{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_48858/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_48858","id":"gutenberg_48858","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48858","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Romans -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Transcriber's Note.\n\nApparent typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistent\nhyphenation has been retained.\n\nSmall capitals have been rendered as full capitals, while italics are\nindicated by _underscores_.\n\nBold font, in which the author's own translation of the Epistle has\nbeen printed, is indicated by =equal signs=. These last signs also\nextend over Greek or Hebrew that the author has inserted in the\ntranslation, and markers for footnotes to it.\n\nSidenotes mark individual verses of the Epistle. These have been\ninserted in the text before the start of each verse.\n\nA list of the 'Expositor's Bible' series has been shifted to the end\nof the book.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE\n\n EDITED BY THE REV.\n W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n _Editor of \"The Expositor,\" etc._\n\n\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO THE ROMANS\n\n BY\n HANDLEY C. G. MOULE, M.A.,\n PRINCIPAL OF RIDLEY HALL, CAMBRIDGE\n\n LONDON\n HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n 27, PATERNOSTER ROW\n\n MDCCCXCIV\n\n _Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n TO THE REV. ROBERT SINKER, D.D.,\n\n LIBRARIAN OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,\n MY FRIEND OF THIRTY-TWO YEARS,\n TO WHOSE KINDNESS AND KNOWLEDGE\n I AM DEEPLY AND INCREASINGLY INDEBTED,\n THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.\n\n H. C. G. M.\n\n\nHearing read, as I do continually, the Epistles of the blessed Paul\n... I delight in the enjoyment of his spiritual trumpet, and my heart\nleaps up, and my longings set me glowing, as I recognize the voice so\ndear to me, and seem to image the speaker all but present to me, and\nto see him in discourse. But I mourn and am distressed, because all do\nnot know this man as they should know him.... It is from hence our\nmyriad evils spring--from our ignorance of the Scriptures. Hence grows\nthis epidemic of our heresies; hence our neglected lives, hence our\nunfruitful toil.\n\nST CHRYSOSTOM, _Preamble to Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans_.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nHe who attempts to expound the Epistle to the Romans, when his sacred\ntask is over, is little disposed to speak about his Commentary; he is\noccupied rather with an ever deeper reverence and wonder over the Text\nwhich he has been permitted to handle, a Text so full of a marvellous\nman, above all so full of GOD.\n\nBut it seems needful to say a few words about the style of the running\nTranslation of the Epistle which will be found interwoven with this\nExposition.\n\nThe writer is aware that the translation is often rough and formless.\nHis apology is that it has been done with a view not to a connected\nreading but to the explanation of details. A rough piece of rendering,\nwhich would be a misrepresentation in a continuous version, because it\nwould be out of scale with the general style, seems to be another\nmatter when it only calls the reader's attention to a particular point\npresented for study at the moment.\n\nAgain, he is aware that his rendering of the Greek article in many\npassages (for example, where he has ventured to explain it by \"_our_,\"\n \"_true_,\" etc.) is open to criticism. But he intends no more in such\nplaces than a suggestion; and he is conscious, as he has said\nsometimes at the place, that it is almost impossible to render the\narticle as he has done in these cases without a certain exaggeration,\nwhich must be discounted by the reader.\n\nThe use of the article in Greek is one of the simplest and most\nassured things in grammar, as to its main principles. But as regards\nsome details of the application of principle, there is nothing in\ngrammar which seems so easily to elude the line of law.\n\nIt is scarcely necessary to say that on questions of literary\ncriticism which in no respect, or at most remotely, concern\nexposition, this Commentary says little or nothing. It is well known\nto literary students of the Epistle that some phenomena in the text,\nfrom the close of ch. xiv. onwards, have raised important and complex\nquestions. It has been asked whether the great Doxology (xvi.\u00a025-27)\nalways stood where it now stands; whether it should stand at the close\nof our ch. xiv.; whether its style and wording allow us to regard it\nas contemporary with the Epistle as a whole, or whether they indicate\nthat it was written later in St Paul's course; whether our fifteenth\nand sixteenth chapters, while Pauline, are not out of place in an\nEpistle to Rome; in particular, whether the list of names in ch. xvi.\nis compatible with a Roman destination.\n\nThese questions, with one exception, that which affects the list of\nnames, are not even touched upon in the present Exposition. The\nexpositor, personally convinced that the pages we know as the Epistle\nto the Romans are not only all genuine but all intimately coherent,\nhas not felt himself called to discuss, in a devotional writing,\nsubjects more proper to the lecture-room and the study; and which\ncertainly would be out of place in the ministry of the pulpit.\n\nMeantime, those who care to read a masterly _debate_ on the literary\nproblems in question may consult the recently published volume (1893),\n_Biblical Studies_, by the late Bishop Lightfoot, of Durham. That\nvolume contains (pp. 287-374) three critical Essays (1869, 1871), two\nby Bishop Lightfoot, one by the late Dr Hort, on _The Structure and\nDestination of the Epistle to the Romans_. The two illustrious\nfriends,--Hort criticizing Lightfoot, Lightfoot replying to\nHort,--examine the phenomena of Rom. xv.-xvi. Lightfoot advocates the\ntheory that St Paul, some time after writing the Epistle, issued an\nabridged edition for wider circulation, omitting the direction to\nRome, closing the document with our ch. xiv., and then (not before)\nwriting, as a finale, the great Doxology. Hort holds to the practical\nentirety of the Epistle as we have it, and reasons at length for the\ncontemporaneousness of xvi.\u00a025-27 with the rest.[1]\n\nWe may note here that both Hort and Lightfoot contend for _the\nconciliatory_ aim of the Roman Epistle. They regard the great passage\nabout Israel (ix.-xi.) as in some sense the heart of the Epistle, and\nthe doctrinal passages preceding this as all more or less meant to\nbear on the relations not only of the Law and the Gospel, but of the\nJew and the Gentile as members of the one Christian Church. There is\ngreat value in this suggestion, explained and illustrated as it is in\nthe Essays in question. But the thought may easily be worked to\nexcess. It seems plain to the present writer that when the Epistle is\nstudied from within its deepest spiritual element, it shews us the\nApostle fully mindful of the largest aspects of the life and work of\nthe Church, but also, and yet more, occupied with the problem of the\nrelation of the believing sinner to God. The question of personal\nsalvation was never, by St Paul, forgotten in that of Christian\npolicy.\n\nTo return for a moment to this Exposition, or rather to its setting;\nit may be doubted whether, in imagining the dictation of the Epistle\nto be begun and completed by St Paul _within one day_ we have not\nimagined \"a hard thing.\" But at worst it is not an impossible thing,\nif the Apostle's utterance was as sustained as his thought.\n\nIt remains only to express the hope that these pages may serve in some\ndegree to convey to their readers a new _Tolle, Lege_ for the divine\nText itself; if only by suggesting to them sometimes the words of St\nAugustine, \"_To Paul I appeal from all interpreters of his writings_.\"\n\n RIDLEY HALL, CAMBRIDGE,\n ALL SAINTS' DAY, 1893.\n\n[1] See also Westcott and Hort's _N. T. in the Original Greek_,\nvol.\u00a02, Appendix, pp. 110-114 (ed. 1).\n\n\n\n\nERRATA.\n\n\nPage 113, line 8, _for_ \"circumcision\" _read_ \"uncircumcision.\"\n\nPage 263, line 15, _for_ \"\u05d0\u05b8\u05de\u05b5\u05d5\" _read_ \"\u05d0\u05b8\u05de\u05b5\u05df.\"\n\n\n\n\nForasmuch as this Epistle is ... a light and way unto the whole\nScripture, I think it meet that every Christian man not only know it,\nby rote and without the book, but also exercise himself therein\nevermore continually, as with the daily bread of the soul. No man\nverily can read it too oft, or study it too well; for the more it is\nstudied, the easier it is; the more it is chewed, the pleasanter it\nis; and the more groundly it is searched, the preciouser things are\nfound in it, so great treasure of spiritual things lieth hid therein.\n\nW. TYNDALE, after LUTHER.\n\n\nTowards the close of one of my nights of suffering, at half-past four,\nI asked my kind watcher ... to read me a chapter of the Word of God.\nHe proposed the eighth of the Epistle to the Romans. I assented, but\nwith the request that, to secure the connexion of ideas, he would go\nback to the sixth, and even to the fifth. We read in succession the\nfour chapters, v., vi., vii., viii., and I thought no more of\nsleep.... Then we read the ninth, and the remaining passages, to the\nend, with an interest always equal and sustained; and then the first\nfour, that nothing might be lost. About two hours had passed.... I\ncannot tell you how I was struck, in thus reading the Epistle as a\nwhole, with the seal of divinity, of truth, of holiness, of love, and\nof power, which is impressed on every page, on every word. We felt, my\nyoung friend and I, ... that we were listening to a voice from heaven.\n\nA. MONOD, _Adieux_, \u00a7 V., _Quelques Mots sur la Lecture de la Bible_.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                                  PAGE\n CHAPTER I\n TIME, PLACE, AND OCCASION                                           1\n\n CHAPTER II\n THE WRITER AND HIS READERS                                         10\n   ROMANS i.\u00a01-7\n\n CHAPTER III\n GOOD REPORT OF THE ROMAN CHURCH: PAUL NOT ASHAMED\n   OF THE GOSPEL                                                    23\n   ROMANS i.\u00a08-17\n\n CHAPTER IV\n NEED FOR THE GOSPEL: GOD'S ANGER AND MAN'S SIN                     38\n   ROMANS i.\u00a018-23\n\n CHAPTER V\n MAN GIVEN UP TO HIS OWN WAY: THE HEATHEN                           48\n   ROMANS i.\u00a024-32\n\n CHAPTER VI\n HUMAN GUILT UNIVERSAL: HE APPROACHES THE CONSCIENCE\n   OF THE JEW                                                       56\n   ROMANS ii.\u00a01-16\n\n CHAPTER VII\n JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY AND GUILT                                    67\n   ROMANS ii.\u00a017-29\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n JEWISH CLAIMS: NO HOPE IN HUMAN MERIT                              78\n   ROMANS iii.\u00a01-20\n\n CHAPTER IX\n THE ONE WAY OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE                                   90\n   ROMANS iii.\u00a021-31\n     DETACHED NOTE                                                 100\n\n CHAPTER X\n ABRAHAM AND DAVID                                                 103\n   ROMANS iv.\u00a01-12\n     DETACHED NOTE                                                 115\n\n CHAPTER XI\n ABRAHAM (ii.)                                                     117\n   ROMANS iv.\u00a013-25\n\n CHAPTER XII\n PEACE, LOVE, AND JOY FOR THE JUSTIFIED                            128\n   ROMANS v.\u00a01-11\n     DETACHED NOTES                                                140\n\n CHAPTER XIII\n CHRIST AND ADAM                                                   143\n   ROMANS v.\u00a012-21\n\n CHAPTER XIV\n JUSTIFICATION AND HOLINESS                                        156\n   ROMANS vi.\u00a01-13\n\n CHAPTER XV\n JUSTIFICATION AND HOLINESS: ILLUSTRATIONS FROM HUMAN\n   LIFE                                                            170\n   ROMANS vi.\u00a014--vii.\u00a06\n\n CHAPTER XVI\n THE FUNCTION OF THE LAW IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE                     187\n   ROMANS vii.\u00a07-25\n\n CHAPTER XVII\n THE JUSTIFIED: THEIR LIFE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT                      203\n   ROMANS viii.\u00a01-11\n\n CHAPTER XVIII\n HOLINESS BY THE SPIRIT, AND THE GLORIES THAT SHALL\n   FOLLOW                                                          218\n   ROMANS viii.\u00a012-25\n\n CHAPTER XIX\n THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER IN THE SAINTS: THEIR PRESENT\n   AND ETERNAL WELFARE IN THE LOVE OF GOD                          231\n   ROMANS viii.\u00a026-39\n\n CHAPTER XX\n THE SORROWFUL PROBLEM: JEWISH UNBELIEF; DIVINE\n   SOVEREIGNTY                                                     244\n   ROMANS ix.\u00a01-33\n     DETACHED NOTE                                                 261\n\n CHAPTER XXI\n JEWISH UNBELIEF AND GENTILE FAITH: PROPHECY                       264\n   ROMANS x.\u00a01-21\n\n CHAPTER XXII\n ISRAEL HOWEVER NOT FORSAKEN                                       282\n   ROMANS xi.\u00a01-10\n\n CHAPTER XXIII\n ISRAEL'S FALL OVERRULED, FOR THE WORLD'S BLESSING,\n   AND FOR ISRAEL'S MERCY                                          294\n   ROMANS xi.\u00a011-24\n\n CHAPTER XXIV\n THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL DIRECTLY FORETOLD: ALL\n   IS OF AND FOR GOD                                               307\n   ROMANS xi.\u00a025-36\n\n CHAPTER XXV\n CHRISTIAN CONDUCT THE ISSUE OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH                    321\n   ROMANS xii.\u00a01-8\n\n CHAPTER XXVI\n CHRISTIAN DUTY: DETAILS OF PERSONAL CONDUCT                       336\n   ROMANS xii.\u00a09-21\n\n CHAPTER XXVII\n CHRISTIAN DUTY; IN CIVIL LIFE AND OTHERWISE: LOVE                 348\n   ROMANS xiii.\u00a01-10\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII\n CHRISTIAN DUTY IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORD'S RETURN\n   AND IN THE POWER OF HIS PRESENCE                                361\n   ROMANS xiii.\u00a011-14\n\n CHAPTER XXIX\n CHRISTIAN DUTY: MUTUAL TENDERNESS AND TOLERANCE:\n   THE SACREDNESS OF EXAMPLE                                       374\n   ROMANS xiv.\u00a01-23\n\n CHAPTER XXX\n THE SAME SUBJECT: THE LORD'S EXAMPLE: HIS RELATION\n   TO US ALL                                                       393\n   ROMANS xv.\u00a01-13\n\n CHAPTER XXXI\n ROMAN CHRISTIANITY: ST PAUL'S COMMISSION: HIS INTENDED\n   ITINERARY: HE ASKS FOR PRAYER                                   408\n   ROMANS xv.\u00a014-33\n\n CHAPTER XXXII\n A COMMENDATION: GREETINGS: A WARNING: A DOXOLOGY                  421\n   ROMANS xvi.\u00a01-27\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\n_TIME, PLACE, AND OCCASION_\n\n\nIt is the month of February, in the year of Christ 58.[2] In a room in\nthe house of Gaius, a wealthy Corinthian Christian, Paul the Apostle,\nhaving at his side his amanuensis Tertius, addresses himself to write\nto the converts of the mission at Rome.\n\nThe great world meanwhile is rolling on its way. It is the fourth year\nof Nero; he is Consul the third time, with Valerius Messala for his\ncolleague; Popp\u00e6a has lately caught the unworthy Prince in the net of\nher bad influence. Domitius Corbulo has just resumed the war with\nParthia, and prepares to penetrate the highlands of Armenia. Within a\nfew weeks, in the full spring, an Egyptian impostor is about to\ninflame Jerusalem with his Messianic claim, to lead four thousand\nfanatics into the desert, and to return to the city with a host of\nthirty thousand men, only to be totally routed by the legionaries of\nFelix. For himself, the Apostle is about to close his three months'\nstay at Corinth; he has heard of plots against his life, and will in\nprudence decline the more direct route from Cenchrea by sea, striking\nnorthward for Philippi, and thence over the \u00c6g\u00e6an to Troas. Jerusalem\nhe must visit, if possible before May is over, for he has by him the\nGreek collections to deliver to the poor converts of Jerusalem. Then,\nin the vista of his further movements, he sees Rome, and thinks with a\ncertain apprehension yet with longing hope about life and witness\nthere.\n\nA Greek Christian woman is about to visit the City, Ph\u0153be, a\nministrant of the mission at Cenchrea. He must commend her to the\nRoman brethren; and a deliberate Letter to them is suggested by this\npersonal need.\n\nHis thoughts have long gravitated to the City of the World. Not many\nmonths before, at Ephesus, when he had \"purposed in the Spirit\" to\nvisit Jerusalem, he had said, with an emphasis which his biographer\nremembered, \"I must also see Rome\" (Acts xix.\u00a021); \"_I must_,\" in the\nsense of a divine decree, which had written this journey down in the\nplan of his life. He was assured too, by circumstantial and perhaps by\nsupernatural signs, that he had \"now no more place in these parts\"\n(Rom. xv.\u00a023)--that is, in the Eastern Roman world where hitherto all\nhis labour had been spent. The Lord who in former days had shut Paul\nup to a track which led him through Asia Minor to the \u00c6g\u00e6an, and\nacross the \u00c6g\u00e6an to Europe (Acts xvi.), now prepared to guide him,\nthough by paths which His servant knew not, from Eastern Europe to\nWestern, and before all things to the City. Amongst these providential\npreparations was a growing occupation of the Apostle's thought with\npersons and interests in the Christian circle there. Here, as we have\nseen, was Ph\u0153be, about to take ship for Italy. Yonder, in the great\nCapital, were now resident again the beloved and faithful Aquila and\nPrisca, no longer excluded by the Claudian edict, and proving already,\nwe may fairly conclude, the central influence in the mission, whose\nfirst days perhaps dated from the Pentecost itself, when Roman\n\"strangers\" (Acts ii.\u00a010) saw and heard the wonders and the message of\nthat hour. At Rome also lived other believers personally known to\nPaul, drawn by unrecorded circumstances to the Centre of the world.\n\"His well-beloved\" Ep\u00e6netus was there; Mary, who had sometimes tried\nhard to help him; Andronicus, and Junias, and Herodion, his relatives;\nAmplias and Stachys, men very dear to him; Urbanus, who had worked for\nChrist at his side; Rufus, no common Christian in his esteem, and\nRufus' mother, who had once watched over Paul with a mother's love.\nAll these rise before him as he thinks of Ph\u0153be, and her arrival,\nand the faces and the hands which at his appeal would welcome her in\nthe Lord, under the holy freemasonry of primeval Christian fellowship.\n\nBesides, he has been hearing about the actual state of that\nall-important mission. As \"all roads led to Rome,\" so all roads led\nfrom Rome, and there were Christian travellers everywhere (i.\u00a08) who\ncould tell him how the Gospel fared among the metropolitan brethren.\nAs he heard of them, so he prayed for them, \"without ceasing\" (i.\u00a09),\nand made request too for himself, now definitely and urgently, that\nhis way might be opened to visit them at last.\n\nTo pray for others, if the prayer is prayer indeed, and based to some\nextent on knowledge, is a sure way to deepen our interest in them, and\nour sympathetic insight into their hearts and conditions. From the\nhuman side, nothing more than these tidings and these prayers was\nneeded to draw from St Paul a written message to be placed in\nPh\u0153be's care. From this same human side again, when he once\naddressed himself to write, there were circumstances of thought and\naction which would naturally give direction to his message.\n\nHe stood amidst circumstances most significant and suggestive in\nmatters of Christian _truth_. Quite recently his Judaist rivals had\ninvaded the congregations of Galatia, and had led the impulsive\nconverts there to quit what seemed their firm grasp on the truth of\nJustification by Faith only. To St Paul this was no mere battle of\nabstract definitions, nor again was it a matter of merely local\nimportance. The success of the alien teachers in Galatia shewed him\nthat the same specious mischiefs might win their way, more or less\nquickly, anywhere. And what would such success mean? It would mean the\nloss of the joy of the Lord, and the strength of that joy, in the\nmisguided Churches. Justification by Faith meant nothing less than\n_Christ all in all_, literally all in all, for sinful man's pardon and\nacceptance. It meant a profound simplicity of personal reliance\naltogether upon Him before the fiery holiness of eternal Law. It meant\na look out and up, at once intense and unanxious, from alike the\nvirtues and the guilt of man, to the mighty merits of the Saviour. It\nwas precisely the foundation-fact of salvation, which secured that the\nprocess should be, from its beginning, not humanitarian but divine. To\ndiscredit _that_ was not merely to disturb the order of a missionary\ncommunity; it was to hurt the vitals of the Christian soul, tinging\nwith impure elements the mountain springs of the peace of God. Fresh\nas he was now from combating this evil in Galatia, St Paul would be\nsure to have it in his thoughts when he turned to Rome; for there it\nwas only too certain that his active adversaries would do their worst;\nprobably they were at work already.\n\nThen, he had been just engaged also with the problems of Christian\n_life_, in the mission at Corinth. There the main trouble was less of\ncreed than of conduct. In the Corinthian Epistles we find no great\ntraces of an energetic heretical propaganda, but rather a bias in the\nconverts towards a strange licence of temper and life. Perhaps this\nwas even accentuated by a popular logical assent to the truth of\nJustification _taken alone_, isolated from other concurrent truths,\ntempting the Corinthian to dream that he might \"continue in sin that\ngrace might abound.\" If such were his state of spiritual thought, he\nwould encounter (by his own fault) a positive moral danger in the\nsupernatural \"Gifts\" which at Corinth about that time seem to have\nappeared with quite abnormal power. An antinomian theory, in the\npresence of such exaltations, would lead the man easily to the\nconception that he was too free and too rich in the supernatural order\nto be the servant of common duties, and even of common morals. Thus\nthe Apostle's soul would be full of the need of expounding to its\ndepths the vital harmony of the Lord's work _for_ the believer and the\nLord's work _in_ him; the co-ordination of a free acceptance with both\nthe precept and the possibility of holiness. He must shew once for all\nhow the justified are bound to be pure and humble, and how they can so\nbe, and what forms of practical dutifulness their life must take. He\nmust make it clear for ever that the Ransom which releases also\npurchases; that the Lord's freeman is the Lord's property; that the\nDeath of the Cross, reckoned as the death of the justified sinner,\nleads direct to his living union with the Risen One, including a union\nof will with will; and that thus the Christian life, if true to\nitself, _must_ be a life of loyalty to every obligation, every\nrelation, constituted in God's providence among men. The Christian who\nis not attentive to others, even where their mere prejudices and\nmistakes are in question, is a Christian out of character. So is the\nChristian who is not a scrupulously loyal citizen, recognizing civil\norder as the will of God. So is the Christian who in any respect\nclaims to live as he pleases, instead of as the bondservant of his\nRedeemer should live.\n\nAnother question had been pressing the Apostle's mind, and that for\nyears, but recently with a special weight. It was the mystery of\nJewish unbelief. Who can estimate the pain and greatness of that\nmystery in the mind of St Paul? His own conversion, while it taught\nhim patience with his old associates, must have filled him also with\nsome eager hopes for them. Every deep and self-evidencing\nmanifestation of God in a man's soul suggests to him naturally the\nthought of the glorious things possible in the souls of others. Why\nshould not the leading Pharisee, now converted, be the signal, and the\nmeans, of the conversion of the Sanhedrin, and of the people? But the\nhard mystery of sin crossed such paths of expectation, and more and\nmore so as the years went on. Judaism outside the Church was stubborn,\nand energetically hostile. And within the Church, sad and ominous\nfact, it crept in underground, and sprung up in an embittered\nopposition to the central truths. What did all this mean? Where would\nit end? Had Israel sinned, collectively, beyond pardon and repentance?\nHad God cast off His people? These troublers of Galatia, these fiery\nrioters before the tribunal of Gallio at Corinth, did their conduct\nmean that all was over for the race of Abraham? The question was agony\nto Paul; and he sought his Lord's answer to it as a thing without\nwhich he could not live. That answer was full in his soul when he\nmeditated his Letter to Rome, and thought of the Judaists there, and\nalso of the loving Jewish friends of his heart there who would read\nhis message when it came.\n\nThus we venture to describe the possible outward and inward conditions\nunder which the Epistle to the Romans was conceived and written. Well\ndo we recollect that our account is conjectural. But the Epistle in\nits wonderful fulness, both of outline and of detail, gives to such\nconjectures more than a shadow for basis. We do not forget again that\nthe Epistle, whatever the Writer saw around him or felt within him,\nwas, when produced, infinitely more than the resultant of Paul's mind\nand life; it was, and is, an oracle of God, a Scripture, a revelation\nof eternal facts and principles by which to live and die. As such we\napproach it in this book; not to analyse only or explain, but to\nsubmit and to believe; taking it as not only Pauline but Divine. But\nthen, it is not the less therefore Pauline. And this means that both\nthe thought and the circumstances of St Paul are to be traced and felt\nin it as truly, and as naturally, as if we had before us the letter of\nan Augustine, or a Luther, or a Pascal. He who chose the writers of\nthe Holy Scriptures, many men scattered over many ages, used them each\nin his surroundings and in his character, yet so as to harmonize them\nall in the Book which, while many, is one. He used them with the\nsovereign skill of Deity. And that skilful use meant that He used\ntheir whole being, which He had made, and their whole circumstances,\nwhich He had ordered. They were indeed His amanuenses; nay, I fear not\nto say they were His pens. But HE is such that He can manipulate as\nHis facile implement no mere piece of mechanism, which, however subtle\nand powerful, is mechanism still, and can never truly cause anything;\nHE can take a human personality, made in His own image, pregnant,\nformative, causative, in all its living thought, sensibility, and\nwill, and can throw it freely upon its task of thinking and\nexpression--and behold, the product will be His; His matter, His\nthought, His exposition, His Word, \"living and abiding for ever.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThus we enter in spirit the Corinthian citizen's house, in the\nsunshine of the early Greek spring, and find our way invisible and\nunheard to where Tertius sits with his reed-pen and strips of papyrus,\nand where Paul is prepared to give him, word by word, sentence by\nsentence, this immortal message. Perhaps the corner of the room is\nheaped with hair-cloth from Cilicia, and the implements of the\ntent-maker. But the Apostle is now the guest of Gaius, a man whose\nmeans enable him to be \"the host of the whole Church\"; so we may\nrather think that for the time this manual toil is intermitted. Do we\nseem to see the form and face of him who is about to dictate? The mist\nof time is in our eyes; but we may credibly report that we find a\nsmall and much emaciated frame, and a face remarkable for its arched\nbrows and wide forehead, and for the expressive mobility of the\nlips.[3] We trace in looks, in manner and tone of utterance, and even\nin unconscious attitude and action, tokens of a mind rich in every\nfaculty, a nature equally strong in energy and in sympathy, made both\nto govern and to win, to will and to love. The man is great and\nwonderful, a master soul, subtle, wise, and strong. Yet he draws us\nwith pathetic force to his heart, as one who asks and will repay\naffection.\n\nAs we look on his face we think, with awe and gladness, that with\nthose same thought-tired eyes (and are they not also troubled with\ndisease?) he has literally seen, only twenty years ago, so he will\nquietly assure us, the risen and glorified JESUS. His work during\nthose twenty years, his innumerable sufferings, above all, his spirit\nof perfect mental and moral sanity, yet of supernatural peace and\nlove,--all make his assurance absolutely trustworthy. He is a\ntransfigured man since that sight of Jesus Christ, who now \"dwells in\nhis heart by faith,\" and uses him as the vehicle of His will and work.\nAnd now listen. The Lord is speaking through His servant. The scribe\nis busy with his pen, as the message of Christ is uttered through the\nsoul and from the lips of Paul.\n\n[2] See Lewin, _Fasti Sacri_, \u00a7 1854, etc.\n\n[3] See Lewin, _Life and Epistles of St Paul_, ii.\u00a0411, for an\nengraving of a fine medallion, shewing the heads of St Paul and St\nPeter. \"The medal is referred to the close of the first century or the\nbeginning of the second.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\n_THE WRITER AND HIS READERS_\n\nROMANS i.\u00a01-7\n\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ.= So the man\nopens his Lord's message with his own name. We may, if we please,\nleave it and pass on, for to the letter-writer of that day it was as\nmuch a matter of course to prefix the personal name to the letter as\nit is to us to append it. But then, as now, the name was not a mere\nword of routine; certainly not in the communications of a religious\nleader. It avowed responsibility; it put in evidence a person. In a\nletter of public destination it set the man in the light and glare of\npublicity, as truly as when he spoke in the Christian assembly, or on\nthe Areopagus, or from the steps of the castle at Jerusalem. It tells\nus here, on the threshold, that the messages we are about to read are\ngiven to us as \"truth through personality\"; they come through the\nmental and spiritual being of this wonderful and most real man. If we\nread his character aright in his letters, we see in him a fineness and\ndignity of thought which would not make the publication of himself a\nlight and easy thing. But his sensibilities, with all else he has,\nhave been given to Christ (who never either slights or spoils such\ngifts, while He accepts them); and if it will the better win attention\nto the Lord that the servant should stand out conspicuously, to point\nto Him, it shall be done.\n\nFor he is indeed \"_Jesus Christ's bondservant_\"; not His ally merely,\nor His subject, or His friend. Recently, writing to the Galatian\nconverts, he has been vindicating the glorious liberty of the\nChristian, set free at once from \"the curse of the law\" and from the\nmastery of self. But there too, at the close (vi.\u00a017), he has dwelt on\nhis own sacred bondage; \"the brand of his Master, Jesus.\" The liberty\nof the Gospel is the silver side of the same shield whose side of gold\nis an unconditional vassalage to the liberating Lord. Our freedom is\n\"in the Lord\" alone; and to be \"in the Lord\" is to belong to Him, as\nwholly as a healthy hand belongs, in its freedom, to the physical\ncentre of life and will. To be a bondservant is terrible in the\nabstract. To be \"Jesus Christ's bondservant\" is Paradise, in the\nconcrete. Self-surrender, taken alone, is a plunge into a cold void.\nWhen it is surrender to \"the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself\nfor me\" (Gal. ii.\u00a020), it is the bright home-coming of the soul to the\nseat and sphere of life and power.\n\nThis bondservant of His now before us, dictating, is =called to be an\nApostle.= Such is his particular department of servitude in the \"great\nhouse.\" It is a rare commission--to be a chosen witness of the\nResurrection, a divinely authorized \"bearer\" of the holy Name, a first\nfounder and guide of the universal Church, a _legatus a latere_ of the\nLord Himself. Yet the apostleship, to St Paul, is but a species of the\none genus, bondservice. \"To every man is his work,\" given by the one\nsovereign will. In a Roman household one slave would water the garden,\nanother keep accounts, another in the library would do skilled\nliterary work; yet all equally would be \"not their own, but bought\nwith a price.\" So in the Gospel, then, and now. All functions of\nChristians are alike expressions of the one will of Him who has\npurchased, and who \"calls.\"\n\nMeanwhile, this bondservant-apostle, because \"under authority,\"\ncarries authority. His MASTER has spoken to him, that he may speak. He\nwrites to the Romans as man, as friend, but also as the \"vessel of\nchoice, to bear the Name\" (Acts ix.\u00a015) of Jesus Christ.\n\nSuch is the sole essential work and purpose of his life. He is\n=separated to the Gospel of God;= isolated from all other ruling aims\nto this. In some respects he is the least isolated of men; he is in\ncontact all round with human life. Yet he is \"_separated_.\" In Christ,\nand for Christ, he lives apart from even the worthiest personal\nambitions. Richer than ever, since he \"was in Christ\" (xvi.\u00a07), in all\nthat makes man's nature wealthy, in power to know, to will, to love,\nhe uses all his riches always for \"this one thing,\" to make men\nunderstand \"_the Gospel of God_.\" Such isolation, behind a thousand\ncontacts, is the Lord's call for His true followers still.\n\n\"_The Gospel_\": word almost too familiar now, till the thing is too\nlittle understood. What is it? In its native meaning, its eternally\nproper meaning, it is the divine \"Good Tidings.\" It is the\nannouncement of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour of men, in whom God\nand man meet with joy. That announcement stands in living relation to\na bright chain of precepts, and also to the sacred darkness of\nconvictions and warnings; we shall see this amply illustrated in this\nEpistle. But neither precepts nor threatenings are properly _the\nGospel_. The Gospel saves from sin, and enables for holy conduct. But\nin itself it is the pure, mere message of redeeming Love.\n\nIt is \"_the Gospel of God_\"; that is, as the neighbouring sentences\nshew it, the Gospel of the blessed FATHER. Its origin is in the\nFather's love, the eternal hill whence runs the eternal stream of the\nwork of the Son and the power of the Spirit. \"God loved the world\";\n\"The Father sent the Son.\" The stream leads us up to the mount.\n\"Hereby perceive we the love of God.\" In the Gospel, and in it alone,\nwe have that certainty, \"God _is_ Love.\"\n\nNow he dilates a little in passing on this dear theme, the Gospel of\nGod. He whom it reveals as eternal Love was true to Himself in the\npreparation as in the event; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] He =promised= His\nGospel =beforehand through His prophets in (the) holy Scriptures.= The\nsunrise of Christ was no abrupt, insulated phenomenon, unintelligible\nbecause out of relation. \"Since the world began\" (Luke i.\u00a070), from\nthe dawn of human history, predictive word and manifold preparing work\nhad gone before. To think now only of the prediction, more or less\narticulate, and not of the preparation through general divine dealings\nwith man--such had the prophecy been that, as the pagan histories tell\nus,[4] \"the whole East\" heaved with expectations of a Jud\u00e6an\nworld-rule about the time when, as a fact, Jesus came. He came, alike\nto disappoint every merely popular hope and to satisfy at once the\nconcrete details and the spiritual significance of the long forecast.\nAnd He sent His messengers out to the world carrying as their text and\ntheir voucher that old and multifold literature which is yet one Book;\nthose \"holy writings,\" (our own Old Testament, from end to end,) which\nwere to them nothing less than the voice of the Holy Spirit. They\nalways put the Lord, in their preaching, in contact with that\nprediction.\n\nIn this, as in other things, His glorious Figure is unique. There is\nno other personage in human history, himself a moral miracle, heralded\nby a verifiable foreshadowing in a complex literature of previous\ncenturies.\n\n\"The hope of Israel\" was, and is, a thing _sui generis_. Other\npreparations for the Coming were, as it were, sidelong and altogether\nby means of nature. In the Holy Scriptures the supernatural led\ndirectly and in its own way to the supreme supernatural Event; the\nSacred Way to the Sanctuary.\n\nWhat was the burthen of the vast prophecy, with its converging\nelements? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] It was =concerning His Son, Jesus Christ\nour Lord.= Whatever the prophets themselves knew, or did not know, of\nthe inmost import of their records and utterances, the import was\nthis. The Lord and the Apostles do not commit us to believe that the\nold seers ever had a _full_ conscious foresight, or even that in all\nthey \"wrote of Him\" they knew that it was of Him they wrote; though\nthey _had_ insights above nature, and knew it, as when David \"in the\nSpirit called Him Lord,\" and Abraham \"saw His day.\" But they do amply\ncommit us to believe, if we are indeed their disciples, that the whole\nrevelation through Israel did, in a way quite of its own kind,\n\"concern the Son of God.\" See this in such leading places as Luke\nxxiv.\u00a025-27; John v.\u00a039, 46; Acts iii.\u00a021-25, x.\u00a043, xxviii.\u00a023.\n\nA Mahometan in Southern India, not long ago, was first drawn to faith\nin Jesus Christ by reading the genealogy with which St Matthew begins\nhis narrative. Such a procession, he thought, must lead up a mighty\nname; and he approached with reverence the story of the Nativity. That\ngenealogy is, in a certain sense, the prophecies in compendium. Its\navenue is the miniature of theirs. Let us sometimes go back, as it\nwere, and approach the Lord again through the ranks of His holy\nforetellers, to get a new impression of His majesty.\n\n\"_Concerning His Son._\" Around that radiant word, full of light and\nheat, the cold mists of many speculations have rolled themselves, as\nman has tried to analyse a divine and boundless fact. For St Paul, and\nfor us, the fact is everything, for peace and life. This Jesus Christ\nis true Man; that is certain. He is also, if we trust His life and\nword, true Son of God. He is on the one hand personally distinct from\nHim whom He calls Father, and whom He loves, and who loves Him with\ninfinite love. On the other hand He is so related to Him that He fully\npossesses His Nature, while He has that Nature wholly from Him. This\nis the teaching of Gospels and Epistles; this is the Catholic Faith.\nJesus Christ is God, is Divine, truly and fully. He is implicitly\ncalled by the incommunicable Name (compare John xii.\u00a041 with Isa.\nvi.\u00a07). He is openly called God in His own presence on earth (John\nxx.\u00a028). But what is, if possible, even mere significant, because\ndeeper below the surface--He is regarded as the eternally satisfying\nObject of man's trust and love (_e.g._ Phil. iii.\u00a021, Eph. iii.\u00a019).\nYet Jesus Christ is always preached as related Son-wise to Another, so\ntruly that the mutual love of the Two is freely adduced as type and\nmotive for our love.\n\nWe can hardly make too much, in thought and teaching, of this Divine\nSonship, this Filial Godhead. It is the very \"Secret of God\" (Col.\nii.\u00a02), both as a light to guide our reason to the foot of the Throne,\nand as a power upon the heart. \"He that hath the Son hath the Father\";\n\"He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father\"; \"He hath translated us\ninto the kingdom of the Son of His Love.\"\n\n=Who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh.= So the\nNew Testament begins (Matt. i.\u00a01); so it almost closes (Rev. xxii.\u00a06).\nSt Paul, in later years, recalls the Lord's human pedigree again\n(2\u00a0Tim. ii.\u00a08): \"Remember that Jesus Christ, _of the seed of David_,\nis risen from the dead.\" The old Apostle in that last passage, has\nentered the shadow of death; he feels with one hand for the rock of\nhistory, with the other for the pulse of eternal love. Here was the\nrock; the Lord of life was the Child of history, Son and Heir of a\nhistorical king, and then, as such, the Child of prophecy too. And\nthis, against all surface appearances beforehand. The Davidic \"ground\"\n(Isa. liii.\u00a02) had seemed to be dry as dust for generations, when the\nRoot of endless life sprang up in it.\n\n\"_He was born_\" of David's seed. Literally, the Greek may be rendered,\n\"_He became, He came to be_.\" Under either rendering we have the\nwonderful fact that He who in His higher Nature eternally _is_, above\ntime and including it, did in His other Nature, by the door of\n_becoming_, enter time, and thus indeed \"fill all things.\" This He\ndid, and thus He is, \"_according to the flesh_.\" \"Flesh\" is, indeed,\nbut a part of Manhood. But a part can represent the whole; and \"flesh\"\nis the part most antithetical to the Divine Nature, with which here\nManhood is collocated and in a sense contrasted. So it is again below,\nix.\u00a05.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] And now, of this blessed Son of David, we hear\nfurther:--=who was designated to be Son of God;= literally, \"_defined\nas Son of God_\" betokened to be such by \"infallible proof.\" Never for\nan hour had he ceased to be, in fact, Son of God. To the man healed of\nbirth-blindness He had said (John ix.\u00a035), \"Dost thou believe on the\nSon of God?\" But there was an hour when He became openly and so to\nspeak officially what He always is naturally; somewhat as a born king\nis \"made\" king by coronation. Historical act then affirmed independent\nfact, and as it were gathered it into a point for use. This\naffirmation took place =in power, according to the Spirit of Holiness,\nas a result of resurrection from the dead.= \"Sown in weakness,\" Jesus\nwas indeed \"raised in\" majestic, tranquil \"power.\" Without an effort\nHe stepped from out of the depth of death, from under the load of sin.\nIt was no flickering life, crucified but not quite killed, creeping\nback in a convalescence mis-called resurrection; it was the rising of\nthe sun. That it was indeed day-light, and not day-dream, was shown\nnot only in His mastery of matter, but in the transfiguration of His\nfollowers. No moral change was ever at once more complete and more\nperfectly healthful than what His return wrought in that large and\nvarious group, when they learnt to say, \"We have seen the Lord.\" The\nman who wrote this Epistle had \"seen Him last of all\" (1\u00a0Cor. xv.\u00a08).\nThat was indeed a sight \"in power,\" and working a transfiguration.\n\nSo was the Son of the Father affirmed to be what He is; so was He\n\"made\" to be, for us His Church, the Son, in whom we are sons. And all\nthis was, \"_according to the Spirit of holiness_\"; answerably to the\nforeshadowing and foretelling of that Holy Spirit who, in the\nprophets, \"testified of the sufferings destined for the Christ, and of\nthe glories that should follow\" (1\u00a0Pet. i.\u00a011).\n\nNow lastly, in the Greek of the sentence, as if pausing for a solemn\nentrance, comes in the whole blessed Name; =even Jesus Christ our\nLord.= Word by word the Apostle dictates, and the scribe obeys. JESUS,\nthe human Name; CHRIST, the mystic Title; OUR LORD, the term of\nroyalty and loyalty which binds us to Him, and Him to us. Let those\nfour words be ours for ever. If everything else falls in ruins from\nthe memory, let this remain, \"the strength of our heart, and our\nportion for ever.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =Through whom,= the Apostle's voice goes on, =we\nreceived grace and apostleship.= The Son was the Channel \"through\"\nwhich the Father's choice and call took effect. He \"grasped\" Paul\n(Phil. iii.\u00a012), and, joined him to Himself, and in Himself to the\nFather; and now through that Union the motions of the Eternal will\nmove Paul. They move him, to give him \"_grace and apostleship_\"; that\nis, in effect, grace for apostleship, and apostleship as grace; the\nboon of the Lord's presence in him for the work, and the Lord's work\nas a spiritual boon. He often thus links the word \"_grace_\" with his\ngreat mission; for example, in Gal. ii.\u00a09, Eph. iii.\u00a02, 8, and perhaps\nPhil. i.\u00a07. Alike the enabling peace and power for service, and then\nthe service itself, are to the Christian a free, loving, beatifying\ngift.\n\n=Unto obedience of faith among all the Nations.= This \"_obedience of\nfaith_\" is in fact faith in its aspect as submission. What is faith?\nIt is personal trust, personal self-entrustment to a person. It \"gives\nup the case\" to the Lord, as the one only possible Giver of pardon and\nof purity. It is \"_submission_ to the righteousness of God\" (ch.\nx.\u00a03). Blessed the man who so obeys, stretching out arms empty and\nsubmissive to receive, in the void between them, Jesus Christ.\n\n\"_Among all the Nations_,\" \"all the Gentiles.\" The words read easy to\nus, and pass perhaps half unnoticed, as a phrase of routine. Not so to\nthe ex-Pharisee who dictated them here. A few years before he would\nhave held it highly \"unlawful to keep company with, or come unto, one\nof another nation\" (Acts x.\u00a028). Now, in Christ, it is as if he had\nalmost forgotten that it had been so. His whole heart, in Christ, is\nblent in personal love with hearts belonging to many nations; in\nspiritual affection he is ready for contact with all hearts. And now\nhe, of all the Apostles, is the teacher who by life and word is to\nbring this glorious catholicity home for ever to all believing souls,\nour own included. It is St Paul pre-eminently who has taught man, as\nman, in Christ, to love man; who has made Hebrew, European, Hindoo,\nChinese, Caffre, Esquimaux, actually one in the conscious brotherhood\nof eternal life.\n\n=For His Name's sake;= for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed.\nThe Name is the self-unfolded Person, known and understood. Paul had\nindeed come to know that Name, and to pass it on was now his very\nlife. He existed only to win for it more insight, more adoration, more\nlove. \"The Name\" deserved that great soul's entire devotion. Does it\nnot deserve our equally entire devotion now? Our lives shall be\ntransfigured, in their measure, by taking for their motto also, \"For\nHis Name's sake.\"\n\nNow he speaks direct of his Roman friends. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =Among\nwhom,= among these multifarious \"Nations,\" =you too are Jesus Christ's\ncalled ones;= men who belong to Him, because \"_called_\" by Him. And\nwhat is \"_called_\"? Compare the places where the word is used--or\nwhere its kindred words are used--in the Epistles, and you will find a\ncertain holy speciality of meaning. \"Invited\" is no adequate\nparaphrase. The \"called\" man is the man who has been invited _and has\ncome_; who has obeyed the eternal welcome; to whom the voice of the\nLord has been effectual. See the word in the opening paragraphs of\n1\u00a0Corinthians. There the Gospel is heard, externally, by a host of\nindifferent or hostile hearts, who think it \"folly,\" or \"a stumbling\nblock.\" But among them are those who hear, and understand, and believe\nindeed. To them \"Christ is God's power, and God's wisdom.\" And they\nare \"the called.\"\n\nIn the Gospels, the words \"chosen\" and \"called\" are in antithesis; the\ncalled are many, the chosen few; the external hearers are many, the\nhearers inwardly are few. In the Epistles a developed use shews the\nchange indicated here, and it is consistently maintained.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =To all who in Rome are God's beloved ones.=\nWonderful collocation, wonderful possibility! \"_Beloved ones of God_,\"\nas close to the eternal heart as it is possible to be, because \"in the\nBeloved\"; that is one side. \"_In Rome_,\" in the capital of universal\npaganism, material power, iron empire, immeasurable worldliness,\nflagrant and indescribable sin; that is the other side. \"I know where\nthou dwellest,\" said the glorified Saviour to much tried disciples at\na later day; \"even where Satan has his throne\" (Rev. ii.\u00a013). That\nthrone was conspicuously present in the Rome of Nero. Yet faith, hope,\nand love could breathe there, when the Lord \"called.\" They could much\nmore than breathe. This whole Epistle shows that a deep and developed\nfaith, a glorious hope, and the mighty love of a holy life were\nmatters of fact in men and women who every day of the year saw the\nworld as it went by in forum and basilica, in Suburra and Velabrum, in\nslave-chambers and in the halls of pleasure where they had to serve or\nto meet company. The atmosphere of heaven was carried down into that\ndark pool by the believing souls who were bidden to live there. They\nlived the heavenly life in Rome; as the creature of the air in our\nstagnant waters weaves and fills its silver diving-bell, and works and\nthrives in peace far down.\n\nRead some vivid picture of Roman life, and think of this. See it as it\nis shown by Tacitus, Suetonius, Juvenal, Martial; or as modern hands,\nBecker's or Farrar's, have restored it from their materials. What a\ndeadly air for the regenerate soul--deadly not only in its vice, but\nin its magnificence, and in its thought! But nothing is deadly to the\nLord Jesus Christ. The soul's regeneration means not only new ideas\nand likings, but an eternal Presence, the indwelling of the Life\nitself. That Life could live at Rome; and therefore \"_God's beloved\nones in Rome_\" could live there also, while it was His will they\nshould be there. The argument comes _a fortiori_ to ourselves.\n\n=(His) called holy ones;= they were \"_called_,\" in the sense we have\nseen, and now, by that effectual Voice, drawing them into Christ, they\nwere constituted \"_holy ones_,\" \"_saints_.\" What does that word mean?\nWhatever its etymology may be,[5] its usage gives us the thought of\ndedication to God, connexion with Him, separation to His service, His\nwill. _The saints_ are those who belong to Him, His personal property,\nfor His ends. Thus it is used habitually in the Scriptures for _all\nChristians, supposed to be true to their name_. Not an inner circle,\nbut all, bear the title. It is not only a glorified aristocracy, but\nthe believing commonalty; not the stars of the eternal sky but the\nflowers sown by the Lord in the common field; even in such a tract of\nthat field as \"C\u00e6sar's household\" was (Phil. iv.\u00a022).\n\nHabitually therefore the Apostle gives the term \"_saints_\" to whole\ncommunities; as if baptism always gave, or sealed, saintship. In a\nsense it did, and does. But then, this was, and is, on the assumption\nof the concurrence of possession with title. The title left the\nindividual still bound to \"examine himself, whether _he was_ in the\nfaith\" (2\u00a0Cor. xiii.\u00a05).\n\nThese happy residents at Rome are now greeted and blessed in their\nFather's and Saviour's Name; =Grace to you and peace, from God our\nFather and the Lord Jesus Christ.= \"_Grace_\"; what is it? Two ideas\nlie there together; favour and gratuity. The grace of God is His\nfavouring will and work for us, and in us; gratuitous, utterly and to\nthe end unearned. Put otherwise, (and with the remembrance that His\ngreat gifts are but modes of Himself, are in fact Himself in will and\naction,) grace is God for us, grace is God in us, sovereign, willing,\nkind. \"_Peace_\"; what is it? The holy repose within, and so around,\nwhich comes of the man's acceptance with God and abode in God; an \"all\nis well\" in the heart, and in the believer's contact with\ncircumstances, as he rests in his Father and his Redeemer. \"Peace,\nperfect peace\"; under the sense of demerit, and amidst the crush of\nduties, and on the crossing currents of human joy and sorrow, and in\nthe mystery of death; because of the God of Peace, who has made peace\nfor us through the Cross of His Son, and is peace in us, \"by the\nSpirit which He hath given us.\"\n\n[4] Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis\nut eo tempore (cir. A.D.\u00a070) profecti Jud\u00e6a rerum potirentur.--Suetonius,\n_Vesp._, c.\u00a04. Tacitus (_Hist._, v.\u00a013) says the same, and that the\nhope was based on the _antiqui sacerdotum libri_.\n\n[5] The _linguistic root_ seems to point directly not to separation\n(as often said) but to worship, reverence.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n_GOOD REPORT OF THE ROMAN CHURCH: PAUL NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL_\n\nROMANS i.\u00a08-17\n\n\nHe has blessed the Roman Christians in the name of the Lord. Now he\nhastens to tell them how he blesses God for them, and how full his\nheart is of them. The Gospel is warm all through with life and love;\nthis great message of doctrine and precept is poured from a fountain\nfull of personal affection.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =Now first I thank my God, through Jesus Christ,\nabout you all.= It is his delight to give thanks for all the good he\nknows of in his brethren. Seven of his Epistles open with such\nthanksgivings, which at once convey the commendations which love\nrejoices to give, wherever possible, and trace all spiritual virtue\nstraight to its Source, the Lord. Nor only here to \"the Lord,\" but to\n\"_my_ God\"; a phrase used, in the New Testament, only by St Paul,\nexcept that one utterance of ELI, ELI, by his dying Saviour. It is the\nexpression of an indescribable appropriation and reverent intimacy.\nThe believer grudges his God to none; he rejoices with great joy over\nevery soul that finds its wealth in Him. But at the centre of all joy\nand love is this--\"_my_ God\"; \"Christ Jesus _my_ Lord\"; \"who loved\n_me_ and gave Himself for _me_.\" Is it selfish? Nay, it is the\nlanguage of a personality where Christ has dethroned self in His own\nfavour, but in which therefore reigns now the highest happiness, the\nhappiness which animates and maintains a self-forgetful love of all.\nAnd this holy intimacy, with its action in thanks and petition, is all\nthe while \"_through Jesus Christ_\" the Mediator and Brother. The man\nknows God as \"_my_ God,\" and deals with Him as such, never out of that\nBeloved SON who is equally One with the believer and with the Father,\nno alien medium, but the living point of unity.\n\nWhat moves his thanksgivings? =Because your faith is spoken of,= more\nliterally, =is carried as tidings, over the whole world.= Go where he\nwill, in Asia, in Macedonia, in Achaia, in Illyricum, he meets\nbelieving \"strangers from Rome,\" with spiritual news from the Capital,\nannouncing, with a glad solemnity, that at the great Centre of this\nworld the things eternal are proving their power, and that the Roman\nmission is remarkable for its strength and simplicity of \"_faith_,\"\nits humble reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, and loving allegiance to\nHim. Such news, wafted from point to point of that early Christendom,\nwas frequent then; we see another beautiful example of it where he\ntells the Thessalonians (1\u00a0Thess. i.\u00a08-10) how everywhere in his Greek\ntour he found the news of their conversion running in advance of him,\nto greet him at each arrival. What special importance would such\nintelligence bear when it was good news from Rome!\n\nStill in our day over the world of Missions similar tidings travel.\nOnly a few years ago \"the saints\" of Indian Tinnevelly heard of the\ndistress of their brethren of African Uganda, and sent with loving\neagerness \"to their necessity.\" Only last year (1892) an English\nvisitor to the Missions of Labrador found the disciples of the\nMoravian Brethren there full of the wonders of grace manifested in\nthose same African believers.\n\nThis constant good tidings from the City makes him the more glad\nbecause of its correspondence with his incessant thought, prayer, and\nyearning over them.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =For God is my record, my witness,[6]= of this;\nthe God =whom I serve,= at once, so the Greek (\u03bb\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03b5\u03cd\u03c9) implies,\nwith adoration and obedience, =in my spirit, in the Gospel of His\nSon.= The \"_for_\" gives the connexion we have just indicated; he\nrejoices to hear of their faith, _for_ the Lord knows how much they\nare in his prayers. The divine Witness is the more instinctively\nappealed to, because these thoughts and prayers are for a\nmission-Church, and the relations between St Paul and his God are\nabove all missionary relations. He \"_serves Him in the Gospel of His\nSon_\" the Gospel of the God who is known and believed in His Christ.\nHe \"serves Him in _the Gospel_\"; that is, in _the propagation_ of it.\nSo he often means, where he speaks of \"the Gospel\"; take for example\nver. 1 above; xv.\u00a016, 19 below; Phil. i.\u00a05, 12; ii.\u00a022. \"He serves\nHim,\" in that great branch of ministry, \"_in his spirit_\" with his\nwhole love, will, and mind, working in communion with his Lord. And\nnow to this eternal Friend and Witness he appeals to seal his\nassurance of incessant intercessions for them; =how without ceasing,=\nas a habit constantly in action, =I make mention of you,= calling them\nup by name, specifying before the Father Rome, and Aquila, and\nAndronicus, and Junias, and Persis, and Mary, and the whole circle,\npersonally known or not, =in my prayers;= literally, =on occasion of\nmy prayers;= whenever he found himself at prayer, statedly or as it\nwere casually remembering and beseeching.\n\nThe prayers of St Paul are a study by themselves. See his own accounts\nof them, to the Corinthians, the Ephesians, the Philippians, the\nColossians, the Thessalonians, and Philemon. Observe their topic; it\nis almost always the growth of grace in the saints, to their Master's\nglory. Observe now still more their manner; the frequency, the\ndiligence, the resolution which grapples, wrestles, with the\ndifficulties of prayer, so that in Col. ii.\u00a01 he calls his prayer\nsimply \"_a great wrestling_.\" Learn here how to deal with God for\nthose for whom you work, shepherd of souls, messenger of the Word,\nChristian man or woman who in any way are called to help other hearts\nin Christ.\n\nIn this case his prayers have a very definite direction;\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] he is =requesting, if somehow, now at length, my\nway shall be opened, in the will of God, to come to you.= It is a\nquite simple, quite natural petition. His inward harmony with the\nLord's will never excludes the formation and expression of such\nrequests, with the reverent \"_if_\" of submissive reserve. The\n\"indifference\" of mystic pietism, which at least discourages\narticulate contingent petitions, is unknown to the Apostles; \"in\neverything, with thanksgiving, they make their requests known unto\nGod.\" And they find such expression harmonized, in a holy experience,\nwith a profound rest \"_within_ this will,\" this \"sweet beloved will of\nGod.\" Little did he here foresee _how_ his way would be opened; that\nit would lie through the tumult in the Temple, the prisons of\nJerusalem and C\u00e6sarea, and the cyclone of the Adrian sea. He had in\nview a missionary journey to Spain, in which Rome was to be taken by\nthe way.\n\n  \"So God grants prayer, but in His love\n      Makes ways and times His own.\"\n\nHis heart yearns for this Roman visit. We may almost render the Greek\nof the next clause, [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =For I am homesick for a\nsight of you;= he uses the word by which elsewhere he describes\nPhilippian Epaphroditus' longing to be back at Philippi (Phil.\nii.\u00a026), and again his own longing to see the son of his heart,\nTimotheus (2\u00a0Tim. i.\u00a04). Such is the Gospel, that its family affection\nthrows the light of home on even unknown regions where dwell \"the\nbrethren.\" In this case the longing love however has a purpose most\npractical; =that I may impart to you some spiritual gift of grace,\nwith a view to your establishment.= The word rendered \"_gift of\ngrace_\" (\u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1) is used in some places (see especially\u00a01\u00a0Cor.\nxii.\u00a04, 9, 28, 30, 31) with a certain special reference to the\nmysterious \"Tongues,\" \"Interpretations,\" and \"Prophecies,\" given in\nthe primeval Churches. And we gather from the Acts and the Epistles\nthat these grants were not ordinarily made where an Apostle was not\nthere to lay on his hands. But it is not likely that this is the\nimport of this present passage. Elsewhere in the Epistle[7] the word\n_charisma_ is used with its largest and deepest reference; God's gift\nof blessing in Christ. Here then, so we take it, he means that he\npines to convey to them, as his Lord's messenger, some new development\nof spiritual light and joy; to expound \"the Way\" to them more\nperfectly; to open up to them such fuller and deeper insights into the\nriches of Christ that they, better using their possession of the Lord,\nmight as it were gain new possessions in Him, and might stand more\nboldly on the glorious certainties they held. And this was to be done\nministerially, not magisterially. For he goes on to say that the longed\nfor visit would be his gain as well as theirs; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.]\n=that is, with a view to my concurrent encouragement among you, by our\nmutual faith, yours and mine together.= Shall we call this a sentence\nof fine tact; beautifully conciliatory and endearing? Yes, but it is\nalso perfectly sincere. True tact is only the skill of sympathetic\nlove, not the less genuine in its thought because that thought seeks\nto please and win. He is glad to shew himself as his disciples'\nbrotherly friend; but then he first _is_ such, and enjoys the\ncharacter, and has continually found and felt his own soul made glad\nand strong by the witness to the Lord which far less gifted believers\nbore, as he and they talked together. Does not every true teacher know\nthis in his own experience? If we are not merely lecturers on\nChristianity but witnesses for Christ, we know what it is to hail with\ndeep thanksgivings the \"_encouragement_\" we have had from the lips of\nthose who perhaps believed long after we did, and have been far less\nadvantaged outwardly than we have been. We have known and blessed the\n\"_encouragement_\" carried to us by little believing children, and\nyoung men in their first faith, and poor old people on their\ncomfortless beds, ignorant in this world, illuminated in the Lord.\n\"_Mutual faith_,\" the pregnant phrase of the Apostle, faith residing\nin each of both parties, and owned by each to the other, is a mighty\npower for Christian \"_encouragement_\" still.[8]\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =But I would not have you ignorant, brethren.=\nThis is a characteristic term of expression with him.[9] He delights\nin confidence and information, and not least about his own plans\nbearing on his friends. =That often I purposed= (or better, in our\nEnglish idiom, =have purposed=) =to come to you, (but I have been\nhindered up till now,) that I might have some fruit among you too, as\nactually among the other Nations.= He cannot help giving more and yet\nmore intimation of his loving _gravitation_ towards them; nor yet of\nhis gracious avarice for \"_fruit,_\" result, harvest and vintage for\nChrist, in the way of helping on Romans, as well as Asiatics, and\nMacedonians, and Achaians, to live a fuller life in Him. This, we may\ninfer from the whole Epistle, would be the chief kind of \"fruit\" in\nhis view at Rome; but not this only. For we shall see him at once go\non to anticipate an evangelistic work at Rome, a speaking of the\nGospel message where there would be a temptation to be \"ashamed\" of\nit. Edification of believers may be his main aim. But conversion of\npagan souls to God cannot possibly be dissociated from it.\n\nIn passing we see, with instruction, that St Paul made many plans\nwhich came to nothing; he tells us this here without apology or\nmisgiving. He claims accordingly no such practical omniscience, actual\nor possible, as would make his resolutions and forecasts infallible.\nTacitly, at least, he wrote \"_If the Lord will_,\" across them all,\nunless indeed there came a case where, as when he was guided out of\nAsia to Macedonia (Acts xvi.\u00a06-10), direct intimation was given him,\nabnormal, supernatural, quite _ab extra_, that such and not such was\nto be his path.\n\nBut now, he is not only \"_homesick_\" for Rome, with a yearning love;\nhe feels his obligation to Rome, with a wakeful conscience.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =Alike to Greeks and to Barbarians, to wise men\nand to unthinking, I am in debt.= Mankind is on his heart, in the\nsorts and differences of its culture. On the one hand were \"_the\nGreeks_\"; that is to say, in the then popular meaning of the word, the\npeoples possessed of what we now call \"classical\" civilization, Greek\nand Roman; an inner circle of these were \"_the wise_,\" the literati,\nthe readers, writers, thinkers, in the curriculum of those literatures\nand philosophies. On the other hand were \"_the Barbarians_,\" the\ntongues and tribes outside the Hellenic pale, Pisidian, Pamphylian,\nGalatian, Illyrian, and we know not who besides; and then, among them,\nor anywhere, \"_the unthinking_,\" the numberless masses whom the\neducated would despise or forget as utterly untrained in the schools,\nunversed in the great topics of man and the world; the people of the\nfield, the market, and the kitchen. To the Apostle, because to his\nLord, all these were now impartially his claimants, his creditors; he\n\"_owed them_\" the Gospel which had been trusted to him for them.\nNaturally, his will might be repelled alike by the frown or smile of\nthe Greek, and by the coarse earthliness of the Barbarian. But\nsupernaturally, in Christ, he loved both, and scrupulously remembered\nhis _duty_ to both. Such is the true missionary spirit still, in\nwhatever region, under whatever conditions. The Christian man, and the\nChristian Church, delivered from the world, is yet its debtor. \"Woe is\nto him, to it, if\" that debt is not paid, if that Gospel is \"hidden in\na napkin.\"\n\nThus he is ready, and more than ready, to pay his debt to Rome.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =So= (to render literally) =what relates to me is\neager, to you too, to the men in Rome, to preach the Gospel.= \"_What\nrelates to_ me\"; there is an emphasis on \"_me_,\" as if to say that the\nhindrance, whatever it is, is not in him, but around him. The doors\nhave been shut, but the man stands behind them, in act to pass in when\nhe may.\n\nHis eagerness is no light-heartedness, no carelessness of when or\nwhere. This wonderful missionary is too sensitive to facts and ideas,\ntoo rich in imagination, not to feel the peculiar, nay the awful\ngreatness, of a summons to Rome. He understands culture too well not\nto feel its possible obstacles. He has seen too much of both the real\ngrandeur and the harsh force of the imperial power in its extension\nnot to feel a genuine awe as he thinks of meeting that power at its\ngigantic Centre. There is that in him which fears Rome. But he is\ntherefore the very man to go there, for he understands the magnitude\nof the occasion, and he will the more deeply retire upon his Lord for\npeace and power.\n\nThus with a pointed fitness he tells himself and his friends, just\nhere, that he is \"_not ashamed of the Gospel_.\" [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.]\n=For I am not ashamed;= I am ready even for Rome, for this terrible\nRome. I have a message which, though Rome looks as if she must despise\nit, I know is not to be despised. =For I am not ashamed of the\nGospel;[10] for it is God's power to salvation, for every one who\nbelieves, alike for Jew, (first,) and for Greek.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.]\n=For God's righteousness is in it unveiled, from faith on to faith; as\nit stands written, But the just man on faith shall live.=\n\nThese words give out the great theme of the Epistle. The Epistle,\ntherefore, is infinitely the best commentary on them, as we follow out\nits argument and hear its message. Here it shall suffice us to note\nonly a point or two, and so pass on.\n\nFirst, we recollect that this Gospel, this Glad Tidings, is, in its\nessence, Jesus Christ. It is, supremely, \"He, not it\"; Person, not\ntheory. Or rather, it is authentic and eternal theory in vital and\neternal connexion everywhere with a Person. As such it is truly\n\"_power_,\" in a sense as profoundly natural as it is divine. It is\npower, not only in the cogency of perfect principle, but in the energy\nof an eternal Life, an almighty Will, an infinite Love.\n\nThen, we observe that this message of power, which is, in its burthen,\nthe Christ of God, unfolds first, at its foundation, in its front,\n\"_the Righteousness of God_\"; not first His Love, but \"His\nRighteousness.\" Seven times elsewhere in the Epistle comes this\nphrase[11]; rich materials for ascertaining its meaning in the\nspiritual dialect of St Paul. Out of these passages, iii.\u00a026 gives us\nthe key. There \"the righteousness of God,\" seen as it were in action,\nascertained by its effects, is that which secures \"_that He shall be\njust, and the Justifier of the man who belongs to faith in Jesus_.\" It\nis that which makes wonderfully possible the mighty paradox that the\nHoly One, eternally truthful, eternally rightful, infinitely\n\"law-abiding\" in His jealousy for that Law which is in fact His Nature\nexpressing itself in precept, nevertheless can and does say to man, in\nhis guilt and forfeit, \"I, thy Judge, lawfully acquit thee, lawfully\naccept thee, lawfully embrace thee.\" In such a context we need not\nfear to explain this great phrase, in this its first occurrence, to\nmean the Acceptance accorded by the Holy Judge to sinful man. Thus it\nstands practically equivalent to--God's way of justifying the ungodly,\nHis method for liberating His love while He magnifies His law. In\neffect, not as a translation but as an explanation, God's\nRighteousness is God's Justification.\n\nThen again, we note the emphasis and the repetition here of the\nthought of _faith_. \"_To every one that believeth_\"; \"_From faith on\nto faith_\"; \"_The just man on faith shall live_.\" Here, if anywhere,\nwe shall find ample commentary in the Epistle. Only let us remember\nfrom the first that in the Roman Epistle, as everywhere in the New\nTestament, we shall see \"_faith_\" used in its natural and human sense;\nwe shall find that it means personal reliance. _Fides est fiducia_,\n\"Faith is trust,\" say the masters of Reformation theology. _Refellitur\ninanis h\u00e6reticorum fiducia_, \"We refute the heretics' empty 'trust,'\"\nsays the Council of Trent[12] against them; but in vain. Faith is\ntrust. It is in this sense that our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospels,\ninvariably uses the word. For this is its human sense, its sense in\nthe street and market; and the Lord, the Man of men, uses the dialect\nof His race. Faith, infinitely wonderful and mysterious from some\npoints of view, is the simplest thing in the world from others. That\nsinners, conscious of their guilt, should be brought so to see their\nJudge's heart as to take His word of peace to mean what it says, is\nmiracle. But that they should trust His word, having seen His heart,\nis nature, illuminated and led by grace, but nature still. The\n\"_faith_\" of Jesus Christ and the Apostles is trust. It is not a\nfaculty for mystical intuitions. It is our taking the Trustworthy at\nHis word. It is the opening of a mendicant hand to receive the gold of\nHeaven; the opening of dying lips to receive the water of life. It is\nthat which makes a void place for Jesus Christ to fill, that He may be\nman's Merit, man's Peace, and man's Power.\n\nHence the overwhelming prominence of faith in the Gospel. It is the\ncorrelative of the overwhelming, the absolute, prominence of Jesus\nChrist. Christ is all. Faith is man's acceptance of Him as such.\n\"Justification by Faith\" is not acceptance because faith is a valuable\nthing, a merit, a recommendation, a virtue.[13] It is acceptance\nbecause of Jesus Christ, whom man, dropping all other hopes, receives.\nIt is, let us repeat it, the sinner's empty hand and parted lips. It\nhas absolutely nothing to do with earning the gift of God, the water\nand the bread of God; it has all to do with taking it. This we shall\nsee open out before us as we proceed.\n\nSo the Gospel \"_unveils God's righteousness_\"; it draws the curtains\nfrom His glorious secret. And as each fold is lifted, the glad\nbeholder looks on \"_from faith to faith_.\" He finds that this reliance\nis to be _his_ part; first, last, midst, and without end. He takes\nJesus Christ by faith; he holds Him by faith; he uses Him by faith; he\nlives, he dies, in Him by faith; that is to say, always by Him, by Him\nreceived, held, used.\n\nThen lastly, we mark the quotation from the Prophet, who, for the\nApostle, is the organ of the Holy Ghost. What Habakkuk wrote is, for\nPaul, what God says, God's Word. The Prophet, as we refer to his brief\npages, manifestly finds his occasion and his first significance in the\nthen state of his country and his people. If we please, we may explain\nthe words as a patriot's contribution to the politics of Jerusalem,\nand pass on. But if so, we pass on upon a road unknown to our Lord and\nHis Apostles. To Him, to them, the prophecies had more in them than\nthe Prophets knew; and Habakkuk's appeal to Judah to retain the Lord\nJehovah among them in all His peace and power, by trusting Him, is\nknown by St Paul to be for all time an oracle about the work of faith.\nSo he sees it in a message straight to the soul which asks how, if\nChrist is God's Righteousness, shall I, a sinner, win Christ for me.\n\"Wouldst thou indeed be _just_ with God, right with Him as Judge,\naccepted by the Holy One? Take His Son in the empty arms of mere\ntrust, and He is thine for this need, and for all.\"\n\n\"_I am not ashamed of the Gospel._\" So the Apostle affirms, as he\nlooks toward Rome. What is it about this Gospel of God, and of His\nSon, which gives occasion for such a word? Why do we find, not here\nonly, but elsewhere in the New Testament, this contemplated\npossibility that the Christian may be ashamed of his creed, and of his\nLord? \"Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, of him shall\nthe Son of Man be ashamed\" (Luke ix.\u00a026); \"Be not thou ashamed of the\ntestimony of our Lord\"; \"Nevertheless, I am not ashamed\" (2\u00a0Tim. i.\u00a08,\n12). This is paradoxical, as we come to think upon it. There is much\nabout the purity of the Gospel which might occasion, and does too\noften occasion, an awe and dread of it, seemingly reasonable. There is\nmuch about its attendant mysteries which might seem to excuse an\nattitude, however mistaken, of reverent suspense. But what is there\nabout this revelation of the heart of Eternal Love, this record of a\nLife equally divine and human, of a Death as majestic as it is\ninfinitely pathetic, and then of a Resurrection out of death, to\noccasion shame? Why, in view of this, should man be shy to avow his\nfaith, and to let it be known that this is all in all to him, his\nlife, his peace, his strength, his surpassing interest and occupation?\n\nMore than one analysis of the phenomenon, which we all know to be\nfact, may be suggested. But for our part we believe that the true\nsolution lies near the words sin, pardon, self-surrender. The Gospel\nreveals the eternal Love, but under conditions which remind man that\nhe has done his worst to forfeit it. It tells him of a peace and\nstrength sublime and heavenly; but it asks him, in order to receive\nthem, to kneel down in the dust and take them, unmerited, for nothing.\nAnd it reminds them that he, thus delivered and endowed, is by the\nsame act the property of his Deliverer; that not only the highest\nbenefit of his nature is secured by his giving himself over to God,\nbut the most inexorable obligation lies on him to do so. He is not his\nown, but bought with a price.\n\nSuch views of the actual relation between man and God, even when\nattended, as they are in the Gospel, with such indications of man's\ntrue greatness as are found nowhere else, are deeply repellent to the\nsoul that has not yet seen itself and God in the light of truth. And\nthe human being who _has_ got that sight, and has submitted himself\nindeed, yet, the moment he looks outside the blessed shrine of his own\nunion with his Lord, is tempted to be reticent about a creed which he\nknows once repelled and angered him. Well did Paul remember his old\nhatred and contempt; and he felt the temptations of that memory, when\nhe presented Christ either to the Pharisee or to the Stoic, and now\nparticularly when he thought of \"bearing witness of Him at Rome\" (Acts\nxxiii.\u00a011), imperial, overwhelming Rome. But then he looked again from\nthem to Jesus Christ, and the temptation was beneath his feet, and the\nGospel, everywhere, was upon his lips.\n\n[6] The word \"_record_\" in this sense came into English from Old\nFrench. (Skeat: _Etymological Dictionary_.)\n\n[7] See verses 15, 16, 23, xi.\u00a029. xii.\u00a06 is the only passage which at\nall looks the other way, and that passage implies that the Romans\n_already_ possessed the wonder-working gifts.\n\n[8] The word \"_comfort_\" in the English Version here, as commonly\nelsewhere, represents \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, which commonly denote\nnot so much the consolation of grief as the encouragement which\nbanishes depression.\n\n[9] xi.\u00a025; 1\u00a0Cor. x.\u00a01, xii.\u00a01; 2\u00a0Cor. i.\u00a08; 1\u00a0Thess. iv.\u00a013.\n\n[10] The words \"_of Christ_\" must be omitted from the text here.\n\n[11] iii.\u00a05, 21, 22, 23, 26; x.\u00a03\u00a0twice.\n\n[12] Session VI., ch. ix.\n\n[13] See this admirably explained by Hooker, _Discourse of\nJustification_, \u00a7 31.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\n_NEED FOR THE GOSPEL: GOD'S ANGER AND MAN'S SIN_\n\nROMANS i.\u00a018-23\n\n\nWe have as it were touched the heart of the Apostle as he weighs the\nprospect of his Roman visit, and feels, almost in one sensation, the\ntender and powerful attraction, the solemn duty, and the strange\nsolicitation to shrink from the deliverance of his message. Now his\nlifted forehead, just lighted up by the radiant truth of Righteousness\nby Faith, is shadowed suddenly. He is not ashamed of the Gospel; he\nwill speak it out, if need be, in the C\u00e6sar's own presence, and in\nthat of his brilliant and cynical court. For there is a pressing, an\nawful need that he should thus \"despise the shame.\" The very\nconditions in human life which occasion an instinctive tendency to be\nreticent of the Gospel, are facts of dreadful urgency and peril. Man\ndoes not like to be exposed to himself, and to be summoned to the\nfaith and surrender claimed by Christ. But man, whatever he likes or\ndislikes, is a sinner, exposed to the eyes of the All-Pure, and lying\nhelpless, amidst all his dreams of pride, beneath the wrath of God.\nSuch is the logic of this stern sequel to the affirmation, \"_I am not\nashamed_.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =For God's wrath is revealed, from heaven, upon\nall godlessness and unrighteousness of men who in unrighteousness hold\ndown the truth.= \"_God's wrath is revealed_\"; Revealed in \"the holy\nScriptures,\" in every history, by every Prophet, by every Psalmist;\nthis perhaps is the main bearing of his thought. But revealed also\nantecedently and concurrently in that mysterious, inalienable\nconscience, which is more truly part of man than his five senses.\nConscience _sees_ that there is an eternal difference between right\nand wrong, and _feels_, in the dark, the relation of that difference\nto a law, a Lawgiver, and a doom. Conscience is aware of a fiery light\nbeyond the veil. Revelation meets its wistful gaze, lifts the veil,\nand affirms the fact of the wrath of God, and of His judgment coming.\n\nLet us not shun that \"revelation.\" It is not the Gospel. The Gospel,\nas we have seen, is in itself one pure warm light of life and love.\nBut then it can never be fully understood until, sooner or later, we\nhave seen something, and believed something, of the truth of the anger\nof the Holy One. From our idea of that anger let us utterly banish\nevery thought of impatience, of haste, of what is arbitrary, of what\nis in the faintest degree unjust, inequitable. It is the anger of Him\nwho never for a moment can be untrue to Himself; and He is Love, and\nis Light. But He is also, so also says His Word, consuming Fire (Heb.\nx.\u00a031, xii.\u00a029); and it is \"a fearful thing to fall into His hands.\"\nNowhere and never is God not Love, as the Maker and Preserver of His\ncreatures. But nowhere also and never is He not Fire, as the judicial\nAdversary of evil, the Antagonist of the will that chooses sin. Is\nthere \"nothing in God to fear\"? \"Yea,\" says His Son (Luke xii.\u00a05), \"I\nsay unto you, fear Him.\"\n\nAt the present time there is a deep and almost ubiquitous tendency to\nignore the revelation of the wrath of God. No doubt there have been\ntimes, and quarters, in the story of Christianity, when that\nrevelation was thrown into disproportionate prominence, and men shrank\nfrom Christ (so Luther tells us he did in his youth) as from One who\nwas nothing if not the inexorable Judge. They saw Him habitually as He\nis seen in the vast Fresco of the Sistine Chapel, a sort of Jupiter\nTonans, casting His foes for ever from His presence; a Being _from_\nwhom, not _to_ whom, the guilty soul must fly. But the reaction from\nsuch thoughts, at present upon us, has swung to an extreme indeed,\nuntil the tendency of the pulpit, and of the exposition, is to say\npractically that there is nothing in God to be afraid of; that the\nwords hope and love are enough to neutralize the most awful murmurs of\nconscience, and to cancel the plainest warnings of the loving Lord\nHimself. Yet that Lord, as we ponder His words in all the four\nGospels, so far from speaking such \"peace\" as this, seems to reserve\nit to Himself, rather than to His messengers, to utter the most\nformidable warnings. And the earliest literature which follows the New\nTestament shows that few of His sayings had sunk deeper into His\ndisciples' souls than those which told them of the two Ways and of the\ntwo Ends.\n\nLet us go to Him, the all-benignant Friend and Teacher, to learn the\ntrue attitude of thought towards Him as \"the Judge, strong and\npatient,\" \"but who will in no wise clear the guilty\" by unsaying His\nprecepts and putting by His threats. He assuredly will teach us, in\nthis matter, no lessons of hard and narrow denunciation, nor encourage\nus to sit in judgment on the souls and minds of our brethren. But He\nwill teach us to take deep and awful views for ourselves of both the\npollution and also _the guilt_ of sin. He will constrain us to carry\nthose views all through our personal theology, and our personal\nanthropology too. He will make it both a duty and a possibility for\nus, in right measure, in right manner, tenderly, humbly, governed by\nHis Word, to let others know what our convictions are about the Ways\nand the Ends. And thus, as well as otherwise, He will make His Gospel\nto be to us no mere luxury or ornament of thought and life, as it were\na decorous gilding upon essential worldliness and the ways of self. He\nwill unfold it as the soul's refuge and its home. From Himself as\nJudge He will draw us in blessed flight to Himself as Propitiation and\nPeace. \"_From Thy wrath, and from everlasting condemnation, Good\nLord_--Thyself--_deliver us_.\"\n\nThis wrath, holy, passionless, yet awfully personal, \"_is revealed,\nfrom heaven_.\" That is to say it is revealed as coming from heaven,\nwhen the righteous Judge \"shall be revealed from heaven, taking\nvengeance\" (2\u00a0Thess. i.\u00a07, 8). In that pure upper world He sits whose\nwrath it is. From that stainless sky of His presence its white\nlightnings will fall, \"_upon all godlessness and unrighteousness of\nmen_,\" upon every kind of violation of conscience, whether done\nagainst God or man; upon \"_godlessness_,\" which blasphemes, denies, or\nignores the Creator; upon \"_unrighteousness_,\" which wrests the claims\nwhether of Creator or of creature. Awful opposites to the \"two great\nCommandments of the Law\"! The Law must be utterly vindicated upon them\nat last. Conscience must be eternally verified at last, against all\nthe wretched suppressions of it that man has ever tried.\n\nFor the men in question \"_hold down the truth in unrighteousness_.\"\nThe rendering \"_hold down_\" is certified by both etymology and\ncontext; the only possible other rendering, \"_hold fast_,\" is\nnegatived by the connexion. The thought given us is that man, fallen\nfrom the harmony with God in which Manhood was made, but still keeping\nmanhood, and therefore conscience, is never naturally ignorant of the\ndifference between right and wrong, never naturally, innocently,\nunaware that he is accountable. On the other hand he is never fully\nwilling, of himself, to do all he knows of right, all he knows he\nought, all the demand of the righteous law above him. \"_In\nunrighteousness_,\" in a life which at best is not wholly and cordially\nwith the will of God, \"_he holds down the truth_,\" silences the\nhaunting fact that there is a claim he will not meet, a will he ought\nto love, but to which he prefers his own. The majesty of eternal\nright, always intimating the majesty of an eternal Righteous One, he\nthrusts below his consciousness, or into a corner of it, and keeps it\nthere, that he may follow his own way. More or less, it wrestles with\nhim for its proper place. And its even half-understood efforts may,\nand often do, exercise a deterrent force upon the energies of his\nself-will. But they do not dislodge it; he would rather have his way.\nWith a force sometimes deliberate, sometimes impulsive, sometimes\nhabitual, \"_he holds down_\" the unwelcome monitor.\n\nDeep is the moral responsibility incurred by such repression. For man\nhas always, by the very state of the case, within him and around him,\nevidence for a personal righteous Power \"with Whom he has to do.\"\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =Because that which is known of God is manifest\nin them; for God manifested= (or rather, perhaps, in our idiom, =has\nmanifested=) =it to them.= \"_That which is known_\"; that is,\npractically, \"_that which is knowable, that which may be known_.\"\nThere is that about the Eternal which indeed neither is nor can be\nknown, with the knowledge of mental comprehension. \"Who can find out\nthe Almighty unto perfection?\" All thoughtful Christians are in this\nrespect agnostics that they gaze on the bright Ocean of Deity, and\nknow that they do not know it in its fathomless but radiant depths,\nnor can explore its expanse which has no shore. They rest before\nabsolute mystery with a repose as simple (if possible more simple) as\nthat with which they contemplate the most familiar and intelligible\nevent. But this is not not to know Him. It leaves man quite as free to\nbe sure that He is, to be as certain that He is Personal, and is Holy,\nas man is certain of his own consciousness, and conscience.\n\nThat there is Personality behind phenomena, and that this great\nPersonality is righteous, St Paul here affirms to be \"_manifest_,\"\ndisclosed, visible, \"_in men_.\" It is a fact present, however\npartially apprehended, in human consciousness. And more, this\nconsciousness is itself part of the fact; indeed it is that part\nwithout which all others would be as nothing. To man without\nconscience--really, naturally, innocently without conscience--and\nwithout ideas of causation, the whole majesty of the Universe might be\nunfolded with a fulness beyond all our present experience; but it\nwould say absolutely nothing of either Personality or Judgment. It is\nby the world within that we are able in the least degree to apprehend\nthe world without. But having, naturally and inalienably, the world of\npersonality and of conscience within us, we are beings to whom God can\nmanifest, and has manifested, the knowable about Himself, in His\nuniverse.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =For His things unseen, ever since the creation\nof the universe, are full in (man's) view, presented to (man's) mind\nby His things made--His everlasting power and Godlikeness together--so\nas to leave them inexcusable.= Since the ordered world was, and since\nman was, as its observer and also as its integral part, there has been\npresent to man's spirit--supposed true to its own creation--adequate\ntestimony around him, taken along with that within him, to evince the\nreality of a supreme and persistent Will, intending order, and thus\nintimating Its own correspondence to conscience, and expressing Itself\nin \"things made\" of such manifold glory and wonder as to intimate the\nMaker's majesty as well as righteousness. What is That, what is He, to\nwhom the splendours of the day and the night, the wonders of the\nforest and the sea, bear witness? He is not only righteous Judge but\nKing eternal. He is not only charged with my guidance; He has rights\nillimitable over me. I am wrong altogether if I am not in submissive\nharmony with Him; if I do not surrender, and adore.\n\nThus it has been, according to St Paul, \"_ever since the creation of\nthe universe_\" (and of man in it). And such everywhere is the Theism\nof Scripture. It maintains, or rather it states as certainty, that\nman's knowledge of God began with his being as man. To see the Maker\nin His works is not, according to the Holy Scriptures, only the slow\nand difficult issue of a long evolution which led through far lower\nforms of thought, the fetish, the nature-power, the tribal god, the\nnational god, to the idea of a Supreme. Scripture presents man as made\nin the image of the Supreme, and capable from the first of a true\nhowever faint apprehension of Him. It assures us that man's lower and\ndistorted views of nature and of personal power behind it are\ndegenerations, perversions, issues of a mysterious primeval\ndislocation of man from his harmony with God. The believer in the holy\nScriptures, in the sense in which our Lord and the Apostles believed\nin them, will receive this view of the primeval history of Theism as a\ntrue report of God's account of it. Remembering that it concerns an\notherwise unknown moment of human spiritual history, he will not be\ndisturbed by alleged evidence against it from lower down the stream.\nMeanwhile he will note the fact that among the foremost students of\nNature in our time there are those who affirm the rightness of such an\nattitude. It is not lightly that the Duke of Argyll writes words like\nthese:--\n\n\"I doubt (to say the truth, I disbelieve) that we shall ever come to\nknow by science anything more than we now know about the origin of\nman. I believe we shall always have to rest on that magnificent and\nsublime outline which has been given us by the great Prophet of the\nJews.\"[14]\n\nSo man, being what he is and seeing what he sees, is \"without excuse\":\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him\nas God, nor thank Him, but proved futile in their ways of thinking,\nand their unintelligent heart was darkened.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.]\n=Asserting themselves for wise they turned fools, and transmuted the\nglory of the immortal God in a semblance of the likeness of mortal\nman, and of things winged, quadruped, and reptile.= Man, placed by God\nin His universe, and himself made in God's image, naturally and\ninevitably \"_knew God_.\" Not necessarily in that inner sense of\nspiritual harmony and union which is (John xvii.\u00a03) the life eternal;\nbut in the sense of a perception of His being and His character\nadequate, at its faintest, to make a moral claim. But somehow--a\nsomehow which has to do with a revolt of man's will from God to\nself--that claim was, and is, disliked. Out of that dislike has\nsprung, in man's spiritual history, a reserve towards God, a tendency\nto question His purpose, His character, His existence; or otherwise,\nto degrade the conception of Personality behind phenomena into forms\nfrom which the multifold monster of idolatry has sprung, as if\nphenomena were due to personalities no better and no greater than\ncould be imaged by man or by beast, things of limit and of passion; at\ntheir greatest terrible, but not holy; not ultimate; not One.\n\nMan has spent on these unworthy \"ways of thinking\" a great deal of\nweak and dull reasoning and imbecile imagination, but also some of the\nrarest and most splendid of the riches of his mind, made in the image\nof God. But all this thinking, because conditioned by a wrong attitude\nof his being as a whole, has had \"_futile_\" issues, and has been in\nthe truest sense \"_unintelligent_,\" failing to see inferences aright\nand as a whole. It has been a struggle \"_in the dark_\"; yea, a descent\nfrom the light into moral and mental \"_folly_.\"\n\nWas it not so, is not so still? If man is indeed made in the image of\nthe living Creator, a moral personality, and placed in the midst of\n\"the myriad world, His shadow,\" then whatever process of thought leads\nman away from Him has somewhere in it a fallacy unspeakable, and\ninexcusable. It must mean that something in him which should be awake\nis dormant; or, yet worse, that something in him which should be in\nfaultless tune, as the Creator tempered it, is all unstrung; something\nthat should be nobly free to love and to adore is being repressed,\n\"held down.\" Then only does man fully think aright when he _is_\naright. Then only is he aright when he, made by and for the Eternal\nHoly One, rests willingly in Him, and lives for Him. \"The fear of the\nLord is,\" in the strictest fact, \"the beginning of wisdom\"; for it is\nthat attitude of man without which the creature cannot \"answer the\nidea\" of the Creator, and therefore cannot truly follow out the law of\nits own being.\n\n\"Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and\nknoweth Him\" (Jer. ix.\u00a024) who necessarily and eternally transcends\nour cognition and comprehension, yet can be known, can be touched,\nclasped, adored, as personal, eternal, almighty, holy Love.\n\n[14] _Geology and the Deluge_, p. 46 (Glasgow, 1885).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\n_MAN GIVEN UP TO HIS OWN WAY: THE HEATHEN_\n\nROMANS i.\u00a024-32\n\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.] =Wherefore God gave them up, in the desires of\ntheir hearts, to uncleanness, so as to dishonour their bodies among\nthemselves.=\n\nThere is a dark sequence, in the logic of facts, between unworthy\nthoughts of God and the development of the basest forms of human\nwrong. \"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God:--they are\ncorrupt, and have done abominable works\" (Psal. xiv.\u00a01). And the folly\nwhich does not indeed deny God but degrades His Idea, always gives its\nsure contribution to such corruption. It is so in the nature of the\ncase. The individual atheist, or polytheist, may conceivably be a\nvirtuous person, on the human standard; but if he is so it is not\nbecause of his creed. Let his creed become a real formative power in\nhuman society, and it will tend inevitably to moral disease and death.\nIs man indeed a moral personality, made in the image of a holy and\nalmighty Maker? Then the vital air of his moral life must be fidelity,\ncorrespondence, to his God. Let man think of Him as less than All, and\nhe will think of himself less worthily; not less proudly perhaps, but\nless worthily, because not in his true and wonderful relation to the\nEternal Good. Wrong in himself will tend surely to seem less awful,\nand right less necessary and great. And nothing, literally nothing,\nfrom any region higher than himself--himself already lowered in his\nown thought from his true idea--can ever come in to supply the blank\nwhere God should be, but is not. Man may worship himself, or may\ndespise himself, when he has ceased to \"glorify God and thank Him\";\nbut he cannot for one hour be what he was made to be, the son of God\nin the universe of God. To know God indeed is to be secured from\nself-worship, and to be taught self-reverence; and it is the only way\nto those two secrets in their pure fulness.\n\n\"_God gave them up._\" So the Scripture says elsewhere. \"So I gave them\nup unto their own hearts' lusts\" (Psal. lxxxi.\u00a012); \"God turned, and\ngave them up to worship the host of heaven\" (Acts vii.\u00a042); \"God gave\nthem up to passions of degradation\"; \"God gave them over to an\nabandoned mind\"; (below, verses 26, 28). It is a dire thought; but the\ninmost conscience, once awake, affirms the righteousness of the thing.\nFrom one point of view it is just the working out of a natural\nprocess, in which sin is at once exposed and punished by its proper\nresults, without the slightest injection, so to speak, of any force\nbeyond its own terrible gravitation towards the sinner's misery. But\nfrom another point it is the personally allotted, and personally\ninflicted, retribution of Him who hates iniquity with the antagonism\nof infinite Personality. _He_ has so constituted natural process that\nwrong gravitates to wretchedness; and _He_ is in that process, and\nabove it, always and for ever.\n\nSo He \"_gave them up, in their desires of their hearts_\"; He left them\nthere where they had placed themselves, \"in\" the fatal region of\nself-will, self-indulgence; \"_unto uncleanness_\" described now with\nterrible explicitness in its full outcome, \"_to dishonour their\nbodies_\" the intended temples of the Creator's presence, \"_among\nthemselves_,\" or \"_in themselves_\"; for the possible dishonour might\nbe done either in a foul solitude, or in a fouler society and\nmutuality: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =Seeing that they perverted the truth\nof God,= the eternal fact of His glory and claim, =in their (\u03c4\u1ff7)\nlie,= so that it was travestied, misrepresented, lost, \"in\" the\nfalsehood of polytheism and idols; =and worshipped and served the\ncreature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.= He\ncasts this strong Doxology into the thick air of false worship and\nfoul life, as if to clear it with its holy reverberation. For he is\nwriting no mere discussion, no lecture on the genesis and evolution of\npaganism. It is the story of a vast rebellion, told by one who, once\nhimself a rebel, is now altogether and for ever the absolute vassal of\nthe King whom he has \"seen in His beauty,\" and whom it is his joy to\nbless, and to claim blessing for Him from His whole world for ever.\n\nAs if animated by the word of benediction, he returns to denounce \"the\nabominable thing which God hateth\" with still more terrible\nexplicitness. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a026.] =For this reason,= because of their\npreference of the worse to the infinite Good, =God gave them up to\npassions of degradation;= He handed them over, self-bound, to the\nhelpless slavery of lust; to \"_passions_,\" eloquent word, which\nindicates how the man who _will_ have his own way is all the while a\n\"sufferer,\" though by his own fault; _the victim_ of a mastery which\nhe has conjured from the deep of sin.\n\nShall we shun to read, to render, the words which follow? We will not\ncomment and expound. May the presence of God in our hearts, hearts\notherwise as vulnerable as those of the old pagan sinners, sweep from\nthe springs of thought and will all horrible curiosity. But if it does\nso it will leave us the more able, in humility, in tears, in fear, to\nhear the facts of this stern indictment. It will bid us listen as\nthose who are not sitting in judgment on paganism, but standing beside\nthe accused and sentenced, to confess that we too share the fall, and\nstand, if we stand, by grace alone. Aye, and we shall remember that if\nan Apostle thus tore the rags from the spots of the Black Death of\nancient morals, he would have been even less merciful, if possible,\nover the like symptoms lurking still in modern Christendom, and found\nsometimes upon its surface.\n\nTerrible, indeed, is the prosaic coolness with which vices now called\nunnameable are named and narrated in classical literature; and we ask\nin vain for one of even the noblest of the pagan moralists who has\nspoken of such sins with anything like adequate horror. Such speech,\nand such silence, has been almost impossible since the Gospel was felt\nin civilization. \"Paganism,\" says Dr F. W. Farrar, in a powerful\npassage,[15] with this paragraph of Romans in his view, \"is protected\nfrom complete exposure by the enormity of its own vices. To shew the\ndivine reformation wrought by Christianity it must suffice that once\nfor all the Apostle of the Gentiles seized heathenism by the hair, and\nbranded indelibly on her forehead the stigma of her shame.\" Yet the\nvices of the old time are not altogether an antiquarian's wonder. Now\nas truly as then man is awfully accessible to the worst solicitations\nthe moment he trusts himself away from God. And this needs indeed to\nbe remembered in a stage of thought and of society whose cynicism, and\nwhose materialism, show gloomy signs of likeness to those last days of\nthe old degenerate world in which St Paul looked round him, and spoke\nout the things he saw.\n\n=For their females perverted the natural use to the unnatural.=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a027.] =So too the males, leaving the natural use of the\nfemale, burst out aflame in their craving towards one another, males\nin males working out their unseemliness--and duly getting\n(\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03ac\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2) in themselves that recompense of their error which\nwas owed them.