Romans 8

1. THERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk 2 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 3 hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and 4 for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in 5 us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because 7 the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither 8 indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in 9 the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man 10 have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead 11 because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead 12 shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, breth- 13 ren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

TAKE all the guilt of all who believe, past or present, the laver of Jesus’ blood avails to cleanse it away. God is satisfied for it. “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7: 19). The justification of the believer is not an imperfect work, so that he may be justified to-day and condemned again to-morrow: it varies not with the variations of his feelings: the work on the faith of which justification rests is a finished work; and, therefore, if once recognized as mine, it must eternally clear me from all possible charge. The fluctuations of faith will cause fluctuations in my enjoyment of Christ’s salvation; but the salvation itself is unchangeable. Satan may bring a charge of sin, and succeed in fixing it upon the conscience, through my indistinct apprehension of Christ’s sufficiency; but God brings no charge; and therefore the apostle proclaims that triumphant challenge, “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” Therefore, with the impossibility of condemnation of the believer, he declares the impossibility of separation from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Here, then, let the tempted Christian take his stand, and hold fast this vital truth, when a daily sense of his hated evil, yet warring in his members, oppresses him, and arrays God in terrors. Jesus has made an end of sin. When it is brought in penitential acknowledgment to the Cross of Christ, that blood, sprinkled upon the conscience, takes it all away. God remembers it no more. Goode.

1. Omit the clause “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” It has probably been interpolated here from verse 4. In sense, at first sight, it fits in well; here, as there, being a distinctive and correct statement of those in Christ to whom there is no condemnation; but on looking further, it clearly appears to be out of place here, since at present the assertion is general, respecting all those who are in Christ, and afterward the distinction is raised, and their true and spiritual character defined. A.

No condemnation. At the blessed moment of justification, the sinner is at once admitted to the favor of God. He is accepted as righteous. The law is as fully satisfied with regard to him as if he had never sinned. The righteousness of Christ is now his righteousness. He can no more come into condemnation than Christ can come into condemnation. He is delivered from the guilt and penalty of all his sins. With regard to sins which he may hereafter commit, he is not indeed pardoned; because it would be incongruous to say that sins are pardoned before they are committed; but God has graciously accepted the righteousness of Christ even in respect to these, and in process of time pardon is dispensed. The effect of this grace is to remove all condemnation and all punishment. That sin which has been visited on the Surety will not be visited on us. The afflictions of this life are not legal pains, but fatherly trials and corrections. And death itself, being deprived of sin which is its sting, and the law which is its strength, is despoiled of all its punitive force. J. W. A.

2. There are three great forms of law, to which our immortal being bears an inevitable and eternal relation. These are, first, the Law of God for our government; second, the Law of Sin and Death in our depraved nature; third, the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Under the first we are, as immortal beings, eternally responsible; under the second we are, if not redeemed by grace, eternally in bondage; under the third we are not in subjection naturally, but may, by divine grace, if we will, be brought beneath its blessed power, redeemed by it from sin for ever. Hath made me free. The work of grace shall conquer the work of depravity; the law of the Spirit of life in Christ shall set free the soul from the law of sin and death. Nothing else could do it, nothing external to the soul, nothing that did not work within the soul as a principle of life. By this new principle introduced, the man is set at liberty to serve God out of love, no longer bound in slavery to the law of sin and death in an evil nature. This is the great deliverance; this is freedom indeed. G. B. C.

The spiritual and the vitally eternal are united in Scripture phraseology, whenever it has occasion to speak of the “law of the Spirit of life,” of that “Spirit” which “IS LIFE because of righteousness,” of that “spiritual-mindedness” which “IS LIFE” as well as “peace.” The more you rest upon these profound sayings, the more you will feel that they speak of some mystic intimacy of inward connection, which answers to all that we can conceive of an absolute unity of nature; and that, had we faculties to see these things, we might perceive that a deathless permanence belongs to the spiritual thing inherent in the regenerate mind, if it indeed evidence its genuineness by there abiding and fructifying through the earthly life. W. A. B.

3-5. The gospel is the heir of the law; it inherits what the law had prepared. The law, on its national and ceremonial side, had created a vast and closely woven system of ideas. These were wrought out and exhibited by it in forms according to the flesh—an elect nation, a miraculous history, a special covenant, a worldly sanctuary, a perpetual service, an anointed priesthood, a ceremonial sanctity, a scheme of sacrifice and atonement, a purchased possession, a holy city, a throne of David, a destiny of dominion. Were these ideas to be lost, and the language which expressed them to be dropped, when the gospel came? No! It was the heir of the law. The law had prepared these riches, and now bequeathed them to a successor able to unlock and to diffuse them. The gospel claimed them all, and developed in them a value unknown before. It asserted itself as the proper and predestined continuation of the covenant made of God with the fathers, the real and only fulfillment of all which was typified and prophesied; presenting the same ideas, which had been before embodied in the narrow but distinct limits of carnal forms, in their spiritual, universal, and eternal character. The body of types according to the flesh died with Christ, and with Christ it rose again a body of antitypes according to the Spirit. Those who were after the flesh could not recognize its identity; those who were after the Spirit felt and proclaimed it. T. D. B.

There never was a better law than the moral law, nor was legislation ever attended with circumstances better fitted to secure the perfect love and obedience of men. But in that beautifully simple way in which the Bible relates the thoughts of God as of a man, this is spoken of as an experiment that failed, leading the law-giver to devise another expedient. In the words, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, we have a striking confession of weakness even in the law of God, on account of strength superior to it in the stubbornness of the human heart. But the law of God still holds its place, only there is a gospel added to make the law efficacious; for the expedient resorted to, for the purpose of reaching the transgressor by the atonement, aims to reestablish the law of God as the rule of duty. N. A.

