their good works. They do not believe that they obey the law perfectly, but suppose that what is wanting will be supplied by Jesus Christ. Thus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The doctrine of the cross is, in one way or other, misunderstood by him, and Jesus Christ is a stone of stumbling.
Many, by their forced criticisms, have in various ways perverted the meaning of this chapter. Among their other misrepresentations, they affirm that the Apostle does not speak of individual election to eternal life, but of the national election of the Jews. On the contrary, it is evident that in regard to the Jews he refers to their national rejection. The rejection of the Jewish nation, excepting a small remnant, according to the election of grace, which is again plainly declared in the beginning of the eleventh chapter, is the important subject which the Apostle illustrates by the examples and predictions he refers to, and the reasonings with which he follows them up.
The fact of a remnant of Israel being reserved by God for Himself, while the great body of the nation was abandoned to merited punishment, demonstrates that the election here spoken of is individual and not national. The Prophets everywhere speak of this small remnant chosen by God to display His mercy and goodness. ’I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid,’ Zephaniah 3:13.
There is nothing which more clearly manifests the natural opposition of the mind of man to the ways of God, than the rooted aversion naturally entertained to the obvious view of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God held forth in this ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Self-righteous people, as is not to be wondered at, hold this doctrine in the utmost abhorrence; and many even of those, who are in some measure taught of God to value the great salvation, are reluctant to come to the serious study of this part of His word. Even when they are not able plausibly to pervert it, and when their conscience will not allow them directly to oppose it, with the Pharisees, they say that they do not know what to make of this chapter. But why are they at a loss on this subject? What is the difficulty which they find here? If it be ’hard to be understood,’ does this arise from anything but the innate aversion of the mind to its humbling truths? Can anything be more palpably obvious than the meaning of the Apostle? Is there any chapter in the Bible more plain in its grammatical meaning? It is not in this that they find a difficulty. Their great difficulty is, that it is too obvious in its import to be perverted. Their conscience will not allow them to do violence to its language, and their own wisdom will not suffer them to submit to its dictation. Here is the solution of their difficulties. But ought not believers to renounce their own wisdom, and look up to God, in the spirit of him who said, ’Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth?’ Men may attempt to explain away the example referred to in this chapter, of God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart. But still the truth remains, that for the very purpose of showing His power and proclaiming His name and sovereignty, God raised him up and hardened his heart. Many will not receive this, and resort to every means they can devise to neutralize or controvert it; but God has testified it, and the Apostle illustrates it by a striking figure. God makes one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor, with the same uncontrolled right as the potter has power over the clay, and out of the same lump he makes one vessel for the noblest purpose, and another for the basest uses. Where is sovereignty, if it is not here? Could words express it if these words do not express it? Why, then, will men vainly struggle in so unequal a contest? Can they hope to succeed against God? If this doctrine be really declared in this chapter, of what avail will all their forced explanations be to deliver any of the enemies of God? ’God is greater than man, why dost thou strive against Him? for He giveth not account of any of His matters.’ There are, however, too many, even of the disciples of Christ, who are disposed to explain away the sovereignty of God, and to give a view of our fall in Adam which considerably mitigates the extent of our ruin, and the magnitude of our guilt. The statements contained in this chapter are to such full of clouds and darkness. While they cannot altogether deny the truths it contains, they profess their inability to receive them in their plain and obvious meaning.
’This doctrine of the sovereignty of God,’ says Dr. Thomson, ’we believe to be one of the greatest stumbling-blocks in the Gospel to the advocates of universal redemption. They lay down a scheme of Divine love which they have framed only in part from the materials furnished by the Bible, and have otherwise fashioned according to the dictates of their own wisdom, and the sensibilities of their own hearts. And as it is inconsistent with this, so they cannot endure to consider the Supreme Being as communicating His benefits to men, or withholding them, according to the pleasure and counsel of His own will. God has said, ’I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, and whom I will I harden.’ But they have settled in their own minds that God must have compassion and mercy upon all, and that He must harden none. And in rebuke of this arrogance, we have only to say, Nay but, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?’ The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is derogatory to the pride of man; it lays all his high notions of independence in the dust, and reduces him, when acknowledged, to a sense of his utter helplessness and misery. Happy, nevertheless, are they who have learned this lesson, for it is one which flesh and blood cannot teach, but only our Father which is in heaven. In the light of this chapter these see themselves as lying entirely in the hand of God, having nothing that distinguishes them from others, but His sovereign will and favor in their election. It is this view of their situation that brings down every high imagination, and levels to the dust every high thought. Here Divine sovereignty reigns in its most awful character; and nothing else, when it is fully acquiesced in, is so much calculated to tranquilize the mind of man, and to bring it into its proper position in relation to God. How many bitter reflections and how many vain regrets would be saved, were the Christian at all times habitually and practically to recognize the sovereignty of the Divine Disposer in all the events which happen in the world!
Whatever difficulties are found in the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, and in the truth that He ordains for His own glory whatever comes to pass, yet this, it is clear, is the doctrine of Scripture from beginning to end. Every part of it represents God as ordering and directing all events; and without this, and were anything left to depend or be regulated by the will of His creatures, He would cease to be the supreme Ruler. Many things might occur which He greatly desired might never have taken place — an idea altogether incompatible with that which we are taught in His word to form of the almighty Ruler of the universe. If we lose sight of sovereignty, we lose sight of God.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER X — Romans 10:1-21
PAUL was fully aware that the doctrine of the sovereignty of God in the rejection of the Jews and the preaching of salvation to the Gentiles, would greatly offend his countrymen. He accordingly begins this chapter with an acknowledgment of their sincerity as actuated by a zeal of God; but before prosecuting the subject of God’s sovereignty further, he more particularly recurs to their unbelief, to which in the preceding chapter he had already alluded. This leads him to remark the contrast between the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith. He next insists on the free invitations of the Gospel, which proclaims salvation to all of every nation who believe, and from this takes occasion to point out the necessity of preaching it to the Gentiles. The Gentiles, as he had before proved, were among the children of the promise made to Abraham, and it was only by means of the Gospel that they could be brought to the knowledge of Christ, through which alone the promise to them could be fulfilled. This duty, notwithstanding the objections of the Jews, he therefore urges, and enforces it by referring to the Scriptures, while he answers the objection, that the Gospel had not been generally received. In the last place, he proves, by the testimony of the Prophets, that the rejection of Israel and the in gathering of the Gentiles had been long before predicted, and concludes the chapter by showing that the Jews had both heard and rejected the gracious and long continued invitations to reconciliation with God. In the whole of this chapter, Paul treats in a practical way what in the preceding one he had chiefly referred to the sovereignty of God, to which he afterwards revert.
We here see a beautiful example in Paul of the meekness and gentleness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who prayed for His murderers. The Jews considered Paul as one of their greatest enemies. They had persecuted him from city to city, again and again they had attempted his life, and had succeeded in depriving him of his liberty, yet his affection for them was not diminished. He prayed for them, he accommodated himself to their prejudices as far as his obedience to God permitted, and thus he labored by all means to save some. He here assures those to whom he writes of his cordial good will towards Israel, and of his prayers to God that they might be saved.
Romans 10:1 — Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
Brethren — Those here addressed are the brethren in Christ to whom Paul wrote, and not the Jews in general, who were his brethren in the flesh. There is no doubt but by apostrophe he might address the unbelieving Jews; but there is nothing like an apostrophe here, nor is there any need of such a supposition. Whoever was addressed, the sentiment would be equally well understood by the unbelieving Jews who should read or hear the Epistle.
My heart’s desire and prayer to God. — It is of great importance to remove prejudices as far as possible, and to show good will to those whom we wish to benefit by the publication of Divine truth. We see here the love of a Christian to his bitterest enemies. Paul was abused, reviled, and persecuted by his countrymen, yet he not only forgave them, but constantly prayed for their conversion. Unbelievers often accuse Christians, though very falsely, as haters of mankind, because they faithfully declare that there is no salvation but through faith in Christ. Here we should especially remark, that while the salvation of his countrymen was the desire of Paul’s heart, and while he was endeavoring in every way possible to call their attention to the Gospel, he did not neglect to offer up prayer for them to God. Other means, as we have opportunity, should not be left untried; but prayer is at all times in our power, and in this we should ever persevere. When we are shut out from access to man, we have always access to God, and with Him is the residue of the Spirit. In this duty, we learn from the Epistles that Paul was ever much engaged for his brethren in Christ, and here we see that he did not neglect it in behalf of those by whom he was hated and persecuted. He thus obeyed the injunctions, and imitated the example, of our blessed Lord. In this verse, too, standing in connection with what immediately precedes it, we learn that Paul’s faithful annunciation of these doctrines, which by so many are most erroneously considered as harsh towards men, and unfavorable to the character of God, so far from being opposed to feelings of the warmest affection for others, is closely and intimately conjoined with them.
We should never cease to pray for, and to use all proper means for the conversion of, those who either oppose the Gospel with violence, or from some preconceived opinion. Secret things belong to God, and none can tell whether or not they are among the number of the elect. No one among the Jews was more opposed to the Gospel than Paul himself had been; and every Christian who knows his own heart, and who recollects the state of his mind before his conversion, should consider the repugnance he once felt to the doctrine of grace. We ought not, indeed, to treat those as Christians who do not appear to be such. This would be directly opposed to the dictates of charity, and would tend to lull them into a false security. But assuredly none can have such powerful inducements to exercise patience towards any who reject the Gospel, as they who know who it is that has made them to differ from others, and that by the grace of God they are what they are. These considerations have a direct tendency to make them humble and gentle. Those who are elected shall indeed be finally saved, but this will-take place through the means which God has appointed. It is on this ground that Paul says, ’Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.’
Romans 10:2 — For I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Paul acknowledged that the Jews had a zeal of God, and so far he approved of them, and was on that account the more interested in their behalf. This had formerly been the case with himself, Acts 26:9; Galatians 1:14. Their zeal, however, and the sincerity of their attachment to their system, was no excuse for their unbelief. The Apostle had sorrow for their condemnation, not hope of their salvation on account of their sincerity and zeal. This is an important lesson to thousands who profess Christianity. How often is it said that if a man be sincere in his belief, his creed is of no great importance. His salvation, it is supposed, is not endangered by his ignorance or error. How far on this head does the Apostle Paul differ from those who thus judge, while his love to mankind cannot be doubted. His love to his countrymen appears to have exceeded anything to which the persons alluded to can pretend. Yet he bewails the Jews as under condemnation on account of their ignorance. We see here that men may attend to religion, and be much occupied on the subject, without being acceptable to God; and that sincerity in error is neither a means of salvation nor an excuse for any man. Nothing but the natural alienation of their minds from God prevents those who possess the Scriptures from understanding the way of salvation.
Romans 10:3 — For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
The ground of rejection of the Gospel by the Jews was their ignorance of God’s righteousness. Had they understood this, they would have ceased to go about to establish their own righteousness; but not understanding that righteousness which God has provided in His Son, they rejected the salvation of the Gospel. Mr. Stuart translates the word rendered righteousness throughout this passage by the word justification, which is warranted by no authority. Dr. Macknight, who, like Mr. Stuart, denies the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, says that the righteousness here spoken of is ’the righteousness which God appointed at the fall, as the righteousness of sinners,’ which he explains elsewhere to mean faith, saying that God ’hath declared that He will accept and reward it as righteousness.’ Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen, as has been formerly noticed, explains the righteousness here spoken of as that ’purer scheme of morality which was truly of God,’ opposed to the ’system of morality or righteousness fabricated by the Jews.’ In this manner do these writers, though each in a different way, make void all that is said throughout this Epistle and elsewhere in the Scriptures on that most important expression, ’the righteousness of God,’ through the revelation of which the Apostle declares that the Gospel ’is the power of God unto salvation,’ Romans 1:17.
The righteousness of God. — That is, the righteousness provided by God and revealed in the Gospel, which is received by faith, by which men are saved; and he who does not submit to this righteousness, and humbly receive it, but supposes that he can do something to give him a right to obtain or to merit it, or who attempts to add to it anything of his own, or to substitute in its place his own obedience, more or less, is equally ignorant of the corruption of his own heart, of the holiness of God, and of the perfection of the obedience which the law requires. In this verse the fatal error is clearly expressed of those who expect to be saved by any works of their own, even when, like the Pharisee who prayed in the temple, they ascribe to God all that they suppose to be good in them.
Romans 10:4 — For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
The Apostle here declares what he means by the righteousness of God, to which the Jews would not submit, namely, the fulfillment, object, and consummation of the law by our Lord Jesus Christ. The end of the law. — What the end of the law is, Paul shows, Romans 7:10, when he says, It was ordained to life, namely, that the man who doeth all that it commands, should live by it. And what is it that, in the present state of human nature, the law cannot do? It cannot justify, and so give life, because it has been broken. How then did God act? He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and condemned sin in the flesh. And why has He done this? The answer is given, Romans 8:4, ’that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us’ who are in Him. Thus it is, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. By Him is accomplished for all such the whole purpose and object of the law — all its demands being fulfilled, and the end for which it was given attained. Christ thus redeems His people from its curse, and procures for them the blessing of life, which, under the righteous government of God, He confers on all His creatures who are conformed to His holy law. The fallen angels possessed life while they retained their obedience, and Adam, while he held fast His integrity; but this was not the full end of the law, for they apostatized. In them, therefore, the law fell short of attaining its end. But the righteousness imputed to those who believe in Christ is ’everlasting righteousness,’ Daniel 9:24, and therefore to them belongs eternal life. Their life is comprised in His life, and He is ’that eternal life;’ and ’when He who is their life shall appear, they shall appear with Him in glory.’ Accordingly, Jesus says, ’I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’ ’I have finished,’ said our blessed Lord in His intercessory prayer to His Father, ’the work which Thou gavest Me to do;’ and on the cross, just before He expired, He said, It is finished. In each of these passages The word rendered finished is the same as that which is here translated end, signifying accomplished, consummated, or perfected. In the Epistle to the Hebrews 6:1, the same original word is rendered ’perfection.’ The Apostle there says, ’Let us go on to perfection’ — to the end or finishing, meaning the consummation or completion of all that the law required, which he shows was found in the sacrifice and work of Jesus Christ. This perfection — this end — was not attained by the Levitical priesthood; for if ’perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there that another Priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron?’ Hebrews 7:11. Nor was it attained by the legal dispensation, which ’made nothing perfect.’ Romans 10:19 — brought nothing to its end or consummation. This was found only in Christ, ’for by one offering He hath perfected for ever (still the same word in the original in all these places) them that are sanctified,’ Hebrews 10:14. To prove that Christ was the perfection or the end of the law, is the great object of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which furnishes a complete commentary on the passage before us. That Epistle opens with declaring Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. To prove and to establish this grand truth, as the foundation of all that the Apostle was afterwards to advance, was essential to his purpose. For by no one in the whole universe, excepting by Him who is infinite, could the eternal or everlasting righteousness predicted by Daniel have been brought in. It was, then, this important truth, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, which Paul labors in that Epistle to impress on the minds of the Jewish converts, for the confirmation of their faith; and it was the ignorance of this same important truth in the great body of the nation, which in the chapter before us he laments.
The unbelieving Jews vainly went about to establish their own righteousness by their obedience to the law, instead of viewing it as a schoolmaster to lead them unto, or until, the coming of Christ, by whom alone it could be and was fulfilled, Matthew 5:18. This verifies what the Apostle says, 2 Corinthians 3:13, that ’the children of Israel could not look steadfastly to the end’ (the same word as in the verse before us) ’of that which is abolished.’ Christ, then, as is declared in this verse, is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For the moment that a man believes in Him, the end of the law is attained in that man; that is, it is fulfilled in him, and he is in possession of that righteousness which the law requires, or ever can require, and consequently he hath eternal life, John 6:54, to which the law was ordained, Romans 7:10. Christ, then, by His obedience has fulfilled the law of God in every form in which men have been under it, that His obedience or righteousness might be imputed as their righteousness to all who believe, ’He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,’ 2 Corinthians 5:21. ’Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness,’ Isaiah 45:24. ’He shall be called Jehovah our righteousness,’ Jeremiah 23:6. This is the only righteousness in which a man can stand before God in judgment, and which shall be acknowledged in the great day. They, and they only, who, by their works proceeding from that faith which unites the soul to Christ, and which receives this righteousness, are proved to possess it, shall then be pronounced ’righteous,’ Matthew 25:37; Matthew 25:46. This righteousness is imputed to everyone that believeth, and to such only. This makes it clear that Jesus Christ has not fulfilled the law for mankind in general, but for those in particular who should believe in His name, John 17:9; John 17:20. His atonement and intercession are of the same extent, and are presented for the same individuals. ’I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me.’ Mr. Stuart, in his explanation of this 4th verse, introduces the following quotation from Flatt: — ’Christ is the te>lov no>mou (end of the law) in respect to k>h (righteousness), He has brought it about, that we should not be judged after the strictness of the law. He has removed the sentence of condemnation from all those who receive the Gospel.’ To this Mr. Stuart adds — ’Well and truly.’ That the sentence of condemnation is removed from all who receive the Gospel, although in a very different way from what Mr. Stuart supposes, is most certain. But no sentiment can be more unscriptural than that we shall not be judged after the strictness of the law. For what saith the Scripture? ’He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness.’ In that day, instead of men not being judged after the strictness of the law, judgment will be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and all those in whom the righteousness of the law has not been fulfilled in all its demands, without the defalcation of one jot or tittle, will be found under its curse, and that awful sentence will be pronounced on them, ’Depart from Me, ye cursed.’ The judgment, in accordance with every representation of it contained in Scripture, and with the whole plan of salvation, will be conducted in all respects, both as to those who shall be saved and those who shall be condemned, after the strictness of both law and justice. Under the righteous government of God, never was one sin committed which will not be punished either in the person of him who committed it, or in that of the Divine Surety of the new covenant.
Romans 10:5 — For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
This illustrates what the Apostle had just before said, that Christ, and Christ alone, has fulfilled the demands of the law, and therefore in vain shall life be sought by any man’s personal obedience to its commandments. To live by the law requires, as Moses had declared, that the law be perfectly obeyed. But this to fallen man is impossible. The law knows no mercy; it knows no mitigation, it overlooks not even the smallest breach, or the smallest deficiency. One guilty thought or desire would condemn for ever Whoever, then, looks for life by the law, must keep the whole law in thought, word, and deed, and not be chargeable with the smallest transgression.
Romans 10:6 — But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
Romans 10:7 — Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Romans 10:8 — But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach;
We should rather expect contrast in every point of view than coincidence between the law given by Moses and the Gospel of Christ. Can there then be any illustration of the receiving of righteousness by faith, which is here the Apostle’s subject, and the precepts that were given to the Israelites as a shadow of the Gospel? Doubtless, with all the difference between the law and the Gospel, there must be a point of view in which they are coincident, for in such a view it is that he chiefly makes his quotation. Paul alleges the passage to which he refers, Deuteronomy 30:11-14, as in a certain respect speaking the language of the righteousness of faith. The language used by Moses described the clearness of the manner of giving the knowledge of the Divine requirements to the people of Israel. But though this was its original object, yet it had a further reference to the clearness of the manner of revealing the Gospel. For the Apostle explains it, ’That is, to bring Christ down from above.’ The language, then, that describes the clearness of the revelation of the precepts of God to Israel, was a figure of the clearness of the revelation of the Gospel.
Moses gave the Israelites a law which was to abide with them for their constant instruction. They were not obliged to send a messenger to heaven to learn how they were to serve God, nor to search out wisdom by their own understanding. Nor had they to send over the sea to distant countries, like the heathens, for instruction. God by Moses taught them everything with respect to His worship and service in the fullest, clearest, and most practical manner. This was a shadow of the clearness of the revelation of the righteousness received by faith, which we are not left to search for by means through which it never can be obtained. Salvation is brought nigh to us, being proclaimed in the Gospel by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The word is in our mouth. We receive the righteousness He has brought, not by any efforts of our own in seeking salvation, and laboring to keep the law of God, but by the belief of that word which was published at Jerusalem, announcing salvation to the guiltiest of mankind.
The Gospel is contained in figure in every part of the law. The very manner of giving the law was a shadow of the Gospel, and typified salvation through a great Mediator. And though the New Testament often contrasts the demands of the law with the voice of mercy speaking in the Gospel, yet here the Gospel also speaks through the law. The reference to what Moses observed with respect to the precepts which he delivered from God to Israel, instead of finding an opposition to the plan of salvation through Christ, finds an illustration which Divine wisdom had prepared to shadow it, in the mission of the Mediator under the law. Wonderful is the wisdom of God manifested in the harmony of the Old and New Testaments. They who do not understand it, have labored to show a coincidence merely by accommodation. But the Spirit of God everywhere explains the language of the Old Testament, as in its design appointed by God to be a shadow of things of Christ’s kingdom.
But though there is a coincidence, there is also a contrast between the law and the Gospel. While the language of the law is, ’Do and live,’ that righteousness which it demands, and which man is unable to perform, is, according to the Gospel, gratuitously communicated through faith. This righteousness is in Christ, and He is not at a distance, so that we must scale the heavens, or descend below the earth, — in one word, attempt what is impracticable, to come to Him, and derive from Him this benefit. He and this righteousness are brought near unto us, as was long before predicted. ’Hearken unto Me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near My righteousness; it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not tarry,’ Isaiah 46:12. All men, till enlightened by the Spirit of God, seek salvation by doing something of which they imagine God will approve. If it is not complete, His mercy, they suppose, will still incline Him to accept of it for value; but without something of his own to present, man in his natural state never thinks of approaching God. Nothing can be more self-evidently false than that man can merit from God. Yet, notwithstanding the folly of this supposition, it is only the energy of the Holy Spirit through the truth of the Gospel that will convince him of the fallacy. Even the very Gospel of the grace of God is seen through this false medium; and while men exclaim, ’Grace, grace,’ they continue to introduce a species of merit by putting Christ at a distance, and making access to Him a matter of time and difficulty. How different is the Gospel, as here exhibited by Paul!
We must not attempt in any way to merit Christ, or to bring anything like an equivalent in our hand. The language of Scripture is, ’Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.’ ’He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich’ — they who are worthy in their own esteem, whose that they may find acceptance, bring something of their own — ’He hath sent empty away.’ ’Say not,’ observes Archbishop Leighton, ’unless I find some measure of sanctification, what right have I to apply Him (Christ) as my righteousness? This inverts the order, and prejudges thee of both. Thou must first, without finding, yea, or seeking anything in thyself but misery and guiltiness, lay hold on Him as thy righteousness; or else thou shalt never find sanctification by any other endeavor or pursuit.’
Romans 10:9 — That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth. — The confession of Christ is salvation. But that confession which is salvation, is a confession which implies that the truth confessed with the mouth is known and received in the heart. The belief of the heart is therefore joined with the confession of the lips. Neither is genuine without the other, though it may be said that either the one or the other is salvation, because they who believe with the heart will confess with the tongue. If a man says, ’I believe in Christ,’ yet denies Him when put to trial, or confesses Him with the lips, yet denies Him in His proper character, he neither confesses nor believes Christ. It should always be remembered, that if he believes anything different from the testimony of God relating to the person and work of the Savior, he does not believe the Gospel, but something, whatever it may be, which can neither sanctify nor save. The Gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes it. Hath raised Him from the dead — Why is so much stress laid on the resurrection? Was not the work of Christ in this world finished by His death? Most certainly it was. But His resurrection was the evidence that it was finished; and therefore the belief of His resurrection is put for that of the whole of His work.
The emphasis of the second person throughout this verse should be remarked. The Apostle does not speak indefinitely, but he says emphatically, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, and shalt believe in thine heart, thou shalt be saved. He speaks of every one, so that all may examine themselves, for to every one believing and confessing, salvation is promised; thus teaching each one to apply the promise of salvation to himself by faith and confession. Thus the Apostle shows that every believer has as much certain assurance of his salvation as he certainly confesses Christ with his mouth, and as he believes in his heart, that the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. Our assurance of salvation corresponds with the measure of our faith, and the boldness of our confession of Christ.
Romans 10:10 — For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Believeth unto righteousness — That is, unto the receiving of righteousness, namely, the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness is called ’the righteousness of faith,’ Romans 4:13 — not that it is in the faith, but it is so called as being received by faith, as it is said, Romans 3:22, ’the righteousness which is by faith,’ and Philippians 3:9, ’the righteousness which is of God by faith.’ Faith, then, is only the appointed medium or means of our union with Christ, through which we receive this righteousness, and not the righteousness itself. ’Faith,’ says the Westminster Confession, ’justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always accompany it; or of good works that are the fruits of it; nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were imputed to him for his justification; but only as it is an instrument, by which he receiveth and applieth Christ’s righteousness.’ The expression, ’Faith is counted to him for righteousness,’ Romans 4:3, is often supposed to mean, ’is counted to him instead of, or as righteousness;’ but, as has been remarked on that text, p. 162, the literal rendering is not for righteousness, but unto righteousness, in conformity with the proper translation as in the verse before us.
The faith of the Gospel is not a speculation, it is not such a knowledge of religion as may be acquired like human science. This may often have the appearance of true faith; but it is not ’the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ Many things connected with the Gospel may be believed by the natural man, and each of the doctrines taken separately may be in some way received by him, as notions of lights and colors are received by the blind. But the Gospel is never understood and believed, except by those who, according to the promise, are ’taught of the Lord,’ Isaiah 54:13; who therefore know the Father and Him whom He hath sent, which is eternal life, John 17:3. In the parable of the sower, where only the fourth description of persons are represented as having truly and permanently received the word, they are characterized as understanding it, and they only bear fruit; the others understood it not, Matthew 13:19-23. ’The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,’ 1 Corinthians 2:14. It is impossible that a man can believe that to be the word of God which he regards as foolishness ’No man can say’ (understanding and believing what he says) ’that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,’ 1 Corinthians 12:3. When Peter answered and said, ’Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ ’Blessed,’ said Jesus, ’art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but My Father which is in heaven,’ Matthew 16:17.
Justifying faith is the belief of the testimony of Christ, and trust in Him who is the subject of that testimony. It is believing with the heart. Concerning those who received a good report through faith, it is declared that they saw or understood the promises; they were persuaded of their truth, and they embraced them, taking them home personally, and resting upon them. On the passage before us, Calvin remarks, ’The seat of faith, it deserves to be observed, is not in the brain, but the heart; not that I wish to enter into any dispute concerning the part of the body which is the seat of faith, but since the word heart generally means a serious, sincere, ardent affection, I am desirous to show the confidence of faith to be a firm, efficacious, and operative principle in all the emotions and feelings of the soul, not a mere naked notion of the head.’ And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. — A man becomes righteous, perfectly righteous, through believing God’s record concerning His Son. But the evidence that this faith is genuine is found in the open confession of the Lord with the mouth in everything in which His will is known. Confession of Christ is as necessary as faith in Him, but necessary for a different purpose. Faith is necessary to obtain the gift of righteousness. Confession is necessary to prove that this gift is received. If a man does not confess Christ at the hazard of life, character, property, liberty, and everything dear to him, he has not the faith of Christ. In saying, then, that confession is made unto salvation, the Apostle does not mean that it is the cause of salvation, or that without it the title to salvation is incomplete. When a man believes in his heart, he is justified. But confession of Christ is the effect of faith, and will be evidence of it at the last day. Faith which interests the sinner in the righteousness of Christ is manifested by the confession of His name in the midst of enemies, or in the face of danger.
Romans 10:11 — For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.
Here Paul shows that the Scriptures of the Prophets taught the same doctrine that he was teaching. This was not necessary in order to add authority to his own doctrine, — for he was equally inspired with the Prophets, — but in order to prove the perfect agreement of the Old and the New Testament, and to show that the Jews who denied that the Gentiles were to be fellow-heirs with them, were in error, even on their own principles. By this reference to the Scriptures, too, the Apostle in the first place confirms the truth he had been so forcibly declaring concerning the language of the righteousness by faith, namely, that it was not necessary to make some impracticable attempts such as to ascend into heaven, or to descend into the deep — to come to Christ, since He was brought nigh to all in the preaching of the Gospel, which proclaimed that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And, in the next place, it afforded him an opportunity of recurring to the important truth, brought into view in the preceding chapter, of the Gentiles being fellow-heirs of that righteousness, such of them as believed the promises being part of the spiritual seed of Abraham, and equally interested in those promises with the believing remnant of the Jews. The natural and easy way in which Paul thus reverts to this subject, and connects it with his declarations concerning the perversion of the truth of God by the unbelieving part of the Jewish nation, in seeking to establish their own righteousness, and not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God, ought to be particularly remarked; as well as its opening the way for exhibiting the duty of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, and showing that, in respect to the manner in which they must be saved, there is no difference between them and the Jews.
Whosoever believeth on Him — This language of the Prophet extended mercy to the Gentiles, if they believed. Here it may be remarked, that the least degree of faith embraces Christ, and unites the soul to Him. Faith does not save us by being strong or weak. It is Jesus Christ by whom we are saved and not by our faith, which is only the instrument or hand by which we receive Him. It may be further remarked, that here, as in so many other parts of Scripture, we see a full warrant for every one of the human race to believe in Jesus Christ, with the certainty that in doing so he shall be saved. Some, however, may be disposed to say, ’We are not humbled, or at least humbled enough for our sins, and therefore we dare not place confidence in Christ for His salvation.’ Such persons ought to know that true humiliation is a concomitant or a consequence of saving faith, but is not a ground of it. It gives a man no right to trust in Christ, — no title to Divine acceptance either of his person or of his performances. It is indeed, in the hand of the Spirit, a means of rendering a man willing to trust in the Lord Jesus, and the more of it he attains, he is the more willing; but it affords him no degree of warrant to trust in Him, — nor is it requisite it should; for by the invitations and calls of the Gospel he already is fully warranted, so well warranted, that nothing in himself can either diminish or increase his warrant. When any one, therefore, says that he dare not trust in the Redeemer, because he is not sufficiently humbled, he thereby shows that he is under the prevalence both of unbelief and of a legal spirit: of unbelief, — for he does not believe that by the calls and commands of God he is sufficiently warranted to rely on Christ, but that something more is requisite to afford him a sufficient warrant; of a legal spirit, — for he regards humiliation as that which must confer upon him a right to trust in Christ, since for want of it in a sufficient degree, he dare not intrust his salvation to Him. But he may be assured that he cannot obtain holy consolation till he come as he is, and place direct confidence in Jesus Christ for all his salvation; and that he cannot have true evangelical humiliation till he first trust in Christ for it, and so receive it by faith Out of His fullness. The more of this humiliation he attains, the more willing will he be to come as a sinner to the Savior; but he cannot attain an increase of it, before he trusts in Him for it as a part of his salvation.
Shall not be ashamed — Of the word ashamed it has been observed, Romans 5:5, that it may import either that our hope will not be disappointed, or that it will not allow us to be ashamed of its object; and in Romans 9:33, the same quotation as in the verse before us is expounded, of not being ashamed to own Christ before unbelievers, or of being put to shame before Him at His coming. In the last sense, it may be observed that almost all men have some hope in prospect of the bar of God. But many have hopes founded on falsehood. There is a vast variety in the opinions of men with respect to the ground of hope; and, besides the common ground, namely, a mixture of mercy and merit, every unbeliever has something peculiar to himself, which he deems an alleviation of guilt, or singularly meritorious. But in the great day all shall be ashamed of their hope, except those who have believed in Christ for salvation. Believers alone shall not be ashamed before Him at His coming. This is true, and no doubt is referred to by the Prophet from whom the quotation is here made, without, however, excluding the present effect in this life of believing in Christ, namely, that they who do so shall not be ashamed to confess their hope in Him. This last sense suits the connection in this place, and appears to be the meaning here attached to the word ashamed.
Romans 10:12 — For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.
For there is no difference. — So far from the Gentiles being excluded from mercy altogether, there is not, in this respect, the smallest difference between them and the Jews. Is rich — That is, rich to bestow on both Jews and Gentiles all they need. Calvin is not to be followed in explaining the word rich here as meaning ’kind and beneficent.’ This would sanction any abuse of words that the wildest imagination could invent. Nor is there any need of such an expedient. The meaning, as here explained, is quite obvious. Unto all that call upon Him. — God is able to supply the wants of all that call upon Him, and He will supply them. All of them receive out of the fullness of Jesus Christ. Here it is imported that to call on the name of the Lord is to be a believer Let it then be understood that to call on the Lord implies to call on Him in faith as He is revealed in the Gospel. There must be the knowledge of God as a just God, and a Savior, before any one can call on Him. To call on the Lord in this sense, amounts to the same thing as to believe in Christ for salvation, and it implies that every believer is one who calls on God. If any man professes to be a believer, and does not habitually call on God, he is not what he pretends.
Romans 10:13 — For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
’The context in Joel,’ says Calvin, ’will fully satisfy us that his prediction applies to this passage of Paul.’ But why should we need anything to convince us of this, but the authority of the Apostle himself? It is a most pernicious method of interpreting the applications of the Old Testament in the New, to make our perception of their justness the ground of acknowledging the Apostle’s conclusion. It may be proper to show how far or how clearly the words of the prophecy establish the particular reference made by the Apostle. But whether we can explain the application or not, the interpretation of the Apostle is as infallible as the prophecy itself. If one will undertake to vindicate the justness of the Apostle’s conclusion, another may be inclined to question it, and to allege that the prophecy has not the meaning assigned to it by the Apostle. It is here implied, that in order to salvation it is necessary to call on the Lord, and that whoever does so shall be saved. Here, as in other places of Scripture, the name of the Lord signifies the Lord Himself. By calling on the name of the Lord, all the parts of religious worship which we render to God are intended. It denotes a full and entire communion with God. He who calls on the name of the Lord, profoundly humbles himself before God, recognizes His power, adores His majesty, believes His promises, confides in His goodness, hopes in His mercy, honors Him as his God, and loves Him as his Savior. It supposes that this invocation is inseparable from all the other parts of religion. To call on the name of the Lord, is to place ourselves under His protection, and to have recourse to Him for His aid.
But why does the Prophet ascribe deliverance or salvation to calling on the name of the Lord, and not merely say, ’Whoever calls on God shall be heard, shall be protected, shall receive His blessing?’ The reason is, that he was treating of the new covenant, which clearly, without a veil and without a figure, announces salvation in opposition to the former covenant, which held forth temporal blessings. The Gospel speaks plainly of salvation, that is to say, of eternal happiness which we should expect after death. He uses the term saved, in order to remind us of the unhappy condition in which we were by nature, and to show the difference between our state and that of angels, for the angels live, but are not saved. The life of which Jesus Christ is the fountain, finds us plunged in death, lost in ourselves, children of wrath, and it is given us under the title of salvation. No one ever called upon the Lord, in the Scripture sense of this phrase, without being saved. It is here as expressly said, ’Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,’ as it is, ’Whoever believeth shall be saved.’ It appears that Paul, when he here speaks of calling upon the Lord, refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he had named in the 9th verse. In the same way he addresses the church at Corinth, ’With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.’ In thus calling upon the Lord, a believer, like Enoch, walks with God. It is not only that he prays to God at stated seasons; his life is a life of prayer. He prays to God ’everywhere,’ and ’always.’ He remembers that Jesus hath said, ’Henceforth I call you not servants; but I have called you friends;’ He serves God, therefore, in newness of spirit, and goes to Him in all occasions as his covenant God, his Father, and his Friend, to whom he pours out his heart, makes known all his wants, difficulties, and desires, and consults Him On every occasion in matters great and small. From this holy and constant communion he is not at any time or in any circ*mstances precluded. In Nehemiah we have beautiful and encouraging examples both of stated and ejacul*tory prayer in unforeseen circ*mstances, see Romans 2:4; in short, of a continual appeal to God, Romans 3:29. Paul commands us to ’pray without ceasing.’ To the exercise of this duty, so frequently enforced by the Lord in His last discourse to His disciples, believers have the highest encouragement. ’Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.’ ’If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’ We see, in the sequel, the effect of David’s short prayer, ’O Lord, I pray Thee turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.’ Although the Lord shows Himself at all times so ready to answer the prayers of His people, yet in the transaction with the Gibeonites, Joshua and the elders of Israel ’asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord,’ and what was the consequence? We are ready to be astonished at their conduct in this instance, yet how often is similar negligence or unbelief exemplified in the life of every Christian! even after he has received, in innumerable instances, gracious answers to his petitions, so often reproving his little faith when he presented them; and after he has experienced so many distressing proofs of the evil of being left to his own counsels when he has neglected this duty, Joshua 9:14.
Romans 10:14 — How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
This and the following verse are not the objections of a Jew, as alleged by Dr. Macknight. It is all the language of the Apostle in his own character. He had said in the preceding verse, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. From this he urges the necessity of preaching the Gospel to all men; for when it is said that whosoever calls on Him shall be saved, it is implied that none shall be saved who do not call upon Him. What, then, is the consequence to be drawn from this? Is it not that the Gospel should with all speed be published over the whole world? If the Gentiles are to be partakers of Divine mercy, it is by seeking it from Jesus Christ, who has died that mercy might be extended to Jew and Gentile. Is it not by the Holy Ghost speaking to the heart of the Gentiles without the instrumentality of the word, that they are to be converted and saved. They must hear the word and call on the Lord. Whoever is saved by Jesus Christ must call upon Him.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? — If, in order to salvation, it be necessary to call on Christ, how can the Gentiles call on Him when they do not believe in Him? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? — This is impossible. In this state were the Gentile nations before the Gospel reached them. Hence the great importance of communicating to them the glad tidings of salvation. And how shall they hear without a preacher? — The Gospel was not to be immediately declared by the voice of God from heaven, or by the Holy Ghost speaking without a medium of communication, or by angels sent from heaven; it was to be carried over the world by men. How, then, according to this Divine constitution, could the nations of the earth hear the Gospel without a preacher? It is unnecessary to refute the opinion of those who hold that the Gospel cannot speak to men savingly in the Scriptures, and that it is never effectual without the living voice of a preacher. This is not the meaning of the Apostle. His doctrine is, that the Gospel must be communicated to the minds of men through the external instrumentality of the word, as well as by the internal agency of the Spirit. Men are not only saved through Christ, but they are saved through the knowledge of Christ, communicated through the Gospel.
Romans 10:15 — And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
If the Gentiles could not believe in the Lord without hearing of Him, and if they could not hear of Him unless He was declared to them, then it follows, from the prophecy above quoted, that preachers must be sent to them. Notwithstanding, then, the violent opposition made to it by the Jews, the necessity was manifest for the Apostles, according to their Divine commission, to go forth to preach the Gospel to every creature. The accordance of this with the Old Testament Scriptures, Paul had been showing, and he now supports it by further quotation.
As it is written, etc. — This prophecy, Isaiah 52:7, which may literally respect good news of deliverance to the Jews from temporal judgments, typically refers, as the Apostle’s application of it here shows, to the messengers of mercy sent forth under the Gospel. In the beginning of that chapter, Zion or Jerusalem, the Church of God, is called to arise from her degraded condition, for the Lord has prepared for her deliverance. Then follow the words here quoted. The tidings to be told are next subjoined. ’Thy God reigneth.’ That the Gentiles also should partake in the blessings of His reign, is immediately intimated. ’The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.’ Thus, beginning at Jerusalem, those commissioned by the Lord were to preach salvation in His name among all nations. In the conclusion of the chapter, the blessed effects under the reign of the Messiah are declared. ’So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider.’ This quotation, then, made by the Apostle, was calculated to produce the strongest conviction of the truth he was establishing, namely, the duty of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Romans 10:16 — But they have not all obeyed the Gospel: for Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
It is here admitted by Paul, that though the Gospel was to be preached both to Jews and Gentiles, with the assurance that whosoever believeth shall be saved, yet, as a matter of fact, all who heard did not believe it. This might seem unaccountable; or it might even appear to be an argument against the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, that, notwithstanding all the blessings with which it was said to be fraught to those who should receive it, it was still rejected by many to whom it was preached. But this should not seem strange to any acquainted with prophecy: it is the very testimony of Isaiah. Instead, then, of being an objection to the preaching of the Gospel, that it was not received by the bulk of those who heard it, it was the very thing which the Scriptures predicted. The prophecy of Isaiah 53:1, is here applied to this fact, in which a plain intimation is given of the small number who should receive the Gospel when first preached. If, then, the Jews objected to the preaching of the Gospel from this fact, they must object to the Prophet Isaiah on the same ground.
Romans 10:17. — So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
According, then, to this complaint of the Prophet, it is evident that faith comes by hearing, which the Apostle is asserting; and this is the consequence to be deduced from it. The word in the preceding verse, quoted from Isaiah, and rendered ’report,’ is the same which in this verse is rendered hearing. Faith, then, never comes but by hearing, that is, by the word of God. The Apostles communicated their testimony by the living voice, and by their writings. Both are comprehended in what is called hearing. All this showed the necessity of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, on which Paul had been insisting, according to which there is no such thing as saving faith among heathens who have not heard of Christ. Hearing by the word of God. — This makes the last observation still stronger. The hearing cannot extend to Dr. Macknight’s scheme of salvation to the heathens, who supposes that they may have faith without the knowledge of the Gospel; for, consistently with this passage, faith must come, not from the revelation of the works of God, but from that of His word.
Romans 10:18 — But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
The Gospel had now been everywhere preached, Colossians 1:23. The Apostle applies to this fact what is said in the nineteenth Psalm. That Psalm literally refers to the preaching of the great luminaries of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; but typically it refers to the preaching of the word of God. The sun of the creation preaches to all nations the existence, the unity, the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God. He speaks in a language all nations may understand. All nations, indeed, have departed from the doctrine thus preached; but this results from disaffection to the doctrine, and not from the obscurity of the language of the preacher. The Apostle tells us that all nations, even the most barbarous, are without excuse in their idolatry. God is revealed in His character as Creator in the works of His hands, and all men should know Him as such. The sun carries the intelligence of God’s perfections and existence to every nation under heaven, which are successively informed that there is an almighty, all-wise, and beneficent Being, the author of all things. In like manner, the Gospel of Christ preaches to all nations, and informs them of the glorious character of God, as manifested in the incarnation and death of His Son Jesus Christ, while it reveals His mercy concerning which the works of creation are silent.
Dr. Macknight supposes the question here asked, ’Have they not heard?’ to be answered by the preaching of the works of creation, according to the words of the Psalm in their literal meaning. This is contrary to the whole train of the Apostle’s reasoning, who is speaking of the preaching of the Gospel. Even Calvin makes the preaching spoken of in that Psalm to refer to the ’silent works of God’ in ancient times, and not in any sense to the preaching of the Apostles. But it is evident that the Apostle is not referring to the former, but to the present state of the Gentile nations. The words of the Psalmist are thus spiritually, as they always have been literally, fulfilled in the preaching of the silent works of God. The description in the nineteenth Psalm, of the sun in the firmament, has, as above noticed, a strict literal and primary meaning, but it is also typical of Him who is called the Sun of Righteousness, who by His word is the spiritual light of the world. Paul therefore quotes this description in the last sense, thus taking the spiritual meaning, which was ultimately intended. This suits his object, while he drops the literal, although also a just and acknowledged sense. It is not, then, as setting aside the literal application of such passages that the Apostles quote them in their spiritual import, nor in the way of accommodation, as is so often asserted, to the great disparagement both of the Apostles and the Scriptures, but as their ultimate and most extensive signification.
Romans 10:19 — But I say, Did not Israel know? First, Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
Did not Israel know, that they were to be rejected as a nation, and the Gentiles called into the Divine favor? That this was communicated in their Scriptures is most clear. In the quotation here adduced, Deuteronomy 31:21, this event was foretold by Moses, who commences that prediction in a way that marks the importance of what he was about to say: ’Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.’ In verse 5th, he declares the ingratitude and unbelief of Israel. ’They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of His children; they are a perverse and crooked generation.’ He continues this complaint to the 20th verse, when he pronounces the decree of God of their rejection. ’I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith.’ And then immediately he adds the words from which the verse before us is taken. In these words the calling of the Gentiles is clearly predicted. The Gentiles are marked by these expressions: — 1st, ’I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.’ 2nd, Their calling is pointed out by the provocation to jealousy with which God threatens the Jews, which intimates that He will bestow His love and His covenant on those who were formerly foolish, and will withdraw them from Israel.
3rd, This same calling is marked by the comparison drawn between that provocation to jealousy with which He threatens Israel, with that with which the Israelites have provoked Him. ’They have moved Me to jealousy;’ that is, as they had given their love and their heart to others besides God, in the same way God would give His love and His heart to others besides them. This prediction, then, could only find its accomplishment in the conversion of the Gentiles by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The word ’nation’ is here a figurative expression in reference to God’s dealings with Israel. The Gentiles are called as individuals. The ’righteous nation,’ Isaiah 26:2, is composed of believers.
Romans 10:20 — But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me.
Romans 10:21 — But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
If Moses predicted, somewhat obscurely, the calling of the Gentiles, Isaiah had foretold it very plainly, and placed it in a light most offensive to the Jews. In this prophecy, the bringing in of the Gentiles, and their ready reception of the Gospel, and at the same time the obstinate unbelief of the Jews, notwithstanding the earnest and constant invitations of God by His servants, are plainly indicated. Nothing could more clearly describe the conduct of the Jews, and the reception they gave to the message of salvation, than this prophecy of Isaiah. In this and the preceding chapter, the Apostle has fully shown that the calling of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the great body of the Jewish nation, had been the purpose of God during the whole of that economy which separated the Jews from the rest of the world, and under which they had enjoyed such distinguished and peculiar privileges.
While in the ninth chapter the sovereignty of God in the rejection of the great body of the Jewish nation is Prominently brought into view, in the chapter before us their rejection is shown to have been the immediate effect of their own unbelief. No truth is more manifest in every part of the Old Testament Scriptures, than that contained in the declaration just referred to, Isaiah 65:2. All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people . — What outward means did not God employ to induce the Israelites to love and honor Him, and to lead them to submission to His authority! ’I have hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth,’ Hosea 6:5. ’I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey My voice,’ Jeremiah 11:7. ’And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grace?’ Isaiah 5:3. Here, then, is the stretching forth of the hands of God to that people all the day long, that is, during the whole period of their dispensation; and here the complaint is verified of their continuing, notwithstanding, disobedient and gainsaying. The fault, then, was their own, and the awful sentence that followed, Isaiah 5:5-6, was merited and just.
In this we see what is the result, when God employs only outward means to lead men to obedience, and does not accompany them with the influence of His efficacious grace. Without this, the Apostle shows in the preceding chapter, that the whole nation of Israel, without exception, would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah. Here, then, is the condition to which many in their wisdom would reduce all mankind, if they could establish their unscriptural doctrines in opposition to Divine election and efficacious grace. They are displeased at the idea that all the heathen nations were left to themselves, while so much favor was shown to Israel; yet we see in the case of Israel, in whom so full a display is made of the character of man, what would have been the result as to the other nations of a similar dispensation of outward means. But, according to the system of such cavilers at the clear doctrine of the Scriptures, there still remains something good in man, which may lead him, without a change of heart, to embrace the glad tidings of salvation. Many of them also affirm that man has power to resist and make void the internal operation of grace.
In support of this last opinion, reference is made to such texts as that in Genesis 6:3, where God says, ’My Spirit shall not always strive with man;’ and to the words of Stephen, when he charges the Jews as stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, who, like their fathers, always resisted the Holy Ghost, Acts 7:51. But the answer is easy when we attend to the different aspects in with the grace of God is presented in Scripture. Besides its existence in the mind of God, it is spoken of either in its manifestation in His word, or in its operation in the heart. In its manifestation it may, and, unless accompanied by its internal operation, always will, be resisted. To such resistance the above passages refer, and give their attestation; and for the truth of this we also can appeal not only to the example of the nation of Israel, but also to what we see passing before us every day. Multitudes, in the enjoyment of the full light of the revelation of grace, continually discover their resistance to its manifestation in the word. But not so with respect to grace, in its internal operation in the heart. This cannot be effectually resisted. On the contrary, so far as it proceeds, it takes away all inclination to resist, creating a new heart, and making those who are its subjects willing in the day of God’s power, Psalms 110:3. Here, then, there must be an election by God of those who shall thus be favored, without which not one individual would be saved. If the doctrine of the fall in its proper extent be admitted, the doctrines of election and efficacious grace must be embraced by those who do not believe that all men are to be left to perish.
In this chapter we see how highly God values His law. Though the Jews had a zeal of God, yet they were rejected, because they attempted to substitute their own obedience, which fell short of the demands of the law, which requires perfection. In order that any of the human race might be saved, it was necessary that the Son of God should fulfill the law. He alone is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. On this law of everlasting obligation, under which all mankind were placed, it may be proper to make a few general remarks, as well as on the covenant with Israel, to which there is also reference in this chapter.
God is the Legislator as well as the Creator of the world, and His law is necessarily founded on the relation in which He stands to His creatures. The law is a transcript of His character, proclaiming His holiness, His justice, and His goodness; in one word, His love, for God is love. The sum of it is, ’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.’ Thus love is the fulfilling of the law; the end of the commandment is love.
The love demanded from the creature is primarily for God His Creator, the great object of love. The second part of the summary of the law, far from opposing, coincides with and flows from the first, commanding us to love our neighbor as the creature of God. The love it thus requires of us for man is measured by that which we bear to ourselves, and consequently teaches that self-love is not to be condemned, unless it be excessive or exclusive. It is proper and necessary as a part of the law of our creation, which imposes on us the duty of attending to and providing for our own wants.
This law must necessarily be the law of the whole intelligent creation. According to its holiness, justice, and goodness, nothing more and nothing less can be required of any creature. ’The law of the Lord is perfect.’ In nothing is it deficient; in nothing does it exceed. It requires perfect obedience, which is essential to the nature of every law; for no law can dispense with the smallest part of the obedience it demands. Any work of supererogation, then, is impossible. No creature in the universe can do more than love God with all his heart and strength.
This law is enforced by sanctions. These are indispensable in order to carry it into execution, and maintain the dignity of the LawgiVerse Both the reward of obedience and the punishment of transgression proceed from the character of God. God loves Himself and His creatures. He is love for Himself above all, being the supreme object of love, and infinitely worthy of being loved. He is also love for His creatures, as appears by the original situation in which all of them were placed. The angels at their creation were the inhabitants of heaven, where God manifests His glory. When man was created, the world was provided for him, and adapted to his nature; he enjoyed communion with God, and everything around him was pronounced to be ’very good.’ From their happy original situation, a part of the angels and all mankind have fallen by disobedience. They broke the perfect bond of love, and consequently the unhappiness which proceeds from their rebellion against God can only be attributed to themselves. God, who is infinite in every perfection, and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, must necessarily punish sin; for sin is the violation of the law of love. It separates the creature from God, who is the source of happiness; it is rebellion against His just government; and its tendency is to produce universal confusion and misery. The love, therefore, of God for Himself and for all that is good; His holiness, which places Him in infinite opposition to sin; His regard for the honor of His law; and His justice, which requires the giving to all what is due, — demand that sin should be punished.
The evil of violating the law of God may be estimated by the punishment inflicted on the human race on account of one transgression. That one transgression caused the entrance of death, spiritual, temporal, and eternal; but by the goodness of God men were immediately placed under a dispensation of mercy. Human governments, being imperfect, dispense with justice when they extend pardon to a criminal; but this cannot be so with God, who, when He shows mercy, acts consistently with justice. He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. He proclaims Himself to be ’a just God, and a Savior.’ In the plan, then, of mercy and salvation, the law is maintained in all its authority, and with all its sanctions. Sin is punished, while sinners are saved.
The authority, the majesty, and the sovereignty of God are evidently interested in carrying into effect His threatenings and denunciations of punishment. If human laws were not executed, it would introduce confusion and disorder into families and states; but if the law of God were left unexecuted, there would be absolute confusion and disorder throughout the universe. The object, therefore, of the law, is an object of unspeakable importance, infinitely above that of the laws of men. Its immediate end is the manifestation of the holiness and glory of God.
Besides the law of universal and eternal obligation, the observance of other laws was enjoined on the people of Israel, in subserviency to the advent of the Messiah, to prefigure that great event, and in order to keep them separate from the other nations till He should appear. The covenant with Israel consisted of three parts: the first was the moral law; the second, the ceremonial; and the third, the judicial or political law. The moral law was such as has been already described. The ceremonial law consisted of a body of worship and of services, which the Israelites were commanded to render to God; and to this belonged all the various ordinances, purifications, sacrifices, oblations, celebrations of solemn feasts, and observances of days, excepting the seventh day, Sabbath, as being a part of the moral law. The judicial law comprehended all the regulations enjoined for their social and political conduct.
Along with these laws, there was vouchsafed a manifestation of the mercy of God through the Messiah. This comprehended all the promises of grace and salvation, and of the remission of sins, which God gave to the Israelites, proclaiming Himself to them as the Lord God, merciful and gracious, together with all the exhortations to repent, and have recourse to His fatherly goodness. It likewise included all those prophecies which foretold the Messiah, and required men to believe and place in Him their confidence.
Although this manifestation of grace and of mercy did not properly belong to the legal, but to the evangelical covenant, yet, as it was connected under the same ministry with the moral, the ceremonial, and the judicial laws, the Scripture includes the whole under the term law; the denomination of the ministry being taken from the part that predominated. The reason why this revelation of the Gospel was joined with the law is obvious. God purposed to save many among the Israelites, and to conduct them, as His elect and true children, to life and salvation. But this could not be effected by the legal covenant alone; for the law made nothing perfect; it was weak through the flesh, and could not justify. It was necessary, then, to connect with it a measure of the dispensation of the Spirit; and without this, the state of the Israelites would have been worse than that of the other nations.
The economy of Moses was not, however, to be permanent. The object of the ceremonial law was accomplished, when that came which is called, in the Epistle to the Hebrews 6:1, ’perfection,’ which was the grand consummation of all the typical ordinances, by the sacrifice of Christ. From that period its use was superseded, and itself abolished. On the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, where alone the sacrifices could be offered, and on the expulsion of the Jews from their own land, the observance both of the ceremonial and judicial laws became impracticable. The whole Mosaic economy, which had been glorious in itself, was done away, and ceased to have any glory by reason of the glory that excelleth. The moral law, however, could never be superseded. Although it formed a part of the Mosaic economy, to that economy it did not exclusively belong. Under the moral law, as a covenant, man at the beginning had been placed and under it, as broken, and pronouncing its curse, all unbelievers remain as one with the first man. But from this covenant, they who are united to Him by whom it has been fulfilled, are forever freed. According to the energetic language of the Apostle, in the seventh chapter of this Epistle, they are ’dead to the law.’ While dead to it, however, as a covenant, whether as to its blessing or its curse — justification by it or condemnation — it remains their rule of duty, and must forever continue in force. And that its authority should continue, while the other parts of that first covenant were done away, as it had existed before that covenant was made, was clearly indicated at its first promulgation from Mount Sinai. On that occasion it was strikingly distinguished from the other parts of the law. These were delivered to Moses, and by him to the people. But the moral law was promulgated by the voice of God, and it is said, ’He added no more.’ While the other laws were written in a book by Moses, this law of everlasting obligation was written on tables of stone by the finger of God, and it alone was deposited in the ark. ’There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone,’ 1 Kings 8:9. There, as inscribed on these tables, the law was placed under the mercy-seat, which was an eminent type of Him by whom it was to be fulfilled. To minister and prepare the way for His appearance was the great object in view in the calling of Abraham, in the setting apart his descendants as a people from among whom He was to spring, in the public proclamation of this law which had been transgressed, and in thus depositing it in the ark, and it alone, not even to be looked upon till He should come by whom it was fulfilled.
In the third chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, a contrast is drawn between the ministration of Moses and that of the Apostles, in order to demonstrate the superiority of the latter. The ministration committed to Moses is there denominated the ’letter,’ and that committed to the Apostles, the ’spirit’ — the one written and engraved in stones, the other in the fleshly tables of the heart. On the ministration of the letter or outward form, in which spiritual blessings were veiled under sensible images and carnal ordinances, a degree of obscurity remained, called the veil on Moses’ face, so that Israel after the flesh could not steadfastly look to the end, or final object, of that which was to be abolished. They rested in the observance of the ordinances, without considering their grand object, and looked to their temporal deliverances, without attending to the spiritual redemption which they prefigured. In the same way, what was external to the senses in the priesthood and the sacrifices, was all that they regarded. Their services were therefore those of the letter, with no discernment of the spirit, apart from which these services were a body without a soul. The nation of Israel, in general, thus verified the declaration that the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Not aware of the extent of the law which is spiritual, and of the perfect conformity required to all its precepts, and relying on the sacrifices they offered for the pardon of their transgressions, they sought acceptance by their own righteousness. But neither by their obedience could they fulfill the demands of the law, nor could the sacrifices remove their guilt, while by them they could not obtain peace of conscience, or assure themselves of reconciliation with God. The covenant, then, of which Moses was the mediator, gendered to bondage. It was the ministration of ’condemnation’ and ’death,’ for ’the letter killeth.’ The spirit only, which that letter veiled, ’giveth life,’ 2 Corinthians 3:6. Paul denominates the ministration committed to him the ministration of righteousness — the righteousness of the Messiah; and his lamentation in the chapter before us is, that Israel being ignorant of this righteousness, went about to establish their own righteousness, not submitting themselves unto the righteousness of God. The distinction, however, between the letter and the spirit did not refer exclusively to the nation of Israel. It related formerly, and has done so at every period, to all who, professing to worship God, are still in the flesh. The moral law, as has been observed, had been in force from the beginning, as is proved in this Epistle, chapter 5:13; although more fully promulgated in the covenant with Israel. But as soon as Adam had committed the sin by which it was broken, and all men had thus been brought under its condemnation, in pronouncing sentence on him, a proclamation of mercy was made, and sacrifices were instituted, which indicated the spirit equally with those afterwards enjoined on Israel in the ceremonial law. Among the nations, therefore, the true worshippers of God — such as Abel, who offered his sacrifice in faith, Enoch, who prophesied of the coming of the Lord, Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, Melchizedek, of whom it is particularly recorded, Hebrews 7:2, that he was first the king of righteousness, and then, or after that, also king of peace, and Abraham, who saw the day of Christ, with many more — worshipped God in the spirit. The service of all others who were ignorant of the true intent and end of the sacrifices, and of that righteousness which the Messiah was to bring in, which Noah had preached, 2 Peter 2:5, was the service of the letter that ’killeth.’ From this the necessity of preaching the Gospel to the nations, on which the Apostle so much insists in this chapter, is manifest. The heathens have generally retained the form of sacrifice, but, having entirely lost sight of the end of that institution, like Israel after the flesh, they know nothing beyond the letter which killeth. Such also is the service of all professed Christians, of whatever name, who go about to establish their own righteousness, which is of the law. To all men, of every description, who are laboring under the burden of sin, our Lord by His Gospel, wherever it reaches, proclaims, as formerly to Israel, Come unto Me and I will give you rest; thus extending to them the ministration, not of condemnation, but of righteousness, — not of the letter that killeth, but of the spirit that giveth life. He Himself is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, 2 Corinthians 3:17. ’It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.’ ’If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER XI — Romans 11:1-36
IN this chapter the Apostle first denies that the whole of the nation of Israel was indiscriminately rejected, for, as he had already intimated, there was to be a remnant saved, and of that remnant he holds himself forth as a noted example. He then brings again into view the sovereignty of God, in reserving this ’remnant according to the election of grace.’ In the next place, he affirms that, though blindness in part, as had been expressly foretold, had happened to Israel, yet, seeing that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, the period must arrive when, according to the repeated promises of Scripture, all Israel shall be saved. They shall be brought in with the fullness of the Gentiles, when the wisdom and the goodness of God, in His dealings towards both, will be finally unfolded, and the assembled universe shall with one voice acknowledge that God is all in all, and that of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom the glory shall be ascribed through the endless ages of eternity.
Romans 11:1 — I say then, Hath God cast away His people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Dr. Macknight imagines that a Jew, and Mr. Stuart that an objector, is here and in other places in this Epistle introduced as disputing with the Apostle. Such a supposition is not only unnecessary but groundless. When Paul begins with the words, I say then, he states in a manner familiar to the best writers, a very obvious and probable objection which he was about to remove. Hath God cast away His people? God forbid. — Some might conclude, from the previous declarations of the Apostle, that the whole Jewish nation was now rejected of God, and for ever excluded from the blessings of the Gospel. This inference he strongly disclaims, and shows that God designed even now to reserve for Himself a people out of the Jews as well as out of the Gentiles, while, hereafter, it is the Divine purpose to recall the whole nation to Himself. Paul therefore answers his own pointed interrogatory, by rejecting the thought with his usual energy, while, to strengthen his denial, he further exhibits himself as a signal example of one not cast away. Had his doctrine involved the total rejection of the Jews, he would have pronounced his own condemnation.
For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. — Besides being an Israelite, Paul here states that he was of the seed of Abraham. This was implied in his being an Israelite, but it is not needless tautology. A charge is often brought of tautology when the reiteration of an important truth is made for the purpose of giving it redoubled force. Although, in declaring himself an Israelite, he virtually claimed a direct descent from Abraham, yet it was a fact of no ordinary moment, and one therefore on which he emphatically dwells. It is his object to impress on the minds of his readers a sense of its intrinsic importance, as well as to recall to their recollection the covenant of God with Abraham, which confirmed the promises made to him respecting his descendants. This was much to the Apostle’s purpose, in affirming that God had not cast away the children of him who was called the friend of God. Paul likewise adds that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. It was doubtless an honor to deduce his lineage through a tribe which adhered to the true worship of God, and had not revolted from the house of David. The fact, too, of his being enabled with certainty to trace his pedigree from Benjamin was sufficient to establish the purity of his origin, and to prove that he was not merely found mingled with the nation, but was, in the expressive language which he elsewhere adopts, ’a Hebrew of the Hebrews,’ an Israelite by birth, parentage, and unbroken hereditary descent. The design of the Apostle is evidently to magnify his privileges, that he may produce the conviction that he has no interest in teaching anything derogatory to the just pretensions of his countrymen.
Romans 11:2. — God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Romans 11:3 — Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
Romans 11:4 — But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
In the preceding verse Paul had asked if God had cast away His people. This he had strongly denied; and the reasons by which he supports this denial form the subject of nearly the whole of the remainder of the chapter. He first proves, from the beginning of the 2nd verse to the end of the 10th, that a remnant was at present preserved, although the rest were blinded; and, from the 11th to the 33rd verse, that the whole nation shall at last be restored.
God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. — The term people, in the preceding verse, refers to the whole of Israel as the typical people of God, but is here restricted to the elect among them who were His true people, and are distinguished as ’His people which He foreknew.’ God had cast off the nation, but even then He had a people among them whom from eternity He foreknew as His people. The word foreknow, as formerly observed, signifies to know before, or it denotes a knowledge accompanied by a decree, or it imports a preconceived love, favor, and regard. Divine foreknowledge, in the first of these senses, is God’s foresight of future existence and events, and His eternal prescience of whatever shall take place in all futurity. This foreknowledge is not only to be distinguished from God’s decree, by which everything future comes to pass, but must be considered in the order of nature as consequent and dependent upon the determination and purpose of God. For the futurity of all things depends on the decrees of God, by which every created existence and event, with all their circ*mstances, are ordered, fixed, and ascertained. Being thus decreed, they are the objects of foreknowledge; for they could not be known to be future unless their futurity was established, and that by the Divine decree. God foreknew all things that were to come to pass, by knowing His own purposes and decrees. Had God determined or decreed nothing respecting future existences by creation and providence, there could have been no foreknowledge of anything whatever Because, therefore, this foreknowledge of God necessarily implies and involves His decrees, His foreknowledge is in the inspired writings sometimes accompanied by the mention of His decrees; as, for example, ’Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,’ Acts 2:23. And it is sometimes put for the decree, as in the following passage, where the word here translated foreknew is rendered fore-ordained: ’Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world,’ 1 Peter 1:20. In the third sense, as taken for a knowledge of love and approbation, it signifies, as in the verse before us, to choose and recognize as His own. God had not cast away His people whom He had before loved and chosen, for the Apostle alleges this foreknowledge as the reason why God did not cast away His people.
The people of God, whom He foreknew, were those whom He chose from all eternity, according to His sovereign pleasure; and in this sense the expression is clearly explained, when they are declared, in the 5th verse, to be a ’remnant according to the election of grace,’ and when it is said, in the 4th, that God had ’reserved’ to Himself His true worshippers in the time of Elijah. This proves the correctness of Calvin’s observation, ’that foreknowledge does not mean a certain speculative view, by which the uncreated Cause of all effects foresaw the character of every individual of the human family, but points to the good pleasure of the decree of the Sovereign Disposer of all events, by which He hath chosen for His children those who were not yet born, and had no power to insinuate themselves into the favor of the Author of all happiness. Thus (Galatians 4:9), Paul says, they are known of God, because He prevents by His grace and favor, and calls them to a knowledge of Christ.’ Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias? — The quotation from the Old Testament Scriptures, which the Apostle here brings to bear on the point in question, fully establishes the view that has been given of the preceding passage. There was an elected remnant in the days of Elijah, when things were at the worst; and so, at the time when the Apostle wrote, there was also an elected remnant whom God had reserved. How he maketh intercession to God against Israel. — ’1 Kings 19:10, cited by Paul,’ says Calvin, ’contains no implication, but a mere complaint. Since, however, his complaint implies a total despair of the religion of the whole Jewish nation, we may rest assured that he devoted it to destruction.’ But Paul’s comment may assure us that Elijah, at the time referred to, not only complained but interceded against Israel. The Apostle spoke by the Spirit that indicted the words in which Elijah’s complaint is recorded, and we should not look for a voucher for such testimony. Such a mode of strengthening the Scriptures is only to weaken them. It teaches us to undervalue the inspired commentary of the New Testament, unless we can produce some other confirmation. Elijah, when solemnly interrogated by the Lord why he was in the place where he was then found, away from the proper scene of his ministry, accounted for his flight to save his life, which seems to have been without any Divine admonition, by complaining of the apostasy of the nation. As this was an exposure of their wickedness, and, had it been true in all its extent, would have led to their destruction, it was in effect intercession against Israel. But the answer of God showed that he was mistaken. God had even then reserved to Himself a goodly number, who had not apostatized from His worship.
From these words, in this answer of God, I have reserved to Myself, we learn that if any are preserved from false worship, if any are brought to the knowledge of God, it is by His special influence and agency, and not owing to themselves. Such favored individuals are said to be ’reserved’ by God. How different is this from the views of multitudes who profess Christianity! It is a comfort to think that in the worst times there may be many more of the people of God than we are apt to imagine.
Bowed the knee. — This shows that any overt act of idolatry, or any compliance with the requirements of false religion, renders men unworthy of being accounted the true servants of God. So Job, in declaring the integrity of his conduct towards God and man, says, ’If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were an iniquity to be punished; for I should have denied the God that is above.’
Romans 11:5 — Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
This is the object of the reference to the election in the times of Elijah, and renders the words at the beginning of the 2nd verse quite definite. As there was a remnant then reserved by God, so there is a remnant now. Both were necessary for the preservation of the nation. The seven thousand were its salt in Elijah’s time, as were the remnant here spoken of during its present blindness.
According to the election of grace — Than this nothing can be more explicit. God had formerly reserved for Himself, by His gracious influence and special agency, a small number in Israel; and in the same way, at the time when the Apostle wrote, He had reserved, according to His sovereign choice, a remnant of that nation. And to set aside every idea that this election was the reward of an inherent good foreseen in those chosen, or of anything meritorious performed by them, the Apostle adds that it was of grace. It was an unconditional choice, resulting from the sovereign free favor of God.
Romans 11:6 — And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work.
The opponents of the doctrine of election maintain that men are chosen on account of their good works foreseen. But here it is expressly declared by the Apostle that it is not on account of works at all, whether past, present, or future. What, then, is the source of election/ Grace. — It is an election of grace, or free favor; that is, a gratuitous election, not by the merit of works of any kind, but purely from the favor of God. Grace and works are here stated as diametrically opposite and totally irreconcilable. If, then, election is by grace, it is not of works; for this would imply a contradiction. Grace would not then be grace. Here we have the warrant of Scripture for asserting that a contradiction is necessarily untrue, and that no authority is sufficient to establish two propositions which actually contradict each other.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work. — Many suppose these words are spurious, because they are wanting in some manuscripts, and because the idea is substantially included in what has been already stated. This reason, however, is not conclusive, and those who build on such a foundation show little knowledge of Scripture. It is not useless to rever the idea, and draw the same conclusion from the converse. It is far more likely that human wisdom has in some manuscripts omitted this passage, than that it should have been transcribed from the margin into the text.
In the foregoing verses, as well as in the eighth and ninth chapters, the doctrine of election is stated in the clearest manner. This doctrine, as implying the total inability of man to recover himself from guilt and ruin, and the necessity for this end of Divine interposition, has ever been highly offensive to human pride and human wisdom. These and the preceding strong statements of it, can never be silenced; but they have often been subjected to the most violent perversions. Every artifice of human ingenuity has been employed to turn away the Apostle’s words from bearing on the point; but it has been employed in vain; and nothing will ever be able to reconcile these statements to the mind of the natural man. But, after all, what does this doctrine assert that is not necessarily and obviously implied in every other doctrine of the Gospel? Are all men by nature dead in sin? If so, he that is made spiritually alive, must be made so by Him who alone gives life; and it is nothing short of Divine sovereignty that constitutes the difference between him and those who remain in death and enmity to God. Are Christians represented as being born again? Does not this refer men’s spiritual existence to the sovereign choice, and mercy, and agency of their heavenly Father? Are Christians saved by faith? If faith be the gift of God, salvation by faith implies election. Why, then, should the Scriptures be wrested to avoid the admission of a doctrine which is not only essential to their consistency with themselves, but which the whole system of Christianity implies?
The salvation of every individual of the human race who partakes of it must be wholly gratuitous on the part of God, and effected by His sovereign grace. Sinners could have no claim upon God; His justice demanded their punishment, and they could plead no right to mercy, which, if admitted, would make mercy justice. The sending of His Son, therefore, into the world to save sinners, was an act of free grace; and Christ, accordingly, is spoken of as God’s gift. ’He gave His only begotten Son,’ John 3:16. ’Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift,’ 2 Corinthians 9:15. It is no impeachment of the mercy of God, that all the fallen angels perished, and that upon the whole of them justice took its course. Could it then have been impeached, if in like manner God had left all men to perish? and if not, can it be so because only a part of them are left under that condemnation into which they have fallen, while to another part, He, who ’hath mercy on whom He will have mercy,’ has extended that mercy? These truths, when unreservedly admitted, greatly contribute to promote in Christians, in contemplating the distinguishing goodness of God to them, joy in the Lord, and to their bringing forth all the fruits of the Spirit It leads them to admire the mercies of God, who hath brought them from darkness to light, and hath saved and called them with an holy calling, not according to their works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9; whereby they have the hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, ’promised,’ in like manner, ’before the world began,’ Titus 1:2.
The fact that the doctrines of election and of the Divine sovereignty are so clearly taught in Scripture, is a most convincing proof that they are not the invention of man. Such a view could not have suggested itself to the human mind, and, if suggested, could not have been pleasing to its author. As little would it be calculated to serve the purpose of an impostor, being universally unpalatable to those intended to be gained as converts. Nothing but the supposition of their truth and Divine origin can account for their being found in the Bible. ’It is a glorious argument,’ says President Edwards, in his Enquiry respecting the Freedom of the Will,’ of the divinity of the Holy Scriptures, that they teach such doctrines, which in one age and another, through the blindness of men’s minds, and strong prejudices of their hearts, are rejected as most absurd and unreasonable by the wise and great men of the world; which yet, when they are most carefully and strictly examined, appear to be exactly agreeable to the most demonstrably certain and natural dictates of reason.’ If the Scriptures, he observes, taught the opposite doctrines to those which are so much stumbled at, viz., the Arminian and Pelagian doctrine of free will, and other modifications of these errors, it would be the greatest of all difficulties in the way of the internal evidence of the truth of the Bible.
Romans 11:7 — What Then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
What then? — What is the result of all that the Apostle had been saying? It is this: Israel as a nation hath not obtained righteousness, of which it was in search, chapter 9:31; but the election among them — the chosen remnant reserved by God, spoken of above — hath obtained it. Can anything more expressly affirm the doctrine of election? And the rest were blinded. — How strong is this language! How can it be softened by the most subtle ingenuity, so as to make it agreeable to the taste of the natural man? The election had received the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ; but the whole nation besides not only did not attain to the righteousness of which they were in search, but were blinded. This is a hard saying, who can hear it? It is God’s saying, and it is unsafe to reject it. It is the duty of His people, as little children, to receive it with meekness.
The election of a sinful creature is an act of the free and sovereign will of God; while his punishment is not a sovereign or arbitrary act of Divine authority. God does not punish without an existing cause in the guilty. Condemnation supposes positive criminality. Men are in themselves sinful, and commit sin voluntarily; and for their punishment, they are hardened, and finally perish in their sins, and their destruction is the execution of a just sentence of God against sin. Their sins, which are the cause of their destruction, are their own; while the salvation of those whom God chooses and calls to Himself is His gift. God knows what men left to their own inclinations will do; and as to those who are finally condemned, He determines to abandon them to their depraved inclinations, and hardens them in their rebellion against Him. But as to His determination, by grace, to cause the sinner to believe, to will, and to obey, it requires a positive interposition of Divine power — a power which creates anew, which no one merits or deserves, and which God vouchsafes or withholds according to the counsel of His own will. Conformably to this, we see through the whole of the Scriptures, that when men are saved they are saved by the sovereign grace of God, and when they perish, it is by the appointment of God, Judges 1:4, through their own fault.
Romans 11:8 — (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear) unto this day.
Mr. Stuart asserts that it is not necessary to understand this as a prediction, in the appropriate sense of the word. But it is most undoubtedly a prediction; and although it was adapted to describe the Jews at a preceding period, the Holy Spirit, as from Paul’s application we are bound to believe, intended it to describe the people of Israel in the time of the Apostles. The same thing that in one sense is ascribed to God, in another is ascribed to man. Although, by the decree and providence of God, Israel was blinded, yet the blame was their own. The Jews, at that period, had the light of natural understanding, yet they did not see what was exhibited with the clearest evidence. This is still the case. Multitudes who are distinguished for their intellectual vigor and mental powers, are altogether blind in spiritual things. Unto this day. — Some join this with she words of the Prophet, and others make it the additional observation of Paul. In whatever way this is understood, they are equally the words of the Apostle, for he applies them to the case in hand.
Romans 11:9 — And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them;
Romans 11:10 — Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
And David saith. — It is highly erroneous to suppose, with Mr. Stuart, that the Apostle quotes these passages merely to illustrate a general principle. In this sense they could be of no use. But they are eminently to the purpose as predictions. Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them. — Let them experience misery and disappointment in their daily occupations and concerns, and let them find those things, of whatever description — whether sacred or common — which were calculated to be for their welfare and advantage, a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a punishment to them. For the hope of retaining their temporal kingdom, they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, and by this means they lost the kingdom also, with all temporal prosperity, John 11:48; John 11:50. Mr. Stuart observes, ’It is enough to say, at present, that the Apostle, in making this quotation, need not be supposed to design anything more than to produce an instance from the Psalms, where the same principle is developed as is contained in the assertions which he had made; i.e., the ancient Scriptures speak of a part of Israel as blind and deaf, as in deep distress and under heavy punishment because of their unbelief and disobedience. What happened in ancient times may take place again; it has, in fact, happened at the present time.’ How trifling would be the conduct of the Apostle, according to this representation of Mr. Stuart? Are all these quotations made just for the purpose of showing that something in some way similar happened long ago? Is this likeness merely accidental? Whatever application the words might have to David and David’s times, their import as a proper prediction is clear, and since they are so appropriated by the Apostle, ought never to be questioned. These words of the Old Testament Scriptures are too strong to represent anything else, in their full extent, but the fearful blindness of the Jews in the time of the Messiah, when they saw His miracles, and nevertheless did not perceive their import; when they heard, yet did not listen to the calls of His Gospel. Then, truly, their heart was made fat, and their ears heavy, and their eyes were closed, John 12:40; and then, by the issue, it appeared that God would not convert them, because He would not any more at that time do them good. The predictions concerning their spiritual blindness, as well as the denunciations contained in these verses, have been literally accomplished. Many pretend to find a difficulty in regard to the threatenings denounced against the enemies of God in the Psalms, but the difficulty arises from their own erroneous views of the subject. Does it imply a malicious or revengeful temper to utter the dictates of the Spirit of God, whoever may be the Object of the Divine denunciations? This is not merely trifling, but blasphemous.
To represent this passage otherwise than as a prediction, gives a false view of the sixty-ninth Psalm, from which the quotation is taken, which contains so illustrious a prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ. God had announced by David, in that Psalm, the maledictions it records in connection with crimes committed by the Jews. Those here quoted, in the 9th and 10th verses, immediately follow the prophetical description in the Psalm of their treatment of the Messiah. It should also be observed, that during the whole period of the former dispensation, God employed the most powerful external means to bring them back to Himself, so that they were entirely without excuse.
The sixty-ninth Psalm consists of three parts. The first respects the violent persecutions which the Lord Jesus Christ experienced from His enemies and the Jews. The second part is a prediction of the fearful judgments of the Lord, especially upon the traitor Judas. The third part regards the exaltation of Jesus Christ to glory, and the success of the Gospel. First, the prophetical characters of the Psalm are representative of the extraordinary sufferings of Him of whom it speaks, and of the reproaches against Him — sufferings and persecutions which would be both exaggerated were they limited to those persecutions which David endured at the hand of His enemies. Secondly, the cause of His sufferings is ascribed to His love of God. ’For Thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered My face. I am become a stranger unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother’s children. For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me.’ Now, we do not read that David was ever persecuted on account of his religion, nor that he suffered because of His love to God. Thirdly, although the words, ’They gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave me vinegar to drink,’ may be understood figuratively of David, they cannot be literally applied to him, but they apply literally to Jesus Christ.
The first division of the Psalm, which foretells the ruin of the persecutors, is too strong to be understood of the persecutors of David, as appears from what is said from the 22nd to the 28th verses inclusive, which conclude with these awful words: ’Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into Thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.’ It cannot be said that the enemies of David were absolutely cut off from the covenant of God; but these words were fully accomplished on the body of the nation of the Jews, when they did not attain, as the Apostle says, to the law of righteousness, and refused to submit themselves unto the righteousness of God. They were, therefore, blinded or hardened; the awful maledictions contained in the verses before us descended on their devoted country, and thus they were blotted out of the book of the living, and were not written with the righteous.
In the third part of the Psalm, the deliverance vouchsafed by God is declared: ’Let Thy salvation, O God, set me up on high,’ which signifies the ascension of the Lord to heaven. It is afterwards said, ’I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns or hoofs,’ which marks the abolition of the legal sacrifices.
Finally, the filling of the earth with the glory of God is declared. ’Let the heaven and earth praise Him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein.’ This is too great to be applied to the temporal deliverances which God vouchsafed to David, the fame of which did not extend so far. It must, then, be ascribed to the glory which God received after the exaltation of Jesus Christ, as He Himself said, ’ Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.’ The words in the beginning of the 9th verse of this Psalm, ’The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up,’ are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, John 2:17; and the concluding words, ’The reproaches of them that reproached Thee, are fallen upon Me,’ by Paul, Romans 15:3. ’They gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink,’ is applied in the three Gospels, by Matthew, and Mark, and John, to what took place at His crucifixion. The words contained in the 25th verse, ’Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents,’ are applied to Judas, Acts 1:20, who may be considered in this matter as the representative of the nation. ’Let their table become a snare before them,’ Psa 60:22 is quoted by the Apostle in the verse before us, predicting the condition of the Jewish nation when he wrote. And are all these passages to be considered as quoted by way of accommodation, and not as predictions? Such an interpretation is not only erroneous, but is degrading to the Holy Scriptures, and utterly at variance with their true meaning.
Romans 11:11 — I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall ? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Having proved that God had not cast away His people, by referring to the fact that even then a remnant, according to the election of graces was preserved, Paul supports his denial of their rejection by the consideration that in process of time the whole nation shall be restored. This restoration, as has been already remarked, forms the subject of nearly the whole remainder of the chapter.
I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? — This is the Apostle’s own question, and does not, as Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart allege, proceed from an imaginary objector. It naturally springs out of the declaration made in the four preceding verses concerning the blindness of those called ’the rest,’ in contradistinction to the remnant comprehended in the election. The question is, ’Has the great body of the Jewish nation stumbled, that they should fall for ever, and is this the purpose of their fall?’ Paul replies by a strong negative. Nothing was further from the purpose of God with respect to His ancient people. They had stumbled, as was said, ch. 9:32, ’at that stumbling-stone,’ according to the predictions of the Prophets respecting Christ; but still it was but a temporary stumbling, from which the nation will finally recover God had a double purpose in this. His design in their stumbling was not that they should fall for ever, but rather that through their fall salvation should come to the Gentiles, and that, through this, the nation of Israel might ultimately receive the Messiah.
To provoke them to jealousy. — It is probable from this, that the Jews will be excited, by seeing God’s favor to the Gentiles, to reflect on their own fallen condition, and to desire to possess the same advantages. When the Jews can no longer hide from themselves that the God of their fathers is with the nations whom they abhor, they will be led to consider their ways, and brought again into the fold of Israel. This is according to the prophecy already quoted by the Apostle in the 19th verse of the preceding chapter.
It was in this manner, then, that God purposed to bring the Jewish nation finally to submit to Him, in order that they might receive His blessing; and thus in His sovereignty He overrules the fall and ruin of some for the salvation of others. His awful judgments against the audacious transgressors of His laws, warn the beholders to flee from the wrath to come; and, on the other hand, the conversion of men who have been notorious sinners, excites others to seek the salvation of Christ. Who can calculate what extensive, permanent, and glorious effects may result throughout the whole creation, and in eternal ages, from the fall of angels and men — from the redemption of God’s people in Christ — from His dispensations towards the Church and the world? Ephesians 3:9-11. We ought to remember that the Lord may have infinitely wise and gracious motives for His most severe and terrible judgments. Thus did the fall of the Jews become the occasion of the Gentiles being enriched with the inexhaustible treasures that are in Christ, so that the justice, the wisdom, and the faithfulness of God were glorified in this awful visitation.
Romans 11:12 — Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
In the foregoing verse, the Apostle had said that through the fall of the Jews salvation was come to the Gentiles; he had also intimated that they should be recovered from their fall. This might lead the Gentiles to apprehend that, in the restoration of the Jews, they might in like manner he cast off. To this Paul now answers, that, on the contrary, if the fall of the Jews be the riches of the Gentiles, much more so will be their restoration.
The temporary fall of the Jews was fraught with the richest blessings to the rest of the world. Their rejection of the Messiah was the occasion of the assuring of the great sacrifice for sin, and of the Gospel being preached to all nations. In consequence of their rejecting the testimony of the Apostles, the remnant who believed fled from the persecution of their countrymen, and, being scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the word. Besides, the Jewish nation, which had been constituted the witnesses of God, Isaiah 43:10, and to whom the oracles of God had been committed, have firmly preserved their sacred trust, even amidst all their unbelief and consequent sufferings. In this we discern an illustrious proof of the Divine origin of the Old Testament Scriptures which testify of the Messiah; while the preservation of the Jews as a distinct people amidst and the changes and revolutions of ages, stands forth a lasting miracle, not to be explained on natural principles, furnishing incontestable evidence of the truth of the Gospel.
Thus the diminishing of the Jews was the aggrandizement of the Gentiles; for, in the inscrutable counsels of Jehovah, His gift of salvation to them was connected with the degradation and downfall of His ancient people. But here the Apostle goes the assurance that the fullness of the Jews — their restoration as a body, when they shall acknowledge Christ as the Messiah — will yet prove a far greater blessing to the Gentiles. It will be connected with a calling of the nations to an extent beyond anything yet witnessed, and also with a great enlargement of their knowledge of the Gospel. This was consistent with what is said in the sequel of that prediction to which Paul had just referred. In the same way, Moses, after foretelling the many evils that were to come upon his nation, and of the calamities that were to be heaped upon them, concludes the whole by predicting all that the Apostle here declares: ’Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and wise be merciful unto His land and to His people,’ Deuteronomy 32:43.