=\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a028.] =And as they did not approve of keeping God in\ntheir moral knowledge,[16] God gave them up to an abandoned mind,= \"_a\nreprobate, God-rejected, mind_\"; meeting their _disapprobation_ with\nHis just and fatal _reprobation_ (\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03b9\u03bc\u03ac\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, \u1f00\u03b4\u03cc\u03ba\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2). That\n_mind_, taking the false premisses of the Tempter, and reasoning from\nthem to establish the autocracy of self, led with terrible certainty\nand success through evil thinking to evil doing; =to do the deeds\nwhich are not becoming,= to _expose_ the being made for God, in a\nnaked and foul _unseemliness_, to its friends and its foes;\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a029.] =filled full of all unrighteousness, wickedness,\nviciousness, greed; brimming with envy, murder, guile, ill-nature;\nwhisperers,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a030.] =defamers, repulsive to God,\noutragers, prideful, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to\nparents,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a031.] =senseless, faithless, loveless,\ntruceless, pitiless; people who (\u03bf\u1f35\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2) morally aware of\n(\u1f10\u03c0\u03c5\u03b3\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2) God's ordinance, that they who practise such things are\nworthy of death, not only do them, but assent and consent with those\nwho practise them.=\n\nHere is a terrible accusation of human life, and of the human heart;\nthe more terrible because it is plainly meant to be, in a certain\nsense, inclusive, universal. We are not indeed compelled to think that\nthe Apostle charges every human being with sins against nature, as if\nthe whole earth were actually one vast City of the Plain. We need not\ntake him to mean that every descendant of Adam is actually an\nundutiful child, or actually untrustworthy in a compact, or even\nactually a boaster, an \u1f00\u03bb\u03b1\u03b6\u1f7c\u03bd, a pretentious claimant of praise or\ncredit which he knows he does not deserve. We may be sure that on the\nwhole, in this lurid passage, charged less with condemnation than with\n\"lamentation, and mourning, and woe,\" he is thinking mainly of the\nthen state of heathen society in its worst developments. Yet we shall\nsee, as the Epistle goes on, that all the while he is thinking not\nonly of the sins of some men, but of the sin of man. He describes with\nthis tremendous particularity the variegated symptoms of one\ndisease--the corruption of man's heart; a disease everywhere present,\neverywhere deadly; limited in its manifestations by many circumstances\nand conditions, outward or within the man, but _in itself_ quite\nunlimited in its dreadful possibilities. What man is, as fallen,\ncorrupted, gone from God, is shewn, in the teaching of St Paul, by\nwhat bad men are.\n\nDo we rebel against the inference? Quite possibly we do. Almost for\ncertain, at one time or another, we have done so. We look round us on\none estimable life and another, which we cannot reasonably think of as\nregenerate, if we take the strict Scriptural tests of regeneration\ninto account, yet which asks and wins our respect, our confidence, it\nmay be even our admiration; and we say, openly or tacitly, consciously\nor unconsciously, that _that_ life stands clear outside this first\nchapter of Romans. Well, be it so in our thoughts; and let nothing, no\nnothing, make us otherwise than ready to recognize and honour right\ndoing wherever we see it, alike in the saints of God and in those who\ndeny His very Being. But just now let us withdraw from all such looks\noutward, and calmly and in a silent hour look in. Do we, do you, do I,\nstand outside this chapter? Are we definitely prepared to say that the\nheart which we carry in our breast, whatever our friend's heart may\nbe, is such that under no change of circumstances could it, being what\nit is, conceivably develop the forms of evil branded in this passage?\nAh, who, that knows himself, does not know that there lies in him\nindefinitely more than he can know of possible evil? \"Who can\nunderstand his errors?\" Who has so encountered temptation in all its\ntypical forms that he can say, with even approximate truth, that he\nknows his own strength, and his own weakness, exactly as they are?\n\nIt was not for nothing that the question was discussed of old, whether\nthere was any man who would always be virtuous if he were given the\nring of Gyges, and the power to be invisible to all eyes. Nor was it\nlightly, or as a piece of pious rhetoric, that the saintliest of the\nchiefs of our Reformation, seeing a murderer carried off to die,\nexclaimed that there went John Bradford but for the grace of God. It\nis just when a man is nearest God for himself that he sees what, but\nfor God, he would be; what, taken apart from God, he is, potentially\nif not in act. And it is in just such a mood that, reading this\nparagraph of the great Epistle, he will smite upon his breast, and\nsay, \"God, be merciful to me the sinner\" (Luke xviii.\u00a013).\n\nSo doing he will be meeting the very purpose of the Writer of this\npassage. St Paul is full of the message of peace, holiness, and the\nSpirit. He is intent and eager to bring his reader into sight and\npossession of the fulness of the eternal mercy, revealed and secured\nin the Lord Jesus Christ, our Sacrifice and Life. But for this very\npurpose he labours first to expose man to himself; to awaken him to\nthe fact that he is before everything else a sinner; to reverse the\nTempter's spell, and to let him see the fact of his guilt with open\neyes.\n\n\"The Gospel,\" some one has said, \"can never be proved except to a bad\nconscience.\" If \"bad\" means \"awakened,\" the saying is profoundly true.\nWith a conscience sound asleep we may discuss Christianity, whether to\ncondemn it, or to applaud. We may see in it an elevating programme for\nthe race. We may affirm, a thousand times, that from the creed that\nGod became flesh there result boundless possibilities for Humanity.\nBut the Gospel, \"the power of God unto salvation,\" will hardly be seen\nin its own prevailing self-evidence, as it is presented in this\nwonderful Epistle, till the student is first and with all else a\npenitent. The man must know for himself something of sin as\ncondemnable guilt, and something of self as a thing in helpless yet\nresponsible bondage, before he can so see Christ given for us, and\nrisen for us, and seated at the right hand of God for us, as to say,\n\"There is now no condemnation; Who shall separate us from the love of\nGod? I know whom I have believed.\"\n\nTo the full sight of Christ there needs a true sight of self, that is\nto say, of sin.\n\n[15] _Darkness and Dawn_, p. 112.\n\n[16] So we venture here to render \u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, a knowledge deeper than\nthat of merely logical conclusion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\n_HUMAN GUILT UNIVERSAL: HE APPROACHES THE CONSCIENCE OF THE JEW_\n\nROMANS ii.\u00a01-16\n\n\nWe have appealed, for affirmation of St Paul's tremendous exposure of\nhuman sin, to a solemn and deliberate self-scrutiny, asking the man\nwho doubts the justice of the picture to give up for the present any\ninstinctive wish to vindicate other men, while he thinks a little\nwhile solely of himself. But another and opposite class of mistake has\nto be reckoned with, and precluded; the tendency of man to a facile\ncondemnation of others, in favour of himself; \"God, I thank Thee that\nI am not as other men are\" (Luke xviii.\u00a011). It is now, as it was of\nold, only too possible to read, or to hear, the most searching and\nalso the most sweeping condemnation of human sin, and to feel a sort\nof fallacious moral sympathy with the sentence, a phantom as it were\nof righteous indignation against the wrong and the doers of it, and\nyet wholly to mistake the matter by thinking that the hearer is\nrighteous though the world is wicked. The man listens as if he were\nallowed a seat beside the Judge's chair, as if he were an esteemed\nassessor of the Court, and could listen with a grave yet untroubled\napprobation to the discourse preliminary to the sentence. Ah, he is an\nassessor of the accused; he is an accomplice of his fallen fellows; he\nis a poor guilty man himself. Let him awake to himself, and to his\nsin, in time.\n\nWith such a reader or hearer in view St Paul proceeds. We need not\nsuppose that he writes as if such states of mind were to be expected\nin the Roman mission; though it was quite possible that this might be\nthe attitude of some who bore the Christian name at Rome. More\nprobably he speaks as it were in the presence of the Christians to\npersons whom at any moment any of them might meet, and particularly to\nthat large element in religious life at Rome, the unconverted Jews.\nTrue, they would not read the Epistle; but he could arm those who\nwould read it against their cavils and refusals, and show them how to\nreach the conscience even of the Pharisee of the Dispersion. He could\nshow them how to seek his soul, by shaking him from his dream of\nsympathy with the Judge who all the while was about to sentence _him_.\n\nIt is plain that throughout the passage now before us the Apostle has\nthe Jew in view. He does not name him for a long while. He says many\nthings which are as much for the Gentile sinner as for him. He dwells\nupon the universality of guilt as indicated by the universality of\nconscience; a passage of awful import for every human soul, quite\napart from its place in the argument here. But all the while he keeps\nin view the case of the self-constituted _judge_ of other men, the man\nwho affects to be essentially better than they, to be, at least by\ncomparison with them, good friends with the law of God. And the\nundertone of the whole passage is a warning to this man that his\nbrighter light will prove his greater ruin if he does not use it; nay,\nthat he has not used it, and that so it is his ruin already, the ruin\nof his claim to judge, to stand exempt, to have nothing to do with the\ncriminal crowd at the bar.\n\nAll this points straight at the Jewish conscience, though the arrow is\nlevelled from a covert. If that conscience might but be reached! He\nlongs to reach it, first for the unbeliever's own sake, that he might\nbe led through the narrow pass of self-condemnation into the glorious\nfreedom of faith and love. But also it was of first importance that\nthe spiritual pride of the Jews should be conquered, or at least\nexposed, for the sake of the mission-converts already won. The first\nChristians, newly brought from paganism, must have regarded Jewish\nopinion with great attention and deference. Not only were their\napostolic teachers Jews, and the Scriptures of the Prophets, to which\nthose teachers always pointed, Jewish; but the weary Roman world of\nlate years had been disposed to own with more and more distinctness\nthat if there were such a thing as a true voice from heaven to man it\nwas to be heard among that unattractive yet impressive race which was\nseen everywhere, and yet refused to be \"reckoned among the nations.\"\nThe Gospels and the Acts show us instances enough of educated Romans\ndrawn towards Israel and the covenant; and abundant parallels are\ngiven us by the secular historians and satirists. The Jews, in the\nwords of Professor Gwatkin, were \"the recognized non-conformists\" of\nthe Roman world. At this very time the Emperor was the enamoured slave\nof a brilliant woman who was known to be proselyted to the Jewish\ncreed. It was no slight trial to converts in their spiritual infancy\nto meet everywhere the question why the sages of Jerusalem had slain\nthis Jewish Prophet, Jesus, and why everywhere the synagogues\ndenounced His name and His disciples. The true answer would be better\nunderstood if the bigot himself could be brought to say, \"God, be\nmerciful to me the sinner.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =Wherefore you are without excuse, O man, every\nman who judges; when you judge the other party you pass judgment on\nyourself; for you practise the same things, you who judge.=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =For[17] we know=--this is a granted point between\nus--=that God's judgment is truth-wise,= is a reality, in awful\nearnest, =upon those who practise such things.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.]\n=Now is this your calculation, O man, you who judge those who practise\nsuch things, and do them yourself, that you will escape God's\njudgment?= Do you surmise that some by-way of privilege and indulgence\nwill be kept open for you? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =Or do you despise the\nwealth of His kindness, and of His forbearance and longsuffering=\n--despise it, by mistaking it for mere indulgence, or indifference--\n=knowing not that God's kind ways (\u03c4\u1f78 \u03c7\u03c1\u03b7\u03c3\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u1fe6) lead you\nto repentance?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =No, true to (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70) your own\nhardness, your own unrepentant heart, you are hoarding for yourself a\nwrath= which will be felt =in the day of wrath,= the day =of\ndisclosure of the righteous judgment of God,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =who\nwill requite each individual according to his works.= What will be\nthat requital, and its law? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =To those who, on the\nline of (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70) perseverance in good work, seek,= as their point of\ngravitation, =glory, and honour, and immortality,= He will requite\n=life eternal.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =But for those who side with\n(\u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03ba) strife,= who take part with man, with self, with sin,\nagainst the claims and grace of God, and, =while they disobey the\ntruth= of conscience, =obey unrighteousness,= yielding the will to\nwrong, =there shall be wrath and fierce anger,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.]\n=trouble and bewilderment, inflicted on every soul of man,= man\n=working out what is evil, alike Jew=--Jew =first--and Greek.=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =But glory, and honour, and peace= shall be =for\nevery one who works what is good, alike for Jew=--Jew =first--and\nGreek.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =For there is no favouritism in God's\ncourt.=\n\nHere he actually touches the Jew. He has named him twice, and in both\nplaces recognizes that primacy which in the history of Redemption is\nreally his. It is the primacy of the race chosen to be the organ of\nrevelation and the birth-place of Incarnate God. It was given\nsovereignty, \"not according to the works,\" or to the numbers, of the\nnation, but according to unknown conditions in the mind of God. It\ncarried with it genuine and splendid advantages. It even gave the\nindividual righteous Jew (so surely the language of ver. 10 implies) a\ncertain special welcome to his Master's \"Well done, good and\nfaithful\"; not to the disadvantage, in the least degree, of the\nindividual righteous \"Greek,\" but just such as may be illustrated in a\ncircle of ardent and impartial friendship, where, in one instance or\nanother, kinship added to friendship makes attachment not more\nintimate but more interesting. Yes, the Jew has indeed his priority,\nhis primacy, limited and qualified in many directions, but real and\npermanent in its place; this Epistle (see ch. xi.) is the great\nCharter of it in the Christian Scriptures. But whatever the place of\nit is, it has no place whatever in the question of the sinfulness of\nsin, unless indeed to make guilt deeper where light has been greater.\nThe Jew has a great historical position in the plan of God. He has\nbeen accorded as it were an official nearness to God in the working\nout of the world's redemption. But he is not one whit the less for\nthis a poor sinner, fallen and guilty. He is not one moment for this\nto excuse, but all the more to condemn, himself. He is the last person\nin the world to judge others. Wherever God has placed him in history,\nhe is to place himself, in repentance and faith, least and lowest at\nthe foot of Messiah's Cross.\n\nWhat was and is true of the chosen Nation is now and for ever true, by\na deep moral parity, of all communities and of all persons who are in\nany sense privileged, advantaged by circumstance. It is true, solemnly\nand formidably true, of the Christian Church, and of the Christian\nfamily, and of the Christian man. Later in this second chapter we\nshall be led to some reflections on Church privilege. Let us reflect\nhere, if but in passing, on the fact that privilege of other kinds\nmust stand utterly aside when it is a question of man's sin. Have we\nno temptation to forget this? Probably we are not of the mind of the\nFrenchman of the old _r\u00e9gime_ who thought that \"the Almighty would\nhesitate before He condemned for ever a man of a marquis' condition.\"\nBut are we quite clear on the point that the Eternal Judge will admit\nno influences from other sides? The member of so excellent, so useful,\na family, with many traces of the family character about him! The\nrelative of saints, the companion of the good! A mind so full of\npractical energy, of literary grace and skill; so capable of deep and\nsubtle thought, of generous words, and even deeds; so charming, so\nentertaining, so informing; the man of culture, the man of\ngenius;--shall none of these things weigh in the balance, and mingle\nsome benignant favouritism with the question, Has he done the will of\nGod? Nay, \"_there is no favouritism in Gods court_!\" No one is\nacquitted there for his reputable connexions, or for his possession of\npersonal \"talents\" (awful word in the light of its first use!), given\nhim only that he might the better \"occupy\" for his Lord. These things\nhave nothing to do with that dread thing, the Law, which has\neverything to do with the accusation and the award.\n\nBefore we pass to another section of the passage, let us not forget\nthe grave fact that here, in these opening pages of this great\nTreatise on gratuitous Salvation, this Epistle which is about to\nunfold to us the divine paradox of the Justification of the Ungodly,\nwe find this overwhelming emphasis laid upon \"_perseverance in good\nwork_.\" True, we are not to allow even it to confuse the grand\nsimplicity of the Gospel, which is to be soon explained. We are not to\nlet ourselves think, for example, that ver. 7 depicts a man\ndeliberately aiming through a life of merit at a _quid pro quo_ at\nlength in heaven; so much glory, honour, and immortality for so living\nas it would be sin not to live. St Paul does not write to contradict\nthe Parable of the Unprofitable Servant (Luke xvii.), any more than to\nnegative beforehand his own reasoning in the fourth chapter below. The\ncase he contemplates is one only to be realized where man has cast\nhimself, without one plea of merit, at the feet of mercy, and then\nrises up to a walk and work of willing loyalty, covetous of the \"Well\ndone, good and faithful,\" at its close, not because he is ambitious\nfor himself, but because he is devoted to his God, and to His will.\nAnd St Paul knows, and in due time will tell us, that for the loyalty\nthat serves, as well as for the repentance that first submits, the man\nhas to thank mercy, and mercy only, first, midst, and last: \"It is not\nof him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that pitieth\"\n(ix.\u00a016). But then, none the less, he does lay this emphasis, this\nindescribable stress, upon the \"perseverance in good work,\" as the\nactual march of the pilgrim who travels heavenward. True to the genius\nof Scripture, that is to the mind of its Inspirer in His utterances to\nman, he isolates a main truth for the time, and leaves us alone with\nit. Justification will come in order. But, that it may do precisely\nthis, that it may come in order and not out of it, he bids us first\nconsider right, wrong, judgment, and retribution, as if there were\nnothing else in the moral universe. He leads us to the fact of the\npermanence of the results of the soul's actions. He warns us that God\nis eternally in earnest when He promises and when He threatens; that\nHe will see to it that time leaves its retributive impress for ever on\neternity.\n\nThe whole passage, read by a soul awake to itself, and to the holiness\nof the Judge of men, will contribute from its every sentence something\nto our conviction, our repentance, our dread of self, our persuasion\nthat somehow from the judgment we must fly to the Judge. But this is\nnot to be unfolded yet.\n\nIt was, I believe, a precept of John Wesley's to his evangelists, in\nunfolding their message, to speak first in general of the love of God\nto man; then, with all possible energy, and so as to search conscience\nto its depths, to preach the law of holiness; and then, and not till\nthen, to uplift the glories of the Gospel of pardon, and of life.\nIntentionally or not, his directions follow the lines of the Epistle\nto the Romans.\n\nBut the Apostle has by no means done with the Jew, and his hopes of\nheaven by pedigree and by creed. He recurs to the impartiality of\n\"_that day_,\" the coming final crisis of human history, ever present\nto his soul. He dwells now almost wholly on the impartiality of _its\nseverity_, still bearing on the Pharisee's dream that somehow the Law\nwill be his friend, for Abraham's and Moses' sake.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =For all who sinned= (or, in English idiom, =all\nwho have sinned, all who shall have sinned=) =not law-wise, even so,\nnot law-wise, shall perish,= shall lose the soul; =and all who in= (or\nlet us paraphrase, =under=) =law have sinned, by law shall be judged,=\nthat is to say, practically, =condemned,= found guilty.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =For not law's hearers= are =just in God's\ncourt;= nay, =law's doers shall be justified;= for \"law\" is never for\na moment satisfied with applause, with approbation; it demands always\nand inexorably obedience. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =For whenever (the)\nNations,= Nations =not having law, by nature=--as distinct from\nexpress precept--=do the things of the Law,= when they act on the\nprinciples of it, observing in any measure the eternal difference of\nright and wrong, =these men,= though =not having law, are to\nthemselves law;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =shewing as they do\n(\u03bf\u1f35\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2)=--to one another, in moral intercourse--=the work of the\nLaw,= that which is, as a fact, its _result_ where it is heard, a\nsense of the dread claims of right, =written in their hearts,= present\nto the intuitions of their nature; =while their conscience,= their\nsense of violated right, =bears concurrent witness,= each conscience\n\"concurring\" with all; =and while, between each other,= in the\ninterchanges of thought and discourse, =their reasonings accuse, or it\nmay be defend,= their actions; now in conversation, now in treatise or\nphilosophic dialogue. And all this makes one vast phenomenon, pregnant\nwith lessons of accountability, and ominous of a judgment coming;\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =in the day when God shall judge the secret\nthings of men,= even the secrets hid beneath the solemn robe of the\nformalist, =according to my Gospel,[18] by means of Jesus Christ,= to\nwhom the Father \"hath committed all judgment, as He is the Son of Man\"\n(John v.\u00a027). So he closes another solemn cadence with the blessed\nName. It has its special weight and fitness here; it was the name\ntrampled by the Pharisee, yet the name of Him who was to judge him in\nthe great day.\n\nThe main import of the paragraph is plain. It is, to enforce the fact\nof the accountability of the Jew and the Greek alike, from the point\nof view of Law. The Jew, who is primarily in the Apostle's thought, is\nreminded that his possession of _the_ Law, that is to say of the one\n_specially revealed_ code not only of ritual but far more of\nmorals[19], is no recommendatory privilege, but a sacred responsibility.\nThe Gentile meanwhile is shewn, in passing but with gravest purpose,\nto be by no means exempted from accountability simply for his lack of\na revealed preceptive code. He possesses, as man, that moral\nconsciousness without which the revealed code itself would be futile,\nfor it would correspond to nothing. Made in the image of God, he has\nthe mysterious sense which sees, feels, handles moral obligation. He\nis aware of the fact of duty. Not living up to what he is thus aware\nof, he is guilty.\n\nImplicitly, all through the passage, human failure is taught side by\nside with human responsibility. Such a clause as that of ver. 14,\n\"_when they do by nature the things of the law_,\" is certainly not to\nbe pressed, _in such a context as this_, to be an assertion that pagan\nmorality ever actually satisfies the holy tests of the eternal Judge.\nRead in the whole connexion, it only asserts that the pagan acts as a\nmoral being; that he knows what it is to obey, and to resist, the\nsense of duty. This is not to say, what we shall soon hear St Paul so\nsolemnly deny, that there exists anywhere a man whose correspondence\nof life to moral law is such that his \"mouth\" needs _not_ to \"be\nstopped,\" and that he is _not_ to take his place as one of a \"world\nguilty before God.\"\n\nStern, solemn, merciful argument! Now from this side, now from that,\nit approaches the conscience of man, made for God and fallen from God.\nIt strips the veil from his gross iniquities; it lets in the sun of\nholiness upon his iniquities of the more religious type; it speaks in\nhis dull ears the words judgment, day, tribulation, wrath,\nbewilderment, perishing. But it does all this that man, convicted, may\nask in earnest what he shall do with conscience and his Judge, and may\ndiscover with joy that his Judge Himself has \"found a ransom,\" and\nstands Himself in act to set him free.\n\n[17] Reading \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1.\n\n[18] Here, perhaps, for once, the word \u03b5\u1f50\u03b1\u03b3\u03b3\u03ad\u03bb\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd is used in an\nextended and \"improper\" sense, to denote the whole message _connected\nwith_ the Glad Tidings, and so now the warning of judgment to come,\nwhich gives to the Glad Tidings its sacred urgency.\n\n[19] Manifestly \"_the_ Law\" in this passage means not the ceremonial\nlaw of Israel, but the revealed moral law given to Israel, above all\nin the Decalogue. This appears from the language of ver. 15, which\nwould be meaningless if the reference were to special ordinances of\nworship. The Gentiles could not \"shew the work of\" _that_ kind of \"law\nwritten in their hearts\"; what they shewed was, as we have explained,\na \"work\" related to the revealed claims of God and man on the will and\nlife.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\n_JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY AND GUILT_\n\nROMANS ii.\u00a017-29\n\n\n\"_The Jew, first, and also the Greek_\"; this has been the burthen of\nthe Apostle's thought thus far upon the whole. He has had the Jew for\nsome while in his chief thought, but he has recurred again and again\nin passing to the Gentile. Now he faces the Pharisee explicitly and on\nopen ground, before he passes from this long exposure of human sin to\nthe revelation of the glorious Remedy.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =But if[20] you,= you emphatically, the reader or\nhearer now in view, you who perhaps have excused yourself from\nconsidering your own case by this last mention of the responsibility\nof the non-Jewish world; =if you bear the name of Jew,= whether or no\nyou possess the corresponding spiritual reality; =and repose yourself\nupon the Law,= as if the possession of that awful revelation of duty\nwas your protection, not your sentence; =and glory in God,= as if He\nwere your private property, the decoration of your national position,\nwhereas the knowledge of Him is given you in trust for the world;\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =and know the Will,= His Will, _the_ Will supreme;\n=and put the touchstone to things which differ,= like a casuist skilled\nin moral problems; =schooled out of the Law,= under continuous training\n(so the Greek present participle bids us explain) by principles and\nprecepts which the Law supplies;--[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =(if) you are\nsure that you, yourself,= whoever else, =are a leader of blind men, a\nlight of those who are in the dark,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =an educator\nof the thoughtless, a teacher of beginners, possessing, in the Law,\nthe outline,[21]= the system, =of real knowledge and truth,[22]= (the\noutline indeed, but not the power and life related to it):--if this is\nyour estimate of your position and capacities, I turn it upon\nyourself. Think, and answer--[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =You therefore, your\nneighbour's teacher, do you not teach yourself? You, who proclaim,\nThou shalt not steal, do you steal?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =You, who\nsay, Thou shalt not commit adultery, do you commit it? You, who\nabominate the idols,= affecting to loathe their very neighbourhood,\n=do you plunder temples,= entering the polluted precincts readily\nenough for purposes at least equally polluting? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.]\n=You who glory in the Law,= as the palladium of your race, =do you, by\nyour violation of the Law, disgrace your[23] God?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.]\n=\"For the name of our God is, because of you, railed at among the\nheathen,\" as it stands written,= in Ezekiel's message (xxxvi.\u00a020) to\nthe ungodly Israel of the ancient Dispersion--a message true of the\nDispersion of the later day.\n\nWe need not overstrain the emphasis of the Apostle's stern invective.\nNot every non-Christian Jew of the first century, certainly, was an\nadulterer, a thief, a plunderer. When a few years later (Acts\nxxviii.\u00a017) St Paul gathered round him the Jews of Rome, and spent a\nlong day in discussing the prophecies with them, he appealed to them\nwith a noble frankness which in some sense evidently expected a\nresponse in kind. But it is certain that the Jews of the Roman\nDispersion bore a poor general character for truth and honour. And\nanywise St Paul knew well that there is a deeply natural connexion\nbetween unhallowed religious bigotry and that innermost failure of\nself-control which leaves man only too open to the worst temptations.\nWhatever feeds gross personal pride promotes a swift and deadly decay\nof moral fibre. Did this man pride himself on Abraham's blood, and his\nown Rabbinic lore and skill, and scorn both the Gentile \"sinner\" and\nthe _'am-h\u00e2\u00e2retz_, \"the people of the land,\" the rank and file of his\nown race? Then he was the very man to be led helpless by the Tempter.\nAs a fact, there are maxims of the later Rabbinism, which represent\nbeyond reasonable doubt the spirit if not the letter of the worst\nwatchwords of \"the circumcision\" of St Paul's time: \"Circumcision is\nequivalent to all the commandments of the Law\"; \"To live in Palestine\nis equal to the Commandments\"; \"He that hath his abode in Palestine is\nsure of life eternal.\"[24] The man who could even for an hour\nentertain such a creed was ready (however deep below his consciousness\nthe readiness lay) for anything--under fitting circumstances of\ntemptation.\n\nSo it is now, very far beyond the limits of the Jewish Dispersion of\nour time. Now as then, and for the Christian \"outwardly\" as for the\nJew \"outwardly,\" there is no surer path to spiritual degeneracy than\nspiritual pride. What are the watchwords which have succeeded to those\nof the Rabbinists who encountered St Paul? Are they words, or\nthoughts, of self-applause because of the historic orthodoxy of your\ncreed? Because of the Scriptural purity of your theory of salvation?\nBecause of the illustrious annals of your national Church, older than\nthe nation which it has so largely welded and developed? Because of\nthe patient courage, under contempt and exclusion, of the community\nwhich some call your denomination, your sect, but which is to you\nindeed your Church? Because of your loyalty to order? Because of your\nloyalty to liberty? Take heed. The best, corrupted, becomes inevitably\nthe worst. In religion, there is only one altogether safe \"glorying.\"\nIt is when the man can say from the soul, with open eyes, and\ntherefore with a deeply humbled heart, \"God forbid that I should\nglory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world\nis crucified unto me, and I unto the world\" (Gal. vi.\u00a014). All other\n\"glorying is not good.\" Be thankful for every genuine privilege. But\nfor Christ's sake, and for your own soul's sake, do not, even in the\ninmost secret of your soul, \"value _yourself_\" upon them. It is\ndisease, it is disaster, to do so.\n\nAnd shall not we of the Christian Dispersion take home also what\nEzekiel and St Paul say about the blasphemies, the miserable railings\nat our God, caused by the sins of those who bear His Name? Who does\nnot know that, in every region of heathendom, the missionary's plea\nfor Christ is always best listened to where the pagan, or the\nMussulman, has _not_ before his eyes the Christianity of\n\"treaty-ports,\" and other places where European life is to be seen\nlived without restraint? The stumbling-block may be the drunken\nsailor, or the unchaste merchant, or civilian, or soldier, or\ntraveller. Or it may be just the man who, belonging to a race reputed\nChristian, merely ignores the Christian's holy Book, and Day, and\nHouse, and avoids all semblance of fellowship with his countrymen who\nhave come to live beside him that they may preach Christ where He is\nnot known. Or it may be the government, reputed Christian, which,\namidst all its noble benefits to the vast races it holds in sway,\nallows them to know, to think, at least to suspect, that there are\ncases where it cares more for revenue than for righteousness. In all\nthese cases the Christian Dispersion gives occasion for railing at the\nChristian's God: and the reckoning will be a grave matter \"in that\nDay.\"\n\nBut shall the Christians of the Christendom at home stand exempt from\nthe charge? Ah let us who name the blessed Name with even the least\nemphasis of faith and loyalty, dwelling amongst the masses who only\npassively, so to speak, are Christian, who \"profess nothing,\" though\nthey are, or are supposed to be, baptized--let us, amidst \"the world\"\nwhich understands not a little of what we ought to be, and watches us\nso keenly, and so legitimately--let us take home this message, sent\nfirst to the old inconsistent Israel. Do we, professing godliness,\nshew the mind of Christ in our secular intercourse? Do we, on the\nwhole, give the average \"world\" cause to expect that \"a Christian,\" as\nsuch, is a man to trust in business, in friendship? Is the conviction\nquietly forced upon them that a Christian's temper, and tongue, are\nnot as other men's? That the Christian minister habitually lives high\nabove self-seeking? That the Christian tradesman faithfully remembers\nhis customers' just interests, and is true in all his dealings? That\nthe Christian servant, and the Christian master, are alike\nexceptionally mindful of each other's rights, and facile about their\nown? That the Christian's time, and his money, are to a remarkable\ndegree applied to the good of others, for Christ's sake? This is what\nthe members of the Christian Society, in the inner sense of the word\nChristian, are expected to be in what we all understand by \"the\nworld.\" If they are so, God be thanked. If they are not so--who shall\nweigh the guilt? Who shall adequately estimate the dishonour so done\nto the blessed Name? And \"the Day\" is coming.\n\nBut he has more to say about the position of the Jew. He would not\neven seem to forget the greatness of the God-given privilege of\nIsrael; and he will use that privilege once more as a cry to\nconscience.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =For circumcision indeed profits you, if you\ncarry law into practice;= in that case circumcision is for you God's\nseal upon God's own promises to the true sons of Abraham's blood _and\nfaith_. Are you indeed a practiser of the holy Code whose summary and\nessence is love to God and love to man? Can you look your Lord in the\nface and say--not, \"I have satisfied all Thy demands; pay me that Thou\nowest,\" but, \"Thou knowest that I love Thee, and therefore oh how I\nlove Thy law\"? Then you are indeed a child of the covenant, through\nHis grace; and the seal of the covenant speaks to you the certainties\nof its blessing. =But if you are a transgressor of law, your circumcision\nis turned uncircumcision;= the divine seal is to you nothing, for you\nare not the rightful holder of the deed of covenant which it seals.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a026.] =If therefore the uncircumcision,= the Gentile\nworld, in some individual instance, =carefully keeps the ordinances of\nthe Law,= reverently remembers the love owed to God and to man, =shall\nnot his uncircumcision,= the uncircumcision of the man supposed, =be\ncounted as if circumcision?= Shall he not be treated as a lawful\nrecipient of covenant blessings even though _the seal_ upon the\ndocument of promise is, not at all by his fault, missing?\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a027.] =And= thus =shall not this hereditary (\u1f10\u03ba \u03c6\u03cd\u03c3\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2)\nuncircumcision,= this Gentile born and bred, =fulfilling the\nlaw= of love and duty, =judge you, who by means of letter and\ncircumcision are--law's transgressor,= using as you practically do use\nthe terms, the letter, of the covenant, and the rite which is its\nseal, as means to violate its inmost import, and claiming, in the\npride of privilege, blessings promised only to self-forgetting love?\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a028.] =For not the (Jew) in the visible= sphere =is a\nJew; nor is circumcision in the visible= sphere, =in the flesh,\ncircumcision.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a029.] =No, but the Jew in the hidden=\nsphere; =and circumcision of heart, in Spirit, not letter;=\ncircumcision in the sense of a work on the soul, wrought by God's\nSpirit, not in that of a legal claim supposed to rest upon a routine\nof prescribed observances. =His praise,= the praise of such a Jew, the\nJew in this hidden sense, thus circumcised in heart, =does not come\nfrom men, but does come from God.= Men may, and very likely will, give\nhim anything but praise; they will not like him the better for his\ndeep divergence from their standard, and from their spirit. But the\nLord knows him, and loves him, and prepares for him His own welcome;\n\"Well done, good and faithful.\"\n\nHere is a passage far-reaching, like the paragraphs which have gone\nbefore it. Its immediate bearing needs only brief comment, certainly\nbrief explanation. We need do little more than wonder at the moral\nmiracle of words like these written by one who, a few years before,\nwas spending the whole energy of his mighty will upon the defence of\nultra-Judaism. The miracle resides not only in the vastness of the\nman's change of view, but in the manner of it. It is not only that he\ndenounces Pharisaism, but he denounces it in a tone entirely free from\nits spirit, which he might easily have carried into the opposite camp.\nWhat he meets it with is the assertion of truths as pure and peaceable\nas they are eternal; the truths of the supreme and ultimate importance\nof the right attitude of man's heart towards God, and of the\ninexorable connexion between such an attitude and a life of unselfish\nlove towards man. Here is one great instance of that large spiritual\nphenomenon, the transfiguration of the first followers of the Lord\nJesus from what they had been to what under His risen power they\nbecame. We see in them men whose convictions and hopes have undergone\nan incalculable revolution; yet it is a revolution which disorders\nnothing. Rather, it has taken fanaticism for ever out of their\nthoughts and purposes. It has softened their whole souls towards man,\nas well as drawn them into an unimagined intimacy with God. It has\ntaught them to live above the world; yet it has brought them into the\nmost practical and affectionate relations with every claim upon them\nin the world around them. \"Your life is hid with Christ in God\";\n\"Honour all men\"; \"He that loveth not, knoweth not God.\"\n\nBut the significance of this particular passage is indeed\nfar-reaching, permanent, universal. As before, so here, the Apostle\nwarns us (not only the Jew of that distant day) against the fatal but\neasy error of perverting privilege into pride, forgetting that every\ngift of God is \"a talent\" with which the man is to trade for his Lord,\nand for his Lord alone. But also, more explicitly here, he warns us\nagainst that subtle tendency of man's heart to substitute, in\nreligion, the outward for the inward, the mechanical for the\nspiritual, the symbol for the thing. Who can read this passage without\nreflections on the privileges, and on the seals of membership, of the\nChristian Church? Who may not take from it a warning not to put in the\nwrong place the sacred gifts, as sacred as they can be, because\ndivine, of Order, and of Sacrament? Here is a great Hebrew doctor\ndealing with that primary Sacrament of the Elder Church of which such\nhigh and urgent things are said in the Hebrew Scriptures; a rite of\nwhich even medieval theologians have asserted that it was the\nSacrament of the same grace as that which is the grace of Baptism\nnow.[25] But when he has to consider the case of one who has received\nthe physical ordinance apart from the right attitude of soul, he\nspeaks of the ordinance in terms which a hasty reader might think\nslighting. He does not slight it. He says it \"profits,\" and he is\ngoing soon to say more to that purpose. For him it is nothing less\nthan God's own Seal on God's own Word, assuring the individual, as\nwith a literal touch divine, that all is true _for him_, as he claims\ngrace in humble faith. But then he contemplates the case of one who,\nby no contempt but by force of circumstance, has never received the\nholy seal, yet believes, and loves, and obeys. And he lays it down\nthat the Lord of the Covenant will honour that man's humble claim as\nsurely as if he brought the covenant-document ready sealed in his\nhand. Not that even for him the seal, if it may be had, will be\nnothing; it will assuredly be divine still, and will be sought as\nGod's own gift, His seal ex _post facto_. But the principle remains\nthat the ritual seal and the spiritual reality are separable; and that\nthe greater thing, the thing of absolute and ultimate necessity\nbetween the soul and God, is the spiritual reality; and that where\nthat is present there God accepts.\n\nIt was the temptation of Israel of old to put Circumcision in the\nplace of faith, love, and holiness, instead of in its right place, as\nthe divine imperial seal upon the covenant of grace, the covenant to\nbe claimed and used by faith. It is the temptation of some Christians\nnow to put the sacred order of the Church, and particularly its divine\nSacraments, the holy Bath and the holy Meal, in the place of spiritual\nregeneration, and spiritual communion, rather than in their right\nplace as divine imperial seals on the covenant which guarantees both\nto faith. For us, as for our elder brethren, this paragraph of the\ngreat argument is therefore altogether to the purpose. \"Faith is\ngreater than water,\" says even Peter Lombard,[26] the _Magister_ of\nthe medieval Schools. So it is. And the thought is in perfect unison\nwith St Paul's principle of reasoning here. Let it be ours to\nreverence, to prize, to use the ordinances of our Master, with a\ndevotion such as we might seem sure we should feel if we saw Him dip\nHis hand in the Font, or stretch it out to break the Bread, and hallow\nit, and give it, at the Table. But let us be quite certain, for our\nown souls' warning, that it is true all the while--in the sense of\nthis passage--that \"he is not a Christian which is one outwardly,\nneither is that Baptism, or Communion, which is outward; but he is a\nChristian which is one inwardly, and Baptism and Communion are those\nof the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter.\"\n\nSacred indeed are the God-given externals of Christian order and\nordinance. But there are degrees of greatness in the world of sacred\nthings. And the moral work of God direct upon the soul of man is\ngreater than His sacramental work done through man's body.\n\n[20] There is no practical doubt that \u03b5\u1f30 \u03b4\u1f72 not \u1f34de (\"_Behold_\")\nis the right reading here.\n\n[21] \u039c\u03cc\u03c1\u03c6\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2: we need not understand by this word a reference to\n_mere formalism_. \u039c\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u03ae on the contrary regularly means shape\nexpressive of underlying substance. And \u03bc\u03cc\u03c1\u03c6\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 means not shape\nbut shap_ing_. He means that the Pharisee really _has_, in the Law,\nGod's formed and formative model of knowledge and reality. Still,\n2\u00a0Tim. iii.\u00a05 justifies our also seeing here a side suggestion of the\npossibility of dissociating even the divine model from the\ncorresponding \"power.\"\n\n[22] \u03a4\u1fe6\u03c2 \u03b3\u03bd\u03ce\u03c3\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2, \u03c4\u1fe6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bb\u03b7\u03b8\u03b5\u03af\u03b1\u03c2:--the adjective \"_real_\" in our\nrendering represents the Greek definite article, though with a slight\nexaggeration.\n\n[23] \u03a4\u1f78\u03bd \u0398\u03b5\u03cc\u03bd. We represent the definite article here by \"_your_,\"\nand just below by \"_our_\"; not without hesitation, as it somewhat\nexaggerates the definition.\n\n[24] See A. M'Caul's _Old Paths_ (\u05e0\u05ea\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5\u05ea \u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05dd), p. 230, etc.\n\n[25] So Bernard, _Sermo in C\u0153n\u00e2_, c.\u00a02.\n\n[26] See _Sententi\u00e6_, iv., iv., 3-7.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\n_JEWISH CLAIMS: NO HOPE IN HUMAN MERIT_\n\nROMANS iii.\u00a01-20\n\n\nAs the Apostle dictates, there rises before his mind a figure often\nseen by his eyes, the Rabbinic disputant. Keen, subtle, unscrupulous,\nat once eagerly in earnest yet ready to use any argument for victory,\nhow often that adversary had crossed his path, in Syria, in Asia\nMinor, in Macedonia, in Achaia! He is present now to his consciousness,\nwithin the quiet house of Gaius; and his questions come thick and\nfast, following on this urgent appeal to his, alas, almost\nimpenetrable conscience.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] \"=What then is the advantage of the Jew? Or what\nis the profit of circumcision?=\" \"=If some did not believe, what of\nthat? Will their faithlessness cancel God's good faith?=\" \"=But if our\nrighteousness sets off God's righteousness, would God be unjust,\nbringing His wrath to bear?=\"\n\nWe group _the questions_ together thus, to make it the clearer that we\ndo enter here, at this opening of the third chapter, upon a brief\ncontroversial dialogue; perhaps the almost verbatim record of many a\ndialogue actually spoken. The Jew, pressed hard with moral proofs of\nhis responsibility, must often have turned thus upon his pursuer, or\nrather have tried thus to escape from him in the subtleties of a false\nappeal to the faithfulness of God.\n\nAnd first he meets the Apostle's stern assertion that circumcision\nwithout spiritual reality will not save. He asks, where then is the\nadvantage of Jewish descent? What is the profit, the good, of\ncircumcision? It is a mode of reply not unknown in discussions on\nChristian ordinances; \"What then is the good of belonging to a\nhistoric Church at all? What do you give the divine Sacraments to do?\"\nThe Apostle answers his questioner at once; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =Much,\nin every way; first, because they were entrusted with the Oracles of\nGod.= \"_First_,\" as if there were more to say in detail. Something, at\nleast, of what is here left unsaid is said later, ix.\u00a04, 5, where he\nrecounts the long roll of Israel's spiritual and historical\nsplendours; \"the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the\nlaw-giving, and the worship, and the promises, and the Fathers, and\nthe Christ.\" Was it nothing to be bound up with things like these, in\na bond made at once of blood-relationship, holy memories, and\nmagnificent hopes? Was it nothing to be exhorted to righteousness,\nfidelity, and love by finding the individual life thus surrounded? But\nhere he places \"first\" of even these wonderful treasures this, that\nIsrael was \"_entrusted with the Oracles of God_,\" the Utterances of\nGod, His unique Message to man \"through His prophets, in the Holy\nScriptures.\" Yes, here was something which gave to the Jew an\n\"advantage\" without which the others would either have had no\nexistence, or no significance. He was the trustee of Revelation. In\nhis care was lodged the Book by which man was to live and die; through\nwhich he was to know immeasurably more about God and about himself\nthan he could learn from all other informants put together. He, his\npeople, his Church, were the \"witness and keeper of Holy Writ.\" And\ntherefore to be born of Israel, and ritually entered into the covenant\nof Israel, was to be born into the light of revelation, and committed\nto the care of the witnesses and keepers of the light.\n\nTo insist upon this immense privilege is altogether to St Paul's\npurpose here. For it is a privilege which evidently carries an awful\nresponsibility with it. What would be the guilt of the soul, and of\nthe Community, to whom those Oracles were--not given as property, but\n_entrusted_--and who did not do the things they said?\n\nAgain the message passes on to the Israel of the Christian Church.\n\"What advantage hath the Christian? What profit is there of Baptism?\"\n\"Much, in every way; first, because to the Church is entrusted the\nlight of revelation.\" To be born in it, to be baptized in it, is to be\nborn into the sunshine of revelation, and laid on the heart and care\nof the Community which witnesses to the genuineness of its Oracles and\nsees to their preservation and their spread. Great is the talent.\nGreat is the accountability.\n\nBut the Rabbinist goes on. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =For if some did not\nbelieve,= what of that? =Will their faithlessness cancel God's good\nfaith?= These Oracles of God promise interminable glories to Israel,\nto Israel as a community, a body. Shall not that promise hold good for\nthe whole mass, though some (bold euphemism for the faithless\nmultitudes!) have rejected the Promiser? Will not the unbelieving Jew,\nafter all, find his way to life eternal for his company's sake, for\nhis part and lot in the covenant community? \"_Will God's faith_,\" His\ngood faith, His plighted word, be reduced to empty sounds by the bad\nIsraelite's sin? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =Away with the thought,[27]= the\nApostle answers. Any thing is more possible than that God should lie.\n=Nay (\u03b4\u1f72), let God prove true, and every man prove liar; as it\nstands written= (Psal. li.\u00a04), =\"That Thou mightest be justified in\nThy words, and mightest overcome when Thou impleadest.\"[28]= He quotes\nthe Psalmist in that deep utterance of self-accusation, where he takes\npart against himself, and finds himself guilty \"without one plea,\"\nand, in the loyalty of the regenerate and now awakened soul, is\njealous to vindicate the justice of his _condemning_ God. The whole\nScripture contains no more impassioned, yet no more profound and\ndeliberate, utterance of the eternal truth that God is always in the\nright or He would be no God at all; that it is better, and more\nreasonable, to doubt anything than to doubt His righteousness,\nwhatever cloud surrounds it, and whatever lightning bursts the cloud.\n\nBut again the caviller, intent not on God's glory but on his own\nposition, takes up the word. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =But if our\nunrighteousness exhibits, sets off, God's righteousness,= if our sin\ngives occasion to grace to abound, if our guilt lets the generosity\nof God's Way of Acceptance stand out the more wonderful by\ncontrast--=what shall we say? Would God be unjust, bringing His\n(\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) wrath to bear= on us, when our pardon would illustrate His\nfree grace? Would He be unjust? Would He _not_ be unjust?\n\nWe struggle, in our paraphrase, to bring out the bearing, as it seems\nto us, of a passage of almost equal grammatical difficulty and\nargumentative subtlety. The Apostle seems to be \"in a strait\" between\nthe wish to represent the caviller's thought, and the dread of one\nreally irreverent word. He throws the man's last question into a form\nwhich, grammatically, expects a \"_no_\" when the drift of the thought\nwould lead us up to a shocking \"_yes_.\"[29] And then at once he passes\nto his answer. =I speak as man,= man-wise; as if this question of\nbalanced rights and wrongs were one between man and man, not between\nman and eternal God. Such talk, even for argument's sake, is\nimpossible for the regenerate soul except under urgent protest.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =Away with the thought= that He would _not_ be\nrighteous, in His punishment of any given sin. =Since how shall God\njudge the world?= How, on such conditions, shall we repose on the\nultimate fact that He is the universal JUDGE? If He _could_ not,\nrighteously, punish a deliberate sin because pardon, under certain\nconditions, illustrates His glory, then He could not punish any sin at\nall. But He _is_ the Judge; He _does_ bring wrath to bear!\n\nNow he takes up the caviller on his own ground, and goes all lengths\nupon it, and then flies with abhorrence from it. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.]\n=For if God's truth, in the matter of my lie, has abounded,= has come\nmore amply out, =to His glory, why am I too[30] called to judgment as\na sinner?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =And why not say, as the slander\nagainst us goes, and as some assert that we do say, \"Let us do the ill\nthat the good may come\"?= So they assert of us. But =their doom is\njust,=--the doom of those who would utter such a maxim, finding\nshelter for a lie under the throne of God.\n\nNo doubt he speaks from a bitter and frequent experience when he takes\nthis particular case, and with a solemn irony claims exemption for\nhimself from the liar's sentence of death. It is plain that the charge\nof untruth was, for some reason or another, often thrown at St Paul;\nwe see this in the marked urgency with which, from time to time, he\nasserts his truthfulness; \"The things which I say, behold, before God\nI lie not\" (Gal. i.\u00a020); \"I speak the truth in Christ and lie not\"\n(below, ix.\u00a01). Perhaps the manifold sympathies of his heart gave\ninnocent occasion sometimes for the charge. The man who could be \"all\nthings to all men\" (1\u00a0Cor. ix.\u00a022), taking with a genuine insight\ntheir point of view, and saying things which shewed that he took it,\nwould be very likely to be set down by narrower minds as untruthful.\nAnd the very boldness of his teaching might give further occasion,\nequally innocent; as he asserted at different times, with equal\nemphasis, opposite sides of truth. But these somewhat subtle excuses\nfor false witness against this great master of holy sincerity would\nnot be necessary where genuine malice was at work. No man is so\ntruthful that he cannot be charged with falsehood; and no charge is so\nlikely to injure even where it only feigns to strike. And of course\nthe mighty paradox of Justification lent itself easily to the\ndistortions, as well as to the contradictions, of sinners. \"Let us do\nevil that good may come\" no doubt represented the report which\nprejudice and bigotry would regularly carry away and spread after\nevery discourse, and every argument, about free Forgiveness. It is so\nstill: \"If this is true, we may live as we like; if this is true, then\nthe worst sinner makes the best saint.\" Things like this have been\ncurrent sayings since Luther, since Whitefield, and till now. Later in\nthe Epistle we shall see the unwilling evidence which such distortions\nbear to the nature of the maligned doctrine; but here the allusion is\ntoo passing to bring this out.\n\n\"_Whose doom is just._\" What a witness is this to the inalienable\ntruthfulness of the Gospel! This brief stern utterance absolutely\nrepudiates all apology for means by end; all seeking of even the good\nof men by the way of saying the thing that is not. Deep and strong,\nalmost from the first, has been the temptation to the Christian man to\nthink otherwise, until we find whole systems of casuistry developed\nwhose aim seems to be to go as near the edge of untruthfulness as\npossible, if not beyond it, in religion. But the New Testament sweeps\nthe entire idea of the pious fraud away, with this short thunder-peal,\n\"_Their doom is just_.\" It will hear of no holiness that leaves out\ntruthfulness; no word, no deed, no habit, that even with the purest\npurpose belies the God of reality and veracity.\n\nIf we read aright Acts xxiv.\u00a020, 21, with Acts xxiii.\u00a06, we see St\nPaul himself once, under urgent pressure of circumstances, betrayed\ninto an equivocation, and then, publicly and soon, expressing his\nregret of conscience. \"I am a Pharisee, and a Pharisee's son; about\nthe hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.\" True,\ntrue in fact, but not the whole truth, not the unreserved account of\nhis attitude towards the Pharisee. Therefore, a week later, he\nconfesses, does he not? that in this one thing there _was_ \"evil in\nhim, while he stood before the council.\" Happy the Christian, happy\nindeed the Christian public man, immersed in management and\ndiscussion, whose memory is as clear about truth-telling, and whose\nconscience is as sensitive!\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =What then? are we superior?[31]= Say =not= so =at\nall (\u03bc\u03b7\u03b4\u03b1\u03bc\u1ff6\u03c2).= Thus now he proceeds, taking the word finally from\nhis supposed antagonist. Who are the \"_we_\" and with whom are \"we\"\ncompared? The drift of the argument admits of two replies to this\nquestion. \"_We_\" may be \"_we Jews_\"; as if Paul placed himself in\ninstinctive sympathy, by the side of the compatriot whose cavils he\nhas just combated, and gathered up here into a final assertion all he\nhas said before of the (at least) equal guilt of the Jew beside the\nGreek. Or \"_we_\" may be \"_we Christians_,\" taken for the moment as men\napart from Christ; it may be a repudiation of the thought that he has\nbeen speaking from a pedestal, or from a tribunal. As if he said, \"Do\nnot think that I, or my friends in Christ, would say to the world,\nJewish or Gentile, that we are holier than you. No; we speak not from\nthe bench, but from the bar. Apart from Him who is our peace and life,\nwe are 'in the same condemnation.' It is exactly because we are in it\nthat we turn and say to you, 'Do not ye fear God?'\" On the whole, this\nlatter reference seems the truer to the thought and spirit of the\nwhole context.\n\n=For we have already charged Jews and Greeks, all of them, with being\nunder sin; with being brought under sin,= as the Greek (\u1f51\u03c6\u1fbd\n\u1f01\u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03c4\u03af\u03b1\u03bd) bids us more exactly render, giving us the thought that\nthe race has fallen _from_ a good estate _into_ an evil; self-involved\nin an awful superincumbent ruin. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =As it stands\nwritten, that there is not even one man righteous; there is not a man\nwho understands, not a man who seeks his (\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd) God. All have left\nthe road; they have turned worthless together. There is not a man who\ndoes what is good, there is not, even so many as one. A grave set open\nis their throat,= exhaling the stench of polluted words; =with their\ntongues they have deceived; asps' venom is under their lips[32]; (men)\nwhose mouth is brimming with curse and bitterness. Swift are their\nfeet to shed blood; ruin and misery= for their victims =are in their\nways; and the way of peace they never knew. There is no such thing as\nfear of God before their eyes.=\n\nHere is a tesselation of Old Testament oracles. The fragments, hard\nand dark, come from divers quarries; from the Psalms (v.\u00a09, x.\u00a07,\nxiv.\u00a01-3, xxxvi.\u00a01, cxl.\u00a03), from the Proverbs (i.\u00a016), from Isaiah\n(lix.\u00a07). All in the first instance depict and denounce classes of\nsins and sinners in Israelite society; and we may wonder at first\nsight how their evidence convicts all men everywhere, and in all time,\nof condemnable and fatal sin. But we need not only, in submission, own\nthat somehow it must be so, for \"it stands written\" here; we may see,\nin part, how it is so. These special charges against certain sorts of\nhuman lives stand in the same Book which levels the general charge\nagainst _the human heart_ (Jerem. xvii.\u00a09), that it is \"deceitful\nabove all things, hopelessly diseased,\" and incapable of knowing all\nits own corruption. The crudest surface phenomena of sin are thus\nnever isolated from the dire underlying epidemic of the race of man.\nThe actual evil of men shews the potential evil of man. The\ntiger-strokes of open wickedness shew the tiger-nature, which is\nalways present, even where its possessor least suspects it.\nCircumstances infinitely vary, and among them those internal\ncircumstances which we call special tastes and dispositions. But\neverywhere amidst them all is the human heart, made upright in its\ncreation, self-wrecked into moral wrongness when it turned itself from\nGod. That it _is_ turned from Him, not to Him, appears when its\ndirection is tested by the collision between His claim and its will.\nAnd in this aversion from the Holy One, who claims the whole heart,\nthere lies at least the potency of \"all unrighteousness.\"\n\nLong after this, as his glorious rest drew near, St Paul wrote again\nof the human heart, to \"his true son\" Titus (iii.\u00a03). He reminds him\nof the wonder of that saving grace which he so fully unfolds in this\nEpistle; how, \"not according to our works,\" the \"God who loveth man\"\nhad saved Titus, and saved Paul. And what had he saved them from? From\na state in which they were \"disobedient, deceived, the slaves of\ndivers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating\none another.\" What, the loyal and laborious Titus, the chaste, the\nupright, the unutterably earnest Paul? Is not the picture greatly,\nlamentably exaggerated, a burst of religious rhetoric? Adolphe\nMonod[33] tells us that he once thought it must be so; he felt himself\nquite unable to submit to the awful witness. But years moved, and he\nsaw deeper into himself, seeing deeper into the holiness of God; and\nthe truthfulness of that passage grew upon him. Not that its\ndifficulties all vanished, but its truthfulness shone out; \"and sure I\nam,\" he said from his death-bed, \"that when this veil of flesh shall\nfall I shall recognize in that passage the truest portrait ever\npainted of my own natural heart.\"\n\nRobert Browning, in a poem of terrible moral interest and power,[34]\nconfesses that, amidst a thousand doubts and difficulties, his mind\nwas anchored to faith in Christianity by the fact of its doctrine of\nSin:\n\n  \"I still, to suppose it true, for my part\n    See reasons and reasons; this, to begin;\n  'Tis the faith that launched point blank her dart\n    At the head of a lie; taught Original Sin,\n  The Corruption of Man's Heart.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =Now we know that whatever things the Law says,\nit speaks them to those in the Law,= those within its range, its\ndominion; =that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may\nprove guilty with regard to God.= \"_The Law_\"; that is to say, here,\nthe Old Testament Revelation. This not only contains the Mosaic and\nProphetic moral code, but has it for one grand pervading object, in\nall its parts, to prepare man for Christ by exposing him to himself,\nin his shame and need. It shews him in a thousand ways that \"_he\ncannot serve_ the Lord\" (Josh. xxiv.\u00a019), on purpose that in that same\nLord he may take refuge from both his guilt and his impotency. And\nthis it does for \"_those in the Law_\"; that is to say here, primarily,\nfor the Race, the Church, whom it surrounded with its light of holy\nfire, and whom in this passage the Apostle has in his first thoughts.\nYet they, surely, are not alone upon his mind. We have seen already\nhow \"the Law\" is, after all, only the more full and direct enunciation\nof \"law\"; so that the Gentile as well as the Jew has to do with the\nlight, and with the responsibility, of a knowledge of the will of God.\nWhile the chain of stern quotations we have just handled lies heaviest\non Israel, it yet binds the world. It \"shuts _every_ mouth.\" It drags\nMAN in guilty before God.\n\n\"_That every mouth may be stopped._\" Oh solemn silence, when at last\nit comes! The harsh or muffled voices of self-defence, of\nself-assertion, are hushed at length. The man, like one of old, when\nhe saw his _righteous_ self in the light of God, \"_lays his hand on\nhis mouth_\" (Job xl.\u00a04). He leaves speech to God, and learns at last\nto listen. What shall he hear? An eternal repudiation? An objurgation,\nand then a final and exterminating anathema? No, something far other,\nand better, and more wonderful. But there must first be silence on\nman's part, if it is to be heard. \"_Hear_--and your souls shall live.\"\n\nSo the great argument pauses, gathered up into an utterance which at\nonce concentrates what has gone before, and prepares us for a glorious\nsequel. Shut thy mouth, O man, and listen now:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =Because by means of works of law there shall be\njustified no flesh in His presence; for by means of law comes--moral\nknowledge (\u1f10\u03c0\u03cd\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2) of sin.=\n\n[27] \u039c\u1f74 \u03b3\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf: literally, \"_Be it not_\"; \"_May it not be_.\"\nPerhaps nothing so well represents the _energy_ of the Greek as the\n\"_God forbid_\" of the Authorized Version.\n\n[28] \u1f18\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03c1\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c3\u03b5: we may render this (as in\u00a01\u00a0Cor. vi.\u00a01)\n\"_When Thou goest to law_.\" The Hebrew is, literally, \"_When Thou\njudgest_\"; and the Septuagint Greek, used here by St Paul, probably\nrepresents this, though by a slight paraphrase.\n\n[29] \u039c\u1f74 \u1f04\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2; where logically it would rather be \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f04\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2.--Just\nabove, we explain \"God's righteousness\" to mean, as commonly in the\nEpistle, \"God's way of acceptance,\" His reckoning His Righteousness to\nthe sinner.\n\n[30] \u039a\u1f00\u03b3\u03ce: he speaks as claiming, on the caviller's principles,\nequal indulgence for himself.\n\n[31] \u03a0\u03c1\u03bf\u03b5\u03c7\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03b8\u03b1: \"_Do we make excuse for ourselves?_\" is a\nrendering for which there are clearer precedents in the use of the\nverb. But the context seems to us to advocate the above rendering,\nwhich is quite possible grammatically.\n\n[32] \u1f51\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03c7\u03b5\u03af\u03bb\u03b7: again the Greek (as in verse 9) gives the thought\nof _motion to a position under_. The human \"aspic\" is depicted as\n_bringing its venom up_ to its mouth, ready there for the stroke of\nits fangs.\n\n[33] _Adieux_, \u00a7 1.\n\n[34] _Gold Hair, a Legend of Pornic._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\n_THE ONE WAY OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE_\n\nROMANS iii.\u00a021-31\n\n\nSo then \"there is silence\" upon earth, that man may hear the \"still,\nsmall voice,\" \"the sound of stillness\" (1 Kings xix.\u00a012),[35] from the\nheavens. \"The Law\" has spoken, with its heart-shaking thunder. It has\ndriven in upon the soul of man, from many sides, that one fact--guilt;\nthe eternity of the claim of righteousness, the absoluteness of the\nholy Will of God, and, in contrast, the failure of man, of the race,\nto meet that claim and do that will. It has told man, in effect, that\nhe is \"depraved,\"[36] that is to say, morally distorted. He is\n\"totally depraved,\" that is, the distortion has affected his whole\nbeing, so that he can supply on his own part no adequate recovering\npower which shall restore him to harmony with God. And the Law has\nnothing more to say to him, except that this condition is not only\ndeplorable, but guilty, accountable, condemnable; and that his own\nconscience is the concurrent witness that it is so. He is a sinner. To\nbe a sinner is before all things to be a transgressor of law. It is\nother things besides. It is to be morally diseased, and in need of\nsurgery and medicine. It is to be morally unhappy, and an object of\ncompassion. But first of all it is to be morally guilty, and in urgent\nneed of justification, of a reversal of sentence, of satisfactory\nsettlement with the offended--and eternal--Law of God.\n\nThat Law, having spoken its inexorable conditions, and having\nannounced the just sentence of death, stands stern and silent beside\nthe now silent offender. It has no commission to relieve his fears, to\nallay his grief, to pay his debts. Its awful, merciful business is to\nsay \"Thou shalt not sin,\" and \"The wages of sin is death.\" It summons\nconscience to attention, and tells it in its now hearing ear far more\nthan it had realized before of the horror and the doom of sin; and\nthen it leaves conscience to take up the message and alarm the whole\ninner world with the certainty of guilt and judgment. So the man lies\nspeechless before the terribly reticent Law.\n\nIs it a merely abstract picture? Or do our hearts, the writer's and\nthe reader's, bear any witness to its living truthfulness? God\nknoweth, these things are no curiosities of the past. We are not\nstudying an interesting phase of early Christian thought. We are\nreading a living record of the experiences of innumerable lives which\nare lived on earth this day. There is such a thing indeed in our time,\nat this hour, as conviction of sin. There is such a thing now as a\nhuman soul, struck dumb amidst its apologies, its doubts, its denials,\nby the speech and then the silence of the Law of God. There is such a\nthing at this hour as a real man, strong and sound in thought, healthy\nin every faculty, used to look facts of daily life in the face, yet\nbroken down in the indescribable conviction that he is a poor, guilty,\nlost sinner, and that his overwhelming need is--not now, not just\nnow--the solution of problems of being, but the assurance that his sin\nis forgiven. He must be justified, or he dies. The God of the Law must\nsomehow say He has no quarrel with him, or he dies a death which he\nsees, as by an intuition peculiar to conviction of sin, to be in its\nproper nature a death without hope, without end.\n\nIs this \"somehow\" possible?\n\nListen, guilty and silent soul, to a sound which is audible now. In\nthe turmoil of either secular indifference or blind self-justification\nyou could not hear it; at best you heard a meaningless murmur. But\nlisten now; it is articulate, and it speaks to you. The earthquake,\nthe wind, the fire, have passed; and you are indeed awake. Now comes\n\"the sound of stillness\" in its turn.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =But now, apart from Law, God's righteousness\nstands displayed, attested by the Law and the Prophets; but\n(\u03b4\u1f72)=--though attested by them, in the Scriptures which all along,\nin word and in type, promise better things to come, and above\nall a Blessed One to come--[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =(it is) God's\nrighteousness, through faith in Jesus Christ,= prepared =for all= and\nbestowed upon all =who believe= in Him. =For there is no distinction;=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.] =for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory\nof God,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.] =being justified[37] gift-wise,=\ngratuitously, =by His grace, through the redemption,= the\nransom-rescue, =which is in Christ Jesus.= Yes, it resides always in\nHim, the Lord of saving Merit, and so is to be found in Him alone;\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =whom God presented[38],= put forward, =as\nPropitiation,[39] through faith in His blood,[40]= His blood of death,\nof sacrifice, of the altar; =so as to demonstrate,= to explain, to\nclear up, =His righteousness,= His way of acceptance and its method.\nThe Father \"presented\" the Son so as to shew that His grace meant no\nreal connivance, no indulgence without a lawful reason. He \"presented\"\nHim =because of His passing-by of sins done before;= because the fact\n_asked explanation_ that, while He proclaimed His Law, and had not yet\nrevealed His Gospel, He did nevertheless bear with sinners, reprieving\nthem, condoning them, in the forbearance of God, in the ages when He\nwas seen to \"hold back\"[41] His wrath, but did not yet disclose the\nreason why. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a026.] It was =with a view,= he says again,\n=to this demonstration (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u1f14\u03bd\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03be\u03b9\u03bd) of His righteousness in the\npresent period,= the season, the \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03cc\u03c2, of the manifested Gospel;\n=that He may be,= in our view, as well as in divine fact, at once\n=just,= true to His eternal Law, =and Justifier of him who belongs to\n(\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba) faith in Jesus.=\n\nThis is the voice from heaven, audible when the sinner's mouth is\nshut, while his ears are opened by the touch of God. Without that\nspiritual introduction to them, very likely they will seem either a\nfact in the history of religious thought, interesting in the study of\ndevelopment, but no more; or a series of assertions corresponding to\nunreal needs, and in themselves full of disputable points. Read them\nin the hour of conviction of sin; in other words, bring to them your\nwhole being, stirred from above to its moral depths, and you will not\ntake them either indifferently, or with opposition. As the key meets\nthe lock they will meet your exceeding need. Every sentence, every\nlink of reasoning, every affirmation of fact, will be precious to you\nbeyond all words. And you will never _fully_ understand them except in\nsuch hours, or in the life which has such hours amongst its indelible\nmemories.\n\nListen over again, in this sacred silence, thus broken by \"the\npleasant voice of the Mighty One.\"\n\n\"_But now_\"; the happy \"_now_\" of present fact, of waking certainty.\nIt is no day-dream. Look, and see; touch, and feel. Turn the blessed\npage again; \u03b3\u03ad\u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03c0\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, \"_It stands written_.\" There is indeed a\n\"Righteousness of God,\" a settled way of mercy which is as holy as it\nis benignant, an acceptance as good in eternal Law as in eternal Love.\nIt is \"_attested by the Law and the Prophets_\"; countless lines of\nprediction and foreshadowing meet upon it, to negative for ever the\nfear of illusion, of delusion. Here is no fortuitous concourse, but\nthe long-laid plan of God. Behold its procuring Cause, magnificent,\ntender, divine, human, spiritual, historic. It is the beloved Son of\nthe Father; no antagonist power from a region alien to the blessed Law\nand its Giver. The Law-Giver is the Christ-Giver; HE has \"_set Him\nforth_,\" HE has provided in Him an expiation which--does not persuade\nHim to have mercy, for He is eternal Love already, but liberates His\nlove along the line of a wonderfully satisfied Holiness, and explains\nthat liberation (to the contrite) so as supremely to win their worship\nand their love to the Father and the Son. Behold the Christ of God;\nbehold the blood of Christ. In the Gospel, He is everywhere, it is\neverywhere; but what is your delight to find Him, and it, here upon\nthe threshold of your life of blessing? Looking upon the Crucified,\nwhile you still \"lay your hand upon your mouth,\" till it is removed\nthat you may bless His Name, you understand the joy with which, age\nafter age, men have spoken of a Death which is their life, of a Cross\nwhich is their crown and glory. You are in no mood, here and now, to\ndisparage the doctrine of the Atoning Blood; to place it in the\nbackground of your Christianity; to obscure the Cross behind even the\nroofs of Bethlehem. You cannot now think well of any Gospel that does\nnot say, \"_First of all_, Christ died for our sins, according to the\nScriptures\" (1\u00a0Cor. xv.\u00a03). You are a sinner, and you know it; \"guilty\nbefore God\"; and for you as such the Propitiation governs your whole\nview of man, of God, of life, of heaven. For you, however it may be\nfor others, \"Redemption\" cannot be named, or thought of, apart from\nits first precious element, \"remission of sins,\" justification of the\nguilty. It is steeped in ideas of Propitiation; it is red and glorious\nwith the Redeemer's blood, without which it could not have been. The\nall-blessed God, with all His attributes, His character, is by you\nseen evermore as \"_just, yet the Justifier of him that believeth in\nJesus_.\" He shines on you through the Word, and in your heart's\nexperience, in many another astonishing aspect. But all those others\nare qualified for you by this, that He is the God of a holy\nJustification; that He is the God who has accepted you, the guilty\none, in Christ. All your thoughts of Him are formed and followed out\nat the foot of the Cross. Golgotha is the observatory from which you\ncount and watch the lights of the moving heaven of His Being, His\nTruth, His Love.\n\nHow precious to you now are the words which once, perhaps, were worse\nthan insipid, \"_Faith_,\" \"_Justification_,\" \"_the Righteousness of\nGod_\"! In the discovery of your necessity, and of Christ as the\nall-in-all to meet it, you see with little need of exposition the\nplace and power of _Faith_. It means, you see it now, simply your\nreception of Christ. It is your contact with Him, your embrace of Him.\nIt is not virtue; it is absolutely remote from merit. But it is\nnecessary; as necessary as the hand that takes the alms, or as the\nmouth that eats the unbought meal. The meaning of _Justification_ is\nnow to you no riddle of the schools. Like all the great words of\nscriptural theology it carries with it in divine things the meaning it\nbears in common things, only for a new and noble application; you see\nthis with joy, by the insight of awakened conscience. He who\n\"_justifies_\" you does exactly what the word always imports. He does\nnot educate you, or inspire you, up to acceptability. He pronounces\nyou acceptable, satisfactory, at peace with Law. And this He does for\nAnother's sake; on account of the Merit of Another, who has so done\nand suffered as to win an eternal welcome for Himself and everything\nthat is His, and therefore for all who are found in Him, and therefore\nfor you who have fled into Him, believing. So you receive with joy and\nwonder \"_the Righteousness of God_,\" His way to bid you, so deeply\nguilty in yourself, welcome without fear to your Judge. You are\n\"righteous,\" that is to say, satisfactory to the inexorable Law. How?\nBecause you are transfigured into a moral perfectness such as could\nconstitute a claim? No, but because Jesus Christ died, and you,\nreceiving Him, are found in Him.\n\n\"_There is no difference._\" Once, perhaps, you resented that word, if\nyou paused to note it. Now you take all its import home. Whatever\notherwise your \"difference\" may be from the most disgraceful and\nnotorious breakers of the Law of God, you know now that there is none\nin _this_ respect--that you are as hopelessly, whether or not as\ndistantly, remote as they are from \"_the glory of God_.\" His moral\n\"glory,\" the inexorable perfectness of His Character, with its\ninherent demand that you must perfectly correspond to Him in order so\nto be at peace with Him--you are indeed \"_short of_\" this. The harlot,\nthe liar, the murderer, are short of it; but so are you. Perhaps they\nstand at the bottom of a mine, and you on the crest of an Alp; but you\nare as little able to touch the stars as they. So you thankfully give\nyourself up, side by side with them, if they will but come too, to be\n_carried_ to the height of divine acceptance, by the gift of God,\n\"justified gift-wise by His grace.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a027.] =Where then is our (\u1f21) boasting? It is shut\nout. By means of what law? Of works? No, but by means of faith's law,=\nthe institute, the ordinance, which lays it upon us not to deserve,\nbut to confide. And who can analyse or describe the joy and rest of\nthe soul from which at last is \"_shut out_\" the foul inflation of a\nreligious \"_boast_\"? We have praised ourselves, we have valued\nourselves, on one thing or another supposed to make us worthy of the\nEternal. We may perhaps have had some specious pretexts for doing so;\nor we may have \"boasted\" (such boastings are not unknown) of nothing\nbetter than being a little less ungodly, or a little more manly, than\nsome one else. But this is over now for ever, in principle; and we lay\nits practice under our Redeemer's feet to be destroyed. And great is\nthe rest and gladness of sitting down at His feet, while the door is\nshut and the key is turned upon our self-applause. There is no\nholiness without that \"exclusion\"; and there is no happiness where\nholiness is not.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a028.] =For we reckon,[42]= we conclude, we gather up\nour facts and reasons thus, =that man is justified[43] by faith, apart\nfrom,= irrespective of, =works of law.= In other words, the meriting\ncause lies wholly in Christ, and wholly outside the man's conduct. We\nhave seen, implicitly, in the passage above, verses 10-18, what is\nmeant here by \"_works of Law_,\" or by \"_works of the Law_.\" The\nthought is not of ritual prescription, but of moral rule. The\nlaw-breakers of verses 10-18 are men who commit violent deeds, and\nspeak foul words, and fail to do what is good. The law-keeper, by\nconsequence, is the man whose conduct in such respects is right,\nnegatively and positively. And the \"_works of the law_\" are such deeds\naccordingly. So here \"_we conclude_\" that the justification of fallen\nman takes place, as to the merit which procures it, irrespective of\nhis well-doing. It is respective only of Christ, as to merit; it has\nto do only, as to personal reception, with the acceptance of the\nmeriting Christ, that is to say with faith in Him.\n\nThen come, like a short \"coda\" following a full musical cadence, two\nbrief questions and their answers, spoken almost as if again a\nRabbinist were in discussion.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a029.] =Is God the Jews' God only? Not of the Nations\ntoo? Yes, of the Nations too;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a030.] =assuming\n(\u03b5\u1f34\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1) that God is one,= the same Person in both cases; =who will\njustify Circumcision on the principle of faith, and Uncircumcision by\nmeans of faith.= He takes the fact, now ascertained, that faith, still\nfaith, that is to say Christ received, is the condition to\njustification for all mankind; and he reasons back to the fact (so\namply \"attested by the Law and the Prophets,\" from Genesis onwards)\nthat the true God is equally the God of all. Probably the deep\ninference is suggested that the fence of privilege drawn for ages\nround Israel was meant ultimately for the whole world's blessing, and\nnot to hold Israel in a selfish isolation.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a031.] =We cancel Law, then, by this faith of ours (\u03b4\u03b9\u1f70\n\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2)?= We open the door, then, to moral licence? We abolish\ncode and precept, then, when we ask not for conduct, but for faith?\n=Away with the thought; nay, we establish Law;= we go the very way to\ngive a new sacredness to its every command, and to disclose a new\npower for the fulfilment of them all. But how this is, and is to be,\nthe later argument is to shew.\n\n\nDETACHED NOTE TO ROMANS III.\n\nIt would be a deeply interesting work to collect and exhibit together\nexamples of the conveyance of great spiritual blessing, in memorable\nlives, through the perusal of the Epistle to the Romans. Augustine's\nfinal crisis (see below, on xiii.\u00a014) would be one such example. As\nspecimens of what must be a multitude we quote two cases, in each of\nwhich one verse in this third chapter of the Epistle proved the means\nof the divine message in a life of historical interest.\n\nPadre Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623), \"Councillor and Theologian\" to the\nVenetian Republic, and historian of the Council of Trent, was one of\nthe many eminent men of his day who never broke with the Roman Church,\nyet had genuine spiritual sympathies with the Reformation. The record\nof his last hours is affecting and instructive, and shews him reposing\nhis hope with great simplicity on the divine message of this chapter,\nthough the report makes him quote it inexactly. \"Night being come, and\nwant of spirits increasing upon him, he caused another reading of the\nPassion written by Saint John. He spake of his own misery, and of the\ntrust and confidence which he had in the blood of Christ. He repeated\nvery often those words, _Quem proposuit Deus Mediatorem per fidem in\nsanguine suo_, 'Whom God hath set forth to be a Mediator through faith\nin His blood.' In which he seemed to receive an extreme consolation.\nHe repeated (though with much faintness) divers places of Saint Paul.\nHe protested that of his part he had nothing to present God with but\nmiseries and sins, yet nevertheless he desired to be drowned in the\nabyss of the divine mercy; with so much submission on one side, and\nyet so much cheerfulness on the other side, that he drew tears from\nall that were present.\"[44]\n\nIt was through the third chapter of the Romans that heavenly light\nfirst came to the terribly troubled soul of William Cowper, at St\nAlbans, in\u00a01764. Some have said that Cowper's religion was to blame\nfor his melancholy. The case was far different. The first tremendous\nattack occurred at a time when, by his own clear account, he was quite\nwithout serious religion; it had nothing whatever to do with either\nChristian doctrine or Christian practice. The recovery from it came\nwith his first sight, in Scripture, of the divine mercy in our Lord\nJesus Christ. His own account of this crisis is as follows:[45]\n\n\"But the happy period which was to afford me a clear opening of the\nfree mercy of God in Christ Jesus, was now arrived. I flung myself\ninto a chair near the window, and, seeing a Bible there, ventured once\nmore to apply to it for comfort and instruction. The first verse I saw\nwas the 25th of the 3rd of Romans; 'Whom God hath set forth to be a\npropitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness\nfor the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of\nGod.'\n\n\"Immediately I received strength to believe it, and the full beams of\nthe Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the\natonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the\nfulness and completeness of His justification. Unless the Almighty arm\nhad been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy.\nI could only look up to heaven in silent fear, overwhelmed with love\nand wonder. But the work of the Holy Ghost is best described in His\nown words; it is 'joy unspeakable and full of glory.'\"\n\n[35] 1 Kings xix.\u00a012.\n\n[36] _Depravatus_: twisted, wrenched from the straight line.\n\n[37] \u0394\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03cd\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9: the present participle indicates rather the\n_permanent principle_ of justification than its actual procedure,\nwhich is, in each case, a divine sentence of acceptance, an act, an\nevent, single and apart. See on ch. v.\u00a01.\n\n[38] \u1f4b\u03bd \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03ad\u03b8\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf \u1f41 \u0398\u03b5\u03cc\u03c2: it is possible to render, \"_Whom God\ndesigned_,\" in His eternal counsel of redemption. But the context just\nbelow emphasizes the thought of \"_declaration_,\" manifestation,\nexplanation of the hidden Treasure. This seems to decide for the other\nrendering.\n\n[39] \u1f39\u03bb\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd: elsewhere in Scripture Greek this word means the\nMercy Seat, the golden lid of the Ark, above which the Shechinah shone\nand on which the blood of atonement was sprinkled. Here is indeed a\nmanifest and noble type of Christ. But on the other hand the word\n\u1f31\u03bb\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd gets that meaning only indirectly. Its native meaning is\nrather \"_a price of expiation_.\" And a somewhat sudden insertion here\nof the imagery of the Mercy Seat seems unlikely, in the absence of all\nother allusion to the High Priestly function of our Lord.\n\n[40] We may punctuate, \"_through faith, in His blood_\"; as if to say\n\"He is Propitiation in (in virtue of) His blood; we get the benefit\nthrough faith.\" But this rendering seems to us the less likely, as the\nless simple. The construction, \"_faith in_\" \u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03af, is fully\nverified by Mark i.\u00a015; \"believe _in_ the Gospel.\"\n\n[41] \u1f08\u03bd\u03bf\u03c7\u03ae: we think that the word here is a pregnant expression\nfor \"_the time when God forebore_.\"\n\n[42] Reading \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 not \u03bf\u1f56\u03bd.\n\n[43] \u0394\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9: the present infinitive, as in ver. 25, puts\nbefore us the permanence of the principle on which is based the\ndefinite act.\n\n[44] _The Life of Father Paul the Venetian, translated out of\nItalian_: London, 1676.\n\n[45] _Memoir of the Early Life of William Cowper, written by Himself_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\n_ABRAHAM AND DAVID_\n\nROMANS iv.\u00a01-12\n\n\nThe Jewish disputant is present still to the Apostle's thought. It\ncould not be otherwise in this argument. No question was more pressing\non the Jewish mind than that of Acceptance; thus far, truly, the\nteaching and discipline of the Old Testament had not been in vain. And\nSt Paul had not only, in his Christian Apostleship, debated that\nproblem countless times with Rabbinic combatants; he had been himself\na Rabbi, and knew by experience alike the misgivings of the\nRabbinist's conscience, and the subterfuges of his reasoning.\n\nSo now there rises before him the great name of Abraham, as a familiar\nwatchword of the controversy of Acceptance. He has been contending for\nan absolutely inclusive verdict of \"_guilty_\" against man, against\nevery man. He has been shutting with all his might the doors of\nthought against human \"_boasting_,\" against the least claim of man to\nhave merited his acceptance. Can he carry this principle into quite\nimpartial issues? Can he, a Jew in presence of Jews, apply it without\napology, without reserve, to \"the Friend of God\" himself? What will he\nsay to that majestic Example of man? His name itself sounds like a\nclaim to almost worship. As he moves across the scene of Genesis,\nwe--even we Gentiles--rise up as it were in reverent homage, honouring\nthis figure at once so real and so near to the ideal; marked by\ninnumerable lines of individuality, totally unlike the composed\npicture of legend or poem, yet walking with God Himself in a personal\nintercourse so habitual, so tranquil, so congenial. Is this a name to\nbecloud with the assertion that here, as everywhere, acceptance was\nhopeless but for the clemency of God, \"_gift-wise, without deeds of\nlaw_\"? Was not at least Abraham accepted because he was morally worthy\nof acceptance? And if Abraham, then surely, in abstract possibility,\nothers also. There must be a group of men, small or large, there is at\nleast one man, who can \"boast\" of his peace with God.\n\nOn the other hand, if with Abraham it was not thus, then the inference\nis easy to all other men. Who but he is called \"the Friend\" (2\u00a0Chron.\nxx.\u00a07, Isai. xli.\u00a08)? Moses himself, the almost deified Lawgiver, is\nbut \"the Servant,\" trusted, intimate, honoured in a sublime degree by\nhis eternal Master. But he is never called \"the Friend.\" That peculiar\ntitle seems to preclude altogether the question of a legal acceptance.\nWho thinks of his friend as one whose relation to him needs to be good\nin law at all? The friend stands as it were behind law, or above it,\nin respect of his fellow. He holds a relation implying personal\nsympathies, identity of interests, contact of thought and will, not an\nanxious previous settlement of claims, and remission of liabilities.\nIf then the Friend of the Eternal Judge proves, nevertheless, to have\nneeded Justification, and to have received it by the channel not of\nhis personal worth but of the grace of God, there will be little\nhesitation about other men's need, and the way by which alone other\nmen shall find it met.\n\nIn approaching this great example, for such it will prove to be, St\nPaul is about to illustrate all the main points of his inspired\nargument. By the way, by implication, he gives us the all-important\nfact that even an Abraham, even \"the Friend,\" did need justification\n_somehow_. Such is the eternal Holy One that no man can walk by His\nside and live, no, not in the path of inmost \"friendship,\" without an\nacceptance before His face as He is Judge. Then again, such is He,\nthat even an Abraham found this acceptance, as a matter of fact, not\nby merit but by faith; not by presenting himself, but by renouncing\nhimself, and taking God for all; by pleading not, \"I am worthy,\" but,\n\"Thou art faithful.\" It is to be shewn that Abraham's justification\nwas such that it gave him not the least ground for self-applause; it\nwas not in the least degree based on merit. It was \"of grace, not of\ndebt.\" A promise of sovereign kindness, connected with the redemption\nof himself, and of the world, was made to him. He was not morally\nworthy of such a promise, if only because he was not morally perfect.\nAnd he was, humanly speaking, physically incapable of it. But God\noffered Himself freely to Abraham, in His promise; and Abraham opened\nthe empty arms of personal reliance to receive the unearned gift. Had\nhe stayed first to earn it he would have shut it out; he would have\nclosed his arms. Rightly renouncing himself, because seeing and\ntrusting his gracious God, the sight of whose holy glory annihilates\nthe idea of man's claims, he opened his arms, and the God of peace\nfilled the void. The man received his God's approval, because he\ninterposed nothing of his own to intercept it.\n\nFrom one point of view, the all-important view-point here, it mattered\nnot what Abraham's conduct had been. As a fact, he was already devout\nwhen the incident of Gen. xv. occurred. But he was also actually a\nsinner; _that_ is made quite plain by Gen. xii., the very chapter of\nthe Call. And potentially, according to Scripture, he was a great\nsinner; for he was an instance of the human heart. But this, while it\nconstituted Abraham's urgent need of acceptance, was not in the least\na barrier to his acceptance, when he turned from himself, in the great\ncrisis of absolute faith, and accepted God in His promise.\n\nThe principle of the acceptance of \"the Friend\" was identically that\nwhich underlies the acceptance of the most flagrant transgressor. As\nSt Paul will soon remind us, David in the guilt of his murderous\nadultery, and Abraham in the grave walk of his worshipping obedience,\nstand upon the same level here. Actually or potentially, each is a\ngreat sinner. Each turns from himself, unworthy, to God in His\npromise. And the promise is his, not because his hand is full of\nmerit, but because it is empty of himself.\n\nIt is true that Abraham's justification, unlike David's, is not\nexplicitly connected in the narrative with a moral crisis of his soul.\nHe is not depicted, in Gen. xv., as a conscious penitent, flying from\njustice to the Judge. But is there not a deep suggestion that\nsomething not unlike this did then pass over him, and through him?\nThat short assertion, that \"he trusted the LORD, and He counted it to\nhim for righteousness,\" is an anomaly in the story, if it has not a\nspiritual depth hidden in it. Why, just then and there, should we be\ntold this about his acceptance with God? Is it not because the\nvastness of the promise had made the man see in contrast the absolute\nfailure of a corresponding merit in himself? Job (xlii.\u00a01-6) was\nbrought to self-despairing penitence not by the fires of the Law but\nby the glories of Creation. Was not Abraham brought to the same\nconsciousness, whatever form it may have taken in his character and\nperiod, by the greater glories of the Promise? Surely it was there and\nthen that he learnt that secret of self-rejection in favour of God\nwhich is the other side of all true faith, and which came out long\nyears afterwards, in its mighty issues of \"work,\" when he laid Isaac\non the altar.[46]\n\nIt is true, again, that Abraham's faith, his justifying reliance, is\nnot connected in the narrative with any articulate expectation of an\natoning Sacrifice. But here first we dare to say, even at the risk of\nthat formidable charge, an antique and obsolete theory of the\nPatriarchal creed, that probably Abraham knew much more about the\nComing One than a modern critique will commonly allow. \"He rejoiced to\nsee My day; and he saw it, and was glad\" (John viii.\u00a056). And further,\nthe faith which justifies, though what it touches in fact is the\nblessed Propitiation, or rather God in the Propitiation, does not\nalways imply an articulate knowledge of the whole \"reason of the\nhope.\" It assuredly implies a true submission to _all that the\nbeliever knows_ of the revelation of that reason. But he may (by\ncircumstances) know very little of it, and yet be a believer. The\nsaint who prayed (Psal. cxliii.\u00a02) \"Enter not into judgment with Thy\nservant, O Lord, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified,\"\ncast himself upon a God who, being absolutely holy, yet can somehow,\njust as He is, justify the sinner. Perhaps he knew much of the reason\nof Atonement, as it lies in God's mind, and as it is explained, as it\nis demonstrated, in the Cross. But perhaps he did not. What he did was\nto cast himself up to the full light he had, \"without one plea,\" upon\nhis Judge, as a man awfully conscious of his need, and trusting only\nin a sovereign mercy, which _must_ also be a righteous, a\nlaw-honouring mercy, because it is the mercy of the Righteous Lord.\n\nLet us not be mistaken, meanwhile, as if such words meant that a\ndefinite creed of the Atoning Work is not possible, or is not\nprecious. This Epistle will help us to such a creed, and so will\nGalatians, and Hebrews, and Isaiah, and Leviticus, and the whole\nScripture. \"Prophets and kings desired to see the things we see, and\ndid not see them\" (Luke x.\u00a024). But that is no reason why we should\nnot adore the mercy that has unveiled to us the Cross and the blessed\nLamb.\n\nBut it is time to come to the Apostle's words as they stand.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =What then shall we say that Abraham has\nfound=--\"_has found_,\" the perfect tense of abiding and always\nsignificant fact--\"_has found_,\" in his great discovery of divine\npeace--=our forefather, according to the flesh?= \"_According to the\nflesh_\"; that is to say, (having regard to the prevailing moral use of\nthe word \"_flesh_\" in this Epistle,) \"in respect of self,\" \"in the\nregion of his own works and merits.\"[47] [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =For if\nAbraham was justified as a result of works, he has a boast;= he has a\nright to self-applause. Yes, such is the principle indicated here; if\nman merits, man is entitled to self-applause. May we not say, in\npassing, that the common instinctive sense of the moral discord of\nself-applause, above all in spiritual things, is one among many\nwitnesses to the truth of our justification by faith only? But St Paul\ngoes on; =Ah, but not towards God;= not when even an Abraham looks HIM\nin the face, and sees himself in that Light. As if to say, \"If he\nearned justification, he might have boasted rightly; but 'rightful\nboasting,' when man sees God, is a thing unthinkable; therefore his\njustification was given, not earned.\" [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =For what\nsays the Scripture,= the passage, the great text (Gen. xv.\u00a06)?\n=\"Now Abraham believed[48] God, and it was reckoned to him as\nrighteousness.