3. Condemned sin. As the crucifixion was not the whole of the sacrifice offered up by Christ for the sins of the world, but only its closing, perfecting act—as the whole of our Saviour’s life was one continual sacrifice for sin—so was it one continual warfare against sin, and victory over sin, and judgment against sin. Hare.—When Jesus came the Sun of Righteousness arose, darkness was scattered, and the light of God’s glory, reflected from the face of his Son, darted its rays through heaven, earth, and hell. The Cross became the center of universal attraction, displayed the perfections of Deity in singular and rare combination, and was the source at once of rapture to angels, of terror to the lost, and of hope to men. The death of Christ is without doubt the sublimest event in the annals of time or the records of eternity. And in what a light does it present the malignity of sin! What a commentary upon its intrinsic demerit and turpitude is furnished in the groans, agony, and anguish of the

Son of God! In the Cross it is proclaimed, in living characters, to be the abominable thing which God hates. J. H. T.

4. The law of the Ten Commandments is still the rule of life to the believer. From the law, as a covenant, we are eternally delivered, through Christ. We may plead our title to heaven on the ground of our perfect fulfillment of its righteousness, inasmuch as Christ’s fulfillment of it is imputed to us who believe. We may plead perfect exemption from its curse; for Christ has been “made a curse for us.” As a means, therefore, of meriting life, we have nothing whatever to do with the terms of it. Eternal life is given us in Christ. But we are therefore “delivered from the law,” “that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The law of Christ is indeed a law of love; but still, this “new commandment” is the “old commandment which ye had from the beginning.” Goode.—The apostle represents the same fact and the same truth which provides for the forgiveness of sin as the source and instrument of deliverance from its dominion. It reconciles to God, and it makes like him. It excites love to duty, and loyalty to law; it renders obedience possible and attractive; it supplies motives, aids, and facilities, grace to help and power to pursue, making work pleasant and service song. T. B.

5. The influence of education may develop in a beautiful symmetry the constitutional excellences. It may repress constitutional excesses and correct constitutional vices. It may cultivate the natural sentiments, refine the tastes, exalt and ennoble the temper and tone of the mind, give dignity and grace to the manners, light and authority to conscience, force and principle to character. It may inspire respect and reverence for the rites and solemnities of religion, form religious habits, and fill the breast with high religious veneration. But there are some things it can not do: it can not shed abroad the love of God in the heart, nor displace our natural enmity to God, nor bring the soul under the power of the Cross, nor diffuse through it the spirit of Jesus, nor teach it to live by faith, nor introduce into it any one of those fruits of the Holy Spirit, without which all virtue is reprobate, all religion a name or a delusion, and all check upon native depravity ineffectual and temporary. T. H. S.

6. For the spiritual being, man, the only real life is in goodness. Only so far as we share in the Father’s goodness, are we partakers in his life. The measure of our being, as living souls, is precisely the measure of our excellence. In proportion as our actions are in harmony with divine laws, and our familiar frame of feeling with God’s will, we live. Herein is the apostolic saying true, “To be spiritually minded is life.” F. D. H.

In verse 7, for “is not subject . . . neither indeed can be,” substitute “doth not submit itself . . . neither indeed can it.” A.—While we are saved by believing, yet believing is obeying. We accept Christ by renouncing sin, by subjecting our will to his will, by walking in his steps. The carnal mind, or, more exactly, carnal-mindedness—a state of mind in which the affections and aims are fixed upon the things of this world as the chief good—such love of the world is in opposition to the will of God, and can never be reconciled to the law of God. J. P. T.—The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner’s conscience and to purify his heart, and what mars the one of these objects mars the other also. The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one, and by the love of what is good to expel the love of what is evil. Thus, the freer the gospel, the more sanctifying is the gospel; and the more it is received as a doctrine of grace, the more will it be felt as a doctrine according to godliness. This is one of the secrets of the Christian life, that the more a man holds of God as a pensioner, the greater is the payment of service that he renders back again. On the tenure of “Do this and live,” a spirit of fearfulness is sure to enter; and the jealousies of a legal bargain chase away all confidence from the intercourse between God and man; and the creature, striving to be square and even with his Creator, is, in fact, pursuing all the while his own selfishness, instead of God’s glory; and, with all the conformities which he labors to accomplish, the soul of obedience is not there, the mind is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed, under such an economy, ever can be. T. C.

8. Cannot please God. The impossibility arises from the enmity. This is the real secret of man’s inability for that which is good: it arises not from original constitution, defect of created capacity thereto, but is the deadly and unconquerable aversion of a corrupt heart from all that is spiritual and godly. So that this inability for good, real as it is, instead of being an excuse for man’s wickedness, is of its very essence. Goode.

9. The Spirit of Christ. By his sacred signature we are appropriated to Christ, and visibly distinguished from the world. For though the secret and pure influences of the Spirit in the soul are only known to the person that feels them, yet his active inspirations are declarative of his presence and power in the outward conversation. Bates.

The Holy Ghost lives in the soul under this dispensation as the Spirit of Christ; we are not to regard him in the mere simplicity of his infinite deity, but as sent forth by the God and man, Christ Jesus, as his; nor is the abiding presence of this holy principle less essentially divine because bestowed and operative under special conditions and a special aspect. On this account he is perpetually described by titles which impress how truly his function is transmissory of perfections that dwell in Christ, and are ours only because his. The Spirit is the “Spirit of the Son,” the “Spirit of Jesus Christ.” W. A. B.