Romans 11:13 — For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the gentiles, I magnify mine office:
The Apostle continues, to the beginning of the 16th verse, to amplify still further what he had just announced, in proof that the salvation of the Gentiles is closely connected with God’s dealings towards the Jews. The Gentiles were largely blessed with the Gospel when it was rejected by the Jews; but they will be blessed with it to an unspeakably greater extent when the Jews shall be recalled. Paul was the Apostle of the Gentiles, and by uttering this prediction with regard to the Gentiles, at the period of the restoration of the Jews, he says he magnifies his office. He here addresses himself particularly to those in the church at Rome, who were of the Gentiles. For as he had been appointed their Apostle, he was desirous to commend his ministry among them, to assert the honor of his commission, and to prove its great importance in imparting to them the knowledge of the Gospel. He shows, with regard to the Gentiles, that its value was enhanced in proportion as a greater number of Gentiles will be saved. In this view, it is greatly for the interest of the Gentiles that the Jews should be brought back, and this should increase their efforts for their conversion.
Romans 11:14 — If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh , and might save some of them.
The Apostle also desired to excite the attention of his countrymen by this view of Divine favor to the Gentiles. He endeavored to move them to emulation, that in this way they might be directed to Christ the Savior of sinners, and that some of them might be saved. He says some, not all, for he was aware that the body of the nation was at that time rejected, but he knew not who among them were of the remnant according to the election of grace, who, although still rejecting the Messiah, might, by means of the Gospel which he preached, be finally saved.
Romans 11:15 —For if the casting away of them
Here the Apostle further explains and illustrates the argument he had employed in the 12th verse. The Gospel was preached to the world only after Israel rejected it. This was not the result of accident; it was according to the fixed purpose of God. The middle wall of partition was then broken down. The command was given to preach the Gospel to every creature. After the great sacrifice had been offered, it was no longer to be limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The world was to hear the Gospel; and thus the Gentiles received the grace of God only through the unbelief and rejection of the Jewish nation. But if the casting away of the Jews was such a blessing to the world, their recall will be a blessing unspeakably greater. It will occasion a revival among the Gentile churches, from a dead and almost lifeless state, which will resemble a resurrection. The numbers then converted will be as if all the dead had risen out of their graves. The Divine dispensations being at that period so far developed, and the prophecies respecting the rejection and restoration of the Jews so fully accomplished, no doubt will any longer be entertained regarding the Divine origin of the Holy Scriptures. A great additional light, too, will be thrown on those parts of them which at present are most obscure, so that, in the providence of God, the result will be an unexampled blessing both to Jews and Gentiles.
Romans 11:16 — For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
The whole of the Apostle’s argument goes to establish the restoration of Israel. He shows that they were not cast off, — first, by his own example; and, secondly, by referring to the remnant among them according to the election of grace, which proved that they were not devoted to destruction like Sodom and Gomorrah, chapter 9:29. It was true that the predictions of which he had spoken were fulfilled; but although, consistently with these, they had stumbled, it was not that they should irrevocably fall; but this was the way in which God had appointed salvation to come to the Gentiles. Even in this, however, God had their restoration in view; for the kindness shown to the Gentiles would be the means of provoking their jealousy, and great as were the benefits which accrued to the world from their fall, those of their restoration would be still greater. The verse before us contains a third argument to prove the future conversion of the Jewish nation.
The Apostle here employs two similitudes, one taken from the law, respecting the first-fruits, by which the whole of the harvest was sanctified; and the other from nature, by which, under the figure of a tree, he evidences the truth he is exhibiting respecting the final restoration of the whole nation of Israel. By the first-fruit some understand the first Jewish converts; but it rather appears that both the first-fruit and the root refer to Abraham, as the first-fruit to God, and the root of the Jewish nation. As Abraham was separated to the service of God, so, in the sense of a relative holiness, all his descendants in the line of Isaac were holy, standing in an external relation to God in which no other nation ever stood. But Abraham was also personally holy; and so, in every age, had been many of his descendants through the heir of promise; and so, also, shall be an innumerable multitude of them hereafter. For, according to the figure here employed, they shall as branches be grafted in again, and so all Israel shall be saved.
It is therefore here shown that the future conversion of Israel is guaranteed by the peculiar covenant relation in which they stand to Abraham. Although the whole nation had never been internally holy, they had all along been in a peculiar manner separated or consecrated to God, in the same way as, according to the law, the first-fruits of the harvest were consecrated; for when the corn was kneaded, a cake of the first of the dough was to be given to the Lord, Numbers 15:19-21; and thus the whole of the harvest was set apart or sanctified, 1 Timothy 4:5. On this ground, Moses, even when reminding the Israelites of their unhallowed rebellion against God in the wilderness, declared, ’Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself,’ Deuteronomy 7:6. And a little after, when rehearsing to them their several rebellions, and informing them that the Lord had pronounced them to be ’a stiff-necked people,’ and when he claims the heavens and the earth, and all that they contain, as the property of Jehovah, he says to Israel, ’The Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you, above all people,’ Deuteronomy 10:15, and Deuteronomy 4:37; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 26:19; Deuteronomy 32:8-9. ’God,’ it is also said, ’heard their groanings, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them,’ Exodus 2:24. Moses assured the people, the Lord ’will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He swore unto them,’ Deuteronomy 4:31. And it is said by the Prophet Isaiah 43:21, ’This people have I formed for Myself.’ In like manner, when Samuel was in the strongest terms reproaching Israel for their rebellion, in forsaking the Lord and choosing a king, he still exhorts them to serve the Lord, notwithstanding their past wickedness. ’For,’ he adds, ’the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake; because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people,’ 1 Samuel 12:22. Innumerable declarations to the same effect are interspersed throughout the Old Testament. The Apostle’s argument then is, that as the lump is holy through the offering of the first-fruit, and as the tree derives its character from the root, so the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom the Lord chose, were set apart by solemn covenant for His service and glory.
In consequence of God’s love to the fathers, He delivered them from Egypt, and separated them by the Sinai covenant from all other nations as His peculiar people. But while that transaction announced the most important purposes, it was not faultless, Hebrews 8:7. It pointed out their duty, but did not communicate those dispositions which are essential to obedience. It was therefore only a figure for the time then present, imposed on them for a season, Hebrews 9:9-10, and intended to be introductory to a better covenant established upon better promises, by which the law was to be put in their inward parts, and God was to be a God to them in a higher sense than He was by that first covenant. This was taught them in the land of Moab, where God promised to circumcise their heart and the heart of their seed, and is repeated by Isaiah 59:21, Jeremiah 31:31, and referred to by the Apostle in the 26th and 27th verses of the chapter before us. Thus Israel has been set apart as a holy people, devoted to the service of God, since the call of Abraham. Their unbelief has not made the faithfulness of God of none effect. Their rebellions have all been subservient to His eternal purpose. The tree was of the Lord’s right-hand planting, a noble vine; many of the branches have been broken off, but still the root remains, bound round, as it were, ’with a band of iron and brass;’ and the branches shall be grafted in again, by their partaking of the faith of Abraham. And as they were God’s witnesses when enjoying His blessing in the land of Canaan, Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 43:12; Isaiah 44:8, and are His witnesses in their rejection, and in being ’left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill,’ Isaiah 30:17, so shall they be His witnesses in their restoration. In God’s treatment of them we see His abhorrence of sin. In them we behold a memorial of the severity of God, Romans 11:22; but in them shall also be witnessed a nobler monument of His goodness.
The Apostle’s argument, then, amounts to this — that as the lump is holy, through the offering of the first-fruits, so this is a pledge that the lump, or body of the nation, will yet be made holy. The restoration of Israel is not only plainly asserted by the Apostle here, but it is essential to the fulfillment of the parable exhibited in God’s dealings with the nation of Israel. That nation was a type of the true Israel, and in God’s dealings with them all the great doctrines of the Gospel are exhibited. It was therefore necessary that Israel should be restored, otherwise the parable which shadows forth the final preservation of the people of God, declared in Romans 8:35, would have been incomplete. We see the sovereignty of God in choosing Israel, in bestowing on them so many advantages, in punishing them so severely, and making the whole to redound to His own glory and the salvation of all who are ordained to eternal life. They have been the chosen instruments employed for the salvation of the world; and their last end, after all their wanderings, and all their rebellions, and all their unbelief, shall exhibit them as the true circumcision, who rejoice in Christ Jesus. When, therefore, the calling of the Gentiles and the rebellion of Israel are announced in the strongest terms, it is immediately added, ’Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; so will I do for My servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of My mountains; and Mine elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there,’ Isaiah 65:8. ’As a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof,’ Isaiah 6:13. All this accords with those repeated declarations of Scripture already referred to, in which it is said that the Lord will never forsake His people, for His great name’s sake. It likewise accords with the numerous and peculiar privileges conferred on Israel as a nation, as enumerated in the ninth chapter of this Epistle, and summed up in these words, ’Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came.’ And consistently with the whole, it is declared in the sequel of the chapter before us, that the time is coming when all Israel shall be saved, and the natural branches, or descendants of Abraham, shall be grafted in again into their own olive tree. On these grounds it is evident that, while those whom the Apostle calls the ’rest’ of Israel, had in the meantime fallen, and although successive generations should behold Jerusalem forsaken, and Israel wandering without a home through the world, yet the restoration of the nation shall hereafter testify the unchangeable faithfulness of that God who, in dividing to the nations their inheritance, ’set the bounds of the people, according to the number of the children of Israel.’ Such is the method by which the Apostle in this verse continues to substantiate his declaration that God had not cast away His people. He had shown that their destruction could not have been intended, since a remnant was preserved; and he is now proving that, as a body, they shall finally be restored to God’s favor. In declaring the peculiar privileges of Israel, derived from their first progenitors, the Apostle, by exhibiting their distinguished superiority over all other nations, lays a foundation for the forcible warnings which, down to the 23rd verse, he proceeds to deliver to the Gentiles who had been received into the covenant of God. Mr. Stuart remarks of this 16th verse, that it is illustration rather than argument; but it is an illustration which has been adopted by the Spirit of God as a pledge of the event. If it be not argument, it is evidence, and is recorded as a revelation of the Divine purpose, that the lump, or body of the nation of Israel, shall yet be holy.
Romans 11:17 — And if some of the branches be broken off , and thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Before alleging anything further to prove the future conversion of the Jews, Paul here, and onwards to the 25th verse, continues to employ the figure of a tree and its branches. In doing so, he takes occasion to administer a salutary caution to the Gentile believers. In this and the following verses, down to the 25th, he warns them to beware of self preference, or of being puffed up against the Jews, on account of the blessings with which they themselves were now favored. The Jewish nation was God’s olive tree. They were all the people of God in a typical sense, and the greater part of God’s true people had been chosen out of them; but now, by their unbelief, some of the branches were broken off from the tree. By the term ’some,’ as has been observed, Romans 10:14, is meant not all, Hebrews 3:16; for it implies that others, as the Apostle had shown, verses 2-5, remained. And among, or rather instead of, those that were broken off, the Gentiles, who were a wild olive, having had no place in the good olive tree, are now made the children of Abraham by faith in Christ Jesus, Galatians 3:26-29. They were grafted into the good olive tree, whose root Abraham was, and were made partakers of his distinguished privileges. It has sometimes been remarked that there is no grafting in the olive tree. But this makes no difference.
The illustration from the process of grafting is the same, whether the operation be performed in the particular tree mentioned or not. Mr. Stuart says that the wild olive ’was often grafted into the fruitful one when it began to decay, and thus not only brought fruit, but caused the decaying olive to revive and flourish.’ This, however, whether it be fact or not, is not to the purpose of the Apostle, for he is beating down the arrogance of the Gentile believers, and not pointing out the advantages they occasioned to Jews. Nor is the stock of the olive here supposed to be decayed, but to be full of sap and fatness, to partake of which, and not to benefit the fruitful olive, is the wild olive grafted into the tree.
Romans 11:18 — Boast not against the branches : but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
It is probable, from what is here said, that even in the Apostle’s time the Gentile believers were beginning to exhibit an overbearing disposition towards the Jews, and a complacent feeling of self-preference. At all events, the sin against which they are thus warned well describes the spirit that has long prevailed among the Gentiles who profess Christianity. What marvelous ignorance, folly, and vanity, are often displayed even in God’s people! Nothing but the constant lessons of the Spirit of God will teach them that all spiritual difference among men is by God’s grace.
But if thou boast. — Whenever Gentile Christians feel a disposition to boast with respect to the Jews, let them remember not only that the Jews were first the people of God, but that the first Christians were also Jews. The Jews received no advantage from the Gentiles; but, on the contrary, the Gentiles have received much from the Jews, from whom the Gospel sounded out — its first preachers being Jews, and of whom even Christ Himself, as concerning the flesh, came. The Gentile believers become the children of Abraham, and all the blessings they enjoy are in virtue of that relation. Hence the covenant, Jeremiah 31:31, includes all believers; yet it is said only to be made with the house of Israel and Judah.
Romans 11:19 — Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off that I might be graced in.
Romans 11:20 — Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear.
The Gentile believers might reply, that the branches were broken off to give place to them, and in a certain sense this is admitted by the Apostle. But unbelief was the cause of the fall of the Jews, while it is by faith only that the Gentiles stand. It was not, then, on account of their superior merits that they were grafted into the good olive tree, since faith is the gift of God, bestowed on whom He will, and therefore leaves no room for boasting or self-preference. Among the Gentiles who professed the faith, there was soon a great falling away, and ’the man of sin,’ though he boasts of being exclusively the good olive tree — the only true church — is broken off altogether, and doomed to inevitable destruction. It becomes all Christians to be humble, and to fear lest they also fall by error of the same kind. It is very usual, when they perceive the errors of other Christians, to glory over them. This is highly unbecoming. If a Christian understands any part of the will of God of which his brethren are still ignorant, it is God that has made the difference. A haughty spirit goeth before a fall; and if arrogance be indulged by any one, it is likely that God will give him up to some error as pernicious as that into which others whom he despises have fallen.
Romans 11:21 — For if God spared not the natural branches , take heed lest He also spare not thee.
This verse contains another argument by which the Apostle urges the Gentile believers to humility and watchfulness. If the natural branches were not spared, this was an additional reason why those whom He addressed should be on their guard lest they also should fall through unbelief. It appears also to be a prophetical intimation of the apostasy of the great body of the professors of Christianity under the mystery of iniquity.
Romans 11:22 — Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell severity ; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
The Apostle lastly enforces his warning to the Gentile believers by four concluding arguments: First, he calls on them to behold the severity of God’s strict justice in cutting off and casting out the unbelieving Jews. Second, to consider His goodness in conferring unmerited favor on the Gentiles, who had attained that righteousness after which they were not following. Third, to remark the necessity of continuing in that goodness, by abiding in the faith of the Gospel; and, Fourth, to observe the assurance that if they abide not in the faith, they should be themselves cut off. Men generally form in their imagination the character of God according to their own inclination. It is the duty of the Christian to take God’s character as it is given by Himself. His goodness is no evidence that He will not punish the guilty; and the most dreadful punishment of the guilty is consistent with the existence of supreme goodness in the Divine character. That God will yet lay righteousness to the line, and judgment to the plummet, is now seen in His treatment of Israel, whom He had so long spared after they had sinned against Him. Let none imagine, then, that He will spare them if guilty, because they have the name of being His people. Rather let them dread the more terrible vengeance on that account. The evidence that we are the true objects of the goodness of God here mentioned, is, that we continue in it, by continuing in the faith of the Gospel. Continuing in goodness is not to be understood here to mean, our continuing in a state of integrity, according to Mr. Stuart. There is no real difficulty in the expression, continuing in God’s goodness. We continue in God’s goodness, by continuing in the faith.
Romans 11:23 — And they also , if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
The Apostle having, from the beginning of the 17th verse, pressed upon the believing Gentiles the necessity of humility, now reverts to the subject of the future conversion of the Jews. In order to furnish a new proof of this great event, he introduces a fourth argument (see exposition of Romans 10:16), taken from the power of God. God is able to graft them in again. — According to the figure which the Apostle had been employing respecting the casting off and the restoration of that part of the Jewish nation that was blinded, comparing them to branches broken off, there might seem to be no probability that they could be restored. When branches are severed from a tree, they wither and cannot be replaced. Paul, therefore, here refers to the power of God. What is not done in nature, and cannot be effected by the power of man, will be done by God, with whom all things are possible. He is able to make the dry bones live, and to restore the severed branches of the Jewish nation. Some argue that, because the grafting of the Jews into the olive tree here spoken of is conditional, it is not promised. But the Apostle’s design is evidently, even in this verse, to excite hopes by showing its possibility. There is no other ground of exclusion with respect to them but unbelief. If that sin were subdued, they would be received. God is able to graft them in if they believe, and He is able also to give them faith.
Romans 11:24 — For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graced contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
The former argument, drawn from God’s power, is here further insisted on. The Jews were so obstinately prejudiced against the Gospel, that it seemed very improbable that they should ever embrace the truth. But the Apostle had declared the possibility of this being accomplished by the mighty power of God. He now shows its probability. If the Gentiles, he says, who were strangers to the covenants of promise, have been grafted into the good olive tree, how much more is it to be expected that the descendants of the patriarchs, to whom the promises were made, and who are therefore the natural branches, shall be grafted into their own olive tree?
Romans 11:25. — For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, (lest ye should be wise in your own conceits,) that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Having in the two preceding verses exhibited first the possibility, and next the probability, of the restoration of the Jews, according to the order of God’s providence, the Apostle, in this and the following verses, down to the 28th, goes on to prove the certainty of the future conversion and restoration of Israel. He here addresses the Gentiles as his brethren, thus expressing his affection for them, and stimulates their attention, by declaring that he was about to reveal to them a mystery — a thing hitherto hidden or unknown. The restoration of the Jews is called a mystery, for though declared in the Scriptures, it was not understood. And in this mystery there were two parts, both of which are here unfolded, — first, that blindness is happened to Israel in part only; and, secondly, that this blindness should continue till the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. This mystery was opened to prevent the Gentiles from being wise in their own conceits, that is, from being puffed up on account of the preference they now enjoyed. Ignorance of the Scriptures is the cause of high-mindedness in Christians. They are often arrogant and contemptuous through want of knowledge. In the absence of real knowledge, they often suppose that they have a true understanding of things with which they are still unacquainted, and are thus vain and conceited.
Blindness in part is happened to Israel. — This does not mean that their blindness was only partial, and limited in degree, for it was total and complete; but that it did not extend to all Israel, but only to a part, though indeed the far greater part. It is a consolation that the Jews are under no exclusion that forbids the preaching of the Gospel to them, and using every effort for their conversion. Though the national rejection will continue till the appointed time, yet individuals from among them may at any period be brought to the knowledge of God. This fact is of great importance. They are excluded only through unbelief, and this unbelief is not affirmed of all, but only of a part.
Until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. — Here is the clearest attestation that the blindness of the Jews will yet cease, not only as to individuals, but as to the body. It is not stated at what time this will happen, but it is connected with the fullness of the Gentiles. The fullness of the Gentiles is the accession of the Gentiles to the body of Christ. Here we have another glorious truth presented for our consolation. The world has hitherto groaned under heathen and antichristian idolatry, but the time will come when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and this will be closely connected with the recovery of the Jews from their unbelief. This declaration of the Apostle coincides with that remarkable prediction of our blessed Lord: ’Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.’
Romans 11:26 — And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Here the Apostle further unfolds the mystery of which he would not have his brethren to be ignorant. In the foregoing verse he had declared that blindness had come upon Israel — that blindness which he had before shown was inflicted on part of the Jewish nation by the judgment of God, verses 8-10, which would continue till a certain period was accomplished. He now declares that at that period all Israel shall be saved. The rejection of Israel has been general, but at no period universal. This rejection is to continue till the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in. Then the people of Israel, as a body, shall be brought to the faith of the Gospel. Such expressions as that ’all Israel shall be saved,’ are no doubt, in certain situations, capable of limitation; but as no Scripture demands any limitation of this expression, and as the opposition here stated is between a part and all, there is no warrant to make any exception, and with God this, like all other things, is possible.
As it is written. — ’Whether Isaiah, in 59:20,’ says Mr. Stuart, ’had respect to the salvation of Gospel times, has been called in question. But the contest seems to me very clearly to indicate this.’ But why are we to rest our conviction on this point on our view of the connection? The Apostle’s quotation of the words is ground sufficient to bear the conclusion. This method of treating the Apostle’s quotations of prophecy should be most strenuously opposed. That it is prophecy ought to be rested on the ground of its being quoted as prophecy. ’And even if he had respect to temporal deliverance,’ Mr. Stuart continues, ’there can be no difficulty in the Apostle’s using his words as the vehicle of conveying his own thoughts with regard to spiritual deliverance.’ There is indeed no difficulty in supposing that the same prophecy may, in its primary sense, refer to a temporal deliverance, and in its secondary, to a spiritual deliverance. But there is a very great difficulty in supposing that the Apostle would cite a prophecy respecting a temporal deliverance, which had no reference to the deliverance of which he was speaking. This would be very puerile. It would be worse than puerile — it would be a perversion of Scripture. It would be employing a false argument.
There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. — Mount Zion was the special residence of the God of Israel; and out of Zion was to go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, Isaiah 2:3. And though Israel has for a long time departed from Him, yet thither at length will the Redeemer return, and make His word and law powerful to restore them unto Himself. ’He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth,’ Isaiah 11:12.
The Deliverance, etc. — These words are quoted from Isaiah 59:20, ’And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob.’ Here it is said that the Redeemer or Deliverer shall come to Zion; but if He come out of Zion He must have come to it previously; as it is said, Psalms 14:7, ’Oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion.’ Besides, it is added, He shall come, namely, out of Zion, to them who turn from transgression in Jacob; and such must have thus been turned by Him. We may be assured that the Apostle, speaking by the same Spirit as the Prophet, and directed by the Spirit to quote him, has substantially given the meaning of his words. If Jacob be turned away from transgression, it is this Deliverer who will accomplish the object. In this prophecy, in the fifty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, God is represented as doing two things. One is, to reproach the Jews with the multitude and enormity of their transgressions; and the other, to promise to them the redemption of the Messiah, and by Him an everlasting covenant. When, therefore, all nations shall be given to the Messiah, and submit to His authority, the prophecies concerning Him will be fulfilled in their utmost extent, and His reign over all the earth will be established. After having subdued to Himself the whole of the Gentiles, He will not forget the family of Abraham, His friend, in whom, according to His promise, all the families of the earth were to be blessed. Jews and Gentiles shall be all united in Christ, and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Then what is predicted by the Prophet Hosea 3:4, both concerning the present and future condition of the Jews, will all have been strikingly accomplished: ’For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.’ ’Oh, that the salvation of the Lord were come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad,’ Psalms 14:7.
The comings of the Deliverer to Zion is not to be understood of any personal appearance. Jesus Christ has personally appeared once on earth, and He will appear the second time when He comes without sin unto salvation. The Scriptures, however, speak in different ways of His coming, though not in person; as of His coming to set up His kingdom, John 21:22; His coming at death and for judgment, Matthew 24:44-50; His coming for chastisem*nt, Revelation 2:5; His coming in grace and love, John 14:23; Revelation 3:20. And at the appointed time He will come to Zion in His power by His Spirit.
Romans 11:27 — For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
This refers to the verse which follows the one above quoted, Isaiah 59:21. ’As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the Lord: My Spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever’ These words are addressed to the Redeemer, the Restorer of Israel, when God shall take away their sins. This gracious covenant is fully developed, Jeremiah 31:31-34; and again, 32:37-40, where the declaration referred to in the foregoing verse, of turning away ungodliness from Jacob, is more fully expressed. The Apostle grounds his conclusion from the prophecy on the fact that God in these words speaks of a time when He would take away the sins of Israel as a body, and so all Israel shall be saved.
The first characteristic of this covenant to Israel, as declared by Jeremiah, is, that it will be eternal, in opposition to the former covenant, which was temporary and was disannulled. ’Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt: which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord.’ But why shall it be eternal? Why shall it not be broken as the first covenant was? The reason is, ’I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Here is a manifest distinction between this and the former covenant, in which the law was written outwardly in tables of stone; and therefore violated, as not being put in the hearts of the people. Under this covenant, too, it is said that they shall all know the Lord. He will fill their minds with the knowledge of Himself, by His Spirit communicated to them, which formerly He had not done. God, it is added, will also forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more. This is peculiar to the evangelical covenant, which provides a real atonement for sin, which could not be removed by the sacrifices under the law. In these respects the covenant here referred to is distinguished from the former covenant, and will prove effectual for the salvation of all Israel. Immediately after the annunciation of this prophecy, it is solemnly and repeatedly averred that it shall be an unchangeable covenant; and that, sooner than Israel shall again be cut off, the most inviolable laws of God’s providence in the government of nature shall be revoked. ’Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of Hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever Thus saith the Lord: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord.’ Israel, then, shall be restored to their own land, which God gave to Abraham for an everlasting possession. God hath said that He will make a full end of all the nations whither He had driven them, but He will not make a full end of them, Jeremiah 46:28. ’Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: and David My servant shall be king over them; and they shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children for ever,’ Ezekiel 37:21; Ezekiel 37:25. ’And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God,’ Amos 9:15.
Romans 11:28 — As concerning the Apostle, they are enemies for your sakes ; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
The Apostle next obviates an objection that might be brought against the future recall of the Jews. The great body of the nation — all whom the Apostle declared to be judicially blinded — were now the enemies of God with respect — to the Gospel. They had rejected God’s message by His Son, and thus proved themselves His enemies while they called Him their God. The Gentiles, then, might object, How can the Jewish nation ever be grafted in again, seeing they have thus refused to listen to God’s message of reconciliation? This the Apostle answers: first, he grants that they were indeed enemies to God, and were dealt with as enemies for their contempt and disbelief of the Gospel. In the next place, he says that this was for the sake of the Gentiles, or on their account. The rejection of the Jews was, in the inscrutable counsels of Jehovah, connected with and overruled for the salvation of the Gentiles. Some understand the words, ’for your sakes,’ as importing that the Jews were enemies to God because of His sending the Gospel to the Gentiles. This no doubt gave the Jews great offense; but it was before this event that they rejected and crucified Christ.
But as touching the election — The election here spoken of is not the election to eternal life, as that of the remnant according to the election of grace, Romans 10:5. The Apostle is now speaking of the great body of the nation, called the ’rest,’ Romans 10:7, namely, those that were blinded, and the branches broken off, who, in respect of the Gospel, ’were enemies’ to God. This election is of the nation of Israel to be the people of God, in that sense in which no other nation ever was; according to which they are so often called His people, 2 Samuel 7:23-24, etc. The election of Israel ’after the flesh’ was typical of the election of the true Israel of God — even all believers, contracted with those who, although of Israel, were not Israel, chapter 9:6. God had chosen the Jews to be a special people unto Himself, Deuteronomy 7:6, ’Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself.’ Yet they had not a heart to fear the Lord, Deuteronomy 5:29; and they belonged only to that covenant which made nothing perfect, according to which the law was given to them externally, and not written in their hearts, which consequently they braked Jeremiah 31:32.
On the ground of this national election of Israel, the Apostle Peter, when he called them to repentance, addressed them in these words: ’Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children,’ Acts 2:38. And again, ’Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities,’ Acts 3:19; Acts 3:25-26.
Beloved for the fathers’ sake — The election of the nation of Israel was made on account of their fathers, ’Because He loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them.’ And again, ’Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and chose their seed after them, even you, above all people, as it is this day,’ Deuteronomy 4:37; Deuteronomy 10:15. It is immediately added, ’Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked; ’which proves that they were not Jews inwardly, Romans 2:28-29. Compared as they were to a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, their election as a nation was only external, as is verified throughout their whole history.
Romans 11:29 — For the gifts and calling of God are to without repentance.
The Apostle here announces a general truth applicable to the case before him. The purposes of God are unchangeable, and His gifts and callings irrevocable, so that the nation of Israel cannot be deprived of what He engaged to do for them. What He has given them He will not withdraw, and His choice of them as His special people never can be altered. Calling is in this verse equivalent to election in the preceding. This election or calling as a nation cannot be revoked, and that national election was connected with and subservient to the election to eternal life of multitudes of their descendants, at the period when all Israel shall be saved. For this purpose it was, that in the destruction of Jerusalem the whole Jewish nation was not exterminated: ’Except,’ said our blessed Lord, ’those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened,’ Matthew 24:22. The term elect here cannot be applicable to those Jews who had then embraced the Gospel, for the tribulations of those days, even had they not been shortened, would not have caused their destruction, scattered as they were through many countries. It must refer to the elect of God in that future age, when all Israel shall be saved. It was for their sakes, who were to descend from the Jewish people, that the destruction of that people was limited, and for which God was pleased to preserve a part of them, and continues to preserve them to this day. The same reason, then, for this miraculous preservation, had likewise been given by the Prophet Isaiah, ’thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for My servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of My mountains: and Mine elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there, Isaiah 65:8.
Romans 11:30 — For as ye in times past have not believed God , yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief;
Here, and in the following verse, the Apostle produces the last confirmation of his assertion that God had not cast away His people, which is further referred to in the 32nd verse, and is to this effect: as the Gentiles have experienced mercy after a long period of alienation from God, in like manner the Jews will at last receive mercy. Whether the original be translated have not obeyed or have not believed, it comes to the same thing. The unbelief or disobedience of the Gentiles in former times, after they lost the knowledge of the righteousness of God, preached to the world by Noah, 2 Peter 2:5, respected not His word, but the knowledge of God as revealed in His works. This unbelief or disobedience, during their heathenish state, although not so aggravated, is as properly a ground of their condemnation as the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews. It is on this account that the Apostle says, chapter 1:20, that they were without excuse; and, in chapter 2:12, that as many as have sinned without law (the written law) shall perish; and in the 14th and 15th verses, he assumes as the reason, that they had the work of the law — what it teaches — which they transgressed, written in their hearts.
Yet have now obtained mercy — The calling of the Gentiles out of the darkness and pollution of Paganism, was the result of the pure mercy of God. How different is the language of many on this subject! They seem to think that, as the heathens have not enjoyed the benefit of the revelation of grace, it would be unjust to condemn them for their transgressions. Through their unbelief — Nothing can be plainer than that in God’s plan it was necessary that the Jews should reject the Gospel, in order that it should be given to the Gentiles; yet why this was necessary we cannot tell. As far as appears to us, God might from the very first have made both Jews and Gentiles, to any extent, equally partakers of His grace, as He has promised He will do at last. Let us be satisfied that God has told us that a contrary mode of proceeding was necessary, without any vain attempts to develop the grounds of this necessity, which He Himself has not revealed. The belief of many in the word of God appears not to go further than what they imagine they can account for. To anything beyond this they refuse to hearken. This is not faith.
Romans 11:31 — Even so have these also now not believed , that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
God abandoned the Jews to unbelief, in order that their restoration might prove as signal an exhibition of mercy as the grace now bestowed on the idolatrous heathens. Had the Jews all received the Gospel at first, both they and the world at large would have been inclined to believe that they did not need the same conversion or the same grace as the Gentiles. This would have confirmed the view which they hold of themselves, as by hereditary descent from Abraham entitled to heaven, and the privileges of Messiah’s kingdom. But when they have crucified the Son of God, and continued in the most blasphemous rebellion against Him for so many hundred years, their conversion will display mercy as distinguished as the mercy that called the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, and were not seeking God. If the unbelief of the Jews was the occasion of showing mercy to the Gentiles, so the mercy shown to the Gentiles shall be the occasion of showing mercy to the Jews. Your mercy. The same mercy that saved the believing heathens, without any mixture of merit, shall save the Jews; and through the affect of that mercy shown to the Gentiles the Jews shall obtain mercy.
Romans 11:32 — For God hath concluded them all in unbelief , that He might have mercy upon all.
As the conclusion of the foregoing discussion respecting the restoration of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, the Apostle here refers to the present state of the Jews, and the past state of the Gentiles. He declares the perversity and unbelief of all who have been saved, without exception, and shows that their salvation is solely the effect of the mercy of God. God has shut them up in unbelief under the guilt and power of sin, like condemned criminals in prison, without any possibility of escaping, except by means of that salvation which, in His good pleasure, is provided for their deliverance. The Gentiles who believed had been formerly in this condition; now it was the case with the great body of the nation of the Jews.
God having thus been pleased alternately to shut up Jews and Gentiles in unbelief, it will thus appear that both the one and the other are called to the knowledge of Himself out of pure mercy. He had left men to walk in their own ways, having abandoned the nations of the earth to that state of blindness and misery in which they were plunged. During that period He only manifested Himself to the family of Abraham, and to small nation, by which He clearly testified that the communication which He chose still to hold with men proceeded solely from grace and His own good pleasure. For if it had been in any manner due why was it not granted to all? Or if not granted to all, at least to the greater number, and not limited to so small a portion? Israel, however, forgot this distinguishing favor of God, and regarded it as a privilege necessarily attached to their descent from Abraham, not remembering that Abraham himself had been chosen from the mass of idolaters, and that they had been slaves in Egypt, addicted to the superstitions of that country. God was now pleased to shut up them also in unbelief, and to turn to those nations which neither knew Him nor were inquiring after Him. By doing so, His gratuitous mercy was revealed anew, and exhibited to men and angels. Besides this reason for the restriction of His peculiar revelation of grace at the beginning to the Israelites alone, it would seem that God purposed to allow the empire of Satan to attain all the power and extent of which it was capable, that, on the one hand, the greatness of human depravity might appear in all its direful effects, so that in the example of the miserable state of men thus abandoned to themselves, those whom God hath chosen may see, as in a faithful mirror, the hideousness of sin, as well as the necessity for the grace of God. On the other hand, by this means the work of the redemption of the Messiah is exalted, and its glory fully exhibited. At first God showed ’His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel.’ And it is added, ’He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them,’ Psalms 147:19-20.
The Jews were thus preserved from idolatry, into which the other nations had fallen; and although the covenant under which they had been placed was abolished, they still continued under its bondage, Galatians 4:25. God Himself hardened their hearts, and abandoned them to their deep-rooted prejudices, since they had rejected the Messiah. In this condition they have continued attached to that covenant, shut up in their adherence to it in unbelief, and thus separated from all other nations. But though this be a punishment, it is overruled in the wisdom of God, so that in the end He may show mercy to the whole nation. Their house has been left unto them desolate; they have rejected Him who would have gathered them to Himself as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings. But even in the moment of this rejection, Jesus announced that the day will arrive when they shall say, ’Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ God then shut up both Jews and Gentiles together in unbelief, that He might in saving them manifest to both the same mercy. Had not the Jews rejected the Gospel at first, their ultimate salvation would not have so eminently appeared to be the glorious result of the exercise of God’s sovereign mercy.
Romans 11:33. — O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!
Romans 11:34 — For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor?
Romans 11:35 — Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Romans 11:36 — For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever Amen.
Before passing onward to the practical conclusions which flow from the grand and peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, the Apostle pauses to contemplate the ground which he had traversed; and, looking back upon the whole, he exclaims with astonishment and admiration, ’O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God How unsearchable are His Judgments, and His ways past finding out!’ In thus concluding the discussion of those deep and awful subjects which, in the former part of this Epistle, had successively engaged his attention, Paul most emphatically intimates the impossibility of comprehending the infinitude of the Divine attributes. But far from judging, like many, that we have nothing to do with such mysteries as the sovereignty of God in justifying ’the ungodly,’ and choosing or rejecting sinners according to His own good pleasure, he had delighted to expatiate on the glorious perfections of Jehovah as displayed in these doctrines. And as they bear most directly upon the state and security of Christians, he designates them in the beginning of the next chapter the ’mercies of God,’ involving all the blessings in store for Jews and Gentiles, and constituting the foundation and support of all his exhortations to practical duty. He thus teaches that these doctrines are conducive in the highest degree to the advancement of holiness, and that in no respect do they interfere with the responsibility of man.
Paul, however, by no means denies that these great truths are ’hard to be understood’ by men who, accounting themselves ’wise and prudent,’ refuse to receive the kingdom of God as ’little children.’ On the contrary, he intimates the absolute impossibility of giving utterance to the boundless and unfathomable incomprehensibility of the Divine attributes as manifested in God’s dealings with the children of men. How often does the profane ingenuity of man pretend to fathom, and sometimes even dares to arraign, the inscrutable ways of Jehovah! But what a contrast does the Apostle’s language, in these concluding verses of this chapter, present to the vain and presumptuous speculations of some interpreters of Scripture! Multitudes receive the testimony of God only so far as they can satisfactorily account for all the reasons and grounds of His conduct, when measured according to the petty scale of their limited capacity. How unbecoming in such a creature as man! Shall he who is but ’of yesterday,’ and ’knows nothing,’ who is born ’like a wild ass’s colt,’ pretend to penetrate the counsels of the Omniscient!
If this great Apostle, enjoying as he did such unexampled privileges, favored as he was with such ’abundance of revelations,’ and writing under the dictation of the Holy Ghost, was thus compelled to confess that the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God were unsearchable, how vain and idle are all the speculations and conjectures on the subject of this world’s wisdom! It is not difficult for one man to judge of the plans and designs of another. But the judgments of the Lord must, like their Author, be infinite, and consequently can neither be measured by a finite capacity, nor ascertained further than they are revealed from the fountain of light. The Lord knows the hearts of His creatures; but the combined intellect of men and angels would be alike insufficient to penetrate the secrets of Deity The wisest of men need counsel from others. The angels, we are told, ’desire to look into’ the works of their Creator, in order to make new acquisitions of knowledge. But the majesty of God stands alone in the universe. He needs no counselor; and neither in the work of creation, nor in the still more astonishing scheme of redemption, does He take counsel. From the various ways in which men explain the revelation of God’s salvation of sinners, we see what advice they would have given had they been permitted to assist in devising a plan for the operation of Divine mercy. God’s plan of redemption is so deep and peculiar to Himself, that man does not comprehend it, even when it is presented to his view, unless the eyes of his understanding are enlightened by the Holy Spirit of God. Well, then, may the Apostle exclaim, in the contemplation of the majesty of God, and the unsearchable riches of His wisdom and knowledge, Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor? The same question substantially was put to Job, when the Lord answered him out of the whirlwind, and all the proud imaginations which he had conceived, in the agitation of his spirit, were in a moment humbled in the dust. ’I know that Thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore I have uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.’ To the same effect also, the Psalmist David, in the 131st Psalm, appeals to the Lord that he received the kingdom of God as a little child, and was not proudly attempting to scan the secret counsels of Jehovah ’Lord,’ he exclaims, ’my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever’ The Apostle, in addition to what he had declared of the unsearchableness of the Lord’s judgments, adds, as another reason why man should cease proudly to challenge the proceedings of his Maker, Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? He thus at once declares the spring of all our knowledge, and consequently our inability to pursue our inquiries beyond the bounds of revelation; while at the same time he again reminds us how utterly impossible it is for a creature to bring his Creator under obligations. How absurd, how impious, must it then be to speak of the merit of our good works!
The conclusion to which the Apostle is conducted by all these considerations, is expressed in the last verse of the chapter. For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever — Here we have the grand truth which lies at the foundation of all religion. All things are of God, for He is the Author of all; His will is the origin of all existence. All things are through Him, for all things are created by Him as the grand agent. All things are likewise to Him for all things tend to his glory as their final end.
Philosophers represent the communication of happiness as the chief end of man and of creation. But the Scriptures uniformly declare the glory of the Creator as the paramount object of all that takes place throughout the vast limits of the universe. To this the entrance of sin among angels and men is no exception. In itself sin is an affront to the majesty of God. But there can be no doubt that the results of sin, as well as of all the evil we behold in the world, shall signally enhance the glory of the Divine character. It was necessary in order to show God to be what He is. Had sin never existed, there would have been no opportunity of manifesting the righteous displeasure of God against it, and His justice in punishing it; nor of displaying His wonderful power in turning to His glory that which in itself is a dishonor to Him. This is the very reason given by the Apostle for God’s suffering the vessels of wrath. ’What if God, willing to show His wrath, and make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.’ That God not only permitted, but willed the entrance of sin among men, is clear from the very creation of the world, and its adaptation to illustrate the work of redemption. From the nineteenth Psalm, there can be no doubt that the sun of the firmament was, from his first dawn, a glorious type of the Sun of Righteousness; and in his manner of enlightening the earth, a figure of Him who is the light of the world, as well as of the course and progress of the Gospel. The resting from the work of creation, and the first Sabbath, were calculated to shadow the rest of the Lord Jesus from the more important work of redemption, and the glorious and everlasting rest which remaineth for the people of God. The formation of Adam and Eve, and the relation of marriage, most evidently were regulated with reference to the future relation of Christ and His Church, Ephesians 5:32. Redemption, then, was in the view of God in the creation of man. From all eternity it was purposed by Him ’who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by (means of) the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord,’ Ephesians 3:9. Grace was given to His people in Christ Jesus, and eternal life was promised by God that cannot lie, before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2.
It is not possible that God would have purposed the entrance of sin, had He not been able to turn it to His glory. No man would act in the way in which many consider God in this matter to have acted. Could any man foresee that what he was about to do would turn to his dishonor and injury, and would he not avoid it? And shall God will and foresee that sin should enter, and shall He permit its entrance, if it is ultimately to prove dishonorable to His character? To suppose that there were innumerable plans of creation present to the mind of the Creator, that each of them had advantages and disadvantages, and that God chose that which upon the whole was best, is nothing but disguised Atheism. This supposes that the Creator is neither all-wise nor all-powerful.
The universal apostasy of the nations of the earth from the worship of God, and the present apostasy of the Jews, are things apparently dishonorable to God, and which man with God’s power would not have permitted. But both are according to the counsel of God, and will redound to His glory. We cannot understand how this can be so. It is to us a depth unfathomable; but it is a truth which no Christian should find difficult to believe, because it is plainly testified in the word of God. The Apostle wonders at it, but does not pretend to explain it. His language in closing this subject is a recognition that the ways of Jehovah are beyond the grasp of the human intellect. ’O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!’ Though Satan, then, is the God of this world, yet God is glorified in all the evil that Satan has introduced. In every part of Scripture, Jehovah is seen to be glorified: in His judgments as well as in His grace, in His wrath as well as in His mercy, in those who are lost as well as in those who are saved. However disagreeable this may be to the mind of the natural man, it is truly reasonable. Can there be a higher end than the glory of the Divine character? And can man, who is a fallen and lost creature, share with His offended Sovereign in the glory of his recovery? Such a thought is as incongruous as it is unscriptural. If there be hope for the guilty, if there be recovery to any from the ruin of the fall, it is the voice of reason, properly exercised, as well as of the Divine word, that it must come from God Himself.
The practical influence of the truth contained in these concluding verses is illustrated by the following extract from the Author’s ’Letter, addressed, in 1824, to Mr. Cheneviere, the well-known Socinian, and yet Pastor and Professor of Divinity at Geneva.’ ’There was nothing brought under the consideration of the students of divinity who attended me at Geneva, which appeared to contribute so effectually to overthrow their false system of religion, founded on philosophy and vain deceit, as the sublime view of the majesty of God presented in the four concluding verses of this part of the Epistle. Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things. Here God is described as His own last end in everything that He does. Judging of God as such an one as themselves, they were at first startled at the idea that He must love Himself supremely, infinitely more than the whole universe, and consequently must prefer His own glory to everything besides. But when they were reminded that God in reality is infinitely more amiable and more valuable than the whole creation, and that consequently, if He views things as they really are, He must regard Himself as infinitely worthy of being more valued and loved, they saw that this truth was incontrovertible. Their attention was at the same time directed to numerous passages of Scripture, which assert that the manifestation of the glory of God is the great end of creation that He has Himself chiefly in view in all His works and dispensations, and that it is a purpose in which He requires that all His intelligent creatures should acquiesce, and seek and promote it as their first and paramount duty. Passages to this effect, both in the Old and New Testament, far exceed in number what any one who has not examined the subject is at all aware of.’
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER XII – Romans 12:1-21
HERE we enter on the second division of this Epistle, where Paul, according to his accustomed method, enforces the duties of believers, by arguments dependent on his previous exhibition of the grand and influential doctrines of the Gospel. These doctrines, as well as all the commandments of God, may be summed up in one word, namely, in LOVE. By the view which they present of the goodness, the forbearance, and the long-suffering of God, believers are daily led to repentance, while the contemplation of the Divine compassion and philanthropy is calculated to beget reciprocal confidence and child-like affection. ’We have known and believed,’ says the Apostle John, ’the love that God hath to us.’ ’We love Him because He first loved us.’ This love of God does not exclude reverential fear and filial devotion; of which, on the contrary, it is the principle and the foundation — while both together unite in the spirit of adoption to inspire the cry, ’Abba, Father!’
Romans 12:1 — I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Brethren — The Apostle addresses the believers at Rome as his brethren, as standing on the same level with himself regarding acceptance with God. I beseech you — We may here remark the difference between the endearing manner of address often used by inspired Apostles, and the haughty, overbearing tone of Popish antichristian tyranny. Those whose authority was avouched by mighty signs and wonders, whose very word was command, strive frequently to express commands as entreaties. Therefore — This may have reference to what had been said in the foregoing chapter respecting the Gentiles and the Jewish nation in general, to whom, as being part of the elect remnants, some of those addressed belonged; or rather, as he now enters on the second division of the Epistle, Paul here refers to those grand doctrines of the Gospel which, in the preceding part of it, he had been unfolding, denominating the whole of them, as forming together the great plan of salvation, the mercies of God.
By the mercies of God — The word mercies or compassions is here used in the plural number, because it refers to the different instances before enumerated of Divine compassion. In the foregoing chapter, the Apostle had been declaring the mercies of God in the calling and restoration both of the Gentiles and the Jews, Rom 12:31. But the whole of his preceding discourse contained a most striking and encouraging display of the mercies of God to all believers, in their election and predestination to eternal life, their calling, their deliverance from condemnation, their justification, their union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and communion with God, with the enjoyment of all the unspeakable blessings of the new covenant. Christians are here urged to devote themselves to the service of God by the consideration of these mercies because they present the strongest motives to obedience. How different is the mind of the Apostle from the mind of the world on this subject! The wisdom of this world rejects the grace of the Gospel, because it is thought to lead to licentiousness. The interests of morality are supposed to be better secured when salvation is suspended on men’s good works, than when it is represented as flowing from the Divine compassion. But Paul presents the mercies of God to the mind of believers, as the most powerful incitement to devote themselves to His service. In the remainder of the Epistle, we find him as strenuous in pressing the duty of holiness and personal obedience, as in the previous part of it, in insisting on those truths on which obedience is founded. This ought to convince of their error those who, misunderstanding the doctrine which the Apostle teaches, imagine that it is inconsistent with attention to the peculiar duties of Christianity. It will, however, be seen that the persons who seem to fear that his doctrine tends to licentiousness, are equally opposed to the strictness of his precepts, the observance of which they speak of as impracticable.
That represent your bodies — There is no necessity, with Mr. Stuart and the majority of commentators, to understand the term ’bodies’ as denoting both soul and body. It is of the body that the Apostle here speaks, and it is not proper to extract out of his language more than it contains. The expression evidently makes a distinction between themselves and their bodies. Those addressed are entreated to present their bodies, and the body is here considered as the sacrifice. This, indeed, cannot be done without the soul, yet this is not the thing expressed. This shows the importance of serving God with the body as well as with the soul. Every member of the body is to be employed in the service of God. Many, when they use their members sinfully, attempt to excuse themselves, and found a plea for pardon, by alleging that they have a good heart. But we see from this passage that God requires the service of the body as well as that of the mind. Besides, an exclusive reference to the body comports better with the figure of offering a sacrifice. The apostle seems to summon attention peculiarly to our actions or outward deportment, which are of so great importance to the Christian life. But, in addition to this, if we extend the expression further, and include in it the whole man, we lose the beauty of the connection in the 2nd verse, which relates particularly, and likewise exclusively, to the state and frame of the mind.
Sacrifice — This term is used figuratively. It intimates that there are now no proper sacrifices. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross has put an end to sacrifices. The sacrifice of the mass, then, is an invention of man, and an abomination to God. It is also observable that even figuratively it is not the Lord’s Supper, but the service of the body, that is here called a sacrifice. The phraseology that afterward prevailed, by which the table whereon the bread and wine were placed was called the altar, has no countenance in the word of God, even as a figure of speech. Living sacrifice. — This is called a living sacrifice, in distinction from the sacrifices of the law, in which the animal offered was put to death. The phraseology is quite similar to the phrases living bread and living way. Dr. Macknight, then, entirely errs when he explains the phrase as signifying ’an excellent sacrifice,’ from the circ*mstance that animals were brought alive to the altar. Formerly those believers thus called on to offer their bodies a living sacrifice were dead in trespasses and sins, and had yielded their members as servants to iniquity; but now they were quickened, and risen with Christ, to walk in newness of life. And as the sacrifices were wholly devoted to God, so believers ought to be wholly consecrated to His service, preserving their bodies pure as temples of the Holy Ghost, and remembering that they themselves are living stones, built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Holy — It was necessary that the sacrifices of the law should be holy, or free from everything that would render them ceremonially unclean. In like manner, the bodies of the saints must be holy as well as their souls. They must not be employed in the service of sin, else they cannot be fit to be presented to the Lord. Acceptable unto God — The Jewish sacrifices, even if offered according to the law, now ceased to be acceptable to God, since they were abolished by the coming of their antitype, the lamb of God. But the preparation of the bodies of believers is a service that is always well pleasing to God. This and other such things as are obviously appointed are the only sacrifices acceptable to God. The sacrifice of the mass not being appointed by God, and actually subversive of the sacrifice of the cross, instead of being agreeable to God, must be odious in His sight.
Your reasonable service — This evidently refers to the distinction between the service of the Jews by sacrifices and ceremonial worship, and the service of Christians. Sacrificial worship, and, in general, the whole ceremonial ritual of the Jews, were not worship according to reason. It is, indeed, reasonable to worship God in whatever way He prescribes; but had not man fallen, he would not have been required to worship by such ceremonies as the Jewish law enjoined. Sacrificial worship is not in itself rational, and was appointed by God not for its own excellence, but from its adaptation to prefigure the good things to come. Many commentators appear to have mistaken the true meaning of this phrase, from an ill-grounded fear that it is disrespectful to the Divine appointments to suppose that they are not in themselves rational. This, however, is an important and obvious truth. Sacrificial service was appointed only as a shadow, and when abolished, is classed by the Apostle among ’the weak and beggarly elements.’ But to worship God with our bodies is as rational as to worship Him with our souls. Such worship, then, is called reasonable worship or service, as distinguished from the Jewish ritual. Mr. Locke imagines that it is opposed to the irrational worship of the heathen. But to this the contrast is not exclusively confined; for it is evident that the sacrifices of the pagans were of the same kind as those of the Jews. If the nature of the one kind of sacrifices was irrational, so also must be the other. The difference between the heathen sacrifices and those of the Jews did not consist in the things offered, but in the object of the offerings. The one was appointed of God, and was accepted of God: the other was not only not appointed by God, but was an act of homage to devils. Agreeably to this view, it may be asserted with the utmost confidence, that sacrifices are of Divine appointment, and not an invention of men. They are not in themselves rational, and no abuse of reason would have led to such a practice.
Romans 12:2 — And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
And be not conformed to this world. — ’World’ here denotes the people or inhabitants of the world. But there is no allusion, as Dr. Macknight supposes, to the heathen world. The same exhortation is as applicable to men in every age, even since so large a portion of the world has assumed the name of Christian, as it was to the pagan Roman empire. The wicked are called the world, not, as Dr. Macknight imagines, as the whole is put for a part, but on the principle that the righteous are comparatively so few. As the nation of Israel was so small in number as not to be counted among the nations, so are the people of God among the inhabitants of the earth. They are not counted in the world. ’We know,’ says the Apostle John, ’that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.’ By conformity to the world is meant assimilation to the people of the world; or the sentiments, conduct, and customs by which they are distinguished. It is the character of those who are dead in trespasses and sins, that they walk ’according to the course of this world,’ acting conformably to those maxims which regard only the present life; and they ’who mind earthly things’ are described as the enemies of the cross of Christ; but the conversation of believers, as being pilgrims and strangers, is in heaven. This prohibition, however, respects those things only that are sinful, and does not require singularity in the Christian in anything that is not contrary to the law of Christ. Pride may be indulged in the singularities of austerity, as well as in the imitation of fashionable folly. A sound Christian mind will have no difficulty in making the necessary discrimination on this subject.
Transformed — This word signifies the change of the appearance of one thing into that of another. It is used by the fabulous writers to signify the change or metempsychosis of animals into trees, or of men into the appearance of other animals. This term denotes the entire change that passes on a man when he becomes a Christian. He is as different from what he was before, as one species of animal is from another. Let not men be so far the dupes of self-deception as to reckon themselves Christians, while they are unchanged in heart and life. ’If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (or creation); old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.’ If there be not a radical difference between their present state and that in which they were by nature, they have no title to the character of Christians. This shows that, in general, it is not difficult to discriminate Christians from the world. If the change be as great as the word of God here teaches, what difficulty can there be, in most cases, in judging of the character of those who profess Christianity? It is not the heart we are called to judge. If the person be metamorphosed, as the word originally implies, from a state of nature to a conformity with Christ, it will certainly appear, and the state of the heart will be evident from the life. As there are degrees in this transformation, although all Christians are transformed when they are born again, yet they ought to be urged, as here, to a further degree of this transformation.
Renewing of your mind. — It is not the conduct merely, but the heart itself, of the Christian that is changed; and it is from the renewal of the mind that the conduct is also renewed. The transformation or change that passes on the man who becomes a believer of the Gospel, is not one produced by enthusiastically imaginations, monkish austerity, or a spirit of legalism, endeavoring to attain salvation by good works. It is produced by the renewing of the mind, and by that only. Many persons become for a time changed in conduct from various motives, who are not changed in heart by the Spirit of God, and the truth believed respecting the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But such changes are generally temporary, and though they should continue for life, they are of no value in the sight of God. That change of life which the Lord will approve, is a change produced by the renovation of the mind, in the understanding, the affections, and the will.
That ye may prove. The word in the original signifies both to prove and to approved, but we cannot so properly say approve what is the will of God. The passage seems to assert that to find out and discriminate the will of God with respect to those things that He requires and forbids, it is necessary to be renewed in the mind. Calvin well remarks, ’If the renewal of our mind is necessary for the purpose of proving what the will of the Most High is, we may hence see how much this mind is opposed to God.’ Indeed, nothing can be more true than that these renewal of the mind is necessary for a successful inquiry into every part of the will of God. The natural man is in everything opposed to the mind of God.
Good — The will of God is here distinguished as good; because, however much the mind may be opposed to it, and how much soever we may think that it curtails our pleasures, and mars our enjoyments, obedience to God conduces to our happiness. To follow His law is even in this world calculated to promote happiness. Acceptable — That which the Lord enjoins is acceptable to Him, and surely this is the strongest motive to practice it. Nothing else is acceptable to Him, however specious it may appear to human wisdom. All injunctions that proceed merely from men in Divine things are unacceptable to God. He approves of nothing but obedience to His own commands. All the injunctions, then, that men submit to, in obedience to the mandates of the Church of Rome, are unacceptable to God. They are abomination in His sight. Perfect will of God. — The will of God as exhibited in His word is perfect. Nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken from it; yet that monstrous system of Antichristianity which has so long, in the name of Christ, lorded it over the world, has added innumerable commands to those of Christ, and even taken away many of His laws.
Romans 12:3 — For I say , through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
For appears to indicate the reason why those who were addressed should in all things ascertain the will of God. By introducing a particular instance of the importance of this duty, Paul enjoins the necessity of giving heed to his exhortation. It is the will of God that His people should make a just estimate of their own gifts, and not from ignorance overvalue themselves and despise others. I say, by the grace given unto me. — Although Paul sometimes addresses believers, as in the beginning of this chapter, in the humblest and most affectionate style, yet at other times, as in these words, he employs that tone of authority which was the prerogative of an Apostle. He calls on them to attend to his words, as remembering that he did not speak of himself; but, as he elsewhere expresses it, ’as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.’ The grace given unto me — This grace or favor bestowed upon Paul, is the of force of an Apostle. But it is not correct to say that grace in this place signifies apostleship. The apostleship was a grace or favor; but favor or grace is not apostleship. Grace or favor includes, but by no means signifies, that office, although it is one of the innumerable gifts conferred by grace. To explain grace as signifying office, as is often done, is an instance of that unsound criticism that makes a word specifically designate whatever its general meaning includes, which, though in this instance it may be harmless is productive of much false interpretation. To every man that is among you — The Epistle was addressed to all in the church at Rome, and consequently they were all included in the exhortation that follows. When, therefore, the Apostle addresses them here individually, it shows that the dissuasive refers to a thing to which all of them were naturally much inclined. With this, fact corresponds. All men are prone to overvalue themselves; and therefore to each of them Paul thus pointedly brings home the exhortation.
Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think — In the two foregoing verses the Apostle had been enjoining the duty of entire devotedness to God, both in body and soul. Nothing could tend more powerfully to render his exhortation ineffectual, or stand more in the way of the performance of those duties on which, in the following part of the Epistle, he was about to expatiate, than high-mindedness in those whom he addressed. According, therefore, to the example of our Lord, both in His Sermon on the Mount, and when inviting sinners to come to Him, Paul begins here by inculcating humility. He warns each of them not to form a higher opinion of himself than his faith in God warranted. To this all are naturally prone; but there is an opposite error, assuming the semblance of obedience to this exhortation, which ought equally to be avoided. This is an affectation of humility by speaking of one’s self contemptuously. This species of hypocrisy ought to be avoided. When an author speaks of his poor abilities, and tells us he is the most unfit man for the work he has undertaken, he is generally insincere; but if not insincere, he must be unwise; for God never requires us to exercise a talent which He has not bestowed on us. Think soberly — Christians are here directed to make a sound and moderate estimate of their own gifts, which will preserve them from both extremes, — on the one hand, from overrating, and, on the other, from unduly depreciating, their attainments or talents.
According as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. — God hath given us here, by the Apostle, a standard by which we may measure ourselves. Of the term ’faith’ in this place, various explanations are given; but that it simply means faith in its usual acceptation throughout the Scriptures, as this is the most obvious, so it appears to be its true import. By faith we are united to the Savior, and by faith is received out of His fullness all that is imparted to us by God. The measure, then, of faith, with which each believer is blessed, whether strong faith or weak, great faith or little, indicates with certainty both his real character before God, and his relative standing among other believers. According, therefore, to his faith, as evidenced by his works, every Christian ought to estimate himself: The man who has the greatest faith is the highest in the school of Christ. We here also learn that not only faith, but every degree of it, is the gift of God; for men believe according as God hath dealt to each of them the measure of faith; and ’unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.’ By the consideration of the manner in which the Apostle thus enforces his admonition, the believer will both be moderated in his own esteem, and also in his desire for the esteem of others. He will consequently be much less exposed to encounter what may inflame his pride, or tend to his discouragement.
Romans 12:4 — For as we have many members in one body , and all members have not the same office;
The Apostle here illustrates the union and connection of believers, by the figure of the wonderful structure of the human body. Every member has its proper place in the body, and its proper function to perform, and every member is valuable according as it is useful in the body. But no member is useless. For the smallest and least honorable is useful. But this does not imply, as Mr. Stuart understands it, that there is no superiority of value among the members. This is contrary to obvious fact, and contrary to the nature of the figure here employed. One member of the human body is more useful, and, as Paul says to the Corinthians, more honorable than another; but the least honorable is useful, and to be treated with respect. ’To show,’ says Mr. Stuart, ’that no one has any reason to set up himself as superior to others, the Apostle now introduces the admirable comparison of the body of Christ, i.e., the Church, with the human body.’ Surely it is not to teach us that all the members of the body of Christ are equally valuable, that the Apostle introduces the comparison. Such a comparison would be very ill chosen; for among the members of the body there is a great variety in their relative scale of importance. Who would not rather lose a joint of his finger than his eye? But while one member is more important than another in the human body, as well as in the body of Christ, every member is important; every member has its peculiar function, which contributes to the good of the whole, and which the most honorable members are not adapted to perform. The eye is a more important member than the foot, but the eye could not perform for the good of the body that function which the foot performs. The eye, therefore, as well as every other member of the body, ought to honor the foot, according to the value of the services it is adapted to perform. Office. — This does not mean office in a restricted sense, because every member of the body has such an office. It means office in its general sense of function.
Romans 12:5 — So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one remembers one of another.
So we, being many, are one body. — This is not to be restricted to one church, as to the church at Rome, to which it was written, but refers to the Church of Christ, which embraces His people of all ages, and of all countries. The feeblest disciple, even he who of the whole number is least instructed in his Master’s will, has still his place in the body, and his use in that place. Whatever church, then, refuses to receive any Christian for want of knowledge of any part of the will of Christ, acts against the spirit of this passage. It is wrong either to refuse admission to Christ’s known people, or to admit His known enemies. In Christ. — Not, as Dr. Macknight understands it, ’under Christ.’ It is not by our being under Christ that our union is effected with one another, but by being in Christ. Members one of another. — By being united in Christ, believers become members of one another, that is, they are united to each other, as all the members of the body are united. The most remote members are united by their union with the body. The hands and the feet have fellowship through the intervening members. Hence Christians ought to love one another as parts of themselves. As the Apostle says, no man ever hated his own body; and he that loveth his wife loveth himself. For a like reason, a Christian, when loving his fellow-Christians, is loving himself. It is thus that Christians, in the Church of Christ, taken individually, are many, and are together one body in Christ, having the Spirit of Christ, and all of them are members one of another. This consideration ought to operate powerfully to unite them. There is a sectarian partiality, ’distinct from this, too often found among the professors of Christianity. But as the union of Christians, here represented by that of the members of the human body, respects none but real Christians, and as it respects all such, whether they be eternally united in Christian fellowship with us or not, we ought to cultivate love to them as to the disciples of Christ, of whatever name, and cherish this love to them, on the ground of their union with Christ. We ought to unite with the Apostle in praying ’Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.’
Romans 12:6 — Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. — Upon this Dr. Macknight observes: — ’As the grace of apostleship signifies the office of an apostle graciously conferred, so the grace here said to be given to the Romans may mean the particular station and office in the Church assigned to individuals by Christ.’ But the word grace has neither the one signification nor the other. It is that favor by which Christ confers His gifts on the members of His body. Office in the Church belongs to few of them, but they all possess gifts or talents by which they may be useful to the body. Many of the gifts possessed when the Apostle wrote, were gifts miraculously bestowed; but even at that time they were not all such. And the word gifts includes those gifts that are given in providence, or conferred by constitution, talent, birth, education, and other circ*mstances, as well as the extraordinary gifts immediately conferred by the Holy Spirit. Riches and natural eloquence are gifts, as well as the miraculous ability to speak in languages not previously learned. Christians, then, should consider everything they possess as a gift bestowed by God, which they should cultivate and use to His glory, and for which they are accountable. If a Christian misspends his money, his time, his abilities, his influence, or any talent which God has conferred on him, he is not misspending his own, but, is misspending what is entrusted to him by God. He is unfaithful in his trust.
Whether prophecy — Prophecy strictly signifies the foretelling of future events. But it seems also to be extended to denote any message from God, whether relating to things present or to come, and, in the New Testament, to refer to the exposition of Scripture. Calvin, after remarking that ’some mean by prophecy the power of prediction which flourished in the Church at its commencement,’ afterwards observes, ’I prefer the opinion of those commentators who take the word in a more extended sense, and apply it to the peculiar gift of explaining revelation, according as any one executes with skill and dexterity the office of an interpreter in declaring the will of God. Prophecy, therefore, at this period, is nothing else in the Christian Church than the proper understanding of Scripture, and a peculiar faculty of explaining the same; since all the ancient prophecies, and all the oracles of God, were contained in Christ and His Gospel. For Paul understood it in this sense, 1 Corinthians 14:5, when he said, ’I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that you prophesied’ ’We know in part, and we prophesy in part,’ 1 Corinthians 13:9. For it does not appear that Paul was only desirous in this passage to recount those admirable graces by which Christ ennobled His Gospel at the beginning, but rather gives a statement of ordinary gifts, which certainly remain in the church.
Proportion of faith. — They were to speak according to the extent of their information or measure of faith. This passage does not appear to relate to that principle of interpretation which is called the analogy of faith. This is a canon of Scripture interpretation which has no doubt been abused; but when rightly applied, as the word of God must be consistent with itself, it seems both reasonable and useful. Since the time of Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen, who keenly opposed this principle, it has been generally renounced by expositors of Scripture; yet, when viewed in a proper light, it is by no means liable to the exceptions made to it. The objections which Dr. Campbell brings against it are fully obviated in Dr. Carson’s late work, entitled, Examination of the Principles of Biblical Interpretation of Ernesti; Ammon, Stuart, and other Philologists, pp. 103-108.[58]
Romans 12:7 — Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching.
Or ministry — The word in the original is that which appropriately designates the office of the deacon. If it refers to office, it must refer to this officer. For though ministry equally applies to Apostles, and all who serve in the Gospel, yet appropriately it refers to one office; and when it is applied to others, it is with circ*mstances that make the reference obvious. Indeed, what is here said applies to all offices as well as to that of the deacon; but this should not influence us so as to prevent our ascertaining its immediate reference. There is no necessity here to restrict the word to an official meaning, for it will apply to everyone who devotes himself to the interests of the body of Christ. As Howard, the philanthropist, was to humanity, so may many Christians be to the Church of Christ, — at least, to that part of it with which they are more immediately connected. He that teacheth on teaching — Fitness to teach is a gift of the Head of the Church, which all who teach ought to possess, and without which no appointment of any one can make Him a minister of Christ. They who possess the gift of teaching ought to employ it diligently.
Romans 12:8 — Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
He that exhorteth — This means to excite to duty and dissuade from sin, and requires a peculiar talent. Mr. Stuart supposes that the teacher and exhorter were different officers; but it is quite obvious that the Apostle is not distinguishing offices, but gifts. Every gift does not require a different office. Many of the gifts required no office at all. No opinion can be more groundless, than that the gifts imply each a separate office in the church. He that giveth — This is usually supposed to refer to the deacon; but as the Apostle is not speaking of the distinction or number of offices, and as the word used is not so restricted, there is no just ground thus to limit the passage. It includes the deacon, but is not confined to him. Mr. Stuart, however, is not justified in saying that the word ’properly means to impart among others what belongs to one’s self; to give to others.’ It is not essential to the word whether the gift proceeds from the giver as the owner, or merely as the steward. The gifts conferred by the Apostles were not their own; yet Paul applies the word (Romans 1:11) to the communication of a spiritual gift through his hands to the church. But to prove that the word here extends to those who gave of their own substance, it is not required that the word cannot apply to official or vicarious alms. It is enough that the word is one of a general meaning, and applies to the giving of one’s own. Why should it be confined to official giving, when there is nothing restrictive in the word or in the circ*mstances? Why should it be confined to the deacon, when the Apostle is not at all treating of office, but of gifts possessed by unofficial as well as official persons. With simplicity — This means singleness of view It guards against ostentation or love of praise, on account of which the Pharisees gave their alms. The word is sometimes used to signify liberality, and is so understood here by Mr. Stuart. This meaning is not unsuitable, but still the other is more appropriate In all cases Christians need the caution to give with simplicity, but it would not be possible for some to give with what is generally understood by liberality.
He that ruleth — Mr. Stuart labors hard, but unsuccessfully, to make it appear that this word does not here apply to presiding or ruling in the Church, but to assisting the poor by hospitality, like Phebe. The word is usually applied to presiding in the church; and when it is used without a regimen, the most obvious meaning must be supplied to fill up the ellipsis. That this will confine it to ruling in the church admits of no question. Presiding or ruling in the church is here considered, not with a view to its distinction from other offices, but with respect to the gift that fits for it. ’Some are of opinion,’ says Dr. Macknight, ’that the president was one appointed to superintend those who were employed in distributing the church’s alms.’ There can be no doubt that the word would apply to a president of any kind. But to believe that it signifies here such presidents, when it is appropriated to other presidents in the church, and when there is no evidence that there were any presidents of the kind supposed, is building without a foundation. With diligence — The ruler is to attend to his office with earnestness and diligence It is the duty of all to spend and to be spent in the service of their Lord.
Showeth mercy —This signifies the giving of money, or anything, for the support of poor brethren; or applies to every instance in which mercy was to be shown to the afflicted, whether the affliction arose from poverty, sickness, or any other calamity. With cheerfulness — Mercy must be shown, not only so as to indicate that it is voluntary, but also with cheerfulness, which shows that is a pleasure. This spares the feelings and soothes the sorrows of the afflicted.
Romans 12:9 — Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.
Let love be without dissimulation — There seems to be here an indirect allusion to those hollow pretensions of love so generally manifested in society. Men pretend to have the greatest love to each other, when they not only have no love at all, but when they may really be under the influence of a contrary disposition. Calvin well observes on this passage. ’It is difficult to give a view of the ingenuity with which a large portion of mankind assume the appearance of that love which they really do not possess. For they not only deceive others, but impose upon themselves, while they endeavor to believe that they entertain a very considerable share of love, even for those whom they not only treat with neglect, but in reality renounce and despise. Paul therefore declares that only to be genuine love which is free from all dissimulation and guile; and every person can best Judge for himself whether he entertains any feeling in the innermost recesses of his heart opposed to this noble and lasting affection.’ Christians ought to be careful that, while they use to each other the endearing language of brethren, they feel the sentiments and perform the actions which this language imports. ’Above all things,’ says the Apostle Peter, ’have fervent charity (love) among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.’ Believers ought to throw the mantle of love over the numerous faults into which their brethren may fall, in their conduct towards them, and thus to hide them from their eyes, forgiving their faults, even as God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven them, Ephesians 4:32.
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. — With respect to this, Calvin observes, ’The words following in the context, good and evil, have not a general meaning; but by evil is intended that malicious iniquity which injures any person; and by good, that kindness by which are afforded to others aid and assistance.’ But it rather appears that the words in this place are to be viewed as to what is bad and good in general. We ought not only to avoid doing what is evil, but to accustom ourselves to abhor it, as the vilest and most offensive of things are abhorred To what which is good we ought to cling with all our hearts. Christians are not to be satisfied with abstaining from what is evil, and practicing what is good. The affections of their minds should be in unison with their duty; they should hate as well as avoid what is sinful, and love as well as practice what is good. We thus learn that we are accountable to God for the state of our minds, as well as for our external conduct. We should not only not practice, but not love evil.
Romans 12:10 — Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. — This appears to indicate; that in brotherly love believers ought to have that affection for one another which nature displays among those who are brothers in the flesh. Brotherhood in Christians ought not to be a mere name, but a reality, evinced by the affections of a relationship of kindred. All Christians are brethren; they are born of one Father, who hath taught them to say, ’Our Father, who art in heaven.’ He who loves the Father, loves the Brethren. ’Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God; and every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.’ In honor preferring one another — Among those who derive the same meaning from these words, there is a great variety in their method of expressing it. Calvin, with many others, understood it as our translators, that each in honor prefer his brother to himself, agreeably to other texts of Scripture. But the word signifies, in general, to lead before, and has a great variety of applications. The meaning here seems to be, that in showing mutual respect they ought each to strive to take the lead. This is a thing in which they may lawfully strive with one another. While the men of the world are striving to outstrip each other in everything that respects ambition, Christians are to refrain from following their example; but they are permitted and enjoined to strive with one another in the indication of mutual respect. Dr. Macknight understands the passage to mean, ’In every honorable action go before, and lead on one another.’ But it seems forced to understand ’honor’ as signifying every honorable action. The word appears to have a limited reference to the honor to be shown to one another by the brethren. — ’In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than himself,’ Philippians 2:8.
Romans 12:11 — Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
Not slothful in business — It does not appear that the word in the original can bear to be translated business. It denotes eagerness, earnestness, zeal, urgency, etc. The meaning appears to be, that in doing everything with respect to things both temporal and spiritual believers are not to be slothful or indulge in indolence; but in every duty to use exertion and manifest earnestness. Fervent in Spirit — A fervent spirit is the rever of sloth, and always prompts to diligence and vigor of action. Christians ought to possess such a spirit in doing all their business, especially in the things of the Lord. Earnestness in doing good, says Calvin, requires a zeal and ardor, lighted up in our breasts by the Spirit of God, Acts 18:25. Serving the Lord — Christians are here exhorted to consider themselves as the servants or slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are so in the fullest sense of the word as concerns Christ’s right to them, and authority over them, and the duty of their being solely devoted to Him. They have none of the disagreeable feelings of slavery, because Christ’s service is their delight, their honor, and their interest. Though the precept applies generally, yet it appears to have a particular reference, from the connection to the duty of fervency of spirit which precedes it.
Christians should consider themselves as wholly and at all times the servants of the Lord, and, remembering that His eye is ever upon them, do all things as in His presence. It is not merely in acts of worship, or on particular occasions, that they are to be considered as serving Him, but in all their lives and all their actions. They are in their worldly employments and engagements to do all with a view to the authority of their Master. Even in eating and drinking, they are exhorted by the Apostle to act for the glory of God. If Christians would keep this at all times before their minds, how much would their happiness be increased! For we may be assured that an increase in our obedience to our heavenly Master will always be accompanied with an increase of true happiness.
Romans 12:12 — Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
Again and again it is enjoined on believers to rejoice in the Lord — in the contemplation of His person, His offices, His power, His love, and in their union with Him. Here, in the midst of exhortations to attend to various duties, they are commanded to rejoice in hope. Hope is founded on faith, and faith on the Divine testimony. Hope, then, respects what God has declared in His word. We are here exhorted to exercise hope with respect to future glory, and to rejoice in the contemplation of the objects of hope. What can be better calculated to promote joy than the hope of obtaining blessings so glorious in a future world? Were this hope kept in lively exercise, it would raise believers above the fear of man and a concern for the honors of this world. It would also enable them to despise the shame of the cross.
The objects, then, of the believer’s hope are the spiritual and celestial: blessings which are yet future, to which his eyes should constantly be directed, and which are calculated to fill him with the greatest joy. It is not the prospect of terrestrial possessions in which he is to rejoice, but of a house eternal in the heavens. ’In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ It is that glorious communion with Jesus Christ of which the Apostle speaks, when he says, ’Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.’ It is that state in which believers shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is. ’As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.’ It is the hope of righteousness for which through the Spirit, believers wait, Galatians 5:5. This hope is founded on the unchangeable promise of God — on His promise accompanied by His oath — on the blood of Christ with which He has sealed His promise — on Him who was not only dead, but is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for His people. This hope, then, is both sure and steadfast, and entereth into that within the vail, whither the forerunner, even Jesus, is for us entered.
This description of hope, as an anchor both sure and steadfast, confutes the erroneous doctrine of Roman Catholics, who maintain, as has been formerly observed, that the hope of the Gospel is a doubtful conjecture, instead of a firm expectation of future blessedness. They insist that the believer ought to be always in doubt as to his salvation; that he cannot know whether God loves or hates him; and that all the assurance he can have of His salvation can never go beyond conjecture. Is this, then, the anchor both sure and steadfast which enables the believer to remain firm amidst the storms and agitations of this unsettled world? Can he rejoice in a hope so uncertain and unstable? That Roman Catholics should thus reduce to doubt and uncertainty that hope which the believer is commanded to maintain perfectly (l Peter 1:13), is not to be wondered at, since it is partly on their own merits, and on the satisfaction and sufferings of their saints, that their hope is founded, and not exclusively on the blood of Christ. The believer is here commanded to rejoice in hope; and if he consider that he is bound to apply to himself the other injunctions contained in this portion of the word of God, and to act upon them, he ought equally to regard it as his duty to obey this injunction, and to remember that, if he is not obeying it, it is an indication that all is not right with him. The same conclusion may also be drawn, if he is not walking according to that other express command in chapter sixth, to reckon himself to be deed indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The hope of the glory of God, in which the Apostle here affirms that Christians ought to rejoice, is provided as an important part of the believer’s armor, — an helmet to cover his head, to defend him against the attacks of his spiritual enemies, 1 Thessalonians 5:8. It supports him when ready to be cast down. ’Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God.’ It soothes the bitterness of affliction when the believer is resting on the promises of God. In prosperity it elevates his affections, and, fixing his expectation on the glory that shall be revealed, disengages him from the love of this world. ’My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?’ It comforts him in the prospect of death; and he says, with his Savior, ’My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope.’ His spirit at death ascends to mingle with the spirits of just men made perfect, while his body enters the grave as a place of rest, waiting for its glorious resurrection, and the day when he shall sing that song of triumph. ’O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?’ It is the prayer of the Apostle, chapter 15:13, that the God of hope would fill His people with all joy and peace in believing, that they may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Patient in tribulation. — Since Christians have such a good hope through grace, they ought to be patient under their afflictions. Nothing is better calculated to enable us to bear calamities than the hope of a happy result. And what can equal the prospects of the Christian when he has passed through the furnace and been tried as gold? His afflictions are not only necessary for his trial, and honorable to God, but they are for his own eternal advantage. The light afflictions of the righteous, which are but for a moment, work out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The trial of their faith is much more precious than that of gold, though it be tried with fire, and shall be found unto praise and honor and glory in the day of Christ. Afflictions are sent by God to His people to increase their patience. On account of remaining sin, they are their portion while in the body. ’In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’ Continuing instant in prayer. — The Christian is to ’pray without ceasing.’ No duty can be well performed without this. It is especially necessary in the time of affliction. ’Paul also,’ says Calvin, ’not only excites us to prayer, but expressly requires performance; because our warfare is unceasing, and we are daily attacked by various assaults, which champions even of the greatest bravery are unable to support without an occasional supply of new vigor. Unceasing continuance in prayer is the best remedy against fatigue.’ It is impossible that believers can discharge the various duties which are here enforced, without having their eyes constantly directed to their heavenly Father, and without receiving from Him the will and the capacity necessary for their discharge Our Lord’s parable of the unjust judge, Luke 18 :l, contains the strongest encouragement to perseverance and importunity in prayer. The Lord commands His disciples to pray always, on account of the power of their spiritual enemies, who are constantly seeking their destruction. The Apostle also exhorts believers to pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and to watch thereunto with all perseverance; to continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; in everything giving thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus; and to be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to let their requests be made known unto God. If a Christian undertakes anything whatever without prayer, he is neglecting his duty and not acting up to his privileges. In that matter he is not walking with God, whose ears are open to the prayers of the righteous. On occasions, even, when there is not a moment to deliberate, and when an immediate decision is indispensable, there is still time for prayer and for receiving an answer, Nehemiah 2:4; Nehemiah 2:8. The believer, too, should ever address his heavenly Father with full confidence that his prayers will be heard, not perhaps according to his wishes, but in a way that in the issue will be more advantageous. ’This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him ’Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.’ ’Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.’ ’And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in Prayer, believing, ye shall receive.’ If the believer asks and does not receive, it is because he asks amiss he does not ask in faith, he asks for things that are not proper, he asks while he is indulging in sin. ’The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord; but the prayer of the upright is His delight.’ If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,’ Psalms 66:18. Here, however, it is proper to remark that there is a great difference between iniquity prevailing in the heart, and iniquity regarded in the heart. In the last case we cannot draw near with acceptance. God will not accept our prayers, because in that case we cannot draw near with ’a true heart.’ But in the former case, of iniquity prevailing in the hearts we may draw near in the full assurance of faith, of which we see an example in the case of David. ’Iniquities,’ he says, ’prevail against me;’ but he immediately adds, ’As for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away,’ Psalms 65:3.
Romans 12:13 — Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
Distributing to the necessity of saints. — Rather ’communicating to the necessities of the saints.’ The poor brethren are thus made joint partakers of the substance of their richer brethren; the rich make their poor brethren participators with them in their substance, by giving them what is necessary to supply their wants. ’Observe,’ says Calvin, ’the propriety of the expression. The apostle thus intimates that we ought to supply the wants of our brethren with as much care as if we were assisting ourselves.’ It may here be observed that this precept proves most clearly that there was no general custom among the first Christians of a community of goods. Had this been the case, the rich would not have been commanded to communicate to the necessities of the saints. It ought also to be noted that it is to the necessities of the saints that communication is to be made, not to their indolence. ’This we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat.’ So far from its being the duty of Christians to support the idle, it would be a breach of one of the laws of Christ’s kingdom.
Saints — It may also be observed that, while we are to do good unto all men, the poor saints are the peculiar care of a church of Christ. These are to be fed as children of the family who are unable to support themselves. Here also, we may see the character of the members of the first churches. They were such only as appeared to be saints and godly in Christ Jesus. The term saints signify those who are separated for the service of God — sanctified in Christ Jesus. This appellation belongs to all the people of God without distinction, and not to a particular class or part of them exclusively, such as to the Apostles. The Apostles were indeed saints, and so were Noah, Abraham, Moses, and all the Prophets. If this title were indiscriminately applied to all who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, — that is, to every Christian, — as in the apostolical Epistles, it could not be misunderstood; but its exclusive application to Apostles and some others besides, leads to the supposition that all Christians are not saints. This application is one of the engines of the Man of Sin, by which he deceives. If any plead for it as a proper distinction, it is sufficient to advert to the saying of Paul, ’We have no such custom, neither the churches of God,’ 1 Corinthians 11:16. Here the reference is to the approved customs of the churches acting under the immediate guidance of the Apostles, which consequently are equivalent to direct precept. We find no such custom in the Scriptures, in which Prophets and Apostles name themselves, and each other, without this distinction.
Given to hospitality — This does not mean, as it is generally now applied, social intercourse and conviviality among neighbors, but it means the receiving and entertaining of strangers at a distance from their own habitations. This was a duty of peculiar necessity in the primitive times, when inns and places of entertainment were unusual. But it is a duty still; and the change of times and customs cannot set aside any of the precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christians ought hospitably to receive their brethren coming from a distance, and to assist them in their business. We are here directed not only to practice hospitality, but, according to the import of the original, to follow or pursue it. Christians are to seek opportunities of this manifesting love to their brethren. In another place the Apostle enforces the same duty: ’Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’
Romans 12:14. — Bless them which persecute you; bless, and curse not.
Bless them which persecute you. — Calvin justly cautions us against endeavoring to find a certain order in these precepts. It is their import, and not their connection with each other, that we ought to ascertain. Sometimes there may be a relation; at other times there is entire independence. The precept here given cannot be obeyed in its genuine sense by any who are not born again of the incorruptible seed of the word; and even to such it is a difficult duty. In proportion to their progress in the Divine life, will there be in them a difference with respect to their attainments in that heavenly spirit which enables them to comply with this injunction. But none can justly be looked on as Christians, who do not in some measure possess this spirit, and practice this precept. If this be so, how few are the genuine disciples of Christ! ’None,’ says Calvin, ’can boast himself to be a son of God, or glory in the name of a Christian, who has not in part put on this mind, which was in the Lord Jesus, and does not daily wrestle against and oppose the feeling of enmity and hatred. The law of God is in all respects a law of love, and the precept here enjoined contains a peculiar characteristic of Christianity, in the exhibition of which Christians are imitators of their heavenly Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave a signal example of obedience to this rule, when on the cross He prayed to his Father for the pardon of those by whom He was crucified. And Stephen, the first martyr, in imitation of his Divine Master, died in calling on His name, and praying for his murderers. This precept teaches Christians in what manner, when reviled or persecuted, they ought to act to their persecutors.’ ’Being defamed,’ says the Apostle, ’we entreat.’ The repetition of the precept in the following clause adds to the energy of the expression.
Bless and curse not. — Paul repeats the precept to bless, on account of its importance, and its applicability to men in general, in connection with a command to curse no man. How does this condemn the Church of Rome, which so frequently manifests its antichristian character by cursing its enemies, and allowing its priests to curse from the altar those who give them offense. How many are there, who, calling themselves Christians openly and without shame utter maledictions on those who irritate them! How few abstain from imprecations of every kind and degree!
Romans 12:15 — Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.
This precept has no doubt a peculiar importance with respect to the brethren, but it is applicable in general. We ought to sympathize with our fellow-creatures in their happiness and afflictions. The meaning of the precept is quite obvious. The prosperity of others ought to inspire us with joy. Their affliction ought to affect us with sorrow. Even the very semblance of this duty among the people of the world has a beneficial influence on society, heightening the joy of prosperity, and lessening the pain of adversity.