\"= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =Now to the man who works, his\n(\u1f41) reward,= his earned requital,[49] =is not reckoned grace-wise,=\nas a gift of generosity, =but debt-wise; it is to the man who does not\nwork, but believes, confides, in Him who justifies the ungodly one,\nthat \"his faith is reckoned as righteousness.\"= \"_The ungodly one_\";\nas if to bring out by an extreme case the glory of the wonderful\nparadox. \"_The ungodly_,\" the \u1f00\u03c3\u03b5\u03b2\u03ae\u03c2, is undoubtedly a word intense\nand dark; it means not the sinner only, but the open, defiant sinner.\nEvery human heart is _capable_ of such sinfulness, for \"_the_ heart is\ndeceitful above all things.\" In this respect, as we have seen, in the\npotential respect, even an Abraham is a great sinner. But there are\nindeed \"sinners and sinners,\" in the experiences of life; and St Paul\nis ready now with a conspicuous example of the justification of one\nwho was truly, at one miserable period, by his own fault, \"an ungodly\none.\"\n\n\"Thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme\"\n(2\u00a0Sam. xii.\u00a014). He had done so indeed. The faithful photography of\nthe Scriptures shews us David, the chosen, the faithful, the man of\nspiritual experiences, acting out his lustful look in adultery, and\nhalf covering his adultery with the most base of constructive murders,\nand then, for long months, refusing to repent. Yet was David\njustified: \"I have sinned against the Lord\"; \"The Lord also hath put\naway thy sin.\" He turned from his awfully ruined self to God, and _at\nonce_ he received remission. Then, and to the last, he was chastised.\nBut then and there he was unreservedly justified, and with a\njustification which made him sing a loud beatitude.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =Just as David too speaks his felicitation (\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd\n\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u1f78\u03bd) of the man= (and it was himself) =to whom God reckons\nrighteousness irrespective of works,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =\"Happy they\nwhose iniquities have been remitted, and whose sins have been\ncovered;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =happy the man to whom the Lord will not\nreckon sin\"= (Psal. xxxii.\u00a01, 2). Wonderful words, in the context of\nthe experience out of which they spring! A human soul which has\ngreatly transgressed, and which knows it well, and knows too that to\nthe end it will suffer a sore discipline because of it, for example\nand humiliation, nevertheless knows its pardon, and knows it as a\nhappiness indescribable. The iniquity has been \"_lifted_\"; the sin has\nbeen \"_covered_,\" has been struck out of the book of \"_reckoning_,\"\nwritten by the Judge. The penitent will never forgive himself; in this\nvery Psalm he tears from his sin all the covering woven by his own\nheart. But his God has given him remission, has reckoned him as one\nwho has not sinned, so far as access to Him and peace with Him are in\nquestion. And so his song of shame and penitence begins with a\nbeatitude, and ends with a cry of joy.\n\nWe pause to note the exposition implied here of the phrase, \"_to\nreckon righteousness_.\" It is to treat the man as one whose account is\nclear. \"Happy the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.\" In the\nphrase itself, \"_to reckon_ righteousness,\" (as in its Latin\nequivalent, \"_to impute_ righteousness,\") the question, _what clears\nthe account_, is not answered. Suppose the impossible case of a record\nkept absolutely clear by the man's own sinless goodness; then the\n\"reckoned,\" the \"imputed, righteousness\" would mean the Law's\ncontentment with him on his own merits. But the context of human sin\nfixes the actual reference to an \"imputation\" which means that the\nawfully defective record is treated, for a divinely valid reason, as\nif it were, what it is not, good. The man is at peace with his Judge,\nthough he has sinned, because the Judge has joined him to Himself, and\ntaken up his liability, and answered for it to His own Law. The man is\ndealt with as righteous, being a sinner, for his glorious Redeemer's\nsake. It is pardon, but more than pardon. It is no mere indulgent\ndismissal; it is a welcome as of the worthy to the embrace of the Holy\nOne.\n\nSuch is the Justification of God. We shall need to remember it through\nthe whole course of the Epistle. To make Justification a mere synonym\nfor Pardon is always inadequate. Justification is the contemplation\nand treatment of the penitent sinner, found in Christ, as righteous,\nas satisfactory to the Law, not merely as one whom the Law lets go. Is\nthis a fiction? Not at all. It is vitally linked to two great\nspiritual facts. One is, that the sinner's Friend has Himself dealt,\nin the sinner's interests, with the Law, honouring its holy claim to\nthe uttermost under the human conditions which He freely undertook.\nThe other is that he has mysteriously, but really, joined the sinner\nto Himself, in faith, by the Spirit; joined him to Himself as limb, as\nbranch, as bride. Christ and His disciples are _really_ One in the\norder of spiritual life. And so the community between Him and them is\nreal, the community of their debt on the one side, of His merit on the\nother.\n\nNow again comes up the question, never far distant in St Paul's\nthought, and in his life, what these facts of Justification have to do\nwith Gentile sinners. Here is David blessing God for his unmerited\nacceptance, an acceptance by the way wholly unconnected with the\nritual of the altar. Here above all is Abraham, \"justified in\nconsequence of faith.\" But David was a child of the covenant of\ncircumcision. And Abraham was the father of that covenant. Do not\ntheir justifications speak only to those who stand, with them, inside\nthat charmed circle? Was not Abraham justified by faith _plus\ncircumcision_? Did not the faith act only because he was already one\nof the privileged? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =This felicitation therefore,=\nthis cry of \"Happy are the freely justified,\" =is it upon the\ncircumcision, or upon the uncircumcision? For we say that to Abraham,=\nwith an emphasis[50] on \"_Abraham_,\" =his faith was reckoned as\nrighteousness.= The question, he means, is legitimate, \"_for_\" Abraham\nis not at first sight a case in point for the justification of the\noutside world, the non-privileged races of man. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.]\nBut consider: =How then was it reckoned? To Abraham in circumcision or\nin uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision;=\nfourteen years at least had to pass before the covenant rite came in.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =And he received the sign of circumcision,= (with\na stress upon \"_sign_,\" as if to say that the \"_thing_,\" the reality\nsigned, was his already,) =as a seal on the righteousness of the faith\nthat was in his circumcision,= a seal on the acceptance which he\nreceived, antecedent to all formal privilege, in that bare hand of\nfaith. And all this was so, and was recorded so, with a purpose of\nfar-reaching significance: =that he might be father,= exemplar,\nrepresentative, =of all who believe notwithstanding uncircumcision,[51]\nthat to them righteousness should be reckoned;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.]\n=and father of circumcision,= exemplar and representative within its\ncircle also, =for those who do not merely belong to circumcision, but\nfor those[52] who also step in the track of the uncircumcision-faith\nof our father Abraham.=\n\nSo privilege had nothing to do with acceptance, except to countersign\nthe grant of a grace absolutely free. The Seal did nothing whatever to\nmake the Covenant. It only verified the fact, and guaranteed the _bona\nfides_ of the Giver. As the Christian Sacraments are, so was the\nPatriarchal Sacrament; it was \"a sure testimony and effectual sign of\nGod's grace and good will.\"[53] But the grace and the good will come\nnot through the Sacrament as through a medium, but straight from God\nto the man who took God at His word. \"The means whereby he received,\"\nthe mouth with which he fed upon the celestial food, \"was faith.\"[54]\nThe rite came not between the man and his accepting Lord, but as it\nwere was present at the side to assure him with a physical concurrent\nfact that all was true. \"Nothing between\" was the law of the great\ntransaction; nothing, not even a God-given ordinance; nothing but the\nempty arms receiving the Lord Himself;--and empty arms indeed put\n\"nothing between.\"\n\n\nDETACHED NOTE TO CHAPTER X\n\n_The following is extracted from the Commentary on this Epistle in\n\"The Cambridge Bible\"_ (p. 261).\n\n\"[What shall we say to] the verbal discrepancy between St Paul's\nexplicit teaching that 'a man is justified by faith _without works_,'\nand St James' equally explicit teaching that '_by works_ a man is\njustified, and _not by faith only_'? With only the New Testament\nbefore us, it is hard not to assume that the one Apostle has in view\nsome distortion of the doctrine of _the other_. But the fact (see\nLightfoot's _Galatians_, detached note to ch. iii.) that Abraham's\nfaith was a staple Rabbinic text alters the case, by making it\nperfectly possible that St James (writing to members of the Jewish\nDispersion) had not Apostolic but Rabbinic teaching in view. And the\nline such teaching took is indicated by Jas. ii.\u00a019, where an example\nis given of the faith in question; and that example is concerned\nwholly with the grand point of _strictly Jewish orthodoxy_--GOD IS\nONE.... The persons addressed [were thus those whose] idea of faith\nwas not _trustful acceptance_, a belief of the heart, but _orthodox\nadherence_, a belief of the head. And St James [took] these persons\nstrictly on their own ground, and assumed, for his argument, their own\nvery faulty account of faith to be correct.\n\n\"He would thus be proving the point, equally dear to St Paul, that\nmere theoretic orthodoxy, apart from effects on the will, is\nvalueless. He would not, in the remotest degree, be disputing the\nPauline doctrine that the guilty soul is put into a position of\nacceptance with the FATHER only by vital connexion with the SON, and\nthat this connexion is effectuated, _absolutely and alone_, not by\npersonal merit, but by trustful acceptance of the Propitiation and its\nall-sufficient vicarious merit. From such trustful acceptance 'works'\n(in the profoundest sense) will inevitably follow; not as antecedents\nbut as consequents of justification. And thus ... 'it is faith alone\nwhich justifies; but the faith which justifies can never be alone.'\"\n\n[46] On St James' use of that great incident, see detached note, p.\n115.\n\n[47] We see much reason, however, in the explanation which connects\n\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03b1 with \u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u03b1 (or \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03bf\u03c1\u03b1) \u1f21\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd: \"_our father according to\nthe flesh_,\" our natural progenitor.\n\n[48] In the Greek, \u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03c5\u03c3\u03b5 stands first in the clause, and is thus\nemphatic.\n\n[49] Not that \u03bc\u03b9\u03c3\u03b8\u1f78\u03c2 always gives the thought of earning as a\nright. It may mean merely \"_result_, _issue_,\" however realized. See\n_e.g._ 2\u00a0John 8. But the context here decides the reference.\n\n[50] By the position of the name in the Greek sentence.\n\n[51] \u0394\u03b9\u1f70 \u1f00\u03ba\u03c1\u03bf\u03b2\u03c5\u03c3\u03c4\u03af\u03b1\u03c2: as if _passing through_ its seeming obstacle.\n\n[52] So the Greek precisely. But practically the words \"_for those_\"\nmay be omitted here.\n\n[53] See Article xxv.\n\n[54] See Article xxviii.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\n_ABRAHAM_ (ii)\n\nROMANS iv.\u00a013-25\n\n\nAgain we approach the name of Abraham, Friend of God, Father of the\nFaithful. We have seen him justified by faith, personally accepted\nbecause turning altogether to the sovereign Promiser. We see him now\nin some of the glorious issues of that acceptance; \"Heir of the\nworld,\" \"Father of many nations.\" And here too all is of grace, all\ncomes through faith. Not works not merit, not ancestral and ritual\nprivilege, secured to Abraham the mighty Promise; it was his because\nhe, pleading absolutely nothing of personal worthiness, and supported\nby no guarantees of ordinance \"_believed God_.\"\n\nWe see him as he steps out from his tent under that glorious canopy,\nthat Syrian \"night of stars.\" We look up with him to the mighty\ndepths, and receive their impression upon our eyes. Behold the\ninnumerable points and clouds of light! Who can count the half-visible\nrays which make white the heavens, gleaming behind, beyond, the\nthousands of more numerable luminaries? The lonely old man who stands\ngazing there, perhaps side by side with his divine Friend manifested\nin human form, is told to try to count. And then he hears the promise,\n\"So shall thy seed be.\"\n\nIt was then and there that he received justification by faith. It was\nthen and there also that, by faith, as a man uncovenanted, unworthy,\nbut called upon to take what God gave, he received the promise that he\nshould be \"heir of the world.\"\n\nIt was an unequalled paradox--unless indeed we place beside it the\nscene when, eighteen centuries later, in the same land, a descendant\nof Abraham's, a Syrian Craftsman, speaking as a religious Leader to\nHis followers, told them (Matt. xiii.\u00a037, 38) that the \"field was the\nworld,\" and He the Master of the field.\n\n\"_Heir of the world_\"! Did this mean, of the universe itself? Perhaps\nit did, for CHRIST was to be the Claimant of the promise in due time;\nand under His feet all things, literally all, are set already in\nright, and shall be hereafter set in fact. But the more limited, and\nprobably in this place the fitter, reference is vast enough; a\nreference to \"the world\" of earth, and of man upon it. In his \"seed,\"\nthat childless senior was to be King of Men, Monarch of the continents\nand oceans. To him, in his seed, \"the utmost parts of the earth\" were\ngiven \"for his possession.\" Not his little clan only, encamped on the\ndark fields around him, nor even the direct descendants only of his\nbody, however numerous, but \"all nations,\" \"all kindreds of the\nearth,\" were \"to call him blessed,\" and to be blessed in him, as their\npatriarchal Chief, their Head in covenant with God. \"We see not yet\nall things\" fulfilled of this astonishing grant and guarantee. We\nshall not do so, till vast promised developments of the ways of God\nhave come to sight. But we do see already steps taken towards that\nissue, steps long, majestic, never to be retraced. We see at this hour\nin literally every region of the human world the messengers--an always\nmore numerous army--of the Name of \"the Son of David, the Son of\nAbraham.\" They are working everywhere; and everywhere, notwithstanding\ninnumerable difficulties, they are winning the world for the great\nHeir of the Promise. Through paths they know not these missionaries\nhave gone out; paths hewn by the historical providence of God, and by\nHis eternal life in the Church, and in the soul. When \"the world\" has\nseemed shut, by war, by policy, by habit, by geography, it has opened,\nthat they may enter; till we see Japan throwing back its castle-doors,\nand inner Africa not only discovered but become a household word for\nthe sake of its missions, of its martyrdoms, of the resolve of its\nnative chiefs to abolish slavery even in its domestic form.[55]\n\nNo secular conscious programme has had to do with this. Causes\nentirely beyond the reach of human combination have been, as a fact,\ncombined; the world has been opened to the Abrahamic message just as\nthe Church has been inspired anew to enter in, and has been awakened\nto a deeper understanding of her glorious mission. For here too is the\nfinger of God; not only in the history of the world, but in the life\nof the Church and of the Christian. For a long century now, in the\nmost living centres of Christendom, there has been waking and rising a\nmighty revived consciousness of the glory of the Gospel of the Cross,\nand of the Spirit; of the grace of Christ, and also of His claim. And\nat this hour, after many a gloomy forecast of unbelieving and\napprehensive thought, there are more men and women ready to go to the\nends of the earth with the message of the Son of Abraham, than in all\ntime before.\n\nContrast these issues, even these--leaving out of sight the mighty\nfuture--with the starry night when the wandering Friend of God was\nasked to believe the incredible, and was justified by faith, and was\ninvested through faith with the world's crown. Is not God indeed in\nthe fulfilment? Was He not indeed in the promise? We are ourselves a\npart of the fulfilment; we, one of the \"many Nations\" of whom the\ngreat Solitary was then made \"the Father.\" Let us bear our witness,\nand set to our seal.\n\nIn doing so, we attest and illustrate the work, the ever blessed work,\nof faith. That man's reliance, at that great midnight-hour, merited\nnothing, but received everything. He took in the first place\nacceptance with God, and then with it, as it were folded and embedded\nin it, he took riches inexhaustible of privilege and blessing; above\nall, the blessing of being made a blessing. So now, in view of that\nhour of Promise, and of these ages of fulfilment, we see our own path\nof peace in its divine simplicity. We read, as if written on the\nheavens in stars, the words, \"Justified by Faith.\" And we understand\nalready, what the Epistle will soon amply unfold to us, how for us, as\nfor Abraham, blessings untold of other orders lie treasured in the\ngrant of our acceptance. \"Not for him only, but for us also,\nbelieving.\"\n\nLet us turn again to the text.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =For not through law came the promise to Abraham,\nor to his seed, of his being the world's heir, but through faith's\nrighteousness;= through the acceptance received by uncovenanted,\nunprivileged faith. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =For if those who belong to\nlaw inherit= Abraham's promise, =faith is ipso facto void, and the\npromise is ipso facto annulled.[56]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =For wrath\nis what the Law works out;= it is only[57] =where law is not that\ntransgression is not either.= As much as to say, that to suspend\neternal blessing, the blessing which in its nature can deal only with\nideal conditions, upon man's obedience to law, is to bar fatally the\nhope of a fulfilment. Why? Not because the Law is not holy; not\nbecause disobedience is not guilty; as if man were ever, for a moment,\nmechanically compelled to disobey. But because as a fact man is a\nfallen being, however he became so, and whatever is his guilt as such.\nHe is fallen, and has no true self-restoring power. If then he is to\nbe blessed, the work must begin in spite of himself. It must come from\nwithout, it must come unearned, it must be of grace, through faith.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =Therefore it is on= (literally, \"_out of_\")\n=faith, in order to be grace-wise, to make secure the promise, to all\nthe seed, not only to that which belongs to the Law, but to that which\nbelongs to the faith of Abraham,= to the \"seed\" whose claim is no less\nand no more than Abraham's faith; =who is father of all us,=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =as it stands written,= (Gen. xvii.\u00a05), \"=Father\nof many Nations[58] have I appointed thee=\"--=in the sight of the God\nwhom he believed, who vivifies the dead, and calls,= addresses, deals\nwith, =things not-being as being.= \"_In the sight of God_\"; as if to\nsay, that it matters little what Abraham is for \"us all\" in the sight\nof _man_, in the sight and estimate of the Pharisee. The Eternal\nJustifier and Promiser dealt with Abraham, and in him with the world,\nbefore the birth of that Law which the Pharisee has perverted into his\nrampart of privilege and isolation. He took care that the mighty\ntransaction should take place not actually only, but significantly, in\nthe open field and beneath the boundless cope of stars. It was to\naffect not one tribe, but all the nations. It was to secure blessings\nwhich were not to be demanded by the privileged, but taken by the\nneedy. And so the great representative Believer was called to believe\nbefore Law, before legal Sacrament, and under every personal\ncircumstance of humiliation and discouragement. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.]\n=Who, past hope, on hope, believed;= stepping from the dead hope of\nnature to the bare hope of the promise, =so that he became father of\nmany Nations; according to what stands spoken, \"So shall thy seed\nbe.\"[59]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =And, because he failed not[60] in his\n(\u03c4\u1fc7) faith, he did not notice his own body, already turned to death,\nnear (\u03c0\u03bf\u03c5) a century old as he now was, and the death-state of the\nwomb of Sarah.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =No, on the promise of God--he\ndid not waver by his unbelief,[61] but received strength[62] by his\n(\u03c4\u1fc7) faith, giving glory to God,= the \"glory\" of dealing with Him as\nbeing what He is, Almighty and All-true, [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =and\nfully persuaded that what He has promised He is able actually to do.=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =Wherefore actually (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76) it was reckoned to\nhim as righteousness.= Not because such a \"giving to God the glory\"\nwhich is only His eternal due was morally meritorious, in the least\ndegree. If it were so, Abraham \"would have whereof to glory.\" The\n\"_wherefore_\" is concerned with the whole record, the whole\ntransaction. Here was a man who took the right way to receive\nsovereign blessing. He interposed nothing between the Promiser and\nhimself. He treated the Promiser as what He is, all-sufficient and\nall-faithful. He opened his empty hand in that persuasion, and so,\nbecause the hand was empty, the blessing was laid upon its palm.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.] =Now it was not written only on his account, that\nit was reckoned to him,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.] =but also on account of\nus, to whom it is sure (\u03bc\u03ad\u03bb\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9) to be reckoned,= in the fixed\nintention of the divine Justifier, as each successive applicant comes\nto receive; =believing as we do on the Raiser-up of Jesus our Lord\nfrom the dead;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =who was delivered up on account\nof our transgressions, and was raised up on account of our\njustification.=\n\nHere the great argument moves to a pause, to the cadence of a glorious\nrest. More and more, as we have pursued it, it has disengaged itself\nfrom the obstructions of the opponent, and advanced with a larger\nmotion into a positive and rejoicing assertion of the joys and wealth\nof the believing. We have left far behind the pertinacious cavils\nwhich ask, now whether there is any hope for man outside legalism, now\nwhether within legalism there can be any danger even for deliberate\nunholiness, and again whether the Gospel of gratuitous acceptance does\nnot cancel the law of duty. We have left the Pharisee for Abraham, and\nhave stood beside him to look and listen. He, in the simplicity of a\nsoul which has seen itself and seen the Lord, and so has not one word,\none thought, about personal privilege, claim, or even fitness,\nreceives a perfect acceptance in the hand of faith, and finds that the\nacceptance carries with it a promise of unimaginable power and\nblessing. And now from Abraham the Apostle turns to \"_us_,\" \"_us\nall_,\" \"_us also_.\" His thoughts are no longer upon adversaries and\nobjections, but on the company of the faithful, on those who are one\nwith Abraham, and with each other, in their happy willingness to come,\nwithout a dream of merit, and take from God His mighty peace in the\nname of Christ. He finds himself not in synagogue or in school,\ndisputing, but in the believing assembly, teaching, unfolding in peace\nthe wealth of grace. He speaks to congratulate, to adore.\n\nLet us join him there in spirit, and sit down with Aquila and\nPriscilla, with Nereus, and Nymphas, and Persis, and in our turn\nremember that \"it was written for us also.\" Quite surely, and with a\nfulness of blessing which we can never find out in its perfection, to\nus also \"_faith is sure to be reckoned_, \u03bc\u03ad\u03bb\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9 \u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03b6\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9, _as\nrighteousness, believing as we do_, \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03cd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd, _on the\nRaiser-up of Jesus our Lord_, ours also, _from the dead_.\" To us, as\nto them, the Father presents Himself as the Raiser-up of the Son. He\nis known by us in that act. It gives us His own warrant for a\nboundless trust in His character, His purposes, His unreserved\nintention to accept the sinner who comes to His feet in the name of\nHis Crucified and Risen Son. He bids us--not forget that He is the\nJudge, who cannot for a moment connive. But He bids us believe, He\nbids us _see_, that He, being the Judge, and also the Law-Giver, has\ndealt with His own Law, in a way that satisfies it, that satisfies\nHIMSELF. He bids us thus understand that He now \"is sure to\" justify,\nto accept, to find not guilty, to find righteous, satisfactory, the\nsinner who believes. He comes to us, He, this eternal Father of our\nLord, to assure us, in the Resurrection, that He has sought, and has\n\"found, a Ransom\"; that He has not been prevailed upon to have mercy,\na mercy behind which there may therefore lurk a gloomy reserve, but\nhas Himself \"set forth\" the beloved Propitiation, and then accepted\nHim (not it, but Him) with the acceptance of not His word only but His\ndeed. He is the God of Peace. How do we know it? We thought He was the\nGod of the tribunal, and the doom. Yes; but He has \"brought the great\nShepherd from the dead, in the blood of the everlasting Covenant\"\n(Heb. xiii.\u00a020). Then, O eternal Father of our Lord, we will believe\nThee; we will believe in Thee; we will, we do, in the very letter of\nthe words Thou didst bid Thy messenger write down here, \"_believe upon\nThee_,\" \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f18\u03b3\u03b5\u03af\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1, as in a deep repose. Truly, in _this_\nglorious respect, though Thou art consuming Fire, \"there is nothing in\nThee to dread.\"\n\n\"_Who was delivered up because of our transgressions._\" So dealt the\nFather with the Son, who gave Himself. \"It pleased the Lord to bruise\nHim\"; \"He spared not His own Son.\" \"_Because of our transgressions_\";\nto meet the fact that we had gone astray. What, was that fact thus to\nbe met? Was our self-will, our pride, our falsehood, our impurity, our\nindifference to God, our resistance to God, to be thus met? Was it to\nbe met at all, and not rather left utterly alone to its own horrible\nissues? Was it eternally necessary that, if met, it must be met thus,\nby nothing less than the delivering up of Jesus our Lord? It was even\nso. Assuredly if a milder expedient would have met our guilt, the\nFATHER would not have \"delivered up\" the SON. The Cross was nothing if\nnot an absolute _sine qu\u00e2 non_. There is that in sin, and in\nGod, which made it eternally necessary that--if man was to be\njustified--the Son of God must not only live but die, and not only die\nbut die thus, delivered up, given over to be done to death, as those\nwho do great sin are done.\n\nDeep in the heart of the divine doctrine of Atonement lies this\nelement of it, the \"_because of our transgressions_\"; the exigency of\nGolgotha, due to our sins. The remission, the acquittal, the\nacceptance, was not a matter for the verbal _fiat_ of divine\nautocracy. It was a matter not between God and creation, which to Him\nis \"a little thing,\" but between God and His Law, that is to say,\nHimself, as He is eternal Judge. And this, to the Eternal, is _not_ a\nlittle thing. So the solution called for no little thing, but for the\nAtoning Death, for the laying by the Father on the Son of the\niniquities of us all, that we might open our arms and receive from the\nFather the merits of the Son.\n\n\"_And was raised up because of our justification_;\" because our\nacceptance had been won, by His deliverance up. Such is the simplest\nexplanation of the grammar, and of the import. The Lord's Resurrection\nappears as, so to speak, the mighty sequel, and also the demonstration,\nwarrant, proclamation, of His acceptance as the Propitiation, and\ntherefore of our acceptance in Him. For indeed it _was_ our\njustification, when He paid our penalty. True, the acceptance does not\naccrue to the individual till he believes, and so receives. The gift\nis not put into the hand till it is open, and empty. But the gift has\nbeen bought ready for the recipient long before he kneels to receive\nit. It was his, in provision, from the moment of the purchase; and the\nglorious Purchaser came up from the depths where He had gone down to\nbuy, holding aloft in His sacred hands the golden Gift, ours because\nHis for us.\n\nA little while before he wrote to Rome, St Paul had written to\nCorinth, and the same truth was in his soul then, though it came out\nonly passingly, while with infinite impressiveness. \"If Christ is not\nrisen, idle is your faith; you are yet in your sins\" (1\u00a0Cor. xv.\u00a017).\nThat is to say, so the context irrefragably shews, you are yet in the\nguilt of your sins; you are still unjustified. \"In your sins\" cannot\npossibly there refer to the moral condition of the converts; for as a\nmatter of fact, which no doctrine could negative, the Corinthians\n_were_ \"changed men.\" \"In your sins\" refers therefore to guilt, to\nlaw, to acceptance. And it bids them look to the Atonement as the\nobjective _sine qu\u00e2 non_ for that, and to the Resurrection as the one\npossible, and the only necessary, warrant to faith that the Atonement\nhad secured its end.\n\n\"_Who was delivered up; who was raised up._\" When? About twenty-five\nyears before Paul sat dictating this sentence in the house of Gaius.\nThere were at that moment about three hundred known living people, at\nleast (1\u00a0Cor. xv.\u00a06), who had seen the Risen One with open eyes, and\nheard Him with conscious ears. From one point of view, all was\neternal, spiritual, invisible. From another point of view our\nsalvation was as concrete, as historical, as much a thing of place and\ndate, as the battle of Actium, or the death of Socrates. And what was\ndone, remains done.\n\n  \"Can length of years on God Himself exact,\n  And make that fiction which was once a fact?\"\n\n[55] In Uganda, 1893.\n\n[56] We attempt thus to represent the perfects, \u03ba\u03b5\u03ba\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b3\u03b7\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9.\n\n[57] Read \u03bf\u1f57 \u03b4\u1f72 not \u03bf\u1f57 \u03b3\u03ac\u03c1.\n\n[58] It is impossible to convey in English the point of the word\n\u1f14\u03b8\u03bd\u03b7 here, with its faint reference to the _Gentiles_ (in the sense\ncommon in later Judaism), spiritually \"naturalized\" among Abraham's\ndescendants.\n\n[59] Observe the characteristically _fragmentary_ quotation, which\nassumes the reader's knowledge of the context--the context of the\nstars. Compare Heb. vi.\u00a014, which similarly quotes Gen. xxii.\u00a016, 17.\n\n[60] \u039c\u1f74 \u1f00\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c2:--we attempt to convey the thought, given by the\naorist, that he _then and there_ was \"not weak.\"\n\n[61] We render this clause as literally as possible. It is as if he\nwould have written \"On the promise of God _he relied_,\" but changed\nthe expression to one more ample and more forcible. \"_His_ unbelief\":\n\u03c4\u1fc7 \u1f00\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03af\u1fb3. Not that Abraham _had_ unbelief actually, but he had it\npotentially; he _might have_ disbelieved. In that sense unbelief was\n\"_his_.\"\n\n[62] \u1f18\u03bd\u03b5\u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03bc\u03ce\u03b8\u03b7: the thought is of strength summoned _at a crisis_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\n_PEACE, LOVE, AND JOY FOR THE JUSTIFIED_\n\nROMANS v.\u00a01-11\n\n\nWe reached a pause in the Apostle's thought with the close of the last\nparagraph. We may reverently imagine, as in spirit we listen to his\ndictation, that a pause comes also in his work; that he is silent, and\nTertius puts down the pen, and they spend their hearts awhile on\nworshipping recollection and realization. The Lord delivered up; His\npeople justified; the Lord risen again, alive for evermore--here was\nmatter for love, joy, and wonder.\n\nBut the Letter must proceed, and the argument has its fullest and most\nwonderful developments yet to come. It has now already expounded the\ntremendous _need_ of justifying mercy, for every soul of man. It has\nshewn how _faith_, always and only, is the way to appropriate that\nmercy--the way of God's will, and manifestly also in its own nature\nthe way of deepest fitness. We have been allowed to see faith in\nillustrative action, in Abraham, who by faith, absolutely, without the\nleast advantage of traditional privilege, received justification, with\nthe vast concurrent blessings which it carried. Lastly we have heard\nSt Paul dictate to Tertius, for the Romans and for us, those\nsummarizing words (iv.\u00a025) in which we now have God's own certificate\nof the triumphant efficacy of that Atoning Work, which sustains the\nPromise in order that the Promise may sustain us believing.\n\nWe are now to approach the glorious theme of the Life of the\nJustified. This is to be seen not only as a state whose basis is the\nreconciliation of the Law, and whose gate and walls are the covenant\nPromise. It is to appear as a state warmed with eternal Love;\nirradiated with the prospect of glory. In it the man, knit up with\nChrist his Head, his Bridegroom, his all, yields himself with joy to\nthe God who has received him. In the living power of the heavenly\nSpirit, who perpetually delivers him from himself, he obeys, prays,\nworks, and suffers, in a liberty which is only not yet that of heaven,\nand in which he is maintained to the end by Him who has planned his\nfull personal salvation from eternity to eternity.\n\nIt has been the temptation of Christians sometimes to regard the truth\nand exposition of Justification as if there were a certain hardness\nand as it were dryness about it; as if it were a topic rather for the\nschools than for life. If excuses have ever been given for such a\nview, they must come from other quarters than the Epistle to the\nRomans. Christian teachers, of many periods, may have discussed\nJustification as coldly as if they were writing a law-book. Or again\nthey may have examined it as if it were a truth terminating in itself,\nthe Omega as well as the Alpha of salvation; and then it has been\nmisrepresented, of course. For the Apostle certainly does not discuss\nit drily; he lays deep indeed the foundations of Law and Atonement,\nbut he does it in the manner of a man who is not drawing the plan of a\nrefuge, but calling his reader from the tempest into what is not only\na refuge but a home. And again he does not discuss it in isolation. He\nspends his fullest, largest, and most loving expositions on its\nintense and vital connexion with concurrent truths. He is about now to\ntake us, through a noble vestibule, into the sanctuary of the life of\nthe accepted, the life of union, of surrender, of the Holy Ghost.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =Justified therefore on terms of faith,[63] we\nhave peace[64] towards our (\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd) God,= we possess in regard of Him\nthe \"quietness and assurance\" of acceptance, =through our Lord Jesus\nChrist,= thus delivered up, and raised up, for us; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.]\n=through whom we have actually (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76) found[65] our (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) introduction,=\nour free admission, =by our (\u03c4\u1fc7) faith, into this grace,= this\nunearned acceptance for Another's sake, =in which we stand,= instead\nof falling ruined, sentenced, at the tribunal. =And we exult,= not\nwith the sinful \"boasting\"[66] of the legalist, =but in hope=\n(literally, \"_on hope_,\" \u1f10\u03c0' \u1f10\u03bb\u03c0\u03af\u03b4\u03b9, as _reposing on_ the promised\nprospect) =of the glory of our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God,= the light of the heavenly\nvision and fruition of our Justifier, and the splendour of an eternal\nservice of Him in that fruition. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =Nor only so, but\nwe exult too in our tribulations,= with a better fortitude than the\nStoic's artificial serenity, =knowing that the tribulation works out,\ndevelops, patient persistency,[67]= as it occasions proof after proof\nof the power of God in our weakness, and thus generates _the habit_ of\nreliance; =and then (\u03b4\u1f72) the patient persistency= develops =proof,=\nbrings out in experience, as a proved fact, that through Christ we are\nnot what we were; =and then the proof= develops =hope,= solid and\ndefinite expectation of continuing grace and final glory, and, in\nparticular, of the Lord's Return; =and the hope does not shame,= does\nnot disappoint; it is a hope sure and steadfast, for it is the hope of\nthose who now know that they are objects of eternal Love; =because the\nlove of our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God has been poured out in our hearts;= His love to\nus has been as it were diffused through our consciousness, poured out\nin a glad experience as rain from the cloud, as floods from the rising\nspring,[68] =through the Holy Spirit that was given to us.=\n\nHere first is mentioned explicitly, in the Apostle's argument, (we do\nnot reckon ch. i.\u00a04 as in the argument,) the blessed Spirit, the Lord\nthe Holy Ghost. Hitherto the occasion for the mention has hardly\narisen. The considerations have been mainly upon the personal guilt of\nthe sinner, and the objective fact of the Atonement, and the exercise\nof faith, of trust in God, as a genuine personal act of man. With a\ndefinite purpose, we may reverently think, the discussion of faith has\nbeen kept thus far clear of the thought of anything lying behind\nfaith, of any \"grace\" _giving_ faith. For whether or no faith is the\ngift of God, it is most certainly the act of man; none should assert\nthis more decidedly than those who hold (as we do) that Eph. ii.\u00a08[69]\n_does_ teach that where saving faith is, it is there because God has\n\"given\" it. But how does He \"give\" it? Not, surely, by implanting a\nnew faculty, but by so opening the soul to God in Christ that the\ndivine magnet effectually draws the man to a willing repose upon such\na God. But the man does this, as an act, himself. He trusts God as\ngenuinely, as personally, as much with his own faculty of trust, as he\ntrusts a man whom he sees to be quite trustworthy and precisely fit to\nmeet an imperative need. Thus it is often the work of the evangelist\nand the teacher to insist upon the _duty_ rather than the _grace_ of\nfaith; to bid men rather thank God for faith _when they have believed_\nthan wait for the sense of an afflatus before believing. And is this\nnot what St Paul does here? At this point of his argument, _and not\nbefore_, he reminds the believer that his possession of peace, of\nhappiness, of hope, has been attained and realized not, ultimately, of\nhimself but through the working of the Eternal Spirit. The insight\ninto mercy, into a propitiation provided by divine love, and so into\nthe holy secret of the divine love itself, has been given him by the\nHoly Ghost, who has taken of the things of Christ, and shewn them to\nhim, and secretly handled his \"heart\" so that the fact of the love of\nGod is a part of experience at last. The man has been told of his\ngreat need, and of the sure and open refuge, and has stepped through\nits peaceful gate in the act of trusting the message and the will of\nGod. Now he is asked to look round, to look back, and bless the hand\nwhich, when he was outside in the naked field of death, opened his\neyes to see, and guided his will to choose.\n\nWhat a retrospect it is! Let us trace it from the first words of this\nparagraph again. First, here is the _sure fact_ of our acceptance, and\nthe reason of it, and the method. \"_Therefore_\"; let not that word be\nforgotten. Our Justification is no arbitrary matter, whose\ncauselessness suggests an illusion, or a precarious peace.\n\"_Therefore_\"; it rests upon an antecedent, in the logical chain of\ndivine facts. We have read that antecedent, ch. iv.\u00a025; \"Jesus our\nLord was given up because of our transgressions, and was raised up\nbecause of our justification.\" We assented to that fact; we have\naccepted Him, only and altogether, in this work of His. _Therefore_ we\nare justified, \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c9\u03b8\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2,[70] placed by an act of divine Love,\nworking in the line of divine Law, among those whom the Judge accepts,\nthat He may embrace them as Father. Then, in this possession of the\n\"peace\" of our acceptance, thus _led in_ (\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u03ae), through the\ngate of the promise, with the footstep of faith, we find inside our\nRefuge far more than merely safety. We look up from within the blessed\nwalls, sprinkled with atoning blood, and we see above them the hope of\nglory, invisible outside. And we turn to our present life within them\n(for all our life is to be lived within that broad sanctuary now), and\nwe find resources provided there for a present as well as a\nprospective joy. We address ourselves to the discipline of the place;\nfor it _has_ its discipline; the refuge is home, but it is also\nschool; and we find, when we begin to try it, that the discipline is\nfull of joy. It brings out into a joyful consciousness the power we\nnow have, in Him who has accepted us, in Him who is our Acceptance, to\nsuffer and to serve in love. Our life has become a life not of peace\nonly but of the hope which animates peace, and makes it flow \"as a\nriver.\" From hour to hour we enjoy the never-disappointing hope of\n\"grace for grace,\" new grace for the next new need; and beyond it, and\nabove it, the certainties of the hope of glory. To drop our metaphor\nof the sanctuary for that of the pilgrimage, we find ourselves upon a\npathway, steep and rocky, but always mounting into purer air, and so\nas to shew us nobler prospects; and at the summit--the pathway will be\ncontinued, and transfigured, into the golden street of the City; the\nsame track, but within the gate of heaven.\n\nInto all this the Holy Ghost has led us. He has been at the heart of\nthe whole internal process. He made the thunder of the Law articulate\nto our conscience. He gave us faith by manifesting Christ. And, in\nChrist, He has \"poured out in our hearts the love of God.\"\n\nFor now the Apostle takes up that word, \"_the Love of God_,\" and holds\nit to our sight, and we see in its pure glory no vague abstraction,\nbut the face, and the work, of Jesus Christ. Such is the context into\nwhich we now advance. He is reasoning on; \"_For_ Christ, when we still\nwere weak.\" He has set justification before us in its majestic\nlawfulness. But he has now to expand its mighty love, of which the\nHoly Ghost has made us conscious in our hearts. We are to see in the\nAtonement not only a guarantee that we have a valid title to a just\nacceptance. We are to see in it the love of the Father and the Son, so\nthat not our security only but our bliss may be full.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =For Christ, we still being weak,= (gentle\neuphemism for our utter impotence, our guilty inability to meet the\nsinless claim of the Law of God,) =in season,= in the fulness of time,\nwhen the ages of precept and of failure had done their work, and man\nhad learnt something to purpose of the lesson of self-despair, =for\nthe ungodly--died.= \"_For the ungodly_,\" \u1f51\u03c0\u1f72\u03c1 \u1f00\u03c3\u03b5\u03b2\u1ff6\u03bd, \"_concerning\nthem_,\" \"with reference to them,\" that is to say, in this context of\nsaving mercy, \"in their interests, for their rescue,[71] as their\npropitiation.\" \"_The ungodly_,\" or, more literally still, without the\narticle, \"_ungodly ones_\"; a designation general and inclusive for\nthose for whom He died. Above (iv.\u00a05) we saw the word used with a\ncertain limitation, as of the worst among the sinful. But here,\nsurely, with a solemn paradox, it covers the whole field of the Fall.\nThe ungodly here are not the flagrant and disreputable only; they are\nall who are not in harmony with God; the potential as well as the\nactual doers of grievous sin. For them \"_Christ died_\"; not \"lived,\"\nlet us remember, but \"died.\" It was a question not of example, nor of\nsuasion, nor even of utterances of divine compassion. It was a\nquestion of law and guilt; and it was to be met only by the\ndeath-sentence and the death-fact; such death as HE died of whom, a\nlittle while before, this same Correspondent had written to the\nconverts of Galatia (iii.\u00a013); \"Christ bought us out from the curse of\nthe Law, when He became a curse for us.\" All the untold emphasis of\nthe sentence, and of the thought, lies here upon those last words,\nupon each and all of them, \"_for ungodly ones--He died_,\" \u1f51\u03c0\u1f72\u03c1\n\u1f00\u03c3\u03b5\u03b2\u1ff6\u03bd--\u1f00\u03c0\u03ad\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5. The sequel shews this to us; he proceeds:\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =For scarcely,= with difficulty, and in rare\ninstances, =for a just man will one die;= \"_scarcely_,\" he will not\nsay \"_never_,\" =for for the good man,= the man answering in some\nmeasure the ideal of gracious and not only of legal goodness,[72]\n=perhaps someone actually ventures to die.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =But\nGod commends,= as by a glorious contrast (\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9), =His love,=\n\"_His_\" as above all current human love, \"_His own love_,\" \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd\n\u1f19\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6, =towards us, because while we were still sinners,= and as\nsuch repulsive to the Holy One, =Christ for us did die.=\n\nWe are not to read this passage as if it were a statistical assertion\nas to the facts of human love and its possible sacrifices. The moral\nargument will not be affected if we are able, as we shall be, to\nadduce cases where unregenerate man has given even his life to save\nthe life of one, or of many, to whom he is not emotionally or\nnaturally attracted. All that is necessary to St Paul's tender plea\nfor the love of God is the certain fact that the cases of death even\non behalf of one who _morally deserves_ a great sacrifice are\nrelatively very, very few. The thought of merit is the ruling\nthought in the connexion. He labours to bring out the sovereign\nLovingkindness, which went even to the length and depth of death, by\nreminding us that, whatever moved it, it was not moved, even in the\nlowest imaginable degree, by any merit, no, nor by any \"congruity,\" in\nus. And yet we were sought, and saved. He who planned the salvation,\nand provided it, was the eternal Lawgiver and Judge. He who loved us\nis Himself eternal Right, to whom all our wrong is unutterably\nrepellent. What then is He as Love, who, being also Right, stays not\ntill He has given His Son to the death of the Atonement?\n\nSo we have indeed a warrant to \"believe the love of God\" (1\u00a0John\niv.\u00a016). Yes, to believe it. We look within us, and it is incredible.\nIf we have really seen ourselves, we have seen ground for a sorrowful\nconviction that He who is eternal Right must view us with aversion.\nBut if we have really seen Christ, we have seen ground for--not\nfeeling at all, it may be, at this moment, but--believing that God is\nLove, and loves us. What is it to believe Him? It is to take Him at\nHis word; to act altogether not upon our internal consciousness but\nupon His warrant. We look at the Cross, or rather, we look at the\ncrucified Lord Jesus in His Resurrection; we read at His feet these\nwords of His Apostle; and we go away to take God at His assurance that\nwe, unlovely, are beloved.\n\n\"My child,\" said a dying French saint, as she gave a last embrace to\nher daughter, \"I have loved you because of what you are; my heavenly\nFather, to whom I go, has loved me _malgr\u00e9 moi_.\"\n\nAnd how does the divine reasoning now advance? \"From glory to glory\";\nfrom acceptance by the Holy One, who is Love, to present and endless\npreservation in His Beloved One. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =Therefore much\nmore, justified now in His blood,= as it were \"_in_\" its laver of\nablution, or again \"_within_\" its circle of sprinkling as it marks the\nprecincts of our inviolable sanctuary, =we shall be kept safe through\nHim,= who now lives to administer the blessings of His death, =from\nthe wrath,= the wrath of God, in its present imminence over the head\nof the unreconciled, and in its final fall \"in that day.\"\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =For if, being enemies,= with no initial love to\nHim who is Love, nay, when we were hostile to His claims, and as such\nsubject to the hostility of His Law, =we were reconciled to our (\u03c4\u1ff7)\nGod[73] through the death of His Son,= (God coming to judicial peace\nwith us, and we brought to submissive peace with Him,) =much more,\nbeing reconciled, we shall be kept safe in His life,= in the life of\nthe Risen One who now lives for us, and in us, and we in Him.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =Nor only so, but= we shall be kept =exulting too\nin our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom now we\nhave received[74] this (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) reconciliation.=\n\nHere, by anticipation, he indicates already the mighty issues of the\nact of Justification, in our life of Union with the Lord who died for\nus, and lived again. In the sixth chapter this will be more fully\nunfolded; but he cannot altogether reserve it so long. As he has\nadvanced from the law-aspect of our acceptance to its love-aspect, so\nnow with this latter he gives us at once the life-aspect, our\nvital incorporation with our Redeemer, our part and lot in His\nresurrection-life. Nowhere in this whole Epistle is that subject\nexpounded so fully as in the later Epistles, Colossians and Ephesians;\nthe Inspirer led His servant all over that region then, in his Roman\nprison, but not now. But He had brought him into the region from the\nfirst, and we see it here present to his thought, though not in the\nforeground of his discourse. \"_Kept safe in His life_\"; not \"_by_\" His\nlife, but \"_in_\" His life. We are livingly knit to Him the Living One.\nFrom one point of view we are accused men, at the bar, wonderfully\ntransformed, by the Judge's provision, into welcomed and honoured\nfriends of the Law and the Lawgiver. From another point of view we are\ndead men, in the grave, wonderfully vivified, and put into a spiritual\nconnexion with the mighty life of our Lifegiving Redeemer. The aspects\nare perfectly distinct. They belong to different orders of thought.\nYet they are in the closest and most genuine relation. The Justifying\nSacrifice procures the possibility of our regeneration into the Life\nof Christ. Our union by faith with the Lord who died and lives brings\nus into actual part and lot in His justifying merits. And our part and\nlot in those merits, our \"acceptance in the Beloved,\" assures us again\nof the permanence of the mighty Love which will maintain us in our\npart and lot \"in His life.\" This is the view of the matter which is\nbefore us here.\n\nThus the Apostle meets our need on every side. He shews us the holy\nLaw satisfied for us. He shews us the eternal Love liberated upon us.\nHe shews us the Lord's own Life clasped around us, imparted to us;\n\"our life is hid in God with Christ, who is our Life\" (Col. iii.\u00a03,\n4). Shall we not \"exult in God through Him\"?\n\nAnd now we are to learn something of that great Covenant-Headship, in\nwhich we and He are one.\n\n\nDETACHED NOTES TO CHAPTER XII\n\nI\n\n\u0395\u1f30\u03c1\u03ae\u03bd\u03b7\u03bd \u1f14\u03c7\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd, \"_We have peace_\": \u0395\u1f30\u03c1\u03ae\u03bd\u03b7\u03bd \u1f14\u03c7\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd, \"_Let us have\npeace_.\" Which did St Paul write? On the whole, after long thought\nupon the evidence, we decide for the former reading. The documentary\nwitness is strong for the latter. For those who place the great Uncial\nmanuscripts in the place of practical decision, \u1f14\u03c7\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd has a clear\nverdict in its favour. But the other class of copies, the Cursive,\nlater on the whole than the Uncials, but probably often representing\ncorrection rather than corruption, are greatly in favour of \u1f14\u03c7\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd.\nThe evidence of ancient Versions, and of quotations by early Christian\nwriters, inclines on the whole for \u1f14\u03c7\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd. But in the study of a\nreading the argument and context of course claim attention; for most\nsurely the original reading, whatever it was, was _pertinent_. Now\nhere the question of _pertinence_ seems to us to lead to a decided\nverdict for \u1f14\u03c7\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd. The Apostle is engaged here altogether with\nassertion, instruction; exhortation is to come later. Through this\nwhole paragraph he does nothing but assert facts and principles. Is it\nto be believed that he begins it with a _disjointed_ exhortation?\n\nIn _itself_ the exhortation would bear a meaning perfectly\nintelligible. \"_Let us have peace_\" would mean \"_Let us enjoy peace_.\"\nSo \u1f14\u03c7\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd \u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03bd, Heb. xii.\u00a028, means, practically, \"_Let us use\ngrace_.\" Neither exhortation would mean that we _do not yet possess_,\nin respect of the Lord's gift, \"peace\" and \"grace\" respectively. But,\nwe repeat it, the context here seems decisive against the presence\n_here_ of any exhortation. We want, logically, assertion.\n\nThe interchange of \u03c9 and \u03bf in manuscripts is, as a fact, frequent.\n\nSee the case carefully considered, and decided for \u1f14\u03c7\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd, in Dr\nScrivener's _Introduction to the Criticism of the N. T._, p. 625.\n\n\nII\n\n\u039a\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, \u039a\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u03ae. It is sometimes held that these words\ndenote \"reconciliation\" in the sense of man's laying aside his\ndistrust, reluctance, resistance towards God, not of God's laying\naside His holy displeasure against man; and that for this latter idea,\nthat of persuading an offended superior to grant peace, we should need\nthe words \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 (which we have Matt. v.\u00a024, and in the Lxx.\nin _e.g._\u00a01\u00a0Sam. xxix.\u00a04, where the English has, \"Wherewith should he\nreconcile himself to his master?\") and \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u1f74 (which does not\noccur in the N. T.). But \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u1f74 (and its verb) is as a fact used\nin the Greek of the Apocrypha in connexions where the thought is just\nthat of the clemency of a king, induced to pardon. See _e.g._ 2\u00a0Macc.\nv.\u00a020, where the English Version reads, \"the great Lord _being\nreconciled_ (\u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u1fc7 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03bc\u03b5\u03b3\u03ac\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5 \u0394\u03b5\u03c3\u03c0\u03cc\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5) [the temple] was\nset up.\" So 2\u00a0Macc. i.\u00a05, where we have the prayer (English Version),\n\"God be _at one_ with you,\" \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u03b5\u03af\u03b7 \u1f51\u03bc\u1fd6\u03bd. Thus no elaborate\ndistinction can safely be drawn between the two sets of compounds. And\nthere is no place in the N. T. where the meaning, _conciliation of an\noffended party_, would not well suit \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9, etc. The\npresent passage (Rom. v.\u00a010, 11) would be practically meaningless\notherwise. The whole thought is of the divine mercy, providing a way\nfor accepting grace. To \"_receive_ \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u1f74\u03bd\" is a phrase\nwhich, by its very form as well as its connexion, points to the\nthought not of reluctance overcome but mercy found.\n\nThe word \"_atonement_\" (A.V., ver. 11) needs remark. It seems certain\nthat its derivation is \"at-one-ment\" (See Skeat, _Etymol. Dict._,\ns.v.), though an etymological connexion with _ver-s\u00f6hnen_, (Dutch,\n_ver-zoenen_) has been maintained (see Hofmeyr, _The Blessed Life_, p.\n25). But as Trench remarks, (_Synonyms of the N. T._, s.v.\n\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u1f74,) the usage of English has now long attached the idea of\n_propitiation_ (\u1f31\u03bb\u03b1\u03c3\u03bc\u1f78\u03c2) to the word \"_atonement_\"; which should\ntherefore be avoided as a rendering for \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u03ae.\n\n[63] \u1f18\u03ba \u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2: \"_out of faith_.\" The phrase has often met us in\nthe Greek before. It calls for various renderings in various contexts;\nthat given above seems best to paraphrase it here.\n\n[64] See detached note, p. 140, for an account of the various reading\nhere, \u1f14\u03c7\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd \u03b5\u1f30\u03c1\u03ae\u03bd\u03b7\u03bd, \"_Let us_ have peace.\"\n\n[65] \u1f18\u03c3\u03c7\u03ae\u03ba\u03b1\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd: \"_we have had_,\" \"_we have got_.\"\n\n[66] \u039a\u03b1\u03c5\u03c7\u1fb6\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9, \u03ba\u03b1\u03cd\u03c7\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2: see above ii.\u00a023, iii.\u00a027, iv.\u00a02.\n\n[67] \u1f59\u03c0\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u1f74 is more than \"_patience_.\" By usage it implies \"patience\n_in action_\"; \"_perseverance_.\"\n\n[68] It is quite possible, of course, to explain \u1f21 \u1f00\u03b3\u03ac\u03c0\u03b7 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u1fe6,\ngrammatically, to mean \"_our love to God_.\" And some, more mystically,\nexplain it of God's faculty of love conveyed to us that we, with it,\nmay love Him. But the following context, especially ver. 8, is clearly\nagainst such expositions. Verses 6-11 are in fact an explanation of\nthe thought of ver. 5.\n\n[69] The writer ventures to refer to his Commentary on Ephesians in\n_The Cambridge Bible_.\n\n[70] Observe the aorist form of the participle.\n\n[71] \u1f59\u03c0\u1f72\u03c1 is literally \"_over_,\" and in itself imports simply\n\"_concern with_\"; as when we say that a man is busy \"over\" an\nimportant matter; as it were stooping over it, attending to it. Its\nspecial references depend altogether upon context and usage. _In\nitself_ it neither teaches nor denies the doctrine of a vicarious and\nsubstitutionary work; \u1f00\u03b7\u03c4\u1f76 is the preposition which guarantees as\ntrue that great aspect of the Lord's death. But \u1f51\u03c0\u1f72\u03c1 of course\namply allows for such an _application_ of its meaning, where the\ncontext suggests the idea.\n\n[72] We incline more than formerly, though still with some doubt, to\nsee a rising climax here, as indicated in the paraphrase, from\n\u03b4\u03af\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 to \u1f41 \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u03cc\u03c2.\n\n[73] On the meaning of \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u03ae see detached note, p. 141.\n\n[74] \u1f18\u03bb\u03ac\u03b2\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd: but the English perfect best represents the idea.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\n_CHRIST AND ADAM_\n\nROMANS v.\u00a012-21\n\n\nWe approach a paragraph of the Epistle pregnant with mystery. It leads\nus back to Primal Man, to the Adam of the first brief pages of the\nScripture record, to his encounter with the suggestion to follow\nhimself rather than his Maker, to his sin, and then to the results of\nthat sin in his race. We shall find those results given in terms which\ncertainly we should not have devised _a priori_. We shall find the\nApostle teaching, or rather stating, for he writes as to those who\nknow, that mankind inherits from primal Man, tried and fallen, not\nonly taint but guilt, not only moral hurt but legal fault.\n\nThis is \"a thing heard in the darkness.\" It has been said that Holy\nScripture \"is not a sun, but a lamp.\" The words may be grievously\nmisused, by undue emphasis on the negative clause; but they convey a\nsure truth, used aright. Nowhere does the divine Book undertake to\ntell us all about everything it contains. It undertakes to tell us\ntruth, and to tell it from God. It undertakes to give us pure light,\nyea, \"to bring life and immortality out into the light,\" (2\u00a0Tim.\ni.\u00a010). But it reminds us that we know \"in part,\" and that even\nprophecy, even the inspired message, is \"in part\" (1\u00a0Cor. xiii.\u00a09). It\nilluminates immensely much, but it leaves yet more to be seen\nhereafter. It does not yet kindle the whole firmament and the whole\nlandscape like an oriental sun. It sheds its glory upon our Guide, and\nupon our path.\n\nA passage like this calls for such recollections. It tells us, with\nthe voice of the Apostle's Lord, great facts about our own race, and\nits relations to its primeval Head, such that every individual man has\na profound moral and also judicial _nexus_ with the first Man. It does\nnot tell us how those inscrutable but solid facts fit into the whole\nplan of God's creative wisdom and moral government. The lamp shines\n_there_, upon the edges of a deep ravine beside the road; it does not\nshine sunlike over the whole mountain-land.\n\nAs with other mysteries which will meet us later, so with this; we\napproach it as those who \"know in part,\" and who know that the\napostolic Prophet, by no defect of inspiration, but by the limits of\nthe case, \"prophesies in part.\" Thus with awful reverence, with godly\nfear, and free from the wish to explain away, yet without anxiety lest\nGod should be proved unrighteous, we listen as Paul dictates, and\nreceive his witness about our fall and our guilt in that mysterious\n\"First Father.\"\n\nWe remember also another fact of this case. This paragraph deals only\nincidentally with Adam; its main theme is Christ. Adam is the\nillustration; Christ is the subject. We are to be shewn in Adam, by\ncontrast, some of \"the unsearchable riches of Christ.\" So that our\nmain attention is called not to the brief outline of the mystery of\nthe Fall, but to the assertions of the related splendour of the\nRedemption.\n\nSt Paul is drawing again to a close, a cadence. He is about to\nconclude his exposition of the Way of Acceptance, and to pass to its\njunction with the Way of Holiness. And he shews us here last, in the\nmatter of Justification, this fragment from \"the bottoms of the\nmountains\"--the union of the justified with their redeeming Lord as\nrace with Head; the _nexus_ in that respect between them and Him which\nmakes His \"righteous act\" of such infinite value to them. In the\nprevious paragraph, as we have seen, he has gravitated toward the\ndeeper regions of the blessed subject; he has indicated our connexion\nwith the Lord's Life as well as with His Merit. Now, recurring to the\nthought of the Merit, he still tends to the depths of truth, and\nChrist our Righteousness is lifted before our eyes from those pure\ndepths as not the Propitiation only, but the Propitiation who is also\nour Covenant-Head, our Second Adam, holding His mighty merits for a\nnew race, bound up with Himself in the bond of a real unity.\n\nHe \"prophesies in part,\" meanwhile, even in respect of this element of\nhis message. As we saw just above, the fullest explanations of our\nunion with the Lord Christ _in His life_ were reserved by St Paul's\nMaster for other Letters than this. In the present passage we have\nnot, what probably we should have had if the Epistle had been written\nfive years later, a definite statement of the connexion between our\nUnion with Christ in His covenant and our Union with Him in His life;\na connexion deep, necessary, significant. It is not quite absent from\nthis passage, if we read verses 17, 18, aright; but it is not\nprominent. The main thought is of merit, righteousness, acceptance; of\ncovenant, of law. As we have said, this paragraph is the climax of the\nEpistle to the Romans as to its doctrine of our peace with God through\nthe merits of His Son. It is enough for the purpose of that subject\nthat it should indicate, and only indicate, the doctrine that His Son\nis also our Life, our indwelling Cause and Spring of purity and power.\n\nRecollecting thus the scope and the connexion of the passage, let us\nlisten to its wording.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =On this account,= on account of the aspects of\nour justification and reconciliation \"through our Lord Jesus Christ\"\nwhich he has just presented, it is[75] =just as through one man sin\nentered into the world,= the world of man, =and, through sin, death,\nand so to all men death travelled,= \u03b4\u03b9\u1fc6\u03bb\u03b8\u03b5, penetrated, pervaded,\n=inasmuch as all sinned;= the Race sinning in its Head, the Nature in\nits representative Bearer. The facts of human life and death shew that\nsin _did_ thus pervade the race, as to liability, and as to penalty:\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =For until law came sin was in the world;= it was\npresent all along, in the ages previous to the great Legislation. =But\nsin is not imputed,= is not put down as debt for penalty, =where law\ndoes not exist,= where in no sense is there statute to be obeyed or\nbroken, whether that statute takes articulate expression or not.[76]\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =But death became king (\u1f10\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd), from Adam\ndown to Moses, even over those who did not sin on the model of the\ntransgression of Adam--who is= (in the present tense of the plan of\nGod) =pattern of the Coming One.=\n\nHe argues from the fact of death, and from its universality, which\nimplies a universality of liability, of guilt. According to the\nScriptures, death is essentially _penal_ in the case of man, who was\ncreated not to die but to live. How that purpose would have been\nfulfilled if \"the image of God\" had not sinned against Him, we do not\nknow. We need not think that the fulfilment would have violated any\nnatural process; higher processes might have governed the case, in\nperfect harmony with the surroundings of terrestrial life, till\nperhaps that life was transfigured, as by a necessary development,\ninto the celestial and immortal. But however, the record _does_\nconnect, for man, the fact of death with the fact of sin, offence,\ntransgression. And the fact of death is universal, and so has been\nfrom the first. And thus it includes generations most remote from the\nknowledge of a revealed _code_. And it includes individuals most\nincapable of a conscious act of transgression such as Adam's was; it\nincludes the heathen, and the infant, and the imbecile. Therefore\nwherever there is human nature, since Adam fell, there is sin, in its\nform of guilt. And therefore, in some sense which perhaps only the\nsupreme Theologian Himself fully knows, but which we can follow a\nlittle way, all men offended in the First Man--so favourably\nconditioned, so gently tested. The guilt contracted by him is\npossessed also by them. And thus is he \"the pattern of the Coming\nOne.\"\n\nFor now the glorious Coming One, the Seed of the Woman, the blessed\nLord of the Promise, rises on the view, in His likeness and in His\ncontrast. Writing to Corinth from Macedonia, about a year before, St\nPaul had called him (1\u00a0Cor. xv.\u00a045, 47) \"the Second Adam,\" \"the Second\nMan\"; and had drawn in outline the parallel he here elaborates. \"In\nAdam all die; even so in Christ all shall be made alive.\" It was a\nthought which he had learned in Judaism,[77] but which his Master had\naffirmed to him in Christianity; and noble indeed and far-reaching is\nits use of it in this exposition of the sinner's hope.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =But not as the transgression, so the gracious\ngift (\u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1). For if, by the transgression of the one, the many,=\nthe many affected by it, =died, much rather did the grace of God.= His\nbenignant action, =and the gift,= the grant of our acceptance, =in the\ngrace of the one Man, Jesus Christ,= (\"_in_ His grace,\" because\n_involved in_ His benignant action, in His redeeming work) =abound\nunto the many= whom it, whom He, affected.\n\nWe observe here some of the phrases in detail. \"_The One_\"; \"_the One\nMan_\":--\"_the_ one,\" in each case, is related to \"_the_ many\"\ninvolved, in bane or in blessing respectively. \"The One _Man_\":--so\nthe Second Adam is designated, not the First. As to the First, \"it\ngoes unsaid\" that he is man. As to the Second, it is infinitely\nwonderful, and of eternal import, that He, as truly, as completely, is\none with us, is Man of men. \"_Much rather did_ the grace, and the\ngift, _abound_\":--the thought given here is that while the dread\nsequel of the Fall was solemnly _permitted_, as good in law, the\nsequel of the divine counter-work was gladly _sped_ by the Lord's\nwilling love, and was carried to a glorious overflow, to an altogether\nunmerited effect, in the present and eternal blessing of the\njustified. \"_The many_,\" twice mentioned in this verse, are the whole\ncompany which, in each case, stands related to the respective\nRepresentative. It is the whole race in the case of the Fall; it is\nthe \"many brethren\" of the Second Adam in the case of the\nReconciliation. The question is not of numerical comparison between\nthe two, but of the numerousness of each host in relation to the\noneness of its covenant Head. What the numerousness of the \"many\nbrethren\" will be we know--and we do not know; for it will be \"a great\nmultitude, which no one can number.\" But that is not in the question\nhere. The emphasis, the \"_much rather_,\" the \"_abundance_,\" lies not\non the compared numbers, but on the amplitude of the blessing which\noverflows upon \"the many\" from the justifying work of the One.\n\nHe proceeds, developing the thought. From the act of each\nRepresentative, from Adam's Fall and Christ's Atonement, there issued\nresults of dominion, of royalty. But what was the contrast of the\ncases! In the Fall, the sin of the One brought upon \"the many\"\njudgment, sentence, and the reign of death over them. In the\nAtonement, the righteousness of the One brought upon \"the many\" an\n\"abundance,\" an overflow, a generous largeness and love of acceptance,\nand the power of life eternal, and a prerogative of royal rule over\nsin and death; the emancipated captives treading upon their tyrants'\nnecks. We follow out the Apostle's wording:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =And not as through the one who sinned,= who\nfell, =so is the gift;= our acceptance in our Second Head does not\nfollow the law of mere and strict retribution which appears in our\nfall in our first Head. =(For,= he adds in emphatic parenthesis, =the\njudgment= did issue, =from one= transgression,[78] =in condemnation,=\nin sentence of death; =but the gracious gift= issued, =from many\ntransgressions,=--not indeed as if earned by them, as if caused by\nthem, but as _occasioned_ by them; for this wonderful process of mercy\nfound in our sins, as well as in our Fall, a _reason_ for the\nCross--=in a deed of justification.)[79]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =For if\nin one transgression,[80]= \"_in_\" it, as the effect is involved in its\ncause, =death came to reign (\u1f10\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03c3\u03b5) through the one=\noffender,[81] =much rather those who are receiving,= in their\nsuccessive cases and generations, =that (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) abundance of the\ngrace= just spoken of (ver. 15: \u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2, \u1f10\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03c3\u03b5\u03c5\u03c3\u03b5), =and of the\nfree gift of righteousness,= of acceptance, =shall, in life,= life\neternal, begun now, to end never, =reign= over their former tyrants\n=through the One,= their glorious One, =Jesus Christ.=\n\nAnd now he sums up the whole in one comprehensive inference and\naffirmation. \"_The One_,\" \"_the many_\"; \"_the One_,\" \"_the all_\"; the\nwhole mercy for the all due to the one work of the One;--such is the\nground-thought all along. It is illustrated by \"_the one_\" and \"_the\nmany_\" of the Fall, but still so as to throw the real weight of every\nword not upon the Fall but upon the Acceptance. Here, as throughout\nthis paragraph, we should greatly mistake if we thought that the\nillustration and the object illustrated were to be pressed, detail by\ndetail, into one mould. To cite an instance to the contrary, we are\ncertainly not to take him to mean that because Adam's \"_many_\" are not\nonly fallen in him, but actually guilty, therefore Christ's \"_many_\"\nare not only accepted in Him, but actually and personally meritorious\nof acceptance. The whole Epistle negatives that thought. Nor again are\nwe to think, as we ponder ver. 18, that because \"_the condemnation_\"\nwas \"_to all men_\" in the sense of their being not only condemnable\nbut actually condemned, therefore \"_the justification of life_\" was\n\"_to all men_\" in the sense that all mankind are actually justified.\nHere again the whole Epistle, and the whole message of St Paul about\nour acceptance, are on the other side. The provision is for the\n_genus_, for man; but the possession is for men--who believe.[82] No;\nthese great details in the parallel need our reverent caution, lest we\nthink peace where there is, and can be, none. The force of the\nparallel lies in the broader and deeper factors of the two matters. It\nlies in the mysterious phenomenon of covenant headship, as affecting\nboth our Fall and our Acceptance; in the power upon the many, in each\ncase, of the deed of the One; and then in the magnificent fulness and\npositiveness of result in the case of our salvation. In our Fall, sin\nmerely _worked itself out_ into doom and death. In our Acceptance, the\nJudge's award is positively crowned and as it were loaded with gifts\nand treasures. It brings with it, in ways not described here, but\namply shewn in other Scriptures, a living union with a Head who is our\nlife, and in whom we possess already the powers of heavenly being in\ntheir essence. It brings with it not only the approval of the Law, but\naccession to a throne. The justified sinner is a king already, in his\nHead, over the power of sin, over the fear of death. And he is on his\nway to a royalty in the eternal future which shall make him great\nindeed, great in his Lord.\n\nThe absolute dependence of our justification upon the Atoning Act of\nour Head, and the relation of our Head to us accordingly as our Centre\nand our Root of blessing, this is the main message of the passage we\nare tracing. The mystery of our congenital guilt is there, though it\nis only incidentally there. And after all what is that mystery? It is\nassuredly a fact. The statement of this paragraph, that the many were\n\"constituted sinners by the disobedience of the one,\" what is it? It\nis the Scripture expression, and in some guarded sense the Scripture\nexplanation, of a consciousness deep as the awakened soul of man; that\nI, a member of this homogeneous race, made in God's image, not only\nhave sinned, but have been a sinful being from my first personal\nbeginning; and that I ought not to be so, and ought never to have been\nso. It is my calamity, but it is also my accusation. This I cannot\nexplain; but this I know. And to know this, with a knowledge that is\nnot merely speculative but moral, is to be \"shut up unto Christ,\" in a\nself-despair which can go nowhere else than to Him for acceptance, for\npeace, for holiness, for power.\n\nLet us translate, as they stand, the closing sentences before us:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =Accordingly therefore, as through one\ntransgression= there came a result =to all men, to condemnation,= to\nsentence of death, =so through one deed of righteousness[83] there\ncame a result to all men,= (to \"_all_\" in the sense we have indicated,\nso that whoever of mankind receives the acceptance owes it always and\nwholly to the Act of Christ,) =to justification of life,= to an\nacceptance which not only bids the guilty \"not die,\" but opens to the\naccepted the secret, in Him who is their Sacrifice, of powers which\nlive in Him for them as He is their Life. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =For\nas, by the disobedience of the one man, the many,= the many of that\ncase, =were constituted sinners,= constituted guilty of the fall of\ntheir nature from God, so that their being sinful is not only their\ncalamity but their sin, =so too by the obedience of the One,= \"not\naccording to their works,\" that is, to their conduct, past, present,\nor to come, but \"_by the obedience of the One_,\" =the many,= His \"many\nbrethren,\" His Father's children through faith in Him, =shall be,= as\neach comes to Him in all time, and then by the final open proclamation\nof eternity, =constituted righteous,= qualified for the acceptance of\nthe holy Judge.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBefore he closes this page of his message, and turns the next, he has\nas it were a parenthetic word to say, indicating a theme to be\ndiscussed more largely later. It is the function of the Law, the moral\nplace of the preceptive _Fiat_, in view of this wonderful Acceptance\nof the guilty. He has suggested the question already, iii.\u00a031; he will\ntreat some aspects of it more fully later. But it is urgent here to\nenquire at least this, Was Law a mere anomaly, impossible to put into\nrelation with justifying grace? Might it have been as well out of the\nway, never heard of in the human world? No, God forbid. One deep\npurpose of acceptance was to glorify the Law, making the preceptive\nWill of God as dear to the justified as it is terrible to the guilty.\nBut now, besides this, it has a function antecedent as well as\nconsequent to justification. Applied as positive precept to the human\nwill in the Fall, what does it do? It does not create sinfulness; God\nforbid. Not God's will but the creature's will did that. But it\noccasions sin's declaration of war. It brings out the latent rebellion\nof the will. It forces the disease to the surface--merciful force, for\nit shews the sick man his danger, and it gives point to his\nPhysician's words of warning and of hope. It reveals to the criminal\nhis guilt; as it is sometimes found that information of a statutory\nhuman penalty awakens a malefactor's conscience in the midst of a\nhalf-unconscious course of crime. And so it brings out to the opening\neyes of the soul the wonder of the remedy in Christ. He sees the Law;\nhe sees himself; and now at last it becomes a profound reality to him\nto see the Cross. He believes, adores, and loves. The merit of his\nLord covers his demerit, as the waters the sea. And he passes from the\ndread but salutary view of \"the reign\" of sin over him, in a death he\ncannot fathom, to submit to \"the reign\" of grace, in life, in death,\nfor ever.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =Now law came sideways in;= law in its largest\nsense, as it affects the fallen, but with a special reference,\ndoubtless, to its articulation at Sinai. It came in \"_sideways_,\" as\nto its relation to our acceptance; as a thing which should\n_indirectly_ promote it, by not causing but occasioning the blessing;\n=that the transgression might abound,= that sin, that sins, in the\nmost inclusive sense, might develop the latent evil, and as it were\nexpose it to the work of grace. =But where the sin multiplied,= in the\nplace, the region, of fallen humanity, =there did superabound the\ngrace;= with that mighty overflow of the bright ocean of love which we\nhave watched already. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =That just as our (\u1f21)\nsin came to reign in our (\u03c4\u1ff7) death,= our penal death, =so too might\nthe grace come to reign,= having its glorious way against our foes and\nover us, =through righteousness,= through the justifying work, =to\nlife eternal,= which here we have, and which hereafter will receive us\ninto itself, =through Jesus Christ our Lord.=\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"The last words of Mr Honest were, _Grace reigns_. So he left the\nworld.\" Let us walk with the same watchword through the world, till we\ntoo, crossing that Jordan, lean with a final simplicity of faith upon\n\"the obedience of the One.\"\n\n[75] It will be seen that we assume, between \u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c4\u03bf and \u1f65\u03c3\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1,\nsome such implied thought as \"_the case stands_.\" We think it may be\nthus grammatically; and that even if a less simple explanation of the\n_construction_ is adopted, such an insertion gives the import of the\nwhole passage aright.\n\n[76] It will be seen that the rapid steps of thought lead, in this one\nverse, from one meaning of the word \"_law_\" to another. He means that\nthere was sin before the Code of the Decalogue, but not therefore\nbefore God had, in some degree, expressed His royal will, and man had\nbroken it.\n\n[77] See Sch\u00f6ttgen, _Hor\u00e6 Hebraic\u00e6_, on 1\u00a0Cor. xv.\u00a045. He quotes from\nthe Rabbis: \"As the First Adam was one, was first, \u05d0\u05d7\u05d3, in sin, so\nMessiah shall be the last, \u05d4\u05d0\u05d7\u05e8\u05df, for the utter taking away of\nsins.\"\n\n[78] So we interpret \u1f11\u03bd\u1f78\u03c2, in the light of the \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03bb\u1f70 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c0\u03c4\u03ce\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\njust below.\n\n[79] \u0394\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03af\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1: the form of the word indicates not a process, or a\nprinciple, but an act. Apparently, by context, it may mean either a\nmoral act of righteousness (see Rev. xix.\u00a08, and perhaps below, ver.\n18), or a legal \"act and deed\" of acceptance. The parallel with\n\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ac\u03ba\u03c1\u03b9\u03bc\u03b1 pleads here for the latter.\n\n[80] We adopt the reading \u1f10\u03bd \u1f11\u03bd\u03af. The other, \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f11\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2,\namounts to the same import, but without the pregnant force of the word\n\"_in_.\"\n\n[81] We supply this word, and not \"_transgression_,\" because of the\nparallel just below, \"_the One, Jesus Christ_.\"\n\n[82] As to the universality of _the offer_, it is interesting and\nimportant to find Calvin thus writing, on ver. 18:--Communem omnium\ngratiam fecit, quia omnibus exposita est, non quod ad omnes extendatur\nre ipsa. Nam etsi passus est Christus pro peccatis totius mundi, atque\nomnibus indifferenter Dei benignitate offertur, non tamen omnes\napprehendunt. \"The Lord,\" thus says the great French expositor,\n\"suffered for the sins of the whole world,\" and \"is offered\nimpartially to all in the kindness of God.\"\n\n[83] \u0394\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03af\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1: see note above, p. 150. It seems to us almost equally\npossible to explain this word here (as in our translation) of the\nLord's Atoning Act, satisfying the Law for us, and of the Accepting\n\"Act and Deed\" of the Father, declaring Him accepted, and us in Him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\n_JUSTIFICATION AND HOLINESS_\n\nROMANS vi.\u00a01-13\n\n\nIn a certain sense, St Paul has done now with the exposition of\nJustification. He has brought us on, from his denunciation of human\nsin, and his detection of the futility of mere privilege, to\npropitiation, to faith, to acceptance, to love, joy, and hope, and\nfinally to our mysterious but real connexion in all this blessing with\nHim who won our peace. From this point onwards we shall find many\nmentions of our acceptance, and of its Cause; we shall come to some\nmemorable mentions very soon. But we shall not hear the holy subject\nitself any more treated and expounded. It will underlie the following\ndiscussions everywhere; it will as it were surround them, as with a\nsanctuary wall. But we shall now think less directly of the\nfoundations than of the superstructure, for which the foundation was\nlaid. We shall be less occupied with the fortifications of our holy\ncity than with the resources they contain, and with the life which is\nto be lived, on those resources, within the walls.\n\nEverything will cohere. But the transition will be marked, and will\ncall for our deepest, and let us add, our most reverent and\nsupplicating thought.\n\n\"We need not, then, be holy, if such is your programme of acceptance.\"\nSuch was the objection, bewildered or deliberate, which St Paul heard\nin his soul at this pause in his dictation; he had doubtless often\nheard it with his ears. Here was a wonderful provision for the free\nand full acceptance of \"the ungodly\" by the eternal Judge. It was\nexplained and stated so as to leave no room for human virtue as a\ncommendatory merit. Faith itself was no commendatory virtue. It was\nnot \"a work,\" but the antithesis to \"works.\" Its power was not in\nitself but in its Object. It was itself only the void which received\n\"the obedience of the One\" as the sole meriting cause of peace with\nGod. Then--may we not live on in sin, and yet be in His favour now,\nand in His heaven hereafter?\n\nLet us recollect, as we pass on, one important lesson of these\nrecorded objections to the great first message of St Paul. They tell\nus, incidentally, how explicit and unreserved his delivery of the\nmessage had been, and how Justification by Faith, by faith only, meant\nwhat was said, when it was said by him. Christian thinkers, of more\nschools than one, and at many periods, have hesitated not a little\nover that point. The medieval theologian mingled his thoughts of\nJustification with those of Regeneration, and taught our acceptance\naccordingly on lines impossible to lay true along those of St Paul. In\nlater days, the meaning of faith has been sometimes beclouded, till it\nhas seemed, through the haze, to be only an indistinct summary-word\nfor Christian consistency, for exemplary conduct, for good works. Now\nsupposing either of these lines of teaching, or anything like them, to\nbe the message of St Paul, \"his Gospel,\" as he preached it; one result\nmay be reasonably inferred--that we should not have had Rom. vi.\u00a01\nworded as it is. Whatever objections were encountered by a Gospel of\nacceptance expounded on such lines, (and no doubt it would have\nencountered many, if it called sinful men to holiness,) it would not\nhave encountered this objection, that it seemed to allow men to be\nunholy. What such a Gospel would seem to do would be to accentuate in\nall its parts the urgency of obedience in order to acceptance; the\nvital importance on the one hand of an internal change in our nature\n(through sacramental operation, according to many); and then on the\nother hand the practice of Christian virtues, with the hope, in\nconsequence, of acceptance, more or less complete, in heaven. Whether\nthe objector, the enquirer, was dull, or whether he was subtle, it\ncould not have occurred to him to say, \"You are preaching a Gospel of\nlicence; I may, if you are right, live as I please, only drawing a\nlittle deeper on the fund of gratuitous acceptance as I go on.\" But\njust this was the _animus_, and such were very nearly the words, of\nthose who either hated St Paul's message as unorthodox, or wanted an\nexcuse for the sin they loved, and found it in quotations from St\nPaul. Then St Paul must have meant by faith what faith ought to mean,\nsimple trust. And he must have meant by justification without works,\nwhat those words ought to mean, acceptance irrespective of our\nrecommendatory conduct. Such a Gospel was no doubt liable to be\nmistaken and misrepresented, and in just the way we are now observing.\nBut it was also, and it is so still, the only Gospel which is the\npower of God unto salvation--to the fully awakened conscience, to the\nsoul that sees itself, and asks for God indeed.\n\nThis undesigned witness to the meaning of the Pauline doctrine of\nJustification by Faith only will appear still more strongly when we\ncome to the Apostle's answer to his questioners. He meets them not at\nall by modifications of his assertions. He has not a word to say about\nadditional and corrective conditions precedent to our peace with God.\nHe makes no impossible hint that Justification means the making of us\ngood, or that Faith is a \"short title\" for Christian practice. No;\nthere is no reason for such assertions either in the nature of words,\nor in the whole cast of the argument through which he has led us. What\ndoes he do? He takes this great truth of our acceptance in Christ our\nMerit, and puts it unreserved, unrelieved, unspoiled, in contact with\nother truth, of coordinate, nay, of superior greatness, for it is the\ntruth to which Justification leads us, as way to end. He places our\nacceptance through Christ Atoning in organic connexion with our life\nin Christ Risen. He indicates, as a truth evident to the conscience,\nthat as the thought of our share in the Lord's Merit is inseparable\nfrom union with the meriting Person, so the thought of this union is\ninseparable from that of a spiritual harmony, a common life, in which\nthe accepted sinner finds both a direction and a power in his Head.\nJustification has indeed set him free from the condemning claim of\nsin, from guilt. He is as if _he_ had died the Death of sacrifice,\noblation, and satisfaction; as if _he_ had passed through the _Lama\nSabachthani_, and had \"poured out _his_ soul\" for sin. So he is \"dead\nto sin,\" in the sense in which his Lord and Representative \"died to\"\nit; the atoning death has killed sin's claim on him for judgment. As\nhaving so died, in Christ, he is \"justified from sin.\" But then,\nbecause he thus died \"in Christ,\" he is \"in Christ\" still, in respect\nalso of resurrection. He is justified, not that he may go away, but\nthat in His Justifier he may live, with the powers of that holy and\neternal life with which the Justifier rose again.\n\nThe two truths are concentrated as it were into one, by their equal\nrelation to the same Person, the Lord. The previous argument has made\nus intensely conscious that Justification, while a definite\ntransaction in law, is not a mere transaction; it lives and glows with\nthe truth of connexion with a Person. That Person is the Bearer for us\nof all Merit. But He is also, and equally, the Bearer for us of new\nLife; in which the sharers of His Merit share, for they are in Him. So\nthat, while the Way of Justification can be isolated for study, as it\nhas been in this Epistle, the justified man cannot be isolated from\nChrist, who is his life. And thus he can never _ultimately_ be\nconsidered apart from his possession, in Christ, of a new possibility,\na new power, a new and glorious call to living holiness.\n\nIn the simplest and most practical terms the Apostle sets it before us\nthat our justification is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.\nWe are accepted that we may be possessed, and possessed after the\nmanner not of a mechanical \"article,\" but of an organic limb.[84] We\nhave \"received the reconciliation\" that we may now walk, not away from\nGod, as if released from a prison, but with God, as His children in\nHis Son. Because we are justified, we are to be holy, separated from\nsin, separated to God; not as a mere indication that our faith is\nreal, and that therefore we are legally safe, but because we were\njustified for this very purpose, that we might be holy. To return to a\nsimile we have employed already, the grapes upon a vine are not merely\na living token that the tree is a vine, and is alive; they are the\nproduct for which the vine exists. It is a thing not to be thought of\nthat the sinner should accept justification--and live to himself. It\nis a moral contradiction of the very deepest kind, and cannot be\nentertained without betraying an initial error in the man's whole\nspiritual creed.\n\nAnd further, there is not only this profound connexion of purpose\nbetween acceptance and holiness. There is a connexion of endowment and\ncapacity. Justification has done for the justified a twofold work,\nboth limbs of which are all important for the man who asks, _How can_\nI walk and please God? First, it has decisively broken the claim of\nsin upon him as guilt. He stands clear of that exhausting and\nenfeebling load. The pilgrim's burthen has fallen from his back, at\nthe foot of the Lord's Cross, into the Lord's Grave. He _has_ peace\nwith God, not in emotion, but in covenant, through our Lord Jesus\nChrist. He has an unreserved \"introduction\" into a Father's loving and\nwelcoming presence, every day and hour, in the Merit of his Head. But\nthen also Justification has been to him as it were the signal of his\nunion with Christ in new life; this we have noted already. Not only\ntherefore does it give him, as indeed it does, an eternal occasion for\na gratitude which, as he feels it, \"makes duty joy, and labour rest.\"\nIt gives him _a new power_ with which to live the grateful life; a\npower residing not in Justification itself, but in what it opens up.\nIt is the gate through which he passes to the fountain; it is the wall\nwhich ramparts the fountain, the roof which shields him as he drinks.\nThe fountain is his justifying Lord's exalted Life, His risen Life,\npoured into the man's being by the Spirit who makes Head and member\none. And it is as justified that he has access to the fountain, and\ndrinks as deep as he will of its life, its power, its purity. In the\ncontemporary passage, 1\u00a0Cor. vi.\u00a017, St Paul had already written (in a\nconnexion unspeakably practical), \"He that is joined unto the Lord is\none spirit.\" It is a sentence which might stand as a heading to the\npassage we now come to render.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =What shall we say then? Shall we cling to\n(\u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd, \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd) the sin that the grace may multiply,= the\ngrace of the acceptance of the guilty? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =Away with\nthe thought! We, the very men who[85] died to that (\u03c4\u1fc7) sin,=--when\nour Representative, in whom we have believed, died for us to it, died\nto meet and break its claim--=how shall we any longer live,= have\ncongenial being and action, =in it,= as in an air we like to breathe?\nIt is a moral impossibility that the man _so_ freed from this thing's\ntyrannic claim to slay him should wish for anything else than\nseverance from it in _all_ respects. Or [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =do you\nnot know that we all, when baptized[86] into Jesus Christ,= when the\nsacred water sealed to us our faith-received contact with Him and\ninterest in Him, =were baptized into His Death,= baptized as coming\ninto union with Him as, above all, the Crucified, the Atoning? Do you\nforget that your covenant-Head, of whose covenant of peace your\nbaptism was the divine physical token, is nothing to you if not your\nSaviour _who died_, and who died because of this very sin with which\nyour thought now parleys; died because only _so_ could He break its legal\nbond upon you, in order to break its moral bond? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.]\n=We were entombed therefore with Him by means of our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) baptism,=\nas it symbolized and sealed the work of faith, into =His (\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd)\nDeath;= it certified our interest in that vicarious death, even to its\nclimax in the grave which, as it were, swallowed up the Victim; =that\njust as Christ rose from the dead by means of the glory of the\nFather,= as that death issued for Him in a new and endless life, not\nby accident, but because the Character of God, the splendour (\u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u03b1)\nof His love, truth, and power, secured the issue, =so we too should\nbegin to walk (\u03c0\u03b5\u03c4\u03b9\u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03ae\u03c3\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd) in newness of life,= should step forth\nin a power altogether new, in our union still with Him. All possible\nemphasis lies upon those words, \"_newness of life_.\" They bring out\nwhat has been indicated already (v.\u00a017, 18), the truth that the Lord\nhas won us not only remission of a death-penalty, not only even an\nextension of existence under happier circumstances, and in a more\ngrateful and hopeful spirit--but a new and wonderful life-power. The\nsinner has fled to the Crucified, that he may not die. He is now not\nonly amnestied but accepted. He is not only accepted but incorporated\ninto his Lord, as one with Him in interest. He is not only\nincorporated as to interest, but, because His Lord, being Crucified,\nis also Risen, he is incorporated into Him as Life. The Last Adam,\nlike the First, transmits not only legal but vital effects to His\nmember. In Christ the man has, in a sense as perfectly practical as it\nis inscrutable, new life, new power, as the Holy Ghost applies to his\ninmost being the presence and virtues of his Head. \"In Him he lives,\nby Him he moves.\"\n\nTo men innumerable the discovery of this ancient truth, or the fuller\napprehension of it, has been indeed like a beginning of new life. They\nhave been long and painfully aware, perhaps, that their strife with\nevil was a serious failure on the whole, and their deliverance from\nits power lamentably partial. And they could not always command as\nthey would the emotional energies of gratitude, the warm consciousness\nof affection. Then it was seen, or seen more fully, that the\nScriptures set forth this great mystery, this powerful fact; our union\nwith our Head, by the Spirit, for life, for victory and deliverance,\nfor dominion over sin, for willing service. And the hands are lifted\nup, and the knees confirmed, as the man uses the now open\nsecret--Christ in him, and he in Christ--for the real walk of life.\nBut let us listen to St Paul again.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =For if we became vitally connected (\u03c3\u03cd\u03bc\u03c6\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9),=\nHe with us and we with Him, =by the likeness of His Death,= by the\nbaptismal plunge, symbol and seal of our faith-union with the Buried\nSacrifice, =why (\u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u1f70), we shall be= vitally connected with Him by\nthe likeness =also of His Resurrection,= by the baptismal emergence,\nsymbol and seal of our faith-union with the Risen Lord, and so with\nHis risen power.[87] [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =This knowing, that our old\nman,= our old state, as out of Christ and under Adam's headship, under\nguilt and in moral bondage, =was crucified with= Christ, was as it\nwere nailed to His atoning Cross, where He represented us. In other\nwords, He on the Cross, our Head and Sacrifice, so dealt with our\nfallen state for us, =that the body of sin,= this our body viewed as\nsin's stronghold, medium, vehicle, =might be cancelled,= might be in\nabeyance, put down, deposed, so as to be no more the fatal door to\nadmit temptation to a powerless soul within.