Christ is eminently present with us by the presence of his Spirit. He is with us invisibly, but as truly as he was in the streets of Jerusalem or on the shores of the lake of Galilee; and the children of the Spirit see him, contemplate him, cling to him, as did the disciples of old. H. P. L.—No rich, nor beautiful, nor accepted life can be lived by us, except Christ be its inspiration. Hope will not reach up to immortality, except it climb by the Cross. Let not your lives be dead shapes of outward decency—the carved and gilded wood of an ark and a tabernacle deserted by the Spirit—but vital branches, filled with leaping and vigorous currents of holy feeling, on the living vine! “For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” F. D. H.

10. If Christ is in us, a great part of our original nature with which we were born must be dead. He uses the expressions, dead unto sin, being crucified with Christ, the body must be dead because of sin, and the like, in order to show us that what he means is very great; that he speaks of a great change in us, a change not to be wrought in an instant, nor by any means to be effected without our feeling it, like the various processes of our bodily growth and nourishment, which go on unconsciously within us. T. A.—The Spirit is life. God the Holy Ghost calls us, regenerates us, and sanctifies us in Christ. Christ is his call; Christ is his light; Christ is his justifying sentence. It is in Christ that he creates us as new creatures. He glorifies Christ in our life, and brings us, for the strengthening of our faith, ever deeper into the life with Christ. A. C.

11. The regeneration of the soul in this life, and that of the body in the life to come, are both expressly said to make us “the sons of God,” because the one only completes and consummates the other. And hence it is that Paul in the one supernatural gift finds the source of both the blessings. “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” The Spirit which gives the adoption here is the germ of the Spirit which gives the resurrection hereafter; and the resurrection itself is but the adoption made visible in glory. W. A. B.—The glorious, corporeal life like our Lord’s, which is promised for heaven, is great and wonderful, but it is only the issue and last result of the far greater change in the spiritual nature which by faith and love begins here. It is good to be clothed with the immortal vesture of the resurrection, and in that to be like Christ. It is better to be like him in our hearts. His true image is that we should feel as he does, should think as he does, should will as he does; that we should have the same sympathies, the same loves, the same attitude toward God, and the same attitude toward men. It is that his heart and ours should beat in full accord, as with one pulse, and possessing one life. Wherever there is the beginning of that oneness and likeness of spirit, all the rest will come in due time. As the spirit, so the body. The whole nature must be transformed and made like Christ’s, and the process will not stop till that be accomplished in all who love him. A. M.

12. Get thou thy soul possessed with the Spirit of the Son, and believe thou art perfectly set free by him from whatsoever thou by sin hast deserved at the hand of revenging justice. This doctrine unlooseth thy hands, takes off thy yoke, and lets thee go upright; this doctrine puts spiritual and heavenly inclinations into thy soul, and the faith of this truth doth show thee that God hath so surprised thee and gone beyond thee with his blessed and everlasting love that thou canst not but reckon thyself his debtor for ever. “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.” Bun.

13. Spiritual quiet is promoted by the mortification of sin. Sin is the sole cause of all the discord, perturbation, and misery in the universe. The Holy Spirit begins at regeneration a work which is to end in extirpation of all sin. If you catalogue the causes of your discontent, your restlessness, your excitement, your feverish fretfulness, you will find the names to be such as these: Pride, Hate, Envy, Revenge, Anger, Lust, Covetousness, Fear, Inordinate Affection. Till these caged wild beasts are driven out of the soul, there can be no quietness: sanctification drives them out. Therefore, the more a man advances in piety, the more his inward tranquillity ought to increase. The day grows calmer as the sun draws near its setting. J. W. A.

14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have 15 not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adop- 16 tion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that 17 we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with 18 Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I 19 reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory 20 which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the 21 manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not will- 22 ingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature 23 itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the 24 children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain 25 together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of 26 the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the 27 redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: 28 for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then 29 do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we 30 know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession 31 for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth 32 what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to 33 the will of God.

UNLESS we are wedded to Jesus Christ by the simple act of trust in his mercy and his power, Christ is nothing to us. Ceremonies are nothing, notions are nothing, beliefs are nothing, formal participation in worship is nothing. Christ is everything to him that trusts him. You can begin upon the low step on which you can put your foot, the humble act of faith, and can climb up. If faith, then new birth; if new birth, then sonship; if sonship, then “an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ.” But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round of the ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed face of Him who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at this moment, saying to you, “My child, will thou not cry unto me, ‘Abba, Father’?” A. M.

A profound Christian truth may be clothed in the language of a heathen proverb: “A divine spirit is within us who treats us as he is treated by us.” We may offer our supplications, with no penetrat- ing sense of the necessity of supernatural aid. There may be no childlike consciousness of infirmity which should lead us to cry out for help. The inspired words, often on our lips, may seldom come from the depth of our hearts: “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.” We make prayer itself one of the standard subjects of prayer; yet on what theme do our devotions more frequently degenerate into routine than on this? Have we a sense of indigence when we ask for the indwelling of God in our souls? Have we such a sense of need of it, as we have of the need of air when we are gasping with faintness? It is the law of divine blessing that want comes before wealth, hunger before a feast. We must experience the necessity in order to appreciate the reality. A. P.

14. Led by the Spirit. The term here em- ployed refers to an even, constant, unbroken force, acting not less powerfully on the mind because it acts gently and steadily: the leading of a Spirit who abides always at his gracious work on the heart, and does not come and go. Those who are so led, and are willing, in the yielding up and surrender of their hearts, to be so led by this faithful Spirit of God, are called by the noblest of all titles, and share the most exalted of all honors. “They are the sons of

God.” F. D. H.—What vaunt of faith more sub- lime and beautiful than that which is here expressed? and what privilege on earth can be named at the same time as that of being guided by the Spirit of God, and of being in truth his children? Van O.