Romans 12:16 — Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Be of the same mind one toward another. — This precept refers rather to unanimity, cordiality, and harmony in transacting all the business of the Church, than to oneness of mind as to the truth. With respect to faith, it is the word of God with which believers are to be in accordance, and not with the opinions of each other. Besides, this often-repeated precept is always introduced with others of a practical nature. Oneness of belief in everything, even the least part of the revelation of God, is of importance. This, however, cannot be effected but by a full knowledge of the Divine word. The injunction is most important, and cautions against a captious spirit respecting the affairs of the church with which we are connected, or our intercourse one with another. Dr. Macknight has entirely mistaken the import of this passage, making it refer to what precedes. ’Be of the same hospitable, forgiving, sympathizing disposition towards one another as towards strangers and persecutors.’ Mind not high things — Men in general are aspiring to things above them. The great efforts of life are to obtain high rank or commanding station in the world. Christians are here cautioned against setting their minds on high things. Nothing can be more opposed to progress in the Divine life, than the evil against which we are here warned. In proportion as Christians indulge it, they make their bed among thorns, turning away their eyes from the glory of their future inheritance. Condescend to men of low estate. — The word here translated condescend signifies to be led away with; and that which is rendered men of low estate may with equal propriety be rendered low or humble things; and in this way the clause is an antithesis to the one preceding. ’Not thinking of high things,’ says Calvin, ’by which he means that a Christian ought not to aspire, in an ambitious manner, after those things by which he may surpass others, nor indulge in haughty feelings, but meditate rather upon modesty and meekness; for our excellence, in the presence of God, consists in these virtues, not in pride or the contempt of our brethren. This precept is properly added to the former; for nothing breaks the unity mentioned by the Apostle more completely than the exalting of ourselves, and our aspiring to something still more elevated, with a view to attain a higher situation. I take the word humble in the neuter gender, that the antithesis may be more complete.’ Be not wise in your own conceits. — ’This sentence,’ says Calvin, ’connects with the preceding part of the context; for nothing inflates the mind more than a high opinion of our own wisdom and prudence.’ Self-conceit is an evidence of weakness of mind and of ignorance. So far as it manifests itself among Christians, it evidences low attainments in the knowledge of the things of God, and is most destructive to the harmony of a church, and the improvement of the individual under its influence.
Romans 12:17 — Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
Recompense to no man evil for evil — It is natural to every man to return evil for evil. Those of the most indolent and passive dispositions are not without feelings of revenge. Nothing but the faith of Christ will enable any man to overcome this disposition. But faith will overcome it; and every man who believes in Christ most labor to overcome it in his heart, as well as in his practice. If Christians are tried by this test, the pretensions of the great bulk of those who usurp the name will be found groundless. Provide things honest in the sight off all men — We are not to do our work to be seen of men, but we are to be careful that all our works are done so as to avoid anything that would bring a reproach upon the Gospel. We ought not only to abstain from what we know to be wrong, but we ought sedulously to avoid just suspicion, 1 Thessalonians 5:22. Sometimes Christians say that if they have a good conscience, they care not what any one thinks of them. But this is contrary to this precept. If we are falsely charged, we may commit ourselves to Him who judgeth righteously. But, so far as in our power, we are not only to avoid what is improper, but to avoid the blame or suspicion of what is improper. In Paul himself we see an example of solicitude in this respect. ’Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men,’ 2 Corinthians 8:21.
Romans 12:18 — If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Such is the state of human nature, that offenses must needs come, and here the Apostle, in his exhortation, proceeds on the fact of the difficulty of living at peace with all. The believer is, notwithstanding, constantly to aim at this, and to pursue it even when it seems to fly from him. He ought particularly to guard against giving occasion to any just subject of complaint against him. To live at peace with all men, as far as is attainable, without sacrificing duty, is not only duty, but for his happiness. To pursue peace, then, is to fly from misery. It is impossible to be happy in disturbance, and broils, and enmities; but it may sometimes be impossible for Christians to obtain peace. When this is the case, they must submit to it as one of the greatest afflictions; but we ought to recollect that it is God who giveth us peace with men, and to seek it from Him with ardent prayer, as well as from men, by unremitting endeavors after it. When deprived of it, we ought also to inquire whether there be not a cause of this in ourselves; for when a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Calvin justly cautions us ’not so to affect the security of the favor and esteem of men, as to refuse to incur, for the sake of Christ, the hatred of any human being, when necessary.’ As some Christians may be naturally of a contentious disposition, so others may, from a selfish desire of having the favor and good opinion and praise of men, be inclined to keep out of view whatever is most offensive in the religion of Christ. Such persons may congratulate themselves on the possession of a spirit of peace, but it is only a spirit of cowardice and selfishness, a spirit of worldly indifference to the glory of God and the salvation of men. We are never to seek to maintain peace, either with the world or with Christians, by the sacrifice of any part of Divine truth. A Christian must be willing to be unpopular, that he may be useful and faithful. To whatever obloquy or opposition it may expose him, he ought earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Romans 12:19 — Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. — As by the law in the members we are most strongly urged to take revenge on those who injure us, the Apostle introduces this dissuasive against indulging this corrupt principle, with the most endearing address. Christians will constantly have opportunities of exercising themselves in obedience to this exhortation. There are innumerable occurrences calculated to provoke and excite them to retaliation. But they will find that to abstain from avenging their own cause will essentially promote their happiness. It is a painful thing to think of injuries, and it is most for our peace and happiness to forget them, and commit ourselves to the Lord. How opposite is this from the principles of the men of the world, and what are called the laws of honor, in obedience to which a man will, in cold blood, he; said his own life and that of his neighbor on account of some contemptuous expression or trivial injury! What gross ignorance does it manifest to consider any man a Christian, who is always prepared to act in this manner, and who would regard it as an affront if the contrary were supposed!
Give place unto wrath. — Calvin, Dr. Macknight, and Mr. Stuart understand this of the wrath of God; but notwithstanding what the latter has alleged in confirmation of this, the common view of the passage is unquestionably the just one. No principle of language will justify the ellipsis that makes wrath in this connection designate the wrath of God or the Divine wrath. Among the various applications of the phrase ’Give place,’ one of them is, to retire from the place, that it may be occupied by another, Luke 14:9. The person here referred to gives the place that he occupied to another, and retires to another place. This meaning, then, is quite in accordance with that of the common explanation of this passage. Give place to wrath, that is, leave the place, and let wrath occupy it; or give place, as a man would do if attacked by a wild beast, stepping aside to let it rush by. Mr. Stuart, indeed, alleges that the other interpretation ’is rendered nearly certain by the quotation which immediately follows,’ which he supposes would be wholly inapposite if wrath be understood as referring to the wrath of the enemy. This argument, however, is without force. The meaning objected to is quite consistent with the quotation. ’Take not revenge yourselves, my brethren, but retire from the contest, for it is not you but God who has a right to take vengeance.’ It is a good reason why we should not take vengeance, that it is God’s prerogative to take vengeance. For it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord — It belongs to God, and He will repay it. Those threatenings of the vengeance of God which we find in the writings of the Prophets, and especially in the Book of Psalms, are not to be viewed as proceeding from the angry spirit of the writers, but from the Holy Ghost who dictated them, who hates, and will come out of his place to punish, all workers of iniquity. If any man dare to take into his own hands the vengeance which belongeth to God, it will recoil upon himself.
From this it is evident that God will avenge the injuries done to His people. What, then, shall be the punishment of those who employ themselves in persecuting, injuring, reproaching, and slandering the disciples of Christ. We are not, however, to understand this precept as prohibiting Christians from appealing to the magistrate in case of injuries. Calvin, indeed, justly observes, that it prohibits us from applying to the magistrate from a principle of revenge. It is quite true that to appeal to the magistrate out of a principle of revenge is indulging revenge as much as if we took revenge with our own hands. But it is often right to appeal to the laws of our country in order to secure the peace of society, and defend ourselves and others from similar injuries. To act on the principle avowed by some, that it is wrong to apply to the power of the civil magistrate, is not only mistaking this precept, but is contrary to the fundamental principle on which society rests. In many cases it would be highly sinful not to punish evil-doers. If the magistrate ought not to bear the sword in vain, the subject ought to assist him in executing vengeance.
Romans 12:20 — Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
If thine enemy hunger, feed him. — A Christian must be an enemy to no man, but he cannot prevent others from being enemies to him; but instead of revenging their injuries, he is bound to do good to them. Conduct so opposite to nature can never be genuinely effected by the natural man. It is only to be effected by the power of God through faith. It is the fruit of the new birth only. We are not to understand this precept as always to be fulfilled by the giving of meat and drink; but meat and drink are taken as an indication that in every possible instance good will is to be manifested. Shalt heap coals of fire — Dr. Macknight, with many others, makes this refer to the custom of fusing metals, and supposes that it recommends this line of conduct as the most effectual way to soften or melt the enemy to repentance. This, however, is a meaning made for the words, instead of being extracted from them. Mr. Stuart makes it imply pain, but thinks that it is not the pain of punishment, but of shame or contrition. This is equally remote from the obvious meaning of the expression. Besides, it is equally unwarrantable to do anything with a view to occasion the pain of contrition, as to occasion the pain of punishment. We should desire the contrition of our enemy for his good, and not that he may endure suffering. It is vain to force the words of the Holy Spirit. They evidently assert that the conduct recommended will have the effect of increasing the punishment of the enemies of God’s people; and though they should not rejoice in this effect as causing misery, yet they should hereby be led to adore the manifestation of Divine justice. Besides, this ought to be a warning to their enemies to abandon their wicked conduct, and finally to escape the fearful consequences which they cannot avoid if they persevere in their enmity. They ought to be informed of this part of the Divine pleasure. There can be no doubt that such conduct from the Lord’s people, if it does not overcome their enemies, will eventually add to their guilt and punishment. We should beware not to explain away the words of Scripture.
Romans 12:21 — Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Be not overcome of evil — Christians are here exhorted not to suffer themselves to indulge a spirit of wrath or resentment from the provocations of their enemies. In the world they will experience evil on the part of others, but they ought never to allow themselves to be drawn into the commission of evil and to be overcome by it. To yield to anger is to be conquered by an enemy. Men in general suppose that to resent an injury is only to show a proper spirit. But in the estimation of God it is the opposite, and manifests defeat. He acts as the Christian, who yields not to anger, but remains without wrath under insult and ill treatment. When the Lord commanded the disciples to forgive their offending brethren, perceiving the difficulty of acting in this manner, they immediately prayed, ’Lord, increase our faith.’ No prayer could be more suitable, and nothing more necessary for the performance of this duty.
Overcome evil with good — This implies that the injurious person may, by repeated acts of kindness, be won over from his enmity. This, indeed, frequently happens, and there is hardly a case in which it will not have some effect. But whatever may be the success, we ought always to make the trial. If our efforts shall be lost on our enemy, they will not be lost with respect to ourselves. Our Christian character will be more perfected, our happiness will be increased, our ways will be pleasing to the Lord, and our reward will be sure. Persons who cannot be overcome with good must be in the most awful state of hardened wickedness, and their punishment will be dreadful.
In the above remarkable portion of Scripture, we learn the true tendency of the doctrine of salvation wholly by grace, established in a manner so powerful in the preceding part of this Epistle, by which men are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. How beautiful is it, and how sublime when displayed in all its practical effects in the duties which flow from it, as here described! We may search all the works of the most admired writers, and, so far as they have not borrowed from the fountain of inspired truth, we shall find in them nothing comparable to the elevated maxims contained in this chapter. Especially we shall not discover the faintest shadow of resemblance to the motives by which these duties are here inculcated. If the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth forth His handiworks, — if the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that the heathen are without excuse, — how much more clearly do the Scriptures proclaim their Divine origin, and the majesty of their Author! God hath magnified His word above all His name, Psalms 138:2.
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER XIII – Romans 13:1-14
CHRISTIANS having become the subjects of a kingdom which is not of this world, might be led to suppose that they were released from the ties of obedience to human authorities, especially such as were not Christians. Far different is the doctrine here taught by the Apostle. He commands ’every soul,’ both Jew and Gentile, to be subject to the existing powers. He makes no exception as to the nature or constitution of any government. He speaks neither of monarchies, nor of republics, nor of mixed constitutions. But he applies all his precepts to every form that government may assume. As there is nothing from which political partisans in the present day more widely differ than from the apostolic doctrine laid down in this chapter, Christians ought to give to it the more earnest heed, lest they be led away on this subject by the opinions of the world, or of those who ’despise government.’ They ought to examine carefully what is here taught by the Apostle, without attempting to accommodate it to their preconceived views of civil liberty. This is the more necessary, as many have lately embarked in politics with a keenness that will be of no service to their spiritual life, and will rather tend to make them cleave more closely to the dust.
In considering the duties enjoined in the apostolic Epistles, it is constantly to be kept in view that, while written on particular occasions, and addressed to particular churches, they are equally adapted, in the wisdom of God, to all times and circ*mstances. They are intended for the instruction and guidance of Christians in every country and every age, just as the Decalogue, though delivered to only one nation, and that only once, is binding on every nation under heaven, in every period, till the end of time. Christians learn at present from this passage the will of God respecting their duty to evil government, just as those to whom this Epistle was addressed. It is true that there is an innumerable variety of differences in circ*mstances; but this is nothing to the purpose. The things taught in these Epistles are in all circ*mstances duty. The Roman Christians were under a despotism, and those who read this Epistle may live under a free government. But the duty of obedience is in both cases the same. The powers are under both equally to be obeyed.
It is of the utmost moment that Christians, under all forms of government, should have a rule concerning their duty to civil government clear and precise. Such a rule we have here laid down. No practical subject is more fully or more explicitly treated in the word of God. The weakest Christian cannot be at a loss to discover the will of his Lord with respect to obedience to civil government. It is presented to us in the Scriptures in two different aspects, — the one as the ordinance of God, the other as the ordinance of man; and in both these characters obedience is enjoined by the same authority.
Connected with a warning to believers to act in such a manner as not to be spoken against, the Holy Ghost, by the instrumentality of the Apostle Peter, utters this commands, ’Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king,’ 1 Peter 2:13-17. Paul writes to Titus 3:1, ’Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates.’ By the same authority, and with more extension, the Apostle enforces this duty in the passage before us.
In the most solemn manner, subjection to the existing powers is here enjoined. This is contrary to the wisdom of the world, which takes offense at such subjection, and contrary to the proud heart of man, that would make religion a pretense to cover its secret reluctance to submit to disagreeable restraints. How natural the opposite doctrine is to the carnal heart, may be seen from the general sentiments entertained on the subject by rulers and ruled — by infidels and professed Christians — by statesmen and people of all ranks. With one consent, the generality of men, even in this country, which is comparatively so much enlightened by the Scriptures, proclaim that subjection to rulers is, even in things civil, limited and conditional — that in case of the breach of the supposed compact between the rulers and the ruled, rebellion is lawful, and resistance a duty. Even in the houses of Parliament is this doctrine boldly maintained. It is much to be desired that among those who thus trample on the commandments of God, aside set aside the Scripture doctrine on this subject, there were no real Christians. It is lamentable to reflect that, to justify resistance to the civil powers, many of the people of God have resorted to the same false rules of interpretation which Neologians and other perverters of the Divine word have invented to banish the doctrines of grace from the Bible. No expedients to explain away the meaning of any part of Scripture were ever more forced than those adopted to make this chapter accord with the right of resisting the powers that be.
Romans 13:1 — Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.
In this verse the Apostle first states the duty he enjoins on Christians towards civil rulers. Next he states the ground on which the command rests as the reason why he gives the injunction: every government is to be obeyed, because there is no government but of God. Lastly, he brings it home to the existing government under which the servants of God are placed.
Let every soul — This most comprehensive expression shows that to every Christian, in every country, in all variety of situations, and on all occasions, the doctrine which the Apostle is about to teach is applicable. Be subject unto the higher powers — By this expression is meant the persons who possess the supreme authority, who are in the 3rd verse denominated rulers. Government, in our language, is a term of similar import. No phrase could more clearly and definitely express the duty of subjection to the civil rulers whom God has placed over us, than that which the Apostle here employs. This passage expressly enjoins obedience to all governments equally. The word rendered ’powers’ wants the article, and has not an exclusive reference to the Roman government. It comprehends governments universally. Had any of the Roman Christians gone beyond the bounds of the empire, their duty of obedience to the government of the country is here as expressly enjoined as it is to the powers of the empire itself. And the foreigners who may have belonged to countries beyond the limits of the empire, are here taught obedience to the powers of Rome while in the country, and obedience to the powers of their own country when they should have returned home. The Apostle speaks of ’powers’ without peculiar reference. Every one, without exception, is, by the command of God, to be subject to the existing powers, whatever were the means by which they became possessed of the situation in which they stand. Caesar subverted the laws of his country, Jeroboam established idolatry, and Nebuchadnezzar carried Judah captive. Yet the successors of Caesar were recognized by Jesus, and were the rulers of the Roman empire when the Apostle wrote; Jeroboam was expressly appointed by God as king over the ten tribes; and the oppressed Jews were commanded to pray for the peace of Babylon.
For there is no power but of God — The meaning of the first clause, ’Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,’ is clear as noonday; this second gives the reason why subjection is demanded, — for there is no power but of God; not ’by Divine permission,’ according to Mr. Stuart, but by Divine appointment. The expression of or from God, cannot mean Divine permission. What we permit is not in any sense of us. There is no power but of God; because it is God in His providence who confers power on every man who holds it. No tyrant ever seized power till God gave it him. The words ’no power’ referred neither to kinds of powers nor order in government, but necessarily apply to every civil ruler under heaven. Were there any doubt with respect to the sense in which the power is of God, it would be entirely removed by the next clause of the verse, in which the existing powers are said to be ordained of God. The power, then, is ’of God,’ in the sense, as is there declared, of being ’ordained of God.’ The 4th verse also decides this to be the meaning of the phrase, where the ruler is twice said to be the minister of God. Civil rulers, then, are the ministers of God; if so, they must be of God’s own appointment. The worst government in any country is of God, and is calculated to effect His purposes and promote His glory. Wicked rulers are necessary in God’s plans to punish wicked nations. It is not merely the form of civil government that is from God, but the governors. Dr. Macknight says that God ’has left it to the people to choose what form is most agreeable to themselves, and to commit the exercise of the supreme power to what persons they think fit. And, therefore, whatever form of government hath been chosen, or is established in any country, hath the Divine sanction.’ This is neither consonant to fact nor to Scripture. In most countries the people have had nothing to do with the choice of their governors. The powers are of God not on this account, but they are of God because they are of His setting up. Whatever may have been the means of their exaltation, it is God who has exalted them either for a blessing or a curse to the people. They who enjoin obedience to civil government on the supposition of implied compacts or conventions, overturn the ground on which it is rested by the word of God.
The powers that be are ordained of God — Here every evasion is taken away from the ingenuity of sophistry. It will not be of any avail to attempt to limit allegiance according to the conduct of rulers, or the means by which they have acquired their authority. The existing powers in every country, and in every age, are ordained of God. Nero was as truly a ruler ordained of God as Titus or Antoninus. The Divine appointment of the government that is over us, is the ground on which the duty of our submission rests; and the powers that be that exist in any country — are appointed by God. ’The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He wills and setteth up over it the basest of men,’ Daniel 4:17 ’I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by My great power, and by My outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto Me,’ Jeremiah 27:5. Here we see how God disposes of kingdoms, and appoints their rulers according to His sovereign pleasure. It was God who set up Pharaoh, the cruel and tyrannical oppressor of Israel. ’And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth,’ Exodus 9:16. ’He putteth down one, and setteth up another,’ Psalms 75:7.
Romans 13:2 — Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. — Literally, ’So that he that setteth himself in opposition to the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.’ Resistance to the government, then, is resistance to God; because government is God’s ordinance or appointment. If God has appointed every government that exists in the world, His people are bound to submit to every government under which their lot has been cast There is but one exception, and that is when anything is required contrary to the law of God. Then duty is plain. We are to obey God rather than men. The people of God, then, ought to consider resistance to the government under which they live as a very awful crime — even as resistance to God Himself. They are bound to obey, not good rulers only, as Dr. Macknight unwarrantably limits the words, but oppressive rulers also, if they do not command what God forbids.
And they that resist shall receive unto themselves damnation — Here is declared the fearful consequence of resisting the ordinance of God. It is of no importance whether we understand the original word translated damnation to mean condemnation or punishment, because the former implies the latter as its consequence. If, however, we understand it of punishment, we must keep in mind that it is punishment proceeding from condemnation. And the condemnation here is not, as Mr. Stuart seems to understand it, of punishment exclusively from the hand of man. The punishment meant, whoever may be the executioner, is a judgment from God, as in 1 Corinthians 11:29, where the same word refers to those punishments with which God visited His people for the abuse of His ordinance. ’We ought, therefore,’ says Calvin, ’to act with great caution, that we may not rush upon this Divine threatening Nor do I confine this meaning of the word damnation to that punishment only which is inflicted by magistrates, as if the design of the Apostle was to show that rebels against authority will be punished according to law, but every kind of Divine vengeance, in whatever manner it may be exacted; for he, in general, teaches us what end awaits those who enter into a contest with God.’ When the ignorance of God’s people is punished for any offense against the government of their country, their chastisem*nt should be looked on as a chastisem*nt from God.
It ought to be observed, that God’s people may be in ignorance on this subject as well as on any other, and that we are not to suppose that all who have resisted the governments under which they were placed are enemies to God. Like Peter, when he drew his sword to defend his Master, they may sometimes be ignorant of their duty. But their ignorance is sinful. If they mistake their duty on this subject, they are more inexcusable than when they are ignorant on almost any other subject, for it is taught with a plainness that nothing but strong prejudice can resist.
Romans 13:3 — For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil . Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.
For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. — This is not a mere illustration of the last clause of the second verse. It extends to more than the punishment of resistance or disobedience. The negative assertion, that rulers are not a terror to good works, is different from the positive one, that they are a terror to evil works, and an assertion equally important; and the assertion that they who do good shall have praise is still different from both the others. This verse is often supposed to limit the obedience inculcated in the preceding verses to rulers who are of a proper character, and actuated by right motives. Nothing can be more unfounded. It is not introduced as the ground of obedience to civil government. The grounds obedience is stated in the first verse, immediately subjoined to the command. The higher powers are to be obeyed, because there is not one amongst them, not even the worst on earth, which is not of God. When the government is wicked, cruel, and oppressive, in the inscrutable ways of His sovereign providence, it is overruled by God so as to forward the object He has in view. Without exception, it is true in every age, and in every country, that the existing civil powers are ordained of God. It follows, then, that whosoever resisteth the powers, resisteth the ordinance of God. This verse, as has just been remarked, does not state the reason of submission according to the first ground, but it assigns the reason why God has appointed civil government, and is another reason for the subjection before inculcated. Here there is no limitation of anything previously spoken. It is a characteristic of civil government which is universally applicable. It is true of the worst government, that it is not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Good works and bad works are not here spoken of with reference to Christianity. The reference is to the works generally accounted good or bad in society, and the worst government will not punish such good works. No man was ever punished because he would not injure his neighbors. It is a general declaration with respect to all governments. The very worst of them is a blessing. The conduct of Christians with respect to obedience to Christ, as it is offensive to civil rulers, and has often been punished by them, is not here in the Apostle’s view. The persecutions they have endured on accounts of their religion, have arisen from the enmity of the carnal mind against God, which is not more characteristic of every government than of every individual. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same . — This is a truth which experience will prove to every Christian. If he obeys the laws of the country, and does the things that are good, he will have no reason to be afraid of the government. If called to suffer for Christ’s sake, he has no need to fear.
Romans 13:4 — For he is the minister of God to thee for good . But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
For he is the minister of God to thee for good — In this verse the civil ruler is twice denominated ’the minister of God,’ first for good to His people, and next for the punishment of evil-doers. Civil rulers, then, as the ministers of God, ought not only to be obeyed without resistance, but with alacrity. They are not only ministers of God, but ministers for good. This is the characteristic of magistracy in all countries. In spite of all the evils that derogate from its proper character, it promotes the good of society. But none are so much indebted to it as Christians, to each of whom it may indeed be emphatically said, it is the minister to thee for good. Were the restraints of government removed, Christians would be attacked, persecuted, or destroyed in any country. Even the persecution of the worst government would not be so bad as the persecution of the world, if freed from the restraint of law. Notwithstanding the numerous persecutions endured by Christians under the Roman emperors, they were still to them the ministers of God for good, without whose government they would probably have been exterminated. ’The Christians to the lions!’ was the common cry of the multitude among the pagans. The Roman government afforded protection to Paul for a long period, and saved him on different occasions from suffering death by his countrymen. Let Christians, then, in every country, instead of joining with the enemies of its established order, be thankful for the Divine ordinance of civil government, and exert themselves to maintain obedience and peace. It is of the utmost importance for them in every country to understand their duty to civil government. In this way they will most effectually commend the Gospel to the world, and remove some of the most powerful obstacles to its progress. While they show that they fear not man, where he ordains what is contrary to the commandments of God, they ought likewise to show that obedience to God, and gratitude to Him who appoints civil government for their protection, obliges them to submit to the rulers in all things temporal.
The institution of civil government is a dispensation of mercy, and its existence is so indispensable, that the moment it ceases under one form it re-establishes itself in another. The world, ever since the fall, when the dominion of one part of the human race over another was immediately introduced, Genesis 3:16, has been in such a state of corruption and depravity, that without the powerful obstacle presented by civil government to the selfish and malignant passions of men, it would be better to live among the beasts of the forest than in human society. As soon as its restraints are removed, man shows himself in his real character. When there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes, we see in the last three chapters of the Book of Judges what were the dreadful consequences.
Some have inferred from this passage that the Apostle’s injunctions refer solely to such governors as are truly good and altogether what they ought to be. Nothing can be further from the truth. From this it would follow that the Apostle while professing to furnish an explicit rule of conduct in this matter for those whom he addressed, in reality gave them none, and that he has here laid down no clear and precise direction which could apply to Christians from that time to the present. Human governments, like everything administered by men, must always be imperfect; and as it is easy to form exaggerated ideas on this subject, no administration of any form that has ever existed would appear to come up to the imaginary standard. It would, besides, be impossible for the great body of Christians to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion as to their duty in this respect. This is one of those traditions by which the Scriptures are as completely made void, as by the Pharisees of old, or by modern Neologians. The rule which is here given is clear to all. It was dictated to Paul by God under one of the worst governments that ever existed, and under which the blood of the Apostle himself was shed, as if he had been a malefactor.
When the Jews were carried captive to Babylon, God by His Prophet commanded them to seek and to pray for the peace of the city. ’Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace,’ Jeremiah 29:7. The most awful maledictions were pronounced against Babylon by the same Prophet on account of her manner of treating the Jews; but it was God Himself who, in the course of His wise and holy providence, was to execute them, by means of those instruments which He should choose. ’Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’ In the meantime, God made the tyrannical rulers of Babylon, whom He purposed to punish for their wickedness, His ministers for the good of His people. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, — If men will transgress the laws under which they are placed, they have reason to be afraid; and God here warns His own people, that, in such a case, they must not count upon His protection or interference to deliver them from the punishment due to those who rise up against His institution. This ought to caution Christians against identifying themselves with political associations to oppose or subvert the government of their country. When they do so they are likely to suffer for it, — even more likely to suffer than the wicked themselves. God may in the meantime pass over the sin of the latter, while He visits that of His people with chastisem*nt.
For he beareth not the sword in vain — This implies that civil government is not a mere pageant arrayed with all the ensigns of power and vengeance against the opposer, but it also shows that the providence of God so orders it that rulers will in general be successful against the disturbers of the peace, so that evil-doers will be discovered and their plots defeated. The most secret and solemnly sanctioned conspiracies are generally defeated and frustrated. Indeed, were not civil government an ordinance of God, it would be impossible for it to answer the end of its appointment. This passage sanctions the use of the sword, or punishment by death, with respect to the transgressors of the fundamental laws of society. The sword is put for punishment by death of any kind. This refutes the opinion of those who think that it is sinful, nay, that it is murder, to put criminals to death. God here sanctions the practice. And if it is right in the civil magistrate to punish with death the violators of the fundamental laws of society, it is right in Christians to countenance and co-operate with the magistrate in effecting such punishments. The same truth is taught by our Lord when He says, ’My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews.’ This intimates that worldly power may be maintained by arms, and that it is lawful to use them for this purpose. ’If I have been an offender,’ said Paul, ’or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die,’ Acts 25:11. Would the Apostle have in this way sanctioned this punishment, allowing its justice, if it had been contrary to the law of God?
For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. — Vengeance belongeth to God. He hath, however, delegated this right, so far as concerns the affairs of this world, to the civil magistrate, who ought to punish evil-doers. For this purpose God has put the sword into his hand, and has armed him with legal authority. To suffer crime, therefore, to pass unpunished, is a dereliction of duty in the magistrate. Instead of being a duty, it is a sin to neglect avenging the laws when they are transgressed. The magistrate is here called a revenger, and is said to execute wrath. This refutes the notion that the infliction of punishment by the civil power is only for example; yet this false maxim is now very generally adopted. The Apostle here considers the sufferings inflicted as punishments, and brings not example into the account. Example is no doubt one object of punishment, but instead of being the sole, it is not its primary object.
Dr. Carson, in his review of Dr. John Brown, gives the following division of the above four verses. ’The first clause of the first verse contains the law of Christ, enjoining obedience to civil rulers. The rest of the verse, in two clauses, gives the ground of this injunction, or shows why God enjoins obedience. He enjoins obedience to rulers because rulers are His own appointment. An observation naturally resulting from this follows. If rulers are God’s appointment, to oppose them is to oppose the appointment of God. This enforces the duty by the guilt of disobedience. He that opposes civil rulers, not only opposes them, but also opposes God’s ordinance. Another observation appended to this shows the consequence of disobeying this ordinance of God. They who resist shall receive to themselves damnation. The third verse commences with an observation, exhibiting a fact that proves that rulers are of God, and which anticipates an objection that was likely to occur: Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. The assertion that civil rulers, without any exception, are appointed by God, would appear strange, when it was considered that they were heathens, and tyrants, and persecutors. But heathens, and tyrants, and persecutors as they were, they are proved to be of God, by their being a terror not to good works, but to the evil. With all their wickedness, they uphold the great principles on which society is founded, and on which only it can subsist. The Christian, then, has no reason to dread them; for he does not practice the evil works which they punish, and he does the good works which they approve. This verse shows the reasonableness of the command of submission to government. As if the Apostle had said, "Do not think this command a hard saying; for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. If you wish to avoid incurring the displeasure of rulers, do that which is good, and then, instead of being punished, you will have commendation from them."
’The fourth verse gives an additional reason why Christians should not think civil government a grievance, but a blessing: To the Christian he is the minister of God for good. Instead, then, of submitting with reluctance, he ought to submit with pleasure and gratitude. Indeed, civil government is more for the advantage of Christians than for that of others. They need its protection more than any other class of men. Were it not for the protection of government, Christians could not live even in the countries where there are the proudest boasts of enlargement of mind with respect to civil liberty.
’The remainder of this verse warns the Christian what he may expect from civil rulers if he does what is evil: The minister of God bears not the sword in vain. Not only have rulers power to punish what is evil, but the providence of God takes care to make this power effectual. It is wonderful to consider how the providence of God defeats the best concerted plans of rebellion; and brings the disturbers of society under the grasp of the magistrate. Were it not that civil government is an ordinance of God, it is not possible that it could subsist.’
Romans 13:5 — Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.
Men in general obey the laws from fear of the punishment of transgression; and if there was no punishment they would transgress every law which thwarted their inclinations. But this must not be the case with Christians. They must respect the laws of the countries in which they live, not merely from dread of the punishment of transgression to be inflicted by the magistrate in exercise of the power with which God has armed him, but also from a higher motive. Even were they assured of impunity from the magistrate, they must not violate the law, for conscience’ sake. Here a necessity far more imperative than the former is added. Christians are to obey from a conscientious regard to the authority of God thus interposed. This is the motive which, above every other, ought to actuate them; and it is exhibited by the Apostle as the grand consideration by which he terminates his injunctions of obedience to civil government. This is the foundation of true loyalty. If in operation, it will not only insure the obedience of the Christian to the government under which he is placed, but prevent him from defrauding it by smuggling, evasion of taxes, or any illegal transaction. ’I have set the Lord always before me,’ ought to be the motto of every Christian.
’To carnal wisdom,’ says Dr. Carson, ’the doctrine of unlimited submission to civil government in temporal things appears a hard saying. Who can hear it? If this sentiment prevails, it may be said, rulers may tyrannize as they please. They who speak thus do greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God in the ruling of the world. It would be a hard thing indeed if God did not rule the rulers. But the Christian has nothing to fear, when he considers that every plan and proceeding of government is overruled and directed by his God. If He puts His children into the hands of men, He retains these men in His own hand, and they can injure them in nothing without His permission. ’The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whither so ever He will,’ Proverbs 21:1. So far, then, from being a doctrine that fills the mind with discomfort, it is the only view that gives peace. Have not Christians more security for their safety in the care of their Almighty Father, than in a permission given by Him to defend themselves against the oppression of rulers? They have peace whatever party gets into power, because they know that in everything God fulfills His purposes by them. God rules on earth, even in the councils of His enemies, as completely as He rules in heaven. When God chooses to overturn the empire of tyrants, He is at no loss for instruments. He is not obliged to employ the heirs of glory in such scenes of blood: He uses the wicked to overturn the wicked.’ In the preceding five verses the Apostle makes no provision, in matters of civil submission, for any case of resistance or rebellion, under any circ*mstances. He makes no exceptions, no modifications; he discusses no hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not existing; but in language which none can mistake, and with an authority the commanding solemnity of which defies opposition, he proclaims to the Greek and to the Roman, to the barbarian and the civilized, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. The powers that be are ordained of God .
Romans 13:6 — For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
For this cause pay ye tribute also — Some, instead of ’pay ye,’ translate the words ’ye pay.’ But it cannot be supposed that the Apostle first alleges, as a reason for rendering personal obedience, that they were already in the habit of conscientiously paying tribute, when, in the subsequent verse, he enjoins the duty of tribute as specifically as he did the duty of obedience. Besides, ’for this cause ye pay tribute also,’ takes it for granted that they were already in the habit of rendering both tribute and obedience for the same reason, instead of urging obedience on the foundation that they already for that reason pay tribute. If even is chosen as the translation of the Greek particle instead of also, this supposes that tribute is much worse as a grievance than is personal obedience, the contrary of which is quite obvious. For this cause, or on this account. — For what cause? Is it on account of conscience or on account of civil government being an appointment of God? The latter is the true answer. The reason why the thing is a matter of conscience is, because government is a Divine appointment. Taxes are to be paid to government for its support, because God has appointed government for the good of society; and this is the argument that is immediately added. For they are God’s ministers — They are public officers whom God Himself, as the ruler of the world, has appointed to this business. Here, in order to impress the truth that ’the powers that be are ordained of God,’ and that they are ’of God,’ it is for the third time repeated that they are ’God’s ministers attending continually upon this very thing,’ that is, civil governors are devoted to the affairs of the public. They give their time to the public, and they should be adequately remunerated. It is necessary that what is requisite for the support of the government and its dignity should be supplied. God, then, has enjoined on His people to acquiesce in this reasonable appointment of His providence. ’This very thing,’ then, does not refer to the gathering of taxes. The ’ministers of God’ are the ’powers’ of whom the Apostle was treating. The ’very thing’ to which they constantly attend, is not the collection of the taxes, but the ministry of God in the things of government. ’The very thing’ must be something either mentioned or necessarily implied in the text. But this can be no other than the ministry of the ministers mentioned. The collection of taxes, then, is not the very thing to which civil rulers attend. They are called the ministers of God, and after this they are said to be attending continually on this very thing. The thing to which they attend is their duty as ministers of God in civil things.
Romans 13:7 — Render therefore to all their duties: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
Render therefore to all their dues — Here the Apostle enjoins a general precept, applying not only to the particular instances which he had mentioned, but to everything due by equity or love from one man to another. Here, also, it ought to be particularly remarked that he calls taxes and customs ’dues’ or debts. A tax is a debt in the true sense of the word. The Apostle here says, Render to all their dues, and in exemplification adds, ’tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom.’ Men sometimes act on the principle that taxes are not debts, and that they may evade their payment, although clearly liable by law. Such persons are condemned by the Apostle. It is here explicitly taught that taxes stand by the law of God on the same footing as private debts, which every man is therefore under an equal obligation to discharge. The same truth is taught by our Lord, when, on the tribute-money, bearing the image of Caesar, being presented to Him, He said; ’Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s.’ The produce of taxes is here determined by the Lord to be the property of the government. By the laws, too, of every country, taxes are debts, to be paid as such to the government, and even preferable in order of payment to private debts. Christians have much reason to be thankful that they are thus, by the authority of God, freed from all responsibility respecting the application of every tax, and that this responsibility rests entirely with the government. Were it otherwise, they would be in constant perplexity on the subject, and almost in every case unable to determine whether it was their duty to pay or to withhold payment. They would thus be exposed every moment to be placed in opposition to the rulers, while at all times it would be actually impossible for them to live, in a heathen or a Mohammedan country.
Some persons make a distinction between general and particular taxes, and refuse to pay taxes levied for particular purposes, when these purposes are believed to be bad. But there is nothing that will render it unlawful to pay a particular or specific tax, that will not equally apply to a general tax, any part of which it is believed is to be applied to a bad use. Why are we not accountable for the application of every part of a general tax? Because we have no control over it, and our approbation of it when we pay it is not implied. The same consideration exempts us from any share of responsibility respecting the sinful application of a specific tax. If taxes are debts, then the payment of them no more implies approbation of their object, than the payment of any other debt involves approbation of the purpose to which it is applied.
Tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom. — Tribute refers to what are now called taxes, and custom to revenue raised from merchandise. These are particular instances of the dues or debts included in the previous precept. Fear to whom fear. — The Christian is not to brave the authorities whom God has set over him, nor to set them at defiance, on pretense that he is a servant of God. On the contrary, he is to fear them as God’s institution for the good of society. Honor to whom honor, — Not only are all pecuniary exactions of government to be paid, but all customary civil honor and respect are to be cheerfully given to those in power. Christians are not to decline paying the customary respect to the civil powers, on pretense that they are Christ’s servants, or that all men are naturally on a level. Difference of rank in society is God’s appointment for the ordinary government of men in society. That stubborn spirit which refuses to uncover to the king, or give the customary mark of respect to men in power, is pride and rebellion against God’s appointment.
On this verse, Dr. Carson, in his Review of Dr. Brown, observes, ’The substantive to all is evidently men. Render then to all men their dues.’ After this, he gives a specification of such dues as would be least likely to be considered as dues, or to be conscientiously paid as such, namely, taxes, fear, honor. Many Christians, to this hour, who would put away with abhorrence the thought of evading an ordinary debt, think it no evil to evade the taxes, and to withhold that honor and fear that is due to men in authority. ’To him to whom you owe tribute give tribute: to him to whom you owe custom give custom: to him to whom you owe fear give fear: to him to whom you owe honor give honor.’ As if he had said, ’Not only pay your ordinary debts, but those debts also that in general are not conscientiously paid as debts.’ This is the only view that can give meaning to the particle then or therefore. The spirit of the passage is to this purpose. Obedience and taxes are due to civil rulers: pay these dues, then, as well as others. It is quite obvious that the Apostle specifies only such debts as would be most likely to be overlooked.
Romans 13:8 — Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Owe no man anything — In the beginning of the former verse the Apostle commands Christians to render to all their dues, which includes debts of money as well as of respect. Here he forbids them to owe any man anything, that is, to withhold from any man what is his due. This duty is imperative, and requires to be particularly specified; and in this way the Apostle follows out the precept he had given in the preceding verse. Christians ought to attend most scrupulously to this injunction. It is a great injury to men, and a reproach to Christianity, when the servants of God neglect this duty. It is a virtual breach of the eighth commandment, although it may not bring on them the same obloquy.
But to love one another — Love is here beautifully represented as a debt that is never paid. It is a debt that ever remains due. Christians ought not only to love one another continually, but to abound in love more and more. The more they pay of this debt, the richer will they be in the thing that is paid. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. — Here love is urged, on the ground that it is fulfillment of the law in all its precepts. The whole law is grounded on love to God and love to man. This cannot be violated without the breach of law; and if there is love, it will influence to the observance of all God’s commandments. If there were perfect love, there would be a perfect observance of the law. But no man loveth another in the perfection that the law requires; therefore no man perfectly keeps the law. Love, then, is the fulfillment of the law, being the thing which it demands, and all that it demands in respect to both God and man.
Romans 13:9 — For this, Thou shalt rot commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Paul here cites several of the precepts of the second table of the law, and observes with respect to each of them, that they are comprehended in the law that enjoins us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Nothing can be more evident than that if we loved our neighbor perfectly, we would commit none of the things here specified. The law of the Lord is admirable, both in its simplicity and comprehensives. It is also most reasonable and just. It requires nothing but what is implied in love. Its prohibitions, then, are not unreasonable restraints upon our liberty, but the just requirements of love.
Romans 13:10 — Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor — Love never injures our neighbor in any respect, but, on the contrary, as far as in its power, does him service. All disputes, then, among neighbors and among nations proceed from a want of love. What, then, shall we say of the morality of men in general, who live in strife and contention, as often as their interests in the smallest degree interfere? What is the origin of all the disputes in the world but a want of love?
Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law — As love will prevent everything which the law forbids, love must consequently be what fulfills the law. Love, for instance, will prevent murder, and even the smallest degree of hatred to another. Love, then, will keep the sixth commandment; and so of each of the commandments of the second table of the law.
Romans 13:11. — And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
’The most appropriate meaning that can be given to the word translated that in this occurrence seems to be especially. The duties recommended were the rather to be attended to, from the alleged consideration that follows. Dr. Macknight translates by supplying the phrase, ’I command,’ by ellipsis, ’Also this I command.’ And Mr. Stuart supplies the words, ’Do this’ There is no need for these supplements, and the above gives the most appropriate meaning. Knowing the time — The time is understood by Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart as referring to the season of the Gospel. But the ground of the observation, which is subjoined by the Apostle, shows that it refers to the present time, in distinction from the time when those whom he addressed first believed. Why is it time to awake out of sleep? The reason alleged is, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed It is plain, then, that the times contrasted are the time of their first believing, and the time then present.
Salvation is here understood by Dr. Macknight as signifying the glad tidings of salvation in the Gospel. This meaning is so forced and unnatural,, that it deserves no consideration. In the Scriptures, believers are considered as saved from the moment they are partakers of a Divine life, by the belief of the truth. Salvation is also sometimes used with respect to the complete deliverance from the pollution of sin at death, when believers enter into heavenly happiness. And sometimes it refers to the day of judgment, when their happiness will be more complete, and when the body as well as the soul shall enter into glory. It is obviously in the second acceptation that the word salvation is here used. It was now a considerable time since the church at Rome had been gathered, and the brethren who were first called to the knowledge of the truth were now approaching the period of their entrance into the land of promise. The near prospect of leaving this world, and entering into a state of glory, ought to have a great effect upon Christians, in making them think less of this world, and more of that of which they are about to become the inhabitants.
Romans 13:12 — The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. — Dr. Macknight understands this of ’the night of heathenish ignorance,’ which he says ’is drawing to a conclusion;’ and to the same purpose Mr. Stuart says that it ’is the time of ignorance and darkness in which they had once been.’ But with respect to the time in which the persons here addressed were in ignorance and darkness, if he means heathen ignorance and darkness, this time was already at an end to them; and the day, as contrasted with this, was already present, and could not be represented as near. And as to the night of heathenish ignorance being nearly at an end, this is far from past. Nearly eighteen centuries have passed since this Epistle was written, and the night of heathenish, so far from being at an end, still broods over the greater part of the world. The night here must be the time of the believer’s being on earth; for his earthly state, with all its comparative light, is but night with respect to the light of heaven. The day which was at hand was not the day of judgment, but the day of death, with respect to those addressed. Mr. Stuart notices, and satisfactorily refutes, the opinion of Mr. Tholack and the Germans, which represents the Apostles as believing the near approach of the day of judgment.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light — In place of the clothing of sin, Christians are to cover themselves with the armor of light. The Christian is a soldier, and as such he is furnished with a complete suit of armor, to fit him for the encounter with his enemies. It consists of faith, and love, and hope. ’Let us who are of the day be sober, putting — on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.’
Romans 13:13. — Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
Let us walk honestly, as in the day. — According to the present use of the language, ’honestly’ does not adequately represent the original. The word signifies decently, becomingly. We are by this precept required to conduct ourselves before the world in a modest, decent, and becoming manner. The allusion is to persons walking from place to place in transacting their daily business. The conduct of persons thus employed shows, even in people the most immoral, some regard to appearances; and they who riot in the night will place a restraint on their conduct in the day. Christians, then, as in the light of day, ought to conduct themselves in a manner suitable to the day, and not like those who riot in the night. It may be observed that the same figure is here still continued, but varied in its application. When it is said that the night is far spent, and the day is at hand, it is implied that it was still night, and that the day was future. But here the day is present. In one point of view it is night to the Christian, and in another it is day. Not in, rioting — The word applies to all meetings for intemperance and debauchery. It denounces all amusem*nts that minister to the impure passions of human nature, whatever may be their name. The fashionable follies of high life, and those practiced by persons in inferior stations, are alike inconsistent with the Christian character and with this precept. It is vain to allege with respect to them that they are not expressly condemned in Scripture. The Scripture does not give out law with a verbose phraseology, like the laws of men, but condemns all the particular and ever-varying follies of mankind in every age and nation on general principles.
Drunkenness — This sin is one of the greatest destroyers of mankind. Even were there no hereafter, a wise man would shun it as a pestilence. No other evil has so great a share in bringing ruin on individuals and families. Every approach to it ought to be most carefully avoided. Too much caution cannot be used in order to guard against the formation of habits of intemperance. Many a promising professor of Christianity makes shipwreck of the faith by giving way to this vice. It is a mistaken hospitality that tempts to any approach to intemperance. If we are to eat and drink to the glory of God, we ought to drink no more than is really useful for the health.
Chambering — The meaning of this is plain, as well as of wantonness, which refers to all licentiousness, in its most extensive import. Strife and envy. — The former applies to every kind of contention; and the latter designates that principle which, more than any other, excites to strife or contention, and tends to make a man an enemy to his kind.
Romans 13:14 — But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.
Put ye on the Lord Jesus — Having given a specimen of the things that are unbecoming the Christian who walks in the day, the Apostle now shows, summarily, what the conduct is which he enjoins on us to exemplify. Believers were in themselves wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; like Joshua, clothed with filthy garments; but when they come to Christ, He says, ’Take away the filthy garments from him: behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.’ They are then clothed with the garments of salvation, and covered with the robe of righteousness, Isaiah 61:10; and being thus justified, those whom the Apostle addressed had put on Christ. But here it is their progress in sanctification he has in view. In the twelfth verse he had exhorted them to put on the armor of light; now he is enjoining the duty of perfect conformity to His holy image, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; who gave us an example that we should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Thus we are to cleave to Him with purpose of heart, and, as the Apostle elsewhere exhorts, that as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we should walk in Him. ’To put on Christ,’ says Calvin, ’means our being surrounded and protected in every part by the virtue of His Spirit, and thus rendered fit for the performance of every duty of holiness. For the image of God, which is the only ornament of the soul, is thus renewed in us.’ Provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof — Flesh here means the sinful principles of our nature. We are to make provision for the wants of the body, but we are to make no provision for its lusts. Whatever, then, tends to excite our corrupt propensities ought to be avoided.
Beautiful are the reflections of Archbishop Leighton, in his sermon on the four last verses of this chapter, from which what follows is extracted: — ’These words are as an alarm, or morning watch-bell, of singular use, not only awakening a Christian to his day work, but withal minding him what he is. The former verses, 11, 12, tell us it is time to rise, and call us to put on our clothes, and, being soldiers, our arms. verse 13th directeth our behavior and employment throughout the day. The last verse doth shortly and clearly fold up both together.
’All the days of sinful nature are dark night, in which there is no right discerning of spiritual things: Some light there is of reason to direct natural and civil actions, but no daylight till the sun arise. ’Tis night still, for all the stars, and the moon to help them: Notwithstanding natural speculation that are more remote, and all prudence and policy for affairs, that come somewhat nearer to actions, yet we are still in the night; and men sleep on in it, and their heads are still full of new dreams that keep them sleeping. They are constantly drunk with cares or desires of sense, and so their sleep continues. Now sleep is brother of death, and so by it not unfitly is the same state resembled.
’It is time to awake, salvation is nearer than when ye believed. The bright day you look for is posting forward; it is nearer than when you began to believe: the night is far spent, the gross darkness is already past, some daylight it is, and is every moment growing, and the perfect full morning light of it is very near. O blessed Gospel revealing God in Christ, and calling up sinners to communion with him, dispelling that black night of ignorance and accursed darkness that otherwise had never ended, but passed on to a night of eternal misery.
’Put on the Lord Jesus — Here we have the proper beauty and ornament of Christians. Him we put on by faith and are clothed with Him as our righteousness. We come unto our Father, in our Elder Brother’s perfumed garment, and so obtain the blessing, which He, in a manner, was stripped of, and did undergo the curse, and was made a curse for our sakes. So the Apostle speaks of Him. We put Him on as the Lord our righteousness, and are made the righteousness of God in Him. This investiture is first, when our persons are made acceptable, and we come into court. But there is another putting of Him on, in the conformity of holiness, which always accompanies the former, and that is it which is here meant. And this I declare unto you, that whosoever does not thus put Him on, shall find themselves deceived in the other, if they imagine it belongs to them. He is the armor of light before spoken of; all our ornament and safety is in Him. ’Now follows, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof; and it will follow necessarily. O! to have the heart touched by the Spirit with such a word as is here — it would untie it from all these things. These are the words the very reading of which wrought so with Augustine, that, of a licentious young man, he turned a holy, faithful servant of Jesus Christ. While you were without Christ, you had no higher nor other business to do but to attend and serve the flesh; but once having put Him on, you are other men, and other manners do become you. There is a transcendent sweetness in Christ, that puts the flesh out of credit. Put on Christ, thy royal robe, and make no provision for the flesh. A soul clothed with Christ, stooping to any sinful delight, or an ardent pursuit of anything earthly, though lawful, doth wonderfully indignity itself. ’Oh! raise up your spirits, you that pretend to anything in Christ; delight in Him, and let His love satisfy you at all times. What need you go a-begging elsewhere? All you would add makes you the poorer, abates so much of your enjoyment of Him; and what can compensate that? Put on the Lord Jesus, and then view yourselves, and see if you be fit to be slaves to flesh and earth.
’These two, put on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the, flesh, are directly the representation of the Church — a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, needed borrow no beauty from it, or anything under it.’
Robert Haldane on Romans
CHAPTER XIV – Romans 14:1-21
Romans 14:1 — Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Him that is weak in the faith receive ye. — In this verse, and onwards to the 13th of the following chapter, the Apostle, as in the 8th and 10th chapters of First Corinthians, establishes the duty of mutual forbearance among Christians. The subjects of dispute often vary, but the principles here laid down are always the same. The discussion in this chapter regards things in themselves indifferent, as the observance of certain days, and the abstinence from certain kinds of food; the errors, however, into which we may fall respecting them, are represented as springing from weakness of faith, to which every evil that appears among Christians may be traced. We may here remark that, though faith is the gift of God, yet it is on that account no less a duty. Repentance and every good work are also gifts of God, Acts 5:31; 2 Timothy 2:25; Ephesians 2:10. All men, notwithstanding, are bound to believe, to repent, and to obey, under pain of God’s most awful displeasure.
Calvin, Dr. Macknight, and Mr. Stuart, and others, with almost general consent, take it for granted that the weak are the Jewish, and the strong the Gentile, believers. There is no ground in the text for this opinion. Many of the Jews might be fully instructed in the points which are here treated, and many of the Gentiles might be weak with respect to the defilement of meats offered in sacrifice to idols. Why should it be thought that the Jewish believers in general should be uninstructed, and that every Gentile believer should be fully acquainted with his duty respecting meats? Some of them might in this easily adopt the prejudices of the Jews, and others might have prejudices of their own. To confine what is left general by the Apostle, must be useless, and in some cases very hurtful.
Faith — Faith here regards the doctrine of the Gospel as a whole. Improper views of any part of it always imply something defective with respect to its nature. But partial ignorance may be consistent with so much knowledge as is connected with salvation. Dr. Macknight paraphrases this as referring to the Jewish Christian who is weak in the faith concerning meats and days. But how does this consist with the 2nd verse, which represents the weakness as confining itself to eating herbs? This was no injunction of the Mosaic law. The weakness referred to is weakness of any kind, and will apply to anything in which it is discovered. The meats and days are particular instances adduced as illustrations of the general truth; but that truth applies as directly to weakness of any kind now, as to a weakness of a particular kind at that time. Receive ye — That is, into the Church, to the fellowship of the brethren, in all the ordinances of Christ’s house.
Doubtful disputations — The phrase in the original is variously rendered and explained. The meaning seems to be, that when they should receive a weak brother, they should not press him to receive their views by harassing discussions on the points on which he is ignorant. Such conduct would either tend to wound his mind, or induce him to acquiesce without enlightened conviction. Disputation seldom begets unanimity. If a statement of the will of Christ from the Scriptures has not the effect of producing conviction, lengthened discussions are more likely to increase prejudice than to resolve doubts. While, therefore, it is greatly important that believers, who have inadequate views of any part of Divine truth, should be taught more fully the way of the Lord, it is also true that the most likely way to effect this is to avoid disputations with them on the points in which they are weak. This observation is founded on experience, and it is warranted by the command of God. To push them forward faster than they are taught by the word and Spirit of God, will stumble and injure instead of making them strong. Christians seldom argue one another into their views, and more frequently each is more confirmed in his own opinion. When it is necessary to show the weak brother his errors, it is best to exhibit the truth in its evidences, to leave him to the general use of the means of edification, and to give him affectionate instructions, for the purpose of his becoming stronger in the faith, and riper in his judgment, by the internal influences and teaching of the Holy Spirit. The principles on which the Apostle proceeds are not, that the views of those who differ among themselves are equally well founded, but that they are all brethren, having in view the glory of God and obedience to His will, and that, as their heavenly Father is so indulgent to His children, that, notwithstanding their defects in knowledge, and the consequent difference in their conduct, they ought not to be less forbearing to one another.
Romans 14:2 — For one believeth that he may eat all things; another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
For one believeth that he may eat all things — ’The Gentile Christian,’ says Dr. Macknight, ’believeth that he may eat every kind of meat.’ But why the Gentile? The Jewish Christian might believe this as well as the Gentile, when the distinction of meats was now totally abolished. And doubtless many Jewish believers already understood this matter. This shows that the Jewish law, in its ritual ordinances, was abolished before this time, for otherwise neither Jew nor Gentile had ground for such belief. This seems also to imply that the prohibition of blood, in Acts 15, was only as a law of forbearance to spare the prejudices of the Jews. When the Mosaic law was at an end, there appears to have been no reason for abstaining from blood more than from flesh. Here the strong in faith believed that they might eat all things; why, then, should blood be excepted? If there had been an exception, doubtless it would have been given here. How could the strong in faith believe that they might eat all things, if one thing was forbidden on its own account?
Another, who is weak, eateth herbs — Why should this be confined to the Jewish Christians? It is not in evidence that all Jewish Christians were so ignorant. Besides, this does not apply to their law. The law of Moses did not restrict the Jews to herbs. If it be replied that they abstained from all meat, lest it should have been offered in sacrifice to idols previously to bringing it to market, it is answered that this applies to the Gentile as well as to the Jew? This, besides, does not refer to the distinction of meats by the law, but to the pollution of meats by being offered to idols. It affected the meats allowed by the law as well as the meats prohibited. The opinion, then, of the pollution of meats, by the mere circ*mstance of having been offered to idols as a sacrifice, before it was sold in the shambles, might as readily be entertained by the Gentiles as by the Jews. The thing that they are thus represented as guarding against, is not the breach of the law with respect to the distinction of meats, but against the pollution of meats by idolatry. This concerned the Gentile equally with the Jew; and weakness in this point might be found in the former as well as in the latter.
Romans 14:3 — Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not ; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Here the peculiar sin to which each of the two characters is respectively liable, is pointed out. The pride of knowledge is prone to hold the ignorant in contempt. ’The weakness of ignorance is prone to condemn those who, from more enlightened views of Divine truth, are not affected by their scruples. They who could eat everything, without exception, were strong, because they had just views on the subject in question. Their temptation was to despise their brethren for their weakness. This they are forbidden to do. They who thought it unlawful to eat certain things were weak, because they had inadequate views of the subject. They, therefore, were under a temptation to judge unfavorably of the motives of their brethren. Let us observe, it is the brethren they are forbidden to condemn, and not the thing which they did. They could not but condemn the thing as wrong which they thought unlawful. But they were not permitted to condemn those who did the thing, as if they did it from improper motives, as from the desire of gratifying the appetite, from unwillingness to practice self-denial, or from a wish to conform to the world and avoid reproachapter Weak Christians are often troublesome, by ascribing the conduct of their brethren to improper motives. The weak, then, are as liable to judge improperly as the strong are to despise them. They ought both to attend to the apostolical injunctions which are respectively given to them in this place.
For God hath received him — God had no doubt received both of them as righteous in His sight, through the righteousness of His Son. But receiving here being asserted of the one and not mentioned with respect to the other, must respect the thing in which he is condemned by this weak brother. This implies that the distinction of meats, with the whole of the law of Moses, in all its ritual ordinances, was abolished; for the conduct of Christians could not be received or accepted by God, as far as it was in violation of His law. Receiving, then, here does not, as is generally, if not universally, explained, refer to receiving their persons through Jesus Christ, but to the particular conduct in question. The strong were received in their using things prohibited by the law, because the law was abolished. Had not the word receiving this reference, it would be as applicable to the weak as to the strong, whereas it is here affirmed only of the strong. But though the weak are accepted with God through the righteousness of Christ, this weakness is not acceptable to Him. It is an error, and cannot be pleasing to God. And accordingly the strong, and not the weak, are here said to be accepted.
Romans 14:4 — Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? — It is generally supposed that the person who condemns here is the strong believer, and the person who is condemned is the weak. But this is altogether without foundation. They were the weak who condemned the strong, and not the strong who condemned the weak, in the 3rd verse. The strong did not condemn, but despised the weak. When, therefore, in this 4th verse, the Apostle indignantly asks, Who art thou that condemnest another man’s servant? it must apply to him who was previously represented as having condemned the strong. Had it referred to the strong, it would not have been said, Who art thou that condemnest? but ’Who art thou that despisest?’ The weak condemned the strong, as if they were not at all believers. In this they were accordingly to blame. They assumed the prerogative of God, who alone is the Judge of His own servants.
To his own master he standeth or falleth. — Dr. Macknight, and after him Mr. Stuart, translate this, ’by his own master,’ and understand the words as asserting that the person stood or fell by his Master’s sentence. But as the standing in the end of the verse appears to refer to the standing in the profession of Christianity, and not in the day of judgment, the common translation is to be preferred. The servant is said to stand or fall to his master, because it is to his master that he is accountable.
Yea, he shall be holden up — This man, who is condemned as an unbeliever, or one who would soon fall from the faith, would be held up or made to stand. It was the almighty power of God that would hold him up, and not the observance of the precepts of the Mosaic law. For God is able to make him stand — Here the certainty of his standing is rested on God’s ability to hold him up — not on his own ability to stand. The strong are as liable to fall as the weak. Nothing can hold up either but the power of God. This is important, as showing that a man’s standing is not in himself. It is also important, as it secures the standing of the true disciple. This standing is as sure as God’s power; for it is rested on God’s ability to make him stand. To say, then, that any of God’s children shall finally fall, is to say that God is unable to hold them up.
Romans 14:5 — One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day. — Here what had been said respecting meats is equally applied to the observance of certain days. The Apostle takes for granted that on this subject likewise different Christians held different views. For it is of believers only he is speaking. This is a clear point, but it is one of much practical importance. It recognizes the Christianity of those who may be very inadequately acquainted with the will of Christ. It is proper, however, to remark that the Lord’s Day cannot (which shall afterwards be shown) be included in what is here said, as the Apostle is speaking of those meats and days that were peculiar to the Jewish dispensation; as when, in writing to the Galatians, he censures their observing days, and months, and times, and years, to which they desired to be in bondage, which he terms weak and beggarly elements, Galatians 4:9-10.
Romans 14:6 — He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord — This regard of days, though contrary to what had been already revealed, was, from ignorance of this fact, intended as obedience to the Lord. The persons who made this distinction, believed that the Lord required it. Therefore, though they were wrong in this, and on that account were guilty, yet they acted from a view of serving the Lord. The thing performed may be wrong, while the intention of performing it may be right. In like manner, the thing performed may be right, while the motive of performing it may be wrong. He that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it — In the same manner, the believer who did not regard the day, acted from a view of honoring the Lord, and not from thinking the observance of the day a restraint. When he gave up the day, which under the Mosaic dispensation was holy, because he believed that the Lord had made an end of that dispensation, it was honorable to the Lord.
He that eateth, eateth to the Lord — The same thing is asserted with respect to meats as was asserted with respect to days. He that eateth the thing that formerly had been forbidden, eateth to the Lord, because he believes that the Lord hath abolished the distinction. He also who would eat what he bought in the shambles, without any respect to its having been previously offered in sacrifice to idols, because he knew that the meat was the Lord’s, and could not be defiled by such an occurrence, did so out of regard to the honor of the Lord. That he acted from this view, is proved by his giving God thanks for what he did eat. Had he considered that the thing was prohibited by the Lord, he would not have ventured to give God thanks for permitting him the use of it.
And he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not — In like manner, the weak brother, who not only abstained from the things formerly forbidden, but even from everything that he considered as polluted, by being offered to idols, acted from a desire of honoring the Lord, because he thought such things were forbidden by God. And giveth God thanks — Mr. Stuart understands this of thankfulness ’for the light which is imparted to him,’ as he supposes, ’with respect to making such a distinction in food.’ But the meaning undoubtedly is, that he gives God thanks for what he is allowed to eat. He shows that he eats from a view of honoring God, because, instead of looking on what he supposes to be forbidden as a restraint hard to be submitted to, he gives God thanks for what he considers to be granted to him by the Lord. There are other places in which the sacred writers exhort believers to grow in knowledge, and where they charge them as culpable if ignorant of any part of the will of the Lord. But here the Apostle’s object is to show that those who have a reverential regard for the authority of Christ, and a true knowledge of His character, and thus call Him their Lord, ought to be received and recognized as His disciples.
Romans 14:7 — For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
For none of us liveth to himself: — Having stated that both parties referred to acted with a view to serve the Lord, the Apostle now extends this duty so as to embrace all Christians in all their actions. No Christian liveth to himself. As far as he lives to himself, he acts inconsistently with his character. We ought to consider ourselves as under law to God in every action of our lives. Even in temporal things, yea, even in eating and drinking, we should have in view the glory of God. To live to the Lord supposes that in all things we regard His will as the sole rule of our conduct, and His approbation as our great aim in all that we do, and that in all things we seek His glory. It supposes that we are entirely resigned to His disposal, blessing Him whether in adversity or prosperity; that we submit to His dispensations in what He gives or takes away; and, finally, that we only live to serve Him, and show forth His praise. Whether, then, the Christian lives or dies, he belongs to the Lord, desiring that He may dispose of him as He sees best; confident that, as being the object of the Savior’s love, whatever may befall him, he is safe in His hands. There is no danger, then, however great, — there is no difficulty, however arduous, — that ought to prevent us from obeying the will of the Lord. Property, character, life itself, ought to be at His service. But is it not obvious that most people have no conception of living but to themselves? Do not the mass of mankind follow their own interest to the neglect of the authority of God? Even among those who make a profession of religion, how few are there who follow the Lord at the expense of any great temporal sacrifice? Nay, are not many induced to act inconsistently with the character of a Christian for every trifle?
And no man dieth to himself — A Christian is not to die to himself more than he is to live to himself. He has no right to yield his life as a sacrifice to his pride. This cuts off the pretensions to Christianity of all persons who, to comply with the laws of honor, risk their life, or that of their opponents, in dueling. So also is suicide here condemned. The man who dies in these ways, dies to himself, which no man has a right to do, and which no Christian will do. This shows, also, that if obedience to Christ requires it, a Christian must not decline to die to His honor. He is to risk his life rather than break any known commandment of God. He is to die rather than decline obedience to any command or institution of Christ. When he so dies, he does not throw away his life. He devotes it for a sufficient purpose. He gives it to the honor of the Lord. He yields it back to Him who gave it, and who has a right to it. He shows also that a Christian should not only be willing to die, when God wills his death, but that he should be willing to live as long as God pleases. Christians may transgress by being unwilling to die, and they may also transgress in wishing to die. They ought to be willing to live or die as it is for God’s glory from this it also appears that the death of any Christian is precious in the sight of God, as well as his life. Every Christian, when he dies, dies to the glory of God. This accords with what is said with respect to Peter, ’by what death he was to glorify God.’
Romans 14:8 — For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord — The former verse denies that we live or die to ourselves; by inference, therefore, we live or die to Christ. But this verse makes the assertion directly which was implied in the other. Both in life and death we ought to serve God, and endeavor to promote His glory. The end of the verse draws the conclusion. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. — Not only are we the Lord’s in giving our life at His command, but we are the Lord’s in the state of separation between soul and body. Our bodies are the Lord’s, and will be preserved by Him till the resurrection, when in glory they shall be given back to us; and our souls, in the presence of God, will have happiness and glory till that period shall arrive.
Romans 14:9 — For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.
For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived. — It was the end of the death and resurrection of the Lord, that to Him, as Mediator, all power might be committed. He has received the keys of the invisible state and of death, and governs all His people both during their life and after their death, ordering all things for His own glory and their good. Christ, then, is the Lord of the living; He is also the Lord of the dead. He must then be God. This shows, also, that the dead are alive in their souls, while their bodies are dead. It is in this way that Christ reigns over them. It would be absurd to suppose that He reigns over them as mere insensible matter. ’God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,’ Matthew 22:32.
Romans 14:10 — But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand at the judgment-seat of Christ.
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? — This shows, evidently, that the word judge in the 4th verse refers to the weak brother who condemned those who did eat things prohibited by the law, and not to the strong brother, for he is reproved for despising and not for judging. Here both the one and the other are brought distinctly forward, and each separately asked a question suitable to himself. The brother who thinks that it is wrong to eat things prohibited by the law is asked why he dares to take upon himself to condemn his brother who in this differed from him; and the brother who is better informed upon this matter is asked how he dares set at naught his brother who was ill instructed on this point. Mr. Stuart is certainly wrong in making both these questions refer to the strong brother. There could be no ground for asking the first question with respect to the strong brother. He is charged as despising. He might despise without condemning his weak brother as acting from improper motives. The Apostle most evidently asks the two questions with respect to different characters, and the questions are most appropriate and suitable respectively to the two characters brought into view.
For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ — The Apostle gives here another reason to prevent believers from judging or despising each other. Not only are they all the servants of Christ, and brethren, but they must all appear at His judgment-seat, each to give an account of himself. This is a good reason why they should neither condemn nor despise one another. To judge one another in this manner is to invade the prerogative of Christ; and to despise one another evidences pride and ignorance of the source of all our knowledge. This most clearly shows that Christians have no authority over one another’s faith or Christian practice in this world. Both as to faith and Christian practice Christians may endeavor to enlighten one another; but when they fail, they have no authority to force others to change their views. Each Christian, however, is bound to follow the Lord fully so far as his own knowledge extends, and not to be stopped by the ignorance of his brother. He is not to do what he knows to be wrong, in order to walk with his weak brother; nor is he to avoid doing anything that he judges to be the will of his Master, in order to retain fellowship with other Christians.
Romans 14:11 — For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
For it is written. — This passage from the Old Testament, Isaiah 45:23, the Apostle adduces as importing that all shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. It is remarkable that the Apostle so frequently quotes from the Old Testament in support of what he teaches, though in reality his own authority was equal to that of any writer of the Old Testament. But this proves that the Old Testament and the New are given by one Spirit, and harmonize in all their parts. It is also an example for us in proving and teaching any truth contained in the word of God. If the Apostle confirmed what he taught by the authority of the Scriptures, shall any man now, or body of men, presume to make the authority of their office stand in the place of the word of God?
As I Live — The Apostle does not take the words literally; but as the Holy Ghost spoke by him, we are assured that he gives the true meaning I have sworn by myself, is substantially the same with as I Live. Uninspired translators must not be indulged with a like liberty, for it is only when they translate exactly that there is an assurance that they translate correctly. Saith the Lord — The Apostle, by the addition of these words, shows that in the passage he quotes it was the Messiah who, in the preceding verse, said, ’Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else,’ Isaiah 45:22. Every knee shall bow to Me — As in Philippians 2:10 the same thing is asserted with respect to Christ personally, this is also applicable to Christ personally and directly. In judgment all will bow to God, seeing they will bow to Christ. Every tongue shall confess to God — This is substantially the same with ’unto Me every tongue shall swear.’ In the Epistle to the Hebrews we learn that God swears by Himself, ’because He could swear by no greater;’ and thus Jesus Christ, in here swearing by His life, of by Himself, gives, according to that declaration of the Apostle, a proof of His divinity. In the preceding verses of this chapter it is always to Jesus Christ that Paul refers when he says the Lord. It is by Him that we shall be judged at the last day; it is to Him that Christians are entirely devoted, which, were He merely a creature, would evidently be a violation of the law of Him who says, ’I am a jealous God,’ and ’My glory I will not give to another.’ ’The Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him.’
Romans 14:12 — So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
So then — Consequently then, or by consequence then. This is an inference which the Apostle draws from the passage quoted from the Old Testament. Every individual of the human race must give account of himself to God. This applies to believers as well as to others. And though all their sins are blotted out through the blood of atonement, they should not indulge themselves in sin. The fact of a future judgment ought to have a constant influence on our conduct. Standing before the judgment-seat of Christ, of which the Apostle had just before spoken, is here represented as giving an account to God.
Romans 14:13 — Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather; that no man put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother’s way.
Let us not therefore judge one another any more. — This dissuasive appears to be now addressed to both the parties. The Apostle having declared what was peculiarly adapted to each, now declares what is equally applicable to both. Judging or condemning was in a peculiar sense the fault of the one; but both of them in a more extended sense of the word might be said to judge or condemn one another. The strong brother who despised the weak virtually judged him or condemned him. Paul now takes them both together, and addresses them with the same caution. He extends the exhortation to himself, and to the whole body of Christians. They are not to usurp authority over one another, nor to usurp the right to judge for one another in any matter.
But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother’s way — The word judge is here used in an allusive sense, and not in its proper or literal sense. Instead of judging, we ought to do another thing, which is not properly judging, but called judging, in allusion to the word immediately going before. This is similar to the expression, ’This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.’ The Scriptures abound with instances of this figurative way of speaking. Instead of judging one another, Christians are to avoid doing anything that will have a tendency to stumble one another, or cause any to fall into sin. This is peculiarly applicable to the strong, who, by an improper use of their liberty, might ensnare their weak brethren.
Romans 14:14 — I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
I know, and am persuaded — This clearly refutes the opinion of those who argue that at the time of writing this Epistle the law was not abolished, and that it was not in this state that the different parties were to forbear with respect to one another, but that the Jew was still to keep the law till its abolition should be explicitly announced. But that it was abolished, is perfectly clear from this chapter. The Apostle knew himself, and here he teaches others, that the Mosaic dispensation was abolished, yet enjoins the strong and the weak to forbear mutually with each other. By the Lord Jesus — That is, Paul knew this by the teaching of the Lord Jesus. Calvin is unquestionably mistaken in applying this, not to the teaching of the Lord Jesus, but to the cleansing of meats by the Lord Jesus. He says, ’The Apostle adds, in the Lord Jesus, because His kindness and grace is the cause why all creatures are blessed to us by the Lord, which were otherwise cursed in Adam.’ This is no doubt a fact, but it is not the thing here taught. Paul is here asserting that his knowledge of the abolition of the distinction of meats was not obtained by his own searching into the nature of things, but was a revelation from the Lord Jesus. This doctrine was not a private opinion of his own, but the revealed will of his Master. Nothing unclean of itself — This undoubtedly shows that there is nothing unclean in blood more than in anything else. The Apostle here asserts of everything that could be used for food, that there is nothing unclean in itself. When blood and other meats were prohibited by the law, it was not because there was anything in themselves that rendered them unclean. It was the will of God, because they were of a typical nature, and therefore all their uncleanness ended when Christ came. Why, then, it may be asked, was blood prohibited in Acts 15? Evidently as a law of forbearance, because of the prejudices of the Jews. This is expressed in the very passage. ’For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach Him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day.’ It would still be a duty to avoid these things, if we were in such situations that it would give offense to the Jews. That such is the true view of the matter, is evident from this, that though the Jews were prohibited from eating things strangled, they were not prohibited to give them or sell them to strangers. Had the thing been unlawful in itself, they would not have been permitted to give to strangers that which it was unlawful for themselves to eat. Dr. Macknight justly remarks, ’It is observable that in this discourse, which is intended to show that under the Gospel all sorts of food may be used without sin, there is no exception of blood and things strangled.’ But he is wrong in his inference from this fact. ’May we not from this infer,’ he says, ’that the prohibition of these things to the Gentile converts, mentioned Acts 15:29, is to be understood of such Gentiles only as had been proselytes?’ This is forced and unnatural.
But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it as unclean — This is self-evident truth, which has no exception. For if a person does what he thinks God forbids, he is guilty with respect to God as really as if the thing had been actually prohibited by God. Persons in ignorance ought to be instructed, but they ought never to be encouraged to do what they themselves judge to be contrary to the will of God.
Romans 14:15 — But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died.
But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. — The weak brother would be grieved in his mind when he should see the strong eating meat which he considered unclean. Now it is not love that will prompt us to do anything to afflict another. If, then, the strong loves the weak brother, would he, for the sake of his appetite, eat anything that would grieve him? Self-denial in such matters is the result of love, and when any one will not abstain from gratifying his appetite to avoid hurting his brother, it shows that he is deficient in love.
Destroy not him with thy meat — This supposes that the weak brother may, by the example of the strong, be induced to do what he is not persuaded is lawful; and thus, though the thing be in itself lawful, it is sin in him, and consequently its tendency is to bring him into condemnation. It is not, indeed, possible that this can ultimately be the case with any one for whom Christ died; but this is a warning to avoid doing anything that in itself tends to destroy him. For whom Christ died. — If Christ died for the weak brother, how unlike Christ is this strong believer, who will do what he knows will destroy his brother, if he follow his example without having his knowledge! The love of Christ in giving His life for this brother, and the indifference with respect to him which is manifested by the person who should thus abuse his liberty, are here set in strong contrast.
Romans 14:16. — Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
Let not then your good — Their good appears to be their liberty of disregarding the distinction of meats, and the law in general. This was a good thing to them, because the law was in itself a yoke and a grievous burden. They were doing what was good and right in itself in using this liberty, but they should be careful to use it in such a way as not to be the occasion of being represented as if in what they did they were regardless of the authority of God. This is a decisive distinction between the dispensation of Christ and that of Moses. It was an advantage to be delivered from the peculiar restraints of the ceremonial law, but it would be no advantage to be delivered from any part of the dispensation of Christ. This shows the sovereignty of God, in subjecting His people in one dispensation to burdens which He removes in another.
Be evil spoken of — Their good would be evil spoken of, when their neglect of the distinctions of the law should be ascribed to the indulgence of appetite, and when their conduct should embolden the weak to do what was contrary to their conscience. Then. — That is, since some of the brethren were so weak as to judge those who did eat certain meats to be influenced by improper motives, then, in order to avoid this, they ought to decline the use of their liberty.
Romans 14:17 — For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. — This imports that the service which belongs to the kingdom of God, and which He requires from all His subjects, does not consist in abstaining from, or in using, any kind of meats. The typical dispensation of the Old Testament enjoined a distinction of meats. Men are peculiarly prone to cling to externals in religious worship. It is, then, of great importance to attend to this decision of the Holy Ghost by the Apostle Paul. The distinction of meats has nothing to do in the service of God under the New Testament. This settles the question as to blood. If the eating of blood is still prohibited, it cannot be said that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.
But righteousness — This is not the righteousness of God which is imputed to the believer, as is evident from the following verse, but the righteousness of which he is the subject. Righteousness sometimes refers especially to the duties which we owe to men, but in its most comprehensive sense it includes equally our duty to God; and there is no reason why it should not here have its most comprehensive meaning. Peace — This is a criterion of a true servant in the kingdom of God. Having peace with God, he endeavors to have peace with the brethren and with all men. Nothing is more unlike the spirit of genuine Christianity than a contentious disposition. Joy in the Holy Ghost. — The joy of a Christian communicated by the Holy Ghost cannot be comprehended by any other. He rejoices even in the midst of trouble, and is often most happy when the world thinks him most miserable. Joy is the immediate effect of receiving the Gospel, which is glad tidings of great joy, as announced to the shepherds on the birth of our Savior. It springs from a sense of reconciliation with God. We see it exemplified in the three thousand converted on the day of Pentecost, in the eunuch, and in the jailer at Philippi, as soon as they received the truth. Joy is enjoined again and again as the duty of believers. ’Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.’ ’Rejoice evermore.’ ’These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.’ Our Lord dwells much upon it in His last discourse with His disciples, which contains everything calculated to impart joy to their minds, and in which He so often promises to send them the Comforter. ’These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy in you might remain, and that your joy might be full.’ He had spoken to them that their joy might be full, but He makes no such addition when He refers to His joy in them, for it was already full. This joy in His people is an everlasting joy, neither capable of increase nor diminution; but their joy is variable according as they are exercising faith in Him, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Joy is one of the great blessings of His kingdom. In this passage peace is placed before joy, while joy is elsewhere put before peace, as in the following chapter, verse 13, and especially in enumerating the fruits of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22. The first feeling on receiving the knowledge of the Gospel of salvation will be joy, and peace or tranquillity of mind will immediately succeed the agitations of the troubled conscience. However, where the one exists, there will the other be found, and in an equal proportion. Peace and righteousness are here traced up to joy in the Holy Ghost, which shows, as in other places, that it is in effect before the others.
Romans 14:18 — For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
For he that in these things serveth Christ — Here the Christian is said to serve Christ by righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Christ, then, must be God. Is any but God to be served? Are we servants or slaves to any but God? Here we are represented as the slaves of Christ. What is the service of God? Is it not righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost? And here this service is considered the service of Christ. Can there be any doubt, then, that Christ is God?
Acceptable to God — Every righteous man is pleasing to God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him. Then without faith it is impossible to live righteously, to live in true peace, and in the joy of the Holy Ghost. These are the things in which God is honored. What a contrast between this account, as given by Paul, and the religion of the Church of Rome at the present time! If men abstain from meats, and observe the laws of the Church, they are acknowledged as members of that Church, though they should live unrighteously, though they should be agitators or disturbers of society, though they should have no joy in believing. How unlike, then, is the Church of Rome now to that of Rome addressed by the Apostle! Approved of men —When Christians live as becometh the Gospel, they have a testimony from their very enemies. The conduct here recommended is eminently useful to society, and cannot but command the approbation even of the most ungodly.
Romans 14:19 — Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace. — Since, then, meats have nothing to do in the religion of Christ; for ’meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better: neither, if we eat not, are we the worse,’ 1 Corinthians 8:8; and since He is served by righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, let us pursue the things of peace. We are not only to live peaceably with all men, and especially with the brethren, but we are to pursue peace. Even should it fly from us, we should follow it. The things of peace. — That is, we should follow all things that tend to produce peace, and avoid everything, as far as our duty to God permits, of a contrary tendency.
And things wherewith one may edify another, — the things of edification. — That is, such things as will have a tendency to increase the faith and establishment of each other. We are not to have an eye merely to our own growth and stability, but also to the growth and stability of the whole body. Christians in general are not sufficiently aware of this duty.
Romans 14:20 — For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense.
For meat destroy not the work of God — The believer is here called the work of God, in a like sense as believers are elsewhere called the building of God. Dr. Macknight understands it of ’that which God is working in the heart of our brother, namely, faith and holiness.’ The other sense seems to be the true one. The reason which he gives for not applying the word to persons, is not to be sustained: ’For if,’ says he, ’the Apostle had been speaking of persons who, on account of their regeneration, are called the work of God, he would have used the word poi>hma, as he does Ephesians 2:10.’ Why should he be confined to this word? The other word is equally applicable. Mr. Stuart alleges that, as referring to the internal work of faith, it is a possible meaning, though he prefers the other. His observation, however, that faith is called the work of God, John 6:29, has no weight in confirming Dr. Macknight’s opinion. Work of God in that passage signifies not the work which God works, but the work which God enjoins. The question was, ’What shall we do that we might work the works of God?’ This surely is the work which God enjoins, not the work which God works. When, therefore, in answer to this question, Jesus replies, ’This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent,’ the work of God must also refer to the work which God requests. But it may be asked, How can this be, seeing faith is not a work? The reply is quite obvious: it is in an allusive sense only, as has been already observed, that faith is here called a work. The word is used merely in reference to the word in the question. It is not a work, but it is the thing that God enjoins in order to salvation. The Scriptures abound with examples of this manner of speaking. Dr. Macknight observes ’that the Apostle’s words, so interpreted, imply that the truly regenerated may be destroyed.’ But as it is contrary to the whole current of Scripture that the truly regenerated can eternally perish — for who shall separate them from the love of Christ? — it must be understood in the sense already explained, of tending in itself to his destruction.
All things indeed are pure — Every kind of meat is here declared to be pure. This at once shows that the abolition of the law had already taken place, and that blood is not in itself unclean. But it is evil for that man who eateth with offense — Some understand the offense as referring to the man who causes another to stumble, and some to the man who stumbles through offense. Calvin appears to understand it in the former sense. But the other meaning appears to be the right one. The meaning of ’with offense’ seems to be, that the eating by the person referred to is Occasioned by the stumbling block which was laid before him.
Romans 14:21 — It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
It is good. — The Apostle here extends the duty not only to the things that were prohibited by the Mosaic law, but to every kind of flesh, and even wine, and every other thing that might be the occasion of causing a weak brother to stumble. Nor anything. — The expression in the original is elliptical; and this elliptical translation is preferable to that of Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart, who supply the phrase to do. Without doubt, the words to be supplied, as left out by ellipsis, are to eat or to drink. This is the very way in which Mr. Stuart himself, in his Commentary, supplies the ellipsis. Why, then, does he translate on another principle? The Apostle declares that it is wrong to eat or to drink anything that would be the occasion of bringing sin upon our brother.
Whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak — The first of these words may refer to stumbling without falling; the second, to falling by a stumbling block; and the third, to the effect of this upon the person who is stumbling — he becomes weak.
Romans 14:22 — Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. — It is of no importance whether we read this as a question, with our version, or as a declaration of a known fact. The meaning is substantially the same. Mr. Macknight does not seem justifiable in representing the word translated have as a command to hold fast this faith. The man who has faith should not disturb his weak brother with an unseasonable declaration of his faith in this matter. His belief in this point is correct; and let him rejoice before God in his privilege; but let him not wound the mind of his weak brother by an injudicious exercise of his privileges. He is accountable to God for his faith in this matter as well as in all others. But he is not to intrude it upon his weak brother. Calvin well observes, ’This passage is evidently perverted and misunderstood when it is adduced to support the opinion that a person may observe foolish and superstitious ceremonies without danger, provided his conscience is pure and undisturbed before God. The context clearly confutes such a misconstruction.’ A Christian may forego his liberty with respect to meats and drinks, but he has no right to practice what God has not enjoined, nor to avoid practicing what God has instituted.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. — That man is happy, and he only can enjoy peace in his conscience, who acts according to the persuasion which he has of the lawfulness of his conduct. And happy is it for the Christian when his just views are not acted on in such a manner as to stumble others.
Romans 14:23 — And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat — That is, he that doubteth whether it be right to eat the meats forbidden by the law, is in this condemned, although the thing itself is lawful. The reason is obvious. The person does not fully believe that the thing is right, and consequently by eating he thinks he may be offending God. This shows us that in the things of God we ought not to do anything concerning which we are in doubt. To observe any ordinance of God with doubts as to its being an ordinance of God, is to commit sin. To obey God acceptably, we must have a conviction that we are doing the thing which He has enjoined. Calvin observes on this passage, ’For if we are not allowed to take a single mouthful of bread with a doubting conscience, how much greater caution ought to be used in transactions of the highest importance?’ For whatsoever is not of faith is sin. — That is, whatsoever is not done with a conviction that it is agreeable to the will of God, is sinful in the doer, although it should be right in itself. This is the generalization of the preceding doctrine. It applies not merely to meats, but to everything. If any person be convinced that a thing is contrary to God’s law, and yet practices it, he is guilty before God, although it should be found that the thing was lawful.