\n\n\"_Cancelled_\" is a strong word. Let us lay hold upon its strength, and\nremember that it gives us not a dream, but a fact, to be found true in\nChrist. Let us not turn its fact into fallacy, by forgetting that,\nwhatever \"_cancel_\" means, it does not mean that grace lifts us out of\nthe body; that we are no longer to \"_keep under the body, and bring it\ninto subjection_,\" in the name of Jesus. Alas for us, if any promise,\nany truth, is allowed to \"cancel\" the call to watch and pray, and to\nthink that in no sense is there still a foe within. But all the rather\nlet us grasp, and use, the glorious positive in its place and time,\nwhich is everywhere and every day. Let us recollect, let us confess\nour faith, that thus it is with us, through Him who loved us. He died\nfor us for this very end, that our \"_body of sin_\" might be\nwonderfully \"_in abeyance_,\" as to the power of temptation upon the\nsoul. Yes, as St Paul proceeds, =that henceforth we should not do\nbondservice to sin;= that from now onwards, from our acceptance in\nHim, from our realization of our union with Him, we should say to\ntemptation a \"_no_\" that carries with it the power of the inward\npresence of the Risen Lord. Yes, for He has won that power for us in\nour Justification through His Death. He died for us, and we in Him, as\nto sin's claim, as to our guilt; and He thus died, as we have seen, on\npurpose that we might be not only legally accepted, but vitally united\nto Him. Such is the connexion of the following clause, strangely\nrendered in the English Version, and often therefore misapplied, but\nwhose literal wording is, [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =For he who died,= he\nwho has died, =has been justified from his (\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2) sin;= stands\njustified from it, stands free from its guilt. The thought is of the\natoning Death, in which the believer is interested as if it were his\nown. And the implied thought is that, as that death is \"fact\naccomplished,\" as \"our old man\" _was_ so effectually \"crucified with\nChrist,\" therefore we may, we must, claim the spiritual freedom and\npower in the Risen One which the Slain One secured for us when He bore\nour guilt.\n\nThis possession is also a glorious prospect, for it is permanent with\nthe eternity of His Life. It not only is, but shall be.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =Now if we died with Christ, we believe,= we rest\nupon His word and work for it, =that we shall also live with Him,[88]=\nthat we shall share not only now but for all the future the powers of\nHis risen life. For HE lives for ever--and we are in Him!\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =Knowing that Christ, risen from the dead, no\nlonger dies,= no death is in His future now; =death over Him has no more\ndominion,= its _claim_ on Him is for ever gone. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.]\n=For as to His dying (\u1f43 \u1f00\u03c0\u03ad\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5), it was as to our (\u03c4\u1fc7) sin He\ndied;= it was to deal with our sin's claim; and He has dealt with it\nindeed, so that His death is \"_once_,\" \u1f10\u03c6\u03ac\u03c0\u03b1\u03be, once for ever; =but\nas to His living (\u1f43 \u03b6\u1fc7), it is as to God He lives;= it is in\nrelation to His Father's acceptance, it is as welcomed to His Father's\nthrone for us, as the Slain One Risen. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =Even so\nmust you too reckon yourselves,= with the sure \"_calculation_\" that\nHis work for you, His life for you, is infinitely valid, =to be dead\nindeed to your (\u03c4\u1fc7) sin,= dead in His atoning death, dead to the\nguilt exhausted by that death, =but living to your (\u03c4\u1ff7) God, in\nChrist Jesus;[89]= welcomed by your eternal Father, in your union with\nHis Son, and in that union filled with a new and blessed life from\nyour Head, to be spent in the Father's smile, on the Father's service.\n\nLet us too, like the Apostle and the Roman Christians, \"_reckon_\" this\nwonderful reckoning; counting upon these bright mysteries as upon\nimperishable facts. All is bound up not with the tides or waves of our\nemotions, but with the living rock of our union with our Lord. \"_In\nChrist Jesus_\":--that great phrase, here first explicitly used in the\nconnexion, includes all else in its embrace. Union with the slain and\nrisen Christ, in faith, by the Spirit--here is our inexhaustible\nsecret, for peace with God, for life to God, now and in the eternal\nday.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =Therefore do not let sin reign[90] in your\nmortal body,= mortal, because not yet fully emancipated, though your\nLord has \"cancelled\" for you its character as \"the body of sin,\" the\nseat and vehicle of conquering temptation. Do not let sin reign there,\n=so that you should obey the lusts of it,[91]= of the body. Observe\nthe implied instruction. The body, \"_cancelled_\" as \"the body of sin,\"\nstill has its \"_lusts_,\" its desires; or rather desires are still\noccasioned by it to the man, desires which potentially, if not\nactually, are desires away from God. And the man, justified through\nthe Lord's death and united to the Lord's life, is not therefore to\nmistake a _laissez-faire_ for faith. He is to _use_ his divine\npossessions, with a real energy of will. It is _for him_, in a sense\nmost practical, to see that his wealth is put to use, that his\nwonderful freedom is realized in act and habit. \"_Cancelled_\" does not\nmean annihilated. The body exists, and sin exists, and \"_desires_\"\nexist. It is for you, O man in Christ, to say to the enemy, defeated\nyet present, \"Thou shalt not reign; I veto thee in the name of my\nKing.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =And do not present[92] your limbs,= your bodies\nin the detail of their faculties, =as implements (\u1f45\u03c0\u03bb\u03b1) of\nunrighteousness, to sin,= to sin regarded as the holder and employer\nof the implements. =But present[93] yourselves,= your whole being,\ncentre and circle, =to God, as men living after death,= in His Son's\nrisen life, =and your limbs,= hand, foot, and head, with all their\nfaculties, =as implements of righteousness for God.=\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"O blissful self-surrender!\" The idea of it, sometimes cloudy,\nsometimes radiant, has floated before the human soul in every age of\nhistory. The spiritual fact that the creature, as such, can never find\nits true centre in itself, but only in the Creator, has expressed\nitself in many various forms of aspiration and endeavour, now nearly\ntouching the glorious truth of the matter, now wandering into cravings\nafter a blank loss of personality, or however an eternal _coma_ of\nabsorption into an Infinite practically impersonal; or again,\naffecting a submission which terminates in itself, an _islam_, a\nself-surrender into whose void no blessing falls from the God who\nreceives it. Far different is the \"self-presentation\" of the Gospel.\nIt is done in the fulness of personal consciousness and choice. It is\ndone with revealed reasons of infinite truth and beauty to warrant its\nrightness. And it is a placing of the surrendered self into Hands\nwhich will both foster its true development as only its Maker can, as\nHe fills it with His presence, and will use it, in the bliss of an\neternal serviceableness, for His beloved will.\n\n[84] Not that the imagery of the limb appears here, explicitly. But it\ndoes appear below, xii.\u00a05, and in the contemporary passage 1\u00a0Cor.\nvi.\u00a015; and more fully in the Epistles of the First Captivity.\n\n[85] \u039f\u1f35\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2: the paraphrase is perhaps a slight exaggeration of\nthe force of the pronoun.\n\n[86] \u1f4d\u03c3\u03bf\u03b9 \u1f10\u03b2\u03b1\u03c0\u03c4\u03af\u03c3\u03b8\u03b7\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd: we give a paraphrase, not a translation,\nto shew the meaning practically.\n\n[87] We thus paraphrase a difficult sentence. It seems to us that the\n\u1f41\u03bc\u03bf\u03af\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u0391\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 must refer to the baptismal rite. If so,\nour paraphrase as a whole will be justified.--As to the \"_plunge_\" and\n\"_emergence_,\" we would only say, without entering further on an\nagitated question, that it seems to us clear that baptism was at\nfirst, _theoretically_, an entire immersion, but that, also\nprimevally, the theory was allowed to be modified in practice; _the\npouring_ of water in such cases _representing_ the ideal immersion. As\nearly as \"_the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles_,\" cent. i. (ch. vii.),\nthere are signs of this.\n\n[88] More literally, perhaps, \"_shall also come to life with Him_.\" If\nwe read this aright, it points to the prospect _future at the moment\nof the atoning Death_, when, ideally, we died. It does not therefore\nmean, practically, _that we do not live with Him now_, as we certainly\ndo (see just below, ver. 11). But it is as if to say, \"we believe that\nour share in His risen Life _surely follows_, now and always, our\nshare in His atoning Death.\"\n\n[89] The words \u03c4\u1ff7 \u039a\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u1ff3 \u1f21\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd are to be omitted from the text.\n\n[90] \u039c\u1f72 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03ad\u03c4\u03c9: possibly the present imperative may imply, \"do\nnot _go on letting_ it reign.\"\n\n[91] Omit \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1fc3 \u1f10\u03bd from the text.\n\n[92] \u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u03b5: we may perhaps explain this present imperative\nalso to mean \"do not _go on so doing_.\"\n\n[93] \u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5: the aorist certainly implies a critical resolve, a\n_decision_ of surrender.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\n_JUSTIFICATION AND HOLINESS: ILLUSTRATIONS FROM HUMAN LIFE_\n\nROMANS vi.\u00a014--vii.\u00a06\n\n\nAt the point we have now reached, the Apostle's thought pauses for a\nmoment, to resume.[94] He has brought us to self-surrender. We have\nseen the sacred obligations of our divine and wonderful liberty. We\nhave had the miserable question, \"_Shall we cling to sin?_\" answered\nby an explanation of the rightness and the bliss of giving over our\naccepted persons, in the fullest liberty of will, to God, in Christ.\nNow he pauses, to illustrate and enforce. And two human relations\npresent themselves for the purpose; the one to shew the absoluteness\nof the surrender, the other its living results. The first is Slavery,\nthe second is Wedlock.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =For sin shall not have dominion over you;= sin\nshall not put in its claim upon you, the claim which the Lord has met\nin your Justification; =for you are not brought[95] under law, but\nunder grace.= The whole previous argument explains this sentence. He\nrefers to our acceptance. He goes back to the justification of the\nguilty, \"without the deeds of law,\" by the act of free grace; and\nbriefly restates it thus, that he may take up afresh the position that\nthis glorious liberation means not licence but divine order. Sin shall\nbe no more your tyrant-creditor, holding up the broken law in evidence\nthat it has right to lead you off to a pestilential prison, and to\ndeath. Your dying Saviour has met your creditor in full for you, and\nin Him you have entire discharge in that eternal court where the\nterrible plea once stood against you. Your dealings as debtors are now\nnot with the enemy who cried for your death, but with the Friend who\nhas bought you out of his power.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =What then? are we to sin, because we are not=\nbrought =under law, but under grace?= Shall our life be a life of\nlicence, because we are thus wonderfully free? The question assuredly\nis one which, like that of ver. 1, and like those suggested in iii.\u00a08,\n31, had often been asked of St Paul, by the bitter opponent, or by the\nfalse follower. And again it illustrates and defines, by the direction\nof its error, the line of truth from which it flew off. It helps to do\nwhat we remarked above,[96] to assure us that when St Paul taught\n\"Justification by faith, without deeds of law,\" he meant what he said,\nwithout reserve; he taught that great side of truth wholly, and\nwithout a compromise. He called the sinner, \"just as he was, and\nwaiting not to rid his soul of one dark blot,\" to receive at once, and\nwithout fee, the acceptance of God for Another's blessed sake. Bitter\nmust have been the moral pain of seeing, from the first, this holy\nfreedom distorted into an unhallowed leave to sin.[97] But he will not\nmeet it by an impatient compromise, or untimely confusion. It shall be\nanswered by a fresh collocation; the liberty shall be seen in its\nrelation to the Liberator; and behold, the perfect freedom is a\nperfect service, willing but absolute, a slavery joyfully accepted,\nwith open eyes and open heart, and then lived out as the most real of\nobligations by a being who has entirely seen that he is not his own.\n\n=Away with the thought.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =Do you not know that\nthe party to whom you present,= surrender, =yourselves bondservants,=\nslaves, =so as to obey= him,--=bondservants you are,= not the less for\nthe freewill of the surrender, =of the party whom you obey;= no longer\nmerely contractors with him, who may bargain, or retire, but his\nbondservants out and out; =whether of sin, to death, or of obedience,\nto righteousness?= (As if their _assent_ (\u1f51\u03c0\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u1f74) to Christ, their\n_Amen_ to His terms of peace, acceptance, righteousness, were\npersonified; they were now the bondsmen of this their own act and\ndeed, which had put them, as it were, into Christ's hands for all\nthings.) [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =Now (\u03b4\u1f72) thanks be to our (\u03c4\u1ff7) God,\nthat you were bondmen of sin,= in legal claim, and under moral sway;\nyes, every one of you was this, whatever forms the bondage took upon\nits surface; =but you obeyed from the heart the mould of teaching to\nwhich you were handed over.[98]= They had been sin's slaves. Verbally,\nnot really, he \"_thanks God_\" for that fact of the past. Really, not\nverbally, he \"_thanks God_\" for the pastness of the fact, and for the\nbright contrast to it in the regenerated present. They had now been\n\"_handed over_,\" by their Lord's transaction about them, to another\nownership, and they had accepted the transfer, \"_from the heart_.\" It\nwas done by Another for them, but they had said their humble, thankful\n_fiat_ as He did it. And what was the new ownership thus accepted? We\nshall find soon (ver. 22), as we might expect, that it is the mastery\nof God. But the bold, vivid introductory imagery has already called it\n(ver. 16) the slavery of \"_Obedience_.\" Just below (vers. 19, 20) it\nis the slavery of \"_Righteousness_,\" that is, if we read the word\naright in its whole context, of \"the Righteousness of God,\" His\nacceptance of the sinner as His own in Christ. And here, in a phrase\nmost unlikely of all, whose personification strikes life into the most\nabstract aspects of the message of the grace of God, the believer is\none who has been transferred to the possession of \"_a mould of\nTeaching_.\" The apostolic Doctrine, the mighty Message, the living\nCreed of life, the Teaching of the acceptance of the guilty for the\nsake of Him who was their Sacrifice, and is now their Peace and\nLife--this truth has, as it were, grasped them as its vassals, to form\nthem, to mould them, for its issues. It is indeed their \"_tenet_.\" It\n_holds them_; a thought far different from what is too often meant\nwhen we say of a doctrine that \"we _hold it_.\" Justification by their\nLord's merit, union with their Lord's life; this was a doctrine,\nreasoned, ordered, verified. But it was a doctrine warm and tenacious\nwith the love of the Father and of the Son. And it had laid hold of\nthem with a mastery which swayed thought, affection, and will; ruling\ntheir whole view of self and of God. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =Now\n(\u03b4\u1f72), liberated from your (\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2) sin, you were enslaved to the\nRighteousness= of God.[99] Here is the point of the argument. It is a\npoint of steel, for all is fact; but the steel is steeped in love, and\ncarries life and joy into the heart it penetrates. They are not for\none moment their own. Their acceptance has magnificently emancipated\nthem from their tyrant-enemy. But it has absolutely bound them to\ntheir Friend and King. Their glad consent to be accepted has carried\nwith it a consent to belong. And if that consent was at the moment\nrather implied than explicit, virtual rather than articulately\nconscious, they have now only to understand their blessed slavery\nbetter to give the more joyful thanksgivings to Him who has thus\nclaimed them altogether as His own.\n\nThe Apostle's aim in this whole passage is to awaken them, with the\nstrong, tender touch of his holy reasoning, to articulate their\nposition to themselves. They have trusted Christ, and are in Him.\nThen, they have entrusted themselves altogether to Him. Then, they\nhave, in effect, surrendered. They have consented to be His property.\nThey are the bondservants, they are the slaves,[100] of His Truth,\nthat is, of Him robed and revealed in His Truth, and shining through\nit on them in the glory at once of His grace and of His claim. Nothing\nless than such an obligation is the fact for them. Let them feel, let\nthem weigh, and then let them embrace, the chain which after all will\nonly prove their pledge of rest and freedom.\n\nWhat St Paul thus did for our elder brethren at Rome, let him do for\nus of this later time. For us, who read this page, all the facts are\ntrue in Christ to-day. To-day let us define and affirm their issues to\nourselves, and recollect our holy bondage, and realize it, and live it\nout with joy.\n\nNow he follows up the thought. Conscious of the superficial\nrepulsiveness of the metaphor--quite as repulsive in itself to the\nPharisee as to the Englishman--he as it were apologizes for it; not\nthe less carefully, in his noble considerateness, because so many of\nhis first readers were actually slaves. He does not _lightly_ go for\nhis picture of our Master's hold of us to the market of Corinth, or of\nRome, where men and women were sold and bought to belong as absolutely\nto their buyers as cattle, or as furniture. Yet he _does_ go there, to\nshake slow perceptions into consciousness, and bring the will face to\nface with the claim of God. So he proceeds: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =I\nspeak humanly,= I use the terms of this utterly _not-divine_ bond of\nman to man, to illustrate man's glorious bond to God, =because of the\nweakness of your flesh,= because your yet imperfect state enfeebles\nyour spiritual perception, and demands a harsh paradox to direct and\nfix it. =For=--here is what he means by \"_humanly_\"--=just as you\nsurrendered your limbs,[101]= your functions and faculties in human\nlife, =slaves to your (\u03c4\u1fc7) impurity and to your (\u03c4\u1fc7) lawlessness,\nunto that (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) lawlessness,= so that the bad principle did indeed\ncome out in bad practice, =so now,= with as little reserve of liberty,\n=surrender your limbs slaves to righteousness,= to God's Righteousness,\nto your justifying God, =unto sanctification=--so that the surrender\nshall come out in your Master's sovereign separation of His purchased\nproperty from sin.\n\nHe has appealed to the moral reason of the regenerate soul. Now he\nspeaks straight to the will. You are, with infinite rightfulness, the\nbondmen of your God. You see your deed of purchase; it is the other\nside of your warrant of emancipation. Take it, and write your own\nunworthy names with joy upon it, consenting and assenting to your\nOwner's perfect rights. And then live out your life, keeping the\nautograph of your own surrender before your eyes. Live, suffer,\nconquer, labour, serve, as men who have themselves walked to their\nMaster's door, and presented the ear to the awl which pins it to the\ndoorway, each in his turn saying, \"I will not go out free.\"[102]\n\nTo such an act of the soul the Apostle calls these saints, whether\nthey had done the like before or no. They were to sum up the perpetual\nfact, then and there, into a definite and critical act (\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5,\naorist) of thankful will. And he calls us to do the same to-day. By\nthe grace of God, it shall be done. With eyes open, and fixed upon the\nface of the Master who claims us, and with hands placed helpless and\nwilling within His hands, we will, we do, present ourselves\nbondservants to Him; for discipline, for servitude, for all His will.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =For when you were slaves of your (\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2) sin,\nyou were freemen as to righteousness,= God's Righteousness (\u03c4\u1fc7\n\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c3\u03cd\u03bd\u1fc3). It had nothing to do with you, whether to give you peace\nor to receive your tribute of love and loyalty in reply. Practically,\nChrist was not your Atonement, and so not your Master; you stood, in a\ndismal independence, outside His claims. To you, your lips were your\nown; your time was your own; your will was your own. You belonged to\nself; that is to say, you were the slaves of your sin. Will you go\nback? Will the word \"freedom\" (he plays with it, as it were, to prove\nthem) make you wish yourselves back where you were before you had\nendorsed by faith your purchase by the blood of Christ? Nay, for what\nwas that \"freedom,\" seen in its results, its results upon yourselves?\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =What fruit, therefore,= (the \"_therefore_\" of\nthe logic of facts,) =used you to have then,= in those old days, =from\nthings over which you are ashamed now?= Ashamed indeed; =for the end,=\nthe issue, as the fruit is the tree's \"end,\" =the end of those things\nis--death;= perdition of all true life, here and hereafter too.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =But now,= in the blessed actual state of your\ncase, as by faith you have entered into Christ, into His work and into\nHis life, =now liberated from sin and enslaved to God, you have your\nfruit,= you possess indeed, at last, the true issues of being for\nwhich you were made, all contributing =to sanctification,= to that\nseparation to God's will in practice which is the development of your\nseparation to that will in critical fact, when you met your Redeemer\nin self-renouncing faith. Yes, this fruit you have indeed; =and as its\nend,= as that for which it is produced, to which it always and for\never tends, you have =life eternal.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.] =For the pay\nof sin,= sin's military stipend (\u1f40\u03c8\u03ce\u03bd\u03b9\u03b1), punctually given to the\nbeing which has joined its war against the will of God, =is death; but\nthe free gift of God is life eternal, in Jesus Christ our Lord.=\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"Is life worth living?\" Yes, infinitely well worth, for the living man\nwho has surrendered to \"the Lord that bought him.\" Outside that\nennobling captivity, that invigorating while most genuine bondservice,\nthe life of man is at best complicated and tired with a bewildered\nquest, and gives results at best abortive, matched with the ideal\npurposes of such a being. We \"present ourselves to God,\" for His ends,\nas implements, vassals, willing bondmen; and lo, our own end is\nattained. Our life has settled, after its long friction, into gear.\nOur root, after hopeless explorations in the dust, has struck at last\nthe stratum where the immortal water makes all things live, and grow,\nand put forth fruit for heaven. The heart, once dissipated between\nitself and the world, is now \"united\" to the will, to the love, of\nGod; and understands itself, and the world, as never before; and is\nable to deny self and to serve others in a new and surprising freedom.\nThe man, made willing to be nothing but the tool and bondman of God,\n\"_has his fruit_\" at last; bears the true product of his now\nre-created being, pleasant to the Master's eye, and fostered by His\nair and sun. And this \"_fruit_\" issues, as acts issue in habit, in the\nglad experience of a life really sanctified, really separated in ever\ndeeper inward reality, to a holy will. And the \"_end_\" of the whole\nglad possession, is \"_life eternal_.\"\n\nThose great words here signify, surely, the coming bliss of the sons\nof the resurrection, when at last in their whole perfected being they\nwill \"live\" all through, with a joy and energy as inexhaustible as its\nFountain, and unencumbered at last and for ever by the conditions of\nour mortality. To that vast future, vast in its scope yet all\nconcentrated round the fact that \"we shall be like HIM, for we shall\nsee HIM as HE is,\" the Apostle here looks onward. He will say more of\nit, and more largely, later, in the eighth chapter. But as with other\nthemes so with this he preludes with a few glorious chords the great\nstrain soon to come. He takes the Lord's slave by the hand, amidst his\npresent tasks and burthens, (dear tasks and burthens, because the\nMaster's, but still full of the conditions of earth,) and he points\nupward--not to a coming _manumission_ in glory; the man would be\ndismayed to foresee that; he wants to \"serve for ever\";--but to a\nscene of service in which the last remainders of hindrance to its\naction will be gone, and a perfected being will for ever, perfectly,\nbe not its own, and so will perfectly live in God. And this, so he\nsays to his fellow-servant, to you and to me, is \"_the gift of God_\";\na grant as free, as generous, as ever King gave vassal here below. And\nit is to be enjoyed as such, by a being which, living wholly for Him,\nwill freely and purely exult to live wholly on Him, in the heavenly\nplaces.\n\nYet surely the bearing of the sentences is not wholly upon heaven.\nLife eternal, so to be developed hereafter that Scripture speaks of it\noften as if it began hereafter, really begins here, and develops here,\nand is already \"more abundant\" (John x.\u00a010) here. It is, as to its\nsecret and also its experience, to know and to enjoy God, to be\npossessed by Him, and used for all His will. In this respect it is\n\"_the end_,\" the issue and the goal, now and perpetually, of the\nsurrender of the soul. The Master meets that attitude with more and\nyet more of Himself, known, enjoyed, possessed, possessing. And so He\ngives, evermore gives, out of His sovereign bounty, life eternal to\nthe bondservant who has embraced the fact that he is nothing, and has\nnothing, outside his Master. Not at the outset of the regenerate life\nonly, and not only when it issues into the heavenly ocean, but all\nalong the course, the life eternal is still \"the free gift of God.\"\nLet us now, to-day, to-morrow, and always, open the lips of\nsurrendering and obedient faith, and drink it in, abundantly, and yet\nmore abundantly. And let us use it for the Giver.\n\nWe are already, here on earth, at its very springs; so the Apostle\nreminds us. For it is \"_in Jesus Christ our Lord_\"; and we, believing,\nare in Him, \"saved in His life.\" It is in Him; nay, it is He. \"I am\nthe Life\"; \"He that hath the Son, hath the life.\" Abiding in Christ,\nwe live \"because He liveth.\" It is not to be \"attained\"; it is given,\nit is our own. In Christ, it is given, in its divine fulness, as to\ncovenant provision, here, now, from the first, to every Christian. In\nChrist, it is supplied, as to its fulness and fitness for each arising\nneed, as the Christian asks, receives, and uses for his Lord.\n\nSo from, or rather in, our holy bondservice the Apostle has brought us\nto our inexhaustible life, and its resources for willing holiness. But\nhe has more to say in explaining the beloved theme. He turns from\nslave to wife, from surrender to bridal, from the purchase to the vow,\nfrom the results of a holy bondage to the offspring of a heavenly\nunion. Hear him as he proceeds:\n\n[Sidenote: Ch. vii. Ver. 1.] =Or do you not know, brethren, (for I am\ntalking (\u03bb\u03b1\u03bb\u1ff6) to those acquainted with law,= whether Mosaic or\nGentile,) =that the law has claim on the man,= the party (\u1f04\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03c9\u03c0\u03bf\u03c2)\nin any given case, =for his whole lifetime?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =For\nthe woman with a husband (\u1f00\u03bd\u1f74\u03c1) is to her living husband bound by\nlaw,= stands all along bound (\u03b4\u03ad\u03b4\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9) to him. _His life_, under\nnormal conditions, is his adequate claim. Prove him living, and you\nprove her his. =But if the husband should have died, she stands ipso\nfacto cancelled[103] (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b3\u03b7\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9) from the husband's law,=\nthe marriage law as he could bring it to bear against her.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =So, therefore, while the husband lives, she will\nearn adulteress for her name, if she weds another (\u1f11\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u1ff3, \"a\nsecond\") husband. But if the husband should have died, she is free\nfrom the law= in question, =so as to be no adulteress, if wedded to\nanother,= a second, =husband.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =Accordingly, my\nbrethren, you too,= as a mystic bride, collectively and individually,[104]\n=were done to death as to the Law,= so slain that its capital claim\nupon you is met _and done_, =by means of the Body of the Christ (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\n\u03a7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6),= by \"the doing to death\" of His sacred Body for you, on His\natoning Cross, to satisfy for you the aggrieved Law; =in order to your\nwedding Another,= a second Party (\u1f11\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u1ff3), =Him who rose from the dead;\nthat we might bear fruit for God;= \"_we_,\" Paul and his converts, in\none happy _fellowship_, which he delights thus to remember and\nindicate by the way.\n\nThe parable is stated and explained with a clearness which leaves us\nat first the more surprised that in the application the illustration\nshould be reversed. In the illustration, the husband dies, the woman\nlives, and weds again. In the application, the Law does not die, but\nwe, its unfaithful bride, are \"_done to death to it_,\" and then,\nstrange sequel, are wedded to the Risen Christ. We are taken by Him to\nbe \"one spirit\" with Him (1\u00a0Cor. vi.\u00a017). We are made one in all His\ninterests and wealth, and fruitful of a progeny of holy deeds in this\nvital union. Shall we call all this a simile confused? Not if we\nrecognize the deliberate and explicit carefulness of the whole\npassage. St Paul, we may be sure, was quite as quick as we are to see\nthe inverted imagery. But he is dealing with a subject which would be\ndistorted by a mechanical correspondence in the treatment. The Law\ncannot die, for it is the preceptive will of God. Its claim is, in its\nown awful _forum domesticum_, like the injured Roman husband, to\nsentence its own unfaithful wife to death. And so it does; so it has\ndone. But behold, its Maker and Master steps upon the scene. He\nsurrounds the guilty one with Himself, takes her whole burthen on\nHimself, and meets and exhausts her doom. He dies. He lives again,\nafter death, because of death; and the Law acclaims His resurrection\nas infinitely just. He rises, clasping in His arms her for whom He\ndied, and who thus died in Him, and now rises in Him. Out of His\nsovereign love, while the Law attests the sure contract, and rejoices\nas \"the Bridegroom's Friend,\" He claims her--herself, yet in Him\nanother--for His blessed Bride.\n\nAll is love, as if we walked through the lily-gardens of the holy\nSong, and heard the call of the turtle in the vernal woods, and saw\nthe King and His Beloved rest and rejoice in one another. All is law,\nas if we were admitted to watch some process of Roman matrimonial\ncontract, stern and grave, in which every right is scrupulously\nconsidered, and every claim elaborately secured, without a smile,\nwithout an embrace, before the magisterial chair. The Church, the\nsoul, is married to her Lord, who has died for her, and in whom now\nshe lives. The transaction is infinitely happy. And it is absolutely\nright. All the old terrifying claims are amply and for ever met. And\nnow the mighty, tender claims which take their place instantly and of\ncourse begin to bind the Bride. The Law has \"given her away\"--not to\nherself, but to the Risen Lord.\n\nFor this, let us remember, is the point and bearing of the passage. It\nputs before us, with its imagery at once so grave and so benignant,\nnot only the mystic Bridal, but the Bridal as it is concerned with\nholiness. The Apostle's object is altogether this. From one side and\nfrom another he reminds us that _we belong_. He has shewn us our\nredeemed selves in their blessed bondservice; \"free from sin, enslaved\nto God.\" He now shews us to ourselves in our divine wedlock; \"_married\nto Another_,\" \"_bound to the law of_\" the heavenly Husband; clasped to\nHis heart, but also to His rights, without which the very joy of\nmarriage would be only sin. From either parable the inference is\ndirect, powerful, and, when we have once seen the face of the MASTER\nand of the HUSBAND, unutterably magnetic on the will. You are set\nfree, into a liberty as supreme and as happy as possible. You are\nappropriated, into a possession, and into a union, more close and\nabsolute than language can set forth. You are wedded to One who \"_has\nand holds_ from this time forward.\" And the sacred bond is to be\nprolific of results. A life of willing and loving obedience, in the\npower of the risen Bridegroom's life, is to have as it were for its\nprogeny the fair circle of active graces, \"love, joy, peace,\nlongsuffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control.\"\n\nAlas, in the time of the old abolished wedlock there was result, there\nwas progeny. But that was the fruit not of the union but of its\nviolation. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =For when we were in the flesh,= in our\nunregenerate days, when our rebel self,[105] the antithesis of \"the\nSpirit,\" ruled and denoted us, (a state, he implies, in which we all\nwere once, whatever our outward differences were,) =the passions,= the\nstrong but reasonless impulses, =of our sins, which= passions =were by\nmeans of the Law,= occasioned by the fact of its just but unloved\nclaim, fretting the self-life into action, =worked actively in our\nlimbs,= in our bodily life in its varied faculties and senses, =so as\nto bear fruit for death.= We wandered, restive, from our bridegroom,\nthe Law, to Sin, our paramour. And behold, a manifold result of evil\ndeeds and habits, born as it were into bondage in the house of Death.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =But now,= now as the wonderful case stands in the\ngrace of God, =we are= (it is the aorist, but our English fairly\nrepresents it) =abrogated from the Law,= divorced from our first\ninjured Partner, nay, slain (in our crucified Head) in satisfaction of\nits righteous claim, =as having died (\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2[106]) with regard\nto that in which we were held captive,= even the Law and its violated\nbond, =so that we do bondservice in= the =Spirit's newness, and not\nin= the =Letter's oldness.=\n\nThus he comes back, through the imagery of wedlock, to that other\nparable of slavery which has become so precious to his heart. \"_So\nthat we do bondservice_,\" \"_so that we live a slave-life_\"; \u1f64\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\n\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5\u03bb\u03b5\u03cd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd \u1f21\u03bc\u1fb6\u03c2. It is as if he must break in on the heavenly\nMarriage itself with that brand and bond, not to disturb the joy of\nthe Bridegroom and the Bride, but to clasp to the Bride's heart the\nvital fact that she is not her own; that fact so blissful, but so\npowerful also and so practical that it is _worth anything_ to bring it\nhome.\n\nIt is to be no dragging and dishonouring bondage, in which the poor\ntoiler looks wistfully out for the sinking sun and the extended\nshadows. It is to be \"_not in the Letter's oldness_\"; no longer on the\nold principle of the dread and unrelieved \"_Thou shalt_,\" cut with a\npen of legal iron upon the stones of Sinai; bearing no provision of\nenabling power, but all possible provision of doom for the disloyal.\nIt is to be \"_in the Spirit's newness_\"; on the new, wonderful\nprinciple, new in its full manifestation and application in Christ, of\nthe Holy Ghost's empowering presence.[107] In that light and strength\nthe new relations are discovered, accepted, and fulfilled. Joined by\nthe Spirit to the Lord Christ, so as to have full benefit of His\njustifying merit; filled by the Spirit with the Lord Christ, so as to\nderive freely and always the blessed virtues of His life; the willing\nbondservant finds in his absolute obligations an inward liberty ever\n\"_new_,\" fresh as the dawn, pregnant as the spring. And the\nworshipping Bride finds in the holy call to \"keep her only unto HIM\"\nwho has died for her life, nothing but a perpetual surprise of love\nand gladness, \"new every morning,\" as the Spirit shews her the heart\nand the riches of her Lord.\n\nThus closes, in effect, the Apostle's reasoned exposition of the\nself-surrender of the justified. Happy the man who can respond to it\nall with the _Amen_ of a life which, reposing on the Righteousness of\nGod, answers ever to His Will with the loyal gladness found in \"the\nnewness of the Spirit.\" It is \"perfect freedom\" to understand, in\nexperience, the bondage and the bridal of the saints.\n\n[94] It will be observed that we place _the paragraph_ after ver. 13,\nnot, as many editions of the Epistle do, after ver. 14. It seems to us\nclear that ver. 14 has a closer connexion with the following than with\nthe previous context. It looks back, not precisely to ver. 13, but to\nthe general recent argument, that it may then look definitely forward,\nover new ground.\n\n[95] \u1f59\u03c0\u1f78 \u03bd\u03cc\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd, \u1f51\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03bd: the accusative case gives the preposition\nproperly the meaning of _motion underwards_. But this must not be\npressed too far.\n\n[96] p. 157.\n\n[97] Luther's _Esto peccator, et pecca fortiter_, has been often\nquoted as if that great saint meant to argue licence from\nJustification by faith. \"God forbid.\" The words occur in a counsel to\nMelanchthon, whose anxious conscience doubted whether it were not a\nsin to communicate in one Kind, even where the true Rite in both Kinds\ncould not be had. It was Luther's glowing paradox, to drive a\nmanifestly morbid and weakening scrupulousness from his friend's mind.\nSee Julius Hare's _Vindication of Luther_, pp. 178, etc.\n\n[98] So undoubtedly the Greek must be rendered.\n\n[99] See above, p. 173.\n\n[100] We do not forget that many Christians feel a strong repugnance\nto the use of this word, steeped as it is in associations of\ndegradation and wrong. For ourselves, we would yield to this feeling\nso far as habitually to prefer the word of milder sound,\n\"_bondservant_.\" But surely in this passage the Apostle on purpose so\naccentuates the thought of our bondservice that its fullest and\nsternest designation is in place. And, if in any degree we gather the\nthought of other hearts from our own, there are times and connexions\nin which the fulness of _the joy_ of service demands that designation\nin order to its adequate realization.\n\n[101] \u039c\u03ad\u03bb\u03b7: what \"_the body_\" is in such passages as xii.\u00a01\u00a0that\n\"_the limbs_\" are in detail.\n\n[102] Exod. xxi.\u00a05, 6; Deut. xv.\u00a016, 17.\n\n[103] We render the bold phrase literally.\n\n[104] See 1\u00a0Cor. vi.\u00a017.\n\n[105] No word, _for practical purposes_, answers better than \"_self_\"\n(as popularly used in Christian parlance) to the idea represented by\nSt Paul's use of the word \u03c3\u1f70\u03c1\u03be in moral connexions.\n\n[106] So read, not \u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2. The textual evidence supports\n\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2, and the evidence of the context is all for it. He has\nelaborately _avoided_, in applying his illustration, the thought that\n_the Law can die_. _We die_, in Christ, in judicial satisfaction of\nits most righteous claim. It lives with us, it guides us, with the\nauthority of God. But it is now our monitor, not our avenger of blood.\n\n[107] Such passages as this and its companion, 2\u00a0Cor. iii.\u00a04-8, have\nno reference, however remote, to the \"letter and spirit\" of Holy\nScripture. They contrast Sinai and Pentecost.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\n_THE FUNCTION OF THE LAW IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE_\n\nROMANS vii.\u00a07-25\n\n\nThe Apostle has led us a long way in his great argument; through sin,\npropitiation, faith, union, surrender, to that wonderful and\n\"excellent mystery,\" the bridal oneness of Christ and the Church, of\nChrist and the believer. He has yet to unfold the secrets and glories\nof the experience of a life lived in the power of that Spirit of whose\n\"_newness_\" he has just spoken. But his last parable has brought him\nstraight to a question which has repeatedly been indicated and\ndeferred. He has told us that the Law of God was at first, ideally,\nour mystic husband, and that we were unfaithful in our wedded life,\nand that the injured lord sentenced to death his guilty spouse, and\nthat the sentence was carried out--but carried out in Christ. Thus a\ndeath-divorce took place between us, the justified, and the Law,\nregarded as the violated party in the covenant--\"Do this and live.\"\n\nIs this ancient husband then a party whom we are now to suspect, and\nto defy? Our wedlock with him brought us little joy. Alas, its main\nexperience was that we sinned. At best, if we did right, (in any deep\nsense of right,) we did it against the grain; while we did wrong, (in\nthe deep sense of wrong, difference from the will of God,) with a\nfeeling of nature and gravitation. Was not our old lord to blame? Was\nthere not something wrong about the Law? Did not the Law misrepresent\nGod's will? Was it not, after all, _Sin itself in disguise_, though it\ncharged us with the horrible guilt of a course of adultery with Sin?\n\nWe cannot doubt that the statement and the treatment of this question\nhere are in effect a record of personal experience. The paragraph\nwhich it originates, this long last passage of i., bears every trace\nof such experience. Hitherto, in the main, he has dealt with \"_you_\"\nand \"_us_\"; now he speaks only as \"_I_,\" only of \"_me_,\" and of\n\"_mine_.\" And the whole dialect of the passage, so to say, falls in\nwith this use of pronouns. We overhear the colloquies, the\naltercations, of will with conscience, of will with will, almost of\nself with self, carried on in a region which only self-consciousness\ncan penetrate, and which only the subject of it all can thus describe.\nYes, the person Paul is here, analysing and reporting upon himself;\ndrawing the veil from his own inmost life, with a hand firm because\nsurrendered to the will of God, who bids him, for the Church's sake,\nexpose himself to view. Nothing in literature, no _Confessions_ of an\nAugustine, no _Grace Abounding_ of a Bunyan, is more intensely\nindividual. Yet on the other hand nothing is more universal in its\nsearching application. For the man who thus writes is \"the chosen\nvessel\" of the Lord who has perfectly adjusted not his words only but\nhis being, his experience, his conflicts and deliverances, to be\nmanifestations of universal spiritual facts.\n\nWe need hardly say that this profound paragraph has been discussed and\ninterpreted most variously. It has been held by some to be only St\nPaul's intense way of presenting that great phenomenon, wide as fallen\nhumanity--human will colliding with human conscience, so that \"no man\ndoes all he knows.\" Passages from every quarter of literature, of all\nages, of all races, have been heaped around it, to prove, (what is\nindeed so profoundly significant a fact, largely confirmatory of the\nChristian doctrine of Original Sin,[108]) that universal man is\nhaunted by undone duties; and this passage is placed as it were in the\nmidst, as the fullest possible confession of that fact, in the name of\nhumanity, by an ideal individual. But surely it needs only an\nattentive reading of the passage, as a part of the Epistle to the\nRomans, as a part of the teaching of St Paul, to feel the extreme\ninadequacy of such an account. On the one hand the long groaning\nconfession is no artificial embodiment of a universal fact; it is the\ncry of a human soul, if ever there was a personal cry. On the other\nhand the passage betrays a kind of conflict far deeper and more\nmysterious than merely that of \"_I ought_\" with \"_I will not_.\" It is\na conflict of \"_I will_\" with \"_I will not_\"; of \"_I hate_\" with \"_I\ndo_.\" And in the later stages of the confession we find the subject of\nthe conflict avowing a wonderful sympathy with the Law of God;\nrecording not merely an avowal that right is right, but a\nconsciousness that God's precept is delectable. All this leads us to a\nspiritual region unknown to Euripides, and Horace, and even Epictetus.\n\nAgain it has been held that the passage records the experiences of a\nhalf-regenerate soul; struggling on its way from darkness to light,\nstumbling across a border-zone between the power of Satan and the\nkingdom of God; deeply convinced of sin, but battling with it in the\nold impossible way after all, meeting self with self, or, otherwise,\nthe devil with the man. But here again the passage seems to refuse the\nexposition, as we read _all_ its elements. It is no experience of a\nhalf-renewed life to \"take delight with the law of God after the inner\nman.\" It is utterly unlawful for a half-regenerate soul to describe\nitself as so beset by sin that \"it is _not I_, but sin that dwelleth\nin me.\" No more dangerous form of thought about itself could be\nadopted by a soul not fully acquainted with God.\n\nAgain, and quite on the other hand, it has been held that our passage\nlays it down that a stern but on the whole disappointing conflict with\ninternal evil is the lot of the true Christian, in his fullest life,\nnow, always, and to the end; that the regenerate and believing man is,\nif indeed awake to spiritual realities, to _feel_ at every step, \"O\nwretched man that I am\"; \"What I hate, that I do\"; and to expect\ndeliverance from such a consciousness only when he attains his final\nheavenly rest with Christ. Here again extreme difficulties attend the\nexposition; not from within the passage, but from around it. It is\nliterally encircled with truths of liberty, in a servitude which is\nperfect freedom; with truths of power and joy, in a life which is by\nthe Holy Ghost. It is quite incongruous with such surroundings that it\nshould be thought to describe a spiritual experience dominant and\ncharacteristic in the Christian life.\n\n\"What shall we say then?\" Is there yet another line of exegesis which\nwill better satisfy the facts of both the passage and its context? We\nthink there is one, which at once is distinctive in itself, and\ncombines elements of truth indicated by the others which we have\noutlined. For those others _have_ each an element of truth, if we read\naright. The passage _has_ a reference to the universal conflict of\nconscience and will. It does say some things quite appropriate to the\nman who is awake to his bondage but has not yet found his Redeemer.\nAnd there is, we dare to say, a sense in which it may be held that the\npicture is true for the whole course of Christian life here on earth;\nfor there is never an hour of that life when the man who \"says he has\nno sin\" does not \"deceive himself\" (1\u00a0Joh. i.\u00a08). And if that sin be\nbut simple defect, a falling \"short of the glory of God\"; nay, if it\nbe only that mysterious tendency which, felt or not, hourly needs a\ndivine counteraction; still, the man \"has sin,\" and must long for a\nfinal emancipation, with a longing which carries in it at least _a\nlatent_ \"groan.\"\n\nSo we begin by recognizing that Paul, the personal Paul, speaking here\nto all of us, as in some solemn \"testimony\" hour, takes us first to\nhis earliest deep convictions of right and wrong, when, apparently\nafter a previous complacency with himself, he woke to see--but not to\nwelcome--the absoluteness of God's will. He glided along a smooth\nstream of moral and mental culture and reputation till he struck the\nrock of \"Thou shalt not covet,\" \"Thou shalt not desire,\" \"Thou must\nnot have self-will.\" Then, as from a grave, which was however only an\nambush, \"_sin_\" sprang up; a conscious force of opposition to the\nclaim of God's will as against the will of Paul; and his dream of\nreligious satisfaction died. Till we close ver. 11, certainly, we are\nin the midst of the unregenerate state. The tenses are past; the\nnarrative is explicit. He made a discovery of law which was as death\nafter life to his then religious experience. He has nothing to say of\ncounter-facts in his soul. It was conviction, with only rebellion as\nits issue.\n\nThen we find ourselves, we hardly know how, in a range of confessions\nof a different order. There is a continuity. The Law is there, and sin\nis there, and a profound moral conflict. But there are now\ncounter-facts. The man, the _Ego_, now \"_wills not_,\" nay, \"_hates_,\"\nwhat he practises. He wills what God prescribes, though he does it\nnot. His sinful deeds are, in a certain sense, in this respect, not\nhis own. He actually \"_delights, rejoices, with the Law of God_.\" Yet\nthere is a sense in which he is \"_sold_,\" \"_enslaved_,\" \"_captured_,\"\nin the wrong direction.\n\nHere, as we have admitted, there is much which is appropriate to the\nnot yet regenerate state, where however the man is awakening morally,\nto good purpose, under the hand of God. But the passage as a whole\nrefuses to be satisfied thus, as we have seen. He who can truly speak\nthus of an inmost sympathy, a sympathy of delight, with the most holy\nLaw of God, is no half-Christian; certainly not in St Paul's view of\nthings.\n\nBut now observe one great negative phenomenon of the passage. We read\nwords about this regenerate sinner's moral being and faculties; about\nhis \"_inner man_,\" his \"_mind_,\" \"_the law of his mind_\"; about\n\"_himself_,\" as distinguished from the \"_sin_\" which haunts him. But\nwe read not one clear word about that eternal SPIRIT, whose glorious\npresence we have seen (vii.\u00a06), characterizing the Gospel, and of whom\nwe are soon to hear in such magnificent amplitude. Once only is He\neven distantly indicated; \"the _Law_ is _spiritual_\" (ver. 14). But\nthat is no comfort, no deliverance. The Spirit is indeed in the Law;\nbut He must be also in the man, if there is to be effectual response,\nand harmony, and joy. No, we look in vain through the passage for one\nhint that the man, that Paul, is contemplated in it as filled by faith\nwith the Holy Ghost for his war with indwelling sin working through\nhis embodied conditions.\n\nBut he was regenerate, you say. And if so, he was an instance of the\nSpirit's work, a receiver of the Spirit's presence. It is so; not\nwithout the Spirit, working in him, could he \"delight in the law of\nGod,\" and \"with his true self serve the law of God.\" But does this\nnecessarily mean that he, as a conscious agent, was fully using his\neternal Guest as his power and victory?\n\nWe are not merely discussing a literary passage. We are pondering an\noracle of God about man. So we turn full upon the reader--and upon\nourselves--and ask the question, whether the heart cannot help to\nexpound this hard paragraph. Christian man, by grace,--that is to say,\nby the Holy Spirit of God,--you have believed, and live. You are a\nlimb of Christ, who is your life. But you are a sinner still; always,\nactually, in defect, and in tendency; always, potentially, in ways\nterribly positive. For whatever the presence of the Spirit in you has\ndone, it has not so altered you that, if He should go, you would not\n_instantly_ \"revert to the type\" of unholiness. Now, how do you meet\ntemptation from without? How do you deal with the dread fact of guilty\nimbecility within? Do you, if I may put it so, use regenerate faculty\nin unregenerate fashion, meeting the enemy _practically_ alone, with\nonly high resolves, and moral scorn of wrong, and assiduous processes\nof discipline on body or mind? God forbid we should call these things\nevil. They are good. But they are the accidents, not the essence, of\nthe secret; the wall, not the well, of power and triumph. It is the\nLord Himself dwelling in you who is your victory; and that victory is\nto be realized by a conscious and decisive appeal to Him. \"Through Him\nyou shall do valiantly; for He it is that shall tread down your\nenemies\" (Psal. lx.\u00a012). And is not this verified in your experience?\nWhen, in your regenerate state, you use the true regenerate way, is\nthere not a better record to be given? When, realizing that the true\nprinciple is indeed a Person, you less resolve, less struggle, and\nmore appeal and confide--is not sin's \"reign\" broken, and is not your\nfoot, even yours, because you are in conscious union with the\nConqueror, placed effectually on \"all the power of the enemy\"?\n\nWe are aware of the objection ready to be made, and by devout and\nreverent men. It will be said that the Indwelling Spirit works always\nthrough the being in whom He dwells; and that so we are not to think\nof Him as a separable Ally, but just to _act ourselves_, leaving it to\nHim to act through us. Well, we are willing to state the matter almost\nexactly in those last words, as theory. But the subject is too\ndeep--and too practical--for neat logical consistency. He does indeed\nwork in us, and through us. But then--it is HE. And to the hard\npressed soul there is an unspeakable reality and power in thinking of\nHim as a separable, let us say simply a personal, Ally, who is also\nCommander, Lord, Life-Giver; and in calling Him definitely in.\n\nSo we read this passage again, and note this absolute and eloquent\nsilence in it about the Holy Ghost. And we dare, in that view, to\ninterpret it as St Paul's confession, not of a long past experience,\nnot of an imagined experience, but of his own normal experience\nalways--when he acts out of character as a regenerate man. He fails,\nhe \"reverts,\" when, being a sinner by nature still, and in the body\nstill, he meets the Law, and meets temptation, in any strength short\nof the definitely sought power of the Holy Ghost, making Christ all to\nhim for peace and victory. And he implies, surely, that this failure\nis not a bare hypothesis, but that he knows what it is. It is not that\nGod is not sufficient. He is so, always, now, for ever. But the man\ndoes not always adequately use God; as he ought to do, as he might do,\nas he will ever rise up afresh to do. And when he does not, the\nresultant failure--though it be but a thought of vanity, a flush of\nunexpressed anger, a microscopic flaw in the practice of truthfulness,\nan unhallowed imagination darting in a moment through the soul--is to\nhim sorrow, burthen, shame. It tells him that \"the flesh\" is present\nstill, present at least in its elements, though God can keep them out\nof combination. It tells him that, though immensely blest, and knowing\nnow exactly where to seek, and to find, a constant practical\ndeliverance (oh joy unspeakable!), he is still \"in the body,\" and that\nits conditions are still of \"death.\" And so he looks with great desire\nfor its redemption. The present of grace is good, beyond all his hopes\nof old. But the future of glory is \"far better.\"\n\nThus the man at once \"serves the Law of God,\" as its willing bondman\n(\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5\u03bb\u03b5\u03cd\u03c9, ver.\u00a025), in the life of grace, and submits himself, with\nreverence and shame, to its convictions, when, if but for an hour, or\na moment, he \"reverts\" to the life of the flesh.\n\nLet us take the passage up now for a nearly continuous translation.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =What shall we say then,= in face of the thought\nof our death-divorce, in Christ, from the Law's condemning power. =Is\nthe Law sin?= Are they only two phases of one evil? =Away with the\nthought! But=--here is the connexion of the two--=I should not have\nknown,= recognized, understood, =sin but by means of law. For\ncoveting,= for example, =I should not have known,= should not have\nrecognized as sin, =if the Law had not been saying, \"Thou shalt not\ncovet.\"[109]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =But sin, making a fulcrum of the\ncommandment,[110] produced,= effected, =in me all coveting,= every\nvarious application of the principle. =For, law apart, sin is\ndead=--in the sense of lack of conscious action. It needs _a holy\nWill_, more or less revealed, to occasion its collision. Given no holy\nwill, known or surmised, and it is \"dead\" _as rebellion_, though not\n_as pollution_. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =But I,= the person in whom it lay\nburied, =was all alive (\u1f14\u03b6\u03c9\u03bd),= conscious and content, =law apart,\nonce on a time= (strange ancient memory in that biography!). =But when\nthe commandment came= to my conscience and my will, =sin rose to life\nagain,= (\"_again_\"; so it was no new creation after all)\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =and I--died;= I found myself legally doomed to\ndeath, morally without life-power, and bereft of the self-satisfaction\nthat seemed my vital breath. =And the commandment that was\nlife-wards,= prescribing nothing but perfect right, the straight\nline to life eternal, =proved (\u03b5\u1f51\u03c1\u03ad\u03b8\u03b7) for me deathwards.=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =For sin, making a fulcrum of the commandment,\ndeceived me,= into thinking fatally wrong of God and of myself, =and\nthrough it killed me,= discovered me to myself as legally and morally\na dead man. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =So that the Law, indeed (\u03bc\u1f72\u03bd), is\nholy, and the commandment,= the special precept which was my actual\ndeath-blow, =holy, and just, and good.= (He says, \"the Law, _indeed_\"\n(\u03bc\u1f72\u03bd), with the implied antithesis that \"sin, _on the other hand_,\"\nis the opposite; the whole fault of his misery beneath the Law lies\nwith sin.) [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =The good thing then,= this good Law,\n=has it to me[111] become death? Away with the thought! Nay, but sin=\ndid so become =that it might come out as sin, working out death for me\nby means of the good= Law =--that sin might prove overwhelmingly\nsinful, through the commandment,= which at once called it up, and, by\nawful contrast, exposed its nature. Observe, he does not say merely\nthat sin thus \"_appeared_\" unutterably evil. More boldly, in this\nsentence of mighty paradoxes, he says that it \"_became_\" such. As it\nwere, it developed its _character_ into its fullest _action_, when it\nthus used the eternal Will to set creature against Creator. Yet even\nthis was overruled; all happened thus \"in order,\" so that the very\nvirulence of the plague might effectually demand the glorious Remedy.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =For we know,= we men with our conscience, we\nChristians with our Lord's light, =that the Law,= this Law which sin\nso foully abused, =is spiritual,= the expression of the eternal\nHoliness, framed by the sure guidance of the Holy Spirit; =but= then\n=I,= I Paul, taken as a sinner, viewed apart from Christ, =am\nfleshly,= a child of self, =sold to be under sin;= yes, not only when,\nin Adam, my nature sold itself at first, but still and always, just so\nfar as I am considered apart from Christ, and just so far as, in\npractice, I live apart from Christ, \"reverting,\" if but for a minute,\nto my self-life. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =For the work I work out, I do\nnot know,= I do not recognize; I am lost amidst its distorted\nconditions; =for= it is =not what I will that I practise (\u03c0\u03c1\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03c9),\nbut= it is =what I hate that I do (\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u1ff6).= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =But\nif what I do is what I do not will, I assent to the Law that it,= the\nLaw, =is good;= I shew my moral sympathy with the precept by the\nendorsement given it by my will, in the sense of my earnest moral\npreference.[112] [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =But now,= in this state of\nfacts, =it is no longer I who work out the work, but the indweller in\nme--Sin.=\n\nHe implies by \"_no longer_\" that once it was otherwise; once _the\ncentral_ choice was for self, now, in the regenerate life, even in its\nconflicts, yea, even in its failures, it is for God. A mysterious\n\"other self\" is latent still, and asserts itself in awful reality when\nthe true man, the man as regenerate, ceases to watch and to pray. And\nin this sense he dares to say \"_it is no more I_.\" It is a sense the\nvery opposite to the dream of self-excuse; for though the _Ego_ as\nregenerate does not do the deed, it has, by its sleep, or by its\nconfidence, betrayed the soul to the true doer. And thus he passes\nnaturally into the following confessions, in which we read at once the\nconsciousness of a state which ought not to be, though it is, and also\nthe conviction that it is a state _out of character_ with himself,\nwith his personality as redeemed and new-created. Into such a\nconfession there creeps no lying thought that he \"is delivered to do\nthese abominations\" (Jer. vii.\u00a010); that it is fate; that he cannot\nhelp it. Nor is the miserable dream present here that evil is but a\nphase of good, and that these conflicts are only discordant melodies\nstruggling to a cadence where they will accord. It is a groan of shame\nand pain, from a man who could not be thus tortured if he were not\nborn again. Yet it is also an avowal,--as if to assure himself that\ndeliverance is intended, and is at hand,--that the treacherous tyrant\nhe has let into the place of power _is an alien_ to him as he is a man\nregenerate. Not for excuse, but to clear his thought, and direct his\nhope, he says this to himself, and to us, in his dark hour.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =For I know that there dwells not in me, that is,\nin my flesh, good;= in my personal life, so long, and so far, as it\n\"reverts\" to self as its working centre, all is evil, for nothing is\nas God would have it be. And that \"_flesh_,\" that self-life, is ever\nthere, latent if not patent; present in such a sense that it is ready\nfor instant reappearance, from within, if any moral power less than\nthat of the Lord Himself is in command. =For the willing lies at my\nhand; but the working out what is right, does not.[113]= \"_The\nwilling_\" (\u03c4\u1f78 \u03b8\u03ad\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd), as throughout this passage, means not the\nultimate _fiat_ of the man's soul, deciding his action, but his\nearnest moral approbation, moral sympathy, _the convictions_ of the\nenlightened being. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =For not what I will, even\ngood, do I; but what I do not will, even evil, that I practise.[114]=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =Now if what I do is what I do not will, no\nlonger,= as once, =do I work it out, but the indweller in me, Sin.=\n\nAgain his purpose is not excuse, but deliverance. No deadly\nantinomianism is here, such as has withered innumerable lives, where\nthe thought has been admitted that sin may be in the man, and yet the\nman may not sin. His thought is, as all along, that it is his own\nshame that thus it is; yet that the evil is, ultimately, a thing alien\nto his true character, and that therefore he is right to call the\nlawful King and Victor in upon it.\n\nAnd now comes up again the solemn problem of the Law. That stern,\nsacred, monitor is looking on all the while, and saying all the while\nthe things which first woke sin from its living grave in the old\ncomplacent experience, and then, in the regenerate state, provoked sin\nto its utmost treachery, and most fierce invasions. And the man hears\nthe voice, and in his new-created character he loves it. But he has\n\"reverted,\" ever so little, to his old attitude, to the self-life, and\nso there is _also_ rebellion in him when that voice says \"Thou shalt.\"\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =So I find the Law=--he would have said, \"I find\nit my monitor, honoured, aye and loved, but not my helper\"; but he\nbreaks the sentence up in the stress of this intense confession; =so I\nfind the Law--for me,= me =with a will to do the right,--that for me\nthe evil lies at hand.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =For I have glad sympathy\nwith (\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03ae\u03b4\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9) the Law of God;= what He prescribes I endorse with\ndelight as good, =as regards the inner man,= that is, my world of\nconscious insight and affection[115] in the new life; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.]\n=but I see= (as if I were a watcher from without) =a rival (\u1f15\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd)\nlaw,= another and contradictory precept, \"serve _thyself_,\" =in my\nlimbs,= in my world of sense and active faculty, =at war with the law\nof my mind,= the Law of God, adopted by my now enlightened\nthinking-power as its sacred code, =and seeking to make me captive in\nthat war[116] to the law of sin,= the law =which is in my limbs.=\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.] =Unhappy man am I. Who will rescue me out of the\nbody of this death,[117]= out of a life conditioned by this mortal\nbody, which in the Fall became sin's especial vehicle, directly or\nindirectly, and which is not yet (vii.\u00a023) actually \"redeemed\"?\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =Thanks be to God,[118]= who giveth that\ndeliverance, in covenant and in measure now, fully and in eternal\nactuality hereafter, =through Jesus Christ our Lord.=\n\n=So then,= to sum the whole phenomenon of the conflict up, leaving\naside for the moment this glorious hope of the issue, =I, myself, with\nthe mind indeed do bondservice to the law of God, but with the flesh,=\nwith the life of self, wherever and whenever I \"revert\" that way, I do\nbondservice =to the law of sin.=\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDo we close the passage with a sigh, and almost with a groan? Do we\nsigh over the intricacy of the thought, the depth and subtlety of the\nreasoning, the almost fatigue of fixing and of grasping the facts\nbelow the terms \"_will_,\" and \"_mind_,\" and \"_inner man_,\" and\n\"_flesh_,\" and \"_I_\"? Do we groan over the consciousness that no\nanalysis of our spiritual failures can console us for the fact of\nthem, and that the Apostle seems in his last sentences to relegate our\nconsolations to the future, while it is in the present that we fail,\nand in the present that we long with all our souls to do, as well as\nto approve, the will of God?\n\nLet us be patient, and also let us think again. Let us find a solemn\nand sanctifying peace in the patience which meekly accepts the mystery\nthat we must needs \"wait yet for the redemption of our body\"; that the\nconditions of \"this corruptible\" must yet for a season give ambushes\nand vantages to temptation, which will be all annihilated hereafter.\nBut let us also think again. If we went at all aright in our remarks\nprevious to this passage, there are glorious possibilities for the\npresent hour \"readable between the lines\" of St Paul's unutterably\ndeep confession. We have seen in conflict the Christian man,\nregenerate, yet taken, in a practical sense, apart from his\nRegenerator. We have seen him really fight, though he really fails. We\nhave seen him unwittingly, but guiltily, betray his position to the\nfoe, by occupying it as it were alone. We have seen also,\nnevertheless, that he is not his foe's ally but his antagonist.\nListen; he is calling for his KING.\n\nThat cry will not be in vain. The King will take a double line of\naction in response. While his soldier-bondservant is yet in the body,\n\"the body of this death,\" He will throw HIMSELF into the narrow hold,\nand wonderfully turn the tide within it, and around it. And hereafter,\nHe will demolish it. Rather, He will transfigure it, into the\ncounterpart--even as it were into the part--of His own Body of glory;\nand the man shall rest, and serve, and reign for ever, with a being\nhomogeneous all through in its likeness to the Lord.\n\n[108] See J. B. Mozley's _Lectures, etc._, ix, x.\n\n[109] Exod. xx.\u00a017.--Observe here that great fact of Christian\ndoctrine; that desire, bias, gravitation away from God's will, is sin,\nwhether carried into act _or not_. Is not St Paul here recalling some\nquite special spiritual incident?\n\n[110] \u1f08\u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03bc\u1f74\u03bd \u03bb\u03b1\u03b2\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b1 \u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c2.\n\n[111] \u1f18\u03bc\u03bf\u1f76 is slightly emphatic; as if to say, \"_at least in my\ncase_.\"\n\n[112] For this meaning of \u03b8\u03ad\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd see the closely parallel passage,\nthe almost sketch or embryo of this paragraph, Gal. v.\u00a017.\n\n[113] Read not \u03bf\u1f50\u03c7 \u03b5\u1f51\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03c9, but simply \u03bf\u1f54.\n\n[114] Again \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u1ff6 and \u03c0\u03c1\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03c9, as in ver. 16.\n\n[115] In itself, the phrase \u1f41 \u1f14\u03c3\u03c9 \u1f04\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03c9\u03c0\u03bf\u03c2 is neutral. By usage it\nattaches itself to ideas of regeneration. See 2\u00a0Cor. iv.\u00a016, Eph.\niii.\u00a016.\n\n[116] \u0391\u1f30\u03c7\u03bc\u03b1\u03bb\u03c9\u03c4\u03af\u03b6\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1: \"Making me prisoner of _war_.\" Observe the\npresent tense, which indicates not necessarily the full success of the\nstrategy, but its aim.\n\n[117] The Greek equally allows the rendering \"_out of this body of\ndeath_.\"\n\n[118] Read \u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 \u03c4\u1ff7 \u0398\u03b5\u1ff6.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\n_THE JUSTIFIED: THEIR LIFE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT_\n\nROMANS viii.\u00a01-11\n\n\nThe sequence of the eighth chapter of the Epistle on the seventh is a\nstudy always interesting and fruitful. No one can read the two\nchapters over without feeling the strong connexion between them, a\nconnexion at once of contrast and of complement. Great indeed is the\ncontrast between the paragraphs vii.\u00a07-25 and the eighth chapter. The\nstern analysis of the one, unrelieved save by the fragment of\nthanksgiving at its close, (and even this is followed at once by a\nre-statement of the mysterious dualism,) is to the revelations and\ntriumphs of the other as an almost starless night, stifling and\nelectric, to the splendour of a midsummer morning with a yet more\nglorious morrow for its future. And there is complement as well as\ncontrast. The day is related to the night, which has prepared us for\nit, as hunger prepares for food. Precisely what was absent from the\nformer passage is supplied richly in the latter. There the Name of the\nHoly Spirit, \"the Lord, the Life-Giver,\" was unheard. Here the fact\nand power of the Holy Spirit are present everywhere, so present that\nthere is no other portion of the whole Scripture, unless we except the\nRedeemer's own Paschal Discourse, which presents us with so great a\nwealth of revelation on this all-precious theme. And here we find the\nsecret that is to \"stint the strife\" which we have just witnessed, and\nwhich in our own souls we know so well. Here is the way \"_how_ to walk\nand to please God\" (1\u00a0Thess. iv.\u00a01), in our justified life. Here is\nthe way how, not to be as it were the victims of \"the body,\" and the\nslaves of \"the flesh,\" but to \"_do to death the body's practices_\" in\na continuous exercise of inward power, and to \"_walk after the\nSpirit_.\" Here is the resource on which we may be for ever joyfully\npaying \"_the debt_\" of such a walk; giving our redeeming Lord His due,\nthe value of His purchase, even our willing, loving surrender, in the\nall-sufficient strength of \"the Holy Ghost given unto us.\"\n\nNoteworthy indeed is the manner of the introduction of this glorious\ntruth. It appears not without preparation and intimation; we have\nheard already of the Holy Ghost in the Christian's life, v.\u00a05, vii.\u00a06.\nThe heavenly water has been seen and heard in its flow; as in a\nlimestone country the traveller may see and hear, through fissures in\nthe fields, the buried but living floods. But here the truth of the\nSpirit, like those floods, finding at last their exit at some rough\ncliff's base, pours itself into the light, and animates all the scene.\nIn such an order and manner of treatment there is a spiritual and also\na practical lesson. We are surely reminded, as to the experiences of\nthe Christian life, that in a certain sense we possess the Holy Ghost,\nyea, in His fulness, from the first hour of our possession of Christ.\nWe are reminded also that it is at least possible on the other hand\nthat we may need so to realize and to use our covenant possession,\nafter sad experiments in other directions, that life shall be\nthenceforth a new experience of liberty and holy joy. We are reminded\nmeanwhile that such a \"new departure,\" when it occurs, is new rather\nfrom our side than from the Lord's. The water was running all the\nwhile below the rocks. Insight and faith, given by His grace, have not\ncalled it from above, but as it were from within, liberating what was\nthere.\n\nThe practical lesson of this is important for the Christian teacher\nand pastor. On the one hand, let him make very much in his\ninstructions, public and private, of the revelation of the Spirit. Let\nhim leave no room, so far as he can do it, for doubt or oblivion in\nhis friends' minds about the absolute necessity of the fulness of the\npresence and power of the Holy One, if life is to be indeed Christian.\nLet him describe as boldly and fully as the Word describes it what\nlife may be, must be, where that sacred fulness dwells; how assured,\nhow happy within, how serviceable around, how pure, free, and strong,\nhow heavenly, how practical, how humble. Let him urge any who have yet\nto learn it to learn all this in their own experience, claiming on\ntheir knees the mighty gift of God. On the other hand, let him be\ncareful not to overdraw his theory, and to prescribe too rigidly the\nmethods of experience. Not all believers fail in the first hours of\ntheir faith to realize, and to use, the fulness of what the Covenant\ngives them. And where that realization comes later than our first\nsight of Christ, as with so many of us it does come, not always is the\nexperience and action the same. To one it is a crisis of memorable\nconsciousness, a private Pentecost. Another wakes up as from sleep to\nfind the unsuspected treasure at his hand--hid from him till then by\nnothing thicker than shadows. And another is aware that somehow, he\nknows not how, he has come to use the Presence and Power as a while\nago he did not; he has passed a frontier--but he knows not when.\n\nIn all these cases, meanwhile, the man had, in one great respect,\npossessed the great gift all along. In covenant, in Christ, it was\nhis. As he stepped by penitent faith into the Lord, he trod on ground\nwhich, wonderful to say, was all his own. And beneath it ran, that\nmoment, the River of the water of life. Only, he had to discover, to\ndraw, and to apply.\n\nAgain, the relation we have just indicated between our possession of\nChrist and our possession of the Holy Ghost is a matter of the utmost\nmoment, spiritual and practical, presented prominently in this\npassage. All along, as we read the passage, we find linked\ninextricably together the truths of the Spirit and of the Son. \"_The\nlaw of the Spirit of life_\" is bound up with \"_Christ Jesus_.\" The Son\nof God was sent, to take our flesh, to die as our Sin-Offering, that\nwe might \"_walk according to the Spirit_.\" \"_The Spirit of God_\" is\n\"_the Spirit of Christ_.\" The presence of the Spirit of Christ is such\nthat, where He dwells, \"_Christ is in you_.\" Here we read at once a\ncaution, and a truth of the richest positive blessing. We are warned\nto remember that there is no _separable_ \"Gospel of the Spirit.\" Not\nfor a moment are we to advance, as it were, from the Lord Jesus Christ\nto a higher or deeper region, ruled by the Holy Ghost. All the\nreasons, methods, and issues of the work of the Holy Ghost are\neternally and organically connected with the Son of God. We have Him\nat all because Christ died. We have life because He has joined us to\nChrist living. Our experimental proof of His fulness is that Christ to\nus is all. And we are to be on the guard against any exposition of His\nwork and glory which shall for one moment leave out those facts. But\nnot only are we to be on our guard; we are to rejoice in the thought\nthat the mighty, the endless, work of the Spirit _is_ all done always\nupon that sacred Field, Christ Jesus. And every day we are to draw\nupon the indwelling Giver of Life to do for us His own, His\ncharacteristic, work; to shew us \"our King in His beauty,\" and to\n\"fill our springs of thought and will with Him.\"\n\nTo return to the connexion of the two great chapters. We have seen how\nclose and pregnant it is; the contrast and the complement. But it is\nalso true, surely, that the eighth chapter is not merely and only the\ncounterpart to the seventh. Rather the eighth, though the seventh\napplies to it a special motive, is also a review of the whole previous\nargument of the Epistle, or rather the crown on the whole previous\nstructure. It begins with a deep re-assertion of our Justification; a\npoint unnoticed in vii.\u00a07-25. It does this using an inferential\nparticle, \"_therefore_,\" \u1f04\u03c0\u03b1--to which, surely, nothing in the just\npreceding verses is related. And then it unfolds not only the present\nacceptance and present liberty of the saints, but also their amazing\nfuture of glory, already indicated, especially in ch. v.\u00a02. And its\nclosing strains are full of the great first wonder, our Acceptance.\n\"_Them He justified_\"; \"_It is God that justifieth_.\" So we forbear to\ntake ch. viii. as simply the successor and counterpart of ch. vii. It\nis this, in some great respects. But it is more; it is the meeting\npoint of all the great truths of grace which we have studied, their\nmeeting point in the sea of holiness and glory.[119]\n\nAs we approach the first paragraph of the chapter, we ask ourselves\nwhat is its message on the whole, its true _envoi_. It is, our\npossession of the Holy Spirit of God, for purposes of holy loyalty and\nholy liberty. The foundation of that fact is once more indicated, in\nthe brief assertion of our full Justification in Christ, and of His\npropitiatory Sacrifice (ver. 3). Then from those words, \"_in Christ_,\"\nhe opens this ample revelation of our possession, in our union with\nChrist, of the Spirit who, having joined us to Him, now liberates us\nin Him, not from condemnation only but from sin's dominion. If we are\nindeed in Christ, the Spirit is in us, dwelling in us, and we are in\nthe Spirit. And so, possessed and filled by the blessed Power, we\nindeed have power to walk and to obey. Nothing is mechanical,\nautomatic; we are fully persons still; He who annexes and possesses\nour personality does not for a moment violate it. But then, He _does_\npossess it; and the Christian, so possessing and so possessed, is not\nonly bound but enabled, in humble but practical reality, in a liberty\notherwise unknown, to \"_fulfil the just demand of the Law_,\" \"_to\nplease God_,\" in a life lived not to self but to Him.\n\nThus, as we shall see in detail as we proceed, the Apostle, while he\nstill firmly keeps his hand, so to speak, on Justification, is\noccupied fully now with its issue, Holiness. And this issue he\nexplains as not merely a matter of grateful feeling, the outcome of\nthe loyalty supposed to be natural to the pardoned. He gives it as a\nmatter of divine power, secured to them under the Covenant of their\nacceptance.\n\nShall we not enter on our expository study full of holy expectation,\nand with unspeakable desires awake, to receive all things which in\nthat Covenant are ours? Shall we not remember, over every sentence,\nthat in it Christ speaks by Paul, and speaks to us? For us also, as\nfor our spiritual ancestors, all this is true. It shall be true in us\nalso, as it was in them.\n\nWe shall be humbled as well as gladdened; and thus our gladness will\nbe sounder. We shall find that whatever be our \"_walk according to the\nSpirit_,\" and our veritable dominion over sin, we shall still have\n\"_the practices of the body_\" with which to deal--of the body which\nstill is \"_dead because of sin_,\" \"_mortal_,\" not yet \"_redeemed_.\" We\nshall be practically reminded, even by the most joyous exhortations,\nthat possession and personal condition are one thing in covenant, and\nanother in realization; that we must watch, pray, examine self, and\ndeny it, if we would \"be\" what we \"are.\" Yet all this is but the\nsalutary accessory to the blessed main burthen of every line. We are\naccepted in the Lord. In the Lord we have the Eternal Spirit for our\ninward Possessor. Let us arise, and \"walk humbly,\" but also in\ngladness, \"with our God.\"\n\nSt Paul speaks again, perhaps after a silence, and Tertius writes down\nfor the first time the now immortal and beloved words. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.]\n=So no adverse sentence is there now,= in view of this great fact of\nour redemption, =for those in Christ Jesus.[120]= \"_In Christ\nJesus_\"--mysterious union, blessed fact, wrought by the Spirit who\nlinked us sinners to the Lord.[121] [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =For the law\nof the Spirit of the life which is in Christ Jesus[122] freed me,= the\nman of the conflict just described, =from the law of sin and of\ndeath.= The \"law,\" the preceptive will, which legislates the covenant\nof blessing for all who are in Christ, has set him free. By a strange,\npregnant paradox, so we take it, the Gospel--the message which carries\nwith it acceptance, and also holiness, by faith--is here called a\n\"law.\" For while it is free grace to us it is also immovable ordinance\nwith God. The amnesty is His edict. It is by heavenly _statute_ that\nsinners, believing, possess the Holy Spirit in possessing Christ. And\nhere, with a sublime abruptness and directness, that great gift of the\nCovenant, the Spirit, for which the Covenant gift of Justification was\ngiven, is put forward as the Covenant's characteristic and crown. It\nis for the moment as if this were all--that \"_in Christ Jesus_\" we, I,\nare under the _fiat_ which assures to us the fulness of the Spirit.\nAnd this \"law,\" unlike the stern \"letter\" of Sinai, has actually\n\"_freed me_.\" It has endowed me not only with place but with power, in\nwhich to live emancipated from a rival law, the law of sin and of\ndeath. And what is that rival \"law\"? We dare to say, it is the\npreceptive will of Sinai; \"Do this, and thou shalt live.\" This is a\nhard saying; for in itself that very Law has been recently vindicated\nas holy, and just, and good, and spiritual. And only a few lines above\nin the Epistle we have heard of a \"law of sin\" which is \"served by the\nflesh.\" And we should unhesitatingly explain this \"law\" to be\nidentical with that _but for the next verse here_, a still nearer\ncontext, in which \"the law\" is unmistakably the divine moral Code,\nconsidered however as _impotent_. Must not this and that be the same?\nAnd to call that sacred Code \"_the Law of sin and of death_\" is not to\nsay that it is sinful and deathful. It need only mean, and we think it\ndoes mean, that it is sin's occasion, and death's warrant, by the\nunrelieved collision of its holiness with fallen man's will. It must\ncommand; he, being what he is, must rebel. He rebels; it must condemn.\nThen comes his Lord to die for him, and to rise again; and the Spirit\ncomes, to unite him to his Lord. And now, from the Law as provoking\nthe helpless, guilty will, and as claiming the sinner's penal\ndeath--behold the man is \"_freed_.\" [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =For=--(the\nprocess is now explained at large) =the impossible of the Law=--what\nit could not do, for this was not its function, even to enable us\nsinners to keep its precept from the soul--=God, when He sent His own\nSon in likeness of flesh of sin,= Incarnate, in our identical nature,\nunder all those conditions of earthly life which for us are sin's\nvehicles and occasions, =and as Sin-Offering,[123]= expiatory and\nreconciling, =sentenced sin in the flesh;= not pardoned it, observe,\nbut sentenced it. He ordered it to execution; He killed its claim and\nits power for all who are in Christ. And this, \"_in the flesh_,\"\nmaking man's earthly conditions the scene of sin's defeat, for our\neverlasting encouragement in our \"life in the flesh.\" And what was the\naim and issue? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =That the righteous demand\n(\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03af\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1) of the Law might be fulfilled in us, us who walk not\nflesh-wise, but Spirit-wise;= that we, accepted in Christ, and using\nthe Spirit's power in the daily \"walk\" of circumstance and experience,\nmight be liberated from the life of self-will, and meet the will of\nGod with simplicity and joy.\n\nSuch, and nothing less or else, was the Law's \"_righteous demand_\"; an\nobedience not only universal but also cordial. For its first\nrequirement, \"Thou shalt have no other God,\" meant, in the spiritual\nheart of it, the dethronement of self from its central place, and the\nsession there of the Lord. But this could never be while there was a\nreckoning still unsettled between the man and God. Friction there must\nbe while God's Law remained not only violated but unsatisfied,\nunatoned.[124] And so it necessarily remained, till the sole adequate\nPerson, one with God, one with man, stepped into the gap; our Peace,\nour Righteousness, and also by the Holy Ghost our Life. At rest\nbecause of His sacrifice, at work by the power of His Spirit, we are\nnow free to love, and divinely enabled to walk in love. Meanwhile the\ndream of an unsinning perfectness, such as could make a meritorious\nclaim, is not so much negatived as precluded, put far out of the\nquestion. For the central truth of the new position is that THE LORD\nhas fully dealt, for us, with the Law's claim that man shall _deserve_\nacceptance. \"Boasting\" is inexorably \"excluded,\" to the last, from\nthis new kind of law-fulfilling life. For the \"fulfilment\" which means\nlegal satisfaction is for ever taken out of our hands by Christ, and\nonly that humble \"fulfilment\" is ours which means a restful,\nunanxious, reverent, unreserved loyalty in practice. To this now our\n\"_mind_,\" our cast and gravitation of soul, is brought, in the life of\nacceptance, and in the power of the Spirit. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =For\nthey who are flesh-wise,= the unchanged children of the self-life,\n=think,= \"_mind_,\" have moral affinity and converse with, =the things\nof the flesh; but they who are Spirit-wise, think the things of the\nSpirit,= His love, joy, peace, and all that holy \"fruit.\" Their\nliberated and Spirit-bearing life now goes that way, in its true bias.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =For the mind,= the moral affinity, =of the\nflesh,= of the self-life, =is death;= it involves the ruin of the\nsoul, in condemnation, and in separation from God; =but the mind of\nthe Spirit,= the affinity given to the believer by the indwelling Holy\nOne, =is life and peace;= it implies union with Christ, our life and\nour acceptance; it is the state of soul in which He is realized.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =Because=--this absolute antagonism of the two\n\"_minds_\" is such _because_--=the \"mind\" of the flesh is personal\nhostility (\u1f14\u03c7\u03b8\u03c1\u03b1) towards God; for to God's Law it is not subject.\nFor indeed it cannot be= subject to it; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.]\n=those[125] who are in flesh,= surrendered to the life of self as\ntheir law, =cannot please God,[126]= \"_cannot meet the wish_\"\n(\u1f00\u03c1\u03ad\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9) of Him whose loving but absolute claim is to be Lord of the\nwhole man.\n\n\"They cannot\": it is a moral impossibility. \"The Law of God\" is, \"Thou\nshalt love Me with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself\"; the\nmind of the flesh is, \"I will love my self and its will first and\nmost.\" Let this be disguised as it may, even from the man himself; it\nis always the same thing in its essence. It may mean a defiant choice\nof open evil. It may mean a subtle and almost evanescent preference of\nliterature, or art, or work, or home, to God's will as such. It is in\neither case \"_the mind of the flesh_,\" a thing which cannot be refined\nand educated into holiness, but must be surrendered at discretion, as\nits eternal enemy.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =But you= (there is a glad emphasis on \"_you_\")\n=are not in flesh, but in Spirit,= surrendered to the indwelling\nPresence as your law and secret, =on the assumption that= (\u03b5\u1f34\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1: he\nsuggests not weary misgivings but a true examination) =God's Spirit\ndwells in you;= has His home in your hearts, humbly welcomed into a\ncontinuous residence. =But if any one has not Christ's Spirit,= (who\nis the Spirit as of the Father so of the Son, sent by the Son, to\nreveal and to impart Him,) =that man is not His.= He may bear his\nLord's name, he may be externally a Christian, he may enjoy the divine\nSacraments of union; but he has not \"the Thing.\" The Spirit, evidenced\nby His holy fruit, is no Indweller there; and the Spirit is our vital\nBond with Christ. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =But if Christ is,= thus by the\nSpirit, =in you,= dwelling by faith in the hearts which the Spirit has\n\"strengthened\" to receive Christ (Eph. iii.\u00a016, 17)--=true (\u03bc\u1f72\u03bd),\nthe body is dead, because of sin,= the primeval sentence still holds\nits way _there_; the body is deathful still, it is the body of the\nFall; =but the Spirit[127] is life,= He is in that body, your secret\nof power and peace eternal, =because of righteousness,= because of the\nmerit of your Lord, in which you are accepted, and which has won for\nyou this wonderful Spirit-life.\n\nThen even for the body there is assured a glorious future, organically\none with this living present. Let us listen as he goes on:\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus,= the\nslain Man, =from the dead, dwells in you, He who raised from the dead\nChrist Jesus,= the Man so revealed and glorified as the Anointed\nSaviour, =shall also bring to life your mortal bodies, because of\n(\u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03ba\u03c4\u03bb[128]) His Spirit, dwelling in you.= That \"frail temple,\"\nonce so much defiled, and so defiling, is now precious to the Father\nbecause it is the habitation of the Spirit of His Son. Nor only so;\nthat same Spirit, who, by uniting us to Christ, made actual our\nredemption, shall surely, in ways to us unknown, carry the process to\nits glorious crown, and be somehow the Efficient Cause of \"the\nredemption of our body.\"\n\nWonderful is this deep characteristic of the Scripture; its Gospel for\nthe body. In Christ, the body is seen to be something far different\nfrom the mere clog, or prison, or chrysalis, of the soul. It is its\ndestined implement, may we not say its mighty wings in prospect, for\nthe life of glory. As invaded by sin, it must needs pass through\neither death or, at the Lord's Return, an equivalent transfiguration.\nBut as created in God's plan of Human Nature it is for ever congenial\nto the soul, nay, it is necessary to the soul's full action. And\nwhatever be the mysterious mode (it is absolutely hidden from us as\nyet) of the event of Resurrection, this we know, if only from this\nOracle, that the glory of the immortal body will have profound\nrelations with the work of God in the sanctified soul. No mere\nmaterial sequences will bring it about. It will be \"_because of the\nSpirit_\"; and \"because of the Spirit _dwelling in you_,\" as your power\nfor holiness in Christ.[129]\n\nSo the Christian reads the account of his present spiritual wealth,\nand of his coming completed life, \"his perfect consummation and bliss\nin the eternal glory.\" Let him take it home, with most humble but\nquite decisive assurance, as he looks again, and believes again, on\nhis redeeming Lord. For him, in his inexpressible need, God has gone\nabout to provide \"so great salvation.\" He has accepted his person in\nHis Son who died for him. He has not only _forgiven him_ through that\ngreat Sacrifice, but in it He has \"_condemned_,\" sentenced to chains\nand death, _his sin_, which is now a doomed thing, beneath his feet,\nin Christ. And He has given to him, as personal and perpetual\nIndweller, to be claimed, hailed, and used by humble faith, His own\nEternal Spirit, the Spirit of His Son, the Blessed One who, dwelling\ninfinitely in the Head, comes to dwell fully in the members, and make\nHead and members wonderfully one. Now then let him give himself up\nwith joy, thanksgiving, and expectation, to the \"_fulfilling of the\nrighteous demand of God's Law_,\" \"_walking Spirit-wise_,\" with steps\nmoving ever away from self and towards the will of God. Let him meet\nthe world, the devil, and that mysterious \"flesh,\" (all ever in\npotential presence,) with no less a Name than that of the Father, and\nthe Son, and the Holy Ghost. Let him stand up not as a defeated and\ndisappointed combatant, maimed, half-blinded, half-persuaded to\nsuccumb, but as one who treads upon \"all the power of the enemy,\" in\nChrist, by the indwelling Spirit. And let him reverence his mortal\nbody, even while he \"keeps it in subjection,\" and while he willingly\ntires it, or gives it to suffer, for his Lord. For it is the temple of\nthe Spirit. It is the casket of the hope of glory.\n\n[119] \"In this surpassing chapter the several streams of the preceding\narguments meet and flow in one 'river of the water of life, clear as\ncrystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,' until\nit seems to lose itself in the ocean of a blissful eternity.\"--David\nBrown, D.D., \"_The Epistle to the Romans_,\" in \"_Handbooks for Bible\nClasses_.\"\n\n[120] There can be no reasonable doubt that the words \"_who walk not\nafter the flesh, but after the Spirit_,\" should be omitted. They are\nprobably a _gloss_ from ver. 4; inserted (perhaps first as a\nside-note) by scribes who failed to appreciate the profound simplicity\nof the Apostle's dictum.\n\n[121] We thus indicate the thought given by the otherwise difficult\n\"_For_\" of ver. 2. That \"_for_\" cannot mean to imply that there is no\ncondemnation _because the Spirit has enabled us to be holy_; this\nwould stultify the whole argument of chapters iii.-v. What, in that\ncontext, it must imply is the complex fact (1) that _we are in\nChrist_--where there is no condemnation, and (2) that we are there _by\nthe Holy Spirit_, who brought us to saving faith. Now we are to learn\n(3) what that Spirit has done _also_ for us in giving us union with\nChrist.\n\n[122] \u03a4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u03cd\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b6\u03c9\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bd \u03a7\u03c0\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u1ff7 \u1f38\u03b7\u03c3\u03bf\u1fe6. In the Greek of the\nN. T. it is possible so to interpret. Classical Greek would require\n\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b6\u03c9\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bd \u03a7. \u1f38. The rendering, however, \"_the law of the\nSpirit of life, in Christ Jesus_,\" (making the last three words govern\nthe whole previous thought,) is amply admissible.\n\n[123] \u03a0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76 \u1f01\u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03c4\u03af\u03b1\u03c2: the phrase is stamped with a sacrificial\nspeciality by the Greek of the O. T. See _e.g._ Levit. xvi.\u00a03, 5, 6,\n9, 11, 15, 16, 25, 27. And cp. Heb. x. 8.\n\n[124] \"The way of him that is laden with guilt is exceeding crooked.\"\nProv. xxi.\u00a08 R.V.\n\n[125] We do not translate the \u03b4\u1f72. It seems to be best represented in\nEnglish by connecting the clause only by position with what goes\nbefore.\n\n[126] The Greek lays a solemn emphasis by position on \u0398\u03b5\u1ff7.\n\n[127] We refer the word \u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u1fe6\u03bc\u03b1 here, as throughout the passage, to\nthe Holy Ghost. No other interpretation seems either consistent with\nthe whole context, or adequate to its grandeur.\n\n[128] We read thus, not \u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03ba\u03c4\u03bb (\"_by means of, by the agency\nof, His Spirit_\"). The two readings have each strong support, but we\nthink the balance of evidence is for the accusative not the genitive.\nHappily the exegetical difference is not serious. The accusative gives\nindeed a meaning which may well include that given by the genitive,\nwhile it includes other ideas also.\n\n[129] We are aware that ver. 11 has been sometimes interpreted of\npresent blessings for the body; as if the fulness of the Holy Ghost\nwas to effect a quasi-glorification of the body's condition now;\nexempting it from illness, and at least retarding its decay. But this\nseems untenable. If the words point this way at all, ought they not to\nmean a literal exemption from death altogether? But this manifestly\nwas not in the Apostle's mind, if we take his writings as a whole.\nThat spiritual blessings may, and often do, act wonderfully in the\nlife of the body, is most true. But that is not the truth of this\nverse.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\n_HOLINESS BY THE SPIRIT, AND THE GLORIES THAT SHALL FOLLOW_\n\nROMANS viii. 12-25\n\n\nNow the Apostle goes on to develop these noble premisses into\nconclusions. How true to himself, and to his Inspirer, is the line he\nfollows! First come the most practical possible of reminders of duty;\nthen, and in profound connexion, the inmost experiences of the\nregenerate soul in both its joy and its sorrow, and the most radiant\nand far-reaching prospects of glory to come. We listen still, always\nremembering that this letter from Corinth to Rome is to reach us too,\nby way of the City. He who moved His servant to send it to Aquila and\nHerodion had us too in mind, and has now carried out His purpose. It\nis open in our hands for our faith, love, hope, life to-day.\n\nSt Paul begins with Holiness viewed as Duty, as Debt. He has led us\nthrough our vast treasury of privilege and possession. What are we to\ndo with it? Shall we treat it as a museum, in which we may\noccasionally observe the mysteries of New Nature, and with more or\nless learning discourse upon them? Shall we treat it as the unwatchful\nKing[130] of old treated his splendid stores, making them his personal\nboast, and so betraying them to the very power which one day was to\nmake them all its spoil? No, we are to live upon our Lord's\nmagnificent bounty--to His glory, and in His will. We are rich; but it\nis for Him. We have His talents; and those talents, in respect of His\ngrace, as distinct from His \"gifts,\" are not one, nor five, nor ten,\nbut ten thousand--for they are Jesus Christ. But we have them all _for\nHim_. We are free from the law of sin and of death; but we are in\nperpetual and delightful debt to Him who has freed us. And our debt\nis--to walk with Him.\n\n\"_So, brethren, we are debtors._\" Thus our new paragraph begins. For a\nmoment he turns to say what we owe _no_ debt to; even \"_the flesh_,\"\nthe self-life. But it is plain that his main purpose is positive, not\nnegative. He implies in the whole rich context that we are debtors to\nthe Spirit, to the Lord, \"to walk Spirit-wise.\"\n\nWhat a salutary thought it is! Too often in the Christian Church the\ngreat word Holiness has been practically banished to a supposed almost\ninaccessible background, to the steeps of a spiritual ambition, to a\nregion where a few might with difficulty climb in the quest, men and\nwomen who had \"leisure to be good,\" or who perhaps had exceptional\ninstincts for piety. God be thanked, He has at all times kept many\nconsciences alive to the illusion of such a notion; and in our own\nday, more and more, His mercy brings it home to His children that\n\"this is His will, even the sanctification\"--not of some of them, but\nof all. Far and wide we are reviving to see, as the fathers of our\nfaith saw before us, that whatever else holiness is, it is a sacred\nand binding _debt_. It is not an ambition; it is a duty. We are bound,\nevery one of us who names the name of Christ, to be holy, to be\nseparate from evil, to walk by the Spirit.\n\nAlas for the misery of indebtedness, when funds fall short! Whether\nthe unhappy debtor examines his affairs, or guiltily ignores their\ncondition, he is--if his conscience is not dead--a haunted man. But\nwhen an honourable indebtedness concurs with ample means, then one of\nthe moral pleasures of life is the punctual scrutiny and discharge.\n\"He hath it by him\"; and it is his happiness, as it is assuredly his\nduty, _not_ to \"say to his neighbour, Go and come again, and to-morrow\nI will give\" (Prov. iii.\u00a028).