15. Abba. The Syriac term for father, the in- sertion of which here beautifully represents the union of Jewish and Gentile believers in their devo- tions, which were dictated by a filial spirit. D.— Father. The sense of fatherhood, which is in the

Christian’s heart and becomes his cry, comes from God’s Spirit. This passage and that in the Epistle to the Galatians, which is almost parallel, put this truth very forcibly when taken in connection. “Ye have received,” says the text before us, “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The variation in the Epistle to the Galatians is this: “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying (the Spirit crying), Abba, Father.” So, in the one text, the cry is regarded as the voice of the believing heart; and in the other the same cry is regarded as the voice of God’s Spirit. Every Christian may be sure of this, that, howsoever feeble may be the thought and conviction in his heart of God’s fatherhood, he did not work it, he received it only, cherished it, thought of it, watched over it, was careful not to quench it; but in origin it was God’s, and it is now and ever the voice of the divine Spirit in the child’s heart. A. M.—To call God Father was rare among the saints in Old Testament times; but now, in New Testament times, he is called by no name so often as this. The Lord Jesus first made this name common among the saints, and taught them in their discourses, their prayers, and their writings, so much to use it. By this name we are made to understand that all our mercies are of God, and that we, who are his children by adoption, may take more boldness to pray for great things. I have often found that, when I can say but this word, Father, it doth me more good than when I call him by any other Scripture name. Bun.—A father’s love, not content in securing the good of its object, looks for a warm return of the same personal fondness. Is a father satisfied in providing a fortune for his children, and in sending them well abroad, just as a legal guardian might do? A father must have a reciprocity of love or he is not happy. The heart of a father yearns to receive, every day, the undoubted expressions of filial affection. Is then God our Father? The gospel declares it as a fundamental truth; and it shows that this language of sacred affection is to be understood, not in a sense lowered and vague as compared with that which it bears in its ordinary acceptance, but in a sense of incalculably greater intensity and depth. I. T.

18. When the child of God is led to prayer, to the Scriptures, and to Christ—when these become the necessaries of his life and soul—then the Holy Spirit bears witness to his adoption. A. C.—The witness of the Spirit is far from being any immediate suggestion or revelation; but that gracious effect of the Spirit of God in the hearts of saints: the disposition and temper of children appearing in a sweet, childlike love of God which casts out fear or the spirit of the slave. The Spirit of God gives the evidence by infusing and shedding abroad the love of God, the spirit of the child in the heart, and our spirit receives and declares this evidence for our rejoicing. Edwards.—The heart with its love, the head with its understanding, the conscience with its quick response to the law of duty, the will with its resolutions—these are all, as sanctified by Him, the witness of his Spirit; and the life with its strenuous obedience, with its struggles against sin and temptation, with its patient persistence in the quiet path of ordinary duty, as well as with the times when it rises into heroic stature of resignation or allegiance, the martyrdom of death and the martyrdom of life, this too is all (in so far as it is pure and right) the work of that same Spirit. The test of the inward conviction is the outward life; and they that have the witness of the Spirit within them have the light of their life lit by the Spirit of God, whereby they may read the handwriting on the heart, and be sure that it is God’s and not their own!

17. Given, the sonship—if it is to be worked out into power and beauty, there must be suffering with Christ. But, unless there be sonship, there is no possibility of inheriting God; discipline and suffering will be of no use at all. A. M.—Along with the dark hours, the days of heavy sorrow, comes the Holy Spirit, whom the Saviour promised to send, and lifts up man’s downeast eyes from temporal things to eternal; he raises the fearing heart to prayer, and intercedes for it with unutterable groanings; he purifies, comforts, strengthens it; and through the dark clouds of affliction which surround us, he shows the bright form of the Saviour. Thus in our afflictions is Christ glorified in us by the Holy Spirit. The word of life, which we had so often disregarded or misunderstood, comes suddenly before our soul with wonderful clearness; and the sorrowing heart finds therein, what the glad heart did not seek, a sacred, inexhaustible fountain of life, and that rich, heavenly consolation which this world can not give. Thus, in proportion as a man’s temporal life grows dark, his eternal life brightens: through painful experience and bitter grief the Spirit leads him to Him who cries, “Come to me.” And he who in his hour of need has once received grace for grace from the Lord’s fullness, can not turn away from Him again: he can not but cleave more and more closely to him, and receive his divine life into himself. For he has lost what was perishable, and has gained what is imperishable. His lot is the highest that can befall a man: Jesus Christ is glorified in him. Hossbach.

Together. There are seven togethers in Scripture which show the wondrous identification of the Lord Jesus Christ with believers. They indicate the everlasting purpose of God in our redemption, and his plan in effecting that purpose. It is affirmed of us by the Spirit, in the word, that we are crucified together with Christ; quickened together with Christ; raised together with Christ; seated together with Christ in heavenly places; sufferers together with Christ; heirs together with Christ; and that we are to be glorified together with Christ. These seven togethers are seven links of a chain which binds us indissolubly to Christ. An.