Robert Haldane On Romans
CHAPTER XV–Romans 15:1-33
Romans 15:1 — We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
We then that are strong — The Apostle continues here to treat of the subject of mutual forbearance among Christians, raking himself with those who are strong in the faith, and who know that under the new covenant there is no longer any distinction in the sight of God between different kinds of meat, or any sanctity in the feast days enjoined to be observed under the Jewish dispensation.
To know the mind of God, as revealed in the Scriptures, is to be strong; to be ignorant of it, is to be weak. It is not the man of the greatest intellectual vigor who is strong, nor the imbecile in understanding who is weak. Many of those who possess the greatest talents, and are most distinguished for mental acquirements, even although Christians, may be weak in respect to the things of God. And many who are of feeble intellect, may be strong in the knowledge of Divine things.
Ought to bear the infirmities of the weak — Mr. Stuart explains the word here used as signifying ’to bear with, to endure patiently, to tolerate.’ The word, indeed, denotes both to bear and to bear with; but here it is evidently to be taken in the former signification. The allusion is to travelers assisting a weak companion, by taking a part of his burden and carrying it for him. The strong believer is to carry the weak believer’s burden, by acting as if he had the same weakness, and abstaining from whatever would cause the weak brother to sin. Strictly speaking, it is improper to speak of one believer bearing with, enduring, or tolerating the opinions of another, for over these he has no control. God only is the Lord of the conscience. The man who speaks of tolerating the belief of another speaks improperly. And not to please ourselves. — If there be not a spirit of love, there will be a proneness in men to bring forward, and to urge with vehemence anything in which they have received more light than their brethren. This is not for the good of their weak brethren, but to please themselves, and discover their own superior acquirements.
Romans 15:2 — Let every one of us please his neighbor for His good to edification.
Let every one of us please his neighbor. — Though no part of the truth of God is to be sacrificed to peace, yet everything consistent with truth ought to be done to avoid giving offense, or stumbling weak brethren. Some persons seem to value themselves on their setting at naught the opinion of their brethren; but this we see is far from the doctrine of the Apostle. We are not to gratify our own humor, but to do everything in our power, consistent with our duty, to please our brother. For his good. — Mr. Stuart renders this ’ in respect to that which is good,’ or ’so far as we may do so and do what is good.’ The common version is preferable, and conveys the true meaning. We are to please our brethren only for their good. It is for their good not to be urged to do what they cannot do with a good conscience; but it is not for their good to have any part of the will of God concealed from them. Besides, to abstain from meats is not a good in itself. To edification. — This is the way in which it is for their good to treat them in the manner recommended. It is for their edification. Such treatment will convince them of the love of those by whom they are so treated, and will be the surest way to lead them forward to clearer views in the points in which they are ignorant. To urge them forward with dictatorial zeal, would shut their eyes closer, and prevent them from perceiving the truth.
Romans 15:3 — For even Christ pleased not Himself , but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on Me.
For even Christ pleased not Himself — The Apostle confirms his injunctions by the example of Christ. He did not please Himself, or look for the favor of men; but instead of this, voluntarily acted in such a way as to subject Himself to every inconvenience and evil for the good of His people. If, then, our Lord Himself acted in this manner, how does it condemn a contrary practice in His people, if they indulge their own humor at the expense of those for whom Christ died!
But, as it is written. — Instead of directly referring to the history of the life of Christ, the Apostle refers to the Old Testament, which testified of Him. The chief facts in the life of Christ were in one way or other predicted, and foreshown in the law and the Prophets. The manner in which they are quoted by the Apostle at once shows their bearing, and attests their application to the great Antitype. The actions of our Lord were ordered in such a manner as to fulfill what was written concerning Him.
The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on Me. — The reproaches of those who reproached His Father fell upon His only-begotten Son when He was in the world. This imports that all the reproaches cast upon God’s people, on account of their obedience to God, are really directed against God Himself. It imports that all the opposition made to Christ was really opposition to His Father. The reason why Christ was so much hated and opposed was, because He revealed or manifested the Father. Had He avoided this, He would have been applauded by the world. Men, even the most wicked, approve of morality and acts of kindness to the human race. They hate Christ and Christians only because of their holding forth the character of God, which they dislike. Had Christ sought to please Himself, He would have avoided whatever excited the enmity of the multitude. When, therefore, the people reproached Him, because He pleased His Father and declared His will, it was His Father whom they reproached. The great aim of the intercourse of Jesus Christ with men, as it referred to them, was their good, and not His own pleasure. He bore the infirmities of the weak, accommodating His instructions to the capacities of those whom He addressed. But because of this condescension He was reproached by others. When He was found in company with the ignorant, to teach them, He was reproached as ’a friend of publicans and sinners.’ This appears to be the meaning and application of this quotation, which at first sight does not seem clear.
Romans 15:4 — For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning; that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning. — This observation appears to refer to the Apostle’s reason for making the preceding quotation. He might have referred, as already remarked, immediately to the history of the life of Christ; but instead of this, he quotes from a passage in the Psalms. Here he justifies his doing this, and makes an observation which applies generally to the Old Testament and shows us in what manner we ought to use it. Some persons have blasphemously said that the Old Testament is now out of date. But the writers of the New Testament give no such view of the Old. Instead of this, they refer to it as proof, and treat it as of constant use to the people of God. All that is therein written, whether history, types’ prophecies, precepts, or examples, although under another dispensation, is intended for the instruction of believers, to train them to patience, and to impart the consolation which the Scriptures provide for those that have hope in God. ’take, my brethren,’ says James, ’the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.’ The passage quoted in the preceding verse is not only useful to us, as applicable to Christ, but it is, as the Apostle shows, useful as an example. If the reproaches of those who reproached God fell upon Christ, the people of God ought to live and act in such a manner as the Apostle elsewhere enjoins, when he says ’Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.’ If Christ did not please Himself, neither ought His people to please themselves, but to please Him and His people for their edification.
That we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures. — Mr. Stuart understands this of our patience, and translates the second word by admonition or exhortation: ’That through patience, and by the exhortation of the Scriptures, we might obtain hope. But it is through the patience exhibited in example in the Scriptures that we are to have hope. And though the original word signifies exhortation as well as comfort, yet here the latter is to be preferred. In the next verse, with reference to this declaration, God is called the God of patience. Now God is the God of consolation, that is, the God who is the author of consolation to His people. But to call God the God of exhortation, would be an uncouth expression. Might have hope. — We ought to read the Scriptures with a view not to gratify our curiosity, but to increase and nourish our hope of future glory. This passage teaches that we should encourage ourselves by the example of those who, amidst similar temptations, have overcome. For this purpose, the conduct of those who obtained a good report through faith is set before us, that we may not be slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.
Romans 15:5 — Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus.
Now the God of patience and consolation — The Apostle having in the preceding verse spoken of the patience and consolation which the Scriptures communicate, here designates God as the God of patience and consolation, and prays to Him, who is infinitely patient, and the source of all consolation, to grant that the believers at Rome might be like-minded. God is called the God of patience and consolation, because He is the author of patience and consolation to His people. Patience is essential to a Christian, and so is consolation; but neither in himself nor from any other source, but from God, has he these graces. We cannot bear the evils of the cross without Divine support. The virtues, then, of the Christian character are as much the fruit of the Spirit of God as faith is His gift. Everything good in the man of God is of God: all his sins are his own. When, therefore, we are in straits, difficulties, or troubles, we ought to look to God for patience to bear what He may see good to lay upon us, and for consolation under the burden. The form of the expression, God of patience, shows not only that God gives patience to His people, but that He gives it abundantly, and that there is no other source of this gift.
Grant you to be like-minded — Mr. Stuart understands the expression translated like-minded to relate to matters of belief. It is true that it has this signification, but it is equally true that it refers to the will and affections, and in this place, in accordance with the common version, it is to be so understood. There may be unity of sentiment in error, as well as in truth. Christians should labor to effect union of belief in all matters, because it is their duty to endeavor to know whatever God has revealed, and not merely for the purpose of union of sentiment, in order to walk together in church fellowship. It is true that union of belief in all things tends much to harmony; but it is likewise true that difference of sentiment in some things tends more to manifest the degree of advancement in the things of God. There may be harmony from perfect agreement in belief, when there is not only error, but little of the true principle of harmony; for the true principle of harmony is love to Christ’s people for Christ’s sake. It is also true that if we look to the New Testament, we do not always find perfect agreement in sentiment among the brethren. Although, therefore, the thing is desirable, it is not always to be expected, and much less is it to be made a term of communion. Christians are to walk together in the things in which they are agreed, and to differ without condemning each other. This is quite consistent with every degree of zeal for the interest of every truth about which they may differ, Philippians 3:15-16. If there be any who think that union of sentiment among Christians is not highly desirable, they are certainly far mistaken, and not of the same mind with the Apostle, who shows such earnestness on that subject. For surely it is desirable that Christians should know all that God has revealed; and if they know this, they will have this unity. But a thing may be very desirable which is not essential to their fellowship, and, as a matter of fact, no two Christians have such an union of sentiment. There are among them babes, young men, and fathers, and they are of the same mind about Divine things, just as far as they are respectively taught by the Spirit. The faith of Christ is required absolutely in all who have a right to fellowship in a church of Christ; but fellowship is not to be refused to him whom we acknowledge that Christ has received According to Christ Jesus. — Mr. Stuart understands this as meaning ’in accordance with the Spirit of Christ, or agreeably to what Christ or the Christian religion requires.’ It undoubtedly means, according to the example of Christ Jesus, and accords with the expression, ’Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,’ Philippians 2:5. Dr. Macknight understands it of the example of Christ, but he also includes the will of Christ. But these two meanings the phrase cannot have in the same place.
Romans 15:6 — That ye may wish one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That ye may with one mind and one mouth. — With one mind means accordance in affection and heart. Union of affection is much more necessary to harmony in worship than perfect harmony in sentiment. There may be harmony in the service of God among Christians who differ upon many things. But if any two of them are disaffected to one another, there is no harmony, though they should both have perfectly the same judgment in all matters. It is in this view that the Apostle charges Euodias and Syntyche that they should be of the same mind. Disaffection towards each other was the evil under which they labored, and not difference about any matter of belief. One mouth. — That is, this harmony should be as complete as if they all uttered their voice through one mouth. It is delightful to see a body of Christians all uniting in prayer and praise with one heart, while there may be a great variety in their attainments in the knowledge of Christ. On the other hand, there may be a professed union in everything, without having the mind that Christ here requires. The union of Christians in professed faith will not compensate for their want of union in Him.
Glorify God. — God is glorified in the prayers and praises of His people. This object, then, they should never forget. They should acknowledge Him and praise Him in every part of His character, however offensive it may be to the world. He is glorified by them literally with one mouth in prayer. He who prays is to be considered as uttering the prayer of the whole multitude of disciples, and each of them should follow in spirit, praying with him as he utters the words. Even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. — God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the God of Christ as man, and He is the Father of Christ as God. The titles Father and Son, as applied to Christ and His heavenly Father, most evidently apply to relation in Godhead. Great efforts have been made by some to overturn this view; but their efforts have been without success, and they have been most mischievous in taking away one of the strongest proofs of the deity of Christ and one which the Scriptures most frequently use. The dignity of the character of Christ is most frequently asserted in calling Him the Son of God. But if He be the Son of God in a lower sense, or one corresponding with that in which it is applicable to every good man, no definite view of His character is given when He is called the Son of God.
Romans 15:7 — Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
Wherefore —That is, since Christians ought not to please themselves, but to act in everything for the edification of each other, they ought to receive one another, notwithstanding differences of sentiment among them. Receive — Mr. Stuart understands this as signifying to show kindness. But the word means only receive. It expresses nothing of kindness. It refers to the reception of each other as Christians to the fellowship of the church. They ought, indeed, to manifest kindness with respect to all who are thus received, but the word does not express this. This method of giving, as is thought, a more emphatic meaning to words than usually belongs to them, is attended with the worst effects. Here it conceals a most important part of the will of God respecting the grounds or which Christians should receive each other to church fellowship. The command to receive into fellowship is turned into a command to show kindness. As Christ also received us — The manner in which Christians are to receive one another to church fellowship is as Christ has received them. As, or according as. — Now Christ has received, and does receive, all who believe the truth even in the feeblest manner. He accepts those who have the lowest degree of faith in Him. Thus He received the afflicted father, who said, ’Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief.’ Christ receives those who are ignorant of many things — indeed of everything but faith in Himself. The most ungodly is saved by Him the moment he believes; and Christians are received by Him, and live upon Him by faith, while they are in error as to many parts of His will. If Christ receives His people, notwithstanding their ignorance of many parts of His will, ought they to reject those whom He hath received?
To the glory of God — Some understand this of the glory which God shall bestow upon His people. But this cannot be the meaning here, as we are not yet received to His glory; whereas the glory here spoken of is already manifested. The glory which God will confer upon His people is future. ’By whom, also, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God,’ Romans 5:2. We have present access into the favor and grace of God, but we have now only the glory of God in hope. The glory of God, then, here means the glory that belongs to God’s character. It is to the glory of God that Christians are received and saved by His Son.
Romans 15:8 — Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
Now I say — The Apostle proceeds to reconcile the Jews and Gentiles to each other, by showing them the reason why Jesus Christ, who was equally the Lord of the Jews and the Gentiles, was born a Jew, as a minister of the circumcision. Jesus Christ was made under the law and ministered among the Jews; and though He gave some examples of His purpose of mercy to the Gentiles, yet He did not go out to preach to the nations. But this exclusive service among the Jews is not to be understood as indicating an exclusion of His mercy from the nations. It was for the truth of God. It was to fulfill the predictions and promises of Scripture, to confirm the promises made to the fathers. His ministry was the fulfillment of the promises that God had made to His ancient servants.
Romans 15:9 — And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto Thy name.
And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy — Though Christ’s personal ministry was limited to the Jews, yet the efficacy of His work was not confined to them. The Old Testament itself contains evidence that the Gentiles were to be interested in His redemption. It was the purpose of Christ’s work that Gentiles as well as Jews might glorify God on account of His mercy. The glory of God is therefore exhibited as the reason of Christ’s work. This is the highest object of all God’s works. Salvation is also represented as mercy. There is nothing here or anywhere else in Scripture to encourage the presumption of men who suppose that they can merit salvation by their own works. Salvation is of mercy. In the preceding verse, Paul had spoken of the truth of God: here he speaks of His mercy. That which was truth to the Jews, having been promised to their fathers, was mercy to the Gentiles, who were admitted to participate in the blessings promised. This the Apostle proves by the different passages he quotes, which declare that the mercy of God was to be extended to all nations. Consequently both Jews and Gentiles had the strongest reasons thus presented to them neither to condemn nor to despise one another, but, on the contrary, to regard themselves united in Christ Jesus, as well as by the common sentiment of their obligations to Him, and the love He had shown them. ’He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.’ As it is written. — Paul quotes a passage from the Old Testament to show that Christ was to be the Savior of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews.
For this cause, etc. — In the passage referred to, Christ is represented as confessing or acknowledging God among the Gentiles, and singing to the praise of His name. Christ did not appear personally among the Gentile nations. This prediction, then, must be fulfilled of Him in His people, as one with Him. Than this nothing more clearly proves the unity of Christ and His people. What He does for them, they do, as they are one with Him. It is thus that believers are saved in righteousness as well as in mercy. Christ’s righteousness is their righteousness, because they are one with Him. Those who repudiate the doctrine of imputation of Christ’s righteousness, as both Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart have done, and that in a manner the most explicit and unreserved, not merely corrupt, but utterly overthrow the Gospel, and entirely remove the grounds of the justice of the Divine procedure in the plan of redemption. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. In the eighteenth Psalm David speaks of himself, and the things spoken are applicable to him; yet the Apostle here quotes the words as applicable to Christ. This shows most incontrovertibly that David was a type of Christ, and that what is spoken of the type is in its ultimate sense spoken of the Antitype.
Romans 15:10 — And again He saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people.
And again He saith — That is, God saith this, but it was Moses that said it, therefore what Moses here said was dictated by God. The words are the words both of God and of Moses. Rejoice , ye Gentiles, with His people. — This quotation is from Deuteronomy 32:43. The Gentiles are there called upon to rejoice in fellowship with the people of God. This implies that they were to be converted by the Gospel, and united with the Jews in the Church of Christ. Calvin says, ’I do not agree with those who consider this quotation to be taken from the song of Moses; for the Jewish lawgiver intends, in that part of his writings, rather to strike terror into the adversaries of Israel, than to invite them to the participation of one common joy. I take it, therefore, from Psalms 67:3-4.’ But this is a very unsafe and presumptuous mode of reasoning. We must rest on Paul’s authority, rather than on the authority of Calvin, as to what was the intention of Moses in the passage quoted. Though Moses intended to strike terror into the enemies of Israel, there is no reason why Gentile believers should be terrified with this, or should not rejoice with the Jewish people of God in the victories of the Messiah over His enemies. The perfect applicability of the quotation is clearly obvious. Besides, the passage alleged by Calvin as the quotation, namely, Psalms 67:3-4, cannot without violence be made to correspond with the words of Paul. Why desert a passage where the words are easily found, and have recourse to a passage where the words are not found? Is this to be done on the strength of our own views of the words of Moses? Surely we ought implicitly to bow to the authority of Paul as a commentator on Moses. In fact, the quotation is as applicable to the Gentiles as to the Jews. In the typical sense of the passage, are not the Gentiles as much interested in the extension of salvation to the nations as the Jews? Are they not much more so? Is it not to them a matter of much greater joy? The Jews ought, indeed, to rejoice in the glory of God and the happiness of men in the extension of the Gospel. But the Gentiles, in addition to this, rejoice in it as their own salvation. Even in the literal sense, as applicable to the victories of Israel over their enemies, ought not believing Gentiles to have rejoiced in them? Did not Rahab rejoice in the victories of Israel over their enemies?
Romans 15:11 — And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud Him, all ye people.
This quotation is from Psalms 117:1. It calls upon all the nations to praise God. This implies that salvation was to extend to all nations, for none can praise God without the knowledge of God. Such addresses to the Gentiles are very numerous in the Book of Psalms, and refute the opinion of those who think it wrong to call on sinners to praise God. It is true that none but believers can praise God. But sinners may be called on to perform every duty incumbent on men, and charged with guilt for neglecting it. They ought to praise God. But this praise ought to be in faith, as well as every other duty. To suppose that sinners are not bound to praise God, is to suppose that their neglect of this and any other duty is not criminal. There is no danger in calling on sinners to observe the whole law of God, if it be also kept in view that no obedience in any degree can be given to God except through faith in His Son. This is quite a different thing from making prayer and praise a preparatory process to conversion. ’The original word,’ says Dr. Macknight, ’signifies to praise by singing,’ Luke 2:13. This is unsound criticism, and proceeds on a false canon, namely, that a word designates everything to which it is applicable. Words may apply to many things which are not designed by them. This word applies to praise by signing, but it does not express singing, because it also applies to praise in any manner.
Romans 15:12 — And again, Esaias saith , There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles trust.
And again, Esaias saith — The Apostle has in this place given multiplied quotations from the Old Testament to prove the point in hand. One proof from Scripture, if applicable, is sufficient to prove anything, yet the Apostle gives us many. This shows that Divine truth ought to be exhibited to gainsayers in all its strength, with a display of all its evidence. In proportion as prejudice is opposed to any truth, it is necessary to fortify it with multiplied evidence. The Jews were greatly prejudiced against that part of the will of God which the Apostle now teaches, and he heaps scripture upon scripture to overcome their prejudices, although his own authority and his own declaration were as valid as those of the inspired writers whom he quoted.
There shall be a root of Jesse. — Rather, there shall be the root of Jesse. It is a definite allusion to one particular person of the family of Jesse. Christ is called a branch in the same chapter, Isaiah 11; but He appears here to be called the root, or a particular shoot from the root, as He is elsewhere called a root out of a dry ground. This limits the origin of the human nature of the Messiah to the family of Jesse. And He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. — This determines the Messiah to be the King of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews. The passage quoted speaks of Him as a banner to the Gentiles. This the Apostle interprets as a ruler; because soldiers follow the banner of their captain. In Him shall the Gentiles trust. — This strictly asserts that the Gentiles would trust in the Messiah descended from Jesse.
Romans 15:13 — Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Now the God of hope. — God is called the God of hope, because He is the author of all the well-grounded hope of His people. All hope of which He is not the author, in the heart of men, is false and delusive. The world in general may have hope, but it is false hope. All true hope with respect to the Divine favor is effected in the human heart by God Himself. Not only is God the author of all true hope, but He can create this hope out of the midst of despair. The most desponding are often raised by Him to a good hope through grace; and the most guilty are in a moment relieved, and made to hope in His mercy. How remarkably was this the case with the thief on the cross, and with the three thousand on the day of Pentecost!
Fill you with all joy and peace — The inward joy and peace of the Christian are the gifts of God, and not the natural effects of anything in the mind of man. All the promises and declarations of Scripture would fail in producing joy and peace in the mind of a sinner, were it not for the agency of the Spirit of God. If the Christian possesses joy and peace, he ought to ascribe it altogether to God. He ought to reflect that these blessings must be produced and continually maintained by Divine power, and not by any power of his own mind. It should always be kept in view that these fruits of the Spirit, first of joy, and next of peace, Galatians 5:22, cannot be produced except in connection with the other fruits of the Spirit, and in the way of obedience, and in carefully abstaining from grieving the Spirit. David, when he had sinned, having lost his joy in God, utters this prayer: ’Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit: then will I teach transgressors Thy ways’ Psalms 51:12. Here we may also observe that they who seek to teach transgressors the ways of God should first themselves have the experience of these ways.
Fill you — This implies that there are degrees of joy and peace in the minds of Christians. Some may have a measure of these graces who do not abound in them. It is a great blessing to be filled with them; and for this blessing the Apostle prays with respect to the Christians at Rome. If there be different degrees of joy and peace, how important is it to look earnestly to God for the fullest communication of these blessings! The Psalmist had more joy in his heart, bestowed by God, than worldly men have when their corn and wine most abound. In believing glory and peace, as well as all other spiritual blessings, are communicated by God through faith, and through faith only, and in proportion to faith. Faith, when spoken of without peculiar reference, means faith in Christ, and not, as Dr. Macknight understands it, faith in any particular promise.
That ye may abound in hope. — The above blessings the Apostle prayed for to be bestowed on those whom he addressed, in order that they might abound in hope; and the more believers are filled with joy and peace the greater will be their hope. The people of God have high hopes, and it is their privilege to seek from their Lord an increase and abundance of hope — not that faint and common hope of possibility or probability but a certain hope. Such a hope springs from faith, — in effect, is one with it. Faith rests upon the goodness and truth of Him who hath promised; and hope, raising itself upon faith so established, stands up and looks out to the future accomplishment of the promise. Through the power of the Holy Ghost . — Hope is produced in the mind by the agency and power of the Spirit of God. Here two persons of the Godhead are brought into view as each being the bestower of this gift. The Father gives hope — He is the God of hope; but He gives it through the Holy Ghost. In the economy of redemption, this is the province of the Holy Ghost. Hope is natural to the mind of man; and, in general, men have hope in the worst of times. But as to Divine things, hope is not natural to man: it is the fruit of the Spirit of God through faith in His Son.
The prayer contained in this verse reminds us that there is no blessing which does not come to us from God, James 1:17. He is called the God of love, of peace, of patience, of consolation, of hope, who fills His people with joy and peace. If, then, we desire to be filled with joy and peace, we must look to God. If we desire to abound in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost, we must with confidence pray to obtain His sacred influences and Divine teaching. We must be careful not to grieve Him by our evil conduct and evil desires.
Romans 15:14 — And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren , that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren. — The Apostle here intimates that the reason of his writing to the believers as he had done was, not that he considered them deficient in the Christian character, or uninstructed in the doctrines and duties of their profession; on the contrary, even he himself was persuaded concerning them that they were full of goodness. Mr. Stuart confines this to kindness. There is no reason why it should not be extended to goodness in general, of which kindness is a part. As we ought continually and prominently to maintain that there is naturally nothing good in men, we ought likewise to give equal prominence to the fact that all believers, being born of God and made new creatures, work the works of God, and in their minds possess those dispositions which are produced by the Spirit through the truth. In our flesh there is nothing good; but from the work of the Spirit on our hearts we may be full of goodness. The honor of this redounds to God as much as that of our faith. If faith is the gift of God, so ’we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,’ to the praise of the glory of God.
Filled with all knowledge. — Paul acknowledges that those to whom he wrote excelled in the knowledge of Divine things, though he wrote to them with respect both to truth and duty. The commendations bestowed by the Apostle on the attainments of this church show that there are comparative degrees in the knowledge of the Lord’s people, and also that it is proper, on fit occasions, to confer approbation and praise on those who excel in knowledge. It is mere worldly wisdom, not countenanced by Scripture doctrine and example, to withhold commendation when due, lest it should serve to puff up. Able also to admonish one another. — The word in the original signifies to put in mind of duty, especially when it is transgressed. The Apostle undertook to admonish them; but this did not imply that he considered them as unfit to admonish one another.
Romans 15:15 — Nevertheless, brethren , I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort , as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God.
Nevertheless — Though the Roman Christians were eminent in their attainments, yet the Apostle thought it necessary to write to them as he had done with respect to some things, as to which he trusted they were previously acquainted. Such things he judged it right to bring again to their remembrance. It is proper, then, in the pastors of a church to bring forward the truths and duties with which the brethren are already acquainted, as well as those with respect to which they may either be ignorant or deficient in knowledge. Because of the grace that is given to me of God. — This was the ground of his boldness. He spoke as an Apostle, and in all things advanced by him he was only the mouth of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 15:16 — That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles , ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ. — The grace of the apostleship was given to Paul in order to his being a minister of Christ to the Gentiles. Ministering the Gospel of God — The original word for ministry signifies to labor in a sacred office. Our term ministry sufficiently represents it. Calvin blames Erasmus for at first translating it in this way, and prefers to translate it ’consecrating the Gospel.’ But this is evidently an improper translation, for Paul did not consecrate the Gospel. The Gospel is God’s word, and needs no consecration. Erasmus afterwards translated it, ’sacrificing the Gospel,’ which is still worse. It is not the Gospel which is here represented as a figurative sacrifice, but the Gentiles. Behaviors are a sacrifice presented by the Apostle to God through the Gospel. The Gospel is the means by which the Gentiles are made a sacrifice. Mr. Stuart translates it, ’performing the office of a priest in respect to the Gospel of God.’ But this is liable to the same objection. It is not in respect to the Gospel that Paul considers himself figuratively a priest. It is with respect to the sacrifice, namely, the believing Gentiles, who are fitted for presentation as a sacrifice by the Gospel. That the offering up of the Gentiles. — The Gentiles are the thing presented to God in this sacrifice. This, it is obvious, is a sacrifice only figuratively, just as prayer and praise are called sacrifices. There is now no sacrifice in the proper sense of the word, and the Apostles were not priests, except as all believers are priests.
Many of the errors of the Man of Sin arise from considering teachers under the New Testament as successors of the priests under the law. But there is now no priesthood, except in Christ, who abides a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. The priests under the law of Moses were His types. As He is come, and has engrossed the whole duties of the office to Himself, He alone possesses priesthood. There is no longer any need of a typical priesthood; and the great sacrifice has been already offered. When the Apostles are spoken of as doing any part of the priest’s office, it is in a figurative sense. It is in the same sense that the altar is spoken of. As there is no sacrifice now to be offered, there is now no altar. To give the Lord’s table the name of an altar is very erroneous. It is wonderful to consider how, from the figurative use of a few words in the New Testament and in early Church history, a number of the grossest and most superstitious doctrines and practices, as has been already observed, arose in the church. The bread of the Lord’s table at length became the body of Christ in a literal sense; the table on which it lay became the altar; the teachers became the priests who offered the sacrifice of the mass; and the contributions of Christians became offerings. In all these things, and innumerable others, the figurative sense has been, by a gross imagination and the artifice of Satan, turned into a literal sense, to the utter subversion of truth.
Might be acceptable. — The Gentiles became an acceptable sacrifice to God only through the faith of the Gospel. It is only by the blood of Christ that sinners can be washed from sin, and only through faith in Christ that any sinner obtains an interest in Christ’s blood, and only through the Gospel that faith in Christ is produced. All those who attempt to come to God in any other way are unacceptable to Him. This cuts off the hope of all self-righteous persons, and of all unbelievers. It takes away, also, the foundation from the doctrine of those who teach that Christ may be the Savior of what they call pious heathens who have not heard of Him. According to the Apostle Paul, the offering of the Gentiles is acceptable only through the Gospel. Sanctified by the Holy Ghost. — As the sacrifices under the law were sanctified externally and typically, this figurative sacrifice is sanctified truly by the Holy Ghost. No person, then, can be acceptable to God who is not sanctified by His Spirit.
Romans 15:17 — I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.
l have therefore whereof I may glory. — Paul says on another occasion, ’God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Is it not a contradiction, then, to say here, ’I have whereof I may glory?’ There is no contradiction: The glorying which he disclaims respects his acceptance with God. The glorying which he here acknowledges respects his success in the preaching of the Gospel; and even this is not a glorying in himself, but a glorying in Christ Jesus. It was the signal favor of his Lord that gave him his office of apostleship, qualified him for its discharge, and made him successful. From all the Apostle’s writings, we learn that of this he had the most firm conviction. He gives thanks to the Lord, who had counted him faithful, putting him into the ministry. But elsewhere he declares that he had ’obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.’ In like manner all that he did in His service is ascribed to God. ’Whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.’ He had whereof to glory in the abundant and unmerited favor of God; but he always carefully avoids speaking of anything done by him that was not the work of Christ. In things that pertain to God. — That is, things that respect the service of God.
Romans 15:18 — For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed.
For I will not dare. — Paul would not take to himself any portion of praise on account of the labors and success of others. He spoke only of the success which Christ had given him in his own work. This shows that although all success is of God, yet that it is an honor and a ground of praise to be successful in Christ’s work. Many have supposed that it is wrong to give any praise to the Lord’s servants on account of their labors, diligence, and success in His service. They have judged that this encourages a spirit of self-righteousness and of pride. But this wisdom is not from God. It is human wisdom, and tends to damp exertion in the service of Jesus Christ. All our success is in Christ Jesus, as well as our ability and disposition to labor. Yet God has given praise to His servants for their diligence and success in His work. It is a sinful refinement to blame what God approves. The Apostle speaks here of what Christ wrought by him. In other places he also speaks of what God wrought by him, Acts 14:27; Acts 15:12.
To make the Gentiles obedient. —The obedience of the Gentiles is their belief of the Gospel. To obey the Gospel is to receive it, for it commands belief. Now this obedience of the Gentiles to the Gospel was Christ’s work. Christ wrought it. — Faith is the gift of God. It is not to be ascribed either to him that preaches or to him that hears, but to Christ, who by His Spirit opens the heart to believe the truth. But the preacher is employed as an agent. Christ wrought this through the Apostle. No man is made a Christian by any power less than God’s, and by no other means than God’s word. Christ wrought the obedience of the Gentiles through Paul, but the instrumentality belongs to God’s word, as well as the agency to Himself. Some connect this with the word immediately preceding, and understand it of the profession and practice of the believing Gentiles. Others understand it of the preaching, labors, and miracles of the Apostles. The next verse seems to determine for the latter sense.
Romans 15:19 — Through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ.
Through mighty signs and wonders. — Rather through, or by the power of, signs and miracles. These are the deeds through which, as well as by Paul’s preaching, the Lord made the Gentiles obedient. This includes all the miraculous works of the Apostle for the confirmation of the Gospel. By the power of the Spirit of God. — Some understand this of the power by which the signs and wonders were performed; others, of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the gift of tongues, prophecy, etc. The latter opinion appears to be the true meaning.
So that from Jerusalem — Some suppose that, as there is no mention in the Acts of the Apostles of Paul’s preaching in Illyricum, and as it is only said that he preached as far as Illyricum, he did not enter that country. But the silence of the Acts of the Apostles is no evidence of this, and verse 23rd seems to prove that he did preach in Illyricum, as well as in the intermediate countries between that province and Jerusalem. If there was no place in those parts for him to extend his labors on unoccupied ground, he must have preached in Illyricum also. Besides, that the Gospel had been preached, and that there were churches in Illyricum, appears from Titus going into Dalmatia. I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ, or fulfilled the Gospel. — The Gospel was to be preached to all nations. He filled all the countries with the glad tidings of salvation through Jesus Christ. Thus was it given to Paul, who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Romans 15:20 — Yea, so have I strived to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named lest I should build upon another man’s foundation.
Yea, so have I strived to preach the Gospel. — The word translated strived literally signifies to love honor; and as the love of honor stimulates to earnest exertions, the word came to signify, in a secondary sense, to endeavor earnestly, to strive. In this place, however, the primary sense appears to be that of the Apostle. He is speaking of the honor which God had conferred on him in the labor and success of the Gospel; and consistently with this, he speaks of his ambition to occupy ground that had not been taken possession of by others. This is not indeed worldly ambition, but it is ambition which is lawful and commendable in Christians. Not where Christ was Named — That is, in places that had not previously even heard of Christ. Similar ambition has often stimulated modern missionaries, and by their labors the Gospel has been carried to countries that were previously strangers to the very name of Christ. This appears to show that when any are strongly inclined to have the honor of being the means of subjecting new countries to the authority of Christ, they ought to endeavor to accomplish their desire. It is through this means that God excites men to fulfill His purposes of mercy to the different nations of the earth.
Lest I should build upon another man’s foundation — This determines the meaning of the word translated to strive in this place. The Apostle was desirous of laying the foundation of the building in as many countries as possible. This is more honorable than to go into countries where others have been successful. Dr. Macknight understands this reason to indicate reluctance to perform the office of a subordinate teacher. But he evidently mistakes Paul’s meaning. To teach believers converted by others is not necessarily to perform the office of a subordinate teacher. With respect to those of the church at some itself, Paul was not the first who taught them; and he doubtless preached in many places where Christ had been named. This he did not avoid, though he was ambitious, as far as possible, to break up new ground, and have the honor of preaching to men who had not previously heard of Christ. Calvin well observes, ’There is no foundation for perverting this passage by applying it to the pastoral office; for we know that the name of Christ must always continue to be preached in well-regulated and properly constituted churches, when the truth of the Gospel has been for a long period felt and acknowledged.’ He that lays the foundation has more honor than he that builds on it in the Christian’s edification, but the latter is not without his reward. All cannot have the honor, and therefore have not the ambition, to go as missionaries to heathen countries. He that waters shall have his own reward, as well as he that plants.
Romans 15:21 — But as it is written, To whom He was not spoken of, they shall see; and they that have not heard shall understand.
But as it is written. — This ambition of the Apostle was the means of fulfilling a prophecy with respect to the spread of the Gospel in heathen countries. Thus it is that God fulfills His predictions and His purposes. He gives His people an earnest desire to be the means of accomplishing them at the moment when He designs their accomplishment. It will be thus that the Gospel will at last be effectually carried to every country under heaven. It is thus that modern missionaries have, in some measure, carried the Gospel to the heathen. And although the slothfulness of the people of God in former ages is not without blame, it is because the time to fulfill God’s predictions to the nations was not come, that a like ambition to that of Paul was not found more generally to animate Christians. Whenever the Lord has work to do, He raises up men with a heart to perform it. This, however, is no excuse at any particular time for indifference or want of effort to spread the Gospel. To whom He was not spoken of; Isaiah 52:15. — This intimates the preaching of the Gospel to the heathens, and it proves also that the Messiah was spoken of to the Jews. The law and the Prophets spoke of Him.
Romans 15:22 — For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.
Paul’s ambition to carry the Gospel into countries where it had not been previously preached, had long prevented him from visiting Rome, where the Gospel had been preached by others. It is important to teach believers all things, whatsoever Jesus has commanded. But doubtless it is more important to convert sinners from the thralldom of Satan. The peculiar business of an Apostle and of missionaries is the latter, the former that of the pastor; though neither object is to be neglected by the one or the other.
Romans 15:23. — But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you;
But now having no more place in these parts. — Paul could not advance farther in that direction. This seems to prove, as already asserted, that the Apostle had preached in Illyricum as well as in the intermediate places. Had he not done so, there would still have been place for him in these parts. When an opportunity of serving Christ in one direction is shut up, we ought to turn to another. When there is no opportunity of preaching Christ to those who have not heard of Him, we ought to occupy ourselves in laboring among those by whom he is already known. Paul diligently employed his time to the greatest advantage. He was always in some way occupied in the service of his Master. Having a great desire these many years to come unto you. — This shows that the Lord’s servants, with respect to the field of their labors, may lawfully be influenced by their desires. Paul was no doubt always sent by God to the place where He would have him to be; but sometimes He sent him not by direct command, but by his own desire or providential circ*mstances, or the persecution of his enemies.
Romans 15:24 — Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat, filled with your company.
Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you. — The commission of the Apostles extended to all countries, but they were not always immediately directed with respect to the scene of their labors. Sometimes they proposed what they were unable to accomplish. This no doubt was always overruled by God for the fulfillment of His own purposes, and His sending them to the places in which He designed them to labor. Sometimes, however, they were immediately directed, and either enjoined to go to a certain place, or restrained from going. The intention of Jesus in allowing them in general to direct their own course, while He overruled it in every instance, was no doubt for an example to us, that in directing our labors we are to judge according to our own views and desires, and that we are not to expect miraculous or immediate directions. Missionaries sometimes err on this point, and seem to look for miraculous interposition to direct them in going or not going to certain places. This is what the Apostles themselves had not at all times, and which is by no means necessary. The Gospel is to be preached to every creature; and if nothing in God’s providence prevent our going according to our views and desires, yet we ought to look for the Divine direction. This, however, should be sought by prayer, through the influence of the Holy Spirit on our minds, and in the providence of God, and not through any immediate impression or supernatural communication. The providence of Jesus, whose is the command to preach the Gospel, and who directs the course of all things, will either open the door or shut it according as it suits His sovereign pleasure.
It has been made a question whether Paul was ever in Spain. On the one side, some argue that, from his inspiration in writing this passage, he must have gone to that country, and others, for want of evidence that he was in Spain, argue that in writing these words he was not inspired. Both these opinions are wrong. Paul’s inspiration in announcing his purposes does not imply the necessity of his always fulfilling these purposes. He had fully determined to visit Spain, and this the Holy Spirit inspired him to declare. But he did not pledge the Divine power to accomplish this resolution. It was useful to declare the resolution, whether it was to be accomplished or not. His inspiration, then, is no evidence of his having visited Spain. But much less is the want of evidence of his being in Spain a proof that he was not inspired; for if the inspiration of this passage necessarily imported that he must have been in Spain, want of positive information that he was there, so far from furnishing contrary evidence, is not even an objection. There are thousands of facts of which there are no records. Dr. Macknight, then, reasons without attending to first principles, when he says, ’This, among other instances, is a proof that in speaking of what he meant to do afterwards, the Apostle did not make known any determinations of God revealed to him by the Spirit, but his own resolutions and opinions only. For there is no evidence that he ever went to Spain.’ The want of such evidence is no proof that he did not fulfill his purpose. The writer proceeds upon a false first principle, namely, that a prediction or declaration cannot be accounted as being really fulfilled unless there are records of its fulfillment. There are, indeed, other instances which show that Paul was sometimes disappointed in his expectations and purposes; but this is not such an instance. The only reason why we should hesitate in believing that Paul was in Spain is, that this is not necessarily required by the inspiration of the passage. It is possible that he might not be able to fulfill the purpose which he was inspired to declare. If the inspiration of the passage required that Paul must visit Spain, then we have the fullest warrant to believe that he was there. Tradition affirms that Paul was in Spain; but this is not evidence.
For I trust to see you in my journey. — This shows that Paul’s resolution was his own, and that its fulfillment was a matter of uncertain hope, not of absolute prediction. He planned, it would appear, his visits in such a manner as not unnecessarily to consume time. He purposed to visit Rome on his way to Spain. And to be brought on my way thitherward by you. — The original word translated ’to be brought on my way,’ signifies to conduct, escort, or send forward. In the latter sense, as implying the defraying all the expenses of the journey, the word seems to be used here, and on some other occasions in the New Testament. The Lord could have miraculously provided a supply for the Apostles while they preached the Gospel, or He could have commanded for this purpose the treasures of the Roman empire; but He chose to do this by the contributions of His people.
Filled with your company. — This shows the great delight that the Apostle had in the society of believers. Ought not Christians to delight in meeting one another from the remotest parts of the earth? What a hindrance to the cultivation of this principle are the divisions of Christians into sects and parties! Somewhat filled. — By this the Apostle intimates that, though their society for a short time would be highly gratifying to him, yet his delight in it could never be satiated. This is true Christian love. An introduction to the emperor and the great men of his council would not have gratified the Apostle so much as the society of the despised believers in Rome. Nothing should separate the mutual affection of those who are united in Christ. If the ignorance of the most ignorant of them does not shut the bowels of Christ with respect to them, should it do so with us? We all know but in part.
Romans 15:25. — But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
The Apostle had proposed to visit Rome, the capital of the world, and to carry the Gospel into Spain, where it had not yet been preached. He had long been prevented from visiting the Roman Christians, and yet, instead of going thither now, he chooses to go to Jerusalem, carrying money for the relief of the poor. But was not the preaching of the Gospel a greater matter than serving tables? Could not others have been found to carry this money without burdening Paul? If Paul, in order to save time for the preaching of the Gospel, seldom baptized believers, why did he spend it in carrying this gift of the Gentiles to the Jewish brethren? The object must assuredly have been very important and doubtless it was that he might improve the opportunity of overcoming the prejudice of the Jews towards the Gentiles, by this evidence of their liberality and love. This would tend to knit the Jews and Gentiles more closely together. And it was for this purpose, no doubt, that the dearth was occasioned in Jerusalem. For a similar purpose, it appears that God, in all ages, places some of His people in circ*mstances where they require; to be assisted, while He renders others able to assist, because this mutually attaches them to each other, as well as tries them. We here also see that it is not merely to the wants of the brethren in the same church that His people should attend, but where it is necessary, they ought to contribute assistance to the wants of the brethren in the remotest parts of the earth. This contribution was sent from one quarter of the globe to another. Nothing can more clearly show the importance of this matter than that, in order to attend to it, Paul postponed the most important engagements.
Romans 15:26. — For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia. — Or, Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased, or have thought good. The words Macedonia and Achaia are here used for the brethren or churches of Macedonia and Achaia. The places are put for those who live in them. Not, however, all the inhabitants of those places, but the churches of Christ only. This shows that the Scriptures employ the same figurative language that is familiar to other writings. This phraseology also justifies the manner in which we speak of the Epistles of the Apostles — the Epistle to the Romans, to the Corinthians, etc. By this we do not mean that the Epistles were addressed to the inhabitants of those cities universally — as Dr. Macknight, with an ignorance of Scripture seldom exceeded, and of the character of the apostolic Epistles, has asserted in his note, chapter 1:7, respecting this Epistle — but to the believers who resided in them. It hath pleased. — This contribution was not absolutely prescribed to them by the Apostle, but was a free-will offering of their own. The support of the Lord’s poor is to proceed from the love of their brethren for Christ’s sake.
To make a certain contribution. — It was a collection in which they shared individually. Each contributed his part. Poor saints, or the poor of the saints. The word saints is not only as proper a name of all the disciples of Christ as the word Christian itself, but it is one much more frequently used in the New Testament. Yet in after times the designation of Christian was extended to whole nations, while that of saints, as has been formerly remarked, was limited to a few escalated to that rank on account of supposititious piety, by the act of the Man of Sin.
Romans 15:27. — It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
It hath pleased them verily. — Paul repeats this expression, in order to show the grounds on which he used it. They thought it good to act so, and good reason they had for it. It was, indeed, a matter of their own free will; yet it was one to which they were called by the voice of duty. They were debtors to the Jews for the Gospel. Not only did the kingdom of God first originate with the Jews, but it was through the instrumentality of Jews that the Gentiles received it. They carried it to their doors, and besought them to receive the blessing. From this we may learn the extent of the obligation, and the unity of the body of Christ. The services of any one of the Lord’s people lays those who receive them under obligations to the whole family to which they belong. If the Gentiles were under obligation to the Jewish brethren on account of being made partakers of the Gospel through their means, how much more are converts under obligation to those who are personally the means of their conversion. Spiritual things. — This phrase denotes the blessings of the Gospel, and communion with God, and everything that concerns the soul and body in their future state, as distinguished from those things that concern the wants of the body, and relate only to this world, which are called carnal things.
Romans 15:28 — When, therefore, I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.
When, therefore, I have performed this — That is, when I shall have finished what I have commenced as to the matter of the contribution. This would be when the poor of the saints at Jerusalem had received the gift of their brethren. And have sealed to them this fruit — Several different interpretations are given of this; expression. The meaning appears to be this: fruit means fruit of the faith of the Gospel. The contribution of the Gentile churches was a fruit of their faith in Christ. As to the sealing of this fruit, it is to be remarked that a seal was used to stamp anything as genuine, and to distinguish it from a counterfeit. Now this fruit was a convincing evidence that their faith was real, and that the Gentiles had received the Gospel, not in name only, but in truth. The Apostle sealed this fruit, when he exhibited this evidence to the Jewish believers of the faith of their Gentile brethren. Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart, with others, understand this sealing as indicating the security, or making sure the contribution to those for whom it was destined. But this gives an unworthy view both of Paul and the Gentile churches. It represents him as personally undertaking the charge or conveyance of this contribution), in order that it might be more securely carried. But surely there were confidential persons in the churches who could have carried the money with as much security as the Apostle himself; and Paul would not indulge such an injurious jealousy with respect to the brethren. He had a higher object in conducting this mission of mercy to the Jewish brethren. By this means he would remove the doubts and disarm the jealousy of the Jews with respect to the Gentiles. No other object could be of sufficient importance to detain Paul from visiting Rome and Spain, but that paramount object of uniting the Jews and Gentiles. Union among Christians we here see even placed before the carrying of the Gospel to new countries.
I will come by you into Spain. — What Paul had stated formerly as a matter of hope, he here states absolutely. An absolute statement, however, does not necessarily bind by promise, but is only a declaration of the full intention of the present moment. Men speak absolutely of their purposes when they are fully resolved to perform them. But sometimes these purposes it may not be possible to fulfill. A promise is a very different thing from an absolute declaration. Some persons act like mere caviling casuists in explaining duty with respect to this point. If a person once refuses the thing asked, it is looked on as a breach of truth if he afterwards yield. But there may be just reason to change his mind, and his absolute declaration in the negative was only the expression of his mind at the time of utterance. Some specialists have held that if a thing be matter of duty, gratitude is not due to the benefactor from him who receives the benefit, nor praise from others on account of it. This is false morality. To make this contribution was a duty as to the Gentiles, but it was the duty of the Jews to receive it with gratitude; and Paul, 2 Corinthians 9:2, praises the performance. ’I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago.’ Some persons would be afraid to bestow a word of commendation on the most disinterested Christian conduct; but the Apostle does not scruple to boast of the conduct of Christians. We may here also notice the condemnation of the false morality of some casuists. They hold it unscriptural, and contrary to the simplicity of the Gospel, to urge people to duty by any other motive than the love of God. But the Apostle urges forward the disciples by the zeal of other Christians. In fact, in Scripture, every motive belonging to human nature, as it is the work of God, is freely employed to urge to duty and deter from sin. The refinement which refuses any of the weapons that God has employed, is calculated not to promote but to injure the service of God.
Romans 15:29 — And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ.
And I am sure. — Dr. Macknight limits this knowledge to the Apostle’s experience. But this limitation is improper. If he knew this, he could know it only from God. Fullness of the blessing of the Gospel — Paul was sure that God would give success to the Gospel, and that he would come in the fullness of this blessing — that is, with the richest measure of this success. This visit, then, would be fraught with the happiest results to the Romans. How ought Christian churches to go about all their affairs, and undertake all their work for the spreading of the kingdom and truth of Christ, with the most earnest prayers for this blessing! And all who preach the Gospel ought to look for this as essentially necessary to their success. Dr. Macknight expounds this, ’I shall come empowered to bestow on you abundantly the gifts of the Spirit.’ This no doubt was included in the blessing, but it is far from exhausting it. Calvin’s view of the passage, which he mentions as the general one, cannot be approved. He prefers the interpretation that makes Paul express the conviction that he will find the Christians at Rome abounding in good works. The words have no appearance of expressing such a meaning. It is the Apostle himself who was to come in the fullness of this blessing. It is not said that when he should come he would find among them this blessing.
Romans 15:30 — Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;
Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. — To do everything for the sake of Christ, implies that the thing is agreeable to Christ. It must show love or obedience to Him. We could not be properly required to do anything for Christ’s sake which was contrary, or rather which we did not know to be agreeable, to the will of Christ. To pray for one another in our mutual difficulties, is a thing most pleasing and honorable to Christ. But when we are called upon for Christ’s sake to assist in the promotion or maintenance of superstition or false religion or in any way to support or countenance it, we ought to resist and not comply. The votaries of the Romish apostasy have the love of God or of Christ in their mouth continually when they call for assistance in their superstitious works. But the disciples of Christ ought to testify loudly against them, instead of bidding them God speed with their aid. For Christ’s sake implies also that those addressed are the people of Christ. They who are not such can do nothing for His sake.
Love of the Spirit — Some understand this of the love which the Spirit has for Christ’s people, and others of the love to one another which the Spirit works in them. The expression is capable in itself of either sense; and other considerations must determine the preference. Some unite both opinions, which is the most mischievous of all methods of interpretation, as it tends to encourage us in slothfulness with respect to the meaning of Scripture, and to a prostitution of Scripture as implying a sense which it does not truly bear. No passage unites two different senses at once. Yet those who, in interpreting Scripture, attach to it only one meaning, when, according to the best of their judgment, it is the true one, are often loudly accused of dogmatism.
The love of God may be either God’s love to us, or our love to God; and accordingly, in Scripture, it is sometimes used in the one sense, and sometimes in the other. But it never at the same time signifies both. It is always the connection and other circ*mstances that must determine the meaning. The love of the Spirit here is most probably the love which the Spirit works in His people, which disposes them to love one another. Now, from this principle of pure love, Paul entreats their prayers for himself. Love is not the fruit of the natural heart of man. Men are by nature hateful and hating one another. When sinners believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit produces in their hearts love to one another. This phrase, also, whether it refers to the love which the Spirit produces in believers, or which He has for them, clearly implies His Godhead.
That ye strive together with me in your prayers — The word here employed signifies the strongest exertion, alluding to the struggle of wrestlers in the games. Prayer, then, is not a formal exercise. This shows the great importance at all times, to the Lord’s people, of an ardent spirit of prayer. It is through prayer that the Lord is usually pleased to bestow His favors. He requires to be asked, and asked repeatedly and earnestly, for the things which He has promised to bestow. ’Thus saith the Lord God,’ — in promising to confer the greatest blessings, — ’I will yet for this be inquired of by the house Of Israel to do it for them,’ Ezekiel 36:37. To God, namely, the Father. — This verse refers to the whole Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and here the distinct personality of the Holy Ghost, His power and influence, are referred to, as in verses 13, 16, and 19. For me. — This shows the propriety and importance of prayer for one another. Even the Apostle Paul, with all his distinguishing privileges, deems it a matter of the greatest importance to himself. If Paul needed the prayers of his brethren, who were so far behind him, can they be unimportant to Christ’s people in general?
Romans 15:31 — That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the ;
That I may be delivered — What was the thing for which the Apostle requested the prayers of his fellow-Christians? It was to be delivered from death and danger in the discharge of his work. This shows that, how willing so ever we ought to be to sacrifice our lives for Christ’s sake, yet that, as far as possible, we ought to desire to preserve life. The Apostle is not ashamed to call on his brethren to unite in the most fervent supplications for his preservation from death, and from the hand of his enemies. How different is this from the language of Ignatius, who seemed rather to call for the prayers of his brethren that he might be honored with a crown of martyrdom, than to be preserved from his enemies. Christians ought to be willing to give their lives for Christ rather than deny Him or refuse to do any part of His known will. But it is not only lawful but dutiful to take every proper means for their deliverance out of danger. If even an Apostle, in the cause of Christ, was so desirous of preserving life, what shall we think of those who profess a spirit of indifference respecting it, which would wantonly throw it away?
Them that do not believe in Judea — Paul knew the danger of the visit to his countrymen. He was in greater danger in Jerusalem than in any of the most barbarous heathen countries; yet he did not decline his duty. This is true Christian courage. We ought to take every precaution to preserve our lives, but we ought not to decline duty to save them. We should go forward, and look to God to deliver us out of the hand of them who do not believe. Those who reject the Gospel will always be its enemies, and from such, therefore, the Apostle prays to be delivered. The Gospel declares not only salvation to those who believe, but damnation to all who reject it. It must then be an object of hatred to all who do not believe. And it is remarkable that, while the most debasing superstitious are looked upon with indifference by the wise men of the world, the coolest and most philosophic of their number kindle into wrath against the Gospel. If, then, the Apostle foresaw the danger of this visit to Jerusalem, and if he so strongly desired to be delivered from it, his object of visiting his countrymen must have been exceedingly important.
My service — Paul was in the highest dignity of the Church of Christ on earth, yet he willingly undertook an office of the most dangerous service for the supply of the temporal wants of his brethren. For Jerusalem — This is another instance of figurative language employed by inspiration. Jerusalem is put for the saints in Jerusalem — the city for the inhabitants, and not all the inhabitants, but certain inhabitants well known to the reader. May be accepted — This seems at first sight very strange What fear could there be that the supply of the wants of the distressed would not be acceptable to them? Yet Paul makes it a matter of the most earnest prayer for himself and his brethren to whom he writes, that the saints at Jerusalem might be disposed to receive the gift cordially. This, beyond all contradiction, shows how a verse the Jews were to the Gentiles, and the reason why the Apostle urged this collection so strongly, and conducted the mission in his own person. Why shall we now expect perfection in knowledge or attainments among the people of God? In the apostolic churches we indeed see none recognized as members but such as were judged to be believers, but they were believers with every degree of weakness, both in knowledge and in character. Calvin understands Paul’s doubts with respect to the acceptableness of the gift of the Gentiles, to have reference to prejudice against himself on the part of the believing Jews. But this has no just foundation; and, had this been the fear, the danger could have been easily prevented without exposing Paul to the persecution of the unbelievers. Could not Paul have sent the money by the hands of others? This would have guarded against the supposed prejudice of the brethren in Jerusalem, and have prevented the danger of death with respect to Paul from the hands of unbelieving Jews.
Romans 15:32 — That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.
That I may come unto you with joy. — Dr. Macknight, as well as Calvin, understands this as the result of the prayer, and not as one of the things prayed for. The result of the acceptable reception of the gift would be Paul’s joyful visit to Rome. But, most evidently, the words referred to are not the supposed result of the prayer, but are a part of the prayer itself, along with the other things before mentioned. The Apostle besought them not only to pray that the saints at Jerusalem might accept the gift, but, in addition to this, they were desired to pray that he might, after delivering the gift, come to them with joy. It would no doubt be a matter of joy for the Apostle that the gift of which he was the bearer might be well received. But it is not to this solely that he refers, but to joy in general. Dr. Macknight seems to be greatly mistaken when he says, ’How much the Apostle was disappointed in his generous design, and in what disadvantageous circ*mstances he came to Rome, the history of the Acts informs us.’ There is every reason to believe that the gift was well received. He was indeed disappointed with respect to the manner of his coming to Rome, but he might not be disappointed in his joy when he arrived.
From this we may learn that if even on God’s errand we have need of prayer for success in our journey, how much more do we need prayer in our own daily business! So much does God encourage the exercise of prayer, that He wills us to pray for success when we do His own work. The whole passage also, is the strongest refutation of the theory of those who suppose that prayer is useless, because of the unchangeable purposes of God. The express command of the Spirit of inspiration annihilates all the subtle speculations of men on this subject. We here see that it is not only lawful and proper to pray to the unchangeable God, but that it is our duty to pray to Him to prosper us even in His own work. How unlike is God’s book to human wisdom! — on every page there shines the evidence of its Divine origin.
By the will of God — This shows us that all events depend on God’s will. Nothing happens without His appointment. All the efforts of his enemies, as well as all the exertions of His servants, only fulfill His irresistible purposes. Without His will, nothing takes place on earth more than in heaven. God not only permits everything that takes place on earth, as some are inclined in this way to soften down His sovereignty, but He wills and appoints it. Calvin well observes on this passage ’The sentence, By the will of God, instructs us in the necessity of devoting ourselves to prayer, since God alone directs all our paths and all our steps by his gracious and unerring providence.’ And may with you be refreshed. — The word literally signifies to recline together in order to mutual rest, and, in a secondary sense, to be refreshed together after fatigue. Here it beautifully expresses that mutual comfort and refreshment which believers, amidst their toils, and dangers, and troubles in the world, enjoy in speaking together of the things of Christ. To reflect on the word of God gives great refreshment, but to reflect on this in company with other Christians is the most heavenly exercise. Dr. Macknight confines the refreshment to the subject of the reconciliation of the Jews with the Gentiles. But it refers to every consolation that might be the object of their conversation about the things of Christ. From this we see that the Apostle had, like other believers, the same need of refreshment from reflection on the word of God, and from intercourse with the brethren. Paul is not ashamed to speak of the refreshment which he expected from the company of the Roman Christians, as well as of that which they should receive from his company.
Romans 15:33 — Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Now the God of peace be with you all. — In this manner the Apostle concludes this part of his Epistle to the believers at Rome, wishing them the presence and the blessing of the God of peace. This expression is used only by Paul in his Epistles, in which he employs it frequently. Peace, in scripture, signifies generally all kinds of good and prosperity; as it is said, Isaiah 45:7, ’I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil.’ To say, then, that God is the God of peace, is to say that He is the author of every blessing. The Spirit of God calls the good state of the conscience of the believer peace and prosperity, whatever may be his case regarding things external. His peace Jesus promised to His disciples: ’Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’ But peace may be taken particularly for the love through which God has reconciled His people to Himself by Jesus Christ, thus expressing the goodness of God revealed in the Gospel In the Old Testament, God is called the Lord of Hosts; but in the New Testament, having made peace by the blood of the cross of His Son, He is pleased to call Himself the God of peace. It is this peace which the angel, with the heavenly host, celebrated in saying, ’Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’ The Apostles usually express this in their salutations, saying, ’Grace and peace be with you, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,’ uniformly, however, placing grace first, without which they could not have peace. Paul, in here employing this title, the God of peace, indicates the free access which His people have to God, and the assurance that their petitions shall be heard; for what shall they not obtain from Him who has laid aside all His wrath, and breathes towards them only grace and peace? We see, then, the efficacy of the peace of God, and what consolation believers should experience, and what confidence towards God in their prayers, when they consider that God is the God of peace.
Robert Haldane On Romans
CHAPTER XVI – Romans 16:1-27
Romans 16:1 — I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:
I commend unto you Phebe — Paul here introduces Phebe to the brethren at Rome. Letters of recommendation were unnecessary for those who derived their credentials specially from the Lord, and who were officially well known to the churches. Paul disclaims the necessity of such letters for himself to the church at Corinth, though at his first visit he needed the introduction of Barnabas to the brethren at Jerusalem. There might be doubts respecting Phebe at Rome, as there were doubts at Jerusalem with respect to Paul, and these could not be removed by mere profession, unsupported by sufficient evidence, whether of her faith, or of his apostleship.
Phebe — This was the name of the moon, one of the objects of the worship of the heathens. The moon was reverenced by females in honor of the goddess Diana. This person retaining that name shows that there is no necessity to renounce names that have been adopted under heathenish in honor of false gods. There is no necessity to give other names, as Christian names. Sister — The terms brother and sister, taken from human relations, are given to express the new and spiritual relationship which subsists among believers, who by a new nature have become the sons of God and the brethren of Christ. This shows how nearly Christians are related, and how affectionately they ought to love one another. If Christians be all really brethren and sisters, nothing should disunite them in affection. Which is a servant, or deaconess. — As deacons were appointed to attend to the poor, so deaconesses were specially set apart in the churches in order to attend to the wants of their own sex.
Romans 16:2 — That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh Saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath, been a succorer of many, and of myself also.
That ye receive her — The purpose of Paul’s recommendation was, that Phebe should be received by the church. In the Lord — That is, that they would receive her as a member of the body of Christ. This shows that none ought to be received into communion by a church but those who are considered as being in the Lord. It shows also that all who are in the Lord ought to be received. The ground of Christian fellowship is union with Christ.
As becometh saints — Literally, worthily of the saints; that is, in a manner worthy of the saints. This is usually understood as respecting the receivers, — ’in a manner that becomes saints to receive such persons.’ But it may respect the received, and signify, ’in a manner worthy of those who are received, viz., the saints.’ The latter appears to be the meaning. The word worthily applies best to this reference. The saints may be poor and despised, but they belong to the family in heaven; they are the brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the sons of God. They are therefore worthy of honorable reception by their brethren. And that ye assist her. — The saints are not only to receive one another into fellowship and to hospitality, but also they are to pay attention to strangers thus received, assisting them in the business which may have brought them to their place of residence.
For she hath been a succorer of many — In addition to the general claim, the Apostle enhances the particular claims of Phebe by a reference to her own character. She was a most devoted person, and had exerted herself in assisting the brethren in distress. Myself also — In what way Phebe had ministered to the assistance of the Apostle we are not informed. But she might have many opportunities of relieving him, either by contributing to his support or ministering personally to his comfort. Here we see that, while the Apostle often shows the obligation of the churches and individuals to himself, yet he acknowledges with gratitude the services of all who contributed to his relief.
Romans 16:3 — Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila. — The sending of salutations to particular persons or bodies was an indication of peculiar esteem and love. This shows us, in the first place, that in all things not sinful we may comply with the customs of mankind. There is no good, but much evil, in singularity with respect to anything, except such things as God has either forbidden or required. It is only when the authority of Jesus interposes that we are bound to depart from the world. There will be sufficient opportunities of doing this without creating them for ourselves. Singularity in dress or in phraseology has no countenance from the word of God. Christians are to show sobriety in their language and in their dress, but in neither are they to form a fashion of their own. In the second place, we may learn from these salutations that it is not contrary to the universal love which we ought to entertain for the whole household of God, to have a peculiar regard for individuals. Paul singles out individuals from the body in general as peculiar objects of his attentions and remembrance.
My helpers — Paul is not ashamed to mention those persons, one of whom was a woman, who is here first named, as his helpers in the Gospel He shows no jealousy about the invasion of his office in their labors to spread the Gospel. To fill any office in a church of Christ belongs only to those whom God has appointed to it; but to labor in the Gospel, either publicly or privately, is not peculiar to any office — not even to the office of an Apostle, but belongs to every Christian, according to the ability conferred on him by the Head of the Church. Christians are in general to blame for laboring so little in the Lord’s service, but they can never be charged with laboring too much. Priscilla and Aquila are styled by the Apostle fellow-laborers in Christ Jesus. And there is no doubt that Jesus will acknowledge all those persons as such, whether male or female, whether in office or out of office in his churches, they have labored to make sinners acquainted with the Gospel of salvation.
Romans 16:4 — Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
Who have for my life laid down their own necks. — We also speak of venturing the neck, or laying down the head; and both idioms are proverbial expressions, denoting to expose to death in whatever manner it may take place. This expression is proverbial, and is grounded on the manner of taking away the life of criminals on the block. Priscilla and Aquila are said to have laid down their necks, not because they had done so literally, but because they acted in such a manner as to expose their lives to jeopardy. A Christian is not required to substitute himself in the room of another Christian who is condemned to death. For this would be to go beyond the requirement of the law — it would be to love our neighbors better than ourselves. But there may be occasions when it is duty to act in such a manner for the benefit of the brethren, as to hazard life. This we are not to decline. This is what is meant by the Apostle John when he says that ’we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.’ Unto whom not only I give thanks. — The devoted conduct of this disciple and his wife was nothing but their duty; yet Paul returns them thanks before all the churches, and all the world. The speculations of some on this subject would banish gratitude as a Christian virtue. To do good to the brethren is duty in all Christians, but to be thankful for good done is equally duty. But also all the churches of the Gentiles. — Though the particular instance of exemplary benevolence shown by Priscilla and Aquila towards the Apostle is not recorded, yet no doubt it was well known at the time in all the churches; and the whole Gentile brethren considered themselves under obligations for the conduct of these two devoted Christians.
Romans 16:5 — Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epenetus, who is the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ.
Likewise greet the church that is in their house — Besides saluting Priscilla and Aquila, the Apostle sends his salutation to the church which assembled in their house. The same expression respecting the church in the house of Aquila and Priscilla occurs in 1 Corinthians 16:19. On this passage Calvin remarks: ’It is worthy of observation, that Paul could not confer a more distinguished honor and ornament on this family, than by making mention of the church in their house. I am not satisfied with Erasmus’ translation congregation; for Paul undoubtedly made an honorable mention of the church in this passage.’ Salute my well-beloved (rather, my beloved) Epenetus — Paul here calls Epenetus his beloved. He loved all Christians; but when he styles any of them his beloved, it imports that they were peculiarly objects of his affection. But to show this, there is no need, with our version, to translate the word well-beloved, because the English word beloved is as capable as the Greek of expressing such a meaning. This is a distinguished honor to Epenetus. If he was the beloved of Paul, he must have been eminent as a servant of Christ.
First-fruits — That is, the first converted in the place mentioned. Such persons are called the first-fruits of the place, in allusion to the first fruits under the law. The first-fruits were offered unto God before any of the harvest was used, which was a setting apart of the rest to the service of man, and a pledge of the harvest. It is here implied to be a peculiar honor to be the first to believe the Gospel in any country or district. This honor is conferred by God in a sovereign way. This shows that, though all believers are equally the purchase of Christ, and that they are all equally washed from sin in His blood, yet that they are not all partakers of equal honors. Here we see, also, that Paul, instead of refusing to give praise to the saints on account of any distinction, avails himself of every opportunity to bring into notice whatever may be creditable to those whom he mentions. Of Achaia. — Some, on the authority of certain manuscripts and versions, have substituted Asia for Achaia. The authority, however, does not seem sufficient. The objection, namely, that the household of Stephanas is elsewhere said to be the first-fruits of Achaia, is not applicable, for Epenetus may have been one of that household, and in that case the passages are quite consistent. Besides, the change to Asia may have been adopted in the manuscripts and versions in order to avoid a contradiction which was apprehended from the common reading. Unto Christ. — That is, Epenetus was the first-fruits offered or presented to Christ, as the first-fruits under the law were presented unto God. This is a proof of the deity of Christ. If believers are presented as an offering to Christ, He must be God.
Romans 16:6. — Greet Mary, who bestowed much labor on us.
That is, labored much in serving us, not, according to Dr. Macknight, who ’labored with us,’ in the work of the Gospel. Many women labored in the Gospel with the Apostle, but that is no reason for forcing this phrase to refer to such Works of kindness to the Apostle were worthy of approbation as well as the peculiar work of disseminating the Gospel. This shows that every one has a talent, and ought to exercise it in the service of Christ. All are not missionaries or preachers of the Gospel, but all may in some way assist in it.
Romans 16:7 — Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the Apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
It is true, indeed, as Dr. Macknight observes, that the Apostle (Romans 9:3) calls all the Jews his kinsmen; but as he here distinguishes individuals by this character, it is necessary to understand him as speaking of kindred in a more limited sense. Though every Jew was, in a certain sense, related to Paul, and he calls the whole nation his kinsmen in the sense to which he there refers, yet there would be no propriety in singling out individuals of the nation as related to him who were not so actually. Here, then, we see how desirous the Apostle is to express his consideration of the brethren individually, so far as was in his power. This also recognizes the propriety of attachment to kindred. Though all Christians are brethren, yet this does not interfere with the attachment peculiar to the relations which God Himself has established among men. This is of great importance, as it sets aside the speculations of persons who would have us believe that all relations in life must be absorbed by the union of believers in Christ. My fellow-prisoners — When, where, or by whom this imprisonment took place, we have no account; yet it is not the less certain. How absurd, then, is it to reason, as many do, as if research were necessary, in order to prove what the Scriptures allege in general terms. It is a distinguished honor to be imprisoned for the cause of Christ. As that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination with God, so this, which is disgraceful in the eyes of men, is the highest honor before God. Who are of note, or distinguished. — This is another proof that, though all Christians are equally pardoned and equally justified, God acts as a sovereign in this as in everything else. Among the apostles — Those persons, from their active cooperation with the Apostles, were well known to them and distinguished among them.
Were in Christ — To be in Christ is to be a Christian, to be a member of the spiritual body of Christ. This takes place by faith, and in the first moment of believing in Him. Before me — Here priority of conversion to God is reckoned an honor; and Paul, instead of claiming all honors to himself, is solicitous to exhibit what is honorable in every man’s situation, and to give the preference to others whenever that preference is due. The Fathers, as they are called, were pious men, but often lamentably deficient in judgment, and generally bad reasoners. From the fact that these persons, Andronicus and Junia, were Christians before Paul, and that they were distinguished among the Apostles, Origen infers that they were of the number of the seventy disciples. This is a conclusion without premises. Such conjectural reasoning imposes on many, as it has the appearance of giving us additional information, and containing nothing contrary to the Scriptures. But it affords a most mischievous precedent for perverting the word of God, and in no instance can it be of any service.
Romans 16:8 — Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
This person is another of those distinguished objects of the Apostle’s love. Paul loved all the brethren, but for some he had a peculiar affection. Amplias was beloved of Paul in the Lord, as a Christian, or one who was a member of the spiritual body of Christ. Amplias, then, as he was one of the peculiar objects of Paul’s love in Christ, must have been distinguished for his devotedness to Christ.
Romans 16:9 — Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
Paul, as we have before seen, felt no jealousy of others laboring in the Lord, but distinguishes all of them as peculiar objects of his regard. They who endeavor to check the efforts of any of the disciples of Christ, in aiming to save sinners by communicating to them the knowledge of the Gospel, have a spirit very opposite to that of Paul, and are counteracting what he commands. It is worthy of observation, also, that though Paul was an inspired teacher, yet he freely distinguishes the humblest of those who were in any manner engaged in the work of the Gospel as his fellow-laborers. Stachys is one of those whom Paul honors with an expression of peculiar love for Christ’s sake. How unlike is the spirit of this Apostle from that of men who, under mistaken notions, regard with coldness, dislike, or jealousy the labors of those who are not called to office in the Church of Christ!
Romans 16:10 — Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus’ household.
Apelles is here distinguished as a tried disciple. It is mentioned to his honor that he was tried and approved in Christ. The Lord’s people have various and widely diversified characteristics as Christians. The Apostle selects that peculiar trait in the characters of those of whom he writes for which they are severally distinguished. Some of them are tried with peculiar afflictions, and their obedience to their Lord is put to the severest test. When they stand this fiery trial, it is the most distinguished honor, and their trials in the service of Christ ought to be held up to notice. This is due to them from their brethren, and it is a great encouragement to others who are similarly tried. All the Lord’s people are not exposed to trials equally severe; and when the Lord calls any of them to glorify His name by suffering peculiarly for His sake, we are here taught to treat them with peculiar honor. How very unfounded, then, and unscriptural, are the views of those who would fear the encouragement of a proud legal spirit, were they to utter a word of praise with respect to the characters of any of the Lord’s servants. From perceiving an extreme on one hand, they plunge into the opposite. But they confound things entirely distinct. That praise which a worldly spirit is accustomed to seek or to give, is quite different from that which the Apostle confers. The latter excites to greater devotedness; but the former puffs up, and is quite opposed to the spirit of the Gospel ’How can ye believe,’ says Christ, ’who receive honor one of another?’ Such persons love the praise of men more than the praise of God. But the honor which is given by the Lord’s servants, after the example of Paul, is to the honor of the Lord, and for the interest of His cause.
Aristobulus’ household — Aristobulus was evidently a personage of great distinction, who had many domestics, of whom there were some who had believed the Gospel. When the head of the family believed, he vas usually saluted, and his household with him. When, therefore, salutations are sent to some of his family or slaves, and not to himself, there is no reason to conclude that Aristobulus was a believer It is true, as Dr. Macknight suggests, he might have been abroad or dead, but there is no need of such suppositions where no part of the statement implies that he was a believer. From this we see the sovereignty of God, in calling some of a family and leaving others in unbelief. And we may see the peculiarity of this sovereignty, in calling the slaves and overlooking the master. God does not judge as man judges. It would have been as easy for the Lord Jesus to have called Aristobulus as the meanest of his domestics; and human wisdom would have given the preference to the master. We see this exemplified in a thousand instances in our own day. Religious parties, in order to advance their interests, often select as their chief patrons and officers the greatest personages who will consent to give them their names, and even though they should be manifest enemies to the Gospel by wicked works. When the Lord has need of the talents of the great, the rich, or the learned He can convert them, and when He does convert them, they are a blessing for which God ought to be praised; but some persons choose those whom Christ has not chosen, even the enemies of Christ, for which they will have no praise from their Master.
Romans 16:11 — Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord.
Salute Herodion my kinsman. — This is another person that Paul acknowledges as a relation, thereby recognizing the affection becoming the natural ties of kindred. The household of Narcissus is saluted like that of Aristobulus. Whether this Narcissus was the distinguished favorite of the Emperor Claudius, the Scriptures do not determine, and it, therefore, can be of no importance to be ascertained. It might minister a question to curiosity, and thereby lead away from profitably considering what the Scriptures contain, in order to discover what they do not contain. This is a vain as well as an unprofitable way of spending time. Persons who indulge in it may fancy that they are studying and throwing light upon Scripture, but they are only covering God’s word with a heap of rubbish, gratifying an idle curiosity, and tending to draw away attention from the truths of eternal importance which the Scriptures reveal.
Which are in the Lord — This shows us what sort of persons were recognized in the first churches. They were such only as were believed to be in the Lord, that is, members of the spiritual body of Christ. It shows, also, that persons who at the time appeared to be Christians were considered as such without any distrust with respect to the reality of their faith, though with respect to some the fact might afterwards manifest the contrary. Man judges by evidence, and is warranted to proceed with confidence upon that evidence, though the Searcher of hearts may see the profession to be without the true knowledge of God, or change of heart. This explains the passage in Ezekiel with respect to the righteous turning away from his righteousness; and the passage in Hebrews, ’If any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Romans 16:12 — Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which labored much in the Lord.
Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa who labor in the Lord. — These were women who labored in the Gospel This shows that, while women are excluded from speaking in the church, they are not excluded from laboring in the Gospel. The Lord has not only permitted women to labor in the Gospel, but He has, both in the apostolic and in the present time, singularly blessed their labors. Beloved Persis — She was another woman who employed herself in the service of the Gospel, and is peculiarly distinguished as laboring much in the Lord. Even among the faithful servants of the Lord there is a difference of activity in His service, and the servant who labors much is peculiarly noticed by Paul. As, however, all the good deeds of the Lord’s people are done only by the influence of His spirit, none have in themselves ground of boasting.
Romans 16:13 — Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
All believers are chosen of God. When Rufus is distinguished as the chosen, he must have furnished distinguished evidence of his election. He was chosen in the Lord, for none are elected but in Christ. Their election is without regard to merit in themselves: they are chosen in Christ. His mother and mine — The word mother seems to be used in its proper signification in respect to Rufus, and figuratively in its application to Paul. This is a high honor to be so distinguished by the Apostle. This person, it appears, had behaved to the Apostle with the kindness, affection, and tenderness of a mother. This inculcates kindness and attention on the part of Christians towards those who are devotedly laboring in the service of Christ. It may, indeed, be a matter of lamentation that there are few like this woman; but it is equally a matter of lamentation that there are so few believers who manifest that devotedness which was constantly exhibited by Paul When the laborers in Christ’s vineyard make no sacrifice, they should not expect what is due only to signal devotedness and disinterestedness.
Romans 16:14 — Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Pacrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them.
Romans 16:15 — Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.
Here a number of brethren are selected without distinction. This mark of brotherly attention would gratify those whom the Apostle here names, besides the brethren who were with them. The lord’s people are not equally distinguished, but they are all brethren equally related to Him who is the Elder Brother of His people. Some of them are eminent, and others are without peculiar distinction. They are all, however, worthy of love. A church is not to consist of the most eminent believers, but of believers, though some be of the lowest attainments. A church of Christ is a school in which their education is to be perfected. And all the saints which are with them. — That is, the believers in their families and neighborhood. These might not be personally known to the Apostle, but as believers they were worthy of his notice.
It might at first sight appear strange that in an inspired letter, which was to be preserved to the end of the world for the edification and instruction of the churches, there should be so much of it taken up with what many might consider as useless ceremony. But as the Apostle was inspired by the Spirit of God in this, no well as in the highest matters, it is evident that we ought to look for instruction from this peculiarity of his writings. This shows the value of inspiration; for were these writings merely human, we should not look for instruction from such things. It shows us that every attention that expresses and promotes love ought to be exhibited among Christians, who should employ the forms and courtesies of social life that manifest respect in order to show their esteem and affection for one another.
Romans 16:16 — Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.
From the salutations sent to the brethren, Paul passes to the injunction of a form of salutation to the used among those to whom he wrote. He enjoins them to salute one another with a holy kiss. He calls it a holy kiss as distinguished not only from that which is sinful, but also from the kiss that merely expresses common affection. The latter was proper in itself as an expression of kindness among relations or friends; but this is grounded on the love that Christians should have for one another, and is a holy kiss. Much ridicule has been cast on this practice. But it was enjoined on the churches by the Apostles. It is again and again repeated, and was practiced by all the primitive churches. Peter calls it a kiss of love. Justin Martyr, in giving an account of the weekly assemblies of the Christians of the second century, says, ’We mutually salute one another by a kiss, and then we bring forward the bread and the cup.’ And the form is still maintained by the Church of Rome in what they call the osculum pacis. The churches of Christ salute you. — Not only did individuals send salutations to churches or individuals with whom they had a personal acquaintance, but whole churches sent salutations to one another in consideration of their common union in the Lord.
Romans 16:17 — Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Now I beseech you, brethren — The churches of Christ have here the most solemn injunction given, in the most earnest manner, with respect to a thing to which at one time or other they will all be found obnoxious. They are warned against the artful attempts of dangerous hypocrites, who, for sinister and interested purposes, endeavor to make divisions in the churches with which they are united. The injunction does not respect the conscientious errors of good men, but the plausible efforts of men who, under the mask of religion, are serving themselves. There is no essential difference, whether the divisions are internal or external — whether they are merely calculated to distract the body to which they belong — or whether they tend to schism or separation in fellowship. Indeed, the most dangerous and mischievous divisions are those which do not call for separation. They eat like a gangrene; and their authors should not be tolerated. Every Christian may profess and follow his own views of the will of his Master without exciting any division in the body of Christ; and even when he is called to separate, to maintain his fidelity to his Lord, this is not dividing the body of Christ, but the most effectual way to promote its union. The motive is not self-interest, or pride; but obedience to the will of God.
Contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned — The force of the passage lies in this sentence. The factious persons, against whom the Apostle here warns the church to which he writes, are to be watched and guarded against. Their motives are bad, and their efforts are contrary to the Gospel and the doctrine which the Church had already learned; for the Gospel teaches unity among all who believe in the Savior. They are all one, as united in Christ, the head of the body. Such persons are to be avoided. Men who, from a view of exalting themselves, endeavor to sow division in the Church, are more to be shunned than if they were infected with pestilence; and the brethren who are connected with them ought not, from their confidence in their own steadfastness, to expose themselves to their conversation on such subjects. Such persons are in the service of Satan, who will prevail to deceive the strongest of the people of God, if he obtains permission.
Romans 16:18 — For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
Persons of this description serve not our Lord Jesus Christ. — To serve Christ is their profession; and this profession they may render plausible, but with all its plausibility it is a false profession. They are not doing the Lord’s work, for they are disuniting those whom Jesus has united. Instead of serving the Lord, they have a design of making gain by this conduct, which is equally to be condemned, whether they are led by vanity or ambition, or any other selfish motive not sanctioned by the word of God. No injunction ought to be attended to with more vigilance than this. The evil that is here condemned in the persons denounced by the Apostle is more dangerous than the open profligacy of those who turn away from the truth. No one could be deceived by the openly profane; but the hypocritical professions of such factious persons is calculated to injure or to destroy the Church of Christ, under the cloak of religion. And by good words and fair speeches — Here the Apostle points out the means which those wicked persons employ to give them success. They use good words and fair speeches. Their soothing address is the bait by which Satan teaches them to ensnare the brethren. Accordingly, the Apostle says that in this manner they deceive the hearts of the simple. The authors of heresies have, in general, been remarkable for a winning manner and seductive address; and thus some of the Lord’s people may at least for a time be entangled in their snares. It is quite obvious that the injunction here given is not designed to discountenance Christians from denouncing any error or corruption that may have obtained place among His people. The persons against whom the Apostle warns us are those who, for their own interest or selfish purposes, excite divisions among the brethren. Calvin observes, ’To separate such as agree in the truth of Christ is an impious and sacrilegious divorce; but to defend a conspiracy for promoting lies and impious doctrines, under the pretext of peace and unity, is a shameless calumny. The Papists have no foundation for exciting, by artful guile, an unfavorable impression and low opinion of us believers from this passage, for we do not attack and confute the Gospel of Christ, but the falsehoods of the devil by which it has hitherto been obscured.’
Romans 16:19 — For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. — The Apostle intimates here that he gave the believers at Rome these warnings, not from any peculiar jealousy with respect to their liability to err; on the contrary, he praises them for their ready obedience to the will of God as delineated by his Epistles. Obedience here may indeed respect their reception of the Gospel, which was a matter much spoken of, but it is not to be confined to this. It will apply to their readiness in receiving everything taught by the authority of God. The same authority that requires obedience to the Gospel, requires also obedience to every ordinance and precept. It is the greatest praise to any church or individual to obey cheerfully, with a childlike disposition, whatever the word of God teaches. Many Christians are not teachable, and while they have obeyed the Gospel to salvation, yet use their own wisdom in many other things respecting the institutions of God. They employ subtle and plausible reasonings, by which they impose on themselves and deceive others. This in the end will procure them neither honor nor profit. It will at last be found that he who submits most unreservedly to every tittle of the Divine injunctions, has been the wisest man. Blessed shall that servant be, who, when his Lord comes, shall be found doing His will fully.
The obedience of the Roman Christians had been published most extensively; and this notice of the fact shows that it is important that the disciples should publicly make a profession of the Gospel, and of every commandment of the Lord. They should not be ashamed either of Him or of His word. They should boldly profess faith in His revealed character in every part of it, and of His ordinances and precepts even in the things most offensive to the world. This is to the honor of their Lord, and is designed as a testimony to men. Christians are not at liberty to decline obedience to anything that the Lord has appointed, out of fear of the reproach of the world. On the contrary, they are to hold forth before all men everything that God hath commanded. This is different from ostentation. To attend to any religious appointment to be seen of men, is the vilest hypocrisy. But to hold forth the will of God in things that the world hates, is true Christian obedience.
I am glad therefore on your behalf — So far from suspecting the obedience of the brethren at Rome, the Apostle rejoiced concerning them. It was the greatest pleasure to him to hear of their obedience so extensively published. All Christians should imitate the Apostle in this joy. It should be matter of rejoicing to them to hear of believers in every part of the world fully obeying Christ. The disposition which the Apostle here manifests, and of which alone the Lord will approve, is a joy in hearing of Christ being honored, and the people of Christ advanced in devotedness to His will. We ought to be zealous for every part of our belief with respect to the will of God. But we should be on our guard lest this should arise from any selfish motive, and not solely from love to Christ and Christ’s people. Christ cannot be honored, and His people cannot be profited, when they practice the inventions of men as the appointments of God. And it is hurtful to believers, as well as injurious to the honor of Christ, when His people decline conformity to any part of His will, either from disaffection to it, or from a desire to avoid the offense of the cross. But yet I would have you wise unto that which is good. — This is the reason why he warned them against the authors of division. The Apostle wished them to be wise with respect to that which is good. They ought not only to understand the doctrines and ordinances of Christ, but also to be aware of the fact that even in the churches of Christ there would from time to time arise deceivers to lead away the simple. Had they not been warned of this, they might be ready to think that no evil person could ever be found among the disciples, who would thereby be liable to be ensnared by crafty men. Simple concerning evil — Simple here appears to mean not merely pure, as Dr. Macknight translates it, but simple as opposed to wise. The two words are here evidently contrasted. As to evil, the Apostle wishes the Christians to be without cunning, or dexterity, or skill. In this, it was his desire that they should be quite unknowing and unpracticed in the ways of sin.