\n\nChristian brother, partaker of Christ, and of the Spirit, we also owe,\nto Him who owns. But it is an indebtedness of the happy type. Once we\nowed, and there was worse than nothing in the purse. Now we owe, and\nwe have Christ in us, by the Holy Ghost, wherewithal to pay. The\neternal Neighbour comes to us, with no frowning look, and shews us His\nholy demand; to live to-day a life of truth, of purity, of confession\nof His Name, of unselfish serviceableness, of glad forgiveness, of\nunbroken patience, of practical sympathy, of the love which seeks not\nher own. What shall we say? That it is a beautiful ideal, which we\nshould like to realize, and may yet some day seriously attempt? That\nit is admirable, but impossible? Nay; \"we are debtors.\" And He who\nclaims has first immeasurably given. We have His Son for our\nacceptance and our life. His very Spirit is in us. Are not these good\nresources for a genuine solvency? \"Say not, Go and come again; I will\npay Thee--to-morrow. _Thou hast it by thee!_\"\n\nHoliness is beauty. But it is first duty, practical and present, in\nJesus Christ our Lord.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =So then, brethren, debtors are we--not to the\nflesh, with a view to living flesh-wise;= but to the Spirit--who is\nnow both our law and our power--with a view to living Spirit-wise.\n=For if you are living flesh-wise, you are on the way (\u03bc\u03ad\u03bb\u03bb\u03b5\u03c4\u03b5) to\ndie. But if by the Spirit you are doing to death[131] the practices,=\nthe stratagems, the machinations, =of the body, you will live.= Ah,\nthe body is still there, and is still a seat and vehicle of\ntemptation. \"It is for the Lord, and the Lord is for it\" (1\u00a0Cor.\nvi.\u00a013). It is the temple of the Spirit. Our call is (1\u00a0Cor. vi.\u00a020)\nto glorify God in it. But all this, _from our point of view_, passes\nfrom realization into mere theory, wofully gainsaid by experience,\nwhen we let our acceptance in Christ, and our possession in Him of the\nAlmighty Spirit, pass out of use into mere phrase. Say what some men\nwill, we are never for an hour here below exempt from elements and\nconditions of evil residing not merely around us but within us. There\nis no stage of life when we can dispense with the power of the Holy\nGhost as our victory and deliverance from \"_the machinations of the\nbody_.\" And the body is no separate and as it were minor personality.\nIf the man's body \"machinates,\" it is the man who is the sinner.\n\nBut then, thanks be to God, this fact is not the real burthen of the\nwords here. What St Paul has to say is that the man who has the\nindwelling Spirit has with him, in him, a divine and all-effectual\nCounter-Agent to the subtlest of his foes. Let him do what we saw him\nabove (vii.\u00a07-25) neglecting to do. Let him with conscious purpose,\nand firm recollection of his wonderful position and possession (so\neasily forgotten!), call up the eternal Power which is indeed not\nhimself, though in himself. Let him do this with _habitual_\nrecollection and simplicity. And he shall be \"more than conqueror\"\nwhere he was so miserably defeated. His path shall be as of one who\nwalks over foes who threatened, but who fell, and who die at his feet.\nIt shall be less a struggle than a march, over a battlefield indeed,\nyet a field of victory so continuous that it shall be as peace.\n\n\"_If by the Spirit you are doing them to death._\" Mark well the words.\nHe says nothing here of things often thought to be of the essence of\nspiritual remedies; nothing of \"will-worship, and humility, and\nunsparing treatment of the body\" (Col. ii.\u00a023); nothing even of fast\nand prayer. Sacred and precious is self-discipline, the watchful care\nthat act and habit are true to that \"temperance\" which is a vital\ningredient in the Spirit's \"fruit\" (Gal. v.\u00a022, 23). It is the Lord's\nown voice (Matt. xxvi.\u00a041) which bids us always \"watch and pray\";\n\"praying in the Holy Ghost\" (Jude 20). Yes, but these true exercises\nof the believing soul are after all only as the covering fence around\nthat central secret--our use by faith of the presence and power of\n\"the Holy Ghost given unto us.\" The Christian who neglects to watch\nand pray will most surely find that he knows not how to use this his\ngreat strength, for he will be losing realization of his oneness with\nhis Lord. But then the man who actually, and in the depth of his\nbeing, is \"doing to death the practices of the body,\" is doing so,\n_immediately_, not by discipline, nor by direct effort, but by the\nbelieving use of \"the Spirit.\" Filled with Him, he treads upon the\npower of the enemy. And that fulness is according to surrendering\nfaith.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =For as many as are led by God's Spirit, these\nare God's sons;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =for you did not receive a\nspirit of slavery,= to take you =back again (\u03c0\u03ac\u03bb\u03b9\u03bd) to fear; no, you\nreceived a Spirit of adoption to sonship, in which= Spirit,\nsurrendered to His holy power, =we cry,= with no bated, hesitating\nbreath, =\"Abba, our (\u1f41) Father.\"= His argument runs thus; \"If you\nwould live indeed, you must do sin to death by the Spirit. And this\nmeans, in another aspect, that you must yield yourselves to be led\nalong by the Spirit, with that leading which is sure to conduct you\nalways away from self and into the will of God. You must welcome the\nIndweller to have His holy way with your springs of thought and will.\nSo, and only so, will you truly answer the idea, the description,\n'sons of God'--that glorious term, never to be _satisfied_ by the\nrelation of mere creaturehood, or by that of merely exterior\nsanctification, mere membership in a community of men, though it be\nthe Visible Church itself. But if you so meet sin by the Spirit, if\nyou are so led by the Spirit, you do shew yourselves nothing less than\nGod's own sons. He has called you to nothing lower than sonship; to\nvital connexion with a divine Father's life, and to the eternal\nembraces of His love. For when He gave and you received the Spirit,\nthe Holy Spirit of promise, who reveals Christ and joins you to Him,\nwhat did that Spirit do, in His heavenly operation? Did He lead you\nback to the old position, in which you shrunk from God, as from a\nMaster who bound you against your will? No, He shewed you that in the\nOnly Son you are nothing less than sons, welcomed into the inmost home\nof eternal life and love. You found yourselves indescribably near the\nFather's heart, because accepted, and new-created, in His Own Beloved.\nAnd so you learnt the happy, confident call of the child, 'Father, O\nFather; Our Father, Abba.'\"[132]\n\nSo it was, and so it is. The living member of Christ is nothing less\nthan the dear child of God. He is other things besides; he is\ndisciple, follower, bondservant. He never ceases to be bondservant,\nthough here he is expressly told that he has received no \"spirit of\nslavery.\" So far as \"slavery\" means service forced against the will,\nhe has done with this, in Christ. But so far as it means service\nrendered by one who is his master's absolute property, he has entered\ninto its depths, for ever. Yet all this is exterior as it were to that\ninmost fact, that he is--in a sense ultimate, and which alone really\nfulfils the word--the child, the son, of God. He is dearer than he can\nknow to his Father. He is more welcome than he can ever realize to\ntake his Father at His word, and lean upon His heart, and tell Him\nall.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit,\nthat we are God's children,= born children, \u03c4\u03b5\u03ba\u03bd\u03ac. The Holy One, on\nHis part, makes the once cold, reluctant, apprehensive heart \"know and\nbelieve the love of God.\" He \"sheds abroad God's love in it.\" He\nbrings home to consciousness and insight the \"sober certainty\" of the\npromises of the Word; that Word through which, above all other means,\nHe speaks. He shews to the man \"the things of Christ,\" the Beloved, in\nwhom he has the adoption and the regeneration; making him see, as\nsouls see, what a paternal welcome there _must_ be for those who are\n\"in HIM.\" And then, on the other part, the believer meets Spirit with\nspirit. He responds to the revealed paternal smile with not merely a\nsubject's loyalty but a son's deep love; deep, reverent, tender,\ngenuine love. \"Doubtless thou art His own child,\" says the Spirit.\n\"Doubtless He is my Father,\" says our wondering, believing, seeing\nspirit in response.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =But if children, then also heirs; God's heirs,\nChrist's co-heirs,= possessors in prospect of our Father's heaven\n(towards which the whole argument now gravitates), in union of\ninterest and life with our Firstborn Brother, in whom lies our right.\nFrom one hand a gift, infinitely merciful and surprising, that unseen\nbliss will be from another the lawful portion of the lawful child, one\nwith the Beloved of the Father. Such heirs we are, =if indeed we share\nHis sufferings,= those deep but hallowed pains which will surely come\nto us as we live in and for Him in a fallen world, =that we may also\nshare His glory,= for which that path of sorrow is, not indeed the\nmeriting, but the capacitating, preparation.\n\nAmidst the truths of life and love, of the Son, of the Spirit, of the\nFather, he thus throws in the truth of pain. Let us not forget it. In\none form or another, it is for all \"_the children_.\" Not all are\nmartyrs, not all are exiles or captives, not all are called as a fact\nto meet open insults in a defiant world of paganism or unbelief. Many\nare still so called, as many were at first, and as many will be to the\nend; for \"the world\" is no more now than it ever was in love with God,\nand with His children as such. But even for those whose path is--not\nby themselves but the Lord--most protected, there must be\n\"_suffering_,\" somehow, sooner, later, in this present life, if they\nare really living the life of the Spirit, the life of the child of\nGod, \"paying the debt\" of daily holiness, even in its humblest and\ngentlest forms. We must observe, by the way, that it is to _such_\nsufferings, and not to sorrows in general, that the reference lies\nhere. The Lord's heart is open for all the griefs of His people, and\nHe can use them all for their blessing and for His ends. But the\n\"suffering _with Him_\" must imply a pain _due to our union_. It must\nbe involved in our being His members, used by the Head for His work.\nIt must be the hurt of His \"hand\" or \"foot\" in subserving His\nsovereign thought. What will the bliss be of the corresponding sequel!\n\"That we may _share His glory_\"; not merely, \"be glorified,\" but share\nHis glory; a splendour of life, joy, and power whose eternal law and\nsoul will be, union with Him who died for us and rose again.\n\nNow towards that prospect St Paul's whole thought sets, as the waters\nset towards the moon, and the mention of that glory, after suffering,\ndraws him to a sight of the mighty \"plurity\" of the glory.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =For I reckon,= \"_I calculate_\"--word of\nsublimest _prose_, more moving here than any poetry, because it bids\nus handle the hope of glory _as a fact_--=that not worthy= of mention\n=are the sufferings of the present season= (\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u1fe6, not \u03c7\u03c1\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5;\nhe thinks of time not in its length but in its limit), =in view of the\nglory about to be unveiled upon us (\u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u1f21\u03bc\u1fb6\u03c2),= unveiled, and then\nheaped upon us, in its golden fulness.[133] [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.]\n=For=--he is going to give us a deep reason for his \"calculation\";\nwonderfully characteristic of the Gospel. It is that the final glory\nof the saints will be a crisis of mysterious blessing for the whole\ncreated Universe.[134] In ways absolutely unknown, certainly as\nregards anything said in this passage, but none the less divinely fit\nand sure, the ultimate and eternal manifestation of Christ Mystical,\nthe Perfect Head with His perfected members, will be the occasion, and\nin some sense too the cause, the mediating cause, of the emancipation\nof \"Nature,\" in its heights and depths, from the cancer of decay, and\nits entrance on an endless \u00e6on of indissoluble life and splendour.\nDoubtless that goal shall be reached through long processes and\nintense crises of strife and death. \"Nature,\" like the saint, may need\nto pass to glory through a tomb. But the issue will indeed be glory,\nwhen He who is the Head at once of \"Nature,\"[135] of the heavenly\nnations, and of redeemed man, shall bid the vast periods of conflict\nand dissolution cease, in the hour of eternal purpose, and shall\nmanifestly \"_be_ what He _is_\" to the mighty total.\n\nWith such a prospect natural philosophy has nothing to do. Its own\nlaws of observation and tabulation forbid it to make a single\naffirmation of what the Universe shall be, or shall not be, under new\nand unknown conditions. Revelation, with no arbitrary voice, but as\nthe authorized while reserved messenger of THE MAKER, and standing by\nthe open Grave of the Resurrection, announces that there are to be\nprofoundly new conditions, and that they bear a relation inscrutable\nbut necessary to the coming glorification of Christ and His Church.\nAnd what we now see and feel as the imperfections and shocks and\nseeming failures of the Universe, so we learn from this voice, a voice\nso quiet yet so triumphant, are only as it were the throes of birth,\nin which \"Nature,\" impersonal indeed but so to speak animated by the\nthinking of the intelligent orders who are a part of her universal\nbeing, preludes her wonderful future.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =For the longing outlook of the creation is\nexpecting--the unveiling of the sons of God.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =For\nto vanity,= to evil, to failure and decay, =the creation was subjected\nnot willingly, but because of Him who made it subject;= its Lord and\nSustainer, who in His inscrutable but holy will bade physical evil\ncorrespond to the moral evil of His conscious fallen creatures, angels\nor men. So that there is a deeper connexion than we can yet analyse\nbetween sin, the primal and central evil, and everything that is\nreally wreck or pain. But this \"subjection,\" under His _fiat_, was\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =in hope, because the creation itself shall be\nliberated from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory\nof the children of God,= the freedom brought in for _it_ by _their_\neternal liberation from the last relics of the Fall. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.]\n=For we know,= by observation of natural evil, in the light of the\npromises, =that the whole creation is uttering a common groan= of\nburthen and yearning, =and suffering a common birth-pang, even till\nnow,= when the Gospel has heralded the coming glory. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.]\n=Nor only so, but even the actual possessors of the firstfruits of the\nSpirit,= possessors of that presence of the Holy One in them now,\nwhich is the sure pledge of His eternal fulness yet to come, =even we\nourselves,= richly blest as we are in our wonderful Spirit-life, =yet\nin ourselves are groaning,= burthened still with mortal conditions\npregnant of temptation, lying not around us only but deep within (\u1f10\u03bd\n\u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2), =expecting adoption,= full instatement into the fruition\nof the sonship which already is ours, even =the redemption of our\nbody.=\n\nFrom the coming glories of the Universe he returns, in the\nconsciousness of an inspired but human heart, to the present\ndiscipline and burthen of the Christian. Let us observe the noble\ncandour of the words; this \"_groan_\" interposed in the midst of such a\nsong of the Spirit and of glory. He has no ambition to pose as the\npossessor of an impossible experience. He is more than conqueror; but\nhe is conscious of his foes. The Holy Ghost is in him; he does the\nbody's practices victoriously to death by the Holy Ghost. But the body\nis there, as the seat and vehicle of manifold temptation. And though\nthere is a joy in victory which can sometimes make even the presence\nof temptation seem \"all joy\" (Jas i.\u00a02), he knows that something \"far\nbetter\" is yet to come. His longing is not merely for a personal\nvictory, but for an eternally unhindered service. That will not fully\nbe his till his whole being is actually, as well as in covenant,\nredeemed. That will not be till not the spirit only but the body is\ndelivered from the last dark traces of the Fall, in the resurrection\nhour.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.] =For it is as to our (\u03c4\u1fc7) hope that we were\nsaved.= When the Lord laid hold of us we were indeed saved,[136] but\nwith a salvation which was only in part actual. Its total was not to\nbe realized till the whole being was in actual salvation. Such\nsalvation (see below, xiii.\u00a011) was coincident in prospect with \"the\nHope,\" \"that blessed Hope,\"[137] the Lord's Return and the\nresurrection glory. So, to paraphrase this clause, \"_It was in the\nsense of the Hope that we were saved_.\"[138] =But a hope in sight is\nnot a hope; for, what a man sees, why does he hope for?= Hope, in that\ncase, has, in its nature, expired in possession. And our full\n\"salvation\" _is_ a hope; it is bound up with a Promise not yet\nfulfilled; therefore, in its nature, it is still unseen, still\nunattained. But then, it is certain; it is infinitely valid; it is\nworth any waiting for. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =But if, for what we do\nnot see, we do hope,= looking on good grounds for the sunrise in the\ndark east, =with patience we expect it.= \"_With patience_,\" literally\n\"_through patience_,\" \u03b4\u03b9' \u1f51\u03c0\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u1fc6\u03c2. The \"patience\" is as it were\nthe means, the secret, of the waiting; \"patience,\" that noble word of\nthe New Testament vocabulary, the saint's active submission,\nsubmissive action, beneath the will of God. It is no nerveless,\nmotionless prostration; it is the going on and upward, step by step,\nas the man \"waits upon the Lord, and walks, and does not faint.\"\n\n[130] 2 Kings xx. 12, 13.\n\n[131] \u0398\u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b5: observe the present tense, the process is a\ncontinuing one.\n\n[132] The Aramaic \"_Abba_,\" used by our Lord in His hour of darkness,\nhad probably become an almost personal Name to the believers.\n\n[133] With this verse on his lips, unfinished, Calvin died, 1564.\n\n[134] We cannot think that the \u03ba\u03c4\u03af\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 of this passage refers only,\nas some would have it, _to humanity_ (as Mark xvi.\u00a015, Col. i.\u00a023).\nThe \u03ba\u03c4\u03af\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 is a something which was \"subjected\" _involuntarily_, and\nso, surely, not guiltily. This could not be said of humanity.\n\n[135] See Col. i.\u00a015, 16. The Lord's Headship of Creation, explicitly\nrevealed there, is seen as it were only just below the surface here.\n\n[136] See the _perfect_ participle, \u03ba\u03c4\u03af\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, Eph. ii.\u00a05, 8.\n\n[137] Is \u1f21 \u1f10\u03bb\u03c0\u1f76\u03c2 ever used in the N. T. in any other connexion than\nthis?\n\n[138] Luther's rendering is good as a paraphrase, _Wir sind wohl\nselig, doch in der Hoffnung_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\n_THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER IN THE SAINTS: THEIR PRESENT AND ETERNAL WELFARE\nIN THE LOVE OF GOD_\n\nROMANS viii.\u00a026-39\n\n\nIn the last paragraph the music of this glorious didactic prophecy\npassed, in some solemn phrases, into the minor mood. \"_If we share His\nsufferings_\"; \"_The sufferings of this present season_\"; \"_We groan\nwithin ourselves_\"; \"_In the sense of our hope we were saved_.\" All is\nwell. The deep harmony of the Christian's full experience, if it is\nfull downwards as well as upwards, demands sometimes such tones; and\nthey are all music, for they all express a life in Christ, lived by\nthe power of the Holy Ghost. But now the strain is to ascend again\ninto its largest and most triumphant manner. We are now to hear how\nour salvation, though its ultimate issues are still things of hope, is\nitself a thing of eternity--from everlasting to everlasting. We are to\nbe made sure that all things are working now, in concurrent action,\nfor the believer's good; and that his justification is sure; and that\nhis glory is so certain that its future is, from his Lord's point of\nsight, present; and that nothing, absolutely nothing, shall separate\nhim from the eternal Love.\n\nBut first comes one most deep and tender word, the last of its kind in\nthe long argument, about the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. The\nApostle has the \"groan\" of the Christian still in his ear, in his\nheart; in fact, it is his own. And he has just pointed himself and his\nfellow believers to the coming glory, as to a wonderful antidote; a\nprospect which is at once great in itself and unspeakably suggestive\nof _the greatness_ given to the most suffering and tempted saint by\nhis union with his Lord. As if to say to the pilgrim, in his moment of\ndistress, \"Remember, you are more to God than you can possibly know;\nHe has made you such, in Christ, that universal Nature is concerned in\nthe prospect of your glory.\" But now, as if nothing must suffice but\nwhat is directly divine, he bids him remember also the presence in him\nof the Eternal Spirit, as his mighty but tenderest indwelling Friend.\nEven as \"that blessed Hope,\" so, \"_likewise also_,\" this blessed\npresent Person, is the weak one's power. HE takes the man in his\nbewilderment, when troubles from without press him, and fears from\nwithin make him groan, and he is in sore need, yet at a loss for the\nright cry. And He moves in the tired soul, and breathes Himself into\nits thought, and His mysterious \"groan\" of divine yearning mingles\nwith our groan of burthen, and the man's longings go out above all\nthings not towards rest but towards God and His will. So the\nChristian's innermost and ruling desire is both fixed and animated by\nthe blessed Indweller, and he seeks what the Lord will love to grant,\neven Himself and whatever shall please Him. The man prays aright, as\nto the essence of the prayer, because (what a divine miracle is put\nbefore us in the words!) the Holy Ghost, immanent in him, prays\nthrough him.\n\nThus we venture, in advance, to explain the sentences which now\nfollow. It is true that St Paul does not explicitly say that the\nSpirit makes intercession _in_ us, as well as _for_ us. But must it\nnot be so? For _where is He_, from the point of view of Christian\nlife, but _in us_?\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a026.] =Then, in the same way, the Spirit also=--as well\nas \"the hope\"--=helps,= as with a clasping, supporting hand\n(\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03ac\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9), =our weakness,[139]= our shortness and\nbewilderment of insight, our feebleness of faith. =For what we should\npray for as we ought, we do not know; but the Spirit Itself interposes\nto intercede (\u1f51\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b5\u03bd\u03c4\u03c5\u03b3\u03c7\u03ac\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9) for us, with groanings unutterable;\nbut= (whatever be the utterance or no utterance) [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a027.]\n=the Searcher of our (\u03c4\u1f70\u03c2) hearts knows what is the mind,= the\npurport, =of the Spirit; because God-wise,[140]= with divine insight\nand sympathy, the Spirit with the Father, =He intercedes for saints.=\n\nDid He not so intercede for Paul, and in him, fourteen years before\nthese words were written, when (2\u00a0Cor. xii.\u00a07-10) the man thrice asked\nthat \"the thorn\" might be removed, and the Master gave him a better\nblessing, the victorious overshadowing power? Did He not so intercede\nfor Monnica, and in her, when she sought with prayers and tears to\nkeep her rebellious Augustine by her, and the Lord let him fly from\nher side--to Italy, to Ambrose, and so to conversion?[141]\n\nBut the strain rises now, finally and fully, into the rest and triumph\nof faith. \"_We know not_ what we should pray for as we ought\"; and the\nblessed Spirit meets this deep need in His own way. And this, with all\nelse that we have in Christ, reminds us of a somewhat that \"_we know_\"\nindeed; namely, that all things, favourable or not in themselves,\nconcur in blessing for the saints. And then he looks backward (or\nrather, upward) into eternity, and sees the throne, and the King with\nHis sovereign will, and the lines of perfect and infallible plan and\nprovision which stretch from that Centre to infinity. These\n\"_saints_,\" who are they? From one view-point, they are simply sinners\nwho have seen themselves, and \"fled for refuge to the\" one possible\n\"hope\"; a \"hope set before\" every soul that cares to win it. From\nanother view-point, that of the eternal Mind and Order, they are those\nwhom, for reasons infinitely wise and just, but wholly hidden in\nHimself, the Lord has chosen to be His own for ever, so that His\nchoice takes effect in their conversion, their acceptance, their\nspiritual transformation, and their glory.\n\nThere, as regards this great passage, the thought rests and ceases--in\nthe glorification of the saints. What their Glorifier will do with\nthem, and through them, thus glorified, is another matter. Assuredly\nHe will _make use_ of them in His eternal kingdom. The Church, made\nmost blessed for ever, is yet beatified, ultimately, not for itself\nbut for its Head, and for His Father. It is to be, in its final\nperfectness, \"an habitation of God, in the Spirit\" (Eph. ii.\u00a022). Is\nHe not so to possess it that the Universe shall see Him in it, in a\nmanner and degree now unknown and unimaginable? Is not the endless\n\"service\" of the elect to be such that all orders of being shall\nthrough them behold and adore the glory of the Christ of God? For ever\nthey will be what they here become, the bondservants of their\nRedeeming Lord, His Bride, His vehicle of power and blessing; \"having\nof their own nothing, in Him all, and all for Him.\" No self-full\nexaltations await them in the place of light; or the whole history of\nsin would begin over again, in a new \u00e6on. No celestial Pharisaism will\nbe their spirit; a look downward upon less blessed regions of\nexistence, as from a sanctuary of their own. Who can tell what\nministries of boundless love will be the expression of their life of\ninexpressible and inexhaustible joy? Always, like Gabriel, \"in the\npresence,\" will they not always also, like him, \"be sent\" (Luke i.\u00a019)\non the messages of their glorious Head, in whom at length, in the\n\"divine event,\" \"all things shall be gathered together\"?\n\nBut this is not the thought of the passage now in our hands. Here, as\nwe have said, the thought terminates in the final glorification of the\nsaints of God, as the immediate goal of the process of their\nredemption.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a028.] =But we know that for those who love God all\nthings work together for good, even for those who, purpose-wise, are\nHis called ones.= \"_We know it_,\" with the cognition of faith; that is\nto say, because He, absolutely trustworthy, guarantees it by His\ncharacter, and by His word. Deep, nay insoluble is the mystery, from\nevery other point of view. The lovers of the Lord are indeed unable to\nexplain, to themselves or others, how this concurrence of \"all things\"\nworks out its infallible issues in them. And the observer from outside\ncannot understand their certainty that it is so. But the fact is\nthere, given and assured, not by speculation upon events, but by\npersonal knowledge of an Eternal Person. \"Love God, and thou shalt\nknow.\"[142]\n\nThey \"love God,\" with a love perfectly unartificial, the genuine\naffection of human hearts, hearts not the less human because divinely\nnew-created, regenerated from above. Their immediate consciousness is\njust this; we love Him. Not, we have read the book of life; we have\nhad a glimpse of the eternal purpose in itself; we have heard our\nnames recited in a roll of the chosen; but, we love Him. We have found\nin Him the eternal Love. In Him we have peace, purity, and that deep,\nfinal satisfaction, that view of \"the King in His beauty,\" which is\nthe _summum bonum_ of the creature. It was our fault that we saw it no\nsooner, that we loved Him no sooner. It is the duty of every soul that\nHe has made to reflect upon its need of Him, and upon the fact that it\nowes it to Him to love Him in His holy beauty of eternal Love. If we\ncould not it was because we would not. If you cannot it is because,\nsomehow and somewhere, you will not; will not put yourselves without\nreserve in the way of the sight. \"Oh taste and see that the Lord is\ngood\"; oh love the eternal Love.\n\nBut those who thus simply and genuinely love God are also, on the\nother side, \"_purpose-wise, His called ones_\"; \"_called_,\" in the\nsense which we have found above (p. 19) to be consistently traceable\nin the Epistles; not merely invited, but brought in; not evangelized\nonly, but converted. In each case of the happy company, the man, the\nwoman, came to Christ, came to love God with the freest possible\ncoming of the will, the heart. Yet each, having come, had the Lord to\nthank for the coming. The human personality had traced its orbit of\nwill and deed, as truly as when it willed to sin and to rebel. But lo,\nin ways past our finding out, its free track lay along a previous\ntrack of the purpose of the Eternal; its free \"_I will_\" was the\nprecise and fore-ordered correspondence to His \"_Thou shalt_.\" It was\nthe act of man; it was the grace of God.\n\nCan we get below such a statement, or above it? If we are right in our\nreading of the whole teaching of Scripture on the sovereignty of God,\nour thoughts upon it, practically, must sink down, and must rest, just\nhere. The doctrine of the Choice of God, in its sacred mystery,\nrefuses--so we humbly think--to be explained away so as to mean in\neffect little but the choice of man. But then the doctrine is \"a lamp,\nnot a sun.\" It is presented to us everywhere, and not least in this\nEpistle, as a truth not meant to explain everything, but to enforce\n_this_ thing--that the man who as a fact loves the eternal Love has to\nthank not himself but that Love that his eyes, guiltily shut, were\neffectually opened. Not one link in the chain of actual Redemption is\nof our forging--or the whole would indeed be fragile. It is \"of Him\"\nthat we, in this great matter, will as we ought to will. I ought to\nhave loved God always. It is of His mere mercy that I love Him now.\n\nWith this lesson of uttermost humiliation the truth of the heavenly\nChoice, and its effectual Call, brings us also that of an\nencouragement altogether divine. Such a \"purpose\" is no fluctuating\nthing, shifting with the currents of time. Such a call to such an\nembrace means a tenacity, as well as a welcome, worthy of God. \"Who\nshall separate us?\" \"Neither shall any pluck them out of My Father's\nhand.\" And this is the motive of the words in this wonderful context,\nwhere everything is made to bear on _the safety_ of the children of\nGod, in the midst of all imaginable dangers.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a029.] =For whom He knew beforehand,= with a\nforeknowledge which, in this argument, can mean nothing short of\nforedecision[143]--no mere foreknowledge of what they would do, but\nrather of what He would do for them--=those He also set apart\nbeforehand, for conformation,= deep and genuine, a resemblance due to\nkindred _being_,[144] =to the image,= the manifested Countenance, =of\nHis Son, that He might be Firstborn amongst many brethren,= surrounded\nby the circling host of kindred faces, congenial beings, His Father's\nchildren by their union with Himself. So, as ever in the Scriptures,\nmystery bears full on character. The man is saved that he may be holy.\nHis \"_predestination_\"[145] is not merely not to perish, but to be\nmade like Christ, in a spiritual transformation, coming out in the\nmoral features of the family of heaven. And all bears ultimately on\nthe glory of Christ. The gathered saints are an organism, a family,\nbefore the Father; and their vital Centre is the Beloved Son, who sees\nin their true sonship the fruit of \"the travail of His soul.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a030.] =But those whom He thus set apart beforehand, He\nalso called,= effectually drew so as truly and freely to choose\nChrist; =and those whom He= thus =called= to Christ, =He also\njustified= in Christ, in that great way of propitiation and faith of\nwhich the Epistle has so largely spoken; =but[146] those whom He= thus\n=justified, He also glorified.= \"_Glorified_\": it is a marvellous past\ntense. It reminds us that in this passage we are placed, as it were,\nupon the mountain of the Throne; our finite thought is allowed to\nspeak for once (however little it understands it) the language of\neternity, to utter the facts as the Eternal sees them. To Him, the\npilgrim is already in the immortal Country; the bondservant is already\nat his day's end, receiving His Master's \"Well done, good and\nfaithful.\" He to whom time is not as it is to us thus sees His\npurposes complete, always and for ever. We see through His sight, in\nhearing His word about it. So for us, in wonderful paradox, our\nglorification is presented, as truly as our call, in terms of\naccomplished fact.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHere, in a certain sense, the long golden chain of _the doctrine_ of\nthe Epistle ends--in the hand of the King who thus crowns the sinners\nwhose redemption, faith, acceptance, and holiness, He had, in the\nHeaven of His own Being, fore-willed and fore-ordered, \"before the\nworld began,\" above all time. What remains of the chapter is the\napplication of the doctrine. But what an application! The Apostle\nbrings his converts out into the open field of trial, and bids them\n_use_ his doctrine _there_. Are they thus dear to the Father in the\nSon? Is their every need thus met? Is their guilt cancelled in\nChrist's mighty merit? Is their existence filled with Christ's eternal\nSpirit? Is sin thus cast beneath their feet, and is such a heaven\nopened above their heads? \"Then what have they to fear,\" before man,\nor before God? What power in the universe, of whatever order of being,\ncan really hurt them? For what can separate them from their portion in\ntheir glorified Lord, and in His Father's love in Him? Again we\nlisten, with Tertius, as the voice goes on:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a031.] =What therefore shall we say in view of these\nthings? If God is for us, who is against us?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a032.]\n=HE[147] who did not spare His own true (\u1f30\u03b4\u03af\u03bf\u03c5) Son, but for us all\nhanded Him over= to that awful expiatory, propitiatory, darkness and\ndeath, so that HE was \"pleased to bruise Him, to put Him to grief\"\n(Isai. liii.\u00a010), all for His own great glory, but, no whit the less,\nall for our pure blessing; =how= (wonderful \"_how_\"!) =shall He not\nalso with Him,= because _all_ is included and involved in Him who is\nthe Father's All, =give us also freely all things= (\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1, \"_the\nall_ things that are\")? And do we want to be sure that He will not,\nafter all, find a flaw in our claim, and cast us in His court?\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a033.] =Who will lodge a charge against God's chosen\nones?= Will =God--who justifies them?[148] Who will condemn them,= if\nthe charge _is_ lodged? Will =Christ--who died, nay rather who rose,\nwho is on the right hand of God, who is actually (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76) interceding\nfor us?= (Observe this one mention in the whole Epistle of His\nAscension, and His action for us above, as He is, by the fact of His\nSession on the Throne, our sure Channel of eternal blessing, unworthy\nthat we are.) Do we need assurance, amidst \"the sufferings of this\npresent time,\" that through them always the invincible hands of Christ\nclasp us, with untired love? We \"look upon the covenant\" of our\nacceptance and life in Him who died for us, and who lives both for and\nin us, and we meet the fiercest buffet of these waves in peace.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a035.] =Who shall sunder us from the love of Christ?=\nThere rise before him, as he asks, like so many angry personalities,[149]\nthe outward woes of the pilgrimage. =Tribulation? or Perplexity? or\nPersecution? or Famine? or Nakedness? or Peril? or Sword?=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a036.] =As it stands written,= in that deep song of\nanguish and faith (Psal. xliv.) in which the elder Church, one with us\nin deep continuity, tells her story of affliction, =\"For Thy sake we\nare done to death all the day long; we have been reckoned,= estimated,\n=as sheep of slaughter.\"= Even so. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a037.] =But in these\nthings, all of them, we more than conquer;= not only do we tread upon\nour foes; we spoil them, we find them occasions of glorious gain,[150]\n=through Him who loved us.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a038.] =For I am sure that\nneither death, nor life,= life with its natural allurements or its\nbewildering toils, =nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,[151]=\nwhatever Orders of being unfriendly to Christ and His saints the vast\nUnseen contains, =nor present things, nor things to come,= in all the\nboundless field of circumstance and contingency, =nor height, nor\ndepth,= in the illimitable sphere of space, =nor any other creature,=\nno thing, no being, under the Uncreated One, =shall be able to sunder\nus,= \"_us_\" with an emphasis upon the word and thought (\u1f21\u03bc\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c7\u03c9\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9),\n=from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord=--from the\neternal embrace wherein the Father embosoms the Son, and, in the Son,\nall who are one with Him.\n\nSo once more the divine music rolls itself out into the blessed Name.\nWe have heard the previous cadences as they came in their order;\n\"Jesus our Lord, who was delivered because of our offences, and was\nraised again because of our justification\" (iv.\u00a025); \"That grace might\nreign, through Jesus Christ our Lord\" (v.\u00a021); \"The gift of God is\neternal life, in Jesus Christ our Lord\" (vi.\u00a023); \"I thank God,\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord\" (vii.\u00a025). Like the theme of a fugue it\nhas sounded on, deep and high; still, always, \"our Lord Jesus Christ,\"\nwho is all things, and in all, and for all, to His happy believing\nmembers. And now all is gathered up into this. Our \"Righteousness, and\nSanctification, and Redemption\" (1\u00a0Cor. i.\u00a033), the golden burthens of\nthe third chapter, and the sixth, and the eighth, are all, in their\nliving ultimate essence, \"Jesus Christ our Lord.\" HE makes every\ntruth, every doctrine of peace and holiness, every sure premiss and\nindissoluble inference, to be life as well as light. HE is pardon, and\nsanctity, and heaven. Here, finally, the Eternal Love is seen not as\nit were diffused into infinity, but gathered up wholly and for ever in\nHim. Therefore to be in Him is to be in It. It is to be within the\nclasp which surrounds the Beloved of the Father.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSome years ago we remember reading this passage, this close of the\neighth chapter, under moving circumstances. On a cloudless January\nnight, late arrived in Rome, we stood in the Coliseum, a party of\nfriends from England. Orion, the giant with the sword, glimmered like\na spectre, the spectre of persecution, above the huge precinct; for\nthe full moon, high in the heavens, overpowered the stars. By its\nlight we read from a little Testament these words, written so long ago\nto be read in that same City; written by the man whose dust now sleeps\nat Tre Fontane, where the executioner dismissed him to be with Christ;\nwritten to men and women some of whom at least, in all human\nlikelihood, suffered in that same Amphitheatre, raised only twenty-two\nyears after Paul wrote to the Romans, and soon made the scene of\ncountless martyrdoms. \"Do you want a relic?\" said a Pope to some eager\nvisitor. \"Gather dust from the Coliseum; it is all the martyrs.\"\n\nWe recited the words of the Epistle, and gave thanks to Him who had\nthere triumphed in His saints over life and death, over beasts, and\nmen, and demons. Then we thought of the inmost factors in that great\nvictory; Truth and Life. They \"knew whom they had believed\"--their\nSacrifice, their Head, their King. He whom they had believed lived in\nthem, and they in Him, by the Holy Ghost given to them. Then we\nthought of ourselves, in our circumstances so totally different on the\nsurface, yet carrying the same needs in their depths. Are we too to\novercome, in \"the things present\" of our modern world, and in face of\n\"the things to come\" yet upon the earth? Are we to be \"more than\nconquerors,\" winning blessing out of all things, and really living \"in\nour own generation\" (Acts xiii.\u00a036) as the bondmen of Christ and the\nsons of God? Then for us also the absolute necessities are--the same\nTruth, and the same Life. And they are ours, thanks be to the Name of\nour salvation. Time hath no more dominion over them, because death\nhath no more dominion over Him. For us too Jesus died. In us too, by\nthe Holy Ghost, He lives.\n\n[139] Read \u1f00\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u1fb3.\n\n[140] So we venture to render \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u0398\u03b5\u03cc\u03bd.\n\n[141] _Confessiones_, v.\u00a08.\n\n[142] See a noble poem by James Montgomery, _The Lot of the\nRighteous_.\n\n[143] See _e.g._ xi.\u00a02; Acts ii.\u00a023; 1\u00a0Pet. i.\u00a02, 20.\n\n[144] \u03a3\u03c5\u03bc\u03bc\u03cc\u03c1\u03c6\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2: \u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u1f74 is likeness not by accident but of\nessence. The Greek here is literally, \"conformed ones _of_ the image,\netc.\"; as if their similitude made them part of that which they\nresembled.\n\n[145] Let us banish from the idea of \"_predestination_\" all thought of\na mechanical pagan _destiny_, and use it of the sure purpose of the\nliving and loving God.\n\n[146] \u0394\u03ad: the \"_but_\" of logic. He is _proving_ the security of the\nprospect of _glory_.\n\n[147] \u1f4d\u03c2 \u03b3\u03b5: the particle deeply _underlines_ the pronoun.\n\n[148] \u1f49 \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u1ff6\u03bd: we adopt the interrogative rendering of all the\nclauses here. It is equally good as grammar, and far more congenial to\nthe glowing context.\n\n[149] Observe the \u03c4\u03af\u03c2 of the question, not \u03c4\u03af.\n\n[150] Cp. 1\u00a0Cor. iii.\u00a022: \"All things _are yours_, whether life _or\ndeath_.\"\n\n[151] Strong documentary evidence favours the transference of\n\"_powers_\" to a place after \"_things to come_.\" But surely rhythm, and\nthe affinity of words, look the other way.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\n_THE SORROWFUL PROBLEM: JEWISH UNBELIEF; DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY_\n\nROMANS ix.\u00a01-33\n\n\nWe may well think that again there was silence awhile in that\nCorinthian chamber, when Tertius had duly inscribed the last words we\nhave studied. A \"silence in heaven\" follows, in the Apocalypse\n(viii.\u00a01), the vision of the white hosts of the redeemed, gathered at\nlast, in their eternal jubilation, before the throne and the Lamb. A\nsilence in the soul is the fittest immediate sequel to such a\nrevelation of grace and glory as has passed before us here. And did\nnot the man whose work it was to utter it, and whose personal\nexperience was as it were the informing soul of the whole argument of\nthe Epistle from the first, and not least in this last sacred p\u00e6an of\nfaith, keep silence when he had done, hushed and tired by this\n\"exceeding weight\" of grace and glory?\n\nBut he has a great deal more to say to the Romans, and in due time the\npen obeys the voice again. What will the next theme be? It will be a\npathetic and significant contrast to the last; a lament, a discussion,\nan instruction, and then a prophecy, about not himself and his happy\nfellow-saints, but poor self-blinded unbelieving Israel.\n\nThe occurrence of that subject exactly here is true to the inmost\nnature of the Gospel. The Apostle has just been counting up the wealth\nof salvation, and claiming it all, as present and eternal property,\nfor himself and his brethren in the Lord. Justifying Righteousness,\nLiberty from Sin in Christ, the Indwelling Spirit, electing Love,\ncoming and certain Glory, all have been recounted, and asserted, and\nembraced. _Is it selfish_, this great joy of possession and prospect?\nLet those say so who see these things only from outside. Make proof of\nwhat they are in their interior, enter into them, learn yourself what\nit is to have peace with God, to receive the Spirit, to expect the\neternal glory; and you will find that nothing is so sure to expand the\nheart towards other men as the personal reception into it of the Truth\nand Life of God in Christ. It is possible to hold a true creed--and to\nbe spiritually hard and selfish. But is it possible so to be when not\nonly the creed is held, but the Lord of it, its Heart and Life, is\nreceived with wonder and great joy? The man whose certainties, whose\nriches, whose freedom, are all consciously _in Him_, cannot but love\nhis neighbour, and long that he too should come into \"the secret of\nthe Lord.\"\n\nSo St Paul, just at this point of the Epistle, turns with a peculiar\nintensity of grief and yearning towards the Israel which he had once\nled, and now had left, because they would not come with him to Christ.\nHis natural and his spiritual sympathies all alike go out to this\nself-afflicting people, so privileged, so divinely loved, and now so\nblind. Oh that he could offer any sacrifice that would bring them\nreconciled, humbled, happy, to the feet of the true Christ! Oh that\nthey might see the fallacy of their own way of salvation, and submit\nto the way of Christ, taking His yoke, and finding rest to their\nsouls! Why do they not do it? Why does not the light which convinced\nhim shine on them? Why should not the whole Sanhedrin say, \"Lord, what\nwouldst Thou have us to do?\" Why does not the fair beauty of the Son\nof God make them too \"count all things but loss\" for Him? Why do not\nthe voices of the Prophets prove to them, as they do now to Paul,\nabsolutely convincing of the historical as well as spiritual claims of\nthe Man of Calvary? Has the promise failed? Has God done with the race\nto which He guaranteed such a perpetuity of blessing? No, that cannot\nbe. He looks again, and he sees in the whole past a long warning that,\nwhile an outer circle of benefits might affect the nation, the inner\ncircle, the light and life of God indeed, embraced \"a remnant\" only;\neven from the day when Isaac and not Ishmael was made heir of Abraham.\nAnd then he ponders the impenetrable mystery of the relation of the\nInfinite Will to human wills; he remembers how, in a way whose full\nreasons are unknowable, (but they are good, for they are in God,) the\nInfinite Will has to do with our willing; genuine and responsible\nthough our willing is. And before that opaque veil he rests. He knows\nthat only righteousness and love is behind it; but he knows that _it\nis_ a veil, and that in front of it man's thought must cease and be\nsilent. Sin is altogether man's fault. But when man turns from sin it\nis all God's mercy, free, special, distinguishing. Be silent, and\ntrust Him, O man whom He has made. Remember, He _has made_ thee. It is\nnot only that He is greater than thou, or stronger; but He has made\nthee. Be reasonably willing to trust, out of sight, the reasons of thy\nMAKER.\n\nThen he turns again with new regrets and yearnings to the thought of\nthat wonderful Gospel which was meant for Israel and for the world,\nbut which Israel rejected, and now would fain check on its way to the\nworld. Lastly, he recalls the future, still full of eternal promises\nfor the chosen race, and through them full of blessing for the world;\ntill he rises at length from perplexity and anguish, and the wreck of\nonce eager expectations, into that great Doxology in which he blesses\nthe Eternal Sovereign for the very mystery of His ways, and adores Him\nbecause He is His own eternal End.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =Truth I speak in Christ,= speaking as the member\nof the All-Truthful; =I do not lie, my conscience, in the Holy Ghost,=\ninformed and governed by Him, =bearing me concurrent witness=--the\nsoul within affirming to itself the word spoken without to\nothers--[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =that I have great grief, and my heart has\nincessant pain,= yes, the heart in which (v.\u00a05) the Spirit has \"poured\nout\" God's love and joy; there is room for both experiences in its\nhuman depths. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =For I was wishing, I myself, to be\nanathema from Christ,= to be devoted to eternal separation from Him;\nawful dream of uttermost sacrifice, made impossible only because it\nwould mean self-robbery from the Lord who had bought him; a spiritual\nsuicide by sin--=for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen flesh-wise.=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =For they are (\u03bf\u1f35\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03ad\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd) Israelites,=\nbearers of the glorious theocratic name, sons of the \"Prince with God\"\n(Gen. xxxii.\u00a028); =theirs is the adoption,= the call to be Jehovah's\nown filial race, \"His son, His firstborn\" (Exod. iv.\u00a022) of the\npeoples; =and the glory,= the Shechinah of the Eternal Presence,\nsacramentally seen in Tabernacle and Temple, spiritually spread over\nthe race; =and the Covenants,= with Abraham, and Isaac, and Levi, and\nMoses, and Aaron, and Phinehas, and David; =and the Legislation,= the\nholy Moral Code, =and the Ritual,= with its divinely ordered\nsymbolism, that vast Parable of Christ, =and the Promises,= of \"the\npleasant land,\" and the perpetual favour, and the coming Lord;\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =theirs are the Fathers,= patriarchs, and priests,\nand kings; =and out of them, as to what is flesh-wise, is the\nChrist,--He who is over all things, God, blessed to all eternity.\nAmen.[152]=\n\nIt is indeed a splendid roll of honours, recited over this race\n\"separate among the nations,\" a race which to-day as much as ever\nremains the enigma of history, to be solved only by Revelation. \"_The\nJews, your Majesty_,\" was the reply of Frederick the Great's old\nbelieving courtier, when asked with a smile for the credentials of the\nBible; the short answer silenced the Encyclop\u00e6dist King. It is indeed\na riddle, made of indissoluble facts, this people everywhere\ndispersed, yet everywhere individual; scribes of a Book which has\nprofoundly influenced mankind, and which is recognized by the most\nvarious races as an august and lawful claimant to be divine, yet\nthemselves, in so many aspects, provincial to the heart; historians of\ntheir own glories, but at least equally of their own unworthiness and\ndisgrace; transmitters of predictions which may be slighted, but can\nnever, as a whole, be explained away, yet obstinate deniers of the\nmajestic fulfilment in the Lord of Christendom; human in every fault\nand imperfection, yet so concerned in bringing to man the message of\nthe Divine that Jesus Himself said of them (John iv.\u00a022), \"Salvation\ncomes from the Jews.\" On this wonderful race this its most illustrious\nmember (after his Lord) here fixes his eyes, full of tears. He sees\ntheir glories pass before him--and then realizes the spiritual squalor\nand misery of their rejection of the Christ of God. He groans, and in\nreal agony asks how it can be. One thing only cannot be; the promises\nhave not failed; there has been no failure in the Promiser. What may\nseem such is rather man's misreading of the promise.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =But it is not as though the word of God has been\nthrown out (\u1f10\u03ba\u03c0\u03ad\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9\u03ba\u03b5),= that \"word\" whose divine honour was dearer\nto him than even that of his people. =For not all who come from Israel\nconstitute Israel;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =nor, because they are seed of\nAbraham, are they all= his =children,= in the sense of family life and\nrights; =but \"In Isaac shall a seed be called thee\"= (Gen. xxi.\u00a012);\nIsaac, and not any son of thy body begotten, is father of those whom\nthou shalt claim as thy covenant-race. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =That is to\nsay, not the children of his (\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2) flesh are the children of his\n(\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God; no, the children of the promise,= indicated and limited\nby its developed terms, =are reckoned as seed.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.]\n=For of the promise this was the word= (Gen. xviii.\u00a010, 14),\n=\"According to this time I will come, and Sarah,= she and not _any_\nspouse of thine; no Hagar, no Keturah, but Sarah, =shall have a son.\"=\nAnd the law of limitations did not stop there, but contracted yet\nagain the stream of even physical filiation: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =Nor\nonly so, but Rebecca too--being with child,= with twin children, =of\none husband=--no problem of complex parentage, as with Abraham,\noccurring here--=even of Isaac our father,= just named as the selected\nheir--[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =(for= it was =while they were not yet\nborn, while they had not yet shewn any conduct (\u03c0\u03c1\u03b1\u03be\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u03c4\u03b9) good\nor bad, that the choice-wise purpose of God might remain,= sole and\nsovereign, [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =not based on works, but= wholly =on\nthe Caller)--it was said to her= (Gen. xxv.\u00a023), =\"The greater shall\nbe bondman to the less.\" As it stands written,= in the prophet's\nmessage a millennium later, =\"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,\"[153]=\nI repudiated him as heir.\n\nSo the limit has run always along with the promise. Ishmael is\nAbraham's son, yet not his son. Esau is Isaac's son, yet not his son.\nAnd though we trace in Ishmael and in Esau, as they grow,\ncharacteristics which may seem to explain the limitation, this will\nnot really do. For the chosen one in each case has his conspicuous\nunfavourable characteristics too. And the whole tone of the record\n(not to speak of this its apostolic interpretation) looks towards\nmystery, not explanation. Esau's \"profanity\" was the concurrent\noccasion, not the cause, of the choice of Jacob. The reason of the\nchoice lay in the depths of God, that World \"dark with excess of\nbright.\" All is well there, but not the less all is unknown.\n\nSo we are led up to the shut door of the sanctuary of God's Choice.\nTouch it; it is adamantine, and it is fast locked. No blind Destiny\nhas turned the key, and lost it. No inaccessible Tyrant sits within,\nplaying to himself both sides of a game of fate, and indifferent to\nthe cry of the soul. The Key-Bearer, whose Name is engraved on the\nportal, is \"He that liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore\"\n(Rev. i.\u00a018). And if you listen you will hear words within, like the\nsoft deep voice of many waters, yet of an eternal Heart; \"_I am that I\nam; I will that I will; trust Me_.\" But the door _is_ locked; and the\nVoice _is_ mystery.\n\nAh, what agonies have been felt in human souls, as men have looked at\nthat gate, and pondered the unknown interior! The Eternal knows, with\ninfinite kindness and sympathy, the pain unspeakable which can beset\nthe creature when it wrestles with His Eternity, and tries to clasp it\nwith both hands, and to say that \"that is all!\" We do not find in\nScripture, surely, anything like an anathema for that awful sense of\nthe unknown which can gather on the soul drawn--irresistibly as it\nsometimes seems to be--into the problems of the Choice of God, and\noppressed as with \"the weight of all the seas upon it,\" by the very\nquestions stated presently here by the Apostle. The Lord knoweth, not\nonly His will, but our heart, in these matters. And where He entirely\ndeclines to explain (surely because we are not yet of age to\nunderstand Him if He did) He yet shews us JESUS, and bids us meet the\nsilence of the mystery with the silence of a personal trust in the\npersonal Character revealed in Him.\n\nIn something of such stillness shall we approach the paragraph now to\nfollow? Shall we listen, not to explain away, not even over much to\nexplain, but to submit, with a submission which is not a suppressed\nresentment but an entire reliance? We shall find that the whole\nmatter, in its practical aspect, has a voice articulate enough for the\nsoul which sees Christ, and believes on Him. It says to that soul,\n\"Who maketh thee to differ? Who hath fashioned thee to honour? Why art\nthou not now, as once, guiltily rejecting Christ, or, what is the\nsame, postponing Him? Thank HIM who has 'compelled thee,' yet without\nviolation of thyself, 'to come in.' See in thy choice of Him His mercy\non thee. And now, fall at His feet, to bless Him, to serve Him, and to\ntrust Him. Think ill of thyself. Think reverently of others. And\nremember (the Infinite, who has chosen thee, says it), He willeth not\nthe death of a sinner, He loved the world, He bids thee to tell it\nthat He loves it, to tell it that He is Love.\"\n\nNow we listen. With a look which speaks awe, but not misgiving,\ndisclosing past tempests of doubt, but now a rest of faith, the\nApostle dictates again:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =What therefore shall we say? Is there injustice\nat God's bar (\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u1f70 \u03c4\u1ff7 \u0398\u03b5\u1ff7)? Away with the thought.= The thing is,\nin the deepest sense, unthinkable. God, the God of Revelation, the God\nof Christ, is a Being who, if unjust--_ceases to be_, \"denies\n_Himself_.\" But the thought that His reasons for some given action\nshould be, at least to us now, absolute mystery, He being the Infinite\nPersonality, is not unthinkable at all. And in such a case it is not\nunreasonable, but the deepest reason, to ask for no more than His\narticulate guarantee, so to speak, that the mystery is fact; that He\nis conscious of it, alive to it (speaking humanly); and that He avows\nit as His will. For when GOD, the God of Christ, bids us \"take His\nwill for it,\" it is a different thing from an attempt, however\npowerful, to frighten us into silence. It is a reminder WHO He is who\nspeaks; the Being who is kindred to us, who is in relations with us,\nwho loved us, but who also has absolutely made us, and cannot (because\nwe are sheer products of His will) make us so much His equals as to\ntell us all. So the Apostle proceeds with a \"_for_\" whose bearing we\nhave thus already indicated: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =For to Moses he\nsays= (Exod. xxxiv.\u00a019), in the dark sanctuary of Sinai, =\"I shall\npity whomsoever I do pity, and compassionate whomsoever I do\ncompassionate\";= My account of My saving action shall stop there.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =It appears (\u1f04\u03c1\u03b1) therefore that it,= the\nultimate account of salvation, =is not of= (as the effect is \"_of_\"\nthe first cause) =the willer, nor of the runner,= the carrier of\nwilling into work, =but of the Pitier--God.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =For\nthe Scripture[154] says= (Exod. x.\u00a016) =to Pharaoh,= that large\nexample of defiant human sin, real and guilty, but also, concurrently,\nof the sovereign Choice which sentenced him to go his own way, and\nused him as a beacon at its end, =\"For this very purpose I raised thee\nup,= made thee stand, even beneath the Plagues, =that I might display\nin thee My power, and that My Name,= as of the just God who strikes\ndown the proud, =might be told far and wide (\u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03b3\u03b3\u03b5\u03bb\u1fc7) in all the\nearth.\"=\n\nPharaoh's was a case of concurrent phenomena. _A man_ was there on the\none hand, willingly, deliberately, and most guiltily, battling with\nright, and rightly bringing ruin on his own head, wholly of himself.\n_God_ was there on the other hand, making that man a monument not of\ngrace but of judgment. And that side, that line, is isolated here, and\ntreated as if it were all.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =It appears then that whom He pleases, He pities,\nand whom He pleases, He hardens,= in that sense in which He \"hardened\nPharaoh's heart,\" \"made it stiff\" (\u05d7\u05d6\u05e7), \"made it heavy\" (\u05db\u05d1\u05d3), \"made\nit harsh\" (\u05e7\u05e9\u05c1\u05d4)--by sentencing it to have its own way. Yes,[155] thus\n\"_it appears_.\" And beyond that inference we can take no step of\nthought but this--that the Subject of that mysterious \"_will_,\" HE who\nthus \"_pleases_,\" and \"_pities_,\" and \"_hardens_,\" is no other than\nthe God of Jesus Christ. HE may be, not only submitted to, but\ntrusted, in that unknowable sovereignty of His will. Yet listen\nto the question which speaks out the problem of all hearts:\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =You will say to me therefore, Why does He\nstill,= after such an avowal of His sovereignty, softening this heart,\nhardening that, why does He still =find fault?= Ah why? =For His act\nof will who has withstood?= (Nay, you have withstood His will, and so\nhave I. Not one word of the argument has contradicted the primary fact\nof our will, nor therefore our responsibility. But this he does not\nbring in here.) Nay rather, rather than take such an attitude of\nnarrow and helpless logic, think deeper; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =Nay\nrather, O man,= O mere human being (\u1f66 \u1f04\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03c9\u03c0\u03b5), =you--who are you, who\nare answering back to your (\u03c4\u1ff7) God? Shall the thing formed say to its\nFormer, Why did you make me like this?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =Has not\nthe potter authority over his (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) clay, out of the same kneaded\nmass to make this vessel for honour but that for dishonour?=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =But if God, being pleased to demonstrate His\n(\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) wrath, and to evidence what He can do=--_what_ will St Paul go\non to say? That the Eternal, being thus \"pleased,\" created responsible\nbeings on purpose to destroy them, gave them personality, and then\ncompelled them to transgress? No, he does not say so. The sternly\nsimple illustration, in itself one of the least relieved utterances in\nthe whole Scripture--that dread Potter and his kneaded Clay!--gives\nway, in its application, to a statement of the work of God on man full\nof significance in its variation. Here are indeed the \"_vessels_\"\nstill; and the vessels \"_for honour_\" are such because of \"_mercy_,\"\nand His own hand has \"_prepared them for glory_.\" And there are the\nvessels \"_for dishonour_,\" and in a sense of awful mystery they are\nsuch because of \"_wrath_.\" But the \"_wrath_\" of the Holy One can fall\nonly upon demerit; so these \"_vessels_\" have merited His displeasure\nof themselves. And they are \"_prepared for ruin_\"; but where is any\nmention of _His_ hand preparing them? And meanwhile He \"_bears them in\nmuch longsuffering_.\" The mystery is there, impenetrable as ever, when\nwe try to pierce behind \"His will.\" But on every side it is limited\nand qualified by facts which witness to the compassions of the\nInfinite Sovereign even in His judgments, and remind us that sin is\naltogether \"of\" the creature. So we take up the words where we dropped\nthem above: =What if He bore,= (the tense throws us forward into\neternity, to look back thence on His ways in time,) =in much\nlongsuffering, vessels of wrath, adjusted for ruin?= And acted\notherwise with others, [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.] =that He might evidence\nthe wealth of His glory,= the resources of His inmost Character,\npoured =upon vessels of pity, which He prepared in advance for\nglory,= by the processes of justifying and hallowing grace--\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.] =whom in fact (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76) He called,= effectually, in\ntheir conversion, =even us, not only from the Jews, but also from the\nGentiles?= For while the lineal Israel, with its privilege and its\napparent failure, is here first in view, there lies behind it the\nphenomenon of \"the Israel of God,\" the heaven-born heirs of the\nFathers, a race not of blood but of the Spirit. The great Promise, all\nthe while, had set towards _that_ Israel as its final scope; and now\nhe gives proof from the Prophets that this intention was at least half\nrevealed all along the line of revelation.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =As actually (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76) in our (\u03c4\u1ff7) Hosea=\n(ii.\u00a023, Heb., 25) in the book we know as such, =He says, \"I will call\nwhat= was =not My people, My people; and the not-beloved one,\nbeloved.[156]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a026.] =And= (another Hosean oracle,[157]\nin line with the first) =it shall be, in the place where it was said\nto them, Not My people are ye, there they shall be called sons of the\nliving God.\"= In both places the first incidence of the words is on\nthe restoration of the Ten Tribes to covenant blessings. But the\nApostle, in the Spirit, sees an ultimate and satisfying reference to a\nvaster application of the same principle; the bringing of the\nrebelling and banished ones of all mankind into covenant and blessing.\n\nMeanwhile the Prophets who foretell that great ingathering indicate\nwith equal solemnity the spiritual failure of all but a fraction of\nthe lineal heirs of promise. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a027.] =But Isaiah cries\nover[158] Israel, \"If the number of the sons of Israel should be as\nthe sand of the sea, the remnant= only =shall be saved;=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a028.] =for as one who completes and cuts short will the\nLord do His work (\u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd, \u05d3\u05d1\u05e8) upon the earth.\"[159]= Here again\nis a first and second incidence of the prophecy. In every stage of the\nhistory of Sin and Redemption the Apostle, in the Spirit, sees an\nembryo of the great Development. So, in the wofully limited numbers of\nthe Exiles who returned from the old captivity he sees an embodied\nprophecy of the fewness of the sons of Israel who shall return from\nthe exile of incredulity to their true Messiah. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a029.]\n=And as Isaiah= (i.\u00a09) =has foretold (\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03b5\u03af\u03c1\u03b7\u03ba\u03b5\u03bd),= so it is;\n=\"Unless the Lord of Hosts (\u03a3\u03b1\u03b2\u03b1\u03ce\u03b8, \u05e6\u05d1\u05d0\u05d5\u05ea) had left us a seed,[160]\nlike Sodom we had become, and to Gomorrah we had been resembled.\"=\n\nSuch was the mystery of the facts, alike in the older and in the later\nstory of Israel. A remnant, still a remnant, not the masses, entered\nupon an inheritance of such ample provision, and so sincerely offered.\nAnd behind this lay the insoluble shadow within which is concealed the\nrelation of the Infinite Will to the wills of men. But also, in front\nof the phenomenon, concealed by no shadow save that which is cast by\nhuman sin, the Apostle sees and records the reasons, as they reside in\nthe human will, of this \"salvation of a remnant.\" The promises of God,\nall along, and supremely now in Christ, had been conditioned (it was\nin the nature of spiritual things that it should be so) by submission\nto His way of fulfilment. The golden gift was there, in the most\ngenerous of hands, stretched out to give. But it could be put only\ninto a recipient hand open and empty. It could be taken only by\nsubmissive and self-forgetting faith. And man, in his fall, had\ntwisted his will out of gear for such an action. Was it wonderful\nthat, by his own fault, he failed to receive? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a030.]\n=What therefore shall we say?[161] Why, that the Gentiles, though they\ndid not (\u03c4\u1f70 \u03bc\u1f74) pursue righteousness,= though no Oracle had set them\non the track of a true divine acceptance and salvation, =achieved\nrighteousness,= grasped it when once revealed, =but[162] the\nrighteousness that results on faith;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a031.] =but Israel,\npursuing a law of righteousness,= aiming at what is, for fallen man,\nthe impossible goal, a perfect meeting of the Law's one principle of\nacceptance, \"This do and thou shalt live,\" =did not attain that\nlaw[163];= that is to say, practically, as we now review their story\nof vain efforts in the line of self, did not attain the acceptance to\nwhich that law was to be the avenue. The Pharisee as such, the\nPharisee Saul of Tarsus for example, neither had peace with God, nor\ndared to think he had, in the depth of his soul. He knew enough of the\ndivine ideal to be hopelessly uneasy about his realization of it. He\ncould say, stiffly enough, \"_God, I thank Thee_\" (Luke xviii.\u00a011, 14);\nbut he \"went down to his house\" unhappy, unsatisfied, unjustified.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a032.] =On what account? Because= it was =not of faith,\nbut as of works[164];= in the unquiet dream that man must, and could,\nwork up the score of merit to a valid claim. =They stumbled[165] on\nthe Stone of their (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) stumbling;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a033.] =as it\nstands written= (Isai. viii.\u00a014, xxviii.\u00a016), in a passage where the\ngreat perpetual Promise is in view, and where the blind people are\nseen rejecting it as their foothold in favour of policy, or of\nformalism, =Behold, I place in Sion,= in the very centre of light and\nprivilege, =a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of upsetting;= and =he\nwho[166] confides in Him,= (or, perhaps, in it,) he who rests on it,\non Him (\u1f10\u03c0' \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff7), =shall not be put to shame.=\n\nOne great Rabbi at least, Rashi, of the twelfth century, bears witness\nto the mind of the Jewish Church upon the significance of that mystic\nRock. \"Behold,\" so runs his interpretation, \"I have established a\nKing, Messiah, who shall be in Zion a stone of proving.\"\n\nWas ever prophecy more profoundly verified in event? Not for the\nlineal Israel only, but for Man, the King Messiah is, as ever, the\nStone of either stumbling or foundation. He is, as ever, \"a Sign\nspoken against.\" He is, as ever, the Rock of Ages, where the believing\nsinner hides, and rests, and builds,\n\n  \"Below the storm-mark of the sky,\n  Above the flood-mark of the deep.\"\n\nHave we known what it is to stumble over Him? \"We will not have this\nMan to reign over us\"; \"We were never in bondage to any man; who is He\nthat He should set us free?\" And are we now lifted by a Hand of\nomnipotent kindness to a place deep in His clefts, safe on His summit,\n\"knowing nothing\" for the peace of conscience, the satisfaction of\nthought, the liberation of the will, the abolition of death, \"but\nJesus Christ, and Him crucified\"? Then let us think with always\nhumbled sympathy of those who, for whatever reason, still \"forsake\ntheir own mercy\" (Jonah ii.\u00a08). And let us inform them where we are,\nand how we are here, and that \"the ground is good.\" And for ourselves,\nthat we may do this the better, let us often read again the simple,\nstrong assurance which closes this chapter of mysteries; \"_He who\nconfides in Him shall not be put to shame_\"; \"_shall not be\ndisappointed_\"; \"_shall not_\" in the vivid phrase of the Hebrew\nitself, \"_make haste_.\" No, we shall not \"make haste.\" From that safe\nPlace no hurried retreat shall ever need to be beaten. That Fortress\ncannot be stormed; it cannot be surprised; it cannot crumble. For \"IT\nis HE\"; the Son, the Lamb, of God; the sinner's everlasting\nRighteousness, the believer's unfailing Source of peace, of purity,\nand of power.\n\n\nDETACHED NOTE TO IX.\u00a05.\n\nThe following is transcribed, with a few modifications, from the\nwriter's Commentary on the Epistle in _The Cambridge Bible_:\n\n[\"_Who is over all, God blessed for ever._] The Greek may, with more\nor less facility, be translated (1) as in A.V.; or (2) '=who is God\nover all,=' etc.; or (3) '=blessed for ever be He who is God over\nall=' (_i.e._, the Eternal Father).... If we adopt (3) we take the\nApostle to be led, by the mention of the Incarnation, to utter a\nsudden and solemn doxology to the God who gave that crowning mercy. In\nfavour of this it is urged (by some entirely orthodox commentators, as\nH. A. W. Meyer) that St Paul nowhere else styles the Lord simply\n'God,' but rather 'the Son of God,' etc. By this they do not mean to\ndetract from the Lord's Deity; but they maintain that St Paul always\nso states that Deity, under divine guidance, as to mark the\n'Subordination of the Son'--that Subordination which is not a\ndifference of Nature, Power, or Eternity, but of Order; just such as\nis marked by the simple but profound words FATHER and SON.\n\n\"But on the other hand there is Tit. ii.\u00a013, where the Greek is (at\nleast) _perfectly capable_ of the rendering, 'our great God and\nSaviour, Jesus Christ.' [There is Acts xx.\u00a028, where the evidence is\nvery strong for the reading, retained by the R.V. (text), '_the Church\nof God_, which He purchased with His own blood.' And if St John is to\nbe taken to report words exactly, in his narrative of the\nResurrection, in an incident whose point is deeply connected with\nverbal precision, we have one of the first Apostles, within eight days\nof the Resurrection, addressing the Risen Lord (John xx.\u00a028) as '_my\nGod_.' (We call attention to this as against the contention that only\nthe latest developments of inspiration, represented in _e.g._ St\nJohn's Preamble to his Gospel, shew us Christ called explicitly God.)]\n\n\"If ... it is divinely true that 'the WORD IS GOD,' it is surely far\nfrom wonderful if here and there, in peculiar connexions, [St Paul]\nshould so speak of Christ, even though guided to keep another phase of\nthe truth _habitually_ in view.\n\n\"Now, beyond all fair question, the Greek here is quite naturally\nrendered as in the A.V.; had it not been for historical controversy,\nprobably, no other rendering would have been suggested. And lastly,\nand what is important, the context far rather suggests _a lament_\n(over the fall of Israel) than an ascription of praise. And what is\nmost significant of all, it pointedly suggests _some explicit allusion\nto the super_-human Nature of Christ, by the words '_according to the\nflesh_.' But if there is such an allusion, then it must lie in the\nwords, '_over all, God_.'\"\n\nIt may be interesting to add the following note from Franz Delitzsch\n(_Brief an die R\u00f6mer in das Hebr\u00e4ische \u00fcbersetzt und aus Talmud und\nMidrasch erl\u00e4utert_, Leipzig, 1870, p. 89):\n\n\"_Christus, nach dem Fleisch, welcher ist Gott \u00fcber alles, hochgelobet\nin Ewigkeit._ Deshalb n\u00e4mlich weil er Gott und Mensch in Einer Person\nist. Er ist der andere David (\u05d3\u05d5\u05d3 \u05d0\u05d7\u05e8), und ist Jahve unsere\nGerechtigkeit (\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4 \u05e6\u05d3\u05e7\u05e0\u05d5 Jer. xxiii.\u00a06). Auch der Midrasch\n_Mischle_ zu Spr. xix.\u00a021 z\u00e4hlt \u05d4\u05f3 \u05e6\u05d3\u05e7\u05e0\u05d5 neben \u05d3\u05d5\u05d3 unter den\nMessiasnamen auf, und auch anderw\u00e4rts bezeugen Talmud und Midrasch,\ndass der Messias \u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4 heisst; denn 'Gott war in Christo und\nvers\u00f6hnte die Welt mit ihm selber.' Paulus sagt im Grunde nichts\nanderes als was Jesaia ix.\u00a05, wo die Zunz'sche Bibel\u00fcbersetzung, der\nexegetischen Wahrheit die Ehre gebend, \u00fcbersetzt: 'Man nennt seinen\nNamen: Wunder, Berather, starker Gott, ewiger Vater, F\u00fcrst des\nFriedens.' Der Messias ist und heisst \u05d0\u05dc \u05d2\u05d1\u05d5\u05e8 und \u05d0\u05d1\u05d9\u05be\u05e2\u05d3, also\nobwohl nicht \u05d4\u05d0\u05dc\u05d4\u05d9\u05dd, doch \u05d0\u05dc\u05d4\u05d9\u05dd (\u05d0\u05dc) \u05dc\u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05de\u05d9\u05dd.\"\n\nDelitzsch renders the close of ix.\u00a05 thus:\n\n\u05d5\u05b7\u05d0\u05b2\u05e9\u05b6\u05c1\u05e8 \u05de\u05b5\u05d4\u05b6\u05dd \u05d9\u05b8\u05e6\u05b8\u05d0 \u05d4\u05b7\u05de\u05b8\u05bc\u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05d9\u05d7\u05b7 \u05dc\u05b0\u05e4\u05b4\u05d9 \u05d1\u05b0\u05e9\u05b8\u05c2\u05e8\u05d5\u05b9 \u05d0\u05b2\u05e9\u05b6\u05c1\u05e8 \u05d4\u05d5\u05bc\u05d0 \u05d0\u05b5\u05dc \u05e2\u05b7\u05dc\u05be\u05d4\u05b7\u05db\u05b9\u05bc\u05dc \u05de\u05b0\u05d1\u05b9\u05e8\u05b8\u05da\u05b0 \u05dc\u05b0\u05e2\u05d5\u05b9\u05dc \u05de\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd \u05d0\u05b8\u05de\u05b5\u05d5\n\n[152] For this rendering, rather than the alternative, \"_Blessed for\never be the God who is over all_,\" see the reasons offered below, p.\n261.\n\n[153] Mal. i.\u00a02, 3.--It is plain that \"_hatred_\" in such a connexion\n(and cp. Matt. vi.\u00a024, Luke xiv.\u00a026) need mean no more than relative\nrepudiation. No personal animosity is in question, but a decisive\nrejection of a rival claim. See Grimm's _N. T. Lexicon_ (Thayer),\n_s.v._ \u03bc\u03b9\u03c3\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd.\n\n[154] Observe the vital personality of the phrase; \"_the Scripture\nspeaks_.\" Cp. Gal. iii.\u00a08 for perhaps the strongest example of the\nkind.\n\n[155] Cp. Psal. lxxxi.\u00a012, and above, i.\u00a024, 26.\n\n[156] In the Hebrew, literally, \"_I will pity the not-pitied one_\"\n(feminine, of the idealized people or church; so in the Greek here,\n\u1f20\u03b3\u03b1\u03c0\u03b7\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7\u03bd). Divine \"_pity_\" is more than \"akin to\" divine \"_love_.\"\n\n[157] i.\u00a010 (Hebrew, ii.\u00a01).\n\n[158] \u1f59\u03c0\u03ad\u03c1: with the thought of a _lament over_ the ruined ones.\nThe preposition appears here in its original and literal meaning.\n\n[159] Isa. x.\u00a022, 23: perhaps with an insertion of the phrase, \"_the\nnumber of_,\" from Hos. i.\u00a010. As to wording, he quotes freely from the\nHebrew, more nearly from the Lxx. But the substance is identical as\ncompared with both. Following considerable documentary evidence, we\nomit here the Greek words represented by \"_in righteousness; because a\nshort work_.\"\n\n[160] The equivalent of the Lxx. for the \"very small _remnant_\" (\u05e9\u05c2\u05e8\u05d9\u05d3)\nof the Hebrew.\n\n[161] For the seventh and last time he uses this characteristic\nphrase.\n\n[162] \u0394\u03ad: in slightly suggested contrast to the ideal of the Jew, a\n_merited_ acceptance.\n\n[163] Omit here the word \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c3\u03cd\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2.\n\n[164] Omit \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03bd\u03cc\u03bc\u03bf\u03c5.\n\n[165] Omit \u03b3\u03ac\u03c1.\n\n[166] Omit \u03c0\u1fb6\u03c2.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\n_JEWISH UNBELIEF AND GENTILE FAITH: PROPHECY_\n\nROMANS x.\u00a01-21\n\n\nThe problem of Israel is still upon the Apostle's soul. He has\nexplored here and there the conditions of the fact that his brethren,\nas a mass, have rejected Jesus. He has delivered his heart of its\nloving human groan over the fact. He has reminded himself, and then\nhis readers, that the fact however involves no failure of the purpose\nand promise of God; for God from the first had indicated limitations\nwithin the apparent scope of the Abrahamic Promise. He has looked in\nthe face, once for all, the mystery of the relation between God's\nefficient will and the will of the creature, finding a refuge, under\nthe moral strain of that mystery, not away from it but as it were\nbehind it, in the recollection of the infinite trustworthiness, as\nwell as eternal rights, of man's MAKER. Then he has recurred to the\nunderlying main theme of the whole Epistle, the acceptance of the\nsinner in God's own one way; and we have seen how, from Israel's own\npoint of view, Israel has stumbled and fallen just by his own fault.\nIsrael would not rest upon \"the Stone of stumbling\"; he would collide\nwith it. Divine sovereignty here or there--the heart of Jewish man, in\nits responsible personality, and wholly of itself, rebelled against a\nman-humbling salvation. And so all its religiousness, its earnestness,\nits intensity, went for nothing in the quest for peace and purity.\nThey stumbled--a real striking of real wayward feet--at the Stumbling\nStone; which all the while lay ready to be their basis and repose.\n\nHe cannot leave the subject, with its sadness, its lessons, and its\nhope. He must say more of his love and longing for Israel; and also\nmore about this aspect of Israel's fall--this collision of man's will\nwith the Lord's Way of Peace. And he will unfold the deep witness of\nthe prophecies to the nature of that Way, and to the reluctance of the\nJewish heart to accept it. Moses shall come in with the Law, and\nIsaiah with the Scriptures of the Prophets; and we shall see how their\nInspirer, all along from the first, indicated what should surely\nhappen when a salvation altogether divine should be presented to\nhearts filled with themselves.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =Brethren,= he begins, =the deliberate desire\n(\u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1) of my heart,= whatever discouragements may oppose it,[167]\n=and my petition unto God for them,[168]= is =salvationwards.= He is\ninevitably moved to this by the pathetic sight of their earnestness,\nmisguided indeed, guiltily misguided, utterly inadequate to constitute\nfor them even a phantom of merit; yet, to the eyes that watch it, a\ndifferent thing from indifference or hypocrisy. He cannot see their\nreal struggles, and not long that they may reach the shore.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =For I bear them witness,= the witness of one who\nonce was the type of the class, =that they have zeal of God,= an\nhonest jealousy for His Name, His Word, His Worship, =only not in the\nline of spiritual knowledge (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4' \u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd).= They have not seen\nall He is, all His Word means, all His worship implies. They are sure,\nand rightly sure, of many things about Him; but they have not \"seen\nHIM.\" And so they have not \"abhorred themselves\" (Job xli.\u00a05, 6). And\nthus they are _not_, in their own conviction, shut up to a salvation\nwhich must be altogether of Him; which is no contract with Him, but\neternal bounty from Him.\n\nSolemn and heart-moving scene! There are now, and were then, those who\nwould have surveyed it, and come away with the comfortable reflection\nthat so much earnestness would surely somehow work itself right at\nlast; nay, that it was already sufficiently good in itself to secure\nthese honest zealots a place in some comprehensive heaven. If ever\nsuch thoughts had excuse, surely it was here. The \"_zeal_\" was quite\nsincere. It was ready to suffer, as well as to strike. The zealot was\nnot afraid of a world in arms. And he felt himself on fire not for\nevil, but for God, for the God of Abraham, of Moses, of the Prophets,\nof the Promise. Would not this do? Would not the lamentable rejection\nof Jesus which attended it be condoned as a tremendous but mere\naccident, while the \"_zeal of God_\" remained as the substance, the\nessence, of the spiritual state of the zealot? Surely a very large\nallowance would be made; to put it at the lowest terms.\n\nYet such was not the view of St Paul, himself once the most honest and\ndisinterested Jewish zealot in the world. He had seen THE LORD. And so\nhe had seen himself. The deadly mixture of motive which may underlie\nwhat nevertheless we may have to call an _honest_ hatred of the Gospel\nhad been shewn to him in the white light of Christ. In that light he\nhad seen--what it alone can fully shew--the condemnableness of all\nsin, and the hopelessness of self-salvation. From himself he reasons,\nand rightly, to his brethren. He knows, with a solemn sympathy, how\nmuch they are in earnest. But his sympathy conceals no false\nliberalism; it is not cheaply generous of the claims of God. He does\nnot think that because they are in earnest they are saved. Their\nearnestness drives his heart to a deeper prayer for their salvation.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =For knowing not the righteousness of our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6)\nGod,= His way of being just, yet the Justifier, =and seeking to set up\ntheir own righteousness,= to construct for themselves a claim which\nshould \"stand in judgment,\" =they did not submit to the righteousness\nof our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God,= when it appeared before them, embodied in \"the\nLord our Righteousness.\" They _aspired_ to acceptance. God bade them\n_submit_ to it. In their view, it was a matter of attainment; an\nascent to a difficult height, where the climber might exult in his\nsuccess. As He presented it, it was a matter of surrender, as when a\npatient, given over, places himself helpless in a master-healer's\nhands, for a recovery which is to be due to those hands alone, and to\nbe celebrated only to their praise.[169]\n\nAlas for such \"ignorance\" in these earnest souls; for such a failure\nin Israel to strike the true line of \"knowledge\"! For it was a guilty\nfailure. The Law had been indicating all the while that their\nDispensation was not its own end, but one vast complex means to shut\nman up to a Redeemer who was at once to satisfy every type, and every\noracle, and to supply \"the impossible of the Law\" (viii.\u00a03), by giving\nHimself to be the believer's vicarious Merit. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =For\nthe Law's end,= its Goal, its Final Cause in the plan of redemption,\n=is--Christ, unto righteousness,= to effect and secure this wonderful\nacceptance, =for every one who believes.= Yes, He is no arbitrary\nsequel to the Law; He stands organically related to it. And to this\nthe Law itself is witness, both by presenting an inexorable and\ncondemning standard as its only possible code of acceptance, and by\nmysteriously pointing the soul away from that code, in its quest for\nmercy, to something altogether different, at once accessible and\ndivine. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =For Moses writes down (\u03b3\u03c1\u03ac\u03c6\u03b5\u03b9)= thus\n=the righteousness= got =from the Law, \"The man who does[170] them,\nshall live in it\"[171]= (Levit. xviii.\u00a05); it is a matter of personal\naction and personal meriting alone. Thus the code, feasible and\nbeneficent indeed on the plane of national and social life, which is\nits lower field of action, is necessarily fatal to fallen man when the\nquestion lies between his conscience and the eternal Judge.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =But the righteousness= got =from faith,= the\nacceptance received by surrendering trust, =thus speaks= (Deut.\nxxx.\u00a012-14)--in Moses' words indeed, (and this is one main point in\nthe reasoning, that _he_ is witness,) yet as it were with a personal\nvoice of its own, deep and tender; =\"Say not in thy heart, Who shall\nascend to the heaven?\" that is, to bring down Christ,= by human\nefforts, by a climbing merit; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =\"or, Who shall\ndescend into the abyss? that is, to bring up Christ from the dead,=\"\nas if His victorious Sacrifice needed your supplement in order to its\nresurrection-triumph. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =But what does it say? \"Near\nthee is the utterance,= the explicit account of the Lord's willingness\nto bless the soul which casts itself on Him,[172] =in thy mouth,= to\nrecite it, =and in thy heart,\"= to welcome it. And =this= message =is\nthe utterance of faith,= the creed of acceptance by faith alone,\n=which we proclaim;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =that if you shall confess in\nyour mouth Jesus as Lord,[173]= as divine King and Master, =and shall\nbelieve in your heart= that God =raised Him from the dead,= owning in\nthe soul the glory of the Resurrection, as revealing and sealing the\ntriumph of the Atonement, =you shall be saved.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.]\n=For with the heart faith is exercised, unto righteousness,= with\nacceptance for its resultant; =while (\u03b4\u1f72) with the mouth confession\nis made, unto salvation,= with present deliverance and final glory for\nits resultant, the moral sequel of a life which owns its Lord as all\nin all. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =For the Scripture says= (Isai. xxviii.\u00a016),\n=\"Everyone who believes on Him shall not be ashamed,\"[174]= shall\nnever be disappointed; shall be \"kept, through faith, unto the\nsalvation ready to be revealed in the last time\" (1\u00a0Pet. i.\u00a05).\n\nWe have traversed here a tract pregnant of questions and mystery. We\nhave to remember here also, as in previous places, that the Scripture\nis \"not a sun, but a lamp.\" Much, very much, which this passage\nsuggests as problem finds in its words no answer. This citation from\nDeuteronomy, with its vision of ascents and descents, its thoughts of\nthe heaven and the abyss, what did it mean when aged Moses spoke it in\nthe plains of Moab? What did it mean _to him_? Did he see, did he\nfeel, Messiah in every clause? Had he conscious foreviews, then and\nthere, of what was to be done ages later beyond that stern ridge of\nhills, westward of \"the narrow stream\"? Did he knowingly \"testify\nbeforehand\" that God was to be born Man at Bethlehem, and to die Man\nat Jerusalem? We do not know; we cannot possibly know, until the\neternal day finds Moses and ourselves together in the City of God, and\nwe better understand the mysterious Word, at last, in that great\nlight. If our Master's utterances are to be taken as final, it is\nquite certain that \"Moses wrote of Him\" (John v.\u00a046). But it is not\ncertain that he always knew he was so writing when he so wrote; nor is\nit certain _how far_ his consciousness went when it was most awake\nthat way. In the passage here cited by St Paul the great Prophet may\nhave been aware only of a reference of his words to the seen, the\ntemporal, the national, to the blessings of loyalty to Israel's\nGod-given polity, and of a return to it after times of revolt and\ndecline. But then, St Paul neither affirms this nor denies it. As if\non purpose, he almost drops the personality of Moses out of sight, and\npersonifies Justification as the speaker. His concern is less with the\nProphet than with his Inspirer, the ultimate Author behind the\nimmediate author. And his own prophet-insight is guided to see that in\nthe thought of _that_ Author, as He wielded Moses' mind and diction at\nHis will, CHRIST was the inmost purport of the words.\n\nWe may ask again what are the laws by which the Apostle modifies here\nthe Prophet's phrases. \"_Who shall descend into the abyss?_\" The Hebrew\nreads, \"_Who shall go over_ (or _on_) _the sea?_\" The Septuagint\nreads, \"_Who shall go to the other side of the sea?_\" Here too \"we\nknow in part.\" Assuredly the change of terms was neither unconsciously\nmade, nor arbitrarily; and it was made for readers who could challenge\nit, if so it seemed to them to be done. But we should need to know the\nwhole relation of the One inspiring Master to the minds of both His\nProphet and His Apostle to answer the question completely. However, we\ncan see that Prophet and Apostle both have in their thought here the\nantithesis of depth to height; that the sea is, to Moses here, the\nantithesis to the sky, not to the land; and that St Paul intensifies\nthe imagery in its true direction accordingly when he writes, \"_into\nthe abyss_.\"\n\nAgain, he finds Justification by Faith in the Prophet's oracle about\nthe subjective \"_nearness_\" of \"_the utterance_\" of mercy. Once more\nwe own our ignorance of the conscious purport of the words, as Moses'\nwords. We shall quite decline, if we are reverently cautious, to say\nthat for certain Moses was not aware of such an inmost reference in\nwhat he said; it is very much easier to assert than to know what the\nlimitations of the consciousness of the Prophets were. But here also\nwe rest in the fact that behind both Moses and Paul, in their free and\nmighty personalities, stood their one Lord, building His Scripture\nslowly into its manifold oneness through them both. He was in the\nthought and word of Moses; and meantime already to Him the thought and\nword of Paul was present, and was in His plan. And the earlier\nutterance had this at least to do with the later, that it drew the\nmind of the pondering and worshipping Israel to the idea of a contact\nwith God in His Promises which was not external and mechanical but\ndeep within the individual himself, and manifested in the individual's\nfree and living avowal of it.\n\nAs we quit the passage, let us mark and cherish its insistence upon\n\"_confession_,\" \"_confession with the mouth that Jesus is Lord_.\" This\nspecially he connects with \"_salvation_,\" with the believer's\npreservation to eternal glory. \"_Faith_\" is \"_unto righteousness_\";\n\"_confession_\" is \"_unto salvation_.\" Why is this? Is faith after all\nnot enough for our union with the Lord, and for our safety in Him?\nMust we bring in something else, to be a more or less meritorious\nmakeweight in the scale? If this is what he means, he is gainsaying\nthe whole argument of the Epistle on its main theme. No; it is\neternally true that we are justified, that we are accepted, that we\nare incorporated, that we are kept, through faith only; that is, that\nChrist is all for all things in our salvation, and our part and work\nin the matter is to receive and hold Him in _an empty_ hand. But then\nthis empty hand, holding Him, receives life and power from Him. The\nman is vivified by his Rescuer. He is rescued that he may live, and\nthat he may serve as living. He cannot truly serve without loyalty to\nhis Lord. He cannot be truly loyal while he hides his relation to Him.\nIn some articulate way he must \"_confess Him_\"; or he is not treading\nthe path where the Shepherd walks before the sheep.\n\nThe \"_confession with the mouth_\" here in view is, surely, nothing\nless than the believer's open loyalty to Christ. It is no mere\nrecitation of even the sacred catholic Creed; which may be recited as\nby an automaton. It is the witness of the whole man to Christ, as his\nown discovered Life and Lord. And thus it means in effect the path of\nfaithfulness along which the Saviour actually leads to glory those who\nare justified by faith.\n\nThat no slackened emphasis on faith is to be felt here is clear from\nver. 11. There, in the summary and close of the passage, nothing but\nfaith is named; \"whosoever _believeth on Him_.\" It is as if he would\ncorrect even the slightest disquieting surmise that our repose upon\nthe Lord has to be secured by something other than Himself, through\nsome means more complex than taking Him at His word. Here, as much as\nanywhere in the Epistle, this is the message; \"from faith to faith.\"\nThe \"confession with the mouth\" is not a different something added to\nthis faith; it is its issue, its manifestation, its embodiment. \"I\nbelieved; _therefore have I spoken_\" (Psal. cxvi.\u00a010).\n\nThis recurrence to his great theme gives the Apostle's thought a\ndirection once again towards the truth of the world-wide scope of the\nGospel of Acceptance. In the midst of this _philo-judean_ section of\nthe Epistle, on his way to say glorious things about abiding mercy and\ncoming blessing for the Jews, he must pause again to assert the equal\nwelcome of \"the Greeks\" to the Righteousness of God, and the\nforeshadow of this welcome in the Prophets. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =For\nthere is no distinction between Jew and Greek= (wonderful antithesis\nto the \"no distinction\" of iii.\u00a023!). =For the same Lord is Lord of\nall, wealthy to all who call upon Him,= who invoke Him, who appeal to\nHim, in the name of His own mercies in His redeeming Son.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =For= we have the prophecies with us here again.\nJoel, in a passage (ii.\u00a032) full of Messiah, the passage with which\nthe Spirit of Pentecost filled Peter's lips, speaks thus without a\nlimit; =\"Every one, whoever shall call upon the Lord's Name, shall be\nsaved.\"= As he cites the words, and the thought rises upon him of this\nimmense welcome to the sinful world, he feels afresh all the need of\nthe heathen, and all the cruel narrowness of the Pharisaism which\nwould shut them out from such an amplitude of blessing.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =How then can[175] they call on Him on whom they\nnever[176] believed? But how can they believe= on Him =whom they never\nheard? But how can they hear= Him =apart from a proclaimer?=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =But how can they proclaim unless they are sent,=\nunless the Church which holds the sacred light sends her messengers\nout into the darkness? And in this again the Prophets are with the\nChristian Apostle, and against the loveless Judaist: =As it stands\nwritten= (Isai. lii.\u00a07), =\"How fair the feet of the gospellers of\npeace, of the gospellers of good!\"[177]=\n\nHere, as an incident in this profound discussion, is given for ever to\nthe Church of Christ one of the most distinct and stringent of her\nmissionary \"marching-orders.\" Let us recollect this, and lay it on our\nown souls, forgetting awhile, for we may, the problem of Israel and\nthe exclusiveness of ancient Pharisaism. What is there here for us?\nWhat motive facts are here, ready to energize and direct the will of\nthe Christian, and of the Church, in the matter of the \"gospelling\" of\nthe world?\n\nWe take note first of what is written last, the moral beauty and glory\nof the enterprise. \"_How fair the feet!_\" From the view-point of\nheaven there is nothing on the earth more lovely than the bearing of\nthe name of Jesus Christ into the needing world, when the bearer is\none \"who loves and knows.\" The work may have, and probably will have,\nvery little of the rainbow of romance about it. It will often lead the\nworker into the most uncouth and forbidding circumstances. It will\noften demand of him the patient expenditure of days and months upon\nhumiliating and circuitous preparations; as he learns a barbarous\nunwritten tongue, or a tongue ancient and elaborate, in a stifling\nclimate; or finds that he must build his own hut, and dress his own\nfood, if he is to live at all among \"the Gentiles.\" It may lay on him\nthe exquisite--and prosaic--trial of finding the tribes around him\nentirely unaware of their need of his message; unconscious of sin, of\nguilt, of holiness, of God. Nay, they may not only not care for his\nmessage; they may suspect or deride his motives, and roundly tell him\nthat he is a political spy, or an adventurer come to make his private\ngains, or a barbarian tired of his own Thule and irresistibly\nattracted to the region of the sun. He will often be tempted to think\n\"the journey too great for him,\" and long to let his tired and heavy\nfeet rest for ever. But his Lord is saying of him, all the while, \"How\nfair the feet!\" He is doing a work whose inmost conditions even now\nare full of moral glory, and whose eternal issues, perhaps where he\nthinks there has been most failure, shall be, by grace, worthy of \"the\nKing in His beauty.\" It is the continuation of what the King Himself\n\"began to do\" (Acts i.\u00a01), when He was His own first Missionary to a\nworld which needed Him immeasurably, yet did not know Him when He\ncame.\n\nThen, this paragraph asserts the necessity of the missionary's work\nstill more urgently than its beauty. True, it suggests many questions\n(what great Scripture does not do so?) which we cannot answer yet at\nall:--\"Why has He left the Gentiles thus? Why is so much, for their\nsalvation, suspended (in our view) upon the too precarious and too\nlingering diligence of the Church? What will the King say at last to\nthose who never could, by the Church's fault, even hear the blessed\nName, that they might believe in It, and call upon It?\" HE knoweth\n_the whole_ answer to such questions; not we. Yet here meanwhile\nstands out this \"thing revealed\" (Deut. xxix.\u00a029). In the Lord's\nnormal order, which is for certain the order of eternal spiritual\nright and love, however little we can see all the conditions of the\ncase, man is to be saved through a personal \"calling upon His Name.