March 5

"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God: but with the flesh the law of sin." Box. 7:25.

So ends this chapter, concerning which there has been much dispute. For some have contended that the apostle does not here speak of himself, but personates another. They suppose that he refers to a Jew: under the law, but not under grace; awakened, but not renewed; convinced, but not converted.

Yet can any unregenerate person with truth say, not only, "I consent to the law that it is good," but, "With my mind I serve the law of God?" and, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man?" an expression of godliness that characterized the very temper of the Messiah himself. He could say nothing more than this, "I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart."

At first view, the language of complaint may seem much too strong to apply to the experience of a real Christian. But what real Christian would find it too much to utter when placed in the same state, and occupied in the same way with the apostle? That is, viewing himself before a God in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and who charges his angels with folly; and who sees more pollution in our duties, than we ever see in our sins: that is, comparing himself with the rule of all rectitude, the divine law, whose spirituality is such as to extend to the thoughts and desires of the mind, as well as the actions of the life, and which considers anger as murder, and the lust of the eye as adultery. What must the highest attainments of morals be, compared with this absolutely perfect standard of holiness? yea, or even with the elevated and vast desires of a renewed soul?

We need not wonder that many are astonished and perplexed here.