Romans 16:20 — And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
And the God of peace. — After the exhortation which the Apostle had just given to the saints at Rome to maintain peace among themselves, he here designates their heavenly Father, as in the conclusion of the preceding chapter, the God of peace. God is the God of peace, because He it is that is the author of all the peace that His people enjoy. Were it not for the overruling power of the Lord, His people would have no rest at any time in this world. But the Lord Jesus rules in the midst of His enemies, and He gives His people peace in the midst of their enemies. This shows us that we ought constantly to look to God for this peace. If we seek it not, but grow self-confident and secure, dangers and troubles may arise from every quarter. Our only security is God, and our duty is constantly to ask peace of Him in the midst of a world of trouble. God gives His people different gifts; but peace is a blessing which they all need, and without which they can have no happiness. We ought, therefore, constantly to pray for peace to God’s people all over the world. We ought to pray for the peace of Jerusalem as our chief joy. Instead of thinking it strange that unbelievers should disturb us, or that Satan should stir up confusion even among Christians, it is owing to almighty power that His people have any peace on earth.
Even in the churches there would be no peace, were it not for God’s presence. Such is the cunning of Satan, and the remaining ignorance and corruption of the Lord’s people, that Satan would keep them in continual broils, if God did not powerfully counteract him. God is here called the God of peace, with a peculiar reference to the factious persons against whom the believers were warned in the preceding connection. The emissaries of Satan strive to distract the churches; but God — the God of peace — counteracts their wicked designs. When it is considered that there is so much remaining evil in the best of children of God, it is amazing that they ever have peace. But it is the presence of God that gives them any degree of peace Were it not for this, no church could continue one day in peace.
Shall bruise Satan under your feet. — Christ, the seed of the woman, bruised the head of the serpent, and His people will, through Christ, bruise Satan likewise. The word Satan signifies adversary. The term Devil means calumniator or accuser. He accuses the brethren before God day and night. He is called Leviathan, the Serpent, the great Dragon, the old Serpent, the Tempter, Beelzebub, a Murderer, a Liar, Prince of this world, Ruler of darkness, God of this world, Prince of the power of air, Belial, the Angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in Greek hath his name Apollyon, that is destroyer.
The Apostle here encourages the believers to sustain the combat against Satan, their mortal enemy, who does everything in his power to disturb their peace, and to tempt them to all evil. There were two victories to be obtained over Satan. By the first, his head was to be bruised under the feet of Jesus Christ; and by the second, the rest of his body will be bruised under the feet of the believers. Of the second of these victories, Paul here speaks. In the first prediction, God speaks as the Lord of Hosts, the God of war — ’I will put enmity.’ The war continues till the bruising of Satan’s head has taken place, and his empire is overthrown; and when it is subverted, peace is made, and God is the God of peace. As, then, the seed of the woman has bruised the head of the serpent, so His people will through Christ likewise bruise Satan. The Apostle says not we shall bruise him under our feet, but God shall do it; yet he says not He shall bruise him under His own feet, but under yours. The victory shall be ours, though wrought by Him; and He shall do it shortly. The God of peace shall subdue that grand disturber of our peace, and shall give us perfect victory, and after it endless peace; He shall free us of this trouble and molestation. It is not, then, in our own power that we must encounter this adversary; it is God who bruises him under our feet. ’We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places;’ and it is only when covered with the armor of God and by His power that we can overcome enemies so formidable. Dr. Macknight says of the word Satan, that ’Here it is given to the unbelieving Jews, and also to the Judaizing teachers and their adherents, who, for selfish purposes, bred divisions at Rome, verse 17, and in every church where they could obtain a footing; they are therefore called ministers of Satan’ 2 Corinthians 11:15, etc. But it is of Satan himself that the Apostle speaks. Though Satan works by his instruments are crushed, he is crushed. Paul wrote this Epistle, and Tertius wrote it, — the one as dictating, the other as amanuensis. But when Paul is said to write the Epistle, we are not to say that Paul means Tertius. Satan works personally in disturbing the churches, though his work is carried on through the instrumentality of men. He excites his emissaries and suggests his devices to them, and they are successful through his artifices.
Shortly — Some understand this of the final victory that all the Lord’s people will obtain at last over Satan and all his emissaries. But though they will not be free from the attacks of this subtle adversary as long as they are in the body, yet from the phrase ’speedily,’ or ’shortly,’ no well as from the immediate reference to the power of God in the Church, it appears rather to refer to a present victory. The meaning, then, is, that all the churches of Christ are to be hurt by factious people rising up among them, emissaries of Satan, under the cover of religion; and if the Church is not led away by the error of Satan, God, as the God of peace, will shortly deliver them from the malignant influence of this apostate spirit. Satan will not be permitted to harass them continually. It is consistent with God’s wisdom to permit Satan to try His people; but when they are sufficiently tried, they are delivered from the temptation. So it was with the Son of God Himself. Satan was for a time permitted to harass Him, but at last he was dismissed. In like manner, churches and individual Christians are all to be tried in various ways; but if they abide the trial, they shall be delivered from the temptation, and, in the most emphatic and extensive sense, they shall all at last bruise Satan under their feet. They shall obtain a complete victory over him in the day of the appearing of their almighty Lord, who will then finally consign him to his awful punishment, and cast him into the lake of fire and brimstone. On that day the full import of this expression will be seen.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. — This form of expression has always been understood to import the deity of Jesus Christ, and justly it has been so understood. It is essentially and necessarily a prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ; and if He is not God, what grace has He to bestow on His people? ’My grace,’ said He to Paul when praying to Him, ’is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ It implies that there is a constant supply of grace to be communicated from Christ to His people; and if Christ so communicates His holy influences to His people in all ages, in all countries, to every individual of them, at every instant of time, what can He be but the almighty God? This implies that they who have been bought by the blood of Christ are to be supplied with grace by Him continually, in order to their standing in the truth. All their perseverance is in virtue of this. Of His Church it is said, ’I, the Lord, do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.’
Romans 16:21 — Timotheus my work-fellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you.
Timothy was a most devoted servant of the Lord Jesus, more of the same spirit with Paul than any of his other fellow-laborers. The Apostle, instead of designating himself by the superiority of his office with reference to that of Timothy, calls him his work-fellow. How different is this from the conduct of those who seek earthly honors and distinctions as the servants of Christ! All Christians are not alike obedient, and therefore not all equally honored before God; but their honor will be revealed in another world, though not in this. The other persons mentioned in this salutation were the kinsmen of the Apostle, whom he thus honorably recognizes as his relations.
Romans 16:22 — I Tertius, who wrote this Epistle, salute you in the Lord.
The Apostle generally employed an amanuensis to write what he dictated. Tertius wrote the Epistle, but it was in all things communicated by Paul, as what Paul communicated was dictated to him by the Holy Ghost. Tertius likewise salutes the brethren. In the Lord. — These salutations were not those of mere worldly acquaintance or friendship, but in the Lord, that is, as a member of the body of Christ of which they were members. He might have no acquaintance with any individual among them, yet he was full of affection to them as a Christian brother. That conformity to the world which the Scriptures condemn, is a conformity to things contrary to the law of God. All the innocent customs of society may be imitated by Christ’s people without any sin. As the people of the world are accustomed to express good will by their salutations, so the Lord’s people ought likewise to show their love by similar expressions. Love ought not only to exist in the heart, but also ought, on proper occasions, to be outwardly expressed. Without this it cannot edify or console those who are its objects. The people of the Lord, then, ought to recognize one another, and express their mutual love in all those ways usual among men.
Romans 16:23 — Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, and Quartus a brother.
Gaius was distinguished for Christian hospitality. The Apostle abode in his house at the time of writing this Epistle; but his hospitality was of the most liberal and extensive kind. He is praised by the Apostle as the host of the whole church. Gaius also sent his salutations to the church at Rome. While Christianity does not destroy the different orders in society, all Christians are brethren, and recognize each other as such, though of different nations and of different ranks.
Erastus the chamberlain of the city — This is another personage of distinction who sends his salutation to the brethren at Rome. He held an important office in the city where he lived. The Apostle designates him as chamberlain, which might correspond in a good measure to treasurer. But in such cases in most instances no word in one language can be found to correspond perfectly to that of another, because no two countries may have the same modification of offices. The notice of the office of Erastus, although in itself it may appear trifling, is in reality of great importance. It shows us that Christians may hold offices even under heathen governments, and that to serve Christ we are not to be abstracted from worldly business.
Quartus a brother — The Apostle having no peculiar distinction to notice in this person, calls him a brother. This was a common name for all believers, because they are all brethren in Christ. It may at first sight appear superfluous to designate this person by a characteristic belonging to all Christians. But though it belongs to all Christians, yet it is not endlessly expressed. The Apostle directs attention to this circ*mstance that they are brethren, and that it is a real and important relation. We may know that all Christians are brethren, but it is nevertheless useful to be reminded of this, as we may be prone to act towards them in an unbrotherly manner.
Romans 16:24 — The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
This important prayer is repeated from verse 20, which shows us that all repetition is not vain repetition, but that it may mark a thing of peculiar importance. Three times did our Lord employ the same words in His prayer in Gethsemane. And the Apostle, from the abundance of his heart, and his great concern for the Christians at Rome, here within a short compass twice prays that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ might be with them. Indeed, there is great need of such earnest petitions, for without the constant supply of the grace of Christ we could not abide in Him. Dr. Macknight observes that in the Syriac version this benediction is omitted at the 24th verse, and added at the end of the Epistle. But this has the appearance of human wisdom correcting the language of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 16:25 — Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.
Now to Him that is of power to establish you. — From this we learn that establishment in the faith is not of ourselves, but of God. It requires the power of Jehovah to establish His people in the truth. So far from being able to bring themselves into the faith of the Gospel, they are not able to continue in it without God. What blindness, then, is it to boast of the power of man to believe and to keep himself in the truth! Power to do anything in the service of God must be communicated from above.
According to my Gospel — Here we see in what a Christian is to be established, namely, in the faith according to the Gospel. Men may be established in error, they may die for human traditions, and have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge; but this is of no value. Paul calls the Gospel his Gospel, to intimate that different doctrines would be preached by false teachers as the Gospel. But all other gospels, except that of Paul and the other Apostles, are false. Believers must be established in Paul’s Gospel. How many other gospels are now preached as the Gospel of Christ! yet none of them can avail for the salvation of the soul. And the preaching of Jesus Christ — This phrase is not the mere repetition of the same thing. It is indeed the same truth, but in a different point of view. In the one it is considered as the Gospel or good news, and this according to the doctrine of Paul. In the other it is considered as the publication of the truth about Jesus Christ. We are to be established according to what the Apostles preached concerning Jesus Christ. Believers have nothing to do with the vain speculations and opinions of men about the way of salvation. They must believe, and ought to be confirmed, in the truth, according as it was originally preached by the Apostles. The preaching of the Gospel is called preaching Jesus Christ, Acts 5:42, who is the subject of the Gospel.
According to the revelation of the mystery. — This is another view of the same truth, but not a mere synonymous expression. The Gospel is here considered as the revelation of a mystery. It was couched in dark figures under the Old Testament dispensation, but is now developed by the Apostles of the Lord. It is first considered as the Gospel, or good news, characterized as the Gospel of Paul; secondly as the doctrine preached concerning Jesus Christ by those whom He had inspired to reveal and publish it; and, lastly, it is considered as a mystery revealed. In this there is no tautology. It is designed to present the same thing in several different aspects. The word mystery here refers, not, as Dr. Macknight and many others suppose, to the calling of the Gentiles, but to the Gospel itself, which was obscurely revealed in the Old Testament. Calvin, without sufficient ground, states this as a difficulty but in reality there is no difficulty in it. ’In what sense,’ he says, ’Paul calls the Gospel a hidden mystery in this passage, in Ephesians 3:9, and Colossians 1:26, is not fully determined even among the learned. The opinion of those who refer it to the calling in of the Gentiles, is the most forcible, to which Paul himself expressly alludes in his Epistle to the Colossians. I grant this to be one, but not the sole cause; for I think there is a greater probability in supposing Paul to have regarded other points of difference between the Old and New Testament.’ All these passages use the word mystery with the same reference: none of them represent the calling of the Gentiles to be the mystery, or the reason why the Gospel was called a mystery. It is the Gospel itself which is called a mystery in Ephesians 3:9. The thing hid in God from the beginning of the world, was the plan of salvation through the death of His Son; and the revelation of it by Christ and His Apostles, was making known the manifold wisdom of God in the redemption of His people. In Colossians 1:26, it is the Gospel as the word of God that is the mystery. In verse 27, this mystery is said, by the preaching of the Gospel, to be made known among the Gentiles, just as in the verse before us. The calling of the Gentiles is not called a mystery.
Kept secret since the world began, or, in eternal times; that is, in all preceding eternity. — The common version very well expresses the meaning. The translation of Dr. Macknight, ’the times of the ages,’ is an uncouth expression, and founded on views which, as stated by him, are quite fanciful. The mystery kept secret was the hidden sense of the Old Testament dispensation, which all pointed to the kingdom of God, but still left it concealed under various historical, prophetical, and typical representations The whole of the Old Testament, indicating the truth which is revealed in the New, may properly be termed a parable, the meaning of which is, that it conveys information embodied in an action designed to represent some truth called the moral, or mystery. This method of parabolical instruction, Jesus Christ Himself, as had been predicted, Psalms 78:2, Matthew 13:35, adopted towards the multitude, concealing under it the mysteries to which He referred. When ’His disciples asked Him, saying, What might this parable be?’ ’He said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.’ Thus the mystery, or concealed sense of what He said, was kept secret from them. It is to the Old Testament, taken as a whole, that our Lord seems to refer when He says, ’Know ye not this parable, and how then will ye know all parables?’
Romans 16:26 — But now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
But now is made manifest — Mr. Stuart construes the words translated ’the scriptures of the Prophets’ with ’made manifest,’ and translates thus: ’But is now revealed by the scriptures of the Prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God.’ But these words, ’the scriptures of the Prophets,’ are evidently to be construed with ’made known.’ He observes that ’the Apostle refers to the most ancient times, before any revelation was given, as the c>i j>ioi next to the Messianic prophecies contained in the Old Testament.’ But this is a forced view. In the text there is no appearance of dividing the times of the Old Testament dispensation from ancient times. All the times preceding Christ are included in the words translated in our version, ’since the world began,’ and by Mr. Stuart, ’ancient ages.’ The revelation of the Messiah in the Old Testament could not be spoken of as now revealed. There was now a new revelation. In the time of the Old Testament, the mystery of the Messiah was couched in figure and in prophecy. The Messiah, indeed, was in a certain degree discovered by Moses and the Prophets, but He was not made manifest. This was done when He Himself appeared. The mystery of Christ and of the Gospel is always spoken of in the New Testament as being manifested then, and not in the former dispensation. In the same manner, although the bringing in of the ’everlasting righteousness,’ namely, the righteousness of God, Romans 1:17, was predicted by the Prophet Daniel 9:24, and so often made mention of by Isaiah, yet Isaiah speaks of it as not yet revealed or made manifest but as shortly to be so. ’Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed,’ Isaiah 56:1 : And in accordance with this, Paul, in this Epistle, chapter 1:17, and 3:21, declares that now it is revealed. ’But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the Prophets.’ This corresponds with what the Apostle here announces respecting the manifestation of the mystery of the Gospel. Until the Sun of Righteousness arose, all the testimonies of the Prophets were as ’a light that shineth in a dark place,’ 2 Peter 1:19; but they came to be plainly confirmed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. And by the scriptures of the Prophets made known to all nations. — Dr. Macknight justly construes these words, not with the words ’made manifest,’ like Mr. Stuart, but with ’made known.’ But as, probably, it did not appear to him obvious how the mystery was now made known by the scriptures of the Prophets, he uses violence to evade this sense of the expression. He makes a transposition in translating the words which is not justifiable, and renders the passage thus: ’But is now made manifest, and by the command of the eternal God, in the prophetic writings, is made known to all the Gentiles, in order to the obedience of faith.’ This not only deranges the order of the Apostle’s words, but also gives a translation that is not warrant able. He renders the phrase not through or by the Scriptures, but ’in the Scriptures.’ This bends the words of the Apostle to a supposed meaning. But whatever difficulty may appear in the affirmation that the mystery is now made known by the writings of the Prophets, yet as this is what the Apostle has said, our duty is to search for its signification, and not arbitrarily to force out the words a translation which is unnatural. The meaning appears to be, that by the fulfillment of the prophetical writings which had now taken place, such a light was thrown on these writings, that by them the mystery, which was in perfect consistency with their representations, was made known. In the same way the Apostle Peter, besides referring to the voice from heaven, which was heard by him and the other Apostles on the holy mount, appeals to the word of prophecy, not as ’more sure,’ — a sense which would be degrading to the apostolic testimony, than which nothing can be more sure, — but as made more firm, or confirmed by its accomplishment. The revelation now made of the mystery of Christ and of the Gospel, by the Apostle, was through the prophetical writings, inasmuch as, though he was as fully inspired as the Prophets themselves, he proved his doctrines by the Scriptures, and pointed to them as containing in prediction what was now accomplished. This is a characteristic feature in the teaching of the Apostles — a feature which to many has appeared strange. In the same way as Paul here declares that the mystery was made known by the scriptures of the Prophets, Peter affirms that the Prophets prophesied of the- grace that should come to us.
According to the commandment — The publication of the Gospel was by God’s special command, and by the injunction of God it was to be made known to all nations. Thus the interest of the Gentiles in the salvation of the Gospel is made to rest on the direct authority of God. The Jews were prone to consider the blessings of the Messiah as confined to themselves; but they had no warrant, or even plausible pretext, for this error, in their own Scriptures. Of the everlasting God, or eternal God. — God is distinguished from all besides as eternal. All other objects that have been worshipped, and all other beings, had a beginning. God is without beginning as well as without end. For the obedience of faith — That is, to be believed; for to believe is to obey the Gospel. The command of the Gospel is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one who believes in Him obeys the Gospel.
Romans 16:27 — To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever Amen.
To God only wise — There are three different ways in which the words in the original are translated. God only wise, according to our version; or, the only wise God; or, the wise God alone. Between the first and the second there is only this difference, that the one represents God as the only wise being, and the other as the only wise God. Dr. Macknight’s objections to the common version, and his reasons for the adoption of the third translation, do not seem convincing. When God is called the only wise God, it may not imply, as he alleges, that there are some gods who are not wise, but that the character of God, as exhibited in the Scriptures, is the only character that ascribes wisdom in proportion to God. The gods of the heathen are not wise. The God of the Deist is not wise. The God of the Arian is not wise. No view ever given of the Divine character exhibits the infinite wisdom of God in redemption, but that which is found it the Gospel. The expression, ’God only wise,’ does not imply, as Dr. Macknight again alleges, that God possesses no perfection but wisdom. It means that God is the only wise being. Yet John 17:3, where the word rendered God is similarly situated, seems to favor the second mode of translating the words, as in 1 Timothy 1:17; Judges 1:25.
Be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen — All the glory that will redound to God through the ages of eternity, from the salvation of sinners, proceeds through Jesus Christ. Through Him it is manifested. It is through Jesus Christ that we ought to ascribe to God the glory. In Jesus Christ all things are united which are in heaven and which are on earth, — not only saints, but angels. Christ is ’the power of God, and the wisdom of God.’ ’God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ All this shows that Jesus Christ is God, for Christ’s work is the glory of the Father, because He is one with Him. In the same way Jude concludes his Epistle — ’To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and powerful both now and ever Amen.’
Robert Haldane On Romans
CONCLUSION TO ROMANS
WE are now arrived at the conclusion of this most instructive Epistle, in which our attention is so forcibly drawn to the consideration of ’the deep things of God.’ On the one hand, the unbending justice of the infinitely holy God is awfully displayed, appearing like the flaming cherubim which guarded the way to the tree of life, and barred every avenue of hope to man as a transgressor. On the other hand, we behold the Divine compassion abounding in all wisdom and prudence, to the praise of the glory of God’s grace, providing the glorious plan of redemption, in which mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace embrace each other. The righteousness of God, like the rainbow that was round about the throne, reveals all the glorious attributes of Jehovah, blended, but not confounded, in one harmonious exhibition of unrivaled majesty.
The doctrine of justification by faith in the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, is established by the Apostle in the former part of this Epistle. But it is a doctrine which has in all ages been offensive to the carnal heart. It is equally obnoxious to the profligate and the virtuous, to the fanatic and the rationalist, to the devotee and the philosopher. It lays the pride of man in the dust, pouring contempt upon his boasted strength, and casting down all the lofty imaginations of his own excellence and good works. Therefore it is that with one voice they all cry out, ’This doctrine leads to licentiousness, and makes no sufficient provision for the security of morality and practical religion.’ Far different from this was the judgment of the Apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, whose language he uttered. In this Epistle, the grace of the Gospel is reckoned the only safe and sure foundation for every practical virtue; and from a view of the love of GOD in the gift of His SON, and of the work of Christ in redemption, believers are urged to every duty. ’I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,’ is the language of Paul at the beginning of the twelfth chapter, ’that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.’ Here he does not for a moment entertain the idea that the mercies of God, displayed in the grand doctrines of the Gospel which he had been exhibiting and unfolding, could in any way tend to encourage a continuance in sin. On the contrary, they are the very grounds on which he urges the believing Romans to surrender themselves wholly to the Lord. Paul is often ignorantly accused of teaching principles subversive of morality; but in the latter part of this Epistle he is as fervent in establishing the necessity of holiness of life and conduct as he had previously been earnest in establishing the great doctrine of justification by faith.
The attributes of God, especially His holiness and justice, when viewed through any other medium than that of the Gospel, strike terror into the heart of man, and lead him, like Adam, to hide himself among the trees of the garden. But these attributes, in themselves so terrible to the guilty, are through the merciful appointment of the mediation of our heavenly Surety, pledged for the deliverance of the Christian, and for his eternal salvation. According to the acknowledged constitution of man, love and gratitude are much more effective principles of obedience than the servile spirit of self-righteousness, craving the wages of merit. It consequently happens that all who receive the grace of God in truth are found careful to maintain good works, while the advocates of salvation by works notoriously fail in practice, and frequently indulge the lusts of the flesh. They boast much of practical as opposed to doctrinal religion, and talk of morality and virtue; but their conduct and pursuits for the most part declare them to be men of this world, living to themselves and not to Christ, delighting in the follies of the world, and actuated by its motives. But the grace of God that bringeth salvation teaches believers to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Even among the people of God many are prejudiced against some of the doctrines exhibited in the preceding part of this Epistle. But their prejudices are to be traced to the remains of ignorance and alienation from God, which, through the power of indwelling sin and the busy suggestions of the prince of darkness, still continue to obscure the views of those in whose heart the Spirit of truth has begun to shine. If, however, we appeal to the experience of believers in every age and in every country, it will be found that the more unreservedly and the more simply the Apostle’s doctrines are received in all their fullness, the more will they produce of self-abasem*nt, of trust in God, and resignation to His will. What can be more calculated to humble the believer under a sense of his own unworthiness, than the awful picture of the depravity and ruined condition of man presented in the first three chapters; and what more productive of joy and peace, than the way of recovery disclosed in the fourth, and the contrast presented in the fifth, between the entrance of sin, condemnation, and death, and the free gifts of righteousness, justification, and life? What more suited to allay fear and distrust, as well as to kindle the liveliest gratitude to God, than the assurance held out in the sixth chapter, that the believer, by union with Christ, is ’dead to sin,’ — forever freed from guilt by the death of his Savior, and with Him made partaker of a new and immortal life, and that sin shall not have dominion over him? The same encouragement he derives from the seventh chapter. There the grand truth taught in the sixth, of his being dead to sin,
is illustrated and enforced by the declaration that by the sacrifice of Christ he has ’become dead to the law.’ By the law, consequently, he can no longer be condemned; and the period will shortly arrive, when, from the pollution of sin, under which he still groans, the Lord will deliver him.
What can be more fitted to beget confidence in God than the accumulated and ineffable mercies to His people, exhibited in the eighth chapter, in the opening of which, as a corollary from all that had gone before, is announced the assurance that there is ’now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus; ’that in them the righteousness which the law demands has been, by the Son of God Himself fulfilled; that they are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in them; and that, although their bodies, because of sin, of which they have been the instruments, must die, their souls, because of the righteousness of their Savior, now made theirs, are life, — not merely alive, but secured in immortal life, to which even their now mortal bodies shall be raised. The spirit of bondage they have exchanged for the spirit of adoption, calling God their Father, while the Spirit Himself beareth witness with their spirits that they are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. If they now suffer with Him, they shall also be glorified together, while the sufferings they are called to endure are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in them. They groan, indeed, at present, waiting for the redemption of their bodies, for as yet they are only saved in hope; but they wait with patience for the full enjoyment of their salvation, the Holy Spirit Himself helping their infirmities, and making intercession in their hearts, which, being conformable to the will of God, must always prevail. Having been called according to God’s purpose, all things are working together for their good. By Him they were foreknown as the objects of His everlasting love, and predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son; and being thus predestinated, they were called by Him and justified, and finally shall be glorified. For them God spared not His own Son, having delivered Him up for them all; and with Him He will also freely gave them all things. Who, then, shall lay anything to the charge of those who are God’s elect? If it is God that justifies, who shall condemn? If Christ died, if He be risen again, if He is seated at the right hand of God, and if He makes intercession for them, no power in heaven, or earth, or hell, shall ever separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus their Lord.
The unspeakable value of these mercies, is, in the ninth chapter, enhanced by a solemn and practical view of the sovereignty of God in bestowing them, connected with incontrovertible proof that His promises to His people had never failed in their accomplishment. The Divine sovereignty in the choice of the subjects of salvation, is strikingly illustrated in the case of Jacob, whom God loved before he was born. And, on the other hand, His just judgment in punishing those whom He leaves in that sinful state into which all men have fallen, is with equal clearness displayed in His hating Esau before his birth. God, it is asserted, hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. All men are in His hand as clay in the hand of the potter; and while He endureth with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, He makes known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory. The conduct of Israel, and God’s particular dealings with His ancient people, are in the tenth chapter next described, while the freeness of salvation by Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, together with God’s purpose that the Gospel shall be preached to the Gentiles, is fully brought into view. In the eleventh chapter, it is proved, in consistency with what had been said in the ninth, that a remnant of Israel, according to the election of grace, were saved, while the rest were blinded. But still, as a nation, Israel is not cast off. As the root was holy, so are the branches, although some were broken off; and the time is approaching when all Israel with the fullness of the Gentiles shall together abundantly experience the mercy of God.
In what prominence and strength of expression is the sovereignty of God exhibited in the above ninth chapter? Is the Apostle ashamed of this view of God? Does he cover it with a veil in treating of the rejection of the Jews? No; in the strongest terms that could be selected, he conspicuously displays it, while both there and in the eleventh chapter he represents the glory of God as the principal object in all things that exist, ’For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever Amen.’ The wisdom of this world finds the chief end of the existence of all created beings to be the benevolent design of communicating happiness. But the Apostle gives another view of the subject. He declares the glory of God — that is, the manifestation of His perfections — to be the end of creation. Let Christians, then, not be ashamed of this display of the Divine character. Let them rather be ashamed of modifying their views of God by the systems of human science. Let them return to the strong and scriptural statements of the Reformers on the subject, and as little children believe God’s account of Himself.
The attentive reader of the preceding part of this Epistle, who is willing to submit to receive in all things the true and obvious meaning of Scripture, cannot fail to perceive that all the doctrines which are there brought before us ascribe the whole glory of everything to God. Jehovah is seen to be glorified in His judgments as well as in His grace, in His wrath as well as in His mercy, in those who are lost as well as in those who are saved. However disagreeable this may be to the natural mind of man, it is truly reasonable. Can there be a higher end than the glory of the Divine character? And can man, who is a fallen and lost creature, share with his offended Sovereign in the glory of his recovery? Such a thought is as incongruous as it is palpably unscriptural If there be hope for the guilty, if there be recovery to any from the ruins of the fall, it is the voice of reason properly exercised, as well as of the Divine word, that it must come from God Himself.
How astonishing, then, is it that men should be so averse to the doctrines of the Scripture which hold forth this view So offensive are they to the mind of man, that every effort of ingenuity has been employed by those who understand not the Gospel, to eject them from the Scriptures; and many even of the people of God themselves labor to modify and bring them to a nearer conformity to the wisdom of the world, or, at least, to make them less offensive to human prejudices. This wisdom is foolishness, and is highly dishonorable to God, as well as pernicious to themselves. When God has brought salvation nigh as entirely His gift, and has exhibited Christ as a Savior, through faith, to the chief of sinners, how injurious is it to the honor of His truth, and to the interests of sinners, to put the salvation of the Gospel at a distance, and, as it were in defiance of the Apostle, to send men to heaven to bring Christ down from above, or to the deep to bring Him up from the grave! What folly appears in that wisdom that sees greater security for the believer’s final happiness in making him the author of his own destiny, than in resting the security of his salvation on the power and love of his almighty Savior. How vain is that wisdom which considers the performance of good works to be better secured by resting them on the resolutions and faithfulness of the believer himself, than on the fact of his oneness with Christ in His death and resurrection! All who acknowledge regeneration by the Spirit of God, virtually concede the things which they are unwilling to confess in plain and direct statement. If men are by nature dead in sin, surely their new life is not in any sense produced by themselves. If their change from sin to holiness be a new birth, how contradictory to suppose that they have any share in this great change! Yet how many will acknowledge that everything good in us is of God, who will yet labor to show that still there is some remaining moral ability in man to turn himself to God Is not this to sacrifice to their own wisdom? Will they proudly refuse submission to the declarations of God’s word, till they are able to fathom the depths of the Divine counsels? Many Christians, who admit the truth of all those doctrines which are most offensive to the world, act on the principle that it is wise to conceal their views on these points, or at least to keep them as much as possible in the background. They think in this way to be more useful to the world. But is it wisdom ’is it duty, is it consistent with our allegiance to Christ, to keep in abeyance doctrines which so much glorify God, and are so prominently held forth in the Scriptures? Christians should recollect that, although the avoiding of certain offensive doctrines may lessen the prejudice of the world against the professors of Christianity, yet that to turn a sinner to God is in all cases the work of God Himself. How can we then expect a blessing on our efforts if we seek to conceal what He exhibits in a blaze of light? Better, much better in all things, to exhibit the truths of the Divine word just as that word itself exhibits them, and leave the success of our efforts to Him who alone can make them effectual. We cannot by all we can do bring one soul to Christ. We cannot make one sinner alive by the Gospel, more than we can raise the dead out of their graves. Let us then renounce our own wisdom, and our own plans, and let us teach Divine truth as it is taught in the Scriptures.
All religions but that of the Bible divide the glory of recovering men to happiness between God and the sinner. All false views of the Gospel do the same. The Bible alone makes the salvation of guilty men to originate solely with God, and to terminate in His glory as its chief end. This doctrine is peculiar to right views of the Christian religion. Can there, then, be more convincing evidence that the Bible is from God? If such a feature is peculiar to the Christian religion, yet offensive to most who bear the Christian name, it is the most demonstrative evidence that this revelation is not from man. How solid, then, are the foundations of the Christian religion, when the very things belonging to it most offensive to the world afford the most satisfactory evidence that it is from God!
If it be objected that the doctrines which are taught in the first part of this Epistle, while they display God’s mercies in those who are saved, also exhibit His severity in condemning those who perish, this, it must be affirmed, cannot derogate from the mercy extended to those on whom He will have mercy. On the contrary, it is enhanced by the consideration of the just punishment which all men would have suffered but for the intervention of that mercy. Thus, in the 136th Psalm, where the mercy of God is so highly celebrated, it is held forth in striking contrast with the destruction of the objects of God’s displeasure. ’God delighteth in mercy.’ ’His mercy is on them that fear Him, from generation to generation.’ ’All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.’ And when these ineffable blessings, freely bestowed on believers, are surveyed by them, in connection with Jehovah’s awful displeasure against sin, as manifested in His unalterable determination to punish with everlasting destruction from His presence those who were not more guilty than themselves, but to whom, in His unsearchable counsels, He never purposed to extend that sovereign grace which has snatched them like brands from the burning, what a foundation do they lay for their love and gratitude to God! They demonstrate, too, their entire dependence upon God, and constrain them, in the utter abandonment of self-confidence, to embrace Him as their covenant God. But if it be inquired, Why has such a distinction been made, involving consequences of such unspeakable and eternal moment? — the only proper answer that can be given is that of our Lord Himself, — ’Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.’ Believers, then, are called, in the contemplation of the goodness and severity of God, humbly and thankfully to acknowledge His goodness to themselves. As to others, the answer given to Peter when he asked, What shall this man do? is to them equally apposite, — ’What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.’Let them be content with the assurance that the Judge of all the earth will do right.
On the mercies of God to His people, displayed in the doctrines taught in the preceding part of the Epistle, the Apostle grounds his exhortations to holiness in the remaining chapters. The intense and burning zeal which Paul there exhibits for the manifestation of holiness in the character and conduct of believers, when viewed in connection with his great doctrine of justification by faith in the atonement of the Son of God, furnishes the strongest evidence of the truth of revelation. No man ever forged this Epistle. It carries its own credentials on the face of it, and shows the broad seal of heaven stamped upon it, as clearly as the heavens and the earth declare that creation is the work of God, and not of an impostor. Who could have forged such a work as this Epistle? For what end could it have been forged? If Antinomians could be supposed to forge the doctrine of justification through the sacrifice of Christ, who was then to forge the precepts which so urgently inculcate all good works? No man could be suspected of writing this Epistle with a view to please the bulk of mankind, or indeed any one considerable class of men. It is as much opposed to the spirit of the multitude, as it is to the pride of the enlightened few. It pleases nobody, and therefore can never be justly suspected of having been originally written in order to please, or in order to effect any sinister purpose.
It is peremptory in its doctrine of obedience to the civil magistrates, and enjoins submission to the higher powers on a footing to which the world was previously a stranger. Yet this cannot be suspected of being a contrivance of magistrates. For while it urges subjection in civil matters to those authorities whom God in His providence has appointed, it condemns as without excuse that idolatry which the existing rulers, at the time when it was written, professed, and for the support of which they persecuted Christians to the death. This can no more be a forgery of the rulers than of the subjects.
There is another peculiarity in the latter part of this Epistle, which evinces admirable wisdom, but a wisdom far removed from the wisdom of man. It contains, in the short compass of a few chapters, an amazing variety of precepts, expressed perspicuously, yet briefly, respecting conduct in domestic life, in society, and in church fellowship. Had uninspired men been discoursing on these various subjects, they would have produced a series of distinct treatises, formally handled, and largely illustrated. In the writings of the Apostle, a single sentence embraces a volume, while this peculiarity differs so widely from any procedure of human wisdom, that it proclaims itself to be the wisdom of God. It is thus that the Scriptures are contained in a comparatively short book, which is addressed to the great body of mankind, and whose contents are inexhaustible.
Yet amidst such careful parsimony of words, amidst such a condensation of matter, the Apostle closes the Epistle with what might seem a most prodigal waste, by sending so many salutations, and expressing, in such a variety of terms, ceremonious attentions to his fellow-Christians at Rome. Here, however, as in other cases, wisdom is justified of her children; for this, also, is one of those characteristics by which God stamps His image on all His productions. The Christian will be at no loss to discover, on reflection, that this part of the Epistle is not without its use; and, in the exposition of the last chapter, it has been a peculiar object to point out how we may reap instruction, from what human wisdom, in its folly, will scarcely admit to be reckoned as a part of that Book, which is nothing less than THE WORD OF GOD.
The doctrines unfolded in this Epistle reveal to us the mighty plan of redemption, by which our powerful spiritual enemies are overcome, and all the strong and deeply-rooted evils lodged within our bosoms shall finally be subdued. The whole leads believers to exclaim, — ’The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil; He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.’ These emphatic words of the Psalmist, though recorded more than a thousand years before the age of the Apostle, most graphically delineate the leading features of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and portray in vivid colors those emotions in the minds of believers which the consideration of them is so well fitted to produce. And those who have never perused this astonishing portion of the Divine word with a holy relish, and have not entered into its meaning, have never experienced the fullness of that joy and peace which it is calculated to produce in the heart of every true worshipper of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
Commentary on Romans Chapter One by R.L. Whiteside
Romans 1:1 : Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. On the phrase, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ," James MacKnight remarks: "The original word ’doulos’ properly signifies a slave. Here it is a name of honor: for in the East the chief ministers of kings were called ’douloi,’ slaves .... This honorable name, therefore, denotes the high authority which Paul possessed in the kingdom of Christ, as one of his chief ministers."
In the phrase, "called to be an apostle," the words "to be" were supplied by the translators. They frequently supplied words with the intention of making the meaning clearer to the English reader. These supplied words are printed in italics. But in this place the supplied words hinder rather than help. The word translated "called" is not a verb nor a participle, but a verbal adjective. It partakes of the nature of a verb and an adjective. The sense is complete and clear, if you read it, "a called apostle." Paul was not telling what he was called to be, but what he was. Some Judaizing teachers charged that he was not a regularly constituted apostle, but that he had merely assumed that office, or had been appointed to that office by the church at Antioch. To meet that charge, Paul asserts that he was "a called apostle"—an apostle that had been called into that office by Jesus Christ. He was separated from Judaism and from all other lines of activity, and dedicated to the one business of preaching the gospel. His own motto was in harmony with his calling—"This one thing I do." It was God’s gospel, because it originated with him and came from him. It was in no sense a product of man’s theorizing or philosophizing. It was not a mere addition to the law of Moses, as some Judaizers sought to make it. Paul did not preach his conception of Christianity, but he preached the gospel as the Holy Spirit moved him. He preached "a new and living way."
Romans 1:2 : Which he promised afore through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Why was Paul so particular to affirm that the gospel to which he had been separated and which he preached had been promised in the Old Testament Scriptures? He would have the Jews know that the very scriptures on which they relied promised the gospel which he preached. In this letter, as well as in much of his other writings, Paul combated the professed Christians among the Jews who taught that the Gentile converts had to be circumcised and had to keep the law of Moses, else they could not be saved. They were willing enough for Paul to make converts among the Gentiles, if he would have them circumcised and require them to keep the law; but because he would not do so, these Judaizing teachers opposed him with all their might. They had drawn the idea that Gentiles could be saved only in subservience to all things Jewish. But Paul taught that Jew and Gentile stood on an equal footing before God, and that the prophets had so foretold.
Romans 1:3-4 : Concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord, This connects back with the end of verse 1. It was the gospel of God, but it was concerning his Son. It is the gospel of God, because it originated with him; and it is also the gospel of Christ, because it centers in him. Without Christ, there would be no gospel. It is this gospel to which Paul had been separated and which had been promised through the prophets in the holy Scriptures. Yet some tell us that the prophets said nothing of the gospel as we have it revealed through the apostles. Such teachers occupy a position similar to that occupied by the Judaizing teachers who so zealously opposed Paul.
The contrast in verses 3 and 4 is between the human nature and the divine nature of Jesus. As to his human nature, he was the son of David; as to his divine nature, he was the Son of God. By his genealogy he was proved to be of the seed of David; but the final proof that he was the Son of God was his resurrection from the dead. He had claimed to be the Son of God and that he would arise from the dead the third day after his death. The fact that he was raised as he said he would be, established the truth that he was the Son of God. It is argued by some that the resurrection of the dead here referred to is the resurrection of all the dead, and that this universal resurrection was guaranteed by his own resurrection. But that seems to miss the point. Whatever resurrection is here referred to is used by Paul as proof to declare beyond doubt the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. The resurrection of all the dead is yet future. How can a fact not yet accomplished be proof of anything? But the fact that Jesus did arise from the dead was the only, thing that brought absolute conviction to the hearts of even his disciples that he was the Son of God. His resurrection from the dead left in their minds no trace of doubt.
Romans 1:5. Through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake. In the first verse Paul declares that he was a called apostle; now he gives the source of that call. He had not forced himself into that high office, neither had he been called to it by men, but had received his apostleship direct from the Lord Jesus Christ. In that respect he was the equal of any other apostle of the Lord. In another place he says of himself: "For I reckon that I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles" (2 Corinthians 11:5): "For in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles" (2 Corinthians 12:11). "Obedience of faith" is the obedience to which faith leads, and which perfects faith. Paul had been made an apostle for the obedience of faith among all nations—an agent of God to bring men to an obedient faith. Jesus said to him on the way to Damascus, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But arise, and stand upon thy feet: for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me" (Acts 26:15-18). Paul preached much to Jews, but he was especially an apostle of the Gentiles. It is God’s plan that Jew and Gentile have equal rights to the blessings of the gospel.
Romans 1:6-7 : Among whom are ye also, called to be Jesus Christ’s: to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This letter was not addressed to all the people of Rome, but to the called saints in Rome—those who had been called by the gospel into the service of Christ.
Romans 1:8 : First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. After the introductory remarks in verses 1-7, and before entering into the discussion of the problems of the letter, Paul seeks in verses 8-13 to establish a sort of personal relationship with the Roman brethren. This gives the letter more of a personal touch. He wanted them to know that he thanked God through Jesus Christ for them; he was thankful to God that their faith was so active that it was known and proclaimed throughout the whole Roman Empire. A good church was a thing for which Paul was profoundly thankful to God, especially was he thankful for such a church in the capital city of the Roman Empire. Souls are as needy and as valuable and a church might be as good, in an obscure locality, as in a central city; but a church in a central city would be in a position to exert an influence over a wider territory. A glance at Paul’s labors shows that he sought to establish churches in central places. These churches then became radiating centers for spreading the gospel. As Rome was the capital city, and therefore the most important city in the Empire, Paul was especially interested in having a strong and active church there.
Romans 1:9-10 : For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if by any means now at length I may be prospered by the will of God to come unto you. "For God is my witness" was a solemn declaration; he was not making the statement lightly. Perhaps some Judaizing teacher was at Rome and was trying to discredit Paul by telling the brethren that Paul’s oft-repeated promises to come were never intended to be fulfilled. So Paul declares that God was witness to the fact that always in his prayers for them he had requested that he might be permitted by the will of God to come to them. He would have them know that, though he could make plans to come, his movements were subject to God’s will; and this should remind us that we should not leave God out of our plans and purposes. On this point James says: "Come now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that" (James 4:13-15).
"Whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son." The spirit, the inner man, frequently called "the heart," is the source of our deeds of acceptable service; and this service of the spirit, to be acceptable, must be in the gospel—that is, in the things the gospel requires. In John 4:24, Jesus says: "God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The spirit, the heart, must be in the worship, and the worship must be in the way truth marks out.
Romans 1:11-12 : For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established: that is, that I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. What was this "spiritual gift" which Paul desired to impart to them? Commentators differ. Some tell us that it was the benefit Paul wished to impart to them by his teaching; but it can hardly be that, for Paul was teaching them in this letter. It seems more likely that he referred to spiritual gifts, though it is singular that he said "gift" instead of "gifts." Perhaps there were not as many people in that church endowed with miraculous powers as Paul thought there should be. It is likely that some of the active workers among Paul’s friends had received these powers before they went to Rome. One thing is sure; and that is, that some people at Rome had been endowed with these spiritual gifts, for Paul gave instructions about the proper use of them. (See Romans 12:6-8). Paul wanted to impart this spiritual gift, "to the end ye may be established." He wanted both himself and them to be comforted in each other’s faith. To confer upon them some spiritual gift would certainly be a comfort to them, and to see their increase of faith and usefulness would be a comfort to him.
Romans 1:13 : And I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you (and was hindered hitherto), that I might have some fruit in you also, even as in the rest of the Gentiles. He had been hindered from carrying out his plans to visit them. This shows that he was not guided by inspiration in forming his plans, for the Holy Spirit would not guide him in forming plans and then allow him to be hindered from carrying out his plans. Paul did sometimes form his own plans, or purposed, which the Holy Spirit did not allow him to carry out, When the Lord was directing Paul toward European fields of labor, he wanted to turn aside and preach in Asia, but was forbidden of the Holy Spirit to do so. Then he wanted to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit suffered him not to do so (Acts 16:6-8).
Romans 1:14-15 : I am debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome. It was not anything these Greeks and Barbarians had done for Paul that put him in debt to them. Jesus had redeemed him, saved him, and made him an heir of heaven, and thus had brought him under obligation to do all he could to carry the same blessings to others. He had thus been brought under obligation to all men. He was ready to do what he could to discharge that obligation to the Romans.
A practical question arises here: Was Paul under my obligation that the rest of us are not under? Are we not in debt the same as he? Are not all Christians under the same obligations? Everyone is responsible up to the limit of his possibilities.
Romans 1:16 : For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For preaching the gospel Paul had been subjected to many indignities and had endured much suffering. His own nation had cast him off. He had been cast out of Antioch of Pisidia, stoned at Lystra, beaten and imprisoned at Philippi and had fled from Thessalonica to avoid his enemies; he had been mocked by the philosophers at Athens, persecuted at Corinth, and a great mob at Ephesus had sought to do him harm. He had suffered all this, and much more; and yet he was not ashamed to preach the gospel "even at Rome; where riches, pomp, and glory are alone held in admiration, where the heights of genius and learning are united with the greatest profligacy of manners; and where, consequently, the humbling doctrines of a religion which demands severe self-denial would be likely to attract derision, and might make the preacher and professor of it as it were ashamed."
But why should anyone be ashamed of the gospel? It has God as its source, Jesus Christ and his plan of salvation its subject matter, the Holy Spirit as it? Revelator, the highest ideals as its philosophy of life, and heaven as its ultimate goal. To be ashamed of the gospel is to be ashamed of God, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. Should a person be ashamed to be a child of the ruler of the universe, ashamed of being a citizen of the glorious kingdom of Christ, ashamed to be striving for heaven and immortal glory? Yet some people are ashamed of the gospel; but not so Paul. No sane person, when he considers, will be ashamed of that which brings the greatest possible good to his fellows. He may have many reasons for being ashamed of himself, but not one reason for being ashamed of God.
Paul tells why he was not ashamed of the gospel; and, in giving the reason for his not being ashamed of the gospel, he announces the theme of his letter. He does not abruptly announce his theme, but leads up to it in an informal way. He spoke of his long-cherished desire to preach the gospel in Rome, that he was a debtor to all, and that to the extent of his ability he was ready to preach the gospel in Rome, for he was not ashamed of the gospel; and then he announced the real theme of his letter: "For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." But what is the force of that expression?
Bloomfield says: "The sense is, ’For it is the powerful means appointed by God for the salvation of all who believe and embrace it.’ Thus the sentence comprehends two assertions: (1) of the complete efficacy of the gospel to salvation; (2) that the extent of this efficacy shall reach unto all who believe and obey it, without distinction of Jew or Gentile; i.e., as far as concerns the gracious design of God, it shall be universal." A note in the Cambridge Greek Testament: "Tr. ’God’s power for salvation’ closely together— equals God’s effective means for saving men. The insertion of the article in A. V. and R. V. only weakens the force of the expression."
Preachers have lessened the force of the expression by emphasizing "the"; as a matter of fact, "the" is not in the original. The gospel is God’s power for saving men. God’s power has been, and is, manifested in many ways for many purposes. In creating the world, he used his creative power; in saving men he uses his saving power. The power by which God saves men is his gospel. If men are saved, they will be saved by God’s power. Paul was not ashamed of the gospel for it is God’s power for salvation.
But many religious people do not believe that the gospel is God’s power for saving men. Their whole theory of conversion is built on the theory that man is so depraved by nature that he cannot so much as believe the gospel until he is first regenerated, or made alive, by a direct work of the Spirit. That doctrine is set forth in their creeds. With all such religionists, the direct work of the Spirit is the power which saves. Many have been the prayers for God to "send the converting power down and save these sinners now." The mourners’-bench system was the way that theory was carried into practice a few years ago. They have dropped that practice, but still hold to the theory on which it was based. It seems, therefore, that it used to take more praying, singing, and shouting to induce God to send down converting power than it does now! It would be useless to ask any of these fellows to explain why this is so, for they cannot explain it. Neither can they make their theory harmonize with Paul’s plain declaration that the gospel is God’s power for salvation.
The gospel was made to meet the sinner’s needs as he is, and it was preached to him by inspired men as a being responsible for the way he treated their message. In the great commission Jesus gave not one hint that sinners could not obey the gospel, and not one time did any inspired man tell his auditors that they must have a direct work of the Spirit to enable them to do what they were commanded to do. That was Christianity in practice. And the practice of inspired men is worth more than all the theories of all the creeds. It is both interesting and instructive to follow the inspired preachers and see how they proceeded.
When Peter preached to the multitudes on the day of Pentecost, he expected them to hear and understand what he said. He sought to drive conviction to their hearts, depending alone upon his arguments. He succeeded in doing so, for the record says: "Now when they had heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?" They were not so dead but they could hear and understand; not so depraved but that they could feel the force of Peter’s arguments, and desire to get rid of their guilt. The Holy Spirit, knowing that they did not need that direct enabling power from above, told them plainly what to do: "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." "And with many other words he testified, and exhorted them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation." Of course, the only way they could save themselves was to turn from their sins in obeying the gospel. It is certain that they had not been saved up to the time Peter exhorted them to save themselves. And it is just as evident that they could do what they were commanded and exhorted to do. Not one word is said about their being so depraved that they could not do anything; nothing was said as to their need of a direct power to enable them to appropriate the benefits of the gospel. The gospel was adapted to them as they were. No; God did not make a plan to save folks, and then have to save the folks before the plan would operate on them!
Romans 1:17 : For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written ’But the righteous shall live by faith.’ The seventeenth verse has given a good deal of trouble to commentators. They have not so much trouble in determining the meaning of the words as in determining the proper place of the two prepositional phrases namely, "from faith" and "unto faith." Translators and commentators differ as to the proper placing of these phrases. Some would have the phrase "from faith" to modify the word "revealed." But to say that the gospel was revealed from faith is, to me, meaningless. I can see how the revealed gospel might produce faith, but cannot see how faith could produce the gospel. And to say, as some would have it, that the gospel was revealed from one degree of faith to another is equally meaningless. The gospel was not revealed by faith, but by inspiration. If we take into consideration Paul’s reason for making the statement, together with a correct conception of the plan of salvation, we should not have much difficulty in arriving at a proper understanding of the verse. Notice carefully this clear statement by James MacKnight: " The righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith’ is an assembly of words to which no distinct meaning can be attached. But the original, rightly construed, gives the following clear literal sense: ’The righteousness of God by faith is revealed in it, in order to faith.’ The apostle was not ashamed of the gospel, because a righteousness of God’s appointment, to be obtained by faith, is revealed in it, in order to produce faith in them to whom it is preached. The latter clause, ’as it is written, The just shall live by faith,’ were better translated, ’The just by faith shall live.’" I. B. Grubbs, in his commentary, says: "We follow the translation given in the English Revised Version— deviating only as to the rendering of the clause in question, a deviation which, as we think, can be abundantly justified. The sentence with its separately indicated parts will read as follows: (1) ’Therein is revealed (2) a righteousness of God by faith (3) in order to faith’." Other authorities can be cited to the same effect.
But what is the meaning of "righteousness of God?" Paul does not mean to say that the truth that God is a righteous Being is revealed in the gospel—that truth had been fully revealed in the Old Testament. Of the Jews, Paul said: "For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3). The Jews were not ignorant that God was a righteous Being, but they were ignorant of this gospel plan of righteousness, and therefore did not submit to it. In Philippians 3:9, Paul refers to it as a righteousness "which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." In the gospel is revealed a plan by which God makes men righteous.
To be righteous is to be free from guilt. If a man never sinned, he would be righteous by his own works. But all have sinned and are under condemnation. If no plan had been devised by which guilty sinners might be made righteous, the whole world would be lost without remedy. Some power had to be brought to bear on the sin-polluted sons and daughters of men that would make them clean and holy, or all were lost. Paul affirms that the power which accomplishes that very thing is the gospel. "But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:17-18). When a sinner obeys the gospel, he is made free from sin; he is then in God’s sight as free from sin as if he had never sinned; he is justified; he is righteous; he is clean. If the gospel did not accomplish this for the sinner, it would not be God’s power to save. Such a person is not righteous because he has always lived right, but because he has obtained righteousness by becoming obedient to the gospel.
But what of the phrase "in order to faith"? Is it in harmony with the rest of the Bible to say that a plan of righteousness, or justification, is revealed in the gospel as an inducement for men to believe? Notice the following: "Yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law" (Galatians 2:16). To get out from under condemnation, to be released from the penalty of sin, to be justified in God’s sight — is that not enough to make any sin-burdened person want to become a Christian?
The gospel, then, is God’s power for saving men, because in it is revealed God’s plan of righteousness by faith. The gospel makes those who accept it righteous, and that great benefit to be found in the gospel induces men to believe it.
Romans 1:18 : For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness. God’s wrath is legal wrath rather than emotional. His law has been violated, and the wrath of the law must be visited upon the transgressor, unless some means can be devised whereby God can be just while justifying the sinner. The "for" at the beginning of this verse is significant, and establishes close connection between this verse and what had just been said. A plan of righteousness has been made known, because God’s wrath is revealed against all sin. It is singular that God would devise a plan by which he could save the sinner from his own wrath. Had his wrath been of that furious type manifest by men, he would not have wanted to save any one from it. He would have taken delight in giving it full sway. But while man was resting under God’s judicial wrath, God’s love went out to him, and prompted him to devise a plan by which man could be delivered from the legal consequences of his sin.
To sum up: The gospel is God’s power for salvation to those who believe it, for a way for sinners to become righteous is revealed in it, as an inducement for men to believe it so as to escape the penalty of a violated law.
If the gospel was to be a real benefit to man, a real power to save him, there must first be a need for it. If the world was not lost, there was no need for anything to save it; or if the world was lost and there was already at hand a means of saving it, there was no need for the gospel. From chapter 1:18 to chapter 3:20 Paul shows that both Jew and Gentile were lost without the gospel. The reasonings—the professed wisdom —of the Gentiles had plunged them into the depths of moral pollution instead of saving them, and the law had condemned the Jew instead of saving him. All were sinners, and all were under condemnation.
This gives us a better insight into the real purpose of the gospel. It is God’s way of meeting man’s needs; it was designed as a means of saving the lost. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost; he came not to condemn, but to save. Without the gospel, the whole world was lost. "The whole world lieth in sin." The question is frequently asked: "What will become of the heathen who never heard the gospel?" If a person understood the real purpose and philosophy of the gospel, he would never ask that question. To set such questioners to thinking, we ask: What would have become of the same heathen, if there had never been any gospel? The gospel was designed to save a world already condemned. It is only in a relative sense that people are lost because they do not obey the gospel. Primarily people are lost because they are sinners. To illustrate: a boat is rushed out to rescue a drowning man. He refuses to be rescued, and is drowned. Now, why did he drown? "0," someone replies, "he drowned because he would not get in the boat." Wrong. The boat had nothing to with his drowning; he drowned because he was in the water, and he would have drowned just the same had there never been a boat. Of course, his refusing to be rescued made his drowning a case of suicide. Just so with the sinner. The gospel is sent out to rescue the perishing. When the sinner refuses to be rescued, it intensifies his guilt and shows it to be a case of spiritual suicide. But the gospel had nothing to do with his perishing; he would have perished had there never been a gospel. The boat was a means of rescue, and so is the gospel.
God’s wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Occasionally a Bible reader wonders about these words, both as to their meaning and as to the parties to whom they apply.
We will get a better grasp on the meaning of ungodliness by first considering the meaning of godliness. The meaning of this word has been obscured by trying to make it mean godlikeness. It has no such meaning in the Bible; the Greek word from which it is translated has no such meaning. Godliness impiety, reverence. A godly person is one who has respect for God and sacred things. Ungodliness is impiety, irreverence, a lack of respect for God and sacred things. Godliness is a right attitude toward God; ungodliness is a wrong attitude toward God. Righteousness refers more particularly to our right attitude toward our fellow men. It is treating our fellow men right. Unrighteousness is the failure to do right toward our fellow men.
Ungodliness is worse than unrighteousness, though not generally so regarded. Our first and primary duty is to God. If we revere God as we should, we will respect his word, his church, and his worship. Those who blaspheme the name of God, or speak lightly of any of God’s commands, are ungodly. Through sudden passion or some great weakness a person might do wrong to his fellow man, and then be filled with great penitence toward God for the wrong he had done. Such a one still retained his reverence for God. David did that. He did unrighteous things; but his reverence for God was unfailing, and always brought him to repentance. But the ungodly are not so; they do not take God into account in anything they do.
There is ungodliness in the church, and even in the pulpit. It manifests itself in many ways. Some men are so careless as to what the Bible says that they put themselves to no real trouble to find exactly what any given passage means. A godly man wants to know exactly what the will of God is. Some are so ungodly as to destroy a church to carry their own selfish ends. A godly man loves and respects that which belongs to God. Many pulpits in this land are radiating centers for all sorts of infidelity. The masses in this country have never been righteous. There has been, and is yet, too much disregard for the rights of others; too much cheating, defrauding, and robbery; too much lying, deceit, and slander; too much fighting and killing. In addition to our unrighteousness, we are fast becoming an-ungodly people. We are eliminating God from our thinking and from our program of life. We deny him a part in creation and do not take him into account in what we do. And as men eliminate God from creation and thus make human beings no more than a group of animals, unrighteousness of all sorts is bound to increase; for, if we are no more than animals, why should I respect a man’s rights any more than I would respect the rights of any of the lower animals? As ungodliness increases, crime of all sorts is bound to increase.
The last clause in verse 18 reads as follows in the King James Version: "Who hold the truth in unrighteousness." In the American Standard Version: "Who hinder the truth in unrighteousness." The Greek word means both "to possess" and "to hinder"; but of course, it cannot have both meanings in the same place. The connection in which it is used must determine its meaning. Some people argue that the person who knows the truth, but will not obey it, holds it in unrighteousness. But this could hardly be said of the persons of whom Paul was here speaking; for, though they had once known God, they had "refused to have God in their knowledge" (verse 28) and had "exchanged the truth of God for a lie" (verse 25). Paul was speaking of these people as they were when he wrote. It could not be said of them that they at that time knew the truth, but would not obey it. They had known the truth, but had drifted so far away from it that they were worshiping gods of their own making. At that time they were not holding the truth at all; but their awful sinfulness, as depicted by Paul in the rest of the chapter, was a mighty barrier to the advancement of the truth. By their unrighteousness they were hindering the truth.
It is a fearful thing to hinder the truth of God, and God’s wrath is revealed against all who hinder his truth. Even church members often hinder the truth by their unrighteousness. We profess to be friends of God, and then hinder him in what he is seeking to do for man. By such conduct we become enemies of God.
Romans 1:19 : Because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them. The nineteenth verse is a continuation of the things affirmed in the eighteenth verse. It was not unjust for God to punish these ungodly and unrighteous men, "because that which is known of God is manifest in them," or among them. Of course, finite minds cannot fully comprehend the Infinite Being, but the knowable things of God had been manifest among them; "for God manifested it to them." As the pronoun "it" is not in the Greek, it seems that it would be more in harmony with Paul’s argument to translate the last clause thus: "For God manifested himself to them." In various ways along down the ages God had manifested himself to the peoples of the earth. He had made an extensive revelation of himself to the Jews; that is easily seen. But what of his manifestations to the other peoples of the earth? In selecting the children of Israel for a special purpose, did God deliberately reject the other peoples? Did he leave them without any light, and that, too, because he did not want them to have any light? Could anyone have such thoughts concerning Jehovah? Is that the idea we have of the One whom we worship as our heavenly father?
The people of every nation find a common ancestor in Noah. Noah stood in great favor with Jehovah. Both before and after the flood God talked to Noah. By means of the flood God revealed to Noah and his family in a very striking way his hatred of sin, his justice, his power, and his providence. Those descendants of Noah who went into idolatry had first to reject what they knew of God. Later God manifested himself to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to Joseph. Many people would learn of the one God through these great men. Then God manifested himself to the Egyptians and to the children of Israel in a wonderful way when he brought Israel out of bondage. God intended that these wonderful miracles wrought in the deliverance of Israel should teach all nations, as is clearly shown by what he said to Pharaoh; "But in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, to show thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth" (Exodus 9:16). That these miracles were told among the nations is indicated by what Rahab of Jericho told the spies. (See Joshua 2:10-14). Jonah carried the knowledge of Jehovah to the capital city of the Assyrians, and brought the king and the whole city of Nineveh to repentance and to a confession of Jehovah. When the kingdom of Israel was carried into captivity by the Assyrians, they were scattered about through that vast kingdom. Among them would be found some who were faithful to Jehovah and who would carry the knowledge of Jehovah where they were placed. Then, after Babylon gained the mastery of that whole country, they carried the kingdom of Judah into captivity. Among these were many faithful men and women who carried the knowledge of Jehovah to all the provinces of that vast empire. Daniel and his companions were such active servants of Jehovah as to cause Nebuchadnezzar to make a decree concerning Jehovah, and publish it throughout his kingdom. Later Darius made a similar proclamation When the time came for the Jews to return from this captivity, Cyrus made a proclamation in which he announced that Jehovah had given him his great dominion and had charged him to build Jehovah a house in Jerusalem. Much later the Jews and their synagogues were to be found in all parts of the Roman Empire. The Jew stood squarely against idolatry and for the one God. In their synagogues the Scriptures were read and the doctrine of Jehovah was propagated. Also, along down the ages there had been such men as Melchizedek, Jethro, Job, and Balaam before his fall. Many of the Grecians of prominence, such as Solon and Plato, believed in the one Supreme Being. This is only a brief outline of one of the ways the nations had of knowing God, if they had wanted to know him. But Paul mentions another way which God had manifested himself to all.
Romans 1:20 : For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. Invisible things are things which we cannot see with the natural eye; but things invisible to the natural eye are sometimes clearly seen with the mind’s eye. To see is often used in the sense of to understand, to comprehend. Paul so uses it here. The invisible things of God are clearly seen, being perceived, or understood, by the things that are made. These invisible things of God are explained as "his everlasting power and divinity." We know that power is necessary to change, or to make, or to create, anything; but how do the things which God made enable us to see clearly "his everlasting power"? The things we see about us were either made or they are themselves everlasting; but no one argues that the universe as we see it is everlasting. It was, then, made by everlasting power, or else by created power. But no created power could have made this universe; but even if it could, there is yet back of it a Creator. Nothing less than divinity could have made and put into motion so vast a machine as the universe. In the created things we see the power and glory of their Maker. Read the following translation by Leeser: "The heavens relate the glory of God and the expanse telleth of the works of his hands. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech, there are no words, their voice is not heard. But their melody extendeth through all the earth, and to the end of the world their words" (Psalms 19:1-4). The stars in the heavens speak no words and we hear not their voice, yet they speak wonderful things to the thoughtful mind. All created things are God’s witnesses—silent, but none the less convincing. On this point Paul said to the men of Lystra: "And yet he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). There was no reason why any nation should have forgotten God. Every star proved his existence, and every raindrop and growing plant demonstrates his presence in the operations of nature. As inspiration viewed the matter, all nations were without excuse for their idolatry and their corrupt morals.
Romans 1:21 : Because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. These heathen nations had known God; their knowledge of him had been sufficient to rob them of any excuse for their gross sins. But though they knew him, they did not glorify him as God. Their knowing him had been of no benefit to them; they had sinned against the light they had.
To glorify God as God is to recognize him as the Creator, Preserver, and rightful Ruler of all things, and to seek earnestly to comply with his will—to do the work he intended us to do. In his prayer on the night of his betrayal, Jesus said: "I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do" (John 17:4). Only in this way may we glorify him. If a machine fails to do the work which it was made to do, it certainly reflects no glory on the one who made it; but if it does perfectly the work it was designed to do, it glorifies its maker. If any of our inventions, plans, or purposes succeed, we thereby bring worldly glory upon ourselves. In the very nature of the case it cannot be otherwise. It is therefore impossible to glorify God by our own plans and purposes, no matter how successful they may seem to be. Only by doing the things he designed we should do can we glorify him. Herein the nations had miserably failed. And having put God out of their philosophy of things, there was no longer any gratitude in their hearts to the Giver of all good things. When people deny God, they are, of course, not thankful.
They became vain in their reasonings—that is, their speculations were foolish and without value. How else could they be? There can be no solid process of reasoning without a starting point, and no process of reasoning that eliminates God has any starting point. It must begin with a guess, an assumption, and proceed in the dark. If God did not create the universe, then any theory as to its origin is a blind guess. If God did not create us, then any theory as to the origin of life and as to how we became human beings is founded on a series of baseless guesses. Hence, when nations eliminated God from his universe, they became vain, empty, foolish, in their reasonings. Having shut themselves off from the only Source of light, "their senseless heart was darkened."
Romans 1:22 : Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. To claim superior wisdom is characteristic of those who deny God his place in his own creation. In their estimation the man who believes the Bible is a back number, an ignoramus. They never seem to realize that the man who professes himself to be wise is a fool, and they have not learned enough to know that no man is richly endowed with any virtue or accomplishment of which he boasts.
If a man thinks and acts contrary to common sense, he is a fool, no matter how much he may know about some things. Common sense is the knowledge the human family has accumulated by experience and observation. We have learned that fire burns. If a man should deny that and act according to his theory, he would act foolishly. Only a fool would say that it would not hurt to run full tilt against a stone wall. And only a fool will say that a thing can be made without a maker, for experience and observation teach us that every made thing has a maker. Recently I read that a rayon factory was being built with such complete machinery that one man could sit at a switch-board and operate the whole plant. After that factory is finished and in operation what would you think of a man who, while watching it operate, would argue that no one built it, and that it ran without any force applied to it, and that no one directed, or controlled, its operations? Well, that is exactly what I think about the man who argues that no one made this great machine we call the universe, that it operates by its own power, and that no one controls, or directs, that power. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." If there is no God, then the universe was made without a maker, and now runs by perpetual motion—nothing made it, nothing started it in motion, and nothing keeps it going! If these fellows are right then those who tried to invent machines that would run without any power were not such cranks, after all. If there is no God, then perpetual motion is a reality! If a man is a fool who thinks a watch might just happen to be he is much more so who thinks this universe just happened to be. And so the nations who thought themselves too wise to believe in God had in reality become fools.
But people cannot remain in a state of negation; they will believe in something. When a people deny God, they are but one step from idolatry. The nations of whom Paul speaks denied God, "and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" (verse 23). Men will worship something; if not God, then they will worship some sort of an idol. And they will recognize infallibility somewhere. Segregate our "wise men" of today so that they will not be restrained by any outside influence, and they will drift into some form of idolatry. There is but a step between denying God and the worshiping of any sort of a God.
Because these nations denied God and turned to the worship of idols, God gave them up to follow their own lusts. He did not give them up till they first gave him up. He let them go because they were set on going. From their rationalism they soon plunged into the basest of sins and the most degrading sort of superstition.
God gave us reasoning powers, and intends for us to use them; but there is a limit to reason. It cannot fully fathom God, nor correctly blaze out a way which it has never trod. "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." But since God has revealed his will to us, it is our duty to use our best reasoning powers to search out that will. But to reject revelation and depend upon reason as the true source of light is rationalism; and to do so is to make reason our God, and that is a form of idolatry. It is easy to drift from one form of idolatry to another.
Reason without reverence for a Higher Power is a dangerous thing. Superstition is not so dangerous. In fact, superstition and reverence are closely related. As a matter of fact, superstition is ignorant reverence. The superstitious can be taught; but even God himself gave the rationalist up to follow his own ways.
Romans 1:23 : And changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. The glory of God is here used in contrast with the shame of idolatry, and God is described as incorruptible in contrast with corruptible man. These nations had known God, but had turned from that knowledge to their own speculations. When men come to rely on their own speculations instead of on the sure knowledge of God, they will, sooner or later, repudiate him altogether. Men naturally want to deny the existence of a God whom they will not honor. They will change him off for something else. The nations changed the glorious God for the various images common to idolaters. They rejected the One from whom all blessings come, and worshiped everything else that seemed to be of any benefit to them, and also the things which they feared.
Romans 1:24 : Wherefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves. When people are determined to reject God for their own way, God allows them unhindered to follow their chosen course so that they may the sooner see the degradation that comes to those who follow their own wisdom. When men are not held in restraint by a feeling of personal responsibility to God nor by associating with those who do honor God, their passions become the controlling force in their lives; they plunge into all sorts of immoralities, and they dishonor their bodies among themselves. When a whole nation forsakes God for idols, there is not then so much as the conventions of society to hold them in check. It takes a power outside itself to keep anything from going downward, both in physics and in morals.
Romans 1:25 : For that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen! Their whole system of speculations and their doctrines pertaining to the worship of idols is here called a "lie." It is strange that men will deliberately turn from the truth to a lie, but that is what any one does who turns from God to human wisdom. And the mind of man must become densely ignorant before it can consent to worship man and beasts rather than the Creator. But such conduct detracts nothing from God’s glory. Whether we worship or not, he "is blessed forever." The "Amen" is added as a strong affirmation—so let it be.
Romans 1:26-27 : For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due. Paul is not indulging in a lot of fanciful speculations nor presenting baseless theories. He is showing how the heathen nations had reached the lowest degree of moral degradation. When a people cease to respect God, they will not long respect their own bodies. They give themselves up to passions of dishonor. Their women become abusers of their own bodies. The men indulged in the debasing practice of sodomy. We are told that this was a common practice among the prominent men of Greece, and also the Romans. When the greatest men of a nation descend to the lowest conceivable form of immorality, it shows how powerless education and philosophy are to save men from the deepest depths of moral pollution.
Romans 1:28 : And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not befitting. Again Paul states the reason for their corruption. For the word refused the marginal reading has "Greek, did not approve." "They tested or proved God and decided not to keep him" (R. St. John Parry). The God of heaven was not the God they wanted, and they rejected him from their system of knowledge, or philosophy. The rationalists of today occupy the same grounds. God is entirely ruled out. Because the nations then ruled God out of their affairs, "God gave them up unto a reprobate mind." "A reprobate mind" is a mind that did not stand the test, and hence was rejected. They rejected God, and God in turn rejected them. They had so degenerated in their thinking that God could no longer tolerate them.
Paul had shown that when they so dishonored God they began to worship idols, they also began to dishonor their own bodies. In verses 29-31 he speaks mostly of the crimes that men commit toward one another. If a man does not regard God nor the honor of his own body, it is not likely that he will have much regard for his fellow man. Such people are ready for any sin that their passions or their self-interests dictate.
NOTE:—What Paul says about the sins of these idolatrous nations throws light on a question that occasionally comes up—that is, whether or not a person that is not in covenant relations with the Lord is held accountable for his deeds. That question was first brought to my attention when a good brother said concerning some non-Christian young people, "It does not make any difference what they do, for the Lord does not take any notice of them, anyway. Not being in covenant relations with the Lord, they are not under any law of God: they therefore violate no law of God, no matter what they do." I could not believe that doctrine then, and I believe it less now. If that doctrine is true, an alien sinner is not a sinner at all! He could not be, if God holds nothing against him; and if the doctrine be true, there is no such thing as baptism for the remission of sins. But the language of Paul shows the doctrine to be false. Certainly these heathen nations were not in covenant relations with God; yet they were great sinners. Notice the long list of sins they were continuously indulging in. The whole plan of salvation is based on the fact that men are sinners and need to be saved. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. God now commands all men everywhere to repent. If the nations had not been sinners, they would not have needed the gospel. To prove the universal need of the gospel, Paul starts in to prove that all men are sinners.
Romans 1:29-31 : Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful. The sins which Paul here enumerates are sins which people commit against one another. Paul had already showed how they had dishonored and rejected God and had abused and dishonored their own bodies, and now he proceeds to list the sins they commit against one another. It makes a dark picture, but history tells us that the heathen nations were guilty of everything Paul charges against them.
They were "filled with all unrighteousness." It is not that they sometimes did unrighteous things, but they were full of all unrighteous deeds. "Unrighteousness" does not here include all sinful deeds, for it is mentioned as one kind of a long list of sins. It here means injustice. The Greek conveys that idea. Injustice is unfair and dishonest dealings and grows out of a lack of regard for others. An unjust man cheats and defrauds and has no interest in the welfare of the man with whom he deals. Paul does not mean that injustice is found only among the heathen nations; but these nations, having denied God and adopted idol worship, had nothing to hold them in the paths of just dealing. Where God and his word are revered, men are not full of injustice. To the Hebrews God said: "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have" (Leviticus 19:35-36). But Christianity teacher a higher code than justice. Instead of giving a just measure, we are taught to give a measure shaken down, heaped up, and running over. We are taught to be generous, forbearing, and merciful. The genuine Christian deals justly, with generosity added. It is a shame that some professed Christians are really idolaters in that they worship gain, and are therefore, as tricky as any other heathen.
Wickedness, maliciousness, malignity—these words all occur in verse 29. Disregarding for the present the words that come between them, I have put them together in this paragraph, because they are kindred in meaning. In fact, the Greek words from which these are translated sometimes have practically the same meaning. It is evident that they do not mean the same thing here. If they had everywhere meant the same thing, Paul would have used but one of them in the same verse. The Greek words in order of occurrence in this verse are poneria, kakia, and kakoetheia. Of the first two words Thayer says: "Kakia denotes rather the vicious disposition, poneria the active exercise of the same." In his "Synonyms of the New Testament," Section 11, Trench says: "We shall not err in saying kakia is more the evil habit of mind, poneria the outcropping of the same." Poneria, translated "wickedness" in the American Standard Version, refers to the wickedness of the deeds; it is malice of the heart, ill will, a desire to injure, carried in action. It is the outcropping of kakia, ill will, a desire to injure. The other word (kakoetheia, translated -malignity) Jeremy Taylor calls "a baseness of nature by which we take things by the wrong handle, and expound things always in the worst sense." Trench says of this word: "The position which it occupies in St. Paul’s list of sins entirely justifies us in regarding it as the peculiar form of evil which manifests itself in the malignant interpretation of the actions of others, an attributing of them all to the worst motive."
Here, then, is a group of words describing some very pernicious sins, so common among the heathen nations as to enable Paul to say these nations were full of them. A man might in a passion injure his fellow man, but that is quite different from practicing injurious things because of a deep-seated desire to injure some one. When a person reaches that stage of depravity of mind, there is little, if any, good in him. Such a person can see no good in another. No matter what another does, such a person feels sure he had an evil motive in doing it. He could hardly think otherwise, for he knows of no motives except those that are evil. His own character is his standard of judgment.
It is a pity that such sins are found even in this country. It could not be truthfully said that this country is full of such sins, but they are too common. If a man is really a Christian, if he loves his neighbor as himself, he will not want to do anything to injure his neighbor. A Christian does not want to hurt; he wants to help.
Covetousness is avarice, a greedy desire for possessions. The heathen nations were full of a desire to get the things of others. If the laws of the land or a desire to appear decent did not restrain the covetous man, he would take what belonged to another any way he could get it. Paul tells us that covetousness is idolatry. This is one form of idolatry that is practiced even in this country. A man who wants property more than he wants to serve God makes property his God. He might as well worship an idol of gold on his mantel as a sack of gold in his bank.
Envy is defined as "chagrin or discontent at another’s excellence or good fortune; malicious grudging." It is certainly a perverted nature that is full of such feelings. While it could not be said that the people of this land are full of envy, it certainly is true that there is too much envy even in this land. Perhaps few people are entirely free of it. "A tranquil heart is the life of the flesh; but envy is the rottenness of the bones" (Proverbs 14:30). Envy crucified the Son of God. Pilate protested the crucifixion of the Son of God, "for he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up" (Mark 15:10). Envy corrodes and corrupts the character, and sometimes leads to murder. It may not be an accident that Paul places murder immediately after envy.
Murder is included in the list of sins laid to the charge of the nations that had turned away from God to follow their own wisdom. Having denied God and plunged into a sinful course of life, they had come to have little regard for human life. The word Paul used was not confined to the taking of human life with premeditated malice by a person of sound mind. It would include any killing that grew out of disregard for human life. "It is scarcely necessary to show that this was common among the Gentiles. It has prevailed in all communities, but particularly prevalent in Rome. It is necessary only to refer the reader to the common events in the Roman history of assassinations, deaths by poison, and the destruction of slaves. But in a special manner the charge was properly alleged against them, on account of the inhuman contests of the gladiators in the amphitheaters. These were common at Rome, and constituted a favorite amusem*nt of the people. Originally, captives, slaves, and criminals were trained for combat; but it afterwards became common for even Roman citizens to engage in these bloody combats, and Nero at one show exhibited no less than four hundred senators and six hundred knights as gladiators." (Barnes). But what concerns us most is the increase of murders in this country; and it is practically useless to bewail the murderous habits of our countrymen so long as the causes that produce murders are ignored and even taught. As it now is, criminals go unpunished; our children are taught that human beings are a sort of high grade animals with no souls, and God’s word is ignored and even jeered at by some of our educators. Justice has been mocked and is now only a name, man has been degraded to the status of an improved ape, and God has been dethroned and laughed out of his own world. It is foolish to expect anything but an increase of murders so long as these conditions prevail. Three things will decrease murders:—namely, (1) quick and sure punishment of the killer, (2) impress upon the growing generation higher regard for human life, and (3) teach them a deeper reverence of God and his word by impressing upon them that God is the rightful ruler and that we must give account to him. And it would do a lot of good for people to be reminded that a lot of foolish speculation does not abolish hell. The pure and unadulterated gospel is the remedy for this sin, as well as for the others Paul mentions.
For "strife" the King James Version has "debate.’’ But the word "debate" does not now mean a personal wrangle, quarrel, or fight, as it did three hundred years ago, and as did the word Paul used. A debate now is a discussion to elicit or to propagate truth. It was not so three hundred years ago. The word Paul used meant a quarrel, a wrangle, or fight. No one should try to make it appear that Paul taught that a discussion is wrong.
The Greek word, here translated deceit, is defined by Liddell and Scott as, "strictly a bait, for fish; hence, any snare, cunning contrivance for deceiving or catching; in general, any trick or crafty attempt; and so in the abstract, wile, craft, cunning, treachery." Hence deceit is an attempt to get the advantage of another without letting him know your intentions; it is to profit at his expense by keeping him in the dark. The man who does such things is without principle. It is a pity that even in this country there are men who will deceive others for advantage. Selfishness and a disregard for the rights of others are at the bottom of deceit. A deceitful person is altogether unreliable.
Whisperers are cowardly sneaks who have not the courage to come out in the open and say damaging things about others, but secretly peddle their slanderous statements and insinuations against the object or objects of their campaign of spite. They usually add: "Be sure not to use my name in connection with the matter, for I do not want to get mixed up in the mess." Such characters have been aptly termed "snakes in the grass." They would destroy a good name, and then gloat over what they had been able to accomplish. Only the Lord can properly award such characters.
Backbiters, slanderers, defamers, who delight in destroying the good name of others. Such characters are not particular as to the truth of what they tell. Whisperers and backbiters are of the same breed, excepting that the backbiters are more open and bold. Neither of them has the courage to face the accused with their slanders. Neither is worthy of a place among decent people. It is a pity that the slimy trails of both are found in this good land of ours.
Haters of God—I have here adopted the marginal reading as the one more in harmony with the context; for Paul is here listing the sins of the nations, and puts this down as one of the sins. It would seem that a person had reached the depth of depravity when he becomes a God hater. But the man that continues to defy God and his laws will eventually become a hater of God.
Insolent is defined by Webster as, "haughty and contemptuous or brutal in behavior or language; overbearing; grossly disrespectful." In its milder manifestations, insolence is uppishness. The insolent person has a feeling of superiority over others; at least, he assumes to be superior. The feeling makes one brutal or insulting to others. He is bolder than the backbiter; he likes to crush and humiliate one who is present, and delights to have others witness his triumph.
There is but a shade of difference between "haughty" and "insolent." Webster’s first definition: "Disdainfully or contemptuously proud; arrogant; supercilious." Such a person is proud of himself; he likes to strut and swagger. He is embodied egotism. If such a person could ever realize that every time he is trying to show off he is acting a fool, it would help his manners. He needs the sobering influence of the gospel.
Boastful—An empty pretender: he boasts of things he does not possess or of things he has never done. He wants people to think of him as rich and a great doer of things. He likes to talk about himself; he is a little man swelled up. Such fellows are shoddy goods marked up. When a man boasts, he is generally lacking in the things of which he boasts.
Inventor of Evil things—People who indulge in worldly and sinful pursuits are constantly seeking new thrills. Old forms of pleasure and sin grow stale, and new forms of indulgence are constantly being sought out. There are now more ways to sin than ever before in the world’s history, and the end is not yet.
Disobedient to parents—Not many things break down the morals of a country more quickly and cause more lawlessness than disrespect for parents. If children disrespect parental authority, they will disrespect all authority. If they have no regard for their parents, they are not likely to have regard for anything. But when such conditions prevail, parents are not blameless. Obedience and respect are matters that have to be learned, "Though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered." Parents that do not try to train their children in right principles and good habits care very little for them. But it is hard for you to train up your children as they should be trained when everybody else lets theirs run loose and do as they please. However, nothing but a decay of morals can be expected where children are not taught obedience and respect to parents. Children who properly love and esteem their parents will care for them when they become too old or too helpless to care for themselves.
Without understanding—It is no crime for a mentally defective person to be unable to understand. These people had a mind, but they had not filled it with truth and right principles. They did not have an understanding of the real philosophy of correct living. So many people are without understanding because they will not understand. They have closed their eyes and stopped their ears to keep from learning the right. They prefer darkness. There is such a thing as willful ignorance. God has never withheld light from any one who wanted the light.
A covenant breaker is one who will not stand to his agreements, whether these agreements be written or oral. Sometimes you hear some one say of another, "His word is as good as his bond." It is a fine thing for a man to have that sort of reputation, but it is a bad state of affairs when that can be mentioned as a point of distinction. Keeping one’s word should be so common among men that it would not be a point of distinction for any man. A man who will not keep his word, whether written or oral, is a sorry specimen of humanity.
Without natural affection—These nations were without the affections that should exist on account of the ties of nature; there was no proper affection between parents and children. Paul’s charge against them is abundantly proved by the heathen writers of those days.
Unmerciful—They were harsh and unfeeling. There can be no mercy when the heart has no sympathy, for mercy is sympathy in action; it is the tender and kind feeling bearing the fruit of helpfulness. The wicked may become so hard of heart as to be devoid of mercy.
And even the Christian needs to watch himself. A person who has high ideals and a high sense of honor may become rather harsh toward those who make no special effort to do right. "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Let us watch ourselves; mercy is a grace worth cultivating. "For judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy." "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged."
Romans 1:32 : Who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with, them that practice them. They had no revelation. How, then, did they know the ordinance of God and the penalty for its infraction? But Paul does not say that they knew the entire law of God. So far as his language shows, they knew only that those who practice such sins as he enumerates are worthy of death. But how did they know that these sins and that those who practiced them were worthy of death?
There is embedded in man’s nature a consciousness of right and wrong. If he never had a revelation from God, he knows that it is wrong to abuse his body and to mistreat his fellows. The fact that the heathen nations then had and now have laws for the punishment of crime shows that they recognize that there was such a thing as crime and that certain crimes should be punished by death.
Let us be fair- with God’s word. A revelation from God was never intended to create any new faculties in man. It does not plant in the human heart a consciousness of right and wrong, but it does guide and refine that consciousness, and places motives before man to induce him to do right. If a man were to reach the point where he had no consciousness of right and wrong, his case would be hopeless. The goodness that is in the gospel has no appeal to the person who has no idea of goodness. But the heathen nations had an idea of right and wrong and knew that certain crimes were worthy of death. Yet they indulged in the things they knew to be wrong. Not only so, "but consent with them that practice them."