\"\nAnd for that \"calling\" there is need of personal believing. And for\nthat believing there is need of personal hearing. And in order to that\nhearing, God does not speak in articulate thunder from the sky, nor\nsend visible angels up and down the earth, but bids His Church, His\nchildren, go and tell.\n\nNothing can be stronger and surer than the practical logic of this\npassage. The need of the world, it says to us, is not only\namelioration, elevation, evolution. It is salvation. It is pardon,\nacceptance, holiness, and heaven. It is God; it is Christ. And that\nneed is to be met not by subtle expansions of polity and society. No\n\"unconscious cerebration\" of the human race will regenerate fallen\nman. Nor will his awful wound be healed by any drawing on the shadowy\nresources of a post-mortal hope. The work is to be done now, in the\nName of Jesus Christ, and _by_ His Name. And His Name, in order to be\nknown, has to be announced and explained. And that work is to be done\nby those who already know it, or it will not be done at all. \"There is\nnone other Name.\" There is no other method of evangelization.\n\nWhy is not that Name already at least externally known and reverenced\nin every place of human dwelling? It would have been so, for a long\ntime now, if the Church of Christ had followed better the precept and\nalso the example of St Paul. Had the apostolic missions been sustained\nmore adequately throughout Christian history, and had the apostolic\nGospel been better maintained in the Church in all the energy of its\ndivine simplicity and fulness, the globe would have been covered--not\nindeed in a hurry, yet ages ago now--with the knowledge of Jesus\nChrist as Fact, as Truth, as Life. We are told even now by some of the\nbest informed advocates of missionary enterprise that if Protestant\nChristendom (to speak of it alone) were really to respond to the\nmissionary call, and \"send\" its messengers out not by tens but by\nthousands (no chimerical number), it would be soberly possible within\nthirty years so to distribute the message that no given inhabited\nspot should be, at furthest, one day's walk from a centre of\nevangelization. This programme is not fanaticism, surely. It is a\nproposal for possible action, too long deferred, in the line of St\nPaul's precept and example. It is not meant to discredit any present\nform of well-considered operation. And it does not for a moment ignore\nthe futility of all enterprise where the sovereign power of the\nEternal Spirit is not present. Nor does it forget the permanent call\nto the Church to sustain amply the pastoral work at home, in \"the\nflock of God which is _among us_\" (1\u00a0Pet. v.\u00a02). But it sees and\nemphasizes the fact that the Lord has laid it upon His Church to be\nHis messenger to the whole world, and to be in holy earnest about it,\nand that the work, as to its human side, is quite feasible to a Church\nawake. \"Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of Thy faithful\npeople,\" to both the glory and the necessity of this labour of labours\nfor Thee, \"that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of it, may\nof Thee be plenteously rewarded,\" in Thy divine use of their\nobedience, for the salvation of the world.\n\nBut the great Missionary anticipates an objection from facts to his\nburning plea for the rightness of an unrestrained evangelism. The\nproclamation might be universal; but were not the results partial?\n\"Here a little, and there a little\"; was not this the story of\nmissionary results even when a Paul, a Barnabas, a Peter, was the\nmissionary? Everywhere some faith; but everywhere more hostility, and\nstill more indifference! Could this, after all, be the main track of\nthe divine purposes--these often ineffectual excursions of the \"fair\nfeet\" of the messengers of an eternal peace? Ah, that objection must\nhave offered no mere logical difficulty to St Paul; it must have\npierced his heart. For while His Master was his first motive, his\nfellow-men themselves were his second. He loved their souls; he longed\nto see them blessed in Christ, saved in Him from \"the death that\ncannot die,\" filled in Him with \"life indeed\" (\u1f21 \u1f44\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2 \u03b6\u03c9\u03ae, 1\u00a0Tim.\nvi.\u00a019). The man who shed tears over his converts as he warned them\n(Acts xx.\u00a031) had tears also, we may be sure, for those who would not\nbe converted; nay, we know he had: \"I tell you, _even weeping_ (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76\n\u03ba\u03bb\u03b1\u03af\u03c9\u03bd), that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ\" (Phil.\niii.\u00a018). But here too he leans back on the solemn comfort, the answer\nfrom within a veil,--that Prophecy had taken account of this\nbeforehand. Moses, and Isaiah, and David, had foretold on the one hand\na universal message of good, but on the other hand a sorrowfully\nlimited response from man, and notably from Israel. So he proceeds:\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =But not all obeyed[178] the good tidings,= when\n\"the word\" reached them; for--we were prepared for such a mystery,\nsuch a grief--=for Isaiah says= (liii.\u00a01), in his great Oracle of the\nCrucified, =\"Lord, who believed our hearing\" (\u1f00\u03ba\u03bf\u1f74),= the message\nthey heard of us, about One \"on whom were laid the iniquities of us\nall\"? And as he dictates that word \"_hearing_,\" it emphasizes to him\nthe fact that not mystic intuitions born out of the depths of man are\nthe means of revelation, but articulate messages given from the depths\nof God, and spoken by men to men. And he throws the thought into a\nbrief sentence, such as would lie in a footnote in a modern book:\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =So we gather (\u1f04\u03c1\u03b1) that faith= comes =from\nhearing; but the hearing= comes =through Christ's[179] utterance\n(\u1fe5\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1);= the messenger has it because it was first given to him by\nthe Master who proclaimed HIMSELF the Way, Truth, Life, Light, Bread,\nShepherd, Ransom, Lord. All is revelation, not reverie; utterance, not\ninsight.\n\nThen the swift thought turns, and returns again. The prophecies _have_\nforetold an evangelical utterance to the whole human world. Not only\nin explicit prediction do they do so, but in the \"mystic glory\" of\ntheir more remote allusions. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =But I say, Did they\nnot hear?= Was this failure of belief due to a limitation of the\nmessenger's range in the plan of God? =Nay, rather, \"Unto all the\nearth went out their tone, and to the ends of man's world (\u1f21 \u03bf\u1f30\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7)\ntheir utterances\"= (Psal. xix.\u00a04). The words are the voice\nof that Psalm where the glories of the visible heavens are collocated\nwith the glories of the Word of God. The Apostle hears more than\nNature in the Sunrise Hymn of David; he hears grace and the Gospel in\nthe deep harmony which carries the immortal melody along. The God who\nmeant the skies, with their \"silent voices,\" to preach a Creator not\nto one race but to all, meant also His Word to have no narrower scope,\npreaching a Redeemer. Yes, and there were articulate predictions that\nit should be so, as well as starry parables; predictions too that\nshewed the prospect not only of a world evangelized, but of an Israel\nput to shame by the faith of pagans. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =But I say=\n(his rapid phrase meets with an anticipating answer the cavil yet\nunspoken) =did not Israel know?= Had they no distinct forewarning of\nwhat we see to-day? =First comes Moses, saying,[180]= in his prophetic\nSong, sung at the foot of Pisgah (Deut. xxxii.\u00a021), \"=I=--the '_I_' is\nemphatic; the Person is THE LORD, and the action shall be nothing less\nthan His--=I will take a no-nation to[181] move your jealousy; to move\nyour anger I will take a nation non-intelligent\";= a race not only not\ninformed by a previous revelation, but not trained by thought upon it\nto an insight into new truth. And what Moses indicates, Isaiah,\nstanding later in the history, indignantly explains: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.]\n=But Isaiah dares anything (\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03bc\u1fb7), and says= (lxv.\u00a01), =\"I was\nfound by those who sought not Me; manifest I became to those who\nconsulted not Me.\"[182]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =But as to Israel he\nsays,= in the words next in order in the place (lxv.\u00a02), =\"All the day\nlong I spread my hands open,= to beckon and to embrace, =towards a\npeople disobeying and contradicting.\"=\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSo the servant brings his sorrows for consolation to--may we write the\nwords in reverence?--the sorrows of his Master. He mourns over an\nAthens, an Ephesus, and above all over a Jerusalem, that \"will not\ncome to the Son of God, that they might have life\" (John v.\u00a040). And\nhis grief is not only inevitable; it is profoundly right, wise, holy.\nBut he need not bear it unrelieved. He grasps the Scripture which\ntells him that his LORD has called those who would not come, and\nopened the eternal arms for an embrace--to be met only with a\ncontradiction. He weeps, but it is as on the breast of Jesus as He\nwept over the City. And in the double certainty that the Lord has felt\nsuch grief, and that He is THE LORD, he yields, he rests, he is still.\n\"The King of the Ages\" (1\u00a0Tim. i.\u00a017) and \"the Man of Sorrows\" are\nOne. To know Him is to be at peace even under the griefs of the\nmystery of sin.\n\n[167] We thus attempt to convey the force of \u03bc\u03ad\u03bd.\n\n[168] So read; not \"_for Israel_.\"\n\n[169] Cp. 1\u00a0Pet. i.\u00a02; \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c0\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u1f74\u03bd ... \u1f38\u03b7\u03c3\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03a7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c5; an\n\"_obedience_\" which means the decisive _submission_ of the sinner to\nthe Saviour's _method of mercy_.\n\n[170] \u1f49 \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c2: the aorist sums up acts into a single idea of action.\n\n[171] \u1f18\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1fc7: \"_in the righteousness_\"; such seems to be the true\nreading. To \"_live in_\" a righteousness is to live as it were\nsurrounded, guaranteed, by it.\n\n[172] Observe that the context in Deut. xxx. is full of the thought\nthat rebels and law-breakers shall be welcome back when they come\npenitent to their God, \"without one plea,\" but taking Him at His word.\n\n[173] Or, with an alternative reading, \"_that Jesus is Lord_.\"\n\n[174] See above, ix.\u00a033.\n\n[175] Throughout these questions we read the verbs in the conjunctive.\n\n[176] We thus represent, with hesitation, the aorist tense.\n\n[177] No doubt the immediate reference of Isai. lii.\u00a07 is to good news\n_for_ \"Zion\" rather than _from_ her to the world. But the context is\nfull not only of Messiah but (ver. 15) of \"_many nations_.\"\n\n[178] The aorist gathers up the history of evangelization into a point\nof thought.\n\n[179] Read \u03a7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c5\u03bf\u1fe6, probably.\n\n[180] So we paraphrase \u03c0\u03c1\u1ff6\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 (not \u03c0\u03c1\u1ff6\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd) \u039c\u03c9\u03cb\u03c3\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9.\n\n[181] So we attempt to give the force of \u1f10\u03c0' \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f14\u03b8\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9, \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u1f14\u03b8\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9.\n\n[182] \u1f18\u03bc\u1f72 is emphatic in both clauses. \u1f18\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03c9\u03c4\u1fb6\u03bd is used of the\nconsultation of an oracle. Our translation thus seems better than the\nmore secondary explanation, \"_who sought not to do My will_.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\n_ISRAEL HOWEVER NOT FORSAKEN_\n\nROMANS xi.\u00a01-10\n\n\n\"_A people disobeying and contradicting._\" So the Lord of Israel,\nthrough the prophet, had described the nation. Let us remember as we\npass on what a large feature in the prophecies, and indeed in the\nwhole Old Testament, such accusations and exposures are. From Moses to\nMalachi, in histories, and songs, and instructions, we find everywhere\nthis tone of stern truth-telling, this unsparing detection and\ndescription of Israelite sin. And we reflect that every one of these\nutterances, humanly speaking, was the voice of an Israelite; and that\nwhatever reception it met with at the moment--it was sometimes a\nscornful or angry reception, oftener a reverent one--it was ultimately\ntreasured, venerated, almost worshipped, by the Church of this same\nrebuked and humiliated Israel. We ask ourselves what this has to say\nabout the true origin of these utterances, and the true nature of the\nenvironment into which they fell. Do they not bear witness to the\nsupernatural in both? It was not \"human nature\" which, in a race quite\nas prone, at least, as any other, to assert itself, produced these\nintense and persistent rebukes from within, and secured for them a\nprofound and lasting veneration. The Hebrew Scriptures, in this as in\nother things, are a literature which mere man, mere Israelite man,\n\"could not have written if he would, and would not have written if he\ncould.\"[183] Somehow, the Prophets not only spoke with an authority\nmore than human, but they were known to speak with it. There was a\nnational consciousness of divine privilege; and it was inextricably\nbound up with a national conviction that the Lord of the privileges\nhad an eternal right to reprove His privileged ones, and that He had,\nas a fact, His accredited messengers of reproof, whose voice was not\ntheirs but His; not the mere outcry of patriotic zealots but the\nOracle of God. Yea, an awful privilege was involved in the reception\nof such reproofs: \"You only have I known; _therefore_ will I punish\nyou\" (Amos iii.\u00a02).\n\nBut this is a recollection by the way. St Paul, so we saw in our last\nstudy, has quoted Isaiah's stern message, only now to stay his\ntroubled heart on the fact that the unbelief of Israel in his day was,\nif we may dare to put it so, no surprise to the Lord, and therefore no\nshock to the servant's faith. But is he to stop there, and sit down,\nand say, \"This must be so\"? No; there is more to follow, in this\ndiscourse on Israel and God. He has \"good words, and comfortable\nwords\" (Zech. i.\u00a013), after the woes of the last two chapters, and\nafter those earlier passages of the Epistle where the Jew is seen only\nin his hypocrisy, and rebellion, and pride. He has to speak of a\nfaithful Remnant, now as always present, who make as it were the\ngolden unbroken link between the nation and the promises. And then he\nhas to lift the curtain, at least a corner of the curtain, from the\nfuture, and to indicate how there lies waiting there a mighty blessing\nfor Israel, and through Israel for the world. Even now the mysterious\n\"People\" was serving a spiritual purpose in their very unbelief; they\nwere occasioning a vast transition of blessing to the Gentiles, by\ntheir own refusal of blessing. And hereafter they were to serve a\npurpose of still more illustrious mercy. They were yet, in their\nmultitudes, to return to their rejected Christ. And their return was\nto be used as the means of a crisis of blessing for the world.\n\nWe seem to see the look and hear the voice of the Apostle, once the\nmighty Rabbi, the persecuting patriot, as he begins now to dictate\nagain. His eyes brighten, and his brow clears, and a happier emphasis\ncomes into his utterance, as he sets himself to speak of his people's\ngood, and to remind his Gentile brethren how, in God's plan of\nredemption, all their blessing, all they know of salvation, all they\npossess of life eternal, has come to them through Israel. Israel is\nthe Stem, drawing truth and life from the unfathomable soil of the\ncovenant of promise. They are the grafted Branches, rich in every\nblessing--because they are the mystical seed _of Abraham_, in Christ.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =I say therefore, Did God ever thrust[184] away\nHis people? Away with the thought! For I am an Israelite, of Abraham's\nseed, Benjamin's tribe;= full member of the theocratic race\n(\u1f38\u03c3\u03c1\u03b1\u03b7\u03bb\u03af\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2), and of its first royal and always loyal tribe; in my\nown person, therefore, I am an instance of Israel still in covenant.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =God never[184] thrust away His people, whom He\nforeknew= with the foreknowledge of eternal choice and purpose.[185]\nThat foreknowledge was \"not according to their works,\" or according to\ntheir power; and so it holds its sovereign way across and above their\nlong unworthiness. =Or do you not know, in Elijah,= in his story, in\nthe pages marked with his name, =what the Scripture says? How he\nintercedes before God,= on God's own behalf, =against Israel, saying=\n(1 Kings xix.\u00a010), [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =\"Lord, Thy prophets they\nkilled, and Thy altars they dug up; and I was left solitary, and they\nseek my life\"?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =But what says the oracular answer\n(\u1f41 \u03c7\u03c1\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u1f78\u03c2) to him? \"I have left for Myself seven thousand\nmen, men who (\u03bf\u1f35\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2) bowed never knee to Baal\"= (1 Kings\nxix.\u00a018). [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =So therefore at the present season also\nthere proves to be (\u03b3\u03ad\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03bd) a remnant,= \"_a leaving_\" (\u03bb\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bc\u03bc\u03b1),\nleft by the Lord for Himself, =on the principle of (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70) election\nof grace;= their persons and their number following a choice and gift\nwhose reasons lie in God alone. And then follows one of those\ncharacteristic \"foot-notes\" of which we saw an instance above (x.\u00a017):\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =But if by grace, no longer of works;= \"_no\nlonger_,\" in the sense of a logical succession and exclusion; =since\nthe grace proves (\u03b3\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9),= on the other principle, =no longer\ngrace. But if of works, it is no longer grace; since the work is no\nlonger work.[186]= That is to say, when once the grace-principle is\nadmitted, as it is here assumed to be, \"_the work_\" of the man who is\nits subject is \"_no longer work_\" in the sense which makes an\nantithesis to grace; it is no longer so much toil done in order to so\nmuch pay to be given. In other words, the two supposed principles of\nthe divine Choice are in their nature mutually exclusive. Admit the\none as the condition of the \"election,\" and the other ceases; you\ncannot combine them into an amalgam. If the election is of grace, _no_\nmeritorious antecedent to it is possible in the subject of it. If it\nis according to meritorious antecedent, _no_ sovereign freedom is\npossible in the divine action, such freedom as to bring the saved man,\nthe saved remnant, to an adoring confession of unspeakable and\nmysterious mercy.\n\nThis is the point, here in this passing \"foot-note,\" as in the longer\nkindred statements above (ch. ix.), of the emphasized allusion to\n\"_choice_\" and \"_grace_.\" He writes thus that he may bring the\nbeliever, Gentile or Jew, to his knees, in humiliation, wonder,\ngratitude, and trust. \"Why did I, the self-ruined wanderer, the\nself-hardened rebel, come to the Shepherd who sought me, surrender my\nsword to the King who reclaimed me? Did I reason myself into harmony\nwith Him? Did I lift myself, hopelessly maimed, into His arms? No; it\nwas the gift of God, _first_, last, and in the midst. And if so, it\nwas the choice of God.\" That point of light is surrounded by a\ncloud-world of mystery, though within those surrounding clouds there\nlurks, as to God, only rightness and love. But the point of light is\nthere, immovable, for all the clouds; where fallen man chooses God, it\nis thanks to God who has chosen fallen man. Where a race is not\n\"_thrust away_,\" it is because \"_God foreknew_.\" Where some thousands\nof members of that race, while others fall away, are found faithful to\nGod, it is because He has \"_left them for Himself on the principle of\nchoice of grace_.\" Where, amidst a widespread rejection of God's Son\nIncarnate, a Saul of Tarsus, an Aquila, a Barnabas, behold in Him\ntheir Redeemer, their King, their Life, their All, it is on that same\nprinciple. Let the man thus beholding and believing give _the whole_\nthanks for his salvation in the quarter where it is all due. Let him\nnot confuse one truth by another. Let not this truth disturb for a\nmoment his certainty of personal moral freedom, and of its\nresponsibility. Let it not for a moment turn him into a fatalist. But\nlet him abase himself, and give thanks, and humbly trust Him who has\nthus laid hold of him for blessing. As he does so, in simplicity, not\nspeculating but worshipping, he will need no subtle logic to assure\nhim that he is to pray, and to work, without reserve, for the\nsalvation of all men. It will be more than enough for him that His\nSOVEREIGN bids him do it, and tells him that it is according to His\nheart.\n\nTo return a little on our steps, in the matter of the Apostle's\ndoctrine of the divine Choice: the reference in this paragraph to the\nseven thousand faithful in Elijah's day suggests a special reflection.\nTo us, it seems to say distinctly that the \"election\" intended all\nalong by St Paul cannot possibly be explained adequately by making it\neither an election (to whatever benefits) of mere masses of men, as\nfor instance of a nation, considered apart from its individuals; or an\nelection merely to privilege, to opportunity, which may or may not be\nused by the receiver. As regards national election, it is undoubtedly\npresent and even prominent in the passage, and in this whole section\nof the Epistle. For ourselves, we incline to see it quite simply in\nver. 2 above; \"_His people, whom He foreknew_.\" We read there, what we\nfind so often in the Old Testament, a sovereign choice of a nation to\nstand in special relation to God; of a nation taken, so to speak, in\nthe abstract, viewed not as the mere total of so many individuals, but\nas a quasi-personality. But we maintain that the idea of election\ntakes another line when we come to the \"_seven thousand_.\" Here we are\nthrown at once on the thought of individual experiences, and the\nultimate secret of them, found only in the divine Will affecting the\nindividual. The \"seven thousand\" had no aggregate life, so to speak.\nThey formed, _as_ the seven thousand, no organism or quasi-personality.\nThey were \"_left_\" not as a mass, but as units; so isolated, so little\ngrouped together, that even Elijah did not know of their existence.\nThey were just so many individual men, each one of whom found power,\nby faith, to stand personally firm against the Baalism of that dark\ntime, with the same individual faith which in later days, against\nother terrors, and other solicitations, upheld a Polycarp, an\nAthanasius, a Huss, a Luther, a Tyndale, a De Seso, a St Cyran. And\nthe Apostle quotes them as an instance and illustration of the Lord's\nway and will with the believing of all time. In their case, then, he\nboth passes as it were through national election to individual\nelection, as a permanent spiritual mystery; and he shews that he means\nby this an election not only to opportunity but to holiness. The\nLord's \"_leaving them for Himself_\" lay behind their not bowing their\nknees to Baal. Each resolute confessor was individually enabled, by a\nsovereign and special grace. He was a true human personality, freely\nacting, freely choosing not to yield in that terrible storm. But\nbehind his freedom was the higher freedom of the Will of God, saving\nhim from himself that he might be free to confess and suffer. To our\nmind, no part of the Epistle more clearly than this passage affirms\nthis individual aspect of the great mystery. Ah, it is a mystery\nindeed; we have owned this at every step. And it is never for a moment\nto be treated therefore as if we knew all about it. And it is never\ntherefore to be used to confuse the believer's thought about other\nsides of truth. But it is there, as a truth among truths; to be\nreceived with abasement by the creature before the Creator, and with\nhumble hope by the simple believer.\n\nHe goes on with his argument, taking up the thread broken by the\n\"foot-note\" upon grace and works: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =What therefore?\nWhat Israel,= the nation, the character, =seeks after,= righteousness\nin the court of God, =this it lighted not upon (\u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f10\u03c0\u03ad\u03c4\u03c5\u03c7\u03b5\u03bd),[187]=\nas one who seeks a buried treasure in the wrong field \"lights not\nupon\" it; =but the election,= the chosen ones, the \"seven thousand\" of\nthe Gospel era, =did light upon it. But the rest were hardened,= (not\nas if God had created their hardness, or injected it; but He gave it\nto be its own penalty;) [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =as it stands written=\n(Isai. xxix.\u00a010, and Deut. xxix.\u00a04[188]), =\"God gave them a spirit of\nslumber, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear, even to this day.\"= A\npersistent (\"_unto this day_\") unbelief was the sin of Israel in the\nProphets' times, and it was the same in those of the Apostles. And the\ncondition was the same; God \"gave\" sin to be its own way of\nretribution. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =And David says= (Psal. lxix.\u00a022), in\na Psalm full of Messiah, and of the awful retribution justly ordained\nto come on His impenitent enemies, =\"Let their table turn into a trap,\nand into toils (\u03b8\u03ae\u03c1\u03b1), and into a stumbling-block, and into a\nrequital to them;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =darkened be their eyes, not\nto see, and their back ever bow Thou together.\"=\n\nThe words are awful, in their connexion here, and in themselves, and\nas a specimen of a class. Their purpose here is to enforce the thought\nthat there is such a thing as positive divine action in the self-ruin\nof the impenitent; a _fiat_ from the throne which \"gives\" a coma to\nthe soul, and beclouds its eyes, and turns its blessings into a curse.\nNot one word implies the thought that He who so acts meets a soul\ntending upwards and turns it downward; that He ignores or rejects even\nthe faintest enquiry after Himself; that He is Author of one particle\nof the sin of man. But we do learn that the adversaries of God and\nChrist may be, and, where the Eternal so sees it good, are,\n_sentenced_ to go their own way, even to its issues in destruction.\nThe context of every citation here, as it stands in the Old Testament,\nshews abundantly that those so sentenced are no helpless victims of an\nadverse fate, but sinners of their own will, in a sense most definite\nand personal. Only, a sentence of judgment is concerned also in the\ncase; \"_Fill ye up then the measure_\" (Matt. xxiii.\u00a032).\n\nBut then also in themselves, and as a specimen of a class, the words\nare a dark shadow in the Scripture sky. It is only by the way that we\ncan note this here, but it must not be quite omitted in our study.\nThis sixty-ninth Psalm is a leading instance of the several Psalms\nwhere the Prophet appears calling for the sternest retribution on his\nenemies. What thoughtful heart has not felt the painful mystery so\npresented? Read in the hush of secret devotion, or sung perhaps to\nsome majestic chant beneath the minster-roof, they still tend to\naffront the soul with the question, Can this possibly be after the\nmind of Christ? And there rises before us the form of One who is in\nthe act of Crucifixion, and who just then articulates the prayer,\n\"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.\" Can these\n\"imprecations\" have HIS sanction? Can HE pass them, endorse them, as\nHis Word?\n\nThe question is full of pressing pain. And no answer can be given,\nsurely, which shall relieve all that pain; certainly nothing which\nshall turn the clouds of such passages into rays of the sun. They\n_are_ clouds; but let us be sure that they belong to the cloud-land\nwhich gathers _round the Throne_, and which only conceals, not wrecks,\nits luminous and immovable righteousness and love. Let us remark, for\none point, that this same dark Psalm is, by the witness of the\nApostles, as taught by their Master, a Psalm full of Messiah. It was\nundoubtedly claimed as His own mystic utterance by THE LAMB of the\nPassion. HE speaks in these dread words who also says, in the same\nutterance (ver. 9), \"The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.\" So the\nLord Jesus did endorse this Psalm. He more than endorsed it; He\nadopted it as His own. Let this remind us further that the utterer of\nthese denunciations, even the first and non-mystical utterer,--David,\nlet us say,--appears in the Psalm not merely as a private person\ncrying out about his violated personal rights, but as an ally and\nvassal of God, one whose life and cause is identified with His. Just\nin proportion as this is so, the violation of his life and peace, by\nenemies described as quite consciously and deliberately malicious, is\na violation of the whole sanctuary of divine righteousness. If so, is\nit incredible that even the darkest words of such a Psalm are to be\nread as a true echo from the depths of man to the Voice which\nannounces \"indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, to every\nsoul of man that doeth evil\"? Perhaps even the most watchful assertor\nof the divine character of Scripture is not bound to assert that no\nhuman frailty in the least moved the spirit of a David when he, in the\nsphere of his own personality, thought and said these things. But we\nhave no right to assert, as a known or necessary thing, that it was\nso. And we have right to say that in themselves these utterances are\nbut a sternly true response to the avenging indignation of the Holy\nOne.\n\nIn any case, do not let us talk with a loose facility about their\nincompatibility with \"the spirit of the New Testament.\" From one side,\nthe New Testament is an even sterner Book than the Old; as it must be\nof course, when it brings sin and holiness \"out into the light\" of the\nCross of Christ. It is in the New Testament that, \"the souls\" of\nsaints at rest are heard saying (Rev. vi.\u00a010), \"How long, O Lord, holy\nand true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell\non the earth?\" It is in the New Testament that an Apostle writes\n(2\u00a0Thess. i.\u00a06), \"It is a righteous thing with God to recompense\ntribulation to them which trouble you.\" It is the Lord of the New\nTestament, the Offerer of the Prayer of the Cross, who said (Matt.\nxxiii.\u00a032-35) \"Fill ye up the measure of your fathers. I send unto you\nprophets, and wise men, and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill\nand crucify; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon\nthe earth.\"\n\nHis eyes must have rested, often and again, upon the denunciations of\nthe Psalms. He saw in them that which struck no real discord, in the\nultimate spiritual depth, with His own blessed compassions. Let us not\nresent what He has countersigned. It is His, not ours, to know all the\nconditions of those mysterious outbursts from the Psalmists'\nconsciousness. It is ours to recognize in them the intensest\nexpression of what rebellious evil merits, and will find, as its\nreward.\n\nBut we have digressed from what is the proper matter before us. Here,\nin the Epistle, the sixty-ninth Psalm is cited only to affirm with the\nauthority of Scripture the mystery of God's action in sentencing the\nimpenitent adversaries of His Christ to more blindness and more ruin.\nThrough this dark and narrow door the Apostle is about to lead us now\ninto \"a large room\" of hope and blessing, and to unveil to us a\nwonderful future for the now disgraced and seemingly rejected Israel.\n\n[183] I borrow the phrase from the late Prof. H. Rogers' _Supernatural\nOrigin of the Bible inferred from Itself_, a book of masterly thinking\nand reasoning.\n\n[184] We attempt to express the aorist thus, with hesitation.\n\n[185] See above, p. 237.\n\n[186] This last sentence, \"_But if of works, etc._,\" is only\ndoubtfully supported by documents. But it bears, to our mind, strong\ninternal marks of genuineness. It is at once too difficult, and too\n_deeply_ related to the context, to look like the insertion of a\nscribe.\n\n[187] The aorists _sum up_ the manifold history.\n\n[188] Such a combination of citations is a significant witness to the\nApostle's view of the O. T. as, from its divine side, _one Book_\neverywhere.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII\n\n_ISRAEL'S FALL OVERRULED, FOR THE WORLD'S BLESSING, AND FOR ISRAEL'S\nMERCY_\n\nROMANS xi.\u00a011-24\n\n\nThe Apostle has been led a few steps backwards in the last previous\nverses. His face has been turned once more toward the dark region of\nthe prophetic sky, to see how the sin of Christ-rejecting souls is met\nand punished by the dreadful \"_gift_\" of slumber, and apathy, and the\ntransmutation of blessings to snares. But now, decisively, he looks\nsunward. He points our eyes, with his own, to the morning light of\ngrace and promise. We are to see what Israel's fall has had to do with\nthe world's hope and with life in Christ, and then what blessings\nawait Israel himself, and again the world through him.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =I say, therefore,= (the phrase resumes the point\nof view to which the same words above (ver. 1) led us,) =did they\nstumble that they might fall?= Did their national rejection of an\nunwelcome because unworldly Messiah take place, in the divine\npermission, with the positive divine purpose that it should bring on a\nfinal rejection of the nation, its banishment out of its place in the\nhistory of redemption? =Away with the thought! But their partial\nfall[189] is the occasion of God's salvation (\u1f21 \u03c3\u03c9\u03c4\u03b7\u03c1\u03af\u03b1) for the\nGentiles, with a view to move them,= the Jews, =to jealousy,= to awake\nthem to a sight of what Christ is, and of what their privilege in Him\nmight yet be, by the sight of His work and glory in once pagan lives.\n\nObserve here the divine benignity which lurks even under the edges of\nthe cloud of judgment. And observe too, thus close to the passage\nwhich has put before us the mysterious side of divine action on human\nwills, the daylight simplicity of _this_ side of that action; the\nloving skill with which the world's blessing is meant by the God of\ngrace to act, exactly in the line of human feeling, upon the will of\nIsrael.\n\nBut would that \"the Gentiles\" had borne more in heart that last short\nsentence of St Paul's, through these long centuries since the Apostles\nfell asleep! It is one of the most marked, as it is one of the\nsaddest, phenomena in the history of the Church that for ages, almost\nfrom the days of St John himself, we look in vain either for any\nappreciable Jewish element in Christendom, or for any extended effort\non the part of Christendom to win Jewish hearts to Christ by a wise\nand loving evangelization. With only relatively insignificant\nexceptions this was the abiding state of things till well within the\neighteenth century, when the German Pietists began to call the\nattention of believing Christians to the spiritual needs and prophetic\nhopes of Israel, and to remind them that the Jews were not only a\nbeacon of judgment, or only the most impressive and awful illustration\nof the fulfilment of prophecy, but the bearers of yet unfulfilled\npredictions of mercy for themselves and for the world. Meanwhile, all\nthrough the Middle Age, and through generations of preceding and\nfollowing time also, Christendom did little for Israel but retaliate,\nreproach, and tyrannize. It was so of old in England; witness the\nfires of York. It is so to this day in Russia, and where the\n_Judenhetze_ inflames innumerable hearts in Central Europe.\n\nNo doubt there is more than one side to the persistent phenomenon.\nThere is a side of mystery; the permissive sentence of the Eternal has\nto do with the long affliction, however caused, of the people which\nonce uttered the fatal cry, \"His blood be on us, and on our children\"\n(Matt. xxvii.\u00a025). And the wrong-doings of Jews, beyond a doubt, have\noften made a dark occasion for a \"Jew-hatred,\" on a larger or narrower\nscale. But all this leaves unaltered, from the point of view of the\nGospel, the sin of Christendom in its tremendous failure to seek, in\nlove, the good of erring Israel. It leaves as black as ever the guilt\nof every fierce retaliation upon Jews by so-called Christians, of\nevery slanderous belief about Jewish creed or life, of every unjust\nanti-Jewish law ever passed by Christian king or senate. It leaves an\nundiminished responsibility upon the Church of Christ, not only for\nthe flagrant wrong of having too often animated and directed the civil\npower in its oppressions of Israel, and not only for having so awfully\nneglected to seek the evangelization of Israel by direct appeals for\nthe true Messiah, and by an open setting forth of His glory, but for\nthe deeper and more subtle wrong, persistently inflicted from age to\nage, in a most guilty unconsciousness--the wrong of having failed to\nmanifest Christ to Israel through the living holiness of Christendom.\nHere, surely, is the very point of the Apostle's thought in the\nsentence before us: \"_Salvation to the Gentiles, to move the Jews to\njealousy_.\" In his inspired idea, Gentile Christendom, in Christ, was\nto be so pure, so beneficent, so happy, finding manifestly in its\nMessianic Lord such resources for both peace of conscience and a life\nof noble love, love above all directed towards opponents and\ntraducers, that Israel, looking on, with eyes however purblind with\nprejudice, should soon see a moral glory in the Church's face\nimpossible to be hid, and be drawn as by a moral magnet to the\nChurch's hope. Is it the fault of God (may He pardon the formal\nquestion, if it lacks reverence), or the fault of man, man carrying\nthe Christian name, that facts have been so wofully otherwise in the\ncourse of history? It is the fault, the grievous fault, of us\nChristians. The narrow prejudice, the iniquitous law, the rigid\napplication of exaggerated ecclesiastical principle, all these things\nhave been man's perversion of the divine idea, to be confessed and\ndeplored in a deep and interminable repentance. May the mercy of God\nawaken Gentile Christendom, in a manner and degree as yet unknown, to\nremember this our indefeasible debt to this people everywhere present\nwith us, everywhere distinct from us;--the debt of _a life_, personal\nand ecclesiastical, so manifestly pure and loving in our Lord the\nChrist as to \"move them to the jealousy\" which shall claim Him again\nfor their own. Then we shall indeed be hastening the day of full and\nfinal blessing, both for themselves and for the world.\n\nTo that bright coming day the Apostle points us now, more directly\nthan ever: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =But if their partial fall[190] be the\nworld's wealth, and their lessening (\u1f25\u03c4\u03c4\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1),= their reduction, (a\nreduction in one aspect to a race of scattered exiles, in another to a\nmere remnant of \"Israelites indeed,\") =be the Gentiles' wealth,= the\noccasion by which \"the unsearchable wealth of Messiah\" (Eph. iii.\u00a08)\nhas been as it were forced into Gentile receptacles, =how much more\ntheir fulness,= the filling of the dry channel with its ample ideal\nstream, the change from a believing remnant, fragments of a\nfragmentary people, to a believing nation, reanimated and reunited?\nWhat blessings for \"the world,\" for \"the Gentiles,\" may not come\nthrough the vehicle of such an Israel? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =But[191]\nto you I speak, the Gentiles[192]= to you, because if I reach the\nJews, in the way I mean, it must be through you. =So far indeed as I,\ndistinctively I (\u1f10\u03b3\u03ce), am the Gentiles' Apostle, I glorify my\nministry= as such; I rejoice, Pharisee that I once was, to be devoted\nas no other Apostle is to a ministry for those whom I once thought of\nas of outcasts in religion. But I speak as your own Apostle, and to\nyou, [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =if perchance I may move the jealousy of my\nflesh and blood,[193] and may save some from amongst them,= by letting\nthem as it were overhear what are the blessings of you Gentile\nChristians, and how it is the Lord's purpose to use those blessings as\na magnet to wandering Israel.[194] His hope is that, through the Roman\ncongregation, this glorious open secret will come out, as they meet\ntheir Jewish neighbours and talk with them. So would one here, another\nthere, \"in the streets and lanes of the City,\" be drawn to the feet of\nJesus, under the constraint of that \"jealousy\" which means little else\nthan the human longing to understand what is evidently the great joy\nof another's heart; a \"jealousy\" on which often grace can fall, and\nuse it as the vehicle of divine light and life.\n\nHe says only, \"_some of them_\"; as he does in the sister Epistle;\n1\u00a0Cor. ix.\u00a022.[195] He recognizes it as his present task, indicated\nalike by circumstance and revelation, to be not the glad ingatherer of\nvast multitudes to Christ, but the patient winner of scattered sheep.\nYet let us observe that none the less he spends his whole soul upon\nthat winning, and takes no excuse from a glorious future to slacken a\nsingle effort in the difficult present.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =For if the throwing away of them,= their\ndownfall as the Church of God, was =the world's reconciliation,= the\ninstrumental or occasioning cause of the direct proclamation to the\npagan peoples of the Atonement of the Cross, =what will their\nreception be, but life from the dead?= That is to say, the great event\nof Israel's return to God in Christ, and His to Israel, will be the\nsignal and the means of a vast rise of spiritual life in the Universal\nChurch, and of an unexampled ingathering of regenerate souls from the\nworld. When Israel, as a Church, fell, the fall worked good for the\nworld merely by driving, as it were, the apostolic preachers out from\nthe Synagogue, to which they so much longed to cling. The Jews did\nanything but aid the work. Yet even so they were made an occasion for\nworld-wide good. When they are \"received again,\" as this Scripture so\ndefinitely affirms that they shall be received, the case will be\ngrandly different. As before, they will be \"occasions.\" A national and\necclesiastical return of Israel to Christ will of course give occasion\nover the whole world for a vastly quickened attention to Christianity,\nand for an appeal for the world's faith in the facts and claims of\nChristianity, as bold and loud as that of Pentecost. But more than\nthis; Israel will now be not only occasion but agent. The Jews,\nubiquitous, cosmopolitan, yet invincibly national, coming back in\nliving loyalty to the Son of David, the Son of God, will be a positive\npower in evangelization such as the Church has never yet felt.\nWhatever the actual facts shall prove to be in the matter of their\nreturn to the Land of Promise[196] (and who can watch without deep\nreflection the nation-less land and the land-less nation?) no\nprediction obliges us to think that the Jews will be withdrawn from\nthe wide world by a national resettlement in their Land. A nation is\nnot a Dispersion merely because it has individual citizens widely\ndispersed; if it has a true national centre, it is a people at home, a\npeople with a home. Whether as a central mass in Syria, or as also a\npresence everywhere in the human world, Israel will thus be ready,\nonce restored to God in Christ, to be a more than natural evangelizing\npower.\n\nLet this be remembered in every enterprise for the spiritual good of\nthe great Dispersion now. Through such efforts God is already\napproaching His hour of blessing, long expected. Let that fact animate\nand give a glad patience to His workers, on whose work He surely\nbegins in our day to cast His smile of growing blessing.\n\nNow the argument takes a new direction. The restoration thus\nindicated, thus foretold, is not only sure to be infinitely\nbeneficial. It is also to be looked for and expected as a thing lying\nso to speak in the line of spiritual fitness, true to the order of\nGod's plan. In His will, when He went about to create and develop His\nChurch, Israel sprung from the dry ground as the sacred Olive, rich\nwith the sap of truth and grace, full of branch and leaf. From the\ntents of Abraham onward, the world's true spiritual light and life was\nthere. There, not elsewhere, was revelation, and God-given ordinance,\nand \"the covenants, and the glory.\" There, not elsewhere, the Christ\nof God, for whom all things waited, towards whom all the lines of\nman's life and history converged, was to appear. Thus, in a certain\nprofound sense, all true salvation must be not only \"of\" Israel (John\niv.\u00a024) but through him. Union with Christ was union with Abraham. To\nbecome a Christian, that is to say, one of Messiah's men, was to\nbecome, mystically, an Israelite. From this point of view the\nGentile's union with the Saviour, though not in the least less genuine\nand divine than the Jew's, was, so to speak, less normal. And thus\nnothing could be more spiritually normal than the Jew's recovery to\nhis old relation to God, from which he had violently dislocated\nhimself. These thoughts the Apostle now presses on the Romans, as a\nnew motive and guide to their hopes, prayers, and work. (Do we gather\nfrom the length and fulness of the argument that already it was\ndifficult to bring Gentiles to think aright of the chosen people in\ntheir fall and rebellion?) He reminds them of the inalienable\nconsecration of Israel to special divine purposes. He points them to\nthe ancient Olive, and boldly tells them that they are, themselves,\nonly a graft of a wild stock, inserted into the noble tree. Not that\nhe thinks of the Jew as a superior being. But the Church of Israel was\nthe original of the Church. So the restoration of Israel to Christ,\nand to the Church, is a recovery of normal life, not a first and\nabnormal grant of life.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =But if the first-fruit was holy, holy is the\nkneaded lump too.= Abraham was as it were the Lord's First-fruits of\nmankind, in the field of His Church. \"Abraham's seed\" are as it were\nthe mass kneaded from that first-fruits; made of it. Was the\nfirst-fruits holy, in the sense of consecration to God's redeeming\npurpose? Then that which is made of it must somehow still be a\nconsecrated thing, even though put aside as if \"common\" for awhile.\n=And if the root= was =holy,= holy are =the branches too;= the lineal\nheirs of Abraham are still, ideally, potentially, consecrated to Him\nwho separated Abraham to Himself, and moved him to his great\nself-separation. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =But if some of the branches=\n(how tender is the euphemism of the \"_some_\"!) =were broken off, while\nyou, wild-olive as you were, were grafted in among them,= in their\nplace of life and growth, =and became a sharer of the root and of the\nOlive's fatness,--= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =do not boast over the=\ntorn-off =branches. But if you do boast over them--not you carry the\nroot, but the root carries you.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =You will say\nthen, The branches were broken off--that I might be grafted in. Good:=\ntrue--and untrue: =because of their unbelief they were broken off,\nwhile you because of your faith stand.= They were no better beings\nthan you, in themselves. But neither are you better than they, in\nyourself. They and you alike are, personally, mere subjects of\nredeeming mercy; owing all to Christ; possessing all only as accepting\nChrist. \"Where is your boasting, then?\" =Do not be high-minded, but\nfear,= fear yourself, your sin, your enemy. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =For\nif God did not spare the natural branches, take care lest He spare not\nyou either.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =See therefore God's goodness and\nsternness. On those who fell,= came His =sternness= (\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bc\u03af\u03b1, not\n\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bc\u03af\u03b1\u03bd); =but on you,= His =goodness, if you abide by that (\u03c4\u1fc7)\ngoodness,= with the adherence and response of faith; =since you too\nwill be cut out= otherwise. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.] =And they too, if\nthey do not abide by their (\u03c4\u1fc7) unbelief, shall be grafted in; for\nGod is able to graft them in again.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.] =For if you\nfrom the naturally wild olive were cut out, and non-naturally (\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u1f70\n\u03c6\u03cd\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd) were grafted into the Garden-Olive, how much more shall\nthose, the= branches =naturally, be grafted into their own Olive!=\n\nHere are more topics than one which call for reverent notice and\nstudy.\n\n1. The imagery of the Olive, with its root, stem, and branches. The\nOlive, rich and useful, long-lived, and evergreen, stands, as a\n\"nature-parable\" of spiritual life, beside the Vine, the Palm, and the\nCedar, in the Garden of God. Sometimes it pictures the individual\nsaint, living and fruitful in union with his Lord (Psal. lii.\u00a08).\nSometimes it sets before us the fertile organism of the Church, as\nhere, where the Olive is the great Church Universal in its long life\nbefore and after the historical coming of Christ; the life which in a\ncertain sense began with the Call of Abraham, and was only\nmagnificently developed by the Incarnation and Passion. Its Root, in\nthis respect, is the great Father of Faith. Its Stem is the Church of\nthe Old Testament, which coincided, in the matter of external\nprivilege, with the nation of Israel, and to which at least the\nimmense majority of true believers in the elder time belonged. Its\nBranches (by a slight and easy modification of the image) are its\nindividual members, whether Jewish or Gentile. The Master of the Tree,\narriving on the scene in the Gospel age, comes as it were to prune His\nOlive, and to graft. The Jewish \"branch,\" if he is what he seems, if\nhe believes indeed and not only by hypothesis, abides in the Tree.\nOtherwise, he is--from the divine point of view--broken off. The\nGentile, believing, is grafted in, and becomes a true part of the\nliving organism; as genuinely and vitally one with Abraham in life and\nblessing as his Hebrew brother. But the fact of the Hebrew \"race\" in\nroot and stem rules still so far as to make the re-ingrafting of a\nHebrew branch, repenting, more \"natural\" (not more possible, or more\nbeneficial, but more \"natural\") than the first ingrafting of a Gentile\nbranch. The whole Tree is for ever Abrahamic, Israelite, in stock and\ngrowth; though all mankind has place now in its forest of branches.\n\n2. The imagery of Grafting. Here is an instance of partial, while\ntruthful, use of a natural process in Scripture parable. In our\ngardens and orchards it is the wild stock which receives, in grafting,\nthe \"good\" branch; a fact which lends itself to many fertile\nillustrations. Here, on the contrary, the \"wild\" branch is inserted\ninto the \"good\" stock. But the olive-yard yields to the Apostle all\nthe imagery he really needs. He has before him, ready to hand, the\nTree of the Church; all that he wants is an illustration of\ncommunication and union of life by artificial insertion. And this he\nfinds in the olive-dresser's art, which shews him how a vegetable\nfragment, apart and alien, can by human design be made to grow into\nthe life of the tree, as if a native of the root.\n\n3. The teaching of the passage as to the Place of Israel in the divine\nPlan of life for the world. We have remarked on this already, but it\ncalls for reiterated notice and recollection. \"At sundry times, and in\ndivers manners,\" and through many and divers races and civilizations,\nGod has dealt with man, and is dealing with him, in the training and\ndevelopment of his life and nature. But in the matter of man's\nspiritual salvation, in the gift to him, in his Fall, of the life\neternal, God has dealt with man, practically, through _one_ race,\nIsrael. Let it never be forgotten that the \"sundry times and divers\nmanners\" of the apostolic Epistle (Heb. i.\u00a01) are all referred to \"the\nprophets\"; they are the \"times\" and \"manners\" of the Old Testament\nrevelation. And when at length the same Eternal Voice spoke to man\n\"_in the Son_\" (\u1f10\u03bd \u1f59\u03b9\u1ff7), that Son came of Israel, \"took hold of\nAbraham's seed\" (Heb. ii.\u00a016), and Himself bore definite witness that\n\"salvation is from the Jews\" (John iv.\u00a024). Amidst the unknown\nmanifoldness of the work of God for man, and in man, this is single\nand simple--that in one racial line only runs the stream of authentic\nand supernatural revelation; in the line of this mysteriously chosen\nIsrael. From this point of view, the great Husbandman has planted not\na forest but a Tree; and the innumerable trees of the forest can get\nthe sap of Eden only as their branches are grafted by His hand into\nHis one Tree, by the faith which unites them to Him who is the Root\nbelow the root, \"the Root of David,\" and of Abraham.\n\n4. The appeal to the new-grafted \"branch\" to \"abide by the goodness of\nGod.\" We have listened, as St Paul has dictated to his scribe, to many\na deep word about a divine and sovereign power on man; about man's\nabsolute debt to God for the fact that he believes and lives. Yet\nhere, with equal decision, we have man thrown back on the thought of\nhis responsibility, of the contingency in a certain sense of his\nsafety on his fidelity.[197] \"If you are true to mercy, mercy will be\ntrue to you; otherwise you too will be broken off.\" Here, as in our\nstudy of earlier passages, let us be willing to go all along with\nScripture in the seeming inconsistency of its absolute promises and\nits contingent cautions. Let us, like it, \"go to both extremes\"; then\nwe shall be as near, probably, as our finite thought can be at present\nto the whole truth as it moves, a perfect sphere, in God. Is the\nChristian worn and wearied with his experience of his own pollution,\ninstability, and helplessness? Let him embrace, without a misgiving,\nthe whole of that promise, \"My sheep shall never perish.\" Has he\ndrifted into a vain confidence, not in Christ, but in privilege, in\nexperience, in apparent religious prosperity? Has he caught himself in\nthe act of saying, even in a whisper, \"God, I thank Thee that I am not\nas other men are\"? Then let him listen in time to the warning voice,\n\"Be not high-minded, but fear\"; \"Take heed lest He spare not thee.\"\nAnd let him put no pillow of theory between the sharpness of that\nwarning and his soul. Penitent, self-despairing, resting in Christ\nalone, let him \"_abide by the goodness of God_.\"\n\n[189] \u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1: so we venture to render the word here, where its\ncompound form gets a special point from its neighbourhood to the\nsimple verb \u03c0\u03af\u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd (\u03c0\u03ad\u03c3\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9).\n\n[190] \u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1: see above p. 294.\n\n[191] Read \u03b4\u1f72 not \u03b3\u03ac\u03c1. It is the \"_but_\" of a slight pause and\nresumption.\n\n[192] The converts of the Roman Mission were surely Gentiles for the\nmost part. See further below, ver. 25.\n\n[193] \u03a4\u1f74\u03bd \u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03b1 \u03bc\u03bf\u03c5: we venture to write \"_flesh and blood_\" as the\nnearest equivalent in our parlance to the vigorous Greek, \"_my\nflesh_.\"\n\n[194] It will be seen that we punctuate the Greek here as follows:\n\u1f59\u03bc\u1fd6\u03bd \u03b4\u1f72 \u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03c9 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f14\u03b8\u03bd\u03b5\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd (\u1f10\u03c6' \u1f45\u03c3\u03bf\u03bd \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u03bf\u1f56\u03bd \u03b5\u1f30\u03bc\u1f76 \u1f10\u03b3\u1f7c \u1f10\u03b8\u03bd\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f00\u03c0\u03cc\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2,\n\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1\u03bd \u03bc\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b4\u03bf\u03be\u03ac\u03b6\u03c9) \u03b5\u1f34 \u03c0\u1ff6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03c4\u03bb. The thought of his \"_glory_\"\nin his \"_ministry_\" is surely _parenthetical_; thrown in to remind\nthem that his plea for Israel means no change of heart towards his\nGentile converts, or any wavering in the certainty that in Christ they\nare as completely \"the people of God\" as Israel is. The \"main line\" of\nthe sentence runs past this parenthesis: \"To you Gentiles I speak, in\nthe hope of moving the jealousy of the Jews.\"\n\n[195] Cp. too 2\u00a0Cor. iii.\u00a014-16 with this whole passage.\n\n[196] This chapter is silent on that great matter.\n\n[197] \"To our safety our sedulity is required.\" Hooker, _Sermon on the\nPerpetuity of Faith in the Elect_ (at the close of the sermon). See\nthe whole sermon, with its temperate and well-balanced assertion of\nthe power of grace.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV\n\n_THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL DIRECTLY FORETOLD: ALL IS OF AND FOR GOD_\n\nROMANS xi.\u00a025-36\n\n\nThus far St Paul has rather reasoned than predicted. He has shewn his\nGentile friends the naturalness, so to speak, of a restoration of\nIsrael to Christ, and the manifest certainty that such a restoration\nwill bring blessing to the world. Now he advances to the direct\nassertion, made with a Prophet's full authority, that so it shall be.\n\"_How much rather shall they be grafted into their own Olive?_\" The\nquestion implies the assertion; nothing remains but to open it in\nfull.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of\nthis mystery,= this fact in God's purposes, impossible to be known\nwithout revelation,[198] but luminous when revealed; (=that you may\nnot be wise in your own esteem,= valuing yourselves on an insight\nwhich is all the while only a partial glimpse); =that failure of\nperception (\u03c0\u03ce\u03c1\u03c9\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2), in a measure,= in the case of many, not all,\nof the nation, =has come upon Israel,= and will continue =until the\nfulness[199] of the Gentiles shall come in,= until Gentile conversion\nshall be in some sense a flowing tide. [Sidenote: Ver 26.] =And so all\nIsrael,= Israel as a mass, no longer as by scattered units, =shall be\nsaved,= coming to the feet of Him in whom alone is man's salvation\nfrom judgment and from sin; =as it stands written= (Psal. xiv.\u00a07,\nIsai. lix.\u00a020, with Isai. xxvii.\u00a09), =\"There shall come from Sion the\nDeliverer; He shall turn away all impiety (\u1f00\u03c3\u03b5\u03b2\u03b5\u03af\u03b1\u03c2) from Jacob;=\n[Sidenote: Ver 27.] =and such they shall find the covenant I shall\nhave granted,[200]= such shall prove to be My promise and provision,\n'ordered and sure,' =when I shall take away their sins,\"= in the day\nof My pardoning and restoring return to them.\n\nThis is a memorable passage. It is in the first place one of the most\ndefinitely predictive of all the prophetic utterances of the Epistles.\nApart from all problems of explanation in detail, it gives us this as\nits message on the whole; that there lies hidden in the future, for\nthe race of Israel, a critical period of overwhelming blessing. If\nanything is revealed as fixed in the eternal plan, which, never\nviolating the creature's will yet is not subject to it, it is this. We\nhave heard the Apostle speak fully, and without compromise, of the sin\nof Israel; the hardened or paralysed spiritual perception, the\nrefusal to submit to pure grace, the restless quest for a valid\nself-righteousness, the deep exclusive arrogance. And thus the promise\nof coming mercy, such as shall surprise the world, sounds all the more\nsovereign and magnificent. It shall come; so says Christ's prophet\nPaul. Not because of historical antecedents, or in the light of\ngeneral principles, but because of the revelation of the Spirit, he\nspeaks of that wonderful future as if it were in full view from the\npresent; \"_All Israel shall be saved_.\"\n\nWe read \"no date prefixed.\" As far as this chapter is concerned, years\nand days are as if they were not. On the whole, surely, a large range\nof process is in his view; he cannot expect to see fulfilled within a\nnarrow season the accomplishment of all the preliminaries to the great\nevent. But he says nothing about this. All we gather is that he sees\nin the future a great progress of Gentile Christianity; a great\nimpression to be made by this on the mind of Israel; a vast and\ncomparatively sudden awakening of Israel, by the grace of God, however\nbrought to bear; the salvation of Israel in Christ on a national\nscale; \"the receiving of them again\"; and \"life from the dead\" as the\nresult--life from the dead to the world at large. However late or\nsoon, with whatever attendant events, divine or human, thus it shall\nbe. The \"_spiritual failure of perception in part_\" shall vanish.\n\"_The Deliverer shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob._\" \"_All Israel\nshall be saved._\"\n\n\"Believest thou the Prophets?\" The question, asked of Agrippa by St\nPaul, comes to us from this prediction of his own. \"Lord, we believe.\"\nOur Master knows that for us in our day it is not easy. The bad air of\nmaterialism, and the profound and stolid fatalism which it involves,\nis thick around us. And one symptom of its malign influence is the\ngrowing tendency in the Church to limit, to minimize, to explain if\npossible away, from the Scriptures, the properly and distinctively\nsuperhuman, whether of work or word. Men bearing the Christian name,\nand bearing it often with loyal and reverent intention, seem to think\nfar otherwise than their Lord thought about this very element of\nprediction in the holy Book, and would have us believe that it is no\ngreat thing to grasp, and to contend for. But as for us, we desire in\nall things to be of the opinion of Him who is the eternal Truth and\nLight, and who took our nature, expressly, as to one great purpose, in\norder to unfold to us articulately His opinion. He lived and died in\nthe light and power of predictive Scripture. He predicted. He rose\nagain to commission His Apostles, as the Spirit should teach them, to\nsee \"things to come\" (John xvi.\u00a013). To us, this oracle of His \"chosen\nVessel\" gives us articles of faith and hope. We do not understand, but\nwe believe, because here it is written, that after these days of the\nprevalence of unbelief, after all these questions, loud or half\narticulate, angry or agonizing, \"Where is the promise?\" the world\nshall see a spiritual miracle on a scale unknown before. \"_All Israel\nshall be saved._\" Even so, Lord Jesus Christ, the Deliverer. Fill us\nwith the patience of this hope, for Thy chosen race, and for the\nworld.\n\nIt is almost a pain to turn from this conspectus of the passage to a\ndiscussion of some of its details. But it is necessary; and for our\npurpose it need be only brief. Whatever the result may be, it will\nleave untouched the grandeur of the central promise.\n\n1. \"_Until the fulness of the Gentiles come in._\" Does this mean that\nthe stream of Gentile conversions shall have _flowed and ceased_,\nbefore the great blessing comes to Israel? Certainly the Greek may\ncarry this meaning; perhaps, taken quite apart, it carries it more\neasily than any other. But it has this difficulty, that it would\nassign to the \"_salvation_\" of Israel no influence of blessing upon\nthe Gentile world. Now ver. 12 has implied that \"_the fulness_\" of\nIsrael is to be the more-than-wealth of \"_the world_,\" of \"_the\nGentiles_.\" And ver. 15 has implied, if we have read it aright, that\nit is to be to \"_the world_\" as \"_life from the dead_.\" This leads us\nto explain the phrase here to refer not to the close of the\ningathering of the Gentile children of God, but to a time when that\nprocess shall be, so to speak, running high.[201] That time of great\nand manifest grace shall be the occasion to Israel of the shock, as it\nwere, of blessing; and from Israel's blessing shall date an unmeasured\nfurther access of divine good for the world.\n\nAs we pass, let us observe the light thrown by these sentences on the\nduty of the Church in evangelizing the Gentiles for the Jews, as well\nas the Jews for the Gentiles. _Both_ holy enterprises have a destined\neffect outside themselves. The evangelist of Africa, India, China, is\nworking for the hour of the \"salvation of all Israel.\" The evangelist\nof the Hebrew Dispersion is preparing Israel for that hour of final\nblessing when the \"saved\" nation shall, in the hand of God, kindle the\nworld with holy life.\n\n2. \"_All Israel shall be saved._\" It has been held by some\ninterpreters that this points to the Israel of God, the spiritual sons\nof Abraham. If so, it would be fairly paraphrased as a promise that\nwhen the Gentile conversions are complete, and the \"spiritual failure\nof perception\" gone from the Jewish heart, the family of faith shall\nbe complete. But surely it puts violence on words, and on thought, to\nexplain \"Israel\" in this whole passage mystically. Interpretation\nbecomes an arbitrary work if we may suddenly do so here, where the\nantithesis of Israel and \"the Gentiles\" is the very theme of the\nmessage. No; we have here the nation, chosen once to a mysterious\nspeciality in the spiritual history of man, chosen with a choice never\ncancelled, however abeyant. A blessing is in view for the nation; a\nblessing spiritual, divine, all of grace, quite individual in its\naction on each member of the nation, but national in the scale of its\nresults. We are not obliged to press the word \"_all_\" to a rigid\nliterality. Nor are we obliged to limit the crisis of blessing to\nanything like a moment of time. But we may surely gather that the\nnumbers blessed will be at least the vast majority, and that the work\nwill not be chronic but critical. A transition, relatively swift and\nwonderful, shall shew the world a nation penitent, faithful, holy,\ngiven to God.\n\n3. The quotations from Psalms and Prophets (verses 26, 27) offer more\nquestions than one. They are closely interlaced, and they are not\nliteral quotations. \"_Out of Sion_\" takes the place of \"_for Zion_.\"\n\"_He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob_\" takes the place of \"_For\nthem that turn from transgression in Jacob_.\" \"_This is the covenant_\"\ntakes the place of \"_This is His blessing_.\" And there are other\nminute points of variation. Yet we reverently trace in the originals\nand the citations, which all alike are the work of prophetic organs of\nthe Spirit, the great ruling thought, identical in both, that \"_the\nDeliverer_\" belongs primarily to \"_Zion_,\" and has in store primarily\na blessing for her people.\n\nAre we, with some devout interpreters, to explain the words, \"_The\nDeliverer shall come out of Sion_,\" as predicting a personal and\nvisible return of the Ascended Jesus to the literal Zion, in order to\nthe salvation of Israel, and an outgoing of Him from thence to the\nDispersion, or the world, in millennial glory? We deliberately\nforbear, in this exposition, to discuss in detail the great\ncontroversy thus indicated. We leave here on one side some questions,\neagerly and earnestly asked. Will Israel return to the Land as\nChristian or as anti-Christian? Will the immediate power for their\nconversion be the visible Return of the Lord, or will it be an\neffusion of His Spirit, by which, spiritually, He shall visit and\nbless? What will be the attendant works and wonders of the time? All\nwe do now is to express the conviction that the prophetic quotations\nhere cannot be held to predict _unmistakably_ a visible and local\nReturn. If we read them aright, their import is satisfied by a\nparaphrase somewhat thus: \"It stands predicted that to Zion, that is,\nto Israel, belongs the Deliverer of man, and that for Israel He is to\ndo His work, whenever finally it is done, with a speciality of grace\nand glory.\" Thus explained, the \"_shall come_\" of ver. 26 is the\nabstract future of divine purpose. In the eternal plan, the Redeemer\nwas, when He first came to earth, to come to, for, and from \"Zion.\"\nAnd His saving work was to be on lines, and for issues, for ever\ncharacterized by that fact.\n\nAssuredly the Lord Jesus Christ is, personally, literally, visibly,\nand to His people's eternal joy, coming again; \"this same Jesus, in\nlike manner\" (Acts i.\u00a011). And as the ages unfold themselves,\nassuredly the insight of the believing Church into the fulness and, if\nwe may say so, manifoldness of that great prospect grows. But it still\nseems to us that a deep and reverent caution is called for before we\nattempt to treat of any detail of that prospect, as regards time,\nseason, mode, as if we quite knew. Across _all_ lines of interpretation\nof unfulfilled prophecy--to name one problem only--it lies as an\nunsolved riddle how all the saints of all ages are equally bidden to\nwatch, as those who \"know not _what hour_ their Lord shall come.\"\n\nBut let us oftener and oftener, however we may differ in detail,\nrecite to one another the glorious essence of our hope. \"To them that\nlook for Him will He appear the second time, without sin, unto\nsalvation\"; \"We shall meet the Lord in the air\"; \"So shall we be ever\nwith the Lord\" (Heb. ix.\u00a028, 1\u00a0Thess. iv.\u00a017).\n\nWe shall never quite understand the chronology and process of\nunfulfilled prophecy, till then.\n\nNow briefly and in summary the Apostle concludes this \"Epistle within\nthe Epistle\"; this oracle about Israel. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a028.] =As\nregards the Gospel,= from the point of view of the evangelization of\nthe world apart from Judaism, that \"gospelling\" which was, as it were,\nprecipitated by the rebellion of Israel, =they are enemies, on account\nof you,= permitted, for your sakes, in a certain sense, to take a\nhostile attitude towards the Lord and His Christ, and to be treated\naccordingly; =but as regards the election,= from the point of view of\nthe divine choice, =they are beloved, on account of the Fathers;=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a029.] =for irrevocable[202] are the gifts and the call\nof our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God.= The \"_gifts_\" of unmerited choice, of a love\nuncaused by the goodness of its object, but coming from the depth of\nthe Eternal; the \"_call_\" which not only invites the creature, but\neffects the end of the invitation[203]; these are things which in\ntheir nature are not variable with the variations of man and of time.\nThe nation so gifted and called, \"not according to its works,\" is for\never the unalterable object of the eternal affection.\n\nMay we not extend the reference of a sentence so absolute in its\noracular brevity, and take it to speak the secret of an indefectible\nmercy not only to nation, but to individual? Here as elsewhere we\nshall need to remember the rule which bids us, in the heights and\ndepths of all truth, \"go to both extremes.\" Here as elsewhere we must\nbe reverently careful how we apply the oracle, and to whom. But does\nnot the oracle say this, that where the eternal Love has, without\nmerit, in divine speciality, settled upon a person, there, not\narbitrarily but by a law, which we cannot explain but which we can\nbelieve, it abides for ever? Still, this is a reflection to be made\nonly in passing here. The immediate matter is a chosen people, not a\nchosen soul; and so he proceeds: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a030.] =For as once you\nobeyed not our (\u03c4\u1ff7) God, but now,= in the actual state of things, in\nHis grace, =found mercy, on occasion of their disobedience;=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a031.] =so they too now obeyed not, on occasion of your\nmercy,= in mysterious connexion with the compassion which, in your\npagan darkness, revealed salvation to you,[204] =that they too may\nfind mercy.= Yes, even their \"_disobedience_,\" in the mystery of\ngrace, was permitted _in order to_ their ultimate blessing; it was to\nbe overruled to that self-discovery which lies deep in all true\nrepentance, and springs up towards life eternal in the saving\n\"confidence of self-despair.\" The pagan (ch. i.) was brought to\nself-discovery as a rebel against God indicated in nature; the Jew\n(ch. ii.) as a rebel against God revealed in Christ. This latter, if\nsuch a comparison is possible, was the more difficult and as it were\nadvanced work in the divine plan. It took place, or rather it is\ntaking and shall take place, later in order, and nearer to the final\nand universal triumph of redemption. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a032.] =For God\nshut them all (\u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2) up into disobedience, that He might have\nmercy upon them all.= With a _fiat_ of judicial permission He let the\nGentile develop his resistance to right into unnatural outrage. He let\nthe Jew develop his into the desperate rejection of his own glorious\nMessiah. But He gave the _fiat_ not as a God who did not care, a mere\nsupreme Law, a Power sitting unconcerned above the scene of sin. He\nlet the disease burst into the plague-spot in order that the guilty\nvictim might ask at last for His remedy, and might receive it as mere\nand most astonishing mercy.\n\nLet us not misuse the passage by reading into it a vain hope of an\nindiscriminate actual salvation, at the last, of all individuals of\nthe race; a predestinarian hope for which Scripture not only gives no\nvalid evidence, but utters against it what at least sound like the\nmost urgent and unequivocal of its warnings. The context here, as we\nsaw in another connexion just now, has to do rather with masses than\nwith persons; with Gentiles and Jews in their common characteristics\nrather than taken as individuals. Yet let us draw from the words, with\nreverent boldness, a warrant to our faith wholly to trust the Eternal\nto be, even in the least fathomable of His dealings, true to Himself,\ntrue to eternal Love, whatever be the action He shall take.\n\nHere the Apostle's voice, as we seem to listen to it, pauses for a\nmoment, as he passes into unspoken thoughts of awe and faith. He has\nnow given out his prophetic burthen, telling us Gentiles how great has\nbeen the sin of Israel, but how great also is Israel's privilege, and\nhow sure his coming mercy. And behind this grand special revelation\nthere still rise on his soul those yet more majestic forms of truth\nwhich he has led us to look upon before; the Righteousness of God, the\njustifying grace, the believing soul's dominion over sin, the fulness\nof the Spirit, the coming glory of the saints, the emancipated\nUniverse, the eternal Love. What remains, after this mighty process of\nspiritual discoveries, but to adore? Listen, as he speaks again, and\nagain the pen moves upon the paper:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a033.] =Oh depth of wealth of God's wisdom and knowledge\ntoo! How past all searching are His judgments, and past all tracking\nare His ways!= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a034.] =\"For who ever knew the Lord's\nmind? Or who ever proved His counsellor?\"[205]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a035.]\n=Or who ever first gave to Him, and requital shall be made to the\ngiver (\u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff7)?= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a036.] =Because out of Him, and through\nHim, and unto Him, are all things[206]: to Him be the glory, unto the\nages. Amen.=\n\nEven so, Amen. We also prostrate our being, with the Apostle, with the\nRoman saints, with the whole Church, with all the company of heaven,\nand give ourselves to that action of pure worship in which the\ncreature, sinking lowest in his own eyes, yea out of his own sight\naltogether, rises highest into the light of his Maker. What a moment\nthis is, what an occasion, for such an approach to Him who is the\ninfinite and personal Fountain of being, and of redemption! We have\nbeen led from reason to reason, from doctrine to doctrine, from one\nlink to another in a golden chain of redeeming mercies. We have had\nthe dream of human merit expelled from the heart with arrows of light;\nand the pure glory of a grace most absolute, most merciful, has come\nin upon us in its place. All along we have been reminded, as it were\nin fragments and radiant glimpses, that these doctrines, these truths,\nare no mere principles in the abstract, but expressions of the will\nand of the love of a Person; that fact full of eternal life, but all\ntoo easily forgotten by the human mind, when its study of religion is\ncarried away, if but for an hour, from the foot of the Cross, and of\nthe Throne. But now all these lines converge upwards to their Origin.\nBy the Cross they reach the Throne. Through the Work of the SON--One\nwith the FATHER, for of the Son too it is written (Col. i.\u00a016) that\n\"all things are through Him, and unto Him\"--through His Work, and in\nit, we come to the Father's Wisdom and Knowledge, which drew the plan\nof blessing, and as it were calculated and furnished all its means. We\ntouch that point where the creature gravitates to its final rest, the\nvision of the Glory of God. We repose, with a profound and rejoicing\nsilence, before the fact of mysteries too bright for our vision. After\nall the revelations of the Apostle we own with him in faith, with an\nacquiescence deep as our being, the fact that there is no searching,\nno tracking out, the final secrets of the ways of God. It becomes to\nus wonderfully sufficient, in the light of Christ, to know that \"the\nLord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,\" is also Sovereign,\nUltimate, His own eternal Satisfaction; that it is infinitely fit and\nblessed that, as His Will is the true efficient cause of all things,\nand His Presence their secret of continuance, so He is Himself their\nfinal Cause, their End, their Goal; they fulfil their idea, they find\ntheir bliss, in being altogether His; \"all things are UNTO HIM.\"\n\n\"_To whom be the glory, unto the ages. Amen._\" The advancing \"ages,\"\n\u03b1\u1f30\u1ff6\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2, the infinite developments of the eternal life, what do we\nknow about them? Almost nothing, except the greatest fact of all; that\nin them for ever the redeemed creature will glorify not itself but the\nCreator; finding an endless and ever fuller youth, an inexhaustible\nmotive, a rest impossible to break, a life in which indeed \"they\n_cannot_ die any more,\" in surrendering always all its blissful wealth\nof being to the will and use of the BLESSED ONE.\n\nIn these \"ages\" we already are, in Christ. We shall indeed grow for\never with their eternal growth, in Him, to the glory of the grace of\nGod. But let us not forget that we are already in their course, as\nregards that life of ours which is hid with Christ in God. With that\nrecollection, let us give ourselves often, and as by the \"second\nnature\" of grace, to adoration. Not necessarily to frequent long\nabstractions of our time from the active services of life; we need\nonly read on into the coming passages of the Epistle to be reminded\nthat we are hallowed, in our Lord, to a life of unselfish contact with\nall the needs around us. But let that life have for its interior, for\nits animation, the spirit of worship. Taking by faith our all from\nGod, let us inwardly always give it back to Him, as those who not only\nown with the simplest gratitude that He has redeemed us from\ncondemnation and from sin, but who have seen with an adoring intuition\nthat we and our all are of the \"all things\" which, being \"of Him,\" and\n\"by Him,\" are also wholly \"unto Him,\" by an absolute right, by the\nultimate law of our being, as we are the creatures of the eternal\nLove.\n\n[198] Such is the normal meaning of \u03bc\u03c5\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd in the N. T. It is a\nthing which in itself may or may not be what we mean by \"mysterious.\"\nBut it is a thing which mere observation and reasoning cannot _\u00e0\npriori_ arrive at; God must disclose it.\n\n[199] \u03a0\u03bb\u03ae\u03c1\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1 is the practical realization of an ideal.\n\n[200] So we paraphrase \u03b1\u1f55\u03c4\u03b7 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f21 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1' \u1f18\u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03b8\u03ae\u03ba\u03b7.\n\n[201] The aorist \u03b5\u1f30\u03c3\u03ad\u03bb\u03b8\u1fc3 may rather gather up the great ingathering\ninto one thought than mark a narrow crisis in it.\n\n[202] \u1f08\u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03bc\u03ad\u03bb\u03b7\u03c4\u03b1: literally, \"_unrepented-of_,\" and so, \"_admitting\nno repentance_,\" \u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03bc\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03b1, \"_change of mind_.\" This is fairly\nrepresented by \"_irrevocable_.\"\n\n[203] See above, p. 19.\n\n[204] It is possible to render here: \"_they did not obey your mercy_\";\n_i.e._, they refused submission to that Gospel in which you found\nembodied the mercy of God. But the balance of thoughts and sentences\nis in favour of the rendering above.\n\n[205] He quotes nearly verbatim from Isai. xl.\u00a013. Cp. Jerem.\nxxiii.\u00a018.\n\n[206] \u03a4\u1f70 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1: the Greek gives us at once the items and the sum of\nthe \"_all_.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV\n\n_CHRISTIAN CONDUCT THE ISSUE OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH_\n\nROMANS xii.\u00a01-8\n\n\nAgain we may conjecture a pause, a long pause and deliberate, in the\nwork of Paul and Tertius. We have reached the end, generally speaking,\nof the dogmatic and so to speak oracular contents of the Epistle. We\nhave listened to the great argument of Righteousness, Sanctification,\nand final Redemption. We have followed the exposition of the\nmysterious unbelief and the destined restoration of the chosen nation;\na theme which we can see, as we look back on the perspective of the\nwhole Epistle, to have a deep and suggestive connexion with what went\nbefore it; for the experience of Israel, in relation to the sovereign\nwill and grace of God, is full of light thrown upon the experience of\nthe soul. Now in order comes the bright sequel of this mighty\nantecedent, this complex but harmonious mass of spiritual facts and\nhistorical illustrations of the will and ways of the Eternal. The\nvoice of St Paul is heard again; and he comes full upon the Lord's\nmessage of duty, conduct, character.\n\nAs out of some cleft in the face of the rocky hills rolls the full\npure stream born in their depths, and runs under the sun and sky\nthrough green meadows and beside the thirsty homes of men, so\nhere from the inmost mysteries of grace comes the message of\nall-comprehensive holy duty. The Christian, filled with the knowledge\nof an eternal love, is told how not to dream, but to serve, with all\nthe mercies of God for his motive.\n\nThis is indeed in the manner of the New Testament; this vital sequence\nof duty and doctrine; the divine Truths first, and then and therefore\nthe blessed Life. To take only St Paul's writings, the Ephesian and\nColossian Epistles are each, practically, bisected by a line which has\neternal facts before it and present duties, done in the light and\npower of them, after it. But the whole Book of God, in its texture all\nover, shews the same phenomenon. Someone has remarked with homely\nforce that in the Bible everywhere, if only we dig deep enough, we\nfind \"_Do right_\" at the bottom. And we may add that everywhere also\nwe have only to dig one degree deeper to find that the precept is\nrooted in eternal underlying facts of divine truth and love.\n\nScripture, that is to say, its Lord and Author, does not give us the\nterrible gift of a precept isolated and in a vacuum. It supports its\ncommandments on a base of cogent motive; and it fills the man who is\nto keep them with the power of a living Presence in him; this we have\nseen at large in the pages of the Epistle already traversed. But then,\non the other hand, the Lord of Scripture does not leave the motive and\nthe Presence without the articulate precept. Rather, because they are\nsupplied and assured to the believer, it spreads out all the more\namply and minutely a moral directory before his eyes. It tells him, as\na man who now rests on God and loves Him, and in whom God dwells, not\nonly in general that he is to \"walk and please God\" but in particular\n\"_how_\" to do it (1\u00a0Thess. iv.\u00a01). It takes his life in detail, and\napplies the will of the Lord to it. It speaks to him in explicit terms\nabout moral purity, in the name of the Holy One; about patience and\nkindness, in the name of redeeming Love; about family duties, in the\nname of the Father and of the Son; about civic duties, in the name of\nthe King Eternal. And the whole outline and all the details thus\nbecome to the believer things not only of duty but of possibility, of\nhope, of the strong interest given by the thought that thus and thus\nthe beloved Master would have us use His divine gift of life. Nothing\nis more wonderfully free, from one point of view, than love and\nspiritual power. But if the love is indeed given by God and directed\ntowards Him in Christ, the man who loves cannot possibly wish to be\nhis own law, and to spend his soul's power upon his own ideas or\npreferences. His joy and his conscious aim must be to do, in detail,\nthe will of the Lord who is now so dear to him; and therefore, in\ndetail, to know it.\n\nLet us take deep note of this characteristic of Scripture, its\nminuteness of precept, in connexion with its revelation of spiritual\nblessing. If in any sense we are called to be teachers of others, let\nus carry out the example. Richard Cecil, wise and pregnant counsellor\nin Christ, says that if he had to choose between preaching precepts\nand preaching privileges, he would preach privileges; because the\nprivileges of the true Gospel tend in their nature to suggest and\nstimulate right action, while the precepts taken alone do not reveal\nthe wealth of divine life and power. But Cecil, like his great\ncontemporaries of the Evangelical Revival, constantly and diligently\npreached as a fact both privilege and precept; opening with energetic\nhands the revealed fulness of Christ, and then and therefore teaching\n\"them which had believed through grace\" not only the idea of duty, but\nits details. Thomas Scott, at Olney, devoted his week-night \"lecture\"\nin the parish church, almost exclusively, to instructions in daily\nChristian life. Assuming that his hearers \"knew Christ\" in personal\nreality, he told them how to be Christians in the home, in the shop,\nin the farm; how to be consistent with their regenerate life as\nparents, children, servants, masters, neighbours, subjects. There have\nbeen times, perhaps, when such didactic preaching has been too little\nused in the Church. But the men who, under God, in the last century\nand the early years of this century, revived the message of Christ\nCrucified and Risen as all in all for our salvation, were eminently\ndiligent in teaching Christian morals. At the present day, in many\nquarters of our Christendom, there is a remarkable revival of the\ndesire to apply saving truth to common life, and to keep the Christian\nalways mindful that he not only has heaven in prospect, but is to\ntravel to it, every step, in the path of practical and watchful\nholiness. This is a sign of divine mercy in the Church. This is\nprofoundly Scriptural.\n\nMeanwhile, God forbid that such \"teaching how to live\" should ever be\ngiven, by parent, pastor, schoolmaster, friend, where it does not\nfirst pass through the teacher's own soul into his own life. Alas for\nus if we shew ever so convincingly, and even ever so winningly, the\nbond between salvation and holiness, and do not \"walk accurately\"\n(Eph. v.\u00a015) ourselves, in the details of our walk.\n\nAs we actually approach the rules of holiness now before us, let us\nonce more recollect what we have seen all along in the Epistle, that\nholiness is the aim and issue of the entire Gospel. It is indeed an\n\"evidence of life,\" infinitely weighty in the enquiry whether a man\nknows God indeed and is on the way to His heaven. But it is much more;\nit is the expression of life; it is the form and action in which life\nis intended to come out. In our orchards (to use again a parable we\nhave used already) the golden apples are evidences of the tree's\nspecies, and of its life. But a wooden label could tell us the\nspecies, and leaves can tell the life. The fruit is more than label or\nleaf; it is the thing for which the tree is there. We who believe are\n\"chosen\" and \"ordained\" to \"bring forth fruit\" (John xv.\u00a016), fruit\nmuch and lasting. The eternal Master walks in His garden for the very\npurpose of seeing if the trees bear. And the fruit He looks for is no\nvisionary thing; it is a life of holy serviceableness to Him and to\nour fellows, in His Name.\n\nBut now we draw near again and listen:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =I exhort you therefore, brethren, by means of the\ncompassions of God;= using as my logic and my fulcrum this \"depth of\nriches\" we have explored; this wonderful Redemption, with its\nsovereignty, its mercy, its acceptance, its holiness, its glory; this\noverruling of even sin and rebellion, in Gentile and in Jew, into\noccasions for salvation; these compassionate indications in the nearer\nand the eternal future of golden days yet to come;--=I exhort you\ntherefore to present,= to give over, =your bodies as a sacrifice,= an\naltar-offering, =living, holy, well-pleasing, unto God; for this\n(\u1f25\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2) is your rational devotion (\u03bb\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03b5\u03af\u03b1).= That is to say, it\nis the \"_devotion_,\" the _cultus_, the worship-service, which is done\nby the reason, the mind, the thought and will, of the man who has\nfound God in Christ. The Greek term, _latreia_, is tinged with\nassociations of ritual and temple; but it is taken here, and qualified\nby its adjective, on purpose to be lifted, as in paradox, into the\nregion of the soul. The robes and incense of the visible sanctuary are\nhere out of sight; the individual believer is at once priest,\nsacrifice, and altar; he immolates himself to the Lord,--living, yet\nno longer to himself.\n\nBut observe the pregnant collocation here of \"_the body_\" with \"_the\nreason_.\" \"_Give over your bodies_\"; not now your spirit, your\nintelligence, your sentiments, your aspirations, but \"_your bodies_,\"\nto your Lord. Is this an anti-climax? Have we retreated from the\nhigher to the lower, in coming from the contemplation of sovereign\ngrace and the eternal glory to that of the physical frame of man? No\nmore than the Lord Jesus did, when He walked down from the hill of\nTransfiguration to the crowd below, and to the sins and miseries it\npresented. He came from the scene of glory to serve men in its abiding\ninner light. And even He, in the days of His flesh, served men,\nordinarily, only through His sacred body; walking to them with His\nfeet; touching them with His hands; meeting their eyes with His;\nspeaking with His lips the words that were spirit and life. As with\nHim so with us. It is only through the body, practically, that we can\n\"serve our generation by the will of God.\" Not without the body but\nthrough it the spirit must tell on the embodied spirits around us. We\nlook, we speak, we hear, we write, we nurse, we travel, by means of\nthese material servants of the will, our living limbs. Without the\nbody, where should we be, as to other men? And therefore, without the\nsurrender of the body, where are we, as to other men, from the point\nof view of the will of God?\n\nSo there is a true sense in which, while the surrender of the will is\nall important and primary from one point of view, the surrender of the\nbody, the \"giving over\" of the body, to be the implement of God's will\nin us, is all-important, is crucial, from another. For many a\nChristian life it is the most needful of all things to remember this;\nit is the oblivion, or the mere half-recollection, of this which keeps\nthat life an almost neutral thing as to witness and service for the\nLord.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =And do not grow[207] conformed to this world,=\nthis _\u00e6on_ (\u03b1\u1f30\u03ce\u03bd), the course and state of things in this scene of\nsin and death; do not play \"the worldling,\" assuming a guise\n(\u03c3\u03c7\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1) which in itself is fleeting, and which for you, members of\nChrist, must also be hollow; =but grow transfigured,= living out a\nlasting and genuine change of tone and conduct, in which the figure\n(\u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u1f74) is only the congenial expression of the essence[208]--=by\nthe renewal of your mind,= by using as an implement in the holy\nprocess that divine light which has cleared your intelligence of the\nmists of self-love, and taught you to see as with new eyes \"the\nsplendour of the will of God\"; =so as that you test,= discerning as by\na spiritual touchstone, =what is the will of God, the good, and\nacceptable, and perfect (will).=\n\nSuch was to be the method, and such the issue, in this development of\nthe surrendered life. All is divine in origin and secret. The eternal\n\"compassions,\" and the sovereign work of the renewing and illuminating\nSpirit, are supposed before the believer can move one step. On the\nother hand the believer, in the full conscious action of his renewed\n\"intelligence,\" is to ponder the call to seek \"transfiguration\" in a\nlife of unworldly love, and to attain it in detail by using the new\ninsight of a regenerated heart. He is to look, with the eyes of the\nsoul, straight through every mist of self-will to the now beloved Will\nof God, as his deliberate choice, seen to be welcome, seen to be\nperfect, not because all is understood, but because the man is\njoyfully surrendered to the all-trusted Master. Thus he is to move\nalong the path of an ever brightening transfiguration; at once\nopen-eyed, and in the dark; seeing the Lord, and so with a sure\ninstinct gravitating to His will, yet content to let the mists of the\nunknown always hang over the next step but one.\n\nIt is a process, not a crisis; \"_grow_ transfigured.\" The origin of\nthe process, the liberation of the movement, is, at least in idea, as\ncritical as possible; \"_Give over your bodies_.\" That precept is\nconveyed, in its Greek form (\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9, aorist), so as to suggest\nprecisely the thought of a critical surrender. The Roman Christian,\nand his English younger brother, are called here, as they were above\n(vi.\u00a013, 19), to a transaction with the Lord quite definite, whether\nor no the like has taken place before, or shall be done again. They\nare called, as if once for all, to look their Lord in the face, and to\nclasp His gifts in their hands, and then to put themselves and His\ngifts altogether into _His_ hands, for perpetual use and service. So,\nfrom the side of his conscious experience, the Christian is called to\na \"hallowing of himself\" decisive, crucial, instantaneous. But its\noutcome is to be a perpetual progression, a growth, not so much \"into\"\ngrace as \"_in_\" it (2\u00a0Pet. iii.\u00a018), in which the surrender in purpose\nbecomes a long series of deepening surrenders in habit and action, and\na larger discovery of self, and of the Lord, and of His will, takes\neffect in the \"shining\" of the transfigured life \"more and more, unto\nthe perfect day\" (Prov. iv.\u00a018).\n\nLet us not distort this truth of progression, and its correlative\ntruth of the Christian's abiding imperfection. Let us not profane it\ninto an excuse for a life which at the best is stationary, and must\nalmost certainly be retrograde, because not intent upon a genuine\nadvance. Let us not withhold \"_our bodies_\" from the sacred surrender\nhere enjoined upon us, and yet expect to realize somehow, at some\nvague date, a \"_transfiguration, by the renewal of our mind_.\" We\nshall be indeed disappointed of that hope. But let us be at once\nstimulated and sobered by the spiritual facts. As we are \"yielded to\nthe Lord,\" in sober reality, we are in His mercy \"liberated for\ngrowth.\" But the growth is to come, among other ways, by the diligent\napplication of \"the renewal of our mind\" to the details of His blessed\nWill.\n\nAnd it will come, in its true development, only in the line of holy\nhumbleness. To exalt oneself, even in the spiritual life, is not to\ngrow; it is to wither. So the Apostle goes on:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =For I say, through the grace that has been given\nme,= \"_the grace_\" of power for apostolic admonition, =to every one\nwho is among you, not to be high-minded beyond what his mind should\nbe, but to be minded toward sober-mindedness, as to each God\ndistributed faith's measure.= That is to say, let the individual\nnever, in himself, forget his brethren, and the mutual relation of\neach to all in Christ. Let him never make himself the centre, or think\nof his personal salvation as if it could really be taken alone. The\nLord, the sovereign Giver of faith, the Almighty Bringer of souls into\nacceptance and union with Christ by faith, has given thy faith to\nthee, and thy brother's faith to him; and why? That the individual\ngifts, the bounty of the One Giver, might join the individuals not\nonly to the Giver but to one another, as recipients of riches many yet\none, and which are to be spent in service one yet many. The One Lord\ndistributes the one faith-power into many hearts, \"_measuring_\" it out\nto each, so that the many, individually believing in the One, may not\ncollide and contend, but lovingly cooperate in a manifold service, the\nissue of their \"like precious faith\" (2\u00a0Pet. i.\u00a02) conditioned by the\nvariety of their lives. So comes in that pregnant parable of the Body,\nfound only in the writings of St Paul, and in four only of his\nEpistles, but so stated there as to take a place for ever in the\nforeground of Christian truth. We have it here in the Romans, and in\nlarger detail in the contemporary 1\u00a0Corinthians (xii.\u00a012-27). We have\nit finally and fully in the later Epistolary Group, of the first Roman\nCaptivity--in Ephesians and Colossians. There the supreme point in the\nwhole picture, the glorious HEAD, and His relation to the Limb and to\nthe Body, comes out in all its greatness, while in these earlier\npassages it appears only incidentally.[209] But each presentation, the\nearlier and the later, is alike true to its purpose. When St Paul\nwrote to the Asiatics, he was in presence of errors which beclouded\nthe living splendour of the Head. When he wrote to the Romans, he was\nconcerned rather with the interdependence of the limbs, in the\npractice of Christian social life.\n\nWe have spoken of \"_the parable_ of the Body.\" But is the word\n\"parable\" adequate? \"What if earth be but the shadow of heaven?\" What\nif our physical frame, the soul's house and vehicle, be only the\nfeebler counterpart of that great Organism in which the exalted Christ\nunites and animates His saints? That union is no mere aggregation, no\nmere alliance of so many men under the presidency of an invisible\nLeader. It is a thing of life. Each to the living Head, and so each to\nall His members, we are joined in that wonderful connexion with a\ntenacity, and with a relation, genuine, strong, and close as the\neternal life can make it. The living, breathing man, multifold yet\none, is but the reflection, as it were, of \"Christ Mystical,\" the true\nBody with its heavenly Head.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =For just as in one body we have many limbs, but\nall the limbs have not the same function,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =so we,\nthe many, are one body in Christ,= in our personal union with Him,\n=but in detail (\u03c4\u1f78 \u03b4\u1f72 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2), limbs of one another,= coherent and\nrelated not as neighbours merely but as complementary parts in the whole.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =But having endowments (\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1)--according to\nthe grace that was given to us--differing, be it prophecy,= inspired\nutterance, a power from above, yet mysteriously conditioned (1\u00a0Cor.\nxiv.