19-23. The expression “in hope” should be taken from the end of the twentieth verse and placed at the commencement of the twenty-first; the conjunction should be translated “that” instead of “because”; and the twenty-first verse, connected with the nineteenth, allowing for the intervening parenthesis, would thus read: “The earnest expectation of the creature looketh for the revelation of the sons of God, in hope that the creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption,” i. e., death; to which the apostle afterward opposes “the redemption of the body,” or the resurrection into the glorious liberty of the children of God. “For we know that the whole creation,” or every rational creature, “groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they,” i. e., the whole heathen world, “but ourselves,” the believers in the gospel of Christ, “who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, namely, the redemption of our body”—the resurrection, and consequent full revelation, of our dignity and immortal glory as the sons of God. Such is the meaning of this passage, in which the apostle, to give importance to the subject of future glory, represents it as the object of longing desire to the whole rational creation, the various tribes of which are exhibited as lifting up their heads from beneath the bondage of misery and death, and directing an exploring eye and eager hope toward IMMORTALITY, as that alone which could relieve their sorrows and satisfy their desires. They knew not with certainty that there was such a state; their notions were obscure and fluctuating; it was rather a wish than a belief: but it was that which they may be truly said to have groaned after, as what alone could compensate for the sorrows and the brevity of human life. This most striking and beautiful passage has no reference to the brute creation, as groaning under the effects of man’s sin, and from which they will be delivered by a resurrection; no reference to any physical change to be produced during the millennium in the material world, now by a bold figure represented as burdened and pained by human guilt; for what has this to do with the context, or with the design of the apostle, which is to comfort believers under the sufferings of this mortal state? but it relates to that glory, honor, and eternal life, which God has promised to them that love him. J. A. J.

19. By the “manifestation of the sons of God” is meant their being arrayed in the glory of their Lord and Saviour, in the presence of the universe. It is not merely the inherent glory of their perfected humanity; nor the glory of their final triumph over death and hell; nor the glory of the bright abode and the blessed fellowship into which they will have been introduced; but with, and above all these glories, the yet more effulgent glory reflected upon them from their glorified Head and Prince, himself “the brightness of the Father’s glory.” This is to be their “manifestation.” H. A. B.

21. The glorious liberty.** It should be “the liberty of the glory of the children of God”: that liberty which belongs to the state of glorification of God’s children. A.—This is the liberty wherewith the Son makes free. Liberty indeed, measured and regulated by the royal law of liberty, and which is perfected only in a perfect conformity thereto. There is a most servile liberty, a being free from righteousness, which under that specious name and show enslaves a man to corruption; and there is a free service, by which a man is still the more free by how much the more he serves and is subject to his superior’s will, and by how much the less possible it is he should swerve therefrom. The nearest approaches therefore of the soul to God, its most intimate union with him and entire subjection to him in its glorified state, makes its liberty consummate. Now is its deliverance complete; it is under no restraints, oppressed by no weights; it hath the free exercise of all its powers; hath every faculty and affection at command. How unconceivable a pleasure is this! Howe.

23. We wait for the adoption, that is, the redemption of the body. When we shall see Jesus as he is and be like him, when, delivered from the body of sin and death, as the children of the resurrection changed into the likeness of the transfigured Saviour, we shall know as we are known; and in perfect union and communion with the head and all the saints shall evermore serve him. A. S.

24. Saved by hope.** Returning is not the act of a despairing but hoping soul. It is God apprehended as reconcilable that attracts and wins it. This presently draws the hovering soul into a closure and league with him. And thus is the union continued. Howe.—Sincere faith is in reality full of hope. The individual who firmly believes that the blood of the new covenant has been shed for him can not deny to himself the faithfulness of God. And if sometimes the ineffaceable conviction of his own unworthiness, the consideration of that law of the flesh in his members which fights against the law of the spirit, may for a moment obscure his hope, these very things make him recur with redoubled fervor to him who, finding nothing in us to make us acceptable in his sight, has been willing to save us through the faith which he has given. A. V.

25. There are several infirmities that can not be mastered, if hope be not in exercise, especially if the soul be in great and sore trials. There is peevishness and impatience, there is fear and doubting and misconstruing of God’s present hand; and all these become masters, if hope be not stirring; nor can any grace besides put a stop to their tumultuous raging in the soul. But hope in God makes

26. For “infirmities,” read “infirmity,” or “weakness.” The meaning is not here, that the Spirit helps our infirmities, generally; but that he helps in this particular point our weakness, our inability to wait with patience for that which we hope for. A.—The promise of the Father—the culminating gift of the Lord Jesus glorified—the highest of all divine manifestations, he by whom the Father and the Son take up their abode in us—is the Spirit of grace and supplication. In our most languid condition, when the soul cleaves to the dust, he maketh intercession for us, and God knoweth the mind of the Spirit in our sighs and groaning. Conscious of our ignorance and of our utter weakness, we change our very helplessness into a source of comfort; for the Spirit of all knowledge, power, and love is within us—our Paraclete. A. S.—We scarcely utter hyperbole in saying that prayer is the divine mind communing with itself, through finite wants, through the woes of helplessness, through the clinging instincts of weakness. On this side of the judgment, no other conception of the presence of God is so profound as that which is realized in our souls every time we offer a genuine prayer. God is then not only with us, but within us. A. P.

If we are perplexed in our prayers, not knowing what to say, ill able to read our own heart’s desire truly; yet if we are really wishing for God’s help, then that vague and indistinct desire for help has one who purifies it, and presents it before God; and if we feel beset with the perplexity of our condition, and find no word of utterance, yet the Spirit of God speaks for us in our very silence, and intercedes for us acceptably. T. A.—Let prayer rest in the intercession of Jesus and in the sighing of the Holy Spirit. The intercession of Jesus rests in the power of his atoning blood. The intercession of the Holy Spirit has its ground in Christ. A. C.—As it is the office of Christ to intercede for us with God, so it is the office of the Holy Ghost to make those intercessions in us which we put up to God. Caryl.

27. The work of the Spirit is in exciting the heart at times of prayer to break forth in ardent desires to God, whatsoever the words be, whether new or old, yea, possibly without words; and then most powerful when it words it least, but vents in sighs and groans that can not be expressed. Our Lord understands the language of these perfectly, and likes it best; he knows and approves the meaning of his own Spirit; he looks not to the outward appearance, the shell of words, as men do. L.