Commentary on Romans Chapter Two by R.L. Whiteside
Romans 2:1 : Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost practice the same things. This verse has been so twisted as to make it teach nonsense and also to condemn its writer. It has been twisted into meaning that, if you judge another to be guilty of a crime, you thereby become guilty of the same thing. Paul had just charged many crimes against the Gentiles. It is foolish to put a meaning into his words that makes him guilty of the same things. What does the language mean?
Paul had charged that the Gentiles were guilty of many crimes and were, therefore, worthy of death. The Jew charged the same things against the Gentiles, therefore, Paul, in effect, said: "You are as sinful as the Gentiles; you practice the same things they do. Hence, in judging them to be such criminals as to be worthy of death, you condemn yourself." The Jew was, therefore, himself under condemnation, for Romans 2:2 says, We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that practice such things. There was no use for the Jew to think he would escape the judgment visited upon the Gentiles BO long as he was as guilty as they.
God had been rich in goodness and forbearance and longsuffering toward the Jews. Instead of being led to repentance by this goodness, as God had intended, they had despised it and had grown more sinful. They were treasuring up for themselves "wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works." In that day the Jew will not escape any more than will the Gentile.
Romans 2:3-5 : And reckonest thou this, O man, who judgest them that practice such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. It was an easy matter to get the Jew to agree that the Gentiles were sinners; but, for his own good, it was necessary for the Jew to see himself as a condemned sinner, else he would not see his need of the gospel. But to convince the Jew that he was a sinner and needed salvation was a task that demanded a good deal of skill. Paul’s first point was that the Jew had no right to condemn the Gentile, for he was also guilty of the same sins. The Jew boasted that he was the object of God’s special favor. Because of this Paul asked: "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" That is, the goodness of God was intended to lead them to repentance, but they despised it and were treasuring up, or heaping up, wrath for themselves.
Romans 2:6-11 : Who will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life: but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: For there is no respect of persons with God.
God "will render to every man according to his works," God will judge without favoritism and will render to each man according to his works. It is not that God will sum up all you have done, whether good or bad, and pay you wages in proportion to the amount you have done. He will not count the hours you have worked and measure out your wages on the basis of so much pay for so many hours. But the kind of works you do shows what sort of person you are; they are the index to character. God rewards according to the nature, and not the amount, of our works. Some people whose heart is as far from God as it can well be never commit as many crimes as some others who are no worse. Some lack the energy and the courage to be great criminals, and others lack physical ability or are hindered by their environments. Some people whose heart is as true to God as the heart of any are lacking in ability or are hindered by physical defects. Such people do what good they can. God will render, or give back to you, according to the nature of your works.
A Caution.—We must not put a construction on the teaching of salvation by works that will contradict the doctrine of salvation by grace. Ponder this: On God’s side our salvation is wholly a matter of grace, for he receives no pay for saving us; on our side our salvation is wholly a matter of works, for we can furnish no grace.
Eternal life is to be rendered "to them that by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption." Verse 7 connects closely with verse 6. "Eternal life" is the object of "render"—God will render eternal life to those who "by patience in well-doing; seek for glory and honor and incorruption." Of course, the glory and honor that we are to seek is the glory and honor that we shall have with God in the world to come. We are forbidden to seek the glory and honor that comes from men in this life. We shall attain to glory and honor and incorruption in the world to come by patience in well-doing.
But what is eternal life? The materialist holds to the idea that eternal life is mere eternal existence. He might not avow that in so many words, but he does say it in other words just as plain and emphatic. If you have ever heard one in a discussion on eternal punishment, you have heard him try to make the doctrine absurd by referring to eternal punishment as eternal life in hell! But Paul’s language, as well as other scriptures, shows eternal life to be much more than eternal existence. God renders eternal life to those who seek glory and honor and incorruption. Does Paul mean to say that if we will seek one thing, God will give us another? Will he not give us what we seek? Can you not see that Paul here really defines eternal life? Hence, so far as this text shows, eternal life consists of glory, honor, and incorruption—a happy existence in the heavenly kingdom.
If you are still in doubt, consider the matter recorded in the following parallel passages: Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-30; Luke 18:18-30. A rich young ruler asked Jesus: "What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" Jesus told him certain things to do, and added, "And thou shalt have treasure in heaven." As Jesus was giving him the information he sought, we know that having eternal life and enjoying treasure in heaven are the same. When the young man refused the offer, Jesus said: "It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." Here we have another term describing the same thing. To have eternal life, to enjoy treasure in heaven, and to be in the heavenly kingdom are the same. But this statement about the rich man startled the disciples, and they asked: "Who then can be saved?" Certainly they were asking a question about the matter under discussion—namely, eternal life. They referred to salvation in the world to come, or everlasting salvation. To have eternal life, to be enjoying treasure in heaven, to be in the heavenly kingdom, and to have eternal salvation are the same. And to show that eternal life wag still the matter under consideration, Jesus tells his disciples that those who had left all worldly things for his sake and the gospel’s would have a hundredfold in this life, "and in the world to come eternal life." So, then, mere eternal existence and eternal life are as wide apart as hell and heaven.
Eternal life is conditional for eternal life must be sought by patience in well-doing. In the eighth and ninth verses Paul affirms that tribulation and anguish will be visited upon those who do evil. Any person who can think at all should be able to see that, if damnation is conditional, salvation must also be conditional. One cannot be conditional and the other unconditional. If doing wrong causes a person to be lost, then, to be saved he must leave off the wrong and do right. If being lost is conditional, so is being saved. There is no way to escape that conclusion. When the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus said: "If thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments." Of Jesus Paul said:
"Having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 6:9). And we have already seen that God will render eternal life to those who by patience in well-doing seek it. "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:28-29). If eternal life is not conditional, no one can give a reason why one person is saved and another lost, "for there is no respect of persons with God." "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him." It would be well if all preachers could come to see as clearly as did Peter.
Romans 2:12 : For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law. In Paul’s language, "the law" referred to the law of Moses. The law of Moses did not extend to the Gentiles. The grievous sins charged against them in the preceding chapter had not been committed under the law of Moses, nor against the law. We are sure of two things with reference to them—namely, (1) they had sinned, and (2) they had not sinned under the law of Moses. This being true, they would not be judged by the law of Moses, but would perish without the law. From Mount Sinai to the cross of Christ the children of Israel were under the law of Moses. The sins they committed were committed under the law and against the law, and by the law they will be judged. But Paul’s language clearly shows that only those who were under the law will be judged by the law. As this law did not extend to the Gentiles, they will not be judged by it.
Romans 2:13 : For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified, The Jews trusted too much in the fact that God had made them custodians of the law, and that it was always with them. They could read it when they so desired, and they heard it read in the synagogues every sabbath. They put too much stress on their hearing the law and on their knowledge of the law. As a result, they neglected the doing of the law. That was a fatal mistake; for not hearers, but doers of the law were justified.
The law condemns the guilty and justifies the innocent. Paul does not affirm that any Jew had so kept the law that he would be justified by it. He merely lays down the principle that the doer of the law shall be justified. Absolute justification by the law could be had only by perfect obedience to the law. But no one kept the law perfectly, and for that reason the law justified no one. "Because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). "Yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified" (Galatians 2:16). It is plain, therefore, that no Jew kept the law so perfectly as to be justified by it. The law convicted the violator instead of justifying him.
Romans 2:14 : For when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves. MacKnight gives a more exact translation of Paul’s language: "When therefore the Gentiles, who have not a law, do by nature the things of the law, these persons, though they have not a law, are a law to themselves." You will notice that he puts "the" before "law" only once. In that respect he exactly represents Paul. The Gentiles had no revealed law, and so they were a law unto themselves. The Gentiles never had the law of Moses, but there are certain fundamental principles that inhere in the nature of our existence and in our relations to one another. Some things are right, and some things are wrong, within themselves. If a man never had a revelation from God, he would know that it was wrong to murder his fellow man, or to rob him of his possessions, or in any way to infringe on his rights. Cain sinned in killing his brother and felt his guilt, though we have no record that God had told him not to kill. God’s moral law is the same to all nations. The moral requirements of the law of Moses are the things which the Gentiles might do by nature. The Jews did these things by revelation; the Gentiles, by nature; that is, in so far as they did them at all. But let us remember that the law under which any person lives condemns him, if he does not keep it perfectly. Paul does not say that the Gentiles lived up to their natural law any more than the Jews lived up to the revealed law. On the contrary, he was seeking to show that all were sinners and needed the gospel of Christ to save them. But they did have an idea of right and wrong.
Romans 2:15 : In that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them. The construction of the Greek shows plainly that it was the work of the law, and not the law itself, that was written on the hearts of the Gentiles. This, of course, referred to the moral requirements of the law. The moral requirements of the law are just such things as any decent set of people would recognize as proper and right, even if they never had a revelation. Their conscience, like the conscience of those who had a revealed law, would accuse them when they failed to live up to their standard of right, and approve them when they did right as they saw it. That is the office of conscience.
But what is conscience? It is frequently referred to as a guide. But conscience is not a guide at all; that is not its office. Also, it is said that conscience is a creature of education; but I see not how any one would go about educating his conscience. It is also defined as the moral judgment, but that definition does not fit. Your moral judgment may tell you that a certain person did very wrong, but his act does not affect your conscience in any way, unless you feel responsible for his action. Liddell and Scott define the Greek word that is translated "conscience" thus: "(1) A knowing with one’s self, consciousness; (2) conscience." Where we have two words—"consciousness" and "conscience"—the Greeks had one word, and the connection determined its meaning, or, perhaps speaking more accurately, the connection determined its application. "Consciousness" has a broader application than "conscience." A person is conscious of his own bodily sensations, whether pleasurable or painful; he is also conscious of his own thoughts and emotions. We are getting at conscience when we think of it as that feeling of pleasure when we do what we think is right, and of pain when we do what we think is wrong. It is that which backs up our moral judgment. Saul of Tarsus always did what he thought was right, and therefore always had a good conscience. But his information was wrong, and therefore his moral judgment was wrong. Our judgment may be wrong because the ideas upon which we base our judgment may be wrong. But no matter how we have been taught, we can expect our conscience to urge us to do what we have judged to bo right, unless it has been deadened by long indulgence in things we know to be wrong. It seems to me that a live, tender conscience is infallible. But as to moral judgment, no man can safely say that he is right on everything. Gain all the information you can so that you can form correct judgments, and give heed to the urge of conscience.
Romans 2:17-20 : But if thou bearest the name of Jew, and restest upon the law, and gloriest in God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth. It is not known when the name "Jew" was first used. After the ten tribes followed Jeroboam in the revolt against Rehoboam, the two remaining tribes—Judah and Benjamin—became known as the kingdom of Judah, because Judah was so much more powerful than the tribe of Benjamin. Later they became known as "Jews," the name being derived from "Judah." When the kingdom of Judah was about to be carried into captivity, the name was used a few times in the book of Jeremiah. During the captivity and thereafter "Jew" became the common name of all the people. They were proud of the name "Jew" and of what, in their estimation, the name stood for. And they gloried in God and not in idols. They were confident that they were able to teach all who foolishly worshiped idols. Their privileges, their belief in the one God, and their knowledge of his will, should have made them humble and ashamed that they had made such poor use of their privileges and blessings; but, instead of that, they were boastful, and they maintained an air of superiority over all other people. And so every blessing has its corresponding danger. Is there not danger that we fall into a similar state of mind? We have the Bible, abhor creeds, glory in the name we wear, and feel able to teach the whole world. Are we not inclined to be proud and arrogant? Should we not rather feel humble and ashamed that we have not made better use of what we have?
Romans 2:21-23 : Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou rob temples? thou who gloriest in the law, through thy transgression of the law dishonorest thou God? These are searching questions. Any man is a poor teacher if he does not teach himself while he is teaching others. He is a poor preacher that cannot preach better than he can practice, but he is a poorer preacher if he does not try hard to live up to his preaching. The Jews had reached the point where they taught much and practiced little. We are reminded of what Jesus said of the Jewish leaders: "They say, and do not." No one should be guilty of adultery, and certainly the man who preaches against it should not be guilty of it. The American Standard Version’s rendering of the question about abhorring idols and robbing temples is not easily understood. But the word translated "rob temples" means either to rob temples or to commit sacrilege. The meanings are closely related; for, if a person robbed a temple, he would, in the estimation of the worshipers at that temple, commit sacrilege. To commit sacrilege is to abuse sacred things, or to make common use of them. The Jews were very much given to profaning God’s holy things. Ezekiel 22:26 makes this charge: "Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things." He immediately explains how they had done this: "They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the clean and the unclean." They had profaned God’s holy things by putting the common and the unclean—things of their own devising— into the worship and service of God. The Jews in Paul’s day had profaned God’s holy things by their traditions and in converting the temple into a place of merchandise and fraud. In many ways they committed sacrilege, but it is not so manifest that they robbed temples. Hence, on this point the rendering of the King James Version seems better: "Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?" What avails it, if a person abhors idols and yet is so disrespectful to God as to commit sacrilege against God’s holy things? It would be difficult to tell whether the idolater or the professed believer who commits sacrilege dishonors God the more. The Jews gloried in the law—gloried in the fact that the law had been given to them; yet in their transgressions of the law they dishonored God’s law.
Romans 2:24 : For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, even as it is written. The Jews sought to make proselytes. Jesus said they would compass sea and land to make one proselyte. They might have had great success, if they had lived up to their preaching. It is hard to make any one believe there is any good in your doctrine, if it has not done you any good. The Jews had so lived as to cause the Gentiles to blaspheme their preaching instead of believing it. The Jews had become a hiss and a byword. Read Isaiah 52:5.
The greatest hindrance to the spread of the gospel today is the conduct of many of its professed believers. Immorality, worldly-mindedness, dishonest dealing, and divisions hinder Christianity. Opposition from without is not what hurts the most. The right kind of living on the part of professed Christians gives them a favorable hearing when they present the gospel. Do not try to sell the gospel by mere talk; show them a sample of what the gospel will do for the people who really believe it. You will then likely make a believer instead of a blasphemer. "Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
Romans 2:25 : For circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the law: but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. Of circumcision God said to Abraham: "It shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and you." Descendants of Abraham and Jacob were not brought into the covenant by circumcision; they were born into that covenant, and were circumcised as a sign of their membership in the covenant. If one was not circumcised, he was cut off from his covenant relationship. "And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant" (Genesis 17:14). Hence, to the Jew circumcision was indispensable to continued membership in the covenant; and it was profitable to him, if he lived in obedience to God. But if he did not obey God’s commands, his circumcision was worthless to him; he was the same as if he had not been circumcised. It was a sign, or token, of the covenant. Paul was seeking to show the Jews that this sign of covenant relationship was worthless to the one who did not live up to the covenant requirements. What avails it for me to show a written covenant between me and another man, if he can show that I have broken every covenant requirement? If he can do so, it is the same as if I had no written contract. And that fairly represents the condition of the Jew. Why boast of being circumcised and of having the law, if he had broken the covenant? The Jew put stress upon the sign and not the substance. He boasted of the covenant, and broke it every day.
Romans 2:26 : If therefore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? Paul had just stated the doctrine that circumcision was of no value to the person who did not live right. But what of the Gentile who lived in harmony with the moral requirements of the law, though he had not been circumcised? In not being circumcised the Gentile violated no law, for the law did not require the Gentile to be circumcised. Hence, the Gentile could neglect circumcision without sin; and if he lived a moral upright life, he would be considered as if he had been circumcised. But Paul’s reasoning on this point does not warrant any one to neglect anything God has commanded him to do. It is singular that, in their anxiety to get rid of the necessity of baptism, some have argued that Paul’s reasoning on circumcision could be applied to baptism. They ask: "If an unbaptized person lives right, shall he not be considered as if he had been baptized?" But their effort at running that sort of parallel fails. Gentiles had not been commanded to be circumcised, and therefore violated no law, committed no sin, in not being circumcised; whereas gospel obedience, including baptism, is required of all people. And here is another point their theory fails to consider. Every one to whom the command to be circumcised extended had to be circumcised or be cut off from his people; he had broken the covenant, and was no longer considered one of God’s people. If, therefore, these theologians could establish a parallel between circumcision and baptism, they would thereby prove that everyone to whom the command to be baptized extended would have to be baptized or be cut off.
But Paul does not affirm that any Gentile had so kept the ordinances of the law as to be sinless. In fact, his purpose was to make all men see themselves as condemned sinners and to cause them to realize their need of salvation through Christ.
Romans 2:27 : And shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who with the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law? Some commentators regard this as a direct affirmation instead of a question. But it matters little whether it is a question or an affirmation; in either form the meaning is the same. "The uncircumcised by nature" are the Gentiles. "Judge" is here used in the sense of condemn. "The letter" refers to the law of Moses. The Jews had the law and were circumcised. Paul, therefore, affirms that the Gentile, if he fulfilled the law, would condemn the Jew. This does not mean that the right-living Gentile would sit in final judgment on the disobedient Jew, but that his conduct by contrast condemns the Jewish transgressor, just as Noah by his obedience, condemned the world (Hebrews 11:7).
Romans 2:28-29 : For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. So far as the flesh was concerned, a Jew was a Jew, no matter how he lived; but he was not God’s Jew, not such a one as God would recognize, unless he was at heart true to God. Outward circumcision was necessary to a Jew, but outward circumcision was worthies* unless it was accompanied by the circumcision of the heart. Circumcision of the heart is the cutting off of the stubbornness and sinful desires of the heart. So many of the Jews depended on outward appearance, but were inwardly full of corruption. In God’s sight an honest-hearted Gentile was better than a corrupt Jew. Man looks on the outward appearance, and praises show and display; God looks on the heart, and praises honesty and virtue.
Commentary on Romans Chapter Three By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 3:1 : What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? The proud hearted Jew resented any idea that put him on a level with the people of other nations. To the Jew who prided himself on being a Jew and who put stress on outward show it would seem that Paul was seeking to make it appear that there was no advantage in being a Jew and no profit in circumcision. Paul was here anticipating an objection of the Jew. Paul did not give a full answer to such an objection.
Romans 3:2 : Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God, The Jews had enjoyed many blessings and advantages, including a land of their own; but their chief profit or advantage was, that they had been intrusted with the oracles of God. "The oracles of God" included all that we find in what we now know as the Old Testament— having that intrusted to them was the Jews’ chief advantage, their greatest profit. How much greater is our advantage in having also the New Testament. The Jeep "received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not" (Acts 7:53).
Romans 3:3-4 : For what if some were without faith? shall their want of faith make of none effect, the faithfulness of God? God forbid: yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightiest be justified in thy words, And mightiest prevail when thou comest into judgment. God had promised to bless the Jews. If he failed to bless them, even though they sinned, would he not be false to his promise? Would their lack of faith interfere with God’s promise? But God’s promises are conditional. No matter what theories people may have, we must let God be true, even if we must regard all theories as false and every man a liar. Only in that way can we be justified in our words and prevail when we come into judgment.
Romans 3:5-6 : But if our unrighteousness commendeth the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? That this is another objection that a Jew might make is shown by the fact that Paul immediately adds, "(I speak after the manner of men.)" The possible objection is stated in a very cautious way. If man’s sin is the occasion of God’s displaying his plan of righteousness through the gospel, then what shall we conclude? Shall we conclude that God is unrighteous in punishing us for living so as to cause him to make such a display of his righteousness? God forbid, or May it not be so. If it were so, then how shall God judge the world?
Romans 3:7-8 : But if the truth of God through my lie abounded unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? The Jew regarded Christianity as a lie and that Paul’s preaching it made it his lie, and that in forsaking Judaism for Christianity he committed about the greatest sin that a Jew could commit. Paul is here adopting the objector’s method of reasoning. If you justify your sins on the grounds that your sins brought out and displayed God’s righteousness, why condemn me for what you consider my great sin? On that theory, "why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), let us do evil, that good may come?" If the theory stated in the objection were correct, then the more we sin, the better it would be for us. But Paul adds that the condemnation of such slanderers is just.
Romans 3:9 : What then? are we better than they? Are we Jews better than the Gentiles? No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. To prove that all were under sin had been the object of all that he had said from the eighteenth verse of chapter one. This he had done to prove that all were under condemnation and needed the gospel as God’s power to save them. To further establish the sinfulness of man, he quotes extensively from the prophets.
"What then? are we better than they?" These are questions a Jew would ask after hearing Paul’s reasoning in the preceding verses. The Jew had so many advantages he would naturally think himself better than others. But he had made such poor use of these advantages that Paul unhesitatingly answers: "No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin." The Jew had not lived up to the law, and therefore was not justified; the Gentile had also failed of justification, for he had not lived up to the light he had. So far as meriting justification was concerned, neither was superior to the other, for they were all sinners.
Romans 3:10-11 : As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one; There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God. Paul gives a number of quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures to prove from their own prophets the sinfulness of the Jews. After making the general statement that none of them were righteous, Paul shows wherein they were sinful.
The Jews were great students of their Scriptures, and yet they did not understand. Wherein they had an accurate understanding of the requirements of the law, they failed to understand the significance of the things required. They did not understand that their whole system was temporary and typical. In their estimation the whole system of Judaism was God’s permanent order of things, and they were always to be God’s special people. But Jesus used language about them more pointed than the language Paul quotes —"blind guides," "fools and blind." To those who were supposed to be especially skilled in the law Jesus said: "Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge." Even the key to a correct understanding of their Scriptures had been hidden in the rubbish of their notions or traditions. Let those who think the Jews had such an accurate understanding of kingdom matters consider what Jesus and his inspired apostle said about them.
There is none that seeketh after God. Perhaps no people ever studied the Scriptures more than did the Jews; yet they were not seeking after God. To seek after God is to seek to know and to do his will—to make his thoughts our thoughts and his ways our ways. Pharisees, lawyers, and scribes studied that they might be informed and formally correct, so that they might stand well with their fellow Jews. Instead of seeking to be justified in the sight of God, they sought to justify themselves in the sight of men. Jesus said to them: "Ye are they that justify yourselves in the sight of men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:43). Such a frame of mind utterly unfitted them for heart-seeking after God. "How can ye believe, who receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only God ye seek not?" (John 5:44). When a person studies the Scriptures for any other purpose than to know God and to be able to do his will, there is no telling what sort of absurd conclusions he may arrive at. "And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah" (Hosea 6:3).
Romans 3:12 : They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one. This, because they did not understand and would not seek after God. To Jehovah they were not profitable—he could not use them in his plans. But they were not born in that condition, but had turned aside and become unprofitable. None were absolutely good—all had sinned.
Romans 3:13 : Their throat is an open sepulcher; With their tongues they have used deceit: The poison of asps is under their lips. That is a strong figure of speech. From their throats would come words as offensive as the odors from an open sepulcher. How expressive of the filthiness of their speech! Deceit was one of the sins charged against the Gentiles. Now the Jews are also charged with the same sin. No dependence can be put in what a deceitful person says. Paul also charges that their words were poison like the poison of asps, that their mouth was full of bitterness and cursing. A deceitful person is a liar for gain of some sort, but he expects everyone to believe him; and if you find out that he is a liar, he becomes bitter toward you.
Romans 3:15 : Their feet are swift to shed blood. This expresses their readiness to murder. From the trial of Jesus we learn that even their high court sometimes was eager to murder an innocent victim.
Romans 3:16 : Destruction and misery are in their ways. They had come to be a turbulent race. Read what Josephus says took place inside Jerusalem while the Roman army laid siege to that unfortunate city.
Romans 3:17-18 : And the ways of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Had they loved peace, they could have found it. They did not know how to be peaceable. On this point Jesus testified against them. "And when he drew nigh, he saw the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." That Jesus here referred to their social and political peace is clear from what he immediately adds: "For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee" (Luke 19:41-44). They did not know how to be at peace with God nor man. And here is the reason: "There is no fear of God before their eyes." They had no reverence for God, and therefore no regard for their fellow man.
Romans 3:19 : Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. Here the entire Old Testament is referred to as the law, for Paul had been quoting from various parts of the Old Testament. What he had quoted were, therefore, words directed to the Jews—they were guilty of the crimes mentioned in the quotations. "That every mouth may be stopped." That all might so feel their guilt as to be unable to answer back or make any defense. The Jews could not deny what their own inspired prophets had said. "And all the world may be brought under the judgment of God." The Jew readily granted that the Gentile was under the judgment of God, and now Paul proves from the Jewish Scriptures that the Jew was likewise under the judgment of God.
Romans 3:20 : Because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin. Had they kept the law perfectly, they would have been justified by the law; but Paul had proved by their own Scriptures that they had not so kept the law. He had shown them to be guilty of many and grievous sins; "for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin." That which might have been the means of their justification had, on account of their sins, become the means of their conviction. This conviction, this feeling of sinfulness, did not come to them through some direct operation of the Holy Spirit, but through the plain statements of inspired men.
One Point Established.—In the portion of the letter that we have considered, Paul showed that the Gentile, while relying upon natural law as his human wisdom interpreted it, had plunged into all sorts of sin. He had not even lived up to the law of nature. Paul also showed that the Jew, instead of living up to the demands of the law of Moses so as to be justified by it, had so transgressed the law as to be condemned by it. All, both Jews and Gentiles, were condemned sinners, and were lost, unless some plan could be presented that would make’ righteous men out of sinners. The law would justify a man, if he kept it perfectly; but it could not justify one after he had transgressed the law.
Romans 3:21 : But now apart from law, a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. (American Bible Union Version.) In Paul’s language, the term "the law" refers to the law of Moses. The American Standard Version has "apart from the law," but there is no "the" in this phrase in the Greek. This righteousness was "apart from law," any law, whether the law of Moses or the law under which Gentiles lived.
The "now" is emphatic—now, in the present case, or in the present dispensation, a plan of righteousness has been manifested, made known, or brought to light. This plan is distinct from law. And yet the Jew should not have been astonished at the inauguration of this new plan of righteousness, for both the law and the prophets had borne witness concerning this plan of righteousness—"being witnessed by the law and the prophets."
"Being borne witness to. It was not a new doctrine; it was found in the Old Testament. The apostle makes this observation with special reference to the Jews. He does not declare any new thing, but that which was fully declared in their own sacred writings." (Barnes’ "Notes on the Epistle to the Romans.") Barnes was a Presbyterian, and usually fairly clearheaded; but it is impossible for a person who does not comprehend God’s plan of human redemption to see clearly some points. Paul does not say that this plan of righteousness was taught and developed by the law and the prophets, but that they bore witness, gave their testimony, concerning this plan of righteousness which was now, apart from the law, brought to light. But how witnessed by the law and the prophets? The tabernacle, with its various services and offerings, was a type of the better things to come. In speaking of these things, Paul adds this explanatory clause, "Which is a figure for the time present," or for the present time (Hebrews 9:9). In this way, and also in God’s promise to Abraham, the law testified, or gave witness, concerning this plan of righteousness. And the prophets also gave their testimony concerning this plan of salvation through Christ, this plan that has now been manifested, or brought into view.
Dislocating or Perverting Prophecy—A future-kingdom advocate makes this bold statement: "But the Old Testament knows nothing whatever of Christianity!" That is, there is not a prophecy in the Old Testament concerning the gospel plan of salvation! Can you believe it? Yet that expresses boldly what is generally believed by the future-kingdom folks. But, in saying that the prophets gave witness concerning this plan of righteousness now made known, Paul flatly contradicts such assertions. In such teaching, these folks are not speculating about unfulfilled prophecies, so much as they are dislocating prophecies. They are taking prophecies that have been fulfilled, and prophecies that are now in the process of fulfillment, and setting them forward as prophecies that are yet unfulfilled. If they did no more than speculate about unfulfilled prophecies, their talk would not be worth considering. I deplore the fact that brethren have given them a decided advantage by referring to their theories as "speculation about unfulfilled prophecy." When they say that the land of promise to Abraham has not been fulfilled; that the prophecies concerning the restoration of the Jews have not been fulfilled; hat the prophecy of Daniel 2:44 is not fulfilled in the church; that the prophecy that Christ would sit on David’s throne has not been fulfilled; and then you say, "Oh, yes; more speculation about unfulfilled prophecy," have you not conceded every point they claim? They say that these prophecies have not been fulfilled, and you agree with them by referring to their perversions as "speculations about unfulfilled prophecy." And when they say that none of the prophecies of the Old Testament refer to this gospel plan of salvation through Christ, why yield that point to them by calling such talk "speculation about unfulfilled prophecy?" I know of no greater perversion of Scripture than to say mat none of the prophecies of the Old Testament refer to this present dispensation!
Paul said the gospel to which he had been separated had been promised afore through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures (Romans 1:1}. Jesus said that it had been written in the prophets that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:45-48). But why multiply Scriptures? The idea that the prophets said nothing of this "church age" was never heard of till some became wiser in their own minds than the apostles and Jesus Christ! And I have been astounded beyond expression to hear brethren continually refer to such perversions of Scripture as "speculation about unfulfilled prophecy"!
Romans 3:22-24 : Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction; for all have tinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Verses 21-24 connects closely with chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. This righteousness which is apart from the law is attained through faith in Jesus Christ; and it is for all who believe, for there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. All, both Jew and Gentile, need this gospel salvation; for all have sinned—all have come short of the glory of God. This salvation for all was according to God’s plan and purpose.
No Distinction.—God had chosen Abraham and his seed for a special purpose. The Jews had failed to grasp God’s purpose; they thought of Jehovah as their God, and no one else’s. In their thinking he was a tribal, or national, God. It took a special miracle to convince Peter that Jehovah was the God of any but the Jews. To correct this deep-seated idea among the Jews, Paul frequently reminded the Jewish Christians that now there was no distinction between Jews and Gentiles. Some of the Jewish Christians never did get over that tribal idea, and drifted into a sect known as Ebionites. It is a pity that some brethren of late years have revived, slightly modified, perhaps, the Jewish idea that Jehovah is the Jew’s national God.
Let us read Romans 3:21-24, leaving out an apparent parenthetical expression: "But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; . . . being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." To justify a person is to declare him free from guilt Law cannot declare a person just, or free from guilt, if he had violated it in only one point. Justification by law was impossible, for all sinned. But apart from the law, a plan of righteousness had been revealed. The apostle tells us that this justification is free; and he further emphasizes the fact that it is free by adding that it is by grace. It is bestowed gratuitously. It is not arrived at by merit, but comes by grace. And it is by faith. By the term "faith" Paul means all that is implied in accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, Prophet, Priest, and King. This will later be discussed more fully. The justification that is offered apart from the law is also through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, or by Christ Jesus. It is by what he did that we have redemption.
SOME TERMS DEFINED
Just here it might be well to study some words Paul uses. It stands to reason that no one can understand a passage of Scripture unless he understands the words of the passage. In studying these words we shall consider only those meanings that relate to the salvation of sinners.
Justify—To justify a person is to pronounce him just, or righteous; to declare him not guilty. Of course, if a person kept the law perfectly, he would be justified; he would be declared not guilty. If God forgives a sinner, there is then nothing against him. He is free from guilt—he is as righteous as if he had never sinned.
Grace—Grace is favor. It is a benefit bestowed without pay—the gratuitous bestowal of a thing that a person needs. The sinner needs forgiveness—needs to be righteous. Only through God’s grace is it possible for a sinner to be forgiven, or to be justified. No matter how many things he may be required to do as conditions of forgiveness, it does not destroy the fact that, on God’s part, his forgiveness and justification are wholly of grace. No amount of works will destroy the fact that forgiveness is by grace.
Redeemer—A redeemer is one who rescues another from bondage, or liberates another from any condition wherein he is held. Jesus redeems us from the bondage of sin and from the power of the devil. He is our only Redeemer.
Ransom—Ransom is the price for redeeming. Jesus came "to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45). Hence, he became that which is given in exchange for another as the price of his redemption (1 Timothy 2:6). "Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14).
Redemption—Redemption is the act of redeeming. Christ is called "redemption," because the whole process of redemption is centered in him (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Jesus is our Redeemer—no one else can rescue us from the bondage of sin. He is also our Ransom, for he was the price paid for our redemption. And in him God graciously provided a means by which sinners can be justified.
Romans 3:25-26 : Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he weight himself be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. "Whom God set forth"— that is, publicly exhibited him. To propitiate is to appease, to render favorable. When Jacob was to meet Esau, he sent gifts to Esau to appease his wrath, to cause him to have a more favorable feeling toward Jacob. It is not meant that God was angry toward the sinner in the sense that men become angry. On the contrary, the whole plan of redemption grew out of God’s pity and compassion for sinful men. But God’s law had been violated, his authority had been disregarded, and man was under condemnation. There is, so to speak, such a thing as legal or judicial wrath. A judge and a jury may find that a man is guilty as charged in the indictment; and yet the man’s sorrow and repentance may be so manifest that both judge and jury would earnestly wish that there might be some way to clear him, and at the same time uphold the majesty of the law; but there is no way that they can show that they are right in freeing him. To maintain the law they must condemn him. Let that serve as a faint illustration. God’s law had been violated again and again; and yet in this present dispensation he was justifying sinners; and he had passed over the sins done aforetime—that is, sins committed under the former dispensation. How could he show that he was just in so doing? To ignore sins, or to treat them with indifference, would wreck his moral government. He must be just and the majesty of his law upheld. Justice demands that the guilty be punished, and the majesty of the law requires that the penalties of the law be inflicted on the guilty. How, then, could God be just in passing over the sins of the former dispensation and in justifying sinners in the present time? Only because Jesus died for us. He suffered the penalties of the violated law. Even though he paid the penalty for our redemption from sin and death, he forces no one to accept the freedom he purchased. The plan arranges only that those who now believe in Jesus may be justified. In the light of the foregoing comments re-read verses 25, 26. The death of Christ made it possible for God to be righteous in passing over the sins committed before the coming of Christ, for the sacrifices they offered pointed to Christ; the death of Christ made it possible also for God to be just while justifying sinners now, who believe in Christ. Verse 27: Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay: but by a law of faith. If a man were to live a perfect life, he would have grounds for boasting that he had always done the right thing, that no taint of sin ever soiled his spotless life, and that he stood justified on his own record. But none so lived, for all have sinned. In recognizing one’s self as a condemned sinner, there is a cause for humility, but no grounds for boasting. And the greatest ground for humility is the knowledge that an innocent Person died to save me from my own folly. Instead of being the proud possessor of a spotless character, I have to rely on another to cleanse me from my own defilement. And this depending on the innocent to justify the guilty is what Paul calls the "law of faith." This law of faith is the plan, or arrangement, in which is required faith in Jesus, who died for us.
Romans 3:28 : We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Here we may draw hurtful conclusions, if we do not keep in mind Paul’s line of argument. Paul is not contrasting faith and the obedience of faith, but he is contrasting justification by works of law and justification by faith. In chapter 1:5 he speaks of "the obedience of faith" —that is, obedience of which faith is the source or foundation—an obedient faith. Works of law is an entirely different thing from obedience of faith. When Paul talks about faith, he means an obedient faith. Many have stumbled through Romans without ever recognizing the fact that Paul makes that plain in the very beginning of his letter. To make works of law refer to the obedience of faith is to enshroud ourselves in a fog of confusion from which we will not be able to emerge with any clear ideas of the gospel plan of salvation. To be justified by works of law requires that works, as measured by law, be perfect. A sinner can never be justified by works of law, for no amount of works will change the fact that he has sinned. But the death of Christ made it possible for those who believe in him to be justified. But just here another hurtful error has been made—namely, the limiting of faith to an acceptance of him as a sacrifice for our sins. Faith is decidedly too limited in scope, if it does not include also submission to Jesus as our King; for Jesus will save no one in whose heart he is not allowed to reign as King. But the death of Jesus for all made it possible for all to be saved.
Romans 3:29-30 : Or is God the God of Jews only? is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also: if so be that God is one, and he shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. The Jews did not think that God would recognize a Gentile, unless he became a part of the Jewish nation. In their estimation he was the God of the Jews only—a tribal, or national, God. Many of the early Christians of Jerusalem taught that Gentile Christians had to be circumcised and keep the law, or they could not be saved. They could see no salvation for any but Jews; hence, they demanded that Gentile Christians become Jews. It is a pity that this tribal idea of God is now being advocated, with slight modifications, by Christians among Gentiles. Paul had much contention with those who had that conception of God. This one verse, properly considered, will destroy any such false conceptions of God. He is the God of both Jews and Gentiles—the God of all nations. He is equally related to all and all are equally related to him, for he is one. He is not one kind of God to the Jews and another to the Gentiles.
It would seem that Paul meant to make a distinction between the phrases "by faith" and "through faith," else why use the two phrases? But the distinction, if any, is too subtle for me to discover.
Romans 3:31 : Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law. With the Seventh-Day adventists "the law" means the Ten Commandments. They use this passage in an effort to prove that "the law" is not abolished in Christ, but established. But, unfortunately for their argument, the article "the" is not before law in the Greek in this verse. The marginal reading of the American Standard Version shows that to be true. "Do we then make law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish law." In claiming that "the law" is the Ten Commandments they lose their argument in this passage, for Paul does not use "the" before law in this verse. We do not make any law of none effect through faith. Law here evidently is that universal rule of right and wrong that is binding on all nations and peoples of all time. That law is established by faith.
But how do we establish law by faith? Certainly not in the sense that we set it up or make it binding. But if we come to the Lord Jesus Christ that we may be forgiven of sins committed against the universal moral law, do we not thereby show that we recognize its binding force?
Commentary On Romans Chapter Four By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 4:1-2 : What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, hath found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not toward God. To see clearly the meaning of an author it is necessary that we get his background, and be able to grasp the purpose of his writing. Why did Paul labor so earnestly to set forth the distinction between the law and the gospel and to prove that men are justified by faith, and not by works of law? In much of what he said in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews, he set forth plainly that the gospel was a thing apart from the law of Moses, that the law ended at the cross, and that the gospel is God’s perfected plan for man’s redemption. But what was back of all this effort? What special need was there for so much teaching along that line? The reader will also find some very pointed teaching along the same line in Second Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. Why was it so necessary that all the churches be informed along these lines?
The first converts to Christ were Jews. They were so wedded to the law of Moses that they broke away from it slowly. At first they thought the gospel was for Jews only. The conversion of Cornelius convinced them that God had also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life (Acts 11:18). But they still thought and contended that these Gentile Christians had to keep the law of Moses. After the church was planted at Antioch, "certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, saying, Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved" (Acts 15:1). When appeal was made to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit through them decreed that the Gentiles should not be required to keep the law. But this decree did not stop the mouths of some of these extreme Judaizing Christians. These went about among the churches, making much trouble in the churches where there were Gentile members. They sought to make the church a mere sect of the Jews and the gospel a sort of adjunct to the law of Moses. Judging from a human standpoint, they would have succeeded had it not been for Paul. Because he fought them on every point of their contentions, they were his bitter enemies.
A little thought will enable us to see that Paul’s whole line of reasoning along these lines was directed against the contention of these Judaizing Christians, and not toward the unbelieving Jews. When he dealt with the unbelieving Jews, he sought to convince them that Jesus was the Christ of whom the prophets spoke. It would have been useless to argue to one who did not believe in Jesus as the Christ that the law ended at the cross and that the Jew had become dead to the law that he might be married to Christ Jesus; but it was eminently fitting to so argue to one who believed in Christ and yet held that the law was still binding. It was necessary also to indoctrinate the churches on this point so as to limit the pernicious influence of these Judaizers.
These Judaizers put stress on their fleshly relation to Abraham and on the fleshly mark of circumcision. In effect Paul said to them: "You put so much stress on the flesh, now tell us what Abraham obtained according to the flesh. He came out of heathenism, and therefore had no fleshly connections of which he could boast, and he was also justified before he was circumcised. He was not justified by works, and therefore could not boast toward God." Then he quotes the Scriptures to remind them that Abraham was justified on a plan contrary to their contention.
Romans 4:3 : For what saith the scripture? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto- him for righteousness. This is a quotation from Genesis 15:6. Jehovah had just promised Abraham a son and a posterity as numberless as the stars, though he was old and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness." One of the strangest things in all the field of Bible exegesis is the contention so generally made that this language refers to the justification of Abraham as an alien sinner. It seems to be taken for granted that up to the time spoken of in this verse he was an unforgiven, condemned sinner. It has been argued that Paul here spoke of Abraham’s justification as a sinner and that James (James 2:21-24) spoke of his justification as a righteous man. It is surprising that any person at all familiar with the history of Abraham would so contend, for the facts are all against such a supposition. But what are the facts? For a number of years previous to the promise to Abraham of a son and numerous posterity Abraham had been a faithful servant of God. Consider carefully the following facts:
1.God had appeared to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees and commanded him to go into a land which would be shown him, and promised to bless him, and to make a great nation of him, and to bless all families through his seed (Genesis 12:1-3; Acts 7:2-3).
2."By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11:8). By faith he obeyed, and trustingly did as commanded, not knowing where he was going. Strange conduct for an unforgiven, condemned sinner!
3.When he reached the place of Shechem, in the land of Canaan, "Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him" (Genesis 12:6-7). Why this promise, and why this worship, if Abraham was then an unforgiven sinner?
4.Abraham moved on to a mountain between Bethel and Ai; "and there he builded an altar unto Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah" (Genesis 12:8).
5.After his unfortunate visit to Egypt, he returned to the altar between Bethel and Ai; "and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah" (Genesis 13:3-4). Can anyone believe that an unforgiven sinner was thus worshiping Jehovah and calling on his name?
6.When he returned from the slaughter of the kings who had taken Lot captive, Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, "blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High." As Abram was blessed, or happy, and as he was described as "Abram of God Most High," it is certain that he was not a condemned alien sinner.
7.After these things and before the promise of a son, the Lord said to him: "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward" (Genesis 15:1). That settles it. God would not tell an unforgiven sinner not to fear; neither is he the shield and exceeding great reward of such a sinner.
Why have not all these things been taken into consideration by our superexegetes? It is certain therefore that the language in Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:3 does not refer to the justification of an alien sinner, and they greatly err who so apply it. It is true that Paul was trying to convince the Jews that this justification happened before the giving of the law, but he was using this well known fact to offset their claim that a person had to be circumcised after the manner of Moses, or he could not be saved. Their own father Abraham, of whom they boasted, would be cut off by their arguments for the law.
An author whom I have been reading quotes verses 3-6 and makes this remark: "Just as Abraham was reckoned righteous, not because of his works, but because of his faith in God, so the sinner is reckoned righteous because of his faith in Christ." If the author will look a little more closely, he will see that Paul does not say that Abraham was reckoned righteous because of his faith in God. God reckons to a man only that which he has or should have. Abraham believed God, and his belief was reckoned to him, or put down to his account, or considered. Neither does the record say that faith was counted, or reckoned, as if it were righteousness, nor was it counted as a substitute for righteousness. But the record does say that Abraham’s faith was reckoned, or counted, to him for (eis, into, or in order to, or unto) righteousness. On the grounds of his faith God forgave him of whatever sins he might have been guilty, and so declared him to be righteous. If no guilt attaches to a man, if there is no sin charged against him, he is a righteous man. If a man never sinned, he would be righteous by works; if he sins and God forgives him, removes sin entirely from him, he is then righteous by grace, or favor. But the man who attains righteousness through forgiveness has no grounds for boasting. For that reason Abraham had no grounds for boasting; for the same reason none now have grounds for boasting.
Romans 4:1-3 connects back with the twenty-seventh verse of the third chapter (Romans 3:27), which says: "Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay: but by a law of faith." Moffatt’s rendering of this verse, as quoted by K. C. Moser, in "The Way of Salvation," cannot justly be considered a translation at all: "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is ruled out absolutely. On what principle? On the principle of doing deeds? No, on the principle of faith." Much is said about the "principle of faith." Now, faith is an act of the mind, or heart; and a person might as well talk about the principle of thinking or the principle of joy, as to talk about the principle of belief. Such an expression as "the principle of faith" conveys no idea to the mind. If a man’s life were as perfect as the Pharisee imagined his to be, he could boast; but if a man sins and is forgiven, there is ground for humility, but not for boasting.
Romans 4:4 : Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. The word reckon is met with so often in this fourth chapter that it is well for us to notice carefully its significance. The reward is reckoned to the person that works, because it is his due. Paul is not condemning salvation by works in this verse; he is merely stating a truth. We can rest assured that if we could so work as to bring God in debt to us to the extent of our salvation, he would pay that debt. But for that to be true, a person’s work would have to be perfect—he would have to so live as to never sin, never incur any guilt. But if a man sins once, salvation can never come to him as a debt. Such a man can never be justified by works of law. He needs forgiveness, and the law does not forgive; it condemns. No perfection of works will blot out, or forgive, a sin already committed, nor make void grace in the forgiveness of that sin.
Much random talk has been indulged in on this verse (verse 4), and much of it is very hurtful. It has been made to do service in an effort to prove that a sinner could do nothing in order to be saved. Paul had no such point in view. If we keep in mind his argument, we will have no trouble in seeing his point; but if we switch his language from his line of argument and make his language refer to the conditions on which pardon is offered to an alien sinner, we misrepresent him and lose ourselves in the confusion of our own notions. To me it seems inexcusable that a person should so misunderstand Paul as to draw the following conclusion: "Indeed, it seems to be difficult even at the present time for many to grasp the idea of righteousness that does not depend on human effort." Surely the author did not properly consider the import of his words. If a Universalist or an Ultra-Calvinist had penned such words, we would not be surprised. Not only am I not able to grasp the idea of a righteousness that does not depend on human effort, but I do not believe there is such righteousness in any human being. If a human being is made righteous without any human effort, then why are not all righteous? It is certain that the most of them are not making any effort to attain to righteousness.
Romans 4:5 : But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justtfieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. The reader will notice that Paul says nothing about "the one who depends on works," nor "the one who depends not on works." He speaks of the one who works and the one who does not work. Works must have the same significance in both cases (Romans 4:4 and Romans 4:5), for Paul had not changed his subject. Only perfect works, works without any guilt of sin, can bring salvation as a debt. The one "who worketh" is, therefore, the one whose works are so perfect that he has no guilt of sin. But no one has so lived. Hence, to the one whose work is not perfect, but who believes in Jesus Christ, God reckons, or counts his faith for (eis, in order to) his righteousness—that is, in order that, on the basis of his faith, he may forgive his sins and thus constitute him a righteous person. Let us not be so unjust with Paul as to switch his language from his line of reasoning and make it apply to the acts of obedience required in the gospel. Certainly Paul did not mean to say that God makes the person righteous who will not obey him, the person who simply does nothing. If so, he puts a premium on the very thing from which the gospel is intended to save us, and contradicts other things said by him. Paul did not have special reference to the salvation of alien sinners, as will be seen by observing his quotation from David. The connection in Psalms 32, from which Paul quotes, shows that David had special reference to his own forgiveness. He did not have in mind the forgiveness of alien sinners, but the forgiveness of a servant of God. God counts the man righteous, whose sins are forgiven. To such a man the Lord does not reckon sin, because his sins have been forgiven, and he is no longer guilty. Such a one is righteous. Paul and James. Paul says: "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). James says: "Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith" (James 2:24). Paul says: "For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory" (Romans 4:2). James says: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?" (James 2:21). Some have thought that there is a conflict between Paul and James, but rightly considered there is not even a seeming discrepancy between them. However, James does flatly contradict the explanation sometimes given to Paul’s language. Trouble comes from misunderstanding Paul or misapplying James, or both.
Paul was talking about works of law; James was talking about works of faith. Paul was showing the Judaizing Christians that no one could be righteous, or justified, by works of law, for no one kept the law perfectly, and that to be justified, or made righteous, a person must believe in Christ. To the one who does not fulfill the works of the law, but believes in God, faith is reckoned for righteousness. Paul was arguing that works without faith would not justify, and James was arguing that faith without works would not justify. To exclude either is to fail of justification. Both referred to Abraham to illustrate their points. Abraham was justified without works of law, but he was justified by works of faith. James laid down the principle that faith without works is dead, and will not justify. He used Abraham as an illustration, and then drew the broad conclusion that a man —any man—is justified by works, and not by faith only.
An effort is sometimes made to explain Paul and James by saying that Paul was talking of justification of an alien sinner, and James, about the justification of a Christian. It is argued that an alien sinner must be justified by faith only, in order that it may be by grace, and that if the sinner has to perform any conditions, his salvation is of works and not of grace. But what about the Christian? It is strange that these super-exegetes do not see that if works of faith destroy grace, then the works which they say a Christian must perform to be justified destroys all grace from the life of a Christian. Tell us, ye super-exegetes, how according to your judgment, there can be any grace in the justification of a Christian by works.
But the theory that Paul’s argument eliminates all conditions from the salvation of a sinner not only contradicts James, but Paul also. If all works are eliminated, faith itself is eliminated, for it is a work. "They said therefore unto him, What must we do, that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:28-29). And Paul tells us emphatically that eternal life is granted to those who "by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption" (Romans 2:6-7). To seek by patience in well-doing requires human effort. Again: "But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:17-18). They obeyed from the heart. That means that their faith expressed itself in obedience to God. By this obedience they were made free from sin. Here again is human effort.
Grace provided the plan by which sinners are saved, or made righteous, and grace tells us how to come into possession of that salvation. If people would quit arraying the commands of God against the grace of God, they would have a clearer vision of the scheme of redemption. God’s grace is in every command he gives. The sinner was lost; God prepared a way by which he could get out of that lost state. That was grace. But that was not enough. He needed to know how to find that way, and how to walk in it. It is as much a matter of grace to tell him how to find that way, and how to walk in it as it is to provide the way. But when the way is fully prepared, and full directions given as to how to find the way, and how to walk in it, the next move is man’s. The whole matter is strikingly illustrated by the events of Pentecost. The way had been prepared and revealed to the people; and then, in response to their question, Peter told them how to get in that way. That was all a matter of grace. Then Peter exhorted them to save themselves. Many did what was commanded and were saved. On God’s side their salvation was wholly a matter of grace. And the people were as prompt in their obedience as if their salvation were wholly a matter of works. And so far as anything they could do about it was concerned, their salvation was wholly a matter of works.
Romans 4:6-8 : Even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin. The Lord does not reckon sin, but does reckon righteousness, to the person whose sins are forgiven. The Lord reckons, or imputes, sin to the person so long as he is a sinner, and because he is a sinner. But when his sins are forgiven, the Lord does not reckon them against him anymore. The forgiven man is righteous, and hence the Lord imputes, or reckons, righteousness to him.
It has been erroneously assumed and falsely argued that to impute a thing to a person is to put to his account something he does not have, or somewhat more than he has. The Presbyterian and Baptist Confessions of Faith, and a host of theologians of both schools, teach that the righteousness of Christ is imputed, or credited, to the sinner. I was sorry to see it also taught in "The Way of Salvation." The doctrine is wholly without scriptural support. If to impute means to consider a person somewhat more than he is, or to credit him with something which belongs to another, then to impute sin to a person would be to consider him worse than he is, or to charge to him the sins of another! Righteousness belongs to character, and it is absurd to think that personal righteousness can be transferred to another. When by the power of the gospel a man has been made clean and free from sin, God reckons righteousness to him, because he is righteous. God does not pretend that a man is righteous when he is not. The denominational doctrine of imputed righteousness reminds one of the children’s game of "play-like." And their doctrine discredits the gospel as God’s saving power, and belittles the merits and efficacy of the blood of Christ, for it teaches that some corruption remains in the regenerate, but he is counted righteous because he is clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That is "play-like" theology.
But the gospel makes men righteous, just as a soiled garment may be made clean, as clean as if it had never been soiled, by carrying it through a process of cleansing. So the gospel takes the sin-defiled person through a process of cleansing that makes him as clean as if he had never sinned. The Lord does not "play-like" he is righteous; he makes him righteous by the gospel.
Romans 4:9 : Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say, To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness. "This blessing" is the blessing mentioned in Romans 4:6-8—the blessing of having the sins forgiven, so as to be counted righteous. "The circumcision" were the Jews; "the uncircumcision" were the Gentiles. Paul’s questions are equal to affirming that this blessing may be upon the Gentiles as well as upon Jews. "For we say"—that is, we all say. There is one thing upon which we all agree—namely, "To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness." And what they said was based on Genesis 15:6. It shows clearly that it was his faith that was reckoned, or put to his account, for or in order to, his righteousness. As Abraham was righteous before he was required to be circumcised, so might the Gentile, of whom circumcision had never been required, be righteous without it.
Romans 4:10 : How then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. Paul had reminded the Judaizer that Abraham was justified without the works of the law. Of course, they knew this, but may not have thought of the bearing it would have on their contention. But now they might reply that he was circumcised. To that possible objection, Paul replies that he was righteous even before he was circumcised. Abraham’s case shows that a person who had not been commanded to be circumcised could be righteous without it, and every Jew knew that Gentiles had never been commanded to be circumcised. It was possible, therefore, for them to be righteous without it.
Romans 4:11 : "And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them. Circumcision was a sign of the covenant made with Abraham; it was to be perpetuated as a sign of membership in that covenant. It did not bring one into the covenant, as some think. Every child of Jewish parentage was a member of that covenant by virtue of his descent from Abraham. "And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant" (Genesis 17:14). It could not be said that a person broke the covenant by failing to be circumcised, if he were not in the covenant.
But circumcision was more than a sign to Abraham; it was a seal of the righteousness of his faith, a stamp of God’s approval of his faith. To the Hebrews it was a sign of the covenant; to Abraham only was it a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had in uncircumcision.
Something was done that Abraham might be the father of all who believe, both of Gentiles and Jews. , What was it? It does not seem possible that Paul meant that Abraham was circumcised that he might be the father of the uncircumcised believer. Evidently, it was the righteousness of the faith which he had in uncircumcision that constituted him "the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them"— that is, he is the father of the Gentile believers, though they be not circumcised. And God reckons righteousness to them without circumcision.
Romans 4:12 : And, the father of circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision. Paul does not use the term "father Abraham" as the Jews would use it, but he uses it in its Christian sense. He does not say that Abraham is the father of the circumcision. With Paul he is not the father of Jews as such, but only of those Jews who "walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had in uncircumcision." He is the father of the believers, whether they be Gentiles or Jews. There is no difference; "for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). This accords with what Peter said in reply to the Judaizing teachers in Jerusalem: "And he made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:9).
In a national and fleshly sense Abraham was the father of the whole Jewish nation, but that is not the sense in which Paul here uses the term "father Abraham." God promised Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 22:18). We do not have to guess to whom this promise refers, for Paul says: "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16). Abraham’s seed, through whom the world was to be blessed, was Jesus the Christ, and none other. But there is a sense in which all Christians are Abraham’s seed. "And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29). In the high gospel sense contemplated in the promise made to Abraham, he is the father of only those who believe in Christ. A Jew, as such, has no part in this promise. The spiritual family of Abraham has superseded the fleshly family. God’s order is: the fleshly first, then the spiritual.
Romans 4:13 : For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. The marginal reading has "through law." The Greek has no "the" before "law" in this verse. Abraham did not receive the promise through law, evidently meaning that the promise was not given him on account of his perfectly keeping any law. That he should be the heir of the world is not definitely stated in any of the promises made to Abraham. The promise here referred to cannot be the land promise, for that promise did not include the world. And Paul’s argument in the remainder of the chapter shows that he did not have the land promise in mind. When God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, he promised to make of him a great nation, and then added the promise that refers to Christ: "And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3). That this promise includes all the nations is plainly declared when God renewed this promise to Abraham: "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 22:18). When God made the covenant of circumcision with Abraham, he referred to the promise made to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, saying: "For the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee" (Genesis 17:5). God had already constituted him a father of a multitude of nations when circumcision was commanded. In a fleshly sense Abraham was not the father of a multitude of nations; in a spiritual sense he was. Jesus was made heir of all things. Hebrews 1:1-2; Psalms 2:7-8 shows that it was the people to which Christ became heir.
Romans 4:14 : For if they that are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect. The world was not promised to Abraham’s natural seed. God promised to make of his natural seed a great nation, and to give them a definite territory, but they were not constituted the heirs of the world. The seed that was to bless the world was Christ. "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16). "Whom he appointed heir of all things" (Hebrews 1:2). With this agree the words of David: "I will tell of the decree: Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" (Psalms 2:7-8). Now, this promise of world-wide inheritance was not made to Abraham through the righteousness of the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Paul had shown the Judaizing teachers that Abraham was not righteous by law, but by faith. Now he shows briefly that the promise of the Messiah was through the righteousness of faith, and not through the righteousness of law.
"Through the law" means through the righteousness of the law, for the person who does not keep the law perfectly receives nothing through the law but punishment. "They that are of the law" means they that are righteous by law. If such are heirs, faith as a basis for righteousness is void. If the promise was made to those who would keep the law, the promise would have been of no effect, for no one kept the law; there would have been no one to whom the promise applied. All would have been subject to penalty for violating law, instead of receiving a reward for keeping it.
Romans 4:15 : For the law worketh wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression. This cannot mean that the law stirs up wrath in man toward him who gave the law. The law brings wrath upon man, because he violates it. If it were kept perfectly, it would bring the rewards of righteousness; but it brings punishment, for no one keeps it perfectly. Because men violate law, it works wrath.
Paul’s statement that there is no transgression where there is no law does not mean that there ever was a people that had no law, for he had already shown that both Jews and Gentiles were all under sin. The moral law is always in force, and applies to all. What, then, does Paul mean? No one transgresses a law that has not been given, Abraham did not transgress the law of Moses, for it had not been given in his day. Neither did he transgress the law of baptism or the Lord’s Supper. There were no such requirements in his day. Even the law of Moses was binding only on those to whom it was given. "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law" (Romans 3:19). The Gentiles were never under the law, and, therefore, never did transgress it. The Gentile Christians were, therefore, not guilty of any transgression in failing to be circumcised, or in failing to keep the law of Moses. For them there was no such law. Thus, in a few words, Paul refutes the contention of the Judaizing teachers, who demanded that the Gentile Christians be circumcised and keep the law of Moses.
Romans 4:16 : For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace; to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. The promised inheritance, in which Christians share, is of faith, instead of through the righteousness of law, that it may be according to grace. If the promise had been made on the condition that people keep the law, it would not have been sure to any one, for no one kept the law. And, had any one kept the law perfectly and thereby come into the inheritance, it would not have been by grace, but by merit. But as it is, the promise extends to all who are of the faith of Abraham, whether they be Jews or Gentiles.
Romans 4:17 : (As it is written, a father of many nations have I made thee) before whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. In the parenthesis is a quotation from Genesis 17:5. To see the force of the past tense of this quotation, it is necessary to go back and consider the events narrated in Genesis 17:1-14. Jehovah appeared to Abraham when Abraham was ninety-nine years old and said to him: "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make a covenant between me and thee." Here was a covenant about to be made, and the sequel shows that it was the land covenant, with circumcision as the sign of the covenant. Be it remembered that God had (Genesis 12:1-3) promised Abraham that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed, and also that Peter, in Acts 3:25, quotes this promise and calls it a covenant. That was not the covenant that God proposed to make with Abraham in Genesis 17:2. When this covenant was proposed, "Abraham fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations." "My covenant is with thee"—that is, he had already covenanted with him to make him a father of a multitude of nations. Hence, he says in the next verse: "the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee." He had already constituted him a father of many nations. This shows that the covenant to make him the father of a multitude of nations, which was made in Ur of the Chaldees, was distinct from the land and circumcision covenant. And Paul’s use of the statement in Genesis 17:5 shows that it was fulfilled in Christ as the Savior of the world. The law of Moses, which the Judaizing teachers were so zealously seeking to fasten on the Gentile Christians, had nothing to do with the promise, or covenant, to make Abraham the father of a multitude of nations. This is made still plainer in Galatians 3:18; Galatians 3:17 : "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Now this I say: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect," Here, again, the promise to bless the world through Abraham’s seed is called a covenant, and its absolute distinction from the law of Moses is emphasized.
God gives life to the dead. He is the source of all life, both physical and spiritual. Dead matter comes to life at his command. At the time God constituted Abraham the father of a multitude of nations, Abraham had no son. Before Isaac was born, God changed his name from "Abram," exalted father, to "Abraham," the father of a multitude. Thus he "calleth the things that are not, as though they were." Abraham is the father of all who walk in the steps of his faith.
To understand some things Paul says about Abraham’s faith and hope, it is necessary to bear in mind some facts and dates in the life of Abraham. Before he was seventy-five years old, "by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance" (Hebrews 11:8). On the way to Canaan he tarried at Haran till his father died; "and Abraham was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran" (Genesis 12:4). He was eighty-six years old at the birth of Ishmael, and one hundred years old at the birth of Isaac (Genesis 16:16, Genesis 21:5).
Romans 4:18 : Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. The promise—"so shall thy seed be" —was made to Abraham before Ishmael was born. To say that Abraham’s body was then as good as dead is to commit one to the theory that Ishmael was miraculously begotten. It is not likely that any one will take that position. Abraham was then still in possession of the full powers of his manhood. But Sarah was barren, and hence there were no natural grounds for Abraham to hope that she would ever bear a son. Yet, God had promised to make his seed as numberless as the stars. "And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). In hope he believed against hope—believed that he would become a father in spite of Sarah’s barrenness. It seems that Abraham and Sarah tried to help God out of the seeming difficulty. "And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, Jehovah hath restrained me from bearing; go in, I pray thee, into my hand-maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai" (Genesis 16:2). As a result of this step of unbelief, a son was born to Abraham by Hagar. Evidently Abraham thought that move settled the difficulty, and that Ishmael was the one through whom the promise would be fulfilled; for when God later promised that he should have a son by Sarah, he said to God: "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee" (Genesis 17:15-18). But when Jehovah informed him that his covenant would be established with the son to be rom to him by Sarah, he believed God.
Romans 4:19-22 : And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. It required strong faith on the part of Abraham to accept God’s promise that he would be the father of a son by Sarah when both were incompetent; but he had been a strong believer in God so long that his faith was able to stand the test. "He wavered not through unbelief"—he was not weakened in faith. Concerning this manifestation of faith Paul adds: "Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness." Just when Abraham first became a righteous man we do not know.
While Abraham was yet in Ur of the Chaldees, God promised him through the righteousness of faith that he should be the heir of the world (Genesis 12:1-3; Romans 4:13). How long he had been a believer in God before this promise was made through the righteousness of faith we know not. Some years later, when God promised him that his seed should be as numberless as the stars, it is said that he believed in God, and he counted it to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:5-6). But it is certain that this was not the beginning of his righteousness by faith. About fifteen years later, when God promised him that Sarah should bear him a son, whom he should call Isaac, his faith did not weaken (Genesis 17:15-21). Concerning his faith at this time Paul says: "Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness." Later, perhaps twenty-five years later, God commanded him to offer up Isaac. Again his faith failed not. Of this greatest test of his faith James says: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar? Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect; and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God" (James 2:21-23). Hence, that Abraham was righteous by faith is affirmed of him on four separate occasions, covering a period of perhaps fifty years. It is astonishing that so many Bible students have overlooked these plain and important facts. To me it seems inexcusable that any Bible student should take Genesis 15:6 as an example of the justification of an alien sinner. And it seems doubly inexcusable for the same writer to so mix events as to make Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:22 refer to the same event, and then, though the statements refer to events fifteen years apart, use both as examples of the justification of an alien! These things were not written to show how alien sinners are justified. Paul was meeting the demands of the Judaizers, who claimed that Gentile Christians had to keep the law. The justification of an alien sinner was not the point at issue, but whether a Gentile Christian had to keep the law to be justified as a Christian. It does not appear that the Judaizers denied that the Gentile believers were saved, but their contention was that Gentile Christians must, as servants of God, keep the law to be eternally saved, or to remain in a state of salvation. To offset their contention, Paul shows that all down through Abraham’s life of service to God he was righteous by faith. Note Paul’s next statement.
Romans 4:23-25 : Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sakes also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. That Abraham’s faith was reckoned unto him for righteousness was written for the sake of those who now believe. It is a guaranty that the believer’s faith will now be reckoned unto him for righteousness. We must believe in the resurrection of Christ as well as his death, for without his resurrection his death would have availed nothing. But there must be a union of faith and works. Paul shows that works without faith cannot save, and James shows that faith without works is dead, and, therefore, worthless.
A Summary.—The gospel is God’s power to save man, for in it is revealed a plan by which sinners may be made righteous. It is man’s only hope, for God’s wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Gentile and Jew were alike sinners, and could not be justified by law. But this gospel plan of righteousness was a thing apart from the law, though it was witnessed by the law and the prophets. This gospel righteousness is a state to which we attain by the forgiveness of our sins. It is, therefore, of grace and not of merit. If a man’s works were perfect, his reward would be as of debt. But if a man sins, his forgiveness and consequent righteousness cannot be otherwise than a matter of grace. No amount of works that a person may do will make his forgiveness any less a matter of grace. Salvation by grace through faith is open to all, for Christ died for all. Both Jew and Gentile believers are heirs of the promise made to Abraham. They are wrong who claim that Christians must keep the law of Moses to be justified, for Abraham was justified by faith without the law.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Five By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 5:1 : Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Or, literally, "Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God." Greek writers were more exact in the use of participles than we are. We would say, "Mounting a horse, he rode away;" but the Greeks would say, "Having mounted a horse, he rode away." The mounting preceded the riding. And in Paul’s language the justification precedes peace with God.
To justify a person is to pronounce him free from any guilt or blame. When a man through faith puts sin out of his heart and life, and submits to the will of God, he is forgiven of his sins. He is then declared to be righteous. As no guilt or blame then attaches to him, he is justified. It is evident that in Paul’s language, to be righteous and to be justified is the same thing; for he had been arguing that we are made righteous by faith, and then adds: "Having therefore been justified by faith, we have peace with God."
Paul had been arguing that we are made righteous by faith in Christ, instead of by works of the law. It was equivalent to saying that we become righteous by obedience to the gospel instead of by obedience to the law. With Paul, faith in Christ means full acceptance of Christ as he is revealed to us and the faithful ordering of our lives according to his will. They greatly err who seek to prove by Paul that we are justified by faith only, without obedience to the gospel. The phrase "justified by faith," does not warrant the conclusion that we are justified by faith only.
It is a sound principle of exegesis to find out the use a writer makes of a word or phrase, and then to interpret his language in the light of that discovery. It is not difficult to find out the use Paul makes of the phrase in question, for he uses it more than do all the other writers of the New Testament, A few of the many examples found in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews will illustrate Paul’s use of the phrase "by faith." "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." (verse 4). Every step that Abel took and every lick that he struck in preparing the altar, the wood, and the sacrifice were included in the phrase "by faith." "By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house" (Verse 7). That was a huge task, requiring many days of hard labor; but it was all done by faith. All the labor and toil expended in building that ark are included in the phrase "by faith." It was a working faith that built that ark. Justified by faith—ark built by faith. Unless a person is willing to affirm that the ark stood completed the moment Noah believed, he should not contend that a person is justified the moment he believes. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down" (Verse 30). Here the phrase "by faith" includes thirteen trips around the walls of the city of Jericho. The walls did not fall down by faith only. "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land" (Verse 29). Here the phrase "by faith" spans the channel of the Red Sea from shore to shore, and includes all that was done in the crossing. It therefore includes their baptism unto Moses, for in crossing they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). So also in our deliverance from sin the phrase "by faith" includes our baptism into Christ. Proof: "For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ" (Galatians 3:28; Galatians 3:27). They were children of God by faith in Christ because their faith had led them to be baptized into Christ. These illustrations, with many more that could be given, show us that faith is taking God at his word and doing what he commands. By taking God at his word and doing what he said, Noah built an ark; and by taking God at his word and doing what he said, we are justified. A faith that will not do whatever God commands will not justify any one. There is more rebellion than faith in the heart of one who will not do what God commands.
Romans 5:1-5 : Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness; and stedfastness, approvedness; and approvedness, hope: and hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us. In this chapter Paul sets forth the blessings of gospel righteousness, or justification. Those who are justified by faith have peace with God. All rebellion having been put out of our hearts, we are fully submissive to God; and as all sins have been forgiven, God holds nothing against us. We are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is through Christ that we have had access by faith into his grace, or favor, wherein we stand. Not only are we now at peace with God and stand in his favor, but we rejoice in the glory yet to come. On account of our exalted state we even rejoice in the tribulations which we suffer as Christians; for we know that tribulations endured work steadfastness of character. God approves steadfastness, and that gives us hope; and hope toward God does not put to shame, or disappoint us. The love of God here mentioned is the love that God has for us. The Holy Spirit, by revelation, by miracles, and by spiritual gifts, filled their hearts with the knowledge of God’s love. These are some of the blessings that come to the children of God.
Some of the blessings of gospel justification were considered in the preceding paragraphs, among which was hope. "And hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us" (Verse 5). This fact is assigned as a reason as to why this hope will not put to shame, or be disappointing, God has promised great things for the faithful Christian, and has given him the Holy Spirit as a pledge that every promise will be fulfilled. "Now he that establisheth us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). "Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 5:5). Webster defines earnest: "Something of value given by a buyer to a seller to bind a bargain."
Romans 5:6 : For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. We were weak when Christ died for us, or rather we were weak up to the time Christ died for us. The language does not mean that we are now unable to believe God nor do what he commands. It refers to man’s helplessness without the death of Christ. Men were condemned sinners, with no means of escape from sin and condemnation. They were helpless. But the death of Christ opened up the way of escape, and removed the weakness spoken of in this verse. Christ died in due time—at the time which God in his wisdom had selected. "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son" (Galatians 4:4). At the proper time Christ died for the ungodly—for those without God.
Romans 5:7 : "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: for peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die." In the strict sense of righteous, as Paul here uses the term, a righteous man is one who acts on the cold principle of justice. Such a man neither gives nor takes. He gives neither short measure nor over measure. He is the proverbial man that splits a grain of wheat that he and the man with whom he deals may each have his exact portion, regardless of the needs of the person with whom he deals. We may admire the strict honesty of such a man but we do not feel so devoted to him as to die for him. We cannot feel any deep affection for him. But the good man is more than just; he is kind, amiable, and generous. He is devoted to the welfare and happiness of others. He stirs our emotions, and gets hold of the deep affections of our heart. For such a man some might dare to die, but that would be unusual.
Romans 5:8 : "But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Here Paul shows the greatness of God’s love by contrasting it with man’s love. To die for a good man is great love. But Jesus died for sinners— for those who were his enemies. To die for those who hate and abuse us is love supreme. Jesus did that. He died even for those who mocked, scourged, and crucified him. He died that those who shed his blood might live. Never other love like that.
Romans 5:9 : "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him." As he died for us while we were enemies, thus bringing about our justification through his blood, much more shall we as his friends be saved from future wrath.
Romans 5:10 : "For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God! through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life," This is really a restatement of what was said in Romans 5:8-9. We were enemies, but were reconciled to God by the death of Jesus. His death for us opened up a way through which we could be reconciled to God, and his suffering for us so touched our hearts that we wanted to be reconciled. If he accomplished so much for us when he seemed to be so weak that his enemies put him to death, much more, that he now lives to intercede for us and to rule our hearts and our lives, shall we be eternally saved. But it is left to us as to whether we avail ourselves of the benefits of either his death or his life.
Romans 5:11 : "And not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation" We rejoice in God—rejoice in the glory of his being and the perfection of his attributes, and we rejoice in what he is to us and what he has done for us. These great benefits and blessings come to us through our Lord Jesus Christ, "through whom we have now received the reconciliation." That is, it was through the Lord Jesus Christ that we were reconciled to God.
The remaining portion of this chapter is considered very hard to understand. It is easy to see that Paul was still setting forth the blessings of gospel justification, but it is not so easy to understand some of his reasoning.
Romans 5:12 : "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned. Though Eve first ate of the forbidden fruit, Adam’s eating it completed the transgression and made it unanimous. Paul follows the usual custom of speaking of the man instead of the woman. He indulges in no reasoning as to why they sinned; he merely states the fact that they did sin. He speaks of it merely to draw a contrast between the effects of what Adam did and the effects of what Christ did; and he did this to show how the gospel of Christ more than overcomes the effects of Adam’s sin. Christianity is not concerned with the origin of sin so much as with the fact of sin. The gospel did not bring sin into the world, but it was brought into the world as the panacea for sin and all its ills. Death resulted from sin. But what death is here meant? It is true that physical death came as a result of sin, but so also does spiritual death. The context and the nature of Paul’s argument must determine which death is here meant. In this Roman letter Paul frequently uses the word death, without saying which death he means, leaving the reader to determine from the context which death he means. The context favors the idea that death in verse 12 is spiritual death. The moral and spiritual condition of man and the gospel plan of justification had been the matter under discussion. Besides, the death here mentioned passed upon all men on account of their own sins. Physical death came upon all on account of Adam’s sin, but the death here mentioned came only upon those who sinned. Facts are against the idea that all men suffer physical death on account of their own sins; but spiritual death does come in that way, and hi no other way. The condition of infants and idiots is not taken into consideration in the discussion of sin and spiritual death. They die a physical death, even though they have not sinned.
It is generally agreed that verses 13-17 (chapter 5) are parenthetical, and that the thought started in verse 12 is resumed in verse 18, Such parentheses are frequent in Paul’s writing.
Romans 5:13 : "For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law." In the Greek text there is no the before law in this verse. When Paul referred to the law of Moses, he generally, if not always, put the before law. But what does "until law" mean? R. St. John Parry, in his explanatory notes to the Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges, says that the phrase in question "equals just so far as there was law, there was sin. It has been shown (2:14, 15) that there was law, in a certain and true sense, before the law given to Moses. . . . So I take it achri nomou equals, up to the degree of law, just to the extent to which law was present." There has never been a people who were not under the moral law. From Adam on down the ages people have been under that law, have violated that law, and were, therefore, sinners. The fact that sin was in the world proves that there was law, for people are not counted sinners when there is no law. Paul’s statement that sin is not imputed when there is no law is equal to his statement that where there is no law there is no transgression. People who were not circumcised before the law of circumcision was given were not counted sinners for their failure to be circumcised, and so with any other positive command, or law. Nothing is plainer than that there was law before the law of Moses was given, and that people were sinners during that time, but they were sinners only to the extent of the law which they had.
Romans 5:14 : Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come." This does not mean that the people from Adam to Moses did not sin at all, for that would contradict other things that Paul had said, but it means that they did not sin after the likeness of Adam’s sin. They were not guilty of a sin like Adam’s sin. To say that they did not sin after the likeness of Adam’s sin is equal to affirming that they were guilty of a different kind of sin. Adam violated a positive law; these people violated the moral law. And that was not like Adam’s sin. But if the statement in verse 12, that all sinned, means that all sinned in Adam, then all did sin after the likeness of Adam’s sin. Thus, in an unexpected place, we have positive proof that we are not all guilty of Adam’s sin. Death reigned over those who were guilty of sin, but were not guilty of a sin like Adam’s sin.
Romans 5:15 : "But not as the trespass so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto. the many. The gift through Christ was not merely, as someone has said, "coextensive in application with the ruin wrought through, Adam," but abounded much more, or much beyond the evil effects of Adam’s trespass. To meet the needs of humanity it had to be more extensive in application than the ruin wrought through Adam. In addition to the evils resulting from Adam’s sin, there are the ruinous effects of our own sins that must be overcome, or else we are hopelessly lost. But Paul assures us that the blessings through Christ abound much more than the curse through the trespass of Adam; they include deliverance from our own sins.
Romans 5:16 : "And not as through one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment came of one unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification. Here the personal guilt of Adam is emphasized, but the free gift of God was not simply coextensive with the sin of Adam. The judgment came of one trespass, unto condemnation. The one trespass was the eating of the forbidden fruit, and the condemnation here mentioned is the condemnation pronounced upon Adam and Eve in the garden. (See Genesis 3). The condemnation came of one trespass, but the free gift came of many trespasses—that is, Jesus came to save us from our many trespasses as well as from the evil consequences of Adam’s sin. It is another proof that God’s grace through Christ covers a greater range of evils than the one trespass of Adam. The free gift came to save us from our many trespasses and to bring us into a state of justification.
Romans 5:17 : "For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ." The act of one brought death into the world. "Death reigned." Reigned is ingressive—that is, death began to reign. But what death? Were it not for the contrast Paul draws, we would readily conclude that he referred to physical death; but he contrasts death with the gift of righteousness, which is the spiritual life. The death that reigns through the one man Adam is overcome, or destroyed, by the gift of righteousness through Christ. It is a fact that spiritual death, as well as physical death, entered the world through the sin of Adam; and it is a fact that spiritual life entered the world through Jesus Christ. But are we all dead spiritually because Adam brought spiritual death into the world? No more than that we are all alive spiritually because Christ brought spiritual life into the world. As we do not partake of the spiritual life unconditionally, so neither do we partake of the spiritual death unconditionally. If Adam had introduced measles into the world, that would not prove that all his descendants are born with the measles! But people live in a sin-infested country, and sin is more contagious than measles. To say that people are born subject to sin is far from saying that people are born sinners. Adam was created subject to sin, and he sinned; but that does not prove that he was created a sinner, nor even with a depraved nature.
Paul speaks of the gift of righteousness; but if a person is not free to accept or reject a thing, it cannot be properly called a gift. If we merited it by the perfection of our works, it would not be a gift. It is a righteousness to which we attain through the forgiveness of our sins. We are made righteous by the cleansing power of the gospel of Christ. To that plan of righteousness we must submit. Spiritual life and spiritual death are both the results of our own choice, It is surprising that anyone ever thought that the personal righteousness of Christ is given to the believer.
Romans 5:18 : "So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. This verse connects back with verse 12. From the condemnation that came upon all men through one trespass we are released by the justification of life through the one act of righteousness of Jesus Christ. It seems certain that this one act of righteousness was the death of Christ. Hence, the justification to life frees us from the condemnation that came through the trespass of Adam. The matters of this verse are more fully stated in the next verse.
Romans 5:19 : "For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous." "The many" here includes all that arrive at the years of responsibility. Paul does not say how these were made sinners by the disobedience of Adam, nor how they are to be made righteous by the obedience of Christ. It is pure assumption to argue that the disobedience of Adam is imputed to his offspring, or that the obedience of Christ is imputed to anybody. Neither guilt nor personal righteousness can be transferred from one person to another, but the consequences of either may, to some extent, fall upon others. By his sin Adam brought about conditions that make every person subject to temptation. In this way he made sinners. Tom Paine made infidels; but that does not mean that his infidelity was imputed to others, or that they did not become infidels by their own free choice. Christ became obedient unto death (Philippians 2:8), and that act of obedience makes many people righteous. As Adam’s disobedience did not make the many sinners without their choice, so neither does the obedience of Christ make the many righteous without their choice.
Romans 5:20 : "And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly." Here again there is no the before law in the Greek text. "Law came in." This would include all divine law given before Christ—the law of Moses as well as whatever law was given before Moses. Some laws were revealed to man before the law of Moses was given. Law in this verse must refer to revealed law, instead of the moral law that is inherent in the very nature of the relations that exist among men. Law came in "that the trespass might abound." One thing is certain, and that is that God did not give laws for the purpose of making people any worse sinners. Law was given to restrain people from wrong and guide them in the right way. There is this, however: the more things law prohibits and the more things it requires, the more points there are where we may violate law. In that way law may increase the number of sins. A man might observe the moral law out of regard for himself and his fellow man, without any regard for God; but a positive law determines his attitude toward God. If a man has rebellion in his heart, positive law reveals it. Adam violated a positive law, not a moral law. Any time a person violates a positive law, he repeats the trespass of Adam; every positive command, therefore, tends to increase the trespass. The law also made people see the enormity of sin and their helplessness under its reign. This would help them to realize more and more their need of some other means of deliverance. Sin abounded in that it triumphed over the sinner, made him feel his helplessness, and offered him no hope of deliverance. Where there was law, sin abounded. On the other hand, where sin abounded, much more did grace abound.
Romans 5:21 : "That, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Sin caused death, but that is not what Paul here has in mind. Sin reigned in death—in the sphere or realm of death. That Paul is here referring to spiritual life and spiritual death is made clear by the verses that immediately follow in the next chapter. In spiritual death sin’s reign is absolute; it is the reigning monarch in every man who is dead in sins. But grace reigns through righteousness—that is, through this gospel plan of righteousness. It is God’s grace that produced this plan of righteousness; it is the power that banishes sin from the heart and leads a man in devoted service to God. The ultimate result of its reign is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Six By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 6:1 : What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? If where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, what is the consequence, or what should we do about it? Here Paul deals with a possible objection. "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" That question would naturally arise in the minds of the uninformed. Besides, some people would like to have an excuse to indulge in sin. If God’s grace abounds where sin abounds, why not keep on sinning, so that grace may abound the more?
Romans 6:2 : God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? In physical death a person no longer lives the life which he formerly lived. And so the sinner dies to the life of sin; in that life he no longer lives. A sinner dies to sin, and there is one less sinner in this world. Paul says: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). When Paul became a Christian, there was one less sinner in the world as certainly and definitely as if he had died physically and been buried at Damascus. And that death is repeated every time a person becomes a Christian. How shall we continue in sin, since we are dead to sin?
Romans 6:3 : Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Paul takes for granted that they knew they had been baptized into Christ, but asks if they were ignorant of the fact that, in being baptized into Christ, they were thereby baptized into his death. He plainly implies that if they knew they had been baptized into the death of Christ, they should know that they should no longer continue in sin. To be baptized into Christ is the same as to be baptized into the name of Christ, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, into the remission of sins, and into the death of Christ. We are not baptized into the literal death of Christ, but into the benefits of his death, including the freedom from sin. A person is not completely dead to sin till he is separated from it, and that separation takes place in baptism.
Romans 6:4 : We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the father, so we also might walk in newness of life. In baptism there is a burial, an immersion in water. No other act would so fitly represent the complete ending of a life of sin. If there was no other source of knowledge as to how baptism was performed, this text should settle the matter beyond doubt. There is no burial in sprinkling and pouring a little water on a person’s head, but there is a burial in immersion in water. Without going into a lengthy discussion of the subject, we call attention to three lines of evidence, each one independent of the others and each conclusive within itself.
The Lexicons. Thayer defines baptisma: "Immersion, submersion." Thayer is a recognized standard authority. As other lexicons agree with Thayer, it is useless to fill our limited space with quotations from them.
History. Concerning baptism in the first century, Mosheim says: "In this century baptism was administered in convenient places, without the public assemblies; and by immersing the candidate wholly in water." With this testimony other historians agree.
Circ*mstantial Evidence. If we could step back to the days of the apostles and see them baptize people, the matter would be settled. But we cannot be eyewitnesses to a first-century baptism, However, the circ*mstances connected with baptism then are so fully recorded that we should have no trouble in seeing that people were then immersed in water. Many a man has been convicted on circ*mstantial evidence less conclusive than can be presented in favor of immersion.
John the Baptist baptized the people in the river Jordan (Mark 1:5). If you notice the marginal reading in verse 9, you will see that John baptized Jesus into the Jordan. (See American Standard Version). John could have dipped Jesus into the Jordan, but he could not have sprinkled or poured him into the Jordan. And verse 10 says he came up out of the water. Later "John was baptizing in Ænon near to Salim, because there was much water there" (John 3:23). It does not require much water to sprinkle or pour, but it does require much water to immerse. When Philip baptized the eunuch, they came to a certain water, they both went down into the water, the baptizing was done while they were in the water, then they came up out of the water (Acts 8:36-39). When people are immersed, they go to the water, the administrator and candidate both go down into the water, the baptizing is done while they are in the water, they then come up out of the water; but not so when people are sprinkled or poured. In baptism the body is washed in water (Hebrews 10:22). The evidence is conclusive. Add to this Paul’s statement that we are buried in baptism, and assurance is made doubly sure, even though we did not know the meaning of the Greek word for baptism, nor what the historians, commentators, and critics say.
The New Life. Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father; even so are we raised up from our burial in baptism to walk in newness of life, or in a new life. We begin to walk in the new life after we are baptized. We were baptized into death, and are raised to a new life. We are baptized into Christ, "in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." In Paul’s language, redemption is forgiveness of sins. It is according to God’s grace that we have the forgiveness of our sins in Christ, and not out of him. When a person is forgiven, there is nothing then against him. He then stands justified in God’s sight—"being justified freely by his grace through the redemption (forgiveness) that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24) But it is faith that leads us to be baptized into Christ, in whom we have forgiveness and consequent justification. It is by such faith that we are justified, and it is according to grace that it should be so. "For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ" (Galatians 3:26-27). They were sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for their faith had led them to put on Christ in baptism. In baptism, therefore, we become closely united with Christ.