\u00a032) by the judgment and will of the utterer, =let it follow the\nproportion of the= man's =faith,= let it be true to his entire\ndependence on the revealed Christ, not left at the mercy of his mere\nemotions, or as it were played upon by alien unseen powers;\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =be it active service (\u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1),= let the man\nbe =in his service,= wholly given to it, not turning aside to covet\nhis brother's more mystic gift; =be it the teacher,= let him likewise\nbe =in his teaching,= whole-hearted in his allotted work, free from\nambitious outlooks from it; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =be it the exhorter,=\nlet him be =in his exhortation; the distributer= of his means, for\nGod, =with open-handedness; the superintendent,= of Church, or of\nhome, =with earnestness; the pitier,= (large and unofficial\ndesignation!) =with gladness,= doubling his gifts and works of mercy\nby the hallowed brightness of a heart set free from the aims of self,\nand therefore wholly at the service of the needing.\n\nThis paragraph of eight verses lies here before us, full all along of\nthat deep characteristic of Gospel life, surrender for service. The\ncall is to a profoundly passive inward attitude, with an express view\nto a richly active outward usefulness. Possessed, and knowing it, of\nthe compassions of God, the man is asked to give himself over to\nEternal Love for purposes of unworldly and unambitious employment in\nthe path chosen for him, whatever it may be. In this respect above all\nothers he is to be \"_not conformed to this world_\"--that is, he is to\nmake not himself but his Lord his pleasure and ambition. \"_By the\nrenewal of his mind_\" he is to view the Will of God from a point\ninaccessible to the unregenerate, to the unjustified, to the man not\nemancipated in Christ from the tyranny of sin. He is to see in it his\ninexhaustible interest, his line of quest and hope, his ultimate and\nsatisfying aim; because of the practical identity of the Will and the\ninfinitely good and blessed Bearer of it. And this more than surrender\nof his faculties, this happy and reposeful consecration of them, is to\nshew its reality in one way above all others first; in a humble\nestimate of self as compared with brother Christians, and a watchful\nwillingness to do--not another's work, but the duty that lies next.\n\nThis relative aspect of the life of self-surrender is the burthen of\nthis great paragraph of duty. In the following passage we shall find\nprecepts more in detail; but here we have what is to govern all along\nthe whole stream of the obedient life. The man rich in Christ is\nreverently to remember others, and God's will in them, and for them.\nHe is to avoid the subtle temptation to intrude beyond the Master's\nallotted work _for him_. He is to be slow to think, \"I am richly\nqualified, and could do this thing, and that, and the other, better\nthan the man who does it now.\" His chastened spiritual instinct will\nrather go to criticize himself, to watch for the least deficiency in\nhis own doing of the task which at least to-day is his. He will \"give\nhimself wholly to this,\" be it more or less attractive to him in\nitself. For he works as one who has not to contrive a life as full of\nsuccess and influence as he can imagine, but to accept a life assigned\nby the Lord who has first given to him Himself.\n\nThe passage itself amply implies that he is to use actively and\nhonestly his renewed _intelligence_. He is to look circumstances and\nconditions in the face, remembering that in one way or another the\nwill of God is expressed in them. He is to seek to understand not his\nduties only but his personal equipments for them, natural as well as\nspiritual. But he is to do this as one whose \"mind\" is \"renewed\" by\nhis living contact and union with his redeeming King, and who has\nreally laid his faculties at the feet of an absolute Master, who is\nthe Lord of order as well as of power.\n\nWhat peace, energy, and dignity comes into a life which is consciously\nand deliberately thus surrendered! The highest range of duties, as man\ncounts highest, is thus disburthened both of its heavy anxieties and\nof its temptations to a ruinous self-importance. And the lowest range,\nas man counts lowest, is filled with the quiet greatness born of the\npresence and will of God. In the memoirs of Mme de la Mothe Guyon much\nis said of her faithful maid-servant, who was imprisoned along with\nher (in a separate chamber) in the Bastille, and there died, about the\nyear 1700. This pious woman, deeply taught in the things of the\nSpirit, and gifted with an understanding far above the common, appears\nnever for an hour to have coveted a more ambitious department than\nthat which God assigned her in His obedience. \"She desired to be what\nGod would have her be, and to be nothing more, and nothing less. She\nincluded time and place, as well as disposition and action. She had\nnot a doubt that God, who had given remarkable powers to Mme Guyon,\nhad called her to the great work in which she was employed. But\nknowing that her beloved mistress could not go alone, but must\nconstantly have some female attendant, she had the conviction, equally\ndistinct, that she was called to be her maid-servant.\"[210]\n\nA great part of the surface of Christian society would be\n\"transfigured\" if its depth was more fully penetrated with that\nspirit. And it is to that spirit that the Apostle here definitely\ncalls us, each and every one, not as with a \"counsel of perfection\"\nfor the few, but as the will of God for all who have found out what is\nmeant by His \"compassions,\" and have caught even a glimpse of His Will\nas \"good, and acceptable, and perfect.\"\n\n  \"I would not have the restless will\n    That hurries to and fro,\n  Seeking for some great thing to do\n    Or secret thing to know;\n  I would be treated as a child,\n    And guided where I go.\"\n\n[207] The Greek imperative is present, and indicates a process.\n\n[208] See Trench, _N. T. Synonyms_, _s.v._ \u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u03c6\u03ae, for the pregnant\ndifference of the two nouns which are the distinctive elements here of\nthe two verbs.\n\n[209] See 1\u00a0Cor. xii.\u00a021: \"_Can the head say_ to the feet, etc.?\"\n\n[210] Upham: _Life, etc., of Mme de la M. Guyon_, ch. I.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI\n\n_CHRISTIAN DUTY: DETAILS OF PERSONAL CONDUCT_\n\nROMANS xii.\u00a09-21\n\n\nSt Paul has set before us the life of surrender, of the \"giving-over\"\nof faculty to God, in one great preliminary aspect. The fair ideal\n(meant always for a watchful and hopeful realization) has been held\naloft. It is a life whose motive is the Lord's \"compassions\"; whose\nlaw of freedom is His will; whose inmost aim is, without envy or\ninterference towards our fellow-servants, to \"finish the work He hath\ngiven _us_ to do.\" Now into this noble outline are to be poured the\ndetails of personal conduct which, in any and every line and field,\nare to make the characteristics of the Christian.\n\nAs we listen again, we will again remember that the words are levelled\nnot at a few but at all who are in Christ. The beings indicated here\nare not the chosen names of a Church Calendar, nor are they the\npassionless inhabitants of a Utopia. They are all who, in Rome of old,\nin England now, \"have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,\"\n\"have the Spirit of God dwelling in them,\" and are living out this\nwonderful but most practical life in the straight line of their\nFather's will.\n\nAs if he could not heap the golden words too thickly together, St Paul\ndictates here with even unusual abruptness and terseness of\nexpression. He leaves syntax very much alone; gives us noun and\nadjective, and lets them speak for themselves. We will venture to\nrender as nearly verbatim as possible. The English will inevitably\nseem more rough and crude than the Greek, but the impression given\nwill be truer on the whole to the original than a fuller rendering\nwould be.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =Your (\u1f21) love, unaffected. Abominating the\nill, wedded to[211] the good.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =For your\nbrotherly-kindness, full of mutual home-affection (\u03c6\u03b9\u03bb\u03cc\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c1\u03b3\u03bf\u03b9).\nFor your honour,= your code of precedence, =deferring to one another.=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =For your earnestness,[212] not slothful. For the\nSpirit,= as regards your possession and use of the divine Indweller,\n=glowing.[213] For the Lord, bond-serving.[214]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.]\n=For your hope,= that is to say, as to the hope of the Lord's Return,\n=rejoicing. For your affliction, enduring. For your prayer,\npersevering.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =For the wants of the saints,= for\nthe poverty of fellow-Christians, =communicating;= \"_sharing_\"\n(\u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2), a yet nobler thing than the mere \"_giving_\" which\nmay ignore the sacred fellowship of the provider and the receiver.\n=Hospitality[215]--prosecuting (\u03b4\u03b9\u03ce\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2)= as with a studious\ncultivation. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =Bless those who persecute[216] you;\nbless, and do not curse.= This was a solemnly appropriate precept, for\nthe community over which, eight years later, the first great\nPersecution was to break in \"blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke.\"\nAnd no doubt there was abundant present occasion for it, even while\nthe scene was comparatively tranquil. Every modern mission-field can\nillustrate the possibilities of a \"persecution\" which may be\naltogether private, or which at most may touch only a narrow\nneighbourhood; which may never reach the point of technical outrage,\nyet may apply a truly \"fiery trial\" to the faithful convert. Even in\ncircles of our decorous English society is no such thing known as the\n\"persecution\" of a life \"not conformed to this world,\" though the\nassault or torture may take forms almost invisible and impalpable,\nexcept to the sensibilities of the object of it? For all such cases,\nas well as for the confessor on the rack, and the martyr in the fire,\nthis precept holds expressly; \"_Bless, do not curse_.\" In Christ find\npossible the impossible; let the resentment of nature die, at His\nfeet, in the breath of His love.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =To rejoice with the rejoicing, and to weep with\nthe weeping;= holy duties of the surrendered life, too easily\nforgotten. Alas, there is such a phenomenon, not altogether rare, as a\nlife whose self-surrender, in some main aspects, cannot be doubted,\nbut which utterly fails in sympathy. A certain spiritual exaltation is\nallowed actually to harden, or at least to seem to harden, the\nconsecrated heart; and the man who perhaps witnesses for God with a\nprophet's ardour is yet not one to whom the mourner would go for tears\nand prayer in his bereavement, or the child for a perfectly human\nsmile in its play. But this is not as the Lord would have it be. If\nindeed the Christian has \"given his body over,\" it is that his eyes,\nand lips, and hands, may be ready to give loving tokens of fellowship\nin sorrow, and (what is less obvious) in gladness too, to the human\nhearts around him.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =Feeling[217] the same thing towards one\nanother;= animated by a happy identity of sympathy and brotherhood.\n=Not haughty in feeling,[218] but full of lowly sympathies[219];=\naccessible, in an unaffected fellowship, to the poor, the social\ninferior, the weak and the defeated, and again to the smallest and\nhomeliest interests of all. It was the Lord's example; the little\nchild, the wistful parent, the widow with her mites, the poor fallen\nwoman of the street, could \"lead away\" (\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03c0\u03ac\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd) His blessed\nsympathies with a touch, while He responded with an unbroken majesty\nof gracious power, but with a kindness for which condescension seems a\nword far too cold and distant.\n\n=Do not get to be wise in your own opinion;= be ready always to learn;\ndread the attitude of mind, too possible even for the man of earnest\nspiritual purpose, which assumes that you have nothing to learn and\neverything to teach; which makes it easy to criticize and to\ndiscredit; and which can prove an altogether repellent thing to the\nobserver from outside, who is trying to estimate the Gospel by its\nadherent and advocate. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =Requiting no one evil for\nevil;= safe from the spirit of retaliation, in your surrender to Him\n\"who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered,\nthreatened not.\" =Taking forethought for good in the sight of all\nmen;= not letting habits, talk, expenses, drift into inconsistency;\nwatching with open and considerate eyes against what others may fairly\nthink to be unchristian in you. Here is no counsel of cowardice, no\nrecommendation of slavery to a public opinion which may be altogether\nwrong. It is a precept of loyal jealousy for the heavenly Master's\nhonour. His servant is to be nobly indifferent to the world's thought\nand word where he is sure that God and the world antagonize. But he is\nto be sensitively attentive to the world's observation where the\nworld, more or less acquainted with the Christian precept or\nprinciple, and more or less conscious of its truth and right, is\nwatching, maliciously or it may be wistfully, to see if it governs the\nChristian's practice. In view of this the man will never be content\neven with the satisfaction of his own conscience; he will set himself\nnot only to do right, but to be seen to do it. He will not only be\ntrue to a monetary trust, for example; he will take care that the\nproofs of his fidelity shall be open. He will not only mean well\ntowards others; he will take care that his manner and bearing, his\ndealings and intercourse, shall unmistakably breathe the Christian\nair.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =If possible, as regards your side,= (the\n\"_your_\" is as emphatic as possible in position and in meaning,)\n=living at peace with all men;= yes, even in pagan and hostile Rome. A\npeculiarly Christian principle speaks here. The men who had \"given\nover their bodies a living sacrifice\" might think, imaginably, that\ntheir duty was to court the world's enmity, to tilt as it were against\nits spears, as if the one supreme call was to collide, to fall, and to\nbe glorified. But this would be fanaticism; and the Gospel is never\nfanatical, for it is the law of love. The surrendered Christian is\nnot, as such, an aspirant for even a martyr's fame, but the servant of\nGod and man. If martyrdom crosses his path, it is met as duty; but he\ndoes not court it as _\u00e9clat_. And what is true of martyrdom is of\ncourse true of every lower and milder form of the conflict of the\nChurch, and of the Christian, in the world.\n\nNothing more nobly evidences the divine origin of the Gospel than this\nessential precept; \"as far as it lies with _you_, live peaceably with\nall men.\" Such wise and kind forbearance and neighbourliness would\nnever have been bound up with the belief of supernatural powers and\nhopes, if those powers and hopes had been the mere issue of human\nexaltation, of natural enthusiasm. The supernatural of the Gospel\nleads to nothing but rectitude and considerateness, in short to\nnothing but love, between man and man. And why? Because it is indeed\ndivine; it is the message and gift of the living Son of God, in all\nthe truth and majesty of His rightfulness. All too early in the\nhistory of the Church \"the crown of martyrdom\" became an object of\nenthusiastic ambition. But that was not because of the teaching of the\nCrucified, nor of His suffering Apostles. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =Not\navenging yourselves, beloved; no, give place to the wrath;= let the\nangry opponent, the dread persecutor, have his way, so far as your\nresistance or retaliation is concerned. \"_Beloved_, let us love\"\n(1\u00a0John iv.\u00a07); with that strong and conquering love which wins by\nsuffering. And do not fear lest eternal justice should go by default;\nthere is One who will take care of that matter; you may leave it with\nHim. =For it stands written= (Deut. xxxii.\u00a035), =\"To Me belongs\nvengeance; I will recompense, saith the Lord.\"= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.]\n=\"But if\"[220]= (and again he quotes the older Scriptures, finding in\nthe Proverbs (xxv.\u00a021, 22) the same oracular authority as in the\nPentateuch), =\"but if thy enemy is hungry, give him food; if he is\nthirsty, give him drink; for so doing thou wilt heap coals of fire on\nhis head\";= taking the best way to the only \"_vengeance_\" which a\nsaint can wish, namely, your \"enemy's\" conviction of his wrong, the\nrising of a burning shame in his soul, and the melting of his spirit\nin the fire of love. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =Be not thou conquered by\nthe evil, but conquer, in the good, the evil.=\n\n\"_In_ the good\"; as if surrounded by it,[221] moving invulnerable, in\nits magic circle, through \"the contradiction of sinners,\" \"the\nprovoking of all men.\" The thought is just that of Psal. xxxi.\u00a018, 19:\n\"How great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear\nThee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the\nsons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence from\nthe pride of man; Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the\nstrife of tongues.\" \"_The good_\" of this sentence of St Paul's is no\nvague and abstract thing; it is \"the gift of God\" (vi.\u00a028); it is the\nlife eternal found and possessed in union with Christ, our\nRighteousness, our Sanctification, our Redemption. Practically,[222]\nit is \"not It but _He_.\" The Roman convert who should find it more\nthan possible to meet his enemy with love, to do him positive good in\nhis need, with a conquering simplicity of intention, was to do so not\nso much by an internal conflict between his \"better self\" and his\nworse, as by the living power of Christ received in his whole being;\nby \"abiding in Him.\"\n\nIt is so now, and for ever. The open secret of divine peace and love\nis what it was; as necessary, as versatile, as victorious. And its\npath of victory is as straight and as sure as of old. And the precept\nto tread that path, daily and hourly, if occasion calls, is still as\ndivinely binding as it ever was for the Christian, if indeed he has\nembraced \"the mercies of God,\" and is looking to his Lord to be\nevermore \"transfigured, by the renewing of his mind.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs we review this rich field of the flowers, and of the gold, of\nholiness, this now completed paragraph of epigrammatic precepts, some\nleading and pervading principles emerge. We see first that the\nsanctity of the Gospel is no hushed and cloistered \"indifferentism.\"\nIt is a thing intended for the open field of human life; to be lived\nout \"before the sons of men.\" A strong positive element is in it. The\nsaint is to \"_abominate_ the evil\"; not only to deprecate it, and\ndeplore. He is to be energetically \"_in earnest_.\" He is to \"_glow_\"\nwith the Spirit, and to \"_rejoice_\" in the hope of glory. He is to\ntake practical, provident pains to live not only aright, but\nmanifestly aright, in ways which \"_all men_\" can recognize. Again, his\nlife is to be essentially social. He is contemplated as one who meets\nother lives at every turn, and he is never to forget or neglect his\nrelation to them. Particularly in the Christian Society, he is to\ncherish the \"family affection\" of the Gospel; to defer to fellow\nChristians in a generous humility; to share his means with the poor\namong them; to welcome the strangers of them to his house. He is to\nthink it a sacred duty to enter into the joys and the sorrows round\nhim. He is to keep his sympathies open for despised people, and for\nlittle matters. Then again, and most prominently after all, he is to\nbe ready to suffer, and to meet suffering with a spirit far greater\nthan that of only resignation. He is to bless his persecutor; he is to\nserve his enemy in ways most practical and active; he is to conquer\nhim for Christ, in the power of a divine communion.\n\nThus, meanwhile, the life, so positive, so active in its effects, is\nto be essentially all the while a passive, bearing, enduring, life.\nIts strength is to spring not from the energies of nature, which may\nor may not be vigorous in the man, but from an internal surrender to\nthe claim and government of his Lord. He has \"presented himself to\nGod\" (vi.\u00a013); he has \"presented his body, a living sacrifice\"\n(xii.\u00a01). He has recognized, with a penitent wonder and joy, that he\nis but the limb of a Body, and that his Head is the Lord. His thought\nis now not for his personal rights, his individual exaltation, but for\nthe glory of his Head, for the fulfilment of the thought of his Head,\nand for the health and wealth of the Body, as the great vehicle in the\nworld of the gracious will of the Head.\n\nIt is among the chief and deepest of the characteristics of Christian\nethics, this passive root below a rich growth and harvest of activity.\nAll through the New Testament we find it expressed or suggested. The\nfirst Beatitude uttered by the Lord (Matt. v.\u00a03) is given to \"the\npoor, the mendicant (\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9\u03c7\u03bf\u03af), in spirit.\" The last (John xx.\u00a029) is\nfor the believer, who trusts without seeing. The radiant portrait of\nholy Love (1\u00a0Cor. xiii.) produces its effect, full of indescribable\nlife as well as beauty, by the combination of almost none but negative\ntouches; the \"total abstinence\" of the loving soul from impatience,\nfrom envy, from self-display, from self-seeking, from brooding over\nwrong, from even the faintest pleasure in evil, from the tendency to\nthink ill of others. Everywhere the Gospel bids the Christian take\nsides against himself. He is to stand ready to forego even his surest\nrights, if only _he_ is hurt by so doing; while on the other hand he\nis watchful to respect even the least obvious rights of others, yea,\nto consider their weaknesses, and their prejudices, to the furthest\njust limit. He is \"not to resist evil\"; in the sense of never fighting\nfor self as self. He is rather to \"suffer himself to be defrauded\"\n(1\u00a0Cor. vi.\u00a07) than to bring discredit on his Lord in however due a\ncourse of law. The straits and humiliations of his earthly lot, if\nsuch things are the will of God for him, are not to be materials for\nhis discontent, or occasions for his envy, or for his secular\nambition. They are to be his opportunities for inward triumph; the\ntheme of a \"song of the Lord,\" in which he is to sing of strength\nperfected in weakness, of a power not his own \"overshadowing\" him\n(2\u00a0Cor. xii.\u00a09, 10).\n\nSuch is the passivity of the saints, deep beneath their serviceable\nactivity. The two are in vital connexion. The root is not the accident\nbut the proper antecedent of the product. For the secret and\nunostentatious surrender of the will, in its Christian sense, is no\nmere evacuation, leaving the house swept but empty; it is the\nreception of the Lord of life into the open castle of the City of\nMansoul. It is the placing in His hands of all that the walls contain.\nAnd placed in His hands, the castle, and the city, will shew at once,\nand continually more and more, that not only order but life has taken\npossession. The surrender of the Moslem is, in its theory, _a mere_\nsubmission. The surrender of the Gospel is a reception also; and thus\nits nature is to come out in \"the fruit of the Spirit.\"\n\nOnce more, let us not forget that the Apostle lays his main emphasis\nhere rather on being than on doing. Nothing is said of great spiritual\nenterprises; everything has to do with the personal conduct of the men\nwho, if such enterprises are done, must do them. This too is\ncharacteristic of the New Testament. Very rarely do the Apostles say\nanything about their converts' duty, for instance, to carry the\nmessage of Christ around them in evangelistic aggression. Such\naggression was assuredly attempted, and in numberless ways, by the\nprimeval Christians, from those who were \"scattered abroad\" (Acts\nviii.\u00a04) after the death of Stephen onwards. The Philippians (ii.\u00a015,\n16) \"shone as lights in the world, holding out the word of life.\" The\nEphesians (v.\u00a013) penetrated the surrounding darkness, being\nthemselves \"light in the Lord.\" The Thessalonians (1, i.\u00a08) made their\nwitness felt \"in Macedonia, and Achaia, and in every place.\" The\nRomans, encouraged by St Paul's presence and sufferings, \"were bold to\nspeak the word without fear\" (Phil. i.\u00a014). St John (3\u00a0Ep. 7) alludes\nto missionaries who, \"for the Name's sake, went forth, taking nothing\nof the Gentiles.\"\n\nYet is it not plain that, when the Apostles thought of the life and\nzeal of their converts, their first care, by far, was that they should\nbe wholly conformed to the will of God in personal and social matters?\nThis was the indispensable condition to their being, as a community,\nwhat they must be if they were to prove true witnesses and\npropagandists for their Lord.\n\nGod forbid that we should draw from this phenomenon one inference,\nhowever faint, to thwart or discredit the missionary zeal now in our\nday rising like a fresh, pure tide in the believing Church. May our\nMaster continually animate His servants in the Church at home to seek\nthe lost around them, to recall the lapsed with the voice of truth and\nlove. May He multiply a hundredfold the scattered host of His\n\"witnesses in the uttermost parts of the earth,\" through the\ndwelling-places of those eight hundred millions who are still pagan,\nnot to speak of the lesser yet vast multitudes of misbelievers,\nMahometan and Jewish. But neither in missionary enterprise, nor in any\nsort of activity for God and man, is this deep suggestion of the\nEpistles to be forgotten. What the Christian does is even more\nimportant than what he says. What he is is the all-important\nantecedent to what he does. He is \"nothing yet as he ought to\" be if,\namidst even innumerable efforts and aggressions, he has not \"presented\nhis body a living sacrifice\" for his Lord's purposes, not his own; if\nhe has not learnt, in his Lord, an unaffected love, a holy family\naffection, a sympathy with griefs and joys around him, a humble esteem\nof himself, and the blessed art of giving way to wrath, and of\novercoming evil in \"the good\" of the presence of the Lord.\n\n[211] See the context of 1\u00a0Cor. vi.\u00a017 for an apology for this\nparaphrase of \u03ba\u03bf\u03bb\u03bb\u03ce\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9.\n\n[212] \"_In business_\" gives perhaps too special a direction to the\nthought, as we use the word \"_business_\" now. Not that that special\ndirection would not have a noble truth in it, rightly understood.\n\n[213] Literally \"_boiling_,\" as a caldron on the fire.\n\n[214] This reading, \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u1ff3, as against \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u1ff7, appears to be\ncertainly right.--Our rendering is bold; for undoubtedly \"_serving the\nLord_\" meets the Greek grammar more simply. But the datives are\nhitherto so clearly datives of relation that we think this also must\nbe so explained. We can only apologize for the crude compound\n\"_bond-serving_\" by the wish to represent the full force of\n\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5\u03bb\u03b5\u03cd\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2.\n\n[215] \u03a4\u1f74\u03bd \u03c6\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03be\u03b5\u03bd\u03af\u03b1\u03bd: we may paraphrase the article by \"_your_\nhospitality,\" or even \"_Christian_ hospitality.\" But this would\nexaggerate the impression it represented.\n\n[216] \u0394\u03b9\u03ce\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2: it seems certain that this word was suggested by\nthe \u03b4\u03b9\u03ce\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 just before, widely different as the references are.\nBut how shall English convey this echo?\n\n[217] \u03a6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c3: the word \"_thinking_\" does not quite rightly\nrepresent the Greek. \u03a6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd is not \"_to think_,\" in the sense of\narticulate reflection, but to have a mental and moral disposition, of\nwhatever kind. A popular use of the word \"_to feel_\" fairly represents\nthis.\n\n[218] Lit., \"_not 'minding,' affecting, high things_.\" We paraphrase,\nto retain the word \"_feeling_\" for \u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd.\n\n[219] Lit., \"_being led away with the humble (things)_.\" Some\nparaphrase is necessary here.\n\n[220] Read, \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb' \u1f10\u1f70\u03bd.\n\n[221] We are aware that not seldom in the N. T. \u1f10\u03bd represents the\nHebrew \u05d1 (of \u05d1\u05db\u05dc\u05dd) in its familiar instrumental meaning, without any\ndefinite trace of _local_ imagery. But where the more literal\nrendering has an obvious fitness it is best to retain it. Thus we\nrender \u1f10\u03bd here by \"_by_\" not \"_in_.\"\n\n[222] Though the \u03c4\u1ff3 \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u1ff3 of the Greek is certainly neuter, by its\nbalance with \u03c4\u1f78 \u03ba\u03b1\u03ba\u03cc\u03bd.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII\n\n_CHRISTIAN DUTY; IN CIVIL LIFE AND OTHERWISE: LOVE_\n\nROMANS xiii.\u00a01-10\n\n\nA new topic now emerges, distinct, yet in close and natural connexion.\nWe have been listening to precepts for personal and social life, all\nrooted in that inmost characteristic of Christian morals,\nself-surrender, self-submission to God. Loyalty to others in the Lord\nhas been the theme. In the circles of home, of friendship, of the\nChurch; in the open field of intercourse with men in general, whose\npersonal enmity or religious persecution was so likely to cross the\npath--in all these regions the Christian was to act on the principle\nof supernatural submission, as the sure way to spiritual victory.\n\nThe same principle is now carried into his relations with the State.\nAs a Christian, he does not cease to be a citizen, to be a subject.\nHis deliverance from the death-sentence of the Law of God only binds\nhim, in his Lord's name, to a loyal fidelity to human statute; limited\nonly by the case where such statute may really contradict the supreme\ndivine law. The disciple of Christ, as such, while his whole being has\nreceived an emancipation unknown elsewhere, is to be the faithful\nsubject of the Emperor, the orderly inhabitant of his quarter in the\nCity, the punctual taxpayer, the ready giver of not a servile yet a\ngenuine deference to the representatives and ministers of human\nauthority.\n\nThis is he to do for reasons both general and special. In general, it\nis his Christian duty rather to submit than otherwise, where\nconscience toward God is not in the question. Not weakly, but meekly,\nhe is to yield rather than resist in all his intercourse, purely\npersonal, with men; and therefore with the officials of order, as men.\nBut in particular also, he is to understand that civil order is not\nonly a desirable thing, but divine; it is the will of God for the\nsocial Race made in His Image. In the abstract, this is absolutely so;\ncivil order is a God-given law, as truly as the most explicit precepts\nof the Decalogue, in whose Second Table it is so plainly implied all\nalong. And in the concrete, the civil order under which the Christian\nfinds himself to be is to be regarded as a real instance of this great\nprinciple. It is quite sure to be imperfect, because it is necessarily\nmediated through human minds and wills. Very possibly it may be\ngravely distorted, into a system seriously oppressive of the\nindividual life. As a fact, the supreme magistrate for the Roman\nChristians in the year 58 was a dissolute young man, intoxicated by\nthe discovery that he might do almost entirely as he pleased with the\nlives around him; by no defect however in the idea and purpose of\nRoman law, but by fault of the degenerate world of the day. Yet civil\nauthority, even with a Nero at its head, was still in principle a\nthing divine. And the Christian's attitude to it was to be always that\nof a willingness, a purpose, to obey; an absence of the resistance\nwhose motive lies in self-assertion. Most assuredly his attitude was\nnot to be that of the revolutionist, who looks upon the State as a\nsort of belligerent power, against which he, alone or in company,\nopenly or in the dark, is free to carry on a campaign. Under even\nheavy pressure the Christian is still to remember that civil\ngovernment is, in its principle, \"of God.\" He is to reverence the\nInstitution in its idea. He is to regard its actual officers, whatever\ntheir personal faults, as so far dignified by the Institution that\ntheir governing work is to be considered always first in the light of\nthe Institution. The most imperfect, even the most erring,\nadministration of civil order is still a thing to be respected before\nit is criticized. In its principle, it is a \"_terror not to good\nworks, but to the evil_.\"\n\nIt hardly needs elaborate remark to shew that such a precept, little\nas it may accord with many popular political cries of our time, means\nanything in the Christian but a political servility, or an\nindifference on his part to political wrong in the actual course of\ngovernment. The religion which invites every man to stand face to face\nwith God in Christ, to go straight to the Eternal, knowing no\nintermediary but His Son, and no ultimate authority but His Scripture,\nfor the certainties of the soul, for peace of conscience, for dominion\nover evil in himself and in the world, and for more than deliverance\nfrom the fear of death, is no friend to the tyrants of mankind. We\nhave seen how, by enthroning Christ in the heart, it inculcates a\nnoble inward submissiveness. But from another point of view it\nequally, and mightily, develops the noblest sort of individualism. It\nlifts man to a sublime independence of his surroundings, by joining\nhim direct to God in Christ, by making him the Friend of God. No\nwonder then that, in the course of history, Christianity, that is to\nsay the Christianity of the Apostles, of the Scriptures, has been the\ninvincible ally of personal conscience and political liberty, the\nliberty which is the opposite alike of licence and of tyranny. It is\nChristianity which has taught men calmly to die, in face of a\npersecuting Empire, or of whatever other giant human force, rather\nthan do wrong at its bidding. It is Christianity which has lifted\ninnumerable souls to stand upright in solitary protest for truth and\nagainst falsehood, when every form of governmental authority has been\nagainst them. It was the student of St Paul who, alone before the\ngreat Diet, uttering no denunciation, temperate and respectful in his\nwhole bearing, was yet found immovable by Pope and Emperor: \"_I can\nnot otherwise; so help me God_.\" We may be sure that if the world\nshuts the Bible it will only the sooner revert, under whatever type of\ngovernment, to essential despotism, whether it be the despotism of the\nmaster, or that of the man. The \"individual\" indeed will \"wither.\" The\nAutocrat will find no purely independent spirits in his path. And what\nthen shall call itself, however loudly, \"Liberty, Fraternity,\nEquality,\" will be found at last, where the Bible is unknown, to be\nthe remorseless despot of the personality, and of the home.\n\nIt is Christianity which has peacefully and securely freed the slave,\nand has restored woman to her true place by the side of man. But then,\nChristianity has done all this in a way of its own. It has never\nflattered the oppressed, nor inflamed them. It has told impartial\ntruth to them, and to their oppressors. One of the least hopeful\nphenomena of present political life is the adulation (it cannot be\ncalled by another name) too frequently offered to the working classes\nby their leaders, or by those who ask their suffrages. A flattery as\ngross as any ever accepted by complacent monarchs is almost all that\nis now heard about themselves by the new master-section of the State.\nThis is not Christianity, but its parody. The Gospel tells\nuncompromising truth to the rich, but also to the poor. Even in the\npresence of pagan slavery it laid the law of duty on the slave, as\nwell as on his master. It bade the slave consider his obligations\nrather than his rights; while it said the same, precisely, and more at\nlength, and more urgently, to his lord. So it at once avoided\nrevolution and sowed the living seed of immense, and salutary, and\never-developing reforms. The doctrine of spiritual equality, and\nspiritual connexion, secured in Christ, came into the world as the\nguarantee for the whole social and political system of the truest\nultimate political liberty. For it equally chastened and developed the\nindividual, in relation to the life around him.\n\nSerious questions for practical casuistry may be raised, of course,\nfrom this passage. Is resistance to a cruel despotism never\npermissible to the Christian? In a time of revolution, when power\nwrestles with power, which power is the Christian to regard as\n\"_ordained of God_\"? It may be sufficient to reply to the former\nquestion that, almost self-evidently, the absolute principles of a\npassage like this take for granted some balance and modification by\nconcurrent principles. Read without any such reserve, St Paul leaves\nhere no alternative, under any circumstances, to submission. But he\ncertainly did not mean to say that the Christian must submit to an\nimperial order to sacrifice to the Roman gods. It seems to follow that\nthe letter of the precept does not pronounce it inconceivable that a\nChristian, under circumstances which leave his action unselfish,\ntruthful, the issue not of impatience but of conviction, might be\njustified in positive resistance; such resistance as was offered to\noppression by the Huguenots of the Cevennes, and by the Alpine Vaudois\nbefore them. But history adds its witness to the warnings of St Paul,\nand of his Master, that almost inevitably it goes ill in the highest\nrespects with saints who \"take the sword,\" and that the purest\nvictories for freedom are won by those who \"endure grief, suffering\nwrongfully,\" while they witness for right and Christ before their\noppressors. The Protestant pastors of Southern France won a nobler\nvictory than any won by Jean Cavalier in the field of battle when, at\nthe risk of their lives, they met in the woods to draw up a solemn\ndocument of loyalty to Louis XV.; informing him that their injunction\nto their flocks always was, and always would be, \"_Fear God, honour\nthe King._\"\n\nMeanwhile Godet, in some admirable notes on this passage, remarks that\nit leaves the Christian not only not bound to aid an oppressive\ngovernment by active co-operation, but amply free to witness aloud\nagainst its wrong; and that his \"submissive but firm conduct is itself\na homage to the inviolability of authority. Experience proves that it\nis in this way all tyrannies have been morally broken, and all true\nprogress in the history of humanity effected.\"\n\nWhat the servant of God should do with his allegiance at a\nrevolutionary crisis is a grave question for any whom it may unhappily\nconcern. Thomas Scott, in a useful note on our passage, remarks that\n\"perhaps nothing involves greater difficulties, in very many\ninstances, than to ascertain to whom the authority _justly_\nbelongs.... Submission in all things lawful to 'the existing\nauthorities' is our duty at all times and in all cases; though in\ncivil convulsions ... there may frequently be a difficulty in\ndetermining which are 'the existing authorities.'\" In such cases \"the\nChristian,\" says Godet, \"will submit to the new power as soon as the\nresistance of the old shall have ceased. In the actual state of\nmatters he will recognize the manifestation of God's will, and will\ntake no part in any reactionary plot.\"\n\nAs regards the problem of forms or types of government, it seems clear\nthat the Apostle lays no bond _of conscience_ on the Christian. Both\nin the Old Testament and in the New a just monarchy appears to be the\nideal. But our Epistle says that \"there is _no power_ but of God.\" In\nSt Paul's time the Roman Empire was in theory, as much as ever, a\nrepublic, and in fact a personal monarchy. In this question, as in so\nmany others of the outward framework of human life, the Gospel is\nliberal in its applications, while it is, in the noblest sense,\nconservative in principle.\n\nWe close our preparatory comments, and proceed to the text, with the\ngeneral recollection that in this brief paragraph we see and touch as\nit were the corner-stone of civil order. One side of the angle is the\nindefeasible duty, for the Christian citizen, of reverence for law, of\nremembrance of the religious aspect of even secular government. The\nother side is the memento to the ruler, to the authority, that God\nthrows His shield over the claims of the State only because authority\nwas instituted not for selfish but for social ends, so that it belies\nitself if it is not used for the good of man.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =Let every soul,= every person, who has \"presented\nhis body a living sacrifice,\" =be submissive to the ruling\nauthorities;= manifestly, from the context, the authorities of the\nState. =For there is no authority except by God[223]; but the existing\nauthorities have been appointed by God.= That is, the _imperium_ of\nthe King Eternal is absolutely reserved; an authority not sanctioned\nby Him is nothing; man is no independent source of power and law. But\nthen, it has pleased God so to order human life and history, that His\nwill in this matter is expressed, from time to time, in and through\nthe actual constitution of the state. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =So that the\nopponent of the authority withstands the ordinance of God,= not merely\nthat of man; =but the withstanders will on themselves bring sentence\nof judgment;= not only the human crime of treason, but the charge, in\nthe court of God, of rebellion against His will. This is founded on\nthe idea of law and order, which means by its nature the restraint of\npublic mischief and the promotion, or at least protection, of public\ngood. \"Authority,\" even under its worst distortions, still so far\nkeeps that aim that no human civic power, as a fact, punishes good as\ngood, and rewards evil as evil; and thus for the common run of lives\nthe worst settled authority is infinitely better than real anarchy.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =For rulers, as a class (\u03bf\u1f31 \u1f04\u03c1\u03c7\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2), are not\na terror to the good deed, but to the evil;= such is always the fact\nin principle, and such, taking human life as a whole, is the tendency,\neven at the worst, in practice, where the authority in any degree\ndeserves its name. =Now do you wish not to be afraid of the authority?\ndo what is good, and you shall have praise from it;= the \"_praise_,\"\nat least, of being unmolested and protected. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =For\nGod's agent (\u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2) he is to you, for what is good;= through his\nfunction God, in providence, carries out His purposes of order. =But\nif you are doing what is evil, be afraid; for not for nothing\n(\u03b5\u1f30\u03ba\u1fc6),= not without warrant, nor without purpose, =does he wear his\n(\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) sword,= symbol of the ultimate power of life and death; =for\nGod's agent is he, an avenger, unto wrath, for the practiser of the\nevil.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =Wherefore,= because God is in the matter,\n=it is a necessity to submit, not only because of the wrath,= the\nruler's wrath in the case supposed, =but because of the conscience\ntoo;= because you know, as a Christian, that God speaks through the\nstate and through its minister, and that anarchy is therefore\ndisloyalty to Him. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =For on this account too you\npay taxes;= the same commission which gives the state the right to\nrestrain and punish gives it the right to demand subsidy from its\nmembers, in order to its operations; =for God's ministers are they,=\nHis \u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b3\u03bf\u03af, a word so frequently used in sacerdotal connexions\nthat it well may suggest them here; as if the civil ruler were, in his\nprovince, an almost religious instrument of divine order; =God's\nministers, to this very end persevering= in their task; working on in\nthe toils of administration, for the execution, consciously or not, of\nthe divine plan of social peace.\n\nThis is a noble point of view, alike for governed and for governors,\nfrom which to consider the prosaic problems and necessities of public\nfinance. Thus understood, the tax is paid not with a cold and\ncompulsory assent to a mechanical exaction, but as an act in the line\nof the plan of God. And the tax is devised and demanded, not merely as\nan expedient to adjust a budget, but as a thing which God's law can\nsanction, in the interests of God's social plan. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.]\n=Discharge therefore to all men,= to all men in authority, primarily,\nbut not only, =their dues; the tax, to whom you owe the tax,= on\nperson and property; =the toll, to whom the toll,= on merchandise;\n=the fear, to whom the fear,= as to the ordained punisher of wrong;\n=the honour, to whom the honour,= as to the rightful claimant in\ngeneral of loyal deference.\n\nSuch were the political principles of the new Faith, of the mysterious\nSociety, which was so soon to perplex the Roman statesman, as well as\nto supply convenient victims to the Roman despot. A Nero was shortly\nto burn Christians in his gardens as a substitute for lamps, on the\ncharge that they were guilty of secret and horrible orgies. Later, a\nTrajan, grave and anxious, was to order their execution as members of\na secret community dangerous to imperial order. But here is a private\nmissive sent to this people by their leader, reminding them of their\nprinciples, and prescribing their line of action. He puts them in\nimmediate spiritual contact, every man and woman of them, with the\nEternal Sovereign, and so he inspires them with the strongest possible\nindependence, as regards \"the fear of man.\" He bids them know, for a\ncertainty, that the Almighty One regards them, each and all, as\naccepted in His Beloved, and fills them with His great Presence, and\npromises them a coming heaven from which no earthly power or terror\ncan for a moment shut them out. But in the same message, and in the\nsame Name, he commands them to pay their taxes to the pagan State, and\nto do so, not with the contemptuous indifference of the fanatic, who\nthinks that human life in its temporal order is God-forsaken, but in\nthe spirit of cordial loyalty and ungrudging deference, as to an\nauthority representing in its sphere none other than their Lord and\nFather.\n\nIt has been suggested that the first serious antagonism of the state\ntowards these mysterious Christians was occasioned by the inevitable\ninterference of the claims of Christ with the stern and rigid order of\nthe Roman Family. A power which could assert the right, the duty, of a\nson to reject his father's religious worship was taken to be a power\nwhich meant the destruction of all social order as such; a _nihilism_\nindeed. This was a tremendous misunderstanding to encounter. How was\nit to be met? Not by tumultuary resistance, not even by passionate\nprotests and invectives. The answer was to be that of love, practical\nand loyal, to God and man, in life and, when occasion came, in\ndeath.[224] Upon the line of that path lay at least the possibility of\nmartyrdom, with its lions and its funeral piles; but the end of it was\nthe peaceful vindication of the glory of God and of the Name of Jesus,\nand the achievement of the best security for the liberties of man.\n\nCongenially then the Apostle closes these precepts of civil order with\nthe universal command to love. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =Owe nothing to\nanyone;= avoid absolutely the social disloyalty of debt; pay every\ncreditor in full, with watchful care; =except the loving one another.=\nLove is to be a perpetual and inexhaustible debt, not as if repudiated\nor neglected, but as always due and always paying; a debt, not as a\nforgotten account is owing to the seller, but as interest on capital\nis continuously owing to the lender. And this, not only because of the\nfair beauty of love, but because of the legal duty of it: =For the\nlover of his fellow= (\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f15\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd, \"_the other man_,\" be he who he\nmay, with whom the man has to do) =has fulfilled the law,= the law of\nthe Second Table, the code of man's duty to man, which is in question\nhere. He \"_has_ fulfilled\" it; as having at once entered, in principle\nand will, into its whole requirement; so that all he now needs is not\na better attitude but developed information. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =For\nthe, \"Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not murder, Thou\nshalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,[225] Thou shalt\nnot covet,\" and whatever other commandment there is, all is summed up\nin this utterance, \"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself\"= (Lev.\nxix.\u00a018). [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =Love works the neighbour no ill;\ntherefore love is the Law's fulfilment.=\n\nIs it a mere negative precept then? Is the life of love to be only an\nabstinence from doing harm, which may shun thefts, but may also shun\npersonal sacrifices? Is it a cold and inoperative \"harmlessness,\"\nwhich leaves all things as they are? We see the answer in part in\nthose words, \"_as thyself_.\" Man \"loves _himself_,\" (in the sense of\nnature, not of sin,) with a love which instinctively avoids indeed\nwhat is repulsive and noxious, but does so because it positively likes\nand desires the opposite. The man who \"loves his neighbour _as\nhimself_\" will be as considerate of his neighbour's feelings as of his\nown, in respect of abstinence from injury and annoyance. But he will\nbe more; he will be actively desirous of his neighbour's good.\n\"_Working him no evil_,\" he will reckon it as much \"_evil_\" to be\nindifferent to his positive true interests as he would reckon it\nunnatural to be apathetic about his own. \"_Working him no evil_,\" as\none who \"_loves him as himself_,\" he will care, and seek, to work him\ngood.\n\n\"Love,\" says Leibnitz, in reference to the great controversy on Pure\nLove agitated by F\u00e9nelon and Bossuet, \"is that which finds its\nfelicity in another's good.\"[226] Such an agent can never terminate\nits action in a mere cautious abstinence from wrong.\n\nThe true divine commentary on this brief paragraph is the nearly\ncontemporary passage written by the same author, 1\u00a0Cor. xiii. There,\nas we saw above, the description of the sacred thing, love, like that\nof the heavenly state in the Revelation, is given largely in\nnegatives. Yet who fails to feel the wonderful _positive_ of the\neffect? That is no merely negative innocence which is greater than\nmysteries, and knowledge, and the use of an angel tongue; greater than\nself-inflicted poverty, and the endurance of the martyr's flame;\n\"chief grace below, and all in all above.\" Its blessed negatives are\nbut a form of unselfish _action_. It forgets itself, and remembers\nothers, and refrains from the least needless wounding of them, not\nbecause it wants merely \"to live and let live,\" but because it loves\nthem, finding its felicity in their good.\n\nIt has been said that \"love is holiness, spelt short.\" Thoughtfully\ninterpreted and applied, the saying is true. The holy man in human\nlife is the man who, with the Scriptures open before him as his\ninformant and his guide, while the Lord Christ dwells in his heart by\nfaith as his Reason and his Power, forgets himself in a work for\nothers which is kept at once gentle, wise, and persistent to the end,\nby the love which, whatever else it does, knows how to sympathize and\nto serve.\n\n[223] Read \u1f51\u03c0\u1f78 not \u1f00\u03c0\u03cc.\n\n[224] \"To believe, to suffer, and to love, was the primitive taste\"\n(Milner).\n\n[225] This clause is perhaps to be omitted here.\n\n[226] See Card. Bausset, _Vie de F\u00e9nelon_, ii.\u00a0375. Leibnitz, in a\nletter to T. Burnet, quotes the words from a work of his own; _Amare\nest felicitate alterius delectari_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII\n\n_CHRISTIAN DUTY IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORD'S RETURN AND IN THE POWER OF\nHIS PRESENCE_\n\nROMANS xiii.\u00a011-14\n\n\nThe great teacher has led us long upon the path of duty, in its\npatient details, all summed up in the duty and joy of love. We have\nheard him explaining to his disciples how to live as members together\nof the Body of Christ, and as members also of human society at large,\nand as citizens of the state. We have been busy latterly with thoughts\nof taxes, and tolls, and private debts, and the obligation of\nscrupulous rightfulness in all such things. Everything has had\nrelation to the seen and the temporal. The teaching has not strayed\ninto a land of dreams, nor into a desert and a cell; it has had at\nleast as much to do with the market, and the shop, and the secular\nofficial, as if the writer had been a moralist whose horizon was\naltogether of this life, and who for the future was \"without hope.\"\n\nYet all the while the teacher and the taught were penetrated and\nvivified by a certainty of the future perfectly supernatural, and\ncommanding the wonder and glad response of their whole being. They\ncarried about with them the promise of their Risen Master that He\nwould personally return again in heavenly glory, to their infinite\njoy, gathering them for ever around Him in immortality, bringing\nheaven with Him, and transfiguring them into His own celestial Image.\n\nAcross all possible complications and obstacles of the human world\naround them they beheld \"that blissful hope\" (Tit. ii.\u00a013). The smoke\nof Rome could not becloud it, nor her noise drown the music of its\npromise, nor her splendour of possessions make its golden vista less\nbeautiful and less entrancing to their souls.[227] Their Lord, once\ncrucified, but now alive for evermore, was greater than the world;\ngreater in His calm triumphant authority over man and nature, greater\nin the wonder and joy of Himself, His Person and His Salvation. It was\nenough that He had said He would come again, and that it would be to\ntheir eternal happiness. He had promised; therefore it would surely\nbe.\n\nHow the promise would take place, and when, was a secondary question.\nSome things were revealed and certain, as to the manner; \"_This same\nJesus, in like manner as ye saw Him going into heaven_\" (Acts i.\u00a011).\nBut vastly more was unrevealed and even unconjectured. As to the time,\nHis words had left them, as they still leave us, suspended in a\nreverent sense of mystery, between intimations which seem almost\nequally to promise both speed and delay. \"Watch therefore, for ye know\nnot when the Master of the house cometh\" (Mark xiii.\u00a035); \"After a\nlong time the Lord of the servants cometh, and reckoneth with them\"\n(Matt. xxv.\u00a019). The Apostle himself follows his Redeemer's example in\nthe matter. Here and there he seems to indicate an Advent at the\ndoors, as when he speaks of \"_us_ who are alive and remain\" (1\u00a0Thess.\niv.\u00a015). But again, in this very Epistle, in his discourse on the\nfuture of Israel, he appears to contemplate great developments of time\nand event yet to come; and very definitely, for his own part, in many\nplaces, he records his expectation of death, not of a death-less\ntransfiguration at the Coming. Many at least among his converts looked\nwith an eagerness which was sometimes restless and unwholesome, as at\nThessalonica, for the coming King; and it may have been thus with some\nof the Roman saints. But St Paul at once warned the Thessalonians of\ntheir mistake; and certainly this Epistle _suggests_ no such upheaval\nof expectation at Rome.\n\nOur work in these pages is not to discuss \"the times and the seasons\"\nwhich now, as much as then, lie in the Father's \"power\" (Acts i.\u00a07).\nIt is rather to call attention to the fact that in all ages of the\nChurch this mysterious but definite Promise has, with a silent force,\nmade itself as it were present and contemporary to the believing and\nwatching soul. How at last it shall be seen that \"_I come quickly_\"\nand, \"_The day of Christ is not at hand_\" (Rev. xxii.\u00a012, 20, 2\u00a0Thess.\nii.\u00a02), were both divinely and harmoniously truthful, it does not yet\nfully appear. But it is certain that both are so; and that in every\ngeneration of the now \"long time\" \"the Hope,\" as if it were at the\ndoors indeed, has been calculated for mighty effects on the\nChristian's will and work.\n\nSo we come to this great Advent oracle, to read it for our own age.\nNow first let us remember its wonderful illustration of that\nphenomenon which we have remarked already, the concurrence in\nChristianity of a faith full of eternity, with a life full of common\nduty. Here is a community of men called to live under an almost opened\nheaven; almost to see, as they look around them, the descending Lord\nof glory coming to bring in the eternal day, making Himself present in\nthis visible scene \"with the voice of the archangel and the trump of\nGod,\" waking His buried saints from the dust, calling the living and\nthe risen to meet Him in the air. How can they adjust such an\nexpectation to the demands of \"the daily round\"? Will they not fly\nfrom the City to the solitude, to the hill-tops and forests of the\nApennines, to wait with awful joy the great lightning-flash of glory?\nNot so. They somehow, while \"looking for the Saviour from the heavens\"\n(Phil. iii.\u00a020), attend to their service and their business, pay their\ndebts and their taxes, offer sympathy to their neighbours in their\nhuman sadnesses and joys, and yield honest loyalty to the magistrate\nand the Prince. They are the most stable of all elements in the civic\nlife of the hour, if \"the powers that be\" would but understand them;\nwhile yet, all the while, they are the only people in the City whose\nhome, consciously, is the eternal heavens. What can explain the\nparadox? Nothing but the Fact, the Person, the Character of our Lord\nJesus Christ. It is not an enthusiasm, however powerful, which governs\nthem, but a Person. And HE is at once the Lord of immortality and the\nRuler of every detail of His servant's life. HE is no author of\nfanaticism, but the divine-human King of truth and order. To know Him\nis to find the secret alike of a life eternal and of a patient\nfaithfulness in the life that now is.\n\nWhat was true of Him is true for evermore. His servant now, in this\nrestless close of the nineteenth age, is to find in Him this wonderful\ndouble secret still. He is to be, in Christ, by the very nature of his\nfaith, the most practical and the most willing of the servants of his\nfellow-men, in their mortal as well as immortal interests; while also\ndisengaged internally from a bondage to the seen and temporal by his\nmysterious union with the Son of God, and by his firm expectation of\nHis Return. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =And this,= this law of love and\nduty, let us remember, let us follow, =knowing the season,= the\noccasion, the growing crisis (\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03cc\u03bd); =that it is already the hour\nfor our awaking out of sleep,= the sleep of moral inattention, as if\nthe eternal Master were not near. =For nearer now is our salvation,=\nin that last glorious sense of the word \"_salvation_\" which means the\nimmortal issue of the whole saving process, nearer now =than when we\nbelieved,= and so by faith entered on our union with the Saviour.\n(See how he delights to associate himself with his disciples in the\nblessed unity of remembered conversion; \"when _we_ believed.\")\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =The night,= with its murky silence, its \"poring\ndark,\" the night of trial, of temptation, of the absence of our\nChrist, =is far spent,[228] but the day has drawn near;= it has been a\nlong night, _but_ that means a near dawn; the everlasting sunrise of\nthe longed-for _Parousia_, with its glory, gladness, and unveiling.\n=Let us put off therefore,= as if they were a foul and entangling\nnight-robe, =the works of the darkness,= the habits and acts of the\nmoral night, things which _we can_ throw off in the Name of Christ;\n=but let us put on the weapons of the light,= arming ourselves, for\ndefence, and for holy aggression on the realm of evil, with faith,\nlove, and the heavenly hope. So to the Thessalonians five years before\n(1, v.\u00a08), and to the Ephesians four years later (vi.\u00a011-17), he wrote\nof the holy Panoply, rapidly sketching it in the one place, giving the\nrich finished picture in the other; suggesting to the saints always\nthe thought of a warfare first and mainly defensive, and _then_\naggressive with the drawn sword, and indicating as their true armour\nnot their reason, their emotions, or their will, taken in themselves,\nbut the eternal facts of their revealed salvation in Christ, grasped\nand used by faith. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =As by day,= for it is already\ndawn, in the Lord, =let us walk[229] decorously,= becomingly, as we\nare the hallowed soldiers of our Leader; let our life not only be\nright in fact; let it _shew_ to all men the open \"_decorum_\" of truth,\npurity, peace, and love; =not in revels and drunken bouts; not in\nchamberings,= the sins of the secret couch, =and profligacies,=\nnot--to name evils which cling often to the otherwise reputable\nChristian--=in strife and envy,= things which are pollutions, in the\nsight of the Holy One, as real as lust itself. =No; put on,= clothe\nand arm yourselves with, =the Lord Jesus Christ,= Himself the living\nsum and true meaning of all that can arm the soul; =and for the flesh\ntake no forethought lust-ward.= As if, in euphemism, he would say,\n\"Take all possible _forethought against_ the life of self (\u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03be),\nwith its lustful, self-wilful gravitation away from God. And let that\nforethought be, to arm yourselves, as if never armed before, with\nChrist.\"\n\nHow solemnly explicit he is, how plain-spoken, about the temptations\nof the Roman Christian's life! The men who were capable of the appeals\nand revelations of the first eight chapters yet needed to be told not\nto drink to intoxication, not to go near the house of ill-fame, not to\nquarrel, not to grudge. But every modern missionary in heathendom will\ntell us that the like stern plainness is needed now among the\nnew-converted faithful. And is it not needed among those who have\nprofessed the Pauline faith much longer, in the congregations of our\nolder Christendom?\n\nIt remains for our time, as truly as ever, a fact of religious\nlife--this necessity to press it home upon the religious, _as_ the\nreligious, that they are called to a practical and detailed holiness;\nand that they are never to ignore the possibility of even the worst\nfalls. So mysteriously can the subtle \"flesh,\" in the believing\nreceiver of the Gospel, becloud or distort the holy import of the\nthing received. So fatally easy is it \"to corrupt the best into the\nworst,\" using the very depth and richness of spiritual truth as if it\ncould be a substitute for patient practice, instead of its mighty\nstimulus.\n\nBut glorious is the method illustrated here for triumphant resistance\nto that tendency. What is it? It is not to retreat from spiritual\nprinciple upon a cold naturalistic programme of activity and probity.\nIt is to penetrate through the spiritual principle to the Crucified\nand Living Lord who is its heart and power; it is to bury self in Him,\nand to arm the will with Him. It is to look for Him as Coming, but\nalso, and yet more urgently, to use Him as Present. In the great Roman\nEpic, on the verge of the decisive conflict, the goddess-mother laid\nthe invulnerable panoply at the feet of her \u00c6neas; and the astonished\nChampion straightway, first pondering every part of the heaven-sent\narmament, then \"put it on,\" and was prepared. As it were at our feet\nis laid THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, in all He is, in all He has done, in\nHis indissoluble union with us in it all, as we are one with Him by\nthe Holy Ghost. It is for us to see in Him our power and victory, and\nto \"put Him on,\" in a personal act which, while all by grace, is yet\nin itself our own. And how is this done? It is by the \"committal of\nthe keeping of our souls unto Him\" (1\u00a0Pet. iv.\u00a019), not vaguely, but\ndefinitely and with purpose, in view of each and every temptation. It\nis by \"living our life in the flesh by faith in the Son of God\" (Gal.\nii.\u00a020); that is to say, in effect, by perpetually _making use of_ the\nCrucified and Living Saviour, One with us by the Holy Spirit; by using\nHim as our living Deliverer, our Peace and Power, amidst _all_ that\nthe dark hosts of evil can do against us.\n\nOh wonderful and all-adequate secret; \"Christ, which is the Secret of\nGod\" (Col. ii.\u00a02)! Oh divine simplicity of its depth;\n\n  \"Heaven's easy, artless, unencumber'd plan\"!\n\nNot that its \"ease\" means our indolence. No; if we would indeed \"arm\nourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ\" we must awake and be astir to\n\"_know whom_ we have trusted\" (2\u00a0Tim. i.\u00a012). We must explore His Word\nabout Himself. We must ponder it, above all in the prayer which\nconverses with Him over His promises, till they live to us in His\nlight. We must watch and pray, that we may be alert to employ our\narmament. The Christian who steps out into life \"light-heartedly,\"\nthinking superficially of his weakness, and of his foes, is only too\nlikely also to think of his Lord superficially, and to find of even\nthis heavenly armour that \"he cannot _go_ with it, for he hath not\nproved it\" (1\u00a0Sam. xvii.\u00a039). But all this leaves absolutely untouched\nthe divine simplicity of the matter. It leaves it wonderfully true\nthat the decisive, the satisfying, _the thorough_, moral victory and\ndeliverance comes to the Christian man not by trampling about with his\nown resolves, but by committing himself to his Saviour and Keeper, who\nhas conquered _him_, that now He may conquer \"his strong Enemy\" for\nhim.\n\n\"Heaven's unencumbered plan\" of \"victory and triumph, against the\ndevil, the world, and the flesh,\" is no day-dream of romance. It\nlives, it works in the most open hour of the common world of sin and\nsorrow. _We have seen_ this \"putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ\"\nvictoriously successful where the most fierce, or the most subtle,\nforms of temptation were to be dealt with. _We have seen_ it\npreserving, with beautiful persistency, a life-long sufferer from the\nterrible solicitations of pain, and of still less endurable\nhelplessness--every limb fixed literally immovable by paralysis on the\nill-furnished bed; _we have seen_ the man cheerful, restful, always\nready for wise word and sympathetic thought, and affirming that his\nLord, present to his soul, was infinitely enough to \"keep him.\" _We\nhave seen_ the overwhelmed toiler for God, while every step through\nthe day was clogged by \"thronging duties,\" such duties as most wear\nand drain the spirit, yet maintained in an equable cheerfulness and as\nit were inward leisure by this same always adequate secret, \"the Lord\nJesus Christ put on.\" _We have known_ the missionary who had, in sober\nearnest, hazarded his life for the blessed Name, yet ready to bear\nquiet witness to the repose and readiness to be found in meeting\ndisappointment, solitude, danger, not so much by a stern resistance as\nby the use, then and there, confidingly, and in surrender, of the\nCrucified and Living Lord. Shall we dare to add, with the humiliated\navowal that only a too partial proof has been made of this glorious\nopen Secret, that _we know_ by experiment that the weakest of the\nservants of our King, \"putting on HIM,\" find victory and deliverance,\nwhere there was defeat before?\n\nLet us, writer and reader, address ourselves afresh in practice to\nthis wonderful secret. Let us, as if we had never done it before, \"put\non the Lord Jesus Christ.\"[230] Vain is our interpretation of the holy\nWord, which not only \"abideth, but _liveth_ for ever\" (1\u00a0Pet. i.\u00a023),\nif it does not somehow _come home_. For that Word was written on\npurpose to come home; to touch and move the conscience and the will,\nin the realities of our inmost, and also of our most outward, life.\nNever for one moment do we stand as merely interested students and\nspectators, outside the field of temptation. Never for one moment\ntherefore can we dispense with the great Secret of victory and safety.\n\nFull in face of the realities of sin--of Roman sin, in Nero's days;\nbut let us just now forget Rome and Nero; they were only dark\naccidents of a darker essence--St Paul here writes down, across them\nall, these words, this spell, this Name; \"_Put ye on the Lord Jesus\nChrist_.\" Take first a steady look, he seems to say, at your sore\nneed, in the light of God; but then, at once, look off, look _here_.\nHere is the more than Antithesis to it all. Here is that by which you\ncan be \"more than conqueror.\" Take your iniquities at the worst; this\ncan subdue them. Take your surroundings at the worst; this can\nemancipate you from their power. It is \"the Lord Jesus Christ,\" and\nthe \"putting on\" of Him.\n\nLet us remember, as if it were a new thing, that He, the Christ of\nProphets, Evangelists, and Apostles, is a Fact. Sure as the existence\nnow of His universal Church, as the observance of the historic\nSacrament of His Death, as the impossibility of Galilean or Pharisaic\nimagination having _composed_, instead of _photographed_, the portrait\nof the Incarnate Son, the Immaculate Lamb; sure as is the glad\nverification in ten thousand blessed lives to-day of all, of all, that\nthe Christ of Scripture undertakes to be to the soul that will take\nHim at His own terms--so sure, across all oldest and all newest\ndoubts, across all _gnosis_ and all _agnosia_, lies the present Fact\nof our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nThen let us remember that it is a fact that man, in the mercy of God,\n_can_ \"put Him on.\" He is not far off. He presents Himself to our\ntouch, our possession. He says to us, \"Come to Me.\" He unveils\nHimself as literal partaker of our nature; as our Sacrifice; our\nRighteousness, \"through faith in His blood\"; as the Head and\nLife-spring, in an indescribable union, of a deep calm tide of life\nspiritual and eternal, ready to circulate through our being. He\ninvites Himself to \"make His abode _with_ us\" (John xiv.\u00a023); yea\nmore, \"I will come _in_ to him; I will dwell _in_ his heart by faith\"\n(Rev. iii.\u00a020; Eph. iii.\u00a017). In that ungovernable heart of ours, that\ninterminably self-deceptive heart (Jerem. xvii.\u00a09), He engages to\nreside, to be permanent Occupant, the Master always at home. He is\nprepared thus to take, with regard to our will, a place of power\nnearer than all circumstances, and deep in the midst of all possible\ninward traitors; to keep His eye on their plots, His foot, not ours,\nupon their necks. Yes, He invites us thus to embrace Him into a full\ncontact; to \"put Him on.\"\n\nMay we not say of Him what the great Poet says of Duty, and glorify\nthe verse by a yet nobler application?--\n\n    \"Thou who art victory and law\n    When empty terrors overawe,\n    From vain temptations dost set free,\n  And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!\"\n\nYes, we can \"put Him on\" as our \"Panoply of Light.\" We can put Him on\nas \"THE LORD,\" surrendering ourselves to His absolute while most\nbenignant sovereignty and will, deep secret of repose. We can put Him\non as \"JESUS,\" clasping the truth that He, our Human Brother, yet\nDivine, \"saves His people from their sins\" (Matt. i.\u00a021). We can put\nHim on as \"CHRIST,\" our Head, anointed without measure by the Eternal\nSpirit, and now sending of that same Spirit into His happy members, so\nthat we are indeed one with Him, and receive into our whole being the\nresources of His life.\n\nSuch is the armour and the arms. St Jerome, commenting on a kindred\npassage (Eph. vi.\u00a013), says that \"it most clearly results that by 'the\nweapons of God' _the Lord our Saviour_ is to be understood.\"\n\nWe may recollect that this text is memorable in connexion with the\nConversion of St Augustine. In his _Confessions_ (viii.\u00a012) he records\nhow, in the garden at Milan, at a time of great moral conflict, he was\nstrangely attracted by a voice, perhaps the cry of children playing:\n\"_Take and read, take and read._\" He fetched and opened again a copy\nof the Epistles (_codicem Apostoli_), which he had lately laid down.\n\"I read in silence the first place on which my eyes fell; '_Not in\nrevelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in\nstrife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no\nprovision for the flesh in its lusts_.' I neither cared, nor needed,\nto read further. At the close of the sentence, as if a ray of\ncertainty were poured into my heart, the clouds of hesitation fled at\nonce.\" His will was in the will of God.\n\nAlas, there falls one shadow over that fair scene. In the belief of\nAugustine's time, to decide fully for Christ meant, or very nearly\nmeant, so to accept the ascetic idea as to renounce the Christian\nhome. But the Lord read His servant's heart aright through the error,\nand filled it with His peace. To us, in a surrounding religious light\nfar clearer, in many things, than that which shone even upon Ambrose\nand Augustine; to us who quite recognize that in the paths of\nhomeliest duty and commonest temptation lies the line along which the\nblessed power of the Saviour may best overshadow His disciple; the\nSpirit's voice shall say of this same text, \"_Take and read, take and\nread_.\" We will \"put on,\" never to put off. Then we shall step out\nupon the old path in a strength new, and to be renewed for ever, armed\nagainst evil, armed for the will of God, with Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\n[227] Omitte mirari beat\u00e6 Fumum et opes strepitumque Rom\u00e6. (Horace.)\n\n[228] \u03a0\u03c1\u03bf\u03ad\u03ba\u03bf\u03c8\u03b5: literally, \"_made progress_.\" The aorist may refer\nto the event of the First Advent, when our eternal Sun was heralded by\nHimself the Morning Star. But perhaps it is best represented by the\nEnglish perfect, as in the A.V. and above.\n\n[229] \u03a0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03ae\u03c3\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd: perhaps the aorist suggests a new outset in the\n\"_walk_.\"\n\n[230] From this point to the close of the chapter the writer has used,\nwith modifications, passages from a Sermon (No. iii.) in his volume\nentitled _Christ is All_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX\n\n_CHRISTIAN DUTY: MUTUAL TENDERNESS AND TOLERANCE: THE SACREDNESS\nOF EXAMPLE_\n\nROMANS xiv.\u00a01-23\n\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =But him who is weak=--we might almost render,\n=him who suffers from weakness (\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f00\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1), in his (\u03c4\u1fc7)\nfaith= (in the sense here not of creed, a meaning of \u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 rare in\nSt Paul, but of reliance on his Lord; reliance not only for\njustification but, in this case, for holy liberty), =welcome into\nfellowship--not for criticisms of his scruples,= of his \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03af,\nthe anxious internal debates of conscience. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =One\nman believes,= has faith, issuing in a conviction of liberty, in such\na mode and degree as =to eat all kinds of food; but the man in\nweakness eats vegetables= only; an extreme case, but doubtless not\nuncommon, where a convert, tired out by his own scruples between food\nand food, cut the knot by rejecting flesh-meat altogether.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =The eater--let him not despise the non-eater[231];\nwhile the non-eater--let him not judge the eater; for our (\u1f41) God\nwelcomed him to fellowship,= when he came to the feet of His Son for\nacceptance. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =You--who are you, thus judging\nAnother's domestic (\u03bf\u1f30\u03ba\u03ad\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd)? To his own Lord,= his own Master, =he\nstands,= in approval,--=or, if that must be, falls,= under\ndispleasure; =but he shall be upheld= in approval; =for able is that\n(\u1f41) Lord[232] to set him= so, to bid him \"_stand_,\" under His\nsanctioning smile. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =One man distinguishes (\u03ba\u03c1\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9)\nday above day; while another distinguishes every day;= a phrase\nparadoxical but intelligible; it describes the thought of the man who,\nless anxious than his neighbour about stated \"holy-days,\" still aims\nnot to \"level down\" but to \"level up\" his use of time; to count every\nday \"holy,\" equally dedicated to the will and work of God. =Let each\nbe quite assured in his own mind;= using the thinking-power (\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2)\ngiven him by his Master, let him reverently work the question out, and\nthen live up to his ascertained convictions, while (this is intimated\nby the emphatic \"_his own_ mind\") he respects the convictions of his\nneighbour. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =The man who 'minds' (\u1f41 \u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u1ff6\u03bd) the\nday,= the \"holy-day\" in question, in any given instance, =to the Lord\nhe 'minds' it; [and the man who 'minds' not the day, to the Lord he\ndoes not 'mind' it][233];= both parties, as Christians, in their\nconvictions and their practice, stand related and responsible,\ndirectly and primarily, to the Lord; that fact must always govern and\nqualify their mutual judgments. =And[234] the eater,= the man who\ntakes food indifferently without scruple, =to the Lord he eats, for he\ngives thanks= at his meal =to God; and the non-eater, to the Lord he\ndoes not eat= the scrupled food, =and gives thanks to God= for that of\nwhich his conscience allows him to partake.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe connexion of the paragraph just traversed with what went before it\nis suggestive and instructive. There _is_ a close connexion between\nthe two; it is marked expressly by the \"_but_\" (\u03b4\u03ad) of ver. 1, a\nlink strangely missed in the Authorized Version. The \"but\" indicates a\ndifference of thought, however slight, between the two passages. And\nthe difference, as we read it, is this. The close of the thirteenth\nchapter has gone all in the direction of Christian wakefulness,\ndecision, and the battle-field of conquering faith. The Roman convert,\nroused by its trumpet-strain, will be eager to be up and doing,\nagainst the enemy and for his Lord, armed from head to foot with\nChrist. He will bend his whole purpose upon a life of open and active\nholiness. He will be filled with a new sense at once of the\nseriousness and of the liberty of the Gospel. But then--some \"weak\nbrother\" will cross his path. It will be some recent convert, perhaps\nfrom Judaism itself, perhaps an ex-pagan, but influenced by the Jewish\nideas so prevalent at the time in many Roman circles. This Christian,\nnot untrustful, at least in theory, of the Lord alone for pardon and\nacceptance, is however quite full of scruples which, to the man fully\n\"armed with Christ,\" may seem, and do seem, lamentably morbid, really\nserious mistakes and hindrances. The \"weak brother\" spends much time\nin studying the traditional rules of fast and feast, and the code of\npermitted food. He is sure that the God who has accepted him will hide\nHis face from him if he lets the new moon pass like a common day; or\nif the Sabbath is not kept by the rule, not of Scripture, but of the\nRabbis. Every social meal gives him painful and frequent occasion for\ntroubling himself, and others; he takes refuge perhaps in an anxious\nvegetarianism, in despair of otherwise keeping undefiled. And\ninevitably such scruples do not terminate in themselves. They infect\nthe man's whole tone of thinking and action. He questions and\ndiscusses everything, with himself, if not with others. He is on the\nway to let his view of acceptance in Christ grow fainter and more\nconfused. He walks, he lives; but he moves like a man chained, and in\na prison.\n\nSuch a case as this would be a sore temptation to the \"strong\"\nChristian. He would be greatly inclined, of himself, first to make a\nvigorous protest, and then, if the difficulty proved obstinate, to\nthink hard thoughts of his narrow-minded friend; to doubt his right to\nthe Christian name at all; to reproach him, or (worst of all) to\nsatirize him. Meanwhile the \"weak\" Christian would have his harsh\nthoughts too. He would not, by any means for certain, shew as much\nmeekness as \"weakness.\" He would let his neighbour see, in one way or\nother, that he thought him little better than a worldling, who made\nChrist an excuse for personal self-indulgence.\n\nHow does the Apostle meet the trying case, which must have crossed his\nown path so often, and sometimes in the form of a bitter opposition\nfrom those who were \"suffering from weakness in their faith\"? It is\nquite plain that his own convictions lay with \"the strong,\" so far as\n_principle_ was concerned. He \"knew that nothing was unclean\" (ver.\n14). He knew that the Lord was not grieved, but pleased, by the\ntemperate and thankful use, untroubled by morbid fears, of His natural\nbounties. He knew that the Jewish festival-system had found its goal\nand end in the perpetual \"_let us keep the feast_\" (1\u00a0Cor. v.\u00a03) of\nthe true believer's happy and hallowed life.[235] And accordingly he\ndoes, in passing, rebuke \"the weak\" for their harsh criticisms\n(\u03ba\u03c1\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd) of \"the strong.\" But then, he throws all the more weight,\nthe main weight, on his rebukes and warnings to \"the strong.\" Their\nprinciple might be right on this great detail. But this left untouched\nthe yet more stringent overruling principle, to \"_walk in love_\"; to\ntake part against themselves; to live in this matter, as in everything\nelse, for others. They were not to be at all ashamed of their special\nprinciples. But they were to be deeply ashamed of one hour's unloving\nconduct. They were to be quietly convinced, in respect of private\njudgment. They were to be more than tolerant--they were to be\nloving--in respect of common life in the Lord.\n\nTheir \"strength\" in Christ was never to be ungentle; never to be \"used\nlike a giant.\" It was to be shewn, first and most, by patience. It was\nto take the form of the calm, strong readiness to understand another's\npoint of view. It was to appear as reverence for another's conscience,\neven when the conscience went astray for want of better light.\n\nLet us take this apostolic principle out into modern religious life.\nThere are times when we shall be specially bound to put it carefully\nin relation to other principles, of course. When St Paul, some months\nearlier, wrote to Galatia, and had to deal with an error which\ndarkened the whole truth of the sinner's way to God as it lies\nstraight through Christ, he did not say, \"Let every man be quite\nassured in his own mind.\" He said (i.\u00a08), \"If an angel from heaven\npreach any other Gospel, which is not another, let him be anathema.\"\nThe question _there_ was, Is Christ all, or is He not? Is faith all,\nor is it not, for our laying hold of Him? Even in Galatia, he warned\nthe converts of the miserable and fatal mistake of \"biting and\ndevouring one another\" (v.\u00a015). But he adjured them not to wreck their\npeace with God upon a fundamental error. _Here_, at Rome, the question\nwas different; it was secondary. It concerned certain details of\nChristian practice. Was an outworn and exaggerated ceremonialism a\npart of the will of God, in the justified believer's life? It was not\nso, as a fact. Yet it was a matter on which the Lord, by His Apostle,\nrather counselled than commanded. It was not of the foundation. And\nthe always overruling law for the discussion was--the tolerance born\nof love. Let us in our day remember this, whether our inmost\nsympathies are with \"the strong\" or with \"the weak.\" In Jesus Christ,\nit is possible to realize the ideal of this paragraph even in our\ndivided Christendom. It is possible to be convinced, yet sympathetic.\nIt is possible to see the Lord for ourselves with glorious clearness,\nyet to understand the practical difficulties felt by others, and to\nlove, and to respect, where there are even great divergences. No man\nworks more for a final spiritual _consensus_ than he who, in Christ,\nso lives.\n\nIncidentally meantime, the Apostle, in this passage which so curbs\n\"the strong,\" lets fall maxims which for ever protect all that is good\nand true in that well-worn and often misused phrase, \"the right of\nprivate judgment.\" No spiritual despot, no claimant to be the\nautocratic director of a conscience, could have written those words,\n\"_Let every man be quite certain in his own mind_\"; \"_Who art thou\nthat judgest Another's domestic?_\" Such sentences assert not the right\nso much as _the duty_, for the individual Christian, of a reverent\n\"_thinking for himself_.\" They maintain a true and noble individualism.\nAnd there is a special need just now in the Church to remember, _in\nits place_, the value of Christian individualism. The idea of the\ncommunity, the society, is just now so vastly prevalent (doubtless not\nwithout the providence of God) in human life, and also in the Church,\nthat an assertion of the individual, which was once disproportionate,\nis now often necessary, lest the social idea in its turn should be\nexaggerated into a dangerous mistake. Coherence, mutuality, the truth\nof the Body and the Members; all this, _in its place_, is not only\nimportant but divine. The individual must inevitably lose where\nindividualism is his whole idea. But it is ill for the community,\nabove all for the Church, where in the total the individual tends\nreally to be merged and lost. Alas for the Church where the Church\ntries to take the individual's place in the knowledge of God, in the\nlove of Christ, in the power of the Spirit. The religious Community\nmust indeed inevitably lose where religious communism is its whole\nidea. It can be perfectly strong only where individual consciences are\ntender, and enlightened; where individual souls personally know God in\nChrist; where individual wills are ready, if the Lord call, to stand\nalone for known truth even against the religious Society;--if there\nalso the individualism is not self-will, but Christian personal\nresponsibility; if the man \"thinks for himself\" _on his knees_; if he\nreverences the individualism of others, and the relations of each to\nall.\n\nThe individualism of Rom. xiv., asserted in an argument full of the\ndeepest secrets of cohesion, is the holy and healthful thing it is\nbecause it is _Christian_. It is developed not by the assertion of\nself, but by individual communion with Christ.\n\nNow he goes on to further and still fuller statements in the same\ndirection:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =For none of us to himself lives, and none of us\nto himself dies.= How, and wherefore? Is it merely that \"_we_\" live\nlives always, necessarily, related _to one another_? He has this in\nhis heart indeed. But he reaches it through the greater, deeper,\nantecedent truth of our relation _to the Lord_. The Christian is\nrelated to his brother-Christian through Christ, not to Christ through\nhis brother, or through the common Organism in which the brethren are\n\"each other's limbs.\" \"_To the Lord_,\" with absolute directness, with\na perfect and wonderful immediateness, each individual Christian is\nfirst related. His life and his death are \"to others,\" but through\nHim. THE MASTER'S claim is eternally first; for it is based direct\nupon the redeeming work in which He bought us for Himself.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =For whether we live, to the Lord we live; and\nwhether we be dead (\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03b8\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u03ba\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd), to the Lord we are dead;= in the\nstate of the departed, as before, \"relation stands.\" =Alike therefore\nwhether (\u1f10\u03b1\u03bd \u03c4\u03b5 \u03bf\u1f56\u03bd) we be dead, or whether we live, the Lord's we\nare;= His property, bound first and in everything to His possession.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =For to this end Christ both died and lived\nagain,[236] that He might become Lord= (\u03ba\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03b5\u03cd\u03c3\u1fc3, not \u03ba\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03b5\u03cd\u1fc3)\n=of= us =both dead and living.=\n\nHere is the profound truth seen already in earlier passages in the\nEpistle. We have had it reasoned out, above all in the sixth chapter,\nin its revelation of the way of Holiness, that our only possible right\nrelations with the Lord are clasped and governed by the fact that to\nHim we rightly and everlastingly _belong_. There, however, the thought\nwas more of our surrender under His rights. Here it is of the mighty\nantecedent fact, under which our most absolute surrender is nothing\nmore than the recognition of His indefeasible claim. What the Apostle\nsays here, in this wonderful passage of mingled doctrine and duty, is\nthat, whether or no _we are owning_ our vassalage to Christ, we are\nnothing if not _de jure_ His vassals. He has not only rescued us, but\nso rescued us as to buy us for His own. We may be true to the fact in\nour internal attitude; we may be oblivious of it; but we cannot get\naway from it. It looks us every hour in the face, whether we respond\nor not. It will still look us in the face through the endless life to\ncome.\n\nFor manifestly it is this objective aspect of our \"belonging\" which is\nhere in point. St Paul is not reasoning with the \"weak\" and the\n\"strong\" from their experience, from their conscious loyalty to the\nLord. Rather, he is calling them to a new realization of what such\nloyalty should be. It is in order to this that he reminds them of the\neternal claim of the Lord, made good in His Death and Resurrection;\nHis claim to be so their Master, individually and altogether, that\nevery thought about one other was to be governed by that claim of His\non them all. \"The Lord\" must always interpose, with a right\ninalienable. Each Christian is annexed, by all the laws of Heaven, to\nHim. So each must--not make but _realize_ that annexation, in every\nthought about neighbour and about brother.\n\nThe passage invites us meantime to further remark, in another\ndirection. It is one of those utterances which, luminous with light\ngiven by their context, shine also with a light of their own, giving\nus revelations independent of the surrounding matter. Here one such\nrevelation appears; it affects our knowledge of the Intermediate\nState.\n\nThe Apostle,[237] four times over in this short paragraph, makes\nmention of death, and of the dead. \"_No one of us dieth to himself_\";\n\"_Whether we die, we die unto the Lord_\"; \"_Whether we die, we are the\nLord's_\"; \"_That He might be Lord of the dead_.\" And this last\nsentence, with its mention not of the dying but of the dead, reminds\nus that the reference in them all is to the Christian's relation to\nhis Lord, not only in the hour of death, but in the state after death.\nIt is not only that Jesus Christ, as the slain One risen, is absolute\nDisposer of the time and manner of our dying. It is not only that when\nour death comes we are to accept it as an opportunity for the\n\"glorifying of God\" (John xxi.\u00a019; Phil. i.\u00a020) in the sight and in\nthe memory of those who know of it. It is that when we have \"passed\nthrough death,\" and come out upon the other side,\n\n  \"When we enter yonder regions,\n  When we touch the sacred shore,\"\n\nour relation to the slain One risen, to Him who, as such, \"hath the\nkeys of Hades and of death\" (Rev. i.\u00a018), is perfectly continuous and\nthe same. He is our absolute Master, _there_ as well as here. And we,\nby consequence and correlation, are vassals, servants, bondservants to\nHim, there as well as here.\n\nHere is a truth which, we cannot but think, richly repays the\nChristian's repeated remembrance and reflection; and that not only in\nthe way of asserting the eternal rights of our blessed Redeemer over\nus, but in the way of shedding light, and peace, and the sense of\nreality and expectation, on both the prospect of our own passage into\neternity and the thoughts we entertain of the present life of our holy\nbeloved ones who have entered into it before us.\n\nEverything is precious which really assists the soul in such thoughts,\nand at the same time keeps it fully and practically alive to the\nrealities of faith, patience, and obedience here below, here in the\npresent hour. While the indulgence of unauthorized imagination in that\ndirection is almost always enervating and disturbing to the present\naction of Scriptural faith, the least help to a solid realization and\nanticipation, supplied by the Word that cannot lie, is in its nature\nboth hallowing and strengthening. Such a help we have assuredly here.\n\nHe who died and rose again is at this hour, in holy might and right,\n\"the Lord\" of the blessed dead. Then, the blessed dead are vassals and\n_servants_ of Him who died and rose again. And all our thought of\nthem, as they are now, at this hour, \"in those heavenly habitations,\nwhere the souls of them that sleep in the Lord Jesus enjoy perpetual\nrest and felicity,\"[238] gains indefinitely in life, in reality, in\nstrength and glory, as we see them, through this narrow but bright\n\"door in heaven\" (Rev. v.\u00a01), not resting only but serving also before\ntheir Lord, who has bought them for His use, and who holds them in His\nuse quite as truly now as when we had the joy of their presence with\nus, and He was seen by us living and working in them and through them\nhere.\n\nTrue it is that the leading and essential character of their present\nstate is rest, as that of their resurrection state will be action. But\nthe two states overflow into each other. In one glorious passage the\nApostle describes the resurrection bliss as also \"rest\" (2\u00a0Thess.\ni.\u00a07). And here we have it indicated that the heavenly intermediate\nrest is also service. What the precise nature of that service is we\ncannot tell. \"Our knowledge of that life is small.\" Most certainly,\n\"in vain our _fancy_ strives to paint\" its blessedness, both of repose\nand of occupation. This is part of our normal and God-chosen lot here,\nwhich is to \"walk by faith, not by sight\" (2\u00a0Cor. v.\u00a07), \u03bf\u1f50 \u03b4\u03b9\u1f70\n\u03b5\u1f34\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2, \"not by Object seen,\" not by objects seen. But blessed is the\nspiritual assistance in such a walk as we recollect, step by step, as\nwe draw nearer to that happy assembly above, that, whatever be the\nmanner and exercise of their holy life, it is life indeed; power, not\nweakness; service, not inaction. He who died and revived is Lord, not\nof us only, but of them.\n\nBut from this excursion into the sacred Unseen we must return. St Paul\nis intent now upon the believer's walk of loving large-heartedness in\nthis life, not the next. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =But you--why do you\njudge your brother?= (he takes up the verb, \u03ba\u03c1\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, used in his\nformer appeal to the \"weak,\" ver. 3). =Or you too= (he turns to the\n\"strong\"; see again ver. 3)--=why do you despise your brother? For we\nshall stand, all= of us, on one level, whatever were our mutual\nsentiments on earth, whatever claim we made here to sit as judges on\nour brethren, =before the tribunal (\u03b2\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1) of our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God.[239]=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =For it stands written= (Isai. xlv.\u00a023), =\"As I\nlive, saith the Lord,= sure it is as My eternal Being, =that to Me,=\nnot to another, =shall bend every knee; and every tongue shall\nconfess,= shall ascribe all sovereignty, =to God,\"= not to the\ncreature. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =So then each of us, about himself,=\nnot about the faults or errors of his brother, =shall give account to\nGod.=\n\nWe have here, as in\u00a02\u00a0Cor. v.\u00a010, and again, under other imagery,\nin\u00a01\u00a0Cor. iii.\u00a011-15, a glimpse of that heart-searching prospect for\nthe Christian, his summons hereafter, _as a Christian_, to the\ntribunal of his Lord. In all the three passages, and now particularly\nin this, the language, though it lends itself freely to the universal\nAssize, is limited by context, as to its direct purport, to the\nMaster's _scrutiny of His own servants as such_. The question to be\ntried and decided (speaking after the manner of men) at His\n\"tribunal,\" in this reference, is not that of glory or perdition; the\npersons of the examined are accepted; the enquiry is in the _domestic_\ncourt of the Palace, so to speak; it regards the award of the King as\nto the issues and value of His accepted servants' labour and conduct,\nas His representatives, in their mortal life. \"The _Lord of the\nservants_ cometh, and reckoneth _with them_\" (Matt. xxv.\u00a019). They\nhave been justified by faith. They have been united to their glorious\nHead. They \"shall be saved\" (1\u00a0Cor. iii.\u00a015), whatever be the fate of\ntheir \"work.\" But what will their Lord say of their work? What have\nthey done for Him, in labour, in witness, and above all _in\ncharacter_? He will tell them what He thinks. He will be infinitely\nkind; but He will not flatter. And somehow, surely,--\"it doth not yet\nappear\" how, but somehow--eternity, even the eternity of salvation,\nwill bear the impress of that award, the impress of _the past of\nservice_, estimated by the King. \"What shall the harvest be?\"\n\nAnd all this shall take place (this is the special emphasis of the\nprospect here) with a solemn individuality of enquiry. \"_Every one of\nus--for himself_--shall give account.\" We reflected, a little above,\non the true place of\"individualism\" in the life of grace. We see here\nthat there will indeed be a place for it in the experiences of\neternity. The scrutiny of \"the tribunal\" will concern not the\nSociety, the Organism, the total, but the member, the man. Each will\nstand in a solemn solitude there, before his divine Examiner. What\n_he_ was, as the Lord's member, that will be the question. What _he_\nshall be, as such, in the functions of the endless state, that will be\nthe result.\n\nLet us not be troubled over that prospect with the trouble of the\nworldling, as if we did not know Him who will scrutinize us, and did\nnot love Him. Around the thought of His \"tribunal,\" in that aspect,\nthere are cast no exterminating terrors. But it is a prospect fit to\nmake grave and full of purpose the life which yet \"is hid with Christ\nin God,\" and which is life indeed through grace. It is a deep reminder\nthat the beloved Saviour is also, and in no figure of speech, but in\nan eternal earnest, THE MASTER too. We would not have Him not to be\nthis. He would not be all He is to us as Saviour, were He not this\nalso, and for ever.\n\nSt Paul hastens to further appeals, after this solemn forecast. And\nnow all his stress is laid on the duty of the \"strong\" to use their\n\"strength\" not for self-assertion, not for even spiritual selfishness,\nbut all for Christ, all for others, all in love.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =No more therefore let us judge one another; but\njudge,= decide, =this rather--not to set stumblingblock for our (\u03c4\u1ff7)\nbrother, or trap.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =I know=--he instances his own\nexperience and principle--=and am sure, in the Lord Jesus,= as one who\nis in union and communion with Him, seeing truth and life from that\nview-point, =that nothing,= nothing of the sort in question, no food,\nno time, =is \"unclean\" of itself;= literally, \"_by means of itself_,\"\nby any _inherent_ mischief; =only, to the man who counts anything\n\"unclean,\" to him it is unclean.= And therefore you, because you are\nnot his conscience, must not tamper with his conscience. It is, in\nthis case, mistaken; mistaken to his own loss, and to the loss of the\nChurch. Yes, but what it wants is not your compulsion, but the Lord's\nlight. If you can do so, bring that light to bear, in a testimony made\nimpressive by holy love and unselfish considerateness. But dare not,\nfor Christ's sake, compel a conscience. For conscience means the man's\nbest actual sight of the law of right and wrong. It may be a dim and\ndistorted sight; but it is his best at this moment. He cannot violate\nit without sin, nor can you bid him do so without yourself sinning.