28. AND we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them 29 who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did pre- 30 destinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among 30 many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he 31 called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall 32 we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not 33 his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us 33 all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is 35 even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate 36 us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 36 nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day 37 long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more

38 than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the experience of the apostle Paul, every child of God will find a description of his own, and also abundant encouragement, guidance, and consolation. Here is a man in Christ Jesus. There is now no condemnation to him. Sin has been judged, condemned, and put away. The Spirit of Christ dwells in him. He is not in the flesh, but the flesh is still in him. He has to mortify the deeds of the body; it is a painful and daily struggle. Besides, he is in manifold afflictions. He is living in a world of suffering. The very creation even groans by reason of bondage. He also groans within himself, waiting for the redemption of the body.

This justified one, inhabited by the Spirit, is thus saved only in hope. He has still the conflict with sin amid the afflictions of this time, and he has to possess his soul in patience. Thus he draws nigh to God. But there he feels his weakness. His infirmities overwhelm him. He knows not what to pray for as he ought. Full of want, he is silent. But the Spirit of God helps him. He creates within him deep and believing longings after the eternal blessings, too deep for utterance, but not too great for the Father’s response. And now he has reached the highest point. He sees God for us. God loved us from all eternity, and called us according to his promise. All things must work together for good. Beholding this God as he gave up his own Son, he triumphantly asks, “Shall he not with him freely give us all things?” Afflictions and sufferings abound; but in overcoming them we are more than conquerors: not exhausted but invigorated after victory, and perfect in our peace. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus! Love of God in Christ Jesus! It continues sounding in our hearts as when silver bells have ceased ringing. Love of God in Christ Jesus! A. S.

28-31. Whom God “forechose,” them he predestinated to be conformed to Christ, and in order to the accomplishment of that purpose, he “calls” them. We have the full account of “the called according to his purpose,” in the twenty-eighth verse. And now the apostle proceeds to show how that image of Christ in them is brought about. “Whom he calls, them he also justifies.” These sins that so burden their souls are taken away by the blood of the Lamb having atoned for, and thereby “blotted them out.” And the obedience of the “Lord our righteousness” becomes the sinner’s obedience, so soon as hearing the call he accepts it, and by faith is in “Christ Jesus,” represented both in His act of obedience and of atonement. And meantime the Holy Spirit, who has made the call effectual, and imparted the new life to the dead soul whereby it puts forth this living act of faith, carries on his work of conforming it more and more to the image of Christ, until with death the body of sin drops off and the spirit becomes like Jesus and sees him as he is—thus “Whom he justifies he also glorifies.” Now we can see the power and beauty of the apostle’s logic—sorrows and affliction can not do other than good to them that are called under such a purpose of grace. For since God hath such an end in view for them, all things that occur, however afflictive now, must work together to that great end—the glory which shall follow. And we are prepared to accept his triumphant conclusion, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Then spend not your energies in trying to penetrate the dark cloud that hovers around the lofty summit of this theology, and shrouds from mental view the secret purposes of God. Behold the golden link of the pendent chain that gleams here along the level of time—this call of the gospel. Seize hold of that, here and now, that you may be drawn up—justified—to be eternally glorified! S. R.

28. We know.** It is not merely a devout wish and hope, but a certain conviction. God comforts with realities. The Spirit reveals things freely given to us of God, and then the soul responds, I believe; or, I know; for faith substantiates the unseen. Faith is the most absolute and certain knowledge. Join, oh sorrowful and doubting believers who love God, the great company of your fellow-sufferers, and say, We know! Hear the apostle Paul. Who ever suffered more? and yet there is no hesitation in his voice. A. S.—Work together. The bosom of Providence is the great moral crucible in which things work, in which they work together. They assimilate, repel, interpenetrate, change each other; and then leave, as moral result, one grand influence in the main for each character, for each man. The innumerable things that mingle in that crucible, if taken separately, would be seen working to separate and diverse results; as, indeed, they still do in a measure, within the sphere of the all-commanding influence. But the one master influence now rules the whole process, and so combines the specific elements as to perpetuate and increase its own sway.

“All things work together,” not in an aimless and capricious manner, for this end and for that, now in one way and now in another, as though a stream should one day flow seaward, and the next back toward its fountain among the hills, but in one volume, along one channel, in one direction, toward one end. A. R.—Things work together for good, it is said; and work implies time, and a lengthened process, trial and waiting, till, like the harvest from the ground, or the cloth from the loom, the long operation is perfected. To judge hastily of God’s dealings, ere his purposes are wrought out, would be like threshing a half-grown wheat-field, and being disappointed at finding no grain. Things now may seem very much against us; disaster may have met all our plans, and they may lie in the dust, though we made them with prayer for divine guidance. But have we seen the end? Wait for God, and satisfying views will break upon our eyes in the better world, when they are opened to see the reason of God’s dealings with us, and how he has made all work together for our good. Lewis.

If we love God, this is the position—surely, although we are not accustomed to apply grand epithets to such things, yet, surely, in sober earnestness, a splendid position—that “all things work together for our good.” If we love him, not in any strained or passionate manner, but with simple childlike love, trusting in his kindly preevidence, looking up in his face, keeping his commandments, talking with him in our busy thoughts and in our daily prayers, filling life with his presence as is the habit of love with its objects, then—all will be well. Will be? All is well. Those working “things,” the strength and pressure of which we never could resist if we met them simply in our own strength, the mystery of which we never could fathom, the darkness of which is sometimes terrible—let them work together and enter into all possible combinations, and expend their last energies, they can produce nothing but good to us. A. R.—To a believing soul there is something wonderfully sweet in viewing all his trials, troubles, afflictions, temptations, desertions, spiritual conflicts, ups and downs of every kind, as ordered of God for his good; decreed to come upon him just at such a time and place as his heavenly Father’s wisdom sees fit and meet! to remain with him just so long, and not a single moment longer than till they shall have answered some salutary purpose for his soul’s good; that, however sore and grievous these things may be to flesh and blood, however thwarting to his own will and wishes, yea, however contrary to what he would judge to be for his spiritual welfare, yet he who “ordereth all things after the counsel of his own will” causeth them to work together for his good; and that they are all the effects and emanations tions of infinite wisdom, infinite love, and infinite power, united to accomplish his salvation in the way that shall be best for him, and most for his heavenly Father’s glory. Hill.