Romans 6:5 : "For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." In being buried in baptism there is a likeness of his death; so also there is a likeness of his resurrection in our being raised from baptism to a new life. Hence, in being baptized we are united with him in the likeness of his death and resurrection. We are, therefore, partakers with him in death, and also in being raised to a new life. Jesus was buried and arose to a new life; we are buried in baptism and arise to a new life. These verses show the act of baptism, and also its spiritual value.
Romans 6:6 : "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin." Paul continues the analogy between Christ’s death and our death to sin. Christ was crucified—"our old man was crucified." What is the old man that was crucified? Some say: "Our corrupt nature." But Paul does not view our nature as corrupt. Besides, our nature is not put to death in the process of conversion to Christ. Read the verse again and you will see that "our old man" and "the body of sin" are the same thing, for certainly "our old man" is not crucified in order that something else might be put to death. If we will keep in mind what Paul had been saying, we will see that to crucify the old man is the same thing as to die to sin. Of himself Paul said: "I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20). Paul the sinner died. What was true of him is true of every one who becomes a Christian. The old man, the body of sin, is the sinner. Every time a person becomes a Christian, a sinner dies. We die as sinners and are raised up as saints. In verse 2, Paul affirms that we died— died to sin; we are then raised to a new life. We are then no longer the bondservants of sin. When a bondservant, or a slave, dies, he passes from under his master. His master no longer has dominion over him.
Romans 6:7 : For he that hath died is justified from sin. Or, according to the marginal reading in the American Standard Version, "For he that hath died is released from sin." Meyer translates it, "Whosoever is dead, is acquitted from sin." If a slave died, he is free from service to his master. If a slave of sin dies to sin, he is free from service to his master. Sin rules him no more. Thus, in verses 2-7, Paul answers the question of the first verse—namely, "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?"
Romans 6:8 : But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Paul is not here referring to life with Christ in the world to come. He is stating a present, general truth. "The future tense does not necessitate a reference to the future life, and in the context such a reference is very unnatural; it is rather the logical future tense marking the new life as fulfilling a promise or natural consequence." Note in Cambridge Greek Testament. We died to sin, and were raised to a new life. This new life we live with Christ. We must live with him as our guide, as our Teacher, as our High Priest, and as our King. We cannot, therefore, continue in sin.
Romans 6:9 : Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him. Knowing that Christ was raised from the dead to die no more gives us assurance that we shall live with him. If we feared that he would die again, our faith would be too defective to sustain us in our Christian life; we would certainly fall by the wayside, and cease to live with him. In fact, if a person does not believe that Christ arose from the dead to die no more, he does not believe in him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Death had dominion over Christ while he was in the grave. He forever threw off that dominion when he arose from the dead. Spiritual death lost its dominion over us when we died to sin and arose to righteousness.
Romans 6:10 : For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God. "Once" is from a word that means once for all, as may seen by noticing the marginal reading in the American Standard Version. It denies a repetition of the act. Jesus died once for all time. "But he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:12). This verse connects directly with the preceding verse. Jesus will die no more, for in the death that he died, he died for sins once for all time. He now lives unto God—unto the glory and honor of God. As Christians live with Christ, they also live so as to honor God. Hence, the admonition of the next verse.
Romans 6:11 : "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus." A person is either dead to sin or he is not. If he is dead to sin, he is admonished to so consider himself. If we have not died to sin, we cannot in truth reckon ourselves dead to sin; but the person who is dead to sin should so count himself, and act accordingly. We are also to reckon ourselves alive to God in Christ. We are, therefore, to reckon ourselves as both dead and alive—dead to sin and alive to God. Hence, we cannot continue in sin.
Romans 6:12 : "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof." Paul addresses that part of man which has the control of the body and which is, therefore, responsible for what the body does. The body is a mere instrument to be used by the inner man, the spirit, for good or bad. The spirit is charged not to let sin control the body. Our natural appetites and passions are not evil within themselves. They are God-given, and become evil only when they become the master, and thereby lead us into sinful thoughts and deeds. Now, since we died to sin, we are not to allow sin to reestablish its reign in our bodies. We must control the lusts of our bodies, not obey them. The mortal body, the body which must die, must not be allowed to cause spiritual and eternal death.
Romans 6:13 : "Neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." This language shows plainly that when we sin, the members of our body are mere instruments through which the inner man accomplishes its purposes. The instrument used in committing a crime cannot be blamed for the crime. God gave the human being certain appetites and passions for his own preservation and for the perpetuity of the human race; but the purpose to hold them in check, or the plans to gratify them either in a lawful or unlawful way, are formed in the heart. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). Obedience is from the heart. The spirit expresses itself through the body. Not one thing can be done in service to God without the use of the body. Hence, we are commanded to present our "members as instruments of righteousness unto God." And so also does the spirit sin through the instrumentality of the body. Though committed through the instrumentality of the body, sin comes from the heart. "For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man (Mark 7:21-23). As all sins come from the heart, or spirit, of man, it is absurd in the extreme for anyone to claim, as some do, that the body of a regenerated man may sin, but his spirit remains pure and sinless. Certainly the body, being merely an instrument, is not responsible for the sin; and if the spirit of the regenerate is not responsible for the sin, it would seem that a regenerate man is not in any sense responsible for any wrong that he does!
Romans 6:14 : For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace. The reign of sin over us has been broken by our death to sin, and through grace our sins have been forgiven. We are free from sin, and can, therefore, present our members to God as instruments of righteousness. It is not as if we had no escape from sin; for we are under grace, not law. Sin would have dominion over us if we had no means of escape from it, but through grace there is a way of escape from sin. Law does not free us from sin; it condemns the sinner. Under the reign of Christ sin does not have dominion over any one till he submits to its control and does not seek forgiveness. How can sin have dominion over one who abhors it, turns from it, and seeks forgiveness in God’s appointed way? This verse does not mean that we are free from all law. Grace predominates. Where law condemns, grace makes pardon possible. If we were under no law, we would be guilty of no sin, and there would be no need of grace to forgive our sin. This verse is a figure of speech in which the less is denied so as to emphasize the greater. We are not merely under law, but more especially under grace.
Romans 6:15 : What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. As Paul proceeds with his argument in this letter, he anticipates and meets arguments or objections that might be presented by Judaizing teachers. Since we are under grace, not law, someone might contend that this would give us liberty to go on sinning. But grace to forgive our sins and to help us overcome sin is not license to indulge in sin, Grace does not grant indulgences. Grace does not give license to indulge in sin, but grants to us a way of escape from sin.
The gospel teaching that we are not under law, but under grace, does not give liberty to continue in sin. Certainly the gospel of God’s grace, which is God’s power to save people from sin, would not encourage people to sin. Besides, those who think that the gospel teaching concerning law and grace gives license to sin overlook the fact that there is a principle of service involved. Whose servant are you? Whom do you serve?
Romans 6:16 : Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Although we have been bought from the bondage of sin by the blood of Christ, God does not force us to accept the freedom bought for us. In those days captives in war were forced into slavery. Such men had no choice. But it is not so under the reign of Christ. We are not forced to be servants of sin, nor does God force us to be servants of righteousness. A man presents himself as a servant of sin or as a servant of righteousness. But Paul was here writing to Christians, and his language is a warning to us not to indulge in sin on the grounds that we are not under law, but under grace. To do so is to become servants of sin. The life we live determines whose servants we are. To become servants of sin leads to death, but gospel obedience leads to righteousness. And the language of Paul shows that the Christian is as free to choose whom he will serve as is the alien sinner. To say that the Christian will always choose to continue his service to God is to beg the question, and to make this verse and the remaining part of the sixth chapter without point or reason.
Romans 6:17-18 : But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. The King James Version: "But God be thanked, that ye were servants of sin, but ye have obeyed," etc. Paul did not thank God for the fact that they had been sinners, but for the fact that the sinful part of their lives was a thing of the past. They had been servants of sin, but were not now; they had been delivered from sin. When they became free from sin, they became servants of righteousness; and they became free from sin by obeying from .the heart the form, pattern, or mold, of doctrine into which they had been delivered. James MacKnight makes this comment: "The original word tupos, among other things, signifies a mold into which melted metals are poured to receive the form of the mold. The apostle represents the gospel doctrine as a mold, into which the Romans were put by their baptism, in order to their being fashioned anew. And he thanks God that from the heart—that is, most willingly and sincerely —they yielded to the forming efficacy of that mold of doctrine, and were made new men, both In principle and practice." The mold of doctrine is something to which they had already become obedient, and by that obedience had been delivered from the slavery of sin and had become the slaves of righteousness. In other words, by this obedience they had changed masters. It was not simply an inner condition of the heart that had made this change, but obedience that came from the heart. That obedience is spoken of in verses 3-6. The death, burial, and resurrection is the fundamental doctrine. In his death he was buried, and then arose from the dead. In our death to sin we are buried with him, and then are raised up to a new life. The thing that caused Paul to be thankful to God was the fact that, in their obedience from the heart to this mold of doctrine, they had been made free from the slavery of sin and had become slaves of righteousness.
Romans 6:19 : I speak after the manner of men became of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Because they were slow to comprehend spiritual relations, he uses the customs of men as an illustration to enable them to see that, though they were not under law, but under grace, they had no more liberty to continue to serve sin than a man had to continue to serve one master after he had been transferred to another. Formerly they had presented their members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity. Uncleanness has reference to the degrading immoral practices so common among sinners, such as lewdness, drunkenness, etc. The word from which we have "iniquity" means lawlessness, and has reference to their former attitude toward God. They did not regard his law. As they formerly lived an unclean and lawless life, they are now to present their members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Formerly their members had been used in worldly living; now they are to separate them from such worldly uses and dedicate them to the service of God. And that is sanctification. In so doing, they, as Paul admonishes in Romans 12:1, present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God,
Romans 6:20 : For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. This does not mean that there was then no obligation resting upon them to do right, for in that case they would not have committed sin in not doing right. They were free from righteousness in the sense that they were not practicing righteousness. The implication is: since they have become servants of righteousness, they should live free from the practice of sin, just as they were once free from righteousness.
Romans 6:21 : What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. Why should anyone think of living in sin because he is not under law, but under grace? What advantage did you get out of that sort of life? The end—that is, the result—of such a life is death—eternal death.
Romans 6:22 : But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. The fruit of being made free from sin and becoming servants to God is sanctification here and eternal life in the world to come. Even if you were permitted to go back under sin, would it pay? Compare the fruits of righteousness and the fruits of sin.
Romans 6:23 : For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Sin pays wages—God makes a free gift. If you serve sin, you need not doubt as to what your wages are to be, nor as to whether you will be paid in full. The final reward for your service to sin is eternal death. And if you serve sin, you must look to sin for your wages. Eternal life is a free gift of God. No man can perform service that will entitle him to eternal life as wages; it comes as a free gift to those who love and serve the Lord. No, a man should not sin, even if he Is not under law, but grace.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Seven By R.L. Whiteside
Note.—Some of the efforts to explain Romans 7:1-6 have not been very helpful The meaning is sometimes obscured by injection into the passage things that the Holy Spirit did not put into it, Paul was not teaching a lesson on the relation of husband and wife, but was using that well-known relationship as an illustration to show the brethren their relation to the law and to Christ. There is always one main point of comparison in an illustration, and to seek to extend the illustration to points not intended by the user is confusing. What is the purpose of Paul’s marriage illustration? He still has in mind freedom from the law, and whether that freedom permits the Christian to sin (Romans 6:14-15). His illustration not only shows that we are free from the law, but that Christians are bound to Christ. He now is our master.
Verse 1: Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? Law, in the parentheses, has no the before it in the Greek: "I speak to those who know law"—who know both the purpose and the limits of law, any and all law, including the law of Moses. Paul credits them with knowing that the law has dominion over a man so long as he lives, and no longer. The law is the law of Moses, though what is here affirmed of the law of Moses is true of any law under which a man lives. When a man dies, the law governs him no longer—he is dead to the law, and the law is dead to him.
Romans 7:2 : For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. This is the general law of marriage. Whatever exceptions there might be are not here taken into consideration, for they had no part in the truth that Paul was illustrating. It was intended that both parties to a marriage should be faithful to their marriage vows, and that only death should separate them. If they remained true to each other, only death could separate them. As Paul was using this illustration to show that the brethren were released from the law so as to be married to Christ, it is easy to see why he speaks of the wife’s obligations instead of the husband’s. The death of the husband releases the wife from the law of her husband—that is, it releases her from the law that bound her to that husband.
Romans 7:3 : So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man. Here again is a fixed law concerning the marriage relation. When one pledges one’s self to another in marriage, it is a base thing to break the marriage vows by immoral practices. But let us not forget that Paul is using this marriage relation to illustrate a principle that is involved in our relations to the law and to the Christ. Our close union with the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul, by a figure of speech, speaks of as marriage to him. The relation of the people of Israel to Jehovah under the Old Testament was frequently spoken of under the same figure of speech. When the people then turned from Jehovah to worship idols and to mix in the religions of other people, Jehovah accused them of being guilty of whor*dom and adultery. "She committed adultery with stones and with stocks" (Jeremiah 3:9). "With their idols have they committed adultery" (Ezekiel 23:37). So long as the law was of force, they could not be married to another.
Romans 7:4 : Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. This is the application of the principle set forth in the marriage illustration. They became dead to the law that they might be joined, or married, to Christ. They became dead to the law through the body of Christ—that is, through the death of the body of Christ. It would be difficult to understand how they became dead to the law through the body of Christ were it not for light gained from other passages. People became dead to the law when it ended, or was abolished. "For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby" (Ephesians 2:14-16). The law of Moses is here called the enmity between Jew and Gentile, because it acted as a barrier between them. Paul here affirms that this enmity was slain by the cross, or by the death of Christ on the cross. "Having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14). The law had dominion over those under it so long as it lived, but it was abolished at the cross. They then became dead to it, for it no longer had dominion over them. It is well to notice that this passage definitely settles two things: (1) They were not married to Christ before his death —the law was taken out of the way at the cross that they might be joined to the risen Christ. (2) When Paul wrote this letter, these Roman brethren had been joined to Christ. That is made clear by the fact stated: that they were joined to Christ that they might bring forth fruit unto God It is certain that Christians are expected to bear fruit in this life. But the marriage, or joining, to Christ precedes the fruit bearing. Verse 6 shows that the bearing of fruit is done in serving God in newness of the spirit. Besides, if the closeness of the relationship that existed between Jehovah and the Jews was spoken of as a marriage, certainly the closer union between Christ and his followers would also be spoken of as a marriage. In another place Paul uses the marriage relationship to illustrate the close union between Christ and the church (See Ephesians 5:22-33). Notice specially verse 23: "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the Church, being himself the Savior of the body." Here is a comparison: The husband is head of the wife, as Christ is head of the church— in the same manner as Christ is head of the church. How could that be if, as some say, the church is now only espoused to Christ? That Paul in this entire passage is using the marriage relation to illustrate the relationship existing between Christ and the church is evident to any unbiased reader. Verse 32 shows conclusively that such is his purpose: "This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church." So, then, in speaking of husband and wife, he was by way of illustration speaking of Christ and the church
Romans 7:5-6 : For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we have been discharged from, the law, having died to that wherein we were held, so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. "Flesh" here does not mean the human body, for their being "in the flesh" was a thing of the past. Paul’s marriage illustration to show their relation to the law and to Christ shows that he had in mind the Jewish brethren. No others were delivered from the law that they might be joined to Christ, "In the flesh" refers to the time they were under the law of Moses, for Paul immediately adds by way of contrast: "But now we have been discharged from the law." They had been "In the flesh" but had been "discharged from the law." It is not strange that Paul spoke of them as "in the flesh" during the time they were under the law. The old covenant was a flesh covenant. They were members of the covenant by virtue of their flesh connection with Abraham, and circumcision in the flesh was a sign of membership in that covenant.
"Sinful passions," or passions of sin. Our passions are not essentially sinful, and they certainly did not come to us through the law of Moses—the law of Moses did not create passions. They are sinful only when they lead us to do things contrary to God’s will. In this way they became sinful through the law—that is, through the violation of the law. These sinful passions work through our bodies to bring forth fruit unto death.
The statement that they had been discharged from the law is a positive declaration that they were no longer under the law. They had died to that wherein they were held, and had no longer any connection with it. "Newness of the spirit" is the new life of the spirit into which they were raised at their baptism (Romans 6:4). The "oldness of the letter" was the old law, They were not then serving God in the law of Moses. But Sabbatarians tell us that the terra law in these verses does not include the Ten Commandments. The next verse shows them to be wrong.
Romans 7:7 : What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Hence, the law Paul had in mind included the command, "Thou shalt not covet," which itself was one of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were a part of that law from which these brethren had been delivered. Because people violated the law, and thereby became sinful, did not prove the law to be sinful. The law defined and condemned sin. Paul had not known coveting—that is, he had not known the real nature of coveting—had not the law said, "Thou shalt not covet." Then he knew coveting—knew the nature of it, knew it to be sin. At the time Paul learned coveting to be sinful he was under the law of Moses, and it was his only source from which to learn the nature of coveting. Any one can now learn from the gospel of Christ the sinfulness of coveting. In fact, the gospel of Christ condemns coveting as idolatry, and thus condemns coveting more severely than does the law.
Romans 7:8 : But sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for apart from the law sin is dead. James MacKnight translates this verse: "But I say that sin taking opportunity under the commandment, wrought effectually In me all strong desire. For without law sin is dead." The Authorized Version reads: "But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead." Many others render the verse substantially the same as do MacKnight and the Authorized Version. It is a fact that the phrase, "by the commandment," or "through the commandment," in the Greek text, comes before wrought, and seems to connect directly with "taking occasion." This makes the commandment only the occasion for sin to assert itself. The commandment was only the occasion for sin to override the authority of God. It is certain that God’s command was not the source of the evil desires. Let it be remembered that sin is here personified, and represented as an enemy that is trying to get us into trouble. There is no occasion for anyone to think that a command of God creates or stirs up evil desires. The desire was there, even if God had issued no command, but became an evil desire when it sought to override the command. Hence, "without the law sin was dead." As sin is lawlessness, sin would not be operative where there is no law. Neither does law apply to a person who is not responsible for his deeds. To such a person there is really no law, and, therefore, no sin.
Romans 7:9 : And I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The only time Paul was without law was during the years of his childhood, before he reached the years of accountability. On this verse the Cambridge Greek Testament makes the following clear comment: "’I was living unaffected by law once.’ He goes back to a pre-moral state—not necessarily in actual memory of a complete non-moral experience, but comparatively; his life as a child was untouched by numberless demands of law, which accumulated with his moral development; at that period whole regions of his life were purely impulsive; one after another they came under the touch of law, and with each new pressure of law upon his consciousness, the sphere, in which it was possible to sin, was enlarged. It was easy to carry this retrospect one step beyond memory, and to see himself living a life of pure impulse before the very first voice of law reached him, and to regard such a stage as a typical stage in the general development of the moral sense in man." The command came to Paul when he began to realize his own individual responsibility in the matter of obeying God. Then "sin revived." Sin sprang to life. It does not mean that sin came to life again. The Greek student will recognize the perfective function of the preposition prefixed to the word translated revived, and that instead of changing the meaning of the verb, adds to it force and vividness—sin came much alive. And then he died spiritually. But we are told that a person is born totally depraved—born dead in trespasses and sins. It would be interesting to hear one of those advocates of hereditary total depravity tell us when Paul was alive without the law and when he died spiritually.
Romans 7:10 : And the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death. The commandment was meant to lead him in the way of life; but when he disobeyed that commandment, the curse of the law, the penalty of death, came upon him. Obedience to the commandment was life; disobedience brought death. This is not strange, for many things that are essential to life bring death when abused. The decree of the law was: Obey, and live; disobey, and die.
Romans 7:11 : For sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me. In the King James Version this verse reads: "For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." Notice the difference in the punctuation. The reader of the Bible should know that punctuation marks were not in use when the Bible was written, and that in using them now the translators place them so as to show what seems to them the proper construction of the sentence. The translators of the American Standard Version thought the phrase, "through the commandment," should modify "deceived"—deceived through the commandment; the King James translators thought it should modify "taking occasion"—taking occasion by the commandment. In this instance I prefer the King James Version, for I can see how the devil would take occasion through a command of God to lead a person to disobey that command, but I cannot see how he could deceive a person through a command of God. Yet some seriously argue that Paul was deceived through the commandment, and yet we wonder if the person who so argues does not have any misgivings as to the correctness of his contention. There is another peculiarity in the contention of those who so argue. Without seeming to be conscious that they shift their ground a little, the advocates of this position tell us that a command of God stirs up in a sinner a feeling of rebellion against whatever God commands. But if a person is led by deception to disobey God, then he does not disobey through a rebellious spirit. But do God’s commands really stir in the sinner a determination not to do what God commands and to do what he forbids? Does anyone really think that the command, "Thou shalt not kill," ever made any one want to commit murder? Did the command, "Thou shalt not steal," ever make any one want to slip out at night and steal?
Paul used his own experience as typical of the experiences of all other people. The truth he set forth is illustrated in the case of Eve, Concerning the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God said to Adam and Eve: "Thou shalt not eat of it." By his lying speech Satan deceived her. He did not deceive her by means of the commandment, but took the commandment as an occasion to approach her, and to deceive her into believing it would be greatly to her advantage to eat the fruit. Death was the penalty for that disobedience. Hence, the devil seized the occasion, or opportunity, presented by that command, and by his artful speech deceived her, and by the command slew her. It certainly was not inherent depravity that caused her to sin. So nearly did her case parallel Paul’s that we can say of her substantially what Paul said of himself: Satan, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived Eve, and by it slew her. And so of all others.
Romans 7:12 : So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. This is the conclusion to his answer to the question a Jew might ask: "If we had to be delivered from the law before we could be made free from sin, does that mean that the law is sin?" Sin and death had come through a failure to keep the law. But what is the difference between the law and the commandment? Law includes all the rules and regulations covering man’s duties and obligations; commandment is any specific requirement. The law was given to promote holiness, and so was any specific commandment. The commandment was also just in its demands, and good in its results. But this raises another question.
Romans 7:13 : Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;—that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful. The commandment which was just, and intended for good, did not work death. Sin brought death through the good commandment that sin might appear in its true nature, and in that way appear to be exceeding sinful. Not only does sin by deceit make the good commands of God instruments of death, but also by deceit converts the choicest gifts of nature into instruments of sin, and even death. In its results sin shows its destructiveness. A good law is not to blame, if people disobey it and bring punishment upon themselves.
Romans 7:14 : For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. The law is spiritual, because it appeals to the inner man—the spirit of man. Likely the worldly-minded Jew saw nothing in the law but forms and ceremonies, but the pious and faithful recognized its appeal to the heart. The first and fundamental requirement of the law is stated in these words: "Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart" (Deuteronomy 8:5; Deuteronomy 8:8). "But I am carnal, sold under sin." Was Paul here speaking of himself as a Christian? Was he as a Christian "sold under sin"? In verse 9 he spoke of the time when sin entered his life, and he died. He then explains that sin, not the law, caused this spiritual death. Sin is here personified, and Paul represents himself as having been sold to sin as a slave. But if he referred to his past experience, why did he use the present tense? Because he was merely speaking of himself as a type of all who were under the bondage of sin. The following from MacKnight is worth considering: "Because the apostle in this passage uses the first person, ’I am sold,’ etc., Augustine in the latter part of his life, and most of the commentators after his time, with many of the moderns, especially the Calvinists, contend that in this, and in what follows, to the end of the chapter, the apostle describes his own state at the time he wrote this epistle, consequently the state of every regenerated person. But most of the ancient Greek commentators, all the Arminians, and some Calvinists, held that though the apostle speaks in the first person, he by no means describes his own state, but the state of an unregenerated sinner awakened, by the operation of law, to a sense of his sin and misery. And this opinion they support by observing that in his writings the apostle often personates others (See Romans 13:11-13). Wherefore, to determine the question, the reader must consider to which of the two characters the things written in this chapter best agree; and, in particular, whether the apostle would say of himself, or other regenerated persons, that ’they are carnal, and sold under sin.’" Would he also say of himself as a Christian, "Wretched man that I am"? And would he as a Christian exclaim, "Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death"? (See verse 24). Then notice that in the next verse he thanks God that deliverance comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. To take it that Paul in his own person describes the condition of the unregenerated sinner presents less difficulties than to suppose that he was describing his condition as a Christian. The sinner’s conflict is next described.
Romans 7:15 : For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do. Some commentators think the first clause should read: "For what I do I approve not," But that has the appearance of being a translation made to escape a seeming difficulty. Lard thinks that ginosko sometimes, though rarely, means to approve, and adds: "Now, I hold that to render the word know, in the present clause, is to make the apostle not only contradict himself, but speak like a simpleton. ’For what I do, I know not.’ If a man know not what he is doing, he is demented. This will not do for Paul." But Lard, with others, misses the significance of the word know. It does not mean simply to be conscious of the particular act one is performing, but also to grasp the nature and consequences of what one is doing. No sinner does that. When Paul was persecuting Christians, he was conscious of his acts, but was utterly ignorant of the nature and consequences of his deeds. "Howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Timothy 1:13). He did not know that every act he performed in persecuting the church was a crime against God and man; he thought he was doing right. He, therefore, did not know what he was doing—what he was accomplishing. When Jesus was on the cross, he prayed: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," These men knew they were engaged in the act of crucifying a man called Jesus; they did not know that they were crucifying the Son of God. They did not know what they were doing. "And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers" (Acts 3:17). "For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). Now, these men were not demented. They knew they were putting a person to death; yet they did not know what they were doing. If a sinner really knew the full nature and awful consequences of the life he is living, he would quickly turn away from it.
The correctness of the foregoing remarks will be more easily seen if the reader is able to note a peculiarity of this verse. "Do" occurs twice, and each time from a different Greek word, and "practice" is from still another word, and these words are:
katergadzomai—to effect, accomplish, achieve, etc.
Prasso—to exercise, practice, be busy with, carry on, etc.
poieo—to produce, construct, form, fashion, to make, etc.
And so it is seen that these words mean more than simply to perform one act. It will be helpful exercise if you will take your pencil and reconstruct this verse, using different definitions each time you write it. Try this: "For that which I accomplish I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I produce." The sinner does not know what he accomplishes by a life of sin. He cannot so much as know how far reaching is the influence of his life of sin. In his thoughtful moments he desires a different life from the things he practices, but without Christ, sin has him under its dominion. He may delight in gratifying his flesh, but he hates the results produced by his dissipation.
Romans 7:16 : But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. The law demands a decent, upright life. He wished to live that kind of life, knowing that it is really the best life; and so he agreed that the law was good. But the sinner, helpless without Christ, goes contrary to what his better self desires.
Romans 7:17 : So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. This verse furnishes conclusive evidence that Paul is not, in these verses, representing the condition of the Christian, for it certainly cannot be said that sin dwells in the Christian. The Holy Spirit dwells in the Christian, and it is not possible that the Holy Spirit and sin inhabit the same dwelling place. True, sin slips in at times when the Christian is off guard, as a thief might slip into your dwelling place. He who dwells in a house has charge of the house. To say that sin dwells in a person is to say that sin has the control of him. When sin enters into a Christian, it enters as an intruder and not as a dweller.
But Paul’s language does not free the sinner from responsibility for his conduct. His language is a figure of speech, often found in the Bible, in which one member of a sentence is negative in order to emphasize the other member. Here is an illustration: "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me" (John 12:44). We would say: "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me alone, but also on him that sent me." And so with Paul: "So now it is not I alone that do evil, but rather it is sin that dwells in me." His urge to follow the flesh was greater than his desire to do what his moral judgment dictated.
Paul makes a distinction between his real self and the sin which dwelt in him. Had he held to the doctrine that total depravity was an inherent part of everybody born into the world, he could not have made that distinction. If sin is a part of our nature, then no one could think of himself as distinct from sin. I dwell in 9 house, but the house was not made with me in it. Paul locates the time when sin enters a person. "I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Verse 9). Sin enters a person when he first becomes responsible before God and violates his law, and then it dwells in him till he is redeemed from its bondage.
Romans 7:18 : For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. Paul affirms that no good thing dwells in his flesh. Here again he makes a distinction between the inner man and the flesh. In and of itself, aside from the intellect, the flesh is neither morally good nor morally bad. The flesh, the animal part of man, is a bundle of appetites and passions, which lead to sin only when they have enlisted the mind to plan and execute methods of self-gratification in an unlawful way. For that reason an idiot or a crazy person is not responsible for his deeds. The mind must have a part in any deed for it to be either morally good or morally evil. A normal person under law, whether the moral law or the law of Moses, but without Christ, has a desire to do good, but has not the ability to throw off sin and lead a pure life. Paul used himself as an example of all such characters. To make the lesson forceful, he pictures himself as under the law, and without redemption through Christ.
Romans 7:19 : For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice. Practically a repetition of Romans 7:15. That could not be said of Paul as a Christian. Of himself as a Christian he said: "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believed" (1 These. 2:10).
Romans 7:20 : But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. This verse is almost a repetition of verse 17. Even when the alien sinner would do good, he finds that sin hinders him. Paul is picturing the helplessness of the sinner without Christ—without the regenerating and saving power of the gospel. Here again is emphasized the need of the power of the gospel. The inward man, the spirit, in its contest with the passions of the flesh is helpless without the gospel.
Romans 7:21 : I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. This verse has given commentators no end of trouble. Some think that the law is the law of Moses; others, that it is the rule of sin. But to say that it means the rule of sin involves Paul in great confusion in the use of the term the law. By that term, when not restricted by other words, he had constantly designated the law of Moses. There is no indication that Paul meant anything else in this verse. But to take it that he referred to the law of Moses involves us in a difficulty as to what the verse means, unless we adopt the marginal reading of the American Standard Version, or a similar reading. If we adopt the marginal reading, we have: "I find then in regard of the law, that to me who would do good, evil is present." This is in harmony with what Paul had said about the condition of a person under the law and, without Christ. Such a person endorsed the law, but sin hindered him from carrying out what he knew to be right. Every normal person out of Christ finds himself wishing for a better, cleaner life; but without Christ he finds himself unable to free himself from the dominion of sin. But the doctrine of hereditary total depravity, that by inheritance "we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually," makes it impossible for an advocate of that doctrine to see how an unconverted person can ever approve purity and holiness, or have the least desire to do any good deed. With them a sinner is opposed to everything that is right and wholly inclined to commit every crime known to man. Hence, commentators who are thoroughly wedded to that theory become confused in trying to explain Romans 7:14-23. They cannot understand how a sinner could desire to do good, or delight in any good thing.
Romans 7:22 : For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. There is an inward man and an outward man. The inner man is the seat of the mind and will. Even the inner man of the sinner is pleased with the law of God, though he does not practice it. If there were nothing good in an unconverted man, the good that is in God’s law would not appeal to him. Beauty does not appeal to him who has no eye for the beautiful; music does not appeal to him who has no ear for music; and the goodness in the gospel would have no attraction to him who is "opposite to all good and wholly inclined to all evil." People who reach that stage of depravity are utterly beyond the hope of redemption. Such were the people before the flood, and such were the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. To be totally depraved means to be totally lost now and in the world to come.
Romans 7:23 : But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. "Members" here stands for the sum total of the body. The different law—different from the one he has been discussing—is the rule of sin in his members. The law of the mind is the law of God, the law addressed to the mind. It is through the mind— the inner man—that God seeks by his law to control the body. Hence, there is a warfare. If the spirit under the influence of the law of God controls the body, the person lives a spiritual life. If the appetites and passions of the body control the person, he is brought into captivity to the law of sin in his members. In verse 14 Paul speaks of this condition as being sold under sin. Such a person is a slave of sin. It could not be said of a Christian that he was sold under sin—brought into captivity to the rule of sin. Such language as Paul here uses shows the complete helplessness of a person under the dominion of sin and without Christ.
Romans 7:24 : Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? This moral and spiritual death, to which the appetites and passions of the body had led. To be sold under sin, to be dead in sin, is the same thing. Paul here presents the condition of the man who first finds himself completely under the dominion of sin and helpless in his desire to free himself, and yet knows no way of escape, till Christ is revealed to him; then he exclaims, "I thank God that through our Lord Jesus Christ" deliverance comes. In Christ Jesus our Lord there is peace with God, life from spiritual death, and rest from the intolerable burden of sin.
Romans 7:25 : I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. It seems to me that the commentators fail entirely to grasp the meaning of this verse. Some of them take it for granted that Paul is speaking of the condition of the Christian, In their estimation the mind of the redeemed man serves God, but the flesh serves the law of sin. When they seek to explain this idea by dwelling on the warfare in the Christian between the spirit and the flesh, they miss the point entirely, for the verse says nothing about such a warfare. Paul spoke of service, and not of fighting. And there is no such thing as serving God with the mind while the body serves sin. The idea is absurd. No man can serve two masters at the same time. Recognizing this truth, Lard says, "Now of course, I cannot serve both the law of God, with the mind, and the law of sin, with the flesh, at one and the same time. To serve the one is to slight the other. And since I cannot serve the law of sin continually and be a Christian; it follows that the service of sin is only occasional and exceptional. Hence, the meaning must be that with the flesh, and not with the mind, I serve the law of sin whenever I sin at all. I sin but seldom, suppose, but whenever I do sin, it is with the flesh as an instrument, or through its influence." But Lard misses the mark, for the word here translated "serve" means to be a slave, or subject. An occasional act does not constitute slavery in any relationship. You do not become a slave to your neighbor by helping him occasionally. An occasional sin does not make one a slave of sin. A person becomes a slave of sin only when he gives himself up to the rule of sin.
Paul contrasts the two kinds of service. He had been a slave of sin, but was redeemed to the service of God. The Christian serves with the mind the law of God; the sinner with the flesh serves the law of sin. In the life of a Christian, the mind—the inner man—dominates the flesh; in the sinner’s life the flesh dominates the mind. But in either case the mind does the planning and willing. In the sinful life the mind yields to the appetites and passions of the flesh, and plans for their gratification; in the Christian life the mind keeps the body under, and uses it in acts of service to God. Hence, the use we make of the members of our bodies determines whose servants we are. "Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Romans 6:16).
Commentary On Romans Chapter Eight By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 8:1 : There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now in this gospel dispensation, there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Under law it was different; all sinned and were under condemnation. The law could not save; it condemned, and made people realize their sinfulness and their helplessness. Conscious of this helplessness, the doomed man cried out: "Who shall deliver me?" But when the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ broke in upon him, he joyously exclaimed: "I thank God that through Jesus Christ there is deliverance." Now, being in Christ, having been forgiven of his sins and made righteous, he is free from the condemnation that formerly rested upon him. As to whether he may or may not again come into condemnation is not the matter under consideration; and one does violence to Paul’s line of reasoning to try to make his language apply to anything more than the fact that the person who has come into Christ is free from his former condemnation. A person might run into a cave and be free from the storm that raged without, but that does not guarantee future safety. Hence, we must not conclude that this freedom from our former condemnation insures us against falling again into condemnation. To free a person from the condemnation formerly resting upon him does not rob him of personal responsibility for his conduct in the future. In the very nature of things, sin must be condemned anywhere, at any time, and in any place. No government could stand if sin were not condemned and punished. But in Christ condemnation can always be avoided.
Romans 8:2 : For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from, the law of sin and of death. It seems to me that the phrase "in Christ Jesus" modifies "made free," for it is in Christ that we are made free. To connect this phrase with the "law of the Spirit of life" leaves us in doubt as to its significance. "For" connects this verse with the preceding verse, and assigns the reason as to why there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, for in Christ Jesus we have been made free from that which causes condemnation—namely, the law of sin and of death. This freedom is accomplished by the law of the Spirit of life. Many descriptive titles are applied to the Holy Spirit, each such title growing out of some particular work the Holy Spirit does, or some office he fills. "It is the spirit that giveth life" (John 6:63). Hence, the Spirit of life. But what is the law of the Spirit of life? If we can determine what the law of sin and death is, from which the law of the Spirit delivers us, we should be able to see what the law of the Spirit is. The death here mentioned is spiritual death, for in becoming a Christian a person is not delivered from the law of physical death. This law of sin and death cannot be the law of Moses; for, taking verses 2 and 3 together, we see that the law of Moses could not do what the law of the Spirit had done. If the law of sin and death is the law of Moses, then we have Paul making the absurd statement that the law of Moses could not deliver us from the law of Moses! But Paul never wrote such foolishness. The law of sin and death is the law set forth in Romans 7:23 : "But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin, which is in my members." To be in captivity under the law of sin is to be dead Spiritually. Hence, this law of sin in our members is also the law of death. Freedom from that law is salvation. But the law of the Spirit of life makes us free from the law of sin and death— that is, it is that by which we are saved. In chapter 1:16, Paul tells us that the gospel is God’s power for saving people. We conclude, therefore, that the law of the Spirit of life is the gospel. This conclusion harmonizes with Paul’s line of reasoning. It would be absurd to think that Paul started in to prove that the gospel is God’s power for saving people, and then reached the conclusion that some other law saves us, or frees us, from sin and spiritual death.
Romans 8:3 : "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." The main thought in this verse seems clear enough, but the grammatical construction is difficult. As it stands, the first part—"for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh" —has no grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence. The meaning of the verse may be expressed somewhat as follows: For what the law could not accomplish, in that it was weak through the flesh, God accomplished by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin (or, and as an offering for sin —marginal reading) condemned sin in the flesh. The law of Moses could not free a person from the law of sin and death, but God did that very thing by the plan of salvation perfected by the mission of his Son into the world, including his death as a sin offering. The death of Christ procured for all who accept him release from the condemnation that rests upon all sinners. And thus in his flesh he condemned sin. Formerly sin reigned as master, and held the sinner in captivity. When a person accepts Christ, sin as his master is destroyed—blotted out. So far as we know, there was no way to destroy the reign of sin except through the death of Jesus Christ; but that death benefits only those who yield obedience to him as their King. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Human flesh is not sinful in and of itself; if so the flesh of Jesus was sinful. But some commentators seek to evade this by stressing the word "likeness." His flesh, they say, was not sinful, but was like sinful flesh! But he was man (1 Timothy 2:5), and frequently spoke of himself as the Son of man. He, therefore, had in his nature all that the word "man" implies. "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same" (Hebrews 2:14). "Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren" (Hebrews 2:17). If his brethren were born sinful and he was not, then he was not like them in all things. But as Jesus was made in all things like his brethren and was without sin, it shows conclusively that sin is not a part of man’s nature. When Adam and Eve were first created, they had all that belongs to human nature. Sin came into their lives as a foreign element. Sin is no more a part of your nature than dust in your eye is a part of the nature of your eye. Because the desires, appetites, and passions of the flesh so often lead to sin, flesh is called sinful. But we should remember always that fleshly desires lead to sin only when the mind, or heart, purposes to gratify the flesh in an unlawful way,
The law was not weak in itself; it was weak because in man’s folly the urgings of the flesh are stronger than man’s regard for law, and because in his ignorance and selfishness man could not meet its requirements.
Romans 8:4 : That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Commentators are not agreed as to whether the Greek word translated "ordinance" should be translated ordinance, requirement, righteousness, or justification. They are, therefore, not agreed as to what is fulfilled in us, nor as to how it is done. Neither are they agreed as to whether it is fulfilled in us or by us. MacKnight thinks the law here referred to is the gospel. It seems to me that the context—the trend of Paul’s argument—must decide the whole matter. Of course, due regard must be had to the truths set forth in other parts of the Scriptures. Let us notice the trend of Paul’s reasoning.
Under the law, the righteousness of the law could be fulfilled only by perfect obedience. In such obedience there would have been no sin—God would have had nothing against one who so lived. Now, it is the mission of the gospel to take sinners and make them righteous. When a person’s sins are forgiven he is freed from all guilt, and is then as righteous as if he had never sinned. There is then no guilt attached to him—God has nothing against him. And so the thing that the law required, but could not accomplish, is fulfilled in those who obey the gospel. If this is not a correct exegesis of the first part of verse 4, it is certainly in harmony with Paul’s line of reasoning and also with the general teaching of the Scriptures. Paul certainly did not mean that we were delivered from sin by the gospel that we might obey the ordinance of the law of Moses, but that the gospel, in freeing us from sin and making us righteous, accomplished in us exactly what the law was unable to accomplish, but what it would have accomplished in us had there been no transgression of it,
"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." There is no "if" about this. The clause is descriptive of the characters in whom the righteousness of the law is fulfilled. "Walk" refers to manner of life. As flesh and spirit are here contrasted, it seems certain that Paul meant the human spirit, and not the Holy Spirit. To walk according to the flesh is to lead an animal life. Such a one may be an immoral wretch, or he may be a respected citizen. No matter what his character is, he is one who lives a worldly life. He lives as if this life were all that is worth while. To walk according to the spirit is to keep the flesh under control so as to promote spiritual growth in the service of God.
Romans 8:5 : For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. To mind the things of the flesh is to give our time and attention to the things of this life. To do so is to leave God and our eternal welfare out of consideration. We need to be careful, for it is easy for us in our struggles to make a living to forget God and look only to our material interests. To mind the things of the spirit is to look to the things that fit the spirit for acceptable service to God in this life and that will prepare it for the joys of the next life.
Romans 8:6 : For the mind of the flesh is death; hut the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. The mind of the flesh, as the connection shows, is the mind devoted to the flesh. The minding the flesh is death. To be devoted to the things of the flesh is death. Such a state not only tends to death, it is death itself. The one who thus lives is dead to God. For the mind to be devoted to the things of the spirit—to the needs of the spirit— is life and peace. It is life from spiritual death and peace with God and conscience. The phrases, "mind of the flesh" and bdo not mean that a person has two distinct minds—that is, that the flesh has a mind and the spirit has a mind. If so, the flesh would always be dead to God, for the mind of the flesh is death; and the spirit would always be alive to God, whether in righteousness or sin, for the mind of the spirit is life. In that case the spirit would never need conversion, and the flesh could not be converted.
Romans 8:7-8 : Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be: and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Minding the flesh is spiritual death, because it is enmity against God. While devoted to the flesh, while minding the flesh, a person is not subject to the will of God, and in that state a person cannot be subject to God, for such a life is in direct conflict with his will. It does not mean that a person who lives a worldly life cannot turn from it and himself become subject to the law of God; but it does mean that a person cannot live for the things of this life and at the same time be subject to God. If you live a worldly life, you are not living a Christian life. To live a worldly life—a life devoted to the flesh—is to be in the flesh. As Paul uses the terms in this connection, to walk according to the flesh, to be after the things of the flesh, to mind the things of the flesh, and to be in the flesh, are all one and the same thing. But Christians are not in the flesh—that is, they are not living a life devoted to the flesh.
Romans 8:9 : But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. The contrast, "not in the flesh but in the Spirit," shows that the human spirit is meant. Lard’s comment on this verse seems to be to the point: "Not to be in the flesh is not to live according to it, and not to live according to it is not to allow it to control us; it is, in a word, not to sin under the pressure of its influence, ’But in the Spirit.’ The word ’spirit’ here denotes the human spirit; nor can I see how anyone ever comes to think otherwise. It is sheer assumption to say that it denotes the Holy Spirit. To be in the flesh is to live the life of a sinner; to be in the spirit, to live the life of the Christian. ... It is virtual tautology to say that we are governed by the Holy Spirit provided the Holy Spirit dwells in us, for the very purpose for which the Holy Spirit dwells in us is to control us." But the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. He dwells in the Christian; that is plainly affirmed. And I dare not deny what Paul here affirms. The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ. "But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." That statement should engage the serious attention of every professed Christian.
Romans 8:10 : And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. This verse has given no end of trouble to commentators. They are not agreed as to what is meant by the clause, "the body is dead because of sin." Lard thinks it means that the body is dead on account of sin in the sense that it is doomed to death on account of Adam’s sin. Some others hold practically the same idea. But it sounds foolish to say: "If Christ is in you, the body is doomed to death on account of Adam’s sin." That would imply that if Christ did not dwell in us the body would not be doomed to death on account of Adam’s sin. As a matter of fact, the body is doomed to die physically, whether Christ dwells in us or does not dwell in us. Besides, that construction does not agree with the context. In the latter part of chapter 7, Paul spoke of the flesh as the source of sin. Because the appetites and passions of the flesh lead to so much sin Paul calls it "sinful flesh" (verse 3). For that reason the flesh is crucified—put to death as to sin. "And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof" (Gal 6:24). Hence, "if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of the sin to which it leads"; or, more exactly, "the body is dead on account of sin that dwells in it." "But the spirit is life because of righteousness"—that is, on account of the righteousness to which we attain in the forgiveness, or blotting out, of our sins. Hence, if Christ is in you, the body is dead on account of sin to which it tends, but the spirit is life on account of the righteousness to which we attain in Christ.
Romans 8:11 : But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Here again we have a condition stated. The making alive of our mortal bodies depends upon his Spirit’s dwelling in us. Does this refer to the resurrection? Some think so. But does our resurrection from the dead depend upon the Spirit’s dwelling in us? Do not the Scriptures plainly teach that the wicked, as well as the righteous, will be raised? The future resurrection from the dead is not the matter under discussion at this point. He had just stated that the body was dead because of sin. That means that it is no longer active in sin—no longer an instrument of sin. But is it to remain altogether inactive? Is it not to be brought into any kind of activity in the life of the Christian? If the Spirit of God dwells in you, he will make your bodies alive to righteousness. That seems to be in harmony with the context. Besides, I am not sure that in the resurrection God will give life to our mortal bodies. Here our bodies are mortal; they are subject to death and decay; they return to dust. In the resurrection will God again form the dust into a mortal body and then give it life? Are we to be mortal when raised from the dead? If not, then this verse is not talking about the resurrection from the dead. " Shall give life also to your mortal bodies" is stated in the future tense, because there are conditions to be performed by man. The word "also" connects this giving life to our mortal bodies with the life already given to the spirit.
The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead that we might be saved—might be made alive to his service— is a guarantee that even our bodies, as well as our spirits, shall be made alive to righteousness. By the teaching of the Holy Spirit we are required to present our bodies a living sacrifice. So if the Spirit of God dwells in us, not only are our spirits alive to righteousness, but our bodies will also be made alive to the service of God. "For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11). The following note seems to be worth inserting here: "The section (8:1-11) balances the preceding section (7:7-25). There the inability of the law by itself to produce the higher spiritual life was shown, and the argument dealt primarily and mainly with human life as it is now. Here the whole object is to show that the gospel provides just such a power as law lacks— that is, to revive and renew the human spirit so as to enable it to mold and master the whole life. The life and death spoken of are the spiritual life and death already described; the raising is the present liberation of the spirit which affects the body also, making it, too, serve its true ends and live its true life. The raising of Jesus is a proof both of the will and character and power of that Spirit, which operated then and operates now through the risen life communicated now to man (cf. 6:2-11). The future resurrection is not referred to; but it is, of course, implied as a consequence of the whole relation thus described between God and man." (Cambridge Greek Testament).
Romans 8:12 : So, then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. "So then" seems to cover the whole argument beginning at Romans 5:12. "We are debtors" to what? Not to the flesh; we have already learned that attending to the flesh leads to death. We could not be under obligation to follow a course that leads to our own destruction. To live after the flesh is to live a worldly life. If we are not debtors to the flesh, then what? Evidently to our spirits— that is, we are obligated to attend to the things of the spirit. As the spirit controls the body, we must keep our spirits pure. Also, the spirit endures to eternity. We must guard it well, lest we fail of eternal life.
Romans 8:13 : For if ye live after the flesh, ye mast die; but if by the spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. It is certain that the death here mentioned is spiritual death, for we shall die physically, no matter how we live. To live after the flesh results in spiritual death. All the arguing that an advocate of the impossibility of apostasy can do cannot change what Paul says. A person must accept it or reject it; he cannot explain it away. But if the spirit gains the ascendency and subdues the flesh and makes it serve God, we shall live.
Romans 8:14 : For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. And only such are children of God. The statement indicates a continuous process. Nothing is here said as to how the Spirit leads people; but as Paul is still developing his theme that the gospel is God’s power to save, it is certain that the Spirit leads through the power of the gospel. The gospel was revealed by the Spirit. In that revelation the Spirit tells us how to live, and sets motives before us to induce us to follow his directions. But if the Spirit, independent of the gospel, leads people to become children of God, then the gospel is not God’s power to save. We are sure Paul did not make an assertion about the Holy Spirit that contradicted his theme and his argument.
Romans 8:15 : For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Notice the word "again." In becoming children of God we do not again enter into a bondage wherein we serve through fear. The Jew under the law was moved principally through fear, and idol worshippers were moved by fear. But not so with the Christian. "But ye received the spirit of adoption;" or, more exact, "Ye received the spirit of sonship." A Christian is one who has been born again; he is a child of God by birth, rather than by adoption. He serves God, not through a spirit of slavish fear, but through a spirit of filial obedience. "Spirit" as used in this verse does not refer to an individual personal intelligence, but to disposition or attitude. Instead of being moved by fear as slaves, the child of God renders trusting obedience to God, and confidently calls upon him as Father. The spirit of fear is displaced by a spirit of reverence, trust, and worship. The term "Abba" means "Father." It seems that the two terms are here used for emphasis.
Romans 8:16-17 : The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. These verses do not seem to express thoughts additional to those expressed in verses 14 and 15, for there is no connecting conjunction; they seem rather to be an explanation or further development of what had just been said. All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God; and yet, though they are children of God, they are also servants of God. But these children of God, though they are also servants, serve in the spirit of children, not in the spirit of slaves. They have received the spirit, or disposition of sons. Serving in the spirit of sons, they have assurance that God is in reality their Father. "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." In Barnes commentary on Romans we have this: "Beareth witness, testifies, gives evidence. With our spirit. To our spirit. This pertains to the adoption; and it means that the Holy Spirit furnishes evidence to our minds that we are adopted into the family of God." Barnes thus changes "with" to "to," and yet there is quite a difference in the meaning of the two prepositions. Besides, the language of the verse shows that our spirit is one of two witnesses. To say that the Holy Spirit bears witness to our spirit is to make our spirit a judge, and not in any sense a witness. Many who hold this theory regard what they feel as superior to what God says. A theory that discredits the word of God is wrong. Then another idea is presented, namely, that the Holy Spirit has given his testimony as to what one must do to become a child of God, and our spirit testifies that we have done those things; and thus the two witnesses bear witness together, that we are children of God. This idea has this merit: It does not discredit the word of God, nor encourage disobedience; but does it set forth the meaning of verse 16? Does the term "our spirit" refer to our inner man, or to the spirit, or disposition of the Christian? Notice the context. The preceding verse spoke of the "spirit of bondage" and the "spirit of adoption," or sonship. The "spirit of bondage" did not refer to an intelligent being, but to a disposition, or an attitude; and so also did the "spirit of adoption." Then why should not "our spirit" refer to the disposition, or attitude, of the Christian? Our spirit as Christians is the spirit of faithful sons, the spirit of loving obedience. That is the spirit Paul had just mentioned, and that is our spirit—the Christian spirit. The Holy Spirit gives testimony as to what one must do and be to be a child of God, and our spirit of filial submission shows that we possess the characteristics of sonship. In this way we prove, not only to ourselves, but to the world also, that we are children of God. A life of devotion guided by the testimony of the Holy Spirit is double evidence that we are children of God. It is convincing evidence to right thinking people of the world. Jesus said: "Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). The fruits of sonship; Heirs of God—joint-heirs with Christ. But this is not an unconditional inheritance. Weigh well the condition —"if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him." This however does not mean— cannot mean—that we will have the same degree of glory that he has.
Romans 8:18 : For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward. In Romans 8:16-18 Paul reaches the climax of his argument on the theme that the gospel is the power of God for saving people. Even the sufferings which we undergo for the gospel serve a purpose in helping to fit us for the glory that shall be revealed to usward. "For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17). The time of our suffering is short, but the glory and bliss of the reward are eternal. The greatness of the reward encourages the Christian to undergo the suffering that comes upon him, even though the suffering is not according to his will nor of his own choosing. To draw back on account of suffering is to fail of the reward. "Faithful is the saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him: if we endure, we shall also reign with him: if we shall deny him, he also will deny us" (2 Timothy 2:11-12).
Romans 8:19-23 : For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered, from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Verses 19-23 have given commentators no end of trouble. No one has given an explanation that was satisfactory to all. Where students differ so, it is not well for anyone to be overly dogmatic. The main trouble is in determining the meaning and application of the terms, "the creation," "the whole creation," "the first-fruits of the Spirit," and "we ourselves." Some assume that "the creation" and the "whole creation" are the same in extent of meaning and refer to all living things below man; that all living things, both animal and vegetable, suffer the curse of death along with man; and that they are represented as looking forward to the time when the curse of death shall have been removed. But it seems to me that there are insurmountable difficulties in the way of this interpretation. Where did anyone get the idea that death came upon animals and vegetables as a result of Adam’s sin? Upon what did the animal and fish feed before Adam sinned, and on what would they have continued to feed had he not sinned? What did Adam and Eve eat before they sinned? Any living thing that becomes food must die, whether that thing be animal or vegetable. The thing that kept Adam and Eve alive before they sinned was the fruit of the tree of life. It can hardly be conceived that the fishes and animals and vegetables were kept alive by the same means. It does not seem possible that Paul had in mind the lower creation in Romans 8:19-21. It seems unreasonable that he should, by a figure of speech, represent animals and vegetables as expecting and awaiting the revealing of the sons of God; and it seems especially strange that he would affirm that animals and vegetables "shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God," or that they were subject to vanity, "not of their own will." Every statement indicates that he was talking about intelligent beings who had a real interest in the resurrection and glorification of the children of God. The verses are closely connected with Romans 8:18, and evidently were written to encourage the Christian to endure the suffering for the sake of the glory that shall be revealed to us ward. It would not help me to endure suffering to be told that the lower creation was longing to be delivered from suffering into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
What, then, is the creation of Romans 8:19-21? Who or what is it that with earnest expectation—strong hope—waits for the revealing of the sons of God? Who but Christians are so hopefully interested in that event? Of what creation could it be said that it hopes to be "delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God"? Who hut Christians have such hopes? But are Christians, either as individuals or as a group, ever referred to as a creation? Paul says: "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17), The marginal reading has new creation. The Greek word for "creature" in this verse is the same as the word for "creation" in Romans 8:19; Romans 8:21. The church is said to have been created. "That he might create in himself of the two one new man" (Ephesians 2:15). Here we have the verb form of the word from which we have creation. Jesus created the church; hence, it is a creation. And the things Paul says of the creation are true of the church—true of its members. The same things are elsewhere said of the sufferings, the hope, and the final glory of faithful Christians. If this view is not correct, it at least has the merit of being in harmony with what the scriptures elsewhere say concerning the present condition and future destiny of Christians. In Romans 8:22, Paul speaks of the whole human race. He reminds Christians that sufferings, death, and decay are not peculiar to Christians, but are the common lot of all human beings. But the reader will notice that no hope—no future outlook—is attributed to the whole creation.
But who is referred to in verse 23? and what are the "first-fruits of the Spirit"? It seems to be taken for granted by many commentators that all Christians are here referred to and the "first-fruits of the Spirit" is the same as the "earnest of the Spirit" as mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14, But I cannot see how in any sense the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Christian can be called the "first-fruits of the Spirit." It rather seems that the "first-fruits of the Spirit" in the Christian dispensation were the miraculous powers conferred on the apostles. Hence, to encourage Christians to endure their sufferings he reminds them that suffering is the common lot of the whole human family, and that even we, the apostles, who have all these miraculous endowments of the Spirit, also groan within ourselves on account of our burdens and afflictions, "waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies."
Romans 8:24-25 : For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. The "for" shows close connection with the preceding verses. Christians are now subject to vanity, the bondage of corruption; but they hope to be "delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (verses 20, 21). In this hope we were saved. In the Greek text there is an article before hope in the first clause which equals this hope. In the hope of such glorious deliverance we are saved; not saved by this hope, but in this hope. In salvation, which is a process and which began at conversion, faith guides and hope stimulates us to patient endurance. The whole process is carried on in an element of hope, and culminates in our full deliverance into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. "But hope that is seen is not hope." The word see frequently means to possess, to enjoy, to suffer, to experience. That is true even in our everyday speech. We see a good time; we see much sorrow; we see much pain. We experience these things. A person does not hope for what he sees —that is, for what he already has or experiences. If our redemption was already complete, if there was nothing yet to be desired or expected, there would be no hope. But we desire and expect a glorious future, and this hope for full deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God causes us to be patient during our period of waiting. Without hope we would not endure—we would not strive, Hope anchors our soul to the eternal world. "Hope lost, all is lost."
Romans 8:26 : And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Or unutterable groanings. Hope helps us to endure afflictions, and in like manner the Spirit helps us in our infirmities. Perhaps there is more in this than we know, The infirmity here mentioned is that we know not how to pray as we ought to pray. What we already know about how to pray we learned through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And there are urgings and longings in the heart of a sincere child of God that he cannot express. He has a feeling of helplessness, or of a deep need, without knowing what that need really is, or what would meet the need. It is what Paul calls "unutterable groanings." It is the groaning within ourselves mentioned in verse 23. These groanings are silent groanings—unutterable feelings of need. The Spirit helps us in these groanings, for he understands our needs and longings and can make them known to God.
Romans 8:27 : And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. God is the great heart searcher. He knows our lightest thoughts and purposes and the deepest longings of our hearts. But what is meant by the mind of the Spirit? Mind may refer to the intellectual faculty or to the mental disposition, or mood. It is foreign to Paul’s line of reasoning to make mind of the Spirit refer to the intellectual faculty of the Spirit or to the mental disposition of the Spirit. Verse 6 may help us out: "For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace." "Mind of the flesh" is evidently the mental disposition, or mood, of the person dominated by the flesh—the disposition of mind produced by the flesh. And so the "mind of the Spirit" is the mental disposition, or mood, produced by the Spirit. All that the gospel contains stirs up in the heart of the honest believer feelings and aspirations that he cannot express in words. But God, the heart searcher, knows the mental disposition, the feelings, and aspirations thus produced by the Spirit. It is easy to understand Paul, if we understand him to mean that God, who searches the hearts, knows the mental disposition produced by the Spirit. It is probable that God searches the heart through the agency of the Holy Spirit; "for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10).
Romans 8:28 : And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose. The expressions "them that love God" and "them that are called according to his purpose," refer to the same persons. What is included in the all things of the verse? Does Paul include the devil and all his works and agents? Does he include the lusts of the flesh, which war against the soul, and to our infirmities in which we need help? It seems to me that the context and the very nature of the case demand that we take the all things in a limited sense. In all that he had said up to this point Paul was talking about what God had done and is doing for us through Christ and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He had also shown how hope sustains us and how the Holy Spirit interprets to God the unutterable longings of our hearts. Why not understand Paul to refer to the things he had been talking about? And all of God’s dealings in the past with men and nations worked for the good of those who love God, and whom God called. Paul’s statement is a sort of conclusion from what he had said. It is not fair to him to make his conclusion include things he had not mentioned. Why, then, should we conclude that he now speaks of every conceivable thing, every conceivable force and circ*mstance, and that he affirms that all these things, both good and bad, work together for good to those who love God? To do so is to entirely miss the trend of his thought. Who are those who love God? "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" (John 14:21). "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" (1 John 5:3). "And this is love that we should walk after his commandments" (2 John 1:6). But what is meant by the words "called according to his purpose"? God’s purpose in sending his Son into the world was to save those who believe in him. He, therefore, purposed to save men through his Son. It is his purpose to save all who want to do right (Matthew 5:6). Hence, all who feel the burden of sin and their need of righteousness, or justification, are called. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Those who answer this call are the called according to his purpose. This calling is spoken of in 2 Timothy 1:9 : "Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal."
Romans 8:29-30 : For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. This is one of the very difficult passages in the Roman letter. The terms and scope of the passage are not so difficult to understand, but commentators have difficulty in deciding to whom the language applies. Some have argued or assumed that the persons mentioned are the saints who arose when Jesus arose from the dead (Matthew 27:52-53). But that explanation seems far fetched. (1) It does not fit in with Paul’s line of thought. He was showing what the gospel does for people, and not what became of certain. Old Testament saints. To introduce them at this time would seem to have no point. (2) The record in Matthew does not say that the saints who arose ascended to heaven and were glorified. So far as we know, they may have died again. (3) Paul’s language shows that all who were foreknown were also glorified; whereas Matthew tells us that many of the saints arose. Not all of them arose. This is further proved by the fact that Peter makes a point out of the fact that David had not been raised (Acts 2:29). There was a purpose in raising these saints. It helped to emphasize the claim that Jesus arose. If people of past ages, whom no one then living in Jerusalem knew, had been raised and had walked the streets of Jerusalem, they would have seemed to the people to be strangers who had come to Jerusalem to the passover; but if saints whom the people of Jerusalem had known, and whom they had known to be dead and buried, appeared on the streets of Jerusalem, it would have opened their eyes and prepared them to believe that Jesus also arose. Verses 29 and 30 are a further development of the thought presented in verse 28. Verse 28 refers to those who are called by the gospel, called according to God’s purpose. Notice that verse 29 begins with for, which shows that verses 29 and 30 are closely connected with verse 28,, and that all three verses refer to the same class of people.
The verses are directly connected with God’s purpose, as expressed in verse The whole purpose of God with reference to the redemption of man through the gospel of Christ is viewed as completed, so as to show how all things do work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose. The plans and purposes of God which are certain of fulfillment are sometimes spoken of as fulfilled when the fulfillment is yet future. Before Isaac was born God said to Abraham: "The father of a multitude of nations have I made thee" (Genesis 17:5). "For whom he foreknew." To know (Greek, ginosko) a person is to approve him. God approved certain characters before they were actually called. Hence, there are certain conditions of heart that God approves even in those who have not yet become Christians. He approves the poor in spirit —that is, those who feel their sinfulness and need of salvation, and, therefore, hunger and thirst after righteousness — justification (Matthew 5:3; Matthew 5:6). Such characters were foreordained, or appointed, to become conformed to the image of his Son. (This language shows that Paul was speaking of people under the gospel dispensation). Jesus guaranteed, or foreordained, that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled—that is, shall receive that for which they hunger and thirst. Such characters are the ones who are called, and no others. Jesus did not come to call the self-righteous, who do not realize their sinfulness and need of salvation. The called are those who have answered the gospel invitation, and not those to whom the call has merely been issued. Those who are actually called are justified—that is, forgiven and made righteous. And these are the ones who, in the final day of accounts, are glorified. These verses are not so difficult if we understand Paul as viewing the whole process of redemption through Christ. It is a sublime conception.
Romans 8:31-32 : What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for its, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Here again we have "all things," as in verse 28, To all these things we can say: If God is for us, it matters little who is against us. Certainly if God gave us the greatest, the most precious gift, the gift of his Son, he will not withhold any of the lesser things that might be good for us; and are not the "all things" which he gives us with Christ the "all things" that work together for our good?
Romans 8:33-34 : Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. The word elect has been much abused by religionists of the Calvinistic type. The original word means, according to Thayer, picked out, chosen. God does not choose at random; there is a reason for the choice he makes. He chooses, or elects, all who obey him, regardless of race, social standing or financial rating. Certainly God will not lay anything to the charge of his chosen ones; he justifies them. Hence, no one can bring a charge against God’s elect, so as to induce him to condemn them. Will Christ condemn them? It is he that is to be judge (Matthew 25:31; Matthew 25:46; John 5:22; Acts 17:30-31). But certainly he will not condemn them that God justifies, for he died for them and now makes intercession for them. Hence, only those whom God does not justify will be condemned.
Romans 8:35-36 : Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution,or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. The phrase, "the love of Christ," can mean either the love Christ has for us or the love we have for him. Here it evidently means the love we have for him, for no one would think that the harsh things we suffer for him would separate his love from us; whereas it might appear reasonable to some that the sufferings we undergo in serving Christ might cause our love to grow cold, and even vanish. It will be noticed that all the evils mentioned are things that come upon us—things from without. If a man loves Christ as he should, none of the things mentioned will destroy that love; only the conditions of our own heart can cause us to cease loving him. Jesus shows how we can be led astray: "And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matthew 24:11-12).
Romans 8:37 : Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerers through him that loved us. "In all these things"—the sufferings and hardships just mentioned. "More than conquerers"—if we successfully endure all these things, we have done more than merely to triumph over them; we have made a decided gain in Christian character. In conquering we have grown in character and in favor with God. Hence, even the evil things with which our enemies meant to crush us may be so used as to work to our good.
Romans 8:38-39 : For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It will be noticed again that all the things mentioned are things without. Nothing here is said as to what corrupting influence might do to the heart. No powers or persecutions can force one to quit loving God. If he quits, he does it of his own accord. Love cannot be destroyed by force or by imperial command, but it may wax cold. Some even depart from their first love (Revelation 2:4). Paul recognized that people might depart from the faith, but he was persuaded that no evils coming on us from without could destroy the love of God. In Christ, God’s love for us and our love for him meet.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Nine By R.L. Whiteside
Introductory Note: In chapter 9, Paul enters on a new train of thought, which he continues to the close of the eleventh chapter. He has developed his theme that the gospel is God’s power for saving men, and has shown that only through obedience to the gospel can men be saved, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. This would naturally lead to certain questions concerning the Jewish nation.
"The theme of Romans 1:16-17 has been worked out; it has been shown that the gospel is a power of God unto salvation for them that believe, a power needed by Gentile and Jew alike, guaranteed on condition of faith and in response to faith by the love of God, and adequate to man’s needs as shown in history and in individual experience; and a brief description has been given of the actual state of the Christian in Christ and of the certainty and splendor of his hope, resting upon the love of God. Naturally at this point the question of the Jews arises; they were the typical instance of a people brought into close and peculiar relation to God, and they therefore afford a crucial case of God’s dealings with such. How then did it come to pass that they rejected the gospel? What is their present state? their future destiny? and how does this affect Christians? The answer is found in the conditions under which God selects men for the executing of his purposes. It is important to bear in mind that the selection throughout is regarded as having reference not to the final salvation of persons, but to the execution of the purpose of God. Underlying the whole section is the special object of Saint Paul to justify himself in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles." (Cambridge Greek Testament).
Romans 9:1-2 : I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. There seems to me no just reason for saying, as some commentators do, that Paul was making oath that he was telling the truth. He was solemnly asserting that, as a man in Christ—that is, as a Christian— he was saying the truth. This use of the word conscience seems to be purely classical. Liddell and Scott define the Greek word thus: "A knowing with ones-self, consciousness; conscience." Of conscience Schaff-Herzog say: "The word comes to us from the Latin conscius, conscientia (’conscious,’ ’consciousness’); but neither Greek nor Roman used it in our sense. It had no religious bearing. It is unknown in the Old Testament, never used by our Lord, nor by the New Testament writers, except Paul (and those directly inspired by him) and Peter." Hence, all that Paul knew of himself, as enlightened by the Holy Spirit, bore witness that he was speaking the truth when he said that he had great sorrow and unceasing pain in his heart. He was conscious that he was telling the truth. Paul did frequently use the word conscience in a moral and religious sense, but not here. Bear in mind that where we have two words—"consciousness" and "conscience" —the Greeks had the one word.
Romans 9:3 : For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Ever since Paul became a Christian the Jews had shamefully and cruelly persecuted him. Even the Judaizing Christians had been bitter toward him; yet he had the tenderest of feelings toward his kinsmen according to the flesh. He did not actually wish himself to be anathema from Christ for his brethren’s sake, for had he given up Christ it would not have brought his kinsmen to Christ; but he could so wish, if it would do any good, if it would save his kinsmen.
Romans 9:4-5 : Who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Paul’s brethren were descendants of Jacob, whom God named Israel. They had been adopted as God’s special and chosen people. The glory perhaps includes all the manifestations of God’s care for them, including also the Shekinah, the emblem of his presence in the Holy of Holies. From Abraham onward God had made covenants with no other people, nor had he given laws to any other people. As the laws were God-given, they were perfectly suited to their needs. And their greatest glory and distinction: "of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh." With all these blessings and distinctions, they murdered the Christ, whom they gave the world, and still continued, and do still continue, to reject him, "who is over all, God blessed forever." The careful reader will not fail to notice that Christ is now over all. Nowhere does Paul give any hint that Christ is yet to be exalted to that high state.
Romans 9:6 : But it is not as though the word of God hath come to nought. For they arc, not, all Israel, that are of Israel. The condition of fleshly Israel, though not clearly seated in verses 1-5, was, nevertheless, implied. But the fact that fleshly Israel had rejected Christ, and were therefore anathema from Christ, did not show that the word of God—the promise to Abraham—had come to nought. Verse 7 shows that the promise made to Abraham is the word of God that Paul had in mind. Even though fleshly Israel had rejected Christ, there was yet a spiritual Israel, and the promise was fulfilled in them. Paul’s language in these verses shows that the promise made to Abraham terminated in spiritual Israel. They do greatly err who think the promise to Abraham is yet to be fulfilled in fleshly Israel. Blood descent from Abraham does not entitle one to share in the promise.
Romans 9:7 : Neither, because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. In verses 6 and 7, Paul begins to show the Jews that they had no right to complain, even if God did reject them for another people. In working out his plans, God had rejected the other sons of Abraham and selected Isaac through whom the promised seed should come. Other illustrations Paul gives later.
Romans 9:8-9 : That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. For this is a word of promise, According to this season will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. If it had been the children of the flesh, then all Abraham’s sons would have been included in the promise. But Isaac was a child of promise. Christians are now children of promise as much as was Isaac. How Isaac was a child of promise is told in verse 9.
Romans 9:10-12 : And not only so; but Rebecca also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac— for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. In working out his plan to bless the world through the seed of Abraham, God selected Isaac to be heir of the promise, and rejected the other sons of Abraham. The Jew might say that as Isaac was the only son of Abraham’s real wife, his selection was natural and right. But it was different with his selection of Jacob over Esau. Jacob and Esau were full brothers; and though they were twins, Esau the first-born was the natural heir of the promise. Yet of the two, God selected Jacob, even before they were born, and therefore before they had done anything good or bad, "that the purpose of God according to election might stand." The purpose inhered in the promise. God was selecting his own instruments to work out his own plans.
In choosing Jacob, God chose his descendants; and every Jew gloried in that choice. But the selection of Jacob and the rejection of Esau had nothing to do with their salvation. If it had pertained to their salvation, there would have been no point in mentioning the fact that the younger was selected instead of the older; for even the most dogmatic predestinarian would not say that the oldest son is the natural heir of salvation and all the other sons reprobates. The fact is that the selection of Jacob was the selection of a people rather than an individual. Had it been the election to salvation, then the nations descending from Jacob were all elected to salvation, and Esau’s descendants were all lost. Jehovah’s language to Rebekah shows plainly that he was speaking of the descendants of Jacob and Esau rather than of them as individuals: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels: and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger" (Genesis 25:23). Nor does the statement that the elder shall serve the younger apply to Jacob and Esau as individuals, for as individuals Jacob came nearer serving Esau. However, it did come to pass that the descendants of Esau served the descendants of Jacob (1 Chronicles 18:12-13).
Romans 9:13 : Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Some think this also was said before Jacob and Esau were born, but not so. No such language is found in what Jehovah said to Rebekah. The language quoted was written several hundred years after the days of Jacob and Esau. That the language refers to the two peoples instead of to Jacob and Esau as individuals is clearly seen by reading the connection from which the quotation was taken: "The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, we are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall build but I will throw down; and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever" (Malachi 1:1-4).
Romans 9:14 : What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. There was no unrighteousness with God in the selection he had made. If God selected Isaac and Jacob because they would be the best instruments through which to work out his plans, and the Jews gloried in these selections, why should they think that it would be out of harmony with God’s nature to reject the Jews because of unbelief and accept the Gentiles who believed in him? Even though God had rejected the Jewish nation as such, they had the same opportunity as did the Gentiles to become children of God.
Romans 9:15 : For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It seems that Moses had grown somewhat discouraged on account of the waywardness of the children of Israel, and showed a reluctance to go on, unless God would show him some special favors. Was this a gentle reminder to Moses? God had shown mercy to his people in spite of all that Pharaoh could do, and he could, and would, continue to show them mercy even should Moses become discouraged. No one can keep God from showing mercy to whom he will. But to whom will he show mercy? "He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). And all the objections and efforts of the Jews would not keep him from having mercy on the Gentiles who turned to him. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).
Romans 9:16 : So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy. This is a conclusion, not so much from what is said in verse 15 as from the whole scope of Paul’s argument. In bringing to maturity his plans to bless all nations through Abraham’s seed, God had followed the counsel of his own will. The promised seed was Christ, and not the Jewish nation, as the Jews thought. These blessings would be bestowed according to God’s good pleasure, and not according to any racial distinctions. The Jews willed that it should be otherwise. They would have no Gentile blessed unless he became circumcised and kept the law of Moses. Their striving earnestly, for so the word run implies, could not defeat the purpose of God, any more than Isaac and Esau could defeat God’s purpose to bless Jacob. The working out of God’s plan, through the men Paul mentioned had nothing to do with their personal salvation. Someone had to be selected through whose seed the world would be blessed. God selected Abraham. Of Abraham’s sons, one had to be an heir of the promise— as the progenitor of the Messiah, the promised seed; God selected Isaac; and so also with reference to Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau; Jacob was selected. However, since the way of salvation through Christ has been opened, a man’s own will is the deciding factor in his salvation. "And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely."
Romans 9:17 : For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. The "for" shows a close connection with what had just been said. When the time came for God to show mercy to his oppressed people in Egypt, Pharaoh determined not to let Israel go. Through Moses and Aaron, Jehovah said to Pharaoh: "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." Pharaoh replied: "Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go." In so saying, Pharaoh openly defied Jehovah. He arrogated to himself supreme authority. In his estimation, Jehovah did not have the power to dictate to him what he should do, or not do; hence, the demand that he let Israel go stirred in him a full determination to do as he pleased with Israel, no matter what Jehovah said or did. Instead of producing in Pharaoh willing obedience, the demand of Jehovah stirred up in him a great determination to defeat Jehovah’s purpose to show mercy to Israel. He felt that Israel belonged to him—they were the property of his kingdom. Yes, he would pit his strength against Jehovah, and see that they did not go from him. Hence, every demand of Jehovah to let them go aroused his determination to keep them. These demands and his attitude toward them served to harden his heart. This shows how Jehovah hardened his heart, and also how he hardened his own heart. Hence, it is said that Jehovah hardened his heart, and it is said a number of times that he hardened his own heart. This contest continued a sufficient length of time to attract attention through all Egypt, and the nations round about Egypt; and when Jehovah, in his own time and in his own way, triumphed over Pharaoh and all his gods, his power was shown, and his name was "published abroad in all the earth." If Pharaoh had immediately let Israel go, there would have been no contest and God’s power would not have been displayed before the world. Pharaoh would have been credited with being good and kind to Israel.
The language quoted by Paul was spoken to Pharaoh after miracles had been wrought before Pharaoh, and after six of the ten plagues had been visited upon him and the Egyptians. Each plague further hardened his heart and stirred him to greater determination to hold Israel in bondage. The term raise up is from a Greek word which Liddell and Scott define as follows: "To raise from the dead; to arouse, stir up; to kindle, as fire." To arouse, stir up, is the only definition given here that will fit the case. God’s demands stirred Pharaoh’s antagonism toward God. No others ever had so much evidence that God’s hand was in a matter as did Pharaoh and the Egyptians. God was long-suffering toward him, and that long-suffering contributed much to the hardening of his heart. "So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth." The whole circ*mstance shows that it is not necessary to conclude that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by any direct operation of the Spirit.
Romans 9:19 : Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? These questions would arise in the mind of some of the Jews. If God had mercy on the Israelites, no matter who tried to hinder him from doing so, why is he now finding fault with them? Or if he hardens some people, why does he then find fault with them? Paul does not intimate that the questions logically grow out of what he had said, but they are questions that quibblers would likely raise.
Romans 9:20 : Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? The questions of verse 19 do not imply any objections to Paul’s statements concerning God’s dealings with certain men in working out his plans, but rather to the methods of God himself. Verse 20 is not an answer to the questions, but rather a rebuke to those who raise such questions. Such questioners show a lack of reverence and respect for God. Such questions really charge God with being unfair and capricious. Who is man that he should find fault with God? Who is man that he should talk back at God? Man makes his own character, either according to God’s directions and with his help, or else he makes a character against God’s teaching and God’s willingness to help. God then uses him as an agent of mercy, or else an instrument upon which to display his wrath. Pharaoh’s character was bad; he made it so. God, therefore, made him an object upon which to display his wrath and to make his power known. He, therefore, had no grounds for complaint against God because of the plagues.
Romans 9:21 : Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? Let us not put such a strained construction on Paul’s language as to make him teach that man has no freedom of will and of action, and, therefore, no personal responsibility. Paul is speaking of the use God makes of men and of nations; and whether God makes of a man or a nation a vessel unto honor or unto dishonor depends on the man or the nation. "Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honor, and some unto dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the master’s use, prepared unto every good work" (2 Timothy 2:20-21). Hence, as to whether a man is a vessel unto honor or unto dishonor, he alone is responsible. The same is true of nations, as the following lengthy quotation from Jeremiah clearly shows: "The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels. And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart" (Jeremiah 18:1-12). Isaiah had said: "Woe unto him that striveth with his maker! a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?" (Isaiah 45:9).
Concerning the quotations from Isaiah and Jeremiah, Albert Barnes says: "The passage in Isaiah proves that God has the right of sovereign over guilty individuals; that in Jeremiah, that he has the same right over nations; thus meeting the whole case as it was in the mind of the apostle. These passages, however, assert only the right of God to do it, without affirming anything about the manner in which it is done. In fact, God bestows his favors in a mode very different from that in which a potter molds his clay. God does not create holiness by a mere act of power, but he produces it in a manner consistent with the moral agency of man; and bestows his favors not to compel men, but to incline them to be willing to receive them." God does not by any direct power make people either good or bad. God "would have all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4).
Romans 9:22 : What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction? This is another point in Paul’s reply to the questions of verse 19. If God wills to show his wrath against sin and his power to punish sin, why should anyone object? To say that God is not willing to do so is to accuse him of being indifferent to sin. His wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Romans 1:18). Yet the Lord does not wish "that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Because he is not willing that any should perish, he is long-suffering, giving all sinners a full opportunity to repent. He endured with long-suffering the highhanded rebellion of Pharaoh, and also the sins of ungrateful Israel. This long-suffering is a manifestation of God’s mercy and goodness to man, though many take advantage of it to indulge in more sin; but the day of wrath will come. "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works" (Romans 2:4-6). "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things" (2 Peter 3:14-16). This comment of Peter shows the purpose of the longsuffering of which Paul speaks—its purpose is to lead to salvation.
The phrase "fitted for destruction" does not mean that God made them so. It could not be said that God endured with much longsuffering any character or thing that he, by hie own direct power, had made. All people and things that God made by his own direct power were exactly as he wanted them. Certainly it could not be said that he endured with much longsuffering people or things that were exactly as he wanted them to be. Hence, God did not make these characters fit for destruction; they made themselves so, and God had endured them with much longsuffering. His power would be manifested in their destruction,
Romans 9:23-24 : And that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. The Jewish nation had long been fitted for destruction. Besides their general corruption and their arrogant self-righteousness, they had murdered the Son of God. This was a national crime, a national murder. The authorities hunted down Christians, and thus became guilty of wholesale murder. Death was and is the penalty for murder; and the nation was soon to suffer that penalty. God had endured them with much longsuffering, not for their sake, but "that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles." Though the Jewish nation had for many years been ripe for destruction, God endured them with much long-suffering—spared them—till the gospel could be preached to the Gentiles and churches established among them. Think what would have been the fate of the churches when Jerusalem and the Jewish nation were destroyed, if that awful event had occurred before there were churches outside Judea. The riches of God’s glory were the blessings of the gospel upon all, both of the Jews and of the Gentiles, who were called by the gospel into the service of God.
The Jews were upset because Paul, a Jew, was going among the Gentiles and preaching to them and teaching that God now put no difference between Jew and Gentile. Even in the churches there were Jews who contended that Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law—that is, they must become as Jews—or they could not be saved.
Romans 9:25-26 : As he saith also in Hosea, I will call that my people, which was not my people; And her beloved, that was not beloved. And it shall be, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye cure not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God. Paul had shown that God dealt with men and nations according to their attitude toward him. He now quotes Hosea to show that it had been God’s purpose to call faithful Gentiles his people, though Gentiles had not been his chosen people—they had not been his beloved people. Those who had not been his people were to become sons of the living God. Paul was showing that these prophecies concerning the Gentiles were being fulfilled in the gospel of Christ. Paul then devotes considerable space to a discussion of the condition of Israel under the gospel.
Romans 9:27-28 : And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand, of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved: for the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short. Jews boasted, "We are Abraham’s seed"; because of this they thought they had a right to all of God’s richest blessings. But they had not believed their own prophets. They should have learned from Isaiah that only a remnant—a small portion—of Israel would be saved. The rest would be lost. To that end his word had gone forth, and that word would be executed, "finishing it and cutting it short." (See Isaiah 10:22-23). Yet it was hard for a Jew to see himself as a sinner.
Romans 9:29 : And, as Isaiah hath said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah. Because a few righteous people were not found in Sodom and Gomorrah, Jehovah utterly destroyed them. Even so the whole nation of Israel would have been destroyed in captivity had not there been some righteous people in the nation; these few righteous people in the nation were the seed mentioned in this quotation from Isaiah.
Romans 9:30 : What shall toe say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. When a man is forgiven, when his sins are blotted out, he is righteous. Men attain to that righteousness when they through faith become obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. While the Gentiles did not seek righteousness according to the law, they became righteous by their obedience to the gospel. "But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:17-18).
Romans 9:31 : But Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Israel professed adherence to the law of Moses, but they did not keep that law. Instead, therefore, of being righteous, they were sinners—transgressors of the law they professed to follow.
Romans 9:32-33 : Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling; even as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a, rock of offense: and he that "believeth on him shall not be put to shame. The law could not make righteous the one who had transgressed it. The only hope, therefore, of the Jew, as well as of the Gentile, is to attain, righteousness through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; but because he was not what they expected in the Messiah, the Jews rejected him—to them he was a stone of stumbling. "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block" (1 Corinthians 1:23). But those who did believe in Christ were not put to shame, as men are when they find that they have been deceived into following a false leader. "And blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in me" (Matthew 11:6). Jesus fails no one who puts his trust in him; he is not slack concerning his promises.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Ten By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 10:1 : Brethren, my heart’s desire and my supplication to God is for them, that they may be saved. The Jews regarded Paul as an apostate, a hater of their nation. In the beginning of Chapter 9, Paul expressed his deep devotion to his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh; but the Holy Spirit directed him in writing that only a remnant of Israel would be saved. The casting off the Jews was not an arbitrary act of God—he had not doomed them beyond remedy. Had Paul so understood it, he would not have been praying that they might be saved. His desire and prayer showed his deep interest in them. There was still a way for Jews as individuals to be saved; but knowing that salvation could be attained only through Christ, he did not pray for them to be saved in their unbelief—that was impossible.
Romans 10:2 : For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They had not understood the purpose of the law nor the voice of the prophets (Acts 13:27). Had they understood their own Scriptures, they would have known that Jesus fulfilled both the law and the prophets. The Jews were full of zeal, but in willful ignorance crucified the Son of God.
Romans 10:3 : For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. The Jews fully understood that God was a righteous being. It was not that of which they were ignorant. They were ignorant of God’s plan, or way, of righteousness. This righteousness is something to which men should submit and to which the Jews, had not submitted. This righteousness is revealed in the gospel; this they had repudiated, and were, therefore, in a lost condition.
Romans 10:4 : For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believeth. The law demanded absolute righteousness, but could not free the transgressor of guilt. The law could not make the guilty righteous. It seems to me that commentators usually miss Paul’s point. It is true that the law ended at the cross, but it ended at the cross regardless of whether one believes or does not believe. The end of which Paul here speaks is attained by those who believe in Christ. The end, or aim, of the law was righteousness. The believer in Christ is made righteous, and thus the end of the law for righteousness is reached in Christ. When a man’s sins are all blotted out, when he is cleansed from all sin, he is righteous; that condition is reached in Christ by those who believe. The end, or purpose, of the law was righteousness; that end is reached in Christ by the believer. It will be noticed that Paul says: "Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believeth." The modifying phrase, "to everyone that believeth," shows that Paul was not speaking of the abrogation of the law; that is taught abundantly elsewhere. And it was abrogated for all, believers and unbelievers alike.