\nConscience may not always see aright. But to transgress conscience is\nalways wrong.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =For[240]=--the word takes up the argument at\nlarge, rather than the last detail of it--=if for food's sake your\nbrother suffers pain,= the pain of a moral struggle between his\npresent convictions and your commanding example, =you have given up\nwalking (\u03bf\u1f50\u03ba\u03ad\u03c4\u03b9 \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2) love-wise. Do not, with your food,=\n(there is a searching point in the \"_your_,\" touching to the quick the\ndeep selfishness of the action,) =work his ruin for whom Christ died.=\n\nSuch sentences are too intensely and tenderly in earnest to be called\nsarcastic; otherwise, how fine and keen an edge they carry! \"_For\nfood's sake!_\" \"_With your food!_\" The man is shaken out of the sleep\nof what seemed an assertion of liberty, but was after all much rather\na dull indulgence of--that is, a mere slavery to--himself. \"I like\nthis meat; I like this drink; I don't like the worry of these\nscruples; they interrupt me, they annoy me.\" Unhappy man! It is better\nto be the slave of scruples, than of self. In order to allow yourself\nanother dish--you would slight an anxious friend's conscience, and, so\nfar as your conduct is concerned, push him to a violation of it. But\nthat means, a push on the slope which leans towards spiritual ruin.\nThe way to perdition is paved with violated consciences. The Lord may\ncounteract your action, and save your injured brother from\nhimself--and you. But your action is, none the less, calculated for\nhis perdition. And all the while this soul, for which, in comparison\nwith your dull and narrow \"liberty,\" you care so little, was so much\ncared for by the Lord that He--died for it.\n\nOh consecrating thought, attached now, for ever, for the Christian, to\nevery human soul which he can influence: \"_For whom Christ died!_\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =Do not therefore let your good,= your glorious\ncreed of holy liberty in Christ, =be railed at,= as only a thinly\nveiled self-indulgence after all; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =for the\nkingdom of our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God is not feeding (\u03b2\u03c1\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2) and drinking;= He\ndoes not claim a throne in your soul, and in your Society, merely to\nenlarge your bill of fare, to make it your sacred privilege, as an end\nin itself, to take what you please at table; =but righteousness,=\nsurely here, in the Roman Epistle, the \"righteousness\" of our divine\nacceptance, =and peace,= the peace of perfect relations with Him in\nChrist, =and joy in the Holy Spirit,= the pure strong gladness of the\njustified, as in their sanctuary of salvation they drink the \"living\nwater,\" and \"rejoice always in the Lord.\" [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =For he\nwho in this= way[241] =lives as bondservant to Christ,= spending his\nspiritual talents not for himself but for his Master, =is pleasing to\nhis (\u03c4\u1ff7) God, and is genuine to his fellow-men (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2).=\nYes, he _stands the test_ (\u03b4\u03cc\u03ba\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2) of their keen scrutiny. They can\nsoon detect the counterfeit under spiritual assertions which really\nassert self. But their conscience affirms the genuineness of a life of\n_unselfish_ and happy holiness; that life \"reverbs no hollowness.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =Accordingly therefore let us pursue= the\ninterests of =peace, and= the interests of =an edification which is\nmutual;= the \"building up\" (\u03bf\u1f30\u03ba\u03bf\u03b4\u03bf\u03bc\u1f74) which looks beyond the man to\nhis brother, to his brethren, and tempers by that look even his plans\nfor his own spiritual life.\n\nAgain he returns to the sorrowful _grotesque_ of preferring personal\ncomforts, and even the assertion of the principle of personal liberty,\nto the good of others. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =Do not for food's sake be\nundoing (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ac\u03bb\u03c5\u03b5) the work of our God. \"All things are pure\";= he\ndoubtless quotes a watchword often heard; and it was truth itself in\nthe abstract, but capable of becoming a fatal fallacy in practice;\n=but= anything =is bad to the man who is brought by a stumblingblock\nto eat it.[242]= Yes, this is bad (\u03ba\u03b1\u03ba\u03cc\u03bd). What is good (\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u1f78\u03bd) in\ncontrast?\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =Good it is not to eat flesh, and not to drink\nwine= (a word for our time and its conditions), =and not to do\nanything in which your brother is stumbled, or entrapped, or\nweakened.= Yes, this is Christian liberty; a liberation from the\nstrong and subtle law of self; a freedom to live for others,\nindependent of their evil, but the servant of their souls.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =You--the faith you have,[243] have it by\nyourself, in the presence of your God.= You have believed; you are\ntherefore in Christ; in Christ you are therefore free, by faith, from\nthe preparatory restrictions of the past. Yes; but all this is not\ngiven you for personal display, but for divine communion. Its right\nissue is in a holy intimacy with your God, as in the confidence of\nyour acceptance you know Him as your Father, \"nothing between.\" But as\nregards human intercourse, you are emancipated not that you may\ndisturb the neighbours with shouts of freedom and acts of licence, but\nthat you may be at leisure to serve them in love. =Happy the man who\ndoes not judge himself,= who does not, in effect, decide against his\nown soul, =in that which he approves, \u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03b9\u03bc\u03ac\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9,= pronounces\nsatisfactory to conscience. Unhappy he who says to himself, \"This is\nlawful,\" when the verdict is all the while purchased by self-love, or\notherwise by the fear of man, and the soul knows in its depths that\nthe thing is not as it should be. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.] =And the man\nwho is doubtful,= whose conscience is not really satisfied between the\nright and wrong of the matter, =if he does eat, stands condemned,= in\nthe court of his own heart, and of his aggrieved Lord's opinion,\n=because= it was =not the result of faith;= the action had not, for\nits basis, the holy conviction of the liberty of the justified. =Now\nanything which is not the result of faith, is sin;= that is to say,\nmanifestly, \"anything\" _in such a case as this_; any indulgence, any\nobedience to example, which the man, in a state of inward ambiguity,\ndecides for on a principle other than that of his union with Christ by\nfaith.\n\nThus the Apostle of Justification, and of the Holy Spirit, is the\nApostle of Conscience too. He is as urgent upon the awful sacredness\nof our sense of right and wrong, as upon the offer and the security,\nin Christ, of peace with God, and the holy Indwelling, and the hope of\nglory. Let our steps reverently follow his, as we walk with God, and\nwith men. Let us \"rejoice in Christ Jesus,\" with a \"joy\" which is \"in\nthe Holy Ghost.\" Let us reverence duty, let us reverence conscience,\nin our own life, and also in the lives around us.\n\n[231] \u03a4\u1f78\u03bd \u03bc\u1f74 (not \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba) \u1f10\u03c3\u03b8\u03af\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1: the \u03bc\u1f74 gives \"non-eating\" as\nnot merely a fact, but a _condition_, about the man.\n\n[232] Read \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u1fd6 \u03b7\u1f70\u03c1 \u1f41 \u039a\u03cd\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2.\n\n[233] Probably the negative limb of ver. 6. is only an explanatory\ngloss, not the words of the Apostle.\n\n[234] Read \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76.\n\n[235] There seems to be a broad and intelligible difference between\nthe Sabbath-keeping _of the Jewish law_ and the Sabbath-keeping _of\nman_; the enjoyment and holy use of the primeval Rest for man and\nbeast. We take it that _that_ duty and privilege is not in question\nhere at all. The \"weak\" Christian was the anxious scholar of the\nRabbis, not the man simply loyal to the Decalogue.\n\n[236] Read \u1f00\u03c0\u03ad\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f00\u03bd\u03ad\u03b6\u03b7\u03c3\u03b5.\n\n[237] We transcribe here a few paragraphs from the closing pages of\nour book _Life in Christ and for Christ_.\n\n[238] Visitation of the Sick (Prayer for a Sick Child).\n\n[239] So read, not \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03a7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6. It is significant meantime, as a\ntestimony to the Apostle's view of his Master's Nature, that in\u00a02\u00a0Cor.\nv.\u00a010, a perfectly parallel passage, he writes, \"we must all appear\nbefore the tribunal _of Christ_.\"\n\n[240] Probably read \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 not \u03b4\u1f72.\n\n[241] Read \u03c4\u03bf\u03cd\u03c4\u1ff3 not \u03c4\u03bf\u03cd\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2. Possibly the pronoun refers to \"the\nHoly Spirit\" (\u03a0\u03bd\u03b5\u1fe6\u03bc\u03b1) just mentioned.\n\n[242] Lit., \"_who eats by means of a stumblingblock_\"; the example,\nwith its weight of \"public opinion,\" being _the means of_ overriding\nhis conscience.\n\n[243] Probably read \u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd \u1f23\u03bd \u1f14\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2, \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03ba\u03c4\u03bb.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX\n\n_THE SAME SUBJECT: THE LORD'S EXAMPLE: HIS RELATION TO US ALL_\n\nROMANS xv.\u00a01-13\n\n\nThe large and searching treatment which the Apostle has already given\nto the right use of Christian Liberty, is yet not enough. He must\npursue the same theme further; above all, that he may put it into more\nexplicit contact with the Lord Himself.\n\nWe gather without doubt that the state of the Roman Mission, as it was\nreported to St Paul, gave special occasion for such fulness of\ndiscussion. It is more than likely, as we have seen from the first,\nthat the bulk of the disciples were ex-pagans; probably of very\nvarious nationalities, many of them Orientals, and as such not more\nfavourable to distinctive Jewish claims and tenets. It is also likely\nthat they found amongst them, or beside them, many Christian Jews, or\nChristian Jewish proselytes, of a type more or less pronounced in\ntheir own direction; the school whose less worthy members supplied the\nmen to whom St Paul, a few years later, writing from Rome to Philippi,\nrefers as \"preaching Christ of envy and strife\" (Phil. i.\u00a015). The\ntemptation of a religious (as of a secular) majority is always to\ntyrannize, more or less, in matters of thought and practice. A\ndominant school, in any age or region, too easily comes to talk and\nact as if all decided expression on the other side were an instance of\n\"intolerance,\" while yet it allows itself in sufficiently severe and\ncensorious courses of its own. At Rome, very probably, this mischief\nwas in action. The \"strong,\" with whose principle, in its true form,\nSt Paul agreed, were disposed to domineer in spirit over the \"weak,\"\nbecause the weak were comparatively the few. Thus they were guilty of\na double fault; they were presenting a miserable parody of holy\nliberty, and they were acting off the line of that unselfish fairness\nwhich is essential in the Gospel character. For the sake not only of\nthe peace of the great Mission Church, but of the honour of the Truth,\nand of the Lord, the Apostle therefore dwells on mutual duties, and\nreturns to them again and again after apparent conclusions of his\ndiscourse. Let us listen as he now reverts to the subject, to set it\nmore fully than ever in the light of Christ.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =But= (it is the \"_but_\" of resumption, and of new\nmaterial) =we are bound, we the able, \u03bf\u1f31 \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u1f76= (perhaps a sort\nof soubriquet for themselves among the school of \"liberty,\" \"_the\ncapables_\")--=to bear the weaknesses of the unable,= (again, possibly,\na soubriquet, and in this case an unkindly one, for a school,) =and\nnot to please ourselves.= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =Each one of us, let him\nplease= not himself but =his neighbour, as regards what is good, with\na view to edification.=\n\n\"_Please_\"; \u1f00\u03c1\u03ad\u03c3\u03ba\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, \u1f00\u03c1\u03b5\u03c3\u03ba\u03ad\u03c4\u03c9. The word is one often \"soiled with\nignoble use,\" in classical literature; it tends to mean the\n\"_pleasing_\" which fawns and flatters; the complaisance of the\nparasite. But it is lifted by Christian usage to a noble level. The\ncowardly and interested element drops out of it; the thought of\nwillingness to do _anything to please_ remains; only limited by the\nlaw of right, and aimed only at the other's \"good.\" Thus purified, it\nis used elsewhere of that holy \"complaisance\" in which the grateful\ndisciple aims to \"meet half way the wishes\" of his LORD (see Col.\ni.\u00a010). Here, it is the unselfish and watchful aim to meet half way,\nif possible, the thought and feeling of a fellow-disciple, to\nconciliate by sympathetic attentions, to be considerate in the\nsmallest matters of opinion and conduct; a genuine exercise of inward\nliberty.[244]\n\nThere is a gulph of difference between interested timidity and\ndisinterested considerateness. In flight from the former, the ardent\nChristian sometimes breaks the rule of the latter. St Paul is at his\nhand to warn him not to forget the great law of love. And THE LORD is\nat his hand too, with His own supreme Example.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =For even our (\u1f41) Christ did not please Himself;\nbut, as it stands written= (Psal. lxix.\u00a09), =\"The reproaches of those\nwho reproached Thee, fell upon Me.\"=\n\nIt is the first mention in the Epistle of the Lord's Example. His\nPerson we have seen, and the Atoning Work, and the Resurrection Power,\nand the great Return. The holy Example can never take the place of any\none of these facts of life eternal. But when they are secure, then the\nreverent study of the Example is not only in place; it is of urgent\nand immeasurable importance.\n\n\"_He did not please Himself._\" \"Not My will, but Thine, be done.\"\nPerhaps the thought of the Apostle is dwelling on the very hour when\nthose words were spoken, from beneath the olives of the Garden, and\nout of a depth of inward conflict and surrender which \"it hath not\nentered into the heart of man\"--except the heart of the Man of men\nHimself--\"to conceive.\" Then indeed \"He did not please Himself.\" From\npain as pain, from grief as grief, all sentient existence naturally,\nnecessarily, shrinks; it \"pleases itself\" in escape or in relief. The\ninfinitely refined sentient Existence of the Son of Man was no\nexception to this law of universal nature; and now He was called to\nsuch pain, to such grief, as never before met upon one head. We read\nthe record of Gethsemane, and its sacred horror is always new; the\ndisciple passes in thought out of the Garden even to the cruel\ntribunal of the Priest with a sense of relief; his Lord has risen from\nthe unfathomable to the fathomable depth of His woes--till He goes\ndown again, at noon next day, upon the Cross. \"He pleased not\nHimself.\" He who soon after, on the shore of the quiet water, said to\nPeter, in view of his glorious and God-glorifying end, \"They shall\ncarry thee _whither thou wouldest not_\"--along a path from which all\nthy manhood shall shrink--He too, as to His Human sensibility, \"would\nnot\" go to His own unknown agonies. But then, blessed be His Name, \"He\nwould go\" to them, from that other side, the side of the infinite\nharmony of His purpose with the purpose of His Father, in His\nimmeasurable desire of His Father's glory. So He \"drank that cup,\"\nwhich shall never now pass on to His people. And then He went forth\ninto the house of Caiaphas, to be \"reproached,\" during some six or\nseven terrible hours, by men who, professing zeal for God, were all\nthe while blaspheming Him by every act and word of malice and untruth\nagainst His Son; and from Caiaphas He went to Pilate, and to Herod,\nand to the Cross, \"bearing that reproach.\"\n\n\"I'm not anxious to die easy, when He died hard!\" So said, not long\nago, in a London attic, lying crippled and comfortless, a little\ndisciple of the Man of Sorrows. He had \"seen the Lord,\" in a strangely\nunlikely conversion, and had found a way of serving Him; it was to\ndrop written fragments of His Word from the window on to the pavement\nbelow. And for this silent mission he would have no liberty if he were\nmoved, in his last weeks, to a comfortable \"Home.\" So he would rather\nserve his beloved Redeemer thus, \"pleasing not himself,\" than be\nsoothed in body, and gladdened by surrounding kindness, but with less\n\"fellowship of His sufferings.\" Illustrious confessor--sure to be\nremembered when \"the Lord of the servants cometh\"! And with what an _a\nfortiori_ does his simple answer to a kindly visitor's offer bring\nhome to us (for it is for us as much as for the Romans) this appeal of\nthe Apostle's! We are called in these words not necessarily to any\nagony of body or spirit; not necessarily even to an act of severe\nmoral courage; only to patience, largeness of heart, brotherly love.\nShall we not answer _Amen_ from the soul? Shall not even one thought\nof \"the fellowship of His sufferings\" annihilate in us the miserable\n\"self-pleasing\" which shews itself in religious bitterness, in the\nrefusal to attend and to understand, in a censoriousness which has\nnothing to do with firmness, in a personal attitude exactly opposite\nto love?\n\nHe has cited Psalm lxix. as a Scripture which, with all the solemn\nproblems gathered round its dark \"minatory\" paragraph, yet lives and\nmoves with Christ, the Christ of love. And now--not to confirm his\napplication of the Psalm, for he takes that for granted--but to affirm\nthe positive Christian use of the Old Scriptures as a whole, he goes\non to speak at large of \"the things fore-written.\" He does so with the\nspecial thought that the Old Testament is full of truth in point for\nthe Roman Church just now; full of the bright, _and uniting_, \"_hope_\"\nof glory; full of examples as well as precepts for \"_patience_,\" that\nis to say, holy perseverance under trial; full finally of the Lord's\nequally gracious relation to \"the Nations\" and to Israel.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =For all the things fore-written,= written in the\nScriptures of the elder time, in the age that both preceded the Gospel\nand prepared for it, =for our instruction were written=--with an\nemphasis upon \"_our_\"--=that through the patience and through the\nencouragement of the Scriptures we might hold our (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) hope,= the\nhope \"sure and steadfast\" of glorification in the glory of our\nconquering Lord. That is to say, the true \"Author behind the authors\"\nof that mysterious Book watched, guided, effected its construction,\nfrom end to end, with the purpose full in His view of instructing for\nall time the developed Church of Christ. And in particular, He\nadjusted thus the Old Testament records and precepts of \"_patience_,\"\nthe patience which \"suffers _and is strong_,\" suffers and _goes\nforward_,[245] and of \"_encouragement_,\" \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, the word which\nis more than \"_consolation_,\" while it includes it; for it means the\nvoice of positive and enlivening appeal. Rich indeed are Pentateuch,\nand Prophets, and Hagiographa, alike in commands to persevere and be\nof good courage, and in examples of men who were made brave and\npatient by the power of God in them, as they took Him at His word. And\nall this, says the Apostle, was on purpose, on God's purpose. That\nmultifarious Book is indeed in this sense one. Not only is it, in its\nAuthor's intention, full of Christ; in the same intention it is full\nof Him for us. Immortal indeed is its preciousness, if this was HIS\ndesign. Confidently may we explore its pages, looking in them first\nfor Christ, then for ourselves, in our need of peace, and strength,\nand hope.\n\nLet us add one word, in view of the anxious controversy of our day,\nwithin the Church, over the structure and nature of those \"divine\nScriptures,\" as the Christian Fathers love to call them. The use of\nthe Holy Book in the spirit of this verse, the persistent searching of\nit for the preceptive mind of God in it, with the belief that it was\n\"written for our instruction,\" will be the surest and deepest means to\ngive us \"perseverance\" and \"encouragement\" about the Book itself. The\nmore we really _know_ the Bible, at first hand, before God, with the\nknowledge both of acquaintance and reverent sympathy, the more shall\nwe be able with intelligent spiritual conviction, to \"_persist_\" and\n\"_be of good cheer_\" in the conviction that it is indeed not of man,\n(though through man,) but of God. The more shall we use it as the Lord\nand the Apostles used it, as being not only of God, but of God for us;\nHis Word, and for us. The more shall we make it our divine daily\nManual for a life of patient and cheerful sympathies, holy fidelity,\nand \"that blessed Hope\"--which draws \"=nearer now= than when we\nbelieved.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.] =But may the God of the patience and the\nencouragement,= He who is Author and Giver of the graces unfolded in\nHis Word, He without whom even that Word is but a sound without\nsignificance in the soul, =grant you,= in His own sovereign way of\nacting on and in human wills and affections, =to be of one mind\nmutually (\u1f10\u03bd \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u03ae\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2), according to Christ Jesus;= \"_Christwise_,\"\nin His steps, in His temper, under His precepts; having towards one\nanother, not necessarily an identity of opinion on all details, but a\ncommunity of sympathetic kindness. No comment here is better than this\nsame Writer's later words, from Rome (Phil. ii.\u00a02-5); \"Be of one mind;\nhaving the same love; nothing by strife, or vainglory; esteeming\nothers better than yourselves; looking on the things of others; with\nthe same mind which was also in Christ Jesus,\" when He humbled Himself\nfor us. And all this, not only for the comfort of the community, but\nfor the glory of God: [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =that unanimously, with one\nmouth, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;=\nturning from the sorrowful friction worked by self-will when it\nintrudes into the things of heaven, to an antidote, holy and\neffectual, found in adoring Him who is equally near to all His true\npeople, in His Son.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =Wherefore welcome one another into fellowship,\neven as our (\u1f41) Christ welcomed you,[246]= all the individuals of\nyour company, and all the groups of it, =to our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God's glory.=\nThese last words may mean either that the Lord's welcome of \"_you_\"\n\"_glorified_\" His Father's grace; or that that grace will be\n\"_glorified_\" by the holy victory of love over prejudice among the\nRoman saints. Perhaps this latter explanation is to be preferred,\nas it echoes and enforces the last words of the previous verse.\nBut why should not both references reside in the one phrase, where\nthe actions of the Lord and His disciples are seen in their deep\nharmony? [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =For[247] I say that Christ stands\nconstituted[248] Servant (\u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd) of the Circumcision,= Minister\nof divine blessings to Israel, =on behalf of God's truth, so as to\nratify= in act =the promises belonging to the Fathers,= so as to\nsecure and vindicate their fulfilment, by His coming as Son of David,\nSon of Abraham; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =but= (a \"_but_\" which, by its\nslight correction, reminds the Jew that the Promise, given wholly\n_through_ him, was not given wholly _for_ him) =so that the Nations,\non mercy's behalf, should glorify God,= blessing and adoring Him on\naccount of a salvation which, in their case, was less of \"_truth_\"\nthan of \"_mercy_,\" because it was less explicitly and immediately of\ncovenant; =as it stands written= (Psal. xviii.\u00a049), =\"For this I will\nconfess to Thee,= will own Thee, =among the Nations, and will strike\nthe harp (\u03c8\u03b1\u03bb\u1ff6) to Thy Name\";= Messiah confessing His Eternal\nFather's glory in the midst of His redeemed Gentile subjects, who sing\ntheir \"lower part\" with Him. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =And again it,= the\nScripture, =says,= (Deut. xxxii.\u00a043), =\"Be jubilant, Nations, with His\npeople.\"[249]= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =And again= (Psal. cxvii.\u00a01),\n=\"Praise the Lord, all the Nations, and let all the peoples praise Him\nagain\" (\u1f10\u03c0\u03b1\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03c3\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd).= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =And again Isaiah\nsays= (xi.\u00a010), =\"There shall come= (literally, \"_shall be_\") =the\nRoot of Jesse, and He who rises up=--\"_rises_,\" in the present tense\nof the divine decree--=to rule (the) Nations; on Him (the) Nations\nshall hope;\"= with the hope which is in fact faith, looking from the\nsure present to the promised future. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =Now may the\nGod of that hope,= \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bb\u03c0\u03af\u03b4\u03bf\u03c2, \"_the_ Hope\" just cited from the\nProphet, the expectation of all blessing, up to its crown and flower\nin glory, on the basis of Messiah's work, =fill you with all joy and\npeace in your (\u03c4\u1ff7) believing, so that you may overflow in that\n(\u03c4\u1fc7) hope, in the Holy Spirit's power;= \"_in_ His power,\" clasped as\nit were within His divine embrace, and thus energized to look upward,\nheavenward, away from embittering and dividing temptations to the\nunifying as well as beatifying prospect of your Lord's Return.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHe closes here his long, wise, tender appeal and counsel about the\n\"unhappy divisions\" of the Roman Mission. He has led his readers as it\nwere all round the subject. With the utmost tact, and also candour, he\nhas given them his own mind, \"in the Lord,\" on the matter in dispute.\nHe has pointed out to the party of scruple and restriction the fallacy\nof claiming the function of Christ, and asserting a divine rule where\nHe has not imposed one. He has addressed the \"strong,\" (with whom he\nagrees in a certain sense,) at much greater length, reminding them of\nthe moral error of making more of any given application of their\nprinciple than of the law of love in which the principle was rooted.\nHe has brought both parties to the feet of Jesus Christ as absolute\nMaster. He has led them to gaze on Him as their blessed Example, in\nHis infinite self-oblivion for the cause of God, and of love. He has\npoured out before them the prophecies, which tell at once the\nChristian Judaist and the ex-pagan convert that in the eternal purpose\nChrist was given equally to both, in the line of \"truth,\" in the line\nof \"mercy.\" Now lastly he clasps them impartially to his own heart in\nthis precious and pregnant benediction, beseeching for both sides, and\nfor all their individuals, a wonderful fulness of those blessings in\nwhich most speedily and most surely _the spirit_ of their strife would\nexpire. Let that prayer be granted, in its pure depth and height, and\nhow could \"the weak brother\" look with quite his old anxiety on the\nproblems suggested by the dishes at a meal, and by the dates of the\nRabbinic Calendar? And how could \"the capable\" bear any longer to lose\nhis joy in God by an assertion, full of self, of his own insight and\n\"liberty\"? Profoundly happy and at rest in their Lord, whom they\nembraced by faith as their Righteousness and Life, and whom they\nanticipated in hope as their coming Glory; filled through their whole\nconsciousness, by the indwelling Spirit, with a new insight into\nCHRIST; they would fall into each other's embrace, in Him. They would\nbe much more ready, when they met, to speak \"concerning the King\" than\nto begin a new stage of their not very elevating discussion.\n\nHow many a Church controversy, now as then, would die of inanition,\nleaving room for a living truth, if the disputants could only\n_gravitate_, as to their always most beloved theme, to the praises and\nglories of their redeeming LORD Himself! It is at His feet, and in His\narms, that we best understand both His truth, and the thoughts,\nrightful or mistaken, of our brethren.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMeanwhile, let us take this benedictory prayer, as we may take it,\nfrom its instructive context, and carry it out with us into all the\ncontexts of life. What the Apostle prayed for the Romans, in view of\ntheir controversies, he prays for us, as for them, in view of\neverything. Let us \"stand back and look at the picture.\" Here--conveyed\nin this strong petition--is St Paul's idea of the true Christian's\ntrue life, and the true life of the true Church. What are the\nelements, and what is the result?\n\nIt is a life lived in direct contact with God. \"Now _the God of hope_\nfill you.\" He remits them here (as above, ver. 5) from even himself to\nthe Living God. In a sense, he sends them even from \"the things\nfore-written,\" to the Living God; not in the least to disparage the\nScriptures, but because the great function of the divine Word, as of\nthe divine Ordinances, is to guide the soul into _an immediate_\nintercourse with the Lord God in His Son, and to secure it therein.\nGod is to deal direct with the Romans. He is to manipulate, He is to\nfill, their being.\n\nIt is a life not starved or straitened, but full. \"The God of hope\n_fill you_.\" The disciple, and the Church, is not to live as if grace\nwere like a stream \"in the year of drought,\" now settled into an\nalmost stagnant deep, then struggling with difficulty over the stones\nof the shallow. The man, and the Society, are to live and work in\ntranquil but moving strength, \"rich\" in the fruits of their Lord's\n\"poverty\" (2\u00a0Cor. viii.\u00a09); filled out of His fulness; never,\nspiritually, at a loss for Him; never, practically, having to do or\nbear except in His large and gracious power.\n\nIt is a life bright and beautiful; \"filled with _all joy and peace_.\"\nIt is to shew a surface fair with the reflected sky of Christ, Christ\npresent, Christ to come. A sacred while open happiness and a pure\ninternal repose is to be there, born of \"His presence, in which is\nfulness of joy,\" and of the sure prospect of His Return, bringing with\nit \"pleasures for evermore.\" Like that mysterious ether of which the\nnatural philosopher tells us, this joy, this peace, found and\nmaintained \"in the Lord,\" is to pervade _all_ the contents of the\nChristian life, its moving masses of duty or trial, its interspaces of\nrest or silence; not always demonstrative but always underlying, and\nalways a living power.\n\nIt is a life of faith; \"all joy and peace _in your believing_.\" That\nis to say, it is a life dependent for its all upon a Person and His\npromises. Its glad certainty of peace with God, of the possession of\nHis Righteousness, is by means not of sensations and experiences, but\nof believing; it comes, and stays, by taking Christ at His word. Its\npower over temptation, its \"victory and triumph against the devil, the\nworld, and the flesh,\" is by the same means. The man, the Church,\ntakes the Lord at His word;--\"I am with you always\"; \"Through Me thou\nshalt do valiantly\";--and faith, that is to say, Christ trusted in\npractice, is \"more than conqueror.\"\n\nIt is a life overflowing with the heavenly hope; \"that ye may abound\n_in the hope_.\" Sure of the past, and of the present, it is--what out\nof Christ no life can be--sure of the future. The golden age, for this\nhappy life, is in front, and is no Utopia. \"Now is our salvation\nnearer\"; \"We look for that blissful (\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u03bd) hope, the appearing\nof our great God and Saviour\"; \"Them which sleep in Him God will bring\nwith Him\"; \"We shall be caught up together with them; we shall ever be\nwith the Lord\"; \"They shall see His face; thine eyes shall see the\nKing in His beauty.\"\n\nAnd all this it is as a life lived \"_in the power of the Holy Ghost_.\"\nNot by enthusiasm, not by any stimulus which self applies to self; not\nby resources for gladness and permanence found in independent reason\nor affection; but by the almighty, all-tender power of the Comforter.\n\"The Lord, the Life-Giver,\" giving life by bringing us to the Son of\nGod, and uniting us to Him, is the Giver and strong Sustainer of the\nfaith, and so of the peace, the joy, the hope, of this blessed life.\n\n\"Now it was not written for their sakes only, but for us also,\" in our\ncircumstances of personal and of common experience. Large and pregnant\nis the application of this one utterance to the problems perpetually\nraised by the divided state of organization, and of opinion, in modern\nChristendom. It gives us one secret, above and below all others, as\nthe sure panacea, if it may but be allowed to work, for this\nmultifarious malady which all who think deplore. That secret is \"the\nsecret of the Lord, which is with them that fear Him\" (Psal. xxv.\u00a014).\nIt is a fuller life in the individual, and so in the community, of the\npeace and joy of believing; a larger abundance of \"that blessed hope,\"\ngiven by that power for which numberless hearts are learning to thirst\nwith a new intensity, \"the power of the Holy Ghost.\"\n\nIt was in that direction above all that the Apostle gazed as he\nyearned for the unity, not only spiritual but practical, of the Roman\nsaints. This great master of order, this man made for government,\nalive with all his large wisdom to the sacred importance, in its true\nplace, of the external mechanism of Christianity, yet makes no mention\nof it here, nay, scarcely gives one allusion to it in the whole\nEpistle. The word \"Church\" is not heard till the final chapter; and\nthen it is used only, or almost only, of the scattered mission-stations,\nor even mission-_groups_, in their individuality. The ordered Ministry\nonly twice, and in the most passing manner, comes into the long\ndiscourse; in the words (xii.\u00a06-8) about prophecy, ministration,\nteaching, exhortation, leadership; and in the mention (xvi.\u00a01) of\nPh\u0153be's relation to the Cenchrean Church. He is addressing the\nsaints of that great City which was afterwards, in the tract of time,\nto develop into even terrific exaggerations the idea of Church Order.\nBut he has practically nothing to say to them about unification and\ncohesion beyond this appeal to hold fast together by drawing nearer\neach and all to the Lord, and so filling each one his soul and life\nwith Him.\n\nOur modern problems must be met with attention, with firmness, with\npractical purpose, with due regard to history, and with submission to\nrevealed truth. But if they are to be solved indeed they must be met\noutside the spirit of self, and in the communion of the Christian with\nChrist, by the power of the Spirit of God.\n\n[244] Observe that St Paul utterly repudiates the thought of\n\"_pleasing_\" (\u1f00\u03c1\u03ad\u03c3\u03ba\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd) where it means a _servile and really\ncompromising_ deference to human opinion (Gal. i.\u00a010).\n\n[245] The noble word \u1f51\u03c0\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u03ae, as we have remarked already, is\nrarely if ever _merely_ passive in New Testament usage.\n\n[246] So read, not \u1f21\u03bc\u1fb6\u03c2. The point of the mention here of \"_you_\"\nis manifest.\n\n[247] Reading \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 not \u03b4\u03ad, and omitting \u1f38\u03b7\u03c3\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd just afterwards.\n\n[248] \u0393\u03b5\u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u1fc6\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9, the perfect. But perhaps read \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03ad\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9.\n\n[249] In the received Hebrew Text the word \u05d0\u05ea, \"_with_,\" is\nabsent, and the rendering may be, in paraphrase, either, \"_Ye Nations,\ncongratulate His people_,\" or \"_Rejoice ye Nations, who are His\npeople_.\" Either the great Rabbi-Apostle read \u05d0\u05ea, or he gave the\nessence of the Mosaic words, not their form, (using the Lxx. rendering\nas his form,) to convey the thought of the loving sympathy, before\nGod, of Israel and the Nations.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXI\n\n_ROMAN CHRISTIANITY: ST PAUL'S COMMISSION: HIS INTENDED ITINERARY:\nHE ASKS FOR PRAYER_\n\nROMANS xv.\u00a014-33\n\n\nThe Epistle hastens to its close. As to its instructions, doctrinal or\nmoral, they are now practically written. The Way of Salvation lies\nextended, in its radiant outline, before the Romans, and ourselves.\nThe Way of Obedience, in some of its main tracks, has been drawn\nfirmly on the field of life. Little remains but the Missionary's last\nwords about persons and plans, and then the great task is done.\n\nHe will say a warm, gracious word about the spiritual state of the\nRoman believers. He will justify, with a noble courtesy, his own\nauthoritative attitude as their counsellor. He will talk a little of\nhis hoped for and now seemingly approaching visit, and matters in\nconnexion with it. He will greet the individuals whom he knows, and\ncommend the bearer of the Letter, and add last messages from his\nfriends. Then Ph\u0153be may receive her charge, and go on her way.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =But I am sure, my brethren, quite on my own part\n(\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03c2 \u1f10\u03b3\u03ce), about you, that you are, yourselves,= irrespective\nof my influence, =brimming with goodness,= with high Christian\nqualities in general, =filled with all knowledge, competent in fact\n(\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76) to admonish one another.= Is this flattery, interested and\ninsincere? Is it weakness, easily persuaded into a false optimism?\nSurely not; for the speaker here is the man who has spoken straight to\nthe souls of these same people about sin, and judgment, and holiness;\nabout the holiness of these everyday charities which some of them (so\nhe has said plainly enough) had been violating. But a truly great\nheart always loves to praise where it can, and, discerningly, to think\nand say the best. He who is Truth itself said of His imperfect, His\ndisappointing followers, as He spoke of them in their hearing to His\nFather, \"They have kept Thy word\"; \"I am glorified in them\" (John\nxvii.\u00a06, 10). So here his Servant does not indeed give the Romans a\nformal certificate of perfection, but he does rejoice to know, and to\nsay, that their community is Christian in a high degree, and that in a\ncertain sense they have not needed information about Justification by\nFaith, nor about principles of love and liberty in their intercourse.\nIn essence, all has been in their cognizance already; an assurance\nwhich could not have been entertained in regard of every Mission,\ncertainly. He has written not as to children, giving them an alphabet,\nbut as to men, developing facts into science.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =But with a certain boldness (\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03bc\u03b7\u03c1\u03cc\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd) I\nhave written[250] to you, here and there,[251] just as reminding you;\nbecause of the grace,= the free gift of his commission and of the\nequipment for it, =given me by our (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6) God,= given in order to\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =my being Christ Jesus' minister= sent =to the\nNations, doing priest-work with the Gospel of God, that the oblation\nof the Nations,= the oblation which is in fact the Nations self-laid\nupon the spiritual altar, =may be acceptable, consecrated in the Holy\nSpirit.= It is a startling and splendid passage of metaphor. Here\nonce, in all the range of his writings (unless we except the few and\naffecting words of Phil. ii.\u00a017), the Apostle presents himself to his\nconverts as a sacrificial ministrant, a \"_priest_\" in the sense which\nusage (not etymology) has so long stamped on that English word as its\nmore special sense. Never do the great Founders of the Church,\nand never does He who is its Foundation, use the term \u1f31\u03b5\u03c1\u03b5\u03cd\u03c2,\nsacrificing, mediating, priest, as a term to designate the Christian\nminister in any of his orders; _never_, if this passage is not to be\nreckoned in, with its \u1f31\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd, its \"_priest-work_,\" as we have\nventured to translate the Greek. In the distinctively sacerdotal\nEpistle, the Hebrews, the word \u1f31\u03b5\u03c1\u03b5\u1f7a\u03c2 comes indeed into the\nforeground. But there it is absorbed into THE LORD. It is appropriated\naltogether to Him in His self-sacrificial Work once done, and in His\nheavenly Work now always doing, the work of mediatorial impartation,\nfrom His throne,[252] of the blessings which His great Offering won.\nOne other Christian application of the sacrificial title we have in\nthe Epistles: \"Ye are a holy priesthood,\" \"a royal priesthood\" (1\u00a0Pet.\nii.\u00a05, 9). But who are \"_ye_\"? Not the consecrated pastorate, but the\nconsecrated Christian company altogether. And what are the\naltar-sacrifices of that company? \"Sacrifices _spiritual_\"; \"_the\npraises_ of Him who called them into His wonderful light\" (1\u00a0Pet.\nii.\u00a05, 9). In the Christian Church, the pre-Levitical ideal of the old\nIsrael reappears in its sacred reality. He who offered to the Church\nof Moses (Exod. xix.\u00a06) to be one great priesthood, \"a kingdom of\npriests, and a holy nation,\" found His favoured nation unready for the\nprivilege, and so Levi representatively took the place alone. But now,\nin His new Israel, as all are sons in the Son, so all are priests in\nthe Priest. And the sacred Ministry of that Israel, the Ministry which\nis His own divine institution, the gift (Eph. iv.\u00a011) of the ascended\nLord to His Church, is never once designated, as such, by the term\nwhich would have marked it as the analogue to Levi, or to Aaron.\n\nIs this passage in any degree an exception? No; for it contains its\nown full inner evidence of its metaphorical cast. The \"_priest-working_\"\nhere has regard, we find, not to a ritual, but to \"_the Gospel_.\"\n\"_The oblation_\" is--the Nations. The hallowing Element, shed as it\nwere upon the victims, is the Holy Ghost. Not in a material temple,\nand serving at no tangible altar, the Apostle brings his multitudinous\n_converts_ as his holocaust to the Lord. The Spirit, at his preaching\nand on their believing, descends upon them; and they lay themselves \"a\nliving sacrifice\" where the fire of love shall consume them, to His\nglory.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =I have therefore my= (read \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd) right to\n=exultation, in Christ Jesus,= as His member and implement, =as to\nwhat regards God;= not in any respect as regards myself, apart from\nHim. And then he proceeds as if about to say, in evidence of that\nassertion, that he always declines to intrude on a brother Apostle's\nground, and to claim as his own experience what was in the least\ndegree another's; but that indeed through him, in sovereign grace, God\n_has_ done great things, far and wide. This he expresses thus, in\nenergetic compressions of diction:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =For I will not dare to talk at all of things\nwhich Christ did not work out through me,= (there is an emphasis on\n\"_me_,\") =to effect obedience of (the) Nations= to His Gospel, =by\nword and deed,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =in power of signs and wonders,\nin power of God's Spirit;= a reference, strangely impressive by its\nvery passingness, to the exercise of miracle-working gifts by the\nwriter. This man, so strong in thought, so practical in counsel, so\nextremely unlikely to have been under an illusion about a large factor\nin his adult and intensely conscious experience, speaks direct from\nhimself of his wonder-works. And the allusion, thus dropped by the way\nand left behind, is itself an evidence to the perfect mental balance\nof the witness; this was no enthusiast, intoxicated with ambitious\nspiritual visions, but a man put in trust with a mysterious yet sober\ntreasure. =So that from Jerusalem, and round about= it (Acts\nxxvi.\u00a020), =as far as the Illyrian= region, the highland seabord which\nlooks across the Adriatic to the long eastern side of Italy, =I have\nfulfilled the Gospel of Christ,= carried it practically everywhere,\n_satisfied the idea_ of so distributing it that it shall be accessible\neverywhere to the native races.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =But= this I have done =with this ambition, to\npreach the Gospel not where Christ was already named, that I might not\nbuild on another man's foundation;= [Sidenote: Ver. 21.] =but= to act\non the divine word, =as it stands written= (Isai. lii.\u00a015), =\"They to\nwhom no news was carried about Him, shall see; and those who have not\nheard, shall understand.\"= Here was an \"_ambition_\" as far-sighted as\nit was noble. Would that the principle of it could have been better\nremembered in the history of Christendom, and not least in our own\nage; a wasteful over-lapping of effort on effort, system on system,\nwould not need now to be so much deplored. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =Thus\nas a fact (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76) I was hindered for the most part=--hindrances were\nthe rule, signals of opportunity the exception--=in coming to you;=\nyou, whose City is no untrodden ground to messengers of Christ, and\ntherefore not the ground which had _a first_ claim on me.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.] =But now, as no longer having place in these\nregions,= eastern Roman Europe yielding him no longer an unattempted\nand accessible district to enter, =and having a home-sick feeling=\n(\u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c0\u03bf\u03b8\u03af\u03b1\u03bd: see above, i.\u00a011) =for coming to you, these many years=\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a024.] =whenever I may be journeying to Spain, [I will\ncome to you[253]]. For I hope, on my journey through, to see the sight\nof you= (\u03b8\u03b5\u03ac\u03c3\u03b1\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9, as if the view of so important a Church would\nbe a _spectacle_ indeed), =and by you[254] to be escorted there, if\nfirst I may have my fill of you, however imperfectly (\u1f00\u03c0\u1f78 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2).=\n\nAs always, in the fine courtesy of pastoral love, he says more, and\nthinks more, of his own expected gain of refreshment and encouragement\nfrom them, than even of what he may have to impart to them. So he had\nthought, and so spoken, in his opening page (i.\u00a011, 12); it is the\nsame heart throughout.\n\nHow little did he realize the line and details of the destined\nfulfilment of that \"home-sick feeling\"! He was indeed to \"see Rome,\"\nand for no passing \"sight of the scene.\" For two long years of sorrows\nand joys, restraints and wonderful occasions, innumerable colloquies,\nand the writing of great Scriptures, he was to \"dwell in his own hired\nlodgings\" there. But he did not see what lay between.\n\nFor St Paul ordinarily, as always for us, it was true that \"we know\nnot what awaits us.\" For us, as for him, it is better \"to walk with\nGod in the dark, than to go alone in the light.\"\n\nDid he ultimately visit Spain? We shall never know until perhaps we\nare permitted to ask him hereafter. It is not at all impossible that,\nreleased from his Roman prison, he first went westward and then--as at\nsome time he certainly did--travelled to the Levant. But no tradition,\nhowever faint, connects St Paul with the great Peninsula which glories\nin her legend of St James. Is it irrelevant to remember that _in his\nGospel_ he has notably visited Spain in later ages? It was the Gospel\nof St Paul, the simple grandeur of his exposition of Justification by\nFaith, which in the sixteenth century laid hold on multitudes of the\nnoblest of Spanish hearts, till it seemed as if not Germany, not\nEngland, bid fairer to become again a land of \"truth in the light.\"\nThe terrible Inquisition utterly crushed the springing harvest, at\nValladolid, at Seville, and in that ghastly Quemadero at Madrid,\nwhich, five-and-twenty years ago, was excavated by accident, to reveal\nits deep strata of ashes, and charred bones, and all the d\u00e9bris of the\n_Autos_. But now again, in the mercy of God, and in happier hours, the\nNew Testament is read in the towns of Spain, and in her highland\nvillages, and churches are gathering around the holy light, spiritual\ndescendants of the true, the primeval, Church of Rome. May \"the God of\nhope fill them with all peace and joy in believing.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =But now I am journeying to Jerusalem,= the\njourney whose course we know so well from Acts xx., xxi., =ministering\nto the saints,= serving the poor converts of the holy City as the\ncollector and conveyer of alms for their necessities. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a026.]\n=For Macedonia and Achaia,= the northern and southern Provinces of\nRoman Greece, finely _personified_ in this vivid passage, =thought\ngood to make something of a (\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u1f70) communication,= a certain gift to\nbe \"_shared_\" among the recipients, =for the poor of the saints who\nlive at Jerusalem;= the place where poverty seemed specially, for\nwhatever reason, to beset the converts. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a027.] =\"For\nthey thought good!\"= yes; but there is a different side to the matter.\nMacedonia and Achaia are generous friends, but they have an obligation\ntoo: =And debtors they are to them,= to these poor people of the old\nCity. =For if in their spiritual things the Nations shared, they,=\nthese Nations, =are in debt, as a fact, (\u03ba\u03b1\u03af,) in things carnal,=\nthings belonging to our \"life in the flesh,\" =to minister to them;=\n\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b3\u1fc6\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9, to do them public _and religious_ service.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a028.] =When I have finished this then, and sealed this\nfruit to them,= put them into ratified ownership of this \"_proceed_\"\n(\u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03c0\u1f78\u03bd) of Christian love, =I will come away by your road (\u03b4\u03b9' \u1f51\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd)\nto Spain.= (He _means_, \"if the Lord will\"; it is instructive to note\nthat even St Paul does not make it a duty, with an almost\nsuperstitious iteration, always to _say so_). [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a029.]\n=Now I know that, coming to you, in the fulness of Christ's\nbenediction[255] I shall come.= He will come with his Lord's\n\"_benediction_\" on him, as His messenger to the Roman disciples;\nChrist will send him charged with heavenly messages, and attended with\nHis own prospering presence. And this will be \"_in fulness_\"; with a\nrich overflow of saving truth, and heavenly power, and blissful\nfellowship.\n\nHere he pauses, to ask them for that boon of which he is so\ncovetous--intercessory prayer. He has been speaking with a kind and\neven sprightly pleasantry (there is no irreverence in the recognition)\nof those Personages, Macedonia and Achaia, and their gift, which is\nalso their debt. He has spoken also of what we know from elsewhere\n(1\u00a0Cor. xvi.\u00a01-4) to have been his own scrupulous purpose not only to\ncollect the alms but to see them punctually delivered, above all\nsuspicion of misuse. He has talked with cheerful confidence of \"the\nroad by Rome to Spain.\" But now he realizes what the visit to\nJerusalem involves for himself. He has tasted in many places, and at\nmany times, the bitter hatred felt for him in unbelieving Israel; a\nhatred the more bitter, probably, the more his astonishing activity\nand influence were felt in region after region. Now he is going to the\ncentral focus of the enmity; to the City of the Sanhedrin, and of the\nZealots. And St Paul is no Stoic, indifferent to fear, lifted in an\nunnatural exaltation above circumstances, though he is ready to walk\nthrough them in the power of Christ. His heart anticipates the\nexperiences of outrage and revilings, and the possible breaking up of\nall his missionary plans. He thinks too of prejudice within the\nChurch, as well as of hatred from without; he is not at all sure that\nhis cherished collection will not be coldly received, or even\nrejected, by the Judaists of the mother-church; whom yet he must and\nwill call \"saints.\" So he tells all to the Romans, with a generous and\nwinning confidence in their sympathy, and begs their prayers, and\nabove all sets them praying that he may not be disappointed of his\nlonged-for visit to them.\n\nAll was granted. He was welcomed by the Church. He was delivered from\nthe fanatics, by the strong arm of the Empire. He did reach Rome, and\nhe had holy joy there. Only, the Lord took His own way, a way they\nknew not, to answer Paul and his friends.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a030.] =But I appeal to you, brethren,=--the \"_but_\"\ncarries an implication that something lay in the way of the happy\nprospect just mentioned,--=by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love\nof the Spirit,= by that holy family affection inspired by the Holy One\ninto the hearts which He has regenerated,[256] =to wrestle along with\nme in your prayers on my behalf to our (\u03c4\u1ff7) God;= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a031.]\n=that I may be rescued from those who disobey= the Gospel =in Judea,\nand that my ministration[257] which takes me to Jerusalem (\u1f21 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2\n\u1f39\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1\u03bb\u1f74\u03bc) may prove acceptable to the saints,= may be taken by the\nChristians there without prejudice, and in love; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a032.]\n=that I may with joy come to you, through the will of God,[258] and\nmay share refreshing rest with you,= the rest of holy fellowship where\nthe tension of discussion and opposition is intermitted, and the two\nparties perfectly \"understand one another\" in their Lord.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a033.] =But the God of our (\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2) peace be with you\nall.= Yes, so be it, whether or no the longed-for \"_joy_\" and\n\"_refreshing rest_\" is granted in His providence to the Apostle. With\nhis beloved Romans, anywise, let there be \"_peace_\"; peace in their\ncommunity, and in their souls; peace with God, and peace in Him. And\nso it will be, whether their human friend is or is not permitted, to\nsee them, if only the Eternal Friend is there.\n\nThere is a deep and attractive tenderness, as we have seen above, in\nthis paragraph, where the writer's heart tells the readers quite\nfreely of its personal misgivings and longings. One of the most\npathetic, sometimes one of the most beautiful, phenomena of human life\nis the strong man in his weak hour, or rather in his feeling hour,\nwhen he is glad of the support of those who may be so much his weaker.\nThere is a sort of strength which prides itself upon never shewing\nsuch symptoms; to which it is a point of honour to act and speak\nalways as if the man were self-contained and self-sufficient. But this\nis a narrow type of strength, not a great one. The strong man truly\ngreat is not afraid, in season, to \"let himself go\"; he is well able\nto recover. An underlying power leaves him at leisure to shew upon the\nsurface very much of what he feels. The largeness of his insight puts\nhim into manifold contact with others, and keeps him open to their\nsympathies, however humble and inadequate these sympathies may be. The\nLord Himself, \"mighty to save,\" cared more than we can fully know for\nhuman fellow-feeling. \"Will ye also go away?\" \"Ye are they that have\ncontinued with Me in My temptations\"; \"Tarry ye here, and watch with\nMe\"; \"Lovest thou Me?\"\n\nNo false spiritual pride suggests it to St Paul to conceal his\nanxieties from the Romans. It is a temptation sometimes to those who\nhave been called to help and strengthen other men, to affect for\nthemselves a strength which perhaps they do not quite feel. It is well\nmeant. The man is afraid that if he owns to a burthen he may seem to\nbelie the Gospel of \"perfect peace\"; that if he even lets it be\nsuspected that he is not always in the ideal Christian frame, his\nwarmest exhortations and testimonies may lose their power. But at all\npossible hazards let him, about such things as about all others, tell\nthe truth. It is a sacred duty in itself; the heavenly Gospel has no\ncorner in it for the man\u0153uvres of spiritual prevarication. And he\nwill find assuredly that truthfulness, transparent candour, will not\nreally discount his witness to the promises of his Lord. It may\nhumiliate _him_, but it will not discredit Jesus Christ. It will\nindicate the imperfection of the recipient, but not any defect in the\nthing received. And the fact that the witness has been found quite\ncandid against himself, where there is occasion, will give a double\nweight to his every direct testimony to the possibility of a life\nlived in the hourly peace of God.\n\nIt is no part of our Christian duty to feel doubts and fears! And the\nmore we act upon our Lord's promises as they stand, the more we shall\nrejoice to find that misgivings tend to vanish where once they were\nalways thickening upon us. Only, it is our duty always to be\ntransparently honest.\n\nHowever, we must not treat this theme here too much as if St Paul had\ngiven us an unmistakable text for it. His words now before us\n_express_ no \"carking care\" about his intended visit to Jerusalem.\nThey only indicate a deep sense of the gravity of the prospect, and of\nits dangers. And we know from elsewhere (see especially Acts xxi.\u00a013)\nthat that sense did sometimes amount to an agony of feeling, in the\ncourse of the very journey which he now contemplates. And we see him\nhere quite without the wish to conceal his heart in the matter.\n\nIn closing we note, \"for our learning,\" his example as he is a man who\ncraves to be prayed for. Prayer, that great mystery, that blessed fact\nand power, was indeed vital to St Paul. He is always praying himself;\nhe is always asking other people to pray for him. He \"has seen Jesus\nChrist our Lord\"; he is his Lord's inspired Minister and Delegate; he\nhas been \"caught up into the third heaven\"; he has had a thousand\nproofs that \"all things,\" infallibly, \"work together for his good.\"\nBut he is left by this as certain as ever, with a persuasion as simple\nas a child's, and also as deep as his own life-worn spirit, that it is\nimmensely well worth his while to secure the intercessory prayers of\nthose who know the way to God in Christ.\n\n[250] \u1f1c\u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03c8\u03b1: the epistolary aorist.\n\n[251] \u1f08\u03c0\u1f78 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \"_as regards part_\" of his instructions and\ncautions. He probably refers particularly to the discussions of ch.\nxiv.\u00a01--xv.\u00a013.\n\n[252] He is seen in the Epistle not before the throne, standing, but\n_on_ the throne, _seated_.\n\n[253] These words have weak documentary support. But surely the\nellipsis left by their absence is difficult to accept, even in St\nPaul's free style.\n\n[254] Or perhaps \"_from you_,\" \u1f00\u03c6' \u1f51\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd.\n\n[255] Omitting the words \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03b5\u1f50\u03b1\u03b3\u03b3\u03b5\u03bb\u03af\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6.\n\n[256] So we explain, rather than take the reference to be to the Holy\nSpirit's _love for us_. In this context, surely, this latter would be\nless in point.\n\n[257] \u0394\u03b9\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1: another possible reading is \u03b4\u03c9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03af\u03b1, \"_gift-bearing_.\"\n\n[258] Perhaps read, \"_through the will of the Lord Jesus_.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXII\n\n_A COMMENDATION: GREETINGS: A WARNING: A DOXOLOGY_\n\nROMANS xvi.\u00a01-27\n\n\nOnce more, with a reverent licence of thought, we may imagine\nourselves to be watching in detail the scene in the house of Gaius.\nHour upon hour has passed over Paul and his scribe as the wonderful\nMessage has developed itself, at once and everywhere the word of man\nand the Word of God. They began at morning, and the themes of sin, and\nrighteousness, and glory, of the present and the future of Israel, of\nthe duties of the Christian life, of the special problems of the Roman\nMission, have carried the hours along to noon, to afternoon. Now, to\nthe watcher from the westward lattice,\n\n  \"Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run,\n  Along Morea's hills the setting sun;\n  Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright,\n  But one unclouded blaze of living light.\"\n\nThe Apostle, pacing the chamber, as men are wont to do when they use\nthe pens of others, is aware that his message is at an end, as to\ndoctrine and counsel. But before he bids his willing and wondering\nsecretary rest from his labours, he has to discharge his own heart of\nthe personal thoughts and affections which have lain ready in it all\nthe while, and which his last words about his coming visit to the City\nhave brought up in all their life and warmth. And now Paul and Tertius\nare no longer alone; other brethren have found their way to the\nchamber--Timotheus, Lucius, Jason, Sosipater; Gaius himself; Quartus;\nand no less a neighbour than Erastus, Treasurer of Corinth. A page of\npersonal messages is yet to be dictated, from St Paul, and from his\nfriends.\n\nNow first he must not forget the pious woman who is--so we surely may\nassume--to take charge of this inestimable packet, and to deliver it\nat Rome. We know nothing of Ph\u0153be but from this brief mention. We\ncannot perhaps be formally certain that she is here described as a\nfemale Church-_official_, a \"deaconess\" in a sense of that word\nfamiliar in later developments of Church-order--a woman set apart by\nthe laying-on of hands, appointed to enquire into and relieve temporal\ndistress, and to be the teacher of female enquirers in the mission.\nBut there is at least a great likelihood that something like this was\nher position; for she was not merely an active Christian, she was \"a\nministrant of _the Church_.\" And she was certainly, as a person,\nworthy of reliance and of loving commendatory praise, now that some\ncause--absolutely unknown to us; perhaps nothing more unusual than a\nchange of residence, obliged by private circumstances--took her from\nAchaia to Italy. She had been a devoted and it would seem particularly\n_a brave_[259] friend of converts in trouble, and of St Paul himself.\nPerhaps in the course of her visits to the desolate she had fought\ndifficult battles of protest, where she found harshness and\noppression. Perhaps she had pleaded the forgotten cause of the poor,\nwith a woman's courage, before some neglectful richer \"brother.\"\n\nThen Rome itself, as he sees Ph\u0153be reaching it, rises--as yet only\nin fancy; it was still unknown to him--upon his mind. And there,\nmoving up and down in that strange and almost awful world, he sees one\nby one the members of a large group of his personal Christian friends,\nand his beloved Aquila and Prisca are most visible of all. These must\nbe individually saluted.\n\nWhat the nature of these friendships was we know in some instances,\nfor we are told here. But why the persons were at Rome, in the place\nwhich Paul himself had never reached, we do not know, nor ever shall.\nMany students of the Epistle, it is well known, find a serious\ndifficulty in this list of friends so placed--the persons so familiar,\nthe place so strange; and they would have us look on this sixteenth\nchapter as a fragment from some other Letter, pieced in here by\nmistake; or what not. But no ancient copy of the Epistle gives us, by\nits condition, any real ground for such conjectures. And all that we\nhave to do to realize possibilities in the actual features of the\ncase, is to assume that many at least of this large Roman group, as\nsurely Aquila and Prisca,[260] had recently migrated from the Levant\nto Rome; a migration as common and almost as easy then as is the\nmodern influx of foreign denizens to London.\n\nBishop Lightfoot, in an Excursus in his edition of the Philippian\nEpistle,[261] has given us reason to think that not a few of the\n\"Romans\" named here by St Paul were members of that \"Household of\nC\u00e6sar\" of which in later days he speaks to the Philippians (iv.\u00a022) as\ncontaining its \"saints,\" saints who send special greetings to the\nMacedonian brethren. The _Domus C\u00e6saris_ included \"the whole of the\nImperial household, the meanest slaves, as well as the most powerful\ncourtiers\"; \"all persons in the Emperor's service, whether slaves or\nfreemen, in Italy and even in the provinces.\" The literature of\nsepulchral inscriptions at Rome is peculiarly rich in allusions to\nmembers of \"the Household.\" And it is from this quarter, particularly\nfrom discoveries in it made early in the last century, that Lightfoot\ngets good reasons for thinking that in Phil. iv.\u00a022 we may, quite\npossibly, be reading a greeting _from_ Rome sent by the very persons\n(speaking roundly) who are here greeted in the Epistle _to_ Rome. A\nplace of burial on the Appian Way, devoted to the ashes of Imperial\nfreedmen and slaves, and other similar receptacles, all to be dated\nwith practical certainty about the middle period of the first century,\nyield the following names: _Amplias_, _Urbanus_, _Stachys_, _Apelles_,\n_Tryph\u00e6na_, _Tryphosa_, _Rufus_, _Hermes_, _Hermas_, _Philologus_,\n_Julius_, _Nereis_; a name which might have denoted _the sister_ (see\nver. 15) of a man Nereus.\n\nOf course such facts must be used with due reserve in inference. But\nthey make it abundantly clear that, in Lightfoot's words, \"the names\nand allusions at the close of the Roman Epistle are in keeping with\nthe circumstances of the metropolis in St Paul's day.\" They help us to\na perfectly truthlike theory. We have only to suppose that among St\nPaul's converts and friends in Asia and Eastern Europe many either\nbelonged already to the ubiquitous \"Household,\" or entered it after\nconversion, as purchased slaves or otherwise; and that some time\nbefore our Epistle was written there was a large draft from the\nprovincial to the metropolitan department; and that thus, when St Paul\nthought of personal Christian friends at Rome, he would happen to\nthink, mainly, of \"saints of C\u00e6sar's Household.\" Such a theory would\nalso, by the way, help to explain the emphasis with which just these\n\"saints\" sent their greeting, later, to Philippi. Many of them might\nhave lived in Macedonia, and particularly in the _colonia_ of\nPhilippi, before the time of their supposed transference to Rome.\n\nWe may add, from Lightfoot's discussion, a word about \"the\nhouseholds,\" or \"people\"--of Aristobulus and Narcissus--mentioned in\nthe greetings before us. It seems at least likely that the Aristobulus\nof the Epistle was a grandson of Herod the Great, and brother of\nAgrippa of Judea; a prince who lived and died at Rome. At his death it\nwould be no improbable thing that his \"household\" should pass by\nlegacy to the Emperor, while they would still, as a sort of clan, keep\ntheir old master's name. Aristobulus' servants, probably many of them\nJews (_Herodion_, St Paul's kinsman, may have been a retainer of this\n_Herod_), would thus now be a part of \"the Household of C\u00e6sar,\" and\nthe Christians among them would be a group of \"the Household saints.\"\nAs to the Narcissus of the Epistle, he may well have been the\nall-powerful freedman of Claudius, put to death early in Nero's time.\nOn his death, his great _familia_ would become, by confiscation, part\nof \"the Household\"; and its Christian members would be thought of by\nSt Paul as among \"the Household saints.\"\n\nThus it is at least possible that the holy lives which here pass in\nsuch rapid file before us were lived not only in Rome, but in a\nconnexion more or less close with the service and business of the\nCourt of Nero. So freely does grace make light of circumstance.\n\nNow it is time to come from our preliminaries to the text.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a01.] =But=--the word may mark the movement of thought\nfrom his own delay in reaching them to Ph\u0153be's immediate coming--=I\ncommend to you Ph\u0153be, our sister,= (this Christian woman bore,\nwithout change, and without reproach, the name of the Moon-Goddess of\nthe Greeks,) =being a ministrant (\u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd) of the Church which is\nin Cenchre\u00e6,= the \u00c6g\u00e6an port of Corinth; [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a02.] =that you\nmay welcome her, in the Lord,= as a fellow-member of His Body, =in a\nway worthy of the saints,= with all the respect and the affection of\nthe Gospel, =and that you may stand by her (\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c4\u03b5 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1fc7) in any\nmatter in which she may need you,= stranger as she will be at Rome.\n=For she on her part (\u03b1\u1f55\u03c4\u03b7) has proved[262] a stand-by= (almost =a\nchampion,= one who _stands up for_ others, \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2) =of many,=\naye, =and of me= among them.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a03.] =Greet Prisca[263] and Aquila (\u1f08\u03ba\u03cd\u03bb\u03b1\u03c2), my\nco-workers in Christ Jesus;= the friends [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a04.] =who\n(\u03bf\u1f35\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2) for my life's sake submitted their own throat= to the\nknife (it was at some stern crisis otherwise utterly unknown to us,\nbut well known in heaven); =to whom not only I give thanks, but also\nall the Churches of the Nations;= for they saved the man whom the Lord\nconsecrated to the service of the Gentile world. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a05.]\n=And the Church at their house= greet with them; that is, the\nChristians of their neighbourhood, who used Aquila's great room as\ntheir house of prayer; the embryo of our parish or district Church.\nThis provision of a place of worship was an old usage of this holy\npair, whom St Paul's almost reverent affection presents to us in such\na living individuality. They had gathered \"_a domestic Church_\" at\nCorinth, not many months before (1\u00a0Cor. xvi.\u00a019). And earlier still,\nat Ephesus (Acts xviii.\u00a026), they wielded such a Christian influence\nthat they must have been a central point of influence and gathering\nthere also. In Prisca, or Priscilla, as it has been remarked,[264] we\nhave \"an example of what a married woman may do, for the general\nservice of the Church, in conjunction with home-duties, just as\nPh\u0153be is the type of the unmarried servant of the Church, or\ndeaconess.\"\n\n=Greet Ep\u00e6n\u0115tus, my beloved, who is the firstfruits of Asia,[265]=\nthat is of the Ephesian Province, =unto Christ;= doubtless one who\n\"owed his soul\" to St Paul in that three years' missionary pastorate\nat Ephesus, and who was now bound to him by the indescribable tie\nwhich makes the converter and converted one.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a06.] =Greet Mary=--a Jewess probably, _Miriam_ or\n_Maria_,--=for she (\u1f25\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2) toiled hard for you[266];= when and how\nwe cannot know.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a07.] =Greet Andronicus and Junias,= _Junianus_, =my\nkinsmen, and my fellow-captives in= Christ's =war (\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03c7\u03bc\u03b1\u03bb\u03ce\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2);=\na loving and mindful reference to the human relationships which so\nfreely, but not lightly, he had sacrificed for Christ, and to some\npersecution-battle (was it at Philippi?) when these good men had\nshared his prison; =men who (\u03bf\u1f35\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2) are distinguished among the\napostles;= either as being themselves, in a secondary sense, devoted\n\"_apostles_,\" Christ's missionary delegates, though not of the\nApostolate proper, or as being honoured above the common, for their\ntoil and their character, by the Apostolic Brotherhood; =who also\nbefore me came to be,= as they are, =in Christ.[267]= Not improbably\nthese two early converts helped to \"goad\" (Acts xxvi.\u00a014) the\nconscience of their still persecuting Kinsman, and to prepare the way\nof Christ in his heart.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a08.] =Greet Amplias,= _Ampliatus_, =my beloved in the\nLord;= surely a personal convert of his own.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a09.] =Greet Urbanus, my co-worker in Christ, and\nStachys=--another masculine name--=my beloved.=\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a010.] =Greet Apelles, that (\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd) tested man in\nChrist;= the Lord knows, not we, the tests he stood.\n\n=Greet those who belong to Aristobulus' people.[268]=\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a011.] =Greet Herodion, my kinsman.=\n\n=Greet those who belong to Narcissus' people, those who are in the\nLord.=\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a012.] =Greet Tryph\u00e6na and Tryphosa,= (almost certainly,\nby the type of their names, female _slaves_,) =who toil= in the Lord,\nperhaps as \"servants of the Church,\" so far as earthly service would\nallow them.\n\n=Greet Persis, the beloved woman,= (with faultless delicacy he does\nnot here say \"_my_ beloved,\" as he had said of the Christian _men_\nmentioned just above,) =for she (\u1f25\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2) toiled hard in the Lord;=\nperhaps at some time when St Paul had watched her in a former and more\nEastern home.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a013.] =Greet Rufus=--just possibly the Rufus of Mar.\nxv.\u00a021, brother of Alexander, and son of Cross-carrying Simon; the\nfamily was evidently known to St Mark, and we have good cause to think\nthat St Mark wrote primarily for _Roman_ readers--Rufus, =the chosen\nman in the Lord,= a saint of the _\u00e9lite_; =and his mother--and mine!=\nThis nameless woman had done a mother's part, somehow and somewhere,\nto the motherless Missionary, and her lovingkindness stands recorded\nnow\n\n  \"In either Book of Life, here and above.\"\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a014.] =Greet Asyncr\u012dtus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patr\u014fbas,\nHermes, and the brethren who are with them;= dwellers perhaps in some\nisolated and distant quarter of Rome, a little Church by themselves.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a015.] =Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his\nsister, and all the saints who are with them,= in their assembly.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a016.] =Greet one another with a sacred kiss;= the\nOriental pledge of friendship, and of respect. =All= (read \u03c0\u1fb6\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9)\n=the Churches of Christ greet you;= Corinth, Cenchre\u00e6, \"with all the\nsaints in the whole of Achaia\" (2\u00a0Cor. i.\u00a01).\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe roll of names is over, with its music, that subtle characteristic\nof such recitations of human personalities, and with its moving charm\nfor the heart due almost equally to our glimpses of information about\none here and one there and to our total ignorance about others; an\nignorance of everything about them but that they were at Rome, and\nthat they were in Christ. We seem, by an effort of imagination, to\nsee, as through a bright cloud, the faces of the company, and to catch\nthe far-off voices; but the dream \"dissolves in wrecks\"; we do not\nknow them, we do not know their distant world. But we do know HIM in\nwhom they were, and are; and that they have been \"with Him, which is\nfar better,\" for now so long a time of rest and glory. Some no doubt\nby deaths of terror and wonder, by the fire, by the horrible\nwild-beasts, \"departed to be with Him\"; some went, perhaps, with a\ndismissal as gentle as love and stillness could make it. But however,\nthey were the Lord's; they are with the Lord. And we, in Him,\n\n  \"Are tending upward too,\n    As fast as time can move.\"\n\nSo we watch this unknown yet well-beloved company, with a sense of\nfellowship and expectation impossible out of Christ. This page is no\nmere relic of the past; it is a list of friendships to be made\nhereafter, and to be possessed for ever, in the endless life where\npersonality indeed shall be eternal, but where also the union of\npersonalities, in Christ, shall be beyond our utmost present thought.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut the Apostle cannot close with these messages of love. He remembers\nanother and anxious need, a serious spiritual peril in the Roman\ncommunity. He has not even alluded to it before, but it must be\nhandled, however briefly, now:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a017.] =But I appeal to you, brethren, to watch the\npersons who make the divisions and the stumbling-blocks= you know of,\n=alien to the teaching which you learnt= (there is an emphasis on\n\"_you_,\" as if to difference the true-hearted converts from these\ntroublers);--=and do turn away from them;= go, and keep, out of their\nway; wise counsel for a peaceable but effectual resistance.\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a018.] =For such people are not bondservants of our Lord\nJesus Christ, but they are bondservants of their own belly.= They talk\nmuch of a mystic freedom; and free indeed they are from the accepted\ndominion of the Redeemer--but all the more they are enslaved to\nthemselves; =and by their (\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2) pious language and their specious\npleas they quite beguile (\u1f10\u03be\u03b1\u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9) the hearts of the simple,= the\nunsuspicious. And they may perhaps have special hopes of beguiling\n_you_, because of your well-known readiness to submit, with the\nsubmission of faith, to sublime truths; a noble character, but\ncalling inevitably for the safeguards of intelligent caution:\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a019.] =For your obedience,= \"the obedience of faith,\"\nshewn when the Gospel reached you, =was carried= by report =to all\nmen,= and so to these beguilers, who hope now to entice your faith\nastray. =As regards you, therefore,= looking only at your personal\ncondition, =I rejoice. Only I wish you to be wise as to what is good,\nbut uncontaminated= (by defiling knowledge) =as to what is evil.= He\nwould not have their holy readiness to believe distorted into an\nunhallowed and falsely tolerant curiosity. He would have their faith\nnot only submissive but spiritually intelligent (\u03c3\u03b1\u03c6\u03bf\u03cd\u03c2); then they\nwould be alive to the risks of a counterfeited and illusory \"Gospel.\"\nThey would feel, as with an educated Christian instinct, where\ndecisively to hold back, where to refuse attention to unwholesome\nteaching. [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a020.] =But the God of our (\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2) peace will\ncrush Satan down beneath your feet speedily.= This spiritual mischief,\nwrithing itself, like the serpent of Paradise, into your happy\nprecincts, is nothing less than a stratagem of the great Enemy's own;\na movement of his mysterious personal antagonism to your Lord, and to\nyou His people. But the Enemy's Conqueror, working in you, will make\nthe struggle short and decisive. Meet the inroad in the name of Him\nwho has made peace for you, and works peace in you, and it will soon\nbe over.[269] =The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be= (or may we not\nrender _is?_) =with you.=\n\nWhat precisely was the mischief, who precisely were the dangerous\nteachers, spoken of here so abruptly and so urgently by St Paul? It is\neasier to ask the question than to answer it. Some expositors have\nsought a solution in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters, and have\nfound in an extreme school of theoretical \"liberty\" these men of\n\"pious language and specious pleas.\" But to us this seems impossible.\nAlmost explicitly, in those chapters, he identifies himself _in\nprinciple_ with \"the capable\"; certainly there is not a whisper of\nhorror as regards their principle, and nothing but a friendly while\nunreserved reproof for the uncharity of their practice. Here he has in\nhis mind men whose purposes and whose teachings are nothing but evil;\nwho are to be--not indeed persecuted but--avoided; not met in\nconference, but solemnly refused a further hearing. In our view, the\ncase was one of embryo _Gnosticism_. The Romans, so we take it, were\ntroubled by teachers who used the language of Christianity, saying\nmuch of \"Redemption,\" and of \"Emancipation,\" and something of\n\"Christ,\" and of \"the Spirit\"; but all the while they meant a thing\ntotally different from the Gospel of the Cross. They meant by\nredemption and freedom, the liberation of spirit from matter. They\nmeant by Christ and the Spirit, mere links in a chain of phantom\nbeings, supposed to span the gulf between the Absolute Unknowable\nExistence and the finite World. And their morality too often tended to\nthe tenet that as matter was hopelessly evil, and spirit the\nunfortunate prisoner in matter, the material body had nothing to do\nwith its unwilling, and pure, Inhabitant: let the body go its own evil\nway, and work out its base desires.\n\nOur sketch is taken from developed Gnosticism, such as it is known to\nhave been a generation or two later than St Paul. But it is more than\nlikely that such errors were present, in essence, all through the\nApostolic age. And it is easy to see how they could from the first\ndisguise themselves in the special terminology of the Gospel of\nliberty and of the Spirit.\n\nSuch things may look to us, after eighteen hundred years, only like\nfossils of the old rocks. They are indeed fossil specimens--but of\nexisting species. The atmosphere of the Christian world is still\ninfected, from time to time--perhaps more now than a few generations\nago, whatever that fact may mean--with unwholesome subtleties, in\nwhich the purest forms of truth are indescribably manipulated into the\ndeadliest related error; a mischief sure to betray itself, however,\n(where the man tempted to parley with it is at once wakeful and\nhumble,) by some fatal flaw of pride, or of untruthfulness, or of an\nuncleanness however subtle. And for the believer so tempted, under\ncommon circumstances, there is still, as of old, no counsel more\nweighty than St Paul's counsel here. If he would deal with such snares\nin the right way, he must \"_turn away from them_.\" He must turn away\nto the Christ of history. He must occupy himself anew with the\nprimeval Gospel of pardon, holiness, and heaven.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIs the Letter to be closed here at last? Not quite yet; not until one\nand then another of the gathered circle has committed his greetings to\nit. And first comes up the dear Timotheus, the man nearest of all to\nthe strong heart of the Apostle. We seem to see him alive before us,\nso much has St Paul, in one Epistle and another, but above all in his\ndying Letter to Timotheus himself, contributed to a portrait. He is\nmany years younger than his leader and Christian father. His face,\nfull of thought, feeling, and devotion, is rather earnest than strong.\nBut it has the strength of patience, and of absolute sincerity, and of\nrest in Christ. Timotheus repays the affection of Paul with unwavering\nfidelity. And he will be true to the end to his Lord and Redeemer,\nthrough whatever tears and agonies of sensibility. Then Lucius will\nspeak, perhaps the Cyrenian of Antioch (Acts xiii.\u00a01); and Jason,\nperhaps the convert of Thessalonica (Acts xvii.\u00a05); and Sosipater,\nperhaps the Berean Sopater of Acts xx.\u00a04; three blood-relations of the\nApostle, who was not left utterly alone of human affinities, though he\nhad laid them all at his Master's feet. Then the faithful Tertius\nclaims the well-earned privilege of writing one sentence for himself.\nAnd Gaius modestly requests his salutation, and Erastus, the man of\ncivic dignity and large affairs. He has found no discord between the\ntenure of a great secular office and the life of Christ; but to-day he\nis just a brother with brethren, named side by side with the Quartus\nwhose only title is that beautiful one, \"_the brother_,\" \"our fellow\nin the family of God.\" So the gathered friends speak each in his turn\nto the Christians of the City; we listen as the names are given:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a021.] =There greets you Timotheus my fellow-worker, and\nLucius, and Jason, and Sosipatrus, my kinsmen.=\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a022.] =There greets you I, Tertius, who wrote the\nEpistle in the Lord;= he had been simply Paul's conscious pen, but\nalso he had willingly drawn the strokes as being one with Christ, and\nas working in His cause.\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a023.] =There greets you Gaius, host of me and of the\nwhole Church;= universal welcomer to his door of all who love his\nbeloved Lord, and now particularly of all at Corinth who need his\nLord's Apostle.\n\n=There greets you Erastus, the Treasurer of the City, and Quartus=\n(_Kouartos_), =the brother.[270]=\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHere, as we seem to discern the scene, there is indeed a pause, and\nwhat might look like an end. Tertius lays down the pen. The circle of\nfriends breaks up, and Paul is left alone--alone with his unseen Lord,\nand with that long, silent Letter; his own, yet not his own. He takes\nit in his hands, to read, to ponder, to believe, to call up again the\nRoman converts so dear, so far away, and to commit them again for\nfaith, and for life, to Christ and to His Father. He sees them beset\nby the encircling masses of pagan idolatry and vice, and by the\nembittered Judaism which meets them at every turn. He sees them\nhindered by their own mutual prejudices and mistakes, for they are\nsinners still. Lastly, he sees them approached by this serpentine\ndelusion of an unhallowed mysticism, which would substitute the\nthought of matter for that of sin, and reverie for faith, and an\nunknowable Somewhat, inaccessible to the finite, for the God and\nFather of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he sees this astonishing\nGOSPEL, whose glorious outline and argument he has been caused to\ndraw, as it was never drawn before, on those papyrus pages; the Truth\nof God, not of man; veiled so long, promised so long, known at last;\nthe Gospel which displays the sinner's peace, the believer's life, the\nradiant boundless future of the saints, and, in all and above all, the\neternal Love of the Father and the Son.\n\nIn this Gospel, \"_his_ Gospel,\" he sees manifested afresh his GOD. And\nhe adores Him afresh, and commits to Him afresh these dear ones of the\nRoman Mission.\n\nHe must give them one word more, to express his overrunning heart. He\nmust speak to them of HIM who is Almighty for them against the complex\nmight of evil. He must speak of that Gospel in whose lines the\nalmighty grace will run. It is the Gospel of Paul, but also and first\nthe \"_proclamation made by Jesus Christ_\" of Himself as our Salvation.\nIt is the Secret \"_hushed_\" throughout the long \u00e6ons of the past, but\nnow spoken out indeed; the Message which the Lord of Ages, choosing\nHis hour aright, now imperially commands to be announced to the\nNations, that they may submit to it and live. It is the vast\nFulfilment of those mysterious Scriptures which are now the\ncredentials, and the watchword, of its preachers. It is the supreme\nexpression of the sole and eternal Wisdom; clear to the intellect of\nthe heaven-taught child; more unfathomable, even to the heavenly\nwatchers, than Creation itself. To the God of this Gospel he must now\nentrust the Romans, in the glowing words in which he worships HIM\nthrough the Son in whom He is seen and praised. To this God--while the\nvery language is broken by its own force--he must give glory\neverlasting, for His Gospel, and for Himself.\n\nHe takes the papers, and the pen. With dim eyes, and in large,\nlaborious letters,[271] and forgetting at the close, in the intensity\nof his soul, to make perfect the grammatical connexion, he inscribes,\nin the twilight, this most wonderful of Doxologies. Let us watch him\nto its close, and then in silence leave him before his Lord, and ours:\n\n[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a025.] =But to Him who is able to establish you,\naccording to my Gospel, and the proclamation of,= made by, =Jesus\nChrist, true to (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70) (the) unveiling of (the) Secret hushed in\nsilence during ages of times,= [Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a026.] =but manifested\nnow, and through (the) prophetic Scriptures, according to the edict of\nthe God of Ages, for faith's obedience, published among all the\nNations=--[Sidenote:\u00a0Ver.\u00a027.] =to God Only Wise, through Jesus\nChrist--to whom be the glory unto the ages of the ages. Amen.=\n\n[259] See on \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 below.\n\n[260] See 1\u00a0Cor. xvi.\u00a019.\n\n[261] Pp. 171-178 (eighth edition).\n\n[262] Lit., \"_did prove_\": it is the epistolary aorist.\n\n[263] Read \u03a0\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03b1\u03bd not \u03a0\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03b9\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03bd.\n\n[264] By the late Dean Howson, in Smith's _Bible Dictionary_.\n\n[265] So certainly read, not \u1f08\u03c7\u03b1\u0390\u03b1\u03c2.\n\n[266] Reading \u1f51\u03bc\u1fb6\u03c2.\n\n[267] The perfect, \u03b3\u03ad\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9, \u03b3\u03ad\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd\u03b1\u03bd, imports the permanence of\ntheir blessed position, up to the date.\n\n[268] See above, p. 425, on this allusion, and on _Herodion_, and on\n\"_Narcissus' people_.\"\n\n[269] In our short Commentary on the Epistle in _The Cambridge Bible_\nwe advocate a rather different view of these verses in detail. But the\nmain reference seems to us to be what it then seemed.\n\n[270] Ver. 24 is probably to be omitted, as an insertion after date.\n\n[271] Gal. vi.\u00a011: \"See with _what great letters_ I have written to\nyou, _in autograph_!\" It has been remarked that this great Doxology\nbears a literary likeness to other passages which he probably wrote\nwith his own hand.\n\n\n_Printed by Hasell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n\n\n_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._\n\n\nOutlines of Christian Doctrine. 2_s._\u00a06_d._ (in the _Theological\nEducator_ Series).\n\nVeni Creator: Thoughts on the Holy Spirit. 5_s._\n\nTo My Younger Brethren: Chapters on Pastoral Life. 5_s._\n\nLife in Christ and for Christ. 1_s._\n\nThoughts on Christian Sanctity. 1_s._\n\nThoughts on Union with Christ. 1_s._\n\nThoughts on Spiritual Life. 1_s._\n\nThoughts on Secret Prayer. 1_s._\n\n\"At the Holy Communion\": Helps to Preparation and Communion. 1_s._\n\nPrayers for the Home. 3_s._\u00a06_d._\n\nJesus and the Resurrection: Expository Chapters on John xx., xxi.\u00a02_s._\n\nCharles Simeon. (Series of _English Leaders of Religion_.) 2_s._\u00a06_d._\n\n\"Christ is All\": Sermons. (Series of _Preachers of the Age_.)\n2_s._\u00a06_d._\n\nCommentaries on the Romans (3_s._\u00a06_d._); Ephesians (2_s._\u00a06_d._);\nPhilippians (2_s._\u00a06_d._); Colossians and Philemon (2_s._\u00a06_d._); in\n_The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges_.\n\nAlso short Tracts on The New Birth, Justifying Righteousness, The\nCleansing Blood, The Cup of the Covenant, Spiritual Fulness, Heart\nPurity, The Christian and the World, The Christian's Victory over Sin,\nThe Ministry of Women, etc.\n\n\n\n\n_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_\n\n\nSecond Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5_s._\n\nTO MY YOUNGER BRETHREN:\n\nChapters on Pastoral Life and Work.\n\nCONTENTS:--The Secret Walk with God--Secret Study of the Holy\nScriptures--The Daily Walk with others--Pastor in Parish--The\nClergyman and the Prayer Book--Preaching.\n\n\"Practical, sensible, and devout.\"--_Glasgow Herald._\n\n\"This is a valuable work, thoughtful and practical in a high\ndegree.\"--_Christian._\n\n\"We can cordially recommend his work to the younger clergy as the work\nof one who, from the nature of his position, has had unusual\nopportunities of observing their needs, their weaknesses, and their\ndifficulties, and who brings to bear upon his observations a spirit of\npiety and earnestness and a keen good sense which makes them worthy of\nthe closest attention.\"--_Church Quarterly Review._\n\n\nFifth Thousand. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5_s._\n\nVENI CREATOR:\n\nThoughts on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit of Promise.\n\n\"Mr. Handley Moule places the theological student under another debt\nof gratitude by the publication of a new work on the Holy Spirit....\nIn it we discover a firm grasp of Divine truth, marked expository\nskill, a deeply spiritual and reverent manner of approaching\nthe subject. It is impossible to read this book without rising\nwith a clearer appreciation of the nature and extent of the Holy\nSpirit's operations as set out in the words of our Lord and His\napostles.\"--_Record._\n\n\"Clear, thoughtful, and devout.... In every page we feel ourselves\nunder the guidance of a competent theologian, of one who knows the\nbest that has been written on the subject, and who brings an\nindependent mind to its study. The book is as remarkable for warmth of\nfeeling as it is for clearness and depth of thought, and we are\npersuaded it will be widely read--at least, it deserves to\nbe.\"--_Aberdeen Free Press._\n\n\"A most valuable and thoughtful work.\"--_Ecclesiastical Chronicle._\n\n\"To the clergy generally, and to all engaged in expounding or\npreaching the Word, this work will prove highly useful and suggestive,\nsupplying many original and beautiful thoughts.\"--_Church Advocate._\n\n\"We heartily commend these reverent, wise, and well-considered\nchapters on a profoundly transcendent theme.\"--_Christian._\n\n\"It presents us with a clearly arranged _consensus_ of the principal\npassages in the New Testament, expounds them with ripe Christian\nwisdom, and applies them with force and skill which it is difficult to\nresist. This is a book which every Christian worker ought to read,\nmark, learn, and inwardly digest.\"--_Baptist Magazine._\n\n\nThirteenth Thousand. 12mo, cloth, red edges, 1_s._\n\nLIFE IN CHRIST AND FOR CHRIST.\n\n\"The persuasive eloquence of these thoughtful pages will ensure for\nthe book a ready welcome.\"--_Record._\n\n\"The first four chapters of this little work bear a common title,\n'Life in Christ, and Christ in Life.' They are the cream of the work,\nand are as valuable as anything we have ever seen from the pen of Mr.\nMoule.\"--_Rock._\n\n\nTenth Thousand (with full Indices). Fcap. 8vo, 2_s._\u00a06_d._\n\nOUTLINES OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.\n\n_One of the Volumes of the_ THEOLOGICAL EDUCATOR.\n\n\"Mr. Moule has attempted a very difficult task, and has at least\nsucceeded in condensing an immense mass of information into a small\ncompass. It is perhaps superfluous to say that his work is\ncharacterised by great reverence from the first page to the last. At\nevery point the reader feels that he is reading a statement of a\ntheology which is the life of the writer. In the more strictly\ntheological part the summary is, as a rule, arranged and expressed\nexcellently.\"--_Guardian._\n\n\"Marked throughout by the most careful and critical knowledge of\nScripture, more particularly of the New Testament, and the most\npatient weighing and comparison of parallel texts.... It forms an\nadmirable introduction to the subject, and seems in intellectual power\nto even surpass any other of Mr. Moule's published writings.\"--_Record._\n\n\"The Author disclaims originality or exhaustiveness, but the work\nshows a certain originality of the expository skill with which the\nfamiliar doctrine is made clear, and it is so concisely written that a\ndivinity student who had mastered its contents might be fairly well\nconsidered able to pass the examination for Orders. It is an admirable\ntext-book, and enhances the value of the series in which it\nappears.\"--_Scotsman._\n\n\"We have read parts of it again and again, and it has been difficult\nfor us to bring ourselves down to any reasonable dimensions in\nreviewing it, for it is emphatically a _multum in parvo_, and it is\nnot every day we are so pleased and satisfied with a volume.\"--_Rock._\n\n\nLONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, price\u00a07s. 6d. each vol._\n\n\nFIRST SERIES, 1887-8.\n\n Colossians.\n   By A. MACLAREN, D.D.\n\n St. Mark.\n   By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh.\n\n Genesis.\n   By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n 1\u00a0Samuel.\n   By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n 2\u00a0Samuel.\n   By the Same Author.\n\n Hebrews.\n   By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.\n\n\nSECOND SERIES, 1888-9.\n\n Galatians.\n   By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n\n The Pastoral Epistles.\n   By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Isaiah I.-XXXIX.\n   By G. A. SMITH, M.A. Vol. I\n\n The Book of Revelation.\n   By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n 1\u00a0Corinthians.\n   By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n The Epistles of St. John.\n   By Rt. Rev. W. ALEXANDER, D.D.\n\n\nTHIRD SERIES, 1889-90.\n\n Judges and Ruth.\n   By Rev. R. A. WATSON, D.D.\n\n Jeremiah.\n   By Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.\n\n Isaiah XL.-LXVI.\n   By G. A. SMITH, M.A. Vol. II.\n\n St. Matthew.\n   By Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.\n\n Exodus.\n   By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh.\n\n St. Luke.\n   By Rev. H. BURTON, B.A.\n\n\nFOURTH SERIES, 1890-1.\n\n Ecclesiastes.\n   By Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.\n\n St. James and St. Jude.\n   By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n Proverbs.\n   By Rev. R. F. HORTON, M.A.\n\n Leviticus.\n   By Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n   By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n   By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n\nFIFTH SERIES, 1891-2.\n\n The Psalms.\n   By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n 1 and 2\u00a0Thessalonians.\n   By JAS. DENNEY, B.D.\n\n The Book of Job.\n   By R. A. WATSON, D.D.\n\n Ephesians.\n   By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.\n\n The Gospel of St. John.\n   By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n The Acts of the Apostles.\n   By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n\nSIXTH SERIES, 1892-3.\n\n Philippians.\n   By Principal RAINY, D.D.\n\n 1 Kings.\n   By Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR, D.D.\n\n Joshua.\n   By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.\n   By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n The Psalms.\n   By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n The Epistles of St. Peter.\n   By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.\n\n\nSEVENTH SERIES, 1893-4.\n\n Romans.\n   By HANDLEY C. G. MOULE, M.A.\n\n 2 Kings.\n   By Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR, D.D.\n\n 1\u00a0Chronicles.\n   By Rev. Prof. BENNETT, M.A.\n\n 2\u00a0Corinthians.\n   By JAMES DENNEY, B.D.\n\n Numbers.\n   By R. A. WATSON, D.D.\n\n The Psalms.\n   By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. III.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":134818}