The called. No one that knows anything aright of the dreadfully alienated state of our nature can for a moment believe that a condition of the soul in which the love of God should prevail can be produced, created, by any less cause than the sovereign operation of the divine Spirit; in other words, by an effectual “calling.” This, then, is the sacred train and process; the ancient, unalterable intention or “purpose,” fulfilled at length in “the calling according to that purpose,” and this “calling” being an inspiration of “the love of God” into the renewed soul. And this places the soul in a new system of relations with the world and its events, and that the most advantageous one that is possible. J. F.

29,30. Majestic affirmations of assurance, assurance answering to assurance, rising and gathering power as it rolls on, each clause coming with the certainty of a decree, solemn at once and jubilant. F. D. H.—The great perfected mystery of sanctification in Christ itself steps back into the mystery of regeneration and of justification by faith, and that again into the mystery of redemption, and that into the unfathomable depths of the mystery of God’s love. These steps are traced in the forward direct order by Paul’s logic thus: foreknowledge, predestination unto conformity to the image of God’s dear Son, calling, justification, glorification. John in the Apocalypse sets us down at the last step, glorification, without fault before the throne of God. G. B. C.

He did foreknow. God’s foreknowledge is not for me, but for himself. While I feel that grace which bringeth salvation and the sanctification of the Spirit in me, I am sealed for heaven; and where is the man who is forbidden to apply for the same blessing? They are quite mistaken who imagine themselves excluded by the divine prescience. I can only know whether I am the choice of God by God’s being my choice, and by having the mark of my election in my regeneration, and the proof of my regeneration in the uprightness of my conduct. I do not desire to search into the divine decrees, but I want to see that the Saviour’s image is engraven on the tablet of my renewed mind in characters indelible as eternity. R. Hill.—Effectual calling is inseparably tied to this eternal foreknowledge or election on the one side, and salvation on the other. These two links of the chain are up in heaven in God’s own hand; but this middle one is let down to earth into the hearts of his children, and they, laying hold on it, have sure hold on the other two, for no power can sever them; if, therefore, they can read the characters of God’s image in their own souls, those are the counterpart of the golden characters of his love, in which their names are written in the book of life. Their believing writes their names under the promises of the revealed book of life, the Scriptures, and so ascertains them that the same names are in the secret book of life that God hath by himself from eternity. So, finding the stream of grace in their hearts, though they see not the fountain whence it flows, nor the ocean into which it returns, yet they know that it hath its source, and shall return to that ocean which ariseth from their eternal election, and shall empty itself into that eternity of happiness and salvation. Hence much joy ariseth to the believer; this tie is indissolvable, as the agents are, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So are election, and vocation, and sanctification, and justification, and glory. Therefore in all conditions believers may, from the sense of the working of the Spirit in them, look back to that election and forward to that salvation. L.

31. The first eight chapters of Romans embrace Paul’s great argument of the epie of redemption. It traces human ruin and human salvation until, at 8 : 30, the whole scheme, crowned with glorification, stands like a grand structure, and the apostle commences a pean with, What shall we say to these things? Wheedon.—If God be for us. Our divine ally, the King of kings, is our intercessor; the omniscient Spirit is our teacher; and we are invited to counsel with Divine wisdom, and to stay ourselves on the arm of Creative power. Yet how do we narrow down the magnificence of the divine promises, and compress the hopes, large and grand, offered by the gospel, into some petty and pitiful request, that as we imagine bespeaks Christian humility, but in truth displays unbelief. What! when God is for us, is it not most guilty to hesitate and linger in minor and facile enterprises? The greatness of the God we serve demands on our part a large and manly, a far-sighted and far-reaching faith. W. R. W.

32. The boundless extent of his understanding, which comprehended the full dimensions of sin and of wrath, was the sole cause of Christ’s deep and unparalleled distress. It was not the shame nor the torment of the Cross that afflicted him; but his soul, if I may be allowed the expression, was crucified more than his body; his heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his hands or his feet; in his body he felt the rage and cruelty of his murderers, but in his soul he felt sufferings of a more exquisite nature. Then he bore the griefs and carried the sorrows of all his people; then he felt not the sins only, but the wounds also, of every broken heart; the torments of his martyrs, the reproaches of his saints, the poverty, distresses, and persecutions, which any, which all of them, have felt, or shall feel, till the last trumpet shall sound, and he shall come again in his glory. Thus God spared not his own Son; to these inconceivable sufferings was the Lord of life delivered. R. W.—As we are the objects of that love which God hath commended to us in his Son, it follows that no bounds can be set to our happiness—that there is no treasure too rich in the mines of the blessed God, no duration too long in eternity, no communion with the Creator too close, too intimate, too tender, which we have not a right to expect; according to that comfortable, that ecstatic maxim of the apostle: “He who spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Saurin.