Romans 10:5 : For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby. This refers to what Moses said in Leviticus 18:5 : "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and mine ordinances; which if a man do, he shall live in them." That meant strict adherence to all that the law said—perfect obedience to all its requirements. This no man ever did. Righteousness would have been of the law if there had been perfect obedience to the law; and yet the law demanded just that. Its end, or purpose, is realized in Christ to all who believe. And that way of righteousness is not hard to understand, nor to practice.
Romans 10:6-8 : But the righteousness which is of faith saith thus, Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down:), or, Who shall descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach. In the connection in which these words are used, they seem at first glance to be somewhat obscure. Paul was quoting Deuteronomy 30:12-14, with parenthetical words of his own to adapt the words of Moses to his own purpose. But the words of Moses in the verse preceding the words Paul quotes, together with the last words quoted, help us to understand the significance of the passage: "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. . .. But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it," "This commandment" refers to the whole law, which Moses had just finished giving them in detail and in completeness. Hence, it was nigh them; so that it was not necessary to go to heaven to bring it down, nor across the sea to learn it. That law was not in heaven, but here among them. The law had been within easy reach, but righteousness had been unattainable. But the righteousness which is by faith in Christ is attainable, and is within easy reach. It does not require the impossible, such as ascending to heaven to bring Christ down or to bring him up from Hades. No such additional signs are necessary; nor do we now have to hear direct from heaven to enjoy this righteousness by faith. The word of faith, or the word which produces faith, was preached—that is, made known—by the apostles. The connection shows that this plan of righteousness made known by the apostles is all that is necessary—is, indeed, the only plan through which we may become righteous by faith in Christ. To pray for some additional power to come direct from heaven is to show a lack of faith in what God has said. But to believe in Christ means more than to give mental assent to the truths and facts revealed about him; it means more than to have a passive trust in him; it must be an active faith—a faith made perfect by obedience to the commands of him in whom we believe.
Romans 10:8-11 : But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame. We are told that the Jews spoke of a difficult or impossible thing as a thing afar off; an easy thing, as nigh. It was impossible, a thing afar off, to be justified by the law of Moses. To be justified by law requires perfect obedience, and no one rendered such obedience. But the Jews expected their Messiah to be here on earth in person—to remain here. This gospel system of righteousness by faith in Christ does not demand that he be brought down from heaven; nor does it, as if he were yet in the tomb, demand that he be brought up from the dead. It does not demand, nor require, his personal presence here on earth. But what does this gospel system of righteousness by faith say? "The word is nigh thee"; it is not a difficult matter—not a matter afar off. On the evidence given by his inspired teachers, you believe in the heart that he is the Messiah, and confess that faith with the mouth. That is the word of faith which the apostles preached, and that is the way of righteousness through Christ. To believe in Christ is to recognize him for what he is—to put our fall trust in him; to confess him is to pledge our allegiance to him. A mere lip confession is worthless; we must acknowledge him by word and deed as our Lord—our Prophet, Priest, and King, as well as our Savior. This sort of confession brings us finally to eternal life, eternal salvation. And this announcement that salvation was now offered in the gospel to all, whether Jew or Gentile, was a great blow to the Jew with his pride of race. It is now whosoever—"whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame." Sometimes we put our trust or confidence in a man, and he betrays that confidence; he turns out bad, and we are put to shame. But we can put our full confidence in Christ, and give him our life’s best service, without any fear that he will betray us and put us to shame. We can glory in him now and evermore.
Romans 10:12-13 : For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and rich unto all that call upon him: for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Under the law there was a distinction between Jew and Gentile, but this was not a matter of favoritism. God was working out his greater plan, the plan in which Jew and Gentile would have the same standing before Jehovah. But the law of Moses—all things Jewish—had to be taken out of the way before both Jew and Gentile could be brought together into one body, one worshiping assembly (Ephesians 2:13-18). In Paul’s writings are many arguments to show that the law of Moses ended at the cross, but some of the professed Christians among the Jews never did recognize that the Jew had no advantage over the Gentile. His claim that God now made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, and his preaching to the Gentiles, made these Jews very bitter toward him. They would not recognize that the riches of God’s grace were as abundant for the Gentiles, as for the Jew. It is: "Whosoever will." In this the gospel of Christ is much more glorious than the law, as it is also in many other respects.
Romans 10:14-15 : How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things! These are rhetorical questions, and are equal to direct statements. No one can call on one in whom he does not believe, and he cannot believe in one of whom he has never heard. And we never would have heard of Christ and his gospel had he not sent men to preach it. It had to be proclaimed in order that people might hear and believe. Paul is here speaking of the original proclamation of the gospel. It is a perversion of Paul’s language to use it to prove that a preacher now cannot preach unless the church sends him. It is also an argument contrary to facts, for a man can go out now and present the gospel of Christ without being sent by any church or any man. But the original proclamation of the gospel required men whom the Lord qualified and sent. If Jesus had not sent them, they could not have proclaimed the gospel. We are now just as dependent upon the preaching of these men whom Jesus sent as the people were to whom they went personally. They are the ones who brought the message. The Lord selected them, gave them the message, and sent them to deliver it. Because this message is so precious and wonderful to those who accept it, it is said: "How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things!"
Romans 10:16-18 : But they did not all hearken to the glad tidings. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, Did they not hear? Yea, verily, their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. Personal responsibility is here plainly set forth. If any did not believe, it was because they did not hearken to the glad tidings proclaimed by the preachers whom the Lord sent, for their report went out into all the earth—to the ends of the world. The unsaved man, whether Jew or Gentile, has no one to blame but himself. And this report went out to all, that they might believe; for faith comes by hearing the word of God, and it comes in no other way. Some people hear, and do not believe, and are therefore not saved. In his explanation of the parable of the sower Jesus said: "The sower soweth the word." "The seed is the word of God. And those by the wayside are they that have heard; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved." The devil knows that the word of God in the heart is the only thing that will cause anyone to believe. "And it came to pass in Iconium that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed" (Acts 14:1).
Romans 10:19-21 : But I say Did Israel not know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, With a nation void of understanding will I anger you. And Isaiah is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I became manifest unto them that asked not of me. But as to Israel he saith, All the day long did I spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. "Did Israel not know?" This refers to what is said in verse 18: "Yea, verily, their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." From this prophecy, quoted from Isaiah, Israel should have known that the gospel was to go "out into all the earth," "unto the ends of the world"—to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. The Jews, therefore, should not have been angered, or even surprised, that the gospel was being preached to the Gentiles, as their own prophet had foretold. "But I say, Did Israel not know?" If they did not, it was because they were so blinded by their own conceits that they could not understand plain language. Even Moses had said: "I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, with a nation void of understanding will I anger you." The Jews were so opposed to the Gentiles that they wanted no consideration given them. Even many of the professed Christians of the Jews were enraged at Paul for his work among the Gentiles. "And Isaiah is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I became manifest unto them that asked not of me." It is true in a sense that men must seek after God, but they cannot do so unless they know something of him; and the Gentiles were so lost in ignorance that they did not know to seek God until he was made known to them. Hence, it is literally true that God first sought the Gentiles. They could not ask anything of Jehovah of whom they knew nothing. He had first to make himself manifest to them. This he did by sending his preachers out among them. But to Israel, who should have readily obeyed the gospel, God said: "All the day long did I spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." These Jews not only disobeyed, but spoke against God’s message to them. As an illustration of this, see Acts 13:45; Acts 18:5-6.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Eleven By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 11:1-6 : I say then, Did God cast off his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? how he pleadeth with God against Israel: Lord they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. "I say then, Did God cast off his people?" Paul’s critics might claim that he was teaching God’s utter rejection of all Jews. "Be it not so." Paul certainly would not propagate a theory that would put himself outside the pale of salvation. He gives himself as an example that the rejection of the Jewish nation had nothing to do with the salvation of individual Jews. "For I am also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." God did not, and does not, withhold salvation from any obedient Jew. "God did not cast off his people which he foreknew." Let us not get confused over this word foreknew. In the New Testament this verb know, when it has, a person for its object, means to recognize, or accept. And Paul’s language does not mean that God knew, or accepted, certain people before they were born; his language refers to those he accepted as his people under the former dispensation—that is, the obedient Jews. The connection, as well as the language itself, shows this to be his meaning. He uses the complaint of Elijah and God’s answer to him to illustrate his point. Although the great mass of Israel had forsaken Jehovah, and were not therefore acceptable to him, there were yet seven thousand whom he could and did accept. Paul’s language seems to indicate that there had always been some of Israel that were acceptable to Jehovah. "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." This refers to those Jews who had become obedient to Christ. God had rejected the whole Jewish system, and would soon destroy what government the Romans had so far left to them; but he had not barred the door of salvation against any Jew that became obedient to the gospel of grace through Christ. Under this system of grace he makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile. "But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace." No amount of works can blot out sins already committed. Forgiveness is a matter of grace, no matter how many conditions one must fulfill in order to be forgiven. If a man’s works had always been perfect, he would have no sins to be forgiven; he would stand justified on his own merit. There is no grace when a man merits justification. Works by which a man merits justification, and commands which one must obey to be saved, are distinct matters. It is unfortunate that many religionists cannot, or will not, see this distinction, which should be plainly seen by any Bible reader. Because they fail to make this distinction they conclude that a sinner must do nothing in order to be saved. A man has no real understanding of either works or grace when he thinks conditions of forgiveness make salvation a matter of works and not of grace. Nothing that a sinner can do merits salvation. Many things are of grace, and yet conditional. Is anyone so simple as to think Naaman’s healing of leprosy was any less a matter of grace because he had to dip seven times in the river Jordan? Is any so blind that he cannot see that giving sight to the blind man was a matter of grace, even though he had to go wash in the pool of Siloam? If so, he needs his eyes opened as badly as did the blind man.
Romans 11:7-8 : What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened: according as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day. Here it seems that Paul begins to sum up his argument concerning Israel and God’s dealings with them. The most of them had sought righteousness by the works of the law; but righteousness by works of law required perfect obedience to that law, and all had at some time sinned against that law. The law does not forgive; it cannot make the guilty righteous, or, what is the same, cannot justify the guilty. A remnant had sought forgiveness through Christ; these were the election, or the elect, that obtained righteousness. "The rest were hardened"—that is, dulled or blinded. Their will was hardened; their understanding was dulled. They, and not God, brought that condition upon themselves. Compare Matthew 13:14-15 : "And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should turn again, and I should heal them."
Jesus did not offer the Jews what they wanted; they, therefore, turned a deaf ear to his teaching. They did not see in him anything they desired. They would not hear and they would not see, and, therefore, did not understand; and that condition prevailed to the time Paul wrote the Roman letter, and has not improved even until now. In verse 8 Paul makes a free translation of Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10.
Romans 11:9-10 : And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them: let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow thou down their back always. "Their table" was put for their religious food. Instead of being led to Christ by the law they were entrapped by their blind adherence to the law; they were caught as in a snare. And their blind adherence to the law would be their recompense, and that would amount to condemnation. Their rejection of Christ and their blind devotion to the law was their ruin. Paul said such people judged themselves unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46). In clinging to the law and rejecting Christ, the Jews were wearing a yoke which they were not able to bear (Acts 15:10). Their course brought upon themselves the destruction of their nation and hard servitude.
Romans 11:11 : I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. Commentators usually make Paul’s question mean something like this: Did they stumble so as to fall away completely and finally, never to be restored? But that is making Paul say more than he really said. Now, in classic Greek the conjunction here translated that introduces a final clause of purpose, but we are told that in the New Testament it "ranges in its use from definite purpose to simple result." Let it here have its primary meaning, and Paul’s question would have this meaning: Did they stumble in order that they might fall? Was that their purpose? Certainly not, but it led to their fall; that much is certain. Was it their final doom? As a nation, Yes. Whether any of them as individuals were brought back into favor with God depended on their own choice in the matter. Now, the only way to favor with God is through Christ, and that is an individual matter.
So long as the law stood, Gentiles as such could not have covenant relationship with God. The law stood as a barrier, a wall, between Jew and Gentile; but that wall was taken out of the way that God might make of Jews and Gentiles one new man, one new church (Ephesians 2:13-18.) The Jews broke the covenant, and it was abolished (Hebrews 8:7-9). Jews and Gentiles then stood on an equal footing; God makes no difference between them now. In fact, it had been God’s purpose all along to offer the blessings of salvation through Christ to the Gentiles. To Abraham God said: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 22:18). This promise refers to Christ (Galatians 3:16). Read the Great Commission, "Make disciples of all the nations," "Preach the gospel to the whole creation," and learn that the prophets had said that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." Because of the hardness of the Jews at Antioch of Pisidia, "Paul and Barnabas spake out boldly, and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you. Seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46). This spreading of the gospel among the Gentiles did provoke the Jews to jealousy; but it was jealousy for Judaism, not for the gospel. Yet some commentators think Paul meant that the Jews would become jealous of the great blessings the gospel brought to Gentiles, and would, therefore, become Christians; but that view is not in line with Paul’s argument nor with the effects preaching to Gentiles had on the Jews. When Paul was rescued from a mob by the Roman soldiers, from the stairway of the castle he made a speech to the angry Jews, in which he said: "And it came to pass, that, when I had returned to Jerusalem, and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; because they will not receive of thee testimony concerning me. . . . And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee forth far hence unto the Gentiles" (Acts 22:17-21). These last words of Paul sent these Jews into an insane rage. In Romans 10:19 Paul quotes this from Deuteronomy: "I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, with a nation void of understanding will I anger you."
Romans 11:12 : "Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? The fall of the Jews and the abrogation of the law of Moses opened up the way for the blessings of the gospel to be carried to the whole world. The first meaning Liddell and Scott gives to the word here translated "loss" is defeat, and we are told by an eminent scholar that there is no justification for translating it by "loss." Anyway, it is a fact that the Jews were defeated in their effort to destroy Christ and his teaching by crucifying him, and in their efforts to destroy the church; and they were defeated in their efforts to please God by the course they pursued. Because of their defeat in all these efforts the riches of the blessings of salvation were offered to the Gentiles—in fact, to all the people of the earth. "How much more their fulness?" "Fulness" in what way? Commentators seem to take it for granted that Paul was speaking of the full—complete—return of the Jews to the favor of God, but Paul’s reasoning in this chapter does not contemplate such a thing as the conversion of the Jewish nation. Besides, he was speaking of the fall, or defeat, of the Jews and not their conversion. Might he not, therefore, have meant their full and complete degradation which resulted in their full and complete destruction as a nation? Their complete overthrow as a nation did contribute to the spread of the gospel. The majority of the Jews, both in Palestine and in foreign countries, had been the bitterest enemies Christianity had. In foreign countries where they had a synagogue, they did all they could to stir up the people and Roman authorities against Christians; but their active persecution of Christians ceased when their nation was destroyed. And they lost all influence with the Roman authorities everywhere. And those Judaizing meddlers, who sought to stir up trouble in all churches where there were Gentile members, lost their influence for harm. Perhaps nothing outside the church helped the spread of the gospel among all peoples so much as the full destruction of the Jewish nation.
Romans 11:13-14 : But I speak to you that are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my ministry; if by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh, and may save some of them. Though Paul was discussing at length the fate of the Jews, he would not have Gentile Christians think he was forgetting the Gentile people. He had been chosen as an apostle of the Gentiles, and he gloried in that ministry. He demonstrated that he was sent of God by the miracles he performed. He hoped that his preaching to the Gentiles and his miracles among them would stir some of the Jews to such a pitch of jealousy that they would so investigate the testimony concerning the Christ as to become believers in Jesus as the Christ. By so doing he would be an instrument in saving those who believed his preaching. By teaching, backed up by a godly life, any Christian may be an agent in saving others. "Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching. Continue in these things; for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee" (1 Timothy 4:16). Paul did not expect to save all the Jews, only some of them.
Romans 11:15 : For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? The casting away of the Jews did not bring about the reconciling of the whole world, nor does "the receiving of them" mean that all Jews would be restored to God’s favor. Reconciliation was offered to the whole world, and all Jews have the opportunity to be saved. All Jews were dead to God—dead in their sins, just as were the Gentiles. Hence, receiving a Jew back into favor with God is as life from the dead. The conversion of any sinner to Christ is life from the dead. The Jews are not now God’s people any more than are the Gentiles—all are dead in trespasses and sins till they are made alive in Christ.
Romans 11:16 : And if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump: and if the root is holy, so are the branches. The word holy does not here mean free from sin. The law of Moses said, "The first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God (Exodus 23:19). "And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then shall ye bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah, to be accepted for you. . . . And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor parched ears, until this selfsame day, until ye have brought the oblation of your God" (Leviticus 23:9-14). When the first-fruits were brought to the priest, then the whole harvest became holy to the people, that is, devoted to their use. When God accepted the first Jewish converts, the first-fruits of the gospel harvest, then the whole nation was holy, that is acceptable to God on the terms of the gospel. Only In that sense was the whole Jewish race holy.
Romans 11:17-18 : But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree; glory not over the branches: but if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee. An illustration must not be pressed so far as to contradict the plain teaching of other passages of the scriptures. This illustration must not be made to teach that some of the Jews were not broken off from God’s favor; "for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin" (Romans 3:9). Many Jews, broken off from God’s favor, had been grafted in again through their faith in Christ. The wild olive tree represented the Gentiles; Gentile converts had been grafted into God’s favor, and thereby had become partakers with the believing Jews "of the root of the fatness of the olive tree." The unbelieving Jews were not partakers "of the root of the fatness of the olive tree," any more than the unbelieving Gentiles; they had been broken off. They had been broken off for good reasons: they had broken the covenant, which gave them national existence; they had killed the Messiah; they had rejected the gospel, and unmercifully persecuted the Lord’s church. But even so, the Gentile Christians should not glory over the broken-off branches; neither should they glory over believing Jews, for believing Jews are as acceptable to God as are believing Gentiles. In this illustration, or figure, it seems that Abraham is the root, for all Israel sprang from him. He gained God’s favor by faith, and so do we. By changing the figure, Abraham is said to be "the father of all them that believe" (Romans 4:10). In the true sense now unbelieving Jews are not the seed of Abraham (John 8:39).
Romans 11:19-21 : Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. From what was said in verses 11 and 12, the Gentile Christian might conclude that the Jews were rejected for the definite purpose of granting salvation to the Gentiles.
The rejection of the Jews, which resulted from their sins, did hasten the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles; they were not arbitrarily rejected for the special benefit of Gentiles. The term "unbelief" here stand? for all their sin and rebellion. In reality they cut themselves loose from all relations with God. By their faith the Gentile Christians stood in God’s favor. They did not obtain God’s favor through God’s partiality to them, nor through any merit of their own, but by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jews could obtain that favor in the same way. There was therefore no grounds nor occasion for their glorying over the Jews. Besides, these Gentile Christians might also be broken off from God’s favor, as a result of unbelief. By a natural birth all Jews had been God’s people—they had been born into covenant relationship with God; but that covenant ended at the cross, and that left the Jews in the same condition as the Gentiles. "For they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord" (Hebrews 8:9). This should be a warning to Gentile Christians—in fact to all members of the New Covenant, whether Jews or Gentiles; "for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee." This shows conclusively that Christians may conduct themselves in such way as to sever themselves from God’s favor.
Romans 11:22-23 : Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. This saving some through faith, and cutting off others because of their unbelief, shows both the mercy and justice of God, both the goodness and severity of God. And this leads Paul to exclaim: "Behold then the goodness and severity of God." God dealt severely with the Jews because they fell through unbelief. His goodness would be extended to the Gentile Christians so Song as they did not fall through unbelief. In his goodness and in his severity God is neither tyrannical nor whimsical; the display of either his goodness or severity depends on man’s attitude toward him. Let us not get a one-sided view of God. "God is love" (1 John 4:8). It is equally true that "our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). Because of unbelief the Jews had been cut off from God’s favor. Their only hope therefore was to come back to God through faith in Christ. Any among them could be grafted again into God’s favor, "if they continue not in their unbelief." God was able to graft them in again; the only hindering cause was their unbelief.
Verse 24: But if thou wast cut out of that which is
by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? A wild olive tree is an uncultivated olive tree, a tree of the woods. Its fruit would be inferior; and it would not be natural to expect to improve its fruit by grafting it into a good olive tree. However the fruit of the Gentiles, here represented as of a wild olive tree, would be improved by their being grafted into the good olive tree, that is, into the favor and service of God. And if a branch of a wild olive tree is grafted into the good olive tree, how much more natural is the grafting in of the natural branches.
Paul’s olive-tree parable, or illustration, has often been used in an attempt to prove the perpetuity of the church from Abraham on down through the Christian dispensation; and this is done in an effort to prove infant membership in the church. But a careful consideration of the parable, or illustration, shows the argument to be fallacious.
1.The language is only an illustration of God’s method of dealing with Jews and Gentiles. To make an illustration do service beyond the point illustrated is to do violence to language and reason.
2.The perpetuity of a supposed Abrahamic church was not under consideration; Paul was not therefore giving an illustration to prove that point. He had not so much as hinted at such a thought.
3.Two olive trees are in the parable. If the tame olive tree represents the church of God, what church does the wild olive tree represent? What is the wild church?
4.If the church at Pentecost had been with the
Jews all along, who were the hold-over members? Jesus had told Nicodemus, one of the best of the Jews, that he had to be born again. In fact the language of Jesus includes all: "Except one"—tis. any one—"be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Hence a Jew, any Jew, had to be born again to enter—to be grafted in. As if to make sure that Nicodemus and all others would know that all Jews were included, Jesus said, "Ye"—notice the plural pronoun—"Ye must be born again."
5.If the church began with Abraham and the olive tree represents that church, then Jews were members by nature, and would not have to be born again to enter it—they were born into it; and all Jewish children are still members of it. If Jews who reached the years of accountability were broken off—turned out of the church—because of unbelief, that would not destroy the fact that they were born into it. If that assumption is correct, then all Jewish children are yet born into it. If not, why not? Can a pedo-baptist answer? Natural branches were broken off because of unbelief, but that would not apply to infants. What broke off the Jewish infants? It will not do to say that Jewish infants were brought into the church by circumcision, but infants are now brought in by baptism, and that therefore unbaptized Jewish infants are now left out; for if Jews became members by circumcision, then they were not branches by nature. Anyone can see this. Hence the pedo-baptist argument on the olive tree compels them to say that Jews were members by nature—by a natural birth; but their argument that baptism came in the room of circumcision compels them to say that Jews became members by circumcision, Their arguments cancel each other,
8.As all grafting in is done by faith, infants cannot be grafted in—they cannot have faith. And as no Gentiles are born into this supposed Abrahamic church and Gentile infants cannot be grafted in by faith, it is certain that Gentile infant membership in such a church is impossible.
7.A parable or any other figure of speech must not be pressed beyond what the writer meant to teach. This is done when it is argued that Paul’s parable of the olive tree teaches the perpetuity of a supposed Abrahamic church. In Ephesians 2:14-16 Paul tells us that God took the law out of the way that he might make of both Jews and Gentiles one new man—one new church. It does not meet the issue to say that the covenants were changed, but the church remained the same, for Paul plainly says the Old Covenant was abolished that the new church might be established.
8.The olive tree is God’s favor, God’s goodness, as may be seen by giving attention to verse 22. As a people, the Hebrews had been the special object of God’s favor—he had been good to them, till they were broken off because of unbelief, and thereby fell under the severity of God. Gentile believers were grafted into God’s favor, God’s goodness; but they also must continue in God’s goodness, or also be broken off. In all the parable nothing is said about a church, or about infant membership in anything.
Romans 11:25 : For 7 would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. In the New Testament the word mystery usually refers to things not before revealed, but not always. (See 1 Timothy 3:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:7). Things too great for finite minds to comprehend are mysteries. The mystery of this verse 25 is, that "a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." That statement itself is somewhat of a mystery, for Paul does not reveal to us what the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles is. What Paul does not say, some commentators and other writers fill in with their own assumptions. It is assumed by some that "the fulness of the Gentiles" means that all Gentiles will be finally converted to Christ, and that will be followed by the conversion of the whole Jewish race. Some future kingdom advocates interpret "the fulness of the Gentiles" as the full count of the Gentiles; that is, when the Lord gathered out of the Gentiles the full number he wants for rulers in the supposed future kingdom, then evangelism among them will cease, and the Jews will then turn to Christ. These are baseless assumptions. It is assumed that the preposition "until" shows that this hardening of a part of the Jews would continue only "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in," then the whole Jewish race would turn to Christ. But the preposition "until" does not tell what will follow the event or events mentioned in the phrase it introduces, or governs. Consider a few examples. "And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month" (Genesis 8:5). That does not indicate any change after the tenth month; the record shows that the waters continued to decrease for some time. "Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now" (Genesis 46:34). This does not mean that they would quit the cattle business at that time, and turn to something else; but it was to be the basis of a plea to Pharaoh that they be allowed to continue in the same business. "And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death" (1 Samuel 15:35). That implies nothing as to what Samuel did after the death of Saul. "My Father worketh even until now" (John 5:17). And of course he kept on working as he had always done. "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together until now" (Romans 8:22). And Paul did not mean that any change would follow the writing of that letter. The whole creation continues to groan and travail even now as they did before Paul penned those words. And so, what change took place, or whether any change occurred, after the things mentioned in the "until" phrase, cannot be determined by that phrase, nor by the other part of the sentence. Now, if we must deal in suppositions, and must draw conclusions about "until," why not suppose things that are in harmony with what actually occurred? As the church became more and more made up of Gentile members, hardness among the Jews increased until the church became almost, if not entirely, Gentile in membership—until the fullness of the Gentiles came in; then the hardness among the Jews apparently became complete. If this is not what Paul meant, it is, at least, what really occurred. And aside from inspired interpretations, are not developments the best commentary on a prophecy?
Romans 11:26-27 : And so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: and this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. "So" is an adverb of manner; it is here a translation of a Greek word, which means, "in this way (manner), so, under these circ*mstances." Paul had shown how Gentiles had been grafted into God’s favor, and how the Jews, the broken-off branches, might also be grafted in again. And so, in this manner, or in this way, shall all Israel be saved. Paul had just said that they would be grafted in again, if they continued not in unbelief. The Holy Spirit did not expect all Jews to turn from their unbelief. Paul did not therefore mean that every person of fleshly Israel would be saved; many since then have died in unbelief, and unsaved. And Paul did not say that the time would come when all Jews then living would be saved. And yet some speak as if that is what he said. When Peter said (Acts 15:11) that the Jews would be saved even as the Gentiles, he did not mean that all of either class would be saved, but that all would be saved as others had been saved—salvation was open to all on the same terms. The Deliverer is Christ Jesus. "Jacob" here stands for the descendants of Jacob. Jesus came to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and did that for all who accepted him. They were to turn from their ungodliness—their impiety, or irreverence, and he would take away their sins, and that was his covenant with them.
Romans 11:28-29 : As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of. The Jews considered the Gentiles so far beneath them, that they considered themselves unclean if they touched a Gentile. From the start the Jews opposed the gospel, because it did not meet their expectations, and because it condemned them as sinners and as murderers. To be told that they were no better than Gentiles intensified their enmity. When Paul told the Jews in Jerusalem that the Lord had told him to depart from them and go and preach to the Gentiles, they said, "Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live" (Acts 22:17-22). The preaching of the gospel to Gentiles, and their acceptance into the church further hardened them from giving it any consideration. Of course no proud Pharisee would think of becoming a member of a body made up largely of Gentiles. And so, because of the Gentile Christians, the Jews were enemies of the gospel. God had selected the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants as the line through which the Christ would come, and he had not repented of that selection; and even though these descendants had so sinned as to be broken off from his favor, they were beloved on account of the fathers, and not on their own account.
Romans 11:30-31 : For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now obtain mercy. Here it seems that Paul speaks especially to Gentile Christians. Though the Gentiles had not been under the law of Moses, yet they had been disobedient to God. If, as some say, Gentiles were not under any law of God, how could Paul say they had been disobedient to God? The truth is, all people are, and have always been, under God’s eternal moral law, a law inherent in the nature of our relations to one another. The Gentiles, in disobeying this moral law, had sinned against God. For a list of their sinful practices see Romans 1:18-32. They were therefore under condemnation, as much so as were disobedient Jews. But mercy had been extended to these Gentile sinners; the opportunity to turn from their sins and be saved had been granted to them in the gospel. And this was a guaranty that disobedient Jews also could obtain mercy.
Romans 11:32 : For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. This does not mean that God had shut up all, both Jews and Gentiles, under such conditions that they had to be disobedient, but that he counted all as disobedient; "for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin" (Romans 3:9) And for this reason he commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30-31). Christ came to save sinners, not to cause men to be sinners. People are not made sinners by hearing the gospel, but the gospel is preached to them because they are sinners. People are sinners, and they need to realize that they are under condemnation, that they may obtain God’s mercy. In this verse Paul ends his argument on the theme that the gospel is the power of God for salvation.
Romans 11:33-36 : O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen. How sublime are these words! They refer to the provisions for salvation as revealed in the gospel, including God’s use of men and nations in the development of this plan of salvation, as had been set forth in this letter, and not merely, as some think, to what was said in verses 30 and 31.
In the Bible use of the term "knowledge of God" that phrase does not refer to what God knows, but to what is known, or may be known, about him; that is, it refers to the things revealed about him and his plans. Here are some examples of the use of the phrase: "Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:5). "... there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). "Some have no knowledge of God" (1 Corinthians 15:34). Paul prayed that the Colossians be "increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:9-10). "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). (See also Hosea 6:6; 2 Corinthians 10:5; 2 Peter 1:2-3; 2 Peter 1:8). In not one passage does the phrase refer to what God knows, any more than the phrase "knowledge of mathematics" refers to what mathematics knows. No uninspired man could search out and discern the judgments of God, nor trace out his ways down through the ages as he used men and nations in working out his plans and purposes. And no one can know the mind of God, save as he reveals it. By man’s unaided powers he cannot find out these glorious things. "But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth" (1 Corinthians 2:9-13). Only as God reveals himself may we know his mind. And no one has ever given anything to God, so as to bring God under obligation to recompense him; for all things are of him, through him, and unto him. We cannot therefore enrich him by giving him that which is already his; but we can, with Paul, say, "To him be glory forever."
Commentary On Romans Chapter Twelve By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 12:1 : I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Instead of giving a command Paul put forth all his apostolic authority in this tender appeal—"I beseech you." The riches of God’s mercy as manifested in his provisions for man’s salvation in and through the gospel should be a mighty appeal to man to give him all his powers. "Or know ye net that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore In your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Our bodies are to be presented as living sacrifices. This is not said, as so many suppose, "in contrast with dead sacrifices of the Old Testament"; for no Jew ever offered a dead animal as a sacrifice. Living animals were brought to the altar. Paul commands, "Present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" "... even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification" (Romans 6:13; Romans 6:19). So the meaning is, present your bodies alive to righteousness—alive to God. The body is dead to sin. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through the Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11). This does not refer to the resurrection of the body, but to its use in the service of God now. Our bodies, once dead in sin, are now, by the Holy Spirit that dwells in us, made alive in the service of God; they are to be presented to God as living, active instruments in his service. "Holy." With the Greeks the word here translated "holy" meant, "devoted to the gods." Any gift made to their gods was said to be devoted, holy. It is easy to see its application. Our bodies, as living sacrifices, are devoted to the worship and service of God. Anything taken out of common use and devoted to God is holy. Our bodies are therefore important; in fact, no command can be obeyed, and no kind of service to God can be rendered, without the use of the body. And as the spirit of man thus uses his body, it is called a spiritual service. The common version has, "reasonable service." Some have concluded that Paul was urging the brethren to do what God said on the grounds that his demands were just and equitable, as if one should advise another to buy a piece of property because the price was reasonable, that is, just and right! That no inspired writer would do. The word occurs one other time in the New Testament; there King James has sincere, the American Standard has spiritual (1 Peter 2:2). There are no carnal ordinances in Christianity; every acceptable service is a spiritual service. And to thus devote our bodies as instruments of service to him is acceptable to him, a spiritual service.
Romans 12:2 : And be not fashioned according to this world: bid be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Some Christians, like the children of Israel, want to copy the ways and practices of other people. This Paul forbids. His language also bans our drifting into the customs prevailing about us; and Christians will drift into the customs of other religious people, if they do not study the Bible, and make it their guide in speech and action. The Christian should make the Bible his guide, and give no thought as to whether it makes him like or unlike others. "...as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living" (1 Peter 1:14-15). Fashion yourselves according to the life of Christ and the gospel, not the world. "But be ye transformed." This demands a radical change in the thinking and the conduct of those who become Christians. The Greek word here rendered transformed is rendered transfigured in Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2. The Christian is made responsible for this change; the change is not brought about suddenly. "Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). This transformation can be brought about only by renewing the mind, the inward man, day by day. No one can transform his character while holding to the same old stock of ideas and ideals. Study the Bible — make God’s thoughts and ideals your thoughts and ideals, and a transformation naturally follows. The gospel in the heart works the change. And because the will of God cherished in the heart works such a change in character, the thoughtful person therefore by actual experience proves to himself that the will of God is good, well-pleasing, and perfect.
Romans 12:3 : For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. Paul speaks of his being made an apostle as the grace that was given him. The same thought is expressed in chapter 15:15, 16; 1 Corinthians 3:10; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Galatians 2:7-9; Ephesians 3:7. He warns Christians against thinking too highly of themselves. To think soberly is to think sensibly—to think of our proper relations with God and our fellow-men. No one should feel himself to be wise above what is written, nor feel so important as to be domineering. Neither should he, like Moses, feel that he is too insignificant to do what God commands him to do. "A measure of faith." It does not seem to me that "measure" here means portion. R. St. John Parry, in his notes in the Cambridge Greek Testament, says of the Greek term here translated "measure," "In N. T. it always has its proper significance of ’a measuring instrument.’" Faith is the measuring instrument, the instrument by which we are to measure our thinking. Whether faith in this place refers to the gospel, as it does in some places, or to our own faith in the gospel, makes no difference; for our faith includes a wholehearted belief in the gospel. It equals the idea that the gospel is the measuring instrument; for our faith cannot go beyond the gospel, and should not fall short of it. Our faith is the gospel written in our hearts.
Romans 12:4-5 : For even as we have many members in one body, and oil the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. As all Christians are one body in Christ, and members one of another, no member should think himself to be above another. The word "office" in verse 4 refers to function. Each member of the body of Christ has an office, a function, just as does each member of our own body, and is an essential part of the body. It is a sobering thought. Paul dwells on this same illustration in greater length in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.
Romans 12:6-8 : And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; or he that exhorteth, to his exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. The human body is a unit, though it has many members; and each member has an office, or function. So it is in the church, the body of Christ. People have certain natural gifts, but no natural gift will enable a man to prophesy. A prophet was one who spoke for God; that is, God spoke through him to the people. Foretelling future events was not his main work; God delivered through him whatever teaching the people needed. He was an inspired teacher. Certain other activities in the early church required special endowments; these special endowments were called spiritual gifts. These are mentioned more specifically in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:28-30. It seems that teachers did not reveal, but taught what had been revealed. As the New Testament had not been completed, these teachers would need a degree of inspiration to enable them to remember what they had been taught and to guard them against error. But ministry is service, and it seems that service could be rendered without inspiration; and so with exhorting and giving. The ruler needed diligence, but too many give very little time or attention to the responsibility placed upon them. And no one should attempt to show mercy in a halfhearted or indifferent way. Showing mercy in a helpful way is a fine art.
Romans 12:9-10 : Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another. There should be no pretended love; pretended love is hypocrisy. The man who does not abhor that which is evil neither loves the good nor cleaves to it. "Hate the evil, and love the good" (Amos 5:15). Jehovah said concerning Christ, "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity, therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Hebrews 1:9). Because Jesus loved man, he hated evil; and so must the Christian. If we love our fellowman, we hate that which is hurtful to him. When Christians are "tenderly affectioned one to another," they will fight against everything that is hurtful to others. And in all social and business affairs Christians should prefer one another.
Romans 12:11-13 : . . . in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing steadfastly in prayer; communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality. "Slothful implies excessive and sluggish indolence." The Christian must be industrious in the Lord’s service; otherwise he can have no hope. Hope sustains people in all their undertakings; and to the Christian hope of future bliss brings joy and happiness even in his tribulations and difficulties. Patience is steadfastness—endurance. Hope helps the Christian to be Romans 12:16 : Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits. The admonition to be of the same mind is directly connected with what is said in verse 15. It does not seem to refer to unity in gospel teaching, but rather of sentiment, or disposition, of one toward another— each one to enter into the rejoicings and sorrows of the other. Be not ambitious to appear to be greater or better than others. In reading this verse the marginal reading in the American Standard Version should be carefully noted. The marginal reading informs us that the Greek word here translated condescend means, be carried away with. For things the marginal reading has them. This gives, "be carried away with them that are lowly." Conybeare and Howson has, "suffer yourselves to be borne along with the lowly." James MacKnight: "associate with lowly men." The Cambridge Greek Testament says the Greek word equals, "put yourselves on a level with, accommodate yourselves to." Barnes says, "Literally, ’being led away by, or being conducted by.’ It does not properly mean to condescend, but denotes a yielding, or being guided and led in the thoughts, feelings, plans, by humble objects." In a note on synonyms under the definition of condescend Webster says, "Condescend implies a courteous or patronizing waiving of real or assumed superiority; as, his insolent condescension." And so it seems that condescend is the wrong word, and that it expresses a wrong idea. The truth is, we Christians are all members of one family. One child of God does not condescend when he associates with another member of the family, and he should not feel that he does. The egotist feels that he condescends when he associates with the lowly, but the genuine Christian does not so feel. "Be not wise in your own conceits." Such a condition of mind makes a person feel superior to other children of God.
Romans 12:17 : Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men. Returning evil for evil settles nothing, but usually makes bad matters worse. Besides, to return evil for evil puts one in the class of evil doers. Spite work is of the devil. Even men of the world look upon retaliation as beneath the dignity of a gentleman, and therefore not honorable. "There is a common standard of honor which Christians must by no means ignore." When a Christian so far forgets himself as to violate the world’s standard of honor, he loses his influence for good. And this does not mean that we must be men-pleasers. The Greek word for "take thought" means to pre-think—to think before you adopt a certain course of action. The Christian lowers himself in the estimation of men when he engages in things that the world thinks beneath the Christian profession; he also disobeys Paul’s injunction.
Romans 12:18 : If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. Christians should strive especially to be at peace among themselves. And we should do our best, without sacrificing truth and duty, to be at peace with all men. We should not be meddlers in other men’s affairs; but if we preach the truth, rebuke, and exhort, somebody will not like it. It is impossible therefore to be at peace with all men. Neither Jesus nor Paul could be at peace with the enemies of Christ. We must contend earnestly for the faith— we must fight the good fight of faith. But the Christian can afford to sacrifice his own personal rights and preferences rather than stir up trouble. The Christian should certainly not stir up trouble over things of no vital importance.
Romans 12:19-21 : Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Paul’s addressing them as "beloved" would remind them that they should feel the same way toward one another. That feeling would promote peace and good fellowship among them, for people do not indulge in strife and harsh words with those they love. But there is inherent in man a sense of justice, a feeling that evil-doers should be punished. Taking vengeance is the savage’s way of exacting justice, but not the Lord’s way. Neither is that sort of punishment tolerated by civilized governments. "Avenge not yourselves." The individual should not with his own hands try to take satisfaction for injuries. To punish evil doers is God’s prerogative; let him do the punishing in his own appointed way. Paul quotes from Deut. 32:35: "Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord." Paul’s quoting that statement did not change its meaning nor its application. It does not refer to the vengeance God will take on sinners at the final judgment. Under the law of Moses God took vengeance on evil-doers by the agency of chosen authorities. Paul’s quoting that part of the law did not change its application, and the vengeance here mentioned will be taken in the same way. A little later Paul will show how this is to be done. Instead of taking personal vengeance on an enemy, give him food and drink as his needs may require. If there is any degree of manhood in him, this course will fill him with shame and remorse—figuratively it will heap coals of fire on his head, and may entirely melt down his enmity. If it does not do this, it will make him feel uncomfortable, in that he has no evil thing he can say about you. By following the course outlined in verses 19 and 20, the Christian overcomes evil with good; if he seeks with his own hands to inflict punishment on an enemy, he is overcome of evil—he himself becomes evil.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Thirteen By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 13:1 : Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. Paul here speaks of civil governments, human governments. These Injunctions apply to all men, especially to all Christians, in all times and places; but there was then a special need for such teaching. Christianity was new, and was regarded by some as antagonistic to human governments. There was likely to be such a notion among Christians. The Jews were especially averse to being subject to the Roman government, and Jews who became Christians would likely hold to their former prejudice against being subject to Rome. And converts from heathenism might feel that, having confessed Jesus Christ as their king, they were not subject to any other government. Hence the special need for Paul’s plain and emphatic teaching. To make such submission to earthly governments seem more reasonable and necessary he informs them that all power is of God, and that civil governments are ordained of God. He who denies" this fact denies the voice of inspiration. The fact that governments sometimes turn out bad, and do unjust things, does not prove Paul’s statement to be untrue. The devil sometimes controls the actions of governments, but that does not prove that all governments belong to the devil. The devil sometimes gets into churches and causes them to do evil and unjust things, but that does not prove that the devil owns and controls all churches. The design of civil government is to promote the security and the well-being of its citizens; and there would be no security of life and property, if there were no human governments. And so obedience to civil authorities is a fundamental requirement of the gospel. "Put them in mind to be in subjection to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready unto every good work" (Titus 3:1). "Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise to them that do well. For so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men" (1 Peter 2:13-15). One can scarcely imagine a government that would be worse than none. In all he says, Paul assumed that governments would carry out their God-appointed mission. Of course, if a government demands that a Christian must do anything against the will of God, he must obey God rather than man. Aside from this one thing, the Christian should be the best of all citizens; for "the powers that be are ordained of God."
Romans 13:2 : Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment. Because these powers are ordained of God, the one who resisteth—takes his stand against—the power resists the ordinance of God. To resist the government does not simply mean to fail sometimes to obey a law; it is to take a stand against the government—to defy the authority of the government. To do this is to array oneself against both God and the government, and in so doing brings upon himself the judgment of both.
Romans 13:3-4 : For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. And wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same: for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil. The Roman authorities later put Paul to death; yet he says, "Rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil." On this point Conybeare and Howson have this to say: "We must remember that this was written before the imperial government had begun to persecute Christians. It is a testimony in favor of the general administration of the Roman criminal law." But that seems to imply that Paul’s statement applied only to the Roman government, and only up to the time the Roman government began to persecute Christians. But was not Paul laying down principles that would apply to all Christians under established governments in all ages? So it seems to me. Paul was stating the proper functions of civil governments. His statements are a guide to the duties and limitations of governments, and a rebuke to those who overstep the bounds of their proper functions. Governments sometimes fail to function within their proper limits, just as churches sometimes fail to function as they should. The failure of a church to function as it should does not prove that the devil originated it, nor that all churches are owned and controlled by the devil; neither does a persecuting government prove that the devil controls all governments. No human government is perfect, and certainly the Roman government was far from perfection; but try to imagine the fate of the early Christians and of all other decent people, had there been no government at all. All governments are pleased with law-abiding citizens. The trouble was, the Roman government had some laws concerning religion, which Christians could not obey; and this caused the trouble. Monsters of cruelty like Nero made it hard on Christians. Civil governments were meant to be ministers of God for the good of the people; but they sometimes swerve from their God-appointed mission, and become instruments of cruelty. The sword, as here used, is a symbol of power—the power, or authority, to inflict the death penalty. The death penalty for certain crimes is one of God’s fundamental requirements. Long before the law of Moses was given God said to Noah, "Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood he shed: for in the image of God made he man" (Genesis 9:6). This decree of God has always had to be carried out in a legal way; otherwise it would be murder. "He beareth not the sword in vain; for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil." No person should therefore take vengeance with his own hands.
Romans 13:5 : Wherefore ye must needs be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. Two reasons or motives are here given for submission to government authorities, namely, the penalty the government would inflict for failure to be in subjection; and a Christian must obey the authorities in order to have a clear conscience. A man who can disobey the laws of his government without having any remorse of conscience is lacking in respect for God’s commands. The requirement that Christians must be in subjection to the laws of the land, has been used by some as proof that Christians can have no part in government affairs; but that is an unwarranted conclusion. The fact is, every citizen, whether he takes part in political affairs or does not, is expected to be in subjection to the laws of the country. From the humblest citizen to the Chief Executive all are subject to the laws of the government. It would be a curious thing to say that those who take part in the affairs of government are not to be in subjection to its laws.
Romans 13:6-7 : For this cause ye pay tribute also: for they are ministers of God’s service, attending continually upon this very thing. Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. Tribute has special reference to "the annual tax levied upon houses, lands, and persons." The Christian must pay his taxes; the officers of the government must be paid, "for they are ministers of God’s service." No Christian should try to avoid paying his just share of government expenses; it is common honesty, as well as a Christian duty. Our Lord taught the Jews to pay their taxes (Matthew 22:15-22). "Render to all their dues"; or, Pay to all what you owe. Pay tribute and custom to whom they are due. Tribute—direct taxes on a person and his property; custom is revenue levied on imports and trades. So long as we live in the flesh, even if all people were Christians, we need civil governments; for there are things that must be done, that the church as a body is not authorized to do.
Romans 13:8-10 : Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in, this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfilment of the law, If a man pays promptly according to contract, he owes nothing. "Render to all their dues"—pay what is due. When therefore the time comes to meet an obligation, meet it promptly. But the obligation to love one another is always due, and is never fully paid; it is a perpetual debt. The marginal reading in the American Standard Version informs us that the Greek word translated neighbor in verse 8 means, the other. So the verse would read, "Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth the other hath fulfilled the law." But the law is not fulfilled by mere sentiment, or feeling, but by deeds of helpfulness; and it means, as well, refraining from doing any harm. It means that one must refrain from doing the evil things mentioned in verse 9. "For this"—this is the sum of fulfilling the law of love, namely, refrain from the evils mentioned, and love your neighbor as yourself; really it is all summed in the one command: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And we love our neighbor as ourselves when we treat him as well as we would have him treat us. If a man loves his neighbor as himself, he will not do him any harm, but always good. This is real love.
Romans 13:11. And this, knowing the season, that it is already time for you to awake out of sleep; for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed." "And this" additional matter, "knowing the season"— knowing the character of the time in which they lived— it was time for them to arouse from their indifference and lethargy. Few Christians are ever as wide awake as they should be. "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee" (Ephesians 5:14). "Salvation nearer." This seems to refer to their eternal salvation; for they were already in possession of salvation in Christ from their alien sins. As time passes eternal salvation comes nearer. It is now nearer than when we first believed.
Romans 13:12 : The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. There are some difficulties in this verse, but its general meaning seems clear enough. Sin and ignorance are both represented as darkness—night. Christians are all more or less under the influence of both. Paul’s language in this verse shows this to be so: "Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness." Without the gospel of Christ darkness covered the world; but the darkness, or night, was far spent, for the full revelation of the gospel was nearing completion. The day—the full light of the gospel—was at hand. Now men walk in darkness only by choice. Christians have a responsibility. The gospel is light only to those who open their eyes to it. We must cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Light of the gospel is the armor; we put that armor on by learning the gospel and cherishing it. The gospel is light to us only in so far as we know its teaching. In connection with verses 11-14 read 1 Thessalonians 5:7-10.
Romans 13:13, 14: Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. No Christian should be guilty of unseemly conduct. Love does not behave itself unseemly (1 Corinthians 13:5): A Christian man should be a gentleman—a gentle man. He should not stumble, as if he were walking in the dark; he should walk uprightly, as in the day. But if he does not walk in the light of the gospel, he is sure to stumble. He should not be guilty of revelling and drunkenness; the two usually go together. To revel is to engage in hilarious conduct, and the drunkard usually does that. "Not in chambering"—not in unchaste conduct with the opposite sex; "and wantonness"—lewdness. Strife and jealousy usually grow out of such conduct. Verse 14 is in contrast with verse 13. Instead of indulging in such things as mentioned in verse 13, we are to clothe ourselves with the characteristics manifested by our Lord while he was in the flesh—put ourselves completely under his authority, and let him always be our guide. We are to make his life our life. We must make provision for the needs of our body, but not to fulfill its lusts. In short, the Christian must lead a clean life.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Fourteen By R.L. Whiteside
In this chapter and in 1 Cor., chapters 8 and 10:14-33, Paul discusses the matter of eating meat; but in the main the points of emphasis in the two letters are different. In Corinthians he warns brethren against eating meat under circ*mstances that might lead others to eat certain meat in honor of an idol, but the main point in this fourteenth chapter is somewhat different
The Christian Jews, at least, many of them, had not entirely broken away from the law of Moses. They observed certain days, and were disposed to condemn the Gentile Christians for not doing so. They would not eat meat that the law declared unclean. Some ate only herbs, lest they might eat meat that had been dedicated to an idol. The Gentile Christians would consider their conduct as foolishness. Perhaps some Gentile converts, having been used to eating certain meats dedicated to idols, feared to eat any meat, lest they honor an idol in so doing. All these matters were grounds for a lot of criticisms and strife.
Romans 14:1-4 : But him, that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decision of scruples. One man hath faith to eat all things; but he that is weak eateth herbs. Lei not him that eateth set at nought him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not fudge him, that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? to his own lord he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be made to stand; for the Lord hath power to make Mm stand. This weakness in faith consisted in doubts as to the propriety of eating meat, and not in the truth that Jesus is the Christ. Many Jewish Christians held that the law of Moses was still in force. They could not always be sure that the meat bought in the market was not from an animal which the law declared unclean, nor could they be sure that it had not been dedicated to an idol. They therefore ate herbs. Others had faith to eat any kind of meat. The sticklers for the law would brand the others as sinners, and themselves be condemned by the others as foolish. Neither would be willing to give the other full fellowship; each would question the other’s scruples or lack of scruples. So long as one’s faith in Christ is strong and unwavering, no one should condemn him for what he eats or does not eat; but no one should try to force others to comply with his notions about eating or not eating. No servant has a right to condemn another man’s servant; his standing or falling is entirely between him and his lord. And so it is with our Lord and his servants. For one to condemn the Lord’s servant does not change the Lord’s attitude toward him. The Lord is able to make him stand, so long as his opinions do not interfere with his faith or obedience, or he does not try to force his opinions on others. Of course no one has a right to do anything that would lead another into sin.
Romans 14:5-6 : One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord: and he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, unto the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. The sabbath was not the only day set apart in the law of Moses for the children of Israel to observe. Many Jewish Christians still held that the law was binding and demanded that Gentile Christians also keep the law. The decrees of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem had no effect on some of them, as Paul’s letters abundantly show. Such men would not only be contentious about eating meat, but would demand that Gentile Christians observe the days set apart in the law. In Paul’s discussion of these matters of opinion, the Lord’s appointments were not included. The Lord has set apart the Lord’s day for worship; its observance is therefore not a matter of opinion or indifference. "Let each man be fully assured in his own mind" as to whether he will or will not devote any other day to study, meditation, and prayer. Concerning this the Lord has bound no one, and concerning such matters no one should seek to bind his notions on others. It is therefore evident that the leaders of a church could not adopt these Jewish holidays and demand that all the members observe them. The Judaizing teachers had got in their work among the churches of Gaiatia, which led Paul to say, "Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain" (Galatians 4:10-11). If the leaders should set any such days to be observed by the church, the members should not submit to such an arrangement. "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day" (Colossians 2:16).
Romans 14:7-9 : For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. The point in verse 7 is generally missed by assuming that Paul was speaking of our relations one with another. It is true that we cannot cut ourselves off from all relations with our fellow men, but that is not the lesson Paul is teaching. He was speaking of our relations to the Lord. The connection shows this plainly. Verse 8 really explains verse 7. None of us lives to himself, "for whether we live, we live unto the Lord; ..." No one lives to himself, but to the Lord, for he is the Lord’s servant, Paul was speaking of Christians. The Christian cannot cut himself off from any connection with the Lord, and live his own life as he pleases. Even in death the Christian is the Lord’s. "Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s." Christ died and lived again, that this very relationship might be established—"that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living." So far as the Greek is concerned we might as well have "for" in verses 7 and 8 as "to" and "unto." "No one lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. For whether we live, we live for the Lord; or whether we die, we die for the Lord." In life and in death we are his.
Romans 14:10-13 : But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou, again, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge ye this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block in his brother’s way, or an occasion of falling. To judge, as here used, is to condemn. Those who believed they should observe the days required in the law, and refused to eat meats prohibited by the law, would condemn as sinners those who did not do likewise; and those who ate meat and refused to observe certain days would count as foolish and unworthy of consideration those who did not eat meat and observed days. It was a bad situation. Such sentiments could not long prevail without serious consequences to the church. Hence, Paul’s rebuke. God is the judge, and he will make final adjustment of all things when we all stand before his judgment-seat. If we do not voluntarily bow the knee to his authority here, we will have to do so when we stand before him; and then every tongue shall confess to him. Then everyone shall give account of himself, and not of another; and then none of us shall judge another. "Let us therefore not judge one another." But it seems to me that this injunction against judging must be confined to such matters as Paul was discussing. How could anyone beware of false prophets, unless we first judge them to be false prophets? (Matthew 7:15). And we must judge a man to be an evil worker, or we could not obey the command to "beware of the evil workers" (Philippians 3:2). Neither could we obey Paul’s injunction in Romans 16:17-18 without judging which men belong to the class he mentions. And how could a church withdraw from the disorderly without first judging a man to be disorderly? And we must be very strict in judging our own actions and their possible results. "Judge ye this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block in his brother’s way, or an occasion of falling." If a man’s eating meat as food led some brother to think he was eating it in honor of an idol, and was thereby led to eat meat in honor of an idol, his eating the meat became a stumbling-block over which his brother stumbled and fell. A man should never insist on exercising his rights or liberties, if harm conies of his doing so.
Romans 14:14 : I know, and am, persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself: save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. By this emphatic statement Paul declared that the distinction the law made between clean and unclean animals was no longer in force. The Gentiles were right and the Jews were wrong in the matter of eating meats. On this point it took a special revelation to Peter to convince him that such legal distinctions were no longer in force (Acts 10:9-16). And yet, if a man thought the Lord prohibited the use of certain animals for food, he should not so use them. A man should not go against his convictions, and thus wound his conscience. No thoughtful Christian will try to cause any one to go against his convictions, however foolish he may think his convictions are. Teach him what is right, but do not try to induce him to do what he thinks is wrong. Do not destroy his conscience.
Romans 14:15-16 : For if because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love. Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of. Verse 14 is parenthetical. Verse 15 connects directly with verse 13. Read these two verses, leaving out verse 14, and you will see the connection. The connection shows clearly that the warning against doing anything whereby a brother is grieved means more than simply a warning against doing anything to hurt his feelings; for the next sentence says, "Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died," that is, do not destroy him as a Christian. You do not destroy a Christian by violating his prejudices or notions. "Is grieved"—is brought to grief. No one should, by eating meat, bring his brother to grief, that is, destroy him as a brother. He would do this, if eating meat led a brother to eat it in honor of an idol, under the impression that you were eating in honor of an idol. A man’s freedom in Christ should not therefore be so used as to lead a brother into sin, and thereby destroy one for whom Christ died. Such conduct would make one an enemy of both his brother and Christ. Hence a Christian may do a thing that is good within itself, and yet under certain circ*mstances evil may result from doing what within itself is good. If that should be the result, then his good would be evil spoken of. His influence as a Christian would be greatly injured.
Romans 14:17-18 : For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he that herein serveth Christ is well-pleasing to God, and approved of men. The kingdom of God does not consist in distinctions about meats and drinks; but no man should conclude that freedom from the law in which such distinctions were made gives him the right to eat and drink as he pleases regardless of consequences. Righteousness has to do primarily with our treatment of others; it is doing right by others. You do not treat your fellow-Christian right, if in the exercise of your supposed freedom you lead him to do wrong. And peace in this connection refers to peace among members of the church. In a church where all members treat one another right, and are at peace among themselves, there is joy in the Holy Spirit. And the one who promotes such conditions in a church is well-pleasing to God, and is approved by all right thinking people.
Romans 14:19-21 : So then let MS follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify one another. Overthrow not for meat’s sake the work of God. All things indeed are dean; howbeit it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth. No Christian should push his opinions and personal rights to the disturbance of the church. Peace is so delightful and helpful that no thoughtful Christian will needlessly cause confusion and strife, but will give "diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). Peace with one another is necessary to edifying one another. To edify is to build up—to build up in knowledge, faith, and right living. Confusion does not edify any one; it builds up nothing but strife and parties in the church. But if the truth of God is at stake, the good soldier of Jesus Christ will fight the good fight. He will contend earnestly for the faith, but not for traditions, opinions, and customs. If a professed Christian indulges in questionable practices, or in his determination to have his way about things of no importance, he may overthrow the faith of one whose faith is not very strong. A Christian is a work of God. The command, "Overthrow not for meat’s sake the work of God," will apply to any matter of indifference or of personal rights. In overthrowing the faith of a Christian we destroy the work of God, and that is a serious matter. The Statement that "all things are clean" applies to meats. The law declared certain animals unclean; that law was no longer binding. Legally no animal was now unclean, but it is evil to the man who eats with offense. And this has no reference to merely hurting the feelings of another. Here are some of the meanings of offense as given by Webster: "An occasion of sin; a stumbling block. ... A breach of conduct; an infraction of law; crime; sin; transgression; misdeed." Thayer gives this definition and explanation of the Greek word: "A stumbling-block, i.e. an obstacle in the way which if one strikes his foot against he necessarily stumbles or falls; trop., that over which the soul stumbles, i.e. by which it is impelled to sin." To eat with offense was to eat certain meat under circ*mstances that would lead a weaker person to eat against his convictions. A Christian stumbles, or sins, when he violates his convictions; and it is evil for any one to lead a person to go against his convictions, no matter how innocent the act within itself may be. Romans 14:21 shows clearly that to eat with offense is to eat under circ*mstances that causes a brother to stumble. There is no danger in this country that eating meat will cause any one to go against his convictions, nor to eat in honor of an idol, and thereby destroy him; but a person by moderate drinking may lead another to become a drunkard. A Christian should think of the possible influence of his actions before he engages in things that seem to him to be innocent. It is good to keep out of anything that might cause another to stumble.
Romans 14:22 : The faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before God. Happy is he that judgeth not himself in that which he approveth. The Christian is not charged to keep his faith in Christ and the gospel to himself; that faith must be spread abroad throughout the world. The Christian who was well taught knew that the legal distinction between clean and unclean animals had been done away; he would therefore likely believe that he could eat any meat he chose to eat. Verse "One man hath faith to eat all things." But the whole chapter shows that such faith must not be exercised under circ*mstances that might lead others to sin against their convictions. He might eat the meat in his own home in the presence of God. Bloomfield has this: "Keep this persuasion to yourself, and your God; use it when you have no other witness." A man condemns himself in what he approves, if in holding to it and practicing it he causes others to stumble.
Romans 14:23 : But he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Believing a thing is right does not make it right; but doing a wrong thing, believing it is right, shows honesty of purpose. Saul of Tarsus thought he was doing right in persecuting Christians; he was true to what he believed was right—that commended him to God. He was a sinner, but an honest sinner. The Jew who believed it wrong to eat certain meat, and yet ate the meat rather than to be called odd or foolish, sinned against himself and against God. If a man even has a doubt about the rightfulness of a certain thing, he should not engage in it. He is condemned if he does a doubtful thing, A man cannot go against his idea of right without great injury to his character. "He eateth not of faith," means that he did not fully believe that such eating was right. And that principle holds good concerning any practice about which we have doubts. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." This does not refer to faith in Christ or the gospel; but to faith in the righteousness of what we do. If a Christian does a thing without being fully persuaded that it is right, he sins. A man may sin believing he is doing right; but he sins in doing anything, if he doubts that it is right. If he doubts, the act is not of faith.
There is this truth about the whole matter of eating meat and observing days: If the Christian Jews had had an undivided faith in Christ instead of dividing it between Moses and Christ, between the law and the gospel, they would have known that all things centered in Christ, and that the regulations about meats and days was no part of the gospel.
Commentary On Romans Chapter Fifteen By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 15:-3 : Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves, Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying. For Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me. Christ himself said, "I do always the things that are pleasing to him" (John 8:29). Concerning his teaching Jesus said, "For I spake not from myself; but the Father that sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak" (John 12:49). And so, in both word and deed Jesus did his Father’s will. Therefore in fighting against Jesus the Jews were in reality fighting against the Father, but all their fury fell on Jesus. The devoted Christian will now suffer persecution, but the sin of it is against God.
Romans 15:4 : For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. Paul had just quoted a statement from Psalms 69:9. Romans 15:4 therefore refers to the Old Testament scriptures. The Old Testament scriptures were therefore not written alone for the benefit of those who then lived, but for us also. Patience is steadfastness—the quality of holding on under trying conditions. It does not seem that such a quality can be affirmed of the scriptures. Besides, it seems that the repetition of the preposition "through" in each phrase indicates that the phrase "of the scriptures" modifies only the word comfort. Hence, by steadfastness and by the comfort of the scriptures the Christian can have, or maintain, hope. It is therefore important that the Christian study the Old Testament.
Romans 15:5-7 : Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus: that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, even as also Christ received you, to the glory of God. Paul shifts the thought from the scriptures to God the author of the scriptures. Because he is the author of the scriptures, whatever is attributed to the scriptures is rightly attributed to him. Through the word of God the gospel which is God’s power for salvation, God gives us hope and develops within us steadfastness of character. Paul prays that unity of thought and conduct prevail among them, "according to Christ Jesus." Jesus stirred up no confusion about such matters as Paul discussed in chapter 14; matters of no importance should never be allowed to disturb the fellowship of a church. Though Jewish converts were slow to give up their customs, they wanted Gentile Christians to adopt their customs. This caused friction. Such confusion was a great hindrance to unity and Christian growth. To be of the same mind one toward the other meant that no one was to feel that he had superior rights over another; neither Jew nor Greek should feel any superiority over the other. This oneness is necessary if we would "glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." As Christ received us, so should we receive, or accept, one another, in spite of the fact that we do not all belong to the same race. The religion of Christ is designed to make peace between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:11-22). Let no one destroy God’s purpose in this matter.
Romans 15:8 : For I say that Christ hath been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given unto the fathers. The fathers were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the promises are found in Genesis 12:1-8; Genesis 22:15-18; Genesis 28:3-4; Genesis 28:13-14. The part of these promises that referred particularly to Christ is this: "In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed." Paul makes this clear in Galatians 3:16 : "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." In view of the scope of these passages, it seems to me that a number of commentators miss the point Paul had in mind when he said that Christ was a minister of circumcision for the truth of God (that is, that the truth of God might be established). Most commentators, it seems, take the meaning to be, that Christ’s personal ministry was confined to the Jews, the circumcision; but I cannot see how confining his personal ministry to the Jews would confirm the promise that all nations would be blessed in him. Just how a ministry confined to one nation would confirm a promise to all nations is more than I can see. May not the phrase "a minister of the circumcision" indicate the source rather than object? We know that Jesus did come of the circumcision, and that he had to come of the circumcision in order to fulfill the promise made to the fathers. "For the truth of God" equals "on behalf of the truth of God," or, "in favor of the truth of God."
Romans 15:9-12 : "And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy: as it is written,
Therefore will I give praise unto thee among the Gentiles,
And sing unto thy name.
And again he saith,
Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
And again,
Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles;
And let all the people praise him.
And again, Isaiah saith,
There shall be the root of Jesse,
And he that ariseth to rule over the Gentiles; On him shall the Gentiles hope.
Christ became a minister of the seed of Abraham in behalf of the truth of God; and a part of the truth of the promise made to the fathers was, "that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." The promised blessings were to be for all nations, with no difference between Jew and Gentile. Paul’s use of the promise made to the fathers would not please the exclusive Jewish Christians; so he quotes some Old Testament Scriptures to show that it had been God’s plan all down the ages to include the Gentiles in the blessings of the promised seed. This would show both Jew and Gentile that neither had any right to feel superior to the other, and such feeling would promote better fellowship between them. The passages in the order quoted are Psalms 18:49 (or 2 Samuel 22:50); Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalms 117:1; Isaiah 11:10. The Gentiles as well as the Jews, would praise Jehovah for his mercy, and would also enjoy the blessings of his rule. Paul quotes the passages to show that they were then being fulfilled; and that, as both Jew and Gentile were enjoying the same blessings and both were under the rule of the Messiah, there should be peace between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. It is strange that some Jewish Christians never would see the plain teaching of the promises and prophecies, and by their stubborn blindness created much confusion in many churches and gave Paul no end of trouble by their contention that all Gentile Christians had to become subservient to all things Jewish, or they could not be saved. But it is even stranger that some professed Christians today hold to that Judaizing notion, and project the fulfillment of the promises and prophecies to some future time. There is less excuse today for such heretical teaching than there was in the early churches.
Romans 15:13 : Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Concerning the Messiah Isaiah had said, "On him shall the Gentiles hope." And so to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews God was the God of hope—he made hope possible even to those who formerly had been without God and without hope (Ephesians 2:12). Without this hope there could be no joy and no peace—no peace of mind and no peace with one another. But we are to be filled with joy and peace in believing, in continuous, active believing. And to be filled with joy and peace increases our hope. The power of the Holy Spirit made this hope and peace possible; for the Holy Spirit revealed all we know about God and Christ and the plan of salvation, and confirmed that revelation by signs and wonders. And the things the Holy Spirit revealed to us is the source of all our knowledge, joy, peace, and hope.
Romans 15:14 : And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Here Paul takes up some personal matters. One or more brethren had made a report to Paul about conditions at Rome, and expressed confidence in the brethren there; otherwise why should he say, "And I myself also am persuaded of you. ..." Paul felt assured that they, even with their differences about observing days and eating meats, were good people. It is likely that only a small minority were disturbed about these things. In his words of praise Paul must have had the greater part of the church in mind. "Filled with knowledge" could not have been well applied to those who were so disturbed about the matters discussed in chapter 14. Spiritually gifted men in that church would be able to teach and admonish the weak. Paul’s words of commendation would be encouraging to these brethren. Paul never flattered, but he did commend brethren when he had grounds for doing so. A preacher who scolds and criticizes all the time never brings out the best that is in men.
Romans 15:15 : But I write the more boldly unto you in some measure, as putting you again in remembrance, because of the grace that was given me of God. Paul gave his reason for writing so boldly to them—"because of the grace that was given me of God." Paul speaks of his being made an apostle as grace bestowed upon him. On this point see also Romans 12:3; 1 Corinthians 3:10; 1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 2:9; Ephesians 3:7. The phrase, "in some measure," is somewhat vague; but some authorities tell us that the Greek phrase means, in part, or partly, or somewhat. Part of his purpose in writing to them was to put them again in remembrance—to stir up their memories concerning things they had been taught, but he did not say this was his sole purpose in writing them. In fact, he had also discussed the great principles of God’s dealing with men and nations in the development of his plans.
Romans 15:16 : ... that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Paul was chosen as an apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Romans 11:18; Galatians 1:16; Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 2:7). The word here translated minister is not diakonos, the usual word for minister, or servant, but leitourgos, a word that usually had an official significance, one who performs a public service. Of its use here the Cambridge Greek Testament says, "The classical meaning of a public service performed to the community still colors the word. S. Paul adds here the name of the authority who orders the performance, and the persons to whose benefit it is directed. As compared with diakonos the public and representative character is emphasized.... Here the context gives it the specially religious sense." Paul was not only an apostle to the Gentiles, but also an apostle of the Gentiles; he was their apostle. By ministering the gospel to the Gentiles he converted many of them to God. These converts were his offering to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). There is no conflict, for the words Paul used were the words of the Holy Spirit. Besides, the many signs Paul wrought in connection with his preaching to the Gentiles showed that God approved his work, and that all Gentile converts were as acceptable to God as were Jewish converts, no matter what Judaizing teachers said to the contrary, It was a decisive argument thrown in without seeming to have the Judaizers in mind at all.
Romans 15:17 : I have therefore my glorying in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God. The "therefore" connects this verse with what Paul had just said. His ministering the gospel in making Gentile converts as his offering to God was the work in which he gloried. He thus reminded the Judaizers and all who might be influenced by them that he did not glory in his Jewish blood nor in anything that pertained to Judaism, but only in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God; "for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." That is, he had no confidence in his Jewish flesh—no confidence in the fact that he was a Jew. Christ Jesus was the center of all Paul’s preaching; the purpose of his life was to do all things that were pleasing to him. "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). "They desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But be it far from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:13-14).
Romans 15:18-19 : For I will not dare to speak of any things save those which Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Many of Paul’s Gentile converts were effective workers in the Lord’s vineyard, and he might have claimed some credit for their successes; but he did not —he would speak only of the things which Christ wrought through him, "for the obedience of the Gentiles." His language does not fit in with, the theory that human agency has no part in the conversion of sinners, but it does fit in with what the Lord said to him in giving him his commission, namely, "to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me" (Acts 26:18). An authority works through its agents or ambassadors. There is nothing mysterious about that. Paul was Christ’s agent for the purpose of bringing about obedience among the Gentiles; in that way Christ worked through him, "by word and deed"—by his preaching the gospel, and performing miracles to show that God was with him. The Holy Spirit enabled him to preach and to perform signs and wonders—signs to confirm his preaching, and wonders to amaze the people. "From Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum," shows the wide scope of territory Paul covered in his preaching.
Romans 15:20-21 : Yea, making it my aim so to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man’s foundation; but, as it is written, They shall see, to whom no tidings of him came, And they who have not heard shall understand. Paul did not seek easy places, nor places that paid the most money. He preached where the gospel was most needed, and where there appeared to be an opportunity to reap a harvest. At least, he was sometimes divinely guided to a field. Every place needed the gospel, but not every place was ripe unto harvest. His whole aim was to preach where Christ had not been named. But this may be said: Paul had no family, no wife, to cause him to have a care for the material things of this world (1 Corinthians 7:32-33).
One who is not blinded by a theory can see how often Paul makes the point, that his preaching the gospel to Gentiles was a fulfillment of prophecies. But the Jew, in his feeling of superiority, interpreted these prophecies, as do some present-day theorists, to mean that Gentiles would be blessed only in subserviency to the Jews; but the Holy Spirit through Paul plainly contradicts such a theory. Till the gospel was preached to them, no tidings had come to Gentiles. Paul was sent to open the eyes of the Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to the light, that they might see (Acts 26:14-20). Hence, those who had never heard were made to understand.
Romans 15:22-24 : Wherefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you: but now, having no more any place in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come unto you, whensoever I go unto Spain (for I hope to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first in some measure I shall have been satisfied with your company). Paul’s purposes and plans were not always inspired. Over a period of many years he had a longing to visit the brethren in Rome, but had been hindered from doing so. (See also Romans 1:9-13). Every time he had planned to visit Rome other work pressed upon him; "but now, having no more any place in these regions," the regions about Corinth, or perhaps all of Greece, he turned his mind again toward Rome. But Paul would not have it appear that he would force himself on them; he would visit them on his way to Spain. And he hoped that they would assist him on his journey into Spain. Paul knew he had enemies, the Judaizers, in many churches; and it seems that he had some doubts as to whether his association with the Roman brethren would be fully satisfactory—certainly not, if there were in that church any of the Judaizers.
Romans 15:25-28 : But now, I say, I go unto Jerusalem, ministering unto the saints. For it hath been the good pleasure of Macedonia, and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints that are at Jerusalem. Yea, it hath been their good pleasure; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to minister unto them in carnal things. When therefore I have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by you unto Spain. Before visiting them on his intended journey into Spain, he had a mission to fulfill in Jerusalem. For sometime he had been stirring up the churches of the Gentiles to make contributions for the poor saints in Judea. Many facts concerning this collection for the saints may be learned from 1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8:1-7; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15. Through the instrumentality of the Jews, yet in spite of some Jews, the Gentiles had received the gospel. These Gentile Christians felt an obligation therefore to do what they could to supply the material needs of the poor saints in Judea. Paul now promises to visit Rome on his way to Spain, after he had completed the business of taking the contributions of the churches to Jerusalem. And he did go to Rome, but how he was to go had not been then revealed to him. If he ever reached Spain, we have no record of it.
Romans 15:29 : And I know that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of Christ. Before a church, or an individual, can receive the "fullness of the blessings of Christ," the heart must be open to receive such blessings. It seems that Paul felt sure that the brethren at Rome were ready in. heart and mind to receive whatever additional blessings they needed. Perhaps this included additional spiritual gifts.
Romans 15:30-33 : Now I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that are disobedient in Judea, and that my ministration which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints; that I may come unto you in joy through the will of God, and together with you find rest. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Paul knew he had bitter enemies in Jerusalem, who would kill him if they got a chance. Even amongst the saints whose needs he was preparing to supply, there were bitter enemies of Paul. But he believed the prayers of others would be helpful, and so he begs the Roman brethren to strive together with him in praying that no harm befall him. People can sometimes be so antagonistic to others as to refuse all assistance from them. Paul feared the antagonism of the Jews to the Gentiles was so great his contributions from the Gentiles would not be accepted by the saints in Jerusalem. Therefore, he asked the saints at Rome to pray that his ministration would be accepted by the brethren at Jerusalem. This shows that the relations between Jewish churches and Gentile churches were much strained at the time. The theory has been advanced that one reason Paul was so anxious to collect much help for the poor saints in Judea was, to bring the Jewish churches to a better feeling toward Gentile churches. If the brethren of Judea would accept his gift, he could then go to Rome in joy through the will of God; that is, if it was God’s will for him to go to Rome. And if the Judean saints did accept his collected contributions, one cause of great worry would be removed from his mind, and he could find rest at Rome. "Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen,"
Commentary On Romans Chapter Sixteen By R.L. Whiteside
Romans 16:1-2 : I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church that is at Cenchrea: that ye receive her in the Lord, worthily of the saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need of you: for she herself also hath been a helper of many, and of mine own self. Cenchrea was the home of Phoebe. It was the eastern seaport of Corinth, a few miles across the Isthmus from Corinth. There has been much said for and against the possibility that Phoebe was an official deaconess of her home church. But the use of the word diakonos, here translated servant, does not prove that she occupied an official position. In these letters to the churches the word is used a number of times, but not in any official sense, unless in this one place. We let our minds run to officialism too much. On account of the social condition of women of that age, aged women of experience, piety and ability were needed to teach, encourage, and otherwise help young women. On this point see 1 Timothy 5:3-16; Titus 2:3-6. To select a person for a certain work does not necessarily make him an officer in the common acceptation of that term. To select a man to hold a series of meetings does not make him an officer, and no one thinks so. Selecting a song-leader does not make him an officer. Selecting certain women to attend to certain duties does not make them deaconesses in any official sense. Diakonos therefore had no official significance. It is thought by some that she was the bearer of Paul’s letter to Rome, but that is not certain. She evidently went to Rome on certain business, for Paul urges the brethren to "assist her in whatever matter she may have need." To receive her in the Lord was to treat her as a worthy Christian should be treated; "for she herself also hath been a helper of many, and of mine own self." Those who help others always commend themselves to the Lord.
Romans 16:3-4 : Salute Prisca and Aquila my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Prisca is short for Priscilla, This good woman and her husband first joined in work with Paul at Corinth (Acts 18:1-3). They next appear in active service to the Lord at Ephesus (Acts 18:24-26). Just when they endangered their own lives—"laid down their own necks"—for the life of Paul we are not informed. Probably it was during that uproar at Ephesus (Acts 19:33-41). Paul and all the churches of the Gentiles gave thanks to them for what they had done for him. The many that Paul mentions by name were people he had worked with, who had gone to Rome from points where Paul had preached. One wonders how he had kept track of them in that day of inconvenient communications.
Romans 16:5-16 : And salute the church that is in their house. Salute Epaenetus my beloved, who is the first-fruits of Asia, unto Christ. Salute Mary, who bestowed much labor on yon. Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who have also been in Christ before me. Salute Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord. Salute Urbanus our fellow-worker in Christ and Stachys my beloved. Salute Apelles the approved in Christ. Salute them that are of the household of Aristobulus. Salute Herodion my kinsman. Salute them of the household of Narcissus, that are in the Lord. Salute Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Salute Persis the beloved, who labored much in the Lord. Salute Rufus the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brethren that are with them. Salute Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints that are with them. Salute one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ salute you. "Salute the church that is in their house." This evidently refers to a group of Christians who met for worship in the house of Priscilla and Aquila. In those days a large place was not always available in which a large group of Christians could meet. Several groups met in the homes of various members. It will be noticed that each group was called a church.
In these salutations the outstanding traits of some of them are mentioned. Epaenetus, the first fruits of Asia had endeared himself to Paul. Mary had been a good worker in the church at Rome. Andronicus and Junias, Paul’s kinsmen, who had been converted to Christ before Paul was, had rendered such devoted service to the Lord as to become noted among the apostles. Ampliatus had made himself very dear to Paul. At some place Urbanus had been a fellow-worker with Paul, and may have been with him in some of his journeys. And Apelles was an approved servant of Christ. Tryphaena and Tryphosa were laborers in the Lord; and Persis the beloved labored much in the Lord. "Salute Rufus the chosen of the Lord, and his mother and mine." The mother of Rufus had been a mother to Paul at some place where he preached. The common method of salutation there was the kiss. Paul demanded that the kiss be holy. From Paul’s list we learn that the church at Rome had in it many faithful workers; likely there were many such whom Paul did not know..
Romans 16:17-18 : Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned: and turn away from them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent. Not all was smooth sailing in that church. Some there were stirring up trouble—causing divisions and occasions of stumbling—contrary to the gospel. Judaizing teachers were the main trouble makers in the territory of Paul’s labors; they were determined to convince all Gentile Christians that they had to be circumcised and keep the law, or they could not be saved. They were professed Christians. Likely they had gained some Gentile Christians as helpers. If these disturbers had not reached Rome, Paul knew they would be there. Even today advocates of a modified form of this same theory of Jewish supremacy are troubling churches all over the country. Said Paul, "mark them"—eye them closely. Do not shut your eyes to what they are doing, nor make excuses for them, nor for any others who cause divisions and occasions of stumbling contrary to the gospel, but turn away from them. This means that the brethren should have no fellowship with them, "Contrary to the doctrine which ye learned" covers a wide field, such as mechanical music in the worship, the organization of societies to do the work of the church, and various schemes to raise money. The man who causes divisions in the Lord’s church by the introduction of things not taught is an enemy of Christ, even though he may not think so. His interest is in self, and not in Christ. "They that are such serve not our Lord, but their own belly." The more a man appears to be interested in people the more he can deceive—"by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the simple"—the trusting and unsuspecting are more easily deceived. The word translated simple does not mean weak-minded, but rattier, unsuspicious. The deceiver knows how to set the unsuspicious to follow him. People seem never to learn that smooth and fair speech is "the stock in trade" of a deceiver. If he were to announce that he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that he had come to destroy and not to feed, he would not deceive even the simple. "For even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15), Paul warned the Colossians against being deluded by "persuasiveness of speech" (Colossians 2:4). "And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you" (2 Peter 2:3). From all such we should turn away.
Romans 16:19-20 : For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I rejoice therefore over you: but I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The church at Rome was old enough and active enough for the report of its obedience to become widely circulated. This was a source of joy to Paul. He would have them to sustain that reputation by continued obedience. If they allowed false teachers to cause divisions and scandals, they would have a bad influence over churches that had cause to regard them so highly. He would have them to be wise to that which was good, so as to be able to distinguish between the good and the evil. People do not have to indulge in evil things in order to know what is evil—be "simple unto that which is evil." People who are wise unto the good know evil. Only the person who knows what is good has a clear idea of what is evil. The writer of Hebrews speaks of "those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14). Living in sin and ignorance so blinds a person that he cannot see what is good or evil. "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own sight" (Isaiah 5:20-21). Paul gives them the comforting assurance that, if they would turn away from evil and be wise unto that which was good, they would soon triumph over that which was evil—bruise Satan under their feet. "Shortly"—that could not refer to things yet future; they were to accomplish this while they lived.
Romans 16:21 : Timothy my fellow-worker saluteth you; and Lucius and Jason and Sosipoter, my kinsmen. Timothy was with Paul at Corinth when this letter was written, and joined in saluting the Roman brethren. He was Paul’s beloved son in the gospel and a fellow-worker with him in many hard places. It is possible, though not certain, that Lucius was the Lucius of Acts 13:1. And Jason may have been the Jason mentioned in Acts 17:7-9. And it is thought, that Sosipater was the Sopater of Acts 20:4. Paul refers to others in these salutations as his kinsmen. Some think he referred to them as kinsmen just as he referred to all Jews as kinsmen in Romans 9:1-3; but there are Jews in these salutations to whom he did not refer as his kinsmen.
Romans 16:22-23 : I Tertius, who write the epistle salute you in the Lord. Gams my host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. Erastus the treasurer of the city saluteth you, and Quartus the brother. It was not Paul’s custom to write his epistles with his own hand; he had a secretary to write as he dictated, Tertius wrote this letter at Paul’s dictation. He joins in saluting the saints in Rome. It is possible, as some think, that verse 23 are the words of Tertius. It is hardly possible that the whole church at Corinth met in the home of Gaius; rather, it seems that his doors were open to any saint that needed shelter. It is hardly possible that a large church could all use the house of Gaius as a place to meet for worship. This Gaius must have been the Gaius whom Paul baptized in the early days of his preaching at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:14). He was therefore a citizen of Corinth, and owned a home there. The Gaius mentioned in Acts 20:4 was a citizen of Derbe. And a Gaius of Macedonia, one of Paul’s companions in travel, is mentioned in Acts 19:29. I cannot make all these passages refer to the same man. And the name Erastus occurs three times—Acts 19:22; Romans 16:23; 2 Timothy 4:20. The Erastus mentioned in Acts and Second Timothy was one of Paul’s fellow-travelers. It has been assumed, but not by all, that the three passages refer to the same man, and that therefore, while traveling so extensively, he could not have been the treasurer of the city government, but must therefore have been the treasurer of the church in Corinth. But would not his extensive traveling interfere as effectively with his being treasurer of the one as of the other? Paul’s statement to Timothy that "Erastus remained at Corinth," was made several years after Paul wrote to the Romans. It is very likely that there were at least two men named Erastus. It does not seem that a man would be designated as the treasurer of a city, if he were only the treasurer of the church In that city. Any way we look at the matter there are some difficulties, but it is usually safest to take a statement of fact at its face value. Quartos is named only in this place.
Verses 25-27: Now to him, who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto ell the nations unto obedience of faith: to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen. These verses were written with Paul’s own hands. It was his custom to write with his own hands the closing part of each letter as a means of showing the letter to be his. "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand" (Colossians 4:18). "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle" (2 Thessalonians 3:17).
"My gospel" was the gospel which Paul preached, and not the perverted gospel of the Judaizers; and "the preaching of Jesus Christ" was the preaching Jesus Christ commanded, and which had him as its center. And that was the gospel of salvation for all men without distinction as to races. Paul would have all Christians established in the gospel he preached, and not in the perverted gospel of the Judaizers. Paul had quoted many prophecies to prove that Gentiles were to share in the promise made to the fathers; but how either Jews or Gentiles were to enjoy the blessings of the Messiah had not been revealed by the prophets.
A mystery is a thing not understood. Neither Jew nor Gentile had grasped the idea that Gentiles were to be fellow-citizens in the kingdom of the Messiah, It seems that this truth had been more fully revealed by Paul than by any other apostle or prophet (Ephesians 3:1-8), Where this truth was clearly revealed, it could then be seen how this truth had been manifested in the scriptures of the prophets. It could also then be seen that it was all according to the commandment of God when the great commission was given, "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:18; Mark 16:15; Mark 16:18). The prophets had foretold, and Jesus had commanded, "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations" (Luke 24:46-47). But for quite a while the apostles did not grasp the significance of the command to preach to all nations. But these commands were made known to all nations that they might become obedient to the faith — obedient to the gospel. Notice how Paul begins and ends his commendation. "Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel—to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