33. When “the everlasting covenant” was planned between the three persons in the glorious and coequal Trinity, it was “ordered in all things, and sure”; all the spiritual seed were then chosen in Christ, their head; and grace was given them in him as members of his mystical body. All the sins that ever they should commit, with every aggravation with which they should be swelled, were taken into the account: payment was then virtually made; and it was actually made when Jesus hung on the accursed tree; and all the powers of earth and hell combined can never charge one sin upon the soul for whom it was so paid and accepted. For “who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Hill.—It is Paul’s challenge to the universe. Nay, rather, it is the Holy Spirit’s challenge. It is unanswerable even now; for from the first moment that we believed, we were entitled to take it up. It is a challenge which God himself puts into our lips, and he will acknowledge it. In our believing we set our amen to his testimony; and in his giving us this challenge, he is setting his amen to our faith. Nay, not only will he own it, but he will take it up out of our lips, and himself proclaim it through the universe, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of my elect?” Bonar.

34. It is Christ that died for us, to take away our sins, and is risen again for us, to clothe us in his righteousness, and sitteth at the right hand of God ever making intercession for us, that we may be supported under every trial and danger, strengthened against every temptation, delivered from the sin of unbelief and all other sins, girt with the righteousness of faith and crowned with all the graces which spring from faith, and at length may be received into the presence of the Father, into which our elder brother has entered before us. Hare.—It is a point which should move us to great joy and holy pride, that we are so honored above all creatures, yea, above the angels, that we can now truthfully say with exultation: My flesh and blood sitteth at the right hand of God, reigning with power over all, and having all in his hand. This honor hath no creature, nor any angel, but my flesh and blood. Luther.—Thou shalt find life in his death, and that life further ascertained to thee in his rising again. There is so full and clear a title to life in these two, that thou canst challenge all adversaries upon this very ground, as unconquerable while thou standest on it. In point of justifying before God, there can be no answer but this: What have any to say to thee? thy debt is paid by Him that undertook it. Answer all accusations with this, Christ is risen.

35. Is this he that so lately cried out, Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? that now triumphs, Oh, happy man! who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Yes, it is the same. Pained then with the thoughts of that miserable conjunction with a body of death, and so crying out, Who will deliver? Now he hath found a deliverer to do that for him, to whom he is for ever united. So vast a difference is there betwixt a Christian taken in himself and in Christ. L.—The question may be termed the strongest possible form of denial, and by it must be understood, not our love to Christ, but his to us. The foundation of such conviction can not rest on the attachment and fidelity of his followers. But a firm basis of tranquillity is offered in the love of Christ himself, which in its nature is a free, unconstrained, eternal affection. From this love nothing can separate us, because it is all-powerful, all-embracing, finally all-conquering. That which would separate from him, namely, the power of the world and of sin, can not permanently keep its ground in the heart and life of the Christian, in whom, indeed, the old man yet lives, but as a dying creature. Can words be found to express adequately the consolation which such thoughts impart? Van O.

36. That which makes a man die with true courage and step with holy boldness into the grave is believingly to remember that Jesus Christ died and lay in the grave, not only before us, but for us, and that he hath worsted and conquered that king of terrors upon his own ground, the grave. Caryl.

37. Be humble and depend on the strength of Christ; seek to be furnished with much distrust of thyself and much trust in him, with much denial of thyself and much love to him; and this preparing and training of the heart will prove useful when brought to a real conflict. In all, both beforehand and in time of the trial, make thy Lord Jesus all thy strength; that is our only way in all to be conquerors, to be more than conquerors, through him that loved us.

38,39. Remember this for your comfort, that as you are brought unto God by Jesus Christ, so you are kept in that union by him. It is a firmer knot than the first was; there is no power of hell can dissolve it. He suffered once to bring us once unto God, never to depart again; as he suffered once for all, so we are brought once for all. We may be sensibly nearer at one time than another, yet we can never be separate nor cut off, being once knit by Christ as the bond of our union. Neither principalities nor powers, etc., shall be able to separate us from the love of God, because it holds in Christ Jesus our Lord. L.—It is plainly the design of the whole section to show that the afflictions of the present time are not inconsistent with the justified state of Christians, or with their being the objects of the peculiar affection of God and of Christ. And there is no trace of the supposed transition from God’s love to us to our love to God. The love of God in Christ Jesus admits fairly no other meaning than the love of God manifested to us through the mediation of Christ. J. B.

AND thus the mighty argument is brought to an end. The remainder of the Epistle is spent in the determination of various points of interest as related to the position of Jew and Gentile, in God’s dealings, and in the Church of the time. Meanwhile, however, the great argument is supplemented by the views of God’s wisdom and love, and does not reach its final conclusion till chapter 12, where the apostle gathers up all in general exhortations, grounded on this review of God’s mercies to Jew and Gentile. A.

Paul has shown (chs. 6, 7) that believers are bound up with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection; and that this union, delivering them alike from legal terror and from legal hope, induces new and loving obedience. They become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that in union or marriage to him as their risen Lord and life they may live and bear fruit unto God. So the apostle establishes that sanctification as well as justification is by the grace of God only, not through bondage to the law, but through union to Christ in liberty. Then, in the sublime and animated strain of the eighth chapter, he expatiates on the safety of those who are in Christ, the indwelling and witness of the Spirit of adoption, the hope of glorious resurrection, the security of salvation in the purpose and calling of God, the reality of his act of justification, and the immutability of his love in Jesus Christ our Lord. So ends the first part of the Epistle. Its key-words are those formed from diké—right, righteousness, righteous judgment, just, justify, justification. Apprehending these terms, we grasp the cardinal truth of salvation which the apostle inculcates, viz., that while the law of God condemns, God freely justifies us through faith in Christ the propitiation for our sins, and in union with him as our crucified and buried but now risen Saviour. D. F.

is this, that divine grace overcomes the rebellious will, softens the stiff and stubborn heart, and makes it pliant to obedience. This flows from his pure good will and pleasure, without the least motive from the inclinations or endeavors of sinful men. But the other effects of God’s mercy require conditions in the subjects that receive them; for he pardons only penitent believers, and glorifies none but persevering